Diamond Hogs handle Cowboys 8-1 with dominant hitting and pitching exhibition

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYTETTEVILLE – While Fall Baseball is supposed mostly a developmental process, there’s no reason to put on the uniform unless you are playing to win.

Arkansas did exactly that Friday night with an 8-1 exhibition win over Oklahoma State before an estimated crowd of 8,000 fans at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Third baseman Brent Iredale went 4-for-4 while Wehia Aloy, Reese Robinett and Nolan Souza each chipped in two on a night when the Razorbacks piled up 13 hits.

Seven Arkansas pitchers combined to fan a whopping 18 Cowboys and walk only one while limiting them to one unearned run on just two hits.

“I told our team we hit a lot of home runs this fall, but we didn’t hit one today and still scored eight runs and I loved that,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “…We created a lot of good innings with walks, fouled off a lot of pitches, got a few good two-strike hits and the pitching was just lights out.”

“We have had a really good fall offensively hitting and you think about our hitters, who have they been facing? Our pitchers.

“If you can hit our pitching, you ought to be able to hit anybody because I think our staff is going to be one of the best in the country if we stay healthy.

“You are seeing lefties and righties and a lot of velocity with secondary pitches. They are coming along and they are fighting to play.”

Arkansas started Gabe Gaeckle and he was followed to the mound by East Carolina transfer Zach Root, Gage Wood and Ohio State transfer Landon Beidelschies.

The Razorbacks then sent a pair of freshmen to the mound in Cole Gibler and Carson Wiggins – whose fastball was clock at 101 miles per hour – and finished up with Christian Foutch.

Count Oklahoma State head coach Josh Holliday among those who are impressed by the Arkansas pitching and team overall.

“It is such a different experience when you go from kind of inter-squading and kind of rolling through the different stages of learning about each other and learning about your team and working on things,” Holliday said.

“Then you find yourself against a pretty good team in a road environment and it changes quick and you saw that tonight. I think we ran into a very good team with a very good list of pitchers.

“That was a strong list and those kids had some great stuff and they played good. They are a good ball club and we didn’t play with probably enough certainty tonight as we need to.

“…Those guys pitching tonight, you could have snuck some of them in a Dodgers or Padres uniform tonight and they could have held their own. Those are some talent guys.”

Holliday was thrilled to bring his youthful team to Fayetteville for a trio of scrimmages.

“It was a learning experience tonight,” Holliday said. “If we had tone this in Stillwater tonight, there would have been 80 people there and there would have been no perceived result and no perceived stress. Therefore there would have been no perceived growth.

“It was a lot of guys getting their first experience in this uniform, as a team finding their way in some new spaces. We will learn from it, take what we saw and on tape and make good notes on things that we can adjust to and keep growing.”

The series will continue on Saturday with two five-inning games beginning at noon.

“We need to do a good job tomorrow just trying to maintain the game plan and the growth we have for each guy, but do so in a competitive setting,” Holliday said.

Photo by John D. James