No. 11 Arkansas aims to turn page as SEC softball tournament begins post-season push

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – While the SEC softball tournament will open Tuesday at Auburn, Arkansas’ fourth-place finish in the regular season earned it a bye until Thursday at around 4 p.m.

That’s when the Razorbacks (36-15, 14-10) will face either fifth-seeded Missouri (40-14 13-11), 12th-seeded Kentucky (30-21, 8-16) or 13th-seeded Ole Miss (30-24, 7-17).

The single-elimination tournament begins with Kentucky and Ole Miss battling Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Razorback head coach Courtney Deifel, whose team lost two of three to the last-place Rebels over the weekend, is trying to keep things in perspective.

“Despite not being happy with how this weekend went, we still clinched a top-four seed, which is really tough to do in this conference,” Deifel said. “I think that’s the perspective that that we need is to remind ourselves.

“Even though this feeling is pretty crummy, we played ourselves into position where even with this last game, we finished fourth in the toughest conference of the country.”

Arkansas, who has finals this week, will enter the postseason ranked 11th by Softball America and D1 Softball.

“I’m proud of them for the year that they’ve done and now it’s time for us to turn the page and finish school, and then focus on how we’re going to be better moving forward in the postseason,” Deifel said.

A win Thursday would find Arkansas facing top seed and defending SEC champion Tennessee (40-9, 19-5) on Friday at approximately 1 p.m.

Second-seeded Florida (43-12, 17-7) and third-seeded Texas A&M (39-12, 15-9) also got byes into Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Deifel is hoping that her team will use this past weekend’s disappointment to fuel a post-season surge.

“It’s not a great feeling ending the regular season this way,” Deifel said. “At the end the day, we weren’t tough enough. They were better than us and it’s about production and we have to figure out how to produce more. 

“I hope this is a feeling that kind of sticks in them and fires them up to kind of turn the page and start fresh, and hopefully not want to feel that feeling again. Ole Miss was just better than us today, unfortunately.”

Ole Miss blanked Arkansas 6-0 in the opener of Friday’s doubleheader before the Razorbacks bounced back with nine first-inning runs in a 12-2 victory in the nightcap.

Saturday was a long day at Bogle Park with weather pushing back a 3 p.m. start until 8:05 p.m. and then the Rebels winning 4-3. on Senior Day.

Kennedy Miller’s sixth-inning solo home run cut Arkansas’ deficit to one in the sixth, but the Razorbacks couldn’t plate the tying run in the seventh.

“The conference is a grind and you just can’t have off days,” Deifel said. “You can’t have back-to-back off days.

“I think Ole Miss is a quality team and I think that they’re playing their best right now. If you look over the last few weeks with them winning the series over Auburn and then playing here, I know that they looked better this weekend than a lot of the video that I watched, but that’s the game.”

Deifel thinks there is still room for growth with her team.

“We’re still learning,” Deifel said. “We’re still working toward being our best version, and we’re not there yet. I think we’ve seen flashes of it, but we’re not there yet. And so I hope that what’s to come is this kind of being a thorn in our side that’s going to spur us to getting to our best.”

Photo courtesy of Razorbacks Communications