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With a chance to clinch the series Saturday, Arkansas’ bullpen imploded in the seventh inning.

Three different relievers contributed to Missouri’s four-run outburst after the stretch, as the Razorbacks fell 7-5 to even the series in Columbia, Mo., at a game apiece.

The loss snapped Arkansas’ 12-game winning streak and was its first in SEC play, preventing its first 5-0 start to conference play since 2009.

“We’ve got to play better baseball,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “We’ve been getting by, we’ve been winning, but we haven’t really played great baseball, to be honest with you. We’ve played just good enough.”

It was a disastrous inning for the Razorbacks from the start. Back out for his second inning of work and with his team clinging to a 5-3 lead, Kole Ramage walked Tre Morris on four pitches.

That was just the beginning. The super senior right-hander followed that by bouncing three straight pitches that got away from catcher Michael Turner for wild pitches that brought Morris around for a run that cut Arkansas’ lead in half.

“He threw eight balls in a row and they weren’t close and three of them got past our catcher,” Van Horn said. “Hard to block when you’re bouncing the ball at 53 feet or 55-footers. I mean, it was rough.”

Ramage ultimately walked Torin Montgomery on four pitches, as well, prompting Van Horn to bring in another veteran reliever. Unfortunately for the Razorbacks, Elijah Trest wasn’t much more effective.

The senior right-hander did get a ground out, but then gave up back-to-back singles. The first didn’t leave the infield, but resulted in an RBI for Justin Colon to tie the game. The second was solidly hit by Mike Coletta to put runners on the corners.

Van Horn turned to left-hander Zack Morris at that point and he struck out the first guy he faced to get the Razorbacks within an out of escaping the inning with the score tied.

Instead, the junior walked Nander de Sedas to load the bases and then Josh Day ripped a two-run double into the left field corner to drive in the winning runs.

Arkansas brought the tying run to the plate five times over the final two innings, but went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts in those situations.

For the entire game, the Razorbacks managed just six hits in 34 at bats (.176) and went just 4 for 20 (.200) with runners on base.

“(We’re) fielding the ball okay, but offensively we’re better than what we’ve shown,” Van Horn said. “If you go off of what you saw last year from some guys, it’s just up and down. It’s not real consistent.”

Here are some other key takeaways from Arkansas’ loss to Missouri in Game 2 of the series…

Smith Gets Through Five

Much like Friday night starter Connor Noland, freshman Hagen Smith didn’t have his best stuff, but still managed to get through five innings and actually left the game in line to earn the victory.

The bullpen obviously blew that opportunity, but the left-hander was charged with three earned runs on six hits and three walks while striking out five.

“He pitched well enough for us to win and he got out of a couple of jams,” Van Horn said. “I still like what I see everyday from him. That was a really good effort. We’ve just got to cut down on some two-out walks.”