Ask Mike: Fayetteville Regional Breakdown, Softball Whiffs On OKC & Does the Media Hate Each Other?

Q. Our first question is from mousetown who asks: What about the Fayetteville regional? Did the committee shaft us again? Kansas looks tough with their RPI and what about maybe having to play Tennessee in a Super? The last thing we need is another series with them.

A. Some of their numbers are impressive. Kansas is 43-15 overall and tied for the second most wins among power conference teams. They have twenty true road wins. That’ll grab your attention. Kansas is also the only team with 43 wins, 20 conference wins and 20 true road wins. However, a lot of baseball people believe that the Big 12 was really down this year after the exits of Texas and Oklahoma. Don’t forget about Creighton. They are the 3 seed. They had 41 wins on the season and went 20-8 on the road. They also come in on a 7 game winning streak. But you have to ask about the quality of competition in the Big East. The team batting average is .285, well below Arkansas’ and their ERA of 4.0 is right there with Arkansas. Arkansas pitchers clearly faced better competition.

I agree with the problem of a possible Tennessee Super Regional matchup. Winning that series against Tennessee in Fayetteville this season was a gut check. It could have very easily gone the other way. Now you have to do it all over again with a trip to Omaha on the line? I don’t want to think about that.

Tennessee should not have fallen to a national 14 seed. I would have put them at 10 or 11. Tennessee’s RPI is 11. They were second in hitting in the SEC, second in home runs and 4th in pitching. They beat Texas in the SEC Tournament and they’re a 14 seed? That’s nuts. To me the committee did this to get Van Horn and Vitello going at each other again because it’s TV drama.

Q. Hawgredneck asks: Why is it that the thing this team does the best ends up biting it in the butt? Aloy is the best fielding shortstop in the SEC and he made an error that sent us packing one and out.

A. He actually made two errors, one of them a throwing error that put runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out in the first. Things like this happen in baseball. If you’re Aloy you have to shake it off and move on. If Arkansas wins its regional and super regional that play won’t matter at all.

Q. Hillcountryhog says: Every week I try to decide what we need more. Usually it’s better pitching. In Hoover the pitching was really good. The guys at the plate let us down. Why can’t we do both?

A. At times Arkansas has done both but it is interesting that while most of the complaints from fans has been about the starting pitching, in several losses is was a lack of hitting with runners on base that cost Arkansas a game. The frustrating part of the Ole Miss loss was a sold effort from Zach Root . He gave up just one earned run and over the final eight innings Root and three other relievers shut Ole Miss out. It was one of the best pitching performances of the season ruined by some errors and men left on base by Arkansas batters.

Q. Eddylynn says: Losing at Hoover doesn’t bother me. Watching the team batting avg and home run production drop just as post season arrives bothers me a lot. This is not good.

A. It has dropped off in the last few weeks. Not that long ago Arkansas was at .331. The Hogs are down to .313. A couple of weeks ago they had a ten percentage point lead over the SEC’s number two team in hitting. Now it’s six points over Mississippi state at number two. Not that long ago Aloy brothers were hitting close to .400. Now Wehiwa is down to .363. Kuhio is at .340. Iredale is under .300 again. Arkansas got just 5 hits against Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament.

But the Razorbacks still lead the conference in hitting and fielding and are number five in E-R-A. This is still one of the most balanced teams in the country.

Q. tsmedley wants to know: Why is everybody scratching their heads over losing to Ole Miss? LSU lost to Ole Miss. Ole Miss was fighting to host a regional. Everybody knew that Arkansas and LSU already had a regional and super regional wrapped up.

A. That’s a valid point. In fact if you look at the entire SEC Tournament, the teams with the most to gain won while Texas, Arkansas and LSU which finished 1, 2, 3 in the SEC and knew they were going to be high national seeds, lost. However, the problem with an early exit from the SEC Tournament, at least with Arkansas, is that lately it has translated in an exit from the Fayetteville Regional. Hopefully that won’t happen this time around because if it does the Internet will explode with angry fans.

PopularPorkster wants to know: How much of a factor was the food poisoning problem with our starters in the super regional loss to Ole Miss? I wouldn’t want to have to pitch in the biggest games of the season coming off something like that.

A. Not much was said about that after the game one press conference. We do know that Payton Burnham stayed home sick the day of game one. Robyn Herron did pitch but she lasted just two innings after giving up 3 runs on 47 pitches. Burnham seemed fine in game two. She pitched a complete game shut out and a three hitter. However she gave up a walk and a two-run homer in the first inning of game three. Arkansas ended up down 4-0 after Ole Miss stole home plate a couple of times. Burnum was replaced by Herron in the second inning and she was okay until the 4th and 5th when Ole Miss scored solo runs in each inning. Burnham came back in and finished the game, giving up a solo home run in the 7th.

Without further comment from either of them or Deifel it’s hard to say how much the two pitcher were affected but it looks like that Herron had more long term issues than Burnham. To me the real problem was the way Ole Miss pitcher Aliyah Benford shut Arkansas down after the deciding game was tied at 4-4. She came on to go 5 2/3 innings, giving up just 2 hits and one run. According to Deifel her change up was almost unhittable.

Jill Jones asks: Do you think all the attention and interviews Bri Ellis got before the Fayetteville Regional and Super Regional affected her? Maybe Deifel should have dialed back on some of that. She wasn’t herself.

A. Nick Saban’s rat poison theory, right? Personally I don’t that that was it. Having Oklahoma State and Ole Miss pitch around her over and over, mostly walking her, made it difficult to adjust when they were actually trying to get Ellis out. Also give Ole Miss’ pitchers credit, when they did pitch to her they did a really good job, throwing low, maybe just below the strike zone or just outside the plate on fastballs. But losing that super regional wasn’t a Bri Ellis issue. The entire team just didn’t hit well. Players aren’t robots they sometimes slump as a team. You just hope it doesn’t happen at the wrong time.

Q. sgiles says: Ole Miss turned out to be a lot better than I thought. Is it true that they have a player who was actually good enough to play high school and junior college baseball?

A. That is true. Her name is Ashton Lansdell. She not only made the roster on her high school baseball team she was good enough to play a season of JUCO baseball. Apparently one of the biggest problems she had in going from baseball to softball was having to hit underhanded pitching and adjusting to the pitchers throwing 43 feet from home plate instead of the 60 feet she faced in baseball.

Q. KyHog says: On ESPN one of their commentators said the revenue sharing plan might fail because there are some key schools opposed to it. Who are these schools and do they have that much power?

A. I did not hear the comment so I have no idea which teams the commentator would have been referring to. There is no question that there are a few schools who are perfectly happy with the unlimited buying of players because they have boosters who will spend outrageous sum of money to try to win championships. Texas is a good example of this for this fall. There could be 40 million dollars tied up in NIL payment to players in addition anticipated revenue sharing money. Personally I hope they fall flat on their faces.

Q. CajunHog wants to know: Why is it that TV and newspapers almost never mention each other but these computer websites are always criticizing other websites? Seems pretty cut throat.

A. It is true that most TV stations don’t take shots at each other and least not here. Back in the days of the so called newspaper wars there was some back and forth chirping between newspapers. Call in sports shows have done some of that when callers complain about a certain reporter or a certain media outlet.

With the local Internet sports media I find that the two major outlets, 247 and Rivals, pretty much stick to their business which is to cover Razorback sports, not the media. However there are some sites on Facebook with uncredentialed commentators who take jabs at not only other Internet sites but newspaper, radio and TV media. They may feel like that gets them more clicks, with more people joining their site. It’s really hard to say without working with those people.

Again, outside of those fans who have an ax to grind with certain reporters or media outlets I can’t imagine why fans would care what one media outlet thinks about another media outlet.