Van Horn sees 2025 Diamond Hogs on a mission to end strongly

By DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – Even though many of the players on his current roster were not the last two seasons, Arkansas head baseball coach Dave Van Horn senses a chippiness around his program.

The Razorbacks won a share of the SEC overall title in 2023 and back-back Western Division crowns the last two years, but both seasons ended with losses while hosting an NCAA Tournament at Baum-Walker Stadium.

“I feel this team is, they’re on a mission,” Van Horn said. “There’s been some things go down the last couple of years at the end of the season that have been hard to swallow.

“Honestly, behind closed doors, the coaches, we knew we weren’t maybe quite as good as we were ranked or whatever, but we were just finding ways to win. Credit to the players for that. This team wants to make sure we get to the end.”

Arkansas has been tabbed No. 5 nationally by D1 Baseball and No. 13 by Perfect Game in their preseason polls with Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball yet to release their rankings.

Van Horn is excited about his mix of veterans and newcomers that he belies has a different vibe than last year’s team that finished 44-16 overall and 20-10 in SEC action fr the second straight season.

“A lot different personality than last year’s team,” Van Horn said. “This year’s team just seems really confident and a little more verbal, vocal. So far, so good. Feel like they get along really well. That’s the feedback I’ve gotten from returners, and then the new guys just seem to really like it here.

“Like what’s going on. I think they’re excited about the schedule we’ve lined up, which is ridiculously tough, but it’ll be a lot of fun.”

Arkansas and Southern Miss are the only two programs to win over 40 games the last seven full college baseball season.

But that will only get harder this season as Oklahoma and Texas join the SEC to form a 16-team mega-conference and elevate the toughness of the league.

“I think of our 30 conference games, 27 of those games are ranked right now,” Van Horn said. “You never know how it’s going to turn out or who’s going to do what down the road, but if you look at some teams that maybe lost a lot of players that were really good last year, we don’t play them this year. They’re not on our schedule, some of them.

“We’re playing some older teams, some really good teams. Got some tough road games — at LSU, at Florida, just to name a few. Yeah, it’s… We play Washington State, so I’m going to worry about that right now and just try to get better.”

Arkansas opens the season on Friday, Feb. 14 at 3 p.m by hosting Washington State in the first of a four-game afternoon series that continues through Monday.

The Razorbacks will then head to Arlington, Texas to play a trio of games at the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Stadium – xxx.

Van Horn noted that Gabe Gaeckle will definitely be in the starting rotation and that East Carolina transfer Gabe Root, Ohio State transfer Landon Beidelschies and retuning junior Gage West are atop a lengthly list of possible starters.

“I mean, we’re going to let them prove it to us a little more,” Van Horn said. “We saw a lot of good things in the fall, and then off-season, I think just because we’ve been around Gabe Gaeckle so much, had him here, we feel like that he will definitely be a starter. Root looks like a starter. Gage Wood. Beidelschies. Those are all possibilities, and there are some other guys in there.

“…But the first weekend, we play four games, which I think is a good thing for this team, and then head down to Texas. If you look at our schedule, there aren’t a lot of games where you can go, ‘okay, we’re going to experiment with that freshman out there’. Although, in some cases with freshmen, it’s not an experiment. They’re pretty darn good. I mean, yeah, kind of tip-toeing around the question, but I mentioned four guys at the top and they’ll battle for those jobs to start out.”

Van Horn is anxious to see Oregon State transfer Aiden Jimenez, who was injured before the 2024 campaign and unable to pitch this fall, get in some work.

“Well he’s doing great so far,” Van Horn said. “Incredibly hard worker. Very strong. Big kid. If we can get him back to where he was at Oregon State, we’ll have a jewel, so to speak.

“His role right now would be, I guess it would be wide open. He was a starter there. He could be, probably could be a middle reliever for us to start out, just to see what he could do. He was someone that we were hoping we could get him, maybe middle of the season, but it looks like he might be ready more toward the beginning of the season to help us. He’s way ahead of schedule for the surgery he had.”

Also on the injury front, Kendall Diggs is back after a 2024 season in which he played through injuries and saw his productivity drop from an All-SEC second-team sophomore season.

“He’s 100 percent cleared to do everything now Now it’s all about timing at the plate, it’s about getting that bat speed back that he’s had in the past, seeing live pitching and just feeling confident. He has a great personality. He’s easy to be around, easy to talk to. Players gravitate to him.

“Now it’s not about him feeling part of the team, because he’s going to be a big part of our team, it’s just a matter of how soon. We know what he can do when he’s full-go. He’s stronger than ever. Even with the shoulder injury, he’s had a chance to work on his lower half and he’s a full-grown man now, it’s time to go. I think he’s excited about being out there.”

Van Horn notes other players that were injured last season or in the fall are back and ready to practice – except for freshman freshman infielder Gabe Fraser.

“Real good,” Van Horn said of the injury front. “You know, really, the only issue we have right now is with Gabe Fraser, who had a little arm trouble in the fall. Still working through that. Other than that, so far, everybody’s in good shape.”

Photo by John D. James