CAMDEN — FAYETTEVILLE - An ace and three deuces trying for trumps begin playing their hands today at the NCAA's Stillwater Baseball Regional in Stillwater, Okla.
Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn's second-seeded SEC West power Razorbacks, 35-22 despite an 11-12 start and nationally ranked 34th in RPI (ratings power index) on its record combined with the degree of difficulty of schedule, and the Tulsa-based Summit League champions Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles, 37-18 and 39th in RPI, open the four-team double-elimination tournament at noon today on the SEC Network at Oklahoma State's Allie P. Reynolds Stadium
The top-seeded hosting Cowboys, 37-18 with a No. 11 RPI, and the fourth-seeded Big East Tournament champion St. John's Red Storm of Queens, N.Y. meet at 6 tonight.
Saturday has a noon loser's bracket game and 6 p.m. winner's bracket game with a loser's bracket final Sunday afternoon and championship game Sunday night and a winner-take-all championship game Monday night if necessary.
The Stillwater Regional winner is bracketed to play in a best 2 of 3 Super Regional against the winner of this weekend's Springfield Regional hosted by top-seeded nationally eighth-seeded Missouri State and including Iowa, Oregon and Canisius.
The Super Regional winner advances among the Elite Eight to the College World Series in Omaha.
Oklahoma State on its home turf clearly deserves its top seed, Van Horn and Arkansas pitching coach Dave Jorn acknowledged.
Jorn warns the Razorbacks better not overlook ORU or St. John's on Saturday or they will find their No. 2 seed more than challenged.
"It depends upon who you talk to but St. John's is a good ball club - could have been a No. 2 seed," Jorn said. "Oral Roberts is a good club as well, could have been a No. 2 seed.
"It could be a No. 1 and three No. 2's in that regional. So it's going to be competitive."
Coach Ryan Folmar's Golden Eagles, sweeping three from Western Illinois to end the Summit League season, then swept the Summit League Tournament cresting into Stillwater on a 6-game winning streak.
ORU's offense is paced by .343 hitters Anthony Sequeira and Mark Whatley.
Van Horn and Jorn call the Golden Eagles a veteran team and a productive one, too.
'"They have production up and down the lineup," Jorn said. "Nobody with crazy numbers but a lot of .300 type hitters and a lot of guys with anywhere from 20 to 44 type RBI guys.
Sequeira also pitches and is ORU's closer with 11 saves.
Junior right-hander Guillermo Trujillo, 10-4, 4.03 earned run average, starts today against Arkansas junior Trey Killian, the Norfork native and Mountain Home High graduate.
While only 2-4, 4.72, Killian has posted some brilliant games over his three Arkansas seasons, Van Horn, Jorn and assistant coach Tony Vitello can vouch, including coming off some so-so outings to hold Tennessee to one run through 7 2-3 in last week's SEC Tournament opener that Arkansas won, 2-1 in Hoover, Ala. for All-SEC closer Zach Jackson.
“Coach Vitello and Coach Jorn said that they didn’t see the Trey Killian that they saw last year, Killian said.
"They kind of challenged me last week before my outing in Hoover. I feel like I kind of got a little bit of fire back in that outing."
Today's opener raises the stakes.
"Getting that first win in a regional is probably the biggest thing, the most important thing," Killian said. "So I am just going to go out there and compete and try to set the tone and get us the first win.”
Jackson, 5-0 and six saves with 70 strikeouts in 48 innings, is one of several Razorbacks Oklahomans returning to his native state.
"Oral Roberts and Oklahoma State both have a lot of kids I grew up playing with and playing against," Jackson said. I'm eager to see them."
Van Horn would love it for Killian and freshman Keaton McKinney, tentatively Saturday's starter though he had to pulled the second inning of his last start because of an ailing hip, to put Jackson in position for saves today and Saturday.
Obviously Van Horn wants sophomore center fielder Andrew Benintendi, the SEC Player of the Year, shaking his 1 for 14 SEC Tournament slump.
Oklahoma State, only hitting .279 as a team compared to ORU hitting .321, Arkansas hitting .289 and St. John's hitting .291, thrives on pitching and defense and of course has the benefit of playing at home.
St. John's Red Storm storms into Stillwater as the hottest team. The Red Storm has won its last 15 games consecutively including winning two straight from Creighton to win the Big East Tournament at AmeriTrade Stadium in Omaha, both Creighton's home field and the site of next month's College World Series.