Arkansas wins wild shootout with Kentucky, claims final SEC series

In one of the wildest innings in the history of Kentucky Proud Park, Arkansas’ first 10 batters reached safely and 16 Razorbacks came to the plate as part of a 10-run frame to begin Saturday’s regular-season finale.

Little did anyone in the house realize at the time, No. 10 Arkansas was going to need all of those runs.

Kentucky responded with a nine-run trip to the plate in the fifth inning with nine consecutive batters reaching safely — including a grand slam by Carson Hansen — to tie the game at 12-12 and hit the reset button on one of the most memorable games in program history.

Undeterred, Arkansas immediately bounced back with a two-run single by one-time UK recruiting target Camden Kozeal in the sixth inning and went on to hit a pair of solo home runs for insurance in the ninth inning of a 16-12 win.

It marked the most combined runs ever scored at Kentucky Proud Park.

Although not being able to complete what would have been a miraculous comeback, Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione was proud of what he saw from the Cats.

“You guys know this, but as long as I’m the coach here, like, for 10 years, you’ve never seen one of our teams just stop fighting,” the UK boss said. “That’s part of our DNA. That’s what we do. Obviously, that’s not good when you go down 11, a 10-run first… but, man, give our guys a ton of credit.”

Arkansas closed the regular season at 36-19 overall and 17-13 in SEC play. Despite winning the series opener on Thursday night, Kentucky (31-20, 13-17 SEC) lost its seventh rubber match of the season.

Cleanup hitter Zack Stewart did the most damage for the Razorbacks over the weekend. He hit a home run in each game of the series, giving him 11 on the season, and finished Game 3 with a 4-for-6 day that included two doubles, a home run, and four RBI.

Nolan Souza also went deep for the Hogs, walked twice, and scored a pair of runs. His team drew seven walks and were hit by five pitches on the day.

Kentucky out-hit Arkansas 17-14 but had only four batters reach passes via walks or being hit by pitches.

Jayce Tharnish and Tyler Bell each had three hits to lead the Cats at the plate. Tharnish hit his fifth home run of the season. Hansen’s grand slam was his second of the season and the third of his career.

Fourteen pitchers appeared in the game, nine for Kentucky, who used three in the first inning.

“We’ve got to clean some things up, defensively, and we’ve got to get some guys in the strike zone better,” Mingione said of the keys heading into the postseason. “… We had some non-plays made in the field that we needed to make, some of them by guys who did big things at the plate. But you’ve got to be able to pitch and defend. We didn’t do enough of those two things.”

Parker Coil (3-0) earned the win for Arkansas out of the bullpen. James DeCreamer picked up his first save of the season.

Tristan Hunter (0-1) took the loss for Kentucky as his two walks in the sixth inning came around to score and give the lead back to the Razorbacks.

Up Next:

Kentucky travels to Hoover, Ala., for the SEC Tournament. Seeding will be finalized after league play is complete this weekend. The Wildcats will open play at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium on Tuesday.

FINAL UK BOX: Arkansas 16, Kentucky 12 pic.twitter.com/ZJHpSdjTYA

— Jeff Drummond (@JDrumUK) May 16, 2026