Missouri State rode Jeremy Eierman‘s tie-breaking two-run homer and a shutdown pitching performance from three hurlers to a 3-2 victory over Arkansas to clinch the Fayetteville Regional crown and the program’s second NCAA Super Regional berth in three seasons Monday evening at Baum Stadium.
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With the victory, the Bears (43-18) move on to play TCU (45-16), the No. 6 national seed in the 2017 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, in a best-of-three Super Regional matchup next weekend in Fort Worth, Texas. Game times and ticket information will be announced following the conclusion of NCAA Regional play.
Eierman’s third home run of the Regional with one out in the top of the seventh cleared the Bears’ bullpen in right field, handing MSU a 3-1 lead that it would not relinquish. Pitching on two days rest, MSU starter Doug Still (8-2) limited the top-seeded Razorbacks to one run on four hits over 5.0-plus innings, before Bryan Young and Jordan Knutson combined to slam the door on the Arkansas offense with four innings of one-hit relief.
Young pitched out of a sixth-inning jam, striking out two Razorbacks and inducing an inning-ending pop-up to first after UA put the potential tying run in scoring position with nobody out. The senior All-American fanned four hitters and allowed just one hit, before handing the ball off to Knutson for his fourth straight Regional appearance out of the MSU bullpen. The senior-lefthander responded with 2 1/3 no-hit innings, retiring all seven Razorbacks he faced to close out the Bears’ third NCAA Division I Regional championship.
Squaring off in the Regional’s deciding game just 15 hours after the conclusion of a marathon 11-10 affair that concluded early Monday morning, the Bears and Razorbacks (45-19) rode the performances of a pair of starting pitchers working on short rest early in the game. Still and UA’s Kacey Murphy combined to post three scoreless innings to open the contest, before Jake Burger‘s hustling double into the gap in left-center set up the Bears’ first scoring chance of the night. An Eierman fly ball to right moved the runner to third, before a walk to Matt Brown and an Alex Jefferson sac fly to left handed MSU a 1-0 lead.
Still, who worked 5.1 innings of the Bears’ Regional opener against Oklahoma State Friday, came out of the bullpen on a roll, working around a leadoff single by Eric Cole in the first to retire the next seven Razorbacks in order. He would face his first true threat in the third after walking Jake Alredge with two out, then giving up the second of Cole’s three singles. The junior left-hander squashed the rally by inducing an inning-ending bouncer into the shift on the right side of the MSU infield to keep the game scoreless.
Jared Gates, who belted a two-run homer in the eighth inning of Arkansas’ victory over the Bears on Sunday, delivered again with one out in the fifth. The junior third baseman laced Still’s 1-0 pitch into the right-field bullpen for a solo shot that evened the score at 1-1.
UA starter Kacey Murphy (5-1) was equally as dominant in the early stages, fanning eight Bears and allowing just two hits over his 5.0-plus innings. But Justin Paulsen‘s leadoff walk in the sixth set the table for Eierman, who matched Burger for the team lead with his 22nd homer of the season on the first pitch he saw from Josh Alberius.
After Young worked out of the sixth to preserve the two-run cushion, Gates struck again with one out in the seventh, driving a double down the left-field line for what would prove to be the final hit of the night for Arkansas. Young recovered to strike out Grant Koch, but hit Arledge to end his night. Knutson would issue a pair of wild pitches to Cole, allowing Gates to come around and make it a 3-2 game, but get the hitter on a tap in front of the plate to strand the potential tying run at third.
From there, Knutson would cruise to the finish line, retiring the Razorbacks in order on a pair of ground balls to second and a strikeout in the eighth. Jack Duffy came up with a sliding grab on a Jax Biggers liner to open the ninth, before Knutson got Carson Shaddy on a grounder to short and fanned Gates for the final out.
Eierman finished the Fayetteville Regional with three homers and six RBIs to lead the Bears, while Steinmetz hit .429 (6-for-14) with a pair of round-trippers and seven runs scored. On the mound, Knutson factored in all four contests, going 2-1 with a save over 7.0 combined innings.
