SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Here’s a number worth sitting with for a moment.
Fifteen. As in 15 runs allowed by the Arkansas Razorbacks pitching staff Tuesday night at Hammonds Park. As in the fourth straight game the Hogs haven’t been able to get enough outs when it matters most.
No. 17 Arkansas dropped a gut-punch 15-14 extra-inning decision to Missouri State Tuesday night, falling to 19-11 overall and 4-5 in SEC play.
It was the kind of game that leaves a team shaking its head on a quiet bus ride home. Especially when it’s one the Razorbacks had every chance to win and couldn’t quite close out.
The offense wasn’t the problem. It has been a couple of times during during this four-game skid. Most of the time, thought, it’s come down to the pitching staff not getting outs.
The Hogs put up 14 runs and knocked eight home runs as a team on the night. Nolan Souza and Christian Turner each had three hits. Camden Kozeal and Zack Stewart each had two. Ryder Helfrick launched his team-leading ninth home run of the season. That’s a lot of production.
But the pitching staff cycled through multiple arms and kept giving Missouri State just enough oxygen to stay alive — and eventually win it in the 10th.
Second inning set tone
Starter Steele Eaves didn’t make it out of the second inning. The Bears sent 10 batters to the plate in that frame and plated six runs.
Brant Kragel homered to left field and Bryce Cermenelli singled through the middle for two more. Then James DeCremer came on in relief and balked home a run by not coming set — a correctable, inexcusable mistake that made a bad inning worse.
By the time Jackson Kircher finally got the third out, Missouri State led 6-1 and the Razorbacks were already in a hole they’d spend the rest of the night trying to dig out of.
To their credit, the Hogs kept fighting.
Helfrick’s ninth home run pulled Arkansas within 6-2 in the third. Souza followed with a three-run shot to right-center that made it 6-5.
The Razorbacks then scored twice in the fourth to grab a 7-6 lead before Missouri State bounced right back and retook the lead at 9-7 heading into the fifth.
Turner’s three-run homer to left in the fifth pushed Arkansas ahead again at 10-9. It was the kind of swing that should’ve been a turning point.
Instead it just set up the next pitching problem.
Sixth inning unravels things again
With the Razorbacks holding a 10-9 lead, Missouri State got three unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth to go back up 12-10.
A dropped fly ball in left field by Carter Rutenbar opened the door and Logan Fyffe walked through it with a two-run homer.
Three unearned runs. Preventable damage. The kind of thing that compounds when a pitching staff’s already stretched thin.
That’s when Kozeal stepped into the biggest moment of the game. With the bases loaded in the seventh inning, he crushed a grand slam to center field — his eighth home run of the season — to give the Hogs a 14-12 lead.
Cooper Dossett then came on and was close to perfect through the seventh and eighth innings. It genuinely looked like Arkansas had found a way.
Then the ninth arrived.
Dossett issued a leadoff walk to Fyffe. Two batters later, Bears second baseman Gabe Roessler crushed a two-run homer to left field to tie the game at 14.
Freshman Peyton Lee came on and got the final two outs of the ninth, but the lead was gone.
One pitch ends it in the 10th
The Razorbacks went in order for the third straight inning in the top of the 10th against Missouri State reliever Curry Sutherland.
Then Bears center fielder Caden Bogenpohl stepped in against Lee to lead off the bottom half.
On the very first pitch he saw, Bogenpohl drove it to left-center for a walk-off solo homer and a 15-14 Missouri State win.
One pitch. Game over.
It’s now back-to-back losses to Missouri State dating to last season, and four straight defeats overall for the Hogs.
The Arkansas pitching staff used multiple relievers across 10 innings and still couldn’t protect a two-run lead entering the ninth.
Auburn Is Next and It Won’t Be Easy
The Razorbacks don’t get a soft landing after this one. Arkansas travels to Auburn for a nationally televised series opener Thursday at 6 p.m. on ESPN2 at Samford Stadium-Hitchcock Field.
Junior right-hander Gabe Gaeckle (3-2, 3.58 ERA) gets the ball for the Hogs. He’ll face Auburn sophomore left-hander Jake Marciano (3-1, 1.30 ERA). He’s one of the sharper pitchers in the SEC this season.
The Razorbacks need their pitching staff to find some answers — and fast. Fourteen runs of offensive support should win a baseball game.
Four games in a row now, it hasn’t been enough for Arkansas.
