Jeremy Eierman’s tie-breaking two-run homer helped lead the Missouri State Bears to a 3-2 victory over Arkansas to clinch the Fayetteville Regional title and advance to the program’s second NCAA Super Regional berth in three seasons Monday evening at Baum Stadium. The Bears Bears (43-18) will play TCU (45-16), the No. 6 national seed in the 2017 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, in a best-of-three Super Regional matchup next weekend in Fort Worth, Texas.
Missouri State’s ace Doug Still (8-2) held the top-seeded Razorbacks to one run on four hits over five-plus innings, before Bryan Young and Jordan Knutson combined to slam the door on the Arkansas offense with four innings of one-hit relief. MSU took a 1-0 lead in the fourth, before Arkansas tied the game in the fifth off Still. Jared Gates, who hit a two-run homer in the Hogs big eighth inning the game before, hit Still’s 1-0 pitch into the right-field bullpen for a solo shot that tied the game at 1-1.
The teams were playing just 15 hours after an 11-10 marathon ended on Monday morning in the first elimination game between these two teams. That game on Sunday started at 9 p.m. and was delayed by weather.