We celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, talk about the bracket and Arkansas’ place on it. Then we hear about the Michigan baseball player that made news over the weekend.
Pig Trail Nation’s Mike Irwin on Razorbacks landing in NCAA Tournament
After spending over a month where every game was an NCAA matchup has prepared them about as well as possible.
Eastside Liquor Halftime Podcast: 3-17-25
Guests:
Mike Irwin (PigTrail Nation)
Dr. Charlie Liggett (River Valley Smile Center)
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: 3-17-25
Will the luck of the Irish bless the Hogs in Providence on Thursday night? Arkansas baseball grabs another Opening Weekend Series W, and more!
Guests: Clay Henry!
Late rally lifts Hogs past Ole Miss behind Wehiwa’s pair of homers
OXFORD, Miss. — Wehiwa Aloy swatted a pair of homers, including the game-winning three-run blast with two outs in the ninth, and finished with a team-high five RBI to power No. 3 Arkansas (18-2, 2-1 SEC) to a thrilling come-from-behind 12-9 series-clinching win against No. 13 Ole Miss (15-4, 1-2 SEC) Sunday afternoon at Swayze Field in Oxford, Miss.
The Razorbacks have now won eight consecutive SEC Opening Weekend series since the start of the 2017 campaign as well as five consecutive regular-season weekend series against the Rebels, including three straight weekend series in Oxford. Arkansas also picked up its first SEC-opening series win on the road since the 2007 campaign, when head coach Dave Van Horn and the Hogs won two-of-three games against Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.
Trailing by a run and down to their last out in the top of the ninth, Charles Davalan’s RBI single tied the game at nine apiece before Aloy’s go-ahead three-run shot to right field, his second homer of the ballgame, put the Razorbacks up, 12-9. True freshman right-hander Carson Wiggins worked around a pair of two-out walks in the bottom of the ninth inning before striking out Ole Miss’ three-hole hitter Ryan Moerman to earn his first win and clinch the series.
Arkansas and Ole Miss exchanged blows all afternoon. When the Rebels jumped out to an early 4-0 advantage after tagging starter Landon Beidelschies for four runs on four hits and two walks in 2.1 innings of work, the Razorback offense responded with seven unanswered runs, highlighted by a four-run sixth inning, to open a 7-4 lead.
Aloy’s first of two homers punctuated the four-run sixth. After Davalan’s RBI groundout gave Arkansas its first lead of the day, the Razorback shortstop drilled the first pitch he saw over the wall in left center to put the Hogs up by three.
In relief of Beidelschies, veteran right-hander Will McEntire emerged from the bullpen and turned in a strong effort with 3.1 innings of one-run ball and five strikeouts to give Arkansas an opportunity to find its footing in Sunday’s slugfest.
Arkansas took an 8-5 lead into the bottom half of the seventh, but Ole Miss would not quit. The Rebels scored three runs in the frame to tie the game before taking a 9-8 lead on a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning.
With their backs against the wall in the ninth, however, the Razorbacks did not relent. Davalan and Aloy’s two-out heroics in the helped Arkansas post a four-spot in the inning and open a three-run lead for Wiggins, who struck out a career-high three over two innings of one-run ball in relief, to protect and, ultimately, secure.
Up next, Arkansas returns inside the friendly confines of Baum-Walker Stadium for a five-game week and six-game homestand. The action gets underway with a double midweek series against Oral Roberts on March 18-19.
Razorbacks get in NCAA Tournament, drawing familiar opponent
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas, seeded 10th in the West Region, will face Kansas, the region’s No. 7 seed, on Thursday, March 20, in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Championship.
The Razorbacks and Jayhawks will play in Providence, R.I., at Amica Mutual Pavilion. Tipoff time and TV information are TBA.
Arkansas earns its 37th NCAA bid and fourth in a five-year span. This is the second time in program history Arkansas has earned a No. 10 seed. Arkansas is 50-35 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, including a 19-8 record in first-round games.
This will be the 14th time Arkansas and Kansas have officially played. The Jayhawks own an 8-6 advantage in the series, which dates back to the 1946-47 season.
Arkansas has won two straight in the series with a 65-64 win in the 2005 Maui Invitational and a 72-71 victory in the 2023 NCAA Tournament second round as the Razorbacks advanced to their third-straight Sweet 16. The Jayhawks were the No. 1 seed and ranked No. 4 in the AP poll.
While this is the 14th official time the programs have met, Arkansas hosted preseason No. 1 Kansas in a charity exhibition game earlier this year (Oct. 25, 2024) in Bud Walton Arena.
The teams played four, 10-minute quarters and Arkansas won 85-69. Both teams played without two of their top players. (Arkansas was without Jonas Aidoo and Zvonimir Ivisic and Kansas was without Hunter Dickinson, Shakeel Moore and Rylan Griffen.)
With a first-round win, Arkansas would face the winner of No. 2 seed St. John’s and No. 15 seed Omaha on Saturday, March 22, in Providence.
Arkansas won 20 games in 2024-25 and faced 17 teams in this year’s NCAA field, posting an 8-11 record in those games.
Highlights for John Calipari in his 33rd year as a collegiate head coach include 32 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, six Final Four’s, 12 Elite Eight’s, 15 Sweet 16’s.
Calipari is 57-22 in the tournament, tied for the most among active coaches with Bill Self Kansas and sixth most all-time.
The Razorbacks now have 20 wins for the 30th time in Calipari’s 33 seasons. He is the only coach to win at least 38 games in a season, doing it once at Memphis and twice at Kentucky.
Big inning, homers more than enough for Hogs downing Ole Miss, 12-3
OXFORD, Miss. — No. 3 Arkansas (17-2, 1-1 SEC) swatted back-to-back-to-back homers in the top of the fifth inning to spark an eight-run frame and blast its way past No. 13 Ole Miss (15-3, 1-1 SEC), 12-3, Saturday night at Swayze Field.
The win was coach Dave Van Horn’s 900th in 23 seasons at the helm of the Razorback program. With the win, the Hogs improved to 17-2 overall through their first 19 games for the eighth time in the Van Horn era (2003-pres).
Arkansas, winners of seven consecutive SEC Opening Weekend series, will look to clinch the series win Sunday afternoon when it squares off against Ole Miss at 1:30 p.m. on SEC Network+.
The Razorbacks have not lost an SEC-opening series since the 2016 season and have not lost a regular-season series to the Rebels since the 2019 campaign.
Five Arkansas home runs, highlighted by the back-to-back-to-back blasts by Charles Davalan (4-for-6, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI), Wehiwa Aloy (1-for-5, HR, RBI) and Kuhio Aloy (1-for-5, HR, RBI) in the fifth, were the difference in Saturday’s contest.
Razorback starter Gabe Gaeckle, making his first Saturday start of the season, turned in four innings of work, overcoming adversity to limit the Rebel offense to two runs on one hit and three walks while striking out a career-high eight batters.
Brent Iredale’s sacrifice fly in the top half of the first gave Arkansas an early one-run lead, but Ole Miss promptly responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame.
Gaeckle settled down after his shaky first and posted three consecutive shutout innings before the Razorback offense broke the game open with an eight-spot in the fifth.
Nine consecutive Arkansas batters reached safely to begin the fifth inning.
After Justin Thomas Jr. (1-for-3, R, RBI) led off the frame with a single, Davalan connected on the go-ahead two-run home run to give the Razorbacks a 3-2 lead.
Davalan’s blast knocked Ole Miss starter Riley Maddox, who was tagged for three runs on four hit and two walks in four innings, out of the game.
Rebel right-hander Will McCausland entered in relief, and the Razorback offense went to work.
Wehiwa Aloy homered to dead center before Kuhio Aloy, his younger brother, hit his team-leading eighth home run to left field, extending Arkansas’ advantage to 5-2.
The Hogs were just getting started, however, as Iredale was then hit by a pitch before consecutive singles by Logan Maxwell (3-for-5, 2 R, HR, RBI) and Rocco Peppi (1-for-4, R, RBI) as well as an RBI double by Cam Kozeal (3-for-5, 2 R, 2B, RBI) pushed the lead to 7-2 before an out was recorded in the inning.
Ole Miss right fielder Mitchell Sanford dropped a routine fly ball off the bat of Ryder Helfrick, allowing Peppi to score, and Thomas Jr.’s sacrifice fly in his second at-bat of the inning scored Kozeal from third base as Arkansas went up, 9-2.
The lengthy eight-run frame concluded Gaeckle’s day, and he turned the ball over to Parker Coil.
The left-hander, who earned his first win of the season, twirled two innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts in relief before giving way to righty Aiden Jimenez, who struck out a career high-tying six over three shutout innings to earn his first save of the year.
Ahead 9-3 in the top half of the ninth, Arkansas tacked on three more runs for good measure. Maxwell led off the inning with his fourth home run of the season before Nolan Souza drilled a solo shot to right in his lone at-bat of the game.
Davalan’s third and final RBI of the night came on a two-out, two-strike single that beat the shift through the left side and sealed the Razorbacks’ commanding 12-3 win to even the SEC Opening Weekend series at a game apiece.
His four-hit performance raised his season slash line to .352/.465/.592 with five home runs and 18 RBI through 19 games.
Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
Text from Calipari announces Fland working out, ready to return
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Just like that, Arkansas and John Calipari got folks interested in things again with a surprising text.
ESPN’s Seth Greenberg, on the air during halftime of Alabama and Florida’s semifinal matchup at the SEC Tournament in Nashville, dropped the contents of a text from Calipari he got.
“Boogie Fland is working out and expected to go full practice tomorrow,” Greenberg said. “Unless he gets a setback they expect him to play in their next game. Also said most important thing is Boogie just wants to be part of the solution. He wants to help these guys and he respects all they’ve accomplished.”
That last part is big because once Fland went down with a hand injury that required surgery after the Georgia game on Jan. 22.
After losing six straight SEC games to start league play, a win over the Bulldogs was the first on and launched them on a run that has them expected by most experts to be in the NCAA Tournament that will be announced on Sunday evening.
Fland averaged 15.1 points per game and now the only player on the team ranked higher than that in points per game was Adou Thiero. He missed the SEC Tournament and is still questionable.
Fland would be a welcome return for the Hogs who really need warm bodies at this point with a roster down to just six players.
Razorbacks’ linebacker Quincy Rhodes, running back Braylen Russell
What they’ve seen in spring practice drills following first workout inside Razorback Stadium on Saturday.
