FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Behind a big night from Jeremy Eierman and a dominant one-hit pitching performance, Missouri State locked up its fourth season sweep of Arkansas with an 8-2 victory Tuesday evening at Baum Stadium.
Eierman logged the first five-hit performance by a Bear in four years while registering the fifth multi-homer game by a Missouri State player this season. The freshman went deep in second and fifth innings, and finished the night 5-for-5 with three runs scored and four RBIs to become the first Bear since Luke Voit (May 24, 2012) to record five hits in a game.
Austin Knight (5-2) held the Razorbacks to one hit–a first-inning infield single–over the first five frames, before Sam Perez and Bryan Young combined on four no-hit innings of relief to send Arkansas to its 10th consecutive defeat.
The shutdown performance marked the second one-hitter for the Bears in the last two seasons at Baum Stadium, following Matt Hall's complete-game, 3-1 win over the Razorbacks in the second game of the two clubs' 2015 NCAA Super Regional showdown last June.
The home club jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after Carson Shaddy beat out an infield chopper to shortstop in the bottom of the first for what would respresent the lone Arkansas hit of the night. A passed ball and a throwing error combined to hand the Razorbacks an unearned run,
MSU responded with five unanswered runs, thanks in large part to Eierman’s seventh home run as a Bear and some clutch two-out hitting. With one out in the second, Eierman powered up on a 1-0 offering from Razorbacks starter Barrett Loseke (1-3), driving the equalizing long ball over the left-field wall into the MSU bullpen.
Next, a two-out walk to Matt Fultz kept the inning alive, before Ryan Mantle lined a double into the right-field corner to put runners on second and third. Loseke then uncorked a wild pitch to bring in Fultz with the go-ahead run.
MSU struck for another two-out rally the following frame, as Spencer Johnson walked and swiped second, before Blake Graham was hit by a Kacey Murphy pitch. Eierman delivered once again, this time lacing a run-scoring single beyond the reach of Rick Nomura at second base, and Aaron Meyerfollowed with a two-run double to left-center to extend the margin to 5-1.
The Razorbacks (26-26) got one run back in the home half of the third after Knight plunked the first two hitters of the inning, and Luke Bonfield drove in his second run of the night with a ground ball to shortstop. Knight avoided further damage by retiring Cullen Gassaway on a fly ball to left to end the inning.
Missouri State used two more round-trippers to score three times in the fifth and stretch its lead to six runs. Johnson kicked off the inning with his 18th home run of the year, bringing the senior within one long ball of fellow Bear and the Division I home run leader, Jake Burger. With one out, Graham lined a double just inside the bag at first, just ahead of Eierman’s second big blast of the night, a two-run shot that–like his first homer–found its way into the Bears’ bullpen for an 8-2 cushion.
From there, the Bears one-two bullpen punch of Perez and Young turned the lights out with four near-perfect innings to close the games. Perez retired nine of the 10 batters he faced and struck out five UA hitters over his 3.0 frames, before Young put the punctuation mark on the Bears' seventh win over an SEC opponent in the last two years by fanning the side in the ninth.
In addition to Eierman's career night, Johnson reached base safely in three of his five plate appearances, scoring twice and driving in another with his fifth-inning homer.
Along with the Bears' (31-19) May 3 win over Arkansas at Hammons Field, Tuesday's victory secured MSU's first season sweep of the Razorbacks since 2006 and the fourth for the Bears overall in the series.
Next, the Bears will open their final Missouri Valley Conference series of the season Thursday (May 19) afternoon with a 1:05 p.m. contest against Illinois State at Hammons Field.
