March 14, 2006

Hogs Take Care of Business

Charlie Shields
SEBaseball.com Staff Writer

Dave Van Horn continued his tradition of taking his Arkansas team on the road in the early going. In part to help his team gel and in part to escape the weather, the Razorbacks headed South for two tournaments to begin the season before a quick layover in Fayetteville and then a trip to paradise.

The Hogs first went to Mobile, Alabama for the Jaguar Invitational, hosted by the University of South Alabama. They went 3-0 in the tournament with impressive wins over George Mason, Oklahoma State, and the host Jaguars. Junior college transfer Chris "Sticks" Rhoads got the start on opening day for the Hogs, and worked six solid innings, allowing just one run on four hits. It got even better for the Hogs against Oklahoma State, as Arkansas hurlers Nick Schmidt, Brian McLelland and Devin Collis combined to no-hit the Cowboys. In the Sunday match-up against the host Jaguars, Arkansas went with Senior mainstay Charley Boyce, who went 4 innings on a pitch count in route to a Razorback sweep of the field.

While snow and ice blanketed the ground in Northwest Arkansas, the Razorbacks retreated to only slightly better weather in Edinburg, Texas for the Al Ogletree Classic hosted by Texas Pan-American. Arkansas faced TCU in the Friday opener, and Schmidt continued to be brilliant, tossing six more hitless innings in another Razorback victory. Boyce returned to his usual Saturday start and Rhoads moved to Sunday as the Hogs picked up two more wins, against Stephen F. Austin, and Texas Pan-American.

Arkansas finally returned to Baum Stadium the next weekend to host the Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech. Friday was a scheduled double-header to accommodate the Razorbacks travel plans to Hawaii and La Tech's finals schedule. Boyce got the start in the first game but gave way to Rhoads out of the bullpen after just 3 1/3. The Hogs squeaked past La Tech 10-9 in the first game but Schmidt dominated the Tech batters in the second game, striking out 10 in seven innings and giving up just three hits and two runs. The Hogs completed the sweep on Saturday, riding the arm of Shaun Seibert who was making his first start of the season. An opening-day record crowd of 4,258 people attended the Friday double-header.

On Sunday the 9-0 Razorbacks and several hundred Hog-Callin fans headed for Honolulu to participate in the Rainbow Classic. The Hogs faced Washington in the tournament opener on Tuesday and were shut down by Huskies ace Tim Lincecum, who got the start despite starting on the previous Friday. Rhoads had a rocky outing for the Hogs and didn't make it out of the first inning. In game two Arkansas pounded Texas-Arlington behind a strong outing by Boyce and an offensive flurry including two home runs by Danny Hamblin. Schmidt took the mound for a feature game against Hawaii on Thursday and gave up just 2 hits and 1 run in a Razorback victory over the homestanding 'Bows. The Hogs then beat Texas-Arlington twice more to win the tournament. Hamblin was named the MVP of the tournament and joined outfielders Stephen Robison and Chris Hollensworth and pitcher Schmidt on the all-tournament team.

The Hogs returned home to Baum Stadium at 13-1 this past weekend for a three game set against Cal State Northridge. Schmidt was uncharacteristically shaky in the Friday afternoon outing, going just 4 2/3 and giving up three runs on five hits. The Hogs were down early but came back for a 6-5 victory. Boyce threw a season high 6 2/3 on Saturday in an 8-1 Arkansas victory. Hamblin uncorked his second home run in as many days, this one traveling an estimated 450ft over the Hog Pen in left field, almost reaching Razorback Road. The Diamond Hogs completed the sweep on Sunday in a close one, 8-6. The attendance (actual) for the three game series was 16,406 despite a 12:35 start time on Friday.

The Hogs have this week off before a trip to Gainesville to open the conference season against the Florida Gators.

Injury Report

Senior Shortstop John Henry Marquardt is out for the season after another knee injury. He tore a ligament in his right knee in the first inning of the Friday afternoon game last weekend. He is one game under the medical redshirt cutoff. Marquardt has already had six knee surgeries.

Senior LHP Trey Holloway and Seibert had arm soreness that kept them out of action for the Northridge series, but both are expected to play next weekend as the Hogs open SEC play in Florida.

Senior centerfielder Craig Gentry, who had Tommy John surgery in the off-season, suffered another small setback when he broke his hand in practice. The injury kept him off the field for a couple of weeks but he started all three games against Northridge after being used to pinch run in Hawaii.

Sophomore outfielder Clint Arnold suffered a concussion when he was hit in the head in batting practice and missed some action early on.

Junior RHP Josh Smith had surgery on his back two weeks ago and is rehabbing in hopes to get back this season.

Sophomore infielder Ben Tschepikow is continuing to battle a bad back that also bothered him last season.

The Rotation

Schmidt and Boyce have locked up the Friday and Saturday spots in the Razorback rotation. So far this season the Sunday spot has belonged to Rhoads, but after rocky outings in his last few starts, Seibert is expected to be called on to start on Sunday against the Gators. Schmidt leads the Arkansas staff with a 1.47 ERA, and is 4-0 on the season in five starts. He has struck out 32 and walked 13. Boyce is 2-0 with a 3.92 ERA. Seibert is 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA. Collis and junior righty Daryl Maday have four saves each to lead the team.

The Defense

Junior Blake Parker spent his first two seasons platooning between catcher, first base and right field, but was moved to third base this season to take over for a graduated Clay Goodwin. Parker has exceeded every expectation in his defensive play at the position. The middle of the infield is hurt by the loss of Marquardt and freshmen James Ewing and Matt Willard will platoon with Tschepikow. Hamblin is back at first base and Brian Walker is back behind the plate. The outfield is perhaps the best defensive outfield in college baseball with juniors Jake Dugger and Robison and seniors Gentry and Hollensworth all seeing playing time.

The Offense

Hamblin has hit six home runs to pace the Hogs in that category, while Hollensworth's .404 batting average is tops, along with his 10 doubles. Hamblin has the lead in RBI, with 26, and has hit safely in 15 of the Hogs 17 games. Parker currently has a 13 game hit streak. Every everyday Razorback except for Walker is batting above .300 and as a team they are hitting .317.

David Hum

David Hum, a freshman from Little Rock, was released before the La Tech series by his former school, Notre Dame. The catcher is recovering from Tommy John surgery and has only seen playing time as DH. He decided to transfer to his home state school after one semester in South Bend.

In The Record Book

Boyce already appears in several categories in the Arkansas record book and will continue to climb the lists this season. He's first all time in starts (50), second in wins (29), fourth in appearances (73) and eighth in strikeouts (213).
The Hogs entered the season with high expectations, especially within the Arkansas fan base, and they haven't disappointed. They took care of business in the pre-conference schedule and head to Florida to open the SEC season sitting at 16-1. They will look to use the confidence and experience gained along the way to continue to fulfill those expectations in SEC play.

March 24, 2007

Fans flock to Baum Stadium

Charlie Shields

The parking lot is too full when I get to Baum Stadium, more than an hour before the game. There are too many people milling around the concourse, waiting for the lineups to be posted so that they can write them in their scorecards. Too long of a line at the grill to get hamburgers. Too many people already in their seats when the batting cage hasn't even been moved off the field yet. Too much chatter.

Although large crowds have become commonplace at Arkansas, it's always easy to tell on gameday when a truly huge crowd is going to pile in to Baum. And tonight there will be 9,038 in attendance, spread out down the lines, putting every single one of them right on top of the field. It's games like this that make Baum a truly special place.

There is a buzz in the air that this game will be special. People want to see that. People want to see a game tonight that they can talk about on Monday at work. People came out to see a game that, years from now, they can say they were at that game. They want to say I saw that game where Schmidt faced off against Price. It didn't exactly work out the way everybody thought it would, but then again, that's baseball.

By the time David Price took the mound in the bottom of the first inning, Vanderbilt fans had to be thinking that the 2-0 lead he'd just been staked to would be enough. I'm sure plenty of Arkansas fans listening in or at the park had similar thoughts. After all, David Price struck out 17 Hogs a year ago in Nashville and Arkansas plated just one run that night. But after one full inning it was a whole new ballgame, all tied at 2.

Arkansas and Vandy would go back and forth like that for the rest of the game, one team surging out to the lead and the other team coming back just as fast to tie it. Both heralded aces Nick Schmidt and David Price got off to rocky starts but settled in, and each put up zeros in the middle innings. When they left the game (with almost identical numbers), the score was tied at five.

The Hogs surged ahead in the bottom of the 7th, pushing across two runs against Commodore reliever Stephen Shao. Vanderbilt returned the favor, plating two off of Hog closer Jess Todd in the top of the 8th. The Hogs went quietly in the bottom of the 8th against Commodore closer Casey Weathers, who reportedly hit 104 on the radar guns. Jess Todd found his groove and retired the Commodores quickly in the 9th inning and Arkansas had a great chance to end the game in the bottom of the 9th with runners at first and second and no outs. But Ben Tschepikow popped up a bunt and after Tim Smalling was hit with a pitch to load the bases, Brian Walker popped up an attempted squeeze bunt for the second out. Jake Dugger went down on strikes to end the inning. After an easy tenth for Todd, the Hogs won the game in the bottom of the 10th without the benefit of an official at-bat. It was as routine as a hit batter, a sacrifice bunt, and a sacrafice fly that scored the runner from 2nd.

It's one of the more exciting games I've ever seen, even if it wasn't the two-hour pitcher's duel I'd expected.