Hogs getting set for regional

FAYETTEVILLE Arkansas is preparing to host the Fayetteville Regional in hopes of beginning its road to Omaha.

Arkansas (41-16) will take on No. 4 seed Santa Clara (35-18) at 2 p.m. Friday in the first game. Friday night at 8 p.m. it will be No. 2 TCU (37-22) against No. 3 Arizona (3324) televised on ESPNU. Arkansas is coming off a trip to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament and also being co-champions of the league. Arkansas finished up the SEC Tournament on Saturday and Dave Van Horn was asked Monday where this team is mentally?

“Well, I’ve only been around them 45 minutes, an hour so far,” Van Horn said. “I think that mentally we’re in a good place. We went 3-3 against some really really good teams on the road. We did what we needed to do to get where we are today. I hope they take a little time to sit back and realize what a good season we’ve had and that we’ve put ourselves in position to play here as long as we win. But I think the mood’s good, you know? I mean some of our goals at the beginning of the year were obviously to get to this point and have an opportunity and continue to play in a regional and here we are.”

The Razorbacks lost two of three to Vanderbilt to close the regular season. They defeated Texas A&M and LSU 5-4 each in the SEC Tournament. On Saturday when the tournament shifted to single elimination, the Hogs fell 5-4 to the Aggies, a team they had beaten four times previously. While many positives came out of the close to the regular season, one negative was several key hitters at the top of the order are struggling at the plate.

“Well really it’s more individual,” Van Horn said. “They need to mentally clear their head, try not to do too much because I think that’s what’s going on a little bit with some of those guys. They’re swinging a little too hard, a little too aggressively or swinging at pitches they normally don’t swing at and gotten themselves behind in the count.

“Sometimes just a day or two off can help that a lot and then some instruction, but really more just going back to what they normally do and that’s staying within, kind of the passthe-baton mentality, just do what you can do and let the next guy do what he does. It’s called a team, it’s team offense, and if we do that, we’ll have a good weekend. If we don’t, it’s going be a fight.”

Van Horn was more direct on Saturday about some key hitters strug

gling at this time and the need to get them going.

“I don’t know,” Van Horn said. “I feel good except we’ve got to get our offense going. It’s the older guys. They’ve got to do it. If we don’t get the offense going, it’ll be a quick weekend for us.”

Van Horn wasn’t ready to name his starting pitcher against Santa Clara. Hunter Hollan or Hagen Smith would seem the choice since Brady Tygart pitched on Saturday. The Hogs will face either TCU or Arizona on Saturday.

“We’ll go look at all that and then just attack it with whoever,” Van Horn said.

“They’re both outstanding pitchers. Again, it’s not like a righty or lefty situation. They’re both left. We could go Tygart if we felt like it. We’ll figure that out here in the next day or two. I don’t know if we’ll announce that until (today). Inside we’ll figure it out.”

The winner of the Fayetteville Regional will oppose the winner of the Terre Haute Regional hosted by Indiana State in the super regional.

A look at the visiting Fayetteville Regional teams: No. 2 TCU (37-22, Won 6 in row)

Defeated Arkansas 18-6 on Feb. 18 in Arlington, Texas. Also defeated Vanderbilt 11-4 and fell to Missouri 9-8 in 10 innings at Arlington. But that was early in the season. They defeated Oklahoma State 12-5 to win the Big 12 Tournament. Their last loss was May 17 to Kansas State 7-6.

Catcher Karson Bowen, 6 home runs, .345 batting average

Shortstop Anthony Silva, 7 home runs, .342

First Baseman Cole Fontenelle, 11 home runs, .325

Third Baseman Braydon Taylor, 20 home runs, .306

Kole Klecker, 9-4, 3.04 ERA

Cam Brown, 3-2, 5.25 Garrett Wright, 2-2,

3.52, 4 saves

Louis Rodriguez, 2-1, 4.53, 3 saves

No. 3 Arizona (33-24, Lost 1 in row, won 7 of last 9 games)

Left Fielder Chase Davis, 21 home runs, .369 batting average

Center Fielder Max Bingham, 10 home runs, .369

First Baseman Kiko Romero, 19 home runs, 86 runs batted in, .347

Third Baseman Tony Bullard, 12 home runs, .335

Bradon Zastrow, 6-5, 5.28 earned run average Aiden Roy, 5-2, 6.50 Trevor Long, 2-5, 5.63, 5 saves

No. 4 Santa Clara (35-18, Won 8 in row)

Santa Clara is very dangerous No. 4 seed. They split with Stanford who is a national seed. Santa Clara downed Stanford 10-5 on March 7, but lost to them 20-17 on May 9. Last loss was to Portland 8-4 on May 13.

Center Fielder Coleman Brigman, 12 home runs, .303 batting average

First Baseman Efrain Mango, 17 home runs, 54 runs batted in, .318

Cole Kitchen, 15 starts, 3-2, 4.25 earned run average

Jared Felkes, 13 starts, 6-1, 5.05

August Souza, 1-2, 1.69, 5 saves

The winner of the Fayetteville Regional will oppose the winner of the Terre Haute Regional hosted by Indiana State in the super regional.

NCAA Fayetteville Regional

Friday, June 2

Game 1 – Arkansas vs. Santa Clara – 2 p.m. (ESPN+)

Game 2 – TCU vs. Arizona – 8 p.m. (ESPNU) Saturday, June 3

Game 3 – Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser – 2 p.m.

Game 4 – Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner – 8 p.m.

Sunday, June 4

Game 5 – Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Loser – 2 p.m.

Game 6 – Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner – 8 p.m.

Monday, June 5 (If Necessary)

Game 7 – If the Game 5 Winner Wins Game 6 – TBD