Arkansas center fielder Tavian Josenberger injured his hamstring during the Razorbacks’ 9-8 loss at Georgia on Saturday.
Josenberger was injured on a play at first base to lead off the fourth inning and did not return to the game. Jace Bohrofen replaced Josenberger in center field for Arkansas’ final six innings in the field.
“It’s a concern,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said of Josenberger’s injury. “Those usually take some time, so I’m going to say it’s going to take some time.”
Arkansas finished the Georgia series with a shell of the starting lineup that helped the Razorbacks to 11 victories in their first 15 SEC games. Left fielder Jared Wegner has been out since April 11 with a fractured left thumb that is expected to keep him out of the lineup until late in the regular season, and catcher Parker Rowland did not play against the Bulldogs with a back injury.
The wave of injuries to position players follows early-season injuries to veteran front-line pitchers Jaxon Wiggins, Koty Frank and Brady Tygart. Wiggins (torn UCL) and Frank (torn lat) will miss the rest of the season, and Tygart (sprained UCL) will attempt to make a comeback next week against Texas A&M.
The Razorbacks were also without right-handed reliever Dylan Carter on Saturday because of soreness.
Arkansas lost to Georgia when the Bulldogs hit back-to-back home runs to plate five runs in the ninth inning.
“It was really one of the tougher ones because of where we are,” Van Horn said, referencing injuries. “We fought like crazy. We had our No. 2 catcher going, we were pitching freshmen, our center fielder hurt his hamstring, our three-hole hitter has a broken thumb. We’ve got issues and we still almost won the game.
“I thought we fought well…it’s just we didn’t finish.”
DVH ejection
Van Horn was thrown out by home plate umpire Christopher Griffith during the seventh inning of Saturday’s game.
The ejection came moments after Jace Bohrofen struck out to strand the bases loaded. Arkansas was leading 5-3 at the time.
“All I know is it was low,” Van Horn said of the call, “and it looked like it was low and away. It was kind of a shocking call to us on the other side. We couldn’t believe it.”
Van Horn said he was warned by Griffith earlier in the game.
“He had already admitted he rang up [designated hitter Ben] McLaughlin earlier in the game on a ball, and apologized to him,” Van Horn said of Griffith. “We got on him pretty good about that. But that was during a 10- or 12 pitch at-bat, and he took the bat right out of the kid’s hands. So there was a lot of frustration going on in the dugout.”
Van Horn was ejected for the first time since an April 9, 2017, game against LSU. Home plate umpire Seth Buckminster threw him out of that game in the series finale for arguing balls and strikes.
Earlier this month, Van Horn told Swatter’s Club he doesn’t get ejected much anymore because of the availability of replay reviews, primarily at first base.
Van Horn’s last three ejections have come in the SEC series before a non-conference game against Missouri State. The Razorbacks are scheduled to play at Missouri State on Tuesday.
Rare sweep
Arkansas was swept in a three-game series for the first time since April 20-21, 2018, at Mississippi State.
In both series, the Razorbacks entered with the best record in the SEC West and lost to a team that entered the weekend in last place in its division. The 2018 Mississippi State team came within one victory of playing Arkansas for the national championship, but the Bulldogs were eliminated by Oregon State in the semifinals of the College World Series.
Time will tell how much Georgia improves, but it exits the series against Arkansas as the hottest team in the SEC. Georgia has won six of its last eight conference games against Kentucky, Florida and Arkansas — all ranked in the top 11 of this week’s USA Today Baseball Coaches Poll.
No other SEC team has more than five victories in its last eight SEC games.
“We're playing much better,” Georgia coach Scott Stricklin said on the Georgia Bulldog Radio Network’s post-game show Saturday. “We've been talking about that. At Florida we played much better — didn't win the series [lost two of three], but played much better and started to gain some confidence.
“Just all the way around guys are stepping up and we've got to keep it going. It's been fun....Fun, fun, fun weekend."
Stricklin said the series reflects the depth of the SEC.
"I was talking to [SEC commissioner] Greg Sankey a couple of weeks ago and I just said, 'The teams that finish 13th and 14th I think are winning the majority of conferences across the country,’” Stricklin said. “That's the way it is every year. Baseball is the toughest sport in the SEC. It is so deep 1 through 14. Just the talent level that's on the field night in and night out in the SEC, it's not even close.”
“I think everyone knows we're a good team,” Stricklin added. “We're starting to show it and that's a top-5 team that we just beat. They're really good and they're going to be a regional host."
Caleb Caliente
Arkansas third baseman Caleb Cali homered twice and had 5 RBI during Saturday’s finale.
Cali’s 3-for-4 day raised his batting average to .301. That is 101 points higher than his .200 average at the end of March.
In 13 games this month, Cali is batting .396 (19 of 48) and has 5 home runs and 16 RBI. He has a nine-game hitting streak that includes multiple hits in four consecutive games.
Notable
• Arkansas blew a ninth-inning lead for the first time since an 8-7 loss at Tennessee on May 15, 2021, when the Volunteers hit a three-run home run to walk off the Razorbacks.
• The last team to score at least five runs and come back from a ninth-inning deficit against Arkansas was LSU in 2017. The Tigers trailed the second game of the series 8-5 going into the ninth inning, but won 10-8.
• Georgia’s Connor Tate has hit three grand slams in SEC play this month against Vanderbilt, Florida and Arkansas.
• Georgia homered eight times during the Arkansas series. Home runs accounted for 15 of the Bulldogs’ 22 runs.
• The Razorbacks are 3-6 in true road games and 5-7 in games played away from Fayetteville.