By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas will now hit the road to face Ole Miss in SEC action with this being a Thursday through Saturday series.

Arkansas (23-5, 6-3) is tied at the top of the SEC West standings. Ole Miss (17-11, 1-8) is tied with Mississippi State at the bottom of the SEC West standings. Dave Van Horn was asked if it feels weird the defending national champions are at the bottom of the SEC West standings?

"Nothing surprises me, because of injuries, schedule, where you’re playing, it’s timing," Van Horn said. "They’ve had some tough losses. They’ve still got a really good lineup. They lost their ace on the mound last year, but they also had an arm injury, like we did, that’s pushed one of their conference starters or their Friday guy. I don’t know if he’s going to go this weekend, or if he’s going to go at all this year. He’s been out, and little things like that, they affect you. You know, you’re playing teams in the Southeastern Conference. Nobody forgives you or feels sorry for you, they just want to beat you."

Much is made about this series each year with the fans of both schools wanting to see their team beat the other. The schools are close and the fans make it a big deal.

"I’m sure, like you said, the fans will make it bigger than it is to us," Van Horn said. "I kind of mentioned in there, they all count the same and at the end of the year you just look to see what your record is. You don’t really know who you beat, you just know how many wins you’ve got, how many losses. It’s going to make a difference on if you get to go to a Regional, host a Regional or you’re not in one. Obviously, we’re just going to try to win Thursday. We want to win the series. They’re in a situation where they need to win a series in the worst way. They could flip it real quick. You’ve just got to play solid. We’ll do everything we can to win that first game and go from there."

One thing seems certain the Hogs probably expect to get Ole Miss' best shot because they are home and trying not to fall out of the race even more.

"What we get every time we play ‘em," Van Horn said. "It’s going to be a really good series, and usually it’s pretty intense. They’ve got great fans, they draw big crowds and I think it’ll be good. I mean everybody’s still trying to win. Nothing’s settled right now. No one’s buried yet, and no one’s running away with it. There’s a couple teams that are rolling, but that’ll probably slow down a little bit, so it can flip on you real quick."

Arkansas pitchers Hunter Hollan and Hagen Smith have been named midseason All-Americans by Perfect Game. Hollan garnered third-team praise as a starter, while Smith earned second-team honors as a reliever. Hollan has been very good for the Hogs, but he was hit hard by Alabama on Friday night in his last start. In four innings, Hollan allowed 10 hits and seven runs. Van Horn was asked if he's confident Hollan will bounce back against the Rebels?

"Yeah, I expect him to bounce back," Van Horn said. "He had been so good for us. You can't expect him to be that good every time out. Sometimes... Going down to Baton Rouge, everybody's all excited and pumped up. I'm not saying that he took anybody lightly, but he faced a team that hits just as well or better than LSU. Maybe just don't have the star power names, but the lineup is probably just as deep. It's one through nine, they can hurt you. They just did a good job. I think they got off to a really good start on him, and it bothered him a little bit, but I think he'll bounce back. He's going to face another good lineup. It'll be a major challenge."

As far as his own team considering injuries to not just some key pitchers, but nagging things with position players Van Horn feels 6-3 is a good accomplishment.

"I feel real fortunate to be 6-3," Van Horn said. "Credit to the players, man. Playing hard, trying to win hard. It's been fun being in the dugout with us. Hasn't been fun when we've gotten whipped those games, but the other days have been good. 

"We've come back in a lot of those games that we feel like we're not out of the game, and we can score. I don't even feel like we're hitting like we're going to hit. The conference batting average isn't very good, but nobody's really is if you go look at them. Overall, we've got four guys that are swinging it pretty good in the lineup, but I've got another four or five in the lineup that it's just OK. If those guys can get going, then you start scoring more runs."

Thursday's game begins at 6:30 p.m. as does Friday's contest. Both will be on the SEC Network+. Saturday's game will begin at 2 p.m. and televised on the SEC Network.