FAYETTEVILLE — Seven SEC baseball teams are ranked in the USA Today coaches’ top 25 poll led by No. 1 Tennessee (27-1) and No. 2 University of Arkansas (21-5).
Vols Coach Tony Vitello, a former Arkansas assistant, has led Tennessee to a school-record 19 consecutive victories since its only loss, 7-2 to Texas at Minute Maid Park in Houston on March 4.
The Vols, who have SEC series sweeps of South Carolina at home and on the road at Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, lead the conference in several categories, including a .325 batting average, 1.80 ERA, 69 home runs, a .433 on-base percentage, 181 walks and 48 stolen bases.
“Tennessee is so far ahead of everybody in every statistic, it’s amazing,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said Monday at the Swatters Club meeting. “They’re having an incredible year with super veteran position players, a veteran bullpen and really young starters.”
Van Horn said he has talked to Vitello and Vols assistant Josh Elander — a former volunteer assistant at Arkansas — a couple of times this season.
When Van Horn mentioned Vitello, it drew laughter from the crowd.
After the Razorbacks won 3-2 at Tennessee in last season’s series finale to take two of three games from the Vols in Knoxville, Tenn., Van Horn and Vitello got into a heated discussion.
“Yes, we still talk,” Van Horn said with a smile about himself and Vitello. “I broke the ice there. Waited about 10 days last year after the little incident.
“We’re all good, at least in my eyes. Life’s too short, right?”
At last season’s SEC Tournament, Van Horn and Vitello shook hands on the field between games on the day before Arkansas beat Tennessee 7-2 to win the championship.
Vitello said at the time that Van Horn is a mentor and simply wanted to congratulate him on a good series last season.
“I didn’t want to chat,” Vitello said during the SEC Tournament. “He was frustrated I didn’t, so he made a point to say it. That’s when I said something that really should be handled away from the field.
“So his reaction, I don’t think was out of line, and that’s what kind of stirred the attention.”
Arkansas and Tennessee aren’t scheduled to play this season.
Other SEC teams in the coaches’ poll are No. 8 Ole Miss (19-8), No. 10 Georgia (22-6), No. 12 Vanderbilt (20-7), No. 16 LSU (19-9) and No. 22 Florida (18-10).
Arkansas opens a series at Florida on Thursday night.
Texas, which will move to the SEC from the Big 12 Conference no later than 2026 for baseball, is ranked No. 6 and has a 21-9 record.
Hughes returning
Dick Hughes, who pitched at Arkansas in 1958, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the Razorbacks’ game against LSU on April 16.
According to Kevin Trainor, the Razorbacks’ baseball administrator, it will be Hughes’ first time in Fayetteville since the 1960s. Hughes retired to the south Arkansas city of Stephens in Ouachita County.
At the age of 29, major league players voted for Hughes as the National League Rookie of the Year in 1967. Baseball writers voted the New York Mets’ Tom Seaver NL Rookie of the Year.
Hughes was a starter on the St. Louis Cardinals, who won the World Series in seven games over the Boston Red Sox in 1967, his only full season in the major leagues.
Hughes was 16-6 with a 2.67 ERA and 161 strikeouts in 1967, and his .727 winning percentage was the best in the NL.
Hughes injured his rotator cuff in the spring of 1968 and retired from playing in 1969. He spent five more years as a coach or scout for the Cardinals.
Hughes was the first former Razorback baseball player to win a World Series. He is being brought back for a game in Fayetteville as part of a series of events that commemorate Arkansas’ 100th baseball season.
‘Getting better’
Arkansas is 7-2 in the SEC West to lead the division by two games over second-place Auburn, which is 5-4.
“I feel like we’re getting better,” Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn said. “We kind of like where we’re sitting right now, because we can be better.
“Some teams are probably as good as they’re going to get, and they’re going to go the other way. Some guys are going to run out of gas.
“We feel like we’ve paced our guys pretty good and that our best days are in front of us. The only issue is we play some really good teams coming up. So we know we’re going to win our share, and we’re going to lose a few.
“But the bottom line is we want to be really good at the end of May.”
Pro Hogs
Nine former Razorbacks are projected to be on Opening Day rosters when the major league season begins Thursday.
They are: pitchers Dallas Keuchel (White Sox), Drew Smyly (Cubs), Ryne Stanek (Astros), Jalen Beeks (Rays), Trevor Stephan (Guardians) and Zach Jackson (Athletics); catcher James McCann (Mets); outfielder Andrew Benintendi (Royals); and infielder Brian Anderson (Marlins).
Jackson, who pitched for the Razorbacks from 2014-16, has yet to make his big-league debut. Benintendi and Keuchel were Gold Glove Award winners last season.
Smyly, from Little Rock Central, became a free agent after he won a World Series with the Braves.
Good gloves
Arkansas leads the SEC and ranks fourth nationally with a .986 fielding percentage. The Razorbacks have 14 errors in 974 fielding chances in 26 games.
“That’s like big-league fielding,” Van Horn said. “We have an outstanding infield, good catching and a solid outfield. That’s one of the reasons we have the record we do.”
Day off?
Michael Turner, a graduate transfer from Kent State who has played in all 26 games for Arkansas with 25 starts, likely won’t be in the lineup when the Razorbacks play the University of Central Arkansas tonight.
Turner, who is batting .337 with 4 home runs and 27 runs batted in, has 19 starts at catcher, five at first base and one as a DH.
“He hasn’t had a day off,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “[Tonight] might be his day off.
“Normally I’ve been playing him at first [to get a break from catching], but I think I’ll bring him off the bench for a pinch hit or if we need him to catch at the end or whatever happens.”
Dylan Leach figures to make his seventh start at catcher for Arkansas.
Call explained
Dave Van Horn elaborated at the Swatters Club on a replay review that benefitted Mississippi State during the fifth inning of the Bulldogs’ 5-3 victory over the Razorbacks in 12 innings on Sunday.
With one out and the Bulldogs’ Brad Cumbest on first base, Lane Forsythe was initially ruled out on a line drive to center field.
Realizing the play might be reviewed, Arkansas players relayed the ball and touched second base as Cumbest retreated to first.
Following a replay review, crew chief Scott Cline awarded first base to Forsythe and second base to Cumbest. Cline, the second-base umpire Sunday, was also who incorrectly signaled the ball had been caught on a diving attempt by Arkansas center fielder Braydon Webb.
The application of the rule was correct, according to the NCAA rulebook, which states runners must advance one base when replay reverses the call of a catch to no catch.
“It’s a bad rule,” Van Horn said.
Van Horn came out of the dugout to argue the reversal with Cline.
“[The SEC office in] Birmingham told him, ‘No, he trapped it, put the runners at first and second, and have fun telling Coach Van Horn,’ ” Van Horn told the crowd. “Basically he told me what he told me, and I think he’s a really good umpire, but I basically told him, ‘You’re the one who messed up because you called him out and he wasn’t.’
“If he would have called it like it was … would that runner have started running back and we get a force at second? Because I think that’s what would have happened.”
The Bulldogs loaded the bases in the inning, but came away scoreless when Kamren James grounded into a double play that preserved a 2-2 tie.