Arkansas wins ugly to extend season; now need just one more to make history

Over the past 56 games, Arkansas' season is filled with plenty of different pretty moments. Three of the program's 17 no-hitters came within the last three months. 23 run-rule victories is a program record for a season that shattered the old record of 16 (2014).

In an elimination game, none of it was pretty. Lefty starter Payton Burnham was throwing up just hours before she took the mound to spin a complete game shutout. Although she retired the final 14 hitters, she had to strand a runner on base in each of the first three innings in a 2-0 game.

Burnham had her Jordan flu game moment, battling an illness over the past 36 hours.

" Resting [and] recovering," Burnham said. "Just trying to get back to at least 80% as fast as possible."

The Arkansas offense, ranked eighth in runs in the NCAA that averaged nearly eight runs a game, was held to just six hits on four runs. All the runs were aided by less than stellar Ole Miss defense.

The two runs in the first came without the ball ever leaving the infield. The two runs in the fifth came directly as a result of a pair of errors.

"It doesn't matter what it looks like," coach Courtney Deifel. "Tonight it was a phenomenal performance on defense and our hitters did enough, and that's really all that matters."

In a season of pretty wins, historical moments and beauty prizes of offensive brilliance, it was perhaps the most ugly duckling of them all that extended its season an extra day.

" She wants the ball," Deifel said about Burnham. "She wants the moment. If you're gonna be a pitcher, you have to want that. It takes a special breed to do that. She thrives in it, and she was just really excited to feel better."

Now Arkansas finds themselves in the same position that they were nearly three years ago. The Hogs managed just five hits across seven innings in a decisive game three in 2022 against Texas.

Their season ended with a whimper, as the Longhorns took the ticket to Oklahoma City away from Deifel and the Razorbacks on their home field.

The Hogs look to avoid that same fate three years later, win and make program history.

" I don't know another team that would be able to do what they did yesterday," Deifel said. "Just was incredibly proud of 'em. For them to turn the page from yesterday and show up today and play loose with their backs against the wall, but never feeling that from them was really special.

"They know tomorrow's about toughness. It's gonna take a lot of guts, a lot of heart, and a lot of toughness. They'll be ready."

Ole Miss doesn't have the same scar tissue, with the first game being the first Super Regional win in school history. It's a one game shootout where the pressure cooker gets cranked up to another level.

"Having the ability to let go," Ole Miss coach Jamie Trachsel said. "The great players, the elite players, they just do it faster than everybody else. We would have liked to win, we didn't. Our team has done a pretty good job of flushing and moving on."

First pitch between Ole Miss and Arkansas is scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.

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