Recap: Hogs blow lead in 9th, lose to Mississippi State in Hoover

Mississippi State 4, Arkansas 3 - FINAL

Mississippi State closer Riley Self worked around a two-out walk in the ninth. Chad Spanberger flied out to center field to end the game.

The Razorbacks will play again at approximately 5 p.m. against Auburn in an elimination game.

Mississippi State 4, Arkansas 3 - Middle 9th Inning

Carson Shaddy initiated a 4-2-3 double play and Kacey Murphy struck out Elijah MacNamee to get the Hogs out of the inning.

Arkansas will bring Jake Arledge, Jack Kenley and Eric Cole to the plate in the bottom of the inning, although you wonder if someone might pinch-hit for Kenley.

Mississippi State 4, Arkansas 3 - Top 9th Inning

Evan Lee walked in the go-ahead run in five pitches to Mississippi State's five-hole hitter Cody Brown. The bases are still loaded with no outs in the ninth. This has been an implosion of a game for Arkansas' bullpen.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 3 - Top 9th Inning

It looks like Mississippi State will take the lead after Jake Mangum reached on a bunt single and Hunter Stovall loaded the bases on a hit-by-pitch. Both batters faced Josh Alberius, who now gives way to Evan Lee with no outs in the inning.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 3 - Top 9th Inning

SEC player of the year Brent Rooker has tied the game on an RBI double with no outs in the ninth. The hit scored Ryan Gridley from first when Grant Koch couldn't come up with a throw at the plate.

Rooker was 0-for-2 this year against Chadwick prior to that at-bat. That was his league-leading 76th RBI.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 2 - Top 9th Inning

Ryan Gridley led off the ninth with a single. Cannon Chadwick will replace Kevin Kopps on the mound for Arkansas. The first batter he'll face is Brent Rooker, who has a single and a walk today.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 2 - End 8th Inning

Carson Shaddy reached on a single, but Jax Biggers hit into an inning-ending double play to send the game to the ninth. The Hogs will have to navigate through the SEC's leading hitters from the past two seasons.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 2 - Middle 8th Inning

Josh Lovelady's fielder's choice RBI pulled the Bulldogs within a run, but the inning ended on a 4-6-3 double play off the broken bat of pinch-hitter Cole Gordon.

The inning ensures the Bulldogs' 1-2-3 hitters will come to the plate in the ninth.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 1 - Top 8th Inning

The Hogs have run into some big trouble in the eighth and Jake Reindl is leaving the game with the bases loaded and no outs. The inning has included two errors, a hit batter and a single to load the bases.

Kevin Kopps comes into the game to try to minimize the damage. He pitched well last week in College Station.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 1 - End 7th Inning

The Razorbacks couldn't do anything with an Eric Cole leadoff double - the Hogs' fourth hit of the game. Chad Spanberger hit a hot shot down the first base line that was caught by Brent Rooker, and Luke Bonfield and Grant Koch followed with a couple of popups.

Jake Reindl comes back out to face the Bulldogs' bottom of the order. It's possible for him to get out of the game without having to face Rooker again.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 1 - Middle 7th Inning

Jake Reindl issued a one-out walk to Brent Rooker, but got a line-out and a strikeout from the Bulldogs' three- and four-hole hitters to get out of the seventh. That was a big sequence for Reindl, who has become the Hogs' top reliever.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 1 - Top 7th Inning

Trevor Stephan's day is finished after he allowed a leadoff base runner for the fourth consecutive inning. He'll be replaced by Jake Reindl.

Tanner Poole reached on a check-swing single to right field to leadoff the seventh. Reindl will face the top of the Mississippi State order, including Brent Rooker who has swung it well so far this week.

It was a good overall performance for Stephan, who is in line for the win if the score holds and cannot be the loser. He struck out five and allowed hits, and worked out of multiple jams.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 1 - Middle 6th Inning

The Bulldogs put a runner at second with no outs for the third consecutive inning, and finally scored on Elijah MacNamee's one-out RBI single against Trevor Stephan. The hit scored Cody Brown, who led off the inning with a double to center field.

Josh Lovelady followed by hitting into a double play to end the inning. Jack Kenley did a nice job of starting the double play from third and Carson Shaddy turned it well.

Stephan is above 80 pitches now and hasn't gone past the seventh inning the past few weeks. It'll be interesting to see how much longer he'll last.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0 - End 5th Inning

Two nice defensive plays behind Mississippi State reliever Peyton Plumlee ended the Arkansas threat. Third baseman Cody Brown was in the right place to catch a line drive from Luke Bonfield for the first out and first baseman Brent Rooker dove to stop a Dominic Fletcher grounder, then outran Fletcher to the bag for the third out.

The Razorbacks have three hits, but none since the second inning. Part of that had to do with McQuarry's inaccuracy over his final few innings.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0 - Bottom 5th Inning

Denver McQuarry's day is finished after he walked Eric Cole and Chad Spanberger to leadoff the bottom of the fifth. Those were his fourth and fifth walks of the game.

He'll be replaced by Peyton Plumlee, who will have to navigate through the heart of the Hogs' order. First up is Luke Bonfield, who had a home run in the first inning.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0 - Middle 5th Inning

Trevor Stephan has pitched out of trouble in two straight innings, with the most impressive coming in the fifth. MSU put two on with no outs again with SEC player of the year Brent Rooker due up.

But Stephan struck out Rooker swinging at a sharp slider and struck out Jake Mangum - last year's batting champion - looking at an inside fastball. After a wild pitch allowed the runners to advance, the inning ended on a groundball back to Stephan.

Through five innings, Stephan has 5 strikeouts and has allowed 5 hits and 2 walks.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0 - End 4th Inning

It looked like the Razorbacks might add another run in the fourth, but Jax Biggers was robbed of a leadoff home run when Mississippi State right fielder Tanner Poole made a leaping catch at the wall. Poole will leadoff the top of the fifth.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0 - Middle 4th Inning

Trevor Stephan showed good composure and a good piece of pitching after running into trouble in the fourth. An infield single and a full-count walk gave MSU two runners with no outs. They advanced when Stephan was called for a balk for double-clutching before throwing what would have been a swinging third strike by Hunter Vansau.

Vansau struck out looking on the next pitch, however, and Elijah MacNamee struck out in the next at-bat. The inning ended when Josh Lovelady grounded out.

Stephan threw 23 pitches in the inning after throwing 28 combined over the first three.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0 - End 3rd Inning

Mississippi State right-hander Denver McQuarry worked his first scoreless inning in the third, but it wasn't without some labor. McQuarry issued two walks and missed several pitches high, outside or both. He already is at 58 pitches, which isn't a good sign for the Bulldogs, whose bullpen is thin and would have to play again this afternoon with a loss.

The inning ended when Carson Shaddy popped up to the second baseman on a 3-2 pitch.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0 - Middle 3rd Inning

Mississippi State hitters are swinging at just about everything Trevor Stephan throws. Stephan needed only five pitches for a 1-2-3 third. Brent Rooker hit a hot shot to the warning track in left field and Jake Mangum flied out to center to end the inning.

Stephan had 32 strikeouts in his three previous outings prior to today, but has only one so far because of MSU's aggressiveness. The tradeoff is that he has thrown only 28 pitches and is getting a lot of easy outs.

Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0 - Bottom 2nd Inning

Jack Kenley entered today's game with no hits in 19 at-bats. His 20th scored a run. Kenley's two-out double to center field scored Jax Biggers from first base. Kenley hit the ball over the head of the Mississippi State center fielder, who was playing shallow. It bounced off the wall and easily scored Biggers, who was running on contact.

Arkansas 2, Mississippi State 0 - Middle 2nd Inning

The Bulldogs recorded a couple of two-out hits against Trevor Stephan in the top of the second inning, but Stephan was able to get out of the on an infield hopper by Tanner Poole.

Mississippi State is swinging pretty aggressively and making contact with Stephan's fastball, but his slider looks real good with a lot of depth early. This is the most a team has made contact with Stephan since the early innings against Ole Miss last month.

Arkansas 2, Mississippi State 0 - End 1st Inning

Luke Bonfield's first at-bat of the SEC Tournament was a beauty. His two-run home run to left field has given the Razorbacks an early lead. Chad Spanberger, who drew a one-out walk, also scored.

That is the 15th home run hit so far this week at the tournament. Hoover Metropolitan Stadium typically plays as a big park, but northern and western winds have helped carry the ball a little more than in most years. The temperature this morning in Hoover is 58 degrees, whereas it is typically hot and humid this time of year.

Arkansas 0, Mississippi State 0 - Middle 1st Inning

Trevor Stephan has looked good for much of his past four outings and had an efficient first inning today, needing only eight pitches. Brent Rooker, the SEC player of the year, had a one-out single but Stephan worked around it to strand Rooker at first base. Rooker went 3-for-5 with 2 RBI, including his league-leading 21st home run in yesterday's win over Georgia.