Arkansas is ailing but feeling good about move to top of SEC

Arkansas has had as unhealthy a run of accidents as Dave Van Horn has seen in his 21 years as coach.

But right here the Razorbacks are, ranked as excessive as No. 3 within the polls and tied with Vanderbilt for first place within the Southeastern Convention.

Arkansas (36-12, 17-7) adopted a house sweep of Texas A&M with a highway sweep of Mississippi State this previous weekend. The Razorbacks are a half recreation up on LSU within the West Division.

“Yeah, the workforce is sort of unreal, to be trustworthy with you,” Van Horn mentioned. “They present up daily to play and so they suppose they’ll win. They did it this weekend. Clearly, we’re all joyful the place we’re.”

The Razorbacks’ well being issues surfaced per week earlier than opening day when it was introduced No. 1 pitcher Jaxon Wiggins would have Tommy John surgical procedure and miss the season.

Koty Frank went out in early March with a again muscle harm, Brady Tygart missed eight weeks with an elbow drawback, and final week Van Horn introduced Dylan Carter would endure Tommy John surgical procedure.

Left fielder Jared Wegner (damaged thumb) has been out since April 11, middle fielder Tavian Josenberger (hamstring) since April 22 and second baseman Peyton Stovall since April 29.

Peyton Holt has taken over at second, Jace Bohrofen has moved from proper to middle, Kendall Diggs has been taking part in proper after being the designated hitter, and Mason Neville and Hunter Grimes have cut up time in left.

“We’ve got quite a lot of proficient children on the workforce,” Bohrofen mentioned. “It’s not simply us combating accidents. I do know another groups are banged up. How the fellows who come off the bench, it’s what they do whenever you don’t have your starters on the market, and I feel we’ve executed a very good job of contributing, stacking high quality at-bats and having high quality outings on the employees as nicely.”

The Razorbacks host South Carolina this weekend and finish the common season at Vanderbilt.

IN THE POLLS

Wake Forest (39-7), which gained two of three in opposition to nationally ranked Boston Faculty and has gained all eight of its Atlantic Coast Convention collection, overtook LSU atop the polls after the Tigers misplaced two of three to Auburn.

The Demon Deacons have outscored convention opponents 155-77 in 23 video games and, at 18-5, lead Duke by 4 video games for greatest total league report.

LSU (37-10), now the consensus No. 2 workforce, bought a career-high 15 strikeouts from Paul Skenes in its 3-0 win at Auburn on Friday, however the Tigers got here again to win 8-6 and 12-2 in an eight-inning recreation ended on the mercy rule.

D1Baseball.com and Collegiate Baseball newspaper rank Arkansas third. Vanderbilt (34-13) is No. 3 by Baseball America.

TIDE ROLLS ON

Alabama’s collection win over Vanderbilt at residence was the Crimson Tide’s first over a top-five opponent in nearly a 12 months and got here within the wake of the playing scandal that price coach Brad Bohannon his job final Thursday.

Catcher Mac Guscette, who collapsed on the sphere at LSU final week after getting hit within the neck by a wild pitch, hit a tiebreaking, eighth-inning homer in Sunday’s 2-1 series-clinching victory. The sport drew a sellout crowd of 5,800 and ended what interim coach Jason Jackson known as an emotional week.

“I do know our followers and all of ‘Bama Nation are going to be behind these guys proper now,” Jackson mentioned. “And imagine me, they adore it and so they feed off it, so preserve it coming.”

STANFORD SWEEP

Stanford moved again into the highest 5 of the polls after a sweep at Arizona State. Tommy Troy homered in all three video games and Alberto Rios related twice Friday and as soon as Sunday because the Cardinal moved 3 1/2 video games forward of Solar Devils within the Pac-12.

AROUND THE HORN

California homered 12 instances in three video games whereas sweeping UCLA on the highway for the primary time since 1991. … Florida sustained a crushing collection loss at Texas A&M when Travis Chestnut scored on Brandon Neely’s balk within the backside of the ninth inning to provide the Aggies a 3-2 win. … Nolan Schubart hit two grand slams and homered a 3rd time to complete with 10 RBIs in Oklahoma State’s 20-7 run-rule win over East Tennessee State on Sunday. ETSU’s Cameron Sisneros additionally homered thrice within the recreation and completed the three-game collection with 5. … Mississippi’s Calvin Harris set a faculty report with 4 residence runs in a 20-12 win over Missouri on Saturday.