FAYETTEVILLE -- Kacey Murphy threw eight shutout innings and the No. 6 Arkansas Razorbacks battered Southern Mississippi with 13 hits en route to a 10-2 victory to reach the championship round of the NCAA Fayetteville Regional on Saturday night.
Murphy (8-4) took a no-hitter into the fifth inning against the potent Southern Miss lineup and left to an ovation from the estimated crowd of 10,213 at Baum Stadium after throwing 100 pitches.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (41-18) will play at 7 p.m. today against the winner of the 2 p.m. elimination game between Southern Miss (44-17) and Dallas Baptist (41-20).
Murphy followed eight innings from Blaine Knight in the Razorbacks' victory over Oral Roberts on Friday night with eight bullpen-saving innings of his own. He allowed only a pair of singles and a walk and struck out five in the longest scoreless outing at a regional for a Razorback since DJ Baxendale threw eight shutout innings against New Mexico in 2011.
"I thought it really started on the mound with Kacey Murphy's performance," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "He threw 70 percent strikes ... and Southern Miss has as good a lineup as anybody in the country that we've seen this year."
Murphy said he used a lot of arm-side fastballs to the right-handed hitters.
"It really set up my off-speed to throw it whenever I wanted," Murphy said.
Jared Gates and Eric Cole hit two-run home runs against lefty Stevie Powers (5-2) to fuel a seven-run second inning and keep the Razorbacks in hot pursuit of their single-season home run record.
"We just did the same thing we've been doing all year. They just pitched us a little bit different than we're usually pitched," Arkansas second baseman Carson Shaddy said.
"That atmosphere, however many thousands of people were there, really energized their hitters and it really showed," Southern Miss Coach Scott Berry said.
Arkansas has 90 home runs on the year, two shy of the school record held by the 2010 team. The Razorbacks had five extra-base hits against the Golden Eagles.
"They punched us in the mouth and we just didn't answer," Southern Miss third baseman Luke Reynolds said.
Designated hitter Daniel Keating broke up Murphy's no-hitter with a single in the fifth, then center fielder Matt Wallner collected another single to lead off the seventh for the only hits he allowed.
"He was around the zone all night," Southern Miss second baseman Matthew Guidry said. "Whenever a guy's doing that, it's hard to take them deep into counts."
Said Berry, "I thought he mixed his pitches, used both sides of the plate and really was in control of us. Offensively, we haven't been held down that way for a long time."
Guidry put the Golden Eagles on the board with a long home run to right field off Caleb Bolden to lead off the bottom of the ninth, and they scored again on a Wallner double.
Shaddy went 3 for 4 with a double and a triple and drove in three runs to lead the Razorbacks, while Cole was 3 for 5 with two RBI. Shaddy, Gates and Dominic Fletcher scored two runs each.
"I just feel good up there right now," said Gates, who has turned it on in the postseason after a slow regular season. "I don't know how to explain it. I just have a lot of confidence right now in myself."
Murphy's gem was assisted by a handful of quality defensive plays, including one of his own.
Left fielder Heston Kjerstad made a sliding catch on a Hunter Slater line drive in the second. Cole charged forward in right field to snare a Cole Donaldson smash in the third and Murphy snagged LeeMarcus Boyd's liner up the middle in the sixth.
Gates, Arkansas' first baseman, made the Hogs' best defensive play, however, as he laid out to catch a foul liner off the bat of Mason Irby in the eighth. Gates also caught a soft liner in the ninth and doubled off Slater, who had walked.
Southern Miss left fielder Gabe Montenegro made the defensive play of the game in the top of the third, diving from a full sprint in the gap to catch a looper by Jax Biggers in shallow left-center field.
Arkansas, playing as the visiting team after losing a coin flip, batted around in the second inning to chase Powers.
The Razorbacks racked up a pair of home runs and a triple and had four runners score who either walked or were hit by a pitch in the inning.
Shaddy opened the inning with a walk. After Grant Koch flied out, Gates hammered a 1-1 pitch the other way for a two-run home run, his fifth, over the left-field wall.
Biggers drew a walk and Cole cranked another two-run home run to the opposite field and into the Southern Miss bullpen for a 4-0 lead. Cole's 13th home run of the season was his first since May 4 at LSU.
Powers rebounded to strike out hard-swinging Casey Martin, but got right back in the soup by hitting Kjerstad with a pitch under his right shoulder. Luke Bonfield followed with a walk, then Fletcher sent a shot into the gap in right-center field to score Kjerstad and send Powers to the dugout with a big deficit.
Shaddy worked a 3-2 count against reliever Mason Strickland then drilled a ball into the right-center gap for a two-run triple.
Powers gave up 7 earned runs on 5 hits, 3 walks and a hit batter.
The score remained 7-0 until the fifth when Arkansas scored twice. Biggers' sacrifice fly brought home Shaddy, who had singled, then Martin's single scored Gates, who had also singled. Cole was thrown out at home on the play trying to score from first.
Fletcher and Shaddy hit back-to-back doubles in the top of the ninth to increase Arkansas' lead 10-0.
Sports on 06/03/2018