FAYETTEVILLE — Coming off a one-game suspension, nobody was more excited than Heston Kjerstad to be back at the ballpark Tuesday night.

Head coach Dave Van Horn had joked with reporters leading up to the game that perhaps the star sophomore needed a day off after starting the first 108 games of his career and that he’d “hammer” the ball when he returned.

That’s just what happened. After putting on a show in batting practice, Kjerstad put together a 3-for-4 performance that included a double and mammoth 416-foot home run to center with a 110 mile per hour exit velocity.

“Today in batting practicing he really hit the ball hard,” Van Horn said. “He hit a couple, three balls oppo to left center out of the park, he hit a couple off the batter’s eye, he hit a lot of line drives though the middle. Then he took it to the game.”

Despite the “outstanding” performance at the plate, though, Van Horn was beside himself over Kjerstad’s play in the Razorbacks’ 19-2 win over Northwestern State.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Van Horn said. “I don’t even want to talk about it, because I’ll get red-faced. I’m not happy with him.”

So, what had the veteran coach so upset? Well, Kjerstad made three uncharacteristic mental mistakes and, luckily for us, Van Horn did talk about them.

The first came in the second inning when he ripped a pitch into the right-center gap. He cruised into second for a stand-up double, failing to watch the ball and see the Demons bobble it.

Although third base coach Nate Thompson initially signaled for him to stop, he waved him on to third, but Kjerstad saw it too late. Had he advanced the extra base, he would have been in position to score on a sacrifice fly the next at bat. It didn’t hurt, though, because he ended up scoring anyways on a Jordan McFarland home run.

Kjerstad’s second blunder was in the field at the end of the fourth. With a runner at third, he caught a fly ball and fired a throw into home as if the runner was tagging, but it was the final out of the inning.

It was a harmless mistake, but it was still strike two in Van Horn’s book. Strike three came a couple innings later and this time it actually took runs off the board for the Razorbacks.

In the sixth, Zack Plunkett hit his second of three doubles off the base of the wall with two outs. Kjerstad and Kenley were on first and second, respectively, after hitting singles and it seemed like both would score easily.

However, Kjerstad - thinking the ball had been caught to end the inning - peeled off toward the dugout a few feet before getting to home plate and a few seconds later, Kenley crossed the plate.

The home plate umpire immediately called Kjerstad out because, technically, Kenley had crossed him on the base paths. That not only took two runs off the board, but also ended the inning as the third out.

Van Horn came flying out of the dugout for an explanation and Kjerstad eventually told him that he failed to touch the plate, something the coach later described as “ridiculous.”

“Even if you think he caught it, just run and touch home plate,” Van Horn said. “The ball was hit in the gap, you’re at second base, round the bag running, just cruise on and touch that plate and if you’re out, you’re out. That’s all you have to do.”

That was the final straw that led Van Horn to bench him for freshman Trey Harris. Those mistakes didn’t hurt much in a 17-run blowout in a midweek game, but that might not be the case in a weekend SEC game.

“There were three things that went on in the ballgame that were real irritating to me,” Van Horn said. “Those are little things that will get you beat in close a close game. Those are the things that we’ve got to clean up.”

After the game, Kjerstad told the media that he understood why his coach was upset. Not one to get down and sulk, he seemed to take it in stride. Even though Van Horn had gotten on to him, he still had a smile on his face.

“You’ve just got to learn from it,” Kjerstad said. “You are going to make mistakes on the field and off the field but the main thing is you don’t make the same mistake twice and you learn from it.”

Kjerstad broke out of his typical mild-mannered persona in Friday’s game against Mississippi State, arguing a third strike call that was later determined to be nine inches off the plate by Arkansas’ TrackMan technology.

For the first time in nearly a decade, when he was tossed for plowing over a catcher in a 10-and-under game, Kjerstad was ejected from that game and suspended the following day. That forced him to watch from home as the Razorbacks completed the sweep of No. 2 Mississippi State with a 10-2 win.

“It was a big-time game, late in the game with one out, 1-2 count, one pitch changes the game right there,” Kjerstad said. “To have the bat taken out of your hands right there kind of got me fired up and I said a few things and the ump didn’t like it, so he ejected me out of the game.

“That’s his call, I didn’t agree with it but that’s just the way the game is. You’re not always going to agree with what happens.”

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