FAYETTEVILLE -- The Arkansas Razorbacks will have an early wake-up call today after university officials, in consultation with their Tennessee counterparts, postponed Saturday night's baseball game at Baum Stadium due to the threat of thunderstorms and set up a doubleheader beginning at 10:05 a.m. today.
The Razorbacks have a 7 a.m. breakfast to start the day, which also features a chance for showers in Northwest Arkansas.
Both of today's games are set for seven innings, with no inning starting after 3:50 p.m., a consideration given to accommodate Tennessee's travel schedule, Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said.
"You have to play seven-inning games and those are a little spooky," Van Horn said. "They go quick a lot of times.
"So if we start an inning, it's the top of the seventh, at 3:49 we play it."
The Volunteers (20-24 overall, 8-17 SEC), who won the first game of the series 5-4 on Friday, plan to stick with right-hander Hunter Martin (1-2, 4.76 ERA) and left-hander Drake Owenby (2-6, 4.63) in that order tomorrow.
Van Horn said he planned to start right-handers Dominic Taccolini (6-3, 4.57) and Keaton McKinney (4-1, 3.06), but he was uncertain who would pitch the first game.
Arkansas (29-19, 14-11) will have to win both games to extend its streak of series victories to seven.
"They're hugely important for both teams," Van Horn said of trying to get in both games today. "As you get to the end of the season in league play every game seems to be more important because the standings are really shaping up and things are falling into place, whether you're falling behind or jumping ahead of people, jockeying for position in the tournament, trying to get to a regional or whatever the case may be with your team.
"They're just as important for Tennessee and everybody else in the league as they are for us."
The Razorbacks had success in their last SEC doubleheader, finishing off a nine-inning 9-8 victory at Texas A&M that had been delayed from the previous night, then taking an 8-2 victory behind McKinney in the seven-inning finale to win the series.
The rain stopped around 5:30 p.m. Saturday at and it was not raining at the scheduled time for first pitch at 6:05 p.m., but the threat of lightning in the area stretched through the night.
"The fear is you get out there and you get your pitcher hot and go an inning or two, then you have to stop and you never get to go again," Van Horn said. "With the rules with lightning -- every time the lightning hits within like 8 miles of here that's 30 minutes. It just keeps popping and you keep delaying it. So that's the biggest scare."
The shorter game can affect in-game decisions, Van Horn said.
"We had that seven-inning game a couple of weeks ago at A&M and we sac-bunted a couple of times and we hadn't sac-bunted much this year, so ... it's nice if you can get a lead in those quick games," Van Horn said.
Sports on 05/10/2015