Peyton Holt’s remarkable plays lead Arkansas to series victory over…..
Another transfer defensive lineman has wrapped up an official visit with Deke Adams and the Razorbacks, who are still looking for immediate help in 2024.
Arkansas has hosted multiple defensive line targets in recent days, with the most recent visit coming from Grand Valley State transfer defensive tackle Jay’viar Suggs. The 6-4, 293-pound native of Flint (Mich.) has two years of eligibility remaining and has added several notable options since joining the transfer portal on April 21.
In addition to the Hogs, Suggs’ offer list includes Wisconsin, Iowa, Miami, TCU, Nebraska, Kansas State, Michigan State, Minnesota, Kentucky, Purdue, Tulane, Indiana and others, but said defensive line coach Deke Adams is the reason Arkansas got his first look.
Razorback center fielder Peyton Holt was the spark plug the Hogs needed in securing the series win over the Florida Gators in Saturday’s doubleheader in Baum-Walker Stadium.
Outfielder Peyton Holt delivered a stellar performance on the diamond during the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Florida Gators (22-21, 9-12 SEC) in Baum-Walker Stadium while propelling No. 2 Arkansas (37-7, 16-5 SEC) to a series victory. The No. 2 Razorbacks have secured nine consecutive Southeastern Conference home weekend series victories since last season while winning 20 out of their last 21 SEC home weekend series since 2019.
The Hogs were down going into the bottom of the seventh inning, 4-1, until they crafted a five-run rally. After Arkansas tied the game with a two-out RBI single by Jared Sprague-Lott and a two-run home run by Wehiwa Aloy, Ben McLaughlin singled to left field to bring Holt to the dish. The Greenwood (Ark.) native swatted a two-run bomb to left off of Florida pitcher Luke McNeillie for his second dinger of the year to give Arkansas the lead, 6-4.
“I was just sitting on a heater on the first pitch,” Holt said. “I don’t know what it was but it just looked a lot faster than 92-93. So I was just like, ‘I’ve got to get all over a fastball.’ I got it in the right location and didn’t miss it.”
The biggest play Holt made came in the top of the eighth with the bases loaded and one out while the Razorbacks clung to a 6-5 lead. Colby Shelton flew out to center field and Brody Donay was thrown out at home to get Arkansas out of the jam. Before Holt caught the ball, he deked Donay at third by making him think he had already made the catch so that the runner could tag up and tie the game. Holt fired the ball into third and Sprague-Lott unleashed a throw toward home for catcher Ryder Helfrick to make the tag to etch the amazing play into Hog lore.
“They work on it and talk about it every now and then,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “The guys have fun with it. But Holt actually works on it a little bit. Coach (Nate) Thompson works with the outfielders and he made that comment to me that Holt likes to play around with it. He faked like he was about to catch the ball and the ball wasn’t there yet. He deked the runner. And he started to run and then the ball hit his glove. And he tried to go back. There were probably a lot of people that didn’t know what the heck happened. And still don’t know what happened. They probably need to go back and watch a replay and have somebody explain it to them.
“I think he’s just really, really improved over the last couple of weeks. He’s just taken a lot of balls live in batting practice off of live bats. That’s how you get better. You can run and catch fly balls from a fungo bat and a machine. But when you’re reading the ball off the bat and working on your first step, that’s huge on those tough plays.”
“It was just the perfect scenario,” Holt said. “When the bases got loaded, I ran through it in my head and it was like I actually have an opportunity to pull off a deke right here. Perfect fly ball, it was coming straight down and I threw it in. Sprage-Lott made a good throw home. Got the guy and saved a run. I threw it to third because I saw the guy leave early so I was expecting him to just stay there. So I was just going to keep the ball there. Then he just took off. I probably would have thrown it home if I knew he was going to take off.”
The Razorbacks return to Baum-Walker Stadium with a two-game midweek series against the Missouri State Bears starting on Tuesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. (CDT) and can be seen on SEC Network-plus.
