FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas won more than just a baseball game with last Saturday's 8-0 SEC regular-season closing triumph at Texas A&M.
Coach Dave Van Horn's nationally No. 16 Razorbacks, 39-15 overall and closing 18-11 for second in the SEC West and fourth overall in the 14-team league, finished by winning their second consecutive SEC series two out of three, and they won an extra day's rest until Wednesday with a Tuesday bye in the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.
Regardless of what transpires for them in the double-elimination tournament in Hoover, the Razorbacks next week are NCAA Regional bound with a strong possibility of hosting the regional at Baum Stadium.
This is quite a turnaround considering this time last year the Razorbacks sacked the bats, 26-29 overall and at a last-place 7-23 in the SEC, one of two teams not included in the SEC Tournament which has four play-in games Tuesday among the next eight vying to join the seeded top four Wednesday.
At approximately 8 p.m. CDT on the SEC Network as the last of Wednesday's four games that begin at 9:30 a.m. CDT, the Razorbacks play Tuesday night's single-elimination winner between the Mississippi State Bulldogs of the SEC West and the Georgia Bulldogs of the SEC East.
Arkansas swept three from both Bulldogs during the SEC season at Baum Stadium.
Mississippi State, though third, 17-13, to Arkansas' second in the West, closed the week nationally ranked 13th, higher than Arkansas.
However, Arkansas by its SEC finish and sweeping Mississippi State to start the SEC season, appears the more likely regional host if the committee ultimately narrows the 16 hosts of the four-team regionals down to an Arkansas/Mississippi State either-or.
All that, Van Horn always says, takes care of itself if the Hogs keep taking care of business.
For now it's just catching breaths and regrouping for Hoover knowing that aces Trevor Stephan, who had a fine outing against A&M Thursday which reliever Jake Reindl first botched with a blown save but was ultimately won in relief on Chad Spanberger's 10th-inning two-run home run, and Bryant's Blaine Knight, Saturday's six-inning shutout victor, are simultaneously back in fine form.
Knight appeared over a sore forearm that had prompted him to be bumped from a second to third-game start against A&M.
Freshman right-hander Kevin Kopps finished what Knight started with three scoreless innings.
SEC West and East champions LSU and Florida share the SEC Overall at 21-9. Kentucky stands third at 19-11, a half game ahead of the 18-11 Razorbacks who were rained out of a game at Tennessee.
Once you can't win it all, settling for second, third or fourth and its SEC Tournament bye is just fine.
"We weren't playing for a championship today," Van Horn said after Saturday's success in College Station, Texas. "Just playing to get better and assure ourselves two ballgames in Hoover. Hoover is one of those tournaments you want to want it, but at the same time you don't want to wear yourself out."
But it sure beats sitting out with the bats sacked back home.
Van Horn and the Razorbacks, always regional qualifiers from Van Horn's 2003 first season including four College World Series trips, insisted last season would be a one-year aberration, and they've made it stick.
Stephan, Knight and lately Dominic Taccolini, Reindl, Kopps and left-handers Evan Lee of Bryant and Kacey Murphy of Rogers have done their part on the mound while top to bottom the Hogs have hit which they didn't last year.
"Our lineup is deeper than it's been in awhile," Van Horn said Saturday in College Station. "We couldn't say that last year. Maybe the year when we had a good (College World Series) team in 2015, but it kind of slowed down once we got past the sixth hitter. This team we've been able to put together good innings even with the bottom of the order getting it started."
In fact the Hogs leading hitter, shortstop Jax Biggers, .335 for all games and .340 for SEC games, batted ninth most of the season, leaving pitchers no respite in an Arkansas attack that has swatted a SEC leading 70 home runs.
Already on the road, the Razorbacks weren't scheduled to return from College Station to Fayetteville but proceeded on to Hoover.
Sports on 05/22/2017