ARKANSAS BASEBALL FANATICS - 2011

Arkansas Razorback Baseball Fanatics

With Hog Hoops winding down, our No. 9 Diamond Hogs are just heating up, with SEC play starting this weekend @ Auburn.  So, I figured why not have a place where Arkansas fans can come talk about Razorback Baseball - a sport we have great tradition of consistently doing so well in.

The timing couldn't be better for this.  And over here is as good as anyplace for it... on a CBS site that barely recognizes college baseball's existence.

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So, here it is.  Chime in anytime.

Hogs vs Hawks at Baum Stadium

Arkansas (13-2) takes on the 7-8 Kansas Jayhawks today at 3pm CT.  This will be the Hogs stiffest test so far, and should give us a better idea of where the team is right now going into the start of conference play this weekend.

KU has played a tougher schedule than the Hogs this preseason.  They are 1-3 against ranked opposition:  1-2 in the season opening series against then No. 1 TCU and recently losing a close one to No. 7 Arizona State.  The Razorbacks defeated the Jayhawks 15-3 last season.

Arkansas freshman Ryne Stanek (3 starts, 6.19 ERA), who has struggled lately, will be today's starting pitcher.

Go Hogs!

This week will definately be a test against better quality opponents.  Small ball has worked for us thus far so hopefully we can keep the trend going, and take down another series. 

Nice work blHog!  Appreciate you keep those of us who aren't close enough to go to the games posted on our Razorback baseballers. 
Love to see our Hogs doing well, besides this can help keep me going until football season comes back around!

Keep up the good work and Thanks again!

Arkansas 4 - Kansas 2
 
This was a fun game to watch.  While I could sense a Razorback victory early on, it was actually  anybody's game.  All the scoring came early, before it settled into a tight contest of pitching and defense.  Aside from McCann and Robinson's 2 hits apiece (including Kyle's 4th HR), good pitching carried this day.

Said Van Horn afterward - “All I told the team before the game was to find a way to win and that’s what they did.  I thought the bullpen did a great job.  Fant did a good job. Davenport gave us a good inning. I thought Nolan (Sanburn) was outstanding again and that was good to see.”

Hog NUTShell - 5 Razorback hurlers combined to hold Kansas to just two runs on five hits.  Freshman Ryne Stanek notched his first collegiate win over 4 solid innings, throwing 48 strikes in 66 pitches.  Afterwhich 4 relievers combined to allow just one run over the final 5.  Randall Fant threw 2 shutout innings, while Geoffrey Davenport and Nolan Sanburn each tossed a scoreless frame. Sanburn worked a perfect 9th, earning his 2nd save, while solidifying his roll as Arkansas' closer.  Said McCann on Sanburg, "Sanburg's crazy. Not a guy you wanna pick a fight with.  He's got a definite closer mentality."  The news wasn't all good though, as Davenport apparently injured his elbow on his last pitch of an inning.  A great midweek crowd of around 3,500 (7,000 official) gathered to watch the 2 hour-10 minute game at The Baum.

another Aaron Fitt / March 14

While I still don't agree with Aaron Fitt's omission of  Arkansas from BaseballAmerica's Top 25 (while the other 3 big polls rank us between 9th and 13th), I do enjoy reading his weekly Chat on baseball.  Here's his take on Arkansas and LSU this week.

He finally stated clearly that LSU is the clear favorite in the SEC West now, based on the fact their "young pitchers needed to prove themselves against good competition for me to fully buy in on LSU, and that's exactly what they've done."

And on the Razorbacks -

Aaron Fitt:  I also really like what I saw from Arkansas this weekend - dangerous young team that will be a major factor in the SEC.  (Fitt was in attendance at Arkansas' game @ San Diego State last Thursday.)

And this, in answer to a fan's questions -
 
Q - Since you got to see the Hogs this past weekend, what did you think?  Can our young pitching carry us thru a rough SEC where our bats wont always be there game in game out?  We can all go 13-2 against who we have played but now can we do that in the next 15 games starting SEC play?

Aaron Fitt:  That's the big question... DJ Baxendale is the real deal on Fridays, but I think they need Ryne Stanek to get healthy (he's been sick the last couple of weeks, and he didn't get out of the second inning when I saw him on Thursday) to give that staff a 1-2 pitching punch that can stack up with the SEC's elites.  Brandon Moore and Cade Lynch both pitched well this weekend, giving the Hogs some nice options, but they don't have Stanek's upside.  Nolan Sanburn looks like a star in the making at the back of the bullpen - electric arm, capable of reaching 95 mph with a devastating hard breaking ball.  Lot of nice pieces in place there.

Davenport out for the season

In his pre-Auburn presser today, Coach Van Horn was matter-of-factly disappointed at the loss for the season of middle reliever Geoffrey Davenport, who tore a ligament in his left elbow in last night's win over Kansas.  The injury will require Tommy John surgery for the junior.  Davenport was on track for a couple relief appearances per weekend series this season.  Regarding replacements, VH mentioned Daniel as a possible replacement, and said, "Fant maybe to pick up some of those middle innings for us.  Harvelle has to step it up too."

This is a considerable setback for the Hogs going into conference play.

Here's more from Van Horn's Wednesday pre-Auburn presser, including the 11-minute video link .

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His biggest concern is starting pitching, with a couple freshmen that have never stepped on the mound against SEC competition.  They are RHP Brandon Moore of Van Buren appearing on Saturday and lefty Cade Lynch of Jonesboro on Sunday.  Sophomore DJ Baxendale of Jacksonville, AR is solid for Friday starts this season.  VH says he has no problem using the freshman Nolan Sanburg as the closer, and immediately referenced LSU's use of Matty Ott in that role a couple years ago (high praise).   

Kind of funny, he really had little to say on Auburn, other than they're hitting .314, rely on the big inning, and rarely steal.  Plainsman Field at Auburn is a beautiful brick ballpark that seats 4,000. 

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Unless somebody else does it, I'll try to dig up a little more on Aubie before Friday's 6pm CT start - which BTW is radio-only on RazorVision .

Davenport out for the season is big.  Alot over on Hogville believes it will cost us a few games, but im really hoping our guys can step it up, and fill the void.  Cant wait till this weekend with the start of SEC play.  Gonna be a great series.

Yeah, you could just see it on Van Horn's face that he was in a little state of shock over this - both for the team and Dav.  Everything he said was all about the other guys having to pick up their game now.

I was watching the game when it happened, and they said the whole team in the Hogs' dugout was focusing on Davenport coming off the field, like they sensed this wasn't good at all.

What a tough break for everybody.

More from Coach Van Horn -

“I talked to the doctors last night and it was pretty easy to see on the MRI.  If they didn’t see anything last night they were going to do another one to see if the swelling went down a little bit, but it was there already.  He’ll have to have it fixed, so he’s pretty upset.  Obviously, we’re disappointed for him and upset about it.”

“We’ll have to have some guys step it up.  We’ve got some pitchers who have been tip-toeing along a little bit and they need to make a move.  Davenport’s role was going to be for sure one night a weekend, and depending on the number of innings and pitches he threw, maybe even twice.  We’ve got to replace that and that’s going to be tough.”

Baseball America's Top 25 leaves out 3 teams, which are ranked (very consistently) in all 3 of the other polls - USA Today/ESPN, NCBWA, and Collegiate BB Newspaper's.

• Teams left out:  No. 9 Arkansas, No. 11 UC-Irving, and No. 20 Louisville (USA Today/ESPN)
• Teams substituted in:  No. 14 Baylor, No. 19 UConn, and No. 22 Tulane

For comparison purposes, let's use the two polls that rank a top 25 (versus top 30s);  which also happens to include one I agree with AND one I most disagree with.  The big question is how can a team ranked No. 9 in one not be ranked at all in the other?

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Admittedly college baseball polls are unlike similar rankings in football and basketball, which have both over the years tended to standardize themselves into two primary poll organizations, the AP and Coaches (I think that's right).  On the other hand, baseball - being a little "newer" still freelances this more, so to speak.

After being admonished a couple times last season for my novice comments on bb rankings, I began to understand some differences.  Baseball polls tend to look deeper than mere W-L records;  and consider such things as "good" wins, strength of schedule (SOS), RPI, and even subtly , program tradition.

I once read that the top dozen or so ranked baseball teams are considered the "elite" with the best shot at reaching Omaha;  with "the rest" of the group long-shots.  The "elite" started in the top group early-on, and generally stay in that neighborhood all season, barring some big flop.  "The rest" will change considerably over the course of the season - generally ebbing and flowing based mainly on W-L's, with say the bottom five usually featuring a few that pop in and out.

Interestingly, Arkansas kind of started off the same last season - consistently inching its way up close to "elite" status.  Difference was all 4 polls were fairly in-sync with the process.  While it's conceivable that BA could end up being the one that's right about Arkansas' not being worthy of ranking;  however, I cannot understand a difference of 18 spots difference in the ranking of ANY team within two given polls.

At first I accepted this / now I don't.  Frankly, I consider it a serious show of disrespect for a team - any team for that matter - with a 14-2 record;  which BTW is an outstanding record, no matter who you play over a stretch of 16 games!  And further, I don't care what the written logic of this is.  Something is big-time wrong with this picture.

            3-14        3-14
             USA         BA

1. Flor        Flor
2. Vand      Vand
3. Okla      Okla
4. FSU        S C
5. Virg        Texas      5 losses
6. S C         FSU
7. LSU        Virg
8. AZSt        LSU
9. ARK        AZSt
10. Texas     TCU        5 losses
11. UCIrv      Ariz
12. TCU        Stan        6 losses
13. TAMU      CSFul     6 losses
14. Ariz          Baylor
15. N C         Cal
16. UCLA       Clem
17. Clem       Fres
18. CSFul      N C
19. Fres        UConn
20. Lville      Charl
21. G T         TAMU
22. Stan        Tulane
23. Charl       G T
24. Rice        UCLA
25. Cal          Rice

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Sorry about the strange abbreviations, but it's the only was to come close to lining up the columns.  If you can't figure out who a team is, just hit this link that'll take you to a site with full listings > CollegeBaseball360

#9 Arkansas Razorbacks @ #24 Auburn Tigers

Hogs catcher James McCann put it this way, "The conference opener at Auburn feels like opening day in the 'bigs'.  We're excited."  "Voice of the Razorbacks" announcer Chuck Barrett thinks taking 2 out of 3 from the Tigers (last season's SEC West champs) would be a "great start".

In 2010, Auburn seemed to come out of nowhere to win the West;  and they did it with a powerful offense that featured the long ball.  Auburn has a more experienced team than Arkansas this year;  so the question this weekend may be which team has adjusted best to the new dead bats.   

So it is - that SEC play kicks off the "real" season tonight.  Let's Go Hogs!

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Pitching Matchups

Game 1 (Friday, 6pm CT)
Arkansas soph. RHP DJ Baxendale (4-0, 0.00) vs. Auburn jr. LHP Cory Luckie (1-1, 3.63) 

Game 2 (Saturday, 3pm CT)
Arkansas freshman RHP Brandon Moore (2-0, 3.27) vs. Auburn's TBD

Game 3 (Sunday, 1pm CT)
Arkansas soph. LHP Cade Lynch (2-0, 1.35) vs. Auburn jr. RHP Derek Varnadore (3-0, 2.79)

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Arkansas Team Stats

• Pitching -  3.19 ERA, 0.227 Opp. Avg
• Offense -  0.301, 12 HR, 105 RBI, 35-40 SB
• Defense - 0.968 Fld %, 20 E, 15 DPs

Diamond Hogs Batting Lineup

Here is Arkansas' batting lineup to begin conference play.

Since this is a lineup that likely will continue for awhile, I'll only post it once with player links from ArkansasRazorbacks.com - then update it, if necessary, as the season continues.  Player stats shown are up-to-date prior to the Auburn series.

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1. CF      Collin Kuhn (.209, 2HRs, 11RBIs)
2. 3B      Matt Reynolds (.346, 2HR, 10RBIs)
3. PH      Kyle Robinson (.409, 4HR, 22RBIs)
4. C        James McCann (.377, 1HR, 10RBIs)
5. 1B      Dominic Ficociello (.426, 0HR, 20RBIs)
6. 2B      Bo Bigham (.271, 1HR, 7RBIs)
7. LF       Matt Vinson (.258, 1HR, 5RBIs)
8. RF      Jarrod McKinney (.282, 1HR, 7RBIs)
9. SS      Tim Carver (.196, 0HR, 2 RBIs)

Game 1

Arkansas starter DJ Baxendale is knocked out of the game on an Auburn HR in bottom of the 5th.  Tigers up 5-4 over Hogs through T6.  Randall Fant (3.12 ERA) comes in relief.

Game 1 / through Top of 7th

Collin Kuhn is 4 for 4 tonight with a single - Arkansas' 11th hit of the night.  Hogs on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.  Auburn pitching change.  McCann RBI ties game at 5.  2 gone.  Ficociello strikes out.

Game 1 Final / Arkansas 6 - Auburn 5

Collin Kuhn's 3rd BH drives in a run in T11 to put the Hogs up 6-5.  Closer Nolan Sanburn (.000 ERA) comes in the bottom of 9th and proceeds to shut out Auburn through 11, to preserve the Arkansas win.

Razorbacks go to 15-2 and 1-0 in the SEC.

What a game!  A close one from beginning to end.  Getting the first win of conference play, and against last season's West champion, is big.

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Woohoo!  Go Hogs!

SEC Game Finals

Hey, I know it's only one game, but - on the first night of SEC play, it's Arkansas and Ole Miss on top of the West!  It is notable however that the visiting team has won the last 4 series between Arkansas and Auburn. 

Arkansas      6 - Auburn       5
Vanderbilt    10 - MSU           0
Florida           5 - LSU            4
Georgia         4 - SC               2
Mississippi   4 - Alabama     0
Kentucky       5 - Tennessee 3

Awesome!  Thx for putting this up bro.  I have been so freaking busy at work here lately I have not been able to keep up, or watch our diamond Hogs.  Im hoping to catch tomorrows game.  Great start to the series!