The University of Arkansas at Monticello Boll Weevils entered the NCAA Division II Central Regional #2 Tournament for the first time since the 2019 season after winning the Great American Conference Tournament Championship the week prior.
In 2019, the Weevils would open the Central Regional Tournament with a win against Minnesota State University-Mankato 13-2 but would go on to lose the next two contests to Augustana University (South Dakota) 9-4, and would close the season with a loss to Oklahoma Baptist University in a contest that was delayed due to weather over two days with the Weevils falling 17-15.
Fast forward to five seasons later, the Weevils would open the Central Regional against conference opponent Arkansas Tech, who the Weevils shared the regular season GAC Championship with along with Harding University.
UAM had defeated Arkansas Tech in the GAC Championship Tournament after the Wonder Boys defeated UAM 9-3 to force a final contest with UAM winning the GAC Championship 8-5.
Despite winning a share of the regular season conference championship and taking the GAC Tournament Championship and defeating Arkansas Tech in that championship tournament, the Weevils would enter the Central Regional #2 as the sixth seed with Arkansas Tech being held as the third seed with the teams facing each other for the third consecutive time within a week to open the tournament.
The Weevils would represent the visiting team against Arkansas Tech and would bat at the top of the inning.
Roc Hawthorne would get the Weevils going in the lead off at bat, recording a double to left field and after a single by Camden Tanner, Kirk Woolf would get his first RBI of the contest on a sacrifice fly to score Hawthorne to give the Weevils a 1-0 lead.
Arkansas Tech would get a run in the bottom of the first to even the game at one but UAM would lead off the top of the second inning with a walk by Cade Cancilla.
After the first out of the inning, Parker Dorrance would connect for a two run home run to give the Weevils a 3-1 lead.
UAM added two runs in the top of the third with solo home runs by Woolf and Chaz Poppy to give the Weevils a 5-1 advantage.
Arkansas Tech would pull within one run in the bottom of the third inning on a two out, three run home run to cut the lead to 5-4.
UAM added two runs in the top of the fourth inning to increase their lead to 7-4.
Arkansas Tech added a run in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut the Weevil lead to 7-5 and another in the bottom of the sixth on a solo home run to cut the deficit to 7-6.
Roc Hawthorne would get the run back in the top of the seventh on a solo home run to left field for a 8-6 lead.
Arkansas Tech would tie the contest in the bottom half of the inning on a two run home run but UAM would get a run in the top of the eighth and two more in the top of the ninth to take the 11-8 lead.
Arkansas Tech added a run in the bottom of the ninth but Nelson Mercado would get the final out by way of a strikeout for the save and the 11-9 win.
UAM would move on to face the second seed in the bracket, Missouri Southern State University.
Missouri Southern would take a 4-0 lead, getting two runs in the top of the third inning and two more runs in the top of the sixth.
UAM would get on the board in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Parker Dorrance would single followed by a walk to DeShaun Cordova.
Hawthorne would single to advance Cordova and score Dorrance.
Camden Tanner doubled to score Hawthorne and Dorrance.
Kirk Woolf singled up the middle to score Tanner and after the next out and a pitching change, Chase Cripps would get his first triple of the season to score Woolf to give the Weevils the 5-4 lead.
UAM would add two more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning with Nelson Mercado coming in for his 10th save of the season as the Weevils took the 7-4 win.
Missouri Southern would drop to the elimination bracket to defeat Harding University to get a rematch with the Weevils on Saturday in hopes to force an elimination contest.
After a scoreless first inning and UAM pitcher Dylan Vail getting Missouri Southern out in the top of the second inning, the Weevils would jump on the Lions pitching in the bottom of the second inning.
Cade Cancilla would lead off with a walk.
After the first out of the inning, Dorrance would single to advance Cancilla to second.
Cordova would walk to load the bases followed by a single by Hawthorne to score Dorrance and Cancilla.
Tanner would walk to load the bases followed by a Woolf double to score Hawthorne and Cordova with Cripps connecting for a single to score Woolf and Tanner for a 6-0 lead.
Missouri Southern would get four runs in the top of the fourth but the Weevils would add three runs in the bottom of the inning to increase the lead to 9-4 and added two final runs in the bottom of the seventh for the 11-4 win to advance to the Super Regionals for the first time in school history.
The Weevils will now travel to Warrensburg, Missouri to face the University of Central Missouri Mules.
The Mules advanced to the Super Regionals by winning the Central Regional #1 bracket and will come into the contest with a 50-8 overall record and are the #2 ranked team in NCAA Division II by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America.
The Weevils and Mules will play in a best of three series with the winner of the series to advance to the NCAA Division II College World Series in Cary, North Carolina beginning on June 1 through June 8.
The Weevils and Mules have met five times with the Mules holding a 3-2 record over the Weevils.
Central Missouri and UAM will play game one on Friday, May 24, at 3 pm with game two on Saturday at 2 pm with game three if needed to be played 30 minutes after game two.
