FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas is a No. 5 seed and will host the Fayetteville Regional beginning Friday when they take on Southeast Missouri State at 2 p.m. at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Arkansas (43-14) and No. 4 Southeast Missouri State (34-25) will be joined by No. 2 seed Louisiana Tech (45-17) and No. 3 Kansas State (32-24). Louisiana Tech and Kansas State will play the 7 p.m. game Friday night. Dave Van Horn acknowledged the Hogs will go Friday afternoon
“We are playing the first game,” Van Horn said.
The Fayetteville Regional is matched up with the Charlottesville Regional. No. 1 Virginia (41-15), No. 4 Penn (24-23), No. 2 Mississippi State (38-21) and No. 3 St. John's (37-16-1) make up that regional. If Arkansas wins the Fayetteville Regional they will host the winner of the Charlottesville Regional in the super regional.
"Yeah, super excited to be hosting another regional," Van Horn said. "It’s not easy. It’s like I told the team, there’s 250-260 teams that aren’t playing anymore. And it’s hard to get in. There were a lot of really good teams that were on the bubble this year. It’s a long grind, the whole season. And for the most part we’ve maneuvered it pretty well. But we’re really excited for the postseason and we’re even more happy that we get to stay here and play it in front of our fans who have been incredible for us this year."
Van Horn went into detail about the Razorbacks getting the No. 5 national seed.
"As far as what the web sites say and all that on seeds, it doesn’t matter to me," Van Horn said. " Just it’s great being a top 8. It doesn’t matter 1 or 8 to me, or anywhere in between. So, excited about that. Our regional is a true regional with Louisiana Tech about four or five hours away. SEMO probably five hours away, something like that. I just feel like … And K-State, same thing. Probably 5 and a half maybe. Should be really good crowds. I would think the other teams would be able to bring a lot of fans. You just think that anyway. But I don’t know, you never know what’s going to happen this time of the year, who’s hot or who’s not. Who’s hurt, who’s not? Who’s sick, who’s not? Been on both sides of it. So just excited to be back playing here."
Van Horn was asked if he knows what his pitching rotation will look like for the regional?
"See who’s feeling really good, actually," Van Horn said. "And obviously look at the team we play and their lineup and how they do against rights or lefts, if you have that option.
"If we had a set rotation — because it’s been a little bit jumbled the last few weeks — it might make it a little easier. We’ll just look at all those things. Right now we’re just kind of diving into scouting reports and trying to watch some video and just make a good decision. Our goal is … We’ve got to win at least three in this thing to win it, so it’s going to take all of them."
At one time Van Horn preferred the night game, but switched up his thinking regarding Friday in the regional.
"Really experienced with both," Van Horn said. "Having to deal with the weather if you’re the second game and the first game gets played, and the second game gets delayed or rained out, then having to play super early in the morning and for sure going to play two the next day somehow, some way if possible.
"You know, just talking to other coaches in the past about the way they do it, it used to be they’d tell me, ‘Yeah, they made us play at night.’ Until there was an issue with the weather and then they figured out it might be better to play early. It cuts into our crowd, or it makes it harder for the fans to get here for a 1 o’clock game or 2, whatever your scheduled that day, because that’s usually what they are. We understand that, but as far as for the team, just getting up, going through routine and playing and if there is weather, you have more time to fight it throughout the day."