Friday 3/24 - Noon Central
LSU - Paul Skenes
Arkansas - Hunter Hollan (LHP)

Saturday 3/25
LSU - Ty Floyd
Arkansas - Will McEntire (RHP)

Probably also Saturday 3/25
LSU - Thatcher Hurd
Arkansas - TBD

Most of Arkansas’ ( STATS | ROSTER) lineup consists of transfers (some this year, some from prior years). Whether from JUCO or the portal, on any given night 7 or 8 of the starting position players could be guys that didn’t begin their career in Fayetteville. Leadoff hitter and CF Tavian Josenberger comes from Kansas. Corner outfielders Jared Wegner and Jace Brohofen are from Creighton and Oklahoma respectively. Also from Oklahoma is part time starting catcher Hudson Polk. The other starting catcher, Parker Rowland, was teammates with Nate Ackenhausen at Eastern Oklahoma State last year after a spell at Arkansas State. Along the infield, Brady Slavens hails from Johnson County CC (and Wichita State), John Bolton from Austin Peay, and Harold Coll from San Jac. Even their back up infielders Caleb Cali (Florida State and 2 JUCOs) and Payton Holt (Crowder and ULL) are transplants. In the regular starting lineup only sophomores Kendall Diggs and Payton Stovall arrived at Arkansas as freshmen.

On a different note, former Jay Johnson Arizona commit Mason Neville is a back up outfielder for the Hogs. He hasn’t seen much game action.

Last weekend, Arkansas swept Auburn. It was one of five sweeps in seven conference series last weekend. It wasn’t too surprising a result as Auburn is reeling a little bit this season, but sweeping is difficult. To open the season Arkansas went 2-1 at Globe Life scoring a million runs and giving up slightly less than a million runs. Their overall schedule looked a little better on paper than it’s turned out to be this season. Wright State and Louisiana Tech are generally post-season candidates, but both are hovering around .500 right now. Eastern Illinois is currently a borderline top 50 RPI team but will likely drop as the season progresses. Arkansas took 2/3 from them. The rest of the schedule is the normal pre-conference grist for the mill. This series represents the first true road games the Hogs will play this season.

They can hit. They can all hit. They have a deep line up and a decent bench beyond that. Wegner has been the bell cow this season and he crushes the ball. Bohrofen is starting to live up to the billing he had out of high school and the Cape Cod League after a couple of underwhelming seasons to start his career. No one really strikes out a ton. Slavens is a home run threat but has started the season slow. I know I’m not giving a ton of names to focus on here, but it’s because they’re all good. Payton Stovall is one to watch as a local Louisiana kid. He came out of high school with a ton of draft hype. He started slow last year starting at first base, he's back in the middle infield play 2nd base now. I didn't think he'd make it to campus, but I was incorrect on that. I don't know if we will see freshman Jayson Jones this weekend, he didn't play against Auburn, but e's got Jared Jones-like exit velos. He may be a pinch hit option for them if they are just looking for a homer.

They’re going to start at least one lefty in JUCO transfer Hunter Hollan. They’ve shifted their other top LHP Hagen Smith to the bullpen in an effort to allow him to impact more than 1 game a weekend. It’s a risky strategy that puts more strain on a young player’s arm which makes it all the more interesting that it was done in response to other injuries on the staff. Righties Will McEntire and Cody Adcock started the other two games last weekend. Adcock was previously being run through a woodchipper as a reliever with 8 appearances in 17 games. Last weekend he threw 82 pitches, exactly doubling his season high to that point. McEntire can get deep into games but has also been hit around a bit against the better teams he’s faced. They only used 7 pitchers total and only Smith threw twice. Arkansas notoriously has a small number of pitchers they trust each year, likely due to Dave Van Horn’s perpetually puckered anus.

The beer of the week is the Killer (Irish Red) from Superior Bathhouse Brewery in Hot Springs. Normally I talk more about the specific beer, but it's really the brewery that's the focus here. It’s the only brewery in a National Park and uses the actual hot spring water to brew their beer. They also have great food. Hot Springs in general is a great area to visit with great hiking around Lake Catherine, a nice little downtown area, and plenty of nearby waterways to enjoy.

This post will be updated when the expected game time change for Friday is announced and each team publishes their weekend preview with projected starting pitchers.
I will be unable to preview next weekend’s tilt against Tennessee as I will be traveling.

This post was edited on 3/23/23 at 3:50 pm