FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It’s getting tough for Dave Van Horn to make a lot of pitcher decisions these days.
Mainly because injuries keep happening.
“Somebody’s going to have to step up or we’re going to have to make some adjustments,” Hogs coach Dave Van Horn said after a 6-2 win Sunday.
After losing the planned opening-day starter in Jaxon Wiggins before the first game, then having reliever Brady Tygart have a problem awaiting a second opinion, reliever Koty Frank made everybody groan Sunday at Baum-Walker.
After throwing five pitches to start the seventh inning, Frank grimaced and grabbed under his right (throwing) shoulder. He then threw a warmup pitch in front of trainers and the pain was clearly obvious.
“It’s not his arm,” Van Horn said. “That’s about all I can tell you.”
The Razorbacks closed a series sweep over the Panthers on a sun-splashed (but windy) afternoon in front of over 9,703 who came looking for a lot to cheer about.
That took awhile.
“One of those games,” Van Horn said. “It took us awhile to figure it out.”
The Hogs didn’t get a run until Caleb Cali scored in the fifth inning to tie the game at 1-1, then they added another in the sixth on a homer by Jace Bohrofen.
In the seventh, Parker Rowland led off with a homer, then Jared Wagner delivered an RBI single followed by Bofrofen’s 2-RBI single and the Hogs cruised to the win with that four-run inning.
Hunter Hollan started and got the win, despite some adventures in the first inning that led to a Panthers’ run that mystifies Van Horn, but not the junior pitcher.
“I’ve been doing that since the first grade,” he said later. “I don’t know if it’s trying to do much or what.”
Van Horn just wants it figured out.
He’s got enough problems with pitching as it is.
