FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas will continue its baseball season Tuesday afternoon when they play host to Oral Roberts University.
Arkansas (9-3) struggled some last week and dropped to No. 9 in this week's poll after being at No. 6 last week. The Razorbacks lost to Arkansas State and Texas-Arlington. The team was dealing with several players ill and missing time. Dave Van Horn at the Swatter's Club on Monday failed to use that as an excuse.
"I think we have played a tougher schedule this year," Van Horn said. "Last year we were 10-1 at this time"
Van Horn was asked about the other SEC teams facing varying degrees of difficult schedules?
"Maybe so," Van Horn said. "But you never know. I’m not saying… I don’t think they’ve faced as much as we have. Some of them. There’s some that have. If they did an RPI strength of schedule right now, it’d be interesting to see where we’re at. A team like Xavier, they’re out on the west coast playing Fullerton, they’re going to go to Oregon, Oregon State. I don’t know who did their schedule, but he knew he had a good team. But I think their wins are coming in the second half of the season, where they’re going to help our RPI. But yeah. They had a couple guys that were good on the mound and we had to fight a little bit, especially that Friday night."
In the Tuesday game against ORU, Van Horn has opted to start sophomore righty James DeCremer, a transfer from Oregon State. DeCremer worked 3.1 innings in the 1-0 win over Arkansas State this past Wednesday despite being sick. He allowed just one hit to a very good Arkansas State lineup and struck out three. He is expected to also be key member of the bullpen this season.
"Yeah, doesn’t mean he’s going to start next Tuesday because we don’t play next Tuesday," Van Horn said. "It doesn’t mean he’s going to go very long either tomorrow. That’s some of the thought process. You’ll see some guys tomorrow. No, he’s going to be a big bullpen piece for us on the weekends. We’re not going to use him just on Tuesdays. We just want to get him out there because it’s been a week, he got sick. So just give him the ball. He deserves it. Let him go a few innings and then we’ll go from there.
"He’s got one pitch that’s really hard to hit. If he can get ahead of you it’s hard and he can get you. His fastball’s good. I mean he’ll go 92 but then he can pop 95. He’s got a little experience. Yeah, just a good mix. A really good mix."
True freshman shortstop Carson Brumbaugh has struggled at the plate this season. He's hitting .162 with six hits in 37 at bats. But two of those hits along with an RBI came in Sunday's win over Texas-Arlington. He felt like that along with his hit on Saturday took a lot of pressure off of him and Van Horn agreed.
"Yeah, I think so," Van Horn said. "We tweaked his stance a little bit, went back and looked at some video of fall. It looked like he was standing a little bit taller, even if it was five or six inches taller and get into his legs a little bit more. Coach (Nate) Thompson’s the one who kind of discovered it and brought him in and showed him that. At least you’ve just got to give them something, something to try. Sometimes it’s more mental than anything. But the ball you saw him hit into the gap yesterday, that’s what we saw him do in the Fall. He’d hit hard balls to right center and some of them would leave the park. So hopefully we can get some production down there."
Outfielder Zack Stewart, a transfer from Missouri State, has been impressive. He's hitting .353 with three home runs and knocked in five.
"I think more than anything, in my opinion, is just the experience took over a little bit," Van Horn said. "He got in the game, and I’m kind of going, ‘okay, he looks good in the box. He looks like he knows what he’s doing. He looks like he’s done this before’. And then his presence in there. I just like the way he’s swinging the bat. Now, he’s a lot better against right-handers than left. You can look at the numbers over the years, which we have. So, if he keeps doing what he’s doing, you’ll see him in the lineup, unless I just give him a day off, pretty much all the time against right-handed pitchers."
Two true freshmen, Alexander Peck and Carter Rutenbar, had big hits in the seventh inning against Texas-Arlington on Sunday. Those two along with Stewart, Damian Ruiz and some others seems to indicate the Razorbacks may be a little deeper than it appeared earlier in season.
"Yeah. I mean, I hope so," Van Horn said. "If Stewart does a good job… The key is the two that I mentioned at the end, our shortstop and third baseman. (TJ) Pompey, he’s done it before. The freshman, that’s going to be up and down, but it’s in there. Just about the time you think, ‘This guy is an easy out,’ he needs to hit a double. That’s kind of what’s going on yesterday. We’ve got to be deeper. It can’t just be six or seven. It’s gotta be nine — eight and a half, anyway. It’s gotta be more."
