The No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks (15-2) will open SEC play against the Auburn Tigers (13-3-1) for a three-game series starting on Friday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville.
Arkansas is coming off of a midweek sweep of UNLV and the Diamond Hogs have won 10 in a row entering this weekend’s series with weekend sweeps over Wright State and Louisiana Tech during the streak.
Auburn enters the weekend after dropping a series to Southeastern Louisiana last weekend, but the Tigers most recently won a 12-inning thriller over Georgia Tech, 12-11, on Tuesday.
A change to the starting rotation resulted in junior left-hander Hunter Hollan getting the nod on the bump Friday for the Hogs. Entering his fifth start of the season, the San Jacinto transfer has gone four or more innings in each of his four starts, allowing five earned runs and fanning 21 batters in 20.2 innings.
Auburn will start TCU grad-transfer left-hander Tommy Vail on Friday. Vail will be making his fourth start and sixth appearance of the season. The southpaw has struck out 18 batters in 14.1 innings and allowed just one earned run on two hits this season.
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: Arkansas Razorbacks (15-2) vs Auburn Tigers (13-3-1)
When: 4 p.m. CT Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
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
Friday: Auburn LHP Tommy Vail (2-0, 0.63 ERA) vs. Arkansas LHP Hunter Hollan (3-0, 2.18 ERA)
Saturday: Auburn LHP Zach Crotchfelt (0-0, 4.41 ERA) vs. Arkansas RHP Will McEntire (3-0, 3.48 ERA)
Sunday: Auburn TBA vs. Arkansas TBA
Notes
~ Arkansas is ranked by all six major college baseball polls after the third weekend of play:
D1Baseball – No. 8
Perfect Game – No. 3
NCBWA – No. 7
USA Today Coaches – No. 8
Collegiate Baseball – No. 7
Baseball America – No. 9
~ Arkansas leads the all-time series against the Bulldogs 51-49, winning the last 4 series against Auburn. Arkansas eliminated Auburn in the College World Series in 2022, winning 11-1.
~ Arkansas has not opened conference play against Auburn since 2011 and have won their last 5 SEC opening weekend series. Arkansas has not lost a home series against Auburn since 2014, sweeping the Tigers 2 of the last 3 home series.
~ Dave Van Horn is 36-23 against Auburn, 26-19 at home.
~ Arkansas is 31-12 all-time on St. Patrick’s Day, winning their last five.
Some notes courtesy of Arkansas Communications
