FAYETTEVILLE — When it comes to winning weekends, nobody tops the University of Arkansas.
At least not in the past two years.
The No. 1 Razorbacks have not lost a weekend series against one opponent since the final regular-season set at Texas A&M on May 16-18, 2019.
Since then, the Razorbacks have handled their business on 15 consecutive weekends, with five series sweeps — including 4-0 sweeps of Gonzaga (2020) and Southeast Missouri State (2021) — and 10 where they won two of three games.
Ten of the winning series have been played at Baum-Walker Stadium, while five of them have been played on the road.
Arkansas (37-9, 17-7 SEC) will put that streak to the test against No. 5 Tennessee starting Friday at 5:30 p.m. Central in Knoxville, Tenn. The Volunteers (38-11, 17-7) are tied with the Hogs atop the SEC standings with six league games to play, a half-game ahead of Vanderbilt.
Tennessee has surged under fourth-year Coach Tony Vitello, the former UA assistant, and has lost only one series this season to No. 2 Vanderbilt on April 16-18 in Knoxville.
Arkansas’ string of series wins began with a wild NCAA Super Regional weekend against Ole Miss in 2019. The Razorbacks took the opener 11-2 behind a strong start from Isaiah Campbell, fell 13-5 in Game 2, then crunched the Rebels 14-1 in the decider.
The Rebels are the only team Arkansas has taken two series from during the streak. Every other SEC West team has fallen to the Razorbacks in the 15-series span, while South Carolina and Georgia are the only SEC East teams involved.
Not included in the weekend battles are a pair of tournaments played in Texas, which had vastly different results for the Razorbacks. Arkansas dropped consecutive games to Oklahoma (6-3), Texas (8-7) and Baylor (3-2) at the Shriners College Classic early last season, but swept No. 4 Texas Tech (13-9), No. 10 Texas (4-0) and No. 11 TCU (4-1) at the College Baseball Showdown to open this season.
The Volunteers will be the third top 5 road opponent for the Razorbacks this season, following an Arkansas sweep at No. 3 Mississippi State on March 26-28, and winning two out of three against No. 4 Ole Miss on April 10-11. Arkansas also won a road series at current No. 16 Louisiana Tech in its final weekend set before starting SEC play, and also a road series at then-No. 11 South Carolina on April 22-23.
After that series against the Gamecocks, Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said winning series after series is “really hard to do. You usually stub your toe, even if you’re a really good team and you’ve got great pitching.
“We have good pitching. We have a good bullpen. We have a pretty solid lineup that’ll fight you, but to win every series, it’s an accomplishment for sure. We don’t talk about it too much.”
Van Horn said he spoke to the Razorbacks after falling to South Carolina 6-2 in the first game of a doubleheader prior to the series rubber match.
“We talked after today’s first game and just said, ‘Hey, if we want to win this series, this is a big game right here. We need to out-tough them,’ ” Van Horn said. “That was really all that I’ve mentioned about winning series in the last few weeks.”
Van Horn touted his team’s mental and physical toughness after that series. The Razorbacks have had to be that way because they have faced more than their fair share of high-powered opposition.
Arkansas is 12-3 vs. the rest of the current top 25 of the USA Today coaches poll. They have six games remaining against top 10 opponents, as a three-game home series against No. 7 Florida awaits after the games at Tennessee’s Lindsey Nelson Stadium this weekend.
The Razorbacks are winning series despite having starting pitching questions throughout the year. Peyton Pallette, Zebulon Vermillion and Lael Lockhart have all come and gone from the weekend pitching plans, though Pallette has been back in them the past five weeks.
Caleb Bolden has made four weekend starts, including Sunday against Georgia and in Game 1 at South Carolina when the Razorbacks were coming off a shortened week.
For the third consecutive weekend, Van Horn and pitching coach Matt Hobbs are expected to list left-handed ace Patrick Wicklander (4-1, 1.69 ERA), the righty Pallette (1-2, 4.01) and “to be announced” as the Razorbacks’ rotation at Tennessee.
The possibilities for the third game are lengthy, with freshman Jaxon Wiggins (3-0, 4.40), Vermillion (2-0, 4.70), Lockhart (2-2, 4.81), Bolden (2-0, 4.88) and Connor Noland (1-0, 12.15) likely in the mix.
The Razorbacks have been consistent on the weekends, but not overpowering. For instance, the Georgia Bulldogs played Arkansas to an aggregate score of 11-10. They suffered a 3-0 shutout in the series opener Friday, then blew a 3-0 lead in a 5-3 loss to the Razorbacks in the rubber match Sunday.
“I think our team, they’ll fight you for 27 [outs], and if we’re within a few runs, we still have a good shot going into the last inning,” Van Horn said recently. “At least we feel like we do.”