FAYETTEVILLE — After cruising to a sweep on opening weekend, Arkansas found itself in a battle with Gonzaga on Thursday.

It required Christian Franklin beating a throw at first to prevent a double play in the seventh, but the Razorbacks finally pulled away for a 7-5 series-opening win over the Bulldogs.

With one out and the bases loaded in a tie game, Franklin - batting in the 5-hole in an effort to get more speed in the middle of the lineup - hit a grounder to second. Gonzaga got the force at second, but shortstop Ernie Yake’s relay to first was a hair late.

Franklin was called safe on the field and the play stood after a replay review. The very first pitch to Jacob Nesbit after play resumed was wild, allowing an insurance run to score.

“The speed paid off there,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “He didn’t get out of the box very good, but once he did, he knew he needed to beat that out and he did.

“Got us an RBI and then luckily the call went our way and then what happens right after that? We get a wild pitch and we score another run, so really him hustling led to two runs for us.”

The four-game series continues at 3 p.m. Friday. It will be streamed on SEC Network-plus, meaning it can be watched online on ESPN3.com or on the WatchESPN app.

Sophomore right-hander Connor Noland (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will start for the Razorbacks and Gonzaga will counter with senior left-hander Mac Lardner (0-0, 0.00 ERA).

There had been some speculation that they might play a doubleheader Friday because there is a high chance of rain in the forecast Sunday, but it will be only one game. Instead, the two teams could play a doubleheader Saturday.

Shutdown Sophomores

Most of the attention, rightfully so, was on Noland and Patrick Wicklander as freshmen last season. However, Arkansas is counting on a couple of the other lightly-used members of the 2018 signing class making a jump as sophomores.

A couple of those guys stepped up in Thursday’s win over the Bulldogs, beginning with Caden Monke. The left-hander came out of the bullpen in the sixth and gave the Razorbacks two scoreless innings.

It didn’t start out well for Monke, as he walked the 9-hole and gave up a one-out single. He worked around it, though, striking out the 3-hole and cleanup hitter to strand runners on second and third.

Monke’s second inning was even better, with a one-out hit by pitch being the only blemish.

“Last week when he went back out for his second (inning) it didn’t go as good, but today it went good and that’s good to see,” Van Horn said. “He gave us what we needed right there, a couple of shutdown innings and we could maybe get the lead, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Although temperatures were in the 30s all game, the weather didn’t seem bother Monke - who, as an Illinois native, said he’s “used to the cold” - and he ended up throwing 23 of his 35 pitches for strikes.

Last season, Monke gave up six earned runs on three hits and five walks in three innings across six appearances.

“I feel pretty confident now that I can go out and throws strikes and get outs when the team needs me to do it,” Monke said. “I feel pretty confident that I can go out and get outs.”

When he’s throwing strikes, Van Horn has said Monke’s stuff is really good and he could prove to be a key arm for Arkansas in 2020.

“He comes in there and when he throws strikes, he’s got that cutter working, he’s got an off-speed, it’s just really good,” catcher Casey Opitz said. “It’s really hard on the hitters, especially righties with that cutter getting in there.”

Coming in after Monke’s outing, right-hander Elijah Trest needed only 17 pitches - 13 of which were strikes - to throw a perfect eighth inning for the Razorbacks. The last two guys he retired were preseason All-WCC selections Ernie Yake and Brett Harris.

“He came in and just pounded the strike zone,” Van Horn said. “He didn’t get any strikeouts, but he got outs and it didn’t take very long. That’s what we want.”

The Kid Delivers

Arkansas put together a two-out rally in the second inning, starting with back-to-back singles by Jacob Nesbit and Opitz, and then Cole Austin drew a walk to load the bases.

That set up what was the biggest at bat of Robert Moore’s young career, as it was still scoreless and it was already apparent Gonzaga would be much more of a challenge than Eastern Illinois.

The 17-year-old delivered, pulling the first pitch he saw down the left field line for a two-run double that put the Razorbacks up 2-0.

“My mindset was batting in the nine-hole with Braydon (Webb) and all those guys coming up, I thought they were going to attack me early,” Moore said. “Looking for a pitch over the plate and I'm starting to figure out talking to Coach (Nate) Thompson, picking out zones and to zone in on a pitch and not chase early, but especially keep your aggressiveness. I looked for a fastball in and I got one.”

It was an encouraging sign for the heralded freshman, who is starting for a top-10 SEC program instead of playing his senior year of high school ball.

“I think it’s just helping him relax a little bit,” Van Horn said. “He’s been swinging the bat pretty good. He hit another ball hard today that was caught deep in center field.”

Even last week, when he went 1 for 12 with a team-high four strikeouts, Moore was still making solid contact. He hit one ball that likely would have been a home run had the wind not been blowing in and had several other line drives right to outfielders.

As the son of Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore, though, he understands that’s just part of the game and didn’t seem too concerned about his now .125 batting average.

“It is a little frustrating, but it’s baseball,” Moore said. “I am going to have a streak this year where I end cap 10 balls and get all kinds of hits out of that. The good news is coming in here, everyone is so good that I don’t have to be the superstar. I can just do my job and my job is to play defense and let everyone else be great.”

Wind is a Factor

In addition to really cold temperatures, Arkansas and Gonzaga also played with a strong wind out of the north. It was blowing 14 miles per hour out to right field at the beginning of the game and likely had gusts around 20 mph.

As you might imagine, that made things difficult for fielders and had an impact on the game.

“The wind in baseball is not a good thing really, most of the time,” Van Horn said. “But, you know, it was the same for both teams.”

The wind first made an appearance in the second inning, when Stephen Lund hit a pop up into foul territory. In a play reminiscent of the one that cost Arkansas the 2018 national championship, Nesbit and Casey Martin both overran it, as the wind pushed it back toward the field of play.

Luckily, left fielder Braydon Webb - who’s already made several highlight reel plays this year - was able to make the diving grab for the out, about a foot into foul territory.

The next inning, Yake drew a leadoff walk and Harris followed with a high fly ball that got up into the wind, which carried it into the right field bullpen for a two-run home run that tied the game at 2-2.

Just as the wind taketh, the wind also giveth. In the bottom of that inning, Opitz hit a high pop up to shallow center that the center fielder had a hard time finding. Once he did, the wind pushed it over at the last second and it fell for a cheap two-run double that extended Arkansas’ lead to 5-2.

“You have got to love that,” Opitz said. “That’s baseball, especially playing out here where you can get the crazy wind going wherever. Van Horn talked to us early and said, ‘If the ball goes up, bust your butt and get to the next bag.’ The baseball gods were on my side today.”

Veterans Struggle

The most discouraging part of Thursday’s game for Arkansas were the outings by veteran pitchers Kole Ramage and Kevin Kopps.

The two juniors - with Kopps being a fifth-year junior - combined to allow five earned runs on eight hits and two walks in just five innings.

“They both had good stuff, they just didn’t have really good command,” Van Horn said. “You can blame it a little bit on the weather, but they were both a little bit wild, pitching behind in the count.”

Making his fifth career start, Ramage got through a couple of scoreless innings before running into trouble in the third. He gave up the wind-aided homer and managed to only get two outs, needing 30 pitches to do so.

Kopps limited the damage in the third, but ended up giving up a leadoff triple in the fourth and back-to-back doubles in the fifth. All three extra-base hits eventually resulted in runs.

“He’d throw one really good fastball and then he’d leave one up in the zone, and it’d be way up,” Van Horn said. “He was throwing a cutter for a strike and they kind of started sitting on it. That was really what he could command.”

Van Horn mentioned that Kopps could pitch again this weekend if needed, but not as a potential Game 4 starter. He would likely come out of the bullpen.

Other Tidbits

~With a temperature of 39 degrees at first pitch and a 2 p.m. start time on a work day, Arkansas had its smallest crowd of 2020 so far. There were 7,754 tickets distributed - which will go down as the official attendance - but only 1,650 tickets were scanned at Baum-Walker Stadium.

~With his strikeout in the fifth inning, Casey Martin officially cracked the UA’s top-10 list for career strikeouts. He tied Collin Kuhn for 10th with 146. The all-time record is 235 by Danny Hamblin from 2004-07. However, the record by a three-year player is 161 by Brett Eibner.

~He made it interesting by giving up a couple of hits, but Zebulon Vermillion closed out the win to earn the save in his first appearance of 2020. It was the third save of his career, following one against Dayton in 2018 and one at Auburn last season.

~Gonzaga starter Keaton Knueppel gave up three runs on four hits and one walk over 2 1/3 innings in what was his first appearance since March 14, 2018. He missed all of last season because of Tommy John surgery.