Hey Arkansas Fans, It's OK to Have Hope Again

After a disappointing year of football and basketball, fan base gets well deserved chance to believe again with Razorback baseball team

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Feb 22, 2023 1:03 PM EST
Original:
Feb 18, 2023

In this story:

Arkansas Razorbacks

ARLINGTON, Texas – It's been a difficult time for Arkansas fans.

Continuing to stand by a football team that was both an internal and external mess. Hanging onto the slightest hope that the basketball team will live up to even a sliver of the hype that surrounded it over the summer.

It's been hard to watch as their enthusiasm has been drained repeatedly with only a sense of deep loyalty pushing them forward to the next game as frustrating seasons trudged along. With every Razorback fan you meet, it's easy to see that it's taken a toll.

That's why, sitting there high in the press box behind home plate Friday night watching thousands of Razorback fans below desperately wanting to unleash nearly a full year of pent up frustration, it did the heart good to see the people of Arkansas finally get rewarded for their unending support of this athletic program as the Razorbacks came out on the winning end of a 3-2 dog fight with the Texas Longhorns.

Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn made it pretty clear throughout the offseason that this year's baseball team was going to be one that could ride a wave of solid pitching to a great deal of success. However, with the news of Jaxon Wiggins going down for the year to an arm injury that requires Tommy John surgery just days before the season opener, it was hard not to feel for the fan base once again.

Was this going to be a Trevon Brazile moment before the year even started?

It always hurts to lose a Friday starter, especially one with the size and talent of Wiggins. However, after watching this team against Texas, it appears to be a loss that can be absorbed better than most seasons.

The Hogs have been downgraded from potentially unstoppable to borderline unstoppable.

Watching Hagan Smith dominate on the mound, striking out eight in five innings of work while only giving up one hit and two walks, was not only a reprieve knowing that Wiggins was gone, it was refreshing.

Seeing a Razorback just go out and take over a game, be a wall the other team couldn't do anything about, was such a nice change of pace. It was almost a little sad for a moment knowing that that's the kind of performance Dave Van Horn could have put out there on Day 2 of series after series this year, but that would cheat the experience for what it was.

Smith showed all the makings of a legitimate Day 1 guy.

He's not a Day 2 pitcher forced into a Day 1 role. He's a Day 1 talent who was going to work on Day 2 initially only because Arkansas had at least two top quality aces in the rotation.

Once we got to the eighth, it was as if Van Horn was one of the '90s late night informercial guys.

"But wait! There's more!"

Out trotted Brady Tygart and literally from the first pitch, even though Arkansas was clinging to a 3-2 lead, the game felt like it was over. It was like when the Razorbacks used to call the "Kopps" but with more variety in the pitching selection.

He threw strike after strike.

He was in the zone. Out of the zone. Under the zone.

Nothing felt hittable and no matter what pitch he threw it looked like a fat man on ice. There was no way to tell which direction it might go all of the sudden and it was coming in hard.

The Texas hitters were missing by eight inches to a foot and looked completely lost. It was almost unfair.

If that's the Tygart Arkansas is going to get all season, it's going to be completely demoralizing for opposing teams the second his music hits. It will be a lot like getting in the ring with 1980s Mike Tyson.

On the offensive side, it might worry Arkansas fans a little that the Razorbacks only put up three runs. But it should be understood that the people in the stadium probably looked up at the scoreboard in the ninth and were surprised to only see three runs.

Arkansas consistently put runners on base. The hitters consistently made great contact.

The Razorbacks had eight hits, but could have just as easily had 12 to 14. From the top to the bottom of this line-up, everyone hit the ball hard.

Some nights the ball just doesn't go through.

Rest easy knowing that this felt like the best hitting line-up Van Horn has put out in a long time. Yes, there were no home runs hit in a park that in the two previous games hinted might lend itself to the long ball, but that's not a bad thing.

In the past, Arkansas has at times been guilty of striking out or hitting long easy outs because hitters fell in love with the home run. Everyone was going up their ripping their intestines in half trying to take one out of the yard.

This team is going to hit home runs. However, it's going to come in the natural flow of the game. It's not going to be forced.

Arkansas hits the ball hard. Everything is coming off the bat in lightning quick line drives with an insane spin rate.

Balls that would have been routine infield grounders spit in different directions both in the air and on dirt and careened away at weird angles the second they touched leather.

This team is going to put up a lot of long innings this year.

In years past, there was always a guy or two who came to the plate and gave the impression his role was to work the pitch count and hopefully draw a walk in the process. Hits just weren't going to come.

That is definitely not the case this year. There are a lot of new names in this line-up to learn, but one way fans aren't going to learn a player's name is by identifying him as the offensive liability.

No one is taking the field strictly on defensive ability. No matter where Arkansas finds itself in the batting order in the ninth inning, there will always be a good chance the Razorbacks come back if they are trailing.

Now for the reality. Arkansas may lose one or two of the remaining games this weekend.

TCU looked like it can push for the national championship against Vanderbilt. The Horned Frogs were absolutely dominant and have tremendous hitting.

As for Oklahoma State, as long as Roc Riggio is on the field, as much as it may pain Arkansas fans because of how much disdain they have for him and his antics, the Cowboys have a puncher's chance against anyone in the country.

However, if that's the case, don't fall back into the malaise that has dominated the Arkansas mood since September.

You were told from the outset that if Sam Pittman drug seven to eight wins out of that Arkansas roster against that schedule that it would be a good job.

It was easy to tell from the exhibition season that the basketball team probably wasn't going to match the hype, although it was hard to fathom things being this bad.

However, things are different with this group Van Horn has put together.

Even without Wiggins, this Razorback baseball team is one worthy of hope and loyalty.

And that's not something said lightly to a fan base as battered and bruised as that of the Arkansas Razorbacks.