The Arkansas Razorback swatters have dropped the past three SEC series and, during this 3-6 stretch, have been beaten handily at their own game, through equal parts crafty pitching and timely hitting.
Georgia kicked off this nasty trend by taking two of three games from the Hogs in Athens at their brand new, multi-million dollar ballpark. Despite spending all that money on the facility, they came up woefully short when they decided upon fake sod and turf for the infield and outfield. Arkansas second baseman, Nolan Souza, suffered a brutal, season-ending injury, when he wrecked his shoulder attempting to slide into third base on this tacky and most-unforgiving inorganic soil and grass. Also, it’s only 314 feet down the right field line. Who do they think they are? The NY Yankees building a house for Babe Ruth?
On the following weekend Texas A&M came to Fayettenam and managed to accomplish what no other SEC team had been able to pull off in nearly three years at Baum Walker Stadium – taking a weekend series from the Hogs. The Aggies were preseason #1 in the land but have suffered at the hands of the mighty, mighty SEC and fallen from grace.
During the second game an A&M reliever steadily retired Razorback hitters with an 80-82 mph “Bugs Bunny’ change up, a pitch that confounded the home team, despite its most-hittable appearance. It either came in looking like a big fat, lazy meatball only to fall off the table and outta the strike zone before reaching the plate, or was nibbling the outside edge against right-handed hitters with a backdoor-breaking motion that was reminiscent of the master, Greg Maddux, back in his heyday.
And then, most recently, the Gators of Florida bookended dubs and handed Arkansas another series beatdown. Once again, the Hogs scored early and somewhat often, before being shut down in the latter innings by the home team’s bullpen. In the rubber match the Razorback relievers surrendered an early lead, and Florida continued tacking on insurance runs late in the game and wound up winning easily, 9-5.
Even though Arkansas has scored in double digits in exactly half of its 46 games this season, the SEC is proving to be as formidable a baseball conference as it is in other sports – football, hoops, gymnastics, softball, you name it.
Similar to last season, the Hogs’ bats have gone oddly silent down the home stretch. DVH has always approached hitting with extreme patience, but the Razorbacks seem to be taking more pitches than ever, and a lot of them are right down Broadway.
Used to be, there weren’t enough good pitchers to go around, and it was easy to work a walk or get deep into the count against most of them, but these daze every team has quality arms, and batters are more aggressive from the jump, cuz they figure they’ll see more strikes than balls.
Now is the time for Van Horn to cut his hosses loose, unleash all that power and give them more freedom at the dish. Once that happens, balls will be jumping outta the park. Until then, let us all abide by the mantra hanging up in the Hogs’ dugout – breathe, commit, let it rip!
WooPig!