FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 7 Arkansas will open the home portion of the schedule this weekend with a three-game series against Xavier.
Arkansas (3-1) opened the season with four games in Arlington, Texas, while Xavier (2-2) has faced East Carolina and Louisville. Against Xavier, the Hogs are expected to face more right-handed pitchers than they did last weekend. Dave Van Horn was asked if that will be good for his lefty-swinging batters?
"Statistically, that’s usually the case, unless they have a really, really good changeup that’s hard to pick up off their fastball," Van Horn said. "We saw a good mix down there. It was a really good experience for us. We have some lefties that, honestly, if you look at their numbers, they hit left-handed pitching pretty good. The lefty that came out of the pen for TCU, he stopped us for three innings. We’ve watched him the last year or so and that’s the best we’d seen him. His velocity stayed up and obviously we didn’t get him. We were only down a run for three innings and we didn’t score. To answer your question, yeah. It always… You think so. But hey, you never know how it’s going to go. We know that they have three right-handed starters, so mentally that’s what we’re preparing for and we know what they have in the pen as far as lefties and righties."
Kuhio Aloy was injured with a tweaked hamstring in Arlington and Van Horn was asked how he's progressing?
"He’s a lot better," Van Horn said Thursday. "He went full-go in practice yesterday and I feel like by tomorrow, he should be 90% at a minimum. He wanted to play on Monday and we had him doing a lot of stuff in the hotel and treatment. That’s why I got him out of there so quick, is I didn’t want this to be a month-long thing if he hurt it again trying to outrun something. It seems like he’s doing well because he was running about 70% pretty good on Monday, so it’s gotten better. We’ll look at it again today big-time and see what we think, but I feel like he’ll be ready to go."
The Razorbacks will go with the same rotation as last weekend. That is Gabe Gaeckle on Friday, Hunter Dietz Saturday and Colin Fisher Sunday. Van Horn liked what he saw from his bullpen for the most part.
"Man, I thought the guys that threw on Sunday and Monday did great," Van Horn said. "Obviously, Friday we used really two guys. I thought for the guys that pitched on Monday, (Ethan) McElvain was really good. Honestly, (Mark) Brissey was really good. (James) DeCremer was good. You know, so there are guys that are.
"Maybe with the younger guys when you’re talking about a Brissey or maybe even (Peyton) Lee getting a start on Monday, letting them see it for a few days. The stuff is as good as the guys that pitched on Saturday, so not scared to go with any of them. Got confidence. I’ve been saying that for a while. Now, we just maybe matchup more or go with who’s feeling the best. But usually early in the season, you go with guys that have a little more experience. You look at last year, we didn’t use (Cole) Gibler much early, and he ended up being the guy down the stretch. That’s good for us down the road."
Xavier won the first two games of the season over East Carolina, but then lost game 3 of that series and dropped Tuesday's game at Louisville 23-11. They beat East Carolina 4-3 and then 9-3 before falling 12-5.
"Yeah, they won Game 1 and Game 2 at East Carolina, who’s hosting a regional type of team, winning their league," Van Horn said. "They got beat Game 3, and then they went out to Louisville on Tuesday, which is just down the road for them. It was 9-9 going into the bottom of the fifth. The wind was blowing out hard the first half of that game, and they ran out of pitching a little bit. They probably had some people that were wild and walking and hitting people. They end up getting blown out. I think they kind of just let it go because they’re getting ready for us now. Traveled here today. Yeah, I think they were out there where they were looking for some games on the road. We contacted them, and they were all good with it. I’m looking at their lineup on the offensive end, I think they’re starting one freshman who had a really good weekend offensively, but it’s mostly sophomores, juniors and seniors. A couple seniors, a few juniors, a couple sophomores. So these are kids that were in the program last year and he liked what he saw and felt like, ‘hey, these guys got experience. I’m going to go play some Power 5 schools on the road early. Get ready for league play'. Give them credit for that.
"And then you look at the pitching, I think it’s a junior and a couple sophomores, and those two sophomores were freshmen last year, obviously. They pitched a lot. So, here they come. Yeah, this is a team that, I’m sure that they plan on being in a regional at the end of the year and this is a big series for us."
Several newcomers for Arkansas will be playing in front of the Baum-Walker fans for the first time.
"I think opening on the road like we did in front of such good crowds, I mean Friday's crowd was amazing and Saturday's was unbelievable," Van Horn said. "I mean, it was like a record non college world series crowd, I think, and, this early anyway. And so I think they should be able to handle the crowds and new guys used to it. I think sometimes you have to calm guys down a little bit. Opening day looks like we're gonna have a pretty good day, upper fifties, Light wind blowing out, and I think the fans will be excited. For those who don't know, we have 2 scoreboards now. One that can, basically, help the people in the right field corner see a little better. So that's kind of a cool look."
A funny video surfaced this week with Cam Kozeal carrying an armadillo out of the Arkansas dugout. The video caught Van Horn by surprise as well and he shared a funny exchange with his second baseman.
"So I didn't find out about it till yesterday," Van Horn said. "Maybe that's when the video came out. And I don't… I called him. I called him last night on the way driving home because that's when I got word about it. I just called him and I said, “Hey, when did you do this armadillo thing?” And he said, “Oh, it was last week. And I said, “Well, okay. And you didn't get bit or scratched or anything? He said, “No.” And I said, “You know, those things can give you leprosy.” And we have a good relationship. He goes, you know, he goes, “Like leprosy like in the Bible?” I said, “Yeah, like in the Bible. I said, “Oh, no. Don't be messing with those things. They're nasty. And I think I scared him a little bit, but, yeah, my wife actually called me and said, “I just saw a video of Cam with one of those nasty animals that mostly hang out in Texas. And I said, “Yeah, I know what you're talking about. But anyway, it was kind of funny, but thank goodness he didn't get bit, scratched, and yeah, they're dangerous. Stay away from them."
Friday's game starts at 3 p.m., 1 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday. The games can be streamed on the SEC Network+.