FAYETTEVILLE — The No. 4 University of Arkansas baseball team (36-7, 13-5 SEC) seeks to make up ground in the SEC standings this weekend in a three-game road series at Florida (28-15, 6-12).
The Razorbacks currently sit in second place in the SEC, three games behind No. 1 Texas (34-5, 16-2), which will come to Fayetteville for three games starting on May 1. This weekend, the Longhorns will host Texas A&M, which just beat the Hogs in a series 2-1 — their first SEC home series loss in nearly three years.
“Hot weather,” Arkansas infielder and Australian Brent Iredale said Wednesday of what he expects. “I was in Florida before I went to my junior college and it was very humid. It rained basically every afternoon, but I know it gets warm and sweaty down there, so I’ve gotta take a bunch of batting gloves with me.”
The Gators, ranked No. 10 in the preseason, have heavily underachieved. They’ve been swept three times, on the road at now-No. 6 Tennessee and at home by No. 9 Georgia and No. 10 Vanderbilt. Florida is 5-1 in its past six conference games, taking its turn of sweeping an 0-18 Missouri team and beating Mississippi State in a road series.
“It’s going to be a major challenge,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “It’s one of the games before the season started, we were like, ‘Wow this stretch is going to be amazing, starting with going to Georgia Week 5.’ … Then coming home and playing A&M. You think A&M is struggling a little bit, and they have, but they’ve been playing really well the past three weeks. Now you look at Florida, they’d won seven or eight in a row.”
After getting swept by Vanderbilt right before the 5-1 SEC stretch,
the Gators were able to secure another midweek win over ACC rival No. 7 Florida State, 5-4. The Gators beat the Seminoles at their home ballpark 7-2 on March 11, then lost 8-4 at a neutral site March 25, but secured the stretched-out series win over a month on April 8. Now that Florida has been able to generate a better stretch of play, the Razorbacks are the real prize.
The Hogs will be looking to regroup after back-to-back series losses at Georgia and at home to Texas A&M. They have not won a series in Gainesville, Fla., since 2012, losing two-out-of-three games in all three of their most recent trips. The 13-year series drought at Florida is the longest active streak for Arkansas out of any of its SEC opponents. The Hogs are looking to pick up possible easier wins before they host Texas and Tennessee — while visiting No. 5 LSU — to close out the SEC slate.
“What we’re trying to do is get everybody healthy, and I told them, ‘Yeah, you’ve got to embrace it.'” Van Horn said. “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.’ You never know how it’s going to go. The other team might be really good as well.”
Arkansas’ pitching rotation is slated to be the same as the Texas A&M series. Left-handers Zach Root and Landon Beidelschies will continue to throw the first and third games, respectively, with newly healthy right-hander Gage Wood throwing Game 2. Wood got crushed in his return outing against A&M on April 18 and was pulled after lasting just one out, getting charged with three earned runs. Van Horn said Wood was going to throw one inning against the Aggies and be done. It’s uncertain how far Wood can go in Florida.
His counterpart, Florida freshman Aidan King, has showcased a brilliant outing or two but most recently got shelled at Mississippi State, allowing six runs in just over four innings. The Gators have not announced a Sunday starter
Junior Colby Shelton is the bat in the lineup to keep an eye on, who has put up 10 multi-hit performances over his past 16 starts. His .376 batting average is ranked fourth in the SEC.
“We know what we’re going into,” Van Horn said. “See if we can handle it.”
First pitch will be at 5:30 p.m. Central on Friday from Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville. The series opener will be streamed on SEC Network-Plus.
