FAYETTEVILLE — This was always the stretch circled on the Arkansas baseball calendar. Six straight weekend series to close the regular season against teams all ranked inside the top-15 of the USA TODAY Coaches Preseason Poll were going to make-or-break the Hogs’ chances at an SEC title.
The No. 4 Razorbacks (36-7) slipped a bit through the first two series of this grueling finish. Thanks to inconsistent pitching from its starting rotation, Arkansas lost back-to-back series against Georgia and Texas A&M, which is currently unranked but began the spring as the No. 1 team in the country.
“There’s no panic in this dugout,” Arkansas freshman Gabe Fraser said after Tuesday’s 10-0 win over Little Rock. “This team knows what we’re capable of and everyone has each other’s back, and there is not a doubt in our minds that at the end of the season we’re not going to be competing for something.”
Instead of panicking, Head coach Dave Van Horn wants his team to find the opposite end of the spectrum. This run of elite competition is why recruits come to play in the SEC. Arkansas isn’t planning on shying away from the moment.
“You’ve got to embrace it. When the computer spit out the schedule and that’s who we get to play the last six series, we were going. ‘Whoa baby, that’s a pretty good run there,'” Van Horn said.
“I just told our team you just need to feel it’s a blessing that we get to play these other people and win as many as you can and we’re not going to get too uptight about it.”
A similar challenge to Texas A&M awaits this weekend.
The Hogs hit the road to face a Florida program that has reached the College World Series six times in the last nine seasons. The Gators were No. 10 in the 2025 preseason poll, but a slow start to the year has them now fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives.
Florida got swept by Vanderbilt earlier this month, but that low point seemingly turned the tide on the Gators’ season. Since then, they’re 8-1 with a midweek victory over No. 7 Florida State, a sweep over Missouri and most recently road series win against Mississippi State.
The triumph over the Bulldogs showed why the Gators were so highly-regarded entering the season. They averaged 10.7 runs across three games and received a strong Friday night start from Liam Peterson. Hitters like Colby Shelton, Luke Heyman and Brody Donay were key contributors to last year’s run to Omaha.
And the College World Series is on the mind of the Hogs as they continue this SEC gauntlet. Van Horn knows the conference is the best preparation for a run to Omaha, where the last five national champions have all hailed from the SEC.
His players are buying into the mindset of embracing the late-season obstacles.
“It allows us to get challenged and see where we’re lacking in some stuff,” third baseman Brent Iredale said. “It’s always good to go through your up and downs through the middle of the season. I mean, I think we’re in a good spot.”
Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jfuller@gannett.com or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas baseball embracing grueling SEC finish to regular season
