Questions surround Razorbacks as season opener looms

FAYETTEVILLE — Dave Van Horn left the attendees of the first meeting of the University of Arkansas’ Swatters Club on Monday with a piece of advice in advance of Friday’s season opener against Eastern Illinois.

“Be patient,” Van Horn asked of the crowd. “We’ll figure this out. We’ve got a lot of things to figure out.”

The Razorbacks indeed have questions. Coming off a 48-win season, their highest total in Van Horn’s 16 seasons, and the program’s second appearance in the College World Series final, the Razorbacks lost weekend starters Blaine Knight and Kacey Murphy as well as five starting position players and a couple of key bullpen arms in Barrett Loseke and Jake Reindl.

“I know you guys are interested in who’s going to do what, and so are we to be honest with you,” Van Horn said.

“We were meeting this morning and still trying to flip guys around. By the time we get it figured out, we’re going to be in the heart of the schedule.”

Van Horn said junior right-hander Isaiah Campbell and freshman right-hander Connor Noland would make two of the three starts against the Panthers this weekend.

The third starter is up in the air.

“Connor doesn’t even know that yet, so I’ll go tell him right now,” Van Horn said.

“But yeah, he’s gonna be in there … on Saturday or Sunday and obviously Campbell will throw Friday.”

The third starter is likely to come from the group of right-handers Jacob Kostyshock, Cody Scroggins and Kole Ramage or left-hander Patrick Wicklander.

At one point during his address, Van Horn suggested Wicklander might come out of the bullpen during the opening weekend.

“There’s three or four other guys,” Van Horn said. “They’ve all been throwing really well. So what you see this weekend might be different than what you see against USC.”

After the three-game set against Eastern Illinois, the Razorbacks will play against Southern California in Los Angeles in a Thursday-throughSaturday series.