Fayetteville Regional Preview: Hogs Hope To Ride High • D1Baseball
The Fayetteville Regional features the nation's top seeded Hogs, along with Nebraska, Northeastern and upset-minded NJIT.
Fayetteville Regional Preview: Hogs Hope to Ride High
by Kendall Rogers, D1Baseball
FAYETTEVILLE REGIONAL SUPERLATIVES
Most Exciting Player: Robert Moore (aka Bob Moore), Arkansas
Moore, a second-year freshman, is having an incredible season for the Hogs and he can do it all. In addition to being a premier defender for the Hogs with his acrobatic plays and throws and his silky smooth defense, he's Captain Clutch at the plate and can hit for some serious power. More often than not, when Moore goes to the plate with something on the line, he delivers for Dave Van Horn's club. And for that, he's their most exciting player.
Best Hitter: Christian Franklin, Arkansas
Cayden Wallace and Cullen Smith certainly could lay claim to being the best hitter in this regional, but we're giving the nod to the power-hitting Franklin with Brady Slavens likely on the shelf this weekend because of an ankle injury sustained in the SEC Tournament. Franklin has some swing and miss in his bat, but he hits for serious power and has game-changing abilities anytime he steps to the plate.
Best Defensive Player: Jalen Battles, Arkansas
The Hogs have the nation’s premier double play duo in Bob Moore and Battles. Battles is a very instinctual defender who has a natural knack for making plays — both easy and difficult. In addition to his outstanding instincts and defensive skills, the veteran Arkansas shortstop also has a strong, accurate arm to first base and makes quick turns on double plays. Both he and Moore are terrific defenders, while the same goes for Arkansas catcher Casey Opitz.
Best Pitcher: Kevin Kopps, Arkansas
I mean, who else but Mr. Automatic out of the bullpen for the Razorbacks? The SEC Pitcher of the Year has had a terrific season, and that’s expected to continue in the postseason with a .161 OBA and an 0.81 ERA in 66.1 innings. If the Hogs can turn the game over to Kopps with a lead late, it’s game over for any opponent.
X-Factor: Patrick Wicklander, Arkansas
The only way the Hogs get derailed in this regional is if their starting pitching falters with lefthander Wicklander leading the way. The talented lefthander was terrific down the stretch in the Southeastern Conference. However, he struggled last week against Vanderbilt and had a limited start. Perhaps that limited start will pay dividends as postseason play begins this weekend. Wicklander has a 2.19 ERA in 65.2 innings of work, along with 72 strikeouts and 20 walks.
Best Starting Rotation: Arkansas
This was a tough category for me to choose with the Hogs having some issues on the injury front the past couple of weeks with righthander Peyton Palette being out for the season. Plus, Nebraska has a solid staff ace in Cade Povich and Northeastern has a good one at the front-end in Cam Schlittler.
Best Bullpen: Arkansas
With the best closer, and maybe the best pitcher, in college baseball at your disposal, it’s impossible to not go with the Razorbacks in this category. Kopps a deal closer at the end of games, while the Hogs have plenty of other high quality options, including Caden Monke and Ryan Costeiu, along with Heston Tole, who actually gave the Hogs a quality outing out of the pen at the SEC tournament. Zeb Vermillion is another solid weapon, though his status is uncertain after dealing with recurring bicep cramps during his outing against Tennessee this past weekend.
Best Offensive Team: Arkansas
It might seem like a broken record at this point, but yep, gotta go with Arkansas here. The Hogs have the nation’s deepest offensive lineup, and that’s even with Slavens out with an injury for another week or two. The Hogs have a plethora of power and have a terrific offensive approach. The batting averages for most of the teams in this field, especially Arkansas and Nebraska, are very deceiving.
Best Defensive Team: Arkansas
One beautiful thing about this regional is that good defense will be played all around. Nebraska and Arkansas rank in the top 10 nationally in terms of fielding percentage, while the Huskies aren’t far behind at 14 overall. Of course, NJIT is the exception with a 238 national rank. It’s hard not to pick Nebraska here, but it’s impossible to not go with the Hogs with the nation’s premier double play duo up the middle in Battles and Moore, along with a premium defensive catcher like Opitz behind the plate.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
ARKANSAS (46-10, 22-8 SEC)
The Hogs have had a season to remember thus far, and they hope to cap it off with a trip to the College World Series, and ultimately, the program’s first national title. Dave Van Horn’s squad has not lost a series the entire season and they swept through the SEC tournament last week. Now, we will see if they can continue their dominance at the Fayetteville Regional this weekend.
The one thing that stands out about this Arkansas team is its ability to get clutch efforts from different hitters and pitchers. For instance, after Brady Slavens got hurt in last week’s conference tournament, Charlie Welch and others stepped into the mix and rose to the occasion in impressive fashion. Then, righthanded pitcher Zeb Vermillion suffered cramps, was removed from the game. And guess what? Righty Connor Noland rose to the occasion and put together a strong performance. That’s pretty much Arkansas in a nutshell.
From a defensive standpoint, this is as good as it gets with Opitz behind the plate and the outstanding duo of Battles and Moore up the middle, while the offense is potent. There might not be a statistic more deceiving this spring than Arkansas sitting well into the 100s in national rank from a batting average standpoint. This is one of the nation’s premier offensive units 1-9, and it all starts with guys like Cayden Wallace, Franklin, Moore and Goodheart, who each have double digit home runs totals this season. Meanwhile, Battles and Opitz play much better than their averages indicate — .265 and .263, respectively. Zack Gregory (.240) and Ethan Bates (.265) are two more guys who are more than capable of entering the mix and getting big hits for this team.
As for the pitching staff, it doesn’t have a dead-set weekend rotation every weekend, and that’s a little unorthodox. But the Hogs pitching staff gets it done. Patrick Wicklander (2.19 ERA) attacks hitters with a low-90s fastball and often shows good feel for a 79-81 mph slider. His success is very much predicated on commanding the zone. Caleb Bolden is a talented righty who will sit in the low-90s with his fastball, along with a slider and changeup, while it will be interesting to see how the Hogs use graduate transfer Lael Lockhart this weekend. Lockhart is up to 91-92 mph with his fastball, and showed excellent command of the zone last weekend at the SEC tournament. He will often attack hitters with a four-pitch mix, though he threw primarily three pitches last week. In terms of the bullpen, Jaxon Wiggins (4.71) might not have an impressive ERA, but boy, he’s got a live arm with a fastball up to 98 mph, Zeb Vermillion should be back this weekend and he’s a husky reliever with a lively fastball, Ryan Costeiu (4.56) is another strong-armed reliever with a nasty, late-tilting breaking ball and Caden Monke has been a rock for this team the entire season. Of course, there’s the Kopps. Kopps will get into the low-90s with his fastball, but it’s his invisible cutter/slider that really keeps hitters off balance.
NEBRASKA (31-12)
The Huskers had a very unfortunate set of circumstances when it comes to not hosting an NCAA Regional this season. Judging by some of the committee's decisions on Selection Monday, it's abundantly clear they took less stock in teams that didn't play a normal schedule. That's precisely why the Huskers were not in the "group of 20" that were announced as potential hosts a couple of weeks ago. Will Bolt has the Big Ten administration to thank for that. But the Huskers still had a wonderful season that has included a Big Ten championship and a terrific 31-12 overall record. It's just a shame NU was sent to the top overall national seed this weekend.
Don't be surprised if you see some similar offensive approaches between the Razorbacks and Huskers. After all, Bolt is a Van Horn protege and many have compared him to Van Horn at a younger age. The Big Red has some really nice pieces near the top of the lineup with guys like speedy Jaxon Hallmark (16 stolen bases), Max Anderson, Luke Roskam, Joe Acker and Leighton Banjoff. Mojo Hagge is another seasoned veteran who has a chance to make a big impact this weekend. Hallmark has a unique blend of speed and power production for the Huskers, Anderson is a supremely talented young player who's hitting .337 with solid power production, Roskam has power and excellent command of the zone and Spencer Schwellenbach might be the premier two-way player in college baseball. In addition to his power and overall production at the plate, the talented righty can get up to 97-98 mph with his fastball and has a 0.71 ERA in 25.1 innings of work, along with 29 strikeouts and six walks.
Speaking of the pitching staff, it all starts for the Huskers with a talented one-two punch in the weekend rotation along with Schwellenbach at the back-end of games. We already mentioned the 6-foot-1, 205-pounder, in the above paragraph, but more on him: He will mix in a quality 82-84 mph slider to go with that upper-90s fastball. He's one of the more rising prospects for the MLB Draft. As for the rotation, it's led by tough lefthanded pitcher Cade Povich, who has tallied quality numbers this season. He attacks hitters with an upper-80s fastball, and can reach back and hit 91-92 mph with the offering at times. He also mixes in a sharp 73-74 mph curveball along with a changeup around 80 mph. Righthander Chance Hroch has given the Huskers a boost this spring with his excellent command of the strike zone. Hroch attacks hitters with a sinker and a put-away slider at times. Kyle Perry (3.00) and Shay Schanaman (5.52) are other starting options, while in the bullpen, Cam Wynne and Jake Bunz are quality options. Wynne always had a big-time fastball during his time at Texas A&M, but command was an issue. He's done a better job in that regard during his short time in Lincoln.
NORTHEASTERN (36-10, 20-3 CAA)
Few coaches in college baseball have done as impressive of a job as Huskies skipper Mike Glavine. This isn’t the first time Northeastern has been in the postseason discussion, and it won’t be the last. The Huskies put together a strong regular season that included a 20-3 regular season record in CAA play, while they took care of business at the CAA tournament on UNCW’s home field. This team is battle-tested and won’t be intimidated but what they see at Baum Stadium this weekend.
For the Huskies to go on a run in this tournament, two guys must be terrific — righthanded pitchers Cam Schlittler and Kyle Murphy. Schlittler has had a terrific year with a 1.72 ERA in 73.1 innings of work, along with 83 strikeouts and 19 walks, he has good stuff. The righty will sit in the 89-93 and up to 94 mph range, though he has shown flashes of 96 at times. He features a hard 12-to-6 curveball and has an effective changeup. As for Murphy, he has excellent command with just 15 walks in 65.1 innings of work this spring. Murphy pitches in the 89-92 and up to 93-94 mph range and can miss some bats with his slider and changeup, and also possesses a show-me curveball. Another starter, Sebastian Keane, has a huge arm with a quality changeup and curveball. From a bullpen standpoint, remember the names Brian Rodriguez and Brandon Dufault. Rodriguez can sit 89-92 and up to 93 mph with his fastball and has a slider and changeup combo, while Dufault is an intriguing prospect with a fastball up to 95-96 mph, while command has been an issue at times.
Northeastern may not have much power outside of a couple of sluggers, but what it does have? Speed, speed and more speed. Scott Holzwasser and Ben Malgeri has both stolen more than 20 bases this season, while Jared Dupree, Jeff Costello, Ian Fair and Spenser Smith have double digit stolen bases. Perhaps that’s one way the Huskies can get a leg up on the competition this weekend. Though, trying to steal on Arkansas’ Casey Opitz isn’t typically advised. What a fascinating matchup that would be. Malgeri is a very talented player who can hit for some power, while Dupree is having a sensational season with a .351 average, 32 walks, 21 home runs and 48 RBIs. Danny Crossen, Jeff Costello and Max Viera are all hitting over .340, while Holzwasser is next on the list with five home runs and 30 RBIs. This is a very intriguing, unique offense. They present some issues for any opposing team.
NEW JERSEY TECH (26-22, 23-17 America East)
NJIT was picked to finish near the bottom of the America East coming into the season, but it has far exceeded expectations, putting together a solid conference regular season record and reaching the NCAA tournament after reaching the conference tournament title game against Stony Brook, which was washed out because of inclement weather.
The Highlanders are led on the mound by Tyler Stafflinger and Ryan Fischer. Stafflinger has tallied a 3.77 ERA in 71.2 innings of work this season and has terrific command of the zone with just 14 walks in those innings. Fischer is his cohort in crime in the rotation, and he, too, has strong command of the zone with just 14 walks in 74.2 innings of work. If NJIT is in position to win late in games, it will turn things over to talented reliever Jake Rappaport, who has appeared in 25 games this season, recorded 10 saves and who has a 2.23 ERA in 48.1 innings, along with 34 strikeouts and 11 walks.
Offensively, it’s safe to say the Highlanders don’t have a lot of power, with Albert Choi, Paul Franzoni and Luke Longo all having five or more home runs, while Julio Marcano is the bell cow of this offense with a team-best .333 average, .435 OBP, 12 doubles and 10 home runs and 42 RBIs. He also has some speed, while Albert Choi (27) and David Marcano (13) also are base-stealing threats. Daniel Helfgott is another intriguing bat to watch — he’s hitting .295 with five doubles and 18 RBIs.
