FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas is nearing the start of the 2025 baseball season on February 14 and Dave Van Horn is looking forward to the campaign.
Arkansas is ranked No. 13 in one preseason poll and No. 5 in another. In recent years the Hogs have battled injuries to key players and that could happen again in 2025, but at least the season isn't starting out that way.
"Real good,{ Van Horn said of his team's health. "You know, really, the only issue we have right now is with Gabe Fraser, who had a little arm trouble in the fall. Still working through that. Other than that, so far, everybody’s in good shape."
It appears at least four pitchers have a chance to be in the starting rotation including former Batesville standout Gage Wood. Last season Wood appeared in 22 games for the Razorbacks with three starts. He was 3-2 with an ERA of 4.46.
"I mean, we’re going to let them prove it to us a little more," Van Horn said. "We saw a lot of good things in the fall, and then off-season, I think just because we’ve been around Gabe Gaeckle so much, had him here, we feel like that he will definitely be a starter. (Zach) Root looks like a starter. Gage Wood. (Landon) Beidelschies. Those are all possibilities, and there are some other guys in there, now…
"But the first weekend, we play four games, which I think is a good thing for this team, and then head down to Texas. If you look at our schedule, there aren’t a lot of games where you can go, ‘okay, we’re going to experiment with that freshman out there’. Although, in some cases with freshmen, it’s not an experiment. They’re pretty darn good. I mean, yeah, kind of tip-toeing around the question, but I mentioned four guys at the top and they’ll battle for those jobs to start out."
No matter the poll the majority of the teams in the Top 25 are from the SEC. In the DI Baseball poll where the Razorbacks were fifth, there was three SEC teams ranked ahead of them.
"We figured it out there other day," Van Horn said. "I think of our 30 conference games, 27 of those games are ranked right now. You never know how it’s going to turn out or who’s going to do what down the road, but if you look at some teams that maybe lost a lot of players that were really good last year, we don’t play them this year. They’re not on our schedule, some of them. We’re playing some older teams, some really good teams. Got some tough road games — at LSU, at Florida, just to name a few. Yeah, it’s… We play Washington State, so I’m going to worry about that right now and just try to get better."
Last season the season ended in the Fayetteville Regional. Van Horn talked about the personality of this year's team.
"A lot different personality than last year’s team," Van Horn said. "This year’s team just seems really confident and a little more verbal, vocal. So far, so good. Feel like they get along really well. That’s the feedback I’ve gotten from returners, and then the new guys just seem to really like it here. Like what’s going on. I think they’re excited about the schedule we’ve lined up, which is ridiculously tough, but it’ll be a lot of fun."
Gaeckle is a sophomore who made a big impact as a true freshman in 2024. He appeared in 22 games, all out of the bullpen, but it was known he would be a starter this season. He was 3-3 with an ERA of 2.32.
"I think he knows he’s there, he’s a guy," Van Horn said. "I mean, he’s just confident. His stuff’s always been good. Location seems to be better than ever.
"The interesting thing about this staff — you guys are asking me about individual players and I love talking about the players after they’ve been here a while and we’ve seen a lot, but trying to stay away from it a little bit because we still have a lot we have to prove — but we don’t have (Hagen) Smith this year. That’s a once-every-now-and-then type of guy that you get to be around, that talent and what he did for our team. You take him off of our team last year, we’re probably pretty average because we were a really good fielding team and we didn’t hit real well and we weren’t very dynamic as far as some other things, but we probably overachieved. We don’t have that guy, but what we have is we have a staff and we have a lot of really good pitchers who work hard. I think they just make each other better."
Probably no one suffered more from an injury in 2024 than outfielder Kendall Diggs. He still managed to play in 55 games, 54 starts, but only hit .229 with 7 home runs and only 34 runs batted in. He opted to return for this season after his disappointing 2024.
"He’s 100% cleared to do everything now," Van Horn said. "Now it’s all about timing at the plate, it’s about getting that bat speed back that he’s had in the past, seeing live pitching and just feeling confident. He has a great personality. He’s easy to be around, easy to talk to. Players gravitate to him. Now it’s not about him feeling part of the team, because he’s going to be a big part of our team, it’s just a matter of how soon. We know what he can do when he’s full-go. He’s stronger than ever. Even with the shoulder injury, he’s had a chance to work on his lower half and he’s a full-grown man now, it’s time to go. I think he’s excited about being out there."
The Hogs have a potential star player in third baseman Brent Iredale who signed from New Mexico Junior College. Iredale was outstanding in the fall and Van Horn has high expectations for him.
"Yeah, Iredale is- I call him The Silent Assassin," Van Horn said. "He doesn't say a whole lot, but he'll get after you in the game. You guys might have been out to a few of our fall scrimmages, but then when we played outside competition, he got his hits that Friday night, four or five of them. He didn't kill the ball, but we've seen him hit balls off the scoreboard, opposite field, pull balls out of the park. He's a big guy that can run. He can steal bases, kind of sneaky there. I think the players love him, because like I said, he doesn't say a whole lot, smiling all the time, and yeah, he's got a chance to be really good. Now, you know the question always is, and probably for the scouts and everybody else, is, OK, you're going from junior college to Division I, but he did a good job in the fall. It's not like we saw a guy that couldn't hit a slider or couldn't recognize a change up. He's got some awareness to him, and he's coachable. And yeah, we feel like that he could have a really big year for us. And again, he's on a team where he doesn't have to do it all for us. He can just be one of the guys."
The Razorbacks will host Washington State for a four-game series to start the season. The first game is set for Friday, Feb. 14, at 3 p.m. Saturday's game begins at 2, Sunday at 1 and Monday at noon.