Arkansas baseball is one win away from clinching a second straight SEC West title.

The No. 2 Razorbacks (42-10, 19-8 SEC) will try to secure the division championship this weekend agains No. 4 Texas A&M (42-10, 17-10). The Aggies could edge Arkansas at the finish line if they were to pull off a three-game sweep.

The Hogs are coming off a series win over Mississippi State. The starting pitching struggled, but two late rallies and a dominant bullpen propelled Arkansas. Still, Dave Van Horn decided to change his weekend rotation in the aftermath.

More: Arkansas baseball vs. Texas A&M: Scouting report, prediction for top-five SEC showdown

More: ‘They saved us’: Arkansas baseball bullpen lifts Hogs past Mississippi State

Texas A&M has lost back-to-back road series to LSU and Ole Miss, but the Aggies are 30-2 at home this year.

“Probably one of the top two toughest environments to go in and win,” Van Horn said.

Here’s everything you need to know about Arkansas baseball’s road series against Texas A&M including times, TV and streaming info and more:

Arkansas baseball versus Texas A&M TV schedule:

• Game 1: Thursday, May 16, 7 p.m. CT, ESPN2
• Game 2: Friday, May 17, 7 p.m. CT, SEC Network
• Game 3: Saturday, May 18, 2 p.m. CT, SEC Network

All three games this weekend will be on television, with series opener on ESPN2 and the final two games on SEC Network. A portion of the series was originally only going to be available via stream, but ESPN decided to flex the games into the national spotlight. Fans can also tune in via the ESPN app and FUBO, which offers a free trial to potential subscribers.

Arkansas baseball 2024 schedule

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. 

On Wednesday, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders celebrated with University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) leadership additional funding the university will receive for the Department of Nursing and the School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences (SAFHS). Through the Arkansas Linking Industry to Grow Nurses (ALIGN) grant, UAPB is one of nineteen 2- and 4-year colleges to benefit from the grant and will receive $1,004,000 to increase and strengthen its faculty. And UAPB’s land-grant match passed by the state legislature totaled $5.8 million, a $2 million increase over the previous budget.

“I’m very proud that my first budget as governor is prioritizing and investing in UAPB, Arkansas’s only land grant HBCU,” Governor Sanders said. “Together, these extra funds will help us fulfill [Founder] Joseph Corbin’s vision from so long ago, providing a high quality education to Arkansans with a special focus on our state’s black community.”

Sanders also touted the $20 million ALIGN grant from the state’s Office of Skills Development, saying “These funds will build up UAPB’s nursing program to address Arkansas’s nursing shortage and help put more graduates on the path to a good stable career.”

“This gift will allow the Department of Nursing to flourish, retain a faculty, recruit faculty, and provide professional development for our faculty members while supporting and nurses here in southeast Arkansas,” Dr. Brenda Jacobs, Nursing Department chair, said. “We will grow great nurses who will become a part of the health care workforce. It will take the entire village to assist us in becoming all that we can be. What a great day to stand on this campus and receive funding for the nursing department.”

“The governor’s support… is transformative for this particular campus,” said Dr. Donald R. Bobbitt, University of Arkansas System president. “The campus is able to budget the monies for the service it provides and to do so at the beginning of the year and then carry out the land-grant mission, which it serves in this community and also in the state.”

“I would like to just take this time to certainly thank Governor Sanders for your efforts… and that shows her leadership and how she’s gonna continue to advance this state and advance the residents of Arkansas,” Dr. Bruce McGowan, SAFHS’ interim dean and director said. “Our main goal… is to certainly, enhance our research and extension efforts for the Arkansas Delta region of the state, the underserved farming community and the producers of the state.”

“Thank you, governor, for the funding that you are bringing and directing to our university,” Chancellor Alexander said. “It’s important for the university’s advancement. It’s important for the students, the faculty, and the staff and the programs of our university that we can take this university, that as you mentioned, started in 1873, for the benefit of those who didn’t have… equal access to higher education. Thank you for your remembrance of that, and thank you for honoring that on today with these contributions.”