Van Horn counting on chemistry
Posted on Thursday, November 8, 2007
FAYETTEVILLE - There aren't as many Arkansas players who pass the big-league eye test as last season, but the current crop of Razorbacks received straight A's in chemistry during fall practice.
With fall practice wrapped up, Arkansas is still ironing out what roles its returning players and new pitchers will fill this season. Star third baseman Logan Forsythe is recovering from a broken foot, catchers Jeff Nutt and Ryan Cisterna had nagging injuries through the fall, and it's going to be difficult to replace the defense and run production first baseman Danny Hamblin provided last season.
At least it looks like Coach Dave Van Horn won't have to worry too much about one important intangible as he prepares the team for its season opener Feb. 22 against Wright State.
"It's one of the closer teams we've had. They all seem to get along well,"Van Horn said. "The first or second day of school, the older guys had all the younger guys over [at some player's house ], and that's the first time I've ever had that happen. We didn't ask him to do that. They did that on their own."
Arkansas had nine drafted players sign professional contracts in 2007, a reflection of the talent level compiled. But that didn't necessarily equate to fulfilling expectations.
"I think last year's team wasn't as close as it should have been,"Van Horn said of a club that won the SEC's Western Division, advanced to the conference tournament championship game but was bounced out of the NCAA Fayetteville Regional as a national seed.
"Sometimes when you have so many pro prospects and it's their draft year, things can drift a little bit and guys who are freshmen and sophomores see that,"Van Horn said. "All these pro [baseball ] people are coming around and guys are filling out cards, advisers calling, and their minds start wandering towards pro baseball. I saw that happen a little last year.
"We try to keep the kids focused, but sometimes it's tough. They're still young. It wasn't as close as you would have liked it."
In 2002, Van Horn's last Nebraska club was one year removed from a trip to the College World Series, the school's first such appearance. Many of the big names from 2001 were gone, but the scrappy Cornhuskers made a repeat trip to nearby Omaha.
"That team was a chemistry team, a makeup team,"said Van Horn, who compares his current bunch to Nebraska in 2002 and his 2004 Razorbacks club that pulled off a stunning College World Series run. "The 2004 team had some talent, but when you look back at it, we had one all-conference player, a secondteamer. That was a team that got on a roll but had a lot of character."
Besides junior third baseman Logan Forsythe, a probable high pick in the 2008 Major-League Draft, the Razorbacks don't have many elite prospects.
The infield looks solid with Forsythe at third, returning starter Tim Smalling and promising transfer Scott Lyons at shortstop, a healthy Ben Tschepikow at second and former part-time player Aaron Murphree and touted freshman Andy Wilkins battling to play first base.
The two corner outfielders, Casey Coon and Sean Jones, are steady senior veterans, and the pitching staff figures to be much deeper, if less coveted by pro scouts, than in recent seasons.
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