STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Arkansas' losing streak continued Friday night, which meant the streak of NCAA Tournament appearances for the Razorbacks and Coach Dave Van Horn is over.
Mississippi State beat Arkansas 5-1 at Dudy Noble Field to extend the Razorbacks' losing streak to a school-record tying 12 games and mathematically eliminate them from playing in the SEC Tournament.
Arkansas (26-28, 7-22) needed to win its final two games against the No. 4 Bulldogs to qualify for the SEC Tournament after Tennessee rallied to beat Georgia 5-4 Friday afternoon.
The Razorbacks had to win the SEC Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament for the 15th consecutive year.
Van Horn had a streak of 17 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances as a coach, including his final four seasons at Nebraska and his first 13 seasons at Arkansas.
Arkansas ends the season against the Bulldogs (39-14-1, 20-9) at 5 p.m. today, and when the game is over Van Horn will finish with a losing record for the first time in 28 seasons as a coach. His previous worst record was 24-20 at Nebraska in 1999.
The Razorbacks matched their 12-game losing streak in 1965, the longest in baseball records dating back to the 1960 season.
Arkansas last won April 30, when the Razorbacks beat Texas A&M 9-5 in the opener of a doubleheader at Baum Stadium.
"It is what it is," Van Horn said. "We've lost 12, I don't know how many games we've lost in a row now. We've lost them in many different ways."
The Razorbacks lost their 12th consecutive game much like their 11th. They played sloppy defense and couldn't hit.
"We're playing really good teams and we're not a real good team right now," Van Horn said.
The Bulldogs won their 10th consecutive game and clinched their ninth SEC series victory of the season.
Arkansas ended a 16-inning scoreless streak with a run in the second. Clark Eagan singled, advanced to third on a throwing error by Mississippi State starting pitcher Austin Sexton and scored on a Rick Nomura's groundout.
Sexton (7-2) didn't make many mistakes during the rest of his outing. The junior pitched 7 innings and struck out 7, 6 swinging. He left the game with a 3-1 lead.
"The swings and misses were on his breaking pitch," Van Horn said. "There were a couple of our hitters, there were three or four, they weren't seeing the ball at all. He pitches backwards. He pitches off his breaking ball."
The Razorbacks' lead lasted only an inning. Mississippi State loaded the bases in the third inning and scored three runs against starter Isaiah Campbell (3-1) while only recording one hit. A walk, hit batsman and a throwing error fueled Mississippi State's rally to take a 3-1 lead.
Arkansas gave the Bulldogs two more runs in the eighth. Nomura rushed a throw to second base with two outs and the bases loaded. The ball rolled to third and allowed another run to score. Arkansas has committed seven errors in the first two games against the Bulldogs, leading to seven unearned runs.
"It's let us down because it's cost us runs," Van Horn said.
The deficit was too much to overcome for an offense that hasn't scored more than four runs in any of the last five games.
Arkansas failed to advance a runner to third base after it scored in the second inning. Just two runners reached second base in the final seven innings.
"We pitched well enough tonight to win," Van Horn said. "Now we need to hit."
Campbell, a freshman making his first SEC start, allowed 3 runs, 1 earned, on 3 hits in 3 innings. Only two of the Bulldogs' five runs were earned.
The Razorbacks didn't have an extra-base hit and struck out 10 times for the second consecutive game.
Freshman right-hander Blaine Knight (2-1, 3.05 ERA) will start for the Razorbacks today. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
"We're going to come out and try to win," Van Horn said. "We're going to try to win tomorrow and get ready for next year."
Sports on 05/21/2016