There is already drama brewing at Baum-Walker Stadium, and the Arkansas baseball season is still four months away.
The Razorbacks began wrapping up their fall-practice season on Monday, with the first game of their annual Fall World Series — a traditional best-of-three intrasquad series.
Game 1 was called in the seventh inning, with the Gray and Cardinal teams locked in a 9-9 tie. Head Coach Dave Van Horn had initially stated the game would conclude on Tuesday, but a short time later, the program released a statement that said “Game one of the Fall World Series is officially ruled a tie.”
The teams will now take the field at noon on Tuesday for a winner-take-all finale at Baum-Walker.
With the wind whipping throughout the game and some players playing out of position on Monday, both teams struggled in the field. Each team committed three errors, which led to eight of the 18 runs being unearned. They also combined for 16 walks and a hit batter.
“Today was about as ugly as I’ve ever seen,” Van Horn said afterward. “We’ve got a catcher playing second base. Welcome to fall baseball. We’ve got some guys that are a little banged up that aren’t playing. It got a little ugly and it might get uglier.”
The head Hog, entering his 22nd season at his alma mater, doesn’t remember much that happened after the fourth inning, as he was informed midway through the contest, that his daughter may be having triplets.
“My daughter and my son-in-law came down and told me that my daughter’s not going to have one — I don’t have any grandkids — and probably not going to have two, but there may be more,” a still-stunned Van Horn said. “This is all natural.”
Freshman right-hander Gabe Gaeckle looked sharp on the mound to start the game. He allowed just four hits and a run over the first three innings for the Gray team, who proceeded to give him support by scoring four runs in the top of the second.
The Gray took a 5-0 lead in the third on a run-scoring sacrifice fly by junior Hudson Polk. But the Cardinal squad responded with a run in the bottom of the third, then four more in the fourth, aided by two fielding errors, to tie the score at 5-5.
The Gray reclaimed the lead with two more runs in the fifth, benefitting from another error and back-to-back walks.
The Red cut it back to one on an sacrifice fly from freshman catcher Ryder Helfrick, then tied it at 7-7 on a Gray throwing error.
Helfrick impressed Van Horn, offensively and…
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