Trojans Head to Fayetteville for In-State Showdown with No. 22 Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Little Rock continues its stretch against top competition Tuesday night, traveling to face No. 22 Arkansas at 6 p.m. at Baum-Walker Stadium.

The Trojans (19-12) are coming off a strong run, winning eight of their last 11 games, including Ohio Valley Conference series victories over Tennessee Tech, Southern Indiana and Western Illinois. Little Rock swept TTU and took two of three from both USI and WIU and currently sits tied for second in the OVC standings heading into this weekend's key series at league leader SIUE.
Arkansas (20-13), which opened the season ranked in multiple top-10 polls and is eyeing a return trip to the College World Series, enters Tuesday ranked No. 22 by Baseball America. 

GAME INFO
Who: Little Rock (19-12) at Arkansas (20-13)
When: 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 7
Where: Baum-Walker Stadium – Fayetteville, Ark.
Video: SEC Network (Brett Dolan, pxp; Troy Eklund, analyst)
Live Stats: LRTrojans.com

SERIES HISTORY
• Arkansas leads the all-time series, 7-2
• Little Rock last won in 2023 (11-4)
• The Trojans won the first meeting in 2019, 17-7

COACH SPEAK
"We're looking forward to the opportunity Tuesday to play against another ranked team," Little Rock head coach Chris Curry said. "The game always creates a lot of excitement for baseball in the state of Arkansas, and tomorrow night should be a good game. It's important for us to continue to play well because we have a very important series this weekend against the team in front of us."

TROJAN TIDBITS
• Redshirt-junior Blake Simpson provided a spark last week, delivering an RBI double for insurance in Game 2 at Western Illinois before blasting a game-tying grand slam in the seventh inning of the series finale. Simpson is hitting .368 in limited action this season.
• Junior pitcher Gage Haley played a pivotal role in Saturday's doubleheader. He earned the win with 2.0 scoreless innings in the suspended game and returned later to strike out three in a scoreless ninth to earn the save in Game 2. Haley ranks fourth in the OVC with five saves.
• Kade Smith ranks fifth in the OVC with 10 doubles and sixth with 44 hits.
• Head coach Chris Curry previously served as an assistant under Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn (2009-10). Pitching coach Evan Lee starred for the Razorbacks (2017-18) and helped lead Arkansas to the 2018 College World Series Finals.

SCOUTING THE RAZORBACKS
• Arkansas has dropped six of its last seven games after opening SEC play with two series wins.
• The Razorbacks rank 11th in the SEC with a .274 team batting average.
• Camden Kozeal leads the offense with a .310 average and eight home runs.
• Ryder Helfrick leads the team with 12 home runs and is hitting .306 in 32 starts.
• Right-hander Tate McGuire is expected to make his first start of the season. He has appeared in nine games with a 4.43 ERA.