STILLWATER, Okla. — Arkansas ended the highest-scoring regional in the history of the NCAA baseball tournament with a gutsy pitching performance.
The Razorbacks defeated Oklahoma State 7-3 on Monday to win the Stillwater Regional. Arkansas won its 14th regional in program history and fourth in a row dating to 2018.
It is the 10th time the Razorbacks have advanced to play in the super regional round, which began in 1999.
Arkansas (41-19) will play a best-of-three-game series at North Carolina beginning Saturday at the 4,100-seat Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C.
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The Razorbacks held off a wave of OSU charges in the late innings Monday. The Cowboys had three consecutive hits against relief pitcher Kole Ramage to start the bottom of the seventh inning, including an RBI ground-rule double by Roc Riggio.
But Zebulon Vermillion limited OSU’s damage to two runs and preserved a 5-3 Arkansas lead when Griffin Doersching flied out to end the inning.
The Cowboys stranded the bases loaded without scoring a run in the eighth inning. Hagen Smith, who started Saturday’s game for the Razorbacks, struck out Chase Adkison and Riggio in consecutive at-bats to end the inning.
Arkansas responded with two runs on Michael Turner’s two-out double in the top of the ninth. It scored Braydon Webb, who doubled with one out, and Cayden Wallace, who walked with two outs.
Smith struck out the Cowboys’ No. 3 and 4 hitters, Jake Thompson and Griffin Doersching, to complete his two-inning save. It was the first save of his career.
The Razorbacks closed the regional the way they began, with a solid performance on the mound. After a 7-1 victory over Grand Canyon on Friday, Arkansas played in a pair of slugfests against Oklahoma State, the No. 7 overall seed in this year’s tournament.
All four Arkansas pitchers — Zack Morris, Ramage, Vermillion and Smith — had pitched earlier in the regional. They held OSU to nine hits and were backed up by elite defensive play. The Cowboys stranded 10 base runners.
Playing on the heels of a doubleheader that lasted nearly 10 hours, the Cowboys (42-22) lacked the firepower Monday they had exhibited throughout the regional.
OSU scored 65 runs over its first four games, including 26 in two games against the Razorbacks. Arkansas won 20-12 on Saturday and the Cowboys won 14-10 in 10 innings Sunday.
Two great defensive plays by the Razorbacks warded off OSU threats early Monday. With the bases loaded, the third baseman Wallace made a barehanded pick and off-balanced throw out Adkison to end the second inning, and second baseman Robert Moore stopped a ball on the grass in right field and spun to throw out David Mendham to strand a pair of runners in the third.
Those plays aided to a 3 1/3-inning scoreless start by Morris, who threw 62 pitches two days following a 49-pitch relief outing against the Cowboys. Morris allowed 4 hits, walked 3 and struck out 3 in his first career start.
Arkansas broke a scoreless tie with a four-run fourth inning. Brady Slavens led off with an opposite-field home run to left center to give the Razorbacks a 1-0 lead.
Turner walked and Chris Lanzilli was hit by a pitch in consecutive one-out at-bats. They scored on a two-run single to left field by Jalen Battles, and after he took second base on a throw to the plate, Battles scored on the first of two RBI singles by Peyton Stovall to extend Arkansas’ lead to 4-0.
Stovall’s two-out single up the middle in the sixth inning scored Battles to give the Razorbacks a 5-0 lead.
OSU scored its first run when Mendham led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a home run to cut Arkansas’ lead to 5-1. It was the 41st and final home run of the regional, which broke the NCAA postseason record of 32 home runs previously set in Knoxville, Tenn., last season.
There were 148 runs scored in the Stillwater Regional, which broke the NCAA postseason record of 141 set in Austin, Texas, in 2005. The Razorbacks also played in that regional.
North Carolina (42-20) won three games in two days and battled back from the loser’s bracket to win their home regional with a 7-3 victory over Virginia Commonwealth on Monday. The Tar Heels are the No. 10 overall seed in this year’s tournament.
Arkansas and North Carolina have played once previously, a 7-3 victory by the Razorbacks at the 1989 College World Series.