Arkansas baseball head coach Dave Van Horn and his squad continue to suffer blows on the injury front, the most recent being a back injury to starting catcher Parker Rowland.
The transfer from Eastern Oklahoma State College did not play in Thursday's 6-5 loss at the Georgia Bulldogs, and his absence was definitely felt.
Oklahoma transfer Hudson Polk got the start in his place and went 0-for-4 at the plate with three strikeouts — all three of which were three-pitch strikeouts, the last coming with no outs and bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth inning.
With no reason for Rowland not playing being given prior to the game, Van Horn was asked if the junior catcher would be available for either of the two remaining games in the series.
"I don’t know if he’s going to be ready or not," Van Horn said. "He’s having some back issues, so we’ll just … I doubt it. We’ll see."
Rowland's injury is just the latest in a long line for the Razorbacks this season.
Projected ace Jaxon Wiggins suffered a torn UCL that required season-ending Tommy John Surgery prior to the start of the season. Bullpen ace Koty Frank went down for the year with a torn lat suffered in the March 5 win over Wright State.
Days before Frank's injury, closer Brady Tygart exited the March 1 win over Illinois State with a UCL strain that has kept him sidelined since then. Tygart did travel with the team this weekend and was potentially going to be on the 27-man active roster, but HawgBeat's Robert Stewart broke news prior to Thursday's game that he will be unavailable for the weekend.
"Tygart, I mean he’s probably about there," Van Horn said after Thursday's game. "But we just feel like that we need to go one more week. So we went ahead and had him throw a bullpen yesterday and he threw really well.
"It’s not like he’s thrown a lot of pitches, but just feel like one more [week] and we’ll be a little bit safer, and then next weekend we should get him out there. And that was the target date all along. So we thought, ‘Let’s just stick with it.’"
On top of all the pitcher injuries, the Razorbacks saw star left fielder Jared Wegner exit the April 11 win over Little Rock after suffering a hairline fracture in his thumb sliding into third base. While Van Horn was hopeful that Wegner would be 50/50 going into last weekend's series against Tennessee, the Head Hog revealed that Wegner's injury would keep him out longer than expected.
"He had surgery yesterday," Van Horn said Tuesday. "Put a couple pins in it, just to hold the bone in place, just normal, standard procedure, and we’ll just keep him in shape, and we’re hoping to get him back, probably South Carolina, Vandy for sure. Maybe South Carolina, we’ll see.
"Because once three weeks is up, he should be able to go pretty good as far as it’s healed, now it’s just a matter of open it up, and they’re going to be working on him. Probably just wear that cast for a while and they’ll free that thing up and really work that thumb."
Even after missing the last six games, Wegner still leads the team with 12 home runs and 44 RBIs on the year. He has an OPS of 1.225 and is also a very solid left fielder, and the team has felt his absence out there on a few occasions.
Now, going back to Rowland, he is hitting just .202 on the season with an on-base percentage of .284, which is the worst of the regular starters. While his stats don't pop off the page, Rowland has come along as a very good defender, and he also delivered six hits over the last three weekend series.
Polk has a batting average of .158 and an OBP of .373. He has just one hit in SEC play and it came on March 25 in a 12-2 loss at LSU. He's not as strong of a defender as Rowland, so he is going to have to step his game up this weekend to help the Razorbacks avoid a series loss to an unranked Georgia team.
The Diamond Hogs and Bulldogs will continue their series Friday with Game 2 at Foley Field in Athens, Georgia. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. CT and it will be streamed live on the SEC Network Plus.
