By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 7 Arkansas is back home to host Texas A&M for a three-game SEC series beginning Thursday night at 7 p.m. and televised on ESPNU. 

The Hogs are glad to be back at Baum-Walker Stadium entering the series with a four-game losing streak, all road games. Arkansas (30-11, 11-7) is in second place in the SEC West with Texas A&M (25-16, 9-9) and Alabama (30-12, 9-9) right behind them. Brady Slavens is one of the healthy Arkansas starters and moved from first base to left field on Tuesday night against Missouri State. Slavens says the Hogs are glad to be home after Georgia and Missouri State.

"It’s always good to be home," Slavens said. "Love the fans. Love sleeping in your own little bed. We’re just excited to get back home."

With Arkansas missing left fielder Jared Wegner and center fielder Tavian Josenberger due to injuries Dave Van Horn talked about Slavens in the outfield.

"He’s played some outfield," Van Horn said. "Obviously last year he played right field. He knew a couple days ago this was going to happen. Yeah, just trying to figure out how to get some bats in the lineup with all the bats that are hurt."

Van Horn also confirmed Slavens could be there again when the Aggies and Hogs start Thursday night.

"Yeah," Van Horn said. "And that’s one reason I did it, just to see it and give us an option. Running out of options."

While the Hogs are minus two outfielders they will get second baseman Peyton Stovall and catcher Parker Rowland back this weekend. Stovall didn't play Tuesday and Rowland sat out the Georgia series. He did come off the bench against Missouri State Tuesday night.

"Just resting him," Van Horn said. "He’ll play Thursday. Early in the season I rested him, about six weeks ago, with just some soreness in his arm. So we’re just taking care of him. 

"Rowland could have started tonight, but I didn’t want him to catch the whole game. He should be good to go Thursday. Two or three innings was about what I had planned."

But not all news on the injury front is bad. Brady Tygart will make his return this week. 

"You’ll see him this weekend," Van Horn said. 

But it may not be out of the bullpen, but instead starting a game.

"Wow, you must be reading our mind," Van Horn said. "You must have heard something. It could happen. That could happen. Anybody can start. We just put him out there at the beginning of the game, even if it’s one inning, Yeah, the opener. Yeah, we’ll see. But he’s definitely going to be on the 27-man probably for the first time, so that’ll be nice."

Van Horn said Hunter Hollan will start Thursday's game and then TBA the next two games. Will McEntire may not get a start this week according to Van Horn. He was in the bullpen late against Missouri State.

"Yeah because we don't know if he's going to start for us this weekend or not," Van Horn said. "He's really fighting it a little bit. It's consistency and about keeping the ball down and making pitches. If we would have tied it there in the ninth, we probably would have brought him in."

Van Horn was asked how this team gets back on track having lost four games in a row and injuries to key players?

"Well, you can use whatever lingo you want," Van Horn said. "You can say we're just trying to survive, we're just trying to get through the next couple of weeks until we get everybody back. We have to win some games. We'll get after it on Thursday, and it's going to be a great series with A&M. They're hot. They've won their last four series I think. This game can flip on a dime. 

"You get it going, guys get hot, or you drop another guy to injury, and you're going 'Wow, this is pretty tough.' We're not hanging our head or not thinking we're any good. We know we can play. We're just playing with guys that haven't been a part of the combination that got us to 30 wins coming into tonight."

In additon to Josenberger and Wegner, Van Horn has been without Jaxson Wiggins all season and Koty Frank, a key arm out of the pen, most of the year. Ever experienced a season like this?

"I don't know," Van Horn said. "Maybe a little spread out, or it was somebody hurt in the fall or early spring. It's hard when you don't have your leadoff man or your three-hole hitter. We've done pretty well without our three-hole hitter for a while, but then you lose your leadoff guy who is an energy guy and a defender. It puts a kink into it. We've got to have a couple guys step it up, not just one. 

"Our lineup needs to stay, at least one through seven, pretty tough. If eight and nine are more of defenders, a lot of teams are that way, but we've got to have more. When you lose a guy, not only do you lose his bat, you lose his defense. So whoever you put out there is not going to be as good. It's just the way it is, so you weaken your team all the way around. You hope that they can make plays during the game that are supposed to be made."

Kendall Diggs moved into the leadoff spot on Tuesday night against Missouri State. Diggs is hitting .339 with eight home runs. 

"I guess because he might leadoff Thursday, and he's led off before this year," Van Horn said. "I think I gave Tavian a day or two off, and I hit Kendall up there. He's hit first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth somewhere in there. It's all the same, but he does a good job up there."

Van Horn did provide a hamstring injury update on Josenberger and also said there's no chance he plays this weekend.

"He’s got a Grade 1, which is about as good of news as we could have hoped for," Van Horn said. "He’s had an ultrasound and we had an MRI just to double-check it. Now it’s just a matter of healing up. I don’t know a timeline on that. Don’t want to hurt it again. If he hurts it again, his season’s probably over. So we’re going to have to just really let him talk to us and we told him to be really honest and we’ll figure it out. We’ll slow-play it if we have to."

The Aggies have won their last four SEC series against Auburn, Ole Miss, Missouri and Kentucky. They did fall to Sam Houston 9-2 on Tuesday night. Van Horn talked about the Aggies and others losing outside the SEC on the same night the Hogs were doing the same.

"It’s just the way it works this time of year," Van Horn said. "They played what, two Saturday, one Sunday? Something like that? They travel home, they play. It’s kind of like us. I mean… Where was Sam Houston at? Were they at home? Did they save a guy? So you never know what you’re going to get on a Tuesday night. Especially a team that’s in your region. But there’s a lot of good teams in the country. Jay Sirianni is the head coach at Sam Houston and he actually played for me at Nebraska."

Friday's game will begin at 6 p.m. and on the SEC Network+. The final game of the series is Saturday at 11 a.m. and televised on the SEC Network.