Tye and Tommy on the Stillwater Regional, Jaylin’s decision, Clay joins and more!
Can Hogs be team that figures it all out at end of season?
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Maybe getting a break is the answer Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn has been seeking.
After struggling to the postseason, it’s about the only thing he’s had available.
“You just try to get ’em right,” Van Horn said in a Zoom press conference after drawing a trip to the Stillwater Regional to open play in the NCAA Tournament. “Sometimes it’s nice to not have a schedule.”
He’s been trying to get this team right for a month.
One of the things this team doesn’t have is a vocal leader. A guy that can just take over the locker room isn’t on this team.
“They want to lead by example,” Van Horn said. “We’ve got a lot of leaders. I just don’t know if we have that vocal guy.”
Van Horn knows this team needs to do. He’s just not real sure what he can do to have it start happening.
“We need to just change our mindset a little bit,” he said. “We need to score earlier in these games..
Just over a month ago, fans and the media assumed there would be a regional at Baum-Walker Stadium. That sailed into the ditch along with the Razorbacks in final two series of the year, then couldn’t get out in the SEC Tournament.
Van Horn wasn’t expecting to get a regional. He did think the Hogs would be headed to Stillwater to play in a new stadium that hasn’t hosted postseason play.
And going on the road right now might not be the worst possible thing for this team.
“We want to flip it,” he said. “Maybe going on the road provides less distraction.”
The Hogs have still gotten to Omaha from the road. The initial objective going into every season is still in front of this team.
Some fans determine the entire fate of the program based on every game. This isn’t football. One game doesn’t exactly determine anything in football.
But the road will be tougher. Every team they play in Stillwater got to that point by being a pretty good team.
“You never know how it’s going to go,” Van Horn said.
Which, of course, is the beauty of the postseason in baseball and how teams that get hot and figure it all out at the end can sometimes cause big problems.
Can the Hogs be that team this year?
Hogs headed to Stillwater, will play Grand Canyon on Friday
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Since Arkansas didn’t land a host for the first round of the NCAA Tournament, going a couple of hours west was the best option.
But it won’t be easy.
The Razorbacks, struggling down the stretch of the regular season and getting knocked out of the SEC Tournament early, will open the NCAA Baseball Tournament with a game against Grand Canyon on Friday in Stillwater, Okla.
The Cowboys, who will be hosting in a new stadium for the first time, didn’t win the Big 12 Tournament, but will still be hosting the regional.
Other teams coming in will be Missouri State, Grand Canyon State and the Razorbacks.
The Hogs will play a regional in Stillwater for the first time since 2015 and for the fifth time overall. It is in a new stadium, though, so they haven’t played there before.
The Cowboys (39-20) are the host in Stillwater and is the No. 7 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. The Cowboys will play Missouri Valley Conference Tournament champion Missouri State (30-27) on Friday.
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.
Razorbacks schedule future second game against Missouri State
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — No headlines about another Bobby Petrino visit.
When Missouri State comes to Fayetteville on Sept. 17 it will mark his first time back in Razorback Stadium since Joe Adams’ punt return is still shown in a win over Tennessee in 2011.
The Hogs and the Bears have scheduled a game for the 2025 season, according to multiple reports. It’s a good bet the contract has more holes than a block of Swiss cheese.
It would mark a second visit for Petrino … if they actually get to play the game.
With all the questions surrounding the future of college football, there are a lot of holes around future scheduling.
The SEC is expanding with Oklahoma and Texas joining the league sometime between now and 2025, including rumblings the league could go to a nine-game league schedule every year.
Some nagging thing for some us says they may not stop at nine because the 2020 season with 10 league games for each team seemed to provide as much interest as anything else in that crazy year.
According to a story in the Springfield News-Leader, the Hogs will pay Missouri State $500,000 in 2025. This year’s game is only $450,000 and if inflation continues that could end up being a bargain.
The knee-jerk reaction to seeing the Bears on the Hogs’ schedule again is another visit by the former coach. That number will go down because it was over a decade before now and three more years won’t help memories.
The Razorbacks kick off the 2022 season Sept. 3 at Razorback Stadium against Cincinnati to start a stretch of three straight home games to open the season.
Fox Sports’ Aaron Torres on variety of issues including transfer portal
What went wrong with Hog baseball in Hoover, Eric Musselman taking over the portal, thoughts on recruiting tactics, opinion on Jimbo vs. Saban and SEC Playoffs.
Hogs’ season comes to sudden half in Super Regional against Texas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — No. 4 Arkansas’ historic season came to an end Saturday afternoon at Bogle Park.
The Razorbacks fell to No. 18 Texas, 3-0, in game three of the Fayetteville Super Regional.
“Although we’re really disappointed, I just have to take this time to say how proud I am of this group and the season that they’ve had,” said Hogs coach Courtney Deifel. “I’m really, really proud of the seniors for what they’ve done for this program. It’ll never be the same.”
Arkansas finishes the 2022 season with a program-best 48 wins (48-11).
Senior Danielle Gibson led the Razorback offense, going 2-for-3 at the dish. Senior KB Sides, junior Audrie LaValley and sophomore Hannah Gammill compiled a hit apiece.
Junior RHP Chenise Delce (19-3) got the start, twirling five scoreless frames with eight strikeouts.
The Oklahoma City, Okla., product walked zero batters in six innings of work before Texas put up three runs in the sixth.
Senior RHP Mary Haff entered the circle in the seventh with a runner at first and zero outs. After Texas reached on a bunt, the Longhorns lined into a double play made by Audrie LaValley at second. Haff issued a strikeout to end the top half of the seventh.
There’s no doubt Arkansas achieved the best season in program history. The Razorbacks clinched back-to-back SEC regular season championships, including the program’s first outright title, along with the program’s first SEC Tournament crown.
The Hogs captured the most wins in single season program history, 48, while holding an ultra-impressive 19-5 record in conference play.
For the first time in program history, KB Sides was named SEC Player of the Year. Deifel became just the second league coach to be named SEC Coach of the Year in back-to-back years.
Chenise Delce became the second-straight Hog to be named SEC Pitcher of the Year after Mary Haff earned that honor in 2021.
A total of 9,385 were in attendance across three games at the Fayetteville Super Regional, making it the highest-attended Super Regional and three-game series in program history. Arkansas also tallied the program’s first Super Regional victory after defeating Texas, 7-1, in game one.
Hannah McEwen: “It’s easy to think about wins and hits and all the things you’ve done, but when you leave, your hits don’t matter anymore. The wins don’t matter for you personally. That’s something you leave behind. Taking away all of the friendships and the family you’ve made while you’re here, and hopefully what you did while you’re here is good for the people that get to stay and build on it.”
Coach Courtney Deifel: “I mean, they took a chance on us, and they’ve built this. When you’re out there and see 3,000-plus people doing the ‘Hog Call’, they did that. I know that I just felt really, really lucky that I got to coach them and fortunate they chose us. They’ve left us in a really good spot. I’m just really, really proud that I’m their coach.”
Williams chooses to stay in June’s NBA Draft after strong combine showing
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — After a strong NBA Combine, the decision was made Jaylin Williams is going to the league.
He made the announcement Saturday on the Twitter thing:
Thank you Arkansas? pic.twitter.com/h4mGfAfahR
— Jaylin Williams (@Jay_MWilliams_) May 28, 2022
Williams announced his intentions to test the waters without hiring an agent on April 4. After spending several weeks training in Miami (Fla.), Williams earned an invite to the 2022 NBA Draft Combine in Chicago, an honor reserved for prospects league front offices feel have the best odds of being selected.
According to multiple reports, Williams impressed scouts in shooting drills and last Thursday’s 5-on-5 scrimmage.
He opted to sit out of Friday’s second scrimmage, a move typically made by combine participants who have received enough positive feedback to feel comfortable with where they stand in the draft pecking order.
Since the combine, Williams has had multiple workouts with interested NBA franchises.
The decision does give Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman some direction on which plan he has for a season that is going to feature an awful lot of new faces.
To go along with the best recruiting class in program history, he’s added transfers that will give the Hogs some experience … and talent.
Now he’s just got to figure out how to make it all come together, which as we’ve seen in the past, might not really be known until mid-January.
Williams simply got better the deeper the season went, with Musselman saying often he was the type player you win with because of his selfless style of playing, including drawing charges frequently.
Williams averaged 14.25 points and 11.75 rebounds in four NCAA Tournament games (logging double-doubles in each) for the Hogs, good enough to earn him a spot on the NCAA Tournament All-West Region Team.
He finished with 15 points and 12 boards in Arkansas’ thrilling Sweet 16 victory over top-overall seed Gonzaga and followed up with 19 points and 10 boards against Duke in the Elite Eight.
Now he will wait to hear his name called June 23 for the NBA.
Diamond Hawgs Podcast S2E33: Gators Eliminate Hogs in Hoover
Join Mason Choate and Robert Stewart as they recap Arkansas’ 7-5 loss to Florida in an elimination game in Hoover. The guys talk about where it went wrong for Arkansas and how the team has a very unsure future with regionals in sight
Longhorns hit homers, Hogs don’t, setting up big third game Saturday
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas has gotten the big hits when they needed them all year.
Until Friday evening.
Texas took a 3-1 lead on back-to-back homers in the bottom of the third inning and pitcher Hailey Dolcini didn’t let the Razorbacks get anything else to set up the rubber match of the NCAA Super Regional on Saturday.
“Texas was tougher than us,” Hogs coach Courtney Deifel said later. “What I saw from our team the last four innings just wasn’t us.”
Dolcini gave up only five hits and walked just two while striking out two to earn the win. What turned out to be the difference-making home runs were hit by Janae Jefferson and Katie Cimusz.
Arkansas took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning, but could not hold it.
KB Sides walked, advanced to third on an infield single by Taylor Ellsworth, and eventually scored on an RBI single by Danielle Gibson.
Texas quickly retaliated in the bottom half of the third with the back-to-back homers by Jefferson and Cimusz to move ahead, 2-1.
Soon after, the Razorbacks looked to the bullpen and brought Chenise Delce to the circle in place of starter Mary Haff. But Mary Iakopo drove Delce’s first pitch of the game to left center for a run-scoring double, scoring Alyssa Washington and widening the gap to 3-1. Delce settled in and struck out the next two batters to end the rally.
Delce and Dolcini continued to battle from there, shutting down batters on both sides for the remainder of the game as the Longhorns made the two-run advantage stand up for the win.
Dolcini gave up only five hits and walked just two while striking out two to earn the win. What turned out to be the difference-making home runs were hit by Janae Jefferson and Katie Cimusz.
Arkansas took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning, but could not hold it.
KB Sides walked, advanced to third on an infield single by Taylor Ellsworth, and eventually scored on an RBI single by Danielle Gibson.
Texas quickly retaliated in the bottom half of the third with the back-to-back homers by Jefferson and Cimusz to move ahead, 2-1.
Soon after, the Razorbacks looked to the bullpen and brought Chenise Delce to the circle in place of starter Mary Haff. But Mary Iakopo drove Delce’s first pitch of the game to left center for a run-scoring double, scoring Alyssa Washington and widening the gap to 3-1. Delce settled in and struck out the next two batters to end the rally.
Delce and Dolcini continued to battle from there, shutting down batters on both sides for the remainder of the game as the Longhorns made the two-run advantage stand up for the win.
Saturday’s game will be at 2 p.m. Saturday and will be televised on ESPN.
