Hogs host Aggies to close regular season home schedule

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas seniors Carson Shaddy, Luke Bonfield and Jared Gates will play their final regular season games at Baum Stadium this weekend.

Coach Dave Van Horn will meet some familiar faces in the opposite dugout. No. 20 Texas A&M (3414, 12-12 Southeastern Conference) is coached by Rob Childress, the pitching coach when Van Horn was the head coach at Nebraska. Aggie assistants Will Bolt and Justin Seely played for Van Horn’s 2001 and

2002 Cornhusker teams that made the College World Series.

No. 6 Arkansas (33-15, 14-10) will host A&M at

6 p.m. tonight to open the weekend series. Both tonight’s game and the Saturday game at 6 p.m. are scheduled to be broadcast on the SEC Network (Resort Channel 79).

The final game on Sunday is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN2 (Resort Channel 29) at noon. Arkansas will close the regular season on the road at No. 15 Georgia (34-14, 15-9).

The team’s three seniors believe the Razorbacks are positioned to host an NCAA Regional as they did last year following the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala. Arkansas is 27-3 at home this season.

“I sure hope this isn’t the last series here,” Bonfield said. “I hope we get to play at Baum as long as possible. But we can’t think about that. We’ve got to think about Friday night’s game.” So does Van Horn.

“I say it every year, I really don’t like coaching against Rob (whom he has called a ‘best friend’) and Will and Justin,” Van Horn said. “Those two assistants played for me at Nebraska and helped us get to Omaha two years in a row. But it’s business when we play them.”

A business where both sides know each others’ business from formerly being business together.

“Yeah, I see similarities,” Van Horn said in how the Aggies and Hogs play. “They think they’ve got me figured out, too. You’ll see them pitch out at certain times because maybe there’s a tendency to hit and run on those counts over the years, so usually I won’t just to see if they will. There’s a lot of that going on. Bottom line, we just know each other pretty good.”

Gates and fellow alternating first baseman Jordan McFarland have struggled lately. So, junior utility infielder Hunter Wilson, seems set to start at first base tonight.

Van Horn said Thursday Bonfield would be the designated hitter against the Aggies. He is hitting .296 this season with six home runs and 27 RBIs.

“Texas A&M as a whole has some big-time arms,” Bonfield said. “You are going to see a lot of velo (velocity) — some good off-speed, some good sliders. But they are going to attack you with the fast ball. That’s what we’ve got to be ready to hit.”

Van Horn said he believes A&M has the deepest pitching staff in the SEC. he cited Sunday starter Stephen Kolek (5-4, 3.78 ERA), a junior right-hander who pitched the SEC series openers on Fridays last year.

Junior right-hander Mitchell Kilkenny (8-2, 2.20) is scheduled to start tonight for the Aggies with sophomore southpaw Justin Doxakis (6-3, 3.04) starting Saturday.

A&M bats .288 as a team led by second baseman Michael Helman, .378, six home runs, 32 RBIs; shortstop Braden Shewmake, .338 four home runs and 40 RBIs; and designated hitter Logan Foster, .316, eight home runs, 34 RBIs.

Arkansas starts junior right-hander Blaine Knight

(7-0, 2.77) tonight, junior lefty Kacey Murphy ( 5-4,

2.5) Saturday and junior right-hander Isaiah Campbell

(3-5, 4.76) on Sunday.

With lefty closer Matt Cronin on a mononucleosis recovery timetable to be available Sunday, Van Horn said he will not be hesitant to go to the bullpen Friday and Saturday to recent mainstay Barrett Loseke.

Van Horn said Campbell, recently struggling, will be on a “short leash” if he struggles again.

Arkansas bats .306 as a team with five .300 plus hitters. Dominic Fletcher is hitting .306 with seven home runs and 31 RBIs, while Shaddy is at .361 nine home runs 29 RBI. Leadoff-hitting right fielder Eric Cole is hitting .335 and 38 RBIs and leads the team with 12 home runs. Left fielder Heston Kjerstad hits

.357 and leads the team with 42 RBIs, while freshman third baseman Casey Martin hits .340 and matches Kjerstad’s 10 home runs and has 37 RBIs.