Van Horn credits rout to strength of bullpen

Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn watches warmups prior to a scrimmage against Wichita State on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018, in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Wichita State's baseball team came to Baum Stadium for an exhibition game on Friday night, but the Arkansas Razorbacks and their fans didn't treat it that way.

The Razorbacks beat the Shockers 10-1 before an announced crowd of 5,142.

"It was unbelievable," University of Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said of the turnout for a game that didn't count on his team's record. "We have 20 recruits in this weekend and two of them aren't committed yet. So they got to see kind of what they're going to get into if they haven't seen it before."

What the fans and recruits saw was a dominating performance from Arkansas' pitching staff over 14 innings -- both coaches wanted to use plenty of players -- and some timely hitting, including home runs by Heston Kjerstad and Matt Goodheart.

"Our pitching has gotten after our hitters a little bit this fall," Van Horn said. "We've had our days here and there, but right now the strength of the team is our bullpen."

Wichita State scored its only run off Arkansas starter Isaiah Campbell in the third inning when Jacob Katzey singled, stole second and scored on a single by Luke Ritter.

"Campbell didn't really have his breaking stuff until the last inning," Van Horn said. "The fourth inning he started throwing his changeup and his curveball a little bit and did a nice job with it."

Campbell -- who went four innings -- and the eight Arkansas pitchers who followed him combined to hold the Shockers to 5 hits and 5 walks with 24 strikeouts.

"The pitching is strong," Van Horn said. "There's a lot of competition, a lot of depth."

Matt Cronin, Arkansas' closer, came into the game in the top of the ninth inning with the Razorbacks leading 3-1 and struck out the side on 12 pitches.

"He had really good stuff," Van Horn said. "Even the pitches that he missed, they were borderline. He threw a couple of really good curveballs. He looked really sharp."

Campbell allowed 4 hits and 1 walk with 8 strikeouts through 4 innings. The next four Arkansas pitchers through the ninth inning -- Jacoby Kostyshock, Cody Scroggins, Kole Ramage and Cronin -- didn't allow a hit or a walk.

Wichita State hitters stuck out 17 times through nine innings.

"That's outstanding," Van Horn said. "No. 1, we're throwing strikes. And we put away the hitters.

"We did a good job of locating. We threw a lot of fastballs and located them, and our off-speed was good."

Kjerstad, a sophomore who has moved to right field this fall after starting every game in left field last season, hit a two-run home run in the first inning -- after Goodheart walked -- off of Shockers starter Clayton McGinnis to give the Razorbacks a 2-0 lead.

"I think it was a changeup and Kjerstad just stayed on it," Van Horn said. "We knew right when it left the bat it was out of here."

Kjerstad struck out in his next four at-bats.

"He was swinging a little too hard, over-swinging, went out of the zone a couple times," Van Horn said. "He's been really good this fall. He hadn't swung wildly like that, so he was probably just trying to do too much, trying to hit two home runs, and he only got one."

Goodheart, a sophomore from Magnolia who transferred to Arkansas this year from San Jacinto (Texas) Junior College, hit a three-run home run in the 10th inning and had an RBI single in the 14th to finish 2 for 5 with 4 RBI.

"To put those two at-bats together late in the game, I think, was big for his confidence," Van Horn said. "It was good for me to see as well."

Van Horn didn't like seeing the Razorbacks strike out 18 times, including 14 through nine innings.

"There were way too many strikeouts," Van Horn said. "We've got to cut those in half. On some you've just got to give credit to [McGinnis]. He threw a lot of breaking balls, changeups and kept us off balance. Then they brought in a pretty good lefty [Alex Segal], another guy that threw a lot of breaking balls."

McGinnis and Segal combined for 12 strikeouts in 62/3 innings.

"You don't want to lose," Van Horn said. "You want to feel like you outplayed them.

"We didn't play great, but we scored a lot of runs. A lot of them were late, but we did what we needed to do the first nine innings against most of their best pitchers."

Sports on 10/07/2018