The season is young, but Arkansas' 11-0 win over Xavier was a masterpiece, the kind of game Dave Van Horn had been hoping for
Arkansas baseball had been getting by. The Razorbacks had been doing just enough to win but did not dominate opponents in most of their first six games of the season. Game 7 on Sunday against Xavier -- the finale of a three-game series -- was different. This was the thumping Dave Van Horn surely wanted to see. This was the complete performance Arkansas needed to produce to show what this team is fully capable of.
A 7-6 win here, a 3-1 win there -- Arkansas had managed to provide clutch moments in close games. Sunday, Arkansas swept Xavier by bringing the hammer. Zack Stewart, Ryder Helfrick, and Kuhio Aloy all hit homers. Aloy's three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth ended the game via the run rule, saving starter Colin Fisher from having to pitch the ninth.
Fisher was magnificent, throwing eight scoreless innings and allowing just one hit while striking out 11. He dominated the Musketeers with a barrage of first-pitch strikes and favorable counts.
Arkansas pounced early in this game, scoring three in the first, two in the second, and two in the fourth for a 7-0 lead. Fisher was in cruise control, but the bats didn't allow any drama to linger in this game. This was the no-nonsense display Arkansas hopes to unleash on a lot of other inferior opponents over the course of the season. Crucially, the Hogs played a stress-free game, which matters in the sense that always being roped into tight games is bound to cause some strain and -- at some point -- failure. Dominating the first two, three or four innings takes a lot of chance and a lot of variables out of the equation. This is what Arkansas needs to do more often. This is where Arkansas needs to be in order to reach its potential.
The Hogs are 6-1 through seven games, a solid start to the season. Their level of play has been decent yet not spectacular ... until Sunday, that is. This is a game which can feed the confidence of every UA player and lead not only to a continued stream of wins, but to a heightened standard of performance which can carry through a large portion of the 2026 season.
Good baseball teams win the close ones, and Arkansas has been doing that, but really good baseball teams win by large margins and don't let inferiors hang around. Arkansas did a little of both over the weekend in the process of sweeping Xavier. It seems important that after two relatively close wins, UA was able to flex its muscles a little bit in the finale.