HOOVER, Ala. — The SEC player of the year made sure Mississippi State wouldn't remember its early game at the SEC Tournament on Thursday as a blizzard of blown scoring chances.
Brent Rooker drove a 1-1 slider from Cannon Chadwick into the gap in left-center field for a game-tying double in the ninth inning, then scored the go-ahead run on a bases-loaded walk to propel No. 19 Mississippi State past No. 13 Arkansas by a final score of 4-3 at the Hoover Met.
The Bulldogs (36-22) got their first victory against the Razorbacks (39-16) this season, improved to 2-4 against Arkansas at the SEC Tournament and advanced to a winner's bracket game at 11 a.m. Friday against No. 5 Florida. The Razorbacks face Auburn in an elimination game Thursday night at approximately 5:30 p.m.
Chadwick (4-3) retired Rooker, the SEC leader in batting average, homers and RBI, twice during the Razorbacks' three-game sweep earlier this season. But after Ryan Gridley led off the ninth against Kevin Kopps with a single, Rooker didn't miss his pitch on the right-hander's third offering.
"He threw a slider down and [Rooker] did a nice job staying on it and hit it in the alley," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said.
"We'd seen that guy in the series early in the season and the scouting report was just a slider/cutter guy, so … I didn't think he wanted to throw me a fastball for a strike," Rooker said. "I was just going to sit on breaking balls the whole at-bat.
"The first one was for a ball, the second was a good pitch for a strike. The last one was left up a little bit and I just put a good swing on it and hit it in the gap."
Left fielder Jake Arledge hit shortstop Jax Biggers with the relay and Biggers' throw home would have beaten Gridley, but catcher Grant Koch could not hang on to the short hop to make the tag.
Jake Mangum greeted Josh Alberius with a bunt single, then Alberius hit Hunter Stovall with a pitch to load the bases. Cody Brown drew a walk against Evan Lee to force in Rooker with the winning run.
Arkansas built a 3-0 lead through two innings for starting pitcher Trevor Stephan on Luke Bonfield's two-run home run and Jack Kenley's RBI double, but missed out on numerous other scoring chances.
"The game got away from us early when we left so many runners out there," Van Horn said. "We had a leadoff double and didn't score. We had runners at first and second, nobody out, and we didn't score."
The Razorbacks left two runners on base in the third and fifth innings and did not score after Eric Cole's leadoff double in the seventh.
The Bulldogs out-hit the Hogs 12-5, left 12 runners on and hit into three double plays before their consistent pressure paid off.
"There were certainly some pressure-filled situations and moments there where you kept thinking that you were only going to get so many opportunities against a really good Arkansas team," Mississippi State Coach Andy Cannizaro said.
Bulldogs right-hander Peyton Plumlee (6-1) picked up the victory with four innings of two-hit relief, and Riley Self pitched the ninth to notch his sixth save.
Arkansas fell to 34-2 in games in which it led going into the ninth inning. The Razorbacks' other loss came April 8 against LSU at Baum Stadium.