FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas freshman second baseman Robert Moore was named Tuesday to the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Freshman All-American team.

A switch-hitter from Leawood, Kan. and the son of Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore, Robert Moore for the 11-5 Razorbacks’  hit .317 with 20 hits in 63 at bats including two home runs and two doubles with 17 RBI, scoring 10  runs and stealing three bases in three attempts.

The entire college baseball season was stopped mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic and not resumed.

Moore started all 16 games, 15 at second base and one at shortstop.  

Shortstop could be Moore’s 2021 position assuming junior Preseason All-American Casey Martin of Lonoke is drafted and signed off the 5-rounds June 10-11 Major League draft.

Moore made only one error in 62 chances and turned in some defensive gems including one directly from his glove flip to first for a putout. 

After going 2 for 12 in the season-opening 3-game series sweep of Eastern Illinois, Moore went 8 for 12 in a 4-game sweep against Gonzaga  including a home run and doubles, nine RBI, four runs scored, and two stolen bases and at least one hit in all four games.

For gashing Gonzaga Moore was named SEC Co-Player of the Week by the SEC Office and National Player of the Week by Perfect Game.   Later Moore was named SEC Freshman of the Week going 5 for 9 with three RBI and a run scored during a 2-game sweep of Grand Canyon University.

Enrolling at the UA last January as a 17-year, old high school graduate, opened the season batting ninth.  By the season’s abbreviated end Moore had batted both second and from fifth through eighth.

Moore became the 23rd Razorback under Coach Dave Van Horn and retired predecessor Norm DeBriyn to be recognized on a Freshman All-American team and the fifth in the last four years.  The recent five start with center fielder Dominic Fletcher (2017), outfielder Heston Kjerstad, a 2018 Freshman All-American and  a Collegiate Baseball 2020 All-American and likely to be among the first as a draft eligible junior selected in the 2020 Major League League draft,  Casey Martin, Freshman All-American as a third baseman in 2018 now a junior draft eligible shortstop, and pitcher Connor Noland  of Greenwood in 2019./

Noland as a 2020 sophomore went  2-0 with a 2.00 earned run average in three starts.  He would have pitched the SEC season opener at Mississippi State had not the season been announced as pandemic cancelled just as the Razorbacks were expected to depart Fayetteville for Starkville, Miss.

Van Horn’s Razorbacks have not played since third baseman Jacob Nesbit, Moore and first baseman Cole Austin turned a spectacular 5-4-3 doubleplay to beat Grand Canyon 10-9 on March 11 two days before the cancelled SEC opener at Mississippi State.

However Razorbacks Moore, Nesbit, Christian Franklin, Matt Goodheart,  Peyton Pallette, Kevin Kopps, Jacob Burton, Brady Slavens, a junior college transfer and former Wichita State Shocker, and Curtis Washington, playing for the Razorbacks in 2019 and 2020 currently with his name submitted into the NCAA transfer portal, all are playing in the amateur summer ball  Perfect Timing Baseball League that started Monday at the Tyson Complex in Springdale.

On June 29, the baseball Razorbacks along with spring sports athletes from  women’s softball, men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis can begin using UA weight rooms and facilities for “voluntary” strength and  conditioning.

Those workouts can be overseen only by the strength and conditioning staffs but not the coaches specifically coaching those sports.

The same applies for athletes and their coaches for the fall sports conditioning that starts Monday with football, men’s and women’s cross country, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball, and the June 22 commencement for “voluntary” workouts for winter concluded  second semester sports including men’s and women’s indoor track, women’s gymnastics and women’s swimming and diving.

Incoming freshmen not previously enrolled to participate in UA athletics of any sport are not to report for any sport until June 29.

Photos courtesy of Craven Whotlow, CW3 Sports Action

• Razorback freshman second baseman Robert Moore (#1) from Leawood, KS makes an easy put out against Grand Canyon at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, AR.

• Razorback freshman second baseman Robert Moore (#1) from Leawood, KS makes a put-out against Illinois State at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, AR.