The No. 6/9 Arkansas Razorbacks close out a seven-game road swing on Wednesday visiting Tulsa for a 5 p.m. first pitch on ESPN+.
It’s the final non-conference regular season game on the schedule for a program that’s been one of the most consistent in the country over the past several seasons.
Arkansas carries a 36-8 overall record into the matchup, going 11-7 in SEC play with 21 run-rule wins. The Hogs are outscoring opponents 364-122 this season — fifth nationally in total runs — and rank among the nation’s leaders in batting average, on-base percentage and runs per game.
They enter the week at No. 6 in both the ESPN/USA Softball and D1 Softball polls, No. 9 in the NFCA/GoRout D1 Coaches Poll and No. 6 in Softball America.
Arkansas is also one of just five programs to appear in every NFCA Coaches Poll Top 25 since the start of the 2020 season, joining Oklahoma, Florida, UCLA and Florida State.
The Razorbacks have now been ranked for a program-best 100 consecutive weeks.
Beating the Best
Arkansas went 1-2 last weekend at No. 1 Oklahoma but made the trip count.
The Hogs knocked off the Sooners 3-2 in game two — their third win ever over a consensus No. 1 opponent — while snapping Oklahoma’s nation-leading 31-game home winning streak.
Sophomore Payton Burnham threw 5.1 strong innings and senior first baseman Tianna Bell delivered a go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth inning.
Bell has been the engine of the Arkansas offense all season. She’s batting .397 with 54 hits, 14 home runs, 51 RBI and a .757 slugging percentage across 44 games.
She leads the team with 16 multi-hit games and 15 multi-RBI games, joining Bri Ellis as the only two Razorbacks in program history to reach 15-plus in both categories through 44 games of a season.
Freshman Brinli Bain has been equally impressive, hitting .402 with a program-record 15 doubles and a .547 on-base percentage.
She’s the only Division I player to rank in the national top five among freshmen in walks per game, on-base percentage and doubles.
Bain has reached base in 41 of her 43 starts this season. Sophomore Ella McDowell rounds out the lineup with a .364 average, 11 home runs and 45 RBI while posting a .667 slugging percentage.
Pitching Holds It Together
On the mound, senior left-hander Robyn Herron leads the staff at 12-4 with a 2.03 ERA and 126 strikeouts in 79.1 innings.
Her four saves lead the entire SEC. Earlier this month she became just the seventh pitcher in program history to reach both 500 career strikeouts and 50 career wins. Burnham is 10-3 with a 2.08 ERA in 67.1 innings this season.
The Razorbacks own a 2.65 team ERA and have posted 11 shutouts — 11th nationally — and are one of only five programs to rank in the national top 20 in shutouts in each of the past three seasons.
Sizing Up Tulsa
Tulsa comes in at 17-26 overall and 8-13 in American Conference play, dropping two of three last weekend against Florida Atlantic.
Claira Skaggs leads the Hurricane offense with a .333 average, nine home runs and a 1.025 OPS. Maura Moore anchors the pitching staff at 9-13 with a 4.28 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 122.2 innings.
Coach Crissy Strimple is in her seventh season at the helm with a 149-167-1 record.
Arkansas leads the all-time series 20-14. The programs haven’t met since May 2019, when Tulsa beat the Hogs 5-0 in NCAA Regional play.
Tulsa pitcher Chenise Delce threw a complete-game win that day before later transferring to Arkansas, where she earned NFCA All-American honors in both 2022 and 2023.
The Hogs have gone 74-28 on the road since 2020 — second-best in the SEC behind only Oklahoma — and have won 19 of their last 23 SEC road series, the best mark in the conference during that stretch.
Wednesday’s game tips off at 5 p.m. on ESPN+.
