Texas Tech’s Kailey Wyckoff announced her commitment to Arkansas softball on Sunday.
The Arkansas softball team added its first player via the transfer portal this offseason with the addition of Texas Tech’s Kailey Wyckoff.
Razorbacks coach Courtney Deifel hinted at an announcement in a social media post to X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday before Wyckoff made the announcement in her own post to X.
A left-handed batter, Wyckoff led the Red Raiders in hitting last season. She batted .407 with seven home runs, 12 doubles and 35 RBIs in 50 games (49 starts). She also had a 1.144 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging) and earned First Team All-Big 12 honors.
In 2023, Wyckoff was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year. She was also a top 25 NFCA/TUCCI Freshman of the Year and a D1Softball Freshman All-American. She batted .393 her freshman year with nine home runs, 17 doubles and 31 RBIs.
Wyckoff played games at catcher, first base and the corner outfield spots in 2024 with Texas Tech. The Red Raiders went 29-21 overall and failed to reach the NCAA Tournament.
Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn and the late Alex Collins are two of the nine Razorbacks greats who will be inducted into the school’s Hall of Honor in 2024.
Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn and eight former Razorbacks athletes across six sports are on the University of Arkansas’ 2024 Hall of Honor class.
An induction ceremony will be held at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville on Friday, September 13, the night before the Razorbacks play UAB at Donald W. Reynolds Razorbacks Stadium. The list of inductees was announced by the university late Tuesday.
Van Horn has been Arkansas’ baseball coach since 2003 and has led the school to seven College World Series and 20 NCAA Tournament appearances. Arkansas was the 2018 College World Series runner-up to Oregon State.
Among the eight former athletes who will be inducted into Arkansas’ 2024 Hall of Honor class is the late Alex Collins. Collins passed away at the age of 28 in 2023 and will be inducted posthumously.
Collins is second on the school’s all-time rushing list with 3,703 yards and 36 touchdowns in three seasons. A fifth-round selection in the 2016 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks, Collins played in parts of five NFL seasons between 2016-21.
Other Razorback athletes set to be inducted are former quarterback Matt Jones (2001-04), linebacker Ravin Caldwell (1982-85), baseball pitcher David Walling (1998-99), men’s basketball guard Kareem Reid (1995-99), track and field star Matt Hemingway (1992-96), women’s basketball’s Wendi Willits (1997-2001) and softball’s Devon Wallace (2012-15).
Jones was the Razorbacks’ starter from 2002-04, leading Arkansas to two bowl games. Caldwell helped lead the Razorbacks to 32 wins in four seasons (1982-85) before going on to play for the NFL’s Washington Redskins. He was a member of Washington’s two Super Bowl-winning teams in the 1987-88 and 1991-92 NFL seasons.
Ravin Caldwell Alex Collins Matt Hemingway Matt Jones Kareem Reid Coach Dave Van Horn Devon Wallace David Walling Wendi Willits (women’s basketball) pic.twitter.com/DDSsVBtawQ
— Arkansas Razorbacks 🐗 (@ArkRazorbacks) June 18, 2024
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Morgan Leinstock and Bri Ellis are the 11th and 12th All-Americans in Arkansas history. Courtney Deifel has coached 11 of the 12.
First baseman Bri Ellis and pitcher Morgan Leinstock were named National Fastpitch Coaches Associatino All-Americans this week for the Arkansas softball.
Ellis had previously been named to the All-SEC first team and All-SEC defensive team and was Arkansas’ best hitter for a bulk of the season. She led the team with 14 home runs, 47 RBI, 36 runs, 97 total bases, and a .651 slugging percentage. A transfer from Houston, she is the first Arkansas player in school history to have been named SEC Player of the Week in back-to-back weeks when she did so March 12 and March 19.
Leinstock, who arrived to Fayetteville as a graduate transfer from Southern Mississippi, also earned first-team All-SEC honors earlier. She went 13-6 with a 2.14 earned-run average and 137 strikeouts in 140 2/3 innings, tossing eight complete games with three shutouts and she held opponents to a .220 batting average.
The duo are the 12th and 13th Razorbacks softballers to be named NFCA All-Americans in school history. Twelve of those 13 have come since 2019 with coach Courtney Deifel.
Arkansas catcher Kennedy Miller has landed on Softball America’s Freshman All-America Team after a terrific season.
Arkansas softball catcher Kennedy Miller was named to the Freshman All-America team by Softball America Tuesday.
Miller batted .331 with eight home runs and 36 RBIs in 52 games for the Razorbacks in 2024. Her .331 clip was second on the team behind only Reagan Johnson’s .380 mark in 55 games.
Against SEC opponents, Miller batted .273 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in 24 games. She was named SEC Freshman of the Week after batting .545 with two home runs in the Razorbacks’ series victory at Auburn to begin conference play back in mid-March.
A Georgetown, Texas, native, Miller had an on-base percentage of .400 and a slugging percentage of .574. She started all 52 games she played in for coach Courtney Deifel’s team, which advanced to the Regional round of the NCAA Tournament earlier this month before being eliminated by Villanova.
Behind the plate, Miller had only one error for a .997 fielding percentage. She helped Arkansas to a 37-18 season, which included a 14-10 mark in the SEC.
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What is with some Arkansas fans right now? You’re so miserable. Do you just *want* to be mad or something?
Do Arkansas fans just prefer being miserable? Or are they so beaten down by life and Razorbacks disappointments that they’re just basically Randy Quaid’s character in Major League 2?
The answer must be yes on one of those two questions. Little else explains the disgust such so-called fans are showing on social media over the last week. Arkansas softball, long the doormat of the SEC, was beaten in the Fayetteville Regional and Arkansas baseball, with eight College World Series appearances under Dave Van Horn, went two-and-out at the SEC Tournament.
Check, for example, the comments to our articles about these items and you’d think Van Horn is worthless, a show pony who only gets good results in the regular season and his teams suck in the postseason. And Courtney Deifel? “Well, she can’t get us over the hump.”
First, you aren’t playing. Don’t go first-person.
Second, it’s absurd.
Deifel needed six years to become Arkansas all-time winningest softball coach, a testament not only to her quality but how awful the softball program was before her arrival. Hosting a regional is a success in and of itself. Does she want more? Yes. Do you? Yes. Does it mean not getting more is an abject failure? Get out of here.
The baseball assertions are even more brain-dead. Arkansas makes the College World Series, on average, one out of every three years. They’re one of the best eight teams in baseball 33% of the time. There may not be an SEC team that is more consistent, that always has the shot at the national title the way Arkansas does.
One-off results happen.
Slumps happen.
Down seasons happen.
Multiple down seasons deserve scrutiny.
Too many down seasons and it’s time to exit.
Van Horn and the Razorbacks are in step one. Maybe step two. Arguments can be made for it. But a team that just spent half the season ranked No. 1 in the nation is not having a down season. No down season and then no talk should be had about disappointment. All the games count the same. Had the Razorbacks struggled out of the gate and finished strong, instead of vice versa, no one is saying anything.
The softball team may be in Step 2. Back-to-back losses at hosted regionals stings. But they’ve also hosted regionals in back-to-back seasons. Not exactly child’s play. And expecting something grander is folly.
But, no, this is what want in America now. Forget slow-and-steady. Forget consistency. Gimme the magic pill. And if you can’t, we’ll replace you with someone who can. Or at least says they can.
Ouch. Arkansas is the only national seed not to make the regional finals.
The Arkansas softball season came to an ignominious end Saturday.
One day after slipping past the worst team in the Fayetteville Regional, Arkansas lost another one-run game to Arizona, 2-1, and was blasted by Villanova in an elimination game, 7-2.
By the time the game against the suburban Philadelphia school was done, Arkansas looked done. The Razorbacks allowed 11 hits in Villanova’s clincher and came up with just six of their own. Both were solo home runs as manufacturing runs was a problem all weekend.
Against Arizona, Arkansas had just three hits. Two of them came to lead off innings and the Hogs were ultimately 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position. Arizona had just three hits, too, but was no .000 with RISP.
Arkansas was the national No. 12 seed and is the only seeded team not to make it to the regional finals. The 2024 season also marks the second straight the Razorbacks have not made Super Regionals after going in consecutive years in 2021 and 2022.
Arkansas players not named Reagan Johnson and Nia Carter – she who knocked in the tying and scored the winning run – had a difficult time at the plate. Those two players had two hits each, but the rest of the Razorbacks lineup had only two among them. Kennedy Miller, who drew the go-ahead walk, was the only other player to reach twice.
Southeast Missouri jumped out quickly, knocking Morgan Leinstock out before the second inning finished. They rocked her for four singles, which was exactly how many outs she recorded, and two runs. Coach Courtney Deifel followed with Robyn Herron and things settled.
Herron gave up three hits and hit a batter in her more than five innings of work, but most importantly, she kept SEMO from scoring again, allowing for Arkansas’ comeback.
The Razorbacks advanced to play Arizona, which knocked off Villanova in the other first-round game, on Saturday. The two ‘A’ states split two games in the regular season.
The homestretch of the Arkansas softball season left a bad taste in the mouths of the Razorbacks.
Friday, the switch flips.
Despite falling immediately in the SEC Tournament and in the last series of the regular season to the last-place team in the conference, Arkansas has a legitimate reason for confidence heading in the NCAA Tournament this weekend.
Certainly Ole Miss’ taking of the final series heading into the SEC Tournament is sour. But Arkansas was 18-9 at Bogle Park during the year. And all the evidence in the world, over decades, bears that teams playing at home are more successful than teams playing on the road.
The Razorbacks were chosen as hosts for the Big Dance and will perform those duties for Southeast Missouri State, Arizona and Villanova. The, the regional’s No. 2-seed, are plenty familiar to Arkansas. The two schools split two games in Tuscson earlier in the year. Each team won 1-0.
Coach Courtney Deifel has turned Arkansas into a national powerhouse, though they have yet to take that step into elite territory. The Razorbacks have made the NCAAs every year since 2017 and have finished in the top four in the SEC, alongside the Big 12 as the best softball conference in the land, each of the last four years. But the Hogs have not made the College World Series.
Alabama softball apart of the most-watched college softball game of the 2024 regular season
While the season did not end with an SEC title for Patrick Murphy and the Alabama Crimson Tide softball team, there is still cause for celebration for fans of the program. In a press release from ESPN on Wednesday afternoon, it was announced that the Alabama vs. Arkansas matchup was the most viewed regular season game since 2022.
According to ESPN, the contest between the Tide and Hogs recorded a staggering 570,000 viewers. The 2024 season also happened to be the most watched regular season for college softball on the ESPN family of networks since 2015 with each game averaging 190,000 viewers, up 13% compared to 2023.
The 2024 @NCAASoftball regular season was the most-watched season on ESPN platforms since 2015‼️
🥎Averaged 190k viewers, up 13% from 2023 🥎Alabama/Arkansas recorded 570k viewers 🥎OU-Texas Big 12 Championship drew 563k viewers pic.twitter.com/f1kcVVseH3
There’s no denying that college softball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country and the record viewership is all the evidence needed.
Murphy and the Crimson Tide will take on USC Upstate on Friday afternoon on ESPN+ in the Tuscaloosa Regional of the NCAA Tournament.
Roll Tide Wire will continue to cover the Alabama softball team as the postseason progresses.
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Arkansas lost its SEC Softball Tournament opener to Missouri, 3-1, making a quick one-and-done exit at Auburn’s Jane B. Moore Field last Friday.
Now it’s on to the NCAA Tournament where coach Courtney Deifel’s team will face No. 4 seed Southeast Missouri State in the Fayetteville Regional at Bogle Park. Arkansas earned the No. 12 overall seed for the final field of 64 that will compete for a spot in the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
Joining the Hogs in the Fayetteville Regional are No. 2 seed Arizona and No. 3 seed Villanova. Should Arkansas win its regional, they would head to Oklahoma State for a Super Regional, provided the Cowgirls win the Stillwater Regional. Oklahoma State is the No. 5 overall seed in the tournament.
First pitch for Arkansas-Southeast Missouri State is scheduled for Friday night after the conclusion of Arizona-Villanova, which begins at 5 p.m. CDT. The two games can be seen on ESPN+.
Texas (47-7) is the No. 1 overall national seed in addition to being ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll for the sixth consecutive week as tournament play is set to begin.
