Dave Van Horn’s veterans made him a promise in Tuscaloosa. They kept it.
Arkansas swept ninth-ranked Alabama at Sewell-Thomas Stadium with a 3-2 victory Sunday, the third straight day the Razorbacks rallied from behind to win.
It’s the first time the Hogs have ever swept a series on Alabama’s campus, and it pushed them to 8-7 in SEC play — above .500 in conference for the first time since March 28.
Van Horn didn’t need many words to describe what his pitching staff brought to the table across all three games.
“It was a really good day by four veteran pitchers that said, ‘Jump on our back, man. We’re not going to let them score,'” Van Horn said. “And we found a way to win.”
That’s exactly what Parker Coil, Gabe Gaeckle and Ethan McElvain did Sunday. Each threw two innings. None of them gave the Crimson Tide anything to work with when it counted most. Alabama stranded 12 baserunners and went 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position.
The head coach was equally direct about what the sweep meant at this point in the SEC season.
“It couldn’t have come at a better time, obviously,” Van Horn said. “We know what we’re capable of. It’s hard winning in this league. You look at what’s going on around the league right now, the teams that maybe didn’t win as much as the other teams the first four weekends, they were all winning this weekend for the most part, and in a big way. We’re one of them.”
‘Here We Go’: Eighth Inning Belonged to Arkansas
Alabama grabbed the lead early Sunday behind a 1-run second inning and a 2-0 advantage through three. Arkansas starter Tate McGuire held it there, allowing two runs — one earned — on three hits across three innings before the bullpen took over.
The Razorbacks began their climb in the sixth. Ryder Helfrick ripped a 1-out triple off the wall in right-center field that Van Horn said should’ve been gone entirely.
“That [Helfrick triple] would have been way out of the park,” Van Horn said. “The metrics on that say home run every time. Niu did the same thing. He crushed the ball into the teeth of that wind. Between the two teams, I think we would have definitely hit four home runs and they would have hit two … but the wind played a big part in the game today as far as keeping the score down.”
Maika Niu’s sacrifice fly scored Helfrick to cut the deficit to 2-1. Arkansas tied it in the seventh when Damian Ruiz led off with a double and Kuhio Aloy worked a walk. After a pitching change Nolan Souza pushed an 0-2 count to 1-2 after two failed bunt attempts then drove the ball up the middle to score Ruiz and even it at 2-2.
Alabama nearly retook the lead immediately in the bottom of the seventh with runners on second and third and nobody out. Gaeckle struck out two batters and got a flyout to leave the bases loaded. Van Horn had one word for it.
“He just did a tremendous job,” Van Horn said.
Gaeckle, who recently shifted from starter to reliever, described his mindset in the jam simply and directly.
“You’ve just got to go out there and make pitches,” Gaeckle said. “It was a rough stretch for me [as a starter]. For me, it was just executing pitches, trying to do a job.”
Then came the eighth inning — and Camden Kozeal.
Helfrick drew a 1-out walk and reached second on a botched rundown after Alabama’s first baseman dropped the ball. With two outs Kozeal lined a double down the right field line to score Helfrick and put Arkansas ahead 3-2.
Van Horn felt the shift the moment it happened.
“It [was] pretty exciting because all of a sudden, here we go,” he said. “We [felt] like we were going to win the game. We felt like [Ethan] McElvain was going to come in and shut the door, and that’s what he did.”
Kozeal had a hand in every eighth-inning rally across the three-game sweep. He opened the eighth with a solo homer Friday to pull Arkansas within one. He doubled and scored Saturday to push the lead wider. Sunday he delivered the decisive blow.
‘One Outing Doesn’t Define Who You Are’
Ethan McElvain walked into the ninth inning Sunday needing to prove something — at least to himself.
The left-handed closer had tried to get a 2-inning save Friday and couldn’t finish it, giving way to Coil after hitting a batter and allowing back-to-back singles to open the ninth. He’d been thinking about nothing but getting back on the mound since.
“I was just looking forward to the next outing, just to get back out there and get back in the zone,” McElvain said. “One outing doesn’t define who you are.”
He made sure Sunday’s outing did the defining instead. McElvain retired every batter he faced across two innings and struck out the side in the eighth working a 95-96 mph fastball up in the zone. Van Horn’s review was brief and genuine.
“Boy, he threw well today,” Van Horn said.
It was the type of performance Van Horn has come to expect from a veteran bullpen that rose to the moment all weekend long. He credited all four pitchers who worked Sunday — McGuire included — for setting the tone from the first pitch to the last.
“It was a really good day by four veteran pitchers,” Van Horn said again, returning to the same theme. “And we found a way to win.”
‘We’re Not Going to Let Them Score’
What made the sweep more remarkable was what Arkansas walked into. Alabama hadn’t lost at home in 18 straight games — the longest active home winning streak in the country entering the weekend. The Hogs trailed in all three games and won all three. Van Horn acknowledged the degree of difficulty plainly.
“It’s hard to sweep anybody, much less sweep on the road, and a top 10 team that’s won 18 in a row at home,” he said. “I guess you could say it’s a little surprising. I’m not surprised that we won the series and then we had an opportunity to sweep.”
It was the fourth time in Van Horn’s 24-year tenure that Arkansas has swept a top-10 team on the road — joining sweeps of No. 4 Mississippi State in 2021, No. 3 LSU in 2004 and No. 6 South Carolina in 2013. It’s also the first sweep ever on Alabama’s actual campus. A 2015 series win happened at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium while Alabama’s home park was being renovated.
Van Horn circled back to what he saw from his players across all three days when asked to put it in perspective.
“I was really proud of the way the team played,” he said. “And, you know, even if we’d have lost today, they were into it and they wanted to win it. They weren’t satisfied, so that was really good to see.”
He paused and made it plain.
“We know what we’re capable of.”
Arkansas plays Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Tuesday at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock before opening a home SEC series against fourth-ranked Georgia on Thursday at Baum-Walker Stadium.
