A host team with 49 wins on the season did nothing to faze a University of Arkansas at Monticello baseball team on the first night of the NCAA baseball regional tournament in Mankato, Minn.
Chaz Poppy and Camden Tanner each collected three hits, and Connor Irvine scattered 7 hits over 7 innings Thursday evening in helping seventh-seeded UAM score a 5-3 win over second-seeded Minnesota State University, Mankato.
The win moved the Boll Weevils (33-21) to the winners’ bracket game against third-seeded Pittsburg (Kan.) State University, but that game was postponed from Friday evening to 4 p.m. Saturday due to inclement weather.
Pitt State beat sixth-seeded Henderson State University 18-5 earlier Thursday. Minnesota State (49-7) and Henderson will meet in an elimination game at noon Saturday, with the winner to play the UAM-Pitt State loser at noon Sunday. The championship game is now set for 4 p.m. Sunday, with a rematch if necessary to be played at noon Monday.
UAM, which reached the Super Regional round last year, expanded a 3-2 lead with 2 runs in the ninth inning. Roc Hawthorne, who led off the inning with a single to right center, scored on a Justin Santoyo flyout to center for the second out. Tanner, on the next at-bat, hit a ground-rule double to center to score Kirk Woolf, who had singled and stolen second.
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The Weevils scored the first 2 runs in the fourth inning, thanks to an Elijah Nichols single and Kyle Tolley double. In the Minnesota State sixth, Ike Mezzenga reached on a fielder’s choice to allow Matt Fleischhacker to score.
Poppy delivered a seventh-inning RBI double to score Woolf. In the eighth, Zach Stroh pulled the Mavericks within 3-2 on a 2-out double to score Aidan Bryne.
Fleischhacker doubled down the right-field line to score Ben Palmer in the Mavericks’ ninth with 2 outs. The next at-bat, Bryne flew out to right field to seal the Weevils’ win.
Fleischhacker, Bryne, Stroh and Logan Miller each had 2 hits.
Irvine (8-5) struck out 5 and allowed an earned run in 95 pitches. Kyle Roop struck out 2, but allowed 3 doubles, for his third save of the season.
Four Minnesota State pitchers took the mound, with Nathan Culley (12-1) suffering the loss. Culley gave up 3 earned runs on 8 hits in 7 innings.