Here’s the deal
Arkansas had the winning run 90 feet from home plate with one out in the 10th inning after Caleb Cali advanced to third base and Peyton Holt to second base on Harold Coll’s first sacrifice bunt of the season.
With catcher Parker Rowland, a .176 hitter, up next it seemed to be a good time for Coach Dave Van Horn to use a pinch hitter.
Van Horn said he definitely was thinking of going to a pinch-hitter, but one problem with that — backup catcher Hudson Polk had been throwing up the previous night and earlier in the day and was on an IV to receive fluids.
“It’s just one thing after another,” Van Horn said of yet another player being injured or ill. “That was a little bit of my issue.”
Van Horn said he also figured Texas A&M might walk a pinch hitter — options on the bench included Ben McLaughlin (batting .343) and Hunter Grimes (.250) — to load the bases and set up a double play.
“My thinking at the time was … let’s just bunt [Cali] in and go home,” Van Horn said. “It didn’t happen. Luckily we found a way to win.”
The Razorbacks won in the 11th inning when Kendall Diggs hit a home run after Rowland bunted and was field by Ty Sexton — who easily threw out Cali at the plate — and Tavian Josenberger was retired on a groundout.
“We’ve worked on it a lot, but we weren’t supposed to bunt it to the third base side,” Van Horn said of the play with Rowland. “I don’t know if the ball ran away [from Rowland], he got his bat [positioned] wrong.
“He got it down, but he didn’t bunt it the right way.”
Van Horn was asked, if he pinch hit for Rowland and Polk feeling ill, who would have been the Razorbacks’ emergency catcher?
“I don’t really have a third-string catcher,” Van Horn said. “It’s probably [Peyton] Holt, but he’s playing second base now.
“So I asked a couple guys at practice the other day about emergency catcher, and we had [Holt] catch a little bullpen, but that’s kind of where we’re at.”
Holt is starting at second base because Peyton Stovall is out with a season-ending shoulder injury. Coll, another middle infielder, started at shortstop because John Bolton has an ankle injury.