By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 2 Arkansas will finish the regular season with a three-game series at Vanderbilt beginning on Thursday night.

Arkansas (38-13, 19-8) currently has the best record in the SEC and would be the top seed at the tournament if it started now. But it doesn't. The Hogs must get past Vanderbilt (35-16, 17-10) this weekend. 

They will have to do it without second baseman Peyton Stovall. The sophomore played in 38 games hitting five home runs, knocked in 31 runs and a batting average of .253. Dave Van Horn announced the decision on Stovall Wednesday.

"I was going to make that announcement, but you came up with it," Van Horn said. "He’s done for the year. He’s going to have surgery, probably in the next 10 days. He’s got a torn labrum. It’s not huge, but it definitely needs to be fixed. (We’ll) try to get him ready for fall ball, late fall."

The numbers Stovall put up weren't what was expected of him. Van Horn credited the injuries for Stovall's numbers not being where most felt they would be.

"I think it impacted it a lot, big-time on offense," Van Horn said. "As a matter of fact, we think he hurt it swinging. There were a couple of pitches when he swung and missed that stood out when he grimaced big time. He remembers one of them, and that was a month and a half ago. So, might have started out as some inflammation in there and then got better and got back out there again, and that's when we think he hurt it, somewhere in there like I said, six weeks ago. I think he's been playing in pain. He's been, honestly, probably miserable. I'm glad we know what it is and can get it fixed, and he can move on. I think he'll have a great season next year."

Junior Peyton Holt has replaced Stovall the recent games. In 23 games, Holt has one home run, knocked in 10 runs and hitting .333. Van Horn expressed confidence in Holt.

"The good thing is he’s got some experience the last few weeks to play," Van Horn said. "He’s done a really good job for us defensively and offensively, as well, obviously. So it’s not like… We’ve kind of known this was going to happen. In a way, you could kinda see it coming, some of the tests and different things, so it’s not like it’s a shock to us. We’ve known for a while."

The injury news isn't all bad. After taking live batting practice, left fielder Jared Wegner is expected back. He broke his thumb against Little Rock and hasn't played since. Van Horn said he expects him to play this weekend and talked about how the batting practice went.

"It went good," Van Horn said. "He got a lot of swings and then we let him hit a lot extra off the live pitchers that were getting their workout in inside. I mean, he got some at-bats. So he got to see live pitching. If he hit the first pitch, that was that. If he saw seven and walked that was the at-bat. Then taking an at-bat or two off and the other guys would hit, then he’d jump back in. I mean he got extra, a lot extra."

Last weekend the Hogs got center fielder Tavian Josenberger back. He struggled some at the plate, but Van Horn expects to see a better offensive production weekend against Vanderbilt.

"I mean he was good, he just didn’t get the hits," Van Horn said. "I mean you think about some of his at-bats, he struck out — take away the first at-bat when he struck out on three or four pitches — he ended up walking twice that game and getting a hit, I mean that was big-time. And then he got two walks the second game, but he also saw a lot of pitches in game three and game two. Couple of full counts, fouling off pitches, and then maybe he struck out or whatever. Definitely going to help him. I don’t know how it’s going to go as far as batting average and all that, but he can still be a real problem at the top even if he’s getting hits."

Josenberger got one hit in seven at bats though he did draw four walks as well. As far as pitching, Van Horn said he knows who starts Game 1 Thursday.

"I think you’ll see more team doing that if they don’t have injuries just to kind of look at the standings and see where everybody sits each day and save somebody for the tournament," Van Horn said. "That’s what you’re going to see. But in our case we’re going to go exactly the same. We’ll start Hagen (Smith) on Thursday night and then just leave it open the next two days."

Brady Tygart could start Friday's game after throwing 37 pitches last week. He was on a pitch count of 40. Van Horn talked about what that number is this week.

"Yeah, it’ll be up probably another 15-20 pitches maybe," Van Horn said. "But he’s got to go out there and do it."

In addition to Smith, Tygart and Will McEntire the other Hog starter is Hunter Hollan. He pitched a gem on Sunday only allowing four hits and one run while compiling a complete game. Could he move back to Friday?

"We still have time to do whatever we need to do," Van Horn said. "You never know who you’re going to get or how that’s going to go down. A lot of times you get a team and maybe they were only a few games over .500, but they have one pitcher that’s unbelievable, so it makes it tougher. You get some team that maybe just won a tournament, you feel good about throwing whoever, but I feel good about both our guys. To me, they’re a little different style the way they pitch, they’re both really good pitchers and now we feel like with Tygart coming on, you’re throwing in another quality guy. You could always start him the first day and go from there. But yeah, as far as flipping things, that’s not an issue at this time of year."

Van Horn knows whoever he sends to the mound will be challenged by some very good Vanderbilt hitters.

"Yeah, you never know how that’s going to go," Van Horn said. "They can hit, obviously. They’ve been out on the road and it hasn’t gone good, but they’ve been really good at home. I think they’re 11-1 at home in SEC play. That’s always been a big advantage for them, playing on that turf. It’s just a different setting. It’s tight. It’s fast. You know, we’re going to have to play really well to win this series. Really well."

Florida at 18-9 and LSU at 17-9 are right behind the Hogs in the standings for the overall title. Van Horn said the Hogs have bigger goals than winning the SEC, but that is also an important goal and honor.

"They do go behind that, but obviously we want to win it," Van Horn said. "I mean, it's so hard to win. You can have a great team and be in fourth or fifth place at this time of year. Things have fallen into place for us with the guys that have made it happen. Our program is one that looks to the future. What I mean by that is, two or three weeks down the road, I hope we're still playing. But we're going to do everything we can to win. I'm sure Vanderbilt is going to do the same thing. I'm sure Florida is going to do the same thing. We'll just see how it clears come Sunday evening and then go from there. We'll try to continue to get better at the tournament and then get ready for the next weekend."

Thursday's game will be on the SEC Network beginning at 6 p.m. Friday's game starts at 7 p.m. and also on the SEC Network. Saturday's contest starts at 2 p.m. and on the SEC Network+.