STARKVILLE, Miss.—Relief ace Aaron Weatherford couldn’t save it for Mississippi State starter Ricky Bowen and retiring Mississippi State coach Ron Polk against Arkansas.

But thanks to Ryan Duffy’s seventh-inning home run off losing starter Justin Wells, Weatherford won it, 6-5, against the Razorbacks in Thursday night’s start to a 3-game regular-season-closing SEC series at MSU’s Dudy Noble Field.

Weatherford couldn’t prevent Arkansas from coming back from down 5-3 to tie when he relieved Bowen with two on and one out in the seventh, yielding a run-scoring wild pitch an...