FAYETTEVILLE — After a successful trip to the left coast, Dave Van Horn’s Arkansas Razorbacks are back On the Hill and looking forward to busy week.
The Hogs (8-2) went 2-1 in a three-game series with California last weekend, defeating the Bears 7-3 and 9-5 on Saturday and Sunday before falling 6-0 on get-away-day.
The Hogs have five games scheduled this week if — and it’s a big if— the weather will cooperate. The forecast calls for rain every day this week except for Thursday, which is the only day this week without out a game scheduled besides today.
Baum Stadium was built with Northwest Arkansas’ sloppy springs in mind and has excellent drainage, so as long as the rains aren’t torrential in nature, expect Arkansas to do everything possible to squeeze each game in.
The Razorbacks host a pair of 3:05 p.m.contests with South Dakota State on Tuesday and Wednesday at Baum Stadium and then receive a visit from Wisconsin-Milwaukee Friday through Sunday.
The Razorbacks do not have a mid-week game on tap next week prior to traveling to Baton Rouge, La. to face the defending national champion LSU Tigers in both squads SEC openers. While one series does not make or necessarily break a team in a league like the SEC, the winner of that series will have the rest of the Western Division chasing them.
The key to staying in contention for the SEC title is to avoid falling victim to a sweep in a road series, particularly so early in the season. This Razorback squad might be a team that can do that even with difficult road trips to LSU, Mississippi State, Florida and Ole Miss, if they can maintain their focus on defense.
The Razorbacks appear to be a better hitting squad than a year ago and have the potential to have more pitching depth, but mistakes in the field have been key in both Razorbacks losses thus far. The Hogs had three errors in their 6-0 loss to Cal and Ball State escaped with a 5-2 victory on a day when the Razorbacks had four errors.
The Razorbacks are ranked 14th in the Baseball America poll and 16th in the USA Today/ESPN Poll.
