FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will be without one of its top relievers as it enters a difficult part of its schedule.
Junior right-hander Jacob Kostyshock could miss at least two weeks with inflammation around the nerve in his elbow, head coach Dave Van Horn announced Monday afternoon at the Swatter’s Club meeting. That includes road trips to top-25 conference opponents Auburn and Vanderbilt.
“He’ll definitely miss this weekend’s games,” Van Horn said. “He’s a guy we can’t really afford to lose, but it is what it is. Guys are going to get hurt every now and then.”
It is a huge blow to Arkansas’ bullpen because he has been the setup man for closer Matt Cronin, but is also capable of throwing extended innings, if needed.
Kostyshock actually began the season in the starting rotation, throwing five scoreless innings against Eastern Illinois, before becoming a reliever. He has now thrown 18 1/3 innings across nine appearances, allowing four earned runs for a 1.96 ERA.
Opponents are hitting just .191 against him, as his fastball - which has touched 98 miles per hour - also has some sink.
Without Kostyshock, the Razorbacks will likely need to get a few more innings out of their starting pitchers and some more run support. They are averaging just 4.9 runs in SEC play and that number is inflated by two wins at Alabama. Take out those 12- and 10-run outbursts and Arkansas is scoring just 3.1 runs per game.
“It does stretch us out,” Van Horn said. “Hopefully our starters can give us some more innings and we can get things going offensively. … The hitting was good for an inning here and there, but for the most part, we didn’t do anything offensively.”
The Razorbacks still have Kole Ramage, Kevin Kopps, Zebulon Vermillion and Marshall Denton before turning things over to Cronin, but they have yet to have any of the unproven freshmen take hold of a bullpen role.
That was particularly evident Sunday, when a 5-4 lead quickly turned into a 10-5 loss to Ole Miss in a rubber match that cost Arkansas the series.
Even left-hander Patrick Wicklander, who has been excellent as a midweek starter, has struggled to throw strikes when coming out of the pen.
He, sophomore Collin Taylor and freshmen Liam Henry, Elijah Trest, Evan Taylor, Jacob Burton, Carter Sells and Caden Monke have combined to issue 45 walks, hit 12 batters with pitches and throw seven wild pitches in 52 innings, leading to a 6.58 ERA.
Arkansas’ other pitchers have a combined 2.60 ERA with 58 walks, 13 hit batters and nine wild pitches in 197 2/3 innings.
“We need some pitching depth,” Van Horn said. “We’ve got some guys that are getting the job done, but then after that, it’s flip a coin - what are we going to get today?
“We got to have some guys step up and give us some innings. Those guys that are called on out of the bullpen, we need them to step up and do their jobs.”
