FAYETTEVILLE — Through two weeks, this Arkansas baseball fall practice season does not look like those of the past several years.
Dave Van Horn, the 23rd-year coach of the Razorbacks, is putting his team through more situational scenarios in weekend scrimmaging. And Arkansas’ identity looks more like some of Van Horn’s early teams with aggressive base running.
“I think it’s helping our pitchers learn how to handle it,” Van Horn said. “As a team right now, we’re way ahead of where we were last year with the team last year.”
The emphasis on base running is evident from the time some practices begin.
“These guys are going, ‘We haven’t even played catch yet.’ We stretch and we go straight into running the bases, and then we’ll go play,” Van Horn said. “It just sends them a little message of how important it is. It’s a point of emphasis for us this year, just being able to run the bases.
“It’s like I tell them, ‘You’re either a good base-running team or you’re bad. There’s not much in between.’ We’re going to be good at it.”
A sequence early in Friday’s scrimmage showed the change in offensive philosophy. Charles Davalan, a center field transfer from Florida Gulf Coast, led off with a hustle double against Zach Root, a left-handed transfer from East Carolina. Davalan advanced on consecutive bunts, including an RBI by former Vanderbilt second baseman Cam Kozeal.
It is all part of a change Van Horn spoke about following the season-ending loss to Southeast Missouri State in June at the NCAA Fayetteville Regional. At the time he said the Razorbacks had to recruit better athletes who could do more than hit home runs.
“We have a lot of guys who can hit it out of the park, but we also have more guys that can run,” Van Horn said. “On a day like this [with the wind blowing in] you can’t depend on the ball getting out the park.”
He pointed toward a batted ball by Wehiwa Aloy early in Sunday’s scrimmage as an example. Aloy had an exit velocity of 110 mph.
“It didn’t make it out there,” Van Horn said. “Normally that ball is off the batter’s eye, and especially at the angle that it went out. It’s the way the wind was today.
“We’ve been really working on running and we have power, but we’ve got to be able to do some other things.”
The success of Kentucky last season shows small ball can work. The Wildcats shared the SEC title and made the College World Series with a team that had 44 sacrifice bunts and 120 stolen bases, both tops in the league by a good margin.
“It’s what I like to do, honestly,” Van Horn said, “but you get away from it a little bit, because in our league you might be able to do it early, but you have to really have guys that want to do it and buy into being able to do it in league play. The pitchers, they hold runners better than most and the catchers throw really well. You don’t want to run yourself out of innings.”
Pitchers who are scheduled to throw multiple innings in a scrimmage this fall might get different looks, like a clean inning followed by an inning that begins with two base runners and no outs.
“We might have to [sacrifice] somebody over or try not to hit into a double play,” Van Horn said. “Pitchers are having to hold runners. It gives us a chance to maybe play more real baseball. It makes the game a little more real, so to speak, and I think it’s really challenging our pitchers to keep an eye on the runners and still deliver good pitches.
“I think we’ve made it a little bit difficult to do that, and our pitchers have made some bad pitches, even though they have great arms. We’re doing a good job offensively with them hitting the ball hard.”
The offensive numbers have been strong through four scrimmages. The Razorbacks have hit 20 home runs, including three apiece Friday and Sunday.
“Some of the young pitchers are throwing really good, maybe two or three of them,” Van Horn said, “and then maybe the rest of them are fighting it because they’re not used to guys running on them and holding runners like this….They’re making a mistake or two and they’re getting hit.”
Two of the home runs hit Sunday were with two runners on base. Kolton Reynolds, a transfer outfielder from Crowder (Mo.) College, hit a ball 405 feet to right-center field against redshirt-freshman right-hander Tucker Holland, and transfer third baseman Brent Iredale hit a ball 412 feet against freshman right-hander Ross Felder.
Reese Robinett also homered Sunday, sending a ball 381 feet to right field for a two-out shot against right-hander Ben Bybee.
Iredale, a junior college All-American last season at New Mexico Junior College, has been the most impressive hitter this fall. He has homered five times and doubled at least twice.
“He was a guy we didn’t think we were going to get here,” Van Horn said. “A lot of the junior college guys, if they get offered [to be taken in the MLB Draft], they’re going to take it. He wanted more than they were going to offer. I think it’s going to end up being a good move for him. It definitely helped us.
“He’s hit [five] home runs already, and two or three of them have been opposite field, and they haven’t been cheapies. They’ve either been off my [office] window or high off that scoreboard, and pulled one [420 feet] into the seats.”
Iredale is also a good base runner, said Van Horn, who called the Australia native one of the fastest runners on the team.
“They didn’t ask him to do that at the junior college because he hit for an average [.441] and he hit [25] home runs,” Van Horn said. “We’re teaching him how to run a little bit and do some things, and I think we’re going to help him.”
Some of the veteran pitchers who will make up the Razorbacks’ front line in 2025 have pitched well, Van Horn said. Gage Wood, Root and Gabe Gaeckle had good outings Friday, and Landon Beidelschies had three strikeouts and worked around a walk in his only inning Sunday.
Freshman left-hander Cole Gibler has also impressed. In two outings he has recorded six outs, all by strikeout. He worked a perfect first inning Sunday.
Half of the home runs were hit on the first day of scrimmaging Sept. 6.
“The wind was lightly blowing out, the air was thin and we hit a bunch of home runs,” Van Horn said. “In six innings we had like 10 off of 96 to 98 mph fastballs. What do you do? A couple of them weren’t located too bad, either.
“Hat’s off to the offense. The pitching is going to be fine.”
Left-hander Hunter Dietz (elbow) has yet to pitch this fall but is expected to before the practice season ends. Van Horn said lefty Colin Fisher (internal brace surgery) is ahead of schedule in his recovery. Fisher’s return timeline was initially set for January.
Right-hander Cooper Dossett has yet to pitch this fall. Dossett was shut down with an injury to his elbow late last season.