The No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks (25-6) will take on the Little Rock Trojans (17-11) for a two-game series this week at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville beginning on Tuesday evening.
The Razorbacks went 2-1 last week, taking the series from SEC West foe Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi. Arkansas' midweek game against Arkansas State scheduled for Tuesday was canceled due to weather.
Head coach Dave Van Horn said he will be playing everybody over the next two games after he was unable to get them action last week with the Arkansas State game being cancelled.
"I’ll play everybody in the next two games," Van Horn said after Saturday's 6-4 win over Ole Miss. "What I mean, some guys that haven’t played much will play at least one game and maybe two. We’ll see how it goes. I want to win the games, but at the same time, we’ve got a quick turnaround.
"We have to be smart with our pitching. We’re going to have to have some guys go a little longer that maybe haven’t pitched much and just leave them out there. Hopefully we can win a game or two."
Van Horn carried on that thought of having to be smart about who he plays in midweek matchups against in-state teams with a big SEC series against Tennessee up next.
"I look at them as it’s a game that we need to get some guys in," Van Horn said. "We need to maybe give your starting catcher a rest and one outfielder here, an infielder there and get some of these players that work hard every day a little chance to play if we can do that.
"But bottom line, I want to try to win the game. Every game is a big deal to me because this is what I do. But not going to go crazy trying to win them. I don’t want to jeopardize having our guys ready for Friday."
Little Rock went a perfect 4-0 last week, defeating Louisiana-Monroe 12-7 in a midweek game in Monroe, Louisiana, and sweeping the UT-Martin Skyhawks over the weekend.
Junior right-hander Cody Adcock will be on the mound making his third start of the season for Arkansas. Adcock threw just 2 1/3 innings in his last start against LSU, allowing four runs on three hits while striking out two and walking one. He will look to bounce back after throwing one inning out of the pen and allowing a three-run home run in Arkansas’ 7-4 loss at Ole Miss in Game 2 on Friday.
The Trojans will start junior left-handed pitcher Chance Vaught on the bump, and he will be making his first start of the season. Vaught has pitched 14 1/3 innings this season with only one appearance lasting longer than 2 2/3 innings, which was a 4 2/3-inning outing against Northwestern State. Vaught has allowed 14 runs on 17 hits and has struck out 13 while walking 20 on the year.
HawgBeat will have you covered with live updates, stats, commentary and much more throughout the game, and you can check out details on how to watch, starting pitchers, starting lineups when they're posted, notes and more below:
How to watch/listen
Who: No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks (25-6) vs. Little Rock Trojans (17-11)
When: 6:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, 4:00 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Fayetteville, Arkansas — Baum-Walker Stadium
Stream/Online: SEC Network+ (Brett Dolan and Troy Eklund)
Radio: Learfield Razorback Sports Network (Phil Elson and Bubba Carpenter)
Starting Rotations
Tuesday: Little Rock LHP Chance Vaught (1-1, 7.53 ERA) vs. Arkansas RHP Cody Adcock (2-1, 6.66 ERA)
Wednesday: Little Rock TBA vs. Arkansas RHP Ben Bybee (2-0, 4.41 ERA)
Notes
~ Arkansas is ranked by all six major college baseball polls:
D1Baseball – No. 5 (0)
Perfect Game – No. 6 (-1)
NCBWA – No. 5 (0)
USA Today Coaches – No. 6 (-1)
Collegiate Baseball – No. 7 (0)
Baseball America – No. 6 (-1)
~ Arkansas and Little Rock have met four times on the diamond with the Razorbacks leading the series 3-1. The Razorbacks and Trojans first met in 2019, when Little Rock earned its only win against the Razorbacks, 17-7.
~Arkansas is 14-1 since 2019 against teams from the state of Arkansas (5-0 vs. UAPB, 3-0 vs. Arkansas State, 3-0 vs. UCA, 3-1 vs. Little Rock).
~ Arkansas has hit a home run in 26 consecutive games and in 29 of their 31 games this season.
~ Little Rock enters the week 10-36 all-time against SEC competition with half of their wins and losses coming against Ole Miss.
~ Arkansas is 7-0 in midweek games this season, and the Hogs are looking to go undefeated in midweek games for the first time since 2005 (9-0) with 5 midweek games left on the schedule.
Some notes courtesy of Arkansas Communications
