Arkansas denies Dallas Baptist in regional final
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas needed little bullpen relief to mow down Oral Roberts and Southern Miss, 10-2 and 10-2, in the team’s first two games in the Fayetteville Regional, but the Razorbacks needed relief for every out to beat a determined Dallas Baptist, 4-3, in Sunday night’s championship game before 9,775 at Baum Stadium.
Junior right-hander Jake Reindl (3-1, 2.33 ERA) entered the game on just the fourth batter with the bases loaded. Redshirt sophomore Isaiah Campbell struggled and loaded the bases without recording an out.
Reindl threw 97 pitches in seven full innings of relief. Sophomore lefty Matt Cronin survived a controversial ninth for a two-inning save. He now has 12 saves this season.
The win clinched the Fayetteville Regional championship for coach Dave Van Horn’s Razorbacks (42-18). They will now host a super regional this week at Baum Stadium against South Carolina (36-24), winner of the Greenville Regional.
The winner of two games in the super regional will advance as the elite eight teams to play the following week in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Van Horn feared the persistent Patriots
(42-21), who rebounded from a 9-0 loss on Friday in the first round to Southern Mississippi
(44-18) to eliminate Oral Roberts (38-20), 18-9, on Saturday and Southern Miss, 9-4, earlier on Sunday. Dallas Baptist was on the verge of extending Arkansas to a winner-take-all final game on Monday night after Campbell opened the game by walking Devlin Granberg and Jameson Hannah on full counts before Jimmy Glowenke loaded the bases with a single.
“Just had to make a quick decision,” Van Horn said. “I hated to make that move, but I felt like in the big picture that’s what we had to do. Isaiah didn’t have command of his fastball whatsoever. I just feel great that Jake came in and kind of had my back. Because if he gives up a double and a couple of singles, then it wasn’t a very good move.”
Reindl had scant warmup time and escaped the first inning holding Dallas Baptist to only one run on Garrett Wolforth’s groundout.
“I threw maybe six or seven down in the pen,” Reindl said. “Coach walked out and said, ‘Hey, you’re in.’ I was like, ‘Here we go.’ It was really just kind of a bang-bang thing.”
Reindl allowed another infield out RBI in the second after a single, hit batsman and sacrifice bunt. He pitched out of jams again in the third and fourth innings. Reindl rescued freshman left fielder Heston Kjerstad with a strikeout in the fifth inning after Kjerstad’s two-base fly ball error with two outs.
Kjerstad rescued Reindl in the sixth with a well-timed leap and reach over the fence, robbing Granberg of would-be home run that
would have tied the game at 3-3.
The Razorbacks were clinging to a 3-2 lead after scoring one run in the third inning and two in the fourth. Reindl tipped his hate to Kjerstad.
“That was quite a catch,” Reindl said. “Off the bat, I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s probably gone. Yikes!’ Then I saw him come down with the ball and I I gave him one of those (tipping his cap.”
Dallas Baptist coach Dan Heefner implied Kjerstad deserved the plaudit.
“Yeah, I thought it was a home run,” Heefner said. “Kjerstad timed it perfectly. He got to the ball perfectly, timed his jump and robbed him out of a home run.”
Senior first baseman Jared Gates was a catalyst for Arkansas on Friday against Oral Roberts and Saturday against Southern miss. He proved to be a catalyst again on Sunday.
Gates singled to lead off the bottom of the third inning and advanced to second base on a groundout by junior shortstop Jax Biggers. He alertly swiped third base on a delayed steal that caught Dallas Baptist catcher Matt Duke dawdling and scored on a groundout by junior right fielder Eric Cole.
Senior designated hitter Luke Bonfield and sophomore center fielder Dominic Fletcher successively singled with one out in the fourth inning. Bonfield avoided third baseman Keith Mallard’s attempted tag on Luke Bandy’s throw from right field. The play allowed Fletcher to take second.
Bonfield and Fletcher scored on a groundout by redshirt senior second baseman Carson Shaddy and a single by junior catcher Grant Koch. Reliever McGregor Hines replaced Kody Funderburk (1-3, 6.88) on the mound and blanked Arkansas until the seventh inning.
Gates again singled to lead off the bottom of the seven inning. Cole singled him to second base with one out and Kjerstad’s two-out single to center field scored Gates to put the home team up 4-2.
Cronin allowed a leadoff single in the eighth inning before striking out the side, leaving Granberg to lead off the ninth, when he doubled off of the center field fence. Video on the scoreboard indicated Hannah was thrown out on a ground ball to Biggers, but he was ruled safe on the play.
The disputed call would have been reviewed in a Southeastern Conference game, but replay reviews are not allowed during the NCAA regionals. Replay will be allowed during the super regionals and the College World Series.
“At first, when I saw he called him safe, I was in shock,” Cronin said. “I almost lost it for a second, and then I remembered, ‘You’ve got to stay cool. You just have to keep doing what you know you can do.’”
Cronin did what he has done 11 times this season and recorded the final two outs to secure Arkansas as a super regional host.
The six Razorbacks were voted by media to the All-Fayetteville Regional team were Gates, Shaddy, Kjerstad, Fletcher, freshman third baseman Casey Martin and junior left-hander Kacey Murphy, who held Southern Miss to no runs in eight innings on Saturday.
Granberg was voted the regional’s Most Outstanding Player.
Also voted All-Regional were Southern Miss pitcher Nick Sandlin and designated hitter Daniel Keating, Oral Roberts catcher Riley Keizor. and Dallas Baptist’s Glowenke at shortstop.