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Van Horn Spent Friday Night Proving His Legendary Status

Arkansas Razorbacks get up off mat, start winning in strong stretch for Hogs
Kent Smith|
Having just hit a monster home run that cleared the scoreboard at Alabama, the Arkansas Razorbacks' TJ Pompey celebrates.
Having just hit a monster home run that cleared the scoreboard at Alabama, the Arkansas Razorbacks' TJ Pompey celebrates. | Razorback Communications

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Many Arkansas fans will be surprised to find they woke up in a world where Dave Van Horn, a man whose long career has guaranteed 40+ wins almost at the same level as it's guaranteed if a dog runs through a thicket out in the woods in the summer it's going to get eat up with ticks, still knows how to coach college baseball.

As of Friday night, the Razorbacks have now won three of their past four at No. 15 Auburn, over current Ohio Valley Conference leader Little Rock and at No. 8 Alabama. That's three teams with a combined 69 wins midway through the season.

Arkansas is now the 1 in 18-1, the record Alabama now has over its the past 19 games played in Tuscaloosa. More importantly, key coaching choices led to the Hogs steal a win that on paper looked almost impossible to claim.

Van Horn spent a couple of weeks looking like he had to chew cleats to avoid exploding on a group of players who were getting the right advice, but seemingly ignored it in bunches. There were times it was clear players were doing basically the opposite of what Van Horn was preaching throughout the week and his frustration was reaching a boiling point.

His honesty and bluntness trickled into the media as he publicly said multiple times as to make sure the message got across that business had better pick up or changes were going to be made. Veterans who have been facing the pressure of needing to earn a bit of money by way of rising draft stock through solid play on the field were in danger of being left behind in lieu of a youth movement that would go a long way toward advancing the success of future Arkansas teams.

Van Horn Has Knack for Seeing Future

It's a warning Van Horn knew he might have to deliver before the season even started. He could foresee the struggles and knew they might pile up, although not quite to the extent where hitting, fielding and pitching would all fall apart at the same time for a while.

"I know this team, I know what I saw in the fall," Van Horn said. "I'm not going to say I saw this coming, but I could see that it was going to be a little bit of a process. Just so many new guys, so many new guys to the SEC level of competition compared to where they came from, some high school kids getting in, and then maybe, maybe not, somebody backing them up in the lineup, where they just pitch around this guy and go after that guy.

"And so that's why we need more guys to step up and start playing like they know that, like we think they can. But yeah, the learning process is it hit us right between the eyes the last two weeks, and hopefully they learn from it."

However, when things reached the lowest point in the fans' eyes with a mid-week loss at Missouri State, and they were ready to move on the veterans, Van Horn saw clear signs his team was about to turn around.

"No, it's not all about the wins and losses," Van Horn said following a Swatter's Club meeting. "I thought I saw progress Tuesday at Missouri State on the offensive side and not so much on the pitching side, but some of those guys that were pitching out there weren't weekend guys so to say. But, the offense looked pretty good.

"Some guys were coming on, we're thinking 'Okay, we'll get him going a little bit,' and then maybe it didn't happen. The weekend [against Auburn] was just difficult . . . A lot of things show progress. If guys have good at-bats, even though they might not get a hit, maybe you don't win the game. Guys are pitching well, maybe the team just does a good job. As long as we see guys getting better, that's that's huge for us right now."

However, seeing the signs is one thing. Pushing the team in just the perfect way to complete the turnaround is something completely different that requires a coach who has made the effort to know his players at a deeper level than those who don't build quality relationships with members of the team.

"Some guys are going to curl up and go hang out in the corner," Van Horn said of how he carefully goes about managing the team. "Some guys are going to fight back. You kind of know what their personality is a little bit.

"Bottom line, they just need to fight harder at the plate, to make contact, make the other team field it and get to the next pitch. Take note of our freshman [Carter] Rutenbar. He'll fight you at the plate now, and so will [Ryder] Helfrick usually, and Cam [Kozeal] will fight you. He's been struggling. He's kind of getting himself out swinging at pitches that are just out of the zone and we need him to just get back to being patient and when he gets a good pitch, hit it."

And hit Kozeal did. Rutenbar, a highly promising part of that future Van Horn talked about, put a ton of pressure on the veterans.

His hard even swing and long at-bats where he battled starter Tyler Fay, racking up the pitch count much faster than most of his teammates, led to multiple hits that resulted in very little thanks to the veterans either swinging wildly and missing by a mile or popping up one after the other.

Finally, in the fifth, fellow freshman Christian Turner drove a two-strike pitch through the left side for a single. Then, with two outs as a result of a Kuhio Aloy strikeout and a TJ Pompey fly ball to center, Rutenbar slashed a single into right field to put runners at the corner and a ton of pressure on Kozeal.

And finally, after showing signs he might be seeing the ball better following three walks against Little Rock, Kozeal leveled his swing and crushed a double into the gap that scored Turner and should have also scored Rutenbar to take the lead, but a perfect throw narrowly got him at the plate to end the inning.

Finally, a veteran was hitting the ball again. Turns out, that was all it took to turn on the faucet. Two innings later, the veterans took over and showed why the Hogs had intended to rely on them when the season began.

Kozeal opened the eigth with a homer on an 0-2 pitch to bring Arkansas within a run after giving ground the previous inning to make it 3-2. Then Stewart, who has struggled to adjust to SEC pitching, especially on the road, ripped an RBI single as the energy rose in the dugout to even things up.

Aloy then doubled to left with two outs, ending a two-week hitless streak, to put runners on second and third. Senior Maika Niu responded with a hard smash that skimmed the grass toward elite MLB shortstop prospect Justin Lebron that skittered up his glove into his stomach, throwing things off just enough to allow Niu beat a wild throw that scored a run.

Finally, Pompey, who was drowning at the plate, going 1-for-16 in recent weeks, laid into a pitch that sailed over the scoreboard to put the Hogs up 7-3 going into the bottom of the eigth.

It was everything Van Horn needed from his team. Alabama fought back, but Parker Coil immediately shut down a two-run rally to secure the much needed win.

However, none of that would have been possible if the Arkansas skipper hadn't followed through on his promise.

In the end, Van Horn did make changes. Friday night starter Gabe Gaeckle moved to the bullpen where he faced four batters in a complete inning against Little Rock, had a slightly rocky appearance while allowing a run Friday night, and, according to Van Horn, will likely hit the mound again in relief at some point this week.

In his place was Hunter Dietz, a rising star who wasn't supposed to find himself in a Friday night role until next year at the earliest. However, as the SEC's leading strikeout king, it was time to see if he could respond to the moment.

That's exactly what he did. His work could best be described as unevenly nasty.

He struck out nine through six innings of work while only giving up two runs. Both runs happened to be home runs, the first of which still hasn't landed.

However, he showed the ability to easily shake off giving up a blast and get the next guy up. It's the rugged mentality Arkansas has been missing lately on Friday nights.

It's the bold coaching decision the Razorbacks needed to pull things back together. The Hogs needed to steal a single game on the road.

That felt impossible just a few days ago. Now, nothing feels like it's off the table.

Arkansas fans woke up to a world where the Razorbacks can win anything again. All because Van Horn knows how to win.

Go figure. A coaching legend who is as consistent as the changing of the seasons knows what he's doing.

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Kent Smith
KENT SMITH

Kent Smith has been in the world of media and film for nearly 30 years. From Nolan Richardson's final seasons, former Razorback quarterback Clint Stoerner trying to throw to anyone and anything in the blazing heat of Cowboys training camp in Wichita Falls, the first high school and college games after 9/11, to Troy Aikman's retirement and Alex Rodriguez's signing of his quarter billion dollar contract, Smith has been there to report on some of the region's biggest moments. 

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