Arkansas draws No. 3 national seed, Fayetteville Regional is set
FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks earned an at-large bid and the No. 3 national seed for the 2023 NCAA Tournament and they are set to host a regional in Fayetteville for the 10th time in program history.
This marks the second time in program history that Arkansas has earned a top four seed, which guarantees that the Razorbacks will have home-field advantage during regionals and super regionals. Arkansas finished at No. 3 in the RPI rankings, right behind Wake Forest and Kentucky.
Also included in the Fayetteville Regional is 2-seed TCU, 3-seed Arizona and 4-seed Santa Clara. The regional will start on Friday and go through Monday if necessary. Beginning Friday, Arkansas will take on Santa Clara and TCU will face Arizona.
The Fayetteville Regional is paired with the Terre Haute Regional, which features Indiana State (No. 14 national seed), 2-seed Iowa, 3-seed North Carolina and 4-seed Wright State.
Arkansas (41-16) earned a share of the regular season SEC title after going 20-10 in conference play. The Diamond Hogs went 2-1 at the SEC Tournament and they were eliminated Saturday by the Texas A&M Aggies, who fell to Vanderbilt in the tournament final.
Santa Clara (35-18) won its first ever West Coast Conference baseball tournament championship with a 6-0 win over Portland on Saturday. The Broncos earned the Conference's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Tournament and they will be making their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1997. Santa Clara is led by head coach Rusty Filter, who is in his fourth season as the team's head coach.
TCU (37-22) won the Big 12 Baseball Championship with a 12-5 win over Oklahoma State on Sunday to secure an automatic qualifier bid. The Horned Frogs posted a 13-11 record in the Big 12 this season and they started their season with back-to-back wins over Vanderbilt (11-4) and Arkansas (18-6) at the College Baseball Showdown in February. Head coach Kirk Saarloos is in his second season with TCU.
Arizona (33-24) earned an at-large bid after it made the Pac-12 Tournament championship game, but fell to Oregon by a score of 5-4. The Wildcats went 12-18 in conference play and the only common opponent that they had with Arkansas was Tennessee, who they beat 3-1 on Feb. 17. Head coach Chip Hale is in his second season with Arizona.
Arkansas owns a 66-43 (.606) overall record in the regional round of the NCAA Tournament. The last time Arkansas hosted a regional was in 2021, when the Diamond Hogs defeated Nebraska in the regional final to advance to a super regional matchup with NC State, who defeated the Razorbacks to advance to the College World Series.
Last season, Arkansas hit the road and was crowned champions of the Stillwater Regional. The Razorbacks then traveled to Chapel Hill, where they defeated North Carolina to secure the program's 11th College World Series appearance.
It's worth noting that teams that draw the No. 3 national seed have won the College World Series three times in the last 13 seasons. That's the most of any other individual seed line during that span, according to Cory Stewart.
Per the NCAA website, the Razorbacks and Santa Clara will have a 2 p.m. CT first pitch and it will be streamed on ESPN Plus. Arizona and TCU are set for an 8 p.m. CT first pitch on ESPNU.