It's hard to believe we are a month into the college baseball season, and SEC play is right around the corner. The Arkansas Razorbacks are heading to Oxford this weekend for the first series of conference play. In this article, we will look at the status of the pitching staff so far this year.
We have talked about it before, but the addition of pitching coach Joel Mangrum has been a revolutionary change in how the Rebels approach pitching. There seems to be a much more coherent plan for how the pitchers are being managed and developed, which seems to be paying off so far. The Rebels are pitching to a team ERA of 3.48 and WHIP of 1.42 and have held opponents to a .229 batting average.
Starting rotation seems solidified
Coming into the season, there was a lot of talk about a senior and veteran-led rotation of Hunter Elliott, Riley Maddox, and Mason Nichols. So far, so good.
Hunter Elliott has been incredible. He has a 1.86 ERA and 1.14 WHIP over his 19.1 innings pitched and is 3-0. He also has 25 strikeouts. Before his sixth start against Jacksonville State, Elliott was yet to allow a run. The return of Elliott has been massive for the early success of this team and he will be leaned on heavily on Friday nights heading into SEC play.
Riley Maddox also looks to have taken a step in his development and has been good so far this season. He has an ERA of 3.44 and a WHIP of 1.20. Outside of his first start against Texas, he has been excellent. Maddox and Elliott are providing a great one-two punch for this Rebel team.
Mason Nichols has been a solid anchor on Sundays. He has thrown the least amount of innings of the three starters, only 15, but has struck out 22 batters. He has an ERA of 4.20 and a WHIP of 1.20. He has also put together his best two starts for the last two weekends, heading into SEC play.
The Bullpen is taking shape
There are a lot of competent arms in this bullpen as we discussed prior to the start of the season. With that, there comes a lot of sorting out and testing of different uses for all of the pitchers. That is why the non-conference slate of games at the beginning of the season is so important.
Several guys have established themselves as the top arms in the bullpen. First is Mason Morris, who has frequently been the first guy out of the pen on Fridays and, through his 13.1 innings, has a 0.83 WHIP and 16 Ks. Additionally, freshman Walker Hooks has a 0.70 WHIP and struck out 16 in just 10 innings. Connor Spencer has remained the closer that he was last season and is yet to allow an earned run in his .51 innings.
Outside of that, Brayden Jones has flashed in a few of his outings and has yet to allow a run. Will McCausland has provided 11 innings with a 4.91 ERA and 1.36 WHIP. Landown Waters has also steadily improved across his outings. Alex Canney has a 1.29 ERA in 7 innings, and then you have Gunnar Dennis, Hudson Calhoun, Sam Tookoian, Patrick Galle, Owen Hancock, and Cooper Johnson as reserve depth pieces. Unfortunately, highly touted freshman Cade Townsend battled some control issues early this year and had an 8.44 ERA and 2.06 WHIP in his 5.1 IPs.
When looking at the bullpen, there are 3 to 5 guys you feel comfortable running out there and three guys that have been totally locked down. That bodes well if you can get 5 or 6 innings out of Elliott and Maddox on Friday and Saturday. However, that won’t always be the case, and Nichols has not been going deep into the game on Sundays. There are some quality concerns regarding the back end of this bullpen heading into SEC play, when the quality of hitters will increase substantially.