Arkansas concludes its six-game road trip with a midweek matchup against one of its closest neighbors, Missouri State. Here’s a preview of the game…

Schedule (TV)

Tuesday, March 26 - 6:30 p.m. CT (ESPN+)

The game will be streamed on ESPN+, which can be watched the same way as SEC Network-plus games - online on ESPN3.com or the WatchESPN app - but requires a subscription on top of your cable/streaming provider that gives you access to the main ESPN channels and SEC Network. It costs $4.99 per month, but you can sign up for a 7-day free trial by clicking here.

As always, you can listen to the game on the radio, the TuneIn app or by clicking here. Normal play-by-play man Phil Elson will be on the call because the Arkansas women’s basketball team doesn’t play again until Thursday.

Weather Report

It will be a chilly night for baseball in Springfield, Mo., as the temperature will start in the mid- to low-50s and dip into the mid- to upper-40s by the end of the game. Luckily, there is no chance of rain and winds are expected to be only 4-6 mph out of the northeast, according to the Weather Channel.

Arkansas’ Starting Pitcher (season stats)

Tuesday - Fr. LHP Patrick Wicklander (9 games/4 starts, 2-1, 4.84 ERA, 32 K/13 BB, 22 1/3 IP)

Head coach Dave Van Horn is sticking with Wicklander as the midweek starter, but he isn’t expected to go very deep. That could be a sign that changes are coming to the weekend rotation.

Aside from one bad inning against Texas, Wicklander has been solid as a starter, posting a 3.18 ERA in 17 innings across four starts. He’s been less effective out of the pen, with a 10.13 ERA in 5 1/3 innings across five relief appearances.

By limiting him against Missouri State, Van Horn is leaving the door open for Wicklander to potentially start on the weekend against Ole Miss. There are some other options as well, but it looks like Van Horn is considering replacing freshman right-hander Connor Noland, who struggled with his command in 1 2/3 innings against Alabama.

Because Noland threw only 41 pitches Saturday, he’ll actually be available for some work out of the bullpen Tuesday. It would be his first relief appearance of the season. That also means he won't be at Tuesday's football practice.

Beyond that, the Razorbacks will likely use a “by committee” approach similar to the one they used Wednesday at Texas, when six freshmen and a sophomore (Collin Taylor) combined to throw seven innings.

In the Polls

Arkansas checks in at No. 8 in this week's HawgBeat Composite Poll and is now a consensus top-10 team. Missouri State is unranked in the polls and No. 105 in the RPI, which has Arkansas at No. 3.

Scouting the Opponent

Missouri State’s starting pitcher (season stats)

Tuesday - Fr. LHP Ben Cruikshank (5 games/1 start, 0-0, 10.38 ERA, 6 K/13 BB, 8 2/3 IP)

Now in his 37th season as the head coach at his alma mater, Keith Guttin is in danger of having a losing record for just the sixth time in his career. After opening the season as a preseason top-25 team in one poll, Missouri State is just 5-16.

The preseason favorites in the Missouri Valley had several pieces back from last year’s team that made an NCAA regional, but are hitting nearly 100 points lower than their opponents (.206 vs. .302).

Coming off a season in which he earned second-team All-America honors, junior catcher/designated hitter Drew Millas has a .224 batting average with eight RBIs. He has been swinging the bat better of late, though, going 6 for 17 (.353) during a five-game hitting streak that includes both of his home runs so far this year.

Junior shortstop John Privitera - an all-conference performer in 2018 - is going the opposite direction, with only one hit in his last 16 at bats, but he still leads the team with a .247 average.

The Bears’ top power hitter is junior Logan Geha. He is the only player with double-digit RBIs - with 14 - and he has a team-high four home runs, but he’s hitting just .209.

On the mound, Cruikshank will made his second start of the season. He gave up two earned runs on three hits and five walks in 3 1/3 innings against Oral Roberts two weeks ago.

Missouri State doesn’t have a lot of great options once Arkansas gets past him. Sophomore Ty Buckner, a freshman All-American last season, was expected to be the Friday night starter, but he tore his Achilles in February and will miss the season.

That has forced the Bears to reshuffle their rotation and hurt their non-conference record, which is so poor that receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament is out of the question. That is good news for Arkansas, as Missouri State won’t have the luxury of pitching its top guys Tuesday because it will need to save them for the start of conference play this weekend.

The Razorbacks could see senior left-hander Davis Schwab. He had started four straight Fridays before this past weekend, when he came out of the bullpen on Sunday. He threw only 18 pitches, though.

If it’s a close game, the Bears might turn to their closer, sophomore right-hander Connor Sechler. He notched eight saves with a 2.98 ERA last season, earning him preseason second-team All-America honors, and currently has a team-best 3.20 ERA in 19 2/3 innings.

Nesbit Honored

The first Arkansas player to pick up a weekly honor from the SEC this season is not one of its preseason All-Americans or even one of its heralded freshmen. Instead, it’s a guy who redshirted last season, as third baseman Jacob Nesbit was named the SEC Freshman of the Week.

In five games - two against Texas and three against Alabama - he went 8 for 19 with three doubles, a home run, seven RBIs, four runs, a walk, a hit by pitch and two stolen bases, all while extending his hitting streak to 14 games and on-base streak to 21 games.

The three doubles and home run were actually Nesbit’s first extra-base hits of the season, as his first 19 hits were all singles. He is now hitting .346/.407/.423 with 18 RBIs this year.

Stat of the Midweek

The “Battle Line Rivalry” would probably be better suited for Arkansas’ baseball series with Missouri State than the football series with Missouri.

There is some bad blood between the teams thanks to the Razorbacks hosting the 2015 super regional when a scheduling conflict prevented the Bears from hosting and then Missouri State getting its revenge by winning the 2017 Fayetteville Regional - a regional that included a game that finished after 3 a.m.

This will be the seventh straight and the 21st out of the last 22 seasons the teams have met. Although Arkansas leads the all-time series 54-26 (.675), they have split the last 12 matchups dating back to the 2014 season. Over that span, the Razorbacks have outscored the Bears 74-63, or an average of less than one run per game.

Seven of those 12 games have been decided by three runs or fewer, with three of the last four decided by one run.

Stat Comparison - Arkansas | Missouri State (national rank, out of 297 teams)

Batting average: .295 (30th) | .206 (291st)

Slugging percentage: .466 (23rd) | .307 (274th)

On-base percentage: .393 (44th) | .296 (290th)

Home runs: 25 (t-20th) | 12 (t-160th)

Runs/game: 7.4 (t-27th) | 4.1 (t-257th)

ERA: 3.20 (26th) | 7.38 (275th)

WHIP: 1.11 (12th) | 1.80 (258th)

Strikeouts/9 innings: 10.5 (11th) | 7.8 (196th)

Strikeout-to-walk ratio: 3.00 (18th) | 1.37 (253rd)

Fielding percentage: .972 (93rd) | .956 (255th)

Stolen bases/game: 1.83 (38th) | 0.57 (t-254th)

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