By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau • rneiswanger@arkansasnews.com
TEMPE, Ariz. — Arkansas entered the 2010 season confident it had the makeup of a national champion.
Unfortunately, the Razorbacks happened to run into an Arizona State team that might just win the title before they could reach the College World Series.
Arkansas’ season came to a bitter end in the desert with a 7-5 loss in 12 innings to the Sun Devils in Packard Stadium on Sunday night. It was the second straight night the Razorbacks suffered a loss in a 12-inning nail-biter, following ASU’s 7-6 extra-inning win in the first game of the series.
The victory helped the Sun Devils (52-8) sweep the best-of-three super regional and advance to Omaha for the fourth time in six seasons.
It sent the Razorbacks (43-21) home without what they coveted most: A second straight trip.
But Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn didn’t sound discouraged after the game. He said it was because of the Razorbacks’ determination all weekend.
“We came in here and we knew that we were the underdog,” Van Horn said. “We weren’t playing our best baseball. Our best baseball was five or six weeks ago before all the injuries. We never really got it going again. Maybe just enough to get here.
“But we played hard and we never quit.”
It was never more evident than the ninth inning when Arkansas, which had trailed 4-0 early in the game, pushed the game into extra innings.
Center fielder Brett Eibner hit a two-out, two-strike solo home run off Arizona State closer Jordan Swagerty. The dramatic blast, which sailed over the left field wall, stunned the Sun Devils.
“I saw it go and I just turned my head,” Swagerty said. “I didn’t want to see where it landed.”
Said ASU coach Tim Esmay: “I turned my head, too.”
The home run was reminiscent of Eibner’s game-tying shot in an elimination game against Virginia in Omaha last season. Van Horn wasn’t surprised it happened again. He said late rallies and dramatic endings had become common for his teams.
So Eibner, who was mobbed at the plate by his teammates, had just given them new life again.
“My job is to get on base and score,” Eibner said. “With two strikes I’m just looking to put the ball in play. It just so happened that he hung me a slider and I hit it out. That was it.”
But unlike the Virginia game — which Arkansas won 4-3 in the 12th — Arkansas couldn’t ride the momentum from the big hit or a strong relief effort from freshman DJ Baxendale, who allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings after starter Drew Smyly struggled.
Swagerty (2-0) settled down after the mistake and managed to keep Arkansas scoreless in the 10th and 11th innings. And in the 12th, leadoff hitter Drew Maggi put the Sun Devils back in the lead with a two-run home run off Arkansas’ TJ Forrest (8-1).
Maggi had been 0-for-5 until the home run.
“Me slumping, it’s no big deal,” Maggi said. “It only takes one at-bat and I’m sitting in here in front of you (in the interview room).”
Maggi’s home run was the fourth of the game for the Sun Devils, who beat up Arkansas’ ace.
Smyly had never allowed three home runs until Sunday, when Arizona State used the long ball to build an early 4-0 lead. Zach Wilson hit the first pitch he saw over the fence in the second inning and did it again in the third. The second came immediately after Riccio Torrez hit a two-run shot.
Smyly — who was the Detroit Tigers’ second-round selection last week — had allowed only eight home runs in his 98 1/3 previous innings.
“I knew Willy at some point this weekend was going to be a factor,” Esmay said of Wilson, who had been slowed by a broken finger this season. “I knew he was going to face Smyly going into this weekend so he was already prepared for that.”
But Arkansas didn’t roll over despite an early deficit for the second straight night.
Instead, Van Horn said the Razorbacks understood the situation and rallied in the dugout.
“We talked about it,” Van Horn said. “We said, ‘Hey, it’s 3-0, 4-0, this game is going to get ugly if we don’t turn it around somehow and they did.”
The Razorbacks finally got on the board in the fourth, taking advantage of two walks and two hit batters by ASU starter Merrill Kelly to close the gap to 4-2. Andy Wilkins hit an RBI single in the next inning to score Zack Cox and make it 4-3.
After Arizona State scored a run in the seventh, Arkansas catcher James McCann cut the lead again to 5-4 with an RBI single in the eighth. It set the stage for the dramatic ninth, in which Swagerty had no trouble retiring Collin Kuhn and Cox.
Then came Eibner, who hit his 22nd and final home run of the season, to extend Arkansas’ season. At least, temporarily.
“Brett just hammered it,” Van Horn said. “I just wish somebody would have been on base.”
After Maggi’s home run put ASU back in front, Swagerty retired Eibner and Wilkins in the 12th.
Then, he got pinch hitter Tom Hauskey to fly out to deep left field to end the game and trigger a celebration on the mound.
Arkansas was forced to watch the festivities from the dugout, falling short of their goal of returning to the CWS for one more run at a title.
“This team had heart,” Eibner said. “We never gave up. These past two days, (Sunday) and (Saturday), just shows a lot about this team. We had heart.
“We just didn’t want to let it go.”
