Razorbacks second baseman Peyton Stovall against Texas A&M on April 28, 2023 — (Walt Beazley / Arkansas Communications)

Hogs Will be Without Peyton Stovall Rest of Way Heading to Vanderbilt

Good thing Peyton Holt has been good plus look at series with Dave Van Horn

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
May 17, 2023 4:18 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It's a good thing Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn saw something in Peyton Holt when Peyton Stovall went down with an injury. Now he's going to have to play the rest of the way.

Van Horn announced that Stovall will be out for the rest of the way at second base in his press conference as the team prepares to head to Nashville, Tenn., for the final regular-season series against Vanderbilt, then head on down to Hoover, Ala., for the SEC Tournament that starts next week.

It doesn't mean something's not at stake. First place in the league for the regular season is on the line, but it will be with Holt, who has shown to be a backup that is making consistent plays at second, playing there the last few games.

Stovall was hitting .345 with plenty of power production through four weeks before posting a .193 batting average in 21 conference games before being shut down for the season. The change will be felt more on offense.

The thought after the initial injury was it would improve with rest, but that didn't happen. It may have made it go the other direction.

"It impacted it a lot, big-time on offense," Van Horn said Wednesday afternoon. "We think he hurt it swinging. There were a couple of pitches when he swung and missed that stood out when he grimaced big time. He remembers one of them, and that was a month and a half ago.

"It might have started out as some inflammation in there, then got better, got back out there again and that's when we think he hurt it. Somewhere in around six weeks ago. He's been playing in pain. He's been probably miserable. I'm glad we know what it is and can get it fixed, and he can move on. I think he'll have a great season next year."

The Razorbacks and Commodores will play the first game of the series Thursday night at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network.