Not really a lot of answers to who John Calipari can afford to talk into returning and not much known about Hogs football until September.
Connor O’Gara with The OG Kickoff on changing face of college athletics
With Big Ten winning national championships in multiple sports, they may have completely sailed past everybody else.
Razorbacks defensive line coaches Kynjee’ Cotton, Landius Wilkerson
Both from Alabama State but several years apart and how they’ve come together to try and make Hogs’ defensive front relevant.
Razorbacks’ defensive linemen Hunter Osborne, Quincy Rhodes on spring
What Osborne bringing with his experience to group trying to improve over previous years, Rhodes on only returning player for Hogs.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: 4-6-26
National Championship Monday is set! Previewing UConn vs Michigan, recapping a HUGE Arkansas W at ANGC pre-Master’s. Baseball drops to 5-7 in the SEC.
Hogs Fall to Auburn for first time in series since 2017 and numbers getting worse
AUBURN, Ala. — It looked like things were trending the right way for Arkansas early Saturday afternoon at Plainsman Park.
They’d loaded the bases in the second inning, pushed across three runs and had No. 18 Auburn on its heels. But it didn’t last long.
No. 17 Arkansas fell 8-3 to the Tigers in the series-deciding finale, dropping the Hogs to 20-13 overall and 5-7 in SEC play.
The loss is a tough one to stomach for a program that came into the weekend with postseason aspirations still firmly in view.
Auburn improved to 22-9 overall and 6-6 in conference play with the win.
For the Hogs, it’s a result that’ll sting for a while — not just because of how the game unfolded, but because of what it means for where they stand in the league standings.
The Razorbacks didn’t waste any time getting on the board. In the top of the second inning, Arkansas loaded the bases with no outs before breaking through for three runs.
Kuhio Aloy contributed with an RBI groundout and Christian Turner delivered a two-out RBI single to put the Hogs in front 3-0.
That lead, though, didn’t survive the bottom half of the same inning.
A Lead That Slipped Away
Auburn responded with eight unanswered runs, including a three-run inning in the bottom of the second.
From that point forward, the Tigers kept the pressure on while Arkansas struggled to generate any offensive momentum to match it.
Razorback starter Colin Fisher was tagged for five runs on five hits and two walks in 2.2 innings of work.
It wasn’t the performance the Hogs needed from their starter in a series-deciding game, and Auburn’s lineup made them pay for every mistake.
The Tigers tacked on one more run in the bottom of the fifth and scored a pair in the sixth to stretch their lead to a comfortable five runs.
By that point, the Hogs were chasing a deficit that their offense simply couldn’t overcome.
Arkansas didn’t get much going at the plate the rest of the afternoon. The Razorbacks were held to just four hits and one walk for the game.
Against a quality SEC opponent at home, that kind of offensive output makes it nearly impossible to win.
Bullpen Holds Its Ground
There were some bright spots out of the Arkansas bullpen on an otherwise rough afternoon in Alabama.
Parker Coil worked 2.2 innings, allowing just one run with one strikeout, while Cole Gibler threw two scoreless frames.
The two left-handers combined for 4.2 innings of one-run ball, which gave the Hogs a chance to stay in the game — if only the offense could’ve answered.
Coil and Gibler combined to hold Auburn to one run across their appearances, but Arkansas couldn’t string together a rally at the plate.
Their work kept the game from getting completely out of hand, but it wasn’t enough to change the outcome.
On the offensive side, one Razorback continued to do his part. Carter Rutenbar singled and scored a run while extending his team-leading reached base streak to 11 consecutive games.
Rutenbar’s consistency at the plate has been one of the few reliable constants for Arkansas in what’s been a bumpy stretch of SEC play.
A Difficult Stretch in Conference Play
The bigger picture here is worth noting. With the loss, the Hogs dropped their first weekend series against Auburn since 2017. It was their second consecutive SEC weekend series of the year after opening the season with back-to-back series wins against Mississippi State and South Carolina.
Those early series wins now feel like a distant memory as Arkansas works through a difficult run in league play.
The Razorbacks are now 5-7 through their first 12 SEC games, marking the program’s worst 12-game start to conference play since 2016. That’s a number that should put some urgency into everything the team does going forward.
The SEC is always a grind and dropping consecutive weekend series in conference play is a situation that demands a quick turnaround.
Arkansas isn’t out of contention by any means at 20-13 overall, but there isn’t much room left for error if the Hogs want to be playing meaningful baseball in May.
What’s Next for the Razorbacks
Arkansas doesn’t have long to dwell on this one. The Hogs will return to the friendly confines of Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville to host in-state rival Little Rock at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
That midweek matchup should give the Razorbacks a chance to get right before heading back into the SEC grind.
Following the Little Rock game, Arkansas hits the road for an SEC weekend series at Alabama on April 10-12 in Tuscaloosa.
The Crimson Tide series will be another big test for a team that needs to right the ship in conference play sooner rather than later.
The Hogs know what’s at stake.
They’ve shown they can win early in the year — those Mississippi State and South Carolina series victories prove it.
Now it’s about getting back to that standard when it counts most in the SEC schedule.
Razorbacks coach Ryan Silverfiled on what he saw in first spring scrimmage
What he saw live from seeing team together just playing football with no situation work to get more evaluations in practices.
Hogs signee JJ Andrews on summer plans, McDonald’s All-American game
What he’s working on with summer plans and where he feels he can contribute most in first season with Razorbacks’ coach John Calipari.
Dietz delivers the outing Razorbacks needed most in Auburn upset
AUBURN, Ala. — For five straight games the Razorbacks couldn’t get a result like this.
On Friday night at Plainsman Park, left-hander Hunter Dietz gave them exactly what they’d been missing.
Dietz worked 7 dominant innings against one of the SEC’s hottest offenses, striking out 11 without issuing a single walk and allowing just 1 earned run on 6 hits.
His career-high 106-pitch effort carried Arkansas to a 3-2 victory over Auburn and snapped a five-game losing streak that had threatened to derail the Razorbacks’ season.
Arkansas improved to 20-12 overall and 5-6 in SEC play.
The win also snapped a five-game skid in conference games and set up a rubber match Saturday at Plainsman Park at 2 p.m.
The Tigers entered Friday at 21-9 and tied with Arkansas at 5-6 in the SEC.
They didn’t score after the second inning.
Dietz Controls the Game Early
Auburn scratched across runs in each of the first two innings, and for a moment it looked like another long night ahead for the Hogs.
A throwing error by catcher Ryder Helfrick in the first helped the Tigers plate their opening run when Bristol Carter stole second and scored on Chris Rembert’s RBI single.
Auburn pushed the lead to 2-0 in the second when Eric Guevara led off with a double and scored on Ethin Bingaman’s RBI single.
Then Dietz took over.
He navigated traffic in the third, fourth and fifth innings, including stranding leadoff runners in the second and fourth.
In the seventh, Mason McCraine singled, stole second and reached third — and Dietz still wouldn’t crack. He got Bristol Carter to ground out to shortstop on his final pitch to end the inning and his night.
Dietz and left-handed closer Ethan McElvain combined to retire the Tigers’ final eight batters.
Auburn stranded 5 runners on the night and didn’t score after the second inning against a duo that simply refused to give an inch.
Helfrick Provides the Offense
Dietz’s effort would’ve meant nothing without Helfrick’s bat, and the junior catcher delivered twice.
Helfrick’s solo home run in the sixth inning cut Auburn’s lead to 2-1. Facing No. 1 Auburn starter Jake Marciano, he failed on a first-pitch bunt attempt before unloading on a 2-1 breaking pitch, sending it 401 feet to left field and over the 37-foot War Eagle Wall.
Then in the eighth, with closer Jett Johnston on the mound, Nolan Souza reached on a 1-out opposite-field single. Helfrick worked the count, laid off a 1-2 slider and jumped on a 2-2 fastball left over the plate. His 398-foot shot to center field gave Arkansas a 3-2 lead it never surrendered.
Marciano was otherwise excellent for Auburn, allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 8 in 7 innings.
He retired 11 of 12 batters at one stretch after Arkansas threatened in the second inning when Rutenbar singled,
Maika Niu walked and Zack Stewart added a 1-out single. Helfrick’s sixth-inning homer was the breakthrough the Razorbacks needed against him.
McElvain Finishes It
With Dietz’s night done after 7, McElvain took the ball and made it look easy.
The left-hander retired every batter he faced in his 2-inning save, his first as a Razorback, throwing 17 of 22 pitches for strikes and striking out one.
He and Dietz combined to hold Auburn scoreless over the final seven innings of the ballgame.
Both teams finished with 6 hits and 1 error. The Hogs left 4 runners on base to Auburn’s 5.
For a team that’d dropped five straight, Friday night looked and felt different.
And it started with Dietz taking the ball and not letting go.
479 Equipment Ruscin & Zach podcast April 3
Arkansas baseball loses its fifth in a row.
Former Razorback Richard Smith comes by to give Zach ducks.
We play a spirited version of Cook Colton.
