FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas – If you feel like Arkansas somehow finds a way to end up playing Southeast Missouri State every season, then your feelings are wrong.
However, that doesn’t mean you’re alone. In a sort of Mandela effect, many Razorbacks fans have the same image in their heads. After all, the teams have played in the regular season the last three years and also in the postseason not only this year, but also in 2022 in Stillwater, right?
Not really. This season they didn’t play. That was the state of Missouri.
The Hogs and Redhawks played a single midweek game early in the season last year, which Arkansas won 12-2 in seven innings. As for the 2022 regional at Oklahoma State, it was neither.
The Cowboys, with their daring collection of home run bombers, went through a pair of epic battles with Missouri State, not SeMo, to set up a three-game series with Arkansas that may have been one of the most watchable roller coasters of regional battles . in NCAA history.
Fans remember that series for the madness that started on day 2 and continued. Missouri State set the stage by trailing 7-1 entering the eighth and scoring two in that inning and five in the ninth to steal an 8-7 victory.
Meanwhile, the Hogs found themselves down 10-5 to the Cowboys, a deficit that seemed destined to expand, before the Razorbacks pulled away, scoring 15 runs in the final three innings to advance to the regional final 20-12.
The next day, in a five-hour marathon, the Bears threatened to dominate OSU after jumping 12-0. Then the Cowboys went on a 17-2 run. It was 17-15 after seven in a game that could have gone either way, but Oklahoma State sent a message to Arkansas fans in the final two innings, taking a 29-15 victory. A few hours later, the Hogs forced extra innings after tying the Cowboys 10-10, but were unable to secure the championship that Saturday night as OSU scored four runs in the 10th.
The final game was more mundane as Arkansas closed out the series with a 7-3 victory. 124 runs were scored after Day 1, none of which were scored by Southeast Missouri State. That was just the fans’ imagination.
If all goes well in Game 1 on Friday, you might again have to envision SeMo scoring a run against the Hogs in the regional. The Redhawks’ only Power Five win came against Missouri in February, and you could hardly argue that the Tigers were behaving like a Power Five program back then.
The first regional game between Arkansas and Southeast Missouri State will air at 2 p.m. on KeynoteUSA+. Kansas State and Louisiana Tech will close Day 1 at 7 pm, also on KeynoteUSA+.
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