Series Preview: Ags meet Hogs on Easter weekend in Fayetteville

Who: No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks (33-5, 12-3 in SEC)
Where: Baum-Walker Stadium - Fayetteville, AR
When:

Thursday: 7 p.m. CT (SEC Network)
Friday: 2 p.m. CT (SEC Network+/ESPN+)
Friday: One hour after completion of first game (SEC Network+/ESPN+)

Pitching matchups

Thursday: LHP Ryan Prager (2-2, 3.93 ERA) vs. LHP Zach Root (5-1, 3.62 ERA)
Friday, Game 1: LHP Justin Lamkin (3-3, 3.25 ERA) vs. RHP Gage Wood (0-0, 2.57 ERA)
Friday, Game 2: LHP Myles Patton (3-3, 4.91 ERA) vs. LHP Landon Beidelschies (4-0, 4.24 ERA)

Scouting Arkansas

Dave Van Horn continues to chase the big one.

Now in his 23rd year as the head Hog, Van Horn has guided Arkansas to eight SEC West Division flags, three SEC regular-season titles and one SEC Tournament crown. However, in 20 NCAA Tournament appearances and seven trips to Omaha, the national championship has eluded DVH’s Razorbacks.

A powerhouse of a program, the 2025 Hogs seem capable of finally breaking through that ceiling.

Arkansas was the nation’s top-ranked club prior to last weekend’s series loss at now-No. 5 Georgia, as the Razorbacks have just five losses on the year. Further, they’re especially tough to beat in front of the Baum-Walker crowd at 24-1 on their home diamond in 2025. The lone loss was a Tuesday night contest against Missouri State on March 25.

Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean

In his first season at Arkansas, Cam Kozeal is slashing .397/.443/.683 in 33 games.

With a club average of .330, six qualified Hogs hit above .300, and five of those are north of .360. Vanderbilt transfer Cam Kozeal is in Ted Williams territory at .397 overall, and in SEC play, that number jumps to a league-leading .468. Through 15 conference games, the sophomore infielder is second in the SEC in slugging at .823, behind only Bear Harrison’s .974 mark.

While Kozeal is making his case for SEC Player of the Year, he is not the only offensive threat in cardinal and white. Four Razorbacks have reached double digits in home runs, led by Wehiwa Aloy’s baker’s dozen. Five have driven in more than 40 runs, with Kuhio Aloy’s 54 serving as the club’s high-water mark.

A high-slugging team, Arkansas averages 4.44 extra-base hits per game, and 39.7 (169 of 425) percent of their hits have gone for extra bases. If there was ever a weekend for Texas A&M pitching to limit free bases even more so than usual, this is it.

So much offensive firepower might be necessary to cover up what is a largely unremarkable pitching staff.

With Hagen Smith pitching in the Chicago White Sox organization, the 2025 Razorbacks lack a true ace. Left-hander Zach Root gets the nod in Thursday’s series opener, but in five SEC games, his ERA is 4.76 through 28.1 innings pitched. Additionally, Van Horn is shuffling his rotation around as right-hander Gage Wood returns from injury and will start on Friday night. Sidelined by a shoulder injury, Wood will make his first appearance since Feb. 23 and replaces Gabe Gaeckle, who owns a 7.27 ERA in five SEC starts.

The bullpen has been fantastic as well. Across 11 different relievers, the Hogs have needed 61.2 innings from the bullpen, and as a group, they’ve posted a 2.48 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP while striking out 12.41 batters per nine innings. Last weekend in the hitter-friendly ballpark in Athens, Arkansas relievers allowed just four runs across 16 innings against the Georgia Bulldogs, so they’re plenty capable of keeping strong offenses in check.

As a staff, Arkansas has a 4.21 ERA in 15 SEC games, but that ranks second in the league behind Texas’ 3.04 mark. Conversely, A&M sits 12th with a 6.21 league ERA. Maybe “unremarkable” was a poor choice of words after all...

It’s a rather complete Arkansas team, one worthy of being ranked No. 2 nationally. Nothing will come easy this weekend for Michael Earley & Co. at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Texas A&M storylines to watch

As Texas A&M’s remarkable turnaround begins to pick up steam, it’s because the offense has finally found its groove.

The Aggies are averaging over seven runs per game vs. SEC competition, and during this current seven-game win streak, A&M has scored 91 total runs.

Of course, leading the way is Bear Harrison, who drove in a career-high seven runs last Friday and 10 total in the series vs. South Carolina. Also beginning to produce are Blake Binderup and Kaeden Kent. The former was named the SEC’s Player of the Week, while the latter authored another chapter in the historic fairytale that is Olsen Magic.

Zoe Kelton, TexAgs

Hayden Schott hit a pinch-hit grand slam during the ninth inning of Saturday’s win and remains a contributor offensively even when he doesn’t start.

Still, as the Aggies get healthy — Caden Sorrell continues to run faster and faster as his return to playing the outfield seems imminent, and Gavin Kash pinch-hit on Tuesday vs. Tarleton — Earley will be forced to make some decisions. Who plays first? Kash or Binderup? Who gets the nod at DH because Hayden Schott has found his stroke again? Until Sorrell is back defensively, will Jamal George be the spark plug at the bottom of the lineup and in the corner outfield spot opposite of Terrence Kiel II?

Sure, that’s a lot of unanswered questions the Aggie skipper must sort out when the time is right, but it also highlights something else: A&M suddenly has an immense amount of depth offensively, and the length of the lineup is finally becoming what was expected by early-season prognosticators in February.

One through nine, the notes for each hitter in the projected lineup are pretty scary...

1. Terrence Kiel II (RF): Leads the team with 14 multi-hit games
2. Jace LaViolette (CF): Leads the team with 11 home runs and 43 RBIs...oh, and he has reached safely in 17 straight games
3. Wyatt Henseler (3B): Owns an OPS north of 1.011 and remains one of the most accomplished hitters in college baseball
4. Caden Sorrell (DH): Averaging a home run every eight at-bats (five in 40)
5. Bear Harrison (C): SEC’s leader in slugging in conference play and owner of a .451 average across his last 17 games
6. Kaeden Kent (SS): He’s seven for his last 11 with nine RBIs in his last three games
7. Blake Binderup (1B): SEC Player of the Week
8. Ben Royo (2B): Reached safely in seven straight games
9. Jamal George (LF): Went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs on Tuesday in his first start since March 22

Like Arkansas’ lineup has been for the entire season, there’s no breath anywhere for opposing pitchers when facing the Aggies anymore.

A&M’s concerns are when the Aggies are in the field, both defensively and on the mound.

Raegan Huffman, TexAgs

Shortstop Kaeden Kent was charged with his seventh error of the season on Tuesday night and is fielding .948 on 135 chances.

While the fielding percentage has trended in the right direction for much of the conference slate, a pair of errors and a couple of other misplays occurred on Tuesday vs. Tarleton as defensive instability threatens to rear its ugly head once more. Earley even commented after that 11-3 victory on the importance of cleaning such issues up before this series in Fayetteville. As they usually are on SEC weekends, runs are at a premium, and giving them away must be avoided.

Further, the starting pitch raised some eyebrows last weekend, and not in a good way. Beyond Justin Lamkin’s scoreless six innings in the 17-0 rout on Friday, Ryan Prager and Myles Patton struggled. While he continues to eat innings and compete, Prager is far from his usual self. In five SEC starts, his ERA is 6.75, and his WHIP sits at 1.48. Worse, opponents are hitting .322 against him. A reversal of fortunes and a return to dominance would be a welcome sight for Prager. Additionally, after a quality start in Knoxville, Patton seemed to be cruising last Saturday before the wheels fell off in a seven-run fourth. The hope is that it was an outlier and he’ll bounce back to be the solid Game 3 starter Earley, Jason Kelly and the Ags need him to be.

In the bullpen, Weston Moss is a weapon. In seven SEC appearances, he owns a club-best 1.80 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. Left-handed freshman Caden McCoy has also been solid throughout the year. However, the options beyond those remain inconsistent. Once more, Kaiden Wilson and Clayton Freshcorn provided a glimpse of their capabilities during midweek action, but they need it to click on the weekend. Additionally, right-handed freshman Gavin Lyons continues to get hitters out during his Tuesday starts, so maybe it’s time he gets a trot out of the bullpen in an SEC ballgame.

What’s at stake this weekend

Belief is running strong in Aggieland.

After winning seven straight, including five consecutive conference games, and employing some dramatics to keep the good times alive, the Maroon & White are two weeks into what will be a season-defining reclaimation project. A series win in Knoxville, followed by last week’s magical sweep of South Carolina, has A&M’s trajectory pointing back in the right direction.

However, a weekend in Fayetteville will be another tall task along the path back.

Two years ago, the Aggies were swept out of Baum-Walker as 2023 featured plenty of symmetry to the current campaign. Suffering results like that would threaten to derail A&M’s current hype train before it reaches full-steam ahead.

More recently, two weeks ago, A&M faced the unlikely task of taking two of three from then-No. 1 Tennessee. The Aggies pulled off that unlikely upset, and in doing so, their microscopic margin for error got a little larger, which means a similar outcome at Baum-Walker would do wonders for both A&M’s RPI and the exponentially growing confidence within Earley’s clubhouse.

The current mantra is “one game at a time,” so keep it going and keep it rolling. #BTHOarkansas