Rain delays Hogs’ pursuit of victory
FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks needed a victory in Sunday’s late game against Missouri State at the NCAA Fayetteville Regional to force a championship game against the Bears.
The Razorbacks, the No. 1 seed in the regional, held a 6-3 lead in the top of the fourth inning at 11:10 p.m. when, after about 10 minutes of steady rain, home plate umpire Ramon Armendariz waved everyone off the field
and sent the game, which was already two hours old, into a rain delay.
Armendariz made the call after asking University of Arkansas, Fayetteville pitcher Weston Rogers about his grip on the ball.
The rain dissipated around midnight, the tarp was removed from the Baum Stadium field, and the game restarted at 12:35 a.m.
Arkansas led 6-3 after four innings.
An Arkansas victory would force a deciding game today.
The Razorbacks (44-18) reached the championship round with a 4-3 victory over Oral Roberts in Sunday’s earlier game, which started after a rain delay of 1 hour, 55 minutes.
Second-seeded Missouri State (42-17) defeated the Razorbacks 5-4 in a winner’s bracket game late Saturday night to get into the driver’s seat. The Bears have two chances to advance to an NCAA super regional, needing one victory over the Hogs.
Arkansas was in the midst of its biggest offensive outburst since scoring 37 runs
in consecutive victories at the SEC Tournament last week against Auburn, No. 19 Mississippi State and No. 4 Florida.
Arkansas led off each of the first three innings Sunday night against the Bears with a double and each of those hitters — Eric Cole, Grant Koch and Jax Biggers — came around to score.
Missouri State starter Austin Knight, who posted two victories over the Razorbacks in midweek games last season, threw 35 pitches and gave up three runs in the first inning.
Cole doubled into the gap in left-center field on a full count to ignite the rally. Chad Spanberger drove him in with a single to right center and Bonfield kept the heat on with a single.
Dominic Fletcher’s chopper to third base moved up both runners, then Biggers brought them in with a long single into right center.
The Razorbacks, who scored nine first-inning runs during five games at the SEC Tournament, had not scored in the first inning in their first three games at the regional.
Koch started the second inning with a double just out of the reach of left fielder Alex Jefferson deep in the gap. Jake Arledge bunted Koch over to third and Cole slapped a single into right field to score Koch and make it 4-0.
Arkansas had a chance for more runs after Jefferson failed to catch Spanberger’s towering fly ball after calling off center fielder Hunter Steinmetz, leaving runners at first and second. Knight retired Bonfield on a fly ball to center field and Fletcher on a fly to right.
The Bears got it going in the top of the third inning.
Nine-hole hitter John Privitera ripped a single inside the third base bag and Steinmetz chased him to third with a sinking liner to right that deflected off the sliding Cole’s glove for a double.
Justin Paulsen greeted reliever Cannon Chadwick with a single to right field to cut the Bears’ deficit to 4-2. Chadwick coaxed a pop up from Jake Burger and a line drive from Jeremy Eierman before Blake Graham’s single sent Paulsen to third. Chadwick’s wild pitch allowed Paulsen to score and complete the threerun rally.
Coach Dave Van Horn replaced Chadwick with a 2-1 count on Jefferson and lefthander Weston Rogers came on to retire the left fielder on a grounder to shortstop.
Rogers, a 6-4, 215-pounder from Springdale Har-Ber, had last pitched in a game on April 25 in a 6-5 victory over Kansas State.
The Razorbacks got a couple of runs back in the bottom of the third on one hit, Biggers’ leadoff double. Carson Shaddy followed with a walk, and after Jared Gates’ sacrifice, Koch drew a full-count walk to load the bases. Arledge was hit on the left arm by Tyler McAlister’s second pitch, but Armendariz ruled Arledge did not try to get out of the way and called him back to the plate, infuriating Van Horn.
Arledge walked to force in a run two pitches later. Cole’s sacrifice fly brought in Koch to extend Arkansas’ lead to 6-3 and right-hander Nate Witherspoon got Spanberger to ground out.
The Bears had runners on second and third base with two outs when the game was halted.