COLLEGE STATION, Texas — A baseball championship will be on the line when Arkansas ends the regular season at Texas A&M.
The Razorbacks have heard that before.
Thirty-five years ago Arkansas went to College Station one game ahead of Texas A&M in the Southwest Conference standings. The Razorbacks won the first game 11-9 in 16 innings to claim a share of their first SWC crown, but split the SWC title with the Aggies who swept a Saturday doubleheader.
Five years ago Arkansas went 1-2 at Texas A&M on the final weekend. The Razorbacks did not know they had won the SEC West title until well after their final game had ended, when Mississippi State lost to South Carolina to create a split championship.
Barring something unforeseen, there will be no split title this year, at least not in the SEC West. Second-ranked Arkansas (42-10, 19-8 SEC) enters the series with a two-game lead over fourth-ranked Texas A&M (42-10, 17-10) in the standings.
If the Razorbacks win once, they will win their fifth division title in six seasons dating to 2018. The Aggies must sweep to win the division for the second time in three seasons.
“It makes it a little more interesting, I guess,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “It’s the two teams at the top playing each other the last day.”
Given the West has produced the past three national champions, those division titles tend to mean a little something extra.
“This is the big leagues of college baseball,” Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said.
Both teams are also alive in the conference title race.
The Razorbacks are one game behind Kentucky and tied with Tennessee for second in the SEC. Arkansas has won two of the past three conference championships, including last season when the Razorbacks split with Florida.
The Aggies are three games back of first place and must sweep Arkansas, then hope for upsets elsewhere on the leaderboard to share the conference crown.
Van Horn said he hasn’t spoken to the team about title contention.
“We’re just going to go play,” Van Horn said. “Obviously we want to win the series. That’s our goal at a minimum…and then let the chips fall where they may.”
Arkansas could celebrate in College Station similar to the 1989 team that won one of the most memorable games in program history. The 16-inning victory over the Aggies lasted 5 hours, 57 minutes — time-wise the longest game in SWC history.
“I was looking for aspirin tablets in the 11th inning,” then-Arkansas coach Norm DeBriyn told the Arkansas Democrat following the game. “I never found any.”
Texas A&M matched Arkansas scores in the top of the ninth and 14th innings to extend the game.
The Razorbacks went ahead for good when Greg D’Alexander hit a two-run bloop double in the top of the 16th. Phillip Stidham, pitching his eighth inning in relief, struck out the SWC’s leading hitter, John Byington, to end the game after Chuck Knoblauch hit a two-out single.
The game ended at 1:04 a.m.
“I remember the atmosphere more than the actual game,” said Bubba Carpenter, a sophomore outfielder that season.
Carpenter also played at Texas A&M in 1991. Speaking on the Whole Hog Baseball Podcast, Carpenter said Texas A&M was the most hostile place to play in the SWC.
“I remember getting off the bus for [batting practice] and they lined the sidewalks and they were all over us from the time we got off the bus, during BP, everything we did in that game,” Carpenter said. “It was all choreographed. I grew up in Winslow and went to West Fork High School. We didn’t get giant crowds at George Cole Field….That was the first time I played in front of a really big crowd that was hostile. I loved it. I remember standing on deck and looking around thinking, ‘This is unbelievable.’
“I was amazed at how organized their rags were. They did everything in unison. They were prepared for everything you did.”
Carpenter, who is in seventh season as the color analyst for the Razorback Sports Network, expects Arkansas’ players to get similar treatment this week.
“The key is: it’s baseball,” Carpenter said. “Don’t take it serious. Enjoy it….It’s a challenge for us. I think the makeup of this team, they’re going to go in there and eat it up. We don’t have guys that are nervous.”
Blue Bell Park has a listed capacity of 6,100, but portable bleachers will be added to the stadium to increase attendance and volume for the final series and postseason games.
“Their fans are loud and organized and they have a good time at the ballpark,” said Van Horn, who added, “It’s going to be wild down there.”
It always is when Arkansas and Texas A&M have a championship on the line.