FAYETTEVILLE — September couldn’t get here fast enough for Arkansas baseball.
The Razorbacks have had nearly four months to digest the bitter taste left by a 13-game losing streak to end the 2016 season with a 26-29 record. They will return to the field as a team for the first time since May when fall practice begins Friday at 2 p.m. at Baum Stadium.
“This was the longest summer I’ve had in 20 years,” said Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn, who is entering his 15th season at his alma mater. “Around here we plan on playing for a while, so we learned a lot from it, to be honest with you.
“I feel like it slipped away a little bit with the upperclassmen, and we’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The Razorbacks’ roster includes 51 players this fall. That number will be trimmed to 35 by the time the season begins in February.
Among the 51 are 24 newcomers, including three players who were drafted earlier this year and two more who were considered top 500 draft prospects.
“It basically tells you that no one is guaranteed a spot, so everyone is going to have to work their butt off,” said junior outfielder Luke Bonfield said. “It’s kind of like my freshman year when we went to Omaha. We had a ton of guys [in the fall] and it was really competitive and I think that’s why we were so good.
“[The losing streak] just does not sit well with the coaches and does not sit sit well with the returning guys. Everyone is hungry and ready to go get after it.”
Arkansas’ struggles in 2016 centered around a group of pitchers that helped the team to the College World Series the year before. But some veteran pitchers never looked right after offseason surgeries and others struggled as the team finished with a 5.02 ERA.
“We couldn’t get people out,” Van Horn said. “We had the worst ERA in the conference by far and really it was the older pitchers that did not have a good season. It started with Friday night, real inconsistent.
“I felt like our hitters felt a lot of pressure to score runs, especially late. We didn’t finish well and then we played the best teams late in the season. All the things that went our way in ‘15 went the other way in ‘16. Bottom line: we weren’t good enough.”
Fall practice will give new pitching coach Wes Johnson his first chance to evaluate the team’s staff. Johnson was hired away from Mississippi State in June.
Arkansas has several right-handers that may push for starting time, notably junior Keaton McKinney and sophomores Isaiah Campbell, Barrett Loseke and Anthony Dahl.
Van Horn said coaches will experiment pitching sophomore Blaine Knight and senior Dominic Taccolini in various roles, including closer.
“We’ve got to be able to finish games,” Van Horn said. “I think you would see Dominic’s velocity up if he knew he was only going to throw an inning or two. I won’t say Blaine Knight won’t be our closer, but he may be our Friday night starter.”
The Razorbacks will practice 28 times, culminating in a best-of-seven scrimmage series in October. All practices are open to the public.