FAYETTEVILLE — Mike Larabee is all amped up about having the SEC Tournament at the University of Arkansas’ Bogle Park in his first season at the helm.
The home crowd for Thursday’s opening-round games should be strong, softball teams from a three-hour radius are expected to be in attendance, and Larabee can showcase the facility to prospects, signees and their parents.
“I’ve seen most of the top facilities in the country, and I’m a little bit biased, but I think Bogle Park is the best facility in the country,” Larabee said.
However, even underidyllic weather conditions - which are no guarantee, with a chance of storms in the forecast - a couple of problems exist.
No. 1: The Razorbacks (28-28) must win one game in the single-elimination tournament to be eligible for the NCAA championships.
No. 2: Arkansas opens the tournament against No. 3 Alabama, the SEC champion and top seed, which is riding a 21-game winning streak.
“I would like nothing more than for - I mean Alabama’s No. 3 or 4 in the country, and they have the No. 1 RPI in the country - if somehow we could take care of business, I think we would have a pretty good chance at getting into the [NCAA] tournament.”
Larabee is playing the role of psychologist with his team as it approaches its matchup with the Tide.
“The way we’re looking at it is the pressure’s on Alabama,” Larabee said. “There’s not a lot of expectations on us, being the eighth seed. We just want to go out there and have that attitude like a bunch of 10-year-olds and go have fun and give it our best.”
Alabama swept a threegame series from the Razorbacks late last month at Bogle Park, extending their winning streak against Arkansas to 25 games. The scores in the latest series were 6-1, 16-8 and 8-6, so while the Crimson Tide was dominant, the Razorbacks feel they can put up some runs on them.
“On Sunday, we were leading that game going into the top of the sixth inning,” Larabee said. “We weren’t able to hold them off, but definitely that gives us some confidence.”
The Razorbacks are expected to start freshman right-hander Hope McLemore (14-12, 2.87 ERA), who was injured when the Tide was in town April 24-25, in the 6:30 p.m. game Thursday.
Alabama Coach Pat Murphy, who did not use ace Kelsi Dunne (24-4, 2.02) in the earlier series, hasn’t decided on his starter.
“We’re going to look at it again,” Murphy said. “Up at Arkansas, we used Charlotte Morgan and Amanda Locke and Lauren Sewell, so they have not seen Kelsi Dunne yet.”
Sewell is 9-1 with a 2.33 ERA in 23 appearances, while Morgan (7-2, 3.42) and Locke (5-2, 3.00) have each pitched in at least 16 games.
The other first-round games are No. 3 seed LSU vs. No. 6 Kentucky at 11 a.m., No. 2 Florida vs. No. 7 Auburn at 1:30 p.m. and No. 4 Georgia vs. No. 5 Tennessee at 4 p.m.
SEC Tournament At Bogle Park, Fayetteville THURSDAY’S GAMES Game 1 LSU vs. Kentucky, 11 a.m.
Game 2 Florida vs. Auburn, 1:30 p.m.
Game 3 Georgia vs. Tennessee, 4 p.m.
Game 4 Alabama vs. Arkansas, 6:30 p.m.
FRIDAY’S GAMES Game 5 Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 2 p.m.
Game 6 Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 4:30 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAME Championship Game 7 Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 6:30 p.m.
Sports, Pages 14 on 05/12/2010