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SPRINGFIELD – Arkansas pounded out a season-high 18 hits and scored in six of the first seven innings, as Missouri State closed out its nine-game home stand with a 12-4 loss at Hammons Field Tuesday evening.
The No. 11 Razorbacks (26-8) snapped a 2-2 tie with a five-run fourth inning, as five of their nine starting position players recorded multi-hit games to help UA improve to 18-4 on the year in non-conference action.
In a game that took four hours and five minutes to complete, the visitors reeled off seven unanswered runs in the fourth and fifth frames to seize control. Arkansas put its first seven men aboard in the fourth, taking the lead for good on Jake Arledge’s fielder’s choice grounder. Chad Spanberger, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, delivered a two-run double to left to drive in two more, before Luke Bonfield stretched the margin to 7-2 with a two-run single.
Arledge set the table for the Razorbacks by scoring three times, including the game’s opening tally in the first when the senior led off the game with a single, before base hits by Spanberger and and Grant Koch gave UA a 1-0 lead.
Jake Burger would respond for Missouri State (21-11) in the home half of the first by sending a two-out line drive over the wall in left to knot the score at 1-1. The junior All-America’s 13th home run of the season moved him into a tie with Ben Carlson for the No. 7 spot on the Bears’ all-time homer chart.
After Arkansas took a 2-1 lead on Carson Shaddy’s RBI single in the top of the third inning, Burger would come through with another two-out hit in the bottom half, doubling off Kevin Kopps to set up Jeremy Eierman’s run-scoring double that evened the score once again.
But MSU starter Nate Witherspoon (1-3) ran into trouble to start the fourth, issuing a leadoff walk to Jaxon Williams ahead of Jordan McFarland’s base hit. Next, a throwing error on a Jax Biggers’ sacrifice loaded the bases, before Arledge chopped a bouncer to second, where Aaron Meyer just missed on his bid to tag Biggers as Williams crossed the plate with the go-ahead run.
Spanberger, who reached base safely in five of his six trips to the plate, then drove a ball to left just beyond the reach of Blake Graham. Bonfield, who also tallied three hits and drove home three runs, followed with a two-run single to left to cap the rally.
The Razorbacks would add two more runs in the fifth on another Spanberger base hit and a two-out wild Kolton Gonnerman wild pitch for a 9-2 advantage.
MSU answered with Meyer’s two-out RBI double to left-center in the bottom of the fifth, before the two clubs traded sixth-inning runs. Biggers would plate UA’s 10th run of the game with a two-out triple, while Hunter Steinmetz brought home Alex Jefferson with a bouncer to short.
Bonfield and Koch would add run-scoring hits in the top of the seventh to account for the final margin. Koch drove in a pair of runs as part of a 3-for-3 night in which he also walked twice to reach base safely in all five of his trips to the plate.
McFarland added a 3-for-5 performance, while Biggers finished with a pair of hits as well for Arkansas. Matt Cronin (1-0), the third of eight UA hurlers on the night, worked a scoreless 1 2/3 innings to earn his first victory as a Razorback.
Burger paced the Bears’ nine-hit attack with a 2-for-4 night, scoring three of MSU’s four runs in the contest.
Up next, the Bears open a five-game road swing Thursday (April 13) with a 7:30 p.m. (CDT) contest against New Mexico at Santa Ana Star Field in Albuquerque, N.M.
