FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas will open SEC Tournament play on Wednesday as the No. 2 seed at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex and televised on the SEC Network.
The Hogs will face No. 10 South Carolina who defeated Alabama 10-5 on Monday. The Arkansas game will be the second of the day on Wednesday and is expected to start at approximately 1 p,m. No. 3 Kentucky faces No. 11 LSU at 9:30 p.m. in the first game on Wednesday. LSU upset No. 6 Georgia 9-1 on Tuesday to advance. No. 5 Mississippi State eliminated Ole Miss 2-1 and No. 8 Vanderbilt sent No. 9 Florida packing 6-3.
Arkansas already is assured of a Top 8 national seed which assures them of playing at Baum-Walker Stadium until if they advance to the College World Series. Dave Van Horn knows his Arkansas team with a record of 43-12 is in good shape in the regionals. Thus, Hagen Smith won't be starting for the Hogs on Wednesday.
"We’re probably going to start (Ben) Bybee," Van Horn said.
Bybee (2-1, 6.00 ERA) started six games among his nine appearances this season. Many felt that Van Horn would start Tygart on Wednesday.
"Uhhh just Coach (Matt) Hobbs and I just decided to start him," Van Horn said. "I think that Brady hasn’t thrown for a while. Ben threw the other day and threw the ball over the plate, threw pretty well. You’ll probably see Brady this week. Hopefully we win some games and get into it a little bit and get to use them all."
Smith is the staff's ace with a 9-0 record and a 1.52 ERA. He has struck out 150 hitters in 77 innings. Is he likely to start Thursday's game?
"Yeah, he should pitch in this, in the next couple of days," Van Horn said. "We’re not sure yet on how we’re going to use him but he’ll get out there."
The Hogs played at South Carolina earlier in the season. Arkansas won 2-1 and 9-6 while losing 6-3. The loss was in Game 2 of the series.
"Yeah, we won a couple of games there," Van Horn said of the Gamecocks. "Some tight games. We only know what we know. I guess they’re solid you know. They’ve maybe struggled a little bit the last couple of weeks. But they’re very talented. They have some really good arms. But you know it’s hard to say who they would throw against us. At this time of year you just kind of play and go from there."
The SEC will use double base at this tournament. Van Horn explained any adjustment the Hogs would have to make for that.
"I’ve known for a while, probably, I don’t know, a month now maybe," Van Horn said. "I like it. As a matter of fact, at our workout here today that’ll be the first thing that I do is go over the rules. There’s not a lot of rules but some that you need to know. When you need to use the outside base every time. On a batted ball, throw in the infield you have to hit, we’ll call it the green base because that’s what it is here. Sometimes they’re orange.
"On the initial play, the first play, use the outside bag but then plays after that, if there’s an overthrow or something then you’ve got to use the white base. If there’s a strike three the defender can use either base if the throw draws him to the foul side of the base and the batter/runner can use the inside bag. So just a few little things that the guys really need to know."
Using a double base might have prevented Brady Slavens getting injured a few seasons back in this tournament. Van Horn feels this might prevent another injury at first base like Slavens suffered.
"I think it’s a good thing," Van Horn said. "Once we get used to it, yeah, it might look a little different or funny to some people, but I think down the road… I don’t know why we haven’t been using it. There’s been a World Series won and lost because of a call at first base, in my opinion — and I’m talking big league World Series — an interference call changed the game. So at least it gives the batter-runner a little more of a target to run to. If he’s over there and about to touch the base and he gets hit in the back, he’s safe.
"It’s changed many a game. Then the safety thing, there’s been some bad collisions over there, some vulnerable first basemen, a lot of knees hurt and just problems. I think down the road, it should fly. I don’t know why it wouldn’t. Something may happen, but I don’t really know what would keep it from being something we use all the time."
Arkansas lost the three-game series to Texas A&M this past weekend only capturing one win when Gage Wood started. The Aggies defeated Arkansas 1-0 in 11 innings when Smith started. Van Horn talked about the energy at Monday's practice.
"Yesterday’s workout was really good," Van Horn said. "I think the position players probably didn’t know what we were going to do. Just go out there and take a few ground balls and hit? No, we had a little uptick practice and it lasted a little longer than they probably thought. I thought they responded real well. We put a little pressure on them offensively and on the defensive end, they were working some live, off the bat. I thought it went real well."
Van Horn also talked about what he feels his team can get out of this tournament.
"Maybe to get some guys going offensively, get some guys confidence back up on the mound a little bit and just play baseball,"Van Horn said. "Continue to play live games with — I’m not going to say stress-free because when you step in between the lines, you want to win. You don’t want to lose. Hopefully get better, there’s always the concern that someone will get hurt so that’s concerning. That’s everyday. Just play and be together and hopefully guys want to fight for each other. Looking forward to next week."
Van Horn was asked if he changes his philosophy coaching in the SEC Tournament?
“It kind of depends on what you’re playing for," Van Horn said. "There was a couple of times over at Nebraska where we felt like we needed to win the tournament. We fought and we won the tournament to make sure that we got in. That was my second year there. It kind of came out of nowhere when we did that. The next couple of years, we had already finished first or second in the league. So it wasn’t that important. We still won it because it just kind of happened. It wasn’t like we were killing ourselves trying to do it. Or wearing ourselves down. You do learn. You can just look at people. You look at their face and watch the way they’re throwing the ball. The way they're swinging the bat. How hot is it? Is it 93 with 90% humidity? Then after three innings with pitchers shot, you’re going, ‘wow. It’s going to take five days to recover from this. We need to get him out of there.’ Those are things you’ve got to look for. It’s different in every tournament or even every game with what you see.
"You don’t want to try and stress guys out to try to win a tournament. If it happens for you and things go your way, then try to win it but you don’tlCwant to recycle guys, pitching two or three times on a weekend, even if they are relievers. Then they have five days to recover before you open up next weekend. It gets a little difficult."
Click here for SEC Tournament bracket.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
