BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON
No. 12 Arkansas (28-11) will get a chance to avenge one of its earlier losses this softball season when it travels to Conway to face the University of Central Arkansas (27-8) Tuesday night at 6 p.m.
The game – billed as possibly the biggest home softball game in UCA history with over 2,000 tickets sold – will be televised on ESPN + with Dorian Craft and Dylan McLemore and is rematch of the Bears’ 2-1 win over the Razorbacks on March 6 in Fayetteville.
It was the first time Arkansas, which has won 7 of its last 10 games, had lost to UCA in the five games between the two schools since their initial meeting in 2021.
Razorback head coach Courtney Deifel, whose team is 9-6 and fourth in the SEC standings, is hoping her squad can take the momentum of rallying from a 3-0 deficit to down Georgia 4-3 on Saturday into Tuesday night’s game.
“I do think this team is a kind of a figure it out yourself kind of team,” Deifel said. “I think that is the youth that we have and it is experiencing it themselves. We can give them the information, they can take it in but still need to experience it. I think a is huge that they can get to that next level and find a way to beat the toughest team we have played all year.”
Hannah Gammill tied the game with a sixth-inning solo home run and Cylie Halvorson won it with a walk off blast to avoid a three-game sweep by the Bulldogs (31-8, 11-3), who are in a battle with Tennessee (30-5, 10-2).
“I just have a lot of joy for them when they have those moments,” Deifel said. “…Coming home to that scene at the plate has to be one of the best moments ever. Pretty cool.
The Saturday win came before 3,260 fans, the second-largest crowd in the history of Bogle Park.
“Our fans are incredible and I think our environment is the best I college softball,” Deifel said. “I know that sounds like I have a basis, but that’s fine. They are so great and I would put a full Bogle against anyone. It was the second-most attended game add they stuck with us when the start of the game wasn’t pretty. That stuck with us and got a really, really good finish.
“So I wouldn’t trade our fans, our stadium, our environment for anything.“
South Dakota State transfer Halvorson leads Arkansas in batting average (.341), slugging percentage (.591), hits (15) and runs (11), second in home runs (6) and is also fielding 1.000 at first base.
UCA – in first place with a 11-1 mark in ASUN conference action and with the nation’s eighth-best ERA at 1.65, is coming off a three-game sweep over Florida Gulf Coast.
Jordan Johnson tossed a complete game while fanning seven in the win over Arkansas with Mary Kate Brown’s sixth-inning double driving home Tremere Harris after Jenna Wildeman has scored the tying run on a passed ball.
Arkansas is ranked 16th and UCA 17th in this week’s ESPN RPI rankings.
