Three Takeaways from First Trio of Hogs' Baseball Scrimmages

Fans get chance to see nearly 30 new Razorbacks for the first time in Friday's workout

Yarmouth-Dennis shortstop Wehiwa Aloy takes the throw as Ike Irish of Chatham arrives safely at second. / Ron Schloerb/Cape Cod Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas baseball is underway with a series of intrasquad scrimmages to sort out position battles ahead of the 2025 season. The Razorbacks have 11 NCAA Tournament teams on the schedule.

In honor of the Hogs just wrapping up their third scrimmage, here are three early takeaways.

Wehiwa Aloy is back and better than ever:
The crown jewel of the 2024 portal class, Aloy started all 60 games at shortstop for the Razorbacks last year and was the only constant in a revolving lineup. After putting together a monster summer in the Cape Cod League, Aloy has returned to Fayetteville with his younger brother and picked up right where he left off up north. Aloy is now in the lineup with his younger brother Kuhio, who transferred from BYU. The elder Aloy already has two home runs, including the longest one so far of anyone, a 417-foot shot.

Smith's heir apparent candidates lining up:
Hagen Smith capped off a historic Hog career and made himself $8 million richer with the White Sox, but he also left behind massive shoes to fill. Fellow left-hander and ECU transfer Zach Root continues a Razorback tradition of a lefty hurler wearing 33. Root has looked solid in his two outings so far, only giving up a solo homer in two innings and striking out two.

"I talked to Zach about it and he kind of knew there had been some guys wearing that that were pretty good," coach Dave Van Horn said about Root taking 33. "Didn’t want to throw that on him if he didn’t want to handle it , but he was good with it.”

The weekend rotation may be filled out with a pair of Gabes. Gabe Gaeckle and Gage Wood are back to compete for spots in the starting rotation. Van Horn has long said the plan was to move Gaeckle to the starting rotation after last year's crop of pitchers moved on to professional baseball. However, Gaeckle was rudely greeted, giving up three straight homers to the first three batters he faced.

New International Flair:
The Razorbacks have 30 newcomers to phase in before the start of the season, the new normal in the portal era. However, the two best transfers have had long and winding paths to Fayetteville that started outside of the U.S. Infielder Charles Davalan, originally from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, transfers in from Florida Gulf Coast. Davalan has seen action in the leadoff spot and started at second base, starting the scrimmage season going 3-for-7 with a homer and a double according to unofficial stats kept by the Arkansas media.

Traveling to the other side of the world, New Mexico JUCO transfer Brent Iredale originally hails from Sydney, Australia. He comes to the hill after hitting .441 with 25 homers last year at the JUCO level. Iredale has gotten off to arguably the hottest hitter of anyone, starting 5-for-10 with three homers.

Honorable Mention:
True freshman Brenton Clark came up just a triple short of the cycle in Friday's scrimmage and leads the team in the early going with three homers.

The Razorbacks will continue its series of scrimmages Sunday. A time has not yet been announced. All scrimmages are free and open to the public.

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