Razorback report: SEC Freshman of the Week goes to Arkansas pitcher Gaeckle
Sunday’s 9-6 comeback victory was secured by the 6-foot, 195-pound right-hander from Aptos, California, who recorded his sixth save of the season. After striking out two batters in the ninth inning, the last of whom had two runners on base, Gaeckle worked a two-inning save for the Bulldogs’ clean-up hitter Hunter Hines.
After a 5-3 victory over Alabama on April 12, Gaeckle (3-2, 2.06 ERA) recorded his first save. Gaeckle does not have enough innings pitched to be listed in the NCAA. He’s put in 35 innings so far, but he needs to put in 52 (one for each game the Hogs have played) to be eligible.
At 1.65 ERA, Arkansas’s Hagen Smith is the best pitcher in the country. Gaeckle has an impeccable 0.94 walks-plus-hits-per-inning pitched (WHIP), which is calculated. With a 0.87 WHIP, Smith tops the SEC and is ninth nationally among qualifying players. With seven saves, which is tied for first place in the SEC with Evan Aschenbeck of Texas A&M and Connor Spencer of Ole Miss, Gaeckle is ranked 34th in the US.
Ethan Bates, a former Razorback from Louisiana Tech, is tied for the Division I lead in saves with 14. For a spot as a weekend starter in the upcoming season, Gaeckle is probably going to face competition.
Crown competition
As the regular season comes to a close, the Razorbacks (42-10, 19-8 SEC) are leading Kentucky (37-11, 20-7) in the SEC West and trailing No. 4 Texas A&M (42-10, 17-10) in the overall standings. Since Alabama and Kentucky split the 2006 SEC regular-season championship, Kentucky has not won nor shared one. The Razorbacks split the 2023 SEC title with Florida after winning the 2021 SEC title hands-down and taking home the SEC Tournament trophy. Of the last five SEC West championships, Arkansas has won or shared four of them.
Kentucky’s 2-1 series victory over the Hogs gives them the tiebreaker lead, therefore Arkansas needs to defeat the Wildcats by two games to secure a better seed in the SEC Tournament, which takes place the following week. In order to secure a bye to the double-elimination round of the tournament, the Razorbacks would have to win one game or lose to Florida in Georgia. If they win, they would not play until Wednesday in Hoover, Alabama.
Loop in the left field
In two of the three games against Mississippi State last weekend, sophomore Jayson Jones, from Savannah, Texas, started in left field. He hit a crucial two-run home run in Sunday’s 9–6 come-from-behind victory. Between both stints, Jones and three other players combined for 48 starts at the slot for the Razorbacks, with no one taking the lead.
The player with the most starts (18) at the position is Ross Lovich (.288 batting average), but his defense hasn’t been up to par. With 16 starts, Jones (.203) leads the team in left field in terms of productivity with four home runs and 17 RBI. Peyton Holt (.325) has made seven starts in left field, while Will Edmunson (.235) has started eleven. After Jones’ home run, Arkansas closed the gap to 6-4 thanks to a three-run fifth inning.
Holt remarked of Jones, “It just shows the tools that he has.” One of the most gifted children I’ve ever seen is that one. Even though it’s difficult, he has persevered in waiting for his turn in the starting lineup. He received it once again today and made it pay.” When Jones starts in left field, Arkansas is 15-1; when Lovich starts, it is 14-4; when Edmunson starts, it is 8-3; and when the versatile Holt starts, it is 5-2. Holt has also started in center field (9), right field (2), third base (8), and second base (7).
Mishap at Molina
The 8-5 loss to Mississippi State on Saturday marked junior left-hander Mason Molina’s shortest start of the season and his third in fewer than four innings. Before getting out of the second inning with an out, Molina gave up 4 runs on 4 hits and 1 walk. Molina’s rough one-inning start caused his ERA to jump from 3.81 to 4.44, which was the highest since he started the season against James Madison with a 4.91 ERA after 3 2/3 innings. Before his latest slump, the southpaw gave Arkansas eight straight starts spanning four and a half innings. Prior to a loss at South Carolina on April 20, he was 3-0 with a 3.32 ERA.
Together, Molina and Brady Tygart, the starter on Saturday, have given up 16 earned runs in 8 and a third innings during their previous two outings. The most recent outcomes may increase the likelihood that pitching coach Matt Hobbs and coach Dave Van Horn may alter the weekend rotation.
A second glance
Strange happenings at second base were two of the more memorable plays in the Hogs’ 9-6 victory over Mississippi State on Sunday. With two outs and avoiding second baseman Ethan Pulliam’s tag, Jayson Jones stole second in the sixth inning of the Hogs’ crucial four-run inning. Pulliam failed to follow Jones’s oversliding of the bag with his glove, allowing Jones to reclaim the base prior to the follow-up tag. The greatest hit of the game was a two-run home run by Peyton Holt that broke the tie.
Aaron Downs walked in the seventh inning of the Bulldogs and was hit by a pitch on a 3-1 delivery to Joe Powell. Downs was given second base because Will McEntire’s pitch was a ball, but after Downs again overslid the bag, second baseman Peyton Stovall, who had swiped on Downs on White’s initial throw, followed up with a tag.
The umpiring crew called Downs for the end of the inning because he came off the bag after reaching it safely. Yes, that portion of the game was crucial, so Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis stated, “We’ve got to do a better job at our tags and we’ve got to do a better job in our sliding.”
Dave Van Horn, the coach of Arkansas, remarked, “I’ve never seen that.” “I mean, that was … they would have had runners at first and second with two down and you never know what’s going to happen.”
With just 10 losses, Arkansas is tied for first place with Tennessee, fifth with Texas A&M, and thirteenth with California-Irvine. The Aggies and Razorbacks both lost their tenth games on Saturday, the Volunteers reached that milestone on Sunday, and the Anteaters have gone 4-0 since dropping their tenth game against Cal Poly on May 5.
Positions in the polls
In the USA Today Coaches poll, which is the official ranking for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Razorbacks moved back up to No. 2 on Monday after spending a week at No. 3. For the three weeks before, Arkansas was ranked No. 2.
Arkansas has finished in the top 5 of the coaches poll every week of the season, including five straight weeks at the top from March 11 to the first few weeks of April. According to Monday’s rankings from Baseball America, D1Baseball.com, Perfect Game, and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, the Razorbacks were ranked third.