The Arkansas Razorbacks (43-14, 20-10 SEC) will make their 35th appearance in the NCAA Tournament this weekend as the No. 5 overall national seed. They’ll host a Fayetteville Regional that will also include 2-seed Louisiana Tech (45-17), 3-seed Kansas State (32-24) and 4-seed Southeast Missouri State (34-25).
The 2024 Fayetteville Regional features some familiar foes. Arkansas did not play SEMO this season but has squared off with the Redhawks 16 times (11-5), including a bout last year and a four-game series in 2021. The Hogs also hold a 30-7 record over Louisiana Tech all-time and have faced the Bulldogs in three-game series during the 2019, 2021 and 2023 seasons. Arkansas is 30-20 against Kansas State all-time and lost to the Wildcats during the 2013 NCAA Tournament in the Manhattan Regional Final.
Across the bracket, the Fayetteville Regional is matched up with the Charlottesville Regional, hosted by No. 12 Virginia. The Cavaliers will host 2-seed Mississippi State, 3-seed St. Johns and 4-seed Pennsylvania. Arkansas and Virginia have met twice in the College World Series during Van Horn’s tenure, splitting a pair of matchups that came in 2009 and 2015.
This year marks the 20th time Arkansas plays in the NCAA Tournament in 21 full seasons under head coach Dave Van Horn. It’s also the ninth time that the Diamond Hogs play a Regional within the friendly confines of Baum-Walker Stadium under Van Horn, with six of those occurrences coming in the last seven seasons.
Overall, Arkansas is 68-45 in Regionals and 102-77 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. The program is on the hunt for its 12th trip to the College World Series in Omaha (Neb.) and its first-ever national championship in baseball.
Arkansas has made it to the CWS seven times under Van Horn (who also reached Omaha twice as the head coach of Nebraska), with its most recent appearance coming in the 2022 season that ended in the semifinals. Seven players from Arkansas’ last College World Series team remain on this year’s squad in Kendall Diggs, Peyton Stovall, Brady Tygart, Dylan Carter, Hagen Smith, Jake Faherty and Will McEntire.
Grabbing a national seed has also become somewhat of a regularity for the Diamond Hogs, who have now entered the NCAA Tournament with a top-eight position in five of the last six full seasons after accomplishing the feat just twice in the first 15 seasons under Coach Van Horn.