With three of Arkansas' top pitchers down with injuries, head coach Dave Van Horn and his team needed someone to step up on the mound. Redshirt sophomore right-hander Dylan Carter has answered that call as a more than reliable arm out of the bullpen for the Diamond Hogs.
After transferring in from Crowder College, Carter redshirted his 2022 campaign. The first pitch he ever threw as a Razorback came during the Feb. 18 loss against TCU at the College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, Texas. Carter gave up three earned runs on two hits and gained valuable experience moving forward.
Since then, Carter has appeared 10 times out of the bullpen for Arkansas and just one of those was statistically worse than that first appearance against the Horned Frogs (five earned runs on four hits at LSU on March 25).
No Razorback threw more pitches than Carter during the weekend's series win over Alabama. The Bentonville native hurled 93 total pitches across two relief appearances in two days. He combined to give up just one earned run on five hits in 6.0 total innings pitched.
Carter was the first arm out of the bullpen in Saturday's 9-6 win over the Crimson Tide, and he tossed 2 1/3 innings of scoreless ball while giving up three hits, walking one and striking out two.
"I think he got us seven outs," head coach Dave Van Horn said. "We needed those outs. We needed to get to into the game a little bit and let our hitters relax a little bit. Playing behind, you start pressing sometimes and swinging at pitches you normally wouldn’t."
After throwing 30 pitches Saturday, Carter was the second arm out of the bullpen Sunday after starter Ben Bybee was able to record just two outs in the top of the first. Cody Adcock went 3 1/3 innings and gave up just one earned run on a Jim Jarvis solo home run, which prompted the switch to Carter in the top of the fourth.
Carter proceeded to throw 63 pitches — most of which came after having a ball that was 106 mph off the bat hit his right foot just a few pitches into the outing — to get Arkansas to righty Gage Wood, who closed the final 1 1/3 innings down.
"I told them before the game, I was like 'I feel better today than I did yesterday. Give me the ball whenever, and I'll take it however long you need me for,'" Carter said.
A pair of wild pitches in the top of the sixth allowed Alabama to plate a run, but other than that Carter was solid for the second day in a row. After his team took a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth, the righty bounced back with a 1-2-3 top of the seventh and he was fired up as he walked off the mound into the dugout.
"I thought that was my last inning of work, so I was trying to fire the crowd up and get them going, but I knew I had a little bit more," Carter said. "(Van Horn) asked if I wanted to go one more, and I said 'Absolutely.' Personally, I thought that was my best inning today and yesterday."
Towards the end of his outing in the top of the eighth, Carter was visibly running on fumes and he gave the Razorbacks as much as he possibly could have.
"We couldn’t have asked for anymore," Van Horn said. "I was worried about that last inning. It looked like he was going to get through it pretty good, then he stumbled a little bit. But you throw the ball down the middle, they’re going to hit it, and they’re going to hit it hard.
"They hit a couple balls hard into the wind that would have gone out of the park, as we did, throughout the game. That’s just kind of the way it works...I know Coach (Matt Hobbs) talked to Dylan earlier about, ‘Are you good to go? Just let me know what you got, and be honest.’ That’s what you do when you get into these situations. A guy’s just got to communicate with us."
Carter said no matter how many pitches he had to throw to help Arkansas win the series in Sunday rubber match, he was going to give it his all. When he handed the ball to Van Horn and walked off with two outs in the top of the eighth inning, the Razorback fans at Baum Walker gave Carter a loud ovation.
"It was pretty cool," Carter said. "I had chills all down my body. Being from the state and growing up around here and bleeding Razorback red since I born and coming to games since I was 9 years old, it was pretty special."
Across 11 appearances, Carter now boasts a 4-0 record, a 3.91 ERA, 20/9 K/BB and he is tied for a team-best two saves. He's held opponents scoreless in six of his appearances and only two — the previously mentioned outings against TCU and LSU — featured him allowing more than one earned run.
For a pitching staff without its projected ace (Jaxon Wiggins), its best bullpen arm (Koty Frank) and its closer (Brady Tygart), Carter has stepped up in a big way to this point in the season.
Arkansas will turn its attention to a midweek matchup with Arkansas State at 6 p.m. CT Tuesday. The contest at Baum-Walker Stadium will be streamed on the SEC Network Plus.
