With Hitting Coming Around, Van Horn's Biggest Concern is on Mound

Razorbacks' coach knows what problem is with Mason Molina, but knows there's not magic way to fix one key starter as pair struggling

Arkansas Razorbacks pitcher Mason Molina hangs his head waiting on Dave Van Horn to walk from the dugout to replace him in the second inning. / Craven Whitlow-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It didn't take Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn long to answer what's wrong with starting pitcher Mason Molina, who has blown up in his last few starts. The veteran coach simply pointed to his head.

"It’s his battle," Van Horn said. "We can’t fix it. We can’t fix (his head). He’s gotta fix it. He’s gotta relax, know he’s good. We talked to him, we work with him on his mechanics. It’s all been addressed. It’s a veteran starter at the Division I level. He’s got to turn the corner. We’ve got to have him."

Sunday's start against Mississippi State was probably maddening for Van Horn. It didn't take the relievers long to respond to his rocky start, which primarily was not being able to find the play consistently, which was an issue for the whole staff at times in a series win that saw the Razorbacks come from behind every single game. They lost Saturday night, but at least made it respectable from an 8-0 deficit by scoring five unanswered runs.

"He walks the first guy on like five pitches, whatever it was (actually it wasn't the first guy but that's happened every other game)," Van Horn said, understandably thinking it was another repeat after Molina started the game with three straight pitches that didn't find the plate. "Because of what’s gone on the last couple of weeks, we’ve got guys running to the bullpen through the tunnel, because we can not get behind like we did. We didn’t want it to happen again. And then all of a sudden he kicks it into gear, gets out of the inning. Then in the second inning, I think he walks the guy on four pitches and you’re thinking, ‘What’s up?’"

The Hogs' pitchers gave out enough free passes to fill up a bus over the weekend. After what fans and everybody else thought was the strongest part that was going to carry them awhile all the way into Omaha for the College World Series, now it's collapsed. The hitting has, for the most part, gotten enough hits to keep coming back but there's going to be more games where that doesn't happen. Other teams have good pitching, too.

Arkansas has Hagen Smith and a bunch of guys trying to fill in the gaps. We've been pointing this out for awhile here at the allHOGS staff. The relief staff has a different guy every series that gets hot, then has had outings that weren't quite as dominant.

"That’s obviously the major concern," Van Horn said. "The win’s awesome and now we have to really figure this thing out. We’ve got some things we’re thinking about that we’ll probably make a decision if we’re going to start some different people or how we’re going to handle it. Probably depends on where we are in the standings and some other things. We’ve got one guy that’s been rock solid all year and we have two guys that have struggled down the stretch here. We might have to make a move. We’ll see what happens."

Those two guys are Molina and Brady Tygart, who haven't been particularly efficient in their last few starts. The bullpen has bailed them out often enough to prevent some losses, but not all of them. Once Hagen Smith throws the first game it becomes an adventure after that.

Most of it's probably mental, like Van Horn pointed out during the week before the series with Mississippi State, who was trying their best to stay in the middle of a fight with the Hogs and the Bulldogs with the SEC Tournament coming up in a couple of weeks.

The Razorbacks go to College Station, Texas, this week to wrap up the regular season, then it's on to Hoover, Ala., and the tournament. Don't worry, folks, because they are probably safe to host a regional. Maybe even a Super Regional.

But that may only happen if the pitching staff can find a way to get the ball over the plate a little more consistently than they have been doing lately. Until the Hogs can put the ball over the plate, teams will continue to stand there and look at pitches, then trot 90 feet to first the parade on the bases will continue.

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