Arkansas did not play well in its first game Sunday against fifth-ranked Stanford, but a silver lining for the No. 4 Razorbacks during the 5-0 loss was the performance of the bullpen.
Four relief pitchers combined to allow 10 base runners, but just 1 earned run in 6 2/3 innings. The Cardinal also scored an unearned run against reliever Heston Tole following an error.
Tole (3 innings) and Issac Bracken (1 2/3 innings) gave Arkansas every chance to climb back into the game. The Razorbacks recorded just three hits and stranded the bases loaded twice to squander their opportunities.
Stanford’s only run against the bullpen came in the ninth inning when Elijah Trest gave up a one-out single to Brock Jones, who scored on a wild pitch later in the inning by Miller Pleimann.
Arkansas relievers allowed one run in three innings of the 6-4 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette in the nightcap. In 23 2/3 innings of relief this season, the Razorbacks’ bullpen has an earned run average of 2.28.
Right hander Kole Ramage has thrown 9 2/3 innings of relief, including an inning Sunday against ULL. Ramage inherited two base runners and a 2-0 count from Nick Griffin, who hit a batter, walked a batter and threw a ball to the backstop after an effective eighth inning.
Ramage pitched the final three innings of the Razorbacks’ 5-2 victory over Indiana on Friday and has saves in Arkansas’ last three victories. Ramage has a 1.86 ERA in 4 appearances and batters are hitting .147 against him.
Following the Indiana game, Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said he didn’t plan to throw Ramage again this weekend, but Ramage told the coaches he felt good.
“He came to us and he said on a scale of 1 through 10, he was a 9,” Van Horn said. “So looking back, I wish I would have just started him in the ninth. He's our experienced guy and we've got some really good arms in the bullpen, but they haven't pitched in that type of situation and their time is coming.
“He just said he felt great. He had a day-and-a-half off, really.”
Bracken and Griffin made their Arkansas debuts Sunday after missing last season while rehabbing from elbow surgeries. Griffin, a redshirt freshman, made his collegiate debut.
ULL’s ninth-inning run was charged to Griffin, who did not allow a hit but walked three batters and hit another.
“He was throwing the ball pretty good,” Van Horn said. “He looks like he kind of got loosened up, threw 16 pitches maybe. We thought about not bringing him back out (for the ninth), but we just really wanted to see him pitch.”
Griffin underwent Tommy John surgery in the fall of 2020, shortly after arriving as a heralded left hander from Monticello High School. Bracken did not require Tommy John surgery, but had work to repair his ulnar collateral ligament.
Bracken was a No. 1 starter at Northern Colorado before transferring to the Razorbacks as a graduate. His appearance Sunday was his first in a game since 2020.
“His first inning was really good,” Van Horn said. “He came in, spotted a couple fastballs about 90 mph and then threw some good sliders and got some outs, a double-play ball.”
Bracken inherited the bases loaded from starter Hagen Smith in the third inning, but got out of the jam without allowing any more runs and kept the Razorbacks within 3-0. He struck out the Cardinal’s hottest hitter, Brett Barrera, before Braden Montgomery flied out to end the inning.
He also threw for Arkansas in the fourth inning. He hit Drew Bowser in the face with a pitch to lead off the inning, but worked around it with a double-play ground ball and a fly out.
“His second inning was a little rough, you know, obviously hit a player and hurt him little bit, so he felt bad about that,” Van Horn said. “But, you know, he bounced back a little bit.
“Right now, I think with Bracken and Griffin, two guys coming off injuries…it was really good to see them have that inning. We'll just build off of that.”
DVH and Deggs
Van Horn saw another former assistant coach in the opposing dugout Sunday night.
Louisiana-Lafayette coach Matt Deggs spent a combined five seasons on Van Horn’s staffs at Northwestern (La.) State from 1996-97 and Arkansas from 2003-05. He served as recruiting coordinator and hitting coach in both stints.
Deggs is in his third season at ULL after a five-year tenure as head coach at Sam Houston State from 2015-19. Sunday’s game was his first as a head coach against the Razorbacks.
"Really, he's one of the guys responsible for the reason I'm sitting here,” Deggs said of Van Horn. “Coach has a very extensive tree; if you really want to take some time one day and study it, it's pretty good. He's going to leave a legacy. Not only is he a winner, he's a natural-born winner. He's won at golf, checkers, ping pong — it don't matter. Call it the Van Horn factor, and he's good.
"His teams play hard and they win and they do it the right way. They're always going to respect the game and I've got respect and love competing against Coach Van Horn because I know you're going to get his very best."
Van Horn improved to 35-17 in known games against teams coached by seven of his former assistants — Deggs, Tennessee coach Tony Vitello, Louisiana Tech coach Lane Burroughs, Southeast Missouri State coach Andy Sawyers, Arkansas-Little Rock coach Chris Curry, former Texas A&M coach Rob Childress and former Nebraska coach Mike Anderson.
Van Horn does not have a losing record against any of the seven coaches and has a winning record against all but Anderson, who was 2-2 against the Razorbacks from 2008-09.
He never faced former Wichita State coach Todd Butler outside of exhibition play and has not faced Sam Houston State under third-year coach Jay Sirriani. Butler was an assistant to Van Horn at Arkansas and Sirriani played and coached for Van Horn at Nebraska.
Van Horn coached 16 games against former assistants last season, plus three NCAA regional games against Nebraska coach Will Bolt, who played for the Cornhuskers under Van Horn.
Van Horn will coach at least two more games against a former assistant this year when Curry brings UALR to Fayetteville on March 29-30.
Lineup change
Van Horn sat first baseman Peyton Stovall and right fielder Brady Slavens for the Louisiana-Lafayette game after both went hitless against Stanford. Stovall was 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts, and Slavens was 0 for 4 with 4 strikeouts.
Stovall, who hit leadoff for the Razorbacks in their first five games, dropped his batting average to .136 (3 for 22). Slavens’ .278 average is third highest on the team, but he is second on the team with six strikeouts. Jalen Battles has struck out seven times while playing in one more game.
Kendall Diggs, a freshman, saw his first action Sunday night as the designated hitter and went 1 for 3. The left hander hit an opposite-field single against the shift in his final at-bat.
“You know, just trying to get some hitters in the lineup, because we’re not hitting, and that’s something we thought we were going to do,” Van Horn said of the lineup change. “And so far through six games, we’ve won four, but we’ve scored just enough to win. We’ve left a lot of runners on base, and timely hitting, there hasn’t been a whole lot of that.
"We’ve got to fix it. We’ve got a bunch of games coming up.”
Van Horn has not played the same lineup in consecutive games this season. Twelve players have started in the field or as the designated hitter.
Arkansas recorded 9 hits and struck out 28 times combined Sunday, and the team batting average fell 32 points to .213. The six runs scored against ULL were a season high for the Razorbacks, eclipsing five runs Friday against Indiana.
“I’m going to continue to experiment,” Van Horn said. “I just told the team we’ve got two weeks of nonconference games left and then conference gets going, and we’ve got to figure a lot of things out in the next two weeks.”
Double plays
Battles caught a line drive and threw to second baseman Robert Moore to double up ULL in the final inning Sunday to preserve the Razorbacks’ victory.
It was Arkansas’ seventh double play of the weekend and the fifth involving Battles. Moore was involved in six of the double plays.
The Razorbacks turned four double plays against Stanford and two against Indiana. Through six games, Arkansas has turned nine double plays.
HR damage
Battles’ home run in the eighth inning scored three runs to give the Razorbacks a 5-3 lead.
It was the first Arkansas home run this season to score more than one run. Battles, Moore and Zack Gregory hit solo home runs last week against Illinois State.
In Texas
The Razorbacks left Texas with a winning record in an early season showcase event for the second straight year.
Arkansas went 2-1 at the Round Rock Classic one season after sweeping games against Texas Tech, Texas and TCU at the College Baseball Showdown in Arlington.
It was the sixth time in 11 seasons the Razorbacks played an early season event in Texas and the fourth time they won more games than they lost. Arkansas has played three times at the College Classic in Houston with records of 2-1 in 2012, 3-0 in 2016 and 0-3 in 2020. The Razorbacks went 1-2 at the Frisco Classic in 2017.
Van Horn said Arkansas has committed to playing in the College Baseball Showdown in Arlington the next two seasons, including next year against Texas, TCU and Oklahoma State.
2023 Round Rock field
Peak Events announced during the final game that the 2023 field in Round Rock will include LSU from the SEC.
The Tigers will be joined there by Iowa, Kansas State and Sam Houston State.
Up next
The Razorbacks will play Nebraska-Omaha at Baum-Walker Stadium on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Van Horn said right hander Mark Adamiak will possibly start for the Razorbacks on the mound.
The Mavericks are 2-6, but won 9-4 in their midweek game last week at No. 24 UCLA. Wednesday’s game is the first of two games scheduled between Arkansas and Omaha, who are scheduled to play again March 23 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
CORRECTION: The upcoming game vs. Nebraska-Omaha will begin at 3 p.m. A previous version listed an incorrect start time.