FAYETTEVILLE — As the time frame begins today, many young players on the University of Arkansas baseball team hope to show they can be more consistent contributors on the nation’s best team.
No. 1 The Razorbacks, winners of eight straight, open a two-game series with San Jose State at 6 p.m. tonight at Baum-Walker Stadium, which will begin a seven-game stretch in nine days, the most compact stretch of games on their schedule .
The Hogs’ first two sets of a two-game midweek series — against San Jose State (12-19) today and tomorrow at 3 p.m., and Texas Tech next Tuesday and Wednesday — will lead to an SEC road series in Alabama.
The Razorbacks (27-3) pitching staff will be tested more over the next nine days than it has been all season. Coach Dave Van Horn said the busy schedule will also offer bench players a chance to get more work.
“It’s good because there are some guys on the bench who have been pulling for their teammates all weekend here and would rather be in the lineup, but they did a good job of being a good teammate,” Van Horn said after Saturday’s game. -3 over Ole Miss. “When you’re winning, you just go with what wins and that’s something we’ve been doing lately. But there are some guys out there on our bench and in our bullpen who are ready to go.”
The pitching slate will begin with sophomore right-hander Ben Bybee (1-0, 0.00 in 4 innings) today and freshman left-hander Collin Fisher (5-1, 2.25 ERA) slated for Wednesday’s start. San Jose State coach Brad Sanfilippo said senior right-hander Keaton Chase (1-0, 8.69) will start today and will line up Wednesday’s starter after Game 1.
“He’s in his 90s [mph] curveball and changeup guy,” Sanfilippo said of Chase. “We’d like to see him be able to find his fastball to have success. That may have been part of his challenge the last few times. He is an older child, mature. He didn’t throw last weekend, so this is a good opportunity for him.”
Arkansas leads Division I with a 2.63 ERA, 0.64 better than second-place Texas A&M (3.27).
Razorbacks pitchers also lead the nation in strikeouts per nine innings (13.3), strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.13) and WHIP (1.04).
Junior right-hander Brady Tygart is confident the rarely-used pitchers will have a chance to shine over the next seven games.
“The strength of good teams is their depth, and I think we’re going to really be able to show our depth because we’ve got guys who haven’t even thrown an inning yet and are going live at bats and bullpen and stuff, we’re pretty stoked about that, which they do,” Tygart said.
“I think any other year they would have gotten a lot of innings. Just to add how [deep] our bullpen is we have guys that could be conference starters all over our bullpen.”
Over the past 50 days, Arkansas has put on a winning clinic in its home park that is unmatched in school history. The Razorbacks will take a 21-game winning streak at Baum-Walker into the series with the Spartans of the Mountain West Conference.
The Razorbacks, whose 27-3 record is their best 30-game start in school history, haven’t lost at home since a 7-3 setback against James Madison on Feb. 18 in the opening weekend.
Van Horn said Saturday that fans aren’t the only ones who enjoy watching what the Razorbacks do on the diamond.
“It’s been fun coaching these guys and it’s fun watching them play,” Van Horn said. “I tell them this. A lot of times when the game starts we’re practicing, but we’re watching you play and it’s been fun.”
Freshman Nolan Souza, whose two home runs sparked Saturday’s win over Ole Miss, said the huge crowds against the Rebels were great.
“Just having a stadium with that energy is never a bad thing as a player,” said Souza, who was named SEC Freshman of the Week by the league office on Monday.
Added freshman pitcher Gabe Geckle, “The fans show up to every game. Especially since the SEC started, they’ve started to get into the game more and there’s a lot of energy. It’s great to play in front of them. Hopefully they will continue to come out.”
San Jose State is coming off a three-game weekend sweep of San Diego State in conference play with a 41-10 overall record, including back-to-back 17-3 sweeps on Friday and Saturday without the run rule applied.
“Obviously we haven’t been offensive the way we’re capable of offensively to this point, and we’re starting to develop it a little bit,” Sanfilippo said. “We haven’t done a very good job with runners in scoring position and too many hits, just trying to find our way a little bit. But we are starting to attack much better and more than our potential.”
The Spartans are led by second baseman Dalton Bowling (.330, 9 home runs, 29 RBI), outfielder Robert Hamchuk (.323, 5, 23), first baseman Hunter Dorough (.311, 6, 15) and third baseman Nathan Cadena ( . 298, 4, 24). Outfielder Sebastian Orduno (.252, 3, 23) and shortstop Theo Hardy (.241, 4, 22) also have more than 20 RBI.
Bowling and Doreau have missed several games due to injuries, but both were in the lineup for last weekend’s Uprising against the Aztecs.
Sanfilippo said a three-game set in Texas last year, in which the Spartans went 1-2, was a good experience for his club, which posted an 0-2 record in the NCAA Stanford Regional.
“When you schedule these things, I thought maybe we had a little bit more pitching depth than we do right now with injuries and things you can never account for when you’re going into two midweek games against the No. 1 team in the country ,” Sanfilippo said. “I don’t know how well we’re set up because the conference is so important to us. We’re just ready to compete.”
