HawgBeat - Arkansas earns No. 5 national seed, Fayetteville Regional announced
The Arkansas Razorbacks are set to host Louisiana Tech, Kansas State and SEMO in the 2024 Fayetteville Regional.
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks earned the No. 5 national seed for the 2024 NCAA Tournament and they are set to host a regional in Fayetteville for the 11th time in program history.
This marks the fifth time in the last six seasons that Arkansas has earned a top-8 national seed, which guarantees that the Razorbacks will have home-field advantage during regionals and super regionals. Arkansas finished at No. 5 in the RPI rankings, right behind North Carolina and just ahead of Georgia.
Also included in the Fayetteville Regional is 2-seed Louisiana Tech, 3-seed Kansas State and 4-seed Southeast Missouri State. The regional will start on Friday and go through Monday if necessary. Beginning Friday, Arkansas will take on SEMO and Louisiana Tech will face Kansas State.
The Fayetteville Regional is paired with the Charlottesville Regional, which features Virginia (No. 12 national seed), 2-seed Mississippi State, 3-seed St. John's and 4-seed Penn.
Arkansas (43-14) won the SEC Western Division after going 20-10 in conference play this year. The Diamond Hogs most recently posted an 0-2 record at the SEC Tournament and they were eliminated Thursday by Kentucky, which split a share of the overall SEC regular season championship with Tennessee.
Louisiana Tech (45-17) most recently fell to Dallas Baptist, 17-10, in the Conference USA Tournament championship game. Led by eighth-year head coach Lane Burroughs, the Bulldogs rank seventh nationally in team strikeouts (604).
Former Razorback-turned-two-way star Ethan Bates owns a .343 batting average with 15 home runs and a team-best 74 RBIs at the plate, plus he owns a 3.50 ERA and he leads the nation with 17 saves across 35 appearances on the mound.
Kansas State (32-24) is making its first regional appearance since 2013. The Wildcats went 15-15 in Big 12 conference play before going 1-2 at the Big 12 tournament last week. Led by First Team All Big 12 selection Brady Day, the Wildcats rank 45th in RPI.
Southeast Missouri State (34-25) earned an automatic bid by defeating Morehead State in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship Saturday. The Razorbacks own an 11-5 all-time record against SEMO and they most recently won a midweek matchup, 12-2, over the Redhawks on March 21, 2023.
Arkansas owns a 68-45 (.602) overall record in the regional round of the NCAA Tournament. The last time Arkansas hosted a regional was in 2023, when the Diamond Hogs beat Santa Clara and Arizona, but were eliminated with two losses to TCU.
The Razorbacks last won a regional during the 2022 season, when they won the Stillwater Regional before making a deep run at the College World Series a couple weeks later.
Arkansas last won a regional in Fayetteville in 2021, when Arkansas went 3-1 with wins over Nebraska and NJIT to advance to the super regional round, which saw NC State eliminate the Razorbacks.
