Arkansas scheduled to start SEC tournament play tonight in Hoover
The No. 8 Arkansas Razorbacks will begin their path through the 2018 Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament tonight in Hoover, Ala., against the winner of Tuesday’s late play-in game between South Carolina and Missouri.
Arkansas (37-17, 18-12) finished the regular season as the co-champion of the SEC West with No. 4 Ole Miss (42-14, 18-12). The No. 23 Gamecocks (32-22, 17-13) and Tigers (34-21, 12-18) played the final play-in game on Tuesday, the opening game of the tournament.
Tonight’s game is estimated to begin at 8 p.m., but could start later as the fourth of four games. All of the tournament’s games will be televised on the SEC Network (Resort Channel 79) until Sunday’s final, which will be shown on ESPN2 (Resort Channel 29).
It is a cinch Arkansas will host one of next week’s 16 four-team regionals at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville upon Monday’s announcement of the 2018 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship bracket. The Hogs have the No. 4 RPI in the country with one of the nation’s toughest schedules.
However, there is still conjecture whether Arkansas needs to win several games in Hoover to be one of the eight national seeds in line for a super regional round. The eight super regional winners advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
“Obviously, we try to win every game,” Van Horn said Monday in Hoover. “If we win a game or two,
it’s definitely going to help us. I still think (regardless) we have an opportunity to be a top eight.
“Our strength of schedule is not going down. With the teams we play. it’s probably going to go up. We are just focusing on trying to stay healthy and stay here all week if possible.”
Van Horn’s Razorbacks have played against seven teams in this week’s top 25 rankings, including losing two out of three road games at No. 1 Florida (4115, 20-10), Ole Miss and No. 7 Georgia (37-17, 18-12). Arkansas defeated No. 12 Texas (37-18,
17-7), the regular season Big
12 champion, and fellow Big
12 member Texas Tech (38-15,
15-9), ranked No. 15, at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks won two out of three games against South Carolina at home and swept No. 24 Auburn
(37-19, 15-15).
Even Arkansas’ lowest point in conference play, a three-game sweep on the road by the Mississippi State Bulldogs (31-2, 1515) in Starkville, Miss., does not appear so low now.
“At the time, everybody thought Mississippi State was an average or below average team,” Van Horn said. “They just swept Florida. We played all the top teams in the East and the top teams in the West, we had to play them on the road.
“We won 18 games, co-champions in the league. It’s been a pretty good season so far. We just need to finish this thing off and catch our second wind.”
Van Horn said the Razorbacks are at their healthiest in awhile. Junior shortstop Jax Biggers, ably subbed for by sophomore Jack Kenley, nears his return from a broken finger while junior catcher Grant Koch’s three games last weekend at Georgia proved he has recovered from a sprained ankle.
Also, SEC rotation starting pitcher Isaiah Campbell’s foot injury seems healed.
Junior left-hander Kacey Murphy (6-4, 2.78 ERA) or the redshirt sophomore righthander Campbell (4-5, 4.05) will start tonight. Junior ace righthander Blaine Knight (9-0, 2.88) is expected to pitch Friday after working the most innings last week at Georgia.
Arkansas was 29-3 in Fayetteville, including 14-1 in SEC games. If the Razorbacks meet South Carolina, they will meet the one SEC team not swept upon visiting Baum.
“South Carolina is a very good team,” Van Horn said. “They gave us our only home loss in conference play and we felt very good winning that series.
“South Carolina is just solid. They can really pitch. They’ve been playing really good ball lately. They finished out their series at Texas A&M on the road and took care of business. They won two out of three. They probably are playing their best baseball.”
Missouri and Arkansas were not scheduled against each other in the regular season.
“Missouri is a team that I’ve seen on TV many a time throughout this season,” Van Horn said. “They can really pitch and play good defense. I think they are a dangerous team because they are fighting to get into a regional.
“They have to win tomorrow to have the chance to play us and then if they get there they’ll try to throw all their best pitchers to get another win to get into that winner’s bracket. We played Missouri last year. They have pretty much all the same players and most of the pitching staff. Either way both teams are really good.”
If fourth-seeded Arkansas wins tonight, the Razorbacks will play Thursday’s late game against either No. 1 seed Florida or Tuesday night’s play-in winner between Mississippi State and LSU (33-23, 15-15).
If Arkansas loses tonight, the Razorbacks would play either Florida, Mississippi State or LSU at approximately 4:30 p.m Thursday.