Three Hogs receive all-SEC honors
FAYETTEVILLE — By vote of the Southeastern Conference head baseball coaches, Arkansas catcher Grant Koch, shortstop Jax Biggers and center fielder Dominic Fletcher were awarded all-Southeastern Conference honors, it was announced Monday by the league office in Birmingham, Ala.
Sophomore Koch, Arkansas’ second all-SEC catcher and the first since Jake Wise in 2014, was honored not only as an excellent every-day catcher but also hitting .287 with 13 home runs and 40 RBI. Koch is an ongoing semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award honoring college baseball’s best catcher.
Biggers, a sophomore junior-college transfer, was nearly flawless at shortstop, with just six errors, for the 39-15 Hogs, and led the Razorbacks hitting for all games, .335, and .340 in the team’s 18-11 SEC campaign.
Freshman Fletcher, regarded by coach Dave Van Horn as perhaps his best defensive center fielder since coming to Arkansas as head coach in 2003, hits .292 and has hit 10 home runs, the most by a Razorback freshman since Zak Cox’s 13 in 2009.
All can increase their stats as the Razorbacks, ranked 13th nationally by the USA Today coaches poll, start their double-elimination SEC tournament at approximately 8 p.m. Wednesday in Hoover, Ala., against the winner of tonight’s play-in game between Mississippi State and Georgia. The Razorbacks are also assuredly in next week’s NCAA regionals and likely to host at Baum Stadium as the SEC West runner-up and overall fourth-place SEC
finisher.
The SEC Network televises all SEC-tournament games starting with today’s 9:30 a.m. first of four play-in games between the fifth- and 12th-place finishers in the 14-team league.
Earning first-round byes are SEC co-champions LSU (SEC West) and Florida (SEC East) each at 21-9, third-place overall and SEC East runner-up Kentucky, 19-11, and fourth-place Arkansas, 18-11, playing one less SEC game because of a rainout at Tennessee.
Hogs’ center Ragnow on Rimington watch list
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas senior center Frank Ragnow adorns the Rimington Trophy Spring Watch List for the second consecutive year, it was announced Monday in New York.
Named for former All-America center Dave Rimington, of Nebraska, the trophy is annually awarded in December to college football’s best center and went to former Razorback Jonathan Luigs in 2007.
Ragnow, of Victoria, Minn., is a threeyear letterman who played backup center in 2014 behind former Rimington Watch List center Mitch Smother, started 13 games at offensive guard in 2015 and in 13 starts, 12 at center and one at guard, and in 2016 was named the nation’s best offensive and best run-blocker and a firstteam All-American by Pro Football Focus. He was also named AP second-team all-SEC blocking for running back Rawleigh Williams (SEC leader in regular-season rushing with 1,326 yards) and quarterback Austin Allen (SEC leader in passing yards, 3,430).