FAYETTEVILLE — It was a bounce back season for the Arkansas baseball team. But after winning a six-hour elimination game that ended just 15 hours earlier, the Razorbacks had no bounce left in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional championship game.
Maybe Missouri State didn't have much in the tank, either. But despite generating just four hits and striking out 16 times against Arkansas pitching, the Bears advanced to the Super Regional with a 3-2 victory Monday night at Baum Stadium.
The Razorbacks finished with an impressive 45-19 record after ending the 2016 season on 13 straight losses and no bid to postseason for the first time in Dave Van Horn's first 14 seasons as head coach.
Arkansas managed just five hits, scoring one run on back-to-back wild pitches and making it a one-run game on a Jared Gates solo homer to set the final score in the seventh inning. That was the final hit by either team on a night that defied logic, that it would be a slug fest.
“I just think both teams were a little tired,” said Van Horn, trying to explain the combined nine hits on the night.
They combined for 27 hits in the marathon just a few hours earlier that Arkansas won 11-10, finishing at 3:10 a.m.
“Mentally, you can be in it, but when you finish at 3:15, it just messes you up,” Van Horn said. “I went to sleep with the sun coming up. I felt a little different and I didn't play the game.”
The Hogs tried to fight through the fatigue, showing up at their club house early. Eric Cole, who had three hits in the lead-off spot, said the entire team was at the ball park at 2:15 p.m., well ahead of the assigned time of 3 o'clock.
“We like being around each other,” Cole said. “Everyone was early.”
Gates, who had the only other two hits for the Hogs, said it was about proving the forecasts wrong all season.
“We were picked last in the West,” Gates said. “We had a lot to prove.”
Van Horn said the players took last year's 26-29 finish “personal.” They worked hard throughout the summer and the fall, although he wasn't sure if the Hogs had enough personnel, especially pitching.
“We felt good about our offense in the fall,” Van Horn said. “But I was really concerned about the pitching.”
Those concerns deepened to start the spring semester when top arms Isaiah Campbell, Keaton McKinney and Cody Scroggins all had surgery. Campbell and Scroggins saw limited action, McKinney didn't pitch in one game.
“Pre-season (rankings) are what they are,” Van Horn said. “You never know and our league can take you down.
“But I thought we were a couple of arms short, one as a starter and one in the bullpen.”
Despite not really having a third conference starter, the Hogs battled to an 18-11 SEC record, second in the SEC West. They lost their opening game in the SEC tournament, then walloped Mississippi State, Auburn and Florida by big numbers before losing to LSU, 4-2, in the title game.
“We got to May 1 and we started playing pretty good,” Van Horn said. “We put it on two pretty good teams, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M, that are going to the Super Regionals. We played pretty well in the (SEC) tournament and I thought we might be pretty good.”
They did earn the No. 1 seed in their regional, but the assignment was tough. Van Horn thought Missouri State and Oral Roberts, seeded second and fourth, could have also been seeded first. Missouri State went 18-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference, ORU 25-4 in the Summit Conference.
Almost all of the games in the regional were decided by one run. The Bears, 0-6 in one-run games on the season, went 3-1 in one-run games at Baum Stadium, two of them against the Hogs.
“We won two one-run games and that's pretty good,” Van Horn said. “We beat ORU, 3-0, then beat them 4-3, then beat Missouri State 11-10.”
Van Horn said everyone was “teary eyed” at the team meeting in the outfield after the loss to Missouri State to end the regional.
“I really like the makeup of the team,” he said. “I thought our coaches did an incredible job. Tony Vitello did a great job with the hitters, getting help from Josh Elander. Wes Johnson came in and did a great job with the pitchers. I'm proud of them, proud of the team.
“Like I said, we played four one-run games in a row and won three of them. I'd take that.”
That the Hogs couldn't get any offense going Monday night was perhaps a surprise. The batters in the two through six spot in the order didn't get a hit in 19 at bats. Chad Spanberger, red hot for the last month, went 0 for 3, reaching when Doug Still hit him in the back.
The Hogs stranded five runners, the first big chance coming in the third. Jake Arledge walked, Cole singled before Spanberger grounded out to the second baseman, positioned 30 feet into right field.
After Gates doubled and came around on two wild pitches, Cole tapped out to the pitcher with two runners in scoring position in the seventh.
The Bears controlled the UA's big bats for the most part. Grant Koch hammered a Doug Still pitch in the alley in the third inning, but MSU centerfielder Hunter Steinmetz caught it crashing into the wall.
“They had us scouted and knew how to attack our hitters,” Cole said.
Gates confirmed that, adding, “They knew our approach. They didn't miss with any pitches. We couldn't get the big hit.”
All of that is true. Van Horn wanted to give the Bears a lot of credit. He also made sure to tell MSU coach Keith Guttin good luck in the Super Regional. The two good friends talked at length near home plate after the game.
“That was the gist of it, good luck,” Van Horn said.
Then, he moved on to thoughts of next year. He has hopes for good luck in the draft, although he knows aces Trevor Stephan and Blaine Knight are both likely to sign.
Vitello and Johnson have signed a great class, but it may be several weeks before the fall-out from the draft is known. Either way, I'm guessing no one under rates the Hogs so badly next season. I'd predict something closer to 2017 than 2016.
I still remember what Vitello said in January when the last-place forecasts began to surface, with no national ranking.
“No one really knows what we've got,” he said. “They don't even know our names. One national guy called me and was talking about our pitcher, Elijah Campbell. He didn't even know Isaiah's name.”
That's where I'd start with this team. Campbell is well on his way with his rehab after surgery for bone chips. I bet everyone gets his name right spring.