FAYETTEVILLE - If Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn knew in February the Razorbacks would be 17-9 in SEC play going into the final regular-season series at Auburn this week, he’d have figured they had a good shot to win the conference championship.
Eleven times in the previous 21 seasons, 20 victories has been enough to win the SEC title outright or share it.
Last year LSU won the SEC championship with a 19-11 record.
“I thought 20 would win it,” Van Horn said Tuesday. “I thought 20 might win it by a game or two because I thought everybody would just beat up on each other.
“I thought if we had 17 going into the last weekend, we’d be in a position where if we won two out of three or sweep maybe, to get a piece of that anyway. It just didn’t happen.”
SEC teams have done their share of knocking each other off with 11 teams having between 10 and 19 conference losses, but Vanderbilt and LSU have been dominant.
Vanderbilt (24-2 in SEC play) already has clinched the title and has a chance to set a record for most victories since the conference’s first round of expansion in 1992 when Arkansas and South Carolina became members.
The Commodores had a game at South Carolina rained out, but if they win two of three games against Alabama this week they’ll surpass the record set by the Gamecocks’ 2005 team that finished 25-5 in SEC play.
“Obviously, what Vandy’s done is incredible,” said Van Horn, whose Razorbacks haven’t played Vanderbilt. “Even good teams are going to get beat every now and then. Five or six or seven times, just because it happens.”
It hasn’t happened to LSU (21-6), either. The Tigers clinched the SEC West title last weekend by taking two of three games at Texas A&M.
While the Razorbacks (34-17), ranked No. 11 by Baseball America, can’t win an SEC overall or division title and already have clinched a firstround bye in next week’s SEC Tournament, they still have a lot to play for against Auburn (31-20, 11-16) when the series starts Thursday night.
Arkansas needs to win one more game against Auburn than South Carolina (16-10 in the SEC) wins at Mississippi State for the Razorbacks to hold onto the the No. 3 seed.
After next Tuesday’s first round games at the SEC Tournament, the No. 3 seed plays Wednesday’s opener at 9:30 a.m. The No. 4 seed plays the last game, which likely wouldn’t start before 7:30 p.m. and could be much later depending on the weather and length of the first three games.
Arkansas holds a tiebreaker for the No. 3 seed over South Carolina because the Razorbacks swept a three-game series from the Gamecocks.
“It’s early, but at least you know what time it is,” Van Horn said of playing at 9:30 a.m. “If you play the last game, you don’t know what time you’re going to play.
“We’re going to try and make sure we’re playing in that (early) game. If you win, or you lose, you’ve got the rest of the day to recover, get your mind right and get ready for the next day.”
The Razorbacks also hope winning the Auburn series will boost their Ratings Percentage Index - a formula based on victories and losses and strength of schedule the NCAA uses to rank teams - and increase their chances of being one of 16 regional host sites.
Arkansas’ RPI fell from No. 39 to No. 44 this week after the Razorbacks took two of three games at home against Tennessee. Auburn has risen to No. 28 from No. 50 in the RPI after taking two of three games at Florida.
“We want to put ourselves in position to host a regional, because we know it would be really important to our fans,” Van Horn said. “For us personally, as a team, we just want to get in a regional.
“We feel like we can win here, and we feel like we can win on the road. It would be nice staying home.”
SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE CENTRAL ARKANSAS 16, TENNESSEE-MARTIN 4
UCA hit a season-high four home runs and had two six-run innings Tuesday in a 16-4 victory over Tennessee-Martin at Skyhawk Field in Martin, Tenn.
The Bears scored 16 runs against the Skyhawks for the second time in less than a month. UCA won 16-8 in Conway on April 23.
The Skyhawks (10-38) led 3-0 in the bottom of the first, but the Bears (34-16) scored a run in the second on Kraig Kelley’s RBI single, then pushed across six in the third. Senior second baseman Blake Marchal hit his third home run of the season, a two-run shot to right center, and junior first baseman Doug Votolato added another two-run blast.
The Bears scored six more in the fifth to put the game out of reach. UCA had just two hits but took advantage of two Tennessee-Martin errors in the inning. All day hit a two-run home run to right and junior Logan Moon added a three run double to the gap in right center for a 14-3 advantage.
Sports, Pages 19 on 05/15/2013