FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Redshirt junior Isaiah Campbell was dominant once again as he racked up 11 strikeouts over seven innings to lead the 10th-ranked Razorback baseball team to a 2-0 shutout over Missouri in its Southeastern Conference opener Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Campbells performance was just the start of the phenomenal wire-to-wire night by the entire Arkansas pitching staff that saw a combined two hits allowed, three walks and 15 strikeouts. For Campbell, it was his third-straight outing of six or more innings and 10 or more strikeouts, becoming the first Hog pitcher since Trevor Stephan in 2017 to strikeout 10 or more in three-consecutive outings.
Arkansas (15-2, 1-0 SEC) opens conference play with a victory for the third-straight year and its the first conference-opening shutout for the team since beating Georgia, 1-0, in 1992, the programs first official conference game as part of the SEC.
Campbell set the table, but it was Jacob Kostyshock and Matt Cronin that closed things out in the eighth and ninth inning. Both juniors worked an inning each and allowed only one baserunner. Cronin earned his fifth save of the year and has garnered a win or a save in six of his seven outings this season.
Arkansas hitters werent able to jump on Missouri starter Jacob Cantleberry too easily, but were able to scratch across runs in the first and fourth to be enough to give the Tigers junior his first loss of the season. The Hogs managed five hits and two walks against Cantleberry and got the runs in via a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly.
Sophomore Matt Goodheart broke out of a slump in a big way, going 2-for-3 with two doubles, a run scored, an RBI and a walk. He had yet to tally a multi-hit game since the season opener against Eastern Illinois (Feb. 16) and was only hitting .241 coming into Fridays game.
Arkansas and Missouri will return to the field at Baum-Walker Stadium for game two of the series. The Hogs will be looking for their 18th-straight home series victory dating back to 2017 and will have first pitch at 2 p.m. Saturday on SEC Network+.
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