Dave Van Horn shares weekend plan for starting rotation

Arkansas rounds out its regular season the weekend on the road against No. 12 Vanderbilt. With the SEC Tournament looming, Razorbacks head coach went ahead and named his starter for Thursday’s series opener in the hopes of having them fresh for the start of the postseason.

“I think you’ll see more teams [revealing their starting lineups] this week that don’t have injuries just looking at the standings and where everyone sits at today and save somebody for the tournament,” Van Horn said. “We’ll start Hagen [Smith] on Thursday night and then leave it open for the next two days.”

Smith has been Van Horn’s ace this season, having pitched him 58.1 innings on eight starts this season. Giving up 16 earned runs on 37 hits this season, the leftie has a stellar ERA of 2.47. He has also given up 35 walks and 12 extra base hits, including six home runs.

Van Horn has four other starting pitchers to choose from in Dylan Carter, Hunter Hollan, Cody Adcock and Will McEntire. Carter and Hollan have ERAs under four while Adcock and McEntire both have an ERA of over five.

There is also a possibility of Van Horn starting Brady Tygart (2-0, 2.92 ERA), who has logged the start on the bump three times this season, though has only pitched 12.1 innings this season thanks to an injury. Parker Coil (three starts) and Ben Bybee (seven starts) are two other options.

The rest of the weekend’s pitching rotation will depend on how the SEC standings shift following the first day of the series for Van Horn to determine which pitcher is best suited for Friday, and the same process will happen for Saturday as well. The most important thing for Arkansas to do is take this series one game at a time.

Of course, if the Razorbacks can win their series against Vandy this weekend, they’ll earn the No. 1 overall seed in next week’s SEC Tournament. At 19-8 in conference play, Arkansas has Florida (18-9) and LSU (17-9) hot on its heels heading into the final weekend of the season before postseason play.

First pitch between the Razorbacks and Commodores is set for 6 p.m. ET live from Nashville. The SEC Network will air Thursday and Friday (7 p.m. ET) night’s games, while Saturday’s regular season finale will air on SECN+ at 2 p.m. ET.

The SEC Tournament is set for Tuesday, May 23, where Arkansas will more than likely look toward Smith’s arm for the Hogs’ opening game.