Arkansas to meet Kansas State Saturday night in key NCAA Tournament contest

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas and Kansas State, two teams who combined for 36 runs in their opening games, will meet Saturday night at 8 p.m. in a key NCAA Tournament Fayetteville Regional’s winners’ bracket game.

The game will be televised by ESPNU with the winner then needing just one more game to advance to the Super Regional while the loser would have to win three – two on Sunday and one on Monday.

The top-seeded Razorbacks (44-14) pulled away from an 8-8 tie with fourth seed Southeastern Missouri en route to a 17-9 win on Friday afternoon.

Third-seeded Kansas State (33-24) finished off second-seeded Louisiana Tech 19-4 on Saturday morning in a game that was suspended after five innings on Friday night.

Arkansas ace pitcher Hagen Smith (9-1, 1.48) is slated to pitch the for the Razorbacks.

He’ll face a Kansas State lineup that had 19 hits in its opener while putting up a season-high amount of runs.

Kansas State’s Kalen Culpepper hit for the cycle in the win, including capping that with a home run on Saturday.

Louisiana Tech and Southeastern Missouri will play Saturday at 2 p.m. in an elimination game.

Photo by John D. James