FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas is set to host the Arkansas State Red Wolves for two midweek games beginning Tuesday and then Wednesday afternoon.

Arkansas (28-7) has won 15 consecutive midweek games. Arkansas State (7-24) has struggled much of the season and is only 2-11 away from Jonesboro. Dave Van Horn said he will use some of his reserves against the Red Wolves.

“Well, definitely at the catcher position,” Van Horn said. “You know, we’re gonna play our guys. They’ve got they’ve got tonight to rest, they’ve got Easter off, light workout on Monday. And these guys want to play. They want to play. If you’re a baseball player, you want to play. There’s some guys that I’ll discuss some things with about taking a day off or not starting, maybe come off the bench if we need you. But we need to put our guys out there. They need to stay sharp. And you know, that’s the plan going in. And you can’t just, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, they can beat you. And your guys gotta go out and play well.”

Arkansas is coming off a sweep of LSU to move to 11-4 in the SEC. This was Arkansas’ first sweep over LSU since 2011.

“Well, honestly, I mean, and I am being honest, I don’t really pay attention to it,” Van Horn said. “I just try to win every series. I mean, yeah, if you really, if you were 3-15 against somebody after what would that be, however many series, you know, it would be very frustrating, obviously. But it’s just trying to win every weekend. And I tell our guys they all count the same. It’s great to sweep LSU because they’re a ranked team, it’s going to help our RPI. I mean, you could go on and on. Fans love it. But I mean, you know, I don’t get all carried away with it. I didn’t go crazy with the team. I just told him happy Easter and you guys just swept LSU. Great job and see you Monday. And that’s probably the end of it. So, moving on to the next week.”

Arkansas is 5-0 this season against in-state teams. They beat Little Rock and UAPB twice and UCA once. The Red Wolves are 3-0 inside Arkansas. They beat UCA once and Little Rock twice as well. Van Horn talked about playing in-state schools.

“I like it,” Van Horn said. “I think it’s good for the state, obviously. And I think it probably makes it it makes it easier for us scheduling wise, because it’s tough to get teams to come here in April. Midweek games, I mean. Teams that travel in March, they’re trying to avoid weather or whatever. And then you know, maybe we have a home and away with Missouri State or someone in the region. But you know, it gives us more of an opportunity to stay at home. It’s hard enough playing on the weekend when you’ve got to play the competition that we do. If you can stay home and play somebody on a Tuesday and a Wednesday or one of those days, you just feel a little more rested even though you’re gonna head way off to Florida or wherever the case may be and play. So yeah, I mean, they give us a great effort, the in-state schools. ]

“And you know, I told our guys a couple years ago when we started playing them, we’re not going to beat these people every time. They’re going to beat us. It’s baseball. And Arkansas State, you know, they’ve struggled a little bit this year, but they just beat, I know going into today they were 2-0 against Little Rock in two one-run games and I thought Little Rock was pretty good. So you take a day off, you’ll lose, mentally. So mentally you take a day off, you’ll get beat. But I’m looking forward to the games on Tuesday. It’s that time of the year. We’ve got a few weeks of school left and hopefully the weather will be a little bit warmer and we’re playing baseball.”

Click here for Arkansas State’s schedule and results.

Click here for Arkansas’ schedule and results.

Schedule
6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 19
vs. Arkansas State – SEC Network+ – Listen – Live Stats

4 p.m. Wednesday, April 20
vs. Arkansas State – SEC Network+ – Listen – Live Stats

Tune In
Both games will stream on SEC Network+ with Brett Dolan and Troy Eklund handling play-by-play and analyst duties, respectively. Fans can catch all the action through the ESPN app on smartphones, computers and tablets or via Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

The midweek series with the Red Wolves can also be heard on the Razorback Sports Network from Learfield/IMG, including locally in Fayetteville on 92.1 FM, with Phil Elson (play-by-play) and Razorback great Bubba Carpenter (analyst) on the call. A full list of radio affiliates is available here.

Matchups

Game 1
Arkansas State TBA vs. Arkansas RHP Kole Ramage (1-2, 4.50 ERA)

Game 2
Arkansas State TBA vs. Arkansas TBA

Series History
Arkansas and Arkansas State will meet for only the second and third time in history this week. The first meeting between the two programs on the diamond occurred last season, when the Razorbacks won, 8-4, on May 11, 2021.

Leading Off

  • Arkansas will don gold caps on Tuesday night to promote childhood cancer awareness.
  • Arkansas is 23-3 in home games this year, reaching the 20-win mark in a season at Baum-Walker Stadium for the 20th time since the ballpark opened in 1996.
  • The Razorbacks are ranked third nationally and first in the SEC in fielding percentage (.986), committing only 18 errors in 35 games this season.
  • OF Chris Lanzilli’s 47 career home runs rank sixth among all active DI college baseball players. He is three homers shy of becoming one of four active players with 50 or more home runs: UNCW’s Ethan Baucom (59), Tennessee Tech’s Jason Hinchman (59), Auburn’s Sonny DiChiara (52) and Oklahoma State’s Griffin Doersching (50).
  • RHP Kole Ramage will make his second start of the season on the mound in Tuesday night’s midweek series opener. The veteran right-hander made his first start of the year against UAPB last Tuesday, striking out five over three perfect innings of work to card his first win of the season.