Razorbacks top Missouri State 11-10 at 3:10 a.m.

Arkansas began play in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday afternoon needing two wins to advance to a winner-take-all regional final against Missouri State on Monday night.

By the time the top-seeded Razorbacks finished off those two wins, they had turned what was supposed to be an evening at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark., into a nearly overnight affair — ending an epic 11-10 win over the Bears at 3:10 a.m. local time Monday morning.

What made the contest the most memorable of the NCAA Tournament so far wasn’t that is took six hours to play, including a one-hour, 25-minute rain delay. Nor was it the fact the two teams restarted the game — in the third inning — at 12:35 a.m.

Standing out above all else at the Fayetteville Regional was that easily more than 1,000 of the original paid crowd of 9,038 fans in Baum Stadium were still on hand when Arkansas pitcher Evan Lee struck out Missouri State’s Justin Paulsen in the rain to end the game.

It might have been more than 12 hours after the Razorbacks were originally scheduled to start their first game a day earlier, but the win was well worth the wait.

“That was one of the greatest games I’ve ever been a part of,” said Arkansas’ Jared Gates, who hit a two-run home run to put the Razorbacks up 11-8 in the bottom of the eighth inning.

During the delay, the team ate what leftovers it had from its pregame meal prior to its first game — more than seven hours earlier. Hunger, though, wasn’t a problem for the Razorbacks.

At least not until following the win over the Bears.

“Right now, I’m really hungry,” Lee said at a postgame news conference at 3:35 a.m. “I’m looking for a Whataburger hamburger or something.”

After already having defeated Oral Roberts in an elimination game earlier on Sunday — a game that started nearly an hour and a half late because of heavy rain — Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn wasn’t too keen on restarting the game with the Bears early Monday morning after rain had halted play in the third inning.

Bears coach Keith Guttin, though, was fine with continuing into the wee hours — particularly because his players were rested after avoiding the loser’s bracket with a 5-4 win over Arkansas on Saturday.

Regardless of any emotional or physical fallout from the lengthy day for Arkansas and game for Missouri State, the two teams were to meet again Monday night with a spot in next week’s super regionals on the line.

Florida 6, Bethune-Cookman 1: Florida’s Austin Langworthy hit a threerun home run and got the win in relief Monday as the Gators advanced to an NCAA Super Regional for the third straight year.

The final game of the Gainesville Regional was scoreless until Langworthy’s homer to left in the sixth off Joseph Calamita. Langworthy started the game in left field but relieved starter Kirby McMullen with two outs in the third and went four innings, allowing one run on two hits.

Dallas Baptist 11, Virginia 8: Austin Listi homered twice for the second game in a row and Dallas Baptist eliminated Virginia Monday at the Fort Worth Regional.

The Patriots (42-20) were to play again Monday night against host TCU, the No. 6 national seed.

Listi’s two-run homer in the second put Dallas Baptist up 7-0, and his solo shot in the eighth was his 24th of the year. Camden Duzenack also went deep for the Patriots.

Sam Houston State 4, Texas Tech 3: Hunter Hearn scored twice and drove in two more runs to lead the Bearkats to an NCAA super regional for the first time.

Texas A&M 4, Houston 3: Stephen Kolek struck out nine and took a shutout into the ninth inning, sending the Aggies to their third straight NCAA super regional.