FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 5 Arkansas is set to host No. 17 Tennessee for three games beginning Thursday night.
Arkansas (41-11, 18-9) and Tennessee (40-13, 15-12) are both playing for momentum and better their status for the postseason. Both teams have had good moments this season, but enter this series having struggled in many recent SEC series. Tennessee has lost four of its last five SEC series and the Hogs three of the past four. If Arkansas could win this series that would get them to at least 20 SEC wins and should set them up beautifully for a National Top-8 seed to host a Super Regional.
Dave Van Horn was asked what he sees in the Vols who won the national championship last year and started this season 20-0 before hitting a few rough spots.
"The same as everybody else," Van Horn said. "They’re very talented. They’ve got a very strong bullpen. Their starters have really good stuff. They’re one of the best offenses in the league, They hit over .300 as a team. There’s only a couple, three teams doing that this year, at this time of year. You look at their home runs, they’ve hit a lot of home runs lately. They’re up to 112, 113-114, somewhere in there. So it’s an explosive team with really good talent. I’m not going to touch on everything but that’s pretty obvious stuff."
Some feel that Tennessee provides extra motivation for the Hogs since Tony Vitello is a former Van Horn assistant. The two had words once following a game due to a recruit.
"It’s just another SEC series that the coaches know each other, I’m sure the players know each other," Van Horn said. "I mean, they’re the defending national champion. That probably makes it more exciting for the fans. But for me personally, it’s just another SEC series. It’s not any different than playing Texas or LSU or A&M or all these guys. They’re just really talented teams and you have to play really well to win and it’s hard to win a series. If you can get one, get it."
Tennessee starter Liam Doyle is considered among the best not just in the SEC, but the entire nation.
"Well, he’s left handed and he throws 97, 98 mph a lot," Van Horn said. "He’s super hard to hit. He’s hard to hit because the throws his fastball up in the zone a bit and it’s got a lot of carry. He’s got a good breaking ball. That’s just some of it. You’re probably talking about the SEC pitcher of the year."
Van Horn is changing the rotation some since this series is moved up a day to start. Gage Wood will now pitch game 3 instead of the second one. Zach Root will go Thursday and to be determined on Friday. Was that to keep Wood on a schedule with normal rest?
"Yeah pretty much," Van Horn said.
Van Horn was asked how he thinks Vitello has done as a head coach and gave a very basic answer.
"I think he’s done a good job," Van Horn said. "I mean, he’s a good coach. He’s a great recruiter, and you know, he’s got (Josh) Elander and Coach (Frank) Anderson there. He’s got a good staff. The key is getting them to play hard, and they do, and then they’re talented on top of that. They’re at a place where they’re supported as good as anybody in our league, or anybody in the country."
Despite Tennessee's success, Arkansas is 9-1 against them in the last 10 meetings. Van Horn was asked about what kind of magic that is?
"I think a couple years back when we beat them here, they were kind of, the roller-coaster of the SEC, they were at the bottom of that roller-coaster and then they came out of it," Van Horn said. "Again, it’s timing. When you play people, whether it’s minor leagues, big leagues, or the SEC, when you’re talking three and four and five months, you catch people at the right time, you get them. You’re playing good, they’re not. I think we’ve been kinda fortunate that we’ve caught them at the right time a couple of times. Plus, we’ve had good teams. They’ve had good teams. When you have that, to me it’s all about timing. I don’t know where we’re at right now. I feel like both teams are obviously at the end of the season looking forward to the SEC Tournament. Looking forward to the NCAA Tournament. Hopefully we play well these three games and we play well enough to win a couple."
Van Horn talked about his conversation with Vitello after the Tennessee coach won the national title.
"A little bit of that," Van Horn said. "A little bit of that. You know, I called him. He was bombarded, obviously. Just congratulated him, and happy for him. You know, proud of him. Happy for Josh and all of the guys we knew that are involved in that program. And you know, he thanked me a lot. There was a lot of that. You’d probably have to talk to him about it."
Last week, Tennessee and Vanderbilt emptied their benches following the game. The Vols have been known for that some. Van Horn was asked if he has talked to his team about avoiding that situation?
"Well, we talk to our team about that all the time," Van Horn said. "Doesn't really matter who we're playing. We talk about, we can go through all the stats and their players, but bottom line, you know, we just need to know some tendencies, but it's about how we play and how we act. If other teams are saying stuff or getting fired up, then we need to do something to slow it down and try not to worry about them, really. Just let them do their thing, we'll do ours. But, yeah, I think any coach talks about those type of things going into a series or a big game."
Having coached at Arkansas Vitello knows what to expect from the fans and atmosphere.
“It’ll be loud,” Vitello said. “Good baseball fans that know the game, but also they'll be loud. It'll be a different style of loud. I mean, everyone by now knows the trip to Oxford had a unique flavor to it this year. And then, you know, a couple other places we went where it was really loud, and then they'll be well coached.
“They're going to play hard, and he (Van Horn) knows what he's doing on gameday. You know, history speaks to that for obvious reasons, and I don't know quite where they're at, but they're probably ranked higher than us, and have a better record, and it's probably because they also have good players on top of the good coaches.”
Thursday's game starts at 7 p.m. and will be on ESPN2. Friday is 6:30 p.m. and can be streamed on SEC Network+. Saturday's game is at 2 p.m. and will be on the SEC Network.