Zack Stewart’s two early home runs keyed Arkansas’ 8-4 victory over Tennessee Wednesday evening in the SEC Tournament second round at Hoover, Ala.
Stewart opened the scoring with a two-run shot to right-center in the bottom of the first and then ambushed the first pitch of the third with a 420-foot blast to right, bookending an onslaught that produced four home runs of 420 feet or longer and accounted for all eight Arkansas runs. Camden Kozeal had begun the rally with a one-out solo homer to right-center in the first, and Nolan Souza’s double brought TJ Pompey home in that same inning.
Arkansas announced attendance for the night session was 14,461 as the seventh-seeded Razorbacks rolled past the 10th-seeded Volunteers and advanced to play Texas in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals on Friday at 3 p.m.
Relief work and short outings mixed into the win. James DeCremer allowed one run on two hits and one walk while striking out four over 2 1/3 innings, and his recent run of effectiveness was underscored by the fact that since May 10, after returning from a calf injury, he has allowed one earned run in eight innings.
Tennessee’s push came partly through mistakes. The Volunteers scored two unearned runs in the fourth inning against Parker Coil and Henry Ford delivered a two-out RBI double in the fifth that cut Arkansas’ lead to 5-3, but those rallies never erased the damage from Arkansas’ long balls.
Coach Dave Van Horn boiled the game down to a handful of decisive moments. "A lot of times it's one pitch or one swing, but those were all big," he said, adding plainly of the fourth-inning lapses, "We let Parker Coil down" and "We didn't play good behind him." Van Horn later summarized the sequence: the contest came down to five swings that accounted for all 8 RBI.
Stewart, who finished with three RBI on the night, credited the burst that began with Kozeal. "I think it started off really well when Cam hit the home run," he said. "He kind of got us going, big shot off his slider. And I think that just kind of led to good things the rest of the inning." He described his own approach simply: "I think I'm just going on the right pitches and getting a pitch in the middle of the zone, committed to the approach" and added, "When I stay within the approach, good things happen."
The homers carried Arkansas through uneven defense and a few anxious innings for the bullpen. Tennessee had reached the bracket by beating South Carolina one day earlier, but the Volunteers could not match Arkansas’ power display at the Hoover Met, which is listed at 405 feet to center and 335 down the lines.
For Arkansas baseball the win is immediate and tangible: a quarterfinal meeting with Texas on Friday afternoon and momentum from a display of raw power—four 420-foot-plus homers in a single game—that will follow them into a matchup where one swing, Van Horn warned, can still change everything.
