Yeah, Dave Van Horn Considered Pulling Hunter Hollan, but Not Long

Bottom line was Hogs' coach wanted to give him shot a complete game to end

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
May 15, 2023 12:13 AM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — After Hunter Hollan got to the eighth , the Arkansas coach considered taking him hout but it didn't sound like he didn't spend a lot of time dwelling on it in a 5-1 win over South Carolina to win the series.

"There was no way we could take him out," Van Horn said later that Hollan wasn't showing signs of being tired. He also just wanted to give him a chance fo finsh what he did getting out of some tough spots.. "He’s in the 90s. The number of pitches, they do matter, but not as much as how stressful were they? How many tough innings did he have to fight out of?"

It obviously was a conversation after the eighth inning Hollan had with pitching coach Matt Hobbs and that probably removed any doubts Van Horn might have been having.

"I want it!’ is what Hollan told him. "That was cool. I threw 113, that’s the most I’ve ever thrown, yeah it was good."

Hollan gave up a homer to South Carolina's Will Tippett in the third.

"He was lights out after that, honestly," Van Horn said.

He allowed the Gamecocks to scatter five hits over the game, but the biggest key was only walking one and striking out 10. Getting runners on the corner with one out, Hollan forced a pop fly that wasn't deep enough to score Cole Messina at third, but he got picked off on a throw back to third because he grabbed a big enough lead hoping it could score him and the relay got him.

"He went probably five innings toward the end of the game where he didn’t work out of the stretch," Van Horn said. "They finally got a hit off him there in the ninth."

It wasn't enough now and the Hogs finished off the Gamecocks using only five pitchers in three days and are in good shape heading to Nashville, Tenn., for the last regular-season games of the year against Vanderbilt sitting in first place by a game over the rest of the league.

Winning two out of three over the Commodores would lock up a minimum tie for the No. 1 seeding in the SEC Tournament. They probably can't finish worse than fourth seed, but this is the only game in the final weekend before seeding that has two highly-ranked teams squaring off.