In the most bizarre of bizarre college baseball regionals, the Oklahoma State University took things one step further. Arkansas scored eight runs in the top of the eighth inning to cap off a rally from down five runs, and the Razorbacks shocked Oklahoma State in a wild 20-12 win Saturday night at OBrate Stadium. Oklahoma State rallied for 17 runs over three innings to erase what appeared to be an insurmountable deficit. It did not stop there, as it stunned Missouri State 29-15 on Sunday afternoon in an elimination game at Stillwater Regional in OBrate Stadium.
Less than 24 hours after the Cowboys opened up a five-run lead on two occasions Saturday night and gave up 15 runs in the final three innings of a stunning Saturday collapse by Arkansas, the Cowboys have rallied. They seemed demoralised in their opener against Missouri, which plated five of its six Missouri home runs in the first five innings. Oklahoma States’ turnaround against the Bears was completed when Griffen Doersching hit a grand slam for a 17-14 lead in the seventh inning with seven runs scored. That is what Jared Velasquez had to do on Sunday, and it went pretty much exactly as you would expect. Griffin Doersching capped the Oklahoma State comeback in the Cowboy’s 29-15 win over Missouri State in a teams-only NCAA Regional elimination game with a sixth-inning grand slam off the first pitch he saw off Velasquez.
Oklahoma responded by scoring 17 runs in the next three innings, including the Griffin Doersching grand slam that gave OSU its first lead of the night. The Cowboys had a fast turnaround, opening against Arkansas for their Regional Finals opener. Missouri saved the Missouri States’ season by rallying from a six-run deficit over the last two innings to beat Grand Canyon 8-7 earlier in the day. Tennessee is precisely where one would expect to be Sunday night, celebrating a Regional Championship at NCAA Tournament play at home, looking to continue one of the most dominant runs in college baseball history.
Tennessee’s Evan Russell was cleared to play in the NCAA Tournament regional game Saturday, June 4, 2022, against Campbell. The school said it expected ESPN to apologise after one of its announcers said the catcher failed a test for performance-enhancing drugs. Arkansas’s 20 runs are tied for its second-most ever in an NCAA postseason game, one short of tying a program record with 21 runs in last year’s Super Regional win against NC State. The 29 runs were the Cowboy’s most in an NCAA tournament game, passing the 23 runs scored in the 1986 win over Appalachian State.
