Tech has an extremely tough final non-conference series on the road at Arkansas this weekend. The Hogs enter this weekend at 10-1 overall.
They’ve swept Eastern Illinois, won two of three against USC, swept Stony Brook, and beat Charlotte in a midweek matchup.
They are outscoring their opponents 89-43.
The Hogs were the National Runner-Up last season. They were one dropped pop-up with two outs in the ninth inning from winning the National Championship.
D1 Baseball picked the Hogs to finish 4th in the West Division of the SEC.
SS Casey Martin was picked as the preseason Player of the Year. He’s an absolute stud, top prospect in the SEC for the 2020 MLB Draft. Martin is hitting .277 with 1 HR and 8 RBI in 11 games. Martin hit 13 bombs and drove in 49 last season.
OF Heston Kjerstad is also an absolute stud. He’s the fifth ranked draft prospect for the 2020 MLB Draft. Just a pure hitter. Kjerstad is hitting .260 with 1 HR and 7 RBI in 11 games. He finished with 14 home runs and 58 RBI last year.
Trevor Ezell is off to a scorching hot start. He’s a transfer from SEMO that is hitting .425 with 3 HR and 11 RBI. He also has 7 SB.
Dominic Fletcher out in CF is the 8th ranked MLB Draft prospect in the league for 2019. He’s hitting .262 with 2 HR and 9 RBI early on.
Outside of Martin, Kjerstad, Ezell, and Fletcher, the Hogs are searching for answers. There isn’t a whole lot of experience in the lineup. Christian Franklin is a freshman that is off to a nice start hitting .400 with 2 HR and a team-leading 15 RBI.
On the mound, Isaiah Campbell, Connor Noland, and Cody Scroggins will get the starts.
Campbell (3.12 ERA, 17.1 IP, 14 hits, 3 BB, and 23 K) will be 93-96 with his fastball. He’s really emerged as the leader of their staff.
Noland (3.86 ERA, 11.2 IP, 13 hits, 4 BB, and 10 K) is a two-way guy that also plays football for the Razorbacks. He’s a freshman that’ll work in the low 90s.
Scroggins (7.88 ERA, 8 IP, 8 hits, 4 BB, and 15 K) is a shorter right-hander than can pump his heater up to 95. He’ll also use a wipeout slider at 87.
Other names to watch:
Kole Ramage (0.00 ERA, 10.1 IP, 8 hits, 3 BB, and 11 K) will be 88-92 with a solid slider and change-up.
Kevin Kopps (1.93 ERA, 4.2 IP, 4 hits, 1 BB, and 4 K) will 90-93 with a very good cutter.
Patrick Wicklander (3.38 ERA, 13.1 IP, 8 hits, 8 BB, and 21 K) will be 88-92 with a good straight change-up.
Jacob Kostyshock (0.84 ERA, 10.2 IP, 7 hits, 2 BB, and 8 K) is a skinny kid with a fastball that can touch 96.
Zebulon Vermillion (1.59 ERA, 5.2 IP, 4 hits, 1 BB, and 4 K) will run his fastball into the mid-90s out of the bullpen as well.
Jacob Barton (5.40 ERA, 5 IP, 6 hits, 2 BB, and 3 K) is a freshman that will be 92-94.
Easy to see the difference between a SEC program and us huh? We are working with high-80s guys out of the pen, where they are at their worst working with a guy in the low-90s. More velo, more margin for error.
Quotes from Dave Van Horn:
On playing La Tech, “Turning to them, it’s kind of what I talked to the team about. This might be the best team we’ve played all year. When you look at their team, picked to win their league by one poll, second behind Southern Miss in another. I’m not sure if one of their starting pitchers is out, but I knew that going into the season they had all three of their conference starters back and they had at least eight of their nine position players from last year back and maybe all nine. They’ll probably be one of the older teams we play. They’re not scared. This will be a big challenge for us, it’s a big challenge for them and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. I see it as an SEC-type series.
On the crazy comeback against Tech two years ago, “Well I remember we lost the day before. And we should have won. I was not very happy and had a few words and got after them pretty good after that game. Then I thought, ‘Well, that didn’t help,’ because we were down 9-1 after three. But here we came. I just remember they may get us out real quick and we’d hit a single, we’d hit a homer. They’d get us out, two base hits, home run. Kind of before they knew what to do, they’d get a couple quick outs and bang, bang, bang and next thing you know, we’re up like 13-9. They didn’t know what hit them. That was a big win for us, that second game. We were on our way down to the Frisco tournament, had to face an All-American on that Friday from Arizona and he beat us 1-0. That was a good trip. I think we got better on that trip.
On hiring Burroughs to NSU, but not actually coaching with him, “Yeah, I hired him and he was with me that summer and all that fall, then I took the Nebraska job. So I coached with him in the fall. I really like Lane. He’s a really good person off the field, human being is what I’m saying. He’s just a good individual. Very competitive on the field. Just a high-character coach. He’s a good one.
Quotes from Isaiah Campbell:
On playing La Tech, “Coach Van Horn kind of talked to us after the game. He said they’re a veteran team that are returning a lot of players, both on the pitching staff and in the lineup. But for us, we're just kind of come in here tomorrow, get a good practice in, get a nice little light workout in and go over a better gameplan of their hitters with Coach Hobbs after practice.
On the crazy comeback against Tech two years ago, “That was my redshirt year (TOMMY JOHN). We went to Frisco after that, but I went down there and they played us well both games. They had leads in both of them, one game I think it was like 10-0, but we came back and won that game and it gave us good momentum going into Frisco.
They’ve swept Eastern Illinois, won two of three against USC, swept Stony Brook, and beat Charlotte in a midweek matchup.
They are outscoring their opponents 89-43.
The Hogs were the National Runner-Up last season. They were one dropped pop-up with two outs in the ninth inning from winning the National Championship.
D1 Baseball picked the Hogs to finish 4th in the West Division of the SEC.
SS Casey Martin was picked as the preseason Player of the Year. He’s an absolute stud, top prospect in the SEC for the 2020 MLB Draft. Martin is hitting .277 with 1 HR and 8 RBI in 11 games. Martin hit 13 bombs and drove in 49 last season.
OF Heston Kjerstad is also an absolute stud. He’s the fifth ranked draft prospect for the 2020 MLB Draft. Just a pure hitter. Kjerstad is hitting .260 with 1 HR and 7 RBI in 11 games. He finished with 14 home runs and 58 RBI last year.
Trevor Ezell is off to a scorching hot start. He’s a transfer from SEMO that is hitting .425 with 3 HR and 11 RBI. He also has 7 SB.
Dominic Fletcher out in CF is the 8th ranked MLB Draft prospect in the league for 2019. He’s hitting .262 with 2 HR and 9 RBI early on.
Outside of Martin, Kjerstad, Ezell, and Fletcher, the Hogs are searching for answers. There isn’t a whole lot of experience in the lineup. Christian Franklin is a freshman that is off to a nice start hitting .400 with 2 HR and a team-leading 15 RBI.
On the mound, Isaiah Campbell, Connor Noland, and Cody Scroggins will get the starts.
Campbell (3.12 ERA, 17.1 IP, 14 hits, 3 BB, and 23 K) will be 93-96 with his fastball. He’s really emerged as the leader of their staff.
Noland (3.86 ERA, 11.2 IP, 13 hits, 4 BB, and 10 K) is a two-way guy that also plays football for the Razorbacks. He’s a freshman that’ll work in the low 90s.
Scroggins (7.88 ERA, 8 IP, 8 hits, 4 BB, and 15 K) is a shorter right-hander than can pump his heater up to 95. He’ll also use a wipeout slider at 87.
Other names to watch:
Kole Ramage (0.00 ERA, 10.1 IP, 8 hits, 3 BB, and 11 K) will be 88-92 with a solid slider and change-up.
Kevin Kopps (1.93 ERA, 4.2 IP, 4 hits, 1 BB, and 4 K) will 90-93 with a very good cutter.
Patrick Wicklander (3.38 ERA, 13.1 IP, 8 hits, 8 BB, and 21 K) will be 88-92 with a good straight change-up.
Jacob Kostyshock (0.84 ERA, 10.2 IP, 7 hits, 2 BB, and 8 K) is a skinny kid with a fastball that can touch 96.
Zebulon Vermillion (1.59 ERA, 5.2 IP, 4 hits, 1 BB, and 4 K) will run his fastball into the mid-90s out of the bullpen as well.
Jacob Barton (5.40 ERA, 5 IP, 6 hits, 2 BB, and 3 K) is a freshman that will be 92-94.
Easy to see the difference between a SEC program and us huh? We are working with high-80s guys out of the pen, where they are at their worst working with a guy in the low-90s. More velo, more margin for error.
Quotes from Dave Van Horn:
On playing La Tech, “Turning to them, it’s kind of what I talked to the team about. This might be the best team we’ve played all year. When you look at their team, picked to win their league by one poll, second behind Southern Miss in another. I’m not sure if one of their starting pitchers is out, but I knew that going into the season they had all three of their conference starters back and they had at least eight of their nine position players from last year back and maybe all nine. They’ll probably be one of the older teams we play. They’re not scared. This will be a big challenge for us, it’s a big challenge for them and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. I see it as an SEC-type series.
On the crazy comeback against Tech two years ago, “Well I remember we lost the day before. And we should have won. I was not very happy and had a few words and got after them pretty good after that game. Then I thought, ‘Well, that didn’t help,’ because we were down 9-1 after three. But here we came. I just remember they may get us out real quick and we’d hit a single, we’d hit a homer. They’d get us out, two base hits, home run. Kind of before they knew what to do, they’d get a couple quick outs and bang, bang, bang and next thing you know, we’re up like 13-9. They didn’t know what hit them. That was a big win for us, that second game. We were on our way down to the Frisco tournament, had to face an All-American on that Friday from Arizona and he beat us 1-0. That was a good trip. I think we got better on that trip.
On hiring Burroughs to NSU, but not actually coaching with him, “Yeah, I hired him and he was with me that summer and all that fall, then I took the Nebraska job. So I coached with him in the fall. I really like Lane. He’s a really good person off the field, human being is what I’m saying. He’s just a good individual. Very competitive on the field. Just a high-character coach. He’s a good one.
Quotes from Isaiah Campbell:
On playing La Tech, “Coach Van Horn kind of talked to us after the game. He said they’re a veteran team that are returning a lot of players, both on the pitching staff and in the lineup. But for us, we're just kind of come in here tomorrow, get a good practice in, get a nice little light workout in and go over a better gameplan of their hitters with Coach Hobbs after practice.
On the crazy comeback against Tech two years ago, “That was my redshirt year (TOMMY JOHN). We went to Frisco after that, but I went down there and they played us well both games. They had leads in both of them, one game I think it was like 10-0, but we came back and won that game and it gave us good momentum going into Frisco.
