Category: Arkansas baseball

Diamond Hogs check in at No. 20 in first baseball poll of the winter

Five SEC teams are ranked ahead of Arkansas in the first major poll of the preseason.

Arkansas is one of six SEC teams ranked in the Top 25 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper preseason poll.

The Diamond Hogs checked in at No. 20 in the first baseball poll to drop this season. Other polls of note that should come out in the next few weeks are Baseball America, D1Baseball.com and the USA Today Coaches Poll.

With that number of polls, the rankings tend to skew even more wildly than in football and basketball where the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls typically have small differences.

The Razorbacks open the season February 18-20 at Baum-Walker Stadium against Illinois State. They have to replace all-everything pitcher Kevin Kopps, the reigning Player of the Year by almost every publication, and four other starters in the field.

The lineup will lean on infielders Robert Moore and Brady Slavens. Moore hit .284/.384/.558 and led the team with 16 home runs. Slavens hit .284/.347/.560 with 14 homers and 12 doubles.

Diamond Hogs will play at Kaufmann Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, in 2022

Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn and several players have connections to the greater Kansas City area.

A slew of Arkansas baseball players will get a homecoming of sorts in 2022.

The Diamond Hogs announced Friday they will play a pair of midweek games against Nebraska-Omaha in 2022. Their meeting on March 2 will be at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. The second will be played at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on March 23.

Arkansas had announced its regular season schedule earlier this fall, but at 54 games, it was two below the maximum allowable. Coach Dave Van Horn had said at the time, in November, he was going to attempt to get a couple more games for the Razorbacks, allowing to get up to the threshold.

Arkansas and Omaha’s meetings will be the first since 1965 and the Diamond Hogs’ trip to Kauffman Stadium will be the team’s second ever (Arkansas beat Kansas State at the home of the Royals in 2017).

Arkansas second baseman Robert Moore is familiar with the stadium, especially. His father is Dayton Moore, the Royals general manager. Other Arkansas players from great Kansas City include first baseman Brady Slavens, infielders Jude Putz and Kendall Diggs and pitchers Zebulon Vermillion and Mark Adamiak.

Dave Van Horn nets top-five recruiting class for fourth straight year

With four top-100 players in the country, Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn has reloaded for the Diamond Hogs.

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It isn’t a shock at this point, but it bears acknowledgement: Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn knows what he’s doing.

The Diamond Hogs signed 19 players to their 2022 class and ranked as the No. 5 recruiting class in the nation by Perfect Game. It’s the fourth straight year that Arkansas has landed a top-five class and sixth straight year in the top 10.

“Our staff has built an impressive class,” Van Horn said. “Adding this class to our current roster will create a lot of healthy competition within our program. There’s a bright future for this group, and we’re excited to get them here.”

Seventeen players are incoming from high school and two come from the junior-college ranks.

Middle infielder Jayson Jones is the gem of the class. He’s the No. 5 prospect in the country by Perfect Game’s rankings. Outfielder Mason Nevill isn’t far behind him, ranking as the No. 50 player in the country, while pitcher Cole Phillips checks in at No. 58.

A complete look at the class is below.

Former Hogs pitcher Drew Smyly wins World Series title with Atlanta

Former Arkansas pitcher Drew Smyly pitched in two World Series games to help Atlanta to the crown.

The Atlanta Braves beat Houston Astros on Tuesday night, 7-0, to win the 2021 World Series in six games and former Arkansas pitcher Drew Smyly was among the Braves who helped capture the crown.

Smyly had his best season since 2016 in his first year in Atlanta, splitting his time between the starting rotation and as a long relief pitcher. He pitched 126 2/3 innings (second most of his career) and had 117 strikeouts with a 4.48 earned-run average. In the World Series, he tossed two games against the Astros and he threw another in the National League Championship Series against Los Angeles.

Smyly is the fifth former Arkansas baseball player to win a World Series, joining Andrew Benintendi in 2018 (Boston), Dallas Keuchel in 2017 (Houston), Eric Hinske in 2007 and 2009 (Boston and New York Yankees) and Dick Hughes in 1967 (Boston).

For his career, Smyly is the second most successful Arkansas pitcher ever to play in the Major Leagues. He has a 10.2 WAR, ranking only behind Cliff Lee’s 43.2 and Keuchel’s 22.2.

Had the Astros won, Arkansas still would have had a World Series winner. Pitcher Ryne Stanek pitched in five of the six games in the series. Stanek arrived at Arkansas in 2011, the year after Smyly left.

Kevin Kopps now a finalist for AAU Sullivan Award

Kevin Kopps, along with Olympians Caleb Dressel and Simon Biles, named finalist for USA’s best amateur athlete.

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Back in September, here on Razorbacks Wire, we exhorted you to go online and vote for former Arkansas pitcher Kevin Kopps as a finalist for the AUU Sullivan Award.

Nice work.

The ex-Hogs pitcher was one of five finalists named Wednesday for the honor given to the nation’s top amateur athlete. His company? It’s awfully good.

Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles and Caleb Dressel, water polo player Maddie Musselman and mid-distance runner Athing Mu are the other four finalsts. That means Kopps is the only participant of traditional team sport among the finalists. It also means he’s the only one who didn’t compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (which, as a reminder, were actually in summer 2021).

Not as though you need much reminder on Kopps’ domination with the Diamond Hogs last year, but he had an 0.90 earned-run average, a 0.76 WHIP and struck out 131 batters in 89 2/3 innings. Opposing batters hit just .162 against him.

Those numbers earned him the Golden Spikes Award, the Dick Howser Trophy, was named National Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball and D1Baseball and was the SEC Pitcher of the Year.

The San Diego Padres selected him in the third round of the MLB Draft following his college season and he excelled there, too, carrying a 0.61 earned-run average with 22 strikeouts over 14 2/3 innings as he made his way up to Double-A ball in his first season as a pro.

Was Kevin Kopps the best amateur athlete in the country last year? Vote for him

Kevin Kopps was the best player in college baseball last year. Now he’s up for best amateur athlete period.

It doesn’t take much convincing of anyone who follows college baseball to say Kevin Kopps was the best player in the sport last year.

The former Arkansas reliever won the Golden Spikes Award, the Dick Howser Trophy, was named National Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball and D1Baseball and was the SEC Pitcher of the Year.

Now he’s one of 38 amateur athletes up for the AAU Sullivan award. The honor has been bestowed annually since 1930 to the most outstanding amateur in the United States.

Kopps’ 2021 baseball season was the stuff of legend. He had an 0.90 earned-run average, a 0.76 WHIP and struck out 131 batters in 89 2/3 innings. Opposing batters hit just .162 against him.

His stuff was so good the San Diego Padres selected him in the third round of the draft this summer. It’s rare for a player without leverage to be taken that high.

You can vote for Kopps for the AAU Sullivan award at www.aausullivan.org. Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 27.

Previous winners of the award include Mark Spitz, Bill Walton, Carl Lewis, Michael Phelps and Tim Tebow.