The Arkansas baseball team couldn’t come up with a series-ending win on Sunday, but the 6-0 loss to California certainly didn’t diminish a pretty impressive week.
Arkansas went 3-1 over the course of the week, beating Kansas 15-3 in a midweek game then going out West to win the series against the Golden Bears. It helped the Razorbacks improve to 8-2 this season and continue to fuel expectations as the Southeastern Conference season gets closer and closer.
Most of my week will be devoted to the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament. In fact, I’ll be heading to Nashville, Tenn., in a couple of days and will be there as long as the Razorbacks are in the tournament. But I don’t want to ignore baseball. The Razorbacks also have five games on the schedule this week.
Before we get to that, though, let’s recap the week with some news and notes:
•Arkansas’ successful week helped it move up to No. 14 in the Baseball America poll after going 3-1 over the week. The Razorbacks were ranked 17th heading into the week. LSU (No. 2) and Florida (No. 5) are the only SEC teams ranked higher than Arkansas.
• Arkansas first baseman Andy Wilkins continued his strong start to the season, going 5-for-16 with 2 HR, 2 2Bs, 6 RBI and 4 runs scored in four games last week. He ranks third in the SEC in home runs (5), third in RBIs (15), second in slugging percentage (.886), third in walks (11) and fifth in runs scored (14). Wilkins hit two home runs in the first two games of the Cal series over the weekend.
• It’s hard to believe, but Wilkins wasn’t the offensive star of the weekend, though. That went to an unlikely source: Infielder Tim Carver. The sophomore belted a pair of home runs — the first two of his career — in the 9-5 win on Saturday. He also drove in four runs in the game and had five hits over the weekend.
• Bo Bigham was back in a limited role over the weekend. He pinch ran and got one at-bat during the Friday night win. It was the first time Bigham had played since the season opener, when he tore his labrum diving for a ground ball. It was the only appearance he made over the weekend, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Dave Van Horn try to play Bigham during one of the mid-week games against South Dakota State.
• Brett Eibner took the loss in Sunday’s game to fall to 1-2, but did throw a season-high five innings against Cal. Eibner allowed one run on three hits with no walks and five strikeouts during his outing. It’s a good sign for the Razorbacks, who look like they’ll be going with the weekend rotation of Mike Bolsinger, Drew Smyly and Eibner when SEC play begins against LSU on March 19.
• This will be the busiest week of the year for the Razorbacks. Five games in six days for the Hogs before trimming back next week in preparation for what will be a huge series at LSU on March 19, 20, 21. So Here’s what Arkansas has on tap this week as it goes through its final tune-up for conference play:
Tuesday – Arkansas vs. South Dakota State, 3:05 p.m.
Wednesday – Arkansas vs. South Dakota State, 3:05 p.m.
Friday – Arkansas vs. Milwaukee-Wisconsin, 3:05 p.m.
Saturday – Arkansas vs. Milwaukee-Wisconsin, 2:05 p.m.
Sunday – Arkansas vs. Milwaukee-Wisconsin, 1:05 p.m.
