Tennessee baseball is headed on the road this weekend to face Arkansas in a best of three super regional series with a trip to the College World Series on the line.
Ahead of the crucial three-game series, Best of Arkansas Sports Andrew Hutchinson talked with RTI to preview the matchup. Hutchinson discussed the Razorbacks’ deep bullpen, the magnitude of the series for Arkansas and much more.
*Some answers have been slightly altered or shortened for clarity
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What is different about Arkansas now compared to the first meeting three weeks ago?
“I would say the starting pitching based on what happened last week because the starting pitching against Tennessee was not super spectacular. The bullpen really carried the day. But Root was phenomenal last weekend. I think he went six scoreless, something like that against Creighton. And Wood, as I said, 13 strikeouts. He did give up a three-run home run, but that’s all he gave up really. So I’d say the starting pitching when it’s on and it was last weekend then I think that’s a major thing because the offense has been pretty steady. I mean it’s been about the same. It seems like Wehiwa Loy is maybe starting to heat up again. I can’t remember exactly what he did against Tennessee, but it felt like he had a quieter weekend. He’s a guy that’s starting to get going. So yeah, I’d say that’s maybe another thing that’s turned around for Arkansas is maybe getting your SEC Player the Year going and then the starting pitching was a lot better this past weekend.”
What will Arkansas’ starting pitching plan look like the first two days?
“With it being a Saturday, Sunday, Monday, I feel very confident that it’ll be Zach Root on Saturday, game one. He’s their ace. He’s a guy that has struggled on short rest. So if it had been a Friday, Saturday, Sunday series, it wouldn’t have surprised me if they held him to Saturday. But I think it makes it easy. I think he’s going to start on Saturday. Gage Wood has been the number two guy when he’s been healthy. Again, a guy that missed a lot of time, he’s had a couple of bad outings that has inflated his ERA to make it look as bad as it is with a 5.33 ERA, but I mean the dude’s got 50 strikeouts in 25.1 innings. He’s a guy that’s a potential first round pick that could really vault up draft boards, assuming he has a really good postseason, which he started this past weekend by notching 13 strikeouts in like six innings.
So those two are the top two. And then honestly this is one of those situations where they’ll probably leave game three TBA. Just one to see if they need a game three, but they’ll use any of those other guys out of the pen if they need them to win one of those first games. So you could see I think Gaeckle is a guy that’s going to stay in the pen, but I mean Beidelschies wouldn’t surprise me if they started. Jimenez wouldn’t surprise me if they started him. Ben Bybee I guess could technically start. I would be very nervous about that, but he’s the guy that could do it. So kind of a TBA. But I mean with Root and Wood, those are two guys that have been discussed as borderline possible first round draft picks.”
Which Arkansas bats are hot right now and which ones are cold?
“Well, they have four different guys hit multiple home runs in the regional. So they’ve got several guys that are scorching hot. I mean, I guess maybe the hottest hitter is Ryder Helfrick, the catcher. He’s a guy that first part of the season, his batting average I think was under .200. And you’re like, man, I thought he was going to be better than that. I honestly expected him to hit somewhere around .280 this year and he’s gotten hot and stayed hot and now he’s up to .329 for the season, 13 home runs. I think he homered three times in the regional. He is scorching hot. It was good to see Wehiwa Loy get going offensively, hit another couple home runs, some hard hit doubles. Logan Maxwell homered twice, Cam Kozeal homered twice. Kozeal, I voted for him for regional MVP just because he set the tone for the weekend. Had I think four RBIs in game one and then the first two RBIs of game two. He’s been really good lately. So those are the guys that are scorching hot.
And then I guess on the flip side of it, Kuhio Aloy is the guy that they really need to get going. He’s had a little bit of a rough stretch. He’s still gotten a hit here or there, so it’s not just been terrible, but he’s the guy that’s capable of hitting a ball 450 feet and so he’s the guy that they could get going and that would really help them a lot. Brent Iredale is another one. He started out the year maybe as the hottest hitter on the team, but an SEC play just really fell off, really struggled in SEC play. But I still see flashes where he is hitting the ball hard just right at people. So he’s maybe a guy that I would say is a breakout candidate for this weekend if he can maybe get some of those line drives 10 feet one way or the other and it’s a double instead of a line out.”
Can you put the magnitude of this series from Arkansas’ perspective into context?
“I would love to. I was not alive when this happened, but I have heard from some people or have seen people chat or talk about this, that this might be the biggest event on campus for an Arkansas sporting event since 1991 when you had No. 1 UNLV come to play No. 2 Arkansas in Barnhill Arena in basketball. Larry Johnson and the Runnin’ Rebs. That was a massive, massive event that I’ve heard stories from my dad who was able to go, I think he went to the game and tickets were crazy, students camping out forever. I feel like it’s going to be similar vibes this weekend. Tickets are ridiculously priced. I haven’t driven by the stadium, but I imagine there’s already people lined up camping out for the Hog Pen in the outfield. This is going to be an incredible environment. One, it’s a super regional with Omaha on the line. Two, you’re playing an SEC foe, but not just any SEC foe, it’s the defending national champions who just so happened to be coached by Tony Vitello. And I think we can all agree Tennessee’s kind of viewed as maybe a villain in the sport. So it’s going to be very, very lively and one of the best environments I’ve experienced covering any sport on campus.”
Do you worry about the stadium and/or team getting tight if things go badly early?
“The fans, for sure. I mean the first time Tennessee gets a base runner, the fans are going to be tightening up and saying, ‘oh my God, here we go again.’ Because they’ve been a little bit emotionally scarred. I mean, we don’t have to remind people what happened in 2018 or what happened in any other sport. I mean we just saw the basketball team blow a 16-point second half lead in the Sweet 16. So it’s kind of an emotional scarring part. But to their credit, I mean the Arkansas players have held steady. I mean we talked about Tennessee’s losing streak in the middle of the season or at the end of the season. Arkansas had a stretch very similar to that. I think they lost three of four series, but they stayed the course and they were really close in a lot of those games where they were stranding the tying run on base in the ninth inning or whatever where they were super close and could have easily swung those.
And they’ve really put their head down and they don’t really get caught up in the outside noise. And I think part of it, it also helps, I mean, as crazy as it sounds like there’s not a lot of Arkansas kids on this team. A lot of these guys, they know Arkansas as just this incredible baseball program. They don’t know the pain and the cursed part of the program and so they probably don’t get caught up in all that even as much as maybe an Arkansas kid would. So I think that the team itself will be fine, but the fans, they’ll be puckered up from first pitch probably.”
Prediction?
“Man, nothing would surprise me in this series except for maybe a blowout one way or the other. But I think it’s going to be highly competitive. I could definitely see it going three games. I’m probably going to pick Arkansas because it’s at Baum-Walker Stadium. And there’s a little bit of history on Arkansas’s side because in Dave Van Horn’s tenure, his College World Series appearances have typically been three years apart with a couple of exceptions. He went in ‘04 and ‘09, which is five years. But then 09, 12, 15, 18, they went back-to-back in 18-19, but then it was 19 to 22 and now 22 to 25 would be three years. So there’s a little bit of math on their side if that means anything, which obviously it doesn’t, but I think Arkansas’s due for a trip back to Omaha. But we’ll see. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was another classic heartbreak weekend for the Hogs.”
