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.

Van Horn on Hogs’ big win over Longhorns

Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn met with the media after his team put up a seven-run third inning and raced to a 13-4 win over Texas on Tuesday night.

Murphy, Cole, McFarland on win over Texas

Arkansas pitcher Kacey Murphy, right-fielder Eric Cole and first baseman Jordan McFarland talked about beating the Longhorns, great fans on cold night.

Hogs still in contention for program of year award

NEW ORLEANS — No. 2 Arkansas has moved inside the top-five in the latest Terry Crawford Program of the Year Award standings following its runner-up team finish last weekend at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas.

Teams must qualify for each of the NCAA Championships (cross country, indoor and outdoor) to be eligible for the award.

A team receives points based on its finish at each championship event (i.e. first = 1 point, 10th = 10 points) and the points are added together with each passing season.

The team with the lowest score following the completion of the NCAA Outdoor Championships is determined the winner.

Program of the Year Standings
1. Oregon – 10
2. New Mexico – 11.5
3. Stanford – 12
4. Arkansas – 15
5. Georgia – 18

Cross Country
The Razorbacks posted a top-15 finish this past fall at the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships, placing 13th overall in a field of 32.

Arkansas was led by sophomore Carina Viljoen who finished 48th with a time of 20:20.40 in her first national race.

Indoor Track and Field
The Arkansas women took silver at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships this past weekend in College Station, Texas.

Seven Razorbacks tallied 49 points as three took individual championships

Senior Taliyah Brooks took first in the pentathlon while Lexi Jacobus and Payton Chadwick took gold in the Pole Vault and the 60-meter hurdles, respectively.

Arkansas posted 12 additional points in the pole vault as Tori Hoggard placed second and Desiree Freier finished fifth.

Senior Nikki Hiltz placed third in the mile and Janeek Brown touted a eighth place finish in the 60-meter hurdles to round out the Razorbacks’ scoring.

2017-2018 Indoor First Team All-American(s)
Taliyah Brooks – Pentathlon, 1st place
Janeek Brown – 60-meter hurdles, 8th place
Payton Chadwick – 60-meter hurdles, 1st place
Desiree Freier – Pole Vault, 5th place
Nikki Hiltz – Mile, 3rd place
Tori Hoggard – Pole Vault, 2nd place
Lexi Jacobus – Pole Vault, 1st place

2017-2018 Indoor Second Team All-American(s)
Jada Baylark – 60 meters
Taliyah Brooks – Long Jump
Morgan Burks-Magee – 400 meters
Payton Chadwick – 200 meters
Payton Chadwick – Long Jump, 9th place

Anderson says Hogs will ‘just go and do what we do’

Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said defense, bench big keys for Hogs in first-round NCAA Tournament matchup Friday against Butler from the Big East.

Macon, Barford on NCAA matchup against Butler

Arkansas guards Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon talked about the matchup Friday against Butler in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.