HawgBeat - Arkansas Baseball Notebook: Van Horn's early-season report card
HawgBeat provides a loaded Arkansas baseball notebook after Dave Van Horn's Swatter's Club luncheon Monday.
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas baseball head coach Dave Van Horn held his second Swatter's Club luncheon of the 2024 season Monday afternoon to give loyal fans (and some media members) the latest updates on the No. 2 Razorbacks (9-2) after three weeks of play.
HawgBeat was in attendance to provide live updates, plus we have a full notebook with plenty of tidbits from Van Horn, injury updates, lineup struggles and a lot more...
In the polls
RPI: No. 2D1Baseball: No. 2
Perfect Game: No. 2
Baseball America: No. 3
USA Today Coaches: No. 3
NCBWA: No. 4
DVH's report card
The Razorbacks have won nine of their first 11 games, but it hasn't all been pretty. Van Horn has said his team was fortunate to get a win on multiple occasions, including after Sunday's 5-3 win over Murray State.With his team leading the nation with 163 total strikeouts through three weeks of play, Van Horn graded his pitching staff with an A, but the rest of the report card could use some work.
"I'd give us a C+ in hitting," Van Horn said. "Defense, because I'm pretty hard on them, I'm going to go C. Maybe. We're getting better there. We're more consistent."
Arkansas has a team batting average of .289 through 11 games, and Van Horn said multiple times Monday that the bats were going to come along soon.
"Offense is not just getting hits," Van Horn said. "It's about taking a walk, getting hit by a pitch, laying down a bunt, advancing runners. It's an offense. It's a team thing. Yeah if you hit the ball over the fence you score a run, but that's hard to do sometimes, especially when the wind is blowing about 35 miles per hour like it was yesterday."
While the Hogs have yet to hit double-digit home runs as a team, they are finding a way to cut down on strikeouts and take advantage of free passes. Arkansas has received 79 free passes (65 walks, 14 hit by pitches) compared to the Hogs' 68 strikeouts.
The Razorbacks have a team fielding percentage of .969 with 12 errors so far, which is tied for third-most in the SEC. Third baseman Jared Sprague-Lott has five of those errors, four of which he had during the College Baseball Series in Arlington during the second weekend.
"That’s baseball," Van Horn said. "You can make three or four errors in a two week period and then not make an error for 45 days. It’s a tough position, third. You’ve got to come and get balls. You’ve got to backhand balls. You get balls hit at you super hard.
"If you look over the year, you go look at your good third basemen you have and most all of them are going to make 10, 12, 15 errors before the season is over. It’s kind of when you make them. You like to make them that they don’t hurt you, obviously."
Injury Report
The big injury news Monday was the fact that redshirt junior right-hander Dylan Carter will be available to pitch Tuesday for the first time since suffering a torn UCL on May 3.
ALSO READ: Dylan Carter nearing return to mound for Razorbacks
"Dylan last year was pitching 92-93 (mph) with a good slider, and got hurt. Dylan is up to about 95 (mph) right now. The rehab has been amazing."
Though Van Horn said he was on the board to pitch tomorrow, it should be noted that it's not 100% certain that he will. It all depends on the situation, and it won't be in any leverage position.
"Obviously we want it to feel right, probably not a super leverage type position," Van Horn said. "More like start an inning and kind of go from there."
Second baseman Peyton Stovall is another key player who is out with injury after he suffered a broken foot in the preseason. Van Horn said Stovall is no longer wearing a boot and he was able to take batting practice Saturday and Sunday.
"He's swinging there and standing in and watching live pitching," Van Horn said. "He's walking around now. I think ideally, we could have him back for Missouri. I would hope that we could have him back to play maybe against Oral Roberts. I don't know if that's wishful thinking.
"Another X-Ray is being taken today to see if that bone is fuzed together. Right now, he can do just about anything. He's fielding. He's hitting. He just can't sprint and cut where the outside of that foot gets some pressure. We don't want that coming apart again."
When Stovall gets back, he will be another veteran left-handed bat and he will probably hit leadoff, according to Van Horn.
Freshman left-hander Hunter Dietz, who dazzled in the fall, is still on track to return in early April from a stress fracture procedure on his elbow.
"I'm pretty excited about him, I'll just tell you that," Van Horn said. "This Thursday, he's throwing a bullpen and he gets to go to 90%. He threw one at 75 the other day. If that was 75, 90 is going to be amazing. Who knows what percentage it was... It looked like it was just easy.
"We should have him back for sure early April. This is a pitcher that could really help us at the end of a game. He will probably be anywhere from 95 to 97 to 98. Plus slider, plus changeup and he throws the ball for strikes."
Aloy pressing too much
Similar to the same situation Caleb Cali faced last season for Arkansas, shortstop Wehiwa Aloy is really struggling to begin the season. The Sacramento State transfer is batting .200 with just nine hits and four RBIs through 11 games.
“Probably pressing more than anybody on the team," Van Horn said. "He hit two balls really hard yesterday. I don’t know which game it was, but he hit a ball over the seats in left field, the wind pushed it back and that was in the first inning. Just kind of can’t catch a break, is getting himself out, swinging at bad pitches."
Aloy was hyped up heavily by media (including myself) in the preseason, and rightfully so. He was raking against Arkansas pitching — which might be the best in the nation — but he just hasn't pieced it together through the first three weeks.
"He was our hottest hitter when the season started, we couldn’t get him out in the last two weeks with our pitchers," Van Horn said. "He was hitting them all. We were getting pretty excited. So, it’s in there, it’s coming. The good thing about him, he’s got that Hawaiian, laid back, don’t worry attitude.
"I coach him everyday and we talk about surfing, we don’t talk about baseball all the time but we talk about catching pop-ups above your eyes. But anyway, I love him, he’s great, good kid, players love him."
