FAYETTEVILLE — The party started Sunday at 3:33 p.m. when Arkansas right fielder Logan Maxwell hit a grand slam with a 2-strike, 2-out swing.
It lasted nearly an hour after the Razorbacks clinched their 12th trip to the College World Series with an 11-4 victory over SEC rival Tennessee to complete a 2-0 sweep at the NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional.
Arkansas players paraded around the concourse of Baum-Walker Stadium to celebrate with thousands of their enthusiastic fans. The human train continued into the Hog Pen in left field, around the corner of Razorback Road and 15th Street, and ended with freshman pitcher Steele Eaves diving into the outfield retention pond they call Lake Norm.
With the No. 3 overall seed, the Razorbacks (48-13) are going to Omaha, Neb., as the highest-seeded team remaining in an NCAA Tournament that has been littered with upsets. No. 1 and 2 seeds Vanderbilt and Texas were eliminated at home regionals, and No. 4 and 5 seeds Auburn and North Carolina had their seasons end on their home fields at super regionals this weekend.
With a team that is solid at the plate, on the mound and in the field, Arkansas has been considered a favorite all season to potentially bring home the program’s first national championship. Now the Razorbacks are halfway there.
“I’m just so happy for everybody involved with the program, especially more than anything the players because they’re the ones that do all of the work,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “They’re the ones that win the games. I’m so happy they’re going to finish this season in Omaha.”
Then Van Horn choked up.
“It just means a lot,” he continued.
In the same interview room last June, Van Horn outlined his plan to recruit a different caliber athlete that would give the program a more versatile offense. Throughout the year Van Horn said this was a different team than the version of the Razorbacks that lost home regionals in 2023 and 2024.
“It would have been hard for me [if] this good a team didn’t get to Omaha without winning a championship somewhere — [if] they didn’t win a trophy, they didn’t get a ring, they didn’t get the SEC championship, they didn’t get the tournament championship.,” Van Horn said. “If we’d have lost this series, it would have been like, ‘That’s the best team that didn’t do anything here.’ Now it’s one of the best teams that’s ever come through here.
“You never know how it’s going to go from here, but they’re down to the final eight, and, you know, that’s a championship to me. You get to Omaha, that’s big.”
Arkansas players are not satisfied with the trophy that was presented to Van Horn for winning the super regional. The Razorbacks eschewed the traditional dogpile that accompanies a trip to the College World Series, instead waiting to do so later this month at Charles Schwab Field in downtown Omaha.
“I wanted to dogpile,” left fielder Charles Davalan admitted. “I threw my glove and I was like, ‘All right, we’re dogpiling.’ But I guess we didn’t, so it is what it is.”
Maxwell’s 330-foot grand slam into the left-field bullpen put the Razorbacks ahead 7-1 in the fourth inning, and Arkansas cruised to a clinching win similar to 14-4 and 14-1 victories over SEC teams South Carolina and Ole Miss in 2018 and 2019.
Another SEC team may await the Razorbacks in college baseball’s promised land. Arkansas will play Saturday against the winner of the Baton Rouge Super Regional between LSU and West Virginia. The Tigers had a 1-0 lead in the series going into Sunday’s game that was delayed by rain.
“This league is insane, especially in our sport, what it’ll do to you,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said, “and I think we all have a certain amount of respect for each other.”
Maxwell’s first career grand slam capped a 5-run fourth inning that began against Tennessee left-hander Liam Doyle, the SEC pitcher of the year and a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award.
Cam Kozeal led off with a single and Reese Robinett added a 1-out single, and both advanced on a wild pitch with Davalan at the plate. Doyle intentionally walked Davalan to load the bases, and freshman right-hander Brayden Krenzel was brought in to face Arkansas’ Golden Spikes finalist, shortstop Wehiwa Aloy.
Krenzel threw a wild pitch to score Kozeal, then hit Aloy with a pitch to load the bases again. Maxwell fell behind 0-2, battled to 1-2 and sent the announced crowd of 10,273 into a roar when he put a good swing on AJ Russell’s elevated 98 mph fastball away.
“He made a good pitch and I just put the bat on the ball and competed,” said Maxwell, who hit his 13th home run.
Doyle, who threw 135 pitches over 2 appearances at the Knoxville Regional, pitched on short rest. He threw 31 pitches in relief against Wake Forest on Monday.
He suffered another disappointing setback in Fayetteville with 5 runs, 5 hits and 2 walks with 6 strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings.
“Monday was a factor,” Vitello said of Doyle’s struggles.
In 3 career appearances on Arkansas’ home field, Doyle has allowed 18 runs on 20 hits and 8 walks in 11 2/3 innings. He allowed 8 runs, 11 hits and 2 walks, and the Razorbacks homered 3 times against him during his outing in Fayetteville on May 15.
He also pitched at Arkansas last season while with Ole Miss.
“You’ve got to give him credit,” Van Horn said. “He pitched last Friday, pitched on Monday…and here he is trying to save their season for them. [That’s] a lot of stress.”
Davalan hit a 384-foot home run off the Hunt Center in right field against Doyle in the top of the third inning to give the Razorbacks a 2-0 lead. That followed a leadoff walk to Justin Thomas.
Doyle threw 6 of his first 7 pitches out of the strike zone in the inning, which prompted a visit from catcher Cannon Peebles. When he placed a 95 mph ball over the plate on his next pitch, Davalan was sitting fastball and hit the ball 107 mph for his 14th homer.
Davalan said he knew he would get a fastball.
“I kind of sold out, to be honest,” Davalan said. “If he threw anything else, I probably would have looked kind of foolish, but I got a heater.”
As the designated home team, Tennessee’s first 3 hitters singled against Arkansas right-hander Gage Wood in the bottom of the third inning, but Wood escaped the jam with a 2-1 lead. Andrew Fischer hit into a double play and Hunter Ensley flied out to center field to strand runners at the corners, and Tennessee never seriously threatened again.
Wood exited after 48 pitches and his first out of the fourth inning to turn things over to a fresh bullpen. Cole Gibler pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief and Aiden Jimenez pitched a scoreless seventh.
Jimenez returned for the eighth, but left with the team trainer after issuing a leadoff walk to Gavin Kilen. Van Horn said the right-hander, who had Tommy John surgery in March 2024, appeared to be cramping and was expected to be OK.
Parker Coil needed 31 pitches to get out of the eighth, which included an RBI single by Dean Curley to cut Arkansas’ lead to 10-2.
Photo Gallery: Arkansas 11, Tennessee 4
Brent Iredale’s 387-foot home run to left-center field put the Razorbacks ahead 11-2 in the top of the ninth. It was the team’s 124th home run of the season.
Arkansas reliever Christian Foutch pitched the bottom of the ninth inning and allowed a 2-run home run to pinch hitter Jay Abernathy. He struck out Ariel Antigua to end the game.
The Vols’ 5 pinch hitters to the plate for their final 5 at-bats in the ninth.
“Congrats to Arkansas and their fan base and everybody in here,” said Vitello, an Arkansas assistant from 2014-17. “You don’t like losing — I think I’ve shown the worst side of that — but it is a little different when you have the amount of respect for the people that you do and they’ll go off and do their thing.”
The Razorbacks finished the season with a 37-4 home record. The wins and .902 win percentage are both single-season program records.
Van Horn became the 12th coach to take a 10th team to the College World Series. It is the eighth time in 23 seasons he has taken the Razorbacks, and he took Nebraska in 2001 and 2002.
“We want to win a natty bad for him,” Davalan said. “He deserves it. We’ll give it all we got in Omaha for him, for sure.”
