Van Horn expects more energized Diamond Hogs down the stretch

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – With Arkansas (40-9, 17-7) now ranked between No. 3 and No. 5 in the various college baseball polls, Razorback head coach Dave Van Horn covered a variety of subjects Monday at the program’s monthly Swatter’s Club meeting.

Those included his team’s energy level, season-ending injuries to freshman pitchers Colin Fisher and Hunter Dietz, a national television update and comments made by Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle.

Arkansas is a game ahead of Texas A&M (40-9, 16-8) in the SEC Western Division and tied with Tennessee (39-9, 17-7) a game behind Kentucky (35-10, 18-6) for the overall league lead.

He expects to see a more energized team this weekend when it hosts Mississippi State (32-16, 14-10) this weekend in game slated Friday at 6:30, Saturday at 6 and Sunday at 2.

“I think they will,” Van Horn said. “Its as a tough month physically and mentally. I think with a couple of days off and just a little down time and not having mid-week games should pick up their energy and get some strength.

“The past is the past. We’re in a good situation with our wins where we are at snd we just need to forward from here on in and we just need to swing the bats better.”

The Razorbacks fell from a consensus No. 2 after losing two of three games at Kentucky this weekend.

Tennessee is the new consensus No. 1 while Arkansas is ranked third by USA Today/ESPN and Baseball America and fifth by D1Baseball and Perfect Game. 

Schossnagle asserted on a recent TexAgs Radio podcast that an SEC baseball team was caught using a live video feed in their home dugout during games this season — a clear violation of league rules.


“There are ways we could wire our dugout to get the live feed,” Schlossnagle said. “And there’s a school in our league that got busted. I don’t know if people know it yet. I’m not going to reveal it.

“But they know, they had a live feed going to the dugout all year. And they’re hitting .306 at home and .206 on the road.”

Van Horn was not pleased with the public comments and turn attention to the SEC’s Eastern Division.

“We actually talked to him about it,” Van Horn said. “If you really look at the numbers, you’ll need to look at one of the other schools in the other division.

“But whatever. Those are things that you shouldn’t put out there, in my opinion.”

That could add some flavor the regular season finale on that Arkansas is slated to play at Texas A&M, who visits Ole Miss this weekend.

Those games are now scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2, Friday at 7 and Saturday at 2 with both of the last two games on the SEC Network.

Fisher (6-1, 2.67 ERA), battling an ulnar collateral ligament injury, had made 10 appearances this season while pitching 27 innings this season and fanning 27 batters.

His last outing was against Texas Tech on April 17.

“It’s been bothering him a little bit,” Van Horn said. “We didn’t really know. Kind of had some soreness and then we gave him some time off. And then we’d pitch him and he was sore again and you’re kind of like okay, we’ve got to see if there is something going on in there.”

Van Horn said Fisher was slated to have surgery on Monday, but didn’t know if it would be Tommy John surgery or the less invasive internal brace operation.

“It’s a lot less recovery time,” Van Horn said of the internal brace. “That’s what we’re hoping. That’s what the doctors think.

“Our doctors, doctors of big-league teams have looked at his MRIs and that’s what they’re seeing. If they get in there and it’s torn, they’ll do a Tommy John surgery and he won’t be back for a year.”

Dietz had surgery last season and had only pitched in two games so far this season, the last on April 9.

He will likely be out four to six months per Van Horn, who hopes Dietz will be able to pitch during fall baseball workouts and be in the rotation next season.

Photo by John D. James