A seven-game stretch of road games for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff baseball team will end the way it began: against an SEC opponent.
UAPB will face Arkansas at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville on SEC Network-Plus.
This will be UAPB’s (8-26) first trip to Fayetteville since 2022. The Golden Lions and Razorbacks met in North Little Rock last season and didn’t play in 2023. This will be the seventh meeting between the Golden Lions and the Razorbacks and the sixth in Fayetteville. Arkansas is 6-0 with four run-rule victories.
Last year’s meeting in North Little Rock was close for the first few innings. UAPB and Arkansas were tied at 1 entering the bottom of the fifth. It wasn’t until the Hogs’ seven-run sixth inning that Arkansas pulled away.
Senior right-handed pitcher Chris Bedgood (0-2, 8.10 ERA) has started six of UAPB’s eight midweek games. Last time out against Lamar, he allowed one run on two hits with six walks in 2.1 innings.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Arkansas sophomore right-hander Tate McGuire (1-2, 3.93 ERA) has started the Razorbacks’ past two midweek games, his only two starts of the season. He allowed three runs in three innings against Arkansas State and one run in four innings against Grambling State.
The Golden Lions began this current road stretch with a two-game midweek series at Missouri. After the Tigers won both games, including walking off the second game 8-7, UAPB’s next weekend series was rained out. The Golden Lions went on to lose a midweek road game at Lamar before sweeping Texas Southern in Houston over the weekend.
This will be UAPB’s third and final game of the season against a Power Conference foe.
No. 2 Arkansas (32-5) is coming off a series loss at No. 5 Georgia. The Razorbacks began the series with a 13-3 win in Athens, Ga., which extended their then-winning streak to nine games.
UGA then won on Saturday and Sunday, ending a streak that included wins against in-state foe Arkansas State, SWAC opponent Grambling and a three-game sweep of the Missouri team that UAPB had just faced. The Hogs also swept No. 19 Vanderbilt on the road during that streak.
Among Arkansas’ game-day promotions for this game will be celebrating Jackie Robinson Day, which falls on April 15 each year in Major League Baseball. The day marks the anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s major league debut, which made him the first Black player to play in a major league game.