FAYETTEVILLE — A reduction in wardrobe has not hampered Arkansas this postseason.
The Razorbacks are 6-1 since a laundry no-no three weeks ago left them with only two uniform combinations - the home cream jerseys they wore for Saturday's 9-3 win over South Carolina and the road grays they will sport Sunday with a trip to the College World Series on the line.
Arkansas' red and white jerseys were inadvertently washed together by a Georgia equipment manager during the Razorbacks' series there in mid-May. The "honest mistake," as one Arkansas spokesperson called it, turned the Hogs' school-color jerseys pink.
It is a common courtesy for visiting teams to have their jerseys washed in a home team's industrial washers during long road trips. Arkansas' series at Georgia was part of a 12-day trip that included the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.
"We're all like, 'Oh my gosh, how did that happen?'" outfielder Heston Kjerstad said. "We were all wondering, man, they do laundry all the time and they have red jerseys, too - how's that happen?"
Upon learning of the error, Arkansas' equipment manager packed up the team's cream jerseys and drove them more than eight hours to Hoover so the team would have two uniform combinations for their games at the SEC Tournament.
A team spokesperson said it was impossible to get so many jerseys made again in such short order, so the Razorbacks are wearing the creams and the grays throughout the postseason. A superstitious bunch, Arkansas' baseball players don't mind.
Arkansas is 9-1 this season in the creams, which are typically worn for Sunday home games. In the postseason Arkansas has defeated South Carolina (13-8 and 9-3), Oral Roberts (10-2) and Dallas Baptist (4-3), and lost to LSU (2-1) wearing the creams.
And after struggling on the road grays all season, the Razorbacks are 2-0 in that jersey this postseason, with big wins over Florida (8-2) in Hoover and Southern Miss (10-2) last week in the Fayetteville Regional.
"Hopefully it's a good trend going," outfielder Eric Cole said.
As for their own laundry, several Arkansas players said they were taught not to mix red and white in the washing machine, but not all follow that advice.
"I just throw them all together and wash it on cold so they don't blend," third baseman Casey Martin said.