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

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.

The junior, who transferred from San Jacinto in Texas after last season, finished the game having allowed six hits and two runs while striking out eight batters.

‘That was my first time coming out of the bullpen since probably junior year of high school, so it wasn’t really any different,” Hollan said. “You’ve just got to come in with the mindset that I’m going to compete in the zone and go with the game plan that you want. We had a really good game plan the first time we played them and we kind of stuck to that, and it worked out.”

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