Win a knock down, drag out fight in Lexington bore of Kentucky’s desperation in gritty fashion with the opportunity to host an NCAA regional on the line.
Consider that box checked. Just not in the game the numbers suggested.
Friday, because of some tampering with the pitching line-uo by Kentucky head coach Nick Mangione at the discreet suggestion of Wildcats ace Jaxon Jelkins, was supposed to be, on paper at least, by far the easiest game of the series for the Hogs.
Instead, out of a severe case of FOMO, Kentucky found something deep inside that allowed for nothing less than an old-fashioned back alley street fight where one guy keeps surprising people by getting up over and over again, while that same guy finds himself in shock the man who keeps nearly dislodging him from his shoes has the energy to continue throwing hay-makers.
Neither envisions a way to lose while onlookers can’t figure out how it’s going to end. Fortunately for baseball fans, there is a time limit of sorts and Arkansas was the one on its feet still wobbling around, 5-4, when the ninth inning came to a close.
When all was said and done, former ace Gabe Gaeckle had drifted an out into the sixth inning for one of his longest SEC outings of the year, combining his seven strikeouts with Steele Eaves and Ethan McElvain for a season high-tying 16 strikeouts.
That pushes Arkansas to 35 wins, which is nice, but not quite enough yet to lock down a hosting opportunity.It was also enough to simmer a day-to-day relationship with the vast majority of Hogs fans, but not quite enough to turn the cynics among them.
It’s been a little bit of a down year as far as attendance goes for the Razorbacks. To be fair, as Van Horn has taken each problem within his team and resolved it like a detective in a weekly TV mystery series, attendance has incrementally increased.
When Oklahoma rolled into town, the Hog Pen was relatively full and the ratio of flags to humans had increased to a respectable number. Large sections of the more expensive chair-back areas of Baum-Walker even had actual, rather than figurative, backsides in them.
Still, without the cynics, the numbers were off. Arkansas crept over the 10,000 mark two out of three days against the Sooners, and that low point for Game 3 was an elementary class away from drifting into five digits, but it was Mother’s Day after all.
Back during the same weekend in 2022, the final home series of the year with Vanderbilt in town, that number was over 11,700. That’s right friendly outside readers, when writing about the tiny fringe of the fan base, we are discussing a paltry 1,700 tickets sold, which is more than a large chunk of college baseball gets to a single game.
When talking about struggling attendance numbers that only hit a hair over 10,000 per game, that’s more than the casual reader’s team will come close to drawing in an entire weekend.
But, these are the numbers Arkansas needs to make it magical at Baum-Walker while hosting a regional. That means going out and winning over the cynics Saturday evening.
Hard fought street fight is now off the table. The only route to that destiny is a Sting vs. legitimately inebriated Jeff Hardy level squash match.
A win, under the current circumstances, is going to be incredibly tough to pull off on its own. A beatdown of epic proportions is going to be as impossible as it gets.
See, despite the broadcast crew going out of its way to make sure everyone knows there is simply no way Kentucky runs Jelkin out for the equivalent of a full-game start because Mangione said so following Monday’s 29-pitch performance, Jelkin is going to be in this game for pretty much every throw.
They may not technically start their 12-2 ace who typically runs out for at least 105 pitches, although his last start went 128, but he is getting the ball and not letting go when he does. It’s possible the Wildcats run someone else out there to face the Hogs’ lead-off, either Damien Ruiz or TJ Pompey, both righties, to keep Mangione an honest man or to say they wanted to help keep his weekly pitch count numbers down, but viewers should understand they have a built-in snack/bathroom break right off the top because the man who demanded he get a piece of the No. 10 Razorbacks Thursday night isn’t backing down to the idea of 100 pitches Saturday.
Cole Gibler is going to have to face Jelkin head-to-head and hope he has a couple of guys he can tag with for a huge outing like Gaeckle got. As for the cynics, they aren’t getting their blow-out.
This is going to be another down to the wire back and forth battle that will test which team has the strongest mental will. If the Hogs decide losing is not an option and claw away a win under difficult circumstances, then that should be enough.
It’s winning a series at their place over an SEC school desperate to get off the NCAA bubble of last team in.This isn’t tying against Stetson or losing a game to Missouri and South Carolina.
This is holding off a team that has been ranked almost all year long that is at full health. If that’s not good enough to drag the fringe back into the stands when the Hogs show up in Fayetteville ranked inside the Top 10 as the lowest seeded host, then this season just isn’t for that segment of the fan base. Maybe they can move on to football season to help quell the disappointment they feel in regard to how terrible Van Horn’s baseball program has apparently turned out to be in their eyes
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