SEC/ESPN announce Thursday games

FAYETTEVILLE – The Southeastern Conference and ESPN have reached an agreement to televise seven SEC baseball games on Thursday night including one University of Arkansas contest. The Razorback games with Florida scheduled for early May will now be a Thursday, Friday, Saturday series to accommodate the ESPNU Thursday night broadcast.

The Thursday Night SEC Baseball Game of the Week is set to begin on April 7 with South Carolina and Tennessee and run for seven-consecutive weeks. The Thursday night SEC package on ESPNU will reach 73 million homes and include each of the SEC squads that advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

Arkansas’ complete 2011 schedule of games will be released early next week.

The Razorbacks are coming off back-to-back appearances at the NCAA Super Regional for the first time in school history but have their work cut out if they wish to make it three-in-a-row. Arkansas lost several players to the Major League Baseball draft in June including first rounder Zack Cox, second rounders Brett Eibner and Drew Smyly and fifth rounder Andy Wilkins. Returning to the team however is a strong group of players up the middle which includes catcher and team captain James McCann, middle infielders Tim Carver and Bo Bigham and outfielder Collin Kuhn.