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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas has canceled its midweek game against Omaha that was scheduled for Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium.
Speaking to the media following Sunday’s win over Kentucky, head coach Dave Van Horn cited the forecast — which calls for unfavorable conditions — as the reason the Razorbacks won’t travel to Kansas City for the game.
It’s the fourth time in six weeks that Arkansas’ schedule has been impacted by bad weather. It previously played a doubleheader on three consecutive weekends during non-conference play, so this is the first time a game has been completely canceled.
“High of 40, snow and rain, winds out of north 15-25 (mph) — here we go again with that weather thing — wind chill in the upper 20s,” Van Horn said. “I don’t think that’s good for this time of year.”
Instead of playing, the Razorbacks will stay home and practice. The weather in Fayetteville doesn’t look much better, but they can practice inside of their state-of-the-art facilities — the Fowler Center and Hunt Center.
Arkansas did look for a potential replacement game for this week, but was unsuccessful.
“We looked to see if we could get a game here maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, but it’s kind of late to do that,” Van Horn said. “I think rest might be better for us than scrambling, and then not knowing, and then all of a sudden saying we’re playing.”
Van Horn left the door open to potentially adding a game later in the season, likely in the form of a midweek doubleheader, to get to 56 regular-season games.
There are just three weeks the Razorbacks are scheduled to play one midweek game, and one of them is the annual game at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock. That is against Central Arkansas on April 26.
The Razorbacks also host the Bears for a single game three weeks earlier on April 5. The other one-game midweek is May 3 against Missouri State. Whether or not either of those turn into a doubleheader will depend on the pitching situation and injuries for Arkansas and the other team.
There is not currently a midweek game scheduled before Arkansas’ final two SEC series and Van Horn acknowledged it would be difficult to add games that late in the season because most teams don’t want to travel at that point — and neither does Arkansas.
With no game this week, the Razorbacks will shift their focus to the next conference series, which is at Missouri beginning Friday. The Tigers were swept by Vanderbilt to open SEC play, getting outscored 28-6 over three games in Nashville.
“We’ll probably give our guys tomorrow off (and) most of Tuesday off — maybe a voluntary type workout for guys, some individual work — then have a team workout on Wednesday and then travel to Columbia,” Van Horn said. “Hopefully if the weather is good in Columbia we can travel up there on Thursday and get a workout in at their place.”
First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT Friday, followed by games at 2 p.m. CT Saturday and 1 p.m. CT Sunday. Game 2 will be televised on the SEC Network, while the other two will be streamed on SEC Network-Plus.
