ARLINGTON, Texas — Prior to Sunday's matchup between No. 2 Arkansas (5-2) and Michigan (2-5), Razorbacks head coach Dave Van Horn mentioned on pregame radio that some of his players might be drained after two roller-coaster games on Friday and Saturday.
"Some of the guys were, but not most of the guys that played," Van Horn said after the game. "Catcher hadn’t played all weekend, second baseman hadn’t played all weekend, left fielder, right fielder, they hadn’t played all weekend, so I was hoping they’d bring a little energy to the game. And, umm, you know… I don’t know. I didn’t see a lot of energy."
As a result, Van Horn made some considerable changes to the Diamond Hogs lineup, but they didn't fix Arkansas' glaring offensive issues in the 4-3 victory over the Wolverines at Globe Life Field.
The new faces in the Hogs' lineup included left-fielder Will Edmunson (leadoff), right-fielder Ross Lovich (five-hole), second baseman Nolan Souza (seven-hole) and catcher Parker Rowland (eight-hole).
"The other guys aren’t hitting, why not give those guys a shot, right?" Van Horn said. "They’re good players, too. Didn’t get much out of it. It’s kind of what I did last weekend, too. We don’t know who our starters are right now. We thought we did, but right now, I’d say there’s about 50% of the jobs are still wide open."
None of those four recorded a base hit, as they went a combined 0-for-10 at the plate. Edmunson, Souza and Rowland did reach base seven times because of six walks and one hit-by-pitch, but that didn't solve Arkansas' driving-in-runs issue.
Arkansas finished the game 5-32 at the plate, 3-15 with runners on, 2-6 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base. Just the night before, the Hogs were 2-24 with runners on base in a 2-1 extra-inning loss to Oklahoma State. It's early in the season, but a lack of timely hitting is not a trend that players or coaches want to see.
"I got to see some really good pitching by some young guys," Van Horn said. "I think they had a chance to grow up on a big stage. Some really, really tough situations. On the offensive side, my biggest takeaway is we got to get better. This was really disappointing."
Still, the Razorbacks came out on top thanks to another scoreless outing from their starting pitcher, this time in LHP Mason Molina. RHPs Will McEntire and Koty Frank finished the Wolverines off in the latter half of the ballgame, and Arkansas — despite a nail-biting ninth that saw Michigan bring the deficit to one run thanks to errors by Jared Sprague-Lott and Peyton Holt — capped off an all-around impressive weekend with another win.
"It’s mostly throwing," Van Horn said. "(Sprague-Lott) didn’t backhand that ball last night. We thought he was going to be a really good defender and a below-average hitter. Right now, he’s our best hitter and not doing real well in the field. You tell me what to do. That’s the way this game works, man. That’s crazy. We’re very fortunate to be 5-2. I told these guys, we’ve got to get a lot better. The issue is, we won’t practice tomorrow. It’ll be our day off. We get to play on Tuesday, so hopefully we play good Tuesday, and then we get a couple good workouts then after that.
Up next, Arkansas will welcome the Grambling State Tigers to Baum-Walker Stadium on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. CT and will stream on SEC Network+.
