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FAYETTEVILLE -- With the No. 3 University of Arkansas' season-long series-opening winning streak in serious jeopardy Friday night after an atypical Hagen Smith outing, the Razorbacks rallied late to topple No. 15 Mississippi State.

The Razorbacks (41-9, 18-7 SEC) needed a three-run eighth inning and pitching heroics from sophomore Gage Wood, who got out of a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the ninth, to subdue the Bulldogs 7-5.

Arkansas improved to 13-0 in series openers and 32-2 at Baum-Walker Stadium before a packed house of 10,891.

The Razorbacks stayed a game behind Kentucky, which rallied late to win 12-11 at Florida on Friday night, in the overall SEC chase, and bumped their lead in the SEC West to two games over No. 2 Texas A&M, which fell 4-3 at Ole Miss.

"Just a gritty win by our team," said Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn, who picked up career win No. 1,200. "Our pitching has been so good all year. We've talked about this, that this was going to happen and we would have to step up offensively, and I thought we did a really good job tonight offensively."

Arkansas pitchers walked a season-high nine in contrast to only one walk drawn by the Hogs, and two of the walks, a hit batter and a player who reached on an error scored for the Bulldogs.

Mississippi State (32-17, 14-11), which had gained two games in the SEC West standings on the Razorbacks over the past three weeks, rallied from deficits of 3-0 and 4-3 to take a 5-4 advantage in the top of the eighth.

"Just a great ballgame," Mississippi State Coach Chris Lemonis said. "I mean, two really good teams competing their tails off. They made one more pitch or got one more hit than we did, is what that game came down to.

"And you know, I don't fault our kids at all, man. They're competing their tails off and played a really tough game against a good team and so did they."

Catcher Hudson White was the hitting star with a two-run home run in the fourth and a tie-breaking two-run single during the Hogs' eighth-inning rally for a season-best four RBI.

"It was just a few adjustments in my swing, something that I'm kind of battling with all year," White said. "I finally felt like I turned that curve and it feels a lot better."

White's go-ahead hit on a flare to left field came after Wehiwa Aloy's game-tying single with one out against right-hander Tyson Hardin (3-1), who had not given up an earned run in 19 1/3 innings since February.

Aloy had three singles, all up the middle, to join Jared Sprague-Lott, who singled twice, homered and scored three runs, atop the Hogs' 10-hit attack.

Will McEntire (4-0) got out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning, but he ran into trouble in the ninth with a two-run lead. He walked Hunter Hines, then gave up a flare single to Amani Larry and an infield single to Aaron Downs on which he could not handle a feed from first baseman Ben McLaughlin to load the bases with no outs.

Wood came on to record a pair of pop-ups and a strikeout to nail down the game for his second save.

"I just told myself that this is the moment that I dreamed about since I committed here and I've been in those positions before," Wood said. "Tonight I pulled through and we got it done."

Trailing 4-3 to start the eighth, Mississippi State took the lead without a hit against Gabe Gaeckle, who had gotten out of a jam by striking out two with two runners on in the seventh.

With one out, Downs reached on a chopper to third base on which McLaughlin was given an error when he stretched but missed a throw from Sprague-Lott. Gaeckle hit pinch hitter Nolan Stevens with an 0-2 pitch then walked Logan Kohler to load the bases. Catcher Johnny Long did not swing and drew an RBI walk on a 3-1 pitch to tie the game.

Leadoff man Bryce Chance's sacrifice fly to center field brought home pinch runner Nolan Stevens with the go-ahead run.

The Bulldogs made Smith work to open the game as he tried to harness his command with Chance working a nine-pitch walk and David Mershon a seven-pitch walk. Smith fell behind Dakota Jordan 3-0 before rallying for a strikeout. He would strike out the side on 30 pitches.

Arkansas broke on top with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning against right-hander Khal Stephen, a rally that was started by Sprague-Lott's one-out single to left-center field. Aloy smoked a ball off Mershon's glove at shortstop to put runners at first and second. McLaughlin's fly ball to center field got Sprague-Lott to third and he hustled home on a wild pitch.

White got behind 0-2, fouled off a couple of pitches then launched a 408-foot home run over the wall in left field to make it 3-0. It was his third home run of the season and second in the past three games.

The Razorbacks' lead didn't last long as Smith's wildness caught up to him in the top of the fifth.

Kohler singled up the middle, then Chance and Jordan drew walks after strikeouts to load the bases for Hines. He had left two runners on in each of his first two at-bats, but he cleared them when he pulled a slider by Smith into the right-field corner. When the ball got hung up under the fence near the foul pole, Jordan was able to score easily from first.

Smith allowed three earned runs for the first time since the season-opener and was not involved in the decision. He worked 5 innings and allowed 4 hits and 4 walks while striking out 11 on 94 pitches. Smith now has 335 career strikeouts, 10 behind UA career leader Nick Schmidt.

Sprague-Lott broke the 3-3 tie with a 421-foot home run over the left field wall in the sixth.

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Battling back: Razorbacks rally late, take hard-fought win | Arkansas Democrat Gazette - Arkansas Online