FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas is set to host the Fayetteville Regional beginning Friday at 2 p.m. when they host North Dakota State.

No. 2 Kansas (43-15) and No. 3 Creighton (41-14) are the other two teams in the Fayetteville Regional. They will face each other at 7 p.m. Friday night. No. 1 Arkansas (43-13) is the top seed in the Fayetteville Regional and No. 3 nationally. North Dakota (20-31) is the No. 4 seed. Dave Van Horn is pleased to be hosting a regional again.

"Yeah, just great to be in a regional again," Van Horn said. "Congratulations to the three other teams, it’s not easy to get to a regional. I know there’s teams that do it a lot, seem to do it every year, but you still have to fight your way through it and everybody has a different road. I feel good where we are, I’m glad to be at home."

Van Horn also announced Thursday following Arkansas' practice that Aiden Jimenez will get the start on Friday. Jimenez started one game for Arkansas this season and that was against Tennessee. He worked 2.1 innings, allowed seven hits, four runs, walked none and didn't strike out anyone. Van Horn was asked what went into starting Jimenez against North Dakota State?

"That was our game plan all along," Van Horn said. "He didn’t throw at Hoover, which is okay. He got a chance to get some more rest. Strike-thrower, tough, you gotta know him. I know they’re going to hit about seven lefties in their lineup. It’s not a lot of power, it’s guys who hit the ball through the middle (and) the other way. Trying to win the regional. Bottom line. He’s a good pitcher. You think about it, he’s the guy we’ve given the ball to when the game’s on the line everywhere, sixth, seventh inning, Friday night in Baton Rouge, whatever. That’s the only game out of the bullpen it didn’t work out. He’s gotten one start, didn’t go great, but you’ve got to give the team we were playing a lot of credit for that one."

When Jimenez started against Tennessee with all his other appearances out of the bullpen was maybe starting in the regionals in mind?

"Looking ahead to postseason," Van Horn said. "Like I said, it didn’t go great, but if we would have won a couple games out there at the conference tournament — we didn’t — he would have probably got a start if there was a third day if we hadn’t used him yet. Now we’re here and we got them all rested. You look at the numbers, North Dakota State, they’re hitting within 10 points against right and left, so it’s about the same. Again, he’s just the guy we felt like we could go with Game 1."

Zach Root and Gage Wood are other known starters in this event. Van Horn was asked if he feels good about Arkansas' depth on the mound?

"Yeah, we have enough," Van Horn said. "Our bullpen’s done a great job all year if you look at the numbers. We’re like any team in the country. If you get to a situation where you get to Monday, everybody starts to thin out, but for the most part everybody’s got three starters and a bullpen. You just hope you play well, you field the ball well and don’t make your starting pitcher throw more pitches than they need to. In a perfect world, just score runs. But you never know how it’s going to go. We’ve been talking about that all week. You just gotta go play. You can dive into the other team as much as you want and dissect it, (but) bottom line, we just need to play good. If we do what we do, we’ll have a chance to win. If we don’t, we won’t."

Will it be Root or Wood on Saturday?

"Probably wait and see," Van Horn said. "I feel like between Wood and Root, they’re both really good pitchers. Zach’s obviously had a lot more experience this year because of Wood’s injury. He’s bounced back and he feels better than ever. I mean, his stuff is electric. It could go either way. You know, you got… Kansas has a good mix. Creighton is a good mix. Win or lose, you’re going to play one of them, so we’ll just wait and see what happens tomorrow night."

The Razorbacks have struggled the last two Fayetteville Regionals. Van Horn was asked if he has talked to this team about that?

"Well, you know, it’s really just been the last couple of years," Van Horn said. "Bottom line, I mean, it’s a fact. This team’s a lot better than last year’s team or the year before. We’re better."

Since the pairings came out on Monday has Van Horn had much of a chance to go more into scouting detail on North Dakota State?

"Maybe a few things, a couple things that I don't wanna mention that we've noticed," Van Horn said. "Just that they just play.They seem to play free. They lost a lot of games early and they learned how to handle losing a little bit, and they like winning. They fought to win and they fought to get here. It's gonna definitely be a game that I don't think anybody's gonna be backing down."

NCAA Fayetteville Regional

Friday, May 30
Game 1 – Arkansas vs. NDSU – 2 p.m. (ESPN+)
Game 2 – Kansas vs. Creighton – 7 p.m. (ESPN+)

Saturday, May 31
Game 3 – Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser – 2 p.m.
Game 4 – Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner – 8 p.m.

Sunday, June 1
Game 5 – Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Loser – 2 p.m.
Game 6 – Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner – 8 p.m.

Monday, June 2 (If Necessary)
Game 7 – If the Game 5 Winner Wins Game 6 – TBD