Arkansas Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn on good hitting, Will McEntire's stellar outing, fans in cold weather in 6-4 win over James Madison on Friday at Baum-Walker Stadium.
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00:00 well for his cold it was down there and windy.
00:03 Um, you know, both teams fielded the ball pretty well handled it. Um, got to
00:09 give the pitchers credit on both sides for throwing a lot of strikes. Uh,
00:15 difficult to control the ball when you're not feeling it real good. So,
00:19 um, I feel really good about the way our offense responded to, uh, what went
00:25 on in the in the top of the first came back and punched in a couple and then
00:31 couple more. I think in the second and third and got the lead and then never
00:34 never lost it. The game settled down a lot because of will McIntyre. I just
00:41 did a tremendous job of coming in out of the pen and just letting this climb
00:46 back in the game and get the lead. And after that we didn't hit hit as much.
00:51 We had a few balls hard, but we didn't get that big hit. You know, uh,
00:56 Jared got a big hit with two outs that scored one. And then we had a rundown
01:01 situation that gave us that sixth run and, um, a lot of good things are
01:06 things we didn't do very well. But, uh, it was a, uh, I mean, it was a good
01:12 game. They have a good team. They're solid. They're very, very solid. And we
01:16 knew we're getting into an experienced pitching staff for the most part and
01:20 an experienced lineup and three hitter three hole hitter had a great day. He's
01:24 a good hitter.
01:25 Again, was it first game jitters the cold weather? What did you see from
01:30 him? I don't know. I don't think it's first game jitters. I'm sure the cold
01:35 affected him a little bit. You know, the game's funny. It's so fragile. You
01:39 know, we had a
01:39 two on the first. The first batter leads out the game is a greater bat
01:44 fouls off some pitches. He had walking next guy's got around 02 and he hits
01:48 him.
01:50 Third hitter. They're best hitter.
01:52 Foul tips one. It goes in the glove starting to come out of the glove. He
01:58 reaches forward with his hand as it's going down to the ground low. He doesn't
02:02 get it. The ball hits the dirt and then the ball blows out of the park. But
02:06 yeah, I was just routine fly ball. We were telling the center field to throw
02:10 the ball second base on the tag and next thing you know, blows out of the park.
02:13 So, yeah, you know, his guy 02, you know, foul tip jumps out of the glove
02:18 bullet and all of a sudden you're down three to nothing and he just, you know,
02:22 I don't know. I know that he'll be a lot better next week. He's really good.
02:26 I think he's a 42 pitches. There any thought at all to send him out for the
02:29 second or you say, Hey, let's just go to will at that time. Well, whenever you
02:33 throw that many pitches in one inning, especially in these conditions and uh,
02:39 no, we were taking him out
02:41 big and, you know, obviously just first game, but to fall behind and get that
02:47 comeback, how important can that kind of moment be? You know, down the road
02:51 early this season, just right away showing some adversity. I mean, anytime
02:55 you can come back,
02:56 especially late in the game, it's a sign of a good team, you know, especially
03:03 when you're down three or four late, come back and win some games, beat
03:06 people off in the ninth. You know, it's it's confidence thing, but because
03:11 you're probably pretty good to today, you know, it was all everything happened
03:14 early. Uh,
03:16 I think anytime you do that, then your team knows, you know, it's not a
03:20 problem. We didn't panic. We weren't. We knew we hadn't even hit yet. And, uh,
03:24 you know, we were down three to nothing. It could have been worse,
03:27 but we we responded. It was just good to see that happen. Jared's probably not
03:34 a starter today if it wasn't for, you know, Stovall's injury, but he comes
03:37 through big for you. What have you seen from him? Maybe since the Stovall
03:40 injury and you know how? How good was it to kind of see him get off to a hot
03:43 start? Yeah, you know, he's a I'm sure he's a little nervous. First time
03:47 playing here. Obviously, he's older. He's played a lot of games. It's a
03:52 division one level. Um, I think since Stovall hurt his foot, he knew that he
03:56 was gonna be playing and he basically has worked exclusively at third base
04:02 because I usually bounce him around and we work him in short summit second. Um,
04:07 so, you know, that's probably helped him there. And then just fact that he
04:10 could he could sleep on it for a week, realizing I'm gonna be in the game and
04:15 you know, he had a really good one for us today.
04:17 Was that was what was throwing? And I mean, is that maybe the kind of thing
04:22 you expect that? Yeah, you know, that's his role. We really like him there.
04:26 Longer leap. I mean, he could come in the seventh, finish the game. He's
04:29 gonna do everything. Um, but, uh, he was throwing a cutter. He was obviously
04:35 throwing a fastball and he threw. He also dropped a couple just regular
04:40 curveballs in there. That's what he went with. Mostly
04:42 straight lots with the shoulder. He made that look very easy. That was that
04:47 was a tough catch. Maybe what was your perspective? That's what we thought in
04:50 the dugout as well. Man, he made that look easy. It's not an easy play, but I
04:53 think once he got to where he felt like he needed to get,
04:58 it became easy for him. Um, yeah, I was. I was impressive. Not only that he
05:04 caught it, but he made it look like it wasn't that big a deal.
05:07 What are our thoughts of Hudson? Why at the leadoff and then defensively a
05:13 catcher?
05:13 I mean, I'd say he did a pretty good job of lead off. He sure got his first
05:18 about a homer to second at bat. Um,
05:21 I couldn't tell you after that, but I think you walked maybe. But, you know,
05:27 he's gonna hit. He's gonna hit second third in the order. Probably most of
05:30 the year, maybe fourth. But, uh,
05:34 you know him hitting that home run there. I think he was frustrated with
05:38 this first about because he's one of those guys. He doesn't strike out
05:41 looking. He might strike out, but he's gonna he's gonna he's gonna work at it.
05:45 He's gonna foul off pitches and make you work for that. And, uh, you know,
05:50 you could just tell how frustrated that he was. So it's good to see. And it
05:54 seemed like you guys really got the best of gauge wood today. Just, you
05:58 know, what do you like from an outing like that for him moving forward?
06:02 Well, you know, he's got that new pitch little cutter, and he likes to throw it.
06:07 It's hard. It moves and fastball. He was spotting it up pretty good, and it's
06:12 got some carry on it. You know, I don't know what the board was reading 93 94.
06:17 I don't know, but it looks harder than that. It does from the side. So I was
06:20 thinking about box. It does as well. He can throw it harder than that. But I
06:25 really like the way through the ball around the plate. Even his missus were
06:28 right there. I mean, the zone was, you know, the umpire establishes his own.
06:33 It was gonna be the top of the zone. You're getting at the bottom of the
06:36 zone. You didn't get it, or it had to. He had to feel really good about. I
06:39 think we only had one pitch down at the bottom of the zone that we felt like
06:43 that was called a strike, but he was really consistent. I thought you did a
06:47 good job because guys knew what they had to do and gauges all around that
06:52 zone when he wasn't throwing a strike
06:54 with the way you saw the ball flying out early in the game. Was there any
06:58 thought with will that he can keep the ball low in the zone? You're gonna get
07:01 some ground balls with him. Yeah, I mean, whenever the wind's blowing like
07:04 it is, you really you want a guy that's got a little sinker and, uh, you know,
07:09 he he he kept the ball down.
07:11 I'd say a little bit with his fastball, but, you know, he got them looking for
07:17 that cutter all the time. Then that fastball looked a lot harder than it
07:20 was. And, you know, they were they were missing it. And, uh, yeah, anytime the
07:25 wind's blowing like this, you'd like to have a sinker baller out there,
07:28 honestly. But that's what their first guy was. You got some ground balls. But
07:32 when he made a mistake up, we got him.
07:34 It's opening day. Fans would have been here regardless. But, you know, 40
07:39 degrees temperature going down is the game we're on. Can you get a sense of
07:43 just how much excitement there is around the program right now from from the
07:47 faith that Razorback faithful? Yeah, the fans were amazing. I couldn't believe
07:50 how many people were here. Honestly, uh, 40. Was it really 40? I was maybe it
07:58 was called. I know there's about 39 degrees. I don't want temperature now.
08:03 35. It's not. It's not good. And they stayed. That was amazing. And I know
08:08 those fans out in left field. I know that wind was hitting him hard because,
08:13 uh, you know, the stadium blocks a lot of it. But that that was an amazing
08:21 job by our fans showing up supporting our team like that today. And I know I
08:25 appreciate it. I know that our players really appreciate it. And I'm looking
08:28 forward to, you know, the weather getting better and having some good
08:31 crowds and ways I get to relax out there. Not shiver. The whole game.
08:35 I'm still in bases. Is that something that you're looking forward to doing a
08:40 little bit more? Maybe this year or moving forward? Well, how many do we
08:43 have last year's anybody now? Because I don't even I couldn't even tell you
08:47 can't tell you how many home runs we have last year. But if we're gonna take
08:51 what they give us, and that's our thing. We do have some guys that can run a
08:54 little bit. We have some guys that air sneaky fast. Um, but we will run when we
09:02 have the right opportunity and, uh, maybe catch him off off guard a little
09:07 bit. And I think that's what we did a little bit today. Was that what happened
09:11 on the double steel? Was that called? You know, something? Yeah, the double
09:15 steel and my runner first decided that they weren't gonna throw the second. He
09:19 didn't even look or he didn't even slide. And, uh, we've already talked
09:23 about it. I don't that was
09:24 I wish the ball would have clipped him winning center field. That would have
09:28 been a really smart play.
09:29 With Edmondson in left and then let him hit just thoughts on how he looked more
09:39 experienced defender. And, uh, he's been hit the ball really well to surprise.
09:44 You can get the ball in the air a little bit. I mean, that was nothing we
09:46 talked about. We talked for three minutes after the game. We don't want
09:49 to stand out there very long. But the three things that were talked about was
09:53 you don't get picked off on the left handed pitcher. We jab because if they
09:58 balk and they don't call it, you're still out. I don't think he balked,
10:02 you know, but he didn't jab. We work on it, but he's he's new and doing his own
10:07 way for who knows what. And that's frustrating thing that could have been
10:12 an ending. That's our nine hole slash leadoff man who can steal a base, but
10:17 he can score. We got the guys coming up and we didn't get anything that any.
10:22 Um, and then we had a runner who didn't slide at second because I don't know
10:26 why. Uh, we have that play. We throw a second instead of third. We're not
10:31 worried about it with it. That way we can hold our positions better, cover
10:35 more ground. We'll just throw this guy out. Let that guy still third. But, uh,
10:40 you know, other than that, we played pretty well.
10:43 You had 53 stolen bases last year, by the way. I asked you a couple of days
10:49 ago about having an older team, more experienced team. Whether we had any
10:54 elements today or just bouncing back from the top of the first the way they
10:57 did. Did you feel like that made a difference? I think it does. Yeah, it's
11:01 uh, there's yeah. And you know, if we had four freshmen out there and a
11:05 couple of juco sophomores or something, they'd probably think we're in trouble.
11:09 We hadn't even hit yet. And, you know, and again, I think, you know, our staff,
11:15 we didn't, we're not all
11:17 out of control in there. We're just like, Hey, all right, let's score a run
11:21 right here. Try to flip the momentum. And, you know, when we did that, that
11:25 was that was great. And again, it was, it looked like it was gonna be a wild
11:30 one there for a while and give credit to our pitchers and really their bullpen
11:34 did a great job as well of speeding that game up.