Those Arkansas fans bringing brooms to Baum brought them back to the broom closet unused.

No SEC sweep for the Razorbacks Sunday at Baum Stadium.

Blowing a bases-loaded, nobody out chance to win it in the ninth, Arkansas lost, 7-6, to Tennessee before a bewildered 6, 948, many of whom had witnessed 5-4 Arkansas triumphs over Tennessee last Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Since these Hogs (22-17, 7-10 SEC West ) have advanced from fifth place to third, just one-half game behind 8-10 Alabama, times are pretty good for them.

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Arkansas now has won 4 of its last 6 SEC games winning 2 of 3 at Florida and 2 of 3 over Tennessee here heading into 6: 30 p. m and 1 p. m. nonconference games Tuesday and Wednesday with Northern Colorado here before the weekend’s 3-game series at SEC West leader Ole Miss, 10-8.

However there’s no spin that can make Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn happy about coming from down to 6-4 to tie it 6-6 in the ninth only to blow it with the bags loaded and none out.

Reliever David Wilitz had given up a single and a walk, and then left handed reliever Jeff Lockwood had issued a walk and brought home the tying runs with a bases loaded hit by pitch and another walk.

Reliever Steve Crnkovich, ultimately the winner, was brought in to face Logan Forsythe. Forsythe swung at the first pitch, looping a bouncer back to Crnkovich though from Razorback runner Chase Leavitt’s secondbase vantage point, it apparently looked like a soft line drive. Crnkovich threw home for the force. Tennessee catcher Blake Forsythe, Logan Forsythe’s brother, was startled to see Leavitt still frozen between second and third. He threw a little wide to third but third baseman Cody Brown corralled it and tagged a sliding Leavitt, forced to run with Ben Tschepikow having run to second while Forsythe took first on the fielder’s choice home. Pinchhitter Aaron Murphree grounded out after the deflating doubleplay. Stephen Richards, Friday’s winner in 2 2-3 innings of relief and deserving to win again with his 2 and 2-3 innings on Sunday, got beat in the 10 th by Cody Brown’s 2-out RBI double after a 1-out single and a two-out walk.

Ryan Cisterna, a tworun home run to win Friday night’s game and two home runs Saturday, gave Arkansas 10 th-inning hope Sunday with a two-out single. Cisterna’s hit sent Sean Jones, hit by a 1-out pitch, to third. However Scott Lyons grounded out as Tennessee, 22-16, 9-8 in the SEC East, averted the sweep. “ Leavitt, ” Van Horn said pausing, “ I don’t know what he was thinking. He couldn’t tell if the pitcher was going to catch the line drive so he started moving back to the base and then he had to run. He just locked up. We had an opportunity to come back and win it. I’m disappointed we didn’t. ” Then again if defeated, Tennessee would have wondered how it lost Sunday outhitting Arkansas, 17-8. Arkansas pitchers stranded 15 Tennessee runners Sunday. “ We played hard all weekend, ” Van Horn said. “ We won another series and we are battling back. ” Van Horn was asked about Logan Forsythe swinging on the first pitch given two walks and two hit batsmen preceding his ninth-inning at bat. “ He was looking first pitch offspeed, ” Van Horn said. “ And that’s what he got, but it was too low, ankle high. He had let so many good pitches go by with runners in scoring position that I liked his approach. He just got out front and hit it off the end of the bat. ” Neither Arkansas starter Cliff Springston nor Tennessee starter Ty’Relle Harris had their best stuff, but both gutted it out into the seventh with both bullpens depleted Sunday. Each team scored one in the first. Tennessee jumped out 3-1 with two in the third on RBI singles by Yon Gomes, 4 for 5, and Josh Liles, 4 for 6. Jeff Nutt singled home an Arkansas run in the third.

Surviving a Nutt baserunning mistake, he appeared picked off at first by the catcher but then surprisingly avoided the trap beating the first baseman’s throw to second, Arkansas took a 4-3 lead in the sixth. Brett Eibner doubled home Nutt and scored on Jacob House’s single. Shortstop Scott Lyons throwing error leading off the Tennessee seventh opened the gates for the Vols to tie it 4-4 before reliever Shaun Seibert left the bases loaded striking out pinchhitter Jeff Lockwood. However in the eighth, No. 9 Tennessee hitter Cody Grisham tagged Seibert for a home run, and reliever Kendall Korbal got charged for a run issuing two singles and a hit batsman before Liles singled off Richards who then got the eighth inning’s last out and stranded two in the ninth.

Richards struck out five straight Friday night then labored on the edge in Friday’s ninth, giving up a run and loading the bases before striking out Gomes and retiring Cody Brown on a gameending fly to right. “ I feel bad for him [Richards ] because he did a good job, ” Van Horn said. “ We won’t pitch him any [against Northern Colorado ] until maybe Wednesday. Just get him ready for the weekend. We’re a little shorthanded in the bullpen. ”