Texas baseball loses fourth straight, falls to No. 5 Arkansas 13-4

Texas Longhorns baseball (9-8) lost its fourth straight game on Tuesday afternoon, falling 13-4 to No. 5 Arkansas (12-4) in Fayetteville.

It’s hard to say much else other than if Texas’ pitching can’t be good, Texas baseball can’t be good.

The ‘Horns, who have built their status as a college baseball blue-blood around stellar pitching, have allowed 40 runs over the last four games.

After struggling in his stopper role, Beau Ridgeway got the call as a starter for Tuesday’s opener against Arkansas in the hopes that he could find his confidence and groove against the Razor Backs. That did not happen, as Ridgeway allowed five runs in 2.1 innings and was yanked with the game already nearly out of hand at 5-0.

Freshman Bryce Elder wasn’t able to clean up the damage and allowed two more runs in his 0.2 innings of work to make the score 7-0 in the third inning.

Texas’ Zach Zubia continued to show his elite power, launching a solo shot for his fourth homer of the year in the fourth to make it 7-1. DJ Petrinsky notched a solo shot of his own in the fifth to make it 7-2, but the ‘Horns continued to dig themselves into a deeper hole on defense.

In the bottom of the fifth, Arkansas knocked an RBI single off of Chris Fearon, the former Kansas pitcher who was making his first appearance for the ‘Horns. After Fearon was taken out, Arkansas’ Casey Martin launched a three-run shot off of Matt Whelan to make it 11-2.

Texas continued to show some promise at the plate, as Petrinsky hit another homer in the seventh, this time a two-run bomb to make it 11-4. Arkansas would get those two runs back in the bottom of the inning off of an RBI double to put the score at 13-4 where it would remain the rest of the game.

Texas Freshman righty Nico O’Donnell will get his fourth start of the year today against Arkansas, with the first pitch set for 4 pm CST. O’Donnell was responsible for Texas’ last victory, as he took the mound in last Thursday’s the series opener against Stanford in which the ‘Horns won 8-6.

Box score.