Sooner or later, a national championship has to fall into Arkansas and head coach Dave Van Horn’s lap.
Right?
The past two NCAA tournaments have not gone well for the Razorbacks as they have failed to make it out of their own hosted regional.
It feels as if this could be the could be the year. The 2025 Arkansas team is a shoe-in as a top-10 team in the country heading into this season. The pitching depth is off the charts and players in the lineup are poised for a big season.
Then again, Arkansas fans have felt that way before. That’s what happens when Van Horn, who’s been there since 2003 ad won 883 games, has made the NCAA tournament every year it’s been played, excepting 2016, been to the College World Series seven times and finished runner-up in 2018.
Van Horn addressed the lingering disappointment of the last two years, during which the Razorbacks won the now-defunct SEC West, but failed to make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament.
“When you start a new season, you kind of push the one from the year before behind you,” Van Horn said. “It was a great year last year. We just didn’t finish the way we wanted it. Another opportunity. A lot of new players. Probably a little… period where we’ll have to continue to bond, but I feel good about where we are as a team. … If fall is any indication, the team seems to be close and probably about as close as we could hope at this time, with this many new guys. Just really looking forward to getting it going.”
Pitcher Will McEntire is entering his sixth year with the Razorbacks. The five squads of which he’s been a part have gone 194-73 and yet he feels that Arkansas might be primed for another level.
“Top to bottom talent-wise, this might be the best of the best I’ve played with,” McEntire said the week of the opener.
THE LINEUP
Hitting has been the relative weakness of the program of late. The Razorbacks scored 401 runs last season, ranking 11th in the league; the teams that ranked below Arkansas all missed the postseason. In league play, Arkansas scored 157 runs.
Van Horn re-tooled the lineup through the transfer portal, adding seven potential major contributors this season.
The headliner is likely JUCO transfer for Arkansas from the fall was Brent Iredale who was a second-team all-American played for New Mexico Junior College and was the MVP of the Western Junior College Athletic Conference. Iredale hit .441/.576/1.000 last season with 25 home runs and 24 stolen bases over 255 plate appearances. He’ll play third and likely hit cleanup and provide the big power the Razorbacks have desperately lacked.
“I call him ‘the silent assassin,’” Van Horn said. “He doesn’t say a lot but he’ll get after you in the game. … He’s a big guy that can run. He can steal bases, kind of sneaky there.”
Another power threat is returning shortstop is Wehiwa Aloy. A career .323/.390/.573 hitter between Arkansas and Sacramento State, he hit 14 home runs each of his two seasons and is the No. 39 prospect for the 2025 Draft according to MLB Pipeline, in part thanks to a .309/352/.642 battling line with eight home runs in 88 plate appearances in the Cape.
Believe it or not, Aloy didn’t even have the best home-run output among Arkansas players in the Cape. That belonged to catcher Ryder Helfrick, who banged 11 in 142 at-bats after hitting three in 179 plate appearances for the Razorbacks.
Nolan Souza returns to man second after being named to the Freshman All-SEC team last season. He will be a key factor to success along the infield and looks to have a breakout sophomore campaign. A 29% strikeout rate needs to come down, but a .271/.485/.479 batting line in the California Collegiate League was encouraging.
Transfer Rocco Peppi rounds out the starting infield at first. A .309/.391/.492 career hitter over 737 plate appearances between two years at Long Beach State and another at Fresno State (that came last year), Peppi has hit 25 career home runs. Between summer and collegiate stops, he’s played third and all three outfield spots.
A healthier Kendall Diggs will be back in the outfield for a fourth season. His production dipped as his health did, and the .299/.436/.547 batting line with 12 home runs that he produced in 2023 could be more indicative of what he can do than last season’s .229/.346/.395, seven-homer output. Diggs played through a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder—which he suffered just before SEC play began-and that hurt his 2024 production.
“You can look at technology and bat speed and look at where his numbers were and where they are now, they weren’t up the first couple of weeks,” Van Horn said. “But now they’re starting to get there. His exit velocity in (batting practice), what we have it coming off the barrel—he mis-hit a ball the other day, not mis-hit, he got out in front on a pitch, and hooked it down the right-field line for a home run. Hits the ball the other way. … The first week out he kind of tweaked a hammy but it seems to be okay now. … I think he’s gonna be better than ever. ”
TCU transfer Logan Maxwell should start in the outfield after hitting .295/.422/.427 over 435 plate appearances in three years there, while hitting .335/.447/,482, with 30 walks to 23 strikeouts last year. Van Horn says his hamstring wasn’t completely healthy as of the week entering the season.
“That’s something he’s dealt with in his career,” Van Horn said. “He’s very strong lower-half. This year he’s come in and gained some weight. … He seems to be about 90% as of (opening week). If he played today he would start offensively, whether it’s DH-ing or starting in the outfield.”
Florida Gulf Coast transfer Charles Davalan—a Canadian who, according to Diggs, “speaks French fluently”—hit .288/.413/.514 with 10 home runs in his first year of college ball last season before posting a .722 OPS over 76 plate appearances in the Cape. He’ll also start in the outfield.
Three transfers could contribute heavily off the bench.
Cam Kozeal is a SEC transfer who moves to Fayetteville from Vanderbilt. He showed promise during his freshman season in Nashville with a .284 batting average in 148 at-bats. Kozeal’s been a second baseman, but Van Horn is uncertain where he fits long term and mentioned moving him to several other positions just days before the season began.
“The bat’s coming on,” Van Horn said. “He’s not striking out, (not) swinging and missing much. He’s powerful. But he’s been going the other way. To us, really, in fall ball, then early in spring when we got back from scrimmaging, I just think he over-swings. He’s trying to hit every ball 500 feet and start making two-strike adjustments. That’s part of our offense and if you don’t do it, it’s hard to play. I think he found out most of his good hits after January, or January and early February, have been with two strikes. … He’s done a good job with that. I appreciate the way he’s continue to work.”
Wehiwa Aloy’s brother, Kuhio Aloy, transfers in from BYU. He was a part of the Big 12 All-Freshman team in 2024, hitting .269/.329/.447 with eight home runs. His official bio on the Arkansas web site boasts that he “can hit a golf ball 400 yards,” but making contact with a baseball (he struck out 28% of the time last season) has been an obstacle.
The Aloy brothers are two of the team’s three Hawai’i natives, with Souza being the other.
JUCO transfer Justin Thomas comes from Florida Southwest State, where ht hit .393/.514/.699 with 14 home runs over 280 plate appearances last season.
“Thomas is a really good baserunner, he’s an outstanding defender and he’s a good hitter,” Van Horn said. “He’s really streaky. When he first got here, he wanted to pull everything. … He’s made some adjustments. He’s been really coachable and really likable and what I mean by that is, when you have kids that want to get better, that are not hung up on playing center field or pouting around because they got pushed to left… He just brings a lot to the game because he’s got some tools. He can make a play, he can hit a home run all fields and he can hit doubles and triples.”
Zane Becker, whom Perfect Game rates as the No. 428 prospect in the 2024 high school class, has emerged as the backup catcher.
“He’s been swinging it really well,” Van Horn said.
Rhode Island transfer Michael Anderson could see time in the infield after hitting .289/.403/.563 with 23 home runs over 443 plate appearances in two years at his previous stop.
Freshman catcher Carson Willis will redshirt.
THE PITCHING
This pitching staff is possibly the best staff in the SEC and the country. He’ll start with Gabe Gaeckle who was amazing in 2024. He finished with a 2.32 ERA and a 32% strikeout rate. He has potential to be the best pitcher in the SEC.
“Now, he’s going to have his great days, he’ll have his good days and he’ll have a day or two where it doesn’t go great,” Van Horn said. “He’s been here a year and a half and we, our hitters, have only got him one time and that was (in early February), and he was not happy about it.
“His bullpen the other day, I think he had a little something to prove,” Van Horn said the week of the opener. “(Pitching) coach (Matt) Hobbs said it was amazing. Just because he’s not happy with the way he pitched. So, that’s going to happen, he’s human.
“But, we’re hoping (the preseason hype) doesn’t affect him. That’s what we see. His personality, work ethic, makeup, he doesn’t say a whole lot. He’s not a rah-rah guy. Now, he can get fired up if he gets a big out when he needs it, but he’s been through all the situations.”
East Carolina transfer Zach Root will be the No. 2 starter to begin the season. He had a 3.56 ERA and a 27% strikeout rate, allowing home runs just 1.8% of the time in 68 1/3 innings last year.
Gage Wood looked as if he’d be a big-time reliever in 2025. That may still be the case, but, he’ll be the third starter on opening weekend. He had 56 strikeouts in 40 1/3 innings of work last season. He has seven career saves.
“You know, Wood’s been really good,” Van Horn said just days before the opener. “We’ve hit him a little bit lately. I think he’s been frustrated, but the stuff’s been good. I think, you know, when you start to see our guys swinging the bats against our own pitching, we get pretty familiar with them. Sometimes that happens a little bit.”
Another transfer who’ll likely work his way into a starter role is lefty Landon Beidelschies who comes in from Ohio State. He had a 4.15 ERA and 90+ strikeouts last season.
“He can spot it up,” Van Horn said in the fall. “Quick to the plate with his short arm action, a little different. Got a good slider and a good change-up. He can be a starter.”
The bullpen for Arkansas is dripping with talent and experience.
Wood and Christian Foutch could end up splitting closing duties. In his 22 1/3 innings, he finished with an 0.81 ERA. He can get more nods out of the bullpen in 2025 thanks to a 31% ground-ball rate and just one home run allowed.
“I think that sometimes throughout the year we’ll use him twice (in a weekend),” Van Horn says. “I don’t think it’ll be back-to-back days.”
Any team would kill for a versatile arm like Will McEntire who is back for his fifth year in Arkansas. He had an undefeated 5-0 record last season with a 4.83 ERA and has now thrown 197 2/3 career innings with a 4.23 ERA and 204 strikeouts. McEntire’s numbers were better his first two years, and he believes he’s figured out why.
“I realized that hitters didn’t respect the fastball at all, so, they’d lean out over the plate trying to get the breaking stuff,” McEntire said. “I’ve got to make them respect it to be successful with the breaking stuff.
Lefty Colin Fisher gets lost in the bevy of Razorback arms, but he went 6-1 with a 2.67 ERA over 27 innings last year with a 27% ground-ball rate.
“He does such a good job of locating,” Diggs says, in naming him as the pitcher on the staff he most hates to face.
Ben Bybee is back in the Arkansas staff after an improved sophomore season that included seven starts. He had 36 strikeouts in 29 1/3 innings and a 5.83 ERA.
Left-hander Parker Coil returns for his third season. Much like Foutch, he will look to get more innings next season after he pitched 18.2 a season ago. He has a career 6.86 ERA over 40 2/3 innings.
The Razorbacks added a pair of electric-armed freshmen who could have key roles this year in Cole Gibler and Carson Wiggins.
“He’s firing,” Van Horn said of Gibler just before the season started. “We’ve tried to calm him down a little bit, the adrenaline. We’ve tried to calm him down a little bit. He’s coming in there with fire coming out of his nose. He’s good.”
Wiggins, the brother of former Razorback Jaxson Wiggins, was the number one high schooler from Oklahoma, a top ten right-hander in the 2024 class, and the No. 79 prospect for last year’s draft according to MLB Pipeline.
“I feel like he can be a starter here,” Van Horn said. “He can start on Tuesday, he can start on the weekend. Still got to learn some of the other things, like finishing hitters off. It’s about location. It was really cold the other day and he’s touching 98 like it’s nothing. … Lot of talent there, lot of potential.”
Righty Dylan Carter, who had an 8.18 ERA in 11 innings last year, also returns.
Cooper Dossett, who threw 15 2/3 innings for Arkansas last year, had Tommy John surgery and will redshirt.
POTENTIAL STRENGTHS
Have you seen the pitching staff? In a hitting-heavy era, the Razorbacks’ embarrassment of high-strikeout, keep-it-in-the-yard arms alone make them a threat. Iredale should be a game-changer for the Razorbacks, plus, a healthier Diggs, breakout summers from Wehiwa Aloy and Helfrick will help in the power department. The transfer class gives Van Horn a lot of lineup options and flexibility and well as depth to deal with potential injuries. Having a future Hall of Fame coach who gets the Razorbacks to the postseason every year also helps.
POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES AND CONCERNS
A fair amount of the lineup has transfers within it. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how those guys all gel together. Not only that, but which of these transfers from JUCO, the Big 12, etc. can adjust to SEC baseball? This is the major thing to keep an eye on for Arkansas.
FINAL ANALYSIS
The Razorbacks goal until Van Horn’s career comes to an end is simple: win the national championship. Last season, we got a first-time winner from the SEC in the Tennessee Volunteers. Arkansas comes to mind as possibly the most likely next first-time winner the sport will get. It is only a matter of time for Van Horn and the Hogs. They have the pitching staff to get back to Omaha and try to win it all, and it’s one good enough that the Razorbacks’ lineup may need to just be respectable for Arkansas to win it all.
– Alfred Ezman and Chris Lee