LITTLE ROCK — Six weekends and 350 miles apart, a golfer and a baseball team, to a lesser extent, took steps to alter a perception shaped by failure.
For Jason Dufner, it was 163 starts without a victory on the PGA Tour. For Arkansas, it was a 4-7 record in one-run games in the Southeastern Conference.
On April 29 In New Orleans, Dufner starred down three-time major winner Ernie Els in a playoff. Last weekend in Houston, Arkansas’ baseball team somehow won two one-run ball games in the NCAA Regional. Dufner has since won again and finished second. The Razorbacks are one of 16 teams still chasing a spot in the College World Series.
I don’t know which W says the most about the Razorbacks — 5-4 over Sam Houston State on Friday or 1-0 against Rice on Saturday. In the first one, DJ Baxendale was in command through four innings. In the fifth, shortstop Tim Carver and second baseman Bo Bigham made errors and left fielder Derrick Bleeker broke in on a ball that went over his head for a triple. By the time the dust cleared, the Bearkats had four unearned runs and a two-run lead. For a team with Arkansas’ history, it could have been here we go again.
But the Razorbacks cobbled together three runs in the seventh against a team that was 30-0 this year when leading after six.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Against Rice, Arkansas managed only two hits and struck out 11 times. A walk, a sacrifice bunt, an infield out and an error produced the only run of the game.
Three times, the Owls had two runners on against Ryne Stanek, who allowed five hits in seven innings.
The work of starting pitchers Baxendale and Stanek, bullpen performances by Brandon Moore and Barrett Astin, and the third-day collaboration of Randall Fant, Moore and two others reminded Arkansas fans why the Razorbacks were a preseason top 10 team.
Certainly, Baxendale and Fant were helped by the fact they were throwing against the Southland Conference champion instead of an SEC power, but they still had to throw strikes.
All of the Arkansas pitchers were rested and pitched like it, thanks in part to an early exit from the Southeastern Conference tournament. Prior to the get-together in Hoover, the tongue-in-cheek suggestion was that the Razorbacks play two games, maybe three, in the tournament and then hightail it to Fayetteville so the pitchers could rest up for the NCAA Regional.
Coach Dave Van Horn did not acknowledge the column, but his Razorbacks lost to Mississippi State and Ole Miss by a combined 11-1. Mississippi State went on to win the tournament, playing a total of six games.
Days later, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Samford hit three home runs off Chris Stratton, the No. 20 pick in the first round of the major league draft on Monday night, and defeated the Bulldogs. MSU was eliminated two days later.
Ole Miss is also out of the NCAA Tournament, along with Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Florida is the only one of the four teams to reach the single elimination part of the conference tournament and advance to the Super Regionals.
In the grand scheme of things, the SEC Tournament means little. South Carolina’s national championship teams were 1-4 in Hoover in 2010 and 2011.
For the second straight week, Arkansas’ pitchers should be primed after only three games in Houston and pitchers can dominate a short series at any level. The Super Regional that begins Friday in Waco is a best-of-three and Baylor had to win four games in three days to advance.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.