Ahead of regular-season finale, Arkansas shuffles rotation for 1st time
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For the first time all season, Arkansas will go with a different starting pitching rotation this weekend.
Redshirt sophomore Will McEntire will get his first SEC start Thursday night, followed by Connor Noland and Jaxon Wiggins on Friday and Saturday. Freshman Hagen Smith will not be in the starting rotation, but he did make the trip and will be available to throw.
McEntire was on the mound Sunday to start where Arkansas left off in Saturday’s game, which was postponed due to weather. He threw three innings of scoreless baseball, walked nobody and struck out three.
“That’s what we were going to do, and we got to sit on it all night and didn’t change our minds,” head coach Dave Van Horn said Sunday. “He came out and did a great job and gave us three innings. He gave us an opportunity to rest our bullpen.”
Thursday will be the right-hander’s fifth start of the season and just his third appearance in conference play. McEntire has a 1.96 ERA with 25 strikeouts and 11 walks in 23 innings.
They had plenty of time since Sunday to sit and think about starting McEntire this weekend, and it seems they didn’t change their minds again.
Prior to last weekend, the starting rotation was at least consistent when pitching at home. Against Vanderbilt, though, Noland and Smith allowed a combined 10 earned runs at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Noland normally hovers around six or seven innings, but he’s failed to get past the fifth inning the past two weekend. Smith, on the other hand, has not been able to pitch past the fourth inning since April 30.
Van Horn said pitchers always hit a wall at some point in the season — it just happened later than normal for his guys.
“I think that throughout the season, a lot of times it’ll happen earlier,” Van Horn said. “For us, it might have just happened a week or two later. Hopefully those guys will go out and have a good outing this week.”
Van Horn said his usual starters — Noland, Smith and Wiggins — don’t feel tired or worn out, and all three have had good bullpens this week.
Of course, having a good bullpen and having a good performance in a game is much different. Noland entered the season being thrown into the ace role and he handled it well for a while.
He’s struggled over his last three outings though, posting a 6.75 ERA while allowing 23 hits in 17 innings. Of his 24 walks this season, more than half — 13 — have come in the past four games he’s pitched, with at least three in each start.
“He's been handling it real well — bouncing around, staying upbeat,” Van Horn said. “I think he just feels like he had a couple-game slump, and he needs to get it together this week.”
Noland has been more of a strikeout pitcher this year compared to his first three seasons at Arkansas, but Van Horn and his staff have been telling him to just trust his defense.
“Pitch to contact a little more,” Van Horn said. “Don't worry about getting strikeouts. And I don't think he is — that's what we tell him, ‘Hey, just let them hit it. We'll field it.’ Hopefully he'll be good this weekend.”
Compared to Noland, Smith has been up and down for a longer period of time. Take out his April 30 start against Ole Miss — when he struck out eight and walked two at home — and he has walked 12 batters compared to striking out just eight over his past three starts.
Smith has struggled on the road this season, but Vanderbilt got to him in front of his home crowd last Saturday. Smith could not get out of the third inning and he allowed five earned runs on four hits and four walks.
Wiggins has seen an opposite trend of Smith and Noland, though. His performance at Texas A&M on April 24 — when he gave up 5 earned runs and recorded just one out — was a low moment this season. He has since put together some good Sunday starts for the Hogs.
He has struck out 16 batters and walked just six over his last three outings and put the Hogs in position to win games. Sunday’s 5-0 loss at Vanderbilt was his best start of the three, but he was not given any run support.
Van Horn said his starters don’t feel fatigued heading into the final weekend of the regular season. They just need to go out and perform.
“They don’t feel tired,” Van Horn said. “Their bullpens are good. Now it’s just about getting it done in the game like they did earlier.”
The Hogs will close out the regular season at Alabama, beginning at 6 p.m. CT Thursday. They’re tied with Texas A&M for first place in the SEC West, so a win guarantees they’ll at least remain tied for another day.
The game will be broadcast on SEC Network-Plus.