Hogs have three players selected for Palmer Cup team

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas had three players selected to the 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup team, the Golf Coaches Association of America announced today.

Junior Maria Fassi was the top pick for the international team while senior Alana Uriell and junior Dylan Kim were coach’s picks for the U.S.A. Razorback men’s golfer Alvaro Ortiz was an automatic pick on the men’s international team bringing the Arkansas total to four players – more representatives than any other college team.

Fassi has been spectacular this season playing her way to four individual titles while leading the No. 3 Razorbacks to four team titles in six events. She currently ranks No. 2 on the ANNIKA Award Watch list for the top female college golfer and ranks No. 2 in the Southeastern Conference, No. 2 in the Golfstat.com standings and No. 4 in the Golfweek.com rankings.

Uriell and Kim have had a back-and-forth battle for the No. 2 spot on the Razorback team. Uriell currently ranks No. 14 in Golfstat and No. 17 in the Golfweek.com rankings. She was a 2017 Walmart NWA Championship and U.S. Women’s Amateur participant last summer. She has counted 100% of her scores toward the team total and leads Arkansas with 220 par holes in competition.

Kim ranks No. 13 in the Golfweek standings and No. 16 in the Golfweek rankings. She finished tied for fourth at the 2018 Mexican Amateur and the Dixie Amateur. She was a 2017 U.S. Women’s Open participant and earned a runner-up finish at the 2017 Women’s Western Amateur.

The Palmer Cup takes place July 6-8, at the Evian Resort Golf Club, the host of the LPGA major, The Evian Championship.

The top six golfers from the final ranking in the Spring from both the United States and International men and women – 12 total golfers – make up the 24 individuals selected to compete in the Arnold Palmer Cup. The 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup will be the first using the expanded format of United States men’s and women’s collegiate golfers versus their counterparts from around the world.

Using Golfstat’s NCAA Player Ranking as a base, the Arnold Palmer Cup Ranking awards bonus points for wins and high finishes and a penalty for poor finishes. The ranking also contains a strength of schedule component.

The remaining six men’s and women’s spots for the United States consist of five committee selections, including at least one non-Division I golfer, and a coach’s pick. The balance of the International team will include the men’s and women’s winners of The R&A Scholars Tournament, four committee selections and a coach’s pick.

Van Horn on midweek sweep; Kentucky ahead

After beating the Longhorns 7-5 on Wednesday to complete a sweep, the start of SEC play is this weekend with a powerful Kentucky team first up for Hogs.

Cronin, Wilson, Martin on win Tuesday against ’Horns

Razorbacks pitcher Matt Cronin, second baseman Hunter Wilson and third baseman Casey Martin met with the media and talked about the key plays in the Hogs’ 7-5 win Wednesday.

Garza, Ortiz share top honors for week in SEC

FAYETTEVILLE — After earning co-medalist honors at the Southern Intercollegiate Championship earlier this week, senior Alvaro Ortiz and sophomore Luis Garza have been named the Co-SEC Golfers of the Week the league office announced Wednesday afternoon.

Garza recorded his first collegiate victory with his 3-under performance at Athens Country Club, while Ortiz earned his second career win, making him the 10th player in program history to win multiple tournaments as a Razorback.

In the one day 36-hole event, Garza opened the day with a 4-under 68 and held a six-shot lead on his teammate, but Ortiz came storming back in the afternoon, posting five birdies in the final nine holes to finished deadlocked with Garza to earn co-medalist honors.

The duo led Arkansas to a 17-shot victory at the event, the second team title of the year and the 26th championship under coach Brad McMakin.

The Razorbacks have earned multiple wins in a season for the second straight year and the sixth time in the last eight seasons.

Arkansas returns to action this Sunday, March 18, traveling to Palm City, Florida, to compete in the Valspar Collegiate. The three-day event is held at Floridian National Golf Club.

Post indoor watch list finds Jacobus back on award pace

NEW ORLEANS — Three-time pole vault national champion Lexi Jacobus has been named to The Bowerman Watch List for the second time this season, following her spectacular performance at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships, which saw her help Arkansas to a national runner-up team finish.

Jacobus was last featured on prestigious list prior to the start of the indoor season, selected as one of the athletes to watch in early January.

Program Record, No. 2 in NCAA History

Jacobus entered the indoor national meet as the Southeastern Conference pole vault runner-up and as one of only two women to clear a 15-foot bar through out the duration of the season.

The Cabot native vaulted to her third NCAA gold medal in College Station, Texas, setting both a meet and program record with her clearance of 4.66m/15-3½.

Her performance matched the collegiate indoor best of former Razorback and fellow Olympian Sandi Morris, whom Jacobus now shares the honor of Arkansas record-holder and No. 2 in NCAA history with.

In addition to winning the pole vault at the national meet, Jacobus was also awarded the NCAA Elite 90 award in recognition of her academic efforts.

The award is presented to a student-athlete who has excelled in their sport te with highest cumulative grade point average participating in an NCAA championships.

Through five semesters of coursework Jacobus continues to hold a 4.00 gpa in biochemistry. It is the second NCAA Elite90 award of her career.

With indoor season behind her, Jacobus will set her sights on replicating that magic during the outdoor season, with the hunt for her fourth NCAA gold beginning with regular season competition at the Arkansas Spring Invitational March 23-24.

The Razorbacks first meet of the outdoor season will be held in Fayetteville at John McDonnell Field.

Hogs go on road to face LSU, A&M this weekend

FAYETTEVILLE — With SEC action heating up, Arkansas will hit the road to play LSU in Baton Rouge on Thursday and Texas A&M in College Station on Saturday.

Thursday’s match against the Tigers (10-4, 1-3 SEC) is set for 4 p.m. CT, while Saturday’s match against the Aggies (10-4, 1-3 SEC) will begin at noon CT.

Live Scoring
Fans can follow both matches via live scoring. Click here for live results at LSU and here for live results at Texas A&M.

Live Video
Saturday’s match against the Aggies will have live video here.

In The Rankings
In the Oracle/ITA rankings, the SEC has seven teams in the top 25: Vanderbilt (4); Georgia (7); South Carolina (11); Ole Miss (12); Kentucky (17); Auburn (18); Florida (22). The Razorbacks checked in at No. 33, Texas A&M came in at No. 42, and LSU landed at No. 43.

Last Time Out
Arkansas fell to No. 17 Kentucky 4-1 and No. 4 Vanderbilt 4-3 at home last weekend. Both the Aggies and Tigers are coming off a tough stretch in which the they suffered road losses at No. 11 South Carolina and No. 22 Florida.

Series History
LSU holds a 20-19 all-time advantage over Arkansas, but the Razorbacks topped the Tigers 5-2 in Fayetteville last season for their eighth win over LSU in the last 11 regular-season meetings. A&M is 12-9 all-time against the Hogs. Arkansas beat the Aggies 6-1 at home in 2017.

Singles Success
In singles, sophomore No. 66 Giulia Pairone boasts a 9-0 record, including a 4-0 mark at the top spot. She picked up the highest-ranked win of her career last Sunday when she defeated Vanderbilt’s No. 5 Fernanda Contreras 6-3, 7-6 (4) at the top spot. Junior Ana Oparenovic improved to 2-1 in SEC play, earning a 6-1, 6-2 win over the Commodores’ No. 27 Christina Rosca.

Top-Notch Tandem
Moving up six spots in the latest national doubles rankings, the Razorbacks’ No. 30 nationally ranked duo of Oparenovic and freshman Tatum Rice, leads all SEC No. 1 doubles pairs with a 10-1 record at the top spot. Overall, Oparenovic and Rice’s record ranks No. 2 in the conference.

Dominant Doubles
The Hogs have won the doubles point in 10 of its 12 matches this season.

More Notables
Rice is also ranked No. 51 in doubles with sophomore Jackie Carr, while Oparenovic is ranked No. 67 with senior Mia Jurasic.

Hogs take advantage of wind, ’Horns’ blunders in win

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Texas threw the ball all over Baum Stadium on Tuesday night.

Arkansas hit the ball all over the park.

That worked out well for the Razorbacks in a 13-4 win that really wasn’t that close and Casey Martin’s three-run homer in the fifth was typical of the night.

He jumped on an 0-2 pitch and launched a rocket that looked for all the world like if it didn’t land in the bleachers it was going to be caught down the line for an out.

“I thought there was no chance it was going to be fair,” rightfielder Eric Cole said later, who had a pretty good view from the on-deck circle.

Somehow, it came down and just nicked the foul pole on the way down, which counts as a free trip around the bases.

“It was a northwest wind,” Dave Van Horn said later, actually trying to play it straight. “When it’s like that, you see the ball drift back into the field of play.”

That’s when even he couldn’t keep acting like it was normal.

“You know I’m part weather man,” he said, joking about his constant weather analysis, which sorta backfired this past weekend against Kent State when they played two on Friday expecting rain that didn’t come until very late Saturday. “It clipped the foul pole.”

It was that kind of night for both teams. The Hogs were hitting the ball, taking advantage of that northwest wind van Horn mentioned.

“You know, Casey has hit the foul pole about three times,” Cole said. That has to be some sort of record if such things were kept.

Texas wasn’t doing anything well, except for a couple of home runs. The Texas pitching staff walked five batters in the first three innings and also committed two costly errors on the same play in the third that helped contribute to the big inning.

The Razorbacks totaled 13 hits and only left seven men on base.

Four different Hogs had multi-hit games on Tuesday. Cole led all hitters as he went 3-for-5 while tying a career-high three RBIs.

Oh, and Kacey Murphy did a great job on the mound, too.

“Murphy gave us what we wanted,” Van Horn said. “He didn’t walk anybody and got us off to a good start throwing the ball over the plate.”

Sophomore Jordan McFarland continued to swing the hot bat as he knocked in four RBIs, including a bases-loaded double in the third that contributed to the seven-run frame.

He was virtually untouchable for much of the game with the exception of two solo home runs given up in the fourth and fifth innings. Over the first three innings, Texas only managed two base runners, neither reaching third base.

Murphy picked up his second win of the year, throwing six strong innings and holding Texas to just two earned runs, both being home runs. It’s the second outing this year that he’s worked six innings and the first time this year he didn’t walk a batter.

“We told him at the beginning of the year that he would pitch some on Tuesdays, maybe out of the pen on the weekend and maybe start some on the weekend,” Van Horn said. “He said, ‘Hey, whatever, I just want to win.’ That’s what we want.”

That’s what he got Tuesday night and it paid off big.

Along with that northwest wind, too.

“Pretty amazing,” Van Horn said with a smile.

The second game of the series will be Wednesday with first pitch set for 4 p.m.

Arkansas will start freshman lefthander Hunter Milligan, but get there early if you want to see him. Van Horn said it will be a day to work the staff looking at the weekend SEC conference-opening series against Kentucky.