Razorbacks sent to South Carolina for NCAA regional

FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks must claw by a troublesome regional if they’re to make a return look with their veteran membership on the NCAA championships in three weeks.

The No. 35 Razorbacks have been chosen because the No. 6 seed within the NCAA Salem (S.C.) Regional to be hosted by Clemson on Could 15-17. The highest 5 seeds from every of the six regionals will comprise the 30-team area for the championships, scheduled for Could 26-31 at Greyhawk Golf Membership in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Arkansas will make its twenty ninth NCAA Regional look and its fifteenth in a row for Coach Brad McMakin.

McMakin famous the Razorbacks, who completed tenth on the SEC Championships to squeak in to NCAA eligibility, is taking part in higher.

“It’s a great area,” McMakin mentioned. “There’s loads of good groups. I simply really feel like if we play nicely we are able to play with anyone. That’s the mindset.

“We’ve actually struggled this 12 months with a group that I believed was going to be extraordinarily, extraordinarily good, which I nonetheless imagine. … Our group has not related all 12 months lengthy. … Everyone hasn’t performed nicely on the proper time. But it surely’s positively trending in that route proper now.”

The Razorbacks will ship the senior quartet of Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, Wil Gibson, Julian Perico and Segundo Oliva Pinto to the regional together with sophomore Manuel Lozada and an alternate, prone to be Christian Castillo.

“I believe we’re going to have a blast,” mentioned Pinto, the SEC particular person champion two years in the past. “We have been decided to make it wherever we have been despatched to and this place is not any exception.

“What are we, a six seed? We all know we’ve got a aggressive regional and there’s loads of good groups there. We’re going there to dominate. That’s our concept, to make it by it doesn’t matter what.”

The regional might be performed at The Cliffs at Keowee Falls in Salem, S.C., about 25 miles from the Clemson campus in Clemson, S.C. The area’s prime seeds are North Carolina, ACC champion Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, San Diego State and Georgia Southern.

Arkansas is the six seed, adopted by Purdue, New Mexico, host Clemson, Furman, Center Tennessee State, Northern Illinois, Lengthy Island College and Longwood.