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Coming off an 0-3 showing at the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic in Houston, Arkansas returns to the friendly confines of Baum-Walker Stadium for a six-game homestand.

Here is a preview of the first of those six games, a midweek matchup with Illinois State…

Schedule (TV)

Tuesday, March 3 - 3 p.m. CT (SECN+)

This is a single-game midweek matchup. It will be streamed on SEC Network-plus, meaning it can be watched online on ESPN3.com or on the WatchESPN app.

Weather Report

Arkansas will get much better weather for the Illinois State game than it had for its first two series of the season. According to the Weather Channel, it will be partly cloudy with a high of 64 degrees. Winds will be out of the west-northwest (blowing out at Baum-Walker) at 5 to 10 miles per hour.

Arkansas’ Starting Pitcher

Fr. RHP Blake Adams (2 games/1 start, 0-0, 13.50 ERA, 3 K/2 BB, 3 1/3 IP)

After not throwing him this weekend in Houston, it’s not much of a surprise that head coach Dave Van Horn is giving the first midweek start of 2020 to freshman Blake Adams.

The right-hander actually began the year in the weekend rotation, starting the Sunday game against Eastern Illinois, but he didn’t have a great outing and came out of the bullpen the following weekend against Gonzaga.

In three innings as a starter, Adams gave up two earned runs on six hits and one walk while striking out two. The silver lining to his performance was that it could have been worse, but on the last pitch he threw, he induced a 6-4-3 double play to get out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in a three-run game.

Coming out of the bullpen went much worse for the Springdale Har-Ber product, as he retired just one of the four batters he faced, with the other three reaching on two hits and a walk before he was taken out of the game. All three eventually scored, which is the main reason why he currently has the worst ERA on the team.

If Van Horn sticks to his usual philosophy for midweek games, the Razorbacks will use several young pitchers against Illinois State.

In the Polls

The HawgBeat Composite Poll does not come out until Tuesday, but the Razorbacks will certainly drop from their No. 4 ranking after losing all three games over the weekend. How far they fall remains to be seen. However, the USA Today Coaches Poll released its first top 25 since the preseason and Arkansas moved down just five spots to No. 10. Illinois State is unranked.

Scouting the Opponent

2019 record: 36-26 (14-7 MVC)

2020 record: 3-7

Head coach: Steve Holm (second season)

Starting pitcher: Jr. RHP Jack Anderson (1 game/1 start, 0-0, 8.10 ERA, 1 K/0 BB, 3 1/3 IP)

A program with a proud baseball tradition that included current St. Louis Cardinals all-star Paul DeJong, Illinois State had fallen on hard times, posting three straight losing seasons from 2016-18.

The Redbirds burst onto the scene under first-year head coach Steve Holm last year, though, capturing a share of the regular-season Missouri Valley Conference title and earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

With wins over Indiana and Louisville, they were a game away from advancing to the Super Regionals, but ended up losing back-to-back games to the Cardinals to be eliminated. The last game was particularly heartbreaking, as they lost in walk-off fashion.

Despite losing a few key players to the MLB Draft, Illinois State returned several starters and had high expectations coming into 2020. It was picked third in the MVC, behind traditional powers Dallas Baptist and Missouri State, and had the most preseason All-MVC selections in the conference.

However, things have not gone well for the Redbirds through three weeks. They salvaged Game 3 and Game 4 wins in series losses at UALR and Oklahoma, respectively, before opening last weekend with a win at Louisiana-Monroe. Illinois State lost the next two games, though, so it is still searching for its first series victory of the season.

The Redbirds will send junior right-hander Jack Anderson to the mound to face Arkansas on Wednesday. At 6-foot-6, 226 pounds, he certainly looks the part, but he has yet to have much success in college.

Last season, the Wisconsin native was Illinois State’s third-most used reliever, with 22 appearances. He seems to throw the ball over the plate, as he issued just five walks in 23 2/3 innings, but sometimes too well. Opponents hit .330 and slugged .480 against him last year, resulting in a 7.23 ERA.

Anderson’s lone appearance this season was actually a start in the Redbirds’ win over Oklahoma. He retired nine of the first 10 Sooners he faced to get through three scoreless innings, but then gave up a three-run home run in the fourth inning

At the plate, Holm is still trying to figure out his lineup. He’s started 14 different players at least twice and only one - Joe Butler - has started all 10 games. No one else has even appeared in every game.

Redshirt junior Jeremy Gaines is Illinois State’s lone player hitting above .300, going 7 for 20 (.350), but he’s started only half of the games.

Butler, a senior and returning all-conference performer, is just under that mark at .297 and also has two home runs and eight RBIs. Redshirt junior Aidan Huggins is right behind him, hitting .296.

As a team, though, the Redbirds rank 245th out of 297 Division I teams with a .214 batting average.

Series History

This will be the seventh time Arkansas and Illinois State have met on the baseball field, with the Razorbacks leading the all-time series 5-1. The first six matchups were also played in Fayetteville.

The Razorbacks swept the Redbirds at George Cole Field in 1992, but needed 10 innings to win the second game of that series.

In 2007, Illinois State visited for a weekend series at Baum-Walker Stadium and, after being blown out in Game 1, actually beat Arkansas 12-10 in the second game and nearly won the series.

The Redbirds led 7-0 at the seventh-inning stretch, but saw that evaporate thanks to a seven-run eighth inning by the Razorbacks. They managed to tie it back up in the top of the ninth, but a couple of 10th-inning errors helped Arkansas win the rubber match in walk-off fashion.

Losing Streak

Arkansas returns to Fayetteville after a tough weekend at the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic in Houston, during which is lost to Oklahoma, Texas and Baylor.

The three games were decided by a total of five runs and the Razorbacks had the tying runs either at the plate or in scoring position in the ninth inning in each one, but they still failed to pick up a victory.

A loss to Illinois State on Tuesday would give Arkansas a four-game losing streak, which would match its longest since losing the last 13 games of the 2016 season.

The other four-game losing streak actually happened last year, starting when the Razorbacks dropped two straight games to Ole Miss to lose their first SEC series at home since 2017. They followed that up with an embarrassing 17-7 midweek loss to UALR and opened up their series at Auburn with a 6-3 loss.

It seemed like the streak was destined to reach five games, but Arkansas forced extras in the second game of a doubleheader and won in 15 innings. That was a key turning point in a season that ended with a trip to the College World Series.

Stat of the Midweek

The biggest topic of discussion surrounding the Arkansas baseball team coming out of the weekend in Houston is undoubtedly the struggles of Casey Martin.

A preseason All-American shortstop, he has gotten off to a miserable start at the plate and in the field. His 14 strikeouts are one shy of the most in the SEC and his four errors are also among the most in the conference, ultimately leading to him being benched for the Baylor game.

Martin’s offensive slump dates back to last year’s postseason. Since the start of the SEC Tournament, he is just 13 for 78 (.167) with 30 strikeouts over a span of 20 games. His strikeout rate has spiked from 25.4% as a freshman and 26.5% during the regular season as a sophomore to an abysmal 38.5 percent during the SEC and NCAA Tournaments and to start his junior year.

It will be interesting to see if Van Horn re-inserts him to the lineup and, if so, where he'll play in the field and where he'll hit in the order. A struggling team like Illinois State could provide Martin with a much-needed confidence boost.