We are eight days away from Arkansas baseball, and HawgBeat is continuing its annual lineup preview series for the 2024 Diamond Hogs.
With scrimmage coverage, analysis, interviews, previews, the Diamond Hawgs Podcast and more, HawgBeat provides the best Arkansas baseball coverage around.
We continue things with the three-hole spot in the lineup, which right fielder Kendall Diggs is projected to fill...
#5 - Kendall Diggs - RF
Jr. | L/R | 6-0 | 210
Olathe, Kan. / Saint Thomas Aquinas HS
2023 stats: 58 GP, .299/.436/.547, 12 2B, 1 3B, 12 HR, 63 RBI, 46 BB/47 K, 1 SB
Diggs became the everyday right fielder for Arkansas during the 2023 season and he's expected to have the same role this spring. The junior from Olathe, Kansas, might be one of the best-kept secrets in college baseball right now.
He hasn't received a ton of preseason hype nationally, but Razorback fans know about Diggs. The junior slugger has homered off of starting pitchers Hagen Smith and Mason Molina, plus he took projected closer Gage Wood deep in preseason scrimmages.
"Kendall Diggs has done a tremendous job," head coach Dave Van Horn said Monday at Swatter's Club. "He just continues to hit and be a tough out. He plays with a different swag look about him now that I really like."
Diggs' bat might be the best in Arkansas' lineup entering the 2024 season. He homered 12 times as a sophomore and drove in 63 runs while walking 46 times and striking out on 47 occasions.
He then went on to play summer ball in the Cape Cod Baseball League with the Bourne Braves, who were crowned 2023 champions of the CCBL. Diggs then returned home for one day before rejoining the Razorbacks for in August, according to Van Horn.
The Diamond Hogs named Diggs one of the three team captains for 2024, and he will be leaned on heavily in the heart of the lineup this season.
"Kendall Diggs really stepped up as a leader," Van Horn said in November. "He was kind of quiet his first couple of years. This year, a lot more verbal, works hard. The players love him."
While the defense wasn't alway aesthetically pleasing in 2023, it got the job done. With an entire summer and fall in the outfield, Diggs is pretty sharp in right for the Hogs.
"Going out to summer ball, playing some in the outfield last year, he’s really, really made a big jump defensively," Van Horn said in November. "He looks like an outfielder, throws like an outfielder. I think he’s going to have a great year, and I think he’s going to hit right in the middle of our order."
Arkansas will host James Madison at Baum-Walker Stadium on Friday, Feb. 16 for Opening Day. The first game of the season is set for a 3 p.m. CT first pitch and it will be streamed on the SEC Network+.
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