HOOVER, Ala. -- University of Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn would love to win the Razorbacks' first Southeastern Conference baseball championship.
Van Horn also wants to make sure his No. 5-ranked Razorbacks are rested and ready for NCAA Tournament play that begins next weekend.
Trying to accomplish both goals is a challenge.
"I think everybody here wants to win that trophy," Van Horn said. "But at the same time, you don't want to jeopardize what you're trying to do over the next couple of weeks."
Ole Miss won the SEC Tournament last season, but then failed to win its NCAA regional at home, losing twice to Tennessee Tech.
"Any time you're playing and you get out on the field, your competitiveness takes over," Van Horn said of the motivation to win the SEC Tournament. "You want to win the games.
"It's such a fine line of not overdoing it with pitching, No. 1, and you've got to take care of your catchers in the heat of the day as well as your other players.
"There's a lot that goes into it and it takes time to recover. So you've got to be smart about it. We're going to do the best we can to monitor all that and play well.
"If we get to play on Sunday [in the championship game], that would be great. If we don't, we'll be OK as long as we play well and nobody gets hurt."
The Razorbacks (40-15) play their first SEC Tournament game against No. 23 Ole Miss (34-23) at approximately 1 p.m. today at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
While Arkansas had a first-round bye, the Rebels advanced to meet the Razorbacks by beating Missouri 2-1 on Tuesday to eliminate the Tigers.
The Rebels are 9-3 against the Razorbacks since 2016 and won 2 of 3 games at Baum-Walker Stadium this season when they were the only road team to win at series at Arkansas.
"We definitely want another chance at them," Arkansas shortstop Casey Martin said. "I think the outcome might be a little bit different this time because we're a little more put together.
"It's later in the season. We know what it takes to win, and we grind."
Arkansas will start freshman left-hander Patrick Wicklander (5-2, 4.69 ERA) after he pitched 1 2/3 innings in a 6-1 loss at Texas A&M last Friday. Wicklander allowed three hits, four earned runs and three walks with two strikeouts. He threw 44 pitches -- 23 for strikes.
"He's got good stuff," Van Horn said. "He got off to a bad start at A&M and just didn't throw the ball over the plate as much as he normally does. He got behind hitters, and they got in hitters' counts, and that's when they hit him."
Zack Phillips, a junior left-hander from Texarkana, will start for Ole Miss today.
Both Wicklander and Phillips (4-2, 4.76 ERA) had short relief appearances when the Rebels beat the Razorbacks 10-5 earlier this season. Wicklander went 1/3 of an inning and allowed two earned runs, two hits and two walks on 26 pitches. Phillips allowed one earned run, two hits and one walk with two outs.
Van Horn said Arkansas junior right-hander Isaiah Campbell (10-1, 2.55 ERA) will start either Thursday or Friday so he can go on normal rest after going six innings last Thursday at Texas A&M and holding the Aggies to six hits, one earned run and one walk with six strikeouts.
If the Razorbacks lose today and play an elimination game on Thursday, Van Horn said Campbell will start.
"He'll definitely throw Thursday or Friday, lining him up for the next weekend," Van Horn said. "He'll be on a pitch count. All the pitchers will be."
Junior closer Matt Cronin said the Razorbacks are excited about the SEC Tournament.
"We want to come out, and we want to play hard and play well," Cronin said. "We don't want to come out and lay an egg and have a bad taste in our mouth.
"If we could win the tournament, that would be awesome. But we don't want to mess up our rotation going into regionals. We don't want any guys getting hurt."
Van Horn said he has no doubt Arkansas will be a top 16 national seed and host a regional, but he's not sure the Razorbacks will be a top 8 seed and in line to host a super regional if they don't win at least one SEC Tournament game.
"As far as a top 8 seed, I have no idea where we're at right now in the [selection] committee's eyes," Van Horn said. "I think we've got a really good opportunity. Because win or lose, our [national power ranking] is going to stay pretty close to the same, and our strength of schedule will get better.
"So I think we have a chance to be a top 8 seed, but we're just going to go play and try to win. Hopefully, we can go win a few games and make it easy for the committee."
Sports on 05/22/2019