FAYETTEVILLE -- Coming into the University of Arkansas baseball team's series against Ole Miss that started Thursday night, the Razorbacks had swept 12 SEC opponents at least once since Dave Van Horn became their coach in 2003.
The lone holdout was Ole Miss.
Not anymore.
The No. 1-ranked Razorbacks beat the Rebels 5-2 on Thursday night, 8-3 on Friday night and 7-4 on Saturday before combined crowds of 32,649 at Baum-Walker Stadium.
It was Arkansas' first sweep of Ole Miss since Norm DeBriyn's final season as the Razorbacks' coach in 2002 when they took three games from the Rebels in Oxford, Miss.
DeBriyn's Razorbacks also swept Ole Miss at home in 1997 and 1999.
Arkansas took two of three games from Ole Miss nine times previously under Van Horn -- including a 2019 NCAA Super Regional at home -- but never had won the first two games of a series against the Rebels.
This season the Razorbacks finally got the opportunity for a sweep going into Saturday's finale.
"It was a really big game for us," Van Horn said. "We talked to the guys a lot after the game [Friday night] about the opportunity to sweep."
Van Horn said sweeps become key "if things don't go well for you down the road one weekend" in SEC play.
"Any time you finish somebody off, especially at your own ballpark, it would be a great win for us," Van Horn said.
It was the third SEC sweep for the Razorbacks (27-3, 11-1) this season. They also swept Missouri and LSU at home.
Van Horn's Arkansas teams have 38 SEC sweeps with their first at Kentucky in 2003.
In Van Horn's 22 seasons on the job, the Razorbacks have swept Alabama and Mississippi State five times; Auburn, LSU and Kentucky four times; Florida, Missouri and Tennessee three times; Georgia and Texas A&M twice; and Ole Miss, South Carolina and Vanderbilt once.
In Arkansas' lone SEC road series so far this season, the Razorbacks took two of three games at Auburn.
"You have got to credit Arkansas with a really good week," Ole Miss Coach Mike Bianco said. "They pitch it super well and they get the timely hit and they do what they need to do offensively."
The Razorbacks have won 11 of their first 12 SEC games for the first time since joining the conference for the 1992 season.
"I think this is exactly what we all expected, honestly," said Arkansas junior pitcher Brady Tygart, who went 4 1/3 innings in his start on Saturday after being home the previous day because of illness. "We knew that we had the tools to be the best team in the country.
"We've been handling every single opponent like we should. We're the Arkansas Razorbacks and I don't think we're playing our best baseball yet.
"I think we are going to really start rolling. Everybody's going to be in trouble."
Tygart, who is 3-0 with a 2.70 ERA in 8 starts, said he felt great Saturday. He allowed 2 runs, 4 hits and 3 walks with 7 strikes on 82 pitches.
"Overall I thought Tygart threw the ball pretty good," Van Horn said. "It looked like he just kind of ran out of gas.
"His breaking stuff was real good. Fastball was good."
Van Horn said the coaches "were a little nervous" about how long Tygart could pitch after he'd been ill.
"But I thought he gutted it up and did a great job," Van Horn said.
Tygart said he believed he had a 24-hour cold.
"Nothing serious," Tygart said. "I knew I was going to tell the coaches I felt great no matter how I felt.
"I definitely was not going to miss out on this weekend. I don't know what they thought, but I knew I was going to pitch."
Tygart pitched out of the stretch rather than going with a full windup.
"Just a confidence thing," Tygart said. "I felt like In the windup my direction wasn't good. I was just off, something was missing.
"I kind of felt lost going on the mound, so I was just working out of the stretch subconsciously all week and I talked to Coach [Matt] Hobbs about it and he was like, 'Yeah, if that's what you feel good with, do it.' Felt better today."
Arkansas has its most victories in the first 30 games of a season, surpassing its 26-2-2 record in 1982, when Van Horn was the Razorbacks' All-Southwest Conference second baseman.
The Razorbacks are 23-1 at home with their only loss at Baum-Walker Stadium to James Madison, 7-3, on Feb. 18 in the third game of the season. They have won 21 consecutive home games since that loss to set the record at Baum-Walker Stadium across 29 seasons.
"I think it's great," Van Horn said. "I don't know what else to tell you. Our guys show up and they play hard and they play a lot of games at home. We've taken advantage of it.
"We play extremely well here. We've played well everywhere honestly. I'm happy that our crowd is getting to see us play well every time they show up. That's pretty much what's been going on lately.
"It's been fun to coach these guys and it's fun to watch them play."
Arkansas has won eight consecutive games since losing at Auburn on March 23. The Razorbacks were in position for a sweep, leading 4-1 in the finale going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but their bullpen had uncharacteristic struggles and the Tigers scored six runs.
"I think that loss might have helped us win the last couple of weekend game threes," Van Horn said. "Because that one slipped away from us. We had a four-run lead in the fifth and we ended up losing. It can happen fast.
"Sometimes losses, they can be good if you learn from it. Maybe it'll help you down the road."
Of Arkansas' 18 remaining SEC games, 12 are on the road, including the next two weekends at No. 14 Alabama and No. 19 South Carolina. The Razorbacks' also play at No. 16 Kentucky and No. 3 Texas A&M.
Arkansas' remaining SEC home series are against No. 9 Florida and Mississippi State.
Before the Razorbacks go to Alabama, they play San Jose State at home on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"It's been a good first four weeks in conference," Van Horn said. "Now we have a couple tough midweek games and then we're going to head to Alabama and then come back and play two more tough midweek games [against Texas Tech] and then head to South Carolina.
"So we're going to be on the road a little bit here and we're going to play 10 games [over 13] days. It'll be a tough challenge, but also some guys will get to play that haven't had a ton of opportunity lately."