Photo courtesy of Wesley Hitt/UA Media Relations
FAYETTEVILLE – Needing only one win to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals, the Razorback baseball team lost a tough game to Washington State Sunday night, 10-7, at Baum Stadium. The Cougars, who played earlier in the day and defeated Kansas State to earn the right to play the Hogs, took advantage of some costly errors by Arkansas and got some timely hitting from their lineup to force the deciding game set for Monday at 7 p.m.
The Razorbacks were trailing by as many as six runs at one point in the game, but clawed their way back with five unanswered runs over innings six through eight to pull within one before Washington State scored three runs of their own in the final two frames.
The Cougars grabbed the early lead in the first inning after a grounder by Cody Bartlett was fielded by the Arkansas starter, Mike Bolsinger, who attempted to get the force at second, but sailed the ball into centerfield allowing the runner to advance to third. The run scored on a sacrifice fly by Matt Fanelli in the next at-bat.
Down 2-0 in the third inning, Arkansas finally got on the board by way of a Bo Bigham single up the middle off WSU starter James Wise, allowing Matt Vinson to score. Bigham finished the night 3-for-5 with 2 RBI.
With nothing doing in the fourth, Washington State turned up the heat in the fifth inning, tagging Bolsinger for five runs to extend their lead to 7-1. After giving up a pair of hits to score the first two runs of the inning, WSU got two bunt singles before a bases-clearing double by Shea Vucinich. He would be the last batter Bolsinger would face in the game, going only four innings with four strikeouts and six earned runs.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Hogs finally started chipping away at the large lead with a 2 RBI double by Monk Kreder, making the score 7-3 after five. Arkansas then got solo home runs by James McCann and Colin Kuhn in the sixth to pull within two. The fifth unanswered run came from another solo shot from the Razorbacks. This time from Kreder.
Down just one run would be as close as Arkansas would get in the ball game as the Cougars were able to post three more runs in the eighth inning after a couple of defensive errors by third baseman Andy Wilkins and shortstop Tim Carver. The Hogs would get one more run in the bottom of the eighth, but it would not be enough to let the team advance to Supers.
With both teams now one game away from advancing in the NCAA Tournament, Monday’s game between these same two teams will definitely be one to watch . Arkansas is the 15th-ranked team in the nation, while Washington State is ranked 23rd. Both teams are also the top two seeds of the Fayetteville Regional. The winner of this final game will face Arizona State next weekend. Arizona State was the winner of the Tempe Regional.
Stay tuned to uatvonline.net for coverage of tomorrow’s game as well as @UATVsports on twitter for updates during the game.