FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 1 Arkansas will be at No. 7 Georgia this weekend for a three-game series.

Arkansas (31-3, 11-1) faces a tough road test in Georgia (30-5, 8-4). Dave Van Horn is impressed with the job Wes Johnson, former assistant with the Hogs, has done as head coach of the Bulldogs.

"Well first off, I think he’s done a great job," Van Horn said. "And no, it doesn’t surprise me a bit. He’s a great coach and he hired some really great coaches. They’re in a really, really good baseball area. You’re talking 80 miles from Atlanta. Just a great part of the country for high school baseball. Doesn’t surprise me a bit."

Arkansas' last game was a 7-3 win over Arkansas State Tuesday night. The team seemed to lack energy and was a little lethargic that game. Van Horn doesn't expect that to be an issue this weekend.

"Well, it was the way the weekend was," Van Horn said. "We didn’t play Friday, pouring down rain. Saturday, doesn’t look like we’re going to play, we’re not sure. So mentally, they’re probably like they’re not sure. Then it got cold. So we got to play Saturday evening in some really cold, wet weather and then played two games the next day in basically the same weather. It was even colder. It was just not quite as wet, although when we first got out there, it was misting. I just think it wore ‘em down a little bit.

"The seven-inning games, they go fast, but really we played three games in less than 24 hours. And they have the next day off, but that’s when they kind of recover and lift and then we’re out there playing again. So I don’t think it was that they don’t want to play, I just felt like it’s just human nature. I was just watching them and they kind of jumped to it second and third inning, it’s like it got going again for ‘em. They did a nice job there. And then yesterday it was a good workout. It was light, just went over a few things. Weather was nice. Late afternoon is when we worked out when it was in the 70s. Now we’re here today we’re gonna head out of here in just a little bit and we’ll get a workout in Athens tonight.”

Pitcher Gage Wood, former Batesville standout, is closing in on a return from an early season injury.

"He’s going on the trip," Wood said. "I don’t know if he’ll be on the 30-man. I would say I probably won’t put him on the 30-man, but he’s getting close. He’s getting close. Bullpen has been good and he’s going to throw another one this weekend. That’s one reason he’s going with us. He’d go anyway, but he is going to throw a bullpen while we’re there and, hey, maybe he’ll be ready for the next weekend. We’ll see. "

Arkansas is 5-1 on away games and 3-1 when played at neutral field. Van Horn talked about what it takes to be a successful road team.

"Well, I think you just have to be confident and know that you can play with anybody in the country," Van Horn said. "You never know how it’s going to go anywhere, even at home. Just kind of do what we’ve been doing and show up and play hard and if we win, we win. If we don’t, we don’t. We feel like that we’ve been pretty consistent from Day 1. We don’t make a lot of mistakes. We throw the ball over the plate. That’s a good recipe for winning at any level of baseball, not just college baseball. 

"Georgia can really score. They’ve got 92 home runs, somewhere in there, lead the country. No lead is safe. You’ve got to know that when you’re playing them. Just play. It’s different. They had a beautiful grass surface last time I was there and many times I was there. I was kind of surprised they went to turf just because of how nice it was but I know they had to go underneath the outfield to bring in some power and different things to their new facility. But they play on turf now. We’re used to that. We played there against Vandy. But it’s a different game when you play on turf a little bit. Yeah, it’ll be a good series. It’ll be a real good series."

The Razorbacks did manage to sweep Vanderbilt which is a very difficult place to win.

"I don’t know what they’re saying to themselves, and I haven’t said anything about Vandy since we left there," Van Horn said. "It’s a different situation, a couple weeks out. I think what you do is you gain experience and confidence from going on the road and winning. And maybe there’s a point you can go back to and say, ‘Hey, remember how we did this or do that.’ But we just… I tell you what happens in this league and it happens in the big leagues. It’s kind of when you catch people. Is their No. 1 pitcher pitching? Is somebody got two of their guys sick? Are they just in a little bit of a funk offensively? It helps you. Are they on fire when you get there? Then you’ve just gotta try to slow ‘em down, you gotta try to survive and get out of there. So you never know what you’re going to run into. But what we do know is what we do and if we do that, we have a chance. It doesn’t mean we’re going to win the game, win a game, win the series or anything. It just means that we have a chance. That’s the good thing about our team this year."

Georgia uses the long ball a lot in its success. Van Horn talked about the power hitting by the Bulldogs.

"Home runs are good," Van Horn said. "Home runs score runs quick, you know? Solo home runs most of the time won’t beat you. Two and three-run homers will get you, and they’ve hit a lot of them. Like I’ve said, no lead is safe when you’re playing Georgia, and especially at Georgia. They seem to almost be unbeatable there, so it’ll a big, big challenge for us, and we know it."

Friday's game will begin at 5 p.m. Saturday follows at 3 p.m. and then noon on Sunday. All three games can be streamed on the SEC Network+.