FAYETTEVILLE — The NCAA confirmed Sunday night what has been clear for quite some time: Postseason baseball is returning to Baum-Walker Stadium.
Arkansas was among the 16 regional hosts announced by the NCAA. The Razorbacks will learn their 4-team bracket during the NCAA Tournament selection show that begins Monday at 11 a.m. on ESPN2.
It is expected Arkansas (43-13) will be a top 8 overall seed for the tournament, which would also guarantee a home super regional if the Razorbacks win their regional. Entering play Sunday, Arkansas had college baseball’s fifth-best RPI and 14th-hardest strength of schedule, and a 14-10 record in Quad 1 games.
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Following an 8-4 victory over Tennessee on May 17, Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said his team deserved to be a top 8 seed. When asked why, he said, “Twenty wins in our league. That’s probably the main thing.”
The Razorbacks were 32-4 at home during the regular season. Arkansas leads college baseball in home wins this year and its .889 home win percentage is tied with Coastal Carolina (24-3) for the best among teams that are hosting a regional.
Western Kentucky was 30-3 at home for a win percentage of .909. The Hilltoppers will not host a regional.
“I just feel like home games, we played well here,” Van Horn said May 17. “The crowds were good. The weather was not good at the beginning [but] it’s been great lately. Our guys are comfortable here, and we field the ball. We don’t make a lot of errors.”
After dropping a series to Texas A&M at home on April 18, Arkansas finished on a 7-1 stretch in Fayetteville that included a series sweep of SEC champion Texas and a 2-1 series victory over Tennessee.
The Razorbacks also recorded a pair of midweek shutouts April 22-23 over Little Rock, which won the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament and is a candidate to be sent back to Baum-Walker Stadium for the regional round.
“Conventional wisdom says that if we make a regional, we probably get sent to Fayetteville,” Little Rock coach Chris Curry said April 21.
Seven other SEC teams — LSU, Texas, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Auburn — will host regionals beginning Friday.
The other regionals will be played at North Carolina, Florida State and Clemson of the ACC; Oregon and UCLA of the Big Ten; Coastal Carolina and Southern Miss of the Sun Belt; and Oregon State, which is playing independent of a conference affiliation this year following last year’s mass exodus from the Pac-12.
Arkansas will host a regional for the 12th time since the NCAA moved to its existing postseason format in 1999. It is the program’s third season in a row to host and seventh time since 2017.
The Razorbacks have won their home regional 5 times, but failed to advance in 2023 and 2024 when TCU and Kansas State were the regional champions.
Arkansas last won a home regional in 2021 when the Razorbacks defeated Nebraska. Arkansas also won a regional at Oklahoma State the following year on its way to a national semifinalist finish at the College World Series.
Correction: Seventeen teams were originally listed as regional hosts, with Georgia Tech listed inadvertently. It has been corrected.
