FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 5 Arkansas now heads to Arlington, Texas, to play a trio of games in the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series.
Arkansas (4-0) will be joined by Kansas State (1-4), Michigan (4-0) and TCU (4-0). The Hogs will open play Friday night against Kansas State at 7 p.m. Dave Van Horn was asked Wednesday if he has the starting rotation set?
"Well, we have, but we haven’t talked to them yet, the pitchers," Van Horn said Wednesday morning. "We’re getting ready to practice in about two hours and we just want to talk to them first. So we can either announce it later today or in the morning."
Kansas State has struggled to start the season. Van Horn has plenty of respect for the Wildcats.
"Well obviously they’re going on the road and playing some really good competition," Van Horn said. "They lost a tough one last night. Had an opportunity to watch it live, as I think all the coaches did, and they played a few different people and they swung the bats pretty good. It’s a different team than last year, couple, three starters back and couple guys they filled in are guys we knew about that were in the transfer portal. Other than that, just what we’ve seen, they’ll be scrappy and I feel like they probably feel like they should have won last night’s game. We’ll be getting their best effort on Friday."
Kansas State fell to No. 6 North Carolina 12-9 on Tuesday night in Chapel Hill. Kansas State defeated Arkansas 7-6 in the Fayetteville Regional last year and TCU won the same event in 2023. Losing to those two teams recently provide any extra motivation for Van Horn and the team?
"Well, it’s not something that we address," Van Horn said. "Obviously it’s a different year. We’re just going to try to beat K-State on Friday and we’ll do what we need to do. As of right now, unless something changes, we’re pretty healthy and I feel like the team is fairly confident. We could have done some things better this past weekend, but we’ll address those today. This will be our first time we’ve met with the team since Monday. But yeah, I don’t feel like it’s that way. In baseball, it’s year to year and then when you get to that year, it’s weekend to weekend. We’re just going to try to play well in the game that’s in front of us."
Considering Fayetteville has several inches of snow and temperatures hovering around zero Van Horn is pleased the team is going to be in Texas this weekend.
"So far, unless we get stuck in the snow on the way down there tomorrow. It’s pretty good timing," Van Horn said. "If it was going to happen that we could get out of town and then you look at the forecast for the next week or two once we get back, it looks pretty good. So that’s good. Our guys are looking forward to that."
The three starting spots are between four pitchers. Gabe Gaeckle, Zach Root, Gage Wood and Landon Beidelschies. Van Horn addressed the pitch count they would be on.
"If they’re fortunate to get that far enough in the game, I would say 80," Van Horn said. "Maybe a little bit more, but not much. Yeah, they all did a great job of giving us five innings. Makes it obviously difficult to figure out who not to start, but when you start really looking at it, you probably just go with the guys that have had the most rest."
What will be the role for the one who doesn't start?
"Yeah, I think you’d probably see him more towards the back of the game, although it depends on what we’ve done with our back of the game guys," Van Horn said. "You’ve got two guys that are pretty good back there right now and then you’d throw in another one. I really think it depends on what kind of the game tells us to do. Do we need to bring in one of these guys in the fifth and let him roll until they hit a pitch count? Or if things are going well and then they get tight, do we just use them in the eighth and the ninth? It’s a good problem to have that we’re going to have that option this weekend."
It appears that Van Horn will use Christian Foutch and true freshman Carson Wiggins as the closers. In two innings, Foutch allowed two hits and a run. He earned the win in the season opener. Wiggins allowed one hit in an inning.
"Yeah, that’d be what I see so far," Van Horn said. "You know, you think about Wiggins the other day, I read something that said he threw 13 strikes out of 20 pitches and they were all fastballs, but forgot to mention the two breaking balls that were strikes in the box that the umpire missed. One of them would’ve ended the game. I think he just fooled him, because it was nasty. You guys could probably see it from up there they were strikes and it wasn’t like they were just on the edge. He’s got a secondary pitch that can get you off that 99 mile an hour fastball and you have to respect it, because it’s a good one. We’re excited that he came in and showed a little bit of that and did it in a real game . You’ll see him again this weekend."
Senior outfielder Logan Maxwell transferred to Arkansas TCU. He has been injured, but Van Horn makes it sound like he could see action this weekend. Maxwell hit three home runs and .335 while earning All-Big 12 honorable mention last season. There, he split his time between outfield and designated hitter.
"I’ll know more here in a little bit," Van Horn said. "I did get a message from our trainer today, Corey Wood, that he was good to go, so he says. We’ll run him today and put him through some tests. It would be nice to play him in the outfield for at least a game this weekend. We’ll make that determination when we see him move today, and then again tomorrow. Maybe even discuss things with him on Friday morning if we’re not 100% in by tomorrow after the workout."
Second baseman Nolan Souza and first baseman Rocco Peppi struggled against Washington State. Peppi had one hit in 11 at bats while Souza one for seven. Van Horn was asked if he was concerned with those two's start to season?
"There’s no panic, at all, but there’s definitely some discussions with them about their approach," Van Horn said. "Sometimes, it’s just the way it goes. The one at-bat with Rocco I wish we could get back was when he got a 3-1 pitch and he got jammed off the sidearmer, because that’s not him at all. That’s not his personality. He’s going to let that barrel get to the ball pretty good there and not get beat, and he got beat. Souza, you know, just didn’t make an adjustment on the changeup. Wasn’t seeing it. He’s done well. Still played really good defense. Hopefully, those guys will get it going this weekend."
Van Horn was asked if playing in the home of the Texas Rangers where they drew 21,000 against TCU two years ago and 17,000 when they played Oklahoma State ever gets old?
“I don’t think it will ever get old,” Van Horn said. “It is pretty exciting when you think about it. First couple of weeks in the season in front of 15,000-plus, maybe 20,000-plus. It is something that I think the players really enjoy and gives them the opportunity for you hear it, see it and the feel of what it is like to be in that situation, that atmosphere.
“It is not your park. I think the experience that you gain from that, I don’t see how it could not help you down the road.”
Van Horn talked about the competition this weekend compared to what he expects when the Hogs enter SEC play.
“I’ll probably be able to talk about that more on Monday or next week, but just on paper, you see what is going on, two of the teams, I mean they have all gone on the road," Van Horn said. "Two of the teams are 4-0 on the road, which is really impressive. That tells you something there about the talent.
"You start with Michigan. They really hit the ball, scored a lot of runs this weekend, did a great job. They fielded it as well. They only made a couple errors and TCU does what they do. They find ways to win. They'll hit, they'll field, they pitch.
"K-State coming out of the cold like they did and heading down to South Carolina or way down south playing some really good teams. Probably the team that's going to obviously the most frustrated coming in and they're going to give a great effort. I know Pete Hughes, their coach, pretty well. You follow his track record, uh, especially after that loss last night, cause it felt like… It was a game that they feel like they should have won and watching it, that's what I saw. I think the competition is going to be great. Comparing it to the rest of the league is hard to say, but it's definitely to me… No knock on Washington State, they had a lot of new guys. They traveled, they haven't been outside. They had a solid team. They really didn't walk us till the last day. They walked us the last inning of the first game and then they walked us on Monday. Other than that, they threw a lot of strikes and played pretty good, but this is going to be a step up in competition for us."
The Razorbacks will return home to host Grambling next Tuesday at 3 p.m.