Arkansas opens the 2022 season this weekend against Illinois State. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the three-game series…
Schedule (TV/streaming)
Friday, Feb. 18 - 3 p.m. CT (SECN+)
Saturday, Feb. 19 - noon CT (SECN+)
Sunday, Feb. 20 - 1 p.m. CT (SECN+)
All three games in Arkansas’ opening series against Illinois State will be streamed on SEC Network-Plus, meaning they can be watched on ESPN3.com or the ESPN app as long as you have log-in credentials from a cable provider.
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Weather Report
Weekend Rotation
Arkansas is going with a veteran in Connor Noland on Friday, followed by a pair of younger arms in the next two games.
Noland didn’t have a great season in 2021, but that was likely due to him not being fully healthy all year. Before the pandemic, he was Arkansas’ Friday starter in 2020 and had a 2.00 ERA in three starts. As a freshman, Noland was an Opening Weekend starter and earned Freshman All-SEC honors with a 4.02 ERA in 78 1/3 innings.
Click here for a more comprehensive breakdown of the Razorbacks’ starting rotation.
On the flip side, there were far fewer questions surrounding Illinois State’s starting rotation entering the first weekend of the 2021 season.
The Redbirds return two of their starters from last year - Jordan Lussier and Sean Sinisko - and are moving last year’s closer, Derek Salata, into a starting role.
Neither of the returning starters have overpowering stuff. Head coach Steve Holm described Lussier as “ultra competitive” with a fastball around 90 mph and a breaking ball as his out pitch, and described Sinisko as a “pitch-ability lefty.” They had nearly identical ERAs (4.36 / 4.44) and WHIPs (1.36 / 1.41) last season.
“(They’re) just veterans,” Van Horn said. “Probably aren’t going to beat themselves too much. We’re probably going to have to hit our way on. They’re not going to walk us and hit us. We need to grind out some at-bats, get some pitch counts up and get into that bullpen.”
Salata has appeared in 37 career games at Illinois State, but Sunday will be his first start. It will be in a venue he’s familiar with, as he had three strikeouts in 1 1/3 scoreless innings at Baum-Walker Stadium in 2020.
Even though it’s a new role for him, Holm is excited to see how he handles it.
“I think it’ll be good for him,” Holm said. “He’s one of our better arms and we’d like to get some more innings out of him as opposed to just saving him for that one or two innings per weekend.”
Projected Starting Lineups
Know the Foe
2021 record: 23-34 (12-15 MVC)
Head coach: Steve Holm (4th season, 66-69)
Conference projection: t-3rd out of 8 teams in MVC
~Illinois State is only a couple of years removed from receiving an at-large bid to the 2019 NCAA Tournament, when it knocked off Indiana and No. 7 seed Louisville to move within a game of advancing to the Super Regional. However, the Redbirds then dropped two straight to host - and eventual College World Series participant - Louisville.
~Injuries to key players derailed Illinois State’s 2021 season early in the year. It did take one of four games against Missouri, but was swept by nationally ranked foes Oklahoma State and East Carolina. The Redbirds opened both of those sweeps with a one-run loss, though.
~In 2020, Illinois State played a pair of doubleheaders at Oklahoma and lost the first three games by a combined five runs before winning Game 4. Just before the pandemic, it also traveled to Fayetteville and knocked off the Razorbacks 8-7 in a midweek matchup. Click here to read HawgBeat’s recap of that game.
~The Redbirds’ first-year pitching coach is R.D. Spiehs, who actually played for Dave Van Horn at Nebraska. He was previously on staff at Little Rock from 2019-21, so he was part of the Trojans’ team that beat Arkansas 17-7 in a midweek game on April 2, 2019. Interestingly, before that job, he was the pitching coach at Northern Colorado, where he coached current Arkansas right-hander Issac Bracken.
~The Redbirds are led by a pair of preseason All-MVC selections in first baseman Jake McCaw and center fielder Ryan Cermak. McCaw, a fifth-year junior, is coming off a season in which he hit .367 - including a .417 clip in conference play, while Cermak, a third-year sophomore, hit .284 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs. Cermak is likely Illinois State’s top professional prospect, as he was also the MVC Defensive Player of the Year and a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American last season.
~Another player Holm is excited about is redshirt freshman right fielder Jonathan Sabotnik. He likely would have played last season, but the Redbirds had multiple unexpected returners because of the pandemic, so he used the year to bulk up and Holm said he had a great summer and fall. “I jokingly tell the scouts, ‘You guys are going to come and see this guy and go ‘Man, that coach was an idiot for not playing him last year,’’” Holm said. “That’s my goal. My goal is for him to make me look like an idiot.”
~Holm also gave a positive review of his catcher, Tyler Woltman, albeit not for his offensive prowess. He is a “very defensive young man” who will hit in the 9-hole because his bat isn’t as good as his glove. He missed all of last season with a knee injury, so this will be his first college action.
Quotable
“I expect these to be some really good ball games. They have an experienced pitching staff it looks like. They’ve replaced a lot of their hitters from last year. There’s a reason that they scheduled this. I’m sure they felt like when they did this, they had pitchers coming in or pitchers in the program they felt could give us all we could handle. So I expect it to be a really good series. We’re gonna have to fight them.” — Dave Van Horn, on Illinois State
“Ultimately, ton of respect on my side. I do like playing them because I enjoy the way the play. I don’t think they’re out there running their mouths or anything like that. It’s good, hard-nosed baseball and at the end of the game, they’re going to play hard and they’re going to give you a great effort and I’m certainly hoping we do the same for them.” — Steve Holm, on Arkansas
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