FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 2 Arkansas appeared on the verge of handing Missouri State another defeat only to see the bullpen and defense collapse in a 14-13 10-inning loss on Tuesday night at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Arkansas held a 13-8 lead heading to the top of the ninth. With one out, Missouri State got to relievers Cole Gibler and Will McEntire for five runs to tie the game at 13. Then, in the top of the 10th, second baseman Nick Rodriquez got his fifth hit of the game and second home, a solo shot, to provide the winning run for the visitors. Jackson Holmes (3-3) walked a hitter and retired one in the bottom of the 10th. Then Max Knight came on to retire the next two Razorbacks and earn his first save of the season. Knight also got two hits for Missouri State and had one RBI.
Dave Van Horn saw his pitching staff simply have an off night. Six Razorback pitchers combined to allow 14 hits, walked six, but struck out 19. Tate McGuire (0-2) took the loss as he was the one who surrendered the 10th inning solo shot by Rodriquez. But McGuire actually provided the Razorbacks a boost in the top of the ninth when he entered with the bases loaded and only one out. He only allowed one run. McEntire faced five hitters and retired none. He allowed three hits, walked one and saw a hitter get on when second baseman Nolan Souza committed an error.
"I guess they got two singles," Van Horn said. "We walked one run in, dropped the pop-up. It was really, you know, that was a tough one there, and probably not a whole lot to say. Just didn't catch the ball. Got to go after it with confidence, and you've got to make a catch. But we just, we couldn't get the third strike. Mac got the, think it was a cleanup hitter, two strikes, and left one up, he singles up the middle, I guess it was away. And then a couple hitters later it was the same thing. Two strikes, can't finish a guy off, base hit and give them credit, they just kept swinging, and they were hitting them where we weren't, and hit some balls hard.
"But for the most part, we didn't play like we've been playing, made two or three errors, walked six guys. And that's not the way you do it. We have guys that are available to pitch, but you can't pitch them on Tuesday because you've got to save them for the weekend, and other guys got to step up, and they've got to do the job. They've got to show that they can do the job when things get tough or when the game's on the line."
It was a wild night from the start basically. Missouri State got a run in the top of the second and then two more in the top of the third for a 3-0 lead. In the fourth Tyler Epstein hit a solo home run for a 4-0 lead. Van Horn sensed Missouri State entered the game with a lot of energy.
"The ball was jumping in BP, and I told our team, 'We're gonna have to score tonight,'" Van Horn said. "And we scored enough. We didn't do it on the other side of the ball. But you know, you can't blame it all on the pitching when you don't make a couple of plays in the field that cost you a few runs, two runs anyway, and maybe more. This was a team loss. We just didn’t finish. They gotta do it. This is their opportunity, midweek, and kind of a chance to audition for getting on the mound on the weekend and it didn’t go great."
But Arkansas fought back adding five runs in the bottom of the fourth. Logan Maxwell, Kuhio Aloy and Cam Kozeal all singled to start the inning. Then with two outs and the bases loaded, Zane Becker was hit by a pitch. Gabe Fraser followed with a grand slam to put the Hogs up 5-4 after four innings.
Missouri State answered that with two runs in the top of the fifth for a 6-5 lead. In the bottom of the fifth, the Razorbacks answered with three runs. Souza singled to plate one runner. Then Becker doubled to get two more across the plate for an 8-6 lead.
Zach Stewart hit a solo home run in the top of the sixth to pull Missouri State to within 7-6. Arkansas answered with four in the bottom of the sixth pushing the lead out to 12-6. Rodriquez hit his first home run of the night in the top of the seventh making the score 12-7. The Razorbacks added a run in the bottom of the eighth for the 13-8 lead. Van Horn talked about the veterans struggling.
"Tonight, if you just look at the line score, McEntire gives up three hits and walks a batter, didn’t get an out," Van Horn said. "That was tough. He should have got at least one. We didn’t catch a pop up. Tate came in and did a great job. He got us through that inning and had a chance to win it in the bottom of the inning and didn’t do it. Then came out and gets behind on the hitter 3-1, then it goes 3-2, foul ball ball, home run opposite field. You’re talking a hitter that hit two home runs tonight and I think he had one coming into the night and they were both opposite field. I may be wrong there, but good job by them."
Rodriguez finished the game with two home runs, two singles and a double while plating two runs. Jake McCutcheon had three hits and knocked in a pair of runs.
Charles Davalan had three hits for Arkansas as did Souza. Maxwell and Kozeal had two hits each.
Arkansas (23-3, 5-1) will be at Vanderbilt this Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a three-game series. Friday's game will begin at 7 p.m. and be televised on the SEC Network. Saturday's game begins at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Both those games can be streamed on the SEC Network+.
Missouri State (12-13) will host Arkansas on Tuesday, April 29, at 6 p.m. in a rematch.
