Well, that went pretty well, didn’t it? After taking three from Florida last weekend at home, the Hogs strolled into Auburn and swept three more from the Tigers. The 6-0 start is the best SEC start in school history, and gives the Razorbacks (6-0, 16-4) an early two-game lead over Ole Miss and LSU.
The back-to-back sweeps are the first for the Hogs since 1999, when, by the way, they won the SEC overall championship. With the wins, the #15 Hogs are likely to continue their ascent in the USA Today/ESPN poll when it comes out later today.
The thing that caught our attention this weekend was the clutch hitting. All 10 runs Saturday were driven in by 2-out hits…all of them. That’s an incredible stat. It wasn’t just one or two guys either. The usual suspects – Ben Tschepikow (6-14, HR, 5 RBIs), Chase Leavitt (6-11, 3 R, 3 RBIs, 5 BB) and Andy Wilkins (5-13, RBI) did their thing.
But both Ryan Cisterna (4-12, HR, 2 RBIs) and Jacob House (4-9, 3 RBIs) showed signs of breaking out of their season-long slumps. Cisterna came into the weekend hitting .137, while House was .232. Cisterna hit the game-winning home run Friday night.
The Hogs bats will probably cool off at some point, but after six SEC games, they are averaging eight runs per contest. That, coupled with solid pitching and good defense, has a smile on Coach Van Horn’s face for the moment.
The second half of the conference schedule is much tougher (Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss), so the Hogs need to make some hay while they can. A mid-week game against always scrappy Missouri State is on the plate Wednesday, before the Razorbacks host Mississippi State (2-4, 13-9) next weekend. See you at the Baum!