Hogs face midweek challenge
FAYETTEVILLE — All that stands between the Arkansas Razorbacks and a six-game winning streak heading into their first SEC road trip is the University of New Orleans of the Southland Conference.
New Orleans, which is 13-8 after losing Tuesday afternoon at Missouri State, enters Baum Stadium at 6 p.m. today with a reputation as a formidable opponent.
The Privateers beat No. 4 LSU 11-8 in New Orleans and 7-4 in 15 innings in Baton Rouge, in midweek games this season and are hitting .308 as a team.
“Which is very impressive, even after 20 games, because they’ve played some pretty good people,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said.
UNO’s victories over LSU caught the attention of Arkansas outfielder Luke Bonfield.
“They have some history of beating SEC teams this year,” Bonfield said. “It’s going to be a good challenge and a good RPI game for us.”
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (17-4), enters the nonconference game with a 9-1 record on
its current homestand and the momentum that goes with sweeping three games from Mississippi State in its SEC series opener last weekend.
“I think we know that we’re a pretty good team,” catcher Grant Koch said.
“We’re rolling pretty well,” said outfielder Jake Arledge, who has hit safely in 16 of the past 17 games. “Our starting pitching is giving us a chance and our hitting has been timely, so it’s been pretty good.”
Arkansas is starting to gain national recognition, reaching fringe top-25 status in the USA Today Coaches poll, the National College Baseball Writers Association poll and Collegiate Baseball.
“They feel like if they play well we can beat anybody on any given day,” Van Horn said. “Whenever you win, it just seems to build confidence. That’s one reason I think the weekend went well is because we felt like we were starting to get it going a little bit.”
The Razorbacks have received positive news regarding infielder Jared Gates, who had one of the hottest bats during fall practices, but has missed time with a hamate bone injury in his left hand. Van Horn said Gates, a left-handed hitter, would start at third base against the Privateers.
New Orleans, which features 23 junior-college or prep school players on its roster, has five regulars and three part-time players hitting .300 or better, led by Samuel Capielano (.395, 1 HR, 14 RBI), Orynn Veillon (.353, 1 HR, 16 RBI), Tristan Clarke (.342, 5 HR, 22 RBI) and Owen Magee (.338, 2 HR, 24 RBI).
The Privateers were swept by Southeastern Louisiana in their opening Southland Conference series two weeks ago, but second-year Coach Blake Dean’s team rebounded to win at LSU last week before sweeping Abilene Christian in Southland action.
Arkansas left-hander Kacey Murphy (2-0, 3.27 ERA) of Rogers will start against today, though Van Horn’s goal is to have a full array of pitchers available for the weekend series at Missouri.
“We want to make sure we’re loaded and ready to go against Missouri,” he said.