No surprise Hogs won’t be hosting NCAA Regional this year

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It shouldn’t have come as a particular surprise Sunday evening when Arkansas wasn’t among the host sites for a regional.

After careening to the end of the season and stumbling through a couple of games in the SEC Tournament, nobody was really expecting it.

With an RPI of 40, the Razorbacks weren’t really close. Texas A&M has the highest ranking of anyone with a 20.

The reasons can be debated later. Playing in-state schools didn’t help, but probably weren’t as damaging as the failure to get big hits down the stretch and the pitching staff collapsing.

That will kill an RPI, even with 38 wins during the season that was comparable with teams hosting regionals.

The losses down the stretch were probably far worse.

A guess here is Hogs coach Dave Van Horn will say they had their chances to win games that would have improved that RPI and he’s absolutely correct on that.

It is the first time since 2015 the Hogs will have to try and get to Omaha starting somewhere other than the friendly confines of Baum-Walker Stadium.

After sweeping LSU at home in mid-April, the Hogs staggered down the stretch. They lost three of their final series of the regular season and did a quick two-step out.

Among the schools selected as host sites, Oklahoma State is the closest in proximity to Arkansas, as Stillwater is just a three-hour drive west from Fayetteville.

That is the destination for the Razorbacks in the projections from Baseball America and D1Baseball that came out Sunday morning.

Four SEC teams — Tennessee, Texas A&M, Auburn and Florida — were selected as regional hosts. Arkansas will not be sent to any of those regionals, but the other 12 are all possibilities.

In addition to Oklahoma State, non-SEC teams selected as hosts include Texas, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Maryland, Miami (Fla.), Oregon State, East Carolina, Southern Miss, Louisville, Stanford and Georgia Southern.