Arkansas
Arkansas wins ugly to extend season; now need just one more to make history
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Over the past 56 games, Arkansas’ season is filled with plenty of different pretty moments.
Three of the program’s 17 no-hitters came within the last three months. Twenty-three run-rule victories is a program record for a season that shattered the old record of 16 (2014).
In an elimination game, none of it was pretty. Lefty starter Payton Burnham was throwing up just hours before she took the mound to spin a complete game shutout.
Although she retired the final 14 hitters, she had to strand a runner on base in each of the first three innings in a 2-0 game.
Burnham had her Jordan flu game moment, battling an illness over the past 36 hours.
“ Resting [and] recovering,” Burnham said. “Just trying to get back to at least 80% as fast as possible.”
The Arkansas offense, ranked eighth in runs in the NCAA that averaged nearly eight runs a game, was held to just six hits on four runs.
All the runs were aided by less than stellar Ole Miss defense.
The two runs in the first came without the ball ever leaving the infield. The two runs in the fifth came directly as a result of a pair of errors.
“It doesn’t matter what it looks like,” coach Courtney Deifel. “Tonight it was a phenomenal performance on defense and our hitters did enough, and that’s really all that matters.”
In a season of pretty wins, historical moments and beauty prizes of offensive brilliance, it was perhaps the most ugly duckling of them all that extended its season an extra day.
“ She wants the ball,” Deifel said about Burnham. “She wants the moment. If you’re gonna be a pitcher, you have to want that. It takes a special breed to do that. She thrives in it, and she was just really excited to feel better.”
Now Arkansas finds themselves in the same position that they were nearly three years ago. The Hogs managed just five hits across seven innings in a decisive game three in 2022 against Texas.
Their season ended with a whimper, as the Longhorns took the ticket to Oklahoma City away from Deifel and the Razorbacks on their home field.
The Hogs look to avoid that same fate three years later, win and make program history.
“ I don’t know another team that would be able to do what they did yesterday,” Deifel said. “Just was incredibly proud of ’em.”
“For them to turn the page from yesterday and show up today and play loose with their backs against the wall, but never feeling that from them was really special.
“They know tomorrow’s about toughness. It’s gonna take a lot of guts, a lot of heart, and a lot of toughness. They’ll be ready.”
Ole Miss doesn’t have the same scar tissue, with the first game being the first Super Regional win in school history. It’s a one game shootout where the pressure cooker gets cranked up to another level.
“Having the ability to let go,” Ole Miss coach Jamie Trachsel said. “The great players, the elite players, they just do it faster than everybody else. We would have liked to win, we didn’t. Our team has done a pretty good job of flushing and moving on.”
First pitch between Ole Miss and Arkansas is scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.
Arkansas
Arkansas Governor joins national A.I. workforce initiative
LITTLE ROCK, AR (KATV) — Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has joined a new national artificial intelligence initiative that launched Thursday, June 25.
RAISE US, started by former Governor Eric Holcomb of Indiana and Gina Raimondo, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce is a nonpartisan national organization that will partner with governors, employers, workers and training organizations to help the workforce transition to an AI economy.
“As artificial intelligence transforms America’s economy, we have one clear message: technology should empower people, not replace them. By leveraging our Arkansas LAUNCH initiative, and with the resources and expertise provided by RAISE US, Arkansas will turn that mission into reality. We want the Natural State to be a leader on education, workforce training, and up-skilling, and this new partnership gives us the tools we need to build a model for the entire nation.”
The organization will design and pilot incentives to retrain workers, new approaches to support job transitions, and training models tied to employer demand.
RAISE US launches with more than two dozen American companies and philanthropies and initial state partnerships in Connecticut, Maryland and Utah.
“America has a technology strategy for leading the global AI competition. It does not yet have a people strategy — and we cannot lead without one,” Raimondo, who will serve as CEO of RAISE US, said.
“If we build the best AI systems in the world and leave millions of Americans behind, we won’t have won anything; we’ll have automated our own decline. I believe AI will create new jobs and industries over time, but the transition could be disruptive, and it’s already underway. We shouldn’t fearmonger, but we can’t pretend our training and worker support systems are ready either. It’s time for innovative and practical solutions. This moment demands ambition, urgency, and creativity. We’ve assembled the country’s top companies, best economists, and bipartisan governors at a scale rarely seen — all to advance new ideas and incentives, pilot them with governors and business, and scale what works.”
Governor Sanders is partnering with RAISE US to support Arkansas LAUNCH, an AI-powered career navigation platform that connects students and jobseekers to personalized learning and employer-linked career pathways.
Arkansas
Get to know: Arkansas DB commitment John Catlin | Whole Hog Sports
Arkansas
Arkansas basketball stars Meleek Thomas, Trevon Brazile selected in NBA Draft second round | Whole Hog Sports
-
Milwaukee, WI1 minute agoMilwaukee residents demand permanent fixes as city logs record pothole repairs
-
Atlanta, GA4 minutes ago
Seahawks Travel To Atlanta And Alabama For A Civil Rights Learning Tour
-
Minneapolis, MN9 minutes agoMinneapolis City Council approves 5-month pause on data center development
-
Indianapolis, IN16 minutes agoIndiana veteran completes 250-mile march for semiquincentennial
-
Pittsburg, PA19 minutes agoHoffmann family makes very good first impression: ‘You will win in Pittsburgh’
-
Augusta, GA24 minutes ago
Nancy H. Bowers Obituary Jun 24, 2026 – Platt’s Funeral Home
-
Washington, D.C31 minutes agoWatch: Americans visit Great American State Fair in Washington DC
-
Cleveland, OH34 minutes agoU.S. Marshals arrest suspect in murder of Northeast Ohio rapper