Van Horn gives update on key pitchers in fall practice preview
Arkansas head baseball coach Dave Van Horn met with the media on Tuesday to preview the start of the fall practice window with the first intrasquad scrimmage set to be held at Baum-Walker Stadium on Friday.
DVH once again has a good problem on his hands with a plethora of options at multiple positions. The Hogs must replace their entire outfield and the majority of the starting pitching rotation, plus Golden Spikes Award winner Wehiwa Aloy.
Van Horn made some changes to fall practices last year that included less scrimmages and more working on fundamentals, which he said the team plans to continue.
“I thought that it pushed us forward as far as just knowing a little more about our team and then development,” Van Horn said. “I thought we jumped a couple of months by doing it that way. It’ll be the way we run our practices this fall, and some of it has to do with the roster’s being a little smaller. You have less pitchers, you know.
“So our scrimmages this fall will be mostly Friday, Saturday, and then, actually, the first couple of weekends, we’re trying to build kids up, they might only throw one inning a piece, so the scrimmages are going to be shorter, and we might even design them where we have a three-inning scrimmage, we take a 10-minute break, and then we start another one, whether it’s three innings, two innings, at least for the first couple of weekends.”
Will Arkansas finally get a healthy Hunter Dietz?
Third-year southpaw Hunter Dietz is due for a breakout season. He has only appeared in four games across his Razorbacks career as his string of tough luck began in 2024 when he endured a lingering injury to his ulna bone.
Thus far, things could not be better for Dietz in Van Horn’s mind.
“Hunter Dietz is back and he seems to be throwing the ball better than ever,” Van Horn stated. “He went and pitched in the Cape and got better every outing. We knew it was in there and summer ball got better and better, now he is back here and I think he is starting to pitch more free mentally.
“Just let it go, the injury is behind him and now he has got to build up and gain some confidence and do what he did when he came in the door, which was really good. You talk about a third-year player who does not have very much experience at the Division I level, but the stuff looks like it is going to be there. Hopefully it will go well this fall and, you never know, maybe he jumps into that starting rotation.”
Around the time he was set to make his 2025 debut back in late April for a mid-week game against Little Rock, Dietz suffered a freak accident during warm up where a resistance band that was mounted to the wall snapped off and struck him above the eye requiring 10 stitches.
That debut would come in a loss LSU on May 10, in which he struck out two batters in 2/3 innings, but his second and final appearance of the year came five days later in the opening game of the Tennessee regular season series. He surrendered a two-run homer and gave up three total earned runs without recording an out.
“Really when you think about it, he came in and had a little injury, it got worse and he got it fixed,” Van Horn said. “He has not pitched much. He pitched a couple of times for us last year, he had one outing against LSU and we ended up losing the game, his stuff was amazing, and it did not happen again.”
Gabe Gaeckle figures to be in the starting rotation
On the mound, Arkansas lost Friday ace Zach Root, fellow southpaw Landon Beidelschies and College World Series no-hit star Gage Wood to the MLB Draft. All three notched double-digit starts, while Gabe Gaeckle posted nine after beginning the season as starter with a lot of preseason hype, but proved to be more successful as a reliever.
Gaeckle thrived once he returned to the bullpen, posting 71.1 innings with a 4.42 earned run average while surrendering 63 hits and striking out 92 batters in 19 appearances. Gaeckle expects to be in the starting rotation in 2026, but will get to rest his arm this fall.
“We feel like he’ll be a starter this year,” Van Horn said. “As a matter of fact, I was going to mention this, we’re not even going to pitch Gaeckle this fall.
“I feel like he was good with it. He kind of gave us that look where the eyes go up but thought it was probably a good thing. He can really focus on getting super healthy and strong, maybe a little bit of downtime from throwing because I feel like he needs a little more.”
