Arkansas Hosts Duke in NCAA Super Regional at Bogle Park

Arkansas softball is back in the national spotlight this weekend.

The No. 5 national seed Hogs welcome No. 12 Duke to Fayetteville for an NCAA Super Regional set for May 22-24 at Bogle Park.

It’s the fourth time in program history the Razorbacks have hosted a Super Regional and the second straight year they’ve done it.

Game 1 on Friday tips off at 11 a.m. on ESPNU. Saturday’s Game 2 is scheduled for 4 p.m. on ESPN2. If a deciding third game is needed Sunday, that start time will be announced later.

Mark Neely handles play-by-play duties with Carol Bruggeman serving as analyst for the full series.

Arkansas enters the weekend at 45-11 overall. The Razorbacks have outscored their opponents 423-146 on the season.

Run-Rule Machine

The Hogs made history in regional play last weekend. They went 3-0 with all three wins coming by run-rule. That’s only been done eight times in NCAA Tournament history since the Super Regional format launched in 2005.

Arkansas beat Fordham 8-0 in six innings before topping USF twice, 9-1 and 10-2, both in six innings.

A program-record 24 of Arkansas’s 45 wins this season have come by run-rule. That’s not a team that wins close games but one that puts opponents away early and often.

The Razorbacks’ place among the sport’s elite is no accident. They’ve been ranked in the NFCA Coaches Poll for 102 straight weeks, a program record.

That streak dates back to the start of the 2020 season, making Arkansas one of just five programs nationally to appear in every NFCA Top 25 poll since then.

The others are Oklahoma, Florida, UCLA and Florida State.

Freshman Sensation Brinli Bain

The biggest new name on this Arkansas roster is Brinli Bain. The Eagleville, Tenn., native has put together one of the best freshman seasons in program history.

Softball America named her a Freshman All-American on May 19 — the third straight season a Razorback rookie has earned that honor.

Bain leads the team with a .372 batting average, 54 hits, 18 doubles and a .528 on-base percentage. She’s also posted 34 RBI, 47 walks and 41 runs scored. In 55 games started, she’s reached base in 52 of them.

Her on-base percentage leads all Division I freshmen. She’s currently tied for second in the Arkansas single-season record books in doubles and fifth in on-base percentage.

Last weekend’s regional was a showcase for Bain. She batted .714 with a .833 on-base percentage in the three-game sweep.

Against South Florida on May 17, she went 3-for-3 with a double. The day before, she tied an NCAA Tournament program record with three walks in a single game.

Burnham Shuts the Door

Sophomore pitcher Payton Burnham is one of the most reliable arms in college softball right now. She’s 13-3 with a 1.86 ERA, three saves and 58 strikeouts in 98 innings this season.

She earned second-team All-SEC honors after going 5-2 in conference play with a 2.40 ERA.

Burnham held SEC hitters to a .220 batting average and posted the fourth-lowest opponent on-base percentage in the league at .278.

Her postseason résumé is already building fast.

She tossed a six-inning shutout against Fordham in the regional opener on May 15, striking out six and allowing just three hits and no walks in an 8-0 win.

She also threw a complete-game shutout against Mississippi State on May 6, the first complete-game shutout by an Arkansas pitcher in SEC Tournament play since Chenise Delce did it during the 2022 SEC title game.

Burnham also threw a no-hitter in last year’s NCAA Tournament.

Reagan Johnson’s Glove Is Special

Center fielder Reagan Johnson doesn’t make errors. That’s not an exaggeration.

She’s in the middle of a 130-game errorless streak going back to April 6, 2024, the longest such streak by an Arkansas outfielder in program history.

This season she’s handled 83 putouts and one assist with a 1.000 fielding percentage. Her 343 innings in the outfield without an error leads all SEC center fielders.

She’s one of two Power Four center fielders nationally to post a 1.000 fielding percentage with 70-plus chances and 320-plus innings.

Pitching and Power

Arkansas’s pitching staff owns a 2.45 ERA as a unit this season — 9th nationally.

The Razorbacks have also struck out hitters at a 6.78-per-seven-inning rate, good for 14th in the country. They’ve recorded 15 shutouts this season, ranking 11th nationally. Since the start of the 2023 season, Arkansas has posted 57 shutouts total.

On offense, it’s not just about getting hits. It’s about getting hits in bunches. The Razorbacks are 207-21 all-time when recording 12 or more hits in a game.

Under Courtney Deifel, that mark is 127-12. They’re 21-0 in 2026 when reaching double-digit hit totals.

Arkansas is also 308-9 all-time when scoring eight or more runs, including a 174-1 record during the Deifel era. The Razorbacks are currently on a 121-game winning streak when they reach that mark.

Power has been a big part of this team’s identity, too. The Hogs have already surpassed last season’s home run total with 75 long balls in 2026.

Since Deifel took over in 2016, Arkansas has hit 680 home runs — 55.6% of the program’s all-time total.

Know the Blue Devils

Duke comes in at 43-15 as the No. 12 national seed. The Blue Devils battled through the elimination bracket in their regional, beating Arizona twice on Sunday, 8-6 and 9-4, to claim their spot in Fayetteville.

It’s Duke’s fourth Super Regional appearance in the last five seasons.

Coach Marissa Young has led the program since its first season nine years ago. She owns a 349-139 overall record and took Duke to the Women’s College World Series in 2024.

Duke’s lineup is built around Aminah Vega, who leads the team in batting average (.467), runs (86), hits (84), doubles (21) and triples (5) through 58 games. She’s also hit 18 home runs with 68 RBI. Jess Oakland isn’t far behind at .450 with 77 hits, 15 home runs, 69 RBI and a .511 on-base percentage.

In the circle, Cassidy Curd leads Duke with 146.1 innings pitched. She’s 17-3 with a 4.59 ERA and 128 strikeouts.

A Program at Its Peak

This Super Regional is Arkansas’s 15th NCAA Tournament appearance overall. The Razorbacks are 27-28 all-time in the tournament, with a 20-16 record under Deifel.

Their previous Super Regional trips came in 2018 at Norman and in 2021, 2022 and 2025 at Fayetteville.

A trip to the College World Series has never happened for this program … yet.

The 2026 season also marks the 30th year of Arkansas Softball. The program’s all-time record stands at 926-823-1 across four head coaches.

The Razorbacks played their first official game on Feb. 20, 1997, a 4-3 loss to Cal State Northridge. They bounced back the same day to beat Hawaii 5-4, with designated player Lisa Flores delivering the winning run on a solo homer in the sixth inning.

Arkansas is one of six schools nationwide that has hosted six straight NCAA Regionals going back to 2021, alongside Alabama, Florida State, Oklahoma, Tennessee and UCLA.

The Razorbacks own a 12-4 record in regional play during that stretch.