Horned Frogs’ Relievers Desecrate Bullpen Ahead of Arkansas vs TCU
UPDATE (7:36 p.m. CT, Saturday): The Arkansas vs TCU game has officially been set for 2 p.m. CT Sunday. The television designation has not yet been announced, but it will be available on ESPN-Plus at least. The Arizona-Santa Clara matchup, the first elimination game of the Fayetteville Regional, will still be played Saturday, with first pitch set for an 8:06 p.m. CT.
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UPDATE (6:32 p.m. CT, Saturday): The Arkansas vs TCU game, which is the winner’s bracket game of the Fayetteville Regional, has been officially postponed to Sunday. The game time has yet to be determined. The Arizona-Santa Clara game is still in a weather delay.
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No extra motivation is needed this time of year, but some Horned Frog relievers – ahem – relieving themselves during the Friday night game of the Fayetteville Regional may have provided the Razorbacks, or at least their fans, with some ahead of the Arkansas vs TCU matchup.
Some Arkansas baseball fans attending TCU’s 12-4 win over Arizona caught a pair of its pitchers, right-handers Garrett Wright and Hunter Hodges, taking a leak in the corner of their bullpen – which, as the higher seed and home team that game, was Arkansas’ usual bullpen.
To be fair, TCU’s players may not have had access to the Hunt Center’s restrooms because those are Arkansas’ facilities and they are still the visitors. However, there are restrooms in the dugout they could have used.
Regardless of your take on the urination situation, Saturday’s nightcap between Arkansas and TCU promises to be the best atmosphere of the season at Baum-Walker Stadium. Just over 11,000 fans witnessed the Razorbacks’ win over Santa Clara, and that was on a Friday afternoon when a lot of people still had work.
Saturday’s game is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT and will be televised on ESPNU. However, first pitch will almost certainly get pushed back because of inclement weather in Northwest Arkansas.
The Arizona-Santa Clara elimination game was set for a 2 p.m. start, but it has been in an indefinite delay all day and – despite announcement from the Santa Clara Twitter account, no start time has been set.
NCAA rules require 55 minutes between games and the latest the Arkansas vs TCU game could start is 11 p.m. It could then take as long as needed to finish, so there’s a chance the Razorbacks and Horned Frogs are playing past midnight, if they play at all. The game could potentially get pushed back to Sunday.
As always, Best of Arkansas Sports will be all over it and providing live, inning-by-inning updates below…
Pregame Tidbits from Fayetteville Regional
As expected, left-hander Hagen Smith has been named the starter for Arkansas. He was a first-team All-SEC selection by the coaches and named a first-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball after a season in which he went 8-1 with two saves and a 2.69 ERA with 102 strikeouts in 67 innings. Opponents have hit just .199 against the sophomore this year.
TCU is countering with right-hander Sam Stoutenborough, a graduate transfer who spent the first four years of his career at Cal. He is 3-0 with a 4.31 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings across 18 appearances, including seven starts, in his first season with the Horned Frogs.
This will actually be his second career outing at Baum-Walker Stadium, as he actually took the loss for Cal in an elimination game against Central Connecticut State as a freshman in the 2019 Fayetteville Regional. In that game, Stoutenborough was charged with six runs – five earned – on nine hits and no walks while striking out three in five innings.
Starting Lineups – Arkansas vs TCU
TCU Baseball Arkansas Baseball 1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 3. 4. 4. 5. 5. 6. 6. 7. 7. 8. 8. 9. 9. Pitching: S-Sr. RHP Sam Stoutenborough Pitching: So. LHP Hagen Smith
How to Watch the Fayetteville Regional
Friday, June 2
Game 1: Arkansas 13, Santa Clara 6
Game 2: TCU 12, Arizona 4
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: Santa Clara vs Arizona – 4 p.m. CT (ESPN+) – elimination game
Game 4: Arkansas vs TCU – 8 p.m. CT (ESPNU)
Sunday, June 4
Game 5 – Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Loser – 2 p.m. CT – elimination game
Game 6 – Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner – 8 p.m. CT
Monday, June 5 (If Necessary)
Game 7 – If the Game 5 Winner Wins Game 6 – TBD
Composite College Baseball Top 25
Unlike football and basketball, which have just the AP and Coaches Polls all year (with football adding the CFP rankings late in the season), college baseball has six major polls. Collegiate Baseball used to be included, but it was dropped due to severe inconsistencies in its rankings. Perfect Game also didn’t update its poll this week, so only four polls are used in these rankings.
To get a better feel for how teams stack up, BoAS has combined those rankings into a single top 25 by using a points system in which a No. 1 ranking = 25 points, No. 2 = 24 points and all the way to No. 25 = 1 point. We will update this each week throughout the season…
Team Conference Change Points 1. Wake Forest ACC — 100 2. Florida SEC — 96 3. Vanderbilt SEC +4 90 4. Arkansas SEC — 87 5. Clemson ACC +1 86 t-6. LSU SEC -1 78.5 t-6. Stanford Pac-12 -3 78.5 8. Coastal Carolina Sun Belt — 70 9. Miami (Fla.) ACC — 69 10. Virginia ACC — 63 11. Campbell Big South +4 60 12. East Carolina AAC — 52 13. Oklahoma State Big 12 +4 48 14. Dallas Baptist C-USA — 43 15. UConn Big East -4 41 16. Southern Miss Sun Belt +8 38 17. Oregon State Pac-12 -1 33 18. Tennessee SEC -5 29 19. Alabama SEC +7 21 t-20. Maryland Big Ten +8 18 t-20. South Carolina SEC +2 18 22. West Virginia Big 12 -4 15 23. Indiana State MVC +4 13 t-24. Texas Big 12 -4 11 t-24. TCU Big 12 N/A 11 Receiving votes: Auburn (10), Kentucky (9), Duke (7), Oregon (2), Boston College (2), Texas A&M (1)
MOVED IN: Alabama (19), Maryland (t-20), Indiana State (23), TCU (t-24)
MOVED OUT: Auburn (19), Boston College (21), Duke (t-22), Kentucky (25)
Conference Breakdown
SEC: 7
ACC: 4
Big 12: 4
Pac-12: 2
Sun Belt: 2
AAC: 1
Big East: 1
Big South: 1
Big Ten: 1
C-USA: 1
MVC: 1
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More coverage of Arkansas baseball and the Fayetteville Regional from BoAS…
Source: Best of Arkansas Sports
