HawgBeat - Arkansas Baseball Notebook: Bullpen struggles, third base battle, more
HawgBeat provides a free Arkansas baseball notebook following the team's second weekend of preseason scrimmages.
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The No. 8 Arkansas Razorbacks (5-2) won their first series at Baum-Walker Stadium of the 2023 season against Eastern Illinois over the weekend, taking two of three games from the Panthers.
While the first two contests on Friday and Saturday saw Arkansas outscore EIU 23-5 across both games, the Diamond Hogs were defeated 12-3 in Sunday's matchup as they were seeking a series sweep.
HawgBeat has plenty of notes from the weekend, including thoughts on the bullpen's performance, the third base situation, starting rotation, a pair of solid performances and more:
Arkansas bullpen has work to do
Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn mentioned before the season that he believed the depth of his pitching staff this year is the best he's ever had.
"Well right now, it's the best I've ever had," Van Horn said when asked about his pitching depth on Jan. 20. "Is that honest enough for you? That's the way I feel about it. I mean, we've got depth. But what you see on paper, we've gotta get it done on the field."
The Hogs haven't gotten it done on the field through seven games, as they currently sit with the worst team ERA (6.56) in the SEC. The majority of that rough number can be contributed to the team's bullpen, which has struggled mightily outside of right-handers Koty Frank (1.23 ERA) and Brady Tygart (1.93 ERA).
During Sunday's 12-3 loss to Eastern Illinois, lefty Hunter Hollan exited the game after giving up two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings pitch, and the Hogs led 3-2 at that point. Five Razorbacks relievers combined to surrender 10 total runs in 3 1/3 innings to put the game out of reach.
"We didn’t pitch very well at all after we took Hunter Hollan out," Van Horn said. "Towards the end, we just basically put those freshmen out there and gave them another opportunity and some of them did the same thing they did last weekend, which was not throw the ball over the plate."
The bullpen arms that Arkansas was hoping to rely on — outside of Frank and Tygart — struggled mightily.
Right-hander Cody Adcock gave up four earned runs on four hits in 1 1/3 innings pitched. After recording the final out of the sixth inning following Hollan's departure, Adcock saw all four runs cross in the seventh inning and three came on back-to-back home runs to left field — one of which came on an 0-2 count.
"You’ve got to be able to finish people," Van Horn said of Adcock. "That’s the key. You’ve got to be able to finish people. It doesn’t matter if you can get to two strikes in two pitches or three pitches, you’ve got to be able to put people away.
"Obviously, he’d throw you a good breaking ball and it looked really good, and then when he had two strikes he hung two. I mean, and they were hung from the time they came out of his hand. You could see it from the side. It was just mistakes instead of burying one in the dirt, trying to get a chase, let the catcher work for you and block a pitch."
A veteran arm that was nails for the Razorbacks in the postseason last year is lefty Zack Morris, who has a 13.50 ERA across his three appearances so far. Morris allowed three runs to score on two hits and he recorded just one out in relief of Adcock. The senior from Cabot has now seen seven runs (six earned) score in his last combined two innings of work.
"You’re gonna have to talk to him about it," Van Horn said when asked about Morris. "I don’t know what’s going on. I guess from the side, it looks like his location is not very good."
Freshman right-hander Gage Wood has been praised by Van Horn as a potential first year player that could be vital for the Razorbacks. While he had a pair of great outings in the 18-1 win over Oklahoma State on Feb. 19 and in Friday's win over Grambling, Wood has sandwiched those with two rough outings, one of which came on Sunday.
The Batesville native walked the only two batters he faced on Sunday to leave the bases loaded for fellow freshman Parker Coil. Van Horn said the opportunities for Wood are going to run out if he continues to struggle to locate under pressure.
"You know, we saw a guy throwing 94, 95 against us," Van Horn said. "We put him out against the other team — what was he throwing today, 91, 92? We were in bad shape when he came in, it wasn’t like the bases were loaded and it was tied. Just go out there and do your thing, and you know, he throws first pitch to the backstop. So he’s gonna have to get over that, or he won’t get to pitch much."
Van Horn even mentioned in his postgame press conference Sunday that he might have to change the way he rotates pitchers if the bullpen continues to struggle.
"You know, you can also just say ‘Hey, I’m only gonna announce my starter on Friday, and everybody’s on deck,'" Van Horn said. "'Let’s just go try to win today, and I’m not gonna tell you you’re starting. We tell you to pitch in the middle of the week, pitch in the middle of the week. Bring you in the bullpen on Friday, put you in the bullpen. If you’re available on Sunday, we’ll start you then.’ I mean, this is the stuff you see when you see guys out of the bullpen are not getting it done."
Who's on third?
Three different Razorbacks earned the start at third this weekend, and none of them really seemed to give an answer of who will start there moving forward.
Friday featured Brady Slavens starting at the hot corner after second baseman Peyton Stovall missed the game due to a thumb issue. Ben McLaughlin filled in for Slavens at first and Peyton Holt earned the start at second in place of Stovall.
Slavens looked more than serviceable at the position he played in JUCO ball prior to his time in Fayetteville, but he is too good at first to make a permanent switch to third.
"I thought he did a good job," Van Horn said. "Brady played third base and shortstop in high school, he played third base in junior college and wanted to play third base when he got here three years ago. But we had some pretty good third basemen, so we moved him around a little bit. I thought he did a good job."
On Saturday, Caleb Cali got the chance to start for the first time since the 18-6 loss to TCU on Feb. 18. After striking out in seven of his first eight plate appearances as a Hog, Cali reached base with a walk in a pinch hit situation Friday and he also drew a walk in his start.
While he was serviceable in the field, Cali still failed to get his first hit as a Razorback and that led to Van Horn pinch hitting McLaughlin for him.
"I had told (McLaughlin) about a hitter or two earlier to get loose, get ready because I just felt like Cali wasn't seeing the ball real good, and this guy was throwing a bunch of frisbee-type pitches up there, and it wasn't a good matchup for him right now," Van Horn said.
McLaughlin did end up suffering an injury after hitting an RBI single Saturday, and Van Horn didn't have any update on McLaughlin's status after the game.
"Yeah, we don't know yet," Van Horn said. "Doctors have looked at it. They don't think it's major yet, but if he's sore or swelled up in the morning, I think is the word they used, then we'll probably get an MRI on it. If not, might just be a little bit of a pull."
On Sunday, freshman Reese Robinett started at third, and he had some ups and downs. The native of Kennett, Missouri, took care of routine plays with ease, but the hardest test he saw was a heater that went right through his legs and into left field to score an EIU run in the top of the eighth inning.
If he continues to play well in the field, Robinett's bat is plenty good to keep him in the lineup over a struggling Cali.
"Robinett did great, in my opinion," Van Horn said. "I mean, he smoked a ball opposite field, he also lined out to left field — opposite field — on a changeup. He made a good adjustment on that pitch. He grounded out and…I think he might’ve grounded out twice, but I like the way he played.
"He played fearless. Just went up there and had a good approach at the plate. I just think that he’s earned some more time whether it’s Wednesday or next weekend or whenever, I’ll have confidence putting him in there."
Of note, freshman Jayson Jones did not play over the weekend after starting back-to-back games at third base against Oklahoma State and Grambling.
