SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The bad times continued for the University of Arkansas baseball team Tuesday night.
Missouri State beat the No. 6 Razorbacks 8-4 at Hammons Field to hand Arkansas its fourth consecutive loss.
The Razorbacks (30-11) were swept in a three-game series at Georgia last weekend.
It’s the most consecutive losses for Arkansas this season. Before last weekend, the Razorbacks’ longest losing streak was two games when they were swept in a doubleheader at No. 1 LSU.
“Well, you can use whatever lingo you want,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said of his team’s recent struggles after being hit hard by injuries. “You can say we're just trying to survive, we're just trying to get through the next couple of weeks until we get everybody back. We have to win some games.”
Arkansas resumes SEC play against Texas A&M on Thursday night in Fayetteville.
“We'll get after it on Thursday, and it's going to be a great series with A&M,” Van Horn said. “They're hot. They've won their last four series, I think.
“This game can flip on a dime. You get it going, guys get hot, or you drop another guy to injury, and you're going 'Wow, this is pretty tough.'
“We're not hanging our head or not thinking we're any good. We know we can play. We're just playing with guys that haven't been a part of the combination that got us to 30 wins coming into tonight.”
More from WholeHogSports: SEC baseball teams getting challenged in the midweek
One bright spot for Arkansas on Tuesday night was freshman pitcher Ben Bybee, who had two scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth after giving up a grand slam and solo home run in the ninth at Georgia last Saturday when the Bulldogs rallied to beat the Razorbacks 9-8.
“Ben threw really good [at Missouri State],” Van Horn said. “I was happy for him. Proud of him.
“We wanted to get him on the mound. Whenever something like that happens, we need to get him through that and over it and moving onto the future.”
Bybee didn’t allow a hit against Missouri State and had 2 strikeouts with 1 walk on 28 pitches, including 16 strikes.
“It was good to get it back out there and kind of get that confidence back and just help the team out,” Bybee said. “Obviously [the Georgia loss], it’s tough. Not fun to go through, but it’s a tough game and you’ve got to get over days like that and flush it, as hard as it might be, and focus on the next task at hand.”
Missouri State (23-16) scored six runs in the third inning against relief pitchers Zack Morris and Austin Ledbetter to take a 7-2 lead.
Morris, who replaced starter Cody Adcock, struck out the first batter he faced, Nick Rodriguez, but the next three Bears reached base.
Spencer Nevins walked, Mason Hull singled and Zach Stewart followed with an RBI single to tie the score 2-2.
Morris struck out Cody Kelly, but Taeg Gollert hit a two-run double on a 0-2 pitch and scored on Cam Cratic’s single.
Ledbetter came in for Morris and gave up a two-run home run to Anthony Socci on a 1-2 count to make it 7-2.
“The issue with that inning was all of those big hits were with two strikes,” Van Horn said. “Those are mistakes that you can’t make, especially when you’re facing a team that can hit.
“We competed at the plate, but we got down big early and it was a battle.”
The Bears made it 8-2 with a run in the fourth inning when Rodriguez tagged up from third base and scored on a shallow fly ball in center field by Kelly that second baseman Peyton Holt caught over his shoulder.
“I thought we got some clutch hitting, particularly early,” Missouri State Coach Keith Guttin said. “[The second inning] we got some two-strike hits, and that was the part of the order for us that typically does damage.”
Arkansas played without second baseman Peyton Stovall (arm soreness), center fielder Tavian Josenberger (hamstring strain) and left fielder Jared Wegner (broken thumb).
Van Horn said Stovall will be ready to play on Thursday night, but that Josenberger is out for the weekend. Wenger likely won’t return to the lineup for another two to three weeks.
“He’s had an ultrasound and we had an MRI just to double-check it,” Van Horn said of Josenberger’s injury. “Now it’s just a matter of healing up.
“I don’t know a timeline on that. Don’t want to hurt it again. If he hurts it again, his season’s probably over. So we’re going to have to just really let him talk to us and we told him to be really honest and we’ll figure it out. We’ll slow-play it if we have to."
Van Horn also said relief pitcher Dylan Carter, who wasn’t available for the finale at Georgia because of arm soreness, will be ready for the Texas A&M series.
Catcher Parker Rowland, who didn’t play in the Georgia series because of a back injury, played the seventh, eighth and ninth innings against Missouri State after Hudson Polk came out for a pinch-hitter.
“Rowland could have started, but I didn’t want him to catch the whole game,” Van Horn said. “He should be good to go Thursday. Two or three innings was about what I had planned.”
Brady Slavens, normally the Razorbacks’ starting first baseman, played in left field for the first time since 2019 when he was at Wichita State.
“He knew a couple days ago this was going to happen,” Van Horn said of Slavens playing in left field. “Yeah, just trying to figure out how to get some bats in the lineup with all the bats that are hurt.”
Missouri State relievers Trey Ziegenbein, Scott Youngbrandt and Reed Metz held the Razorbacks to 2 runs and 2 hits over the final 6 innings.
“Getting that big cushion certainly helped,” Guttin said. “But unless you shut them down in the middle innings, you’re in trouble.”
Arkansas scored two runs in the second inning off Missouri State starter Tyler Tscherter to take a 2-1 lead.
Ben McLaughlin, playing first base, hit a lead-off double and scored on Slavens’ RBI single.
Jayson Jones walked to send Slavens to second base. Slavens then scored on a throwing error by Hull — the second baseman — on Polk’s ground ball.
Rodriguez, batting leadoff, hit a home run against Adcock to put the Bears ahead 1-0 in the first inning.
Adcock went 2 innings and allowed 2 hits, 1 run and 2 walks with 2 strikeouts.
“We’re fine,” Slavens said. “Just need to focus on Thursday coming up against A&M and just play hard and keep it rolling.”
Arkansas leads the all-time series against Missouri State 55-28, but the Bears have won back-to-back games, including a 6-4 victory in Fayetteville last season.
“I think our fans may think Arkansas is our rival, but their fans don’t, and they shouldn't because their rivals are in the SEC West,” Guttin said when asked about the significance of beating the Razorbacks. “But people are going to get excited when you are able to beat a program of that stature.”