FAYETTEVILLE -- With Allie P. Reynolds Stadium only holding 3,821, tickets may go fast for the Stillwater Regional that includes the second-seeded Arkansas Razorbacks just 180 miles away, third-seeded Oral Roberts from nearby Tulsa, Okla., fourth-seeded St. John's and top-seeded host team Oklahoma State.
The double-elimination tournament begins with Arkansas vs. ORU at noon Friday and OSU vs. St. John's at 6 p.m. Friday and continues through Sunday night's championship game or Monday if necessary.
Tickets can be obtained by calling the Oklahoma State ticket office, which opens at 8 a.m today, at 877-255-4678 or can be purchased online at http://www.okstate.com/tickets.
Tickets are $60 each for both sessions with two games scheduled Friday through Sunday.
Limited single-session tickets go on sale 90 minutes before each session.
Not since hosting the 2010 regional it won at Baum Stadium, have the Razorbacks played in a regional as close to home.
"I feel like it will give our fans that really want to come see us will have an opportunity to get there," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said Monday. "Hopefully Razorback fans will show up. That'll be fun for our players."
Arkansas was assigned last year to the Charlottesville Regional hosted by Virginia.
"Obviously after going to Virginia last year, it is kind of nice to be close to home," Arkansas junior right fielder Tyler Spoon said. "Looks like we are going to get some fans there, and it should be a fun regional."
Arkansas senior left fielder Joe Serrano said the short bus ride to Stillwater will be appreciated, as are spending Saturday through Wednesday in Fayetteville after being on the road from May 11 through Friday for the final regular-season games at Creighton and at Georgia and then four SEC tournament games in Hoover, Ala.
"It's nice sleeping in your own bed and if you have a dog seeing your dog and if you have a girlfriend seeing your girlfriend." Serrano said. "It's nice coming back to Fayetteville. Honestly, it feels like home to me now. It's nice to come back home and then have a short trip. I really feel we are going to have a good fan base in Stillwater."
Arkansas junior right-hander Trey Killian, scheduled to start Friday against ORU, concurred.
"It's always nice to be home," Killian said. "Just to be able to come back here and relax and get our legs underneath us mentally and physically for this regional, it's huge for us. I think all of us are pretty pumped where we are going and that we don't have to travel very far. A good fan base like Joe said is always a helpful thing for us."
Sports on 05/26/2015