Arkansas set to host Tennessee for final regular season SEC baseball series

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – When the 2025 SEC Baseball schedule came out, it appeared a regular season series finale between defending national champion Tennessee and host Arkansas would be huge.

While the Razorbacks (41-11, 18-9) still have a shot at SEC title, the match up has lost luster as they have combined with the Volunteers (40-13, 15-12) to lose 9 of their last 11 league series.

Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn is trying to stay even keel for the series, which begins Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Baum-Walker Stadium and will be televised by ESPN2.

His team has won 9 of its last 10 games against Tennessee.

“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.”

Van Horn isn’t letting the fact that Tennessee has lost its last four and five of its last six SEC series to diminish his opinion of the Vols.

“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.”

Arkansas is two games back of SEC leader Texas (40-10, 20-7) with Longhorns slated to play at Oklahoma (32-17, 13-14) Thursday through Saturday.

The Razorbacks will be trying to move closer to locking down one of the NCAA Tournament’s top eight national seed and a double bye in next week’s SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.

Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello, a former Razorback assistant under Van Horn, knows what he will face at Baum-Walker Stadium the next few days.

“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 game day.

“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.”

While some have pushed a narrative of a heated rivalry between the two, former Missouri head coach Vitello notes it is more of a competitive mutual admiration society between him and Van Horn.

“So I think, and maybe I’m wrong,” Vitello said. “If anything, it’s nice, I don’t think I’ve recruited any of those guys. I mean, we lost a big game there, and some of the parents, it just was a weird flavor there for a few years of that.

“And same with University of Missouri and now I think it’s on the field, in the stadium. I think enough time has passed and then the flip end of that is, I think those relationships, just because time has gone on, have grown, believe it or not, behind the scenes. They’ve grown even stronger.

“And I think there’s a real appreciation there, at least from my end.”

Van Horn, who called Vitello to congratulate him on the national championship, agreed with that sentiment and noted the Tennessee skipper thanked him for his help along the way.

“You know, I called him,” Van Horn said. “He was bombarded, obviously. Just congratulated him, and happy for him.

“You know, proud of him. Happy for (former Arkansas and current Tennessee assistant) Josh (Elander) and all of the guys we knew that are involved in that program. And you know, he thanked me a lot.”

Thursday’s game will likely be a match up of two off the SEC’s best starters in Tennessee left hand pitcher Liam Doyle (9-2, 2.17 ERA) and Arkansas southpaw Zach Root (6-3, 3.88).

Doyle pitched at Coastal Carolina in 2023 and Ole Miss in 2024, has fanned 127 batters in 74 2/3 innings.

He was tabbed as the likely No. 4 pick in this summer Major League Baseball Draft in Riley McDaniel’s ESPN mock draft released on Wednesday

“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 he 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.”

Vitello was asked after this team’s 7-4 home over Belmont on Tuesday if he had decided if Doyle would pitch Thursday or Friday.

“No,” Vitello said. “Actually, he’s in there eating with (pitching coach) Frank (Anderson). I tried to have a, believe it or not, mature conversation, and those two guys were acting a fool in there.

“So I said, ‘Let me finish this stuff (press conference), and we’ll get back in there and visit.’

“My only concern for Liam in general is just, we’ve asked him to do a lot with the Friday (Auburn), the Sunday (Auburn), and then 100 pitches Friday (Vanderbilt) despite the hand starting to get bloody and things like that.”

Root has had two strong outings in his last two starts – going 8 shutout, two-hit innings against Texas and 6 innings while allowing two runs at LSU.

Van Horn noted that he plans to start Gage Wood (1-1, 5.51) in game three, but has not solidified a game two starter as of yet.

Arkansas shortstop Wehiwa Aloy was McDaniel’s 14th taken and Wood 21st in McDaniel’s latest mock draft.

“Yeah, we’ve got a couple guys, obviously, but if we need to use a guy or two, we’ll use them,” Van Horn said.  “But I wouldn’t say a plethora. I would say a couple.”

Tennessee will likely start Marcus Phillips in game two and freshman Tegan Kuhns in game three.

“I think so,” Vitello said. “ I mean, I always watch (UFC boss) Dana White’s press conference because I like UFC and he always tells ’em, ‘I’m not going to make’ — they’ll ask them who’s fighting next — ‘but I ain’t making decisions now,’ and so I kind of usually use that cop out.

“But yeah, I think we’d have to come up with something pretty creative to not do that.”

Vitello was happy to see his team down Belmont 7-4 on Tuesday after a weekend series loss to Vanderbilt.

“I thought it was good,” Vitello said. “I mean, I think we’re more determined than anybody right now. Obviously, the last five weekends haven’t went our way, so we’re kind of chomping at the bit to get out there and get ready to play. So, you know, we’re looking forward to hooking it up on Thursday.”

Photo by John D. James