There’s a fine line between a team that’s hard to beat and a team that just flat-out refuses to lose.
No. 12 Arkansas hasn’t just crossed that line. They’ve made a habit of living on the other side of it.
On Saturday night in Hoover, Ala., the Hogs did it again. They found a way.
They scratched out a 2-1 victory over Auburn in the SEC Tournament semifinals at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and now they’re one win away from their first SEC Tournament championship since 2021.
Sunday’s title game against No. 4 Georgia is set for a 1 p.m. first pitch and can be seen on ABC.
Nobody handed Arkansas a thing to get here. The Razorbacks came in as the No. 7 seed with a 39-19 record, the kind of résumé that doesn’t exactly make opposing coaches shudder.
Yet here they are, standing in the doorway of something special.
Helfrick Comes Through Again
If you needed one image to capture what this Arkansas team is about, it’d be Ryder Helfrick’s swing in the top of the eighth inning Saturday night.
The junior catcher, who had gone 0-for-10 at the SEC Tournament coming into that moment, stepped into the batter’s box with two outs and launched a 446-foot solo home run to left field off a slider.
It put the Razorbacks ahead 2-1 and it held up as the final score.
It wasn’t Helfrick’s first time delivering the knockout blow against Auburn, either.
He hit a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning against the Tigers as a freshman at Plainsman Park to clinch a series for Arkansas and then did it again in the eighth inning on April 3 in the second game of a series at Auburn this season.
All three of those home runs ended up setting the final score. All three happened in the state of Alabama.
Coach Dave Van Horn wasn’t at all surprised.
“He was pretty frustrated and he took it all out on that slider,” Van Horn said. “And it was great to see. Our dugout was electric.”
Helfrick kept it simple when asked about what was running through his mind before one of the biggest at-bats of his season.
“That’s not going through my mind,” he said. “I just try to get a pitch you can handle, get a pitch you can hit. That’s what’s going through my mind and I got one I felt like I could do damage on.”
McElvain Slams the Door
The home run wouldn’t have mattered without the pitching that followed it and Ethan McElvain delivered one of the most important relief stints of Arkansas’s season.
McElvain entered in the fifth inning with runners at first and second and not a single out recorded.
He got out of the jam by stranding runners at the corners, then proceeded to throw 4 1/3 scoreless innings, giving up just 2 hits while striking out 6 without issuing a single walk on 48 pitches.
His final inning came after he worked around a two-out single in the eighth, getting a flyout to deep center field to end the threat.
“McElvain came in and we were just hoping that he would get through that inning and then give us what he had,” Van Horn said. “And we thought maybe 60 pitches, if it went well. He had one really quick inning and it started looking like it could happen.
“He went through their lineup the first time pretty good. Then the second time they had seen him a little bit and the swings were maybe a little better. He was getting a little tired. He’s not used to getting up and down so much, but he did a great job throwing strikes and letting our defense work.”
Van Horn also credited the little things that carried Arkansas through.
“Tonight was about positioning your defense correctly, it was about making some pitches in tough situations and we turned a nice double play that helped us,” he said. “I just thought our pitchers did a tremendous job.”
The Razorbacks struck out 11 and walked just 1 all game.
A Game Within a Game
Things didn’t come easily and it certainly wasn’t particularly quick.
A fierce thunderstorm rolled into Hoover around 6 p.m. and caused a 2-hour and 15-minute rain delay in the fourth inning that disrupted the flow of the game entirely.
Starter Alex Petrovic had thrown 71 pitches in 4 innings before the delay shelved him for good despite allowing just 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7.
Cooper Dossett got the start in a two-inning, 27-pitch outing while James DeCremer handled the third and didn’t return once the tarp came off.
The Hogs trailed 1-0 going into the rain delay after giving up a solo home run in the second inning.
Reese Robinett doubled and then scored on Camden Kozeal’s two-out RBI single in the fifth to tie the game.
It was Kozeal’s seventh RBI of the tournament and it was the kind of clutch hit that’s defined this Arkansas club when things get tight.
After that, it was all about Helfrick’s blast and McElvain’s arm.
What’s Ahead Sunday
The Razorbacks now face a No. 4-seeded Georgia program that went 45-12 during the regular season and won the SEC regular-season title outright.
The Bulldogs aren’t just good — they’ve been dominant.
Georgia beat Arkansas 26-14 in Fayetteville on April 16 to win a series 2-1 and on Saturday the Bulldogs came back from a 5-0 deficit to beat Florida 8-7 in the first semifinal.
Georgia is also coached by Wes Johnson, a native Arkansan and former Razorbacks assistant, which gives the matchup its own layer of storyline.
It’ll be the Bulldogs’ first chance at an SEC Tournament title.
According to BetSaracen, Arkansas enters Sunday’s game as a +145 underdog on the moneyline while Georgia is listed at -190.
The Hogs have been counted out before. That hasn’t stopped them yet.
Fans can listen to Sunday’s championship game on the Learfield Razorback Sports Network with Phil Elson calling the action. You can hear the game at HitThatLine.com online or ESPN Arkansas 95.3 in Fort Smith and the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home.
The Bigger Picture
This Arkansas team entered the SEC Tournament as the seventh seed. Nobody expected them to make a championship run.
That makes where they are right now worth appreciating.
Van Horn’s team is 39-19 and playing its best baseball when it matters most.
The pitching staff has found answers every time the Razorbacks needed one. Helfrick keeps delivering in the moments that count.
The Hogs are now one win away from a title that, even a week ago, most people outside of Fayetteville wouldn’t have seen coming.
That’s the thing about this team. They don’t need you to believe in them.
They’ve got enough belief in their own dugout.
“I just thought our pitchers did a tremendous job,” Van Horn said after the win. High praise in a tight game and completely earned.
Now it’s Georgia’s turn to figure out how to stop them.
