FAYETTEVILLE -- Dave Van Horn presumes his Razorbacks playing for a Southeastern Conference tournament baseball championship starting tonight in Hoover, Ala., but they will not be playing to host an NCAA regional at Baum Stadium.
With 16 four-team regionals to be assigned Monday, Van Horn believes one will be at Baum.
Ranked 13th nationally by the USA Today coaches poll with a No. 14 RPI (ratings power index), the Razorbacks, 39-15 overall and 18-11 SEC for fourth-place overall and second in the SEC West, play Tuesday's late night play-in winner between Georgia (25-31, 11-19, fifth SEC East) and 19th-ranked Mississippi State (34-22, 17-13, third SEC West).
"Obviously we are going to try and win every game in Hoover, " Van Horn said. "But we feel like we've done enough right now that we should be awarded a regional."
The SEC tournament plays second fiddle to the regional, which begin the winnowing process of the eight teams playing for the national championship at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
But it seems very important after not qualifying for it the previous season, like Arkansas last year (26-29, 7-23) for the first time in Van Horn's 15 Arkansas seasons.
As the fourth and final game of today's possible long day's journey into near midnight, the Razorbacks are listed to play approximately at 8 p.m with the SEC Network (Resort Channel 79) televising the entire tournament.
Arkansas swept both Mississippi State (3-1, 5-4 and 6-1) and Georgia (14-4, 5-4 in 10 innings and 11-3), both at Baum Stadium.
However, that guarantees nothing in Hoover.
Mississippi State, not touted in preseason, rebounded from that Arkansas sweep to lead the SEC West for much of this season.
Georgia may be the underdog that the SEC's top four would be just as happy to avoid in Hoover.
"Mississippi State is a little older team, and Georgia is a young team that's really been hot," Van Horn said Tuesday by phone from Hoover. "I think Georgia has won their last three series, and Mississippi State has lost a couple of series in a row, but in tournaments you never know how it goes. It's not like we want to play one team or another, we just play."
Unquestionably, junior right-hander Trevor Stephan (5-3, 3.24 ERA) and sophomore right-hander Blaine Knight (7-4, 3.23) are Arkansas' top two starting pitcher. Stephan has 103 strikeouts and 15 walks in 77 2/3 innings and Knight has 79 strikeouts against 16 walks in 78 innings.
However, Van Horn gambles on extending Knight's rest until Friday.
Stephan, last pitching on Thursday night as Arkansas won two of three in its final SEC series at Texas A&M, will start tonight.
Knight was bumped to Saturday's third-game finale to heal forearm soreness. He responded with six shutout innings in the 8-0 victory over the Aggies.
"Thursday with Blaine, we needed to give him another day," Van Horn said. "Get him to Friday and kind of get him ready for the next weekend as well."
Senior right-hander Dominic Taccolini started Friday's second game against Texas A&M but isn't a sure thing to start Thursday.
"Taccolini is definitely an option to start Game Two," Van Horn said. "But we've even considered starting (sophomore closer Jake) Reindl, giving him an opportunity to start. And (freshman right-hander Kevin) Kopps is a guy that was really good out of the pen the other day. Or we might just try and piece that one together Thursday with maybe three or four different guys."
Van Horn also faces a third-base dilemma. Jared Gates' once hot bat has so cooled, .232, that Van Horn recently variously has started Matt Burch and Jack Kenley at third and occasionally moved regular second baseman Carson Shaddy to third for freshman Jaxon Williams at second.
"I don't know if I'm going to start him (Gates)," Van Horn said. "He hasn't been swinging the bat real good, and that's the issue. We haven't been getting any production out of the third baseman in our lineup. If that's the case, then I am probably more likely to start somebody on the defensive side. That's kind of what I am leaning towards."
That would lean to freshman Kenley, though he's 0 for 19.
"He's fielding the ball really well, runs good, throws good," Van Horn said. "And his last two at bats against A&M he lined out to center and lined out to shortstop on one hop. It was good to see him hit the ball on the nose. Obviously he's due."
Van Horn heartily approved the SEC coaches voting Razorback sophomore catcher Grant Koch first-team all-SEC and sophomore shortstop Jax Biggers second-team all-SEC and freshman center fielder Dominic Fletcher to the all-SEC Freshman team.
He said junior first baseman Chad Spanberger, 14 home runs and 54 RBI, posts an all-SEC season but unfortunately plays the same position as Brent Rooker, the SEC Player of the Year from Mississippi State, and outstanding first baseman Evan White of Kentucky.
Sports on 05/24/2017