Dave Van Horn examines Brady Tygart's start against Texas A&M, Arkansas' injury issues

Dave Van Horn joined the SEC Network crew for a mid-game interview during Arkansas’ SEC Baseball Tournament Semifinal showdown against Texas A&M.

First off, Van Horn was asked about his starting pitcher Brady Tygart’s performance thus far on Saturday. Tygart has allowed one run, but he’s keeping the Razorbacks in it, although he doesn’t have many pitches left in his arm as the bottom of the fourth inning begins.

“It’s a little up and down,” explained Van Horn. “He was a little sharper last weekend. He’s down to his last ten or fifteen pitches, max. So probably won’t get through this inning unless they make contact, but he’s getting there.”

Meanwhile, Arkansas has dealt with injury issues all season long, and are utilizing their depth in the SEC Baseball Tournament. While Van Horn recognizes the Razorbacks didn’t have any choice, their hard work and determination is paying off at the moment.

“It’s just been that way all year,” answered the Arkansas skipper. “It’s like, they don’t believe just because one guy gets hurt we’re going to struggle, or not be a good team. We’ve just got a lot of good people on this team. They work hard, and when they’ve got their chance, they’ve done a great job.”

Trailing by one run at the moment, Dave Van Horn and Arkansas will be looking for a run and then some to defeat the Aggies. Time will tell if they can do so, but nothing will come easy at the SEC Baseball Tournament.

Dave Van Horn explains decision to use Hunter Hollan out of the bullpen

Meanwhile, Arkansas pitcher Hunter Hollan has been one of the Razorbacks key pitchers throughout the season. But he was placed in a different situation against LSU on Thursday during the SEC Tournament.

Hollan came out of the bullpen versus the Tigers, his first relief appearance of the season. The southpaw came in during the fourth inning and then closed out the game over the next five-plus innings as Arkansas won 5-4.

“We decided a couple days ago that there was a possibility that we would go this way if we won Game 1, got in the winner’s bracket, because if you lose, you’re thinking about I’ve got to give some of my starters some work and get them ready for the next weekend,” Van Horn said. “If you win, you know you’ve got at least two more games. And we just felt like we had a chance to win the game today, let’s go ahead and bring Hunter in. And at the time we felt like we had a chance to win the game, and I think we were down a couple runs and wanted to see how he could handle it, and I thought he did a tremendous job.”

Hollan entered with two runners on base with two outs in the top of the fourth and the Tigers up 2-0. Going up against LSU catcher Alex Milazzo, Hollan struck out the Tigers nine-hitter to get out of the inning.

Arkansas scored five runs in the both half of the inning. Hollan scattered runs in the eighth and ninth inning but got slugger Tommy White to ground out to end the game in the ninth inning.

It was Hollan’s eighth win of the season, advancing his record to 8-2 on the season. The victory gave the Razorbacks an off day before returning to the diamond Saturday.