HawgBeat Preview: LA Tech provides challenge in final weekend tuneup
Arkansas will put its perfect home record on the line with a three-game series against Louisiana Tech this weekend. Here’s a preview of the matchup…
Schedule (TV)
Friday, March 8 - 6 p.m. CT (SECN+)
Saturday, March 9 - 1 p.m. CT (SECN+)
Sunday, March 10 - 1 p.m. CT (SECN+)
All three games will be streamed on SEC Network-plus, meaning they can be watched online on ESPN3.com or on the WatchESPN app.
Arkansas’ Starting Rotation (season stats)
Friday - R-Jr. RHP Isaiah Campbell (3 games/3 starts, 3-0, 3.12 ERA, 23 K/3 BB, 17 1/3 IP)
Saturday - Fr. RHP Connor Noland (3 games/3 starts, 0-0, 3.86 ERA, 10 K/4 BB, 11 2/3 IP)
Sunday - R-Jr. RHP Cody Scroggins (3 games/2 starts, 0-0, 7.88 ERA, 15 K/4 BB, 8.0 IP)
This is the third straight weekend head coach Dave Van Horn has used these three pitchers, but he’s used a different order each time because of how the schedule fell. With this being a traditional Friday-Saturday-Sunday series, Scroggins is finally in the No. 3 starter spot after starting Game 1 at USC (on a Thursday) and Game 2 against Stony Brook (second game in a doubleheader).
Campbell is coming off arguably the best start of his career. He struck out a career-high 13 batters in seven scoreless innings against Stony Brook. It was just the second time he had ever successfully made it through the sixth inning.
After a solid first start against Eastern Illinois, Noland has struggled his last two outings. Last week, he failed to record an out in the fourth inning, allowing three earned runs on six hits and a walk while striking out just one batter in three innings.
Van Horn had hoped to stretch Scroggins out a little bit following his great start at USC, but he made it just 3 1/3 innings before being relieved against the Seawolves. Although he gave up three earned runs on five hits, he did manage to notch five strikeouts.
Expect veterans Kole Ramage, Jacob Kostyshock and Kevin Kopps to play key roles out of the bullpen, with of course Matt Cronin available to close out a game or two.
In the Polls
Arkansas is ranked as high as No. 10 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and checks in at No. 14 in the HawgBeat Composite Poll. Although Louisiana Tech did not crack the top 25 in any of the major college baseball rankings, it did receive votes in the coaches and NCBWA polls.
Weather Report
Considering the weather Arkansas has played in the last few weeks, it will feel balmy for the first game of the Louisiana Tech series. According to the Weather Channel, the temperature will be in the low-50s for the entire game with 6 mph winds out of the east and a 10 percent chance of rain.
That chance of rain increases greatly overnight, but it is expected to move out of the Fayetteville area before the 1 p.m. first pitch Saturday. The high is 64 degrees, but it will be very windy, as the forecast calls for 22-23 mph winds out of the west-southwest.
Temperatures will be back down to the low-50s on Sunday, but there is no chance of rain and winds will be about 7 mph out of the north.
Scouting the Opponent
Louisiana Tech’s starting rotation (season stats)
Friday - R-Sr. RHP Matt Miller (5 games/2 starts, 1-0, 5.68 ERA, 17 K/4 BB, 12 2/3 IP)
Saturday - R-Sr. LHP Logan Robbins (3 games/3 starts, 0-0, 8.03 ERA, 11 K/8 BB, 12 1/3 IP)
Sunday - Sr. LHP Logan Bailey (4 games/3 starts, 1-1, 9.42 ERA, 18 K/5 BB, 14 1/3 IP)
Quotable
“This might be the best team we’ve played all year. … They’ll probably be one of the older teams we play. They’re not scared. This will be a big challenge for us, it’s a big challenge for them and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. I see it as an SEC-type series.” - Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn, previewing the Louisiana Tech series
“I’m not worried about the loss, I’m worried about the way we played. I’m worried about the way we move forward. We’re not very good right now and we better get good quick because we’re going to Arkansas in two days and they’re really good.” - Louisiana Tech head coach Lane Burroughs, following his team’s midweek loss to Northwestern State
Instead of writing our own scouting report, HawgBeat reached out to someone who covers the team on a regular basis and can provide a better and more accurate look at the Bulldogs. Here’s what Ben Carlisle - a writer over at BleedTechBlue.com, the Louisiana Tech Rivals site - had to say about this year’s team…
Louisiana Tech is off to a 9-3 start in 2019 after barely missing a NCAA Regional a season ago with a 39-20 overall record. Led by third-year head coach Lane Burroughs, the Bulldogs won 75 games over the last two seasons and were picked second in the Conference USA preseason poll.
From its 2018 team, Tech returned its top five starters on the mound, plus eight of nine players in the everyday lineup.
Looking at the pitching staff, injuries have played a major role in the early going. David Leal, Tech’s Friday night starter, was lost for two months before the season with a broken foot. Leal was 4-4 with a 2.27 ERA in 87 1/3 IP last year.
After Matt Miller started on Friday night to open the season, Tyler Follis replaced him in Week 2. Follis has pitched to a 3.18 ERA over 17 innings, but left due to injury Tuesday night, so Miller will hop back into the rotation for the Bulldogs on Friday.
Miller is an undersized right-hander that will run his fastball up to 91 mph while mixing in a good breaking ball. For the season, he has a 5.68 ERA in 12.2 innings of work while striking out 17.
Logan Robbins will start Saturday. He’s a command left-hander that has a 8.03 ERA in 12.1 innings of work. He missed the fall with shoulder soreness, so he is finally getting back up to speed. He is coming off an outing in which he pitched 6.1 innings while allowing no earned runs in a no decision against Arkansas State.
Logan Bailey will round out the rotation. He’s another command left-hander that uses a very good breaking ball to put hitters away. He’s had a slow start to the year allowing 27 hits in only 14.1 innings of work while compiling a 9.42 ERA. He finished 2018 with an 8-1 overall record, 2.24 ERA in 76.1 IP.
In the bullpen, Tech is likely to be without closer Braxton Smith who is dealing with an oblique issue. They’ll rely heavily on redshirt freshman left-hander Jonathan Fincher (9.2 IP, 15 K, 0.93 ERA), senior left-hander Quinton Logan (8.1 IP, 6 K, 1.08 ERA), freshman right-hander Beau Billings (9.1 IP, 6 K, 1.93 ERA), and junior left-hander Kyle Griffen (13.1 IP, 6 K, 6.08 ERA).
Fincher is a high spin-rate guy who will use elevated fastballs to put hitters away. Griffen’s numbers don’t look great, but he’s had just one bad outing. That outing came Tuesday night against Northwestern State when he allowed five runs without recording an out. He’s a soft tossing left-hander that must be down in the zone to find success.
Offensively, Tech has been really good through its first 12 games. As a team, the Bulldogs are hitting .297 with a .390 on-base percentage and averaging nearly eight runs per game.
Hunter Wells and Taylor Young make the offense go at the top of the lineup. Wells, a switch-hitter, is off to a slow start, but is one of the better pure hitters in the country. He set a program record with 91 hits a season ago. Young is an on-base machine. As a freshman in 2018, he recorded 51 walks/HBP to only 17 strikeouts. He’s off to another quick start as a sophomore hitting .311 with a .450 on-base percentage.
In the middle of the lineup, Steele Netterville provides some pop. The sophomore left-fielder has three home runs and 11 RBIs in his last seven games.
Parker Bates is really good defensively as the center fielder. He’s off to a slow start offensively, hitting just .255 with two home runs, but he’s a guy that Tech relies on to drive in runs, as he has 14 RBIs. He was a preseason All-CUSA selection.
Chris Clayton at catcher is a captain for Tech. He’s off to a good start hitting .361 with 14 RBIs out of the nine-hole. He’s also thrown out 3 of 8 would-be base stealers.
The Bulldogs are extremely aggressive on the bases - sometimes too aggressive. They’ve ran into nine outs on the bases in 12 games, and that does not count being caught stealing.
Overall, this will be an extremely tough task for Tech on the road. Arkansas will have quality arms at every turn and with Tech’s pitching staff so banged up, it could provide for some tough sledding. Looking forward to a fun series.
Remembering the 2017 Midweek Series
The last time Arkansas and Louisiana Tech met on the diamond was a midweek series early in the 2017 season down in Ruston, La.
Playing in front of a packed house, the Razorbacks gave up three unearned runs in the Tuesday game and lost 4-3. The game left a bad taste in Van Horn’s mouth and he let his team know about it after the game.
He hoped it would inspire his team the next day, but it seemed to backfire out of the gate.
“I was not very happy and had a few words and got after them pretty good after that game,” Van Horn said. “Then I thought, ‘Well, that didn’t help,’ because we were down 9-1 after three, but here we came.”
Van Horn’s memory was actually slightly off - the Razorbacks were down 10-1 after two innings. Louisiana Tech did most of its damage in the second inning, scoring seven runs.
Instead of throwing in the towel, Arkansas started chipping away at that lead. It scored two in the fourth, five in the fifth and four in the seventh to take the lead. Five different Razorbacks homered, including a ninth inning blast by Dominic Fletcher to cap the scoring in their 13-10 comeback win.
“I just remember they may get us out real quick and we’d hit a single, we’d hit a homer; they’d get us out, two base hits, home run,” Van Horn said. “Kind of before they knew what to do, they’d get a couple quick outs and bang, bang, bang and next thing you know, we’re up like 13-9. They didn’t know what hit them.”
Fletcher and Jordan McFarland - who also homered - are the only two position players from that game who are still at Arkansas, with Scroggins the only pitcher still on the team who appeared in the win.
Although he was redshirting because of an injury, Campbell made the trip to Ruston and remembers the comeback fondly.
“The team just never stopped competing or fighting,” Campbell said. “It’s just kind of that resilience that the University of Arkansas has as a baseball team. We might be down early, but we’re just going to fight back and we’re never really out of a ballgame.”
The DVH Connection
Van Horn has known Burroughs, Louisiana Tech’s head coach, for more than two decades. In fact, he actually hired him at Northwestern State back in 1997.
The pair worked together over that summer and fall, but Van Horn left before the season to take the head coaching job at Nebraska, so they never actually coached games together. He spoke highly of Burroughs this week.
“He’s a really good person off the field,” Van Horn said. “He’s just a good individual. Very competitive on the field. Just a high-character coach. He’s a good one.”
This will actually be the first of three former assistants Van Horn faces this season. That doesn’t even include Todd Butler, whose Wichita State team visited Baum-Walker Stadium for a fall scrimmage.
Tony Vitello - Arkansas’ pitching coach from 2014-17 - will bring his Tennessee team into Fayetteville from April 26-28, while Rob Childress - who worked with Van Horn at Texarkana College, Northwestern State and Nebraska - and his Texas A&M team will host the Razorbacks at the end of the regular season, May 16-18.
“It’s fun until they throw the first pitch, then they’re not your friends right there,” Van Horn said. “You have to try to find a way to win.”
Stat of the Week
It’s amazing how prophetic Van Horn’s comments to the media have been the last two offseasons.
Before the 2018 season, the Arkansas coach said his team would have one of the deepest lineups he’s ever had and hit a lot of home runs. What happened? The Razorbacks set the single-season school record with 98 home runs.
Before this season, Van Horn said his team would be much more small-ball oriented with a ton of speed and steal a lot of bases. What’s happened so far? The Razorbacks have already stolen 26 bases, which is two-thirds of the way to last year’s total despite being only 11 games into the season.
To illustrate just how drastic of a change in offensive style Arkansas has undergone in one year, here’s a chart that compares last season game-by-game progression stolen bases and home runs to this season’s progression:
Stat Comparison - Arkansas | Louisiana Tech (national rank, out of 297 teams)
Batting average: .297 (33rd) | .297 (35th)
Slugging percentage: .478 (17th) | .453 (34th)
On-base percentage: .399 (47th) | .390 (69th)
Home runs: 12 (t-34th) | 12 (t-34th)
Runs/game: 8.1 (26th) | 7.8 (t-34th)
ERA: 3.34 (58th) | 5.14 (177th)
WHIP: 1.17 (34th) | 1.41 (119th)
Strikeouts/9 innings: 10.8 (21st) | 8.9 (120th)
Strikeout-to-walk ratio: 3.43 (16th) | 2.78 (46th)
Fielding percentage: .971 (101st) | .973 (84th)
Stolen bases/game: 2.36 (t-17th) | 1.42 (t-84th)
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