A defensive replacement delivered the final go-ahead hit and a usual slugger added an exclamation point to help Oklahoma State once again stave off elimination Sunday night.
Aidan Meola’s two-run single broke a tie in the 10th inning and Nolan McLean followed with a two-run homer — his fifth of the weekend — to carry the Cowboys to a 14-10 win over Arkansas at O’Brate Stadium.
The hits proved to be the difference in a wild game that saw both teams fail to close out the win in the ninth and ultimately helped Oklahoma State force a winner-take-all game in the Stillwater Regional — after also rallying back from a 12-0 deficit in an elimination game against Missouri State earlier in the day.
“That is probably the most remarkable day of competition that I have ever been associated with from the time we got here until now,” Oklahoma State head coach Josh Holliday said. “I have never seen a group of people empty the tank, pitch after pitch after pitch after pitch after pitch starting from this morning from the time they got here until now.”
It all boiled down to a 10th inning that started about 10 innings after the first pitch of the Cowboys’ first game of the day.
With the score tied 10-10 and the game headed to extras, the Razorbacks finally turned to closer Brady Tygart. Unfortunately for them, he struggled for a second day in a row.
Roc Riggio smoked the freshman’s first pitch to right-center and it bounced into the stands for a leadoff ground-rule double. A single by Zach Ehrhard put runners on the corners until he stole second to put them both in scoring position.
For a moment, it seemed like Tygart might be able to wiggle out of the jam. He struck out Jaxson Crull, who entered the game as a pinch runner in the ninth, and then had Meola down 1-2.
A strike away from getting the all-important second out, the freshman with just 34 at bats during the regular season reached for a pitch that was low and away, and poked it up the middle. It deflected off Tygart and brought in two runs for his seventh and eighth RBIs of the season.
Considering the insanity that had already unfolded in the regional, the Cowboys likely needed some insurance and McLean quickly provided it with a two-run blast that just stayed fair down the left field line. It was his fifth home run in four postseason games.
As if that wasn’t enough, the two-way standout had to refocus once back in the dugout and get ready to go back out on the mound to close it out. He did just that, working around a one-out walk to earn the victory.
“I’ve been telling you since the start of the year how special he is,” Holliday said. “He’s doing remarkable things and in this particular regional, he’s hit some balls to all quadrants of the grid for home runs. He pitches, he plays a great third base. He is tougher than nails.”
That put the finishing touches on a crazy day of baseball that started with Oklahoma State turning a 12-0 deficit into a 29-15 win over Missouri State in the afternoon game.
“Days like today are kind of what you dream about growing up and things you want to be a part of when you’re a little kid,” McLean said. “When it finally starts to happen, you’re just trying to have fun with each other and create memories.”
Here are several other key takeaways from the wild nightcap…
Ninth-Inning Drama
For a brief moment Sunday night, Michael Turner seemed destined to be the hero. His two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth gave the Razorbacks their first lead since the first inning and got them on the verge of punching their ticket to the super regionals.
Even though Tygart was available, head coach Dave Van Horn made the decision to turn the game over to senior Connor Noland. It was his first relief appearance of the season and just two days removed from a stellar 7-inning, 89-pitch outing against Grand Canyon.
“We said if we get the lead, he was down in the pen probably in the seventh and we felt like we were going to make a run at them, which we did, and then we got the big hit to put us head,” Van Horn said. “Connor was already down there. He had already been stretched out, playing catch and getting ready to go.”
However, after Noland got the first out of the inning, disaster struck for Arkansas.
Playing deep in left field, Zack Gregory lost his footing and David Mendham’s sinking line drive sailed over his glove for a two-run double that put Oklahoma State back on top 9-8. The Cowboys added an insurance run on an RBI single by Arkansas native Marcus Brown.
That lead still wasn’t safe, though. The Cowboys brought in McLean — who was on the mound during their eight-inning collapse Saturday night — from his spot in the field at third base to try to close it out.
A throwing error by Brown allowed Peyton Stovall to reach and Zack Gregory followed with a one-out single. Although he grounded out, Braydon Webb moved them into scoring position, setting up Brady Slavens’ clutch two-out, two-run single that forced extras.
“Nobody wanted to lose, obviously,” Van Horn said. “Both teams kept fighting. We’d catch up, they’d take the lead. We’d catch up, they’d take the lead. I give my team a lot of credit for hanging in there.
Solid Outing by Mitchell
With limited options after already playing three games, Oklahoma State handed the ball to junior Stone Mitchell.
Even though his numbers weren’t great coming into the day — 5.91 ERA, 1.63 WHIP and .322 BAA — it might have been a strategic move because he’s a left-hander and the Razorbacks have struggled mightily against lefties, hitting 27 points lower against them compared to right-handers.
He did get hit around a little bit, with the Razorbacks notching five earned runs on 11 hits and three walks off him, but he gave Oklahoma State exactly what it needed: length.
The fifth-year senior worked into the seventh, matching a season long with 6 1/3 innings. It was a very good outing, especially considering his first two pitches of the game were a leadoff double by Webb and RBI single by Slavens.
“Somebody in their fifth year who stuck it out, fought through injury and fought through tough times, is present for his team at a time when they needed him most,” Holliday said. “That was pretty darn awesome. Not many guys get to the end of the road like he did and I appreciate him for being loyal to this program and delivering when we needed him the most.”
Yet Another Short Start
On the other end of the spectrum, it was deja vu for Arkansas on Sunday, as sophomore Jaxon Wiggins faced just nine batters and was relieved after only 1 1/3 innings — the exact same length as freshman Hagen Smith’s start the previous night.
The hard-throwing right-hander touched triple digits on the stadium radar gun a couple of times in a scoreless first inning that also featured a couple of strikeouts, but he ran into trouble in the second.
The first three Cowboys he faced reached base and eventually scored — including a leadoff home run by David Mendham — and he was pulled after giving up a one-out single to the 9-hole, Chase Adkison.
Wiggins was charged with three earned runs on four hits and two walks while striking out two.
“He comes out and the first hitter, he looked really, really good,” Van Horn said. “He got through the first inning. The second inning obviously didn't go so good. Just behind in the count, walking people, gave up some hits, having a little trouble throwing off-speed for a strike, so they were just cheating to the fastball.”
It was Wiggins’ second straight start in which he recorded only four outs, as he also did that in the regular-season finale at Alabama. He gave up five earned runs in that start, but did throw a scoreless inning of relief at the SEC Tournament.
Since the midway point of conference play, Wiggins’ ERA has ballooned from 4.66 to 6.12 and he lasted five innings just once in six starts.
Three-Hit Wonders
Prior to last season, when Matt Goodheart did it twice, an Arkansas player hadn’t homered in four straight games since 2008, when Aaron Murphree had a six-game streak.
It has now happed a third time in two years, as Wallace went yard for the fourth straight game when he led off the fifth inning with a line drive over the wall in left-center. It was also his ninth home run in 10 games and fourth in the Stillwater Regional.
The sophomore from Greenbrier has been on fire since the calendar flipped to May and has taken it up another notch in June. Over the last 16 games, he is 21 for 70 (.300) with six doubles and nine home runs. That’s good for a .771 slugging percentage — much higher than his .485 slugging percentage over the first 43 games of the season.
“I'm just trying to do my job, drive in runs, get on base however I need to do that,” Wallace said. “I just basically need to give it to Michael after me. Just like him, he'll pass it on to the next guy and just get on base for whoever is going to be there.”
In the other dugout, freshman Roc Riggio has been the spark plug for Oklahoma State.
He drew the ire of Arkansas fans for his dance before rounding third base after a home run in Saturday’s game, but has backed it up with incredible production at the plate.
Riggio went 3 for 6 and, for the third straight game, finished a triple shy of the cycle. He had a two-run home run in the fourth inning and the aforementioned 10th-inning ground-rule double.
That followed a five-hit performance against Missouri State in Sunday’s elimination game. He’s homered in all four games and is now 13 for 22 (.591) with three doubles and four long balls this weekend.
“He was pretty inspirational today,” Holliday said. “He was kind of the vitamin that got the energy going. He was that little pill that got us going. He was storming around and his hair was down and he was letting it all hang out. You saw everything he had in him to play the way he played.”
Pitching Change Confusion
An unusual sequence unfolded in the seventh inning Sunday night. After Will McEntire threw a first-pitch ball to Jake Thompson, Van Horn decided it was time to get him and bring in Evan Taylor.
After the left-hander jogged in from the bullpen, though, the umpires went to their headsets for an apparent review. It turns out they were trying to confirm a rule and they did — specifically rule 9-4-f, an obscure rule that required McEntire to finish facing the leadoff man.
A lengthy delay ensued before he eventually returned to the mound and promptly got Thompson to ground out to first. With Griffin Doersching being a righty, he stayed in the game for one more batter and struck out the Cowboys’ slugger.
“The umpire never should have let me come out,” Van Horn said. “He’s not supposed to let you come out. We were trying to get the lefty hot, and he wasn’t quite hot, and he went out there and started warming up.”
As soon as he struck out Doersching, McEntire let out a scream of emotion because it capped an impressive 5 1/3-inning relief appearance in which he was charged with three earned runs on four hits and four walks.
“I thought Will came in and did a great job for us,” Van Horn said. “I know he gave up three runs or so, but he pitched five innings and gave us everything he had. He pitched two days in a row. He’s really given us an opportunity to be in the championship game of this regional.”
Other Tidbits
~Arkansas’ leadoff man reached in each of the first five innings and six times overall. That runner came around to score four times. In each of the other four innings, the Razorbacks’ second batter reached base.
~The official game length Sunday night was 4 hours and 40 minutes. That makes it the shortest of Oklahoma State’s three games played over the last two days, as Saturday night’s crazy 20-12 game lasted 4 hours and 53 minutes and Sunday afternoon’s comeback lasted 5 hours and 1 minute. That means the Cowboys played baseball for a total of 14 hours and 34 minutes over a 29-hour span.
~With long balls from Wallace and Turner on Sunday, the Razorbacks have now hit 97 home runs this season. That is one behind the 2010 team for second on the UA single-season list. Last year’s team hit a school-record 109 home runs.
~Coming into the game, Turner was the Razorbacks’ lone regular starter who hadn’t even attempted to steal a base. That changed in the first inning Sunday, as the catcher swiped second.
~Over the first six games of the Stillwater Regional, a total of 138 runs have been scored, aided by a whopping 39 home runs. Oklahoma State’s 29-15 win over Missouri State on Sunday was the highest-scoring game in NCAA Tournament history.
Up Next
With the loss, Arkansas is forced to play a winner-take-all game against Oklahoma State, with the winner advancing to the super regionals. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT and it will be televised on ESPN 2.
“I think we'll respond well, and I think our pitchers are going to go out there tomorrow and give us their all just like we will,” Wallace said. “We'll just have to outscore them if we have to.”
Despite telling reporters that his team emptied the tank on Sunday, Holliday is confident they’ll be ready to go for a fifth game in four days.
“For about 7 bucks a gallon, we’ll go refuel as soon as we get done here,” Holliday said. “We’ll be ready to play tomorrow. We’ll be ready.”
