Golden Spikes plan in place for Arkansas freshmen
The game plan for Andrew Benintendi’s sophomore year at Arkansas is now in place for current Razorbacks Heston Kjerstad and Casey Martin after their standout freshman season.
“Benny Baseball” last played for coach Dave Van Horn in 2015 and is now the star left fielder for the Boston Red Sox in his third Major League Baseball season. He signed with Arkansas for the 2014 season out of Cincinnati among the nation’s most heralded high school players.
Benintendi’s heralded debut did not live up to his billing. He did fine for most freshman, playing 60 games mostly as the starting center fielder and hitting .276 but only with one home run and 27 RBIs.
More seasoning with summer ball would have been the normal prescription to improve Benintendi for 2016, but Van Horn opted to keep him in Fayetteville, stressing lifting weights over swinging the bat.
A bulked up but still fast Benintendi blossomed in 2015 to be honored with the Golden Spikes Award, the college baseball equivalent to the Heisman Trophy. He led the 2015 Razorbacks to the College World Series while hitting .390 with 18 home runs and 54 RBIs.
Kjerstad and Martin run far ahead of Benintendi’s pace for the Razorbacks. Kjerstad was the 2018 Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year, and Martin was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team.
They led Arkansas back to the College World Series as the national runner-up. They were also regarded as the two best freshman in the SEC and were named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Freshman All-American team.
Kjerstad, of Amarillo, Texas, started every game for the Razorbacks and hit .332 with 14 home runs and 58 RBIs. Martin, of Lonoke, played in 67 of 69 games and hit a team-leading .345 with 13 home runs and 49 RBIs.
Van Horn revealed the summer plan for Kjerstad on Tuesday night at the Razorback Club meeting in Harrison.
“I told him I think he needed to go home for a couple weeks, come back to school and start lifting, and that’s what he ended up doing,” Van Horn said. “Sometimes, you just need to give yourself and your body a little bit of a break. I think it’ll end up paying off come the spring of 2019.”
It was confirmed on Wednesday that Martin has also spent the summer first resting up from the long season and bulking up for the next one.
Ragnow II
Former Arkansas coach Bret Bielema started his best guard at center on the offensive line last season. New head coach Chad Morris is perhaps playing his best center at guard but is prepared to move him if needed.
Frank Ragnow was, by far, the Razorbacks’ best player at either guard or center until an injury ended his 2018 campaign midseason. He started one game at guard last season, but ultimately starred at center. Ragnow was drafted in the spring by the NFL’s Detroit Lions.
Now, senior Hjalte Froholdt is deemed Arkansas’ best offensive lineman as a starting guard who may have to be the best center, too, if unproven sophomores Dylan Hays, of Little Rock Christian, and Ty Clary, of Fayetteville, don’t step up to the task before the Sept 1 season opener against Eastern Illinois.
Zach Rogers, last year’s center after Ragnow was injured, opted to forego his final 2018 season of eligibility to start his outside of football career having already graduated.
“We are trying to move some guys around and do some different things,” Arkansas offensive coordinator Joe Craddock said. “We’ve got to find our best five.
Whether that’s moving Hjalte at center or leaving Hjalte at guard, we’re just trying to find our best five. Our biggest concern is our lack of depth on the offensive line.”
Froholdt has an amazing story as a Denmark native first playing competitive American football as a foreign exchange student and defensive lineman in Ohio and lettering his true freshman year at Arkansas as a backup defensive lineman before moved starting left offensive guard in the spring of 2016. He has never snapped a football during a real game, but Craddock is convinced he can play center if need be.
“Oh, yeah,” Craddock said. “He can play center or guard.”