Van Horn Believes He 'Hit The Jackpot' With 2027 Arkansas Baseball Roster

FAYETTEVILLE — There's 153 days until Arkansas officially opens the 2027 season at Baum-Walker Stadium against Butler, but head coach Dave Van Horn likes his ballclub.

The Razorbacks held a home run derby and Red-White game in Fayetteville on Friday, with the Red team winning 3-2 in walk-off fashion to cap a wild fifth inning. Dawson Bryce knocked through the game-winning base hit.

"As far as people, we hit the jackpot on the transfers," Van Horn said. "They're all good guys. Even our players that are here have told me, 'Man, these guys fit in.' They're great guys. We feel good about the people we brought in."

Arkansas' transfer class showed out on Friday. In addition to Bryce walking off the game, Central Arkansas transfer Zeb Allen showed off his blazing speed with a triple, while Fairleigh Dickinson transfer Johnathan Gomez very nearly opened the scoring with a high fly ball to deep centerfield that was caught on the warning track.

Friday night fall ball in Fay pic.twitter.com/tCt9nJEOmW
— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) September 19, 2026

However, it was the pitching that stole the show. While it gave up a pair of runs, the Red team threw a five-inning no-hitter. Only a pair of HBPs from Ridge Harvey, who suffice to say struggled with control during his outing, allowed the White team to score on sacrifice flys from Dylan Cheek and Ty Burnham.

Mark Brissey, Cal Baptist transfer Michael Malki, Cole Gibler and Jackson Harvey all put up a scoreless inning, while Weatherford College transfer Holden Hering closed out the top of the fifth with 0.2 scoreless innings.

For the Red team, Steele Eaves, Trystan Newberry, Central Michigan transfer Luke Neiwswonger and Lance Alexander all threw a scoreless inning each.

"I really like the way our pitchers threw the ball today," Van Horn said. "Until you got to the fifth inning, we hadn't walked anybody. Struck out like 15. Pitchers won a lot of battles 3-2. It feels good to see. We've got four [or] five other guys we didn't play tonight... feel good about the depth of our [pitching] staff."

Arkansas will have another intrasquad scrimmage on Sunday before playing the first of three fall ball games against Little Rock at Baum-Walker Stadium on Oct. 3. The Razorbacks will also host Dallas Baptist on Oct. 17 and Central Arkansas on Oct. 23.

"We'll have to start putting in some stuff now," Van Horn said. "We haven't worked on run coverages, run-downs. We've worked on cut off and relay things. We haven't put any signs in, but we'll start doing that stuff."

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