No. 2 Arkansas travels to face UAPB in NLR

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – Those who can’t be on hand to watch the nation’s No. 2 college baseball team play in North Little Rock on Tuesday night can at least watch the contest via a smart television.

Arkansas (34-6 overall, 14-4 in SEC action) and UAPB (13-26, 4-14 in SWAC) will meet at Dickey-Stephens Field in a 6 p.m. contest that will be streamed by ESPN + and have the audio of Arkansas radio announcer Phil Elson simulcast with the video.

The Razorback offense had gone 44 innings in SEC games without driving in a runner in scoring position home before a six-run, seventh inning in a 9-6 series-deciding win at No. 24 South Carolina (27-13, 9-9) on Saturday night.

“As a whole unit right now we are not even clicking to our full potential,” Razorback outfielder Kendall Diggs said. “Obviously the guys on the mound are doing an outstanding job, but the offense, we are getting the job done, but we are not close where we are going to be.”

The Razorbacks, 9-0 in mid-week games this season, stayed a consensus No. 2 in the latest D1 Baseball, Baseball America, Perfect Game, USA Today/ESPN and NCBWA polls released on Monday.

No. 1 Texas A&M (35-5, 13-5), who trails Arkansas by game in the SEC Western Division, remained atop the five polls after taking two of three at Alabama.

Tennessee (33-7, 12-6) moved up to No. 3 and SEC overall leader Kentucky (32-7, 15-3) dropped to fourth after losing two of three games with the visiting Volunteers.

Arkansas, who lost to Lipscomb 8-6 in 11 innings last season at Dickey-Stephens Park, is 10-2 in its 12 previous appearances in North Little Rock.

UAPB, who has lost its last seven games this season, is 0-5 against in five games against Arkansas since 2019 with all game in Fayetteville and four of them ending via the run rule.

Arkansas is scheduled to start pitcher Ben Bybee (2-0, 6.10 ERA) while UAPB’s Jordan Jones (0-2, 5.93), the older brother of Razorback sophomore Jayson Jones, slated to open on the mound for the Lions.

The Razorbacks took two of three games at South Carolina with the 2-1 and 9-5 wins sandwiched around the Gamecocks’ 6-3 victory in the opener of Saturday’s doubleheader.

That came after Arkansas’ two-game mid-week sweep of visiting Texas Tech, who went on to sweep a road series at West Virginia over the weekend.

“It was a good (SEC) series win, finally won a game three on the road,” Van Horn said while referring to previous losses at Auburn and Alabama. “Looking forward to getting back (home).”

Arkansas has the game with UAPB Tuesday and then a three-game SEC series with Florida with games Friday night at 7 p.m. on the SEC Network, Saturday at noon on ESPN2 and Sunday at 2 p.m on SEC Network +.

South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston was proud of how his team fought, albeit not coming away with a series win.

“I don’t know how you can play any closer than that,” Kingston said after Saturday’s twinbill. “Eighteen innings, today both teams scored 12 runs and we did a lot of good things against the No. 2-ranked team in the country.

“We are disappointed we didn’t win the series. I think it shows how close we are. That is my message to the team. We are close. These top-five teams we are playing, we got to keep working to get over that hump so we are a top-five team.”

South Carolina’s tough slate – which has included Texas A&M, Florida and Arkansas the last four weekends will continue with Kentucky this weekend while Texas A&M hosts Georgia.

Photo by John D. James