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It won’t exactly be a week of rest and relaxation for the Arkansas Razorbacks baseball team, but by virtue of their second-place finish in the SEC regular season, Dave Van Horn’s Hogs will not begin play in the single-elimination SEC Tournament until Friday.
The event itself opens play Tuesday in Hoover, Ala.’s Metropolitan Stadium with four games that will all be televised by the SEC Network.
No. 16 Missouri faces No. 8 Alabama at 9:30 a.m., No. 13 Kentucky faces No. 12 Oklahoma follows at 1 p.m. No. 15 South Carolina meets No. 10 Florida at 4:30 p.m., and No. 14 Texas A&M plays No. 11 Mississippi State at 8 p.m.
Wednesday’s action begins with No. 8 Tennessee against the winner of Missouri-Alabama at 9:30 a.m., No. 5 Georgia faces the Kentucky-Oklahoma winner at 1 p.m. ; No. 7 Ole Miss plays the South Carolina-Florida winner at 4:30 p.m. and No. 6 Auburn faces the winner of Texas A&M and Mississippi State.
On Thursday, top-seed Texas will play at 3 p.m. against Missouri, Alabama or Tennessee. No. 4 Vandy will play against the survivor of Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Georgia at 6:30 p.m.
On Friday, the No. 2 Razorbacks will play the survivor of South Carolina, Florida, and Ole Miss at 3 p.m., while No. 3 LSU will meet the winner of the Texas A&M-Mississippi State-Auburn victor.
The single-elimination format allows all 16 SEC teams to compete, and it also cuts down on the stress of the top four seeds. Winning a 12-team double elimination tournament could be taxing on squads just before entering NCAA Tournament play.
The single-elimination format cuts the workload considerably, even if one of the squads who open play Tuesday were to make it to the title game.
For the four top seeds, winning the tournament is reduced to three games. The stress is no different than a regular-season SEC series.
With the NCAA Baseball Tournament beginning on May 30, the two teams that play in the SEC Tournament title game will have the usual four days to recover and prepare for their first NCAA Regional contest.
The Razorbacks will enter SEC Tournament play on a two-game winning streak, after defeating Tennessee, 8-6, on Friday and, 8-4, on Saturday to win the series. The Hogs dropped the opening game of the series, 10-7, last Thursday.
The Razorbacks (40-12, 20-10 SEC) finished two games behind Texas (42-11, 22-8 SEC) to place second in the SEC race. Arkansas finished a game ahead of LSU (42-13, 19-11) and Vanderbilt (39-16, 19-11 SEC).
Razorback junior shortstop Wehiwa Aloy is a semifinalist for the 2025 Golden Spikes Award, the most prestigious honor given each year to a college baseball player.
Aloy has a batting average of .358 with 18 home runs, 72 runs scored, 17 doubles, and 58 RBI. His game is just as strong defensively. Aloy is the first Razorback named as a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award since Andrew Benintendi won the honor in 2015.
Softball Hogs host Ole Miss in Super Regional
Photo: UA Athletics
Arkansas pitcher Robyn Herron hurled a shutout, and Razorback batters swatted 14 hits to score a dozen runs to propel their squad into the Super Regional in softball play Sunday, blanking Oklahoma State, 12-0, at Bogle Park.
The Razorbacks (43-12) will host SEC nemesis Ole Miss (41-18) at 7 p.m. Friday at Bogle Park for the first game of the best two-out-of-three series in Super Regional play. The game will be televised by ESPNU.
Saturday’s second game is scheduled for 8 p.m. with the telecast to be determined. If a third game is necessary, it will be played Sunday at a time to be determined later.
The Rebels defeated Arizona to move on to the Fayetteville Super Regional.
This will be the Razorbacks’ fourth Super Regional appearance under head coach Courtney Deifel. Her Razorbacks also hosted in 2021 and 2022.
It will be a great opportunity for Diefel’s squad to earn a bit of payback from Ole Miss, which won two of three games in both squads’ SEC-opening series in March. The Rebels topped Arkansas 9-1 and 9-3, before the Razorbacks bounced back to win the finale 20-3.
Both squads will have something personal to prove beyond advancing to the College Softball World Series in Oklahoma City. The Razorbacks have never played in the College Softball World Series. Likewise Ole Miss hasn’t either, making the showdown at Bogle Park a stab at history for both programs and the SEC.
Enthused by the thumping her squad issued to OSU, Deifel, who has led Arkansas to unprecedented softball success in her tenure as coach, called her squad special in an ESPN interview following the game.
“This team is built different,” Diefel said. “They were relentless with it.”
The loss, no doubt, stung Oklahoma State and their ardent fan base. It ends a streak of five consecutive College World Series appearances for the proud program.
Though Arkansas was the higher seed going into the Regional, Oklahoma State’s reputation cast them as a favorite to many heading into play. No doubt, Arkansas demolishing OSU in the Regional final was sweet for the players and Diefel.
But celebrations only last the night in postseason play. No doubt, Arkansas will be redoubling their focus heading into the Super Regional against the Rebels as the Razorbacks attempt to avenge the two games they lost early in the season at Oxford and advance to the College World Series for the first time.
The showdown with OSU was to begin play at 4 p.m. but the violent thunderstorms that rocked Northwest Arkansas Sunday forced a three-hour weather delay, but the Razorbacks were not going to be stopped Sunday in a dominating win that should give Arkansas plenty of confidence moving forward.
Arkansas, however, is 1-6 all-time in Super Regional play. Diefel’s squad can’t do anything about the past, but the Razorbacks could not be playing much better as they prepare to host the Rebels for the right to go to Oklahoma City.
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