Gamecocks getting second chance against Hogs
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will get an opponent they’ve already taken two out of three from at Baum Stadium with South Carolina coming to town for the NCAA Super Regional.
Arkansas will host South Carolina in the NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional after the Gamecocks defeated North Carolina-Wilmington 8-4 on Monday in the championship of the regional in Greenville, N.C.
South Carolina also had regional wins over Ohio State and No. 12 seed East Carolina. Arkansas, the No. 5 national seed, won its home regional with wins over Oral Roberts, Southern Miss and Dallas Baptist.
The start dates and times for the super regional at Baum Stadium will not be finalized until later today or early Tuesday. The best-of-three super regional will begin either Friday or Saturday.
Arkansas is 3-1 against South Carolina this season. The Razorbacks won two of three games over the Gamecocks in Fayetteville in April, and also won 13-8 at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama, on May 23.
“These guys have been pounding the ball and winning at home and winning on the road,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said of South Carolina following the win in Hoover. “They’re a dangerous team.”
South Carolina (36-24) was the last visiting team to win a game at Baum Stadium, 3-2 on April 12. The Razorbacks failed to score four times with the bases loaded that night.
Yurachek hires Houston’s Steinbock as women’s tennis coach
FAYETTEVILLE — Courtney Steinbock has been named the sixth head coach in Arkansas women’s tennis history, announced Monday by Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek.
One of the rising stars of collegiate tennis, Steinbock comes to Fayetteville from Houston, where she was head coach the last three seasons from 2015-18.
“First off, I want to thank Hunter Yurachek and Clayton Hamilton for this incredible opportunity,” Steinbock said. “I am so excited to be a part of the University of Arkansas and the Razorback family. This program is so rich in tradition and has a history of great success. Having coached in the SEC before, I am beyond thrilled to get back to such a prestigious conference and at the helm of the Razorback program.”
Steinbock recently led Houston to a 20-4 record in 2018, just the program’s seventh 20-win campaign in 41 years and coached two student-athletes to American Athletic Conference All-Conference Team honors.
The Cougars went undefeated at home for the first time since 2006 at 14-0 and were ranked as high as No. 49 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.
“In her successful coaching career, Courtney has displayed the same on court passion and competitive spirit that made her an outstanding student-athlete at the University of Kansas,” Yurachek said. “She showed great fortitude in overcoming roster and facility challenges early on in her tenure at Houston and was able to quickly turn the Cougars into a nationally competitive program.
“She brings tremendous experience both as a former student-athlete and as a coach to our program which will be a huge positive for our student-athletes.”
Prior to Houston, Steinbock spent two seasons at Oklahoma State from 2013-15, helping the Cowgirls compile an impressive 49-15 record during that span.
In 2015, Oklahoma State achieved one of the best seasons in program history. With Steinbock’s help, the Cowgirls finished the season 23-6 and hosted the opening two rounds of the NCAA Championship for the first time.
Oklahoma State rose as high as No. 8, a program record, and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1996. Following the season, Steinbock was named ITA Central Regional Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the National Assistant Coach of the Year award.
Steinbock also helped develop Viktoriya Lushkova into a two-time All-American in singles. With Steinbock’s leadership, Lushkova rose to No. 10 in the ITA singles rankings, an Oklahoma State record.
In addition, Lushkova and teammate Kelsey Laurente were ranked as high as No. 3 in the ITA’s doubles listings, another school record.
Steinbock spent three seasons (2010-13) as an assistant at Mississippi State prior to her time at Oklahoma State.
She helped the Bulldogs win their first SEC Tournament match in nearly a decade and played a major role in building a program that later advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championship in 2015.
Prior to her time in Starkville, Mississippi, Steinbock served two seasons (2008-10) as Wichita State’s associate head coach and helped the Shockers win the 2009 Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament championships.
She earned MVC Assistant Coach of the Year honors after the season and helped the program make it back to the NCAA Championship in 2010.
A graduate of the University of Kansas, Steinbock also spent three seasons (2004-06) as a volunteer assistant at her alma mater and two seasons (2006-08) as an assistant at Washington State.
During her tenure in the Pacific Northwest, the Cougars were ranked as high as No. 39 in the ITA national rankings and qualified for the 2008 NCAA Championship.
A native of Lubbock, Texas, Steinbock was a four-year letterwinner with the Jayhawks from 2000-04.
She was named team MVP each of her last two seasons and earned First Team All-Big XII Conference honors as a junior.
THE STEINBOCK FILE
Hometown: Lubbock, Texas
College: Kansas, 2005 (B.S., General Studies in Liberal Arts and Sciences)
Playing Experience
College: Kansas (2000-04)
Coaching Experience
2004-06: Kansas, Volunteer Assistant Coach
2006-08: Washington State, Associate Head Coach
2008-10: Wichita State, Associate Head Coach
2010-13: Mississippi State, Assistant Coach
2013-15: Oklahoma State, Assistant Coach
2015-18: Houston, Head Coach
Championships Won As A Coach
2009: MVC Regular Season Championship
2009: MVC Tournament Championship
Awards Earned As A Coach
2009: MVC Assistant Coach of the Year
2015: ITA Central Regional Assistant Coach of the Year
Three Razorbacks nominated for College Football HOF
FAYETTEVILLE — Darren McFadden is on the ballot for the 2019 College Football Hall of Fame along with former Razorbacks Dan Hampton and the late Brandon Burlsworth.
The College Football Hall of Fame voting is one of the more political honors out there. Part of it is the huge number of candidates nominated, then the sheer number of voters involved, which includes over 12,000 members and current Hall inductees.
It leads to a lot of lobbying and often has as much to do with things not involving what a player did on the football field.
From the press release announcing the nominees on the ballot this year:
While each nominee’s football achievements in college are of prime consideration, his post-football record as a citizen is also weighed. He must have proven himself worthy as a citizen, carrying the ideals of football forward into his relations with his community and his fellow man, with love of his country. Consideration may also be given for academic honors and whether the candidate earned a college degree.
It’s hard to find a reason why Eric Dickerson from SMU is not already in the Hall. To be honest, I thought he was.
The guess here is the fact that the Mustangs got the death penalty and the cheating scandals there in the late 1970’s and the 1980’s (yes, there were more than one or two). That shouldn’t take away that the players there were the winningest program in college football over a four-year period from 1981-84.
Just because SMU was blatantly paying players with no qualms whatsoever didn’t mean those players didn’t perform at Hall of Fame levels.
For those not aware with those times, the Mustangs weren’t the only ones doing it and they weren’t paying the most, but they did have alumni that bragged about it more than anybody else and that — combined with bad organization — is what nailed them.
Former Heisman Trophy winners Eric Crouch, Carson Palmer and the late Rashaan Salaam are nominated. Salaam probably should be in just for sheer number of the letter A in one name.
Hampton should have been elected a while back. The Jacksonville native, who developed from his high school performance level to an All-American maybe more than anyone in Razorback history, was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
Why he’s not in the College Football Hall of Fame is a mystery.
Burlsworth came from a walk-on in Fayetteville to earn All-American honors and is in the same discussion with Hampton as a developmental player. He was killed in a car crash in 1999, just 11 days after being selected in the third round by the Indianapolis Colts.
Both of them should be in the Hall of Fame, but McFadden should be a slam dunk.
He was, quite simply, the best running back in the nation over a two-year period. D-Mac finished second two straight years in the Heisman Trophy balloting
Arkansas has 19 former players and coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Previous inductees include coach Frank Broyles, Lance Alworth, Loyd Phillips, Ronnie Caveness, Jimmy Johnson, Clyde Scott, Billy Ray Smith Jr., Wayne Harris, coach Lou Holtz and coach Danny Ford.
The 2019 class will be announced on Jan. 7, 2019, in Santa Clara, Calif., the site of the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Reindl saves the day for Hogs against Dallas Baptist
The Razorbacks (42-18) are back in the super regionals for the first time since 2015, a year they reached the College World Series.
It was also the seventh time in history an Arkansas team made it out of a regional without recording a loss.
Arkansas will await to find out its opponent for the Super Regional, but knows it will face either South Carolina or UNC-Wilmington out of the NCAA Greenville Regional.
As a top-eight national seed, Arkansas will host the super regional round of the NCAA Tournament, but dates and game times for the Fayetteville Super Regional have not been set.
It will be the third time Fayetteville has hosted a super regional in school history.
In Sunday’s clincher, Arkansas fell behind early to the Patriots (42-21), giving up two runs in the first two innings, but the relief pitching of junior Jake Reindl was what turned the tides for the Hogs.
Arkansas responded with four unanswered runs over the remaining six innings, three coming by the fourth inning.
Reindl ended up earning the win tying a career-high with seven innings of one-run relief, getting teammate Isaiah Campbell off the hook, after he only lasted three batters.
Reindl scattered five hits and didn’t walk a batter, while striking out four. He moves to 3-1 on the year as Sunday’s appearance was his fourth of four innings or more and second of seven innings or more this year.
The Hitting
Unlike the previous two games of the regional, Arkansas had to manufacture its runs without relying on the home run.
With only four runs on seven hits, only first baseman Jared Gates finished with a multi-hit performance.
Gates went 2-for-2 at the plate with two runs scored as his lead-off single in the third led to the Hogs’ first run to start the rally.
His other single later in the game also led off an inning as he came around to score the important insurance run in the seventh.
It was the seventh multi-hit game for Gates this year and his second of the regional. Gates has had one of the hottest bats on the team over the last two weeks.
He is currently on a six-game hitting streak and is 9-for-20 (.450) during that span with three multi-hit games, four RBIs, and one home run.
In the fourth inning, Arkansas utilized back-to-back singles from Luke Bonfield and Dominic Fletcher to start the go-ahead rally.
They were both brought around to score after a Carson Shaddy groundout and an RBI single from Grant Koch. Six different Razorbacks recorded at least one hit in the game, while all but two starters reached base.
The Pitching
One week after having one of his best outings of the year, redshirt sophomore Isaiah Campbell did not have it working against Dallas Baptist Sunday night.
Campbell only faced three batters, giving up two walks and one hit, while throwing 13 pitches.
Luckily, Arkansas had not used Jake Reindl, Matt Cronin, or Barrett Loseke earlier in the regional and had all three of their arms available to help clinch Sunday’s win.
Loseke wasn’t needed against Dallas Baptist, but Reindl and Cronin both combined for nine innings of relief, allowing just two runs and striking out four each.
Reindl’s outing was reminiscent of his seven-inning outing of relief against Auburn (April 8) earlier this year where he retired the final 18 batters.
He got out of two bases-loaded jams in the first and fourth innings with only one run allowed and he retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced.
Cronin closed out the game over the final two innings, locking up his 12th save of the year. He struck out the side in the eighth inning and punched out one more in the ninth, throwing 36 pitches.
He now is just one save away from tying the all-time school record for saves in a season (13 – Colby Suggs in 2013).
Since coming back from mono, Cronin has recorded saves in three-consecutive appearances out of the bullpen.
NCAA Fayetteville Regional All-Tournament Team
Most Outstanding Player: Devlin Granberg, Dallas Baptist
Pitcher: Kacey Murphy, Arkansas
Pitcher: Nick Sandlin, Southern Miss
Catcher: Riley Keizor, Oral Roberts
First Base: Jared Gates, Arkansas
Second Base: Carson Shaddy, Arkansas
Third Base: Casey Martin, Arkansas
Shortstop: Jimmy Glowenke, Dallas Baptist
Outfield: Devlin Granberg, Dallas Baptist
Outfield: Heston Kjerstad, Arkansas
Outfield: Dominic Fletcher, Arkansas
Designated Hitter: Daniel Keating, Southern Miss
Van Horn, players recapping winning NCAA Regional
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn, reliever Matt Cronin, left fielder Heston Kjerstad and reliever Jake Reindl talked about the nailbiter 4-3 win over Dallas Baptist to clinch the regional.
DBU’s coach, players talk about loss to Razorbacks
Dallas Baptist coach Dan Heefner along with players Delvin Granburg and Matt Duce talk with the media after being knocked out of the NCAA Regional by Arkansas, 4-3.
Dallas Baptist coach not sure of starter against Hogs
Dallas Baptist coach Dan Heefner said after the Patriots beat Southern Miss 9-2 he wasn’t sure who would be starting on the mound against Arkansas in the finals Sunday night.
Gates’ steady play at first making difference for Hogs
During Arkansas’ run through the regular season, the biggest question mark was first base.
Dave Van Horn really had a revolving door working there.
Here lately, though, he’s settled on senior Jared Gates. Oh, Hunter Wilson came in and had a big grand slam in the SEC Tournament, but Gates has been the man there for the last few weeks.
And it’s worked.
“We had a talk a while back and just told him he was playing, to relax a little bit and he just shook his head and we told him you’re the guy,” Van Horn said after Gates had a two-run homer for Arkansas on Saturday night. “He sure has responded.”
In two NCAA games, Gates has been steady in the field. Saturday night he even had a diving grab of a hot foul line shot late.
Then there was his two-run homer that jump-started a seven-run second inning for the Hogs.
“I just feel good up there right now,” Gates said after Saturday night’s game. “I had a rough season so far, but I don’t know how to explain it. I’m just seeing the ball really well and getting good swings on it. I just have a lot of confidence in myself right now and I’m just going to keep it going.”
He has provided some stability, which was the hunch Van Horn played by putting him there and apparently made the decision to stick with him, come hell or high water.
“Gates is a good defender and at the time, we weren’t getting much production out of the first baseman I was putting over there so I felt like I would go with the experienced guy,” Van Horn said. “He seems to make a lot of plays.”
It’s probably not a coincidence Gates’ insertion into the lineup goes hand-in-hand with some defensive improvement, but Van Horn isn’t putting that out there just yet.
“We played pretty good defense down the stretch in Hoover,” he said Saturday night. “We had one game where it didn’t go well and the last maybe 10 (games) where we made four errors in a game, but other than that, it’s been no errors or one. It hasn’t been costly errors. It’s always nice to see an outfielder make a dive and catch.”
That, combined with the hitting, could also be a big part of the pitching improvements. With Murphy came out for the bottom of the second, he had a seven-run cushion.
“It’s huge,” Murphy said. “It lets you relax a little bit. When you come out and they bloop one to the outfield or something, you’ve got plenty of run support to get out of it.”
That second inning, which saw the Hogs send 11 batters to the plate. But it was almost like a rain delay, Murphy said later.
“It was kind of a human rain delay to start the second,” he said. “I came out a little stiff and had to get back going.”
He did, simply dominating the Golden Eagles for eight complete innings.
“It really started on the mound with Casey Murphy’s performance … 70 strikes out of 100 pitches is pretty impressive,” Van Horn said. “Southern Miss has a lineup as good as anyone in the country. They are big and physical and if you make a mistake, they can hit it a long way.”
They did when Caleb Bolden came on to start the ninth. He promptly gave up a long homer and two more hits. He gave way to Bryce Bonnin, who some forgot was even on the roster.
Even that’s not bad because now for Sunday night’s game, Van Horn will have his top relievers ready behind starter Isaiah Campbell.
That’s thanks to Friday starter Blaine Knight and Murphy’s shut-down performance against Southern Miss.
“He saved our bullpen and gave us a chance to have our guys ready to go for the rest of the tournament,” Van Horn said.
That makes whoever wins Sunday’s first matchup between Dallas Baptist and Southern Miss face a tall mountain to climb to force a final game Monday night.
“We’ve been in this situation before,” Southern Miss coach Scott Berry said. “Last Saturday, a week ago, when Charlotte hit us for a loss that night we had to come back play the next day and certainly had to win two the next day with the second being a championship, but tomorrow we need to win two to get to Monday. But we’ll have to take the first game against Dallas Baptist before we can look ahead.”
In Dallas Baptist’s win over Oral Roberts, they had to go to the bullpen and they had to Friday against Southern Miss.
Arkansas doesn’t have that problem.
Thanks to Knight and Murphy in large part.
But some thanks to Gates for apparently stabilizing the Hogs’ defense.
Murphy, hitting powers Hogs past Southern Miss
FAYETTEVILLE — Top-seeded Arkansas had another ideal performance in its’ second game of the NCAA Fayetteville Regional on Saturday night.
The offense scored 10 runs for the second-consecutive night, while starting pitcher Kacey Murphy worked eight scoreless innings en route to a 10-2 victory over second-seed Southern Miss at Baum Stadium.
It’s the third time the Razorbacks have opened a regional by scoring at least 10 runs in its first two games; the Razorbacks reached the College World Series the other two times (2009, 1985).
It’s also the 13th time that Arkansas has reached the regional final since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999.
Arkansas (41-18) scored seven runs on Southern Miss (44-17) in the second inning, its most in an inning since game two of a doubleheader against Kentucky (Seven-run first – March 17), and forced the Golden Eagles starter to exit the game after only 1.2 innings pitched.
Senior Jared Gates and junior Eric Cole both homered in the second, going the opposite way both times, for their fifth and 13th home runs of the year, respectively.
Gates and Cole both finished with two RBIs apiece, while Cole tied a team high with three hits in the game, his 11th game with three or more hits this year.
On the mound, junior Kacey Murphy matched his teammate Blaine Knight from the day before with eight innings of work, locking up his eighth win of the year and ninth quality start.
Murphy did Knight one better by going eight scoreless, while giving up just two hits, walking one, and striking out five.
The eight innings of work was a career-high, topping his previous high of 7.1 innings against Texas A&M (May 12) earlier this year.
With Saturday night’s win, Arkansas will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to find out its opponent for the regional final as Southern Miss and Dallas Baptist will play an elimination game at 2 p.m.
The winner will advance to face the Razorbacks later in the day.
The Hitting
Five different players recorded multi-hit games Saturday night with Cole and redshirt senior Carson Shaddy leading the way with three hits each.
Cole finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs, both coming off the homer in the second.
Shaddy earned his fifth three-hit game of the year, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs, falling just a home run shy of the cycle.
Shaddy’s two-run triple scored the final runs of the big second inning and was the fifth three-bagger of the year for Arkansas.
Senior Jared Gates, sophomore Dominic Fletcher, and freshman Casey Martin all went 2-for-5 at the plate Saturday with Gates’ two-run big fly starting all the scoring in the second inning.
It was the second home run of the postseason for Gates and one of, now, six hit in the regional.
Of the six home runs hit by Razorbacks this weekend, four have gone the opposite way as both of Heston Kjerstad’s home runs last night and Gates’ tonight found the left field Hog Pen, while the switch-hitting Cole took one out to right field from the right side of the plate.
With the two home runs hit tonight, Arkansas now has 90 for the year, which continues to lead the SEC and is only two away from tying the all-time school record for home runs in a season (92 in 2010).
The Pitching
Once again, Arkansas was able to save the main portion of its bullpen with the eight-inning outing by Murphy.
Not only was it the longest outing of Murphy’s career, but it was his third outing of seven or more innings this season. Both eight-inning outings by Knight and Murphy this weekend are currently the longest by any Razorback starter this year.
Murphy finished the game with 100 pitches thrown with 70 of them going for strikes. He retired 10 in a row to start the game before Southern Miss got its first baserunner via a walk in the fourth.
Murphy didn’t even allow a hit until the fifth inning.
Up Next
Arkansas moves into the regional final with the win over Southern Miss and will await the winner of the Golden Eagles and Dallas Baptist from the loser’s bracket.
Whichever team advances out of that bracket will have to beat Arkansas twice to reach the Super Regionals.
A win tomorrow for the Hogs will place them in their seventh Super Regional in school history.
First pitch between Southern Miss and Dallas Baptist is set for 2 p.m. at Baum Stadium. The winner will face Arkansas at 7 p.m. later in the day.
