Baseball Notebook: Potential Game 3 starter, Franklin honored, more

FAYETTEVILLE — Three different pitchers have had a chance to lock down the third spot in Arkansas’ weekend rotation and it sounds like a fourth may get a shot sooner rather than later.

During Monday’s virtual Swatter’s Club meeting, head coach Dave Van Horn hinted that freshman right-hander Jaxon Wiggins could potentially start Sunday’s game against Georgia.

“Might even see Jaxon Wiggins out there a little bit more,” Van Horn said when discussing the Game 3 role. “We’re going to start building his pitch count up where maybe we’re going to give him an opportunity to start here shortly, so we’ll see how that all shakes out.”

How quickly that opportunity happens remains to be seen, but later in the talk, Van Horn said it could come “maybe as early as this weekend.”

Wiggins was a heralded recruit coming out of Roland, Okla., where he was ranked the No. 129 overall prospect in the Class of 2020 and considered a top draft prospect.

The shortened draft caused by the pandemic ultimately led to him making it to campus, though, and he burst onto the scene by striking out three straight TCU hitters in his debut. Wiggins ended up striking out seven of the first nine batters he faced in college, but he’s struggled some since the start of SEC play.

Thanks to a disastrous outing at Ole Miss in which he was charged with five earned runs in 2/3 of an inning, his ERA has ballooned to 5.11. He bounced back from that performance with a couple of scoreless innings against Texas A&M in his last appearance.

Although he didn’t pitch against South Carolina or LSU the last two weekends, Van Horn said it was simply because he wasn’t needed, as Kevin Kopps handled the closer duties.

The Razorbacks have started left-hander Lael Lockhart, the graduate transfer from Houston, in Game 3 for all but one series this year, but his last few outings haven’t gone well and he now has a 5.06 ERA.

Right-handers Zebulon Vermillion and Caleb Bolden have also started games on the weekend for Arkansas this season, but came out of the bullpen at LSU. Bolden settled things down and finished off the Game 2 win, while Vermillion “did okay,” Van Horn said, for a couple of innings in relief of Lockhart.

“We’re not 100 percent sure how we’re going to handle that this weekend,” Van Horn said about his rotation. “We’ve got to get that solidified a little bit.”

No 'Co-' Needed

Following a weekend in which he drove in 10 runs at LSU, Christian Franklin has been named the SEC Player of the Week. The center fielder went 6 for 11 with half of his hits going for extra bases - two doubles and one home run.

That lifted Franklin’s batting average back over .300, as a 2-for-21 stretch against Texas A&M and South Carolina caused it to dip to .284. He’s now slashing .303/.435/.586 with 10 home runs. He also has a team-high 11 doubles and is second on the team with 45 RBIs.

“He’s just had a tremendous year, in my opinion, and I’ve said this a lot this year - I think he’s been a little bit of the unlucky hitter,” Van Horn said. “I think he’s been Mr. Consistent.”