Razorback pitcher Brady Tygart (#25) from Hernando, MS closes out the ninth inning against LSU at Baum-Walker Stadium this past April 16 in Fayetteville. He will be returning to the Razorback lineup in the upcoming season.
By Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- In a bit of surprise news, Arkansas' Dave Van Horn announced Friday night the Razorbacks will host the Texas Rangers instructional league team on Oct. 12 and 13.
Van Horn said he had just told the team prior to talking to the media.
"We didn’t want it out there (earlier), but we are going to play the Texas Rangers instructional league team here at Baum on the 12th and 13th of October," Van Horn said. "I think the first game will be at night.”
More details will come out in the coming days about the games.
“I don’t know if it is going to be seven or nine innings,” Van Horn told Hogville's Dudley E. Dawson and assembled media. “It depends on how much pitching they have. I think they are going to play in Arlington on Tuesday, maybe play TCU or somebody and then we are going to play them twice. They tried to get us to come down there, but we kind of talked them into coming here.
“They kind of contacted us and said you want to come down here and play our instructional league team. There were some pretty good names on that team, but I think some of them are going to go out to the (Arizona) Fall League before we get to play them then. Maybe even some from the SEC that we’ve seen before that were pretty good.”
Former Vanderbilt star Kumar Rocker, who was the third overall pick of the 2022 MLB draft by the Rangers, has been pitching for that team. Van Horn went into the reasons he wanted the games at Baum-Walker Stadium instead of on the road.
“I’m not saying that we wouldn’t have done well," Van Horn said. "It would have been a good trip, it would just have cost money and there is a lot that goes into that, missing school and our schedule in the spring is pretty tough as you have seen since they have changed it as well.”
Arkansas' next scrimmage will be at 2:30 on Sunday. They will also scrimmage on Thursday and Friday as well.