Dave Van Horn addresses Will McEntire breaking out of tough stretch

The swings in college baseball can be dramatic, as confidence ebbs and flows depending on the current run of form a player is in. Just ask Arkansas reliever Will McEntire.

McEntire, who has been a staple in the Arkansas rotation all year, recently hit a real slump.

Over the course of five games he gave up 16 hits and 10 earned runs in just 7.0 innings of work, racking up a whopping 12.86 ERA across those games.

Recently, though, starting with a midweek game against Missouri State on Tuesday, McEntire seemed to shake his funk. He followed it up by throwing two scoreless innings on Friday night against Kentucky.

“Yeah I think he threw good the other day, too,” coach Dave Van Horn said afterward. “We wanted to get him out there in the mid-week and I think we had a decent lead when we had him out there, but we just wanted him to throw. I think it was Tuesday, and we needed him to throw Tuesday so we’d have him available to throw Friday, which was tonight, obviously.”

The Tuesday outing went splendidly. Will McEntire struck out one batter and faced the minimum while working a scoreless complete inning.

He followed it up with Friday night’s performance, a two-inning outing in which he surrendered just one hit and one walk, while striking out three.

“Then we were able to get him out of there after like 38 pitches or 39 pitches and possibly be able to use him for an inning maybe tomorrow or even Sunday, one of the two,” Van Horn said.

When McEntire is firing on all cylinders, Arkansas is a much better team. And the Hogs will need every available arm down the stretch as it looks to make a deep postseason run.

That said, three innings don’t necessarily make a trend. And there were even some signs of frustration from Will McEntire on Friday night. He slapped his leg a few times after pitches to illustrate his disappointment.

“I think he was a little frustrated with himself because he got behind in the count,” Van Horn explained. “I think one time he walked somebody or whatever he did. It bothered him a little bit because we had a big lead.

“When we started getting him ready we were only up a run, might have been tied when we started getting him ready, because we were just about — nah, I guess we had a three-run lead — but next thing you know we’ve got an eight- or nine-run lead. He came in and pitched like the game was tied, and that’s what I liked.”

Van Horn was very pleased with the performance overall.

“I liked the way that he attacked it knowing that we had the game in hand if we just didn’t give him anything, and I think that’s where his frustration came from is he got behind in the count a couple times and he also walked a hitter,” Van Horn said. “But I think he always pitches with a little bit of emotion. He wants the ball when the game’s on the line. He wants the ball any time. Like I said, I’m really glad that we got to get him out of there and possibly have him again this weekend.”

Will McEntire and Arkansas will return to action against Kentucky today at 2 p.m. ET. Game 3 in the series will be played on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.

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