Tag: Mason Molina

Dave Van Horn says Mason Molina will miss Arkansas-Florida weekend series

Arkansas Razorbacks Baseball: Left-handed starter Mason Molina will miss this weekend’s SEC series when No. 2 Arkansas welcomes Florida to Baum-Walker Stadium.  

Arkansas starter Mason Molina will miss this weekend’s SEC series against Florida at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Coach Dave Van Horn told WholeHogSports’ Matt Jones Thursday that Molina had twisted his right ankle during a recent workout. Molina is coming off his shortest outing of the season. The left-hander completed just 3 1/3 innings in Saturday’s 6-3 loss to No. 21 South Carolina. He threw only 30 of 70 pitches for strikes and issued a season-high seven walks.

Van Horn said he expects Molina to be back in the rotation when the second-ranked Razorbacks (35-6 overall, 14-4 SEC) head to Kentucky the following week. The Wildcats are ranked No. 5 in this week’s USA TODAY Sports baseball coaches poll.

In the meantime, who will Arkansas turn to with Molina out? Van Horn isn’t yet sure. Hagen Smith is the team’s scheduled Friday night starter and will start the series opener against Florida (21-19, 8-10). Brady Tygart will start the second game with Game 3’s starter still up in the air.

From Jones’ story:

Van Horn said right-hander Ben Bybee was limited to two innings against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Tuesday with Molina’s injury in mind. Bybee and freshman left-hander Colin Fisher have started multiple midweek games this season.

“We’ll go with the best option,” Van Horn said of a Game 3 starter. “We could staff it. We could pitch it like a Tuesday game. We’ll figure it out after we finish a couple games on who we’re going to throw, or at least start….Whoever we start is only going to go a few innings anyway.”

Friday’s first pitch against Florida is scheduled for 7 p.m. CDT at Baum-Walker Stadium. The game can be seen on SEC Network.

Diamond Hogs change starting rotation on the mound vs. LSU

Actually, this might make Arkansas’ pitching even better.

During Wednesday’s press conference previewing this weekend’s series versus No. 8 LSU, coach Dave Van Horn told the media that there will be slight shake-up in the starting rotation.

Since the beginning of the season, the starting pitchers have played in the order of Hagen Smith on game one, then Brady Tygart, and finally Mason Molina. For the LSU series, Tygart and Molina will switch places.

Van Horn wants Tygart to have an extra day “to get right” after an uncharacteristic outing from the righty. Against Auburn, Tygart had trouble finding the zone, giving up 3 earned runs and a single-game career-high 5 walks in 3 2/3 innings.

Despite the performance, Tygart still has a 1.59 ERA on the season with 39 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings pitched.

There will be no drop-off in production on Friday, though. Molina is arguably the best third-day starter in the country. Other than a slightly higher ERA, he has a similar stat line to the other starters, recording a 2.57 ERA, 12 hits, 8 walks, and 47 strikeouts in 28 innings pitched.

Arkansas’ series against the Tigers starts Thursday, March 28, at 6:00 pm.

Mason Molina money as Diamond Hogs sweep Murray

Mason Molina struck out 10 batters in Arkansas’ series-sweeping win.

Mason Molina is getting after it.

The Texas Tech transfer struck out 10 batters in five innings for No. 5 Arkansas on Sunday, leading the Diamond Hogs to a sweep of Murray State in a 5-3 win.

Molina gave up just one run on two hits and a walk as his lineup picked him up in third and fourth innings, plating two runs in each.

Nolan Souza started the third with a solo shot before Kendall Diggs gave Arkansas the lead on a sacrifice fly. In the fourth, Souza plated two more on a two-run single to give the Razorbacks all the runs they’d need.

Souza was the only Arkansas batter to pick up more than one hit, but every starter had a knock. Once the lead was secure, Will McEntire came on to finish the final 3 2/3 innings, giving up just one more Murray State run in the process.

Arkansas is back in action Tuesday at Baum-Walker Stadium when Central Arkansas visits from Conway for a one-off game at 3 p.m.

Molina no-hits Michigan in five, Ks 10 to lead Diamond Hogs

Molina has 19 strikeouts now in his first two games as an Arkansas pitcher.

Mason Molina may be the best No. 3 starter in the country.

Arkansas’ left-hander led the No. 2 Razorbacks to a 4-3 win over Michigan on Sunday in the College Baseball Classic by striking out 10 Wolverines hitters and no-hitting the lineup through five innings.

Molina, in his first season with the Diamond Hogs after transferring from Texas Tech, faced 17 batters and threw 81 pitches in his five innings of work. The only thing Michigan managed to do against him was draw a walk and get hit by a pitch.

Those exact two results on Arkansas’ side provided Molina with a 3-0 edge as he entered his fourth inning. Will Edmunson was plunked with the bases loaded and Kendall Diggs walked with them full, as well. That came after Ben McLaughlin opened the scoring with an RBI double in the first.

Michigan pulled one run back in the eighth and another two in the ninth to make things interesting. But Arkansas closer Koty Frank induced a flyball out with the bases loaded to end things.

McLaughlin and Jared Sprague-Lott each had two hits for Arkansas, which only registered five as a team overall. Diggs had the other.

Arkansas gets Monday off before Grambling visits Baum-Walker Stadium on Tuesday for a one-off game.

Arkansas baseball to begin 2024 with four-game series against JMU

Sophomore ace Hagen Smith will take the ball in Friday’s season-opener against James Madison.

After suffering through dismal football and basketball seasons, Arkansas fans are hopeful that Razorback baseball team can finally shake the doldrums and return some joy to the faithful fanbase.

Ranked in the top four of all five major polls, the Diamond Hogs begin their journey on Friday, as James Madison comes to Baum Walker Stadium for the first of a four-game series to open the season.

The opener has been moved up an hour, due to inclement weather, and will begin at 2 p.m.

Head Coach Dave Van Horn has tabbed ace left-hander and consensus All-American Hagen Smith to take the hill in Game 1, making him the first Arkansas hurler to start consecutive Opening Days since Blaine Knight did it in 2017 and 2018.

Smith tossed five scoreless innings in a 3-2 win over Texas in last season’s opener in Arlington, striking out eight Longhorns. The 6-foot-3 junior Texas native is one of the top returning pitcher in the country, following a stellar 8-2 sophomore campaign, in which he had a team-best 3.64 ERA and 109 strikeouts in 71.2 innings.

After holding opposing batters to a .217 batting average and being named a semifinalist for both, the Golden Spikes and College Baseball Foundation’s National Pitcher of the Year Awards, Smith has been flooded with numerous preseason accolades.

Junior right-hander Brady Tygart, who finished 3-1 in an injury-plagued 2023, will take the ball for the Razorbacks on Saturday at 2 p.m. Junior lefty Mason Molina, a Texas Tech transfer, will make his Arkansas debut on Sunday at 1 p.m., while freshman left-hander Colin Fisher will start Monday’s finale at noon.

The Razorbacks return a solid core of veterans, while welcoming in the nation’s top freshman class, as well as some key additions from the transfer portal. The Hogs had a disappointing ending in the Fayetteville Regional after posting a 43-18 overall record a year ago and claiming their fourth SEC title. They are the only conference program, and one of just two teams in the country, to win at least 40 games in each of the last six full seasons.

Arkansas enters the season ranked No. 2 by Perfect Game, No. 3 by Baseball America and D1Baseball, and No. 4 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers and the USA TODAY Coaches polls.

Now entering his 22nd season in Fayetteville, Van Horn has never lost a season-opening home series, and has led the Razorbacks to 12 series sweeps on Opening Weekend. Van Horn’s 1,424 overall collegiate wins are the most among all active Division I head coaches. He was won 839 at Arkansas, including 333 SEC wins.

This will mark the first time that Arkansas has met James Madison on the diamond. The Dukes went 31-25 overall last season and finished 15-13 in their first season competing in the Sun Belt Conference.

All four games will be aired on the SEC Network+, and on the radio, along the Razorback Sports Network.

Trio of Diamond Hogs named NCBWA preseason All-Americans

Smith leads three Razorbacks in preseason All-Americans honors.

Three Diamond Hogs. including a pair of newcomers, have been named preseason All-Americans by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Returning junior ace Hagen Smith and transfer shortstop Wehiwa Aloy were both named to the second team, while transfer starting pitcher Mason Molina was on the third team.

Smith, a big 6-foot-3 lefty from Bullard, Texas, has already garnered a number of preseason accolades following a consensus All-American campaign a season ago. He made 18 appearances as a sophomore, with 11 starts, posting an 8-2 record with a 3.64 ERA, and a team-leading 109 strikeouts. His 71.2 innings of work also included a pair of saves in relief. He was named first-team All-SEC and was a semifinalist for both, the 2023 Golden Spikes Award and the College Baseball Foundation’s National Pitcher of the Year Award.

Smith has already been named a first-team preseason All-American by Baseball America, D1Baseball and Perfect Game. He has also been tabbed SEC Preseason Pitcher of the Year by both, D1Baseball and Perfect Game.

The 6-foot-2 Aloy is a native Hawaiian who transferred in from Sacramento State, after being a named a consensus Freshman All-American for the Hornets last season. Not only did he shine with his glove, but raked at the plate – slashing .376/.427/.662 with 14 home runs and 46 RBIs in 56 games. He was named the Western Athletic Conference’s Freshman of the Year after racking up 88 hits, with 15 doubles and five triples, and scoring 69 runs.

Molina, a 6-foot-2 lefty transfer from Texas Tech, was an All-Big 12 performer for the Red Raiders last season, starting 16 games on the hill, with a 6-2 record and a 3.67 ERA over 83.1 innings. The California native racked up a team-leading 108 strikeouts while limiting opposing hitters to a .208 batting average. He will likely join Smith in the starting rotation for conference games.

Arkansas opens the season with a four-game series against James Madison at Baum-Walker Stadium next Friday, Feb. 16.

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.

Diamond Hogs smack 4 homers to highlight fall scrimmage

The Diamond Hogs blasted four homeruns in an intrasquad scrimmage Friday night.

In preparation for Saturday’s showdown with BYU on the football field at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, a slew of faithful Arkansas fans gathered inside Baum-Walker Stadium Friday night to cheer on the Razorbacks newly reloaded baseball squad in an intrasquad scrimmage.

Fans got to see 19 position players and 14 pitchers, including many of the new freshman and transfers, as the Red and Gray teams combined for 11 hits, highlighted by four homeruns. The Gray won the contest, 7-2.

Junior right fielder Kendall Diggs got the crowd stirred early, with a mammoth two-run homer off junior hurler Brady Tygart to give the Gray team the lead, only two batters into the game. That followed a seven-pitch walk by a Missouri grad transfer Ty Wilmsmeyer.

Junior lefty transfer Mason Molina, who was the ace of the Texas Tech staff last season, wasted little time in making an early statement in the bottom of the first, striking out the side in order. Freshman left-hander Hunter Dietz, who throws upward of 95 mph on his fastball, quickly responded in the top of the second, sitting down the first three batters he faced.

Senior catcher Parker Rowland, who is competing behind the plate with junior Hudson White, another Texas Tech transfer, launched a 400-foot solo homerun in the bottom of the second to get the Cardinal on the scoreboard. That was followed by a wild pitch to tie the score at 2-2.

Junior Hudson Polk would keep the long-ball hit-parade going for the catchers when he smashed a 425-foot leadoff homer over the centerfield wall to lead off the third for the Gray.

“The big thing for me was getting outfield reps,” Diggs said of his summer experience. “I got a glimpse of some playing time out there last year (for Arkansas), which was awesome. I was really blessed to get some live-game reps. But that was huge for me this summer, because I played almost every game out there in right field. And I feel like I improved a lot out there.”

Freshman catcher Ryder Helfrick then displayed his defensive prowess and throwing arm behind the play, gunning down graduate infielder Jack Wagner trying to steal second base, in the fourth.

Freshmen hurlers Tate McGuire and Colin Fisher — who struck out the side in his frame — each pitched scoreless innings in the sixth, before the Gray squad tacked on two final runs in the seventh.  Freshman infielder Nolan Souza beat out an infield single, then proceeded to score on Wagner’s double. It was the second hit of the night for Wagner, who smacked 15 homers for Tarleton State (Stephenville, Tex.) last season.

The Razorbacks will scrimmage again on Sunday, and will continue fall practices through late October, when they will conclude the early season with their annual intrasquad best-of-three Fall World Series.

Molina chooses Arkansas baseball as destination

Arkansas’ pitching staff got a gigantic boost overnight with the addition of former Texas Tech left-hander Mason Molina.

Well, it looks like next year’s pitching rotation is set.

Former Texas Tech hurler Mason Molina announced on Twitter late Wednesday evening that he was moving to Fayetteville.

Molina struck out 103 batters in just 83.1 innings of work for the Red Raiders in 2023.

He was 6-2 overall with a 3.67 ERA and will be reunited with former catcher Hudson White, who portaled to Arkansas earlier in the summer.

The rotation, barring anything unforeseen, will most likely consist of Hagen Smith, Brady Tygart and now Molina, for 2024.