NFL
By: Randall Slifer
Arkansas Baseball played some very good ball over the last weekend. Only five of sixteen teams swept their regionals, including Arkansas, and numerous upsets occurred during the first weekend of the postseason. Seven out of the sixteen hosts were eliminated in the first round. Vanderbilt and Texas, the number one and two seeds in the tournament, failed to advance to the super regionals. Vanderbilt, Oregon, Clemson, and Georgia failed to make it to the regional final and were eliminated by Sunday afternoon. In my opinion, College baseball may have the most parity out of any sport, collegiate or professional. Any team needs a good pitching weekend, and their metal bats to get hot, and sometimes there is no looking back.
This upcoming weekend, we will move on to the super regionals. It quickly went from 64 teams to 16 teams. Arkansas faces Tennessee in their matchup for the super regionals at home in Fayetteville. The Arkansas Razorbacks are the third seed, while the Tennessee Volunteers are the fourteenth seed. Wake Forest gave Tennessee a run for their money in the regionals, losing the first game but going on to win three straight to force a rubber match last Monday. Wake Forest was rotating pitchers as they were at the bottom of the barrel and lost their steam in the fourth inning, and let seven runs score.
The final series of the regular season was against Tennessee. The series was also in Fayetteville, and Tennessee won the first game, while Arkansas took the series with the final two wins. Zach Root and Gabe Gaeckle allowed seven earned runs in seven innings, which led to their one loss. Arkansas’ bats were still hot as the final score was 10-7. Game two started a little rough with Aiden Jimenez allowing four runs in the first three innings, but Arkansas went toe-to-toe in scoring and were still up 6-4 at the end of the fourth inning. Arkansas poured it on throughout the rest of the game and held the lead in an 8-6 game. The final game was a convincing win, 8-4, where we had an early five-run inning and held onto the lead for the remainder of the game. At a time when Arkansas’ pitching was not up to Arkansas’ standards, the hitting kept them alive to take a very important final series against a ranked opponent.
In contrast to the Tennessee series, Arkansas pitched well throughout all three games of the regionals. Arkansas allowed only six runs in three games in the regionals and had an excellent pitching performance in the regional final. Arkansas only used two pitchers in the regional finals, Gage Wood and Gabe Gaeckle. Both pitchers only allowed three earned runs on five hits while striking out twenty batters. In game two, Zach Root pitched six innings while allowing zero runs while striking out seven batters. Arkansas’ bats were alive, scoring a total of 26 runs and hitting ten home runs.
Ryder Helfrick won Fayetteville’s regional MVP. Helfrick, while also behind the plate as their catcher, finished 6 for 11 with four runs scored, four RBIs, and three home runs. Cam Kozeal was in the MVP race with six RBIs in the first two games, until Helfrick put a stamp on his MVP with a tremendous final outing. Arkansas’ hitting was consistent with six players hitting over .300 for the weekend, and almost every hitter contributing in hits and RBIs. As I mentioned in previous articles, Dave Van Horn expressed concern last year that his team was too home run-centric and struggled to string hits together, which hindered their ability to increase their run count. The regionals showed that Arkansas can consistently get on base and drive in runs without losing its longball ability.
Arkansas will need to have a complete series to take down Tennessee a second time this year. Tennessee has the SEC pitcher of the year, Liam Doyle. Doyle is 10-3 with a 2.83 ERA. He possesses a whopping 1.71 strikeouts per inning! He has only allowed 29 earned runs and a batting average of .178. Arkansas did score six runs on Doyle in the second game of their series, but he has only allowed four or more runs four times this year. Tennessee’s other starting pitchers should be Marcus Phillips and Tegan Kuhns. The ultimate goal would be to eliminate Tennessee in the first two games and head to Omaha. In the previous series against Tennessee, Tennessee started Marcus Phillips in Game 1 and Liam Doyle in Game 2. I do not believe Tennessee has the edge to start Marcus Phillips again in game one. I think they need to start Liam Doyle game one to try and get ahead early and force Arkansas to play on their heels.
Arkansas currently has the edge to flip starters if they decide to do so. Arkansas is home; they took the last series versus Tennessee, and they played the best ball in the regional tournament out of any team. Gage Wood may get the nod in game one, and Arkansas may save Zach Root for game three if they choose to play a game of chess instead of a game of “ground and pound” football. Arkansas stuck with their strong suits by starting Zach Root in game two, ensuring they went 2-0 in the first two games and quickly made it to the regional finals. I believe Gage Wood is ascending at the right time, and he should get the nod for game 1. If Gage Wood can keep the momentum from the regional final, he can hand the ball off to Zach Root for game 2, in hopes of sealing it without a rubber match game on Monday.
Arkansas has a chance to hold the highest seed remaining in the tournament by taking out Tennessee this weekend. One sneaky thing to mention about this series is that Cannon Peebles is suspended for the first game of the series. The Tennessee catcher had some excessive words after a strikeout in the final game of their regionals, which warranted a review and an ejection. If any player is ejected from a game, they are suspended for the next game. Arkansas can take advantage of this with bunts, steals, and a less productive hitter in the lineup. Vegas favors Arkansas to win the series as a -130 favorite and has moved to second at +400 to win the College World Series after the regionals. As I always say, Arkansas needs to keep the immediate task at hand and get the job done again in Fayetteville.
Do you believe Arkansas can beat Tennessee in the Super Regionals and punch a ticket to Omaha? Reach out to me here or on Twitter/Bluesky @RandallSlifer and let me know your thoughts. Go ‘Backs!
