Big crowd pumps up Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn is used to big crowds at Baum Stadium, but even he seemed a little surprised by the turnout for Saturday’s 5-1 victory over Miami (Ohio).

The Razorbacks sold 10,891 tickets to the game, the program’s eighth-most ever for a regular-season home game and second-most ever for a game on an opening weekend.

The actual attendance was announced as 9,021. The stadium capacity is listed as 10,737.

“Today’s crowd was incredible,” Van Horn said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that many people in the outfield. I just glanced up there once and I’m talking regional-type stuff. There was a bunch of people out there.”

Van Horn said the crowd was good for his roster that includes 12 freshmen and four junior-college transfers.

“I think it’s great experience for them, obviously, because we talk about it every now and then,” Van Horn said. “We see how they can handle it and once you get used to it, you know they’re there but you’re not in awe of it.”

Senior pitcher Dominic Taccolini said he expected the crowd to be big because of the weather in Fayetteville on Saturday, which was sunny and near 70 degrees.

“We’ve had good weather you expect more people to come, but you don’t expect 10,000 to come,” Taccolini said. “It’s good to see good fan support. I know last year was a down year but it’s good to see that they still support us.

“When you get a big strikeout and the crowd roars it’s definitely exhilarating.”

The big crowd even got some attention on the national level. Mike Rooney, a reporter for Perfect Game, tweeted a photo of the crowd with the caption, “This is beyond awesome! [Arkansas’] fan base showing out in February.”

Campbell out

Arkansas sophomore right-hander Isaiah Campbell won’t pitch today because of soreness in his throwing arm.

Coach Dave Van Horn had held out hope Campbell might pitch in today’s series finale, saying he was questionable Friday. But Van Horn sounded less optimistic Saturday and said he may miss more time.

“It could be one more week, I don’t know,” Van Horn said. “It just depends on how safe we want to be with him, I guess, if we want to be real safe. So I’m not going to tell you he’s going to pitch next weekend, but I think what we’ll do is see how this week goes and if he feels good, he’s going to throw tomorrow some, a little bullpen-type action, play catch.

“If he’s feeling better, we’ll get him back on a schedule and then the issue is going to be that he hasn’t thrown as much as he needs to, so would we even start him or just bring him out of the pen just to get him some work. We’ll get through [today] and then figure that one out.”

Campbell entered the preseason as a candidate to be the Razorbacks’ openingday starter.

Voice in the crowd

Phil Elson, Arkansas’ baseball play-by-play radio announcer, attended Saturday, but didn’t call the game.

Elson, who also serves as the Razorbacks’ women’s basketball announcer, was set to fly with the women’s team to Tennessee later in the afternoon. He said it was his first time to attend an Arkansas game as a spectator since his days as the announcer for the Arkansas Travelers.

Former KATV news anchor Scott Inman is serving as a fill-in on this season’s baseball broadcasts when Elson has a scheduling conflict.

Another good job

Freshman center fielder Dominic Fletcher had a two-out RBI single in the first inning for the second consecutive game.

Fletcher’s single scored Eric Cole to give Arkansas a 1-0 lead Saturday. His RBI single in the first inning of Friday’s game helped spark a six-run rally.

“I thought eventually we’d probably see this, but you never know how young guys are going to react once they get on the field with a lot of people in the stands,” Coach Dave Van Horn said.

Fletcher went 2-for-4 Saturday and is tied for the team lead with four hits through two games.