FAYETTEVILLE -- Missouri State left-hander Reece Lang didn't make a Sunday start at Indiana State last weekend due to tenderness in his shoulder.
The joint still wasn't feeling its best Tuesday night, but it was good enough to throw five dazzling innings and pick up the win in the Bears' 6-4 upset of No. 3 Arkansas at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Lang allowed 2 hits, including Dylan Leach's solo home run in the third inning, and walked 1 while striking out 5 as Missouri State ended the Razorbacks' 18-game winning streak in mid-week games.
"Going into it, just knew I didn't have to do a whole lot, just stay around the zone, fill it up and let my defense do the work, and that's what I did," Lang said. "I stayed around the zone. My change-up was working well, off-speed just kept them off-balance. Let my defense do the work.
"My shoulder was a little bit off, but you've got to compete for your team sometimes."
Missouri State Coach Keith Guttin said Lang's five innings set up the bullpen just as the Bears had planned.
"He's kind of off and on been on our Sunday starter. But he couldn't throw Sunday, so obviously he had more rest, a couple of additional days," Guttin said. "If he can give us five innings, we're really happy.
"He changes speeds. He was good."
Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said the Razorbacks chased too many pitches out of the zone.
"We got ourselves out a little bit," he said. "I guess whatever he was throwing, it looked better than it was. Give credit to Lang there. He did a good job. I didn't see a lot balls hit well."
Bears right-hander Eric Loomis worked a couple of scoreless innings before giving way to right-hander Trey Ziegenbein, who pitched a scoreless eighth before yielding three runs in the ninth, two of them unearned.
"That's what we've kind of got put together the last couple of weeks, the guys we can trust in our bullpen to come in, and they did a good job tonight," Guttin said.
Scoreless streak
Arkansas pitcher Zack Morris kept up his recent hot streak by throwing two scoreless innings against Missouri State in the seventh and eighth. The junior left-hander from Cabot extended his streak of scoreless work to 13 2/3 innings covering six outings.
Morris allowed 2 hits and a walk and struck out 3 while throwing 35 pitches, 19 for strikes. His ERA dropped to 0.90.
Nivens knock
Missouri State leadoff man Spencer Nivens put the Bears ahead for good with a two-run home run off Will McEntire in the third inning.
Nivens' fifth home run of the season came on a 2-0 pitch and went out to straight center field.
"I was looking for a fastball," Nivens said. "I got one down the middle and put a good swing on it. That's what we preach here is hitting strikes hard. I did that and it happened to go over the fence."
Leach on loop
Arkansas catcher Dylan Leach kept up his strong mid-week work with a good night at the plate, although he grounded out to shortstop with the tying runs in scoring position to end the game.
The sophomore from Carthage, Texas, hit a solo home run in his first at-bat in the third inning and walked in the fifth. In his only other plate appearance, he hit a hot ground ball to first base on which Missouri State's Mason Greer made a strong short-hop pick and beat Leach to the bag.
Leach entered the game 10 for 22 (.455) in his past 6 starts with 3 home runs and 11 RBI.
Doubling up
The Razorbacks turned another double play to get out of the first inning, taking their season total to 42, almost one per game.
New Mexico entered the night as the NCAA leader with 50 double plays turned. Baylor and New Orleans were tied for second with 47.
Veteran arms
Arkansas right-handers Kole Ramage and Zebulon Vermillion both made their first appearances since April 24 at Texas A&M.
Ramage worked the fourth and fifth innings, striking out 5 and allowing a run on 2 hits and a walk with a wild pitch. His ERA briefly dropped under 4.00 but went back over it after center fielder Hayden Moore doubled, advanced on the wild pitch, then scored on Spencer Nivens' RBI ground ball.
Vermillion pitched a scoreless sixth, allowing a hit and a walk and striking out one and dropping his ERA to 2.50.
Web gems
The third basemen for both teams turned in fine defensive plays in the early going. Arkansas' Cayden Wallace tracked a high foul ball from Walker Jenkins over to the stands in the third inning, got to the wall and then reached behind himself at the last moment to squeeze the pop-up.
Missouri State third baseman Grant Wood made an outstanding defensive play to open the Arkansas second. Wood backed up on Braydon Webb's sharp chopper, fielded it behind the bag, planted and gunned Webb out at first by a step.
Bears left fielder Spencer Nivens followed that with a good running catch on Jace Bohrofen's sinking line drive while looking into the sun for the next out.
Greer's peerage
Missouri State first baseman Mason Greer is the son of Rusty Greer, a nine-year major leaguer with the Texas Rangers with a career batting average of .305.
A former top 50 prospect in Texas, Greer began his career at Auburn before transferring to McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, where Dave Van Horn played before transferring to Arkansas. Greer hit .322 with 17 home runs, 66 RBI and 33 extra-base hits in 62 games at McLennan.
Greer committed one of his team's three errors on a Brady Slavens chopper in the second inning, but he had a strong defensive game otherwise, with five unassisted put-outs at first, an assist and a good catch on a foul pop near the stands off the bat of Cayden Wallace.
Baum-tastic
The Razorbacks drew an announced attendance of 34,796 to its three-game series against Ole Miss last weekend, the most-attended regular season series ever at Baum-Walker Stadium.
UA Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek, in a letter posted on the department's website Tuesday, said the Razorbacks lead the nation in both total attendance (319,395) and average attendance (10,303) in the 31 games at Baum-Walker this season.
The attendance was announced as 9,419 for Tuesday's game against Missouri State.
Arkansas athletics uses tickets distributed as its attendance figure, not actual attendance.
Top photo
The NCAA Baseball Twitter page on Tuesday declared its "Photo of the Week" to be a picture of Arkansas DH Kendall Diggs, helmet off, a couple of steps from home plate as his teammates surround the dish while celebrating his three-run walk-off home run in last Saturday's 6-3 win over Ole Miss.
Suite bark
Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek participated in UA's "Bark at the Park" promotion Tuesday, with a pair of dogs in his suite, along with wife Jennifer and sons Ryan, Jake and Brooks.