Scrimmage Report: Ramage shines, Noland's final tune-up, more

FAYETTEVILLE — When reviewing Arkansas’ pitching staff for 2022, it would be easy to dismiss Kole Ramage.

A super senior who has struggled to find his role since a promising freshman campaign in 2018, Ramage has been solid in a pair of appearances in public scrimmages leading up to the season.

In his most recent outing Friday afternoon, the right-hander was particularly impressive. He faced the minimum in two scoreless innings, allowing only an infield single and striking out the other five hitters he faced.

“I think my slider late was working,” Ramage said. “I was able to throw it in to lefties, kind of get in on the inner side of the plate, but then I also had my curveball. Those were what two of my strikeouts were.

“So I think I just kind of had pretty much everything working except for maybe my changeup. That was kind of away from me, but I felt good with every other pitch.”

What was so eye-opening about that performance is that Ramage did it against a murderer’s row. He struck out potential starters Zack Gregory, Cayden Wallace, Jace Bohrofen, Michael Turner and Robert Moore.

The only blemish on his day was the aforementioned infield single by Peyton Stovall, who fouled off several pitches before finally making weak contact that found grass in no man’s land. He was erased on a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out to end the inning.

Including his outing the first weekend of preseason scrimmages, Ramage has allowed just one unearned run on two hits while striking out nine of 14 batters in four innings.

That would be a significant development for Arkansas’ pitching staff, as the Southlake, Texas, native has a career 5.09 ERA in 134 1/3 innings with the Razorbacks. That includes a 6.75 ERA in 24 innings last season.

“I think I have a little bit of a different mindset this year,” Ramage said. “I think the previous years I was so caught up with maybe trying to be the starter or this and that, and this year I just decided I wanted to be the kind of person that just came out and threw and threw a bunch. It didn’t matter what situation it was. It was kind of a little bit of a mindset change and that’s been all the difference so far.”

Ramage showed promise as a freshman, posting a 4.00 ERA in 36 innings. He pitched on the biggest stage in Omaha and was actually in line to earn the win in Game 2 of the College World Series before Arkansas’ collapse.

Since then, though, it’s been a struggle. In addition to a 5.49 ERA over the last three seasons, Ramage has averaged just 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings (compared to 12.5 as a freshman) and his hits allowed per nine innings has increased from 9.0 to 9.2 to 10.7 and finally to 12.4 last year.

Some speculated that he might follow in Matt Goodheart’s steps and sign as an undrafted free agent to begin his professional career, but instead, he chose to take the same route as Kevin Kopps the year before and return for another season at Arkansas.

“I don’t want to say it, but it was kind of the same kind of situation as Kevin was in last year — do I want to sign (or) do I want to come back?” Ramage said. “Having a conversation with Coach Hobbs, it just felt like I wasn’t ready to leave yet. I felt like I had more to prove and more to do here, so that was the decision to come back.”

All Kopps did with his extra year was turn in arguably the greatest season ever by a college reliever, winning the Golden Spikes Award, Dick Howser Trophy and numerous other National Player of the Year awards.

It would be unrealistic to expect Ramage to duplicate that kind of season for the Razorbacks in 2022, but seeing Kopps’ success set kind of the blueprint he hopes to follow.

“I think seeing what Kevin did last year kind of shows it doesn’t matter how old you are, what age you are, no matter how long you’ve been here, it’s really about just going out there, throwing your stuff, having confidence in everything,” Ramage said. “I think just having conversations with him and both being in a little bit the same situation, it’s definitely something to be able to look at and say, ‘Hey, why not me? Why can’t it be me this time?’”

Here are a few other tidbits from Friday’s scrimmage at Baum-Walker Stadium…

Noland’s Final Tune-Up

Arguably the biggest takeaway Friday was the performance of Connor Noland.

One week out from the start of the season, the Razorbacks stretched out their projected Opening Day starter, having the right-hander through roughly 63 pitches in 4 2/3 innings.

Noland gave up three earned runs, all on a pair of home runs, but was otherwise dominant in the start. He struck out seven, didn’t issue any walks and one of the four hits he allowed was an infield single.

His velocity held steady in the 91-92 mph range even as he worked into the fifth inning, plus head coach Dave Van Horn was overheard describing his slider as “nasty.”

It’s also worth noting that after both home runs he gave up, Noland responded really well. The first was a leadoff bomb and he processed to retire the next three batters. The second came with two outs and not only did he retire the next batter to end the inning, but Noland followed it up with a 1-2-3 frame.

Overall, it was an efficient day for Noland. Even with the seven strikeouts, he still averaged about 13.5 pitches per inning. That would put him at 95 pitches through seven innings if he maintained that level of efficiency.