FAYETTEVILLE — Dave Van Horn stood up to welcome a reporter to his sky box office at Baum-Walker Stadium in early January. There was a pause as he looked down to the infield where two pitchers were playing catch.
“I love that,” Van Horn said. “There’s one of our freshmen, Blake Adams, throwing with one of our top pitchers, Connor Noland. That’s what I want to see, the older players showing the new guys the ropes.
“That’s the way it was last year with Isaiah Campbell, helping both Connor and Patrick Wicklander, two of our freshmen on that team. This is how you get good.”
Noland shrugged it off.
“Patrick and I did want to learn from Isaiah,” he said. “Why wouldn’t you? And, as far as Blake, I’ve been playing with him for a long time in travel ball. We know each other. He was in the locker room and I needed a workout partner. I just said, ‘Let’s go.’ I didn’t think much about it.
“Blake may be a freshman but he’s good. We want to win. Anyone who can help us win, we want to help and it doesn’t matter if you are 16 or 17, let’s go.”
Noland hails from nearby Greenwood, a little more than an hour from campus. Adams is a Springdale Har-Ber product. He’ll have a chance to break into the rotation, a big, hard throwing right-hander with a bright future.
But the weekend will probably start with either Noland or Wicklander, a lefty with several nasty strikeout pitches. Noland and Adams grew up Razorback fans. It’s not clear if Wicklander, who hails from San Jose, Calif., knew what a Razorback was until late in his high school career.
It’s a long way from the Silicon Valley to Fayetteville. Wicklander thinks it’s 26 hours by car, but the lefty ace of the Arkansas staff has no proof.
“I haven’t driven it,” said the sophomore pitcher who is expected to be one of the anchors of the starting pitching.
So how did he get his rig to the Ozarks?
Oh, that’s when the 6-1, 200-pound strikeout specialist really didn’t have an answer. His delivery slowed. There was no unique fastball, or a new curve to toss to the reporter.
“I don’t have one,” he said. “I’ve never done anything but fly from California to here.”
Wicklander has purchased a moped for campus purposes, but mainly hops rides with teammates to get around town or to the ballpark.
“I depend on my roommate, Marshall Denton,” he said.
Is there an offer of gas money?
“I cook for him,” Wicklander said.
Wicklander has been cooking up a new pitch over the winter, along with Noland. Both were in the starting rotation by season’s end, nice complements to Friday ace Campbell.
They both tried to mimic everything in Campbell’s routine, perfected under first Wes Johnson and then new pitching coach Matt Hobbs. The latter arrived just as fall workouts ended and there wasn’t a hiccup.
It was a shock to Wicklander. He’d picked Arkansas primarily because of Johnson. He was committed to Johnson with Dallas Baptist as a high school sophomore. He watched how things were developing in Johnson’s brief stint at Mississippi State.
“When Coach Johnson got here, then I was interested and just fell in love the first time I got here,” he said. “I grew up in the Silicon Valley and things are just so spread out. This is a college town and I just love it.”
It’s interesting that Wicklander comes from an area fertile in high tech innovations. With both Johnson and Hobbs, the Hogs are on the cutting edge of baseball tech. The analytics used and tracking devices to detect spin and velocity have given this staff an edge. It’s primarily the reason Johnson was snapped up to be the pitching coach for the Minnesota Twins.
Hobbs used the high tech tracking to help both Wicklander and Noland add to their weapons.
“I’ve added a curveball,” Wicklander said.
Noland has added a change-up to go with solid fastballs and curves.
“It’s a usable change-up,” Noland said. “I can throw it anywhere in the count.”
Wicklander fanned 90 in 66 2/3 innings last year. That was after striking out 350 in a sterling prep career.
“You could call him a crafty lefty with those strikeout numbers, but it’s power stuff,” Hobbs said. “It’s crafty because sometimes he’s 70 percent fastballs and then the next time he might throw 70 percent off speed.
“He’s just so multiple. But that fast ball is dynamic. It’s unique in that sometimes it moves a lot and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Wicklander broke into a smile when that was mentioned.
“I’d never heard that Coach Hobbs called it unique,” Wicklander said. “I just don’t know from one game to next how much the fast ball is going to move. Sometimes it’s a lot. Sometimes it’s not as much.
“It cuts. It sinks. It does lots of stuff. I’ll just say that sometimes it just does what it does, to both sides of the zone.”
The curveball wasn’t dependable last year.
“I’ve really added to that this year,” Wicklander said. “I’ve improved the control of it from last year. That’s why I say I have added a curveball.”
Hobbs said it’s not just the natural ability of that fast ball that makes Wicklander tough.
“He’s a bulldog and competes so hard in the bullpen,” Hobbs said. “He’s talented, yes. But his work ethic is outstanding. He’s hard-nosed and tough.
“When you talk about what I saw last year from both Wicklander and Noland, it was outstanding work ethic. It started with Isaiah’s work ethic.”
Hobbs said it was such an easy transition in taking over for Johnson because of the work ethic already present on the staff.
“Wes told me that it was easy for him to take over for Dave Jorn and I felt the same way when I got here, because they worked hard for Wes,” Hobbs said. “I know everyone saw Isaiah pitch great on Friday nights all year. But it was exactly the same way he worked on Tuesday in his bullpens.
“Those two freshmen learned to compete in their bullpens. That has been what’s been impressive, they still are competing in every bullpen like they learned from Isaiah.”
That’s not to underestimate talent.
“The metrics of Wicklander’s fastball is just incredible,” Hobbs said. “It’s got a unique movement profile. You have that and then the competitor. He’s got perfect balance and does not try to overthink it.”
Wicklander has added velocity as he’s added strength in the offseason. He started his freshman season with just 175 pounds on his 6-1 frame. He’s at 200 now.
Noland is the same weight he pitched at last year, 215 pounds. But he looks entirely different after switching to baseball lifting as opposed to workouts geared more for football.
“I’m thicker in the legs,” Noland said. “And, it’s helped my average velocity.”
Noland could hit 91 at times as a freshman, but he couldn’t sustain that velocity. And, his average velocity dropped as the season progressed. That’s the benefit of concentrating on baseball for the first time. His lifting had been geared for football before last summer.
“Connor’s velo(city) just jumped this fall,” Hobbs said. “Anybody who has done both football and baseball knows it’s tough to try. It wears on you physically.
“I don’t think Connor would ever let on that it did, but it’s helped his pure stuff to concentrate on baseball.
“Last year he was throwing mostly 87 and this fall his average went to 90.3. That’s just the average. He was hitting higher numbers than last year. So he’s got more pure stuff now.
“I think he’s got more punch out power and he’s also just got a bigger arsenal. There are two different curves, including a traditional 12-to-6 breaker. He’s got a slider and there are good gaps between velocities between all of them. He’s got a different shape to one of the curves.”
But it’s a change-up that makes everything different. Noland loves it.
“I’ve always been able to fill up the zone,” he said. “But now I can attack hitters more. That’s a usable change that I feel comfortable throwing behind in the count.
“Coach Hobbs showed me that change-up grip and I just carried a baseball around all the time with the grip. I wanted to get that feel.”
But the main thing is adding velocity.
“I was fluctuating with velocity a lot last year,” Noland said. “My average velocity is much more consistent. I’m stronger now since I’ve been lifting with Blaine Kinsley.”
Mississippi State’s hitters probably don’t want to hear that about Noland. They were hard pressed to figure him out as the Hogs romped 10-2 in the final game of a three-game sweep.
Noland threw 60 of his 89 pitches for strikes in limiting the Bulldogs to four hits in 7 2/3 innings. He did not walk a batter while fanning five.
“I got ahead and took back the inside part of the plate,” he said.
That was important even with losing some velocity midway through the season. He had to continue to work both sides of the plate.
“Casey Opitz had a good game plan,” Noland said of the Mississippi State outing.
It was the point in the season that Noland knew it was time to concentrate on baseball and leave football behind.
“I knew I had to dedicate myself to baseball at that point,” Noland said. “I knew I could have a future in baseball.”
Oh, and there was one other thing outside of personal goals. It’s recognition that something is missing with Arkansas baseball and Van Horn, the coach with eight trips to the College World Series, including six with the Hogs.
“I knew I could help bring a national championship to Arkansas,” Noland said. “You watch Arkansas baseball, that’s the one thing you know that’s needed, a national championship for Coach Van Horn.
“Now, I know that right now our focus is on just winning the first game. I understand.
“But if you play sports, you want to win championships. You want to win a national championship.
“Every player on this team wants to win one for Coach Van Horn. We want it for his legacy.”
Noland said that also goes for the other coaches on the staff. He has gotten close to Hobbs. It made an impact when Hobbs interviewed for the pitching coach job with the New York Yankees, but later backed out.
“As soon as he got here, Coach Hobbs was my go-to guy,” Noland said. “He’s got that huge book of knowledge and such good relationships with all of our guys. When the Yankees interviewed him, we said, ‘Wow.’ That’s a big stage.
“Our team is appreciative that he stayed and our fans should appreciate that, too.
“Coach Hobbs is so good. It’s all the systems, the technical aspect of it. He’s so good with the analytics, but the main thing he wants to win. It’s about winning here.”
To do it, everyone is pulling together.