FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas first baseman Chad Spanberger impressed more than just the fans, teammates and coaches on his way to winning the Most Valuable Player honors during last week's Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Spanberger, who finished 8 for 19 with five home runs — including a three-homer performance in one game and two more in another — even had a brief conversation with one umpire during one of his team's five tournament games.
"What are you doing?" the umpire asked, according to Spanberger. "Are you even conscious right now hitting?"
The 6-foot-3, 235-pound Spanberger, who will lead Arkansas (42-17) as a regional host to open this weekend's NCAA Tournament, quickly came up with the only answer he could to sum up his breakout performance.
"I don't know what's happening," he said.
What has, in fact, been happening in Fayetteville throughout the season has been nothing short of a power surge by more than just Spanberger. The Razorbacks, who finished as the runner-up at last weekend's tournament, lead the SEC and are 11th in the country with 80 homers runs this season.
That is the most for the Razorbacks since they hit 92 during the 2010 season, and it's been driven by the memory of last season's disappointment — when the school missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in coach Dave Van Horn's first 14 seasons. Arkansas finished 26-29 last year, the first losing season in Van Horn's first 28 seasons as a head coach.
This year, the Razorbacks opened the season by going 14-4 in nonconference play and then continuing their season-long rebound with an 18-11 mark in the SEC.
"We kept it with us," starting pitcher Blaine Knight said. "That wasn't any fun at all. We carry it with us in the back of our minds, and we're playing to keep that from happening (again)."
As good as the Razorbacks have been all season, ranking third in the SEC with an average of 6.7 runs scored per game, they were even better during their five games last week. They averaged 8.4 runs per game during the tournament, highlighted by run-rule shortened wins over Auburn and Florida .
Spanberger hit an tournament-record three home runs in the win over the Tigers and two more in his first two at-bats against the Gators.
The junior finished with 10 RBI in the tournament, and he's now hitting .305 with a team-high 19 home runs and 64 RBI for the season — giving Arkansas its most nationally recognized name since current Boston Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi led the Razorbacks to the College World Series two years ago.
Like Benintendi, Spanberger figures to draw the attention of Major League Baseball teams in June's draft. It's something Spanberger is doing his best to keep out of his mind for now, preferring to focus on matching his former teammate's run to Omaha.
As for Van Horn, he's doing his best to stay out of the way of the hot-hitting Spanberger — believing the first baseman won't try and do too much at the plate following last week's success.
"I don't know if we really need to talk to him too much about that," Van Horn said. "I think he's pretty level headed and he's had a really solid year. It's not like it came out of nowhere."