Razorbacks getting knocked out of NCAA in regional has altered planned schedules of fans and media for this month.
Ruscin & Zach on the regional upset in Monday’s podcast
We revisit what went wrong with Arkansas’ early exit from the NCAA baseball tournament for the second consecutive year.
WholeHogSports’ Matt Jones on what happened to Razorbacks’ season
When effects of long season finally got to Hagen Smith against Kansas State, Hogs couldn’t overcome it Saturday night.
Eastside Liquor Halftime Podcast: 6-3-24
Phil, Matt and C-Unit recap the disappointing regional loss to SEMO and talk a little NBA finals!
Mike Irwin and Matt Jones from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette join!
The Gimme The Hawgs Chuck Podcast: Ep. 233 – Regrettable Regional Recap
Presented by Weichert Realtors, The Griffin Company
HOG REACTION: Hogs season ends with 6-3 loss to SEMO
Presented by Camping World, Mock Legal Solutions and Arvest Bank!
Razorbacks see season come crashing to end in home regional again
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas ran out of gas. The expectations in February and March came crashing to an end Sunday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium as Southeast Missouri downed them, 6-3.
The result was getting knocked out of a home regional for the second straight year. Last season, it was a red-hot TCU that kept the Razorbacks from Omaha and the College World Series.
Southeast Missouri State took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and three more in the bottom of the fourth. With runners on first and second with nobody out, Josh Cameron drove in Ben Palmer with an RBI single to right field while Stauss advanced to second and moved up to third on a throwing error by Kendall Diggs.
Gage Wood was relieved by Jake Faherty after allowing the RBI single, but Michael Mugan drove in Stauss on a tapper near the mound while Cameron advanced to second to lengthen the lead, 3-0. After getting the first two outs of the inning, Ian Riley singled to right field and advanced to second on the throw while driving in Mugan to give Southeast Missouri State a four-run advantage.
Wood tossed three innings in his third start of the year (22nd appearance) and gave up three runs, four hits and a walk with a single strikeout on 60 pitches (38 strikes). For a staff that was seeing who could get to two strikes the fastest, the control seemed to disappear as the season progressed.
Peyton Holt finally put the Hogs on the board in the top of the fifth with a solo shot to left field with two outs, 4-1, for his eighth home run of the season. It was Arkansas’ first base hit of the game. Ryder Helfrick was hit by a pitch, Ty Wilmsmeyer drew a walk and Peyton Stovall was plunked to load the bases. After Redhawk pitcher Collin Wilma was relieved by Logan Katen, Hudson White grounded out to second to end the threat.
Brooks Kettering put the Redhawks back up by four with a solo shot to center field to lead off the bottom of the fifth. Southeast Missouri State put the game out of reach with a one-out RBI single by Kettering to plate Chance Resetich from second in the bottom of the seventh to extend the lead to five.
“I was really surprised,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “We didn’t think it would go down like this. It’s a combination of their pitchers doing a really good job of mixing pitches and locating, and our guys might have been a tick short, maybe just a little bit tired from yesterday’s ballgame.”
Senior Parker Rowland came up to the plate as a pinch hitter in the top of the ninth and blasted a two-run home run with one out for his final career at-bat of his collegiate career.
“I said, ‘hey, I really enjoyed your last swing of your career,'” Van Horn said. “It was good. I mean, that’s his first home run. This guy was our starting catcher last year on a team that won the SEC. He didn’t catch this year for us because we had other guys that were more talented. But we’ve had a few innings throughout the season. It’s tough when you’ve got younger guys playing in front of older guys or guys that have played before, and I knew this was the way it was going to be. But he kept a great attitude”
Now the target is finding players for next year because he’s losing an awful lot of players, including the best pitcher on the staff and an entire outfield. Van Horn talked in his press conference after the game (above) several times about where he’s already thinking.
Another Hogs’ comeback falls short, setting up big hill to climb to final
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A late rally, including Peyton Holt’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth, was not enough to lead No. 5 Arkansas (44-15) to a come-from-behind win over Kansas State (34-24), as the Hogs suffered a 7-6 defeat Saturday night at Baum-Walker Stadium to set up three must-win games in order to advance from the NCAA Fayetteville Regional.
Arkansas will square off against SEMO in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 2, on ESPN+. The Razorbacks must secure a win against the Redhawks and then defeat the Wildcats twice to punch their ticket to the super regional round.
Friday night’s game began as an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel, as Arkansas ace Hagen Smith and Kansas State right-hander Jackson Wentworth exchanged zeroes through the first four innings. The Razorbacks opened the scoring in the top of the fifth, posting a two-spot on a run-scoring wild pitch followed by Hudson White’s one-out RBI single to center.
Kansas State’s response was immediate, however, exploding for six runs against Smith, the most he has allowed all season, in the bottom half of the inning. The biggest blow came off the bat of Kaelen Culpepper, who jacked a three-run home run to right center to give the Wildcats a 6-2 lead and silence a raucous Baum-Walker Stadium crowd of 11,213.
Smith departed the ballgame after five innings of work, allowing a season-high six runs on four hits and four walks while striking out seven. The junior left-hander, the program’s all-time strikeout leader, raised his season punchout total to 161 to break Arkansas’ single-season strikeout record, previously held by David Walling (155 strikeouts in 1991).
Ahead by four, Kansas State called on relief ace Tyson Neighbors in relief of Wentworth, who limited the Hogs to two runs on seven hits and three walks over 5.2 innings. The Razorback offense had much better success against Neighbors, tagging the Wildcat right-hander for four runs in six hits and a walk in his 3.1 innings of the work.
Jared Sprague-Lott hit a solo homer, his ninth of the season, in the seventh to cut Arkansas’ deficit to three before White smoked a double to left in the top of the eighth, collecting his second RBI of the night and bringing the Hogs within two runs. In relief of Smith, Ben Bybee emerged from the bullpen to toss three strong innings with four strikeouts.
The only blemish of Bybee’s relief outing was a two-out solo homer in the bottom of the eighth, which extended Kansas State’s lead from 6-4 to 7-4. The solo shot proved costly, as Holt’s two-run homer with one out in the top of the ninth gave Arkansas its fifth and sixth runs of the night and made it a one-run ballgame at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Neighbors would retire two of the next three batters following Holt’s home run to secure his ninth save of the season and clinch the 7-6 win over Arkansas, putting Kansas State in the driver’s seat of the NCAA Fayetteville Regional.
The Razorbacks outhit the Wildcats, 13-5, led by multi-hit performances from White (2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI), Sprague-Lott (2-for-5, HR, RBI), Wehiwa Aloy (2-for-5), Holt (2-for-5, HR, 2 RBI) and Ty Wilmsmeyer (2-for-3, 2 BB). Arkansas stranded 13 base runners, however, hitting just .273 (6-for-22) with runners on and .273 (3-for-11) with runners in scoring position.
Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
Razorbacks’ hitting comes alive in 17-9 win to open regional
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Led by Ben McLaughlin and Hudson White’s multi-homer games, No. 5 Arkansas (44-14) hit six long balls and outslugged SEMO (34-26), 17-9, in Friday’s NCAA Fayetteville Regional opener at Baum-Walker Stadium.
With the regional-opening win, top-seeded Arkansas advances to play the winner of Friday night’s showdown between second-seeded Louisiana Tech (45-17) and third-seeded Kansas State (32-24) at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 1, on the ESPN family of networks with Derek Jones (play-by-play) and Jay Walker (analyst) on the call.
The Razorbacks won their 34th game of the season at Baum-Walker Stadium, tying the single-season program record of 34 set in 2018. Excluding 2020, Arkansas has won 28-plus games at Baum-Walker Stadium in seven consecutive seasons.
Arkansas came out swinging and tagged SEMO starter Haden Dow for six runs (three earned) in his 1.2 innings of work. The Hogs opened a commanding 8-0 lead after two innings of play, benefiting from White’s one-out solo shot in the first and McLaughlin’s two-out, three-run blast – his first of two three-run homers on the afternoon – in the second.
Peyton Holt (2-for-4, RBI), Ty Wilmsmeyer (2-for-5, 3 R, 2B, RBI) and Jared Sprague-Lott (1-for-4, 2 RBI) also contributed to the early eight-run outburst, chipping in with RBI of their own during the Razorbacks’ seven-run second inning.
SEMO would not down quietly, however, responding with a four-spot in the top half of the third to cut Arkansas’ lead in half. Starter Mason Molina lasted only 2.2 innings, allowing four runs on two hits and four walks with four strikeouts.
The Redhawks did not stop there, completely erasing their early eight-run deficit and tying the game at eight in the top of the fifth. Veteran right-hander Will McEntire entered in relief of Molina and was chased after 1.2 innings on the mound, allowing four runs on three hits and a walk while punching out one.
McEntire’s lone strikeout was a historic one, however, as it marked the 675th in 58 games by an Arkansas pitcher this season, breaking the Razorbacks’ single-season program record of 674 set over 67 games during the 2022 campaign.
Evened up at eight apiece, Arkansas came roaring back. Wehiwa Aloy (2-for-5, 2B, HR, RBI) and Kendall Diggs (2-for-3, 3 R, HR, RBI) connected on back-to-back homers in the bottom of the fifth to put the Hogs back in front, 10-8.
From there, it was all Hogs. SEMO would cut its deficit to one in the seventh, but Arkansas scored four in the bottom half of the frame, including three on McLaughlin’s second three-run homer of the game, to open a 14-9 advantage.
White’s three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth, his second of the afternoon and the Razorbacks’ third three-run blast of the ballgame, extended Arkansas’ lead to 17-9. McLaughlin finished with a team-leading three hits, going 3-for-5 with a double, two home runs and a team-high six RBI, while White went 2-for-5 with his pair of homers and five RBI.
After Molina and McEntire departed the game, Christian Foutch (0.2 IP, 1 SO), Gabe Gaeckle (3.0 IP, 1 R, 6 SO) and Jake Faherty (1.0 IP, 1 SO) worked the final 4.2 innings and combined for eight strikeouts while allowing just one run. Foutch earned his first win of the season, and Gaeckle totaled a career-high six strikeouts over a season-long-tying three frames.
Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
