Hogs' Dave Van Horn on Two Straight Shutouts

  • 6 months ago
Arkansas Razorbacks' coach Dave Van Horn after a 6-0 win over Missouri in second straight shutout win on Saturday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark.
Transcript
00:00 You know, really, I mean McIntyre was outstanding finishing the game and
00:04 you know, Brady's pitch count got up and and didn't have his best stuff, but he
00:08 battled out there and you think about the fourth inning where they had a chance
00:13 to take the lead. They line out.
00:14 Two pitch before that was strike three breaking ball. I didn't call it.
00:18 The game can change on one pitch and you know, thank goodness. We had the short
00:24 stop shifted around a little bit,
00:27 you know, all the little things add up and just moving him
00:30 little scouting going on there. They can do that and it's, you know, he lines out.
00:35 We hold them there.
00:36 Frustrating day at the plate. I thought their left-hander did a tremendous job
00:41 against us and you know, it's tied us up, you know, breaking balls, fastballs in
00:46 getting jammed and
00:48 but credit to the offense there in the sixth inning.
00:51 You know, we we had a
00:55 two-strike home run that gave us a lead
00:57 and then we had another two-strike home run opposite field
01:01 that put us up three then because we had a homer before that on the first pitch
01:06 and then another two-strike triple that scored to
01:09 put us up five and then they wild pitch in the sixth run.
01:13 I mean, that's how quick it can happen. I tell our guys all the time. No lead safe
01:17 and you know, you gotta you gotta keep building on it. And that's why it was
01:23 just really good to have McIntyre in the game at that time. He was well rested,
01:27 you know, once it got to the point, we're throwing a couple of innings. It's like,
01:30 hey, just let him go. We're not going to use him tomorrow anyway,
01:32 but he's got to go out there and pitch well and he did and that was that was big
01:36 to save our pen,
01:38 you know, good for us to find a way to win this game when things weren't looking
01:43 real good early, but
01:45 you know, very rarely do you get a chance to win three in a row against the same
01:50 team and we have that opportunity tomorrow. And I hope I hope we come out
01:53 and play well.
01:54 They that first guy they brought out of the pen. I think it did a weekend
01:58 starter for them was judge have a really good scout on him. Which way was the
02:01 key to those three straight home runs? Yeah. I mean,
02:04 we thought he would start a game here. I think they had been pitching him first
02:08 and most of their series, but not a hundred percent sure on that. I mean,
02:13 we just have what we have, you know, we have videos of other games and
02:18 you kind of figure out what they're throwing a little bit, but I think our
02:21 guys just did a good job of, you know, falling off a few pitches here and there
02:25 and then got something they could handle.
02:27 Alois home runs first pitch breaking ball that was in and he hammered it and
02:31 just got up in the wind and blew out of the park.
02:33 You know, I don't know, you know, I can't say that, you know, he was tipping
02:40 anything. We knew what was coming. They just saw it and saw it and hit it. But
02:45 I don't know, you know, baseball is kind of a little funny. Nothing happens
02:48 with five innings and then you explode for six and just make a pitch and change.
02:53 We get a big hit and everybody thinks they can hit. I don't know, you know,
02:58 and I think the last time we talked to him, he said, you'll probably shouldn't
03:02 admit it as a pitch. We likes it when there's kind of traffic on the bases.
03:05 Do you get that sense from him? And how key is it to have a guy like that
03:08 to bring in in those situations? Well, it's it's it's good to have a guy
03:11 with experience that's been there and that it doesn't bother him. I don't know
03:16 if he should say likes it, you know, but I think what he means by that, in my
03:20 opinion, is that it doesn't bother him. You know, he knows that that's going to
03:24 happen a little bit that he's going to have to come in with runners in scoring
03:29 position. Excuse me. Been yelling a lot. No, not really. It's yeah. So he's a I
03:37 mean, he's a veteran and he throws three pitches for a strike. I mean, it's
03:40 throwing his fastball 90 miles an hour plus and it's got that cutter about
03:44 84 85. He threw a few breaking just regular curveballs. And I really like
03:50 what I saw from him today. He it was it was really good mixed mixed really well
03:54 and Roland did a nice job back there calling calling the game. Just the back
04:01 to back home back to back to back home runs. I mean, how good is it to see,
04:05 you know, in a tight game that the top of your lineup, the guys that maybe you
04:08 expected to rely on this season kind of break it open there for you. Yeah, that
04:11 was that was really a, you know, it's something that you want to see because
04:15 guys are hitting up there for a reason, whether it's on base percentage, tough
04:21 out our guy and, you know, guys that you want to get up a little bit more
04:27 sometimes and for them to bust it open like that, that was big. You know, I
04:32 thought Stovealls at bat set the tone and the ball hit out of the park was I
04:37 don't know if it's two, two or three, two, but it was some type of it wasn't a
04:40 fastball as a cutter. I think it would have been a change, but I think it was a
04:44 cutter, you know, lawyer had a different pitch. He had kind of a breaking ball
04:48 semi cutter. I can't think he's kind of using his slider and then, you know,
04:53 digs just fought off a bunch of pitches and got behind quick fought and then got
04:57 some elevating. He's clubbed it and it took off in the wind. So yeah, they kind
05:04 of obviously that sparked is once we got one run late a little relief after got
05:08 two and three, you know, you start thinking the way we're pitching new were
05:12 in good shape. You mentioned last night. People might not be realizing what
05:16 they're seeing from Hagen, but it's kind of it's carried over to the entire
05:19 staff. I mean, as a as a head coach has been here for a while. I mean, how are
05:23 you kind of comprehending just the way you're pitching staff is rolling right
05:26 now? Well, I've had some really good pictures here. I've had some really good
05:30 staffs. I haven't had this much depth probably, you know, if everybody gets
05:34 stays healthy and we got another guy or two coming down the pike that haven't
05:38 thrown yet. And so, you know, that's the difference. It's a depth. The starting
05:43 pitch and I've had some before but maybe not as many guys that come out of the
05:46 pen that can hold you down, but it's been it's been great watching it, you
05:52 know, from the side and that's what we do. We're over there, you know, some
05:56 sometimes with things are rolling. You almost become a fan a little bigger
05:58 like wow, this is really impressive. You guys hit back to back to back against
06:03 Illinois State last year and the research we did at the time was like we
06:07 didn't think it had been done. So yeah, back to back years. You've done that
06:12 what's pretty cool feet there. It is. Yeah. I mean, it's hard to do. I mean,
06:15 what are the percentages are not they're not very high. That's for sure. And
06:18 obviously some things have to go your way whether it's as bottom line. They
06:24 all we got to get all the way around the bases. I guess you get it into the
06:28 Parker, but you got to have some things really fall in place to three and
06:32 Rhodes hard to hit back to back honestly, and the way it was going today. It
06:35 was hard for us to get a hit and gross to get I think five in that one inning
06:40 and three of those were with two strikes and those, you know, in those three
06:45 swings we drove in for Ron. So beginning for especially in a conference game
06:53 that we hadn't done much and it almost looked like we were going to maybe
06:58 waste a good, you know, pitching performance there. Dave Brady was kind of
07:05 cruising through the first three innings and ran into some trouble on the
07:07 fourth. Did you notice anything from him? Like what what happened there? Yeah,
07:11 just not throwing the fastball for a strike. Like I said, there's no doubt
07:17 that one of those pitches was strike three in that inning and you know, it's
07:22 that's frustrating that that he didn't get that call and he was frustrated with
07:25 it and it almost cost a few runs. Just just, you know, it was fastball got away
07:32 from him a little bit. You know, the breaking ball was pretty good. He all
07:34 left a few up and into some righties, but he also could throw for a strike most
07:39 any time he wanted. I mean, he threw it. I think he got two or three backwards
07:42 K's full counts breaking balls. So if you're going to throw that with a full
07:48 count you you really feel like you can command it and he did a great job with
07:54 it. But yeah, just hey, you know, it's a good outing. It just wasn't when you
07:59 pitch as well as some of these guys have, you know, the you think is well, it's
08:04 not that good an outing, but it was really pretty good outing. You mentioned
08:09 a couple defensive runs that that play saved with Wahiba out at short. Just how
08:13 often y'all run through like I guess scenarios like that. Well, we have they
08:18 have a card in their back pocket all the infielders and then they have something
08:22 on the wrist that will tell them signs and then we're in the dugout moving them
08:27 even more. So they're they're already know our scouting report and we meet with
08:31 them and we go over it and say, okay, this guy until two strikes man. He's
08:36 pull pull, but then when two strikes we're going to we got to move back around
08:39 a little bit or vice versa, whatever we do. It's not always a hundred percent.
08:43 But if you just go in with the percentages, that's why we had, you know,
08:48 a lawyer up the middle like that and probably hit it. It was right in and it
08:52 was just a matter of he could jump high enough to catch it. Looks like he did
08:55 Dave. Go make the last April when you're bringing Tiger back from injury. You've
08:59 had a lot of success piggybacking him with Will McIntyre's or something about
09:03 the way those two pits that work well together. Well, there might be, you know,
09:06 you got one that throws a cutter. That's a breaking ball. That's in McIntyre.
09:11 That's 84. Then you got a 75 or 74 75 mile an hour breaking ball from Tiger.
09:17 So it's a little confusing probably for a while, you know, but you know today
09:22 McIntyre got through the lineup a couple of times. So they had seen him and he's
09:28 and he did just as well. And I just think his stuff was just really good today.
09:33 I think it's been 17 years since your team had had back-to-back shutouts of
09:37 sec teams and nine inning games. Just maybe speak to how hard that is to do.
09:42 So seven sec tournament. Yeah, because we had some really good pictures in 07
09:46 in that rotation three good starters. That would have been like, who do we have
09:51 Todd and maybe a guy named Nick Schmidt and and who's the other one is Nick and
09:57 Todd. Yeah. I mean those two pretty good ones to if Nick hadn't got hurt. He'd
10:01 pitch the big leagues. No doubt about it. Todd got up there for a little while.
10:04 I think so. Yeah, so that's it's hard. It's hard to do. It's hard to shut him out
10:10 once much less twice, but back-to-back is something else. So I'm sure we're going
10:15 to get their best shot tomorrow and with Missouri's left-handed starter. He was
10:20 coming inside on a lot of your left-handed hitters. Is that something you had seen
10:23 on tape? Yeah. I mean, we knew he's coming in there was tailing in on him as well.
10:27 And I think he's a little sneaky fast for him. They just even throw 90 miles an
10:31 hour, but I think it looked like they were swinging at like you're throwing 93
10:35 94 and they just had a little problem with it and he just kept going to then he
10:40 flipped the breaking ball away. And but what he did is he threw a lot of strikes
10:43 three strike one got ahead of us a lot and he pitched really well.