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Ask Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn, and he'll admit that last year's Diamond Hogs team, led by star lefty Hagen Smith, was probably pretty average without the hard-throwing ace on the mound.
"(Smith is) a once-every-now-and-then type of guy that you get to be around, that talent and what he did for our team," Van Horn said Wednesday. "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."
Fast forward an offseason full of quality transfer and freshmen additions and a year for players to develop, and that couldn't be more untrue for the 2025 Razorbacks.
To name a few, Arkansas reeled in top portal lefties in East Carolina'a Zach Root (3.56 ERA, 76 strikeouts) and Ohio State's Landon Beidelschies (4.15 ERA, 91 strikeouts), plus freshmen arms in Perfect Game No. 56 RHP Carson Wiggins and Perfect Game No. 109 LHP Cole Gibler.
With those four, plus returning right-handers Gabe Gaeckle (2.32 ERA, 57 strikeouts) and Gage Wood (4.46 ERA, 56 strikeouts) and a plethora of others, Arkansas has the makings of one of the deepest pitching staffs in program history and the country.
"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," Van Horn said. "I think they just make each other better."
Who exactly will start on the mound and in what order is still up for grabs, though, according to Van Horn.
"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."
Arkansas opens the season with a four-game series against Washington State, which should serve as a good opportunity to see plenty of arms before facing tougher competition in the College Baseball Series at Globe Life Field from Feb. 21-23.
"But the first weekend, we play four games, which I think is a good thing for this team, and then head down to Texas," Van Horn said. "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."
The Razorbacks will open their season Friday, Feb. 14, against Washington State at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville.
