Live Blog: Arkansas vs. Oklahoma State
ARLINGTON, Texas – Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the final game for the Arkansas Razorbacks this weekend here at Globe Life Field.
Boy have we got a great one for you today. Arkansas and Oklahoma State square off in a game that has been hotly anticipated by both teams and fan bases since it was announced they would be here in the finale.
The last time these two met, it was an emotional Stillwater Regional that had literally everything.
Looks like we will be starting on time today. Arkansas will be the visiting team.
They just announced the starting line-ups and Razorback fans are already booing Roc Riggio. Of course, he is known for his gorilla poses, pony prance around the bases, bleach blonde hair and making one fan so angry he challenged him to a fight out behind the Braum's.
This is going to be a fun one. We'll have the preview video up in just a moment.
Arkansas vs. Oklahoma State Preview
(Note: I accidentally say Vanderbilt and OK State was 11-2. It was 11-9. Knew the score. Just misspoke.
Razorback starting line-up
1. Josenberger CF
2. Stovall 2B
3. Wegner LF
4. Slavens 1B
5. Diggs DH
6. Bohrofen RG
7. Jones 3B
8. Rowland C
9. Bolton
1st inning
(Top)
Arkansas will get things started. Bayden Root on the mound for the Cowboys and he strikes out Josenberger almost immediately. He's not so fortunate with Peyton Stovall. Stovall barely holds off on a pitch just outside the zone and the Razorbacks are in business with a runner on first and one out.
Stovall gets called out on the pick-off play. Replay looks like the tag came late, but there's nothing Arkansas can do. Two away.
No first inning home run for Wegner today. He just got plunked hard in the upper back. Slavens goes down on strikes. He obviously disagrees as he turns back to the ump, but we're headed to the bottom of the first either way.
Arkansas 0, Oklahoma State 0
1st inning
(Bottom)
Hunter Hollan on the mound this afternoon. He won't have much help in the bullpen as the Razorbacks have heavily dipped into the rotation the last two days. Van Horn called on nine pitchers just last night alone and the Razorback staff threw over 200 pitches in a regulation game.
Hollan gets Ehrhard to fly out deep to left-center. Wegner had to really get on his horse, but he was able to run it down.
Riggio is up to bat and this is the loudest set of boos for a player I have ever heard. The disdain for this young man by the Razorback fans is insane. Hollan serves up two strikes to start him out.
Riggio turns on a hard shot down the right field line. As he rounds the corner at first, the Razorback fans give a loud laugh and cheer at the same time. Riggio gets up, turns his back to the Razorback fans and calls on the Oklahoma State fans to drown out the Arkansas fans and they oblige.
Folks, this is going to be so fun today.
Oklahoma State's Roc Riggio signals for his fans to shout down the Arkansas fans after he was laughed at and cheered by Razorback fans for falling on his face rounding first after a strong hit to right field. (Addison Faith – AH Media)
Oklahoma State's Roc Riggio tells the Arkansas crowd to shush after his first hit of the game after Razorback rans laughed at him for planting on his face. (Addison Faith – AH Media)
Mendham hits a hard grounder to short and Bolton eats it up. He flips over to Stovall for one out and he throws over to Slavens at first, but once again the Hogs are a fraction of a second short on turning the double play. This is something that is going to have to work itself out this season because it's happened more times this weekend that it should through most of the season. No doubt Van Horn will have them get the timing and speed down better before the next series.
Hollan gets Tyler Wulfert swinging hard on a third strike and the Cowboys leave Riggio standing alone on third with nowhere to go. We're headed to the top of the second here in Arlington.
Arkansas 0, Oklahoma State 0
2nd inning
(Top)
Kendall Diggs wastes no time getting the Razorbacks going in the second. He drives a grounder right back up the middle on the first pitch and cruises over to first with an easy single.
Bohrofen with a blistering shot to first. It hits in Mendham's glove and shoots out toward second base. There was a play at first, but the ruling on the field is Bohrofen got there as the same time as the throw. It is currently under review. The replay in the stadium appeared to suggest the same thing, but we're not getting all the angles.
The umpires stop down to review whether Oklahoma State got the throw to first base in time to get the out early in the game against Arkansas in the College Baeball Showdown. The ruling was safe. (Addison Faith – AH Media)
After the review, the ruling is safe, so there are now runners at first and second for Jayson Jones. He hit a powerful shot in the ninth last night in his first ever at-bat as a Razorback.
Van Horn calls for the double steal on the first pitch and now the Cowboys are going to need to meet on the mound to talk about it. Jones patiently watches three pitches go by and the Arkansas fans are hitting them with the "Four Ball" chant.
Jones takes a strike on the next pitch before a fastball outside loads the bases.
The beer hats are at and the Razorback fans are making up for lost time in getting in all the cheering they didn't get to do last night.
There's a lot of stalling going on here by Oklahoma State. It looks like they're needing extra time to warm up the bullpen.
Rowland comes up for his first at-bat of the season and he gets caught on an inside pitch with a lot of movement.
However, Bolton follows with bouncing grounder deep behind first base. He chugs it down the line and right as he touches the bag, Mendham drops a forearm across his face that sends Bolton spinning.
The Razorback first base coach wraps up Bolton to get him to keep from going after Mendham and, when let free, he does the same motion to get the Arkansas fans cheering that Riggio did in the first inning.
That brings in a run and it's 1-0. Josenberger then hits a touch shot to second that Riggio is able to bring down and make a throw to first for the out, but he lands weird and needs a minute to recover. He stays in the game and Arkansas is now up 2-0 on the fielder's choice.
Stovall gets hit in the shin on the next at-bat and this is getting messy. Bases are loaded once again.
Wegner with a long line drive to the deepest part of the gap in right-center. It hits off the angled wall and Wegner is standing on third with a triple. Three runs score and the Cowboys are headed to the bullpen down 5-0 here in the second.
Arkansas fans might recall that last year, leads in the high teens weren't safe against Oklahoma State. Arkansas needed 20 runs to beat this club back in June.
Slavens watches ball four and the Razorbacks have runners at the corners with two outs and Diggs at the plate. Diggs has really been seeing the ball well and making great contact all weekend.
Diggs with a high pop-up and the inning is over.
Arkansas 5, Oklahoma State 0
2nd inning
(Bottom)
Hollan is on his game. He forces an easy grounder to Meola to start the inning.
Hollan with heat down in the zone and there are two away as Brown strikes out for OK State. Routine grounder to short by Sylvester and the Razorbacks are cruising.
Arkansas 5, Oklahoma State 0
3rd inning
(Top)
Bohrofen with a hard liner to left and he's on with a single to lead off the third. The Oklahoma State staff is already out to mound and the stall game is on to get the bullpen working again.
Jones pops out into foul territory and the Razorbacks have one down here in the top of the third.
Rowland hits a screamer to short that hits Brown in the hand and keeps moving into center field. Brown immediately threw his glove off and is playing the next at-bat in obvious pain. That move Bohrofen to third.
Boton with a high shot deep to left-center. That will be enough for Bohrofen to tag up and it's now 6-0 Hogs.
A pitch gets left out over the plate for Josenberger and he turns on it down the right field line for a double that puts runners at second and third as the hits are coming fast and furious now.
That will bring Stovall to the plate with two outs. He pokes one through the hole up the middle and that will bring in Rowland and Josenberger and the lead is now 8-0.
Wegner comes to bat and you know what's coming up next. The big man gets his hips all the way around and the bend in the fence near the left field foul pole isn't nearly far enough back to keep this one in the park. That is a 2-run shot and it's 10-0 Razorbacks.
Slavens grounds out to end the inning, but the damage is done.
Arkansas 10, Oklahoma State 0
3rd inning
(Bottom)
Remember the pop-up at Oregon State? Picture that, but this time imagine Arkansas catching the ball. It still looked unstable, but Slavens came down with it and there's one down as Hollan continues to dominate.
Hollans strikes out Ehrhard and by the sound of the crowd there's no doubt who's coming up. Hollan plows Riggio in the ribs on the first pitch and the Arkansas fans are on their feet cheering a player getting hit.
McLean follow that with a walk and the Cowboys have runners at first and second.
Hollan strikes out Mendham swinging and we're headed to the fourth.
Arkansas 10, Oklahoma State 0
4th inning
(Top)
Davis is now in to pitch for Oklahoma State and he immediately gets Diggs to ground out to shortstop and strikes out Bohrofen for two quick outs. Jones strikes out and for the first time today the Razorbacks are three up, three down.
Arkansas 10, Oklahoma State 0
4th inning
(Bottom)
Wulfert leads off the inning with a double deep to center. Hollan seems to be pressing a little bit on the mound. His control is not as strong and his pitches feel a little more floaty than before.
Meola hits a soft line to right-center that drops in and the Cowboys have runners at first and third. Brown then follows with a liner to center that carries enough for the sacrifice and Oklahoma State is on the board at 10-1.
Sylvester lifts another one to the same general area of the field for a fly-out and there's now two out here in the bottom of the fourth.
5th inning
(Top)
Davis continues to roll through the Arkansas line-up. He strikes out Bolton to lead off the inning. That's four consecutive hitters up and down.
That streak is abruptly ended though. Josenberger gets a pitch out over the plate and he hits it off the Geico sign on the wall in the Oklahoma State bullpen in right-Center. It's not quite as long as the one Wegner hit last night, but it was still a monster shot and the lead is back up to 10 once again.
The next two Razorbacks walk before Slavens lines one to the wall in right-center that brings in Wegner and Stovall and it's now 13-1.
Diggs takes one to the ribs in the next at-bat and the Hogs are looking to put up even more runs in this two-out rally.
Bohrofen draws a walk and the bases are loaded once again with Jones coming up to the plate.
A wild pitch brings in Slavens and it's now 14-1. The Hogs are being called again as the Cowboys head to the bullpen once again.
Kade Shatwell is on to pitch and he finishes the process of walking Jones on his first pitch. He then walks Rowland and the bases are drunk once again. Diggs scores on the walk to stretch the lead to 15-1. It's hard not to feel Oklahoma State's frustration after last night's game against TCU.
Bolton strikes out and there's another half inning in the books with a five in the line. That's the third five-run inning of the game for Arkansas.
Arkansas 15, Oklahoma State 1
5th inning
(Bottom)
Koty Frank in to pitch for the second time this weekend. Hollan finishes the day having given up one run on three hits.
Frank gets Ehrhard to ground to short, but Harold Coll, who just entered the game, has the throw sail a little to the right on him and Ehrhard is safe.
Riggio comes up and lifts a floater to center for an easy out and Frank is really settling in today. Frank then strikes out McLean on a full count and gets Mendham to ground out to second to end the inning.
Arkansas 15, Oklahoma State 1
6th inning
(Top)
Freshman Mason Neville of Las Vegas comes up to the bat for the first time and he goes inside out on a pitch and powers it up the middle for a single.
For those keeping up with their own books, that now brings up Peyton Holt, the junior from Greenwood. He lifts one deep to center, but there's enough real estate to hold it out there.
That brings up the hottest hitter of the weekend – Jared Wegner.
Wegner strikes out looking at a 50-50 ball on the outside part of the plate and Ben McLaughlin hits into a fielder's choice at short to close the inning.
On a side note, there is a hat game that plays on the screen in the middle of the sixth. I'm not sure if the Texas Rangers have more than one, but there's definitely only been one this entire weekend. Because of that, the Arkansas fans had a little fun with the production staff by screaming out "One!" in unison when it was time to say which hat the ball was under.
Arkansas 15, Oklahoma State 1
6th inning
(Bottom)
Cody Adcock now takes the mound for the Razorbacks and he starts off with a strike to Wulfert. Adcock gets him to fly out to Neville in center.
Meola grounds out to Jones a third and there's now two down as Adcock is really putting in the work on the mound this inning. Adcock strikes out Holt and we are mercifully in the seventh inning.
Arkansas 15, Oklahoma State 1
7th inning
(Top)
Reese Robinett comes in for Diggs and immediately hits a single to right. He then advances to third after Hunter Grimes hits a carbon copy single of his own. Jones then draws a walk to load the bases.
Rowland lifts one deep to the corner in right that will be far enough for the sacrifice fly to bring in Robinett. It's now 16-1 Hogs.
Coll gets one up in the air for a sac fly as Grimes just gets in under the tag to extend the lead to 17-1. Peyton Holt with a laser up the middle now and Jones will score. That ball skimmed off Blake's glove from the top of the mound and it's currently 18-1 with two outs and runners at first and second.
Wegner grounds out to end the inning.
Arkansas 18, Oklahoma State 1
7th inning
(Bottom)
Wood takes the mound and strikes out OSU's Schubart, then Brueggemann as well shortly after.
Wood rocks and fires and strikes out Krull on three straight pitches and for the first time under the new run rule the Razorbacks win this one in seven innings.