FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn is hopeful a blown lead late Tuesday night in a 14-13 loss to Missouri State will aid his second-ranked Razorbacks down the road.

The Bears scored 5 runs in the ninth to overcome a 13-8 deficit, and Nick Rodriguez led off the 10th inning with a solo home run to give Missouri State the victory in front of an announced crowd of 10,035 at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Arkansas (23-3) lost its first home game of the year and had a 7-game win streak snapped. The Razorbacks blew their largest late-inning lead since an 8-run eighth allowed Vanderbilt to overcome an 8-2 deficit and win 10-8 on May 19, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn.

“Sometimes you have to lose one to win one. That’s the way I look at it,” Van Horn said. “There’s a couple of older [pitchers] or even a freshman down there that’s got great stuff, could finish a game, and we didn’t put him on the board today because we didn’t want to throw him because he might have to throw Friday. Sometimes that’s just the way it works in this game.

“We play a lot of games and you want to win them all, but sometimes you [have to] sacrifice winning on Tuesday to win on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, because those games are more important.”

The late-game collapse included a little of everything, but mostly solid at-bats from a Missouri State lineup that had 14 hits. The Bears (11-12) built upon a solid performance at the plate during their Missouri Valley Conference-opening sweep of Bradley last weekend when Missouri State scored 40 runs in 22 innings.

“I told our guys tonight, ‘You’re facing one of the best pitching staffs in the country. We’re probably going to strike out, and who cares, right? Just bounce back and be ready for your next at-bat,’” first-year Missouri State coach Joey Hawkins said. “We never gave up. That was incredible, and I’m really proud of our team.”

After Arkansas freshman left-hander Cole Gibler struck out Caden Bogenpohl to lead off the ninth inning, the left-handed hitting Rodriguez and Jake McCutcheon had consecutive 1-out singles to begin the rally and send the Razorbacks to the bullpen.

Gibler had been rolling until that point with 7 consecutive strikeouts, but at 44 pitches he was pulled to keep him available for the upcoming weekend series at No. 13 Vanderbilt.

“His job was to get those two lefties out,” Van Horn said. “They both got hits, so we just thought we’d get him out after that.”

Veteran right-hander Will McEntire did not record an out due to 3 RBI hits by Taeg Gollert, Max Knight and Zack Stewart, and a dropped pop up by second baseman Nolan Souza on a ball off the bat of Curry Sutherland.

It was the second error of the game for the Razorbacks, who entered with college baseball’s best fielding percentage of .988.

“[He] just didn’t catch the ball,” Van Horn said. “[He’s] got to go after it with confidence, and you’ve got to make a catch."

Following Stewart’s RBI hit, McEntire issued a 4-pitch walk to Tyler Epstein to force home a run that cut the Bears’ deficit to 13-12. McGuire inherited the bases loaded with 1 out, and Dylan Robertson’s fielder’s choice tied the game before Bogenpohl grounded out to strand 2 base runners.

“All I asked of our hitters was to get a little selfish, try and have a really good at-bat, hit the ball hard and get to the next guy,” Hawkins said. “That’s we did. We’ve got some dogs on this team.”

Arkansas’ Brent Iredale, Charles Davalan and Wehiwa Aloy went down in order in the bottom of the ninth against Missouri State right-hander Jackson Holmes, who threw 26 pitches on the heels of a 56-pitch outing Sunday against Bradley.

Rodriguez’s 375-foot home run the other way to left field came on a 3-2 fastball from McGuire. It was the second home run of the game for Rodriguez, a senior second baseman who also led off the seventh with a homer the other way against Gibler and finished 5 for 6 with 2 RBI. Rodriguez had only homered once prior to the game.

Missouri State’s dugout was energized early as the Bears built a 4-0 lead through 3 1/2 innings. The Bears scored 3 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks in 3 innings against sophomore left-hander Colin Fisher, and Tyler Epstein pulled a 2-out solo home run 393 feet to left against junior right-hander Ben Bybee in the fourth.

Arkansas answered with a 5-run fourth, 3-run fifth and 4-run sixth to seemingly take control. Freshman Gabe Fraser’s grand slam in the fourth put the Razorbacks ahead 5-4 on the pitch after Missouri State right-handed starter Jason Schaaf hit Zane Becker with a pitch with the bases loaded.

Schaaf allowed 5 runs, 6 hits and 1 walk, and struck out 3 batters in 3 2/3 innings.

“I thought about taking him out before that hitter,” Hawkins said. “I wanted to give him another shot and their hitter executed and hit a grand slam.”

The Bears scored twice in the top of the fifth against Bybee to go ahead 6-5. Gollert's sacrifice fly scored Rodriguez to tie the game, and McCutcheon scored on a throwing error by right fielder Kendall Diggs.

Souza’s 2-out single scored Kozeal to tie the game, then Becker hit a 3-2 fastball off the right-center field wall for a 2-out double against right-hander Gabe Smith to put the Razorbacks ahead 8-6.

Stewart’s 415-foot home run against right-hander Dylan Carter went off the video scoreboard in right-center field to cut the Missouri State deficit to 8-7 in the sixth.

Arkansas responded with 4 doubles as part of a 4-run sixth to go ahead 12-7. Davalan and Aloy each doubled to lead off the inning, then Boles and Souza had consecutive 2-out RBI doubles.

Davalan and Souza each had 3 hits, and Kozeal, Fraser and Logan Maxwell had 2 hits apiece as part of a 16-hit night for the Razorbacks.

“The ball was jumping in [batting practice], and I told our team, 'We're going to have to score tonight,’” Van Horn said. “And we scored enough. We didn't do it on the other side of the ball.”

Arkansas pitching struck out 19, but allowed 12 earned runs, walked 6 and threw 2 wild pitches.

“You can't blame it all on the pitching when you don't make a couple of plays in the field that cost you a few runs — two runs anyway, and maybe more,” Van Horn said. “This was a team loss. We just didn’t finish.”

Corrections: The number of games in Arkansas' win streak coming into Tuesday was initially incorrect. The last time the Razorbacks committed a home error was also initially incorrect. Both errors have been corrected.