NC State knocks out No. 1 Arkansas on Torres’ homer in 9th

Kopps, the front-runner for college baseball’s top award who entered the game with a 0.66 earned-run average and a 12-0 record with 11 saves, was tabbed to make his first start of the season with the Razorbacks on the brink of elimination and after Kopps (12-1) threw the final two innings in a 6-5 loss to NC State on Saturday. Kopps, who had allowed just six runs in 80 1/3 innings this season, surrendered three runs on seven hits in eight-plus innings, striking out nine.

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Freshman Matt Willadsen started for the Wolfpack, allowing only an unearned run on two hits in four innings. Chris Villaman pitched the next three innings, yielding two hits and a run. Evan Justice (5-2) didn’t allow a hit in working the final two innings to pick up the win.

Arkansas took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the top of the second. Christian Franklin reached on an error by Wolfpack third baseman Vojtech Mensik and scored on a two-out double by Charlie Welch. NC State came into the game with a team fielding percentage of .983, second best in D-I.