Tag: Koty Frank

Dave Van Horn pleased with Diamond Hogs’ bullpen as season nears

Dave Van Horn is very confident in Arkansas’ bullpen depth and versatility entering the 2024 season.

[autotag]Arkansas baseball[/autotag] has never really had issues with the quality of their pitching under [autotag]Dave Van Horn[/autotag]. Quantity, on the other hand, has been the issue over as of late.

Entering the 2024 season, Van Horn expressed a renewed confidence in his bullpen rotation when speaking to the media last week.

The bullpen is shaping up fine, we have some really good arms,” Van Horn said. “Obviously, they have to go out and do it in a real game, but bullpens have been great.

We feel like we have a really good mix of left and right-handed pitching. The right-handed pitching is usually there, but have some options (that are) left-handed out of the pen is going to be a big-time plus for us this year.”

Last year, the bullpen was decimated by injury and struggled without the key arms of [autotag]Dylan Carter[/autotag], [autotag]Koty Frank[/autotag] and [autotag]Brady Tygart[/autotag]. This year, they will add those guys back to a stacked and pretty healthy pitching rotation.

Carter is still recovering from Tommy John surgery and freshman left-hander Hunter Dietz will miss about two months with a stress fracture, but other than that the Diamond Hogs are in good shape.

Their starting rotation of [autotag]Hagen Smith[/autotag], Brady Tygart and [autotag]Mason Molina[/autotag] could be one of the strongest in the SEC. Koty Frank, Gage Wood and Will McEntire headline an extremely strong bullpen rotation that is more than capable of holding their own and throwing different looks at opponents.

Left-handed Kansas transfer [autotag]Stone Hewlett[/autotag] was a guy that Van Horn singled out in his press conference.

“If you’re looking for a left-on-left matchup, we have Stone Hewlett, he transferred in from Kansas,” Van Horn said. “That’s what he does. He gets lefties out.”

Aside from Hewlett, Arkansas has sophomore Parker Coll and a slew of other freshman who looked very promising through the fall.

All-in-all, this year’s pitching staff has a legitimate chance to be the nation’s best. The key, as always, will be remaining healthy and avoiding an avalanche of major injuries like last year. If the [autotag]Diamond Hogs[/autotag]’ bullpen can do that, the rest of college baseball should be very afraid.

Arkansas baseball opens up their season with a four-game series against James Madison beginning on Friday, Feb. 16th at 3:00 p.m. in Baum-Walker Stadium.

Column: The sky isn’t falling for Arkansas baseball after one series

Arkansas baseball struggled mightily over the weekend, but things are never as bad as they seem. Especially when Dave Van Horn is your coach.

The No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks dropped their second conference series of the season in embarrassing fashion over the weekend. They were swept by the unranked Georgia Bulldogs (23-17, 7-11) and didn’t really look like a team deserving of a No. 5 ranking.

Head coach [autotag]Dave Van Horn[/autotag]’s passionate ejection on Saturday was able to save the Diamond Hogs from a complete collapse in the ninth inning. The Razorbacks led by four heading into the bottom of the ninth, but the struggling Bulldogs were able get a grand slam and solo homer back-to-back to get the win.

Losing is always frustrating. Losing the way Arkansas did Saturday will cause even the most staunch Diamond Hog supporters to ask “what’s going on?” Some delusional Arkansas fans went a little too far with their frustrations on social media but that should be expected.

Arkansas baseball’s struggles are easy to explain right now and Dave Van Horn’s track record of righting things ahead of the postseason should offer some comfort to wavering fans.

First, Diamond Hogs have been decimated by injury this season. They lost their projected ace [autotag]Jaxon Wiggins[/autotag] before the season and the hits kept on coming after play started. Pitchers [autotag]Brady Tygart[/autotag] and [autotag]Koty Frank[/autotag] were each hurt in early March. Tygart should return soon but Frank is out for the season.

Stud outfielder [autotag]Jared Wegner[/autotag] has been out since April 11 with a fractured thumb after sliding into third base. Ahead of Thursday’s first game against the Bulldogs it was announced that starting catcher [autotag]Parker Rowland[/autotag] would not play. Van Horn confirmed later that Rowland would be out indefinitely due to back issues.

“We’re just trying to patch this thing together until we can get all our guys back,” Van Horn said about all of the injuries. “We’re just trying to win enough games to get to a regional. There’s going to be a lot of conference games played without our guys.”

Aside from Wiggins and Frank, Arkansas fans should expect Tygart, Wegner and Rowland back in the near future. That should help ease some of the struggles we saw over the weekend.

The injury issues can’t be helped by Van Horn or anyone else, and it’s disingenuous to let one series sweep negate the dominance we’ve seen from this team at times.

Arkansas fans remember the 2018 team for being one out from being crowned champions, but forget how much that team struggled in the regular season. The Diamond Hogs failed to win a single road series in conference play during that 2018 season.

Until proven otherwise, it would behoove Razorback fans to trust Dave Van Horn to make it six straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

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Already without ace and best reliever, Diamond Hogs lose another for the season

Arkansas lost ace Jaxon Wiggins before the season. Brady Tygart is out for 5-6 weeks. And the Hogs have the second worst ERA in the SEC.

Through the first 12 games of the season, the Arkansas baseball has shown itself to be one of the best teams in the country. The thing is, will they be able to hold it?

Having already lost preseason All-American pitcher Brady Tygart for about six months because of an elbow injury, the Diamond Hogs will now be without their second best reliever for the rest of the season. Coach Dave Van Horn announced Frank injured his lat in last weekend’s series win over Wright State.

“His season is over,” Van Horn said. “He’s going to have a procedure done on Monday. Don’t ask me to describe it. But we’ll try to get him ready for next year.”

Arkansas also lost expected ace Jaxon Wiggins before the season because of a torn UCL. Wiggins is expected to be an early-round MLB Draft pick. Van Horn initially hoped Frank would only miss five-to-six weeks the way Tygart is expected to. But after the Army game Tuesday night, DVH announced otherwise.

Frank had a 3.09 earned-run average in 11 2/3 innings through six games. He had become the most reliable arm in an Arkansas bullpen desperate for reliable arms in the early-season. The team ERA is 5.62, the second worst total in the SEC.

Arkansas is back at Baum-Walker Stadium on Friday for a three-game set against Louisiana Tech.

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Arkansas Baseball adds two from transfer portal

Arkansas Baseball landed two more transfers on Saturday, both with proven potential.

Over the last week, the Transfer Portal appeared to be a mortal enemy of Arkansas Baseball, as ten players announced their intentions to enter the portal since the Razorbacks’ trip to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina in the Super Regionals.

However, the pendulum seems to be swinging towards Arkansas again, as they landed two prospects from the portal on Saturday, bringing their weekend commitment list to three over the weekend.

The first commit of the day was from [autotag]Koty Frank[/autotag], a right-handed pitcher from the University of Nebraska. During his senior season for the Cornhuskers, Frank made 14 appearances with seven starts. Despite only getting 59.0 innings of work, he was second on the team with 70 strikeouts, while allowing the least amount of hits (54) by a pitcher who recorded more than 40 innings on the mound.

As many transfers do, Frank took to Twitter to announce his commitment to Arkansas. In the tweet, he thanked God, his coaches, family, and friends for their roles in the transfer process.

Frank is a 6-2, 210-pound pitcher from Tushka, Okla. He will have one season of eligibility remaining.

The second commit of the day comes from the Big 12. [autotag]Tavian Josenberger[/autotag], a utility player from Kansas City, announced that he will be transferring to Arkansas from Kansas, where he spent his first two collegiate seasons.

Josenberger is listed as an IF/OF, but has the most experience playing second base, where he started 52 games last season for the Jayhawks. In 104 total games at Kansas, Josenberger hit .296 with three home runs, 54 RBI, and 21 doubles.

At the plate, Josenberger recorded multiple hits in 15 games, and even had a 12-game hitting streak during his sophomore season in 2022. His only two home runs of the season came in the same game against Charleston Southern on March 9, where he hit those home runs from both sides of the plate.

Josenberger’s draft stock is high was well, as he is ranked as a top-15 prospect by Baseball America, Perfect Game, and D1Baseball, ranking as high as No. 6. He will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Frank and Josenberger are the second and third commits of the weekend for Arkansas. On Friday, junior college transfer [autotag]Caleb Cali[/autotag] announced that he has intentions to come to Arkansas. He slashed .438/.533/.826 this past spring with 17 home runs, 22 doubles, six triples and 77 RBIs, and is projected to be a first baseman for the Razorbacks.

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