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Arkansas baseball added to its 2022 recruiting class when Aaron Arnold announced his commitment last Wednesday.
A talented right-handed pitcher out of Bentonville West, he chose the Razorbacks over Oklahoma, Louisiana-Lafayette, Southern Miss and others.
More than half of head coach Dave Van Horn’s 2022 class is made up of in-state players now, as Arnold is the seventh rising junior from Arkansas to commit so far. That is two more than the 2021 class has at the moment.
Arnold and Springdale Har-Ber outfielder Cooper Dossett won’t have to travel far from their Northwest Arkansas homes to play for the Razorbacks, while left-hander Jordan Huskey (Greenbrier), right-handers Josh Hyneman (Jonesboro) and Austin Jobe (El Dorado), third baseman Colton Hoyt Sims (Russellville) and shortstop Easton Swofford (South Side Bee Branch) will come from other parts of the state.
To get a better feel for what kind of player Arkansas is getting, HawgBeat reached out to JT Baker for a scouting report on the right-hander. He is the owner of Perfect Timing Academy, which Arnold has pitched for this summer.
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(For a complete list of Arkansas’ baseball commitments in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 classes, as well as updates, clips and links to other scouting reports on the recruits, click here.)
Aaron Arnold - Class of 2022
Position: Right-handed pitcher
High School: Bentonville West
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 185 | B/T: R/R
Other offers/interest: Oklahoma, Louisiana-Lafayette, Southern Miss
In late June, Baker spent five days in Joplin and Springfield, Mo., coaching some of Perfect Timing’s younger teams.
One of his older teams was playing in a PBR event up in the Kansas City area, but he went back home to Northwest Arkansas and was looking forward to relaxing and spending some time with his wife.
Those plans quickly changed, though, when one alert popped up on his phone.
“I was going to just cook some burgers, sit on the porch with my wife and dog and all of a sudden I get a Twitter alert and I click on it,” Baker said. “Aaron Arnold threw his first pitch of the game 91 miles per hour and my wife said, ‘You want to watch a movie tonight?’ I said, ‘No, I’m going to be busy.’”
That caught the attention of colleges across the country and Baker’s phone blew up with coaches inquiring about the right-hander in the Class of 2022.
