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FAYETTEVILLE — A familiar face will be on the mound for his first start of the season Tuesday evening against Oklahoma.
Left-hander Patrick Wicklander is getting the nod for Arkansas’ first midweek game of 2021, head coach Dave Van Horn announced Monday morning. First pitch against the Sooners is scheduled for 5 p.m. and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.
Part of the weekend rotation last season and at the end of his freshman year, when the Razorbacks reached the 2019 College World Series, the California native began this season in the bullpen.
“He was excited about having an opportunity to start,” Van Horn said. “He hasn’t started this year. He’s used to being a starter and I wanted to tell him early and let him think about it, kind of like it used to be for him.”
Arkansas has been known to occasionally treat midweek games as bullpen days, especially when there’s an SEC series on the weekend, but it sounds like it will be a true start for Wicklander.
“We’re going to see what he can do,” Van Horn said. “We haven’t set up a pitch limit on him. We’ll just let him pitch and if it looks like he’s getting tired, we’ll take him out.”
Over the first four weeks of the season, Wicklander has made three relief appearances and posted a 3.68 ERA in 7 1/3 innings. He also has seven strikeouts and only one walk.
Van Horn has been pleased with how he’s pitched so far this year. Wicklander is throwing with more velocity than in the past, but the key to his success is commanding his secondary pitches.
Going into last weekend, Wicklander’s numbers were even more impressive. He threw six scoreless innings over his first two outings and held opponents to a .238 batting average.
Against a deep and talented Louisiana Tech lineup, though, it didn’t go so well. Six of the nine batters Wicklander faced notched hits in his 1 1/3 innings, but Van Horn said the Bulldogs “didn’t hit him hard” and that it “just didn’t go his way.”
Another tough lineup awaits Wicklander on Tuesday, as Oklahoma enters its game against Arkansas State on Monday hitting .301/.410/.435 as a team and averaging 7.7 runs.
“I just want Patrick to pitch like I know he can,” Van Horn said. “By the time they're in their third year, they're experienced, not afraid and they go out there and compete hard. … It's more about stuff. He just needs to have good stuff, get them out and give us what he can.”
Although it seems like the Razorbacks have settled on a weekend rotation of Peyton Pallette, Zebulon Vermillion and Lael Lockhart, the midweek matchup with the Sooners could go a long way in determining Wicklander’s role moving forward.
“If it goes well he may move into the rotation on the weekend one day or may stick on Tuesday nights the rest of the year or flip later,” Van Horn said. “It's a long season. There's going to be injuries, sickness and different things, (so) you've got to have more guys. He's definitely a guy we're depending on.”
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