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It's going to be a great atmosphere down in Fayetteville Arkansas...if it doesn't rain. This will be the Razorback's last home series if they don't get to host. The seniors and some of the draft-able juniors will be having a mixture of emotions. Couple that with the fact that this Arkansas team can be the first in school history to win seven straight SEC series' and that finishing strong may give them a chance to host a regional...well, plenty of incentive for the team to play well and for attendance to be strong. I forgot the Pulled Pork Cook-Off on Saturday, heck, wish I was going.
The Razorbacks got off to a slow start as weather too hampered them in the early going. They were swept by Vandy and lost the LSU series at home. They turned it around and they may be the hottest team in the league at the moment.
Andrew Benintendi. Think Johnny Manziel. He was #JohnnyFootball. The Razorbacks refer to him as #BennyBaseball.
The Sophomore not only leads the team in almost every offensive category (BA .386), including 20-23 steals, he leads the SEC in most of them. He's in the conversation with the likes of Bergman and Swanson for POY. He's on the watch 30 list for the Golden Spikes Award. He recently got a sit down on the Finebaum show, it's fair to say Benny Mania has taken over Fayetteville.
Tyler Spoon is no slouch, he's batting .341 and he's done pretty well against us the last couple of years. He's graduating, as are four other players and they will have a
senior day ceremony before Saturday's game.
Overall, the teams bats .292 and they put up over 6 runs per game.
The pitching staff has a team ERA of 4.27 and a quick comparison of their starting pitchers with ours are fairly similar. Here's what the Razorback Website says about each, going into this weekend...
The quality of their bull pen could end up being a factor that works against us. Zack Jackson (2.57 ERA) leads the team with 5 saves and his .212 opposing BA is best on the squad. He along with starter Trey Killian have both accepted Team USA invites. They have several other guys, Jacob Stone, Lance Phillips, James Teague and Josh Alberius all under 4.00 ERA.
The defense is second only to Florida in the SEC. They are at the top of the league turning double plays, they've only committed 38 errors and no one on the team has more than 5.
So what is a weakness we might be able to exploit? They walk guys at times and they are first in the league hitting batters. Teams have had some success running on them too. They are a lot like TAMU offensively, in fact they won that series down in College Station and both teams scored 23 runs in that series. They aren't going to give us many cheap ones, think Florida...So the question is, can we continue to hit and plate the runners rather than stranding them? If we can, maybe we can steal one.
It's gonna be a big weekend and I'm sure we'll all have our eyes on the rest of the league. We're backed into a corner and we need to play like we have nothing to lose, have some fun and at least get one.
Interesting fact: After this weekend, we will have played 21 games versus Top 50 RPI teams...18 of them on the road. I don't think anybody in the Top 75 RPI will be able to say that.
That's just NUTS!
GBO!!!
The Razorbacks got off to a slow start as weather too hampered them in the early going. They were swept by Vandy and lost the LSU series at home. They turned it around and they may be the hottest team in the league at the moment.
Andrew Benintendi. Think Johnny Manziel. He was #JohnnyFootball. The Razorbacks refer to him as #BennyBaseball.
The Sophomore not only leads the team in almost every offensive category (BA .386), including 20-23 steals, he leads the SEC in most of them. He's in the conversation with the likes of Bergman and Swanson for POY. He's on the watch 30 list for the Golden Spikes Award. He recently got a sit down on the Finebaum show, it's fair to say Benny Mania has taken over Fayetteville.
Tyler Spoon is no slouch, he's batting .341 and he's done pretty well against us the last couple of years. He's graduating, as are four other players and they will have a
senior day ceremony before Saturday's game.
Overall, the teams bats .292 and they put up over 6 runs per game.
The pitching staff has a team ERA of 4.27 and a quick comparison of their starting pitchers with ours are fairly similar. Here's what the Razorback Website says about each, going into this weekend...
The quality of their bull pen could end up being a factor that works against us. Zack Jackson (2.57 ERA) leads the team with 5 saves and his .212 opposing BA is best on the squad. He along with starter Trey Killian have both accepted Team USA invites. They have several other guys, Jacob Stone, Lance Phillips, James Teague and Josh Alberius all under 4.00 ERA.
The defense is second only to Florida in the SEC. They are at the top of the league turning double plays, they've only committed 38 errors and no one on the team has more than 5.
So what is a weakness we might be able to exploit? They walk guys at times and they are first in the league hitting batters. Teams have had some success running on them too. They are a lot like TAMU offensively, in fact they won that series down in College Station and both teams scored 23 runs in that series. They aren't going to give us many cheap ones, think Florida...So the question is, can we continue to hit and plate the runners rather than stranding them? If we can, maybe we can steal one.
It's gonna be a big weekend and I'm sure we'll all have our eyes on the rest of the league. We're backed into a corner and we need to play like we have nothing to lose, have some fun and at least get one.
Interesting fact: After this weekend, we will have played 21 games versus Top 50 RPI teams...18 of them on the road. I don't think anybody in the Top 75 RPI will be able to say that.
That's just NUTS!
GBO!!!
