College baseball week in review: Arkansas back on track with dominating sweep over Texas

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Arkansas is back!

(Even if the Hogs didn’t really go anywhere.)

The Razorbacks rebounded from a midseason skid — three straight series losses for the first time since 2016 — by sweeping No. 1 Texas in Fayetteville by a combined score of 28-9. Arkansas dominated the first two games, ambushing the Longhorns with nine runs in the first four innings on its way to a 9-0 win on Thursday and following up with a 6-1 win on Friday night. Game 3 was a back-and-forth affair, but the Hogs broke it open with three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning en route to a 13-8 victory.

Arkansas is now 17-7 in the SEC and just two games behind Texas with two weekends remaining in the regular season. The Razorbacks visit LSU next weekend and then host Tennessee, while Texas hosts Florida and closes at Oklahoma.

The Longhorns, who started their first season in the SEC with a 19-2 record, lost their first series of the season. With an RPI of No. 2, they are still very much in the hunt for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Around the horn

Florida State is back in the ACC title picture after taking two of three in a wild series over Clemson in Tallahassee.

On Friday night, the Seminoles scored two runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra innings. Clemson took the lead in the top of the 10th, but Max Williams kept FSU alive with a solo home run in the bottom of the inning, and then the Noles won it on a Williams single in the bottom of the 11th.

Max delivers the drama!! pic.twitter.com/GIKyNGvcTn

— FSU Baseball (@FSUBaseball) May 3, 2025

Clemson closer Lucas Mahlstedt entered the weekend 15 for 15 in save opportunities but was touched up for five hits and three earned runs in two innings.

On Saturday, Clemson scored three runs in the top of the eighth and two in the ninth to post a 6-3 victory. On Sunday, FSU scored nine runs in the first three innings and cruised to a 20-9 win in eight innings.

The Tigers have lost consecutive series for the first time since they opened the Erik Bakich era with three straight ACC series losses in March 2023.

It was a good weekend for the SEC’s quest to send 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament.

• Texas A&M took two of three from LSU in College Station to improve to 27-20 overall and 10-14 in the SEC. RPI: 35. Remaining league schedule: vs. Missouri, at Georgia.

• Florida swept South Carolina in Columbia to improve to 33-16 overall and 11-13 in the SEC. RPI: 15. Remaining league schedule: at Texas, vs. Alabama.

• Mississippi State swept Kentucky in Starkville to improve to 29-19 overall and 10-14 in the SEC. RPI: 33. Remaining league schedule: vs. Ole Miss, at Missouri.

Kentucky’s once-rock-solid resume took a hit with the sweep at Mississippi State. The Wildcats are 25-20 overall and 10-14 in the league with a No. 41 RPI. The positive: series wins at Texas A&M and Tennessee. The negative: a nonconference strength of schedule of No. 192.

There is no magic number — especially when you factor in that all three teams will have played Missouri — but it’s hard to envision any SEC team with 13 league wins and an RIP in the 30s or better not getting a bid.

Mississippi State made headlines earlier in the week when it dismissed head coach Chris Lemonis following a series loss at Auburn that dropped the Bulldogs’ SEC record to 7-14.

Lemonis guided Mississippi State to a national championship in 2021, but the Bulldogs failed to make a Regional the following two seasons. They bounced back with a strong 2024 campaign (40-23, 17-13 SEC) but have struggled throughout much of the 2025 season.

Pitching coach Justin Parker will serve as the interim head coach the rest of the way.

Could we see postseason baseball in Coral Gables, Fla.?

Seems quite possible considering that Miami hasn’t lost an ACC game since April 11. The Hurricanes ran their league-winning streak to 10 with a two-game sweep over previously red-hot NC State (Game 3 was cancelled due to inclement weather).

Miami, once 2-7 in the league, is now 29-18 overall and 14-9 in the ACC with an RPI of No. 25. The Canes close with series at Virginia and vs. Notre Dame.

It was a sobering week for NC State, which followed up its emphatic sweep over Clemson by losing a midweek game to UNCW and then dropping both games at Miami.  The Wolfpack, at 15-8, are in second place in the league, percentage points behind Florida State.

Missouri right-hander Sam Horn, one of the top two-sport athletes in the Class of 2022, threw three no-hit innings on Saturday in his second career SEC start. That was the good news. The bad news: Missouri lost 5-2 to fall to 0-23 in the SEC. Even more bad news: The Tigers lost on Saturday and are now 0-24 with only six more chances to avoid a winless conference season.

Horn, a quarterback on the Missouri football team, pitched in only two games as a freshman in 2023 and missed the 2024 football and baseball seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery. He is expected to battle Penn State transfer Beau Pribula for the starting role next fall.

UConn was 2-4 in the Big East in early April after losing consecutive series to Xavier and Creighton. The Huskies are now 14-4 in the league after sweeping Villanova over the weekend by a combined score of 55-22.

UConn, 30-18 overall with an RPI of No. 34, has a neutral-site win over Vanderbilt, a midweek road win at North Carolina and a series win at Miami.

What a weekend for Cincinnati. The Bearcats swept Kansas in Lawrence to improve to 27-20 overall and 13-11 in the Big 12. With an RPI of No. 43 — and a nonconference series win at Duke — Jordan Bischel’s club is building an NCAA Tournament-worthy resume. Cincinnati has a tough closing stretch (at TCU, vs. Kansas State), but the program’s first Regional appearance since 2019, and only second since 1974, is well within reach.

Iowa is still in first place in the Big Ten, but the Hawkeyes’ NCAA Tournament resume could still use some work. Iowa followed up a midweek loss at home to Illinois State (RPI No. 156) with a series loss at Washington. There’s no shame in losing a series to the Huskies, especially on the road, but it was a missed opportunity for Rick Heller’s club.

The Hawkeyes are 30-15 overall and 21-6 in the Big Ten with an RPI of No. 66. They close the season with a series vs. Oregon State in Des Moines and then host Oregon. The path is there to a top-50 RPI.

USC took a big step forward to securing its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2016 by taking two of three from rival UCLA at “home” (the Trojans are playing home games in Irvine while construction continues on their new on-campus stadium).

USC opened its first season in the Big Ten by getting swept by Oregon in Irvine, but has since won eight straight series (seven in league play). The Trojans are 32-15 overall and 16-8 in the Big Ten with an RPI of No. 29.

The victory marks the 8th straight series win for the Trojans, the longest such streak for a USC team since 1978 ✌️ https://t.co/VuYrJTXDyo

— USC Baseball (@USC_Baseball) May 5, 2025

Braden Holcomb had himself a productive final four innings on Sunday. Vanderbilt’s sophomore first baseman/outfielder tripled in the sixth, hit a solo home run in the eighth and then hit a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth.

BRADEN HOLCOMB WALK-OFF HOMER!!! pic.twitter.com/eJG5yLSXa0

— Vanderbilt Baseball (@VandyBoys) May 4, 2025

Credit to Brady Smart, who covers the ACC for D1 Baseball, for this masterpiece.

Pitt winning the series over Virginia Tech today means that a) everyone in the ACC now has a series win and b) you can complete a circle of series victories over each other.

If that’s your kind of thing: pic.twitter.com/dYVCVK1KcI

— Bradley Smart (@fridaystarters) May 4, 2025

And finally

• Wright State clinched its seventh straight Horizon League title by sweeping Youngstown State on the road. The Raiders are 21-3 in the league, seven games up on second-place Northern Kentucky.

• LSU’s three starting pitchers combined to give up nine hits and three earned runs in 18 1/3 innings at Texas A&M … yet the Tigers lost the series. The teams split a doubleheader on Saturday, with Texas A&M winning the first game 3-1 and LSU taking the second game 2-1, and then the Aggies clinched the series with a 6-4 victory on Sunday.

• South Carolina’s Ethan Petry, one of the bright spots on what has been a difficult first season for Paul Mainieri at South Carolina, is sidelined with a shoulder injury that could force him to miss the rest of the season. Petry, who hit 20-plus home runs in each of his first two seasons, is hitting .329 with 10 homers and 34 RBIs.

• Michigan scored 16 runs on only four hits in the top of the fourth inning of a 23-1 win over Ohio State on Friday. Five Buckeyes pitchers combined to walk six and hit five batters in the inning.

• UC Irvine’s chances to host a Regional took a hit with a series loss at home to UC San Diego. The Anteaters’ RPI (No. 18) is still strong but will take in the final two weeks with three games against Cal State Bakersfield (No. 256) and Cal State Fullerton (No. 138).

• With Texas getting swept at Arkansas, Troy is now the only team in the nation that has not lost a series in 2025. Remarkably, the Trojans have taken two out of three in all eight Sun Belt series. At 16-8 in the league, they are two games behind Southern Miss and four games behind Coastal Carolina.

• Four teams are within two games of each other in the A-10. George Mason and Rhode Island are tied for first at 17-7, with Saint Louis (16-8) and Davidson (15-9) still very much alive.

• West Virginia has a four-game lead with six games remaining in the Big 12. The Mountaineers are 18-4 and close with series at Kansas State and vs. Kansas in Morgantown.

• Notre Dame stayed hot, taking two of three at Louisville to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive. The Fighting Irish, who have won three straight series, are 26-19 overall and 12-15 in the ACC with an RPI of No. 50.

(Photo of Cam Kozeal courtesy of Arkansas Athletics)

This news was originally published on this post .

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