FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas baseball team needed to build an eight-run lead twice against Southeast Missouri State on Friday.
Once wasn’t enough.
The Razorbacks beat the Redhawks 17-9 at the NCAA Fayetteville Regional before an announced crowd of 11,062 at Baum-Walker Stadium after blowing an 8-0 lead.
“There were a lot of clutch swings by both teams, and very rarely you get out to an eight-run lead and you see it disappear,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “A lot of times that isn’t good for your team.
“Maybe you get a little demoralized or whatever, but our team hung in there.”
The Razorbacks (44-14) play at 8 p.m. on Saturday against the winner of Friday night’s Louisiana Tech-Kansas State game and Southeast Missouri State (34-26) plays the loser at 2 p.m. in an elimination game.
“I guess I want to talk to whoever said Arkansas couldn’t hit,” Southeast Missouri State Coach Andy Sawyers said in reference to the Razorbacks’ .243 team batting average in SEC games and .268 overall. “That was the narrative kind of coming into it, was one of the best pitching staffs in the country, but had struggled offensively.”
The Razorbacks hit six home runs, including two each by first baseman Ben McLaughlin and catcher Hudson White and one each by shortstop Wehiwa Aloy and right fielder Kendall Diggs.
“I’m just proud of the way we competed at the plate,” said White, who was 2 for 5 with 5 RBI. “We’ve been working hard all season. I felt like we were due for a game like that.”
McLaughlin, who was 3 for 5 with 6 RBI, said the Razorbacks talked as a group after the Redhawks erased Arkansas’ lead.
“Next man-up mentality,” McLaughlin said. “Trusting the guy behind you, and in front of you, to get the job done.”
“It might not always work out, but just knowing the guys always have your back is huge for us.”
White hit a home run in the first inning off Redhawks starter Haden Dow, then Arkansas scored seven runs in the second inning, including a three-run home run by McLauglin off Collin Wilma.
The 8-0 lead at home, where Arkansas is 34-3 this season, looked huge.
But Southeast Missouri State fought back, starting with shortstop Ben Palmer’s three-run home run in the third inning against Arkansas starter Mason Molina.
The Redhawks got another three-run home run in the fifth inning — by right fielder Josh Cameron against Will McEntire — to tie the game 8-8 and shock the crowd.
“It got real quiet in there,” Sawyers said.
Southeast Missouri State earned an automatic NCAA Tournament bid by winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. Arkansas won the SEC West and is the No. 5 overall national seed and top seed in its regional.
“It’s easy to come into one of these things and you’re the 4 seed and you’re doing the hunting,” Palmer said. “You’re not getting hunted.
“They’re the 1 seed. Everybody thinks that they should have slapped us. But we went in there and had a good mentality. We got our swing off and we put balls in play. I think we’re a really gritty squad. We wanted to go out there and show everybody what we can do.”
Arkansas regained the lead 10-8 in the fifth inning when Aloy and Diggs hit back-to-back two-out home runs off Wilma and Logan Katen.
“It fired up the dugout a lot,” Van Horn said. “Just to even score one after they had just punched in four to tie it up there in the fifth, and then we end up getting another home run. You’re feeling pretty good. Then they came back.”
The Redhawks cut its deficit to 10-9 in the seventh on back-to-back doubles by Chance Resetich and Bryce Cannon against Gabe Gaeckle, the freshman closer who entered in the sixth.
Gaeckle walked Brooks Kettering with two outs, bringing up Palmer, who has 18 home runs, as the go-ahead run. Gaeckle retired Palmer on foul pop-up to keep Arkansas ahead.
“I thought we were going to win in the middle of the game,” said Sawyers, who played for Van Horn at Nebraska. “I did. When we made it 8-8, I legitimately thought we were going to win the game, like, without a doubt.”
But Van Horn said he was also confident.
“I was thinking the same thing, we were going to win,” Van Horn said.
Van Horn said he told the players they needed to stay positive.
“I walked up and down the dugout and I said, ‘When the guys get off the field, you guys have got to tell them they’re fine,”https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2024/jun/01/home-run-revival/” Van Horn said. “https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2024/jun/01/home-run-revival/”We still have innings to play and it’s 0-0, 1-1, whatever you want to say. It’s tied. We’ve got a lot of game left.’
“I thought the dugout did a good job and we were all talking our language in there.”
The Razorbacks finally put the game out of reach with three-run home runs by McLaughlin and White in the seventh and eighth innings.
Gaeckle allowed 1 run, 3 hits and 3 walks in 3 innings with 6 strikeouts before Jake Faherty finished up with a scoreless ninth inning.
It was the Razorbacks’ highest-scoring NCAA Tournament game since a 20-12 win over Oklahoma State at the Stillwater (Okla.) Regional in 2022.
Arkansas’ 16 hits were its second-highest total this season after having 20 in a 21-1 victory over Grambling State.
Southeast Missouri State had 9 hits and drew 10 walks, including 5 by Kettering. It matched the most walks allowed by the Razorbacks, who also issued 10 in an 8-5 loss to Mississippi State on May 11.
“I certainly thought we competed well and were pretty good offensively,” Sawyers said. “But just didn’t do enough to keep them off the board.”