Arkansas has rare shot at double program national titles

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — WIth the Arkansas Razorbacks nailing down the No. 1 ranking in Softball America, it appears the athletics program will head into postseason play with the very real possibility of accomplishing one of the rarest feats in all of college sports — having both men and women win a national championship in essentially the same sport.

Since getting swept by then No. 1 Oklahoma in the second weekend of SEC play back in mid-March, the Razorbacks have won six consecutive SEC series, five of which were against Top 10 opponents, including a pair against Texas A&M and Florida where either were No. 1 or No. 2 depending on the poll.

As a result, Arkansas is No. 1 in the nation in softball for the first time in program history.

"Does it give us more confidence? No," Deifel said. "I think we sit there and we're like "We're not gonna give a ton of weight to the praise and we're not gonna give much weight to the criticism,' and we know who we are in our circle. It is exciting. It is exciting to be two. It is exciting to be one."

Meanwhile, the baseball team, a longtime No. 1 program for much of the season, clawed its way back into the Top 10 after a brief one weekend drop out by sweeping No. 1 Texas by an average of six runs. The Hogs jumped four spots to No. 7 in D1Baseball while the Longhorns remained in the nation's top spot because of losses by the contenders behind them.

The closest a school has come to having both programs win the national title happened in 2017 when Florida won the college baseball championship in Omaha, but the Gators fell to perennial power Oklahoma, 5-4, in the softball championship game in Oklahoma City.

Both Razorbacks programs hit lulls in SEC play. For the softball team, it came right away.

Arkansas stumbled through a series against No. 25 Ole Miss for a couple of low production games before exploding to win the final game, 25-3. Then, No. 1 Oklahoma came and did what the Sooners do in sweeping the Razorbacks.

However, the last straw for Deifel was a lackluster effort by her team at home against Central Arkansas. She decided it was time to light a fire under her players.

Yes, there was the usual gamesmanship talk that often takes place when a coach tries to turn things around, but Deifel took things a step further, being honest about viewing her team as boring. She challenged them to find their personality, to stop being sticks in the mud and have a bit of fun playing the game.

While she was unsure whether she had gone a step too far, it ultimately worked out. Meanwhile, on the baseball side, Arkansas slogged through the pain of losing three consecutive SEC series.

It appeared as though the Razorbacks were a victim of poor scheduling that allowed midweek games to significantly impact how little rest the players got prior to their weekend SEC tilts. Fortuantely for Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn, fate intervened.

Rather than travel to Missouri State on a day's rest following a trip out to Florida, weather caused the game to be cancelled. Instead of getting only one day to recover from four road games in five days before dragging themselves onto the field to face No. 1 Texas, the Razorbacks got to rest, do a bit of indoor work, and even a little fishing.

When Texas rolled into town, the Hogs were their rejuvenated selves, looking much more like the team that had dominated college baseball for much of the year, if not better. The sweep of the nation's No. 1 team sets up a similar potential finish to the season the softball team posted.

Arkansas heads to No. 3 LSU this weekend before closing out the season against defending national champion Tennessee, currently the No. 15 team in the country. Should Arkansas win both series, both the baseball and softball teams could very well have the distinction of each entering postseason play as the nation's No. 1 team.

The softball team begins its postseason run in the SEC Tournament Wednesday against the winner of Tennessee and Georgia at approximately 1 p.m. on the SEC Network. Meanwhile, the baseball team continues its climb back to the top Friday at 6:30 p.m. at LSU. That game will be on SEC Network+, but the other two games will air on the SEC Network.