SEC BASEBALL: KENTUCKY VS. ARKANSAS PREVIEW/PREDICTION

The Kentucky Wildcats travel to Fayetteville for a three-game SEC baseball series with the Arkansas Razorbacks. 14Powers.com previews both teams and projects the winner of this series.

The Basics

Kentucky at Arkansas, March 16-18

Day	Time	TV	Tickets
Friday	7:30 PM ET (6:30 CT)	SECN+	LINK
Saturday	3 PM ET (2 CT)	SECN+	LINK
Sunday	2 PM ET (1 CT)	SECN+	LINK

Hitting Comparison

INF-OF Luke Heyer of Kentucky

OF Eric Cole of Arkansas

BATTING AVERAGE
0.300 -- No. 3 in SEC

BATTING AVERAGE
0.304 -- No. 2 in SEC

ON BASE PERCENTAGE
0.408 -- No. 1 in SEC

ON BASE PERCENTAGE
0.400 -- No. 2 in SEC

HOME RUNS
77 -- No. 1 in SEC

HOME RUNS
76 -- No. 2 in SEC

Kentucky Top Hitters

NAME	POS	AVG	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB
Kole Cottam	1B	0.350	71	11	0	17	47	30
Luke Heyer	3B	0.349	67	17	0	17	55	26
Tristan Pompey	LF	0.347	59	18	0	7	38	28
Ben Aklinski	CF	0.307	61	10	1	6	41	29
Luke Becker	2B	0.300	57	11	2	6	36	35
Troy Squires	C	0.282	53	12	0	5	51	24
Trey Dawson	SS	0.279	43	8	1	3	19	38

Arkansas Top Hitters

NAME	POS	AVG	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB
Carson Shaddy	2B	0.364	48	9	1	10	35	17
Heston Kjerstad	LF	0.351	68	13	0	10	42	17
Casey Martin	3B	0.335	58	8	0	10	38	24
Eric Cole	RF	0.333	70	12	1	12	40	28
Luke Bonfield	DH	0.308	45	8	1	7	31	31
Dominic Fletcher	CF	0.301	58	13	0	7	32	14
Jax Biggers	SS	0.276	45	9	0	3	19	31
Grant Koch	C	0.263	40	4	0	7	29	29

Pitching Comparison

RHP Chris Machamer of Kentucky

RHP Jake Reindl of Arkansas

ERA: 5.26 -- No. 14 in SEC

ERA: 3.43 -- No. 3 in SEC

OPP BATTING AVG
0.259 -- No. 11 in SEC

OPP BATTING AVG
0.238 -- No. 4 in SEC

STRIKEOUTS
479 -- No. 4 in SEC

STRIKEOUTS
470 -- No. 7 in SEC

Kentucky Key Pitchers

NAME	W	L	ERA	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	OBA
Sean Hjelle	7	4	3.56	86.0	75	34	19	73	0.231
Justin Lewis	7	3	4.34	72.2	63	35	27	92	0.232

Arkansas Key Pitchers

NAME	W	L	ERA	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	OBA
Kacey Murphy	6	4	2.30	70.1	58	18	12	63	0.227
Blaine Knight	8	0	2.87	75.1	66	24	17	77	0.236

COMMENTS

This is big time early season series between two solid clubs. Kentucky's very strong at the plate while Arkansas is has great pitching. Really hard to make predictions this early on. Look for the homestanding Razorbacks to be able to eek out a series win over the Wildcats.