Diamond Hogs Gaeckle and Fisher earn Freshman All-American honors

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – A day after learning he and fellow Arkansas pitcher Chrisitian Foutch had been invited to the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team training camp, Razorback closer Gabe Gaeckle joined teammate Colin Fisher in being named Freshman All-American on Tuesday.

Gackle (3-3, 2.32 ERA, team-leading 7 saves) was named to the NCBWA first-team and starting pitcher Fisher (6-1, 2.67) to the second team.

The duo became the 26th and 27th Freshman All-Americans in program history with pitchers Hagen Smith and Brady Tygart the last two selected in 2022.

Gaeckle had six multi-inning saves, 57 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings and 19 walks over 22 relief outings while giving up just one home run all season.

Fisher settled in as the Razorbacks’ number four starter – and main mid-week one – before suffering a season-ending injury. He ended the season with 27 strikeouts in 27 innings with seven starts in his 10 appearances.
 
Arkansas and Duke were the only pair or of teams with at least two Freshman All-Americans selected by the NCBWA.
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 Foutch and Gaeckle are among 56 non-draft eligible players that were invited to the 2024 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Training Camp on June 26-27 in Cary, N.C.

Foutch, a Littleton, Colo., native, posted a 1-0 record with a 0.81 ERA and one saved while fanning 20 strikeouts in 22.1 innings of work in 20 games.

He finished the 2024 season with the lowest ERA by a Razorback pitcher to appear in at least 20 percent of the team’s games since Kevin Kopps recorded a 0.90 ERA in 89.2 innings over 33 appearances in 2021.

The USA training camp will include a two-game Stars vs. Stripes intrasquad series at the USA Training Complex on June 26-27 in Cary, N.C, with first pitch of both games scheduled for 6:35 p.m. ET.

After those games, USA Baseball will name the final Collegiate National Team for both an International Friendship Series roster and a Summer League Tour roster on June 29.
 
The International Friendship Series roster will then take on Chinese Taipei in a five-game series, while the Summer League Tour roster will take on select teams from the Appalachian League and Coastal Plain League in a four-game slate.

The schedule will culminate with a Fourth of July matchup between the two Collegiate National Team rosters in Fayetteville, N.C.
 
Since 1979, 22 Razorbacks have suited up for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. Hagen Smith was Arkansas’ most recent Collegiate National Team representati