Arkansas Baseball Notebook: Latest Gage Wood Update & More

masonchoate · Monday at 2:51 PM

Arkansas baseball head coach Dave Van Horn met with members of the media Monday following his Swatter's Club luncheon with Diamond Hog fans at the Fayetteville Public Library.

Van Horn spoke for a little less than an hour at the podium before taking questions from reporters (video above) to provide more in-depth updates for the Razorbacks, who are now the No. 1 team in the nation with a 30-3 overall record and an 11-1 mark in SEC play.

HawgBeat has a notebook below with the latest news and notes regarding Arkansas baseball, including injury updates for pitchers Gage Wood and Hunter Dietz, Van Horn's thoughts on his team so far, fun stories and more...

Gage Wood update

Arkansas junior right-hander Gage Wood has been sidelined from action since suffering a shoulder injury during the Feb. 23 game against Michigan. Van Horn said Feb. 25 that if everything went well, Wood's timeline to return would be five-to-six weeks. Tuesday (April 8) will mark six weeks from when Van Horn said that.

"He's coming along," Van Horn said. "I don't want to say anything too much, but everything I've seen, it looks good. He's not having any problems, just now we're building him up. You might see him on the roster this weekend or the next one hopefully, so we'll see how that goes."

Wood pitched five innings in his season debut against Washington State on Feb. 15, when he gave up two runs on two hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. He was up to six strikeouts with no walks and one unearned run allowed on two hits in two innings against Michigan before the injury occured.

Van Horn said Monday that the rehab has been really good for Wood.

"Gage is an extremely hard worker and he’s very serious," Van Horn said. "Sometimes I’ll try to keep it light when I see him and he’s not really having it. He’s like, working. He threw a pen a couple days ago. I was actually up in the weight room and I watched through the windows and it looked really good.

"Yeah, I think that he’s getting there. I think pain-free and what I saw the other day, he’s throwing the ball 90 mph with ease. If he makes it the next bullpen and next bullpen and he’s still good, I think you get over the hump and that’s what we’re hoping."

As for the role Wood will have when he returns, that is still to be determined.

"He is a strike thrower," Van Horn said. "His bullpen the other day everything was right around the dish. I think what we do is we try to throw him an inning, whether it’s leverage or not. He may be better than what we’ve got available that day. But bring him along until he gets built up and then once he does get in there, is he going to start or close or do whatever? He’ll do whatever.

"But I don’t know how we’ll bring him back. We do have some midweeks the next couple weeks and maybe we give him a start and say, ‘Hey, you got 30 pitches,’ then we get the next guy, or we bring him in second. I don’t know. But it’d just be nice to have him standing on that mound."

Charles Davalan's big change

Florida Gulf Coast transfer outfielder Charles Davalan has been on an offensive tear as of late, and part of that can be credited to him changing part of his approach at the plate. He's no longer using a high leg kick before his swing, and Van Horn said he thinks that's made a positive change.

"Yeah that was something that had been being discussed, that he’s a good hitter and he hit with it," Van Horn said. "I mean, he hit all fall with it and we were like ‘Wow, this guy’s really good.’ He’s got really good hand-eye coordination. Doesn’t swing and miss very much.

"You look at his stats right now, he’s struck out like eight or nine times and walked like 19. That’s a good stat, now. But yeah, I would say you’re right. I really like his stance now (and) his approach. He’s still powerful, using the whole field with power, been a tough out with two strikes. That was probably, what, about 10 days, two weeks into the seasons and kind of flipped that. Obviously I think it’s helped."

Davalan ranks second on the team behind Cam Kozeal (.417 avg) with a .400 batting average and he paces the Razorbacks — and the SEC — with 54 hits, 11 home runs and 51 runs scored.

Kozeal named SEC Player of the Week

The revolving door of batting average leader on the team has now resulted in Vanderbilt transfer Cam Kozeal being on the top of the mountain with a .417 batting average, which is an even better .532 in SEC play.

Kozeal was awarded SEC Player of the Week after he led the SEC in nearly every major offensive category, including hits (9), doubles (3), RBI (13), total bases (18), on-base percentage (.706) and slugging percentage (1.385) last week. He accounted for 13 RBI in the series sweep of Missouri, which was more than the Tigers scored as a team all weekend.

"I’ll tell you this, when Cam came in I thought he was really uptight because I think he’s a really loyal person," Van Horn said. "I think that’s the way he’s been raised. Parents are unbelievable. He’s a big brother to all those brothers and sister and it didn’t go good. And then he’s thinking, ‘These guys, they went and got me. I don’t know if I’m going to get to play.’ You could just see his head spinning.

"And he talked with Coach Thompson, Coach brought him in and talked to him after fall ball and he just kept working. Then the season starts and he doesn’t start. Then we could see him getting better. January, February, it was like, ‘That’s the guy. That’s what we were thinking.’ So then it was like, ‘Hey Cam, what would you think about playing first base?’ I called him. I already had the glove sitting at my desk. It was already broke in. Somebody else probably used it. I think I told that story.

"I was out of the office for a couple hours and when I got back, it was off my desk. It was gone. He got it. He just wanted to play, not DH. You only have one DH. And the rest is history. He worked really hard. But his makeup is what you want as a coach. He’s tough. He doesn’t feel entitled. He wants to earn it and he’s stayed strong and just kept working. He made me play him and now it’s like, ‘Why didn’t I play him earlier?’ It had to evolve and it did. I think it’s made him stronger because of what he went through."

Will Hunter Dietz pitch this year?

The real Arkansas baseball fans know how much the coaching staff loves redshirt freshman left-handed pitcher Hunter Dietz, who hasn't been able to escape injuries since he arrived on campus. Dietz was one of the best pitchers on the team during his freshman fall in 2023, but he's pitched in live action just twice — both times as a freshman — since then.

According to Van Horn, Dietz is healthy right now but his velocity is not where it needs to be. It sounds like another redshirt could be on the table for Dietz.

"He redshirted last year so this year would be a medical, or we could have medical last year," Van Horn said. "Either way, he still would have four years of eligibility. If he can pitch, he’s going to pitch. We need another left-hander. If he got back to real close to what he was before he hurt the arm for the second time, which it was hurt in high school, it could really be a boost for us."

Arkansas State coming to town

The Red Wolves from Jonesboro will travel across the state Tuesday to face the Razorbacks on national television (SEC Network) at 6 p.m. CT at Baum-Walker Stadium. While Arkansas State owns a 14-17 overall record, it is fresh off a win at No. 21 Coastal Carolina on Sunday.

"I'm sure they're talking about that (win) right now," Van Horn said. "I think they flew straight into here from over there (in Conway, South Carolina) instead of going from there to Jonesboro and bussing over. I may be wrong. I think they're going to work out today at our park, so they're probably talking about 'Hey, let's get us another ranked team and knock them off too.'"

Van Horn did reveal that the Hogs will start sophomore right-hander Tate McGuire on the mound against the Red Wolves. It'll mark his second consecutive start and second start of his career, as he tossed four innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts and two walks last Tuesday against Grambling.