Zack Morris worked out of trouble in the bottom of the ninth, leaving the tying run at third and winning run at second, as Arkansas edged Ole Miss to force one more meeting on Thursday for a berth in the CWS Championship Series.
Hagen Smith (7-2) was the starter and winner, allowing two hits and one run in five innings with four walks and eight strikeouts. Taylor worked three innings with two hits, one run, no walks and four puchouts.
“Just a great win for our team,” said Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn. “Back against the wall and a lot of drama there at the end. I thought Hagen Smith did a tremendous job tonight, gave us five really good innings, gave up a couple hits, struck out eight. It ended up coming down to the bullpens. Credit to Evan Taylor came in, did a great job for us, got us out of a little bit of a jam, and then obviously Zack Morris came in and finished it up for us. So big win for us.”
Chris Lanzilli had a leadoff homer in the top of the second as the Razorbacks took the early lead.
Kemp Alderman (3 for 4) started the bottom of the second with a dinger as the Rebels leveled the score at 1-1.
Brady Slavens smacked a long homer to center to lead off the fifth as Arkansas took a 2-1 lead.
“It was 1-0 and I was just looking for a fastball over the plate,” Slavens said. “Luckily I got it. It might be the furthest one I’ve ever hit.”
Cayden Wallace had a leadoff double in the eighth and scored on a base hit by Michael Turner to make it 3-1, but the Hogs left the bases loaded.
Alderman had a leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth. Peyton Chatagnier and Hayden Dunhurst were hit by pitches to load the bases with none away. After not getting out of the first inning on Monday in a start against the Rebels, Morris came in from the bullpen and got a strikeout and a groundout. Justin Bench singled to short, bringing home Alderman to make it 3-2. A flyout to left would end the contest, giving Morris his first save. It was the first loss for the Rebels in the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
“Tough one to lose,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco, “but probably from your perspective and from a fan’s perspective, it was a heck of a college baseball game. Well played on both sides and certainly well pitched. On a day where I thought maybe the ball was flying a little bit better than it normally does here, so it will tell you how good all the guys that touched the mound pitched today. Tough for us obviously when you have the opportunity to — a chance to win it maybe at the end. But credit them. Smith and Taylor were terrific, I thought, and not just to our left-handers. I thought the difference — they pitched really well to our left-handers, but the right-handers didn’t do much. We ended up with five hits, and Kemp had three of them. Just a tough day. Got to play better tomorrow.”
The teams will meet on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET. Connor Noland will start for Arkansas and Dylan DeLucia for Ole Miss.