Razorbacks hit the road to face Tech
FAYETTEVILLE - Undefeated Arkansas take its baseball show on the road for the first time against two undefeated teams and two other traditional powers at two cities this week.
Tonight and Wednesday afternoon Coach Dave Van Horn’s Razorbacks visit the 7-0 Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in Ruston, La.
This weekend at the neutral site Frisco RoughRiders AA minor league ballpark in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas, Arkansas at the Frisco Classic plays Arizona, 8-0, the 2-4 Nebraska Cornhuskers that Van Horn coached before returning to Arkansas to succeed his Arkansas coach, Norm DeBriyn, in 2003, and finally Oklahoma State, 4-3, and a College World Series qualifier in 2016 as was Arizona.
Game times in Ruston are 6 tonight and and 3 p.m. Wednesday.
In Frisco the Razorbacks play the Arizona Wildcats at 4 p.m. Friday, meet Nebraska at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and close with the Oklahoma State Cowboys at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
All five road games are cable TV available on Cox Sports Television and broadcast on the Razorbacks’ Radio Network.
At Baum Stadium the last two weekends the Razorbacks swept 3-game series from Miami (Ohio) and Bryant University.
After this week the Razorbacks don’t travel again until their March 24-26 3-game series at Missouri in Columbia, the Razorbacks’ second SEC series of the campaign after hosting Mississippi State March 17-19 at Baum.
Van Horn wanted his Razorbacks experiencing extended life on the road before their first SEC series away from Arkansas.
“That’s one reason we scheduled it that way,” Van Horn said. “Just find out about your team and being in hotels and out of your comfort zone now instead of waiting until you get to your first conference series on the road. You don’t want
to be gaining experience there. You want to be ready to go.”
Tonight’s setting in Ruston against the Conference USA’s Bulldogs could be as partisan as any the Hogs experience on the SEC road.
“That’s going to be a great atmosphere in Ruston,” Van Horn said. “That school has a lot of spirit. They are going to show up. It’s going to be packed. I think this is the first time a SEC school has come to their ballpark in 10 years since we were there last time. So its going to be a great matchup.”
The Razorbacks become the third Arkansas team that Louisiana Tech has faced as the Bulldogs in Ruston swept three from UAPB and beat UALR before last weekend sweeping three from Texas-Arlington in Arlington, Texas.
“You can call Louisiana Tech a mid-major, but they had a great team last year (2-2 in NCAA Regionals) and Coach (Lane) Burroughs, their head coach, is a good friend of mine,” Van Horn said. “He coached at Mississippi State. He was also a coach for me for one whole semester at Northwestern (La.) State I didn’t even get to coach with him because I left and went to Nebraska.”
Burroughs later successfully head coached Northwestern State.
Off Louisiana Tech heating up a rivalry in Ruston the Hogs jump to a frying pan in Frisco against programs among the best respective best of the Pac 12, Big Ten and Big 12.
“Arizona has an exhibition game in the middle off the week so we’ll see their No. 1 pitcher, a kid that pitched in the World Series last year,” Van Horn said. “They were one hit away from winning it last year so that will be a great experience and another team that went to the World Series in Oklahoma State. Nebraska has been going on the road a lot. They have been in Arizona a couple of weekends (playing neutral site games against Oregon State, Utah and California-Riverside). Their record doesn’t look great right now but they played a great schedule. They played Oregon State a couple of three times which has one of the best pitching staffs in the United States. So we definitely will be challenged. We will find out a little bit about ourselves as we try to get better and figure out some things because conference play will be here before you know it.”
Although 6-0 against a Miami, Ohio based team generally picked first or second in the Mid-American Conference and sweeping a Bryant team that won 47 games last season, Van Horn said the pitching, stellar against Miami, obviously must improve from the 11-8, 13-7 and 16-6 games against Bryant.
Van Horn said give Bryant batters due credit but “we have to do a much better job out of the bullpen.”
Senior Josh Alberius, who did do a good job out of the bullpen against Bryant notching a save Friday and pitching a scoreless inning Sunday, and freshman pitcher-DH Evan Lee of Bryant, Arkansas, scoreless inning Sunday, are Van Horn projected to log their first starts Tuesday and Wednesday against Louisiana Tech.
Friday and Saturday Arkansas starters Blaine Knight of Bryant and Trevor Stephan will continue in their rotation spots against Arizona and Nebraska.
Freshman Kevin Kopps logged Sunday starts against Miami and Bryant but “from what I saw I’m leaving Sunday open,” Van Horn said of the starter against Oklahoma State.
Freshman reserve second baseman Jaxon Williams, 4 for 7 with nine RBI, poses pondering the lineup to Van Horn as he generally has played fourth-year junior established hitter Carson Shaddy at second and slick fielding freshman Hunter Wilson of Spiro, Okla. at third.
“He’s giving them something to think about which is what I like,” Van Horn said of Williams. “I’m always thinking about him. What it does it the guys working hard and you can platoon a little bit or rest a guy but we have always had plans for Jaxon Williams. It’s just a matter of when."