[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog Sports podcast. And now here's your host, Matt Jones. Hey, welcome in. We're going to talk racial back softball with Ethan Westerman today. They got a big home series coming up this weekend against Auburn. They're the number six team in the country, 30 and five overall. Great start for Courtney Deifel's team. Want to tell you the show brought to you today by Eglin's Best. When it comes to your game day, you want the best in your lineup. That includes your eggs. Eglin's Best delivers more of the nutrition you need with six times more vitamin D and 25% less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. You can sc Eglins best better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. Visit eglinsbest.com for more information. We're also brought to you by Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. They're committed, professional and versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in Northwest Arkansas or looking for skilled craftsmanship, look no further than Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products. You can come by and see them now at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at Bentonville Glass.
Before we get to Ethan, a few thoughts on the Razorbacks. 10 to 2 baseball loss last night against Auburn on at Plainsman park left Arkansas in an oh 1 hold there. It's a five game losing streak. It's the longest losing streak the Razorbacks have had since the 2020 team lost five in a row.
Obviously that season didn't get to go very far.
2016 the last time Arkansas lost five conference games in a row like they have now. Of course 2016 was when they lost so many games at the end of the year, including 11 in a row in conference play. Gabe Gackel looks like he's probably going to go to the bullpen for Arkansas after another.
It was a better outing than what he had against Florida the week before. He went four plus innings but you know, still kind of disappointing in this in in the same way. A lot of walks in there. He had four walks, went to a three ball count I think in 10 of 21 at bats against Auburn last night. Just not the kind of performance that you need from a Friday night starter. And Dave Van Horn said afterward that they're, you know, I think he said will he go to the bullpen? Maybe, we'll see.
And I think that's probably going to be the move for Arkansas. We've seen Gackel pitch well in the bullpen in the past. We've seen him struggle in a starter role in the past and this is about that time of year where you really have to, you know, kind of cut bait if it's not working for you and on the mound and certainly for Arkansas, all the struggles that they're having across the board. You got to have a strong Friday night starter and we'll see what happens moving forward. Hunter Dietz is going to start tonight's game. He seems like the pitcher that, if they have one, is potentially capable of taking the team and putting on his back and saying, I gotcha. You know, I can, I can give you six, seven, maybe into the eighth inning. On a night when everything's going right now, he has to be more consistent than he's been in the past few weeks in order to do that.
You know, it feels like they've got to find a starting pitcher who can do that to take some of the stress off the bullpen. That just continues to happen right now with these short starts they're having. So they're in the hole.01 at Auburn. We'll see what happens the rest of the weekend. Certainly not a real good start last night for Arkansas didn't give you a lot of confidence that they're going to be able to win that series. But you know, we've seen teams turn it around kind of middle of the series before.
Auburn not a real high scoring team. The fact that Auburn scored all those runs last night I think is a real concern for Arkansas. From a picture pitching perspective, that's five games in a row now where Arkansas has not pitched well. You know, they had all the walks in game one and game two against Florida and then in the last three games, including a midweek game against Missouri State, the hit totals have been 17, 14 and 13.
Last night against an Auburn team that's the lowest scoring team in the sec, or at least they were the lowest scoring team in the SEC going into that game with South Carolina, who kind of ironically beat up on Texas last night 9 to 1. So the two low scoring teams in the conference both had big opening games at the plate. Arkansas, 6 o' clock game time tonight against Auburn. We'll have a lot of coverage on our website wholehogsports.com supposed to rain tonight in Auburn. That might be something to watch. Tomorrow's game scheduled to start at 2pm Might be some delays in there. We'll see with the way the forecast is looking in Auburn. Here in Fayetteville, the Razorbacks are hosting Auburn softball. That series is going to get underway Saturday at Bogle Park. They're going to play a Saturday, Sunday, Monday series. This is done because TV says so. And they'll get three games here against the Tigers. Really good chance for Courtney Neifel's team to continue to kind of roll along. Mentioned they're 30 and 5. They've got a winning record in SEC play. They look really good. Ethan, what has stood out to you so far about this softball team and maybe what looks different than what you saw a year ago?
[00:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I think what mostly stands out is it's just a very veteran team.
They've had teams with a few seniors in the past, but this is the most that I can remember since probably that 2022 season when they won both the SEC regular season and tournament. That team had a lot of seniors. This team reminds me a lot of that team. Just with you look at the lineup and it's just a bunch of players who have played in a bunch of big time games, been in big time moments. The recruiting class that they had right after that 2022 season I mentioned was number one in the nation. And those players are seniors now. And I just think that you're starting to see as years have gone on how they've progressed and how they've really rounded into just kind of the core of this team.
And they're having a really good senior season so far. I just think that what stands out to me is their depth right now. Courtney Diefel talked about it a lot in the preseason that she thought it was the deepest team she had. And we've just seen that play out 100% to where you really they, you know, insert somebody else in the lineup and you don't normally have any sort of drop off. It's just there's a lot of options, a lot of healthy competition early on. The lineup is pretty solidified now outside of some games. Kennedy Miller will start catcher and Kaylee Wyckoff in right field. Brinley Bain the dp. But some games though, they'll mix it up and Bane catch Wyckoff, DP and sophomore Ramsay Walker will play in the right field. So they've gotten things sorted out. It seems like getting closer to maybe just an established lineup that you roll with. But there's been good healthy competition all along. A lot of, you know, arms that you can for the most part count on. So it's, I think what just stands out to me about this team maybe compared to some of the past is they're just pretty complete.
And they're different types of hitters. I think that they've earned the nickname in the past, you know, the Bogle Bombers, just because they had a lot of home runs. This team can hit home runs, but they just do a lot of everything. I think it's a. It's a lineup where you can't really blink because the moment you do, somebody else will get you. So it's a really deep, complete team. And the number one thing that stands out is they're really seasoned, an older roster.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: The series win over Florida last week felt like something that caught a lot of people's attention, because Florida, I think they were ranked number three at the time.
They're down.
I think they're number five in the poll that we use now. They're down to seven, but they're 33 and four. They're a good team.
And they kind of had Arkansas on the ropes, right? I mean, the seventh inning, Arkansas's down, and then they had a home run to win the series and take it 2 to 1. Like. Like those are the type of wins I feel like, really kind of number one, tell about a character of a team, but number two, it gets a lot of attention and it turns some heads.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Yeah, certainly. I mean, Florida is a powerhouse in the sport with Tim Walton. They've been to a lot of Women's College World Series. Just a few years ago, they were just, like, on the cusp of making the championship series, and OU pulled off some sooner magic and. And came back and beat him in an elimination game.
So it's a. Florida is a program that, you know, you beat them in a series and it garners a lot of respect. I mean, this is. If there's any stat that tells you what. Courtney Dunle, up until 2021, they had lost 30 in a row to Florida, 30 games in a row. So that's 10 consecutive series of getting swept.
Florida since then, they're 10 and three against Florida.
They've swept Florida in a series on the road, and then they've won a couple other series there. They've had Florida's number recently. And what's crazy about this past weekend is, honestly, outside of game one, it felt like Arkansas was, in a way, pretty outplayed in the last two games to where you look up. And for them to have that final punch in game three, it's like most of game three did not go their way at all. They did not figure things out until the last few innings of that game and just put together this Big time rally to walk it off to where it felt like Arkansas kind of, you know, stole a series in a way. I mean, the walk off, of course, was a big punch in the gut to Florida just to have it in that way. But it was even more so just the fact that it felt like Florida really outplayed them for, you know, 5ish innings of that game until Arkansas, you know, made adjustments at the plate and started to hit off of them. And the grand slam, or not the grand slam, the walk off, three run homer came against Keegan Rothrock, which is Florida's ace, one of the best pitchers in the nation. So that made it extra just feel like a statement.
That was a big series win, not only just for Arkansas's hopes in, you know, finishing high up in the sec. That's a, you know, this all adds up, as we know, like series, just every game adds up. You look at the end and there's not much separation. So big time win on that front. But also Arkansas's RPI got a major boost. They're number two in RPI today. When I, when I checked, only behind Texas, which puts them in firm. You know, kind of control your destiny. As far as hosting in the postseason, at least as of now, there's a lot of softball yet to be played. But to be sitting at number two in rpi, you know, here at the start of April is a really good thing for postseason hopes.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: You know, you look at what they've, they've done already. They beat Georgia. Georgia ranked number 11. We mentioned they beat Florida. I think their only series loss was to Alabama. Alabama, always highly ranked in softball. They're number five and even getting first place votes this week. They got OU in Texas toward the end of the year. And if you're a softball fan, you know, OU in Texas, like those are the two programs it feels like everybody's chasing.
Can they compete with those two teams this year? And they got to play them both on the road.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Yeah, they definitely can. I was actually telling this to somebody yesterday that for Arkansas, honestly, if they make it to the Women's College World Series, there's not a team that I look at that, I'm like, oh, they just can't beat them. There's not that unbeatable team this year. There's a lot of parity at the top. I'd say that your top, you know, maybe 10, 11 teams, there's maybe a line you can draw between the talent gap there. But here at the top, it's anybody's game. I really feel like they could go to Oklahoma and.
And steal a game or two, maybe win the series. They could do the same at Texas. There's. It's just not that big of a gap right now at the top to where if Arkansas makes it to the Women's College World Series, nothing would surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me if they got eliminated early. It wouldn't surprise me if they made it all the way to the end. It's just there's. The teams at the top can all beat each other. I think there's not that clear top dog anymore, kind of. And I think that that's probably a byproduct of just all the changes that have happened in college sports the past few years, where it allows a little bit more parity with the transfer portal and nil and all that stuff, that it makes these rosters maybe at the top, not so top heavy.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: You know, with basketball over and baseball struggling the way it is, I wonder if softball kind of catches on a little bit more local, like, fan attention this year because, you know, people want to watch a winner, and with baseball, you know, scuffling the way they are, I just wonder if some people kind of shift their attention over to the softball team.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that this weekend might be a culmination just with the. The schedules, how they've aligned, that baseball will practically be done with its series by the time that softball starts. And it's a road series for baseball that I think this could honestly be a weekend where you see good attendance figures out there, because I think that that win over Florida caught a lot of attention, at least locally, of, hey, there's a really good softball team that has a chance to.
To really make some noise this year. And I wouldn't surprise me if they started getting, you know, some really good fan turnout. They always, like, fill that ballpark pretty well for home SEC series. But I do think that it might be the type of year where it contributes to maybe even more attention on them because they have a team that is 100%, like, not just SEC contender, but national. So I think that certainly they might benefit, I guess, a little bit of just kind of the dead of everything else at the moment.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: Wanted to ask you about this team's pitching. Robin Herron is the leader.
I think she didn't she deal with some sort of injury at some point?
Where is she right now and what do you see behind her on the. Or in the circle?
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Yeah, well, she got hurt in game one of the Alabama series, which it kind of makes me wonder how that series would have gone had she, you know, been healthy. Arkansas ended up, you know, losing the series 2 to 1. Fell in the rubber match. But she's been in your pitcher that in the rubber match you count on anytime she pitches, you feel like you have a chance to win.
But they kind of had to get through that series just pitching a lot of different arms.
So I don't know if it would have made that big of a difference because they also couldn't hit off of Alabama's ace Jocelyn Brisky. She just dominated them that weekend. But I do think it would have been a more interesting series.
She came back last weekend for the Florida series.
You know, she started game one. Really a reason why I felt like Arkansas was in control of that game because she was so good. Came back for a little bit a relief appearance in game two whenever it looked like Arkansas was still within striking distance after a little bit of a late rally.
But we didn't see her again after that. And it's kind of, you know, just bad fortune. She comes in in that, that Florida game and just takes. It was her plant foot that's been hurt and she takes a ball just right off that foot like scorched. So Courtney Dyfle was kind of joking about it the other day, like what are the odds? Like, you know, get her back and then just, you know, having to maybe nurse a little bit of soreness there again.
But she was good in her return.
She's the clear ace whenever she's healthy, if she's available, she is the clear ace. Controls a lot of innings. But you look at SEC playing because of her not being available for all of it. A freshman Sailor Timmerman has the most innings. She's pitched 20 innings, has a 2.8 ERA.
And then Peyton Burnham has pitched 15 innings. She has a little north of a 5 ERA.
So in Burnham is also. She dealt with illness for a lot of like she was just now getting the kind of ramp up she in conference play she pitched a little bit, but there was some, some sort of just ongoing illness that had her just feeling, I think a little bit weaker.
And Courtney Deifo has been working on ramping her up. I would expect Burnham by the end of SEC will be.
They would not shock me at all. If she is looking back to kind of how she did last season. She hasn't been bad by any stretch of the imagination. It's just she's not at that level she performed at last year and I think that a lot of that's probably attributed to, you know, the illness she was dealing with. And so I think that as they progress through SCC play, you kind of have three options and they all give a little bit of something different. So their pitching is, is, it's been pretty good. I think it could improve, especially in SEC play. It seen a little bit of a dip, but.
But they, they keep them in games for the most part.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: You know, you talked about the power numbers, but man, I tell you, the averages on this team offensively just really jump off the page. And me, I think I count 11 players that are batting.313 or better. Now, three of them don't have qualifying at bats to, to count toward the batting average lead. But I'm looking here at starters. 4:27, 4213-883853-85373, 73, 58.
This is an amazing looking offense they've got.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: Yeah, that's one of the best offenses in the nation and it's a credit. It's funny that the number one in batting average, Burnley Bain is a freshman. So you're just kind of. Her.427 average is really impressive for a freshman.
But then you look after that and it's senior, senior, senior, senior, and then really talented sophomore Ella McDowell, senior, senior. It's just such a veteran lineup that I think has been through it and has seen a lot of pitching in their careers. These are, it's not only a veteran lineup, it's a veteran lineup full of players who have won like all conference awards. Like you got Dakota Kennedy, a Gold Glover from Arizona who's been, she's trying to get her third all different conference, all conference nod because she was at Arizona for the transition. So she's been all Pac 12, all Big 12, and now she might be all scored SEC. It's like you have veteran players who are also like they have the credentials. These are not, you know, if any of these players, in theory, let's just imagine they had gone in the transfer portal last year away from Arkansas, which it's amazing they did not lose any players to the portal. I think that says a lot about the culture they have and the players want to play here, but they have enough players on the structure that any of them would have been like a big fish in the portal. Like they're just, it's a, it's a roster full of really highly touted players and there's, there's quite a few SEC teams that are like this like you mentioned, Texas, Oklahoma, those top teams in the SEC are full of lineups of just really credentialed players that have gotten a lot of respect over their careers. And Arkansas is no different.
But yeah, the production has been off the charts and I think they're averaging a little north of nine runs a game. Their run differentials, like plus six point something.
It's.
This team can really swing it. And they're also like, it's just a staple of a diefold team. And DJ Gas has really just made it even better.
They're really disciplined, drawing walks too. And so the on base percentage is.475, which is unreal.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: The run differential, that's a number that stands out to me because, I don't know, I, I feel like that's always the kind of the tale of a really good team.
You look at run differential and of course I cover baseball a lot, but in baseball you look at run differential throughout the regular season and a lot of times those are the teams that are still competing right there at the end of the year to win a national championship. You know, like Arkansas, I think they had the number one or two run differential for most of the regular season a year ago in baseball.
LSU was right there with them. And those are the two teams that I think most people would tell you those were the two best teams at the end of the year. So run differential is one that, that I always pay attention to, Ethan. You know, I think a lot of people are going to, you know, hear about softball and say, well, we've kind of heard this before. You know, 21 they go to the super and 22 they go to the super and last year they lose the super and they've had all of these post season chances to advance to Oklahoma City through their home ballpark. Looks like they're going to have another chance to do that this year. Is there anything about this team that makes you think it might be different than some of the, you know, the heartbreaks they've had in the postseason the last five years?
[00:19:34] Speaker B: It's really just that they're all, They've been there, done that. Now all these players are older. I think that they just, I mean, you look at the players that are seniors now as juniors. Last year they were just trying to get over the hump of they've been eliminated in their home regional the previous two years. And it's like they took that next step last year with, with getting out of their regional and being a game shy of making the World Series and honestly had Their two top pitchers not gotten food poisoning before game one.
I think that's probably a. It might have been their first appearance. Like that team was really, really good last year. This team I just think is even more complete last year. But Briella and Courtney Day, they just bashed their way a lot of times to winning a lot of games.
This year's team just does it in different ways. It's like there's not one way you really can beat them.
And here's the thing too. We talked about run differential and how that's pretty lopsided, you know, in their favor right now. They've had a ton of run rules and it's in games that they scheduled to be tests. Like they scheduled a bunch of like conference favorites mid majors and they're winning these games like 10 to 2. Courtney Diefel has actually been, you know, recently touting how she thinks that they need to in softball, like stretch what the. What qualifies as a, as a run role. She thinks it needs to be more than eight runs because the game's gotten so, you know, offensive and it's taken away innings from her pitchers to get to. She said that they're just now still figuring out what they have pitching because they didn't get to get all the innings they expected to have. Like they did not. You know, whenever you beat Clemson, whatever it was, I think it was like 12 nothing. It's a ranked Clemson team and then you win that one five innings, you end a game against Sunbelt favorite Texas State. That's given ton of ranked teams fits nine nothing and six things. Like those are the games that I think they counted on maybe facing a little bit of adversity and they just really didn't have to until SEC play. But it's a team that like, I think back to last year when they faced some adversity early in SEC play, it took them a while to get out of the slump. You know, John Caliperi talks about being 1 in 5 in SEC in his first season. They did the same thing, softball last year they started off one in five and had to climb out of it because they hadn't really faced adversity. And I think that this was. It just said a lot about this team that they, they dropped the series opener to Georgia once they started SEC playing, turned around and won two in a row. It's just a team that I think knows how to handle adversity because they're older. And that, that says a lot to me about a team. You know, whenever it gets around to postseason, how far they can go because you got to have such short term memory in postseason when your back is against the ball. And this team I just think has that.
I have a, I just have a lot of confidence in this team. I did last in last year's as well. And I kind of feel like similarly, if that makes sense. And I still think last year's team was a, was a women's College World Series, you know, quality team. They just didn't catch a good break at the end. And I also, I'll add one more thing. What makes me think this could be the team that, that, you know, kind of breaks down that wall and gets them to Oklahoma City is that the NCAA this year is actually doing like appropriate seating. In the past they've gotten kind of, it's kind of wild to say because they're, you know, Arkansas isn't like a Western State, but they've sent a lot of times like the, some of the top two seeds in the country. Even if Arkansas is, you know, a top eight national seed, they'll, because of geographic stuff, they'll send like an Oregon or an Arizona to Arkansas just because it's like the closest host site to a lot of these teams that were, you know, in the old PAC 12.
And so I think Arkansas hasn't gotten a good draw in recent years as far as their postseason, who they've sent here. But the NCAA is now doing a strict like 1 through 32 seeding where you're going to get a two seed that aligns with you with what they think that your, you know, your, your seeding should be. You aren't going to get sent an Oklahoma state as your 2 seed just because they're close. Whenever you're a, you know, whatever. I think Arkansas a number four national seed last year and got sent one of the highest two seeds. I think that that will help them this year that the NCAA is now going to straight seeding and you'll get sent a two seed that aligns with, you know, if Arkansas sitting there right now, the number two rpi, maybe you'll get sent a two seed that more closely aligns to the bottom of, you know, maybe the number 30 team or something like that.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: Games this weekend, 4 o' clock on Saturday, that's going to be on SEC Network plus 3 o' clock on Sunday, that'll be on SEC Network and then 6 o' clock Monday night on SEC Network. Ethan, we'll get you out of here on this. What's the key to Arkansas winning the
[00:24:03] Speaker B: series, honestly, just kind of be yourself. I think that they also. You can't let the emotional high of last weekend, which they've had some time to, you know, like a break between a really rare one because of the series starting on Saturday. And they didn't have a midweek. They had like six days between games and they actually grilled out at Bogle like the players did while coaches were gone recruiting on like Monday or Tuesday. The players have just like, wanted to stay kind of around each other. And so they grilled out, got back to practice Wednesday and Courtney Diefel said she's not worried about any sort of like, kind of hangover, like letting like that they know how to turn the page. I think that's another byproduct of an older team. I think they just have to turn the page and really just attack it like you would any other SEC series because they're the better. They are the better team and they just kind of have to go out there and prove it. Auburn's better than its record says, I think.
But. But this is one of those series that I look at at Arkansas. I'm like, can you get a sweep? I think a sweep would be huge. They it's really hard to get sweeps in SEC softball because you're going against a lot of ranked teams most of the time. This is one of two series on their schedule, SEC that isn't against a. Not only a ranked team, but like most of their series are against like top 15.
So it's a real opportunity to play in front of your home fans.
Getting a couple nationally televised games to just kind of handle business. I think that this is a just kind of be yourself and you should like, you know, I think Arkansas's B game could be Auburn's A game, if that makes sense. I just think that you have the more talented team that's proven it this year. You just have to go out there and you can't go into just dilly dallying expecting to win. You have to go and just handle business.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: Ethan Westerman. He is the best covered Razorback softball. You can read
[email protected] throughout the weekend. All of his coverage. Of course. We'll have baseball coverage, football spring practices in full gear. We'll have stories from Razorback Stadium as well on our website, whole hog sports.com throughout the weekend. Bubba Carpenter will be back here in studio with me Monday. We'll look at Arkansas, Auburn baseball. Hope to see you then. Have a great weekend and a happy Easter.
