FAYETTEVILLE -- Two years after the Arkansas Razorbacks ended Missouri State's baseball season at Baum Stadium, the Bears did the same thing to the Hogs on Monday night.
Missouri State beat the Razorbacks 3-2 before an announced crowd of 10,273 to win the NCAA Fayetteville Regional.
"We beat a very, very good Arkansas team in a great atmosphere for Arkansas," Bears Coach Keith Guttin said. "This is a hard place to win."
Missouri State (44-18) avenged a 3-2 loss to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville in a winner-take-all super regional game at Baum Stadium in 2015.
"There's nothing else I'd like to happen more," said Bears senior pitcher Jordan Knutson, who got the save by pitching 2⅓ scoreless innings and struck out Jared Gates swinging to end the game. "To end their season with a 3-2 win is sweet."
Missouri State starter Doug Still, Bryan Young and Knutson held the Razorbacks to five hits -- all by Gates and Eric Cole.
Cole was 3 for 4 and Gates 2 for 4 -- including a home run and double -- but the rest of the Razorbacks were a combined 0 for 23.
Arkansas' 2 through 6 hitters -- Chad Spanberger, Luke Bonfield, Dominic Fletcher, Jax Biggers and Carson Shaddy -- were 0 for 19.
"That was the difference in the ballgame," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "I would just say it was some really good pitching. Good pitching gets out good hitting."
The Razorbacks were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position.
"After a third time playing a team on a weekend, they know how to attack certain hitters and they attacked us pretty much as good as they possibly can," Cole said. "They were able to get the big hit a couple of times, and we weren't and that was the difference."
Missouri State bounced back to win after the Razorbacks (45-19) beat the Bears 11-10 in a game that ended after 3 a.m. Monday morning. Arkansas rallied to win after trailing 8-7 going into the bottom of the eighth inning.
"We were a few outs away, but we didn't get it done," Bears shortstop Jeremy Eierman, who hit a two-run home run Monday night, said about the Sunday night/Monday morning game. "We knew we had the chance to get it done tonight, and we came out with tons of energy. We knew we had it."
Van Horn said he believed the low-scoring game -- with both teams running out of pitching -- was due at least in part to fatigue.
"I think both teams were a little bit tired," he said. "Mentally, you can be into it, but just playing until 3:15 a.m. messes you up. When I went to sleep the sun was coming up. It's not normal.
"I don't play, but I feel a little different today. I think our minds and our hearts were in it, but our bodies weren't quite there."
Arkansas scored one run in the seventh inning to cut Missouri State's lead to 3-2. Gates doubled off Young and scored on two wild pitches by Knutson, but Jake Arledge was stranded at third when Knutson got Cole on a groundout.
Blaine Knight, who started for Arkansas in Missouri State's 5-4 victory Saturday night when he went 5⅓ innings and threw 105 pitches, came into Monday night's game with one out in the eighth and Eierman on first base after drawing a walk from Evan Lee.
Knight got Burger on a groundout before Eierman stole second base, but Ben Whitestone popped out to keep the score 3-2.
"Blaine really wanted to go out and pitch one more time," Van Horn said. "He's a draft-eligible sophomore. He'll probably be moving on here shortly."
Dominic Taccolini pitched the ninth inning for Arkansas and struck out the side, but the Razorbacks went down 1-2-3 in the bottom half to end the game.
Sophomore left-hander Kacey Murphy started for the Razorbacks -- after starting their 4-3 victory over Oral Roberts Sunday and throwing 74 pitches in 3⅔ innings -- and went 5 innings and threw 81 pitches.
Murphy held the Bears to 2 runs, 2 hits and 2 walks with 8 strikeouts.
"His fastball was really jumping out of his hand, and his curveball was moving quite a bit," Eierman said. "He was getting ahead with his fastball. That was the main thing. He had good stuff tonight."
Van Horn took Murphy out after he walked Jake Paulsen leading off the sixth inning and brought in Josh Alberius to pitch. Alberius struck out Jake Burger, but Eierman followed with a two-run home run to give the Bears a 3-1 lead.
It was Eierman's third home run of the regional -- including a game-winner in the bottom of the ninth against Oklahoma State in the Bears' 6-5 victory Friday -- and 22nd of the season.
Arkansas got the tying runs on in the sixth inning with no outs when Still -- pitching on two days' rest -- allowed a single to Cole and hit Spanberger.
Young replaced Still, then promptly threw a wild pitch to put Cole at third base and Spanberger at second. Young responded by striking out Bonfield and Fletcher and got Biggers on a popout to keep Missouri State's lead at 3-1.
Missouri State took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when Burger hit a leadoff double, went to third on a flyout by Eierman and scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Jefferson when Arledge made a leaping catch against the left-field fence.
Gates hit a home run in the fifth inning to tie the game 1-1.
Arkansas fell to 2-4 in regionals it has hosted. The Razorbacks won regionals at Baum Stadium in 2004 and 2010 and were eliminated in 1999, 2006 and 2007 prior to Monday night's loss.
"I was happy to be a No. 1 seed, but I think there were a couple of No. 1 seeds here," said Van Horn, referring to Missouri State and Oral Roberts. "It was a great regional. It was really competitive and one play here, one pitch there made a difference on who moves on.
"Hats off to Missouri State. They made all the plays."
Sports on 06/06/2017