FAYETTEVILLE — Coming off a season in which it had one of the deepest and most powerful lineups in the country, Arkansas will look much different in 2019.
Eight of the Razorbacks’ nine starters hit at least six home runs last year, with five reaching double digits, but most of them have moved on to the professional ranks.
The good news is that Arkansas does have a solid core returning in Dominic Fletcher, Heston Kjerstad and Casey Martin. On the flip side, the other six spots will be filled by new faces or familiar ones asked to take on bigger roles than in the past.
“To have three of our top hitters back is big because you can build around them a little bit,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “You hope a guy or two can pick it up and help those guys out because if not, they’ll get pitched around a lot.”
Kjerstad and Martin rewrote the UA freshman record book, with the former breaking the hits, home runs, runs and RBI marks and the latter ranking second in several categories.
They make Arkansas one of only two Division I teams with multiple players returning with at least 13 home runs, finishing last season with 14 and 13, respectively. Throw in Fletcher’s 10 home runs and the trio combined for 37. In the SEC, only Auburn has three returning players with more combined homers.
As a team, the Razorbacks tied for third nationally with a school-record 98 home runs, while their .475 slugging percentage ranked 13th. Without guys like Eric Cole, Carson Shaddy and Luke Bonfield, though, Arkansas probably won’t have as much power throughout the lineup, 1 through 9.
There are still guys capable of putting the all over the fence and driving in runs with doubles, but the Razorbacks will likely showcase their speed more this season to put pressure on opponents.
“We aren’t going to hit for all the home runs we did last year,” ace pitcher Isaiah Campbell said. “I think we’ll play a little different style of baseball this year, but I still think we’ll produce a lot of runs and win a lot of games.”
Arkansas stole only 39 bases last season, which ranked 12th in the SEC and was tied for 210th out of 297 Division I teams.
Martin is a noted speedster who’s been clocked at 6.5 seconds in the 60-yard dash - which is elite in baseball - and led the team in stolen bases in 2018, but had only eight. Van Horn has mentioned that he believes he’s capable of stealing 20.
Despite flashing his speed as one of the best defensive center fielders in the country, Fletcher has stolen only two bases in 128 career games with the Razorbacks. He expects that number to rise in 2019.
“We didn’t really have the green light to run too much last year because we knew at any moment, any guy in our lineup could hit a double or a home run and we’re kind of in scoring position from first base with that lineup,” Fletcher said. “So I think I’ll probably have the opportunity to run a little more this year.”
The use of speed shows that Van Horn and hitting coach Nate Thompson hope to manufacture some more runs this season instead of relying on the long ball.
That was on full display in the Razorbacks’ scrimmage against UALR during the fall, as five different players combined to steal six bases. In addition to that, they executed a hit-and-run, tagged up to third on a sacrifice fly to center, went first-to-third on a single and, on one occasion, even took two bases on a passed ball.
Those kind of things should help Arkansas work through the usual kinks that come with breaking in a mostly new lineup and still put runs on the board.
“I think the offense is going to keep developing throughout the season,” Thompson said. “I don’t think we’re, by any means, close to being a finished product whatsoever.
“We have a lot of work to do, but it’s a group that as we continue grow in confidence and experience, I think it could be very dynamic with ability to drive the baseball and run and create havoc on the base paths.”
Van Horn hinted that he might not stack Martin, Kjerstad and Fletcher in the lineup, but just how it will shake out before the Feb. 15 opener against Eastern Illinois is still up in the air.
Although he has a pretty good idea of the pieces, Van Horn couldn’t even speculate at last week’s media day how he’ll they’d fit in the order.
“It might take a while to figure that lineup out, as far as the order,” Van Horn said. “As far as who’s going to be in the lineup, I could narrow it down to 10 or 11 pretty quick.”
With that in mind, HawgBeat will unveil its in-depth look at the lineup with a position-by-position look at those pieces. We’ll examine the infield Thursday, followed by the outfield and designated hitter on Friday.
The pitching staff was thoroughly previewed in this story last weekend, with additional stories on Caleb Bolden having Tommy John surgery and Connor Noland splitting his time between two sports and already emerging as a contributor on the mound.
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