Goin’ South didn’t help much. With temperatures in the low 30′s on opening night and then in the upper 40′s on Saturday and Sunday, the Diamond Hogs got off to a bit of a slow start in their weekend series with Louisiana Tech. Overcoming the less than ideal conditions, the Razorbacks took two out of three from a good Bulldog team. In fact, despite the loss, the Hogs moved up one spot to #6 in the Baseball America Top 25.
Despite being out-scored 13-12 and out-hit 23-19, the Hogs managed the series win with good pitching outings by Chris Rhodes and Jess Todd on Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Rhodes, the senior right-hander from North Little Rock, was near perfect tossing a combined 5.1 innings, giving up no runs and striking out three. Todd was as advertised — a bulldog mentality with nasty, hard sliders — pitching 3.1 scoreless innings and garnering two saves. Todd stuck out 6 of the 14 batters he faced and didn’t walk anyone.
It appeared that Coach Van Horn was using this series almost like an exhibition…playing everyone that was on the bus. Look for that to continue over the next couple of weekends as he searches for the best hitting combinations. It is pretty obvious, though, that they have to get Casey Coon on the field somewhere. Coon, the junior college transfer from Las Vegas, Nevada went 4 for 6 with two doubles and four RBIs.
Strikeouts at the plate, a problem that plagued the team last season, reared their ugly head again in the games on Friday and Saturday. Unable to lay off breaking stuff out of the zone, the Hogs fanned 22 times. Gotta get that corrected.
The weekend was not without some drama, and leave it to Brian Walker to provide it. After his three-run jack over the centerfield wall in the 8th inning on Sunday, Walker began jawing with the Bulldog pitcher Dylan Moseley and catcher Drew Thomas as he touched home plate.
That was followed by an exchange between Van Horn and Wade Simoneaux, the Tech manager, and the next pitch from Moseley was behind the head of Hog shortstop Matt Willard. Both benches cleared, but no fight ensued. Here’s hoping Walker will keep his mouth shut the next time he does something good and act like a captain. This team is too good for that sort of crap.
All in all though, not bad for an opening weekend. The Hogs travel to Troy for a weekend series beginning on Friday before the home opener in Fayetteville next Friday, February 16th against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
I hope Walker doesn't end up giving this program a bad reputation. I have no problem with playing with fire and passion, but we don't need classless players. Now, I'm not saying Walker was being classless as I couldn't tell from the replay who started it, but I'm just saying we don't need to get cocky. Walker has some swagger, which is good… I just hope he doesn't get overzealous like he did last year at Ole Miss.