FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas freshman Dominic Fletcher said he did what he had to do on the slide that toppled LSU second baseman Cole Freeman in the fourth inning of Sunday's championship game of the SEC Tournament in Hoover Ala.
Freeman landed on his head on the slide, which broke up a potential double play, and caused some LSU players to take exception and start a jawing match, which never escalated beyond words.
Fletcher said he and Freeman talked it out during the game, which LSU won 4-2.
"I talked to him after, when I hit a double in like the eighth inning," Fletcher said. "I told him there was pretty much no other option. I had to go straight in. The throw pulled him into the baseline, and there was nothing else I could do.
"I was just trying to be aggressive. I went in hard and whatever happens, happens."
During postgame interviews, Freeman said the slide was clean and Fletcher did what he was supposed to do.
LSU fans chanted, "Throw him out! Throw him out!" during a delay in the game as umpires huddled to discuss the play.
"It was pretty cool, honestly," Fletcher said. "I kind of felt like A-Rod [former major-leaguer Alex Rodriguez] when he was playing at Boston. It was pretty cool. I kind of enjoyed it, actually."
Fletcher said he was looking forward to the Razorbacks' series in Baton Rouge next season.
"I like a good rivalry like that," he said. "It'll definitely keep things interesting."
Same rotation
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Coach Dave Van Horn said he'll stay with the same pitching rotation this weekend in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional, with Trevor Stephan (5-3, 3.12 ERA) starting against Oral Roberts and Blaine Knight (8-4, 3.08) starting the Razorbacks' second game against either Missouri State or Oklahoma State.
Knight was the Razorbacks' No. 1 starter for much of the season, but had his spot pushed back a day beginning with the next-to-last SEC series against Vanderbilt because he was feeling arm fatigue.
"We're not going to change anything up," Van Horn said. "We're going to keep everybody at proper rest. We feel like both pitchers are No. 1s, and we're not going to switch."
Gimme Luke
Coach Dave Van Horn said Tuesday he would be happy to have Luke Bonfield at the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in a tight game as he was against LSU on Sunday. After LSU Coach Paul Mainieri elected to walk Chad Spanberger, the eventual SEC Tournament MVP, to load the bases in a 4-2 game, Bonfield hit a ground ball to shortstop for a force play.
"Two times this year they'd walked Chad to get to Luke, and he's made them play a couple of times," Van Horn said. "It didn't happen [Sunday].
"I told him after the game in front of the whole team, I said, 'Luke, when that opportunity comes again, you're the guy I want at the plate. You're the guy I wanted up there. I didn't happen for you to today. So move on. It's all good.' "
All-SEC snubs
Shortstop Jax Biggers, who went 10 for 20 (.500) at the SEC Tournament with a tournament-record three triples, and outfielder Eric Cole, who went 9 for 22 (.409) with 6 runs, 5 RBI and 2 home runs, were notable omissions from the All-Tournament team. Biggers led the tournament with his 10 hits.
"I think they were spreading it out or I don't know who was voting or they forgot about a couple of guys," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "But those were two all-tournament players right there.
"Jax made an error or two. One of them probably shouldn't have been an error. One of them was. Maybe the other shortstop fielded it clean all weekend but didn't swing the bat the same."
LSU shortstop Kramer Robertson was voted to the all-tournament team.
Arkansas second baseman Carson Shaddy said he thought his double play partner deserved better.
"I think that he kind of got snubbed," Shaddy said. "Biggers played great. He always does. When he needs to come up and help us out at the biggest times and the biggest moments, he always comes up.
"He's a great ball player, but he's not super worried about getting an individual award, even though I know he got snubbed."
Trot and run
Oral Roberts will bring a nice balance of power and speed into its NCAA regional game against Arkansas on Friday.
The Golden Eagles have hit 67 home runs and stolen 58 bases in 68 attempts this season.
"We feel like we're pretty athletic through most of our lineup, and we're able to start runners and move runners," Oral Roberts Coach Ryan Folmar said. "When you talk about putting teams together -- especially putting your offense together -- you want to be able to score in different ways if you need to. We've been able to hit some balls out of the ballpark, but we've been able to run a little bit, too. We've been able to bunt. We can play a lot of different ways at different times."
Three-HR group
Chad Spanberger's three home runs in Arkansas' 12-0 mercy rule rout of Auburn last Thursday put him in select company for the Razorbacks.
The other Arkansas players with three home runs in a game are Tim Smalling (2008), Aaron Murphree (2008), Danny Hamblin (2005), Rodney Nye (1999), Ryan Lunquist (1997), Scott Epps (1992), Kevin McReynolds (1980) and Greg Snowden (1974).
Sports on 05/31/2017