Arkansas tumbles out of Top 10 in latest D1Baseball rankings

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas will have a double-digit ranking next to its name for the first time all season.

D1Baseball dropped the Razorbacks from No. 5 to No. 11 after the Razorbacks lost their third straight series for the first time since 2016 after losing the rubber match to Florida Sunday.

The Hogs are now 2-6 in their last eight SEC games after starting 12-1. The school record 12 straight SEC wins that included sweeps of South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Missouri feels a distant memory of the past.

You can view the full Top 25 here.

Arkansas still leads the conference in team batting average at .320, but the rest of the pack has caught up as the Razorbacks regress toward the mean. LSU is just nine points behind at .311 and Tennessee sits at .305. Across the Florida series, Arkansas hit 20-for-98 as a team, just a .204 average against a Gators staff that has a batting average against it of .249 even after the Arkansas series.

The Razorbacks will still have to play the No. 1 and No. 2 teams as part of the nine games that remain on their schedule. Texas maintained its top spot for the third straight week after sweeping Texas A&M.

LSU jumped up to No. 2 after taking two out of three against Tennessee. Arkansas will now face the Longhorns and the Tigers on back-to-back weekends, starting Friday.

Texas comes to Fayetteville having won its last seven conference games and five games ahead of Arkansas in the SEC title race at 19-2, while Arkansas and LSU are the closest pursuers at 14-7. Arkansas does keep a two-game cushion on the battle for fifth. Four teams (Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Alabama and Georgia) sit at 12-9 in a tie for fifth.

With the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the conference, the format of the SEC Tournament will change to a 16-team single elimination tournament where the top four teams receive a double bye and automatic entry into the quarterfinals.

SEC in the Polls:

No. 1 Texas
No. 2 LSU
No. 9 Georgia
No. 10 Auburn
No. 11 Arkansas
No. 12 Tennessee
No. 15 Vanderbilt
No. 18 Alabama
No. 21 Oklahoma
No. 23 Ole Miss

Arkansas also is in danger of losing its Top 8 seed, which is critical to hosting a Super Regional should the team make it out of the regional round. Prior to Arkansas' series loss to Florida, D1Baseball had Arkansas hosting Kansas, Iowa and Oral Roberts as the No. 5 seed.

Before taking on a daunting final stretch that ends at home against No. 12 Tennessee, Arkansas must complete its midweek slate against the Missouri State Bears on the road.

The Bears are the only team in the past two seasons to defeat the Razorbacks in a midweek game after engineering a five-run ninth inning to force extra innings before winning 14-13 in 10 innings in a game that featured 30 hits between the two teams combined. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday and will be streamed on ESPN+.

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