The No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks (3-1) are gearing up for a challenging three-game stretch at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, as part of the Kubota College Baseball Series.
Arkansas will begin play Friday evening with a top-10 matchup against No. 7 Oregon State. It'll mark the first meeting between the two since June 28, 2018, when the Beavers beat the Razorbacks in Game 3 of the College World Series.
The Razorbacks began their season with a solid series win over James Madison, but the Beavers have mashed 14 home runs on their way to being undefeated through their first five games.
"We got Oregon State coming on the first day," Arkansas right-handed pitcher Koty Frank said Monday. "Nothing against JMU. That was a great team. They’re tough, they battled. They came here ready to play. But Oregon State may be on a different level. As far as that goes, we’ve got to be ready to go from the first pitch.”
The Razorbacks' second matchup will be Saturday evening against Oklahoma State. The two teams met on the same diamond just last season and the Razorbacks crushed the Cowboys, 18-1.
Oklahoma State is off to a slow start this season after dropping a series at Sam Houston, but the Cowboys did pick up a Sunday victory in the series 19-2. Oklahoma State is known for having elite offenses, so Arkansas' pitching depth will have to shine in this matchup.
To cap things off, the Hogs will face off against the Michigan Wolverines on Sunday afternoon. Led by head coach Tracy Smith, Michigan played in the national championship against Vanderbilt in 2019 but has struggled to maintain that level of consistency in the seasons since. The Wolverines went 2-2 against Western Michigan to start the year.
HawgBeat takes a look at all three teams the Hogs will face this weekend, along with statistical comparisons, players to watch, projected pitchers and our predictions.
Statistical comparison
With just one weekend and a few midweek games played so far this year, HawgBeat elected to list the 2023 stats for each team on this table.
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A look at the opponents:
No. 7 Oregon State (5-0) - Friday at 7 p.m. CT
Head coach: Mitch Canham (5th season)
Names to know: 2B Travis Bazzana, 3B Trent Caraway, LF Gavin Turley
Projected starting pitcher: RHP Aiden May, 1-0, 1.69 ERA, 5.1 IP, 4 H, R, 2 BB, 4 K
First weekend: 4-0 vs. New Mexico, Minnesota, CSU Bakersfield; 1-0 vs. Texas Tech (10-4 win Tuesday)
Oklahoma State (2-2) - Saturday at 7 p.m. CT
Head coach: Josh Holliday (11th season)
Names to know: RF Carson Benge, SS Lane Forsythe, DH Nolan Schubart, CF Zach Ehrhard
Projected starting pitcher: RHP Brian Holiday, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K
First weekend: 1-2 vs. Sam Houston, 1-0 vs. Abilene Christian (8-4 win Wednesday)
Michigan (2-2) - Sunday at 1 p.m. CT
Head coach: Tracy Smith (2nd season)
Names to know: DH Collin Priest, CF Jonathan Kim, 1B Mitch Voit, 3B Cole Caruso
Projected starting pitcher: LHP Jacob Denner, 1-0, 5.14 ERA, 7.0 IP, 12 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
First weekend: 2-2 vs. Western Michigan
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Weekend Predictions
Riley: Before opening weekend, I predicted Arkansas to go 2-1 in this series with wins over Oregon State and Michigan. But after seeing the Beavers mash the baseball to open the season and with Arkansas' offense a little slow out of the gates, I think the Razorbacks fail to get revenge in the Friday matchup. I do think the Hogs will continue their dominance over Oklahoma State, though.
Official Prediction: 2-1
Mason: I'm going to go out on a limb and pick the Razorbacks to go 3-0 in Arlington. I feel good about the Oklahoma State and Michigan games, especially with the pitching Arkansas should have for those games. Oregon State rakes, but think about how confident you'd feel if Hagen Smith didn't look the way he did on Opening Weekend. Flush it and go undefeated in Arlington.
Official Prediction: 3-0
