FAYETTEVILLE -- The gate now appears to be closed on Arkansas' nearly season-long hole at first base.
Senior Jared Gates has emerged from being one of several first base questions for the Razorbacks (42-18) to being the answer. It is just like last year, when his home run beat Missouri State, 11-10, in the rain-delayed Fayetteville Regional final past 3 a.m. that gave the Bears their only loss in the regional. Missouri State won the regional over Arkansas, 3-2, in the night hours after they finished the earlier game near dawn.
The senior left-handed hitter had an RBI double during Arkansas' 10-2 first-round victory over Oral Roberts (38-20) on Friday in the Fayetteville Regional at Baum Stadium. He was 2-for-5 with two RBIs on a home run to initiate Arkansas' seven-run second inning on Saturday as the Hogs defeated Southern Mississippi (44-18), 10-2.
The Wichita, Kan., native also turned in two defensive gems. He made a lunging stab on a fouled line drive, and he achieved an unassisted double play when he snagged another liner and doubled off a runner.
The second-year transfer from Iowa Western Junior College is hitting only .232 this season with five home runs and 21 RBIs, mostly as part of coach Dave Van Horn's 2018 first base roulette wheel. He was 5-for-11, .455, with two walks and an on-base percentage of .538 in Arkansas' three regional games. He led the Razorbacks with a .444 average, 4-for-9, during the team's run to the semifinals of the 2018 Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament the previous week in Hoover, Ala.
The roulette wheel included stops on pitcher and hitter Evan Lee, sophomore Jordan McFarland and junior utility infielder Hunter Wilson. All produced occasionally, but not enough on both offense and defense to satisfy the head coach.
Van Horn opted to return Gates, his most experienced first baseman, to the starting lineup before the SEC Tournament.
"I just feel like he's a senior, and this is his last hurrah at the college level," Van Horn explained. "He hasn't had the year that he expected or we expected. But I think we've got to have somebody step up there, offensively, and I think Gates is the guy.
"We are going to turn it over to him. Whether it's a left or right-handed pitcher, we expect him to play good defense and drive in some runs down at the end of the order."
Gates did that at Hoover and in the Fayetteville Regional. It prompted asking Van Horn late Saturday night if Gates' postseason resurgence last year after an injury-plagued slow start prompted the coach this postseason to summon him again.
"It's really because I felt like Gates is a good defender," Van Horn said. "At the time, we weren't getting much production out of the first basemen I was putting over there, so I just felt like I would go with the experienced guy that seems to make a lot of plays. If he gets to it, he fields it."
"I talked to Gates a while back about, 'You don't have to worry about coming to the park and checking the lineup. You're playing,'" Van Horn added. "Just hoping that he would relax a little bit. I basically told him that you're the guy. I have confidence in you, and we need you. He sure has responded, I'll tell you that."
Redshirt senior second baseman Carson Shaddy concurred.
"I see a lot of confidence in Gates' approach and his swing and his demeanor," Shaddy said. "He's a guy that everybody looks up to in the locker room. He's an older guy like myself, and he has confidence, and it's working."
The change has worked so well, Gates said, he is seeing pitches he did not see earlier in the season.
"I just feel good up there right now," Gates said. "I don't know to explain it. I'm just seeing the ball pretty well and putting some good swings on it. So, I just have a lot of confidence in myself right now, and I'm going to keep it going."
"Carson nailed it on the head," said junior left-handed starting pitcher Kacey Murphy. "(Gates) is a great team guy and all that. He stays to what he's good at, and it shows right now."
Between Gates in the eight-hole and junior shortstop Jax Biggers shattering a slump batting ninth since his return from a broken finger, the Razorbacks recently hit as well from the bottom of the lineup as its top.
Sports on 06/07/2018