FAYETTEVILLE — If Arkansas baseball is going to get back to the College World Series for the first time since 2022, the Hogs will have to go through a fierce rival and the most successful branch of Dave Van Horn’s coaching tree.

The No. 3 Razorbacks (46-13) face No. 14 Tennessee (46-17) in the best-of-three super regional this weekend. First pitch in Game 1 is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday (ESPN).

Arkansas won two of three games against the Vols during the final series of the regular season. It dropped Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello to 2-11 against Arkansas since Vitello left his post as Hogs’ hitting coach in 2017.

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However, Vitello does have the bragging rights of lifting a national championship trophy last year with Tennessee. Van Horn is still in search of his first NCAA title. He’ll have to go through his former assistant to keep this year’s dream alive.

Below are three things to watch and a prediction for this weekend’s super regional.

Does Arkansas baseball have Liam Doyle’s number?

Across his last two seasons as an SEC pitcher, Doyle has a 3.92 ERA in 147 innings.

But Doyle has struggled in two starts inside Baum-Walker Stadium. While he was at Ole Miss in 2024, Doyle allowed five earned runs in 3⅓ innings against the Razorbacks. He transferred to Tennessee, upped his velocity and became a top-10 draft prospect, but Arkansas found similar success this spring by roughing Doyle up for six earned runs in 4⅔ innings pitched. His ERA against the Hogs is 12.38.

A third Arkansas victory over Doyle will push the Hogs to the brink of the College World Series. Tennessee can’t afford a loss from the SEC Pitcher of the Year with the Razorbacks’ advantage in the bullpen.

Was the Hogs’ regional starting pitching an anomaly or breakthrough?

Zach Root and Gage Wood were dominant in two starts against Creighton. The Hogs’ top-two starters combined to strike out 20 batters in 12 innings. Wood’s lone mistake was a three-run homer that proved to be the Blue Jays’ only runs against the duo.

If that starting pitching carries over to the super regional, Arkansas should have no problem advancing to Omaha.

But there are reasons to remain skeptical. The Blue Jays featured one of the least explosive offenses in the NCAA Tournament field. Entering the regional, Creighton’s 47 home runs ranked 198th in the country, and no one on the team had hit more than eight.

Tennessee’s 128 home runs are third nationally. Root and Wood failed to pitch past the fourth inning during the regular-season matchup with the Vols and had respective ERAs of 4.97 and 7.30 in the SEC this season.

Will the Arkansas defense make a difference?

The Razorbacks are tied atop the country with a .984 fielding percentage. Tennessee ranks 150th at .969.

In May, the Vols committed three more errors than Arkansas. They were charged with two unearned runs in Arkansas’ 8-6 victory in Game 2. A throwing miscue from shortstop Gavin Kilen was essentially the difference between the two teams.

Prediction: Arkansas wins 2-1

If Arkansas can win one of the first two games against Doyle and Marcus Phillips, it should have the required pitching depth to get past the Vols in a decisive Game 3. However, this series is a true toss-up. According to ESPN, these are the ‘most loaded rosters in college baseball’.

Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jfuller@gannett.com or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter.