NCAA FAYETTEVILLE REGIONAL FINAL ARKANSAS 4, DALLAS BAPTIST 3

What a relief: Reindl’s stuff, Kjerstad’s heroics advance Hogs

Arkansas first baseman Jared Gates (3) celebrates after scoring a run during an NCAA Tournament game against Dallas Baptist on Sunday, June 3, 2018, in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Jake Reindl delivered a winning performance in long relief, and SEC Freshman of the Year Heston Kjerstad made key plays with his glove and bat to lead the No. 6 Arkansas Razorbacks to a 4-3 victory over Dallas Baptist in the title game of the NCAA Fayetteville Regional.

Reindl (3-1) cooled off the hot-hitting Patriots (42-21) on Sunday night with seven strong innings before a crowd of 9,715 at Baum Stadium.

The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (42-18) advances to host an NCAA super regional next weekend against the winner of the Greenville (N.C.) Regional.

The Razorbacks swept three games against Oral Roberts, Southern Miss and Dallas Baptist over the weekend, but the title game was the only one with significant drama after the Patriots jumped out to a 2-0 lead after two innings.

Kjerstad made the catch of the regional in the top of the sixth when he got his glove over the wall in left field to rob Devlin Granberg of a home run. Kjerstad also provided a key insurance run in the seventh inning with an RBI single.

"Obviously, he's responsible for saving a run and he drove in a big run that gave us a two-run lead that we ended up needing," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said.

Reindl (3-1) threw 97 pitches in 7 innings, allowing 5 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 4 without having his best command.

Matt Cronin threw the last two innings to notch his 12th save, but the Patriots provided tense moments in the ninth inning. Granberg, the regional MVP after hitting .667 in four games, led off with a double and moved to third on a controversial safe call at first on a Jameson Hannah ground ball to shortstop.

Cronin kept his composure and got a sacrifice fly, a strikeout and a fly ball to polish off the victory.

Kjerstad's catch, which came one inning after a routine fly ball clipped his glove then hit his left cheek, was one for the highlight reels.

"I pretty much couldn't believe it when I rounded first base there," said Granberg, who went 2 for 4.

"Yeah, I thought it was a home run," Dallas Baptist Coach Dan Heefner said. "I thought he got enough of it. Kjerstad timed it perfectly and robbed him of a home run."

Said Kjerstad: "I had a good read on the ball, and then I felt my first two steps on the warning track and leaped on the last one and pulled down the ball. Just helping out Jake Reindl."

Reindl tipped his cap for the play, which prevented Dallas Baptist from tying the game 3-3.

"Off the bat I was like, 'Yeah, that's probably gone, yikes,' " Reindl said. "Then I saw him come down with the ball, and I was obviously real excited."

Dallas Baptist had two runners on base in each of the first four innings but could not deliver a big hit to break the game open.

The Patriots went 4 of 17 (.235) with runners on base and 3 of 12 (.250) with runners in scoring position.

"We were right in the game," Heefner said. "We had a lot of guys on base. I thought we had good at-bats the whole game, we just didn't get the big hit when we had guys on base early in the game."

Arkansas starter Isaiah Campbell was shaky from the outset. The 6-4 right-hander walked Granberg on a 3-2 count to open the game, then Hannah drew another full-count walk. After a visit from pitching coach Wes Johnson, Jimmy Glowenke stroked an opposite-field single to right to load the bases and finish Campbell's night.

Reindl induced a tapper to first baseman Jared Gates from Garrett Wolforth that brought Granberg home, but Reindl struck out Tim Millard and induce an infield pop-up from Matt Duce to limit the Patriots to a run.

"Just a great job by Jake Reindl coming in and what we call damage control," Van Horn said. "Bases loaded, no outs, only gave up one run. It could have easily been three or four."

The first two Patriots reached in the second on Kody Funderburk's single and Luke Bandy's hit by pitch. Granberg's RBI groundout made it 2-0.

Arkansas manufactured its first run against the left-hander Funderburk (1-3) in the third, which opened on Gates' fourth hit of the regional. He moved to second on a grounder and took third on a delayed steal. Eric Cole's ground ball to third brought Gates home.

The Razorbacks chased Funderburk in the fourth and took the lead with a two-run rally sparked by aggressive base running.

Luke Bonfield started it with a one-out single. Third-base coach Nate Thompson waved Bonfield to third on Dominic Fletcher's single to right, and although the right-fielder Bandy's throw beat Bonfield to the bag, the third baseman Millard tagged him high and Bonfield slid in safely. Fletcher took second base on the throw.

Carson Shaddy grounded out to shortstop to bring in Bonfield, then Grant Koch made it 3-2 with an opposite-field single to right.

Dallas Baptist reliever MacGregor Hines kept the Hogs off the board for two innings before they broke through on the right-hander in the seventh.

Gates opened the inning with a single to right, and Cole's single pushed him to second. With two outs, Kjerstad ripped a ball back up the middle to score Gates and double the Razorbacks' lead to 4-2.

South Carolina and North Carolina-Wilmington will play in the Greenville (N.C.) Regional finals today with the Gamecocks needing only one victory to advance to Baum Stadium, where they lost two of three games earlier this season.

Sports on 06/04/2018

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