COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

Arkansas 11, Texas 5

Once Arkansas' offense got rolling against Texas in the sixth inning, nothing could stop the Razorbacks. Not even the weather. Five straight batters had reached base when the teams were pulled from the field for a weather delay. When play resumed 2 hours, 49 minutes later, five more in a row got on base. What turned into an eight-run sixth carried the Razorbacks to a win in their College World Series opener on Sunday. "We have such a balanced lineup, and we all know what we're trying to do at the plate," Arkansas' Luke Bonfield said. "Once Casey Martin had that leadoff hit after the rain delay, everything snowballed, and we got a ton more momentum and we never let up on the gas." The Razorbacks (45-19) scored double-digit runs for the fourth time in six NCAA Tournament wins and had their highest total in 28 CWS games. The Longhorns (42-22), in the CWS for a record 36th time, lost their third straight Omaha opener since 2011. Bonfield delivered the first home run of the CWS with his two-run shot to left for a 3-2 lead in the fifth. Parker Joe Robinson took over for Texas starter Nolan Kingham (8-5) to start the sixth and walked the only two batters he faced. That started a parade of pitchers who either struggled to find the strike zone or got dinged for single after single. Texas hadn't given up so many runs in an inning this season. "I'm not shell-shocked," Longhorns coach David Pierce said. "It's just part of it. It's not the way we wished it had gone. Unfortunately, it got away from us, and we couldn't overcome the deficit." In all, Arkansas sent 14 batters to the plate and Texas used five pitchers in an inning that matched Arkansas' biggest of the season. For the game, eight Arkansas batters had at least one hit and seven drove in a run. "We went from down 2-1 to up 3-2 and it happened with two outs," Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn said. "That was the swing we were looking for to get us going a little bit. And then, obviously, we set up the big inning, had a couple of runs in, had a rain delay, and came out and really just did a nice job scoring some runs there that gave us an opportunity to relax a little bit." The Razorbacks swept the Longhorns 13-4 and 7-5 in Fayetteville in March, but this was the first time the old rivals from the Southwest Conference days had been matched in the CWS since 2004. Arkansas starter Blaine Knight (13-0), the Baltimore Orioles' third-round draft pick, allowed two runs on four hits and a walk in five innings. Big 12 player of the year Kody Clemens, son of seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens and one of the hottest hitters in the postseason, was 1 for 5 with two strikeouts.

Late Saturday Mississippi St. 1, Washington 0

Luke Alexander's drive to right field got past Christian Jones in the bottom of the ninth inning, allowing Hunter Stovall to score from second base to give Mississippi State a victory over Washington. It was the Bulldogs' third walk-off win, and fourth on their final at-bat, in their last eight NCAA Tournament games. Stovall and Elijah MacNamee singled leading off the ninth against Andy Hardy before Alexander hit an 0-2 pitch deep to right. Jones was playing shallow and gave chase, but he couldn't catch up to the ball as it bounced to the wall.