Diamond Hogs set to host two fall baseball scrimmages with Oklahoma State

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – It turns out Arkansas and Oklahoma State will not only be matching up on the gridiron in Stillwater this Saturday, but also on the diamond in Fayetteville next month.

Razorback head baseball coach Dave Van Horn announced Tuesday that his program will host the Cowboys for a pair of fall baseball scrimmages on Oct. 11-12 at Baum-Walker Stadium.

“Friday’s game might be a normal game, 9 innings,” Van Horn said. “Saturday might be 10, 11, 12 innings. That’ll be maybe the end of our fall. Just play a couple of games instead of playing a Red-White series where we always run out of pitching.

“I don’t know, we haven’t finished it the last couple of years it seems like. That would be the plan right now. You can only have two outside competitions and that would be it unless something changes.”

It will replace a four-team event that Arkansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Creighton were going to play in Omaha, Neb., at Charles Schwab Field, the home of the College World Series.

“We were going to go to Omaha and play in this event up there, us, Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Creighton, at the championship ballpark,” Van Horn said. “We were all invited and I think it got too big and they couldn’t handle it and they just kind of pulled the plug on it.”

The Razorbacks opened fall baseball practice on Tuesday, the first day the NCAA allows it, and have intersquad practices slated for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

There are 31 new players on what is currently a 50-man roster.

“Well, it’s kind of like the fall of ‘21,” Van Horn said. “Got a lot of new players. Starting as early as we can honestly. This is the earliest we can start. I mean, I guess we can start today, and we are. So, couldn’t start yesterday, it was a holiday.

“So, we just want to see what we have. It gives us a little bit more time in the offseason, in the 45-day window when that gets over in the middle of October, it gives us a little bit more time to make some adjustments, just get our roster right.

“We have a roster right at 50, got to turn in a roster of 40 when the season starts. Next year, it’s going to be even smaller than that, so there’s a lot of things we want to get accomplished. We need to get our infield lined up, we need to figure out who’s going to play in that outfield. You know, it’s going to be a battle out there.”

The new players include 15 high school signees, six junior college standout and 10 portal transfers.

 “Well, first off, I appreciate those guys coming to Arkansas because they all had many, many options. There’s a lot involved when you’re talking about the transfer portal. Not only do the players need to pick the right school that really is in need at those positions. But there’s finances involved.

“In many cases here, these guys, they came here and they could have made more money other places. I feel very fortunate they really evaluated their situation as far as development and just what we have to offer here. They’re going to make a big impact on our team. That’s what I see so far.

“Not really naming names, we feel like we plugged in some depth, some holes. We got a couple of experienced starting pitchers to mix in with our really good staff. Position-player wise, we brought in a couple of infielders, a couple of outfielders. Maybe three outfielders. So far, so good, you know. We’ve got to go out to practice and put them in game situations. We don’t expect it to be over-the-top good but guys have got to continue to get better. We’re excited to see what we’ve got.”

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Arkansas brought in a trio of portal transfer starting pitchers in East Carolina’s Zach Root, Ohio State’s Landon Beidelschies and Oregon State’s Aiden Jiminez for Razorback pitching coach Matt Hobbs.

“Well, they want to pitch for Coach Hobbs,” Van Horn said. “They like what they’ve seen from the development of our high school pitchers, or maybe even a guy like (Hagen) Smith, who turned down maybe $1 million coming out of high school and got $8 million.

“Appreciate those guys, but they had some options. Many, many, many options. They could have gone to our league. We would have had to try to beat them, and you know, they came in here because they wanted to be a part of the Arkansas program. Like I said, be with Coach Hobbs, and I think they just wanted to be on a team with a great pitching staff, and that’s what we foresee.”

Root will be wearing number 33, which has been worn by former Razorback All-American southpaw hurlers Hagen Smith and Nick Schmidt among others.

“I have always had, for the most part, I have had, a lot of left hander pitchers that have worn that,” Van Horn said. “Nick Schmidt. Did Drew Smiley wear that number? Might have been another oner in there. Might have ben a couple of more.

“It is a left handed pitcher’s number in my eyes and he’s left handed. Landon had already requested number 35 and he got it. Then I talk to Zach about it and he kind of knew there had been some guys wearing that that were pretty good. Didn’t want to throw that on him if he didn’t want to handle it , but he was good with it.”

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Austrailian-born power-hitting third baseman Brent Iredale is one of those six junior college additions and one of a handful of players Arkansas wasn’t sure would get through the MLB Draft and male it to campus.

Iredale hit .441 and launched 25 of his school record 42 home runs while having 76 RBIs and 24 stolen bases last season for New Mexico Junior College.

“You know, Brent was a guy that turned down money to come to school here, obviously,” Van Horn said. “He’s put up huge numbers at the junior college level. You can say, ‘well, it’s junior college’, but he still put up the numbers. He hit, he’s a good defender, he’s a big, strong kid. He’s got a lot of power.

“He can actually really run, as well. He’s actually, his tools are a little better than we thought they would be. I thought we were looking more at a hitting guy, pretty good fielder. I didn’t know he could run like he can. He throws accurate.

“He’s one of about five guys that we got through that we didn’t think we were going to get him, to be honest with you. Justin Thomas is one. There’s a couple more in there. A couple high school guys, and then getting (outfielder) Kendall Diggs back. All of a sudden, it might have gotten a little crowded, but we got a little better, too. We’ll just let them battle it out.”

Photo by John D. James