Diamond Hogs' starting rotation set for Eastern Illinois series
The No. 9 Arkansas Razorbacks (3-1) have put their starting rotation in place for this weekend's series against Eastern Illinois (3-0) at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Arkansas will stick to the same three arms that it went with at the College Baseball Showdown last weekend:
Friday: LHP Hagen Smith (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K) vs RHP Blake Malatestinic (0-0, 6.75 ERA, 5.1 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K)
Saturday: RHP Will McEntire (0-0, 22.50 ERA, 2.0 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 0 K) vs RHP Tyler Conklin (1-0, 3.00 ERA, 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K)
Sunday: LHP Hunter Hollan (1-0, 2.25 ERA, 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) vs RHP Ky Hampton (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 6.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K)
To start, the Friday and Sunday slots are set in stone for the time being. Sophomore lefty Hagen Smith was lights out to start the season in a 3-2 win over Texas at the College Baseball Showdown last Friday. San Jacinto College left-handed transfer Hunter Hollan lived up to expectations when he shoved in Sunday's 18-1 win over Oklahoma State.
With Smith and Hollan for sure taking the first and third games of Arkansas' weekend series moving forward, the Saturday slot is not set in stone Senior right-hander Will McEntire is still slotted to fill that role — as he did in Saturday's 18-6 loss to TCU — but after a pair of rough outings, there is no certainty that the job is for sure his moving forward.
During his outing against TCU on Saturday at Globe Life Field, McEntire allowed four earned runs on five hits in just 1 1/3 inning pitched. He threw just 2/3 of an inning and gave up one earned run on four hits and he walked one in Tuesday's game against Grambling. If reliever Koty Frank didn't come in and induce a double play with one out and bases loaded on his first pitch thrown, McEntire's line could've looked a lot uglier.
"Couple of 0-2 hits, and McEntire gave up a couple of those the other night on Saturday that hurt in the first, second inning," Van Horn said after the win over Grambling. "And he gave up another one or two today...You're going to give up some, but if you're going to give up an 0-2 hit, it needs to be on a borderline pitch down in the zone, away or whatever the location is supposed to be. I don't know if that was the case tonight. I'll have to go back and look at it."
After he was incredible for the Razorbacks during the 2022 postseason, McEntire has struggled to locate pitches to start his 2023 campaign. That seemed to be his biggest issue in the loss to TCU.
"Couldn't locate," Van Horn said after the loss to the Horned Frogs. "I mean he was throwing the ball belt high. Our dugouts are way down the side, but everything was right around the waist. It wasn't down around the knees or a little below. He was leaving the ball up where they could see it. And his thing is to start it out about belt high and it ends up a little bit lower, running and sinking and then locating that fastball when they're looking for that cutter."
With back-to-back rough outings from the Bryant native, Van Horn said after the Grambling game that the Saturday starting slot for this weekend's series against Eastern Illinois could be up in the air.
"I think we'll probably still stick with Friday and Sunday the same and just figure out how we're going to handle Saturday," Van Horn said. "We might just TBA Saturday after what went on today."
Obviously, Van Horn decided to throw his senior right-hander again on Saturday in hopes that he can get things going. McEntire posted a 2.59 ERA in 48.2 innings pitched last season, including a pair of elite performances against North Carolina (5 1/3 IP, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K) in the Super Regionals and Auburn (7 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K) at the College World Series.
The Diamond Hogs and Eastern Illinois will start things off Friday at 2 p.m. CT at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. The game will be streamed on the SEC Network Plus.