Van Horn excited about Diamond Hogs’ young hitters as fall scrimmages continue

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas’ baseball team will be back on the field this weekend at Baum-Walker Stadium for a pair of open scrimmages.

Friday’s scrimmage is at 3 p.m. and will give a trio of a trio newcomers in true freshmen Brenton Clarke and Gabe Fraser and junior college transfer Brent Iredale another chance to shine.

Razorback head coach Dave Van Horn impressed with what he he has seen from them in the first four.

Clarke (6-1, 190) , a former Texarkas (Texas) Pleasant Grove standout, has impressed in the field and with his bat through the first four fall scrimmages.

“Let me start with Clark – all he is doing is getting hits,” Van Horn said. “He went 1 for 2 today and probably in the first three scrimmages, I’m going to say he had around 10 hits with around three home runs.

“He’s a good player. He had a good tournament at the end of the year where he was like 12 of 17 or something crazy and he’s picked it up here where he left off and done it here against some good arms.”

Fraser (6-2, 180) is a shortstop from Westminster (Calif.) Orange Lutheran and was someone Van Horn worried about going in the Major League Baseball Draft.

“Fraser’s done a great job, too,” Van Horn said. “He has got an incredible arm and I am just trying to get him to calm down a little bit, stay within, don’t hurt that thing and play for a long time.

“Just want him to slow down. Freshmen speed up. He is doing a great job and if you make a mistake pitching, he’ll hit a homer or a double…He’s done tremendous job so far.”

Third baseman Iredale has hit four home runs in four scrimmages, which is not surprising since the he hit 42 round-trippers in his last two seasons at New Mexico College.

He also had 72 RBIs and 25 stolen bases last season.

“He fields everything,” Van Horn said. “He just kind of throws what he needs to throw. He kind of throws darts. You don’t realize this, but he can really run. If he hits a ball in the gap, he can run. He’s one of the faster guys on the team.”

Arkansas has swatted 20 home runs in the first four scrimmages, including 10 in the fall’s first one.

“Some of the young pitchers are throwing really good,” Van Horn said. “We threw three of them (Sunday) and some of them are fighting because they are not use to throwing over and holding runners like this and control isn’t great and they are making a mistake or two and getting hit.

“But really the veteran guys have pitched really well. Opening day, the wind was blowing out and the air was thin and we hit a lot of home runs. In six innings we hit 10 off 96 to 98 mile (per hour) fastballs. A couple of them were’t located very well, but hats off to the offense.”

Reese Robinett, a corner infield returnee looking to see increased significant action this upcoming season, has also sent a pair of blasts out of the yard.

“He’s gotten better,” Van Horn said. “Just like today, he hit a pull-side home run into the wind…It shot out of here…He has gotten better everywhere. His body is in great shape. He gained a lot of experience this summer and has a lot of confidence. It is exciting to see and he can play third or first.”

Van Horn is not worried abut his team’s pitching.

“As a team right now, we are way ahead of where we were last year with pitching,” Van Horn said.

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Van Horn has changed up the scrimmages this fall by putting inherited runners on base is some innings.

“We have changed up some things on how we are handling our scrimmages,” Van Horn said. “We’ll set up some situations. We are not just going out and pitching and playing. We may, (for) a couple of innings and for pitchers that are going two or three innings and no one is on base, we’ll set up some situations on offensive side.

“We’ll have them working on stealing bases and just creating some problems. We think it is helping our pitchers.

“…We use to just let the situations evolve in the game, now we are setting them up.We might have to sac somebody over it helps on holding the runners. It gives us a chance to maybe play more real baseball.”

Photo courtesy of Arkansas baseball