Arkansas Turns to Bullpen Plan Against Auburn in SEC Semifinal

No. 12 Arkansas has a major hurdle to clear if it wants to compete for its second SEC Baseball Tournament championship.

No. 6 Auburn is one of the conference’s most complete teams with a deep batting lineup and pitching staff and that’s who the Razorbacks will face in Saturday’s semifinal game in Hoover, Ala.

What’ll make getting a win even more of a challenge is the pitching matchups.

The Tigers are sending one of the top starting pitchers to the mound first against Arkansas. Alex Petrovic (9-2, 3.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) is expected to get the start for Auburn.

But the Razorbacks can’t do the same.

Hunter Dietz started Friday’s quarterfinal game against No. 5 Texas and left after 21 pitches and line drive off his right foot. He didn’t suffer a serious injury, but apparently was suffering from an illness.

“We found out he was sick about five minutes before the game started, and then he gets hit in the shin,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said after Friday’s 8-1 win over the Longhorns.

Van Horn then tabbed Steele Eaves to come in and get the final out of the first inning, which is nice bit of symmetry considering the illness Dietz had might’ve come from Eaves.

“The thing about Steele is, he wasn’t even at the ballpark the other day because he was sick. We sent him home. (Friday), Dietz was sick,” Van Horn said. “Those two were rooming together. We took Dietz and got him his own room two days ago so he wasn’t going to be around it, but he might have already been around it too much.”

Eaves did his job on the mound, but isn’t a long-term relief pitcher. So, Van Horn was forced to bring in the Razorbacks’ second-best starter, Gabe Gaeckle.

Gaeckle pitched the final six innings and gave up just three hits and nine strikeouts to help secure the win. But bringing Gaeckle into the game disrupted Van Horn’s plans for Saturday.

“Obviously, if Dietz would have thrown five to six today and we’d had that lead, we would have gone to somebody else, and we would have started Gaeckle tomorrow if we won,” Van Horn explained. “But I told the coaches, ‘They have a good offense. We know who’s in that bullpen waiting to come in.’ If they start making a run, we just decided, let’s just pitch.”

At the time, Van Horn didn’t know who would be getting the start in SEC Tournament semifinals. He likely wanted to see who won the last quarterfinal game between Auburn and Texas A&M. But with the opponent set, Arkansas has announced its starting pitcher for today.

Saturday's starter: RHP Cooper Dossett pic.twitter.com/kOxa1v6AVJ

— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) May 23, 2026

Right-hander Cooper Dossett will make his 14^th appearance and first start of the season against Auburn. However, Arkansas fans shouldn’t expect to see Dossett for long.

“Whoever we start probably won’t plan on pitching very long,” Van Horn said Friday night.

That likely means the Razorbacks will be making several calls to the bullpen against Auburn. That’s not a sign that Arkansas will be headed back home after Saturday’s game. The Tigers will likely see a pitcher only once and some may not even see every pitcher.

That can disrupt a batters’ approach at the plate. Also, the Razorbacks’ offense has been red hot in Hoover and had some success earlier this season against Petrovic.

Back in April, Auburn won 8-3 with Petrovic on the mound and he ended up allowing three runs on four hits and only four strikeouts.

If the bats keep swinging like they have been and the bullpen does enough to limit Auburn’s offense at the plate, there could be another night spent in a hotel.

Starting Pitcher Matchup

RHP Cooper Dossett vs. RHP Alex Petrovic

• Dossett: 0-0, 7.90 ERA, 13.2 IP, 11 H, 12 R, 12 ER, 10 BB, 15 SO, .224 Opp. BA
• Petrovic: 9-2, 3.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 77.1 IP, 60 H, 30 R, 29 ER, 17 BB, 74 SO, .211 Opp. BA