FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks will take a five-game winning streak, a fresh national ranking and a hot run by their starting pitchers into an in-state showdown today against the University of Central Arkansas.
First pitch in the fifth game of the renewal of the in-state series is at 3 p.m. at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The strong winds that have buffeted Northwest Arkansas much of the last three days are supposed to calm down and be in the high single digits out of the north with a temperature of about 65 degrees by game time.
Arkansas (9-2), whose starting pitchers have gone eight consecutive games allowing one run or fewer, moved up two spots to No. 3 in Monday’s USA Today Coaches poll, the rankings of record for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Arkansas is No. 2 in the RPI rankings while UCA is No. 34.
The Bears (7-6), who lost their first two and last two games, went 7-2 in between, with the only losses at No. 2 LSU and at Memphis.
“I’m pleased with where we’re at,” UCA coach Nick Harlan said. “Out of the 13 games we’ve played our approach has been good outside maybe one or two. We’re excited about the opportunity against a really good team.”
Arkansas will start freshman left-hander Colin Fisher (2-1, 0.00 ERA), whose 3-hitter over 5 innings in his college debut against James Madison on Feb. 19 began the scintillating run by Hog starters. His pitch count today could be 70 or 80.
UCA has tabbed sophomore right-hander Bryce Parlin (0-1, 10.24), a Bentonville High product, for the start a short jaunt down I-49 from his home base.
“We’ll see how long we go with him,” Harlan said. “We have a lot of arms available. Some guys who haven’t thrown a ton of innings for us will be available and then we’ll have a few guys that we pitch on the weekends that we can run out there. So we’ll start with Parlin and see where that takes us.”
The Bears are 4-1 in one-run games, including a win over VMI and a loss at LSU on the first weekend of the season.
“They’ve played a lot of close games, and they’ve played some good people,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said of UCA. “They will fight you. They’re coming off a weekend series just like everybody else. They’re probably trying to figure out exactly how they’re going to handle their pitching.”
Arkansas starters have thrown 39 innings over the last eight games, allowing 15 hits and 8 walks with 70 strikeouts in that time frame.
The Razorbacks lead the nation with 163 strikeouts and with 14.8 strikeouts per nine innings, a blistering pace.
“Yeah, they’ve got a lot of good arms,” Harlan said.
“We know we’re going to have our hands full. It goes back to if we can be really good at our approach we’ll have a chance. But yeah, [Fisher] is a good arm. I think they’ve got a lot of good arms that are available out of the pen tomorrow that we have to be really disciplined with.”
The play of freshman second baseman Nolan Souza (.429) and would-be depth outfielders like Ross Lovich (.429) and Will Edmunson (.300) has given Van Horn a daily task for writing in his starting nine hitters.
Van Horn said normal second baseman Peyton Holt (.313) might get a start at third base today to rest Jared Sprague-Lott (.417, 1 HR, 6 RBI). Only right fielder Kendall Diggs (.375, 1, 8), first baseman Ben McLaughlin (.316, 0, 9) and shortstop Wehiwa Aloy (.200, 0, 4) have started all 11 games as a hitter. Left fielder Jayson Jones (.233, 2, 12) leads the team in RBI.
For UCA, center fielder Drew Sturgeon (.354, 3, 12), third baseman Bryce Cermenelli (.343, 0, 8) and designated hitter Jagger Schattle (.306, 0, 7) lead the offense.
The Bears are aiming to improve a team batting average of .251 but they’ve gotten on base aplenty through walks (67) and on hit by pitches (31), which is tied for fourth in the country.
“If you look at our stats, our free base to strikeout ratio is pretty good,” Harlan said. “Up until a couple of days ago we’ve been close to even. The key for us is to keep that difference close.
“I think the light bulb went on quick after the first weekend in terms of just a few things we needed to correct. That’s one thing about this team is they’re not afraid to confront issues that need to be confronted and make adjustments. They’re very mature in that way. That’s to their credit. We’re a very high character team.”
Van Horn gave a few injury updates during his monthly address to the Swatter’s Club, including the fact that right-hander reliever Dylan Carter of Bentonville has been cleared to pitch and could work up to an inning today. Van Horn said sophomore right-hander Ben Bybee, who contracted mononucleosis just after a hamstring issue, could be back next week.
Junior second baseman Peyton Stovall, who is recovering from a broken bone in his right foot, is taking batting practice off Arkansas pitchers with a screen in front of him. Van Horn said the hope is to have him back in action by the conference opener against Missouri on March 15.