Five Razorbacks set to go in MLB draft.
FAYETTEVILLE - Five Arkansas Razorbacks heard their names called during the second day of the Major League Baseball draft Tuesday.
Junior right-handed pitcher Blaine Knight was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the third round, then Arkansas junior switch-hitting right fielder Eric Cole was drafted in the fourth round by the Kansas City Royals, junior catcher Grant Koch went in the fifth round to the Pittsburgh Pirates, shortstop Jax Biggers was selected by the Texas Rangers in the eighth round and second baseman Carson Shaddy was selected by the Washington Nationals in the 10th round.
Knight, a second-team All-SEC pick who is currently 11-0 with a 2.74 earned run average with 88 strikeouts against 21 walks in 95 1/3 innings, Cole, the leadoff hitter for coach Dave Van Horn’s Razorbacks sporting a .338 batting average with 13 home runs and 47 RBIs, Koch, renowned defensively while hitting .250 with seven home runs and 34 RBIs, Biggers, hitting. 281 with four home runs and 22 RBIs, and Shaddy, hitting .331 with 11 homers and 43 RBIs, will start negotiating with the teams that drafted them after the Razorbacks complete their season.
Top-seeded winners of the Fayetteville Regional after defeating Oral Roberts (10-2), Southern Miss (10-2) and Dallas Baptist (4-3) last Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Baum Stadium, the nationally fifth-seeded SEC West co-champion Razorbacks (42-18) on Saturday and Sunday and Monday if necessary at Baum oppose the SEC East runner-up South Carolina Gamecocks (36-24) in the best two of three Super Regional with the winner advancing to be among the eight teams playing for college baseball’s national championship at the College World Series in Omaha.
The series starts Saturday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. with ESPN2 televising the game. Sunday's game will air on ESPN beginning at 2 p.m.
Should Monday's game be necessary, ESPN will televise the game at 6 p.m.
Coach Mark Kingston’s Gamecocks emerged unscathed as the No. 2 seed, winning the rain-delayed Friday through Monday Greenville (S.C.) Regional by defeating Ohio State (8-3), top-seeded host East Carolina (4-2) and North CarolinaWilmington (8-4) in the championship game.
Arkansas and South Carolina played four times this season. The Razorbacks lost 3-2 in their first meeting at Baum then won the next two by scores of 2-0 and 3-0.
The 3-2 defeat was the only home SEC loss that Arkansas encountered this season at Baum.
In the first round of the SEC Tournament at Hoover, Ala., Arkansas outslugged the Gamecocks 13-8.
Television crews and newspaper photographers hoping for a celebrating dog pile video or photo shoot of Razorbacks celebrating winning the Fayetteville Regional Sunday night had to be disappointed. There was no dog pile. While understanding if one takes place, Van Horn would just as soon not see one if on Saturday or Sunday should they advance past South Carolina on to Omaha.
“That’s what you are supposed to do,” Van Horn said during Sunday’s postgame about his Hogs exuding happiness but
not piling on each other to show it. "To me you don’t dog pile at a regional. To me the only time you dog pile is if you get to go to Omaha and I don’t even like it then. I don’t want anybody to get hurt.”
Especially with what looms this weekend and he hopes beyond.
“They are pretty business like,” Van
Horn said.
“They know we’ve still have got some work to do to get to the goal that we’re trying to achieve and go from there. I appreciate the way they acted. They act like they’ve been there before.”
The SEC is guaranteed three teams advancing from Super Regionals to Omaha with the winners advancing between Arkansas vs. South Carolina in Fayetteville, Auburn vs. Florida in Gainesville, Fla., and Mississippi State vs. Vanderbilt in Nashville.
The other best two of three Super Regionals pit Texas Tech vs. Duke, Tennessee Tech at Texas, Stetson vs. North Carolina and Cal State-Fullerton vs. Washington.