NFL
By: Randall Slifer
Arkansas Baseball is off to a hot start this year in its first two weekends. Arkansas is newly ranked 6th in the polls, two spots higher than its preseason rank. They only suffered one loss in the first weekend against TCU and swept their series last weekend. Last year, Arkansas Baseball was the most talented team in the league and had a chance at the championship. This year, the team should have tunnel vision on the College World Series, and they have looked promising to start.
It’s still very early in the season, and Dave Van Horn will try some new things to adjust and really mold these kids into a full team. Arkansas Baseball has a month-long stretch with games in the middle of the week as well as on the weekend. Let’s take a look at what we could see, and what Arkansas needs to improve on:
Pitching
Arkansas Baseball’s pitching has been very solid in the first two weekends of the season. Arkansas needed only six pitchers against Xavier. Of course, that may be a first-world problem situation right now.
Colin Fisher threw an 8-inning complete game on Sunday, with Aloy walking it off with a 3-run home run that sparked the run rule to sweep the series. He is posting a 0.00 ERA in 2 appearances and recording 1.46 strikeouts per inning. Gabe Gaeckle has started strong, with his high expectations met so far. Gaeckle is posting a 1.93 ERA over 9 innings, recording 1.75 strikeouts per inning.
The one starting pitcher off to a slow start is Hunter Dietz. Dietz had a 9.00 ERA, allowing 6 runs in his two appearances. Dietz is allowing a .300 batting average after allowing 4 runs in 2 innings in the first start and allowing 2 runs and 5 hits in his second start. However, he did show improvement from his first game to his second. In his first outing versus TCU, Dietz threw 30 strikes and 28 balls. In his second outing versus Xavier, he threw 56 strikes to 28 balls.
Dave Van Horn will need to put more pitchers out there over the next month to build bullpen depth. Five pitchers have only thrown 2.2 innings or less. Dave Van Horn will roll out Peyton Lee, among others, to ensure the bullpen gets their innings. Ethan McElvain needs more innings after his solid performance against Tarleton State. Relievers and closers like Steele Eaves, Parker Coil, and Jackson Kircher should get looks as well. One thing that has stunted Arkansas Baseball’s success is its bullpen depth. This bullpen, led by Cole Gibler, is talented enough to take Arkansas Baseball to the final college World Series matchup.
Hitting
Arkansas Baseball, by the metrics, has been hitting better than it did last year. I was a little surprised by the eye test, but here are the stat splits between the 2025 team vs the 2026 team through 7 games:
2025 2026
BA: .269 .278
OBP: .405 .358
SLG: .472 .490
Runs: 46 48
*Stats via Andrew Ellis (@EllisAndrew_)
It certainly all looks good, but is it sustainable? Strikeouts and getting down in the count have been issues early for this Arkansas Baseball team. In the first seven games, they have struck out 78 times, averaging 11 strikeouts per game. That is on pace for 616 strikeouts, the highest in the 2020’s. Dave Van Horn has talked about plate discipline when there are 2 strikes on the count. He has seen more discipline in the teams they have played against than in his own team.
The team is aware, and Dave Van Horn has mentioned that if players cannot buy into plate discipline, then they may be riding the bench. Players like Souza, Pompey, and Niu need to reset themselves and start anew to contribute better.
Niu was brought in as a hot commodity after posting .280 with 8 home runs and 23 RBI’s in 35 games in the Cape Cod Baseball League after last season ended. Niu is batting .179 this year with 10 strikeouts. TJ Pompey has a little more wiggle room as he was picked up from Texas Tech, but did not finish last season due to a season-ending injury. He played in only 19 games, and he needs to get more comfortable back on the field.
The bright side of hitting is that the returners that we expected to hit well are hitting well. Kuhio Aloy, Camden Kozeal, Reese Robinett, and Ryder Helfrick are all hitting over .300 and cranking homers. They combine for 11 home runs and 30 RBI’s. Helfrick started looking like a Golden Spikes Award candidate, only to face competition from Kozeal. Kozeal was incredible in the close matchup against Xavier on Saturday and hit for the cycle! There have been a couple of the hottest hitters in the country.
This all suggests there’s room for improvement, but in reality, this team is good enough to win the championship. They need to micro-manage every small issue throughout the first half of the season, to have a complete team in the second half, and make a run to the College World Series. The pitching may be the deepest it has been in 3-4 years, and the offense is talented enough not just to hit home runs but to get guys on base consistently.
What do you think about this 2026 Arkansas Baseball team? Let me know in the comments or reach out to me on Twitter/BlueSky @RandallSlifer. As always, Go Razorbacks!
