HOOVER, Ala. — Ryder Helfrick’s go-ahead home run in the eighth inning powered No. 12 Arkansas (39-19) to a 2-1 win over No. 6 Auburn (38-19) Saturday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in the SEC Tournament semifinals.
With the win, the Razorbacks punched their ticket to the championship game for the first time since 2021, when they won their first SEC Tournament title. Seventh-seeded Arkansas will face fourth-ranked, top-seeded Georgia (45-12), the regular-season SEC champion, at 1 p.m. Sunday on ABC.
The game was interrupted by a two-hour, 15-minute rain delay in the fourth inning. Auburn had taken a 1-0 lead on a solo homer in the second, but Arkansas came back from the delay with new life.
With Tiger starter Alex Petrovic — who had tossed four shutout innings with seven strikeouts — out of the game, the Razorbacks tied it in the fifth. Reese Robinett doubled off the top of the wall in center field and scored on a two-out RBI single by Camden Kozeal, his team-leading seventh RBI of the tournament.
Starter Cooper Dossett (2.0 IP, 1 R, 2 SO) and James DeCremer (1.0 IP, 1 SO) handled the early innings before Colin Fisher (1.2 IP, 2 SO) and Ethan McElvain (4.1 IP, 6 SO) combined for six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts following the delay. McElvain earned the win to improve to 6-0, lowering his season ERA to 1.08 across 33.1 innings in 18 relief appearances.
With two outs and nobody on in the top of the eighth, Helfrick stepped up and blasted a 1-1 pitch to deep left for his 16th homer of the season, giving Arkansas a 2-1 lead. It was the third time in his career he has hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth or ninth inning against Auburn.
McElvain retired the Auburn side in order in the ninth to seal the win. The Razorbacks are seeking their third SEC Tournament title in program history. Georgia is seeking its first and is attempting to become the fourth SEC team this decade to win both the regular-season and tournament championships.
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