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Arkansas suffered another disappointing loss Tuesday, but Casey Martin provided a bright spot by breaking out of his slump.

The talented junior found his rhythm by going 4 for 5 with a double, three RBIs and a stolen base while playing clean defense at shortstop in the Razorbacks' 8-7 midweek loss to Illinois State.

It was an encouraging performance considering he was just a couple of days removed from being benched against Baylor. An 0-for-5, four-strikeout performance against Texas dropped his batting average to .182 and, coupled with shaky defense, led to head coach Dave Van Horn sitting him a game.

“When I’m not doing my job, especially being an older guy, something needs to change,” Martin said. “My mental side was just really bad and (I was) in my head a lot. It was good to sit back and actually get a different perspective on the game the other night.”

That break paid off immediately, as Martin - hitting in the 6-hole - lined a single into left field off starter Jack Anderson in the second inning.

It also helped that he has gone back to the batting stance he used as a freshman, when he had a team-high .345 batting average, and made a mechanical tweak by adding a toe-tap. It’s a similar adjustment to ones made by teammates Christian Franklin and Jacob Nesbit with successful early returns.

“That’s kind of what me and Coach talked about,” Martin said. “I decided that, after talking to him, we just needed to simplify everything, take out the leg kick and just see the ball.”

With the Razorbacks trailing 3-0 thanks to a three-run home run by Joe Butler, Martin got the fans excited by driving in their first two runs of the game with a one-out double down the left field line in the fourth.

The very next inning, he put the Arkansas on top with a two-out RBI single. That gave him three RBIs for the day, quadrupling his season total.

The Razorbacks needed a spark and it came off the bat of Martin - much to the delight of his teammates.

“Some days you’re going to show up and you’re not going to hit, some days you’re going to have four hits like he did today,” Heston Kjerstad said. “He’s just shown up with a good mentality and is being a good teammate. That’s all you can ask for.”

Martin’s only strikeout of the game came when he tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning. It would have moved the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position with one out, but he failed to do so.

After fouling off the first two pitches, he swung away at the third - an off speed pitch - and went down swinging. The inning ended with Casey Opitz striking out and Jacob Nesbit grounding out to third base.

It was seemingly a turning point in the game, as the momentum continued to shift toward the Redbirds. Instead of pouting about being asked to bunt when he was 3 for 3 with three RBIs already, Martin took all of the blame afterward.

“I should have sac (bunted) the ball and I didn’t get it down,” Martin said. “Who knows, that could have been the difference in the game and that’s on me. That’s on nobody but myself. I should have done my job.”

However, Martin didn’t let the strikeout - his 15th of the season and the 158th of his career (seventh in UA history) - shake his confidence.

Not only did he notch his fourth hit of the game in the ninth inning, but he did so with a bunt. This time he got it down and used his speed to beat the third baseman’s throw for an infield bunt single.

Although he usually always has the green light to try to bunt his way on, Martin said he was told to do so this time - if the third baseman backed off.

“I was seeing the ball pretty good tonight, so he came up and then he backed off,” Martin said. “It was good to see that I had that trust in myself that I could get it down and Coach had the trust in me to get it down.”

Losing to a 3-7 Illinois State team was less than ideal and fans are understandably getting antsy because of the losing streak, but Martin regaining his confidence at the plate and in the field was a reason for hope moving forward.

Martin - whose batting average rose 81 points to .263 with Tuesday’s performance - will have a chance to further solidify his spot in the lineup and at shortstop when Arkansas welcomes South Alabama to Baum-Walker Stadium for a three-game series beginning Friday.

“It was good to see that it’s paying off, but just because I had a four-hit night doesn’t mean anything,” Martin said. “I need to continue to come in and work at it, get better every day and continue to improve, because down the road we’re going to need all nine guys in that lineup and maybe a few more off the bench.”