FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will play Liberty Friday night in the Charlottesville Regional. The Razorbacks are the two-seed, while the Flames are the three-seed. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the game will air nationally on ESPNU.
Virginia, the No. 3 overall seed, and Bucknell are the other two teams grouped with Arkansas.
Here are some notes about the Regional…
More from WholeHogSports
http://www.wholehog…">Arkansas to Face Liberty in Virginia
http://www.wholehog…">5 Things to Know About Liberty
-Arkansas has never played Liberty. The Razorbacks are 1-2 all-time against teams from the Big South Conference, losing a series against Coastal Carolina in 1983.
-Missouri is Liberty's only common opponent with Arkansas. The Flames beat the Tigers 2-1 in an early season matchup, while the Razorbacks swept them to end the regular season.
-Arkansas won its only game against Bucknell, beating the Bison in the 2003 Austin Regional. The Razorbacks are 3-1 all-time against teams from the Patriot League (1-0 vs. Bucknell, 2-0 vs. Navy, 0-1 vs. Fordham).
-South Carolina is Bucknell's only common opponent with Arkansas. The Bison were swept by the Gamecocks to open up the season, losing all three games by double digits. The Razorbacks fared much better against South Carolina, taking two out of three games in Fayetteville.
-Bucknell's head coach, Scott Heather, pitched for the Razorbacks in 1997 and 1998. He was a student assistant in 1999, when the Razorbacks won the SEC regular season championship, and earned his degree from Arkansas in 2003.
-Arkansas also won its only game against Virginia, beating the Cavaliers 4-3 in 12 innings in the 2009 College World Series. The Razorbacks own a 11-5 record against ACC teams, including an 11-4 record in the postseason.
-Virginia and Arkansas did not play any common opponents this year, but the Cavaliers did play Kentucky to open up the season. The Wildcats won the game 8-3 at a neutral site.
-This will be a rare trip east for the Razorbacks. Arkansas is 34-14 in non conference games played in the eastern timezone. In the postseason, its record is an impressive 15-2, with the only two losses coming in the 2002 Super Regionals when Clemson took two of three from the Razorbacks. Arkansas has never played a game in the state of Virginia.
-Against the five SEC teams in the eastern timezone - Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee - the Razorbacks are 63-68 on the road, a winning percentage of .481. That's better than their winning percentage on the road against the other eight SEC teams (.423).
-Charlottesville, Va., will be the 15th different city Arkansas has traveled to for a Regional. It is the fourth-longest distance traveled by the Razorbacks for a Regional, behind only 2011 (Tempe, Ariz.), 1989 (Waterbury, Conn.) and 2008 (Palo Alto, Calif.).
-Of the 16 two-seeds, Arkansas has the fifth-longest travel to its Regional. Charlottesville is 1,074 miles from Fayetteville. Only Texas Tech (1,710 miles to Coral Gables, Fla.), Long Beach State (2,409 miles to Gainesville, Fla.), Oregon (2,418 miles to Nashville) and Washington (2,498 miles to Oxford, Miss.) have a longer distance to travel for the Regionals.
-Of the three visiting teams in the Charlottesville Regional, Arkansas will have to travel the furthest. Four-seed Bucknell must travel 301 miles, while three-seed Liberty must travel only 68 miles (just over an hour-long drive).