SEMO ends Arkansas’ baseball season with 6-3 win on Sunday

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – An Arkansas baseball team with expectations of finishing its season in Omaha instead ended it with a resounding thud at a place where it previously been nearly infallible.

Southeastern Missouri State limited Arkansas to just five hits while beating the Razorbacks 6-1 in a NCAA Tournament Fayetteville Regional elimination game at Baum-Walker Stadium.

It ends the season for the Razorbacks (44-16), who suffered a ninth loss in their last 13 games after opening the season 40-8 and entering the weekend 33-3 at home.

Arkansas found itself in an elimination game because of a 7-6 loss to third seed Kansas State on Saturday night.

“I was really surprised,” Razorback head coach Dave Van Horn said. “We didn’t think it would go down like this. And I think it’s a combination of their pitchers doing a really good job of mixing pitches and locating, and our guys might have been a tick short, maybe just a little bit tired from yesterday’s ballgame.”

Arkansas lost the final two at home but while designated as the visitors.

“Yeah man, it sucks,” Arkansas outfielder Kendall Diggs said. “We gave it all we had. But…congrats to SEMO. They played a good game. I love every one of these guys. Appreciate all the coaches, whole program, for everything they’ve done. Obviously prefer a different outcome.”

Arkansas second baseman Peyton Stovall was equally stunned.

“Yeah, it’s always shocking when you want to go out there and win at home,” Stovall said. “We were fighting and wanted to keep playing as long as we could.”

Stovall wasn’t looking for any excuses for his team, who had starting pitcher Gage Wood get into the fourth inning.

“Uh, there’s really no excuses,” Stovall said. “We’ve played a lot of games on Saturday, late night. Long night. You get up Sunday on a weekend series and you play that morning, that afternoon. You’ve got to get up early.

“We’ve had to do it all year so I really wouldn’t say it was like a struggle or anything. But yeah, they got ahead. I thought Gage threw the ball well. They can really swing it. They put together some good at-bats, so hats off to them.”

Southeastern Missouri State advanced to play Kansas State on Sunday night at 6 with the Redhawks having to beat the Wildcats in that game and in Monday’s if necessary game to keep the season going.

SEMO head coach Andy Sawyers, who played for Van Horn at Nebraska, cherished the win over his mentor.

“I told coach Van Horn, ‘thank you. Every day, I do something that you taught me,’” Sawyers said. “I coach not because of coach Van Horn, but I was blessed to have remarkable coaches when I grew up. Some of the most influential coaches I’ve ever had were basketball coaches.

“I am fortunate and grateful that I’ve had men like coach Van Horn and others that have poured into my life to get me to where I’m at. I told him, ‘thank you.’ And I told him, ‘Every day, I do something that you taught me.’ I was a little emotional. I had some tears in my eyes behind the sunglasses because I got to beat my coach today. That doesn’t happen very often. That was a pretty cool moment.”

Brooks Kettering had two hits for SEMO in the win.

“Oh, man, what a feeling,” Kettering said. “To be able to come in here at Arkansas and play one of our best games, to just be competitive and play for each other, it’s awesome to get a win and just stay alive.”

SEMO starting pitcher Colin “Simba” Wilma took a no-hitter into the fifth while confusing the Razorbacks hitters while throwing pitches that ranged in speed from the mid-60s to low 90s.

“I thought Simba was masterful today,” Sawyers said. “ Kind of his unique pitch, when we recruited Collin he was throwing 84 miles per hour and he had this big, slow curveball that he could command with uncommon control with it. We took him because of that breaking ball. 

“In college everybody’s supposed to throw 92, and he’s worked hard at velocity and all that, but always the thing in the back of his pocket was that slow curveball.

“That was the thing we originally recruited him for. And we get in this environment against a really good team like Arkansas, a bunch of bat-speed hitters, and suddenly that slow pitch becomes even more important. And I thought his ability to throw that  breaking ball for a strike, virtually in any count — hitter’s count, plus count, any time they had leverage — here came that breaking ball.”

Arkansas’ vaunted starting pitcher trio of ace Hagen Smith, Brady Tygart and Mason Molina was not as sharp in the last part of the season.

“Well, we didn’t pitch very well,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “That was pretty obvious the last month. It’s, you know, we were rolling pretty good early. You’ve got bing, bang, boom. You’ve got 1-2-3. You’ve got two lefts and a right, and they’re all going to give you innings. They’re all experienced, and then all of a sudden you can see a little crack in the armor.

“One (Molina) got wild. One’s (Tygart) always having issues with his arm. The steady is Smith. Smith was the guy. He was a rock. He carried us. The whole season, that guy carried us. I just think the pitching got a little tired.”

Arkansas’ offense entered the NCAA Tournament with the lowest batting average of any of the 64 teams while Kansas State’s was 63rd.

“Offense has been a roller-coaster all year,” Van Horn said. “Whether it’s a shoulder injury or a bad start for different players, we had to fight for so many wins.

“You just go back and look at our scores, I’m going to say in the SEC we had played 15-to-18 games, win-or-lose by less than three runs. Everything was tight. We didn’t blow anybody out. They didn’t blow us out. A lot of 5-4, 3-2.

“I mean, it was stressful. I think maybe it just beat us up a little bit mentally. By the time we got done at (Texas A&M), I was hoping that we had recovered a little bit. I thought we had.

“We hit at the (SEC) tournament. We didn’t pitch good at the tournament at all. Gave up nine runs, and I don’t know how many else.

Arkansas downed SEMO 17-9 in Friday’s opener, jumping ahead 8-0, giving up the entire lead and eventually bashing six home runs in the win.

The Razorbacks led 2-0 over Kansas State Saturday night in the fifth inning, but the Wildcats ambushed Smith, who gave up a season-high six runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Arkansas had 13 hits against Kansas State, but also left 13 base runners.

“..We came back rested and we swung the bat so good on Friday,” Van Horn said. “ We swung it really well yesterday, left 13 out there, and then today it looked like we were exhausted.

“I didn’t really know what to do or say. I think SEMO just did a tremendous job of pitching to us today. It’s been a battle, and I would say that’s probably, when you don’t pitch good, you don’t have a chance.

“The pressure of hitting this type of pitching day in and day out, you’ve got to stop people, and we struggled a little bit the last few weeks.” 

The Razorbacks spent a significant amount of the campaign ranked as the No. 1 team in the country and came into the NCAA Tournament as the No. 5 national seed.

Peyton Holt’s solo home run in the fifth broke up Wilma’s no-hitter, but the Razorbacks would leave the bases loaded later in the inning.

Arkansas catcher Parker Rowland launched a two-run homer in the ninth to cut it to 6-3 in his only at bat of the regional, but the Razorbacks could get no closer.

“I think SEMO just did a tremendous job of pitching to us today,” Van Horn said. “It’s been a battle, and I would say that’s probably, when you don’t pitch good, you don’t have a chance. The pressure of hitting this type of pitching day in and day out, you’ve got to stop people, and we struggled a little bit the last few weeks.”

Photo by John D. James