Tag: Arkansas Missouri State

For the third time in four games, big inning dooms Diamond Hogs

Arkansas has dropped four straight games after Missouri State handles Hogs in Springfield.

Georgia isn’t a better baseball team than Arkansas. Missouri State isn’t a better team than Arkansas.

But somehow, in the last four games, the Razorbacks have dropped every single contest to those opponents. After the Bulldogs’ weekend sweep, Missouri State handled Arkansas in Springfield, 8-4, on Tuesday night.

A six-run third inning was the difference. Zack Morris entered for Cody Adcock on the Arkansas hill to start the frame and immediately struggled. Morris struck out the first batter then gave up a walk and two singles before another strikeout. Then came the waterfall.

Two-run double.

RBI single.

Two-run homer.

The Bears were up 7-2 and that was all that mattered.

The big inning has been damning for Arkansas recently. Georgia scored five in the third on Thursday in a 6-5 win and four in the second on Friday in a 7-3 victory. The Razorbacks have dropped four straight games, accordingly, as the Razorbacks’ pitching staff is ninth in the SEC in earned-run average (5.05) and 13th in both opponents’ average against (.271) and strikeouts (355).

The Hogs will try to right the ship Thursday through Saturday when Texas A&M, which sits two games back of Arkansas in the SEC West, visits Fayetteville.

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Arkansas baseball at Missouri State – How to watch, stream, listen

Missouri State would love nothing more than to hand their old rivals, Arkansas, a fourth straight loss.

For a few years in the middle of the 2010s, Arkansas and Missouri State had one of the best nontraditional rivalries in college baseball.

Alas, the Diamond Hogs have remained near the top of the sport’s landscape, competing for College World Series berths seemingly every season. The Bears, went through a struggle in latter part of the decade.

Now, though, in 2023, with Arkansas again in the nation’s Top 10 and Missouri State second in the Missouri Valley Conference, the teams’ one-off meeting Tuesday night should have some fire behind it.

Arkansas is heading up the road about two hours to Springfield for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch, assuming the weather cooperates. Fresh off a sweep at the hands of Georgia on the weekend, the Razorbacks could use a bout of good fortune.

Missouri State isn’t exactly going to just hand it over. The Bears are 11-4 in MVC play and are a borderline NCAA Tournament caliber club. Besides, Keith Guttin has been coaching at Missouri State since 1983. He’s seen Arkansas and Dave Van Horn a time or two.

So, just how good is KJ Jefferson, anyway? Five reasons why he’s better than ever

KJ Jefferson has given Arkansas two potential Heisman Trophy dark horses with his play in 2022.

Technically, Arkansas football and its fans have had four different years of KJ Jefferson to look at it on the field. Thankfully for the program and its faithful, they get almost two whole years more.

Jefferson made a name for himself last year in throwing for more 2,700 yards with 21 touchdown passes and just four interceptions. His most impressive trait, though, was his running ability as he took off 146 times for a team-high 664 yards with six touchdowns.

To the surprise of no one, it’s been much of the same so far this year. Arkansas is a perfect 3-0, too, heading into the Hogs’ first major test of the year on Saturday: the Southwest Classic against Texas A&M in Week 4.

Jefferson set a career-high in passing in the Hogs’ Week 3 win against Missouri State, going 19 of 31 for 385 yards and two touchdowns. He’s been just as good this year as he was last.

But how good is that? Let’s take a look.

Not this time, Bobby: Arkansas avoids its season crashing

Arkansas was nearly stunned by Bobby Petrino again Saturday. A late rally pulled the Hogs through.

Seventy-four-thousand-one-hundred-thirty-three people watched Bobby Petrino enter Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium with an FCS team then leave just over three hours later.

But, oh, those three hours.

No. 11 Arkansas escaped Petrino and Missouri State, 38-27, in a game certain to go down in Hogs lore Saturday night.

The Razorbacks scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns, overcoming a 10-point deficit with just over 12 minutes left. Rocket Sanders’ 73-yard touchdown reception off a shovel pass from KJ Jefferson cut the Bears’ lead to three and Bryce Stephens followed with an 82-yard punt return score on the ensuing punt.

That was that. Jefferson tacked on a one-yard touchdown run to provide the final score.

But it was 17-0 Missouri State early. And when Petrino called for his team to go-for-it on fourth-and-1 in the third quarter, the Bears hit for a 47-yard touchdown pass to break the tie Arkansas had created at 17.

From that point, outside a Missouri State field goal that followed that touchdown, it was all Hogs.

Sanders ran for a career-high 163 yards and Jefferson threw for a career-high 385 in the win.

Arkansas travels to Arlington, Texas, to play Texas A&M in Week 4.

WATCH: Bryce Stephens ridiculous punt return gives Arkansas late lead

The Razorbacks took their first lead of the night against Missouri State in the fourth quarter.

Not to say we predicted it, but we did.

Bryce Stephens took a Missouri State punt 82 yards with 9:16 left in the fourth quarter and gave Arkansas its first lead of the game, 31-27.

The score came just a handful of plays after Rocket Sanders’ 73-yard touchdown run pulled the Hogs within three points.

Arkansas trailed 17-0 before tying things at 17 in the third quarter. Missouri State countered with scores on back-to-back drives to take a 10-point lead.

Stephens and Sanders evaporated it in 2 minutes, 22 seconds.

The Razorbacks haven’t lost to an FCS, formerly Division I-AA, opponent since 1992. Coach Jack Crowe was fired before the next game.

Down not out: Social media reacts to Rocket Sanders saving Arkansas’ bacon with touchdown run

The scored pulled Arkansas within three points in the fourth quarter.

Rocket Sanders is angling toward first-team All-SEC honors.

Even before his touchdown with 11:38 left in the fourth quarter, Sanders had eclipsed the 100-yard mark for the third straight game.

But after his 73-yard scamper, he was two yards shy of 200. And Arkansas was just three points down to Missouri State.

The Bears had kicked a field goal three plays before to take a 27-24 lead. Sanders then took the handoff up the gut and was barely touched, outrunning the entire Missouri State secondary and completing the rallying score with a change-of-direction before hitting pay dirt. It was his second touchdown of the game.

Given the closeness of the game, the social media world is paying plenty of attention.

Serious trouble? Arkansas has to figure it out against Missouri State

Arkansas rallied in the first half, but Missouri State’s lead was not overtaken.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which things could have gone worse for Arkansas than they did in the first half against Missouri State.

The visiting Bears, an FCS team, owned every facet of the game through the first two quarters. Making matters worse, the Razorbacks, ranked No. 11 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and No. 10 in the Associated Press Poll, were playing against former coach Bobby Petrino.

The game, which, on paper, should have been a rather easy Arkansas win, completely turned sideways. Missouri State took a 17-14 lead into the break.

Arkansas put together its first sustained drive after the Bears made it a 17-0 game midway through the second quarter. Rocket Sanders just off-tackle with 8:25 to give the Hogs a glimmer of hope.

Jadon Haselwood’s touchdown catch from KJ Jefferson the next drive provided even more.

Still, things are dicey inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium at the break.

Social media reacts to Arkansas’ MASSIVE touchdown

Sam Pittman said last week KJ Jefferson can take over a game when he wants to for Arkansas.

The comeback is on in Fayetteville.

After falling behind 17-0 midway through the second quarter, Arkansas has woken up. Touchdowns on back-to-back drives from Rocket Sanders and the gem below to Jadon Haselwood have Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium alive again.

KJ Jefferson hit 237 yards passing on the touchdown strike to the transfer from Oklahoma. Haselwood’s grab gave him three for the game for 76 yards.

Things were quiet inside the stadium until Sanders’ first touchdown. Occasionally boos were heard, actually.

But when Jefferson found Haselwood on the far sideline and he scampered home, the place exploded.

Arkansas still trailed at the half, 17-14, but it’s looking less likely Bobby Petrino will break Razorbacks Country hearts for a second time.

Right now, anyway.

WATCH: Rocket Sanders breathes life into Arkansas against Missouri State

It’s a start for Arkansas, anyway, although things will have to get better.

Finally.

For more than an hour inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday, the air was suffocating. Breaths were held. Missouri State, coached by Bobby Petrino, had come into Fayetteville and taken 17-0 lead midway through the third quarter on the No. 11 team in the country.

Finally, after that latest Bears touchdown, Arkansas put together a drive. Sanders had runs of 27, 8, 15, 3 and 2, his last into the end zone just off left tackle.

The crowd exhaled and the chances of upset, although, they remained a red threat, were modestly lessened, as Arkansas moved to down 10, 17-7.

Things will have to change for the Hogs in the second half, though, to avoid one of the biggest upsets in the sport this year.

Funniest tweets about Bobby Petrino return to Arkansas

A little fun before Bobby Petrino’s return game against Arkansas.

The college football world is excited to see what can happen when Bobby Petrino walks the sidelines again in Razorback Stadium for the first time in over a decade.

Petrino’s departure was one of the most controversial stories in sports when the head coach’s motorcycle accident exposed his alleged affair with a former Arkansas volleyball player 10 years ago.

The scandal led to Petrino being fired and sent shockwaves through college football.

Petrino has coached at Western Kentucky and Louisville before his current job at Missouri State and has had success in between this time. He coached the Hilltoppers to a conference championship, then turned Lamar Jackson into a Heisman Trophy winner.

This isn’t going to be a family reunion, and Arkansas fans are ready to welcome Petrino with some fun and antics.

Here are some pre-game tweets that should make you chuckle before tonight’s game.