No. 1 Hogs look for quality starts
FAYETTEVILLE — The No. 1 Arkansas Razorbacks will put a lengthy series-winning streak on the line this weekend against the last team to deal them a series loss.
Former Southwest Conference foe Texas A&M (20-15, 3-9 SEC) is headed to town to face the University of Arkansas (28-5, 9-3) in a three-game set scheduled to begin tonight at 6:30, though a strong chance for rain could alter the plan.
The Aggies won two of three against the College World Series-bound Razorbacks on May 16-18, 2019, the last weekend of the regular season, in College Station, Texas, and nobody has topped the Hogs in a series since.
Arkansas has won 10 consecutive series of three-plus games heading into the weekend at Baum-Walker Stadium. That run includes road series at No. 3 Mississippi State (a 3-0 sweep) and No. 4 Ole Miss (2-1) this season, even with
Arkansas’ starting pitchers not providing quality innings.
Coach Dave Van Horn said he would like to see that trend come to an end against the Aggies, who were swept at home over the weekend by Alabama.
Starters Patrick Wicklander, Zebulon Vermillion, Peyton Pallette and Lael Lockhart have pitched fewer than 5 innings in six of the past nine SEC games. Last weekend at Ole Miss, Pallette provided the longest start at 4 innings plus 2 batters.
The last win by an Arkansas weekend starter came in Wicklander’s 8-2 victory at Mississippi State on March 26. In the past nine SEC games, Kevin Kopps has 3 saves and a win, Jaxon Wiggins has 2 wins and a save, Ryan Costieu has 2 wins, Caden Monke has a win and Pallette has a save out of the Razorbacks’ bullpen.
The southpaw Wicklander (1-1, 2.76 ERA) will be opposed by Aggies’ lefty Dustin Saenz (5-3, 3.19) in the series opener.
Van Horn was asked about his confidence in the weekend starters and how strange it was for a unanimous No. 1 team to not be getting quality starts.
“I have to be confident in them. They’ve gotten us to where we are right now,” he said.” I think if you look all over the country, this time of year, a lot of times you’ll have some teams that are trying to figure it out a little bit.
“Our starters haven’t given us much innings, so they should have some stamina. They should have some innings built up and ready to go. … Our guys have been giving us 4, 3 [innings], so we’re hoping they’re going to give us more this weekend, and we don’t have to use our bullpen so much.”
Texas A&M’s weekend starters have been more consistent, but the Aggies are not getting the same results and not scoring as many runs as the Razorbacks.
The Aggies have big nonconference wins over Oklahoma and Texas, but they opened SEC play by being swept at Florida. After an impressive series win over Georgia, the Aggies lost five of six against Missouri and Alabama.
“A&M is going to come in with a chip on their shoulder ready to play,” said Arkansas designated hitter Matt Goodheart, who hit a grand slam among his two homers in Wednesday’s 26-1 win over the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
“This is a team, A&M, they’re like all the teams in our league, you kind of have to throw the records out in league play,” Van Horn said. “It’s really weekend to weekend.
“They were a top 25 team to start the season in most polls. Yeah, they’re 3-9 [in the SEC] but they could easily be 9-3. We just have to play good. If you play good you give yourself a chance to win.”
The Aggies won 8-4 at Texas State on Tuesday to snap a six-game losing skid.
“It’s going to be a challenging weekend for sure,” said Aggies Coach Rob Childress, who was Van Horn’s pitching coach and right-hand man at Northwestern (La.) State and Nebraska. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. I know our players feel strongly about our performance [Tuesday] and we’re looking forward to taking a little bit of that momentum to Fayetteville.
“Certainly Arkansas is off and running, having a great season thus far, and they’ve played well at home. We’re looking forward to that challenge. We’ve played well there before and we expect to play well there this weekend.”
The Razorbacks’ home run hitting has heated up with the weather, capped by an eight home run performance against UAPB on Wednesday.
Arkansas leads the nation with 63 homers, nine more than second-place Old Dominion, but does not have a player with double-digit home runs yet. Christian Franklin (.317) and Brady Slavens (.298) lead the club with 9 each, while Goodheart (.326) and Cayden Wallace (.300) have 8 apiece. Thirteen different players have hit home runs for the Hogs, with the highest rate belonging to Charlie Welch, who has 5 total, and 1 in every 6 at-bats.