HawgBeat Preview: Diamond Hogs head west for series vs. Pac-12 foe
Following a season-opening sweep of Eastern Illinois, Arkansas hits the road this week for a three-game series at USC. Here is a preview of those games…
Schedule (TV)
Thursday, Feb. 21 - 9 p.m. CT (Pac-12.com)
Friday, Feb. 22 - 8 p.m. CT (Pac-12.com)
Saturday, Feb. 23 - 8 p.m. CT (Pac-12.com)
The first and third games will be streamed online via the USC-produced “USC Live Stream” on the Pac-12 conference website, which can be accessed by clicking here. The second game is on a similar “Pac-12 Plus Live Stream,” which can be accessed by clicking here. Both are free to watch.
With Phil Elson still doing the radio play-by-play for the women’s basketball team and usual fill-in Scott Inman unavailable to make the trip, IMG hired local play-by-play man Phil Brame to call the games for the Razorback Sports Network.
Projected Starting Rotation (season stats)
Thursday - R-Jr. RHP Cody Scroggins (1 game/0 starts, 0-0, 9.00 ERA, 2 K/1 BB, 1 IP)
Friday - R-Jr. RHP Isaiah Campbell (1 game/1 start, 1-0, 5.40 ERA, 5 K/0 BB, 5 IP)
Saturday - Fr. RHP Connor Noland (1 game/1 start, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 7 K/1 BB, 4 2/3 IP)
A scheduling quirk has forced head coach Dave Van Horn to tweak his starting rotation. Because bad weather forced Arkansas to push its opener back a day and travel led to it beginning the USC series on a Thursday, ace Isaiah Campbell won’t be available for Game 1.
Instead, Cody Scroggins will make his first career start. He probably won’t go deep into the game, though, as Van Horn said he plans to piece it together with about three different pitchers. One of those could be Kevin Kopps, who didn’t pitch against Eastern Illinois but is expected to make his season debut at USC.
The other two games will be treated as the opening games of a series, with Campbell starting Friday and Connor Noland starting Saturday. Last week’s Game 3 starter, Jacob Kostyshock, will be available out of the bullpen both of those days, but not Thursday.
For a more detailed breakdown of Arkansas’ pitching plans, complete with Van Horn’s thoughts on several guys, click here.
In the Polls
Arkansas saw a small jump in a few of the college baseball polls following the EIU sweep, but it wasn’t enough to move it up from No. 16 in the HawgBeat Composite Poll. USC is unranked. ()
Weather Report
After playing with a windchill that hovered near freezing last weekend, the Razorbacks will be glad to get a taste of Southern California weather even if it won’t be super warm.
It will be about 51 degrees for first pitch Thursday, according to the Weather Channel, with the temperature dipping into the upper 40s during the game. That will likely be the face for the games Friday and Saturday, too.
There is a slight chance - 5 percent - of rain for Game 1, but none the rest of the weekend, and the wind shouldn’t be much of a factor.
Scouting the Opponent
USC’s projected starting rotation (season stats)
Thursday - Sr. LHP Quentin Longrie (1 game/0 starts, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 K/2 BB, 2 IP)
Friday - So. RHP Kyle Hurt (1 game/1 start, 0-0, 3.60 ERA, 6 K/2 BB, 5 IP)
Saturday - So. LHP John Beller (1 game/1 start, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 5 K/2 BB, 7 IP)
Picked to finish ninth in the 11-team Pac-12, USC got off to a shaky start in 2019 despite a series win over Omaha.
The Trojans needed to score four runs in the final two innings - including one on a walk-off single with two outs - to win their opener 6-5 and then fell behind 12-1 in the finale before losing by a respectable score of 12-9 to a team that finished 20 games under .500 last season.
In between those games, USC won a blowout 11-0.
“It’s hard to tell how they are after one weekend (and) same with us,” Van Horn said. “I think for both teams - I would imagine they feel the same as us - that this will be a weekend to kind of tell where we’re at.”
Offensively, the Trojans were led by junior center fielder Matthew Acosta, who went 6 for 12. He had success against the Razorbacks last year, too, going 4 for 10.
They also got solid contributions from senior second baseman Brandon Perez and freshman third baseman Emilio Rosas, who each went 5 for 12.
Perez is known more for his glove, as he earned ACBA/Rawlings Gold Glove honors at third last season, but led the team with five RBIs. Rosas was a top-20 shortstop nationally coming out of high school, according to Perfect Game and his hits included one double and one triple.
Although he was just 2 for 11 against Omaha, junior catcher Blake Sabol is another player to keep an eye on. He earned honorable mention all-conference honors last season and is ranked as the 63rd best MLB Draft prospect for 2019 by D1Baseball.com.
Senior shortstop Chase Bushor had the most success against Arkansas last season, as he went 5 for 11 - highlighted by a 3-for-5 performance in the finale.
It is unknown if the Trojans are sticking to the same starting rotation as last weekend, but Kyle Hurt is expected to be their ace. D1Baseball put him at No. 53 on its list of the top 2019 MLB Draft prospects. He retired the first six batters he faced last Friday - including four strikeouts - before running into trouble.
By far the best start of the weekend for USC came from John Beller, a lefty. After giving up two hits in the first inning, he settled in and allowed only one more the rest of the way. At one point, Beller retired nine straight batters and he needed only 85 pitches to get through seven innings.
Depending on the publication, the Trojans signed either the No. 14 (Baseball America) or No. 16 (Perfect Game) class in the country, with right-hander Chandler Chamberlain being the crown jewel.
He was picked in the 38th round of last year’s MLB Draft and D1Baseball tabbed him 11th on its list of the top-100 impact freshmen. Things didn’t go well for him in his debut, though, as he recorded only two outs before coming out of the game. When the dust settled, he was charged with five earned runs on three hits, three walks and one hit by pitch.
If USC decides to take him out of the rotation, it could move senior left-hander Quentin Longrie back into a starting role. He pitched two scoreless innings of relief Sunday and gave up only one earned run in 7 1/3 innings against the Razorbacks last year, earning the Trojans’ lone win in the series.
(UPDATE: The Trojans have decided to start Longrie on Thursday, followed by Hurt and Beller.)
At the back end, the Trojans have junior right-hander Connor Lunn to close games. Coming off a season in which he had eight saves and a 2.97 ERA, he was named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year preseason watch list. He did not pitch against Omaha.
Even though USC is not expected to be very good this season, it still has a lot of talent, as you can see. On top of that, Arkansas has a target on its back thanks to its runner-up finish in 2018, so it will get every opponent’s best shot.
“Everybody's going to want to beat us because of what we did last year,” catcher Casey Opitz said. “If we go out there and we're able to play our style of baseball - move runners over, play good defense, pitch well - we'll be fine.”
Travel Plans
Unlike a conference series, Arkansas did not get a charter flight to Los Angeles. Instead, the team got up early Wednesday, bussed to Tulsa and caught a flight with a connection in Dallas.
However, Van Horn said he likes taking a trip like this in Week 2 of the season because it gives the team a feel for what a conference road trip will be like.
“The travel will not be extremely tough, but not as easy as it normally is when we go this far away,” Van Horn said. “I think it’ll be good for the team - the hotel (and) practicing on somebody else’s field the night before the first ballgame.”
As good as the Razorbacks were last season, they struggled away from Baum-Walker Stadium. They failed to win a single series outside of Fayetteville and posted a 6-12 record on the road.
That fact is not lost on the players who returned from last year’s team.
“We didn’t necessarily do as well as we would have like to have done last year going on the road,” center fielder Dominic Fletcher said. “That’s one of the things we want to do a better job of this year, so we are really excited to see how we do.”
Marine Layer
When Arkansas played four early-season games in San Diego last season, one of the more unusual storylines of the season emerged with the so-called “marine layer.”
A phenomenon unique to the West Coast, the marine layer is a dense portion of cold, wet air that forms at night and seemingly turns would-be home runs into lazy fly balls.
“During the day, the ball carries a lot better than it does at night,” Van Horn said. “At night, you have to get into it pretty good. You have to drive it.
“If you back spin a ball that normally might just carry on a normal time of the day in the afternoon, it’s probably not going to go out of the park.”
Last season against Arizona, it robbed Jared Gates of a ninth-inning grand slam that Van Horn later estimated would have been three-quarters of the way up a light pole at Baum-Walker Stadium.
With the first game set to begin at 7 p.m. local and the next two starting at 6 p.m. local, the marine later will once again be a factor on Arkansas’ trip out west. This year’s team, though, should be better suited to deal with it.
“Last year’s team…we kind of sat and hit and tried to hit some home runs,” Van Horn said. “This year’s team, we’re going to definitely move the ball around and do what we have to do to try to score runs. Probably plays more into what West Coast baseball is.”
Going Home
The trip will be a homecoming of sorts for Fletcher, who grew up in Orange County and went to high school less than an hour away from USC at Cypress High. He estimated that he’d have 20-25 friends and family members in attendance.
Van Horn said he has talked with Fletcher about not having a repeat performance of last year’s games in San Diego, when he went just 1 for 15 and saw hit batting average dip below .200 for the season.
“He wanted to do so well in front of the home crowd and a lot of family, and he knew a lot of the guys we were playing,” Van Horn said. “I just feel like he learned from that.”
That marked the beginning of a 12-game stretch in which he hit just .140 with 14 strikeouts. Beginning with the Texas midweek series and continuing through conference play, though, he got out of the slump and hit .318 the rest of the season.
“I don’t think I necessarily put too much pressure on myself,” Fletcher said. “Just…that’s when I got in a little funk over there and had to work my way out of it, but I’ve tried this year to try to do a little better job not pressing.”
Fletcher had just three hits in 11 at bats (.273) against Eastern Illinois and Van Horn is hopeful he’ll have a solid showing in front of his family and friends at USC.
“He doesn’t have to do anything great, just be himself and do what he does, which is play great defense and hopefully get a couple of big hits for us and help us win some games,” Van Horn said. “Hopefully last year is last year and now he’s grown up and he’s over that.”
Recruiting in Cali
Arkansas actually has two players from California on its roster this season, with the other being freshman left-hander Patrick Wicklander from San Jose (six hours north of Los Angeles).
It has been a fertile recruiting ground for the Razorbacks throughout Van Horn’s tenure, producing players like Dominic Ficociello and James McCann.
There will likely be a few potential future players in attendance at Dedeaux Field, so these trips out west have an impact on recruiting, as well.
“To be able to say we go out there every now and then I think is a good thing,” Van Horn said. “We’re recruiting kids from California right now, four or five of them from all different ages, so it’s good for our presence to be seen out there.”
Stat of the Week
Although it has been more than two decades since their last title, USC has won twice as many College World Series championships than any other team.
The Trojans won the event in its second year, beating a George H.W. Bush-led Yale team in 1948, and has since won it 11 more times. Seven of the titles came in an 11-year span from 1968-1978, including five straight beginning in 1970. They last won it all in 1998.
Interestingly, Arkansas also plays the two teams tied for the second most College World Series titles. Texas (March 19-20) and LSU (May 9-11) have six championships apiece.
Stat Comparison - Arkansas | USC (national rank, out of 297 teams)
(Note: Rankings are through Monday’s games. The NCAA’s website has not been updated with Tuesday’s game yet.)
Batting average: .376 (6th) | .323 (37th)
Slugging percentage: .584 (9th) | .505 (38th)
On-base percentage: .460 (20th) | .469 (12th)
Home runs: 4 (t-33rd) | 2 (t-97th)
Runs/game: 10.0 (t-26th) | 8.7 (t-43rd)
ERA: 3.00 (t-66th) | 3.67 (t-102nd)
WHIP: 1.30 (t-87th) | 1.26 (t-77th)
Strikeouts/9 innings: 9.3 (t-101st) | 10.3 (t-60th)
Strikeout-to-walk ratio: 3.50 (t-36th) | 2.58 (t-78th)
Fielding percentage: .973 (t-91st) | .982 (44th)
Stolen bases/game: 1.33 (t-78th) | 0.00 (t-242nd)
Preview Video
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