Polarizing return
Kjerstad’s bat sings despite mental gaffes
FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas right fielder Heston Kjerstad drew a mixed review in his comeback game Tuesday night from Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn.
Kjerstad went 3 for 4 to help lead Arkansas’ offense in a 19-2 victory over Northwestern (La.) State at Baum-Walker Stadium before an announced crowd of 2,547. But he also had a base-running mistake that cost the Razorbacks two runs and had other mental errors.
Van Horn had words of praise for Kjerstad’s hitting, but clearly was exasperated by other aspects of his play to the extent of pulling him from the game after the sixth inning.
It was Kjerstad’s first game after he was suspended by the SEC office for the Razorbacks’ 10-2 victory over Mississippi State on Saturday because he was ejected for arguing a called third strike the previous night when Arkansas beat the Bulldogs 12-5.
“You’re going to make mistakes on the field and off the field,” said Kjerstad, a sophomore right fielder. “But the main thing is you don’t make the same mistake twice and you learn from it.”
Kjerstad’s mistake Tuesday night that annoyed Van Horn the most was his failure to touch home plate on a twoout double by Zack Plunkett in the sixth inning.
Kjerstad was on second base after he and Jack Kenley
had back-to-back singles. Plunkett lined a double off the right-field wall. Two runs should have scored, but Kjerstad — believing the ball had been caught — stopped running short of home plate and headed to the dugout.
Kenley then passed him on the base path when he crossed home plate, resulting in the third out and keeping the Arkansas lead at 9-1.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Van Horn said. “I don’t even want to talk about it, because I’ll get red-faced. I’m not happy with him.”
Van Horn also said Kjerstad could have been at third base in the second inning when he hit a leadoff double, but he didn’t see the outfielder bobble the ball.
Kjerstad then lost count of the outs in the top of the third inning when he made a strong throw to the plate after catching the third out.
Fortunately for Kjerstad and the No. 7-ranked Razorbacks (31-10), his mistakes came in a blowout victory.
“It’s always nice when the team is there to help you and it doesn’t end up costing you the game,” Kjerstad said. “That way you can learn from it and just move on.”
Kjerstad was suspended after he was ejected for arguing a called third strike with home plate umpire John Brammer. Van Horn said earlier this week that after watching a replay of the call, the ball was 9 inches off the plate.
At the time of Kjerstad’s ejection, Arkansas had the bases loaded with one out and led 7-5.
“It was just heat of the moment in an SEC series that we wanted to win really badly,” Kjerstad said. “I’m a competitive person no matter what. Everybody will tell you that growing up that’s just the way I’ve been.
“To have the bat taken out of your hands right there kind of got me fired up, and I said a few things and the ump didn’t like it, so he ejected me.
“That’s his call. I didn’t agree with it, but that’s just the way the game is. You’re not always going to agree with what happens.”
The Razorbacks finished with 19 hits Tuesday night — including five home runs — and scored their season-high for runs. Their previous high was in a 16-4 victory over the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff last week.
Along with Kjerstad hitting his team-leading 10th home run, Jack Kenley hit his eighth, Dominic Fletcher hit his seventh, and Jordan McFarland and Curtis Washington each hit their first.
Washington, a freshman from West Memphis, went 3 for 6. Matt Goodheart went 2 for 4 with a walk and 3 RBI to extend his hitting streak to 14 games. Kjerstad has a 13game hitting streak. Plunkett went 3 for 4 with 3 doubles.
“I just thought we did a great job coming out and swinging the bats,” Van Horn said. “You never know how it’s going to go on a Tuesday or Wednesday, but I feel like the team showed up with a little bit of an attitude and kept it rolling.
“Really top to bottom through the lineup guys were having good at-bats.”
Kjerstad had especially good at-bats.
“Offensively he was outstanding,” Van Horn said. “In batting practice, he really hit the ball hard. Then he took it to the game.”
Arkansas starting pitcher Kole Ramage (7-1) went 5 innings and held Northwestern State to 1 run on 5 hits with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. It was a career-long outing for Ramage, a sophomore righthander.
“It was good to get him out there and let him throw some pitches and get extended a little bit, break a sweat,” Van Horn said. “I feel like he got better tonight. So that was big.”
Ramage said he appreciated the run support.
“It was awesome,” he said. “Whenever you can see that your offense is putting up runs behind you, it makes pitching against the other team so much easier.”
Ramage said it was good to see Kjerstad — who had started 108 consecutive games before his suspension — back in the lineup.
“Anytime Heston’s in the lineup, you know it’s going to be a good day,” Ramage said. “He’s always putting together really good at-bats.”
Kjerstad said he understood why Van Horn pulled him from the game.