By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 8 Arkansas will be at home today to host Army for Military Appreciation Day at 3 p.m.

Arkansas (9-2) and Army (5-5) have never met on the baseball diamond. Dave Van Horn talked about how this initial meeting of the two came about.

"We were just trying to find some opponents, obviously, all the time," Van Horn said. "It’s hard to get teams to come down here. Once the first two or three weeks are over, teams that have been on the road, they don’t want to go on the road much. They went to Manhattan and thought ‘Hey, we’ll come down here.’ Originally, we were supposed to play them twice, and then it just didn’t work out. So, we said ‘Hey, we’re fine with just one.’ Nothing special went on there, it just worked out they were looking for a ball game maybe in the Midwest."

Van Horn feels the entire Military Appreciation Day experience will be a good one.

"It’ll be neat," Van Horn said. "I think for the National Anthem they’ll bring out a really big flag, have some veterans out there helping out, spreading that out. I just think it’ll be cool. We’ll wear military camo type hats and anything we can to help honor them a little bit."

Van Horn will send true freshman lefty Parker Coil to the mound first today. Coil from Edmond (Okla.) Memorial, has appeared in three games allowing six hits, three runs, two earned, four walks and struck out one. Van Horn was asked what he wants to see out of Coil?

"Well, best-case scenario maybe three to four innings,"Van Horn said. "I just want to see him command the ball and pitch and make it hard on him. If they hit him and he’s throwing strikes, I get it. Get ahead in the count. I just want to see a freshman, who we see in the fall, he’s got a good curve ball and he hasn’t been pitching like freely. Like the other day he came in and he’s pitching like 86. On the board, and the board’s not always right. But then, you know, once he’s been in there for a while, all of a sudden you see 89. And that’s where he needs to come in at. That’s what he does. He’s 88 to 90-91. Mostly 89-90. I just want to see that guy."

In addition, the news on Brady Tygart and Koty Frank continues to not be good. Probably Arkansas' two best relievers went down with injuries last week. Van Horn provided an update.

"Just, there’s so many tests you can do," Van Horn said. "You can do an MRI. You can do an MRI with dye. And so we’re getting everything done just to clear everybody’s mind. We might already know by now. [Tygart] had the last one done today. He feels fine. But we’ve had other pitchers tell us they feel fine too and it’s not fine. So we’re hoping for the best.

"Well if it’s the Lat and it’s a strain, I think that’s what we’re looking at. If it’s worse then [Frank would] be done."

True freshman righty Cooper Dossett from Springdale Har-Ber also looks to see action on the mound today according to Van Horn. Dossett has appeared in two games so far. He has pitched 1.2 innings, allowing two hits, four runs, all earned, walked four and struck out three.

"Yeah, he’ll be on the board tomorrow," Van Horn said Monday. "He’s got a really good arm, he’s just got to pitch in the game. Little things. Got to be a little quicker to the plate so they don’t run on you. You’ve got to throw more strikes. His stuff is good. He didn’t pitch a whole lot his senior year because his arm was bothering him. Didn’t pitch all fall because his arm was bothering him, and we were rehabbing him. We didn’t even know how it was going to go once January and February got here, but he’s good. It’s not hurting. So, we thought ‘Hey, this is a major plus. This guy’s got good stuff’, but you’ve got to do  against the other team. If he figures it out, he could be a big part of it."

Today's game can be seen on SEC Network+.