No. 2 Arkansas and Missouri set to battle weather and each other this weekend

BY DUDLEY E.DAWSON


FAYETTEVILLE – A team riding atop the SEC baseball standings and one inhabiting the league basement are scheduled to clash this weekend at Baum-Walker Stadium.

But the biggest foe of both No. 3 Arkansas (27-3, 8-1) and visiting Missouri (11-17, 0-9) could be weather and not each other.

Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn is all over forecasts for games currently schedule for Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

“Lot of rain obviously and then cool temperatures and wind,” Van Horn said. “We’ve had such good weather, you kind of knew this was going to happen somewhere. But it looks like, you know, we’ll make a decision tomorrow morning on tomorrow’s game.

“You can’t really go off of… this far in advance. It’d be tough to move the Friday game because of what you’re seeing on Thursday morning. So we’ll get together in the morning and kind of look at the long range.

“Obviously we’re in touch with two different weather services and getting their opinions and then make a decision on Friday’s game and then how we’re going to handle Saturday.

“Because Saturday we’re scheduled to play at 6. If we have to move that up to catch a window to get a game in that’s what we would do.

“And then somehow between Saturday and Sunday late afternoon get three games in if we don’t play tomorrow.”

The Razorbacks plan to start Zach Root (4-1, 3.24 ERA), Gabe Gaeckle (1-0, 5.93) and Landon Beidelschies (3-0, 4.82) again this weekend.

“Yeah, as of now those three pitchers will pitch,” Van Horn said. “That would be the order we would go in if everything’s on time Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

‘If we figure out tomorrow that something’s changed I mean we might change who starts in what order, but yeah, that’ll be the three.”

But the Razorbacks will not have either injured pitcher Parker Coil or recovering one Gage Wood, who is getting closer to a return.

Coil (2-0, 0.60 in 15 innings over 10 appearances) was hurt a couple of weeks ago.

“…We’ll get Parker back hopefully sometime, not this month but hopefully in May,” Van Horn said. “He can help us down the stretch.”

Wood, whose injury against Michigan on Feb. 23 was described as a shoulder impingement, is getting closer per Van Horn but “no, we won’t see him this weekend.”

Van Horn also noted that the team is not currently looking at top reliever Aiden Jimenez (3-0, 1.59 ERA in 17 innings and nine appearances) as a starting option.

Jimenez missed last season at Oregon State due to Tommy John surgery and has been building up his pitch count so far in the 2025 campaign.

“I mean we’re not building him up at this point to be a starter,” Van Horn said. “We’re just building him up probably more to what he can do. We’re not going to over-throw him.

“He just has different roles. He can close a game for three innings. He can come in and close the ninth. He can pitch earlier in the game and go four and you can come get him and finish somebody.

“We could spot start him. Just getting him right, getting him healthy. He’s not concerned with being a closer or being a starter. He just wants to get better and help the team win and that’s exactly what he’s done. “

Jimenez has fanned 20 and allowed three runs on 15 hits so far this season.

“He’s been very consistent,” Van Horn said. “You put him in, he’s going to throw the ball over the plate. He’s going to get some strikeouts, but he’s also going to get some contact. We’ve done a good job playing defense behind him and he’s settled a lot of things down in some tough situations.”

Van Horn doesn’t think his team will let up against Missouri despite the Tigers’ subpar record.

“Well, I feel like they don’t really care what the other team’s record is,” Van Horn said. “They just play. I don’t feel like I’m to that point where I see that the way they’re acting or the way they’re practicing, working out in the weight room like we’re playing somebody that they’re not going to compete as hard as they can against.

“That’s not the way they’ve been trained. I’ve said it many times already this year, that I really like the makeup of the team. They show up and they play, and they play hard. It’s business-like.

“They feel like they’re never out of a game. Been behind, comeback and win, and as the innings start to get a little tighter or we’re running out of them and we’re losing, you can just see the intensity ramp up in the dugout, and they find a way to get it done, most of the time. 

“So I don’t really feel like we’re really looking at records right now.”

Missouri is led by Jackson Lovich (.368, 7 HRs, 33 RBIs), the younger brother of former Razorback Ross Lovich.


The Tigers blasted UAPB 25-10 on Tuesday night and rallied past the Lions 8-7 on Wednesday,

“Honestly, you look at Missouri, they can hit,” Van Horn said. “Lovich is having a great year and, you know, they’ve had some good pitching performances.

“They play at their ballpark, wind’s blowing out some times, a lot, it can be blowing out hard, so sometimes the numbers can be kind of skewed for a pitching staff.

“The way to go about every series is just to go in and play. It’s like I tell our guys, as well, ‘they all count the same. Whether you win or lose, it’s one loss or one win’”.

Arkansas is tied atop the SEC standing with No. 1 Tennessee (27-2, 8-1), No. 3 Georgia (29-2, 8-1) and Texas (23-4, 8-1) with LSU a game back (27-3, 7-2).

Tennessee hosts Texas A&M, Georgia is at Texas and LSU at Oklahoma this weekend.

Van Horn knows his team needs all the wins it can get to win an SEC that has 8 of the Top 10 teams in D1 Baseball rankings.

“Just try to stack up a few wins because the league’s tough and you can have a bad week or weekend, or a couple of weeks,” Van Horn said. “You look at some of these other teams that are down in the pack where they’re 1-8, those are good teams, believe it or not. RPIs are still pretty good.

“They have a lot of talent, pro talent for the future, and it just hasn’t gone right for them. I don’t get all excited about being 8-1 or if we were 5-4, whatever. We’ve just got to show up and play.” 

Photo by John D. James