Turns out the Arkansas Razorbacks weren’t the most teetering on the bubble of the bubble teams, but the Hogs may well be the bubbliest team at being included in the 64-team NCAA Baseball Tournament announced Monday. The Razorbacks finished the regular season 34-22 overall but only 14-15 in the SEC and a rained out half-game out of being included in the now concluded 8-team SEC Tournament, but they are in one of the 16 four-team, double-elimination Regionals as the third seed of Stanford Regional starting Friday in Palo Alto, Calif.

The Razorbacks are slated to open against second-seed Pepperdine (36-19 ) of Malibu, Calif. and the West Coast Conference runnerup at 3 p. m. (CST ) Friday.

Host team and top-seed Stanford (33-21 ), the Pac 10 runnerup, plays fourthseeded University of CaliforniaDavis (34-22 ) of the Big West. Winner’s bracket and loser’s bracket games are scheduled Saturday with a loser’s bracket final Sunday afternoon and a championship game Sunday and, if necessary, a winner-take-all championship game Monday to advance to the following weekend’s Super Regionals. Game times for the rest of the weekend are set for 3 p. m. and 7 p. m. (CST )

The eight Super Regional winners comprise the field playing for the national championship at the College World Series in Omaha.

Arkansas participates in its seventh straight Regional, six straight under Coach Dave Van Horn, but harbored real fears that a losing SEC record, including closing the SEC season losing 2 of 3 at last-place Mississippi State, and not making the SEC Tournament would cause the NCAA Selection Committee to look elsewhere. In its favor, Arkansas ’ national RPI’s (ratings power index ) ranged from 28 (last officially measured by the NCAA On May 20 ) to 34 ) against a powerful schedule and winning 8 of its last 10 games including sweeping then 17 th-ranked South Carolina. “ We didn’t know what we were going to get, ” Van Horn said Monday of assembling his team in the Baum Stadium clubhouse to watch the selection show on ESPN. “ Were we coming to a party or a funeral ?”

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Junior third baseman Logan Forsythe, the Razorbacks’ lone All-SEC player, said all the week’s rumors and conjecture flashed in his mind then bubbled over with joy as the selection show unfolded. “ We are in, ” Forsythe said. “ We are not - it’s been crazy. Our heart, everybody’s hearts, it’s been pounding. Everybody was on the edge of the seat when it came on — and when our name got called - everybody erupted ! We still want to play. We are not done playing !” Razorback pitcher Justin Wells, the Bryant native and JC transfer from Texarkana College, said he never heard a word of the ESPN announcement. “ We saw our name come up, and I didn’t even hear what else they had to say about it I was so excited, ” Wells said. “ We feel after all the injuries and stuff we deserve to be there. We have been playing great baseball. Sweeping South Carolina. We lost 2 of 3 at Mississippi State but they were 1-run ballgames that I felt we could have easily won. ” The Hogs need not apologize or be defensive. They obviously were not the last team the NCAA Selection Committee took at large given Oklahoma, 34-24 and 9-17 in the Big 12, is included in the Tempe Regional hosted by Arizona State.

The Big 12 ’s prestige helped Oklahoma just as SEC prestige, nine SEC teams were taken including national top eight seeds for SEC Overall champion Georgia and SEC West champion LSU, helped Arkansas. Many things factored on Arkansas’ behalf, Larry Templeton, the retiring Mississippi State athletic director and head of the 2008 NCAA Division I Baseball Selection Committee, said.

“ I don’t think there was one thing that got Arkansas in, ” Templeton said. “ I think their RPI was way in there in the middle of the field. The committee certainly understood that Arkansas was a rainout away from being the seventh seeded team in the Southeastern Conference Tournament and we weren’t going to hold that against them not being in the tournament. That’s not one of our criteria. We judgethem on the merit of their season and they played Arizona State, played Nebraska, stepped up and played Oral Roberts and as well as what we considered a very tough conference schedule. ”

Van Horn paid homage to the committee for paying attention to Arkansas ’ schedule. “ The NCAA Committee could have thrown us out early, ” Van Horn said. “ But they stuck with us. The RPI matters. They respect you didn’t play a bunch of patsies. ”