Tue February 04, 2025

By Bren Yocom

Sports Razorbacks

Season Opener for Arkansas Baseball set for February 14-17

Arkansas Razorbacks Razorback Baseball
Season Opener for Arkansas Baseball set for February 14-17
By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE -- The season opener for Arkansas is nearing with Washington State set for a four-game series on Feb. 14-17.

Dave Van Horn and Arkansas held the first Swatter's Club of the season on Monday. Van Horn said he still feels good about the rotation and starting lineup.

"Yeah, I don’t think anybody has come back and disappointed me," Van Horn said. "I think some guys have gotten better. Example, a guy like Michael Anderson didn’t have a good fall at all. Obviously a big first baseman, so you know you’ve got to hit. I think he’s kind of done something about it that’s given him a chance to get in there. You’ve got Rocco Peppi’s healthy and he hit three balls hard yesterday. Got tough luck with some of the wind … Kendall Diggs, you never know how it’s going to go when he comes back. Didn’t play all summer, all fall. Now he’s facing live pitching. He’s squaring up some balls. He got jammed a couple of times. 

"Just because we lost all three of our starters. You never can have enough pitching. We went into the portal and got three left-handed pitchers that were .. then we got a right-hander as well. He struck out a few times. Also hit balls hard the other way. Yesterday he hit a ball that would’ve been a double but he’s had a little hamstring problem. He also hit a ball off the building the other day. So seeing him doing what he’s doing is really good to see and knowing that he’ll be ready to play Opening Day as long as his leg is healthy."

The competition is still keen at first base. Van Horn likes the position in that he has options there.

"Like I said, we have options at first, is what I’m saying," Van Horn said. "It’s not like we don’t know who to play over there. We’ve got 3, 4, 5 guys we can stick at first. You’ve to have somebody over there that can catch the baseball and field balls out of the dirt and field bunts. We worked a lot of them out.

"We took Kuhio (Aloy) and just put him in the outfield basically, because I think that’s where he’s going to play in the future," Van Horn said. "He’s got a big arm, he runs well and he has power. Fielding ground balls is not kind of his thing yet, so to speak, even though he played some over there last year at BYU in practice. So that eliminated one. When Kendall came back, it gave us another option where it could be him or Peppi or Anderson. Reese Robinett is probably the best defender over there, I mean, maybe. I’m working him out at third all the time, because he’s pretty good over there — had a bad day, maybe it was Friday, then good day Saturday. Yeah, I guess it’s a good problem to have. The thing is, most of the guys over there can swing the bat a little bit."

Van Horn said they have had no discussions on the four-man rotation, but it appears the ones who will fill those roles are clear. Transfers Zach Root and Landon Beidelschies appear set to join returnees Gabe Gaeckle and former Batesville standout Gage Wood. Gaeckle pitched out of the bullpen last year and Wood split time starting and pitching in relief.

One steadying force in the bullpen is Will McEntire, who pitched at Bryant High School. Van Horn has said McEntire is a little different this season,

"Well, it’s just that he’s throwing it for a strike," Van Horn said. "Last year, he left it high or throwing it too far out, trying to throw the ball away. Now our hitters are having to respect it. Our guys are sitting on that cutter a little bit, then that fastball comes and they don’t catch up to it. It just keeps them off balance and that’s what he was missing last year. That’s the key for him."

Sophomore Ryder Helfrick returns as the catcher and Van Horn feels like he can be one of the nation's best.

"All you have to do is know how to read the data and see how many pitches he gets up a game," Van Horn said. "For example, if there is a 50/50 ball, which is right on the edge, maybe a ball out, they’re going to call it 50/50 strike or ball. It’s dependent upon, a lot of times, how it’s received. Let’s say there’s 25 50/50 balls in the game and he gets 15 of those calls and the other catchers only gets X amount — and then there’s also a ball that’s a strike that they run out of the zone — you’ll win the game on looking at the catchers. You can look at how that ends up being scored and go ‘Wow, we beat them by 12 pitches.’ Usually you win. And he’s usually not beat."

The meeting was held at the Fayetteville Public Library. It was an extremely large crowd and Van Horn thanked the ones who attended.

"I appreciate it so much," Van Horn said. "I didn’t know what it was going be like coming over here. I knew it was probably going to be a little bigger room, it seemed to be pretty full. They seemed excited about the season. There was a little hype about the season. Hats off to the players, getting better. Coaches getting some good players in here. It went well in the fall. I was thinking at the end of last year with what we were losing, it was going to take some time this year with whoever we brought in, just because it was so many, but the personalities that we brought in… But we tried to figure them out during the recruiting process and ask all the right questions and not sugar coat it for them and see how they act. I think we got some of the right guys mentally. We’ll see how it turns out.”

The Washington State series begins on Friday with the first pitch set for 3 p.m. Saturday will follow at 2, Sunday 1 and Monday noon. 

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