Hogs ranked sixth in Perfect Game preseason poll

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Arkansas earned a spot at No. 6 in the Perfect Game Preseason Poll that was released earlier today.

The Razorbacks join five other SEC teams in the top 25, all of which they will face at some point during the season.

Four teams ranked in the top 25 will visit Baum Stadium this year, including No. 4 Texas Tech (April 24-25), No. 8 Kentucky (March 16-18), No. 15 Texas A&M (May 11-13), and No. 23 Texas (March 13-14).

Arkansas will travel to top-ranked and defending national champion Florida (March 23-25), while also visiting No. 11 Ole Miss (March 29-31), No. 12 LSU (May 4-6), and No. 25 Mississippi State (April 20-22).

Offensively, the Hogs return a potent lineup that includes six of its top eight hitters from a year ago.

Shortstop Jax Biggers is back after hitting .338 with four home runs and 37 RBIs, as he was the first Razorback primary shortstop to hit over .300 in a season since Scott Hode in 2005.

Captaining the outfield is freshman All-American Dominic Fletcher. Fletcher was, arguably, the best freshman hitter in the SEC last year with a .291 average, 12 home runs, and 37 RBIs.

His 12 long balls was just one off from tying the Arkansas freshman record set by Zack Cox back in 2009, but were the most among all freshman in the SEC.

On the mound, Arkansas returns the heart of its pitching staff in preseason All-American Blaine Knight along with redshirt sophomore Isaiah Campbell, junior Kacey Murphy, and junior Jake Reindl.

Entering his second year as the Arkansas pitching coach, Wes Johnson hopes to continue seeing the pitching success the Razorbacks had last year, which combined for a 3.61 team ERA and a school-record 619 strikeouts.

Arkansas is scheduled to open the 2018 season against Bucknell on Friday, Feb. 16 with first pitch at 3 p.m. at Baum Stadium.

2018 Perfect Game NCAA Division I Baseball Preseason Poll