Hogs officially set to host NCAA Rregionals this week

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Baum-Walker Stadium has been selected as one of 16 NCAA regional sites for the 10th time in program history, but we won’t know who the other three teams coming to the party until the selection show on ESPN2 at 11 a.m. Monday. It was not a surprise to anybody.

It will be a double-elimination format and all the regionals are scheduled to be Friday-Monday. All of that depends on the always-unpredictable weather this time of the year. As of Sunday night, weather forecasts for Northwest Arkansas have a 40-50% chance of rain and thunderstorms until Monday. They could be dodging the weather all weekend.

“there may be some great places, and I’m sure there might be a couple that are just as good or close, but I don’t see how,” Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn said on the SEC Network last week about Baum-Walker. “It’s unbelievable, the atmosphere.”

Arkansas is one of a record eight SEC teams that will host a regional, along with Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

“If people are paying attention to the whole season in baseball, we should have eight hosts,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Saturday on television during the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala. “That’s actually good for college baseball. You look at what you experience at our stadiums — they’re full, it’s exciting, they’re passionate. Win or lose, I think teams want to play in those environments.”

The full tournament selections and pairings will be announced on the NCAA Baseball selection show on ESPN2 at 11 a.m. Monday, May 29. A full release will be distributed and posted on NCAA.com before the show ends at 11:30 a.m.

The Hogs will have to win that to host a Super Regional the next week for the right to go to Omaha for the College World Series … which is the goal for everybody now.

Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.