FAYETTEVILLE - The lights won’t be on at Baum Stadium this weekend, but a switch has flipped for the Arkansas Razorbacks’ baseball team.
Arkansas (37-20) will open NCAA Tournament regional play against Bryant University (44-16-1) at 7 p.m. Friday in Manhattan, Kan., after the NCAA selection committee chose not to make Baum Stadium a host site for a regional tournament. Kansas State (41-17), a regional host for the first time and the Big 12 Conference champion, will play Wichita State (39-26) at 2 p.m. Friday in the opening game of the double-elimination regional.
The perceived snub wasn’t lost on the Razorbacks when regional pairings were announced Monday morning.
“We’re frustrated we didn’t get a host spot,” senior outfielder Matt Vinson said. “We feel like we played well enough all season. We’re going to go out on the road and we’re going to play with a chip on our shoulder, just like we always do.
“We feel like we kind of get looked over around the country.”
Pitcher Barrett Astin said he also believes the Razorbacks were overlooked by the selection committee.
“Nobody ever sees us, nobody ever talks about us,” Astin said. “They don’t expect much from us.”
Arkansas, the No. 1 team in a few preseason polls, did not play well in non-conference games on the road and paid the price for a weak strength of schedule in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) rankings.The RPI is a scale used by the NCAA selection committee to rank Division I baseball teams by their records and of strength of schedule. Low RPI ranking numbers denote strong teams, and high numbers denote weaker ones.
“We did a great job in [SEC play],” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “We ended up with 20 wins against the SEC and … we won seven out of 10 series. Some of the teams that got to host didn’t do as well as we did in league play.
“I guess it came down to the RPI, and a lot of the teams that we played didn’t do well and that hurt us. We lost a couple of games we shouldn’t have lost that hurt us, but realistically I felt like we would get [a host role]. But we didn’t, and that’s the way it goes.”
At least traveling to Kansas State should be easier than if the Razorbacks had been sent to any of the other regionals.
“My initial thought would be that it’s probably the closest regional to us, and I think that’s great for our fans and a lot of our parents,” Van Horn said. “It’s a region that we recruit from. We’re excited to get up there.”
The Kansas State regional is paired with the regional hosted by national No. 3 seed Oregon State, meaning the winners of each regional will meet in a super regional.
Arkansas will enter the NCAA Tournament as the nation’s top pitching team with a team earned-run average of 1.87, 34 percentage points better than Oregon State (2.21). Bryant University, located in Smithfield, R.I., and a member of the Northeast Conference, has a 2.63 ERA, which ranks 10th in the nation.
“They have good numbers on the mound, so it looks like their team is a lot like ours,” Van Horn said.
Van Horn doesn’t anticipate changing the team’s pitching rotation, meaning Astin, a right-hander, would start Friday against Bryant, right-hander Ryne Stanek would pitch the second game and left-hander Randall Fant would get the ball if Arkansas reaches a third game.
The Razorbacks anticipate having infielder Jacob Mahan (quad), designated hitter Joe Serrano (groin) and catcher Jake Wise (pnuemonia-like symptoms) back at full strength for the regional following their 3-1 loss to LSU in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament on Saturday. Arkansas managed just one hit in that game.
“We’ve got to do a better job of manufacturing and driving in runs when we’ve got a shot, but I think overall the team is pretty confident,” Van Horn said.
Bryant University won the Northeast Conference regular season and tournament championships. The Bears had a 19-game winning streak between March 22 and April 16 and enter the NCAA Tournament with 18 victories in their past 20 games.
They won seven of their eight Northeast Conference series, sweeping five of the four-game series with their only series loss coming at Sacred Heart. The Bears came out of the losers bracket following a loss to Long Island University-Brooklyn to win four consecutive games at the NEC Tournament, including back-to-back victories against Sacred Heart.
Sports, Pages 13 on 05/28/2013