FAYETTEVILLE — At 8:48 p.m. Sunday, Kevin Kopps stepped off the field at Baum-Walker Stadium, likely for the final time in a Razorback uniform.
It had been one hour since Arkansas lost 3-2 to North Carolina State in Game 3 of the NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional.
Kopps took the loss after he gave up a solo home run to Jose Torres in the top of the ninth inning. It was a loss for Kopps in statistics only.
In his first start since 2020, Kopps pitched Arkansas into the ninth inning of a tied game, giving his teammates opportunity after opportunity to take command of the game that determined who would play in the College World Series.
The Razorbacks never took control. They scuffled through a four-hit night that included a 1 for 9 clip with runners on base, and 1 for 4 with runners in scoring position.
NC State didn’t fare much better, but the Wolfpack won with two big swings by Torres and Jonny Butler, and a collective pitching effort that matched Kopps.
Kopps threw 118 pitches, allowed 7 hits, walked 3 and struck out 9. After a shaky start that included 57 pitches over the first three innings, he got stronger and more efficient, and sat down NC State with 57 pitches between the fourth and eighth innings.
It was his second gutsy performance in less than a week. It followed a seven-inning, 90-pitch masterpiece six days earlier to beat Nebraska in the regional championship.
Kopps almost single-handedly willed the Razorbacks back to Omaha. He pitched 23 1/3 innings and threw 324 pitches in 5 appearances over 10 days in the postseason. The three runs allowed Sunday were his only blemishes.
“You don’t really beat a guy like Kevin. You may outlast him, but I’m not going to say anything about beating Kevin Kopps,” said Elliott Avent, the 25th-year coach of NC State. “I’ve been around this game a long time and that’s one of the great pitchers and one of the great performances I’ve ever seen. He is everything as advertised.”
The Razorbacks outscored NC State by a cumulative 17 runs in the super regional, but trailed 2-1 in the win-loss column where it mattered most.
After whipping the Wolfpack 21-2 on Friday, Arkansas’ bats fell silent before the roar of giant crowds.
“Really, you’ve got to give NC State credit. They played great, got some great hits and their pitchers did a great job,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “We had a chance to score but they made it tough on us.”
As NC State players dogpiled on the field, Arkansas players came to the realization their 50-win season had come to an end one win shy of the ultimate college baseball destination. The Razorbacks came together for an emotional final team huddle in the outfield, then one by one they disappeared into the dugout.
Fitting for the way he carried the team, Kopps was the final Razorback off the field.
For more than 40 minutes, fans young and old lined rows deep for a chance to speak with the player who gave them so much joy in 2021. The season was over, but they were eager to savor more moments with him inside the ballpark that would soon fall quiet for the long offseason.
Hundreds must have taken the opportunity to encounter Kopps. The end of the season meant the months-long covid-19 guidelines no longer applied. For nearly four months fans filled the stadium incrementally, but while there were unable to interact with players after games — a deviation from years-long norms.
On Sunday, Kopps put post-game media responsibilities on hold to shake every hand, sign every autograph and smile for every photo after what must have been the hardest loss of his life.
“One of the big things I think about is something Michael Jordan said about playing as hard as he can every single game because it might be someone’s one and only game,” Kopps said. “So maybe that’s someone’s one and only chance to come watch a game, so I feel like I need to give back to the fans because they give so much to us.”
Kopps won’t throw another college pitch in 2021, but he’ll still make headlines for a little while longer. The unclaimed national player of the year awards — including the Dick Howser Trophy and the Golden Spikes Award — are almost certain to include his name in the weeks ahead, and an MLB team is going to call his name in next month’s draft.
His final stat line for 2021: 89 2/3 innings, 9 runs, 131 strikeouts, 18 walks. He won 12 games and had 11 saves.
“He’s a great baseball player and he made himself great,” Van Horn said. “There’s not too many guys I would let pitch as much as I let him. He’s going to be really successful in everything he does and anything he does, honestly. He’s very humble and did everything he could for this team and I think you’re going to see some pretty good rewards coming his way in the next couple of weeks.”
Over time, the pitch that got away will fade from most memory banks, replaced by numerous other thoughts of the greatest individual season ever played by a Razorback.
And for those who watched him more than a half-hour after the cameras stopped rolling Sunday, memories of class in the face of disappointment will stand out most vividly.