TCU, Arkansas enter another weather delay during Fayetteville Regional

For the second time during Sunday’s game in the Fayetteville Regional, TCU and Arkansas entered a weather delay. The latest one came in the eighth inning with the Horned Frogs ahead 17-5.

The first delay came in the third inning and lasted nearly an hour and came as the Horned Frogs had a commanding 14-1 lead. TCU has gotten a huge day out of Tre Richardson, who had three home runs and 10 RBI on the day at the time of the second delay. All told, he was 4-for-5 through seven innings of action.

Per NCAA rules, teams must wait 30 minutes after the latest lightning strike to take the field and resume play. A re-start time of 7:15 p.m. ET was announced, according to TCU. All told, the second delay lasted 51 minutes, which was just a few minutes shorter than the first stoppage. Additionally, TCU opted to make a pitching change out of the break. Mason Speaker took the mount as the Horned Frogs set out to close the door on the Razorbacks, relieving Hunter Hodges. Speaker threw a clean inning with two strikeouts to keep Arkansas at bay and get TCU that much closer to the win.

TCU has won 15 of its last 17 contests entering play Sunday, including a 12-5 blowout over Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Championship. The Horned Frogs scored double-digit runs in all but one of their Big 12 Tournament games.

The Horned Frogs are putting on this standout performance against standout pitchers. Arkansas pitcher Hagan Smith started the game. Smith entered Sunday’s outing with a 2.69 ERA and 102 strikeouts, ranking top-40 in the nation.

After retiring Smith, Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn tried out Zack Morris and Austin Ledbetter. They combined to allow eight hits and 11 earned runs in 2.0 innings of work. Austin Ledbetter came in during the third inning and allowed six runs on nine hits through 6.0 innings of work prior to the second delay of the game.

Arkansas fell to Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament, but still entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 3 seed. They brought a 42-16 overall record and a 20-10 record in conference action into the game against TCU after knocking off Santa Clara earlier in the regional round. Rain wound up delaying the matchup with the Horned Frogs to Sunday.

On3’s Grant Grubbs also contributed to this report.