Rebels quickly send Hogs packing in SEC Tournament

The Arkansas Razorbacks (43-12, 20-10 SEC) officially began their postseason Friday afternoon in an SEC Tournament quarterfinal matchup against the Ole Miss Rebels (38-18, 16-14 SEC) in Hoover, Ala., but were sent home packing early following a 5-2 loss in the quarterfinal round.

Ole Miss scored all five of its runs in the opening frame, four of which were unearned against Razorback ace Zach Root. Root was tagged with the loss after twirling four innings of seven-hit ball and four strikeouts while issuing one walk. Arkansas scratched across a run in the first and second inning, but were not able to muster much offense after that.

Arkansas will now head back to Fayetteville and await its seeding in the NCAA Tournament, which they will find out Monday during the NCAA Selection show at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN2.

Zach Root walked the game's leadoff batter before inducing a double-play ball from Luke Hill that Wehiwa Aloy booted and overthrew to first, advancing the first two runners of the game into scoring position. Judd Utermark then jumped on the first pitch he saw and drove in the game's first run.

Root bounced back with a strikeout before allowing a run-scoring single by Ryan Moerman. With runners on first and second, a clean double-play ball results in only one out as Cam Kozeal's throw pulls Reese Robinett off of the bag.

The two missed double play balls really came back to hurt the Hogs as Austin Fawley launched a three-run shot way over the left field fence to give the Rebels a five-spot in the first.

Riley Maddox (5-5 5.46 ERA) took the mound for Ole Miss. After a Charles Davalan groundout, Wehiwa Aloy, who reached on a walk, wound up at third on a Logan Maxwell single into left field.

Arkansas got on the board, and Kuhio Aloy collected his 69th RBI via a one-out fielder's choice before Ryder Helfrick struck out looking to end the frame.

Zach Root picked up his third strikeout after getting behind 3-0 on Luke Cheng, but followed it up with a hanging breaking ball, which Mitchell Sanford singles up the middle.

A flyout and a groundout ended the frame, though, with Zach Root's pitch count at 55.

Cam Kozeal ripped a ball deep into the right-center gap, the right and center fielders converge on a violent collision, allowing the ball to trickle away, giving Cam Kozeal an inside-the-park homerun. Isaac Humphries stayed in center, but Ryan Moerman had to be replaced in right field by Hayden Federico.

Riley Maddox, despite giving up Arkansas' record-breaking 110th home run of the season on that wild play, recovered by striking out Brent Iredale and Justin Thomas to go along with a Reese Robinett groundout.

Will Furniss singled to left on Root's first pitch of the third. Thankfully for his pitch count, though, Root followed that up by inducing two deep, but quick, flyouts before striking out Isaac Humphreys to end the top of the third inning.

The ballpark is playing very deep this week in Hoover, Rueter's flyout traveled nearly 390 feet at 101 mph off of the bat.

Zach Root allowed another one-out single to Mitchell Sanford, who was 2-2 with a walk at this point. Root then showed a little frustrated animation after Kozeal's throw pulls Robinett off the bag again, making it the third misplayed double-play ball of the day.

With two gone, Judd Utermark doubled to right center. A good throw from Maxwell and a fantastic relay from Cam Kozeal makes up for the errant throw on the play before, and cuts down Luke Hill at the plate to end the third straight scoreless inning from Zach Root.

Gabe Gaeckle ( 4-2, 5.30 ERA) on to pitch for Zach Root. Root's final line was as follows: 4.0 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 4 K's.

Gaeckle needed just 12 pitches to complete his first inning out of the bullpen. He struck out Will Furniss on three pitches before getting Hayden Federico to K on a foul tip into the glove in a 3-2 count. He then got a flyout from Campbell Smithwick, who came on to pinch hit, to end the top half of the fifth.

Not much brewing once again for the Razorbacks in the bottom of the fifth. The game that once looked like it had slugfest potential started turning more towards a pitcher's duel.

Riley Maddox got Brent Iredale to pop out before Reese Robinett became the Hogs' first baserunner since Cam Kozeal's home run with a single through the right side. Nothing doing beyond that, though, as Justin Thomas Jr struck out and Charles Davalan flew out for the second time.

Gabe Gaeckle got himself into a battle to lead off the sixth, but ultimately walked Austin Fawley on a full count before getting Isaac Humphrey to pop out.

Luke Cheng then singled to left to put runners on first and second before Gaeckle finally gets to Mitchell Sanford, who was 2-2, with a filthy 90 MPH changeup. An 0-2 slider caught Luke Hill looking to end the sixth.

This felt like as good a chance as the Razorbacks would get to put together a big inning with Wehiwa Aloy leading things off in the sixth with Riley Maddox's pitch count pushing 90.

Aloy dribbled one right back to Maddox to mark the first out of the inning before Logan Maxwell sent one off the cap of the bat into shallow left field for the second out.

Maddox's day finished after a walk to Kuhio Aloy, he was replaced by Will McCausland (2-0, 4.42 ERA).

Ryder Helfrick greeted McCausland with a single through the left side before Cam Kozeal worked a full count walk to load the bases for Brent Iredale. Iredale stranded the bases loaded staring at a 93 MPH fastball at the bottom of the zone.

Judd Utermark singled on Gaeckle's first pitch, it wasn't pretty though, Utermark's jam shot fell just in between Aloy and Thomas Jr in shallow center.

A fielder's choice gave the Hogs their first out before a cleanly turned 3-6-1 double play got Gaeckle out of the inning after the leadoff single.

Reese Robinett utilized his big frame to get clipped by a pitch that was probably in the strike zone; regardless, he got aboard to start the seventh. Justin Thomas Jr then struck out on a questionable call out but Charles Davalan redeemed him with a double down the right field line.

Mike Bianco decided to go back to the bullpen to bring in Mason Morris to face Wehiwa Aloy with two in scoring position. The move paid off, as Morris struck Aloy out before getting Logan Maxwell to fly out deep to right field to take it to the eighth.

Luke Cheng became Cole Gibler's fourth strikeout victim just after making the great defensive play.

Mitchell Sanford made his mark as the first Rebel to put a ball in play against Cole Gibler, with a harmless grounder to Reese Robinett, before Luke Hill slapped one into left, ending Cole Gibler's fantastic outing.

On came Christian Foutch (1-0, 3.54 ERA) for Gibler, who sat down Utermark with a top-of-the-zone splitter after pumping 97+ to bring up the bats with a chance to make it a game.

Connor Spencer (0-1, 1.77 ERA) came on for Ole Miss to close things out. To match him, Dave Van Horn sent out Gabe Fraser in place of Brent Iredale. Fraser, who hadn't seen action since the Florida series in late April due to injury, grounded out on the first pitch he saw.

Reese Robinett put up a good fight, running his final at-bat to 10 pitches before suffering the same fate as Gabe Fraser before Kendall Diggs came in for Justin Thomas Jr, but again, grounded out to end the ballgame.

Arkansas goes one-and-done in Hoover and will head back to Fayetteville to prepare for next weekend's regional tournament.