By Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 3 Arkansas will host its final regular-season series this weekend when No. 6 South Carolina comes to Baum-Walker Stadium.
Arkansas (36-12, 17-7) enters the series coming off a three-game sweep against Mississippi State. On the other hand, South Carolina (36-12, 14-9) has a losing streak that has reached four games following Tuesday night's 8-5 loss to North Florida. They were swept by Kentucky last weekend in Lexington. The Gamecocks are 9-8 in road games this season.
Arkansas is now a half game ahead of LSU in the SEC West and tied with Vanderbilt for the best record in the SEC. Dave Van Horn saw his team play without three key starters against the Bulldogs and praised his team. But he also isn't being fooled by South Carolina losing at Kentucky.
"Yeah, the team’s kind of unreal to be honest with you," Van Horn said of his team. "They just believe they can win and they just show up. That’s what I said yesterday. They show up every day to play and they think they can win. If you don’t think you can win, you’re not going to win as many as you should. They did it this weekend now, but I mean, we’re obviously all happy with where we are. We’re just trying to win today. Try not to worry about everybody else.
"The guys are getting ready to finish up some school this week and now we’ve got South Carolina coming in that struggled at Kentucky. So I’m sure we’ll get their best shot next weekend."
Right fielder Ethan Petry leads the Gamecocks hitting .395 and also in home runs, 21, and RBI, 68. Third baseman Cole Messina is next with 15 home runs, knocked in 58 runs and hitting .315. First baseman Gavin Casas has 19 home runs, batting average of .264 and has plated 47 runs.
The weekend starters for the Gamecocks against Kentucy was Jack Mahoney (4-2, 4.42, 12 starts), Will Sanders (4-3, 5.75, 11 starts) and Matthew Becker (4-1, 4.46, 8 starts, 1 save).
Van Horn said Thursday that center fielder Tavian Josenberger will return this week. It's still unlikely that left fielder Jared Wegner and second baseman Peyton Stovall are able to play according to Van Horn.
Josenberger has played 39 games, hitting .322 with seven home runs and 22 RBIs. Josenberger has stolen nine bases in 12 attempts. Van Horn had originally hoped to get all three back this week.
Starter Hunter Hollan was the Friday starter until this past weekend when Van Horn moved him to Sunday. His velocity had been down in the previous start. He has battled a leg injury. Hollan has 12 starts on the season with a record of 6-2 and 4.15 ERA. He worked 3.2 innings against the Bulldogs allowing four hits, four runs, walked three and struck out the same while throwing 68 pitches. Van Horn was asked if Hollan's leg is 100%?
"It's not 100%, but a lot of the pain is gone," Van Horn said. "He'll continue to monitor that and work on that this week. Hopefully, we can get that to the point where he doesn't even think about it anymore."
Though he had a short outing against Mississippi State, Van Horn talked about what he saw from his lefty.
"Yeah, his stuff was a lot better," Van Horn said. "He was missing, but he was just missing. I mean, it was a ball or two off. It’s not like it was a foot off. He got himself into trouble. He got behind and that’s usually when they got him. It’s almost like he was a little rusty. I think we were all encouraged by what he saw, really good stuff but maybe just not quite the command he had maybe three or four weeks ago. I’m guessing we’ll see the command next weekend."
Van Horn said Thursday the plan is to start Hagen Smith on Friday, then Brady Tygart on Saturday with Will McEntire following him and Hollan on Sunday. But Van Horn reiterated he will do what he needs to do to win Friday's game.
Friday's game will begin at 6:30 p.m. The fans will be treated to a fireworks show afterward. Saturday's game starts at 6 p.m. The Sunday start is set for 2 p.m. All the games will be on the SEC Network+.