FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas’ baseball team is packing plenty of confidence for its road trip to Kentucky this weekend.
“I don’t think playing on the road bothers us one bit,” Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn said. “There are some teams that they just don’t like it for one reason or another.”
Arkansas isn’t one of those teams.
The No. 14 Razorbacks (30-15, 13-7 SEC) are a solid 6-6 in conference games at Baum Stadium, but it’s away from home where they are excelling.
Arkansas is 7-1 in conference road games, including a three-game sweep at No. 15 South Carolina. The Razorbacks also took 2 of 3 at Alabama and swept two games at Georgia last weekend before the third was rained out.
“When we go on the road we have the mind-set that we’re there to beat somebody,” Arkansas freshman right fielder Tyler Spoon said. “We’re locked in.
“It kind of started off at South Carolina. We went there with a purpose. We were going to beat them and we knew it.”
Arkansas went 0-4 in its first four games away from home, losing to No. 8 Arizona State twice as well as Gonzaga and Pacific in a tournament at Surprise, Ariz.
Rolling on the Road
Arkansas' .875 winning percentage in SEC road games is the second best among the conference's 14 teams. Here is each team's record in SEC road games:
Team: Winning Percentage, Record
Vanderbilt: .889, 8-1
Arkansas: .875, 7-1
LSU: .750, 9-3
South Carolina: .583, 7-5
Alabama: .555, 5-4
Ole Miss: .555, 5-4
Florida: .444, 4-5
Mississippi State: .417, 5-7
Auburn: .333, 4-8
Tennessee: .333, 4-8
Missouri: .333, 3-6
Texas A&M: .272, 3-8
Georgia .222, 2-7
Kentucky: .222, 2-7
“At the beginning of the year we started off bad in Arizona on the road, but this team’s tough,” Razorbacks junior catcher Jake Wise said. “It takes tough teams to win on the road. You’ve got to be comfortable with being uncomfortable with the environment.”
Van Horn noted there are fewer distractions when a team is away from home.
“I just think sometimes you get away from school and you get away from the ticket lists and worrying about this person or that person and just go from the hotel to the game and you get loose and you go out and go play,” he said. “Sometimes it’s a little bit easier.
“There are some tough venues in this league to beat somebody in, but if you play well, you can take the crowd out of it.”
The only SEC team with a higher road winning percentage in conference games than Arkansas’ .875 is No. 2 Vanderbilt, which is 8-1 for an .889 clip. No. 3 LSU is 9-3 (.760).
“We’re going into somebody else’s park and trying to ruin their home stand,” Razorbacks junior closer Colby Suggs said. “I feel like that’s something we really pride ourselves on, is taking it to people at their own place.”
Ten of the SEC’s 14 teams have five or fewer conference road victories. Kentucky, ranked No. 23, and Georgia have the SEC’s worst road records at 2-7, though the Bulldogs are the only conference team to win at Vanderbilt.
Kentucky (26-17, 9-12 SEC) is 16-7 at home, including 4-5 in SEC play. Tennessee is 3-8 in SEC road games but went 2-1 at Kentucky.
The Wildcats got a series victory at No. 24 Ole Miss last weekend when they took 2 of 3 games.
“I think they’re a lot better than their SEC record,” Van Horn said of the Wildcats. “They’ve played a tough schedule. They just won a series on the road, which was huge for them, and now they have got a couple of series in a row at home.
“Their pitchers are experienced for the most part. They’ve got some power in the middle and some guys that can run at the top and the bottom, and they beat us 2 out of 3 here last year. I remember they got pretty excited about it, celebrating on our field.”
The Razorbacks have gotten used to celebrating on other SEC team’s fields, too. Several players credited the road success last year - when Arkansas won an NCAA regional at Rice and a super regional at Baylor - with carrying over into this season.
“I think a lot of veteran leadership on this team really helps,” Arkansas junior first baseman Dominic Ficociello said. “Last year playing at Baylor … that was one of the toughest environments playing against a real good team. We got through that and we won two out of three, and now I think going on the road really doesn’t faze us very much.
“I think we make a conscious effort to bring a little extra energy when we’re on the road.”
The Razorbacks are 8-7 in nonconference games, including 0-6 outside of Arkansas. They suffered a doubleheader sweep at Nebraska on April 16 when they were no-hit in the first game.
“Midweek games, I think we kind of let up a little bit,” said junior pitcher Barrett Astin, a team captain who will start Friday night’s opener at Kentucky. “Some of it has to come back on us captains. We’re not getting our team motivated enough during the midweeks, and we’ve lost some games we shouldn’t have lost.
“But in the SEC, we know we have to bring it, and we bring it every day. It’s showing with our SEC record.”
Sports, Pages 15 on 05/02/2013