By Nate Allen
Special to the News-Times
FAYETTEVILLE - Originally set to host the California Golden Bears in a 4-game series Thursday through Sunday at Baum Stadium.
Coach Dave Van Horn's baseball Razorbacks now host Eastern Illinois in games 2 pm. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday and 2 p.m. Monday.
Meanwhile the Kansas State Wildcats, originally scheduled to host Eastern Illinois this weekend in Manhattan, Kan.,fly to Berkeley, Calif. and play California.
Wintry forecasts for Fayetteville and Manhattan, Kan. altered the weekend plays for the four teams involved in some hasty rescheduling.
So K-State flew to Cal and Eastern Illinois chances on Saturday through Monday being better weather than what was forecast for Thursday and Friday.
Van Horn said it would have cost Cal "$35,000 to $40,000" to come to Fayetteville with no weather guarantees of playing more than a game or two if that but that it is drivable for Eastern Illinois which still would be coming from the cold even if it's cold here.
Since the Hogs, 4-2 played four games in Berkeley last year and just came off the road from playing three games in Mobile, Ala. sandwiching a victory over host South Alabama around losses to Central Florida and Maryland, Van Horn wasn't interested in hastily flying his Hogs to Berkeley.
From March 4-11 before opening the SEC season March 13 at reigning national champion Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., Arkansas at Baum Stadium plays Louisiana Tech, March 4, Loyola Marymount March 6-8, and Gonzaga, March 10-11.
"We had just played on the road and we miss a lot of school as it is, especially with SEC play being so far away," Van Horn said. "Starting Saturday we have got 23 games in the next 31 days. So I want to have a fresh team. I think it wasn't really feasible. We didn't discuss it too much really."
Eastern Illinois' Panthers of the Ohio Valley Conference, losers 18-3, 10-2, 11-1, in their opening series at SEC power Georgia, obviously aren't anticipated to provide the competition of Cal, 5-3 vs Duke, Stanford and California-Irvine, but Van Horn just likes the Hogs getting the chance to play somebody here. Especially with their last game starting out leading No. 18 ranked Maryland 6-1 and losing 13-6 mainly on a 9-run inning aided and abetted by Arkansas errors despite the Hogs opening their season with three errorless games sweeping North Dakota at Baum Stadium.
"In baseball you like to just play," Van Horn said. "As an example we lost Friday (to UCF in Mobile) and left a lot of runners on base and waked too many people and had a chance to put together a couple of big innings and we didn't. We lost but we got up the next day and played and played really well. We beat the home team, 7-0. Sunday we lost and now we have to wait until Saturday."
Van admitted the Hogs unraveled that one inning against Maryland.
"I didn't see it coming because we had played such good defense so far this year," Van Horn said. "Hopefully we can put that behind us and learn from it and move on. Like I told our team, it was one we had in control and ended up losing. We need to steal a game down the road from somebody."
Dominic Taccolini, Zach Jackson and Keaton McKinney, Van Horn said, again will be Arkansas' three starting pitchers as they were in Mobile.
Paced by slick fielding third baseman Bobby Wernes' hitting a surprising .474, Arkansas hits .371 as a team.
"Wernes is hot," Van Horn said. "His swing - I made the comment earlier that I felt like he was one of the most improved players on the team. His defense is always there and he comes to play every day. Offensively we are going to be fine. We have some guys that haven't played yet."