No. 1 Arkansas named top overall seed for NCAA baseball tournament

Arkansas, college baseball’s top-ranked team for the last two and a half months of the season, was named the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA baseball tournament. The field was announced during Monday’s selection show on ESPN2.

The Razorbacks will open regional play against the New Jersey Institute of Technology (26-22) on Friday at 2:00. Northeastern (36-10) and Big Ten champion Nebraska (31-12) are also in the Fayetteville regional. Dave Van Horn coached Nebraska from 1998-2002.

The Fayetteville regional is paired with the Ruston regional. If Arkansas wins its regional, therefore, the Hogs would host Louisiana Tech, Rider, NC State or Alabama in super regionals.

Arkansas is 46-10, including a program record 22-8 regular season mark in SEC play. They hold the longest streak of consecutive weeks at No. 1 in Baseball America’s top-25 poll since 2013, when North Carolina was ranked No. 1 for 13 straight weeks. The Razorbacks won the SEC Tournament on Sunday for the first time in program history.

The Hogs have advanced to each of the last two College World Series played, coming one strike away from the program’s first national championship in 2018.

For more on Arkansas’ road to Omaha, watch KATV’s postseason special, “Swinging for a Championship,” on Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. Steve Sullivan and Kyle Deckelbaum will be joined by radio broadcasters Phil Elson and Bubba Carpenter.