Arkansas making league impression

Devon Wallace has been one of the SEC's top hitters this season.
Devon Wallace has been one of the SEC's top hitters this season.

FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas has won five of its past six softball games, all against ranked SEC opponents, but you won’t catch the Razorbacks crowing about their recent run of success, which has earned the program its first national ranking heading into tonight’s series opener against Auburn.

The Razorbacks, whose 2-1 victory behind left-hander Kimmy Beasley at No. 2 Tennessee last Friday pushed them to No. 22 in the ESPN/ USA softball rankings, will adhere to Coach Mike Larabee’s “pop off” rule.

“Let other people praise you, and you don’t need to be telling people how good you are,” Larabee said. “We can beat everybody on our schedule, but we could also lose to them. We’ve got a lot of work still to do in this program, and we have a ‘we haven’t done anything yet’ type of mentality.”

Beasley, of Foreman, said Arkansas is still “pretty humble.”

“We’re winning a lot of games, but we’re not going to let it get to us,” she said.

Arkansas (31-17, 9-10 SEC) needs one victory against the Tigers (30-20, 7-14) to clinch a spot in the 10-team SEC Tournament, and a sweep could put the Razorbacks in position for a first-round bye. The series opens at 6 tonight, followed by a 1 p.m. game Saturday and an 11:30 a.m. finale Sunday.

“They’re battling right now to get in the SEC Tournament,” Larabee said. “In my three years here, we’ve only beaten them one time, so they’ve kind of had the upper hand on us.”

Auburn is in a three-way tie with South Carolina and Mississippi State for the tournament’s final spot, and the Tigers trail in the tiebreaker.

Arkansas’ battle to contend with the top national powers hit a high point with last year’s NCAA Regional victory at No. 1 California, although the Golden Bears came back to win the regional. The Razorbacks opened SEC play with six consecutive losses at No. 5 Texas A&M and No. 3 Florida but have rallied for 10 victories in their past 14 games. Arkansas swept No. 22 Georgia and won 2 of 3 at No. 8 Missouri and against No. 17 Kentucky before Beasley’s four-hitter stunned the Volunteers in the first game of a series in which the final two games were rained out.

“I think we’ve just got everything working together right now,” said sophomore Devon Wallace. “We’ve got the pitching, the defense and the hitting, and I think we’re just playing at a really high level right now.”

The program earned its first ranking last week, which Wallace saw as another piece in building a powerful program.

“I think we’re finally starting to get that team confidence that we can hang with the bigger teams, as we’ve proven the last few weekends,” Wallace said.

Sports, Pages 21 on 05/03/2013

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