Coach Dave Van Horn will take his No. 3 Arkansas Razorbacks into their annual game at Dickey-Stephens Park tonight in North Little Rock fresh off of a weekend Southeastern Conference sweep of Auburn at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.
Arkansas (24-9, 8-4) will host the Grambling State Tigers (16-16, 9-6 Southwestern Athletic Conference) at 6:30 p.m. on the Razorbacks' radio network. Dickey-Stephens is home to the minor league Arkansas Travelers team.
"We look forward to going down there every year," Van Horn said Sunday. "It's a good crowd. It's a lot of fans from central Arkansas that maybe can't get up here or maybe can get up here one time a year or something. Hopefully, the weather will be good for us."
With the South Carolina Gamecocks (18-14, 5-7) looming for a three-game series Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Baum Stadium, Van Horn said he will leave weekend starters Blaine Knight (6-0), Kacey Murphy (4-2) and Isaiah Campbell (2-3) at home. Jake Reindl (2-1) will also rest his arm for the SEC series after pitching seven innings of winning relief Sunday against Auburn (23-10, 4-8).
Freshman right-hander Caleb Bolden (3-0), 2.61 ERA, is scheduled to start tonight for Arkansas after going seven innings in a 4-0 win over Louisiana-Monroe (17-15, 11-4 Sun Belt Conference). The Razorbacks could use five-plus innings from Bolden, but Van Horn said he would also like to work in regular relievers Jackson Rutledge, Kole Ramage and Cody Scroggins, who did not pitch against Auburn.
Grambling bats. .287 and is led by shortstop Marshawn Taylor, .408 batting average and 28 RBIs; designated hitter Rafael Ramirez III, batting .349 with seven home runs and 28 RBIs; and catcher Richard Ortiz. .330, nine home runs and 38 RBIs.
Freshman left fielder Heston Kjerstad, singling home Sunday's game-winner in the ninth inning after starting 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, leads Arkansas with a .374 batting average, eight home runs and 31 RBI. Senior second baseman Carson Shaddy is hitting .364 with seven home runs and 26 RBIs. Right fielder Eric Cole hits .348 with seven home runs and 24 RBIs. Freshman third baseman Casey Martin is batting .324 with seven home runs and 28 RBIs.
The Razorbacks used Monday as their NCAA mandated off-day. They will have tonight's game and a Wednesday practice before South Carolina arrives.
"We get on a bus on Tuesday and they'll probably start to think about the game on the ride down there," Van Horn said. "I'll mix it up a little bit, but I'll still play a lot of the starters.
"Every game is important from here on out. We'll try to play another good ball game, then obviously on the way back we start getting our mind on South Carolina."
Sports on 04/10/2018