Van Horn Has Work Cut Out for Him with Razorbacks' Hitters
ARLINGTON, Texas – After a disappointing football season was followed up by what might be the most disappointing basketball seasons of all time, Arkansas fans were hopeful that the pitching for Razorbacks baseball could somewhat live up to the hype and return a feeling of positivity to the fan base.
Well, not only did the Hogs' pitching staff live up to the hype, it's exceeded what initially appeared to be impossible expectations. Yet, Arkansas is 5-2 and there's legitimate reason to be concerned that Razorbacks fans are about to drag themselves through another sport delivering disappointment.
That's because, early on, this Arkansas baseball line-up is the Swiss cheese of batting orders. There are holes all over the place, and not only is it showing up on the scoreboard, it's taxing the most elite pitching line-up possibly in college baseball history.
Over the weekend, Razorbacks pitchers broke or tied at least three school records, threw 24 shutout innings, struck out 59 hitters, and gave up multiple runs in only two of the 32 innings thrown. Despite this, the Hogs were two swings away from going 0-3 at the Kubota Baseball Series.
That's because, while guys like Hagan Smith, Brady Tygart, Mason Molina and a deep bullpen were putting up 20 strikeouts per game, Arkansas hitters spread 19 hits across that same span. For those scoring at home, that's an average of six hits per game and that's despite playing essentially a double-header against Oklahoma State. Adjusted per inning, that's barely over half a hit.
Part of the issue is how quick and easy it was to develop a book on some of the new guys after the James Madison series. Weaknesses became obvious and weren't of the variety that require a lot of precision. Instead of a specific breaking pitch placed in a precise location, opposing pitchers mostly had to either keep it a few inches off the outside of the plate with pretty much any pitch or go high just about anywhere on the inner half for easy strikeouts.
As for the rest of the team, all that was needed was to play off the Razorbacks' overaggressiveness to take advantage of a large outfield and lack of supportive wind inside the closed dome of Globe Life Field. Case in point, of the 24 possible outs for the Hogs against Oregon State (Arkansas didn't bat in the bottom of the ninth), 17 came on four or fewer pitches.
The Razorbacks' philosophy has almost always been hit early, hit hard, and hit often. However, that only works with players who are fully dialed in. If not, it becomes what Arkansas did this weekend, which was swing early, swing hard, and swing often.
The latter is an opposing pitcher's dream. The strike zone is wide from the first pitch, a starter can go more innings and there is less pressure on a reliever.
There's also less concern if a runner gets on because no one is walking having only faced four or fewer pitches in most cases. The odds of a double-play, which killed a lot of potential big innings for the Hogs, or a long fly ball, are quite high. This takes away a lot of the mental game that can heavily affect a pitcher when batters are patient at the plate.
In an ideal world, a hitter comes to the plate with the idea the strike zone is the height of the baseball and only exists in a certain area of the plate that is a sweet spot for his hitting stroke. Then, as strikes are thrown, that area widens. It not only plays a mental game with the pitcher and increases the odds of a solid hit when actually swinging, but it often causes the umpire to absentmindedly shrink the actual strike zone a little bit also.
In the win over Oregon State, the Hogs drew five full counts in eight innings. In the loss to Oklahoma State, they drew four over 14 innings.
Against a Michigan team that gave up 49 runs in its previous six games, Arkansas had to desperately cling to a one-run lead with bases loaded because hitters couldn't do much with one of the most hittable pitching staffs in college baseball. Only three Razorbacks – Kendall Diggs, Ben McLaughlin and Jared Sprague-Lott – got a hit off Michigan. And despite Wolverines pitchers begging to give up a copious amount of walks, Arkansas only managed seven.
With what this Arkansas pitching staff has done so far, there shouldn't be any blemishes on the Hogs' record. Yes, there's the old ad campaign about how "Chicks dig the long ball," and the Razorbacks do have a rather large female fan base, so it's nice to keep the ladies in mind as well. However, it should be noted that it's also said they like long walks too.
Obviously, the season isn't over. It's supposed to be winter, although the 93 degree temperatures in North Texas on this Monday say otherwise. Seasons aren't made or broken outside of key injuries this time of year.
However, there are serious adjustments that need to be made with these Arkansas hitters over the next three weeks. Otherwise, this team is going to lose a lot of SEC games by scores of 1-0 and 2-0 because there will be even more in-depth scouting reports and the quality of pitching they face will be as elite as it gets.
Being back in Baum-Walker where the winds tend to blow out this time of year should help a little, but patience is going to be the key word going forward. And, as most Razorbacks fans know, patience is a bit of a dirty word at the plate when it comes to the Hogs.
HOGS FEED:
THREE QUESTIONS HEADING INTO SPRING PRACTICE
MAYBE SOMEONE CAN FINALLY END COURT AND FIELD STORMING
WE'VE SEEN CHANGES COMING LATER THAN THIS FOR RAZORBACK FOOTBALL WITH STAFF, ROSTER
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