By Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas is being sent to the Lawrence Regional which is hosted by the University of Kansas.
Kansas (42-16), Arkansas (39-20), Missouri State (38-20) and Northeastern (34-19) make up the field in Lawrence. Arkansas (2) and Missouri State (3) will play Friday. The two teams know each other well having already met twice this season. Missouri State defeated the Hogs 15-14 in 10 inning on March 31 at Springfield. The Razorbacks then topped Missouri State 12-4 on April 21 in Baum-Walker Stadium. Dave Van Horn talked about heading to Kansas on Monday.
"Yeah, Missouri State, obviously we played them home and away, two really good games," Van Horn said. "Big, physical team, experienced. They have a lot of power and they can beat you in a few different ways. So doesn’t surprise me that we’re playing them. We’re in the same area. So yeah.
"Northeastern, I follow them a little because they seem to like to run. I know they’ve got over 200 stolen bases as a team, which is amazing. Other than that, don’t know a whole lot about them. Then University of Kansas having a great year. They had a really good year last year. We never faced them in the regional. But they hit a lot of home runs. They won the regular Big 12 title and I think maybe West Virginia won the tournament. But really good team, another older team with a lot of transfers, juco transfers and some really key players back from last year’s team. So congratulations to them on getting to host."
Arkansas (39-20) was expected to host when they reached the finals of the SEC Tournament, won 7 of 10 SEC series and defeated Mississippi State twice during the regular season. Arkansas (17-13) finished a game ahead of the Bulldogs (16-14) in the final regular season standings.
"You know it was interesting because everyone I had spoke with before the game and then after the game associated with the tournament and the Southeastern Conference said we were in good shape and … so yeah, that kind of threw a little confidence in there," Van Horn said. "And then we were on the bus, you know we all showered and got on the bus and were headed to the airport when they posted the 16 sites. We were a little taken aback. We thought we were going to get one."
Van Horn noted how this all played out may make his take a lot of things into consideration as far as the SEC Tournament in the future.
"You know, we had heard after we won the first two we were I good shape," Van Horn said. "We felt like we needed to win that third one to be sure and we used (Ethan) McElvain for like 4 innings. So it makes you wonder about the tournament a little bit. What’s it all about. Maybe we rethink it in the future on how we handle it and how we pitch it, how we play it.
"But I did enjoy the tournament and enjoyed being around the guys all that time. I feel like we got a lot better. We were a little out of gas and some of the things yesterday didn’t go great, obviously, but excited about the regional. Looking forward to getting these guys a little bit of rest the next day or so and get our itinerary ready and head up to Lawrence."
The KPI and DSR had Arkansas at No. 13, but the RPI placed them at 21. Did that make it easy for the NCAA to do what they did?
"Yeah," Van Horn said sarcastically. "It was easy for them. Let’s put it that way. It was easy. Well, I had somebody on the national media that's big into baseball, used one word, and I'm not gonna use it. But I'll just use the word, it was easy. That's a nicer word. It's just, it's easy. Just go by the RPI, and let's move on to the next day. I guess.
"It's frustrating, but at the same time, you know, a month ago, we were fighting to get into regional, so, um, you know, I guess someone had said that we were too far back when we started the tournament. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I mean, the only thing that wasn't great was our RPI, and it's 20-21, and a team that got in ahead of us, it ended up being pretty far up there. I think RPI was 12 or 13, and that's where they end up being seeded. I mean, uh, we had better everything than, except their RPI, beat them head to head. Doubled them up in quad one wins. I mean, there are a lot of things, and you just kind of like, Wow, what do we have all this for? Why do they even keep track of it?"
Is the regional snub something the Hogs can use for motivation?
"I don’t know," Van Horn said. "We’re not going to play that card. I was just with the team when the site was announced and the guys seemed excited to just go play. Obviously we knew that we were going to be in a regional, we knew we were going to be on the road. I’m glad we’re in this area. It gives our families and fans that are in this area a little better opportunity to get there. I haven’t been to Lawrence in a while. I know they have a full-turf field now, they’ve changed the dimensions a little bit and it’s a lot different, so I’m looking forward to that. But I don’t feel like it. We know what we need to do. We need to play well on Friday against Missouri State."
Hunter Dietz was injured against Texas in the second game of the SEC Tournament when he took a line drive to his foot. Van Horn provided an injury update on his star lefty.
"He’s doing well," Van Horn said. "He’s doing well. So we’ll still monitor that. When he gets his bullpen session in the next couple of days, we’ll see where we’re at there and try to figure out how we want to handle it. Do we want to pitch him the first game? Do we want to give him another day’s rest? We’re still lining all of that up."
Van Horn feels the knowledge his team has of Missouri State having played then twice so far will help factor into using Dietz or Gabe Gaeckle on Friday.
"Oh, yeah. I mean, it's the same for them, as well," Van Horn said. "Do we want to go right or left, or do we, is this guy, we feel like in a matchup better than the other one? In this case, it might just be... Do we want to let Dietz have another day to rest that leg?"
The SEC had 12 teams make the NCAA Tournament including seven hosting a regional. The Lawrence Regional is lined up against the Atlanta and Georgia Tech Regional for the Super Regionals.
