FAYETTEVILLE — It took a few innings, but Arkansas’ bats finally heated up on a cold Friday afternoon.

The Razorbacks didn’t get their first hit until the fourth and then put up three straight crooked numbers on their way to a 9-3 win over Gonzaga at Baum-Walker Stadium.

The win improves Arkansas to 5-0 on the season and ensures at least a split of the four-game series with the Bulldogs, who fell to 2-4 with the loss.

Game 3 of the series is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday. It will feature left-hander Patrick Wicklander (1-0, 0.00 ERA) facing the Bulldogs’ preseason All-American, right-hander Alex Jacob (0-0, 6.75 ERA).

There had been some speculation about the two teams playing a doubleheader Saturday because of the threat of rain, but Game 4 is still scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday.

Small Ball Hogs

Arkansas used some small ball to strike first, with Casey Martin’s sacrifice bunt moving Matt Goodheart into scoring position and setting up Christian Franklin’s two-out RBI single in the fourth.

However, it wasn’t until the following inning, after Gonzaga tied it up, that head coach Dave Van Horn really dialed up the strategy.

Casey Opitz and Cole Austin hit back-to-back singles to start the fifth and, with 9-hole Robert Moore and his .125 batting average coming to the plate, it seemed like an obvious spot for the Razorbacks to bunt again.

The Bulldogs recognized it and called for a wheel play, where the third baseman charges hard and shortstop leaves his position to cover third in an effort to get the lead runner. Arkansas countered with a slash bunt and Moore executed it perfectly, chopping an RBI single right where the shortstop had vacated.

Consecutive bunts - a squeeze on which Braydon Webb reached via error and a bunt single by Heston Kjerstad - led to another run and loaded the bases.

At that point, Gonzaga’s talented left-hander - Mac Lardner - was flustered. He threw a wild pitch that scored another run and then following an intentional walk to Martin - his fourth of the season - to load the bases, the Razorbacks tacked on a fourth run in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Franklin.

That gave Arkansas a 5-1 lead and Gonzaga never got closer than two runs the rest of the way.

For a more in-depth breakdown of the big inning, with insight from head coach Dave Van Horn and Moore, click here.

Opitz Goes Off

In addition to starting that fifth inning rally, Opitz also had a couple of really hard hit balls later in the game, showcasing how Arkansas’ offense usually puts up runs.

He was the first player Gonzaga reliever Reagan Haas faced and the junior catch crushed a 1-0 pitch to deep right field. It looked like it might leave the park or get robbed by 6-foot-5 right fielder Ryan Sullivan, but neither happened.

Instead, the ball bounced off the top of the wall and away from Sullivan, allowing Opitz to run around the bases and slide into third for the first triple of his career.

“He actually hit the middle to the top of that ball,” Van Horn said. “You could see it sinking just a little bit. He didn’t backspin it or it would have got out of the park. The outfielders were playing extremely deep on us. I was just hoping he got it over his head.”

At first glance, it looked like Sullivan might have actually kept the ball from going over the fence. A closer inspection, though, revealed that it barely missed his glove and it hit off the yellow line at the top of the wall.

But Opitz wasn’t too upset about missing his first home run of the season by mere inches.

“I can't really talk about if he brought it back, I was kind of running trying to get on third,” Opitz said. “I'm not going to complain about it - a triple is a triple. I'm not going worry about it too much.”

That became much easier for him to say after the game when he crushed a two-run home run in his next at bat. This one left very little doubt, as it hit off the back wall in the right field bullpen.

It was Opitz’s fourth career home run and capped a 3-for-4 day at the plate in which he was a double shy of the cycle.

“He was one swing away from hitting for the cycle,” Van Horn said. “I mean, he had a really good day. He was the hitter of the day for us.”

Through five games, Opitz is slashing .438/.550/.875. His on-base percentage actually leads the team, while his batting average and slugging percentage rank second.

Noland vs. Lardner

Fans at Baum-Walker Stadium were treated to a pitcher’s duel the first half of Friday’s game, as Connor Noland and Lardner didn’t give up a run the first three innings and it was tied 1-1 through four and a half.

Coming off an SEC Pitcher of the Week performance in the opener, Noland actually wasn’t quite as sharp in his second outing of the season.

“I didn't really have my stuff going,” Noland said. “I was just trying to get as many innings as I could to help our bullpen for a four-game series. I wish I could take a couple of pitches back, but that's just baseball.”

The sophomore right-hander was charged with three runs - two of which were earned - on five hits and three walks while striking out three. He threw 90 pitches in six innings after throwing 86 in 6 2/3 innings against Eastern Illinois.

Van Horn said Noland’s stuff wasn’t as good as last week, but he still had some really good innings. The difference was his consistency.

Through five, he had allowed only one unearned run. However, the Razorbacks’ long fifth inning led to him sitting on the bench for about 30 minutes. When he returned to the mound, Noland issued a leadoff walk and then gave up a monster home run to Gabriel Hughes. He managed to settle down and retire the next three batters to get through the sixth.

“I’m sure he was happy to do that, but he just never really seemed to get his command back,” Van Horn said. “I’m just glad he got through the sixth inning only giving up two (earned).”

For a while, Lardner was the better of the two starters. Coming off six scoreless innings against BYU last week, the left-hander struck out Webb, Kjerstad and Goodheart to start the game.

He ended up retiring the first eight Razorbacks before issuing a full-count walk to Moore in the third and had a no-hitter through 3 2/3 innings.

“He’s that left-handed pitcher that you really don’t want to see, because he can make you feel bad about yourself honestly,” Van Horn said. “You know what’s coming in a way: He’s going to throws the fastball away, 88 miles an hour, he’s going to throw the change-up at 81, and everything, for the most part, is going to be away and he still gets you out.”

Van Horn said it’s usually the third time through the lineup when you finally get to a guy like Lardner and that they really just needed to get someone on base.

Arkansas got that when Goodheart was hit by a pitch with one out in the fourth and moved to second on Martin’s aforementioned sacrifice bunt. He scored on Franklin’s hard line drive up the middle - the Razorbacks’ first hit of the game.

“He was working with that change-up, throwing the majority off-speed,” Opitz said. “Franklin did a good job of adjusting to it and kind of got the word out to the other hitters. We made the adjustment as well and started to put good barrels on balls.”

The next inning is when Arkansas finally really got to him with the small ball. Lardner’s final line doesn’t really show how effective he was for most of his outing, as he was gave up five runs - four earned - on five hits and two walks while striking out six in five innings.

Other Tidbits

~It wasn’t quite as cold as Thursday and a healthy amount of sunshine made it feel warmer, but it was still just 46 degrees at first pitch. Despite the cold, there was still a “scanned” attendance of 3,765. The official attendance - or “tickets distributed” number - was 8,645.

~Freshman left-hander Zack Morris made his collegiate debut Friday and it couldn’t have gone better. The Cabot native needed only seven pitches to retire Gonzaga in order in the eighth inning, getting a pair of fly outs sandwiched around a ground out. Van Horn said he was throwing his fastball between 93-94 mph and also threw a couple of curveballs. “That’s a legitimate option we have,” Opitz said. “We knew that in the fall that he was going to be good, but a freshman coming out there and doing what he did and being that consistent, obviously it’s not a tight spot, but still butterflies going through when you get on that mound and he did phenomenal.”

~With his strikeout in the seventh inning, Martin has sole possession of 10th place on the UA’s list of career strikeouts with 147. He replaces Collin Kuhn, who had 146 between 2009-11. The all-time record is 235 by Danny Hambling from 2004-07, but the record by a three-year player is 161 by Brett Eibner.

~Although he went hitless for the first time this season, Jacob Nesbit had a busy day in the field. He racked up eight assists at third base, including one on a really nice diving stop. That was two shy of the single-game UA record of 10, which was done most recently by Bo Bigham against Vanderbilt in 2011.