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College  | Story | 3/10/2020

Scout Take: Arkansas

Photo: Heston Kjerstad (Arkansas Athletics)

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Arkansas Razorbacks

What Happened: The Razorbacks came into the Shriners College Classic riding a very good start to the season, but while they played three close games, they left Houston 0-3 in the event with losses to Oklahoma, Texas and Baylor. They got solid starts from Connor Noland and Kole Ramage, but couldn't string together enough hits in those outings. The offense showed up on Saturday but couldn't quite climb out of an eight-run hole they fell into early on. It was a story as old as time with baseball teams at any level: when the pitching was right, they couldn't hit, and when the bats were hot, the pitching lacked. 

Carrying Tool: Big bats, right now. Heston Kjerstad and Christian Franklin are both performing at a high level right now and really carrying the offense. It's not to say that the others aren't performing, as Casey Opitz, Robert Moore, Matt Goodheart and others all have respectable lines, but there wasn't a lot of consistency in their weekend at Shriners and the missed opportunities were plentiful. Star shortstop Casey Martin has seemingly turned things around in the interim, but it was a rough Shriners for him both offensively and in the field. If he gets back to his usual level of performance and the aforementioned guys keep ticking up, the offense will take on a very loud, very deep look. 

Concerns: Starting pitching. Arkansas has one of the best pitching coaches at any level of baseball in the world in Matt Hobbs, and a stable of young, exciting arms, but right now the starting pitching outside of Friday starter Connor Noland is a bit suspect. Sophomore Patrick Wicklander has been extremely hittable thus far and Kole Ramage has been just okay. True freshman Blake Adams was expected to be a piece in the rotation but hasn't really found his consistency yet, though watch out for young arm Caleb Bolden, who showed real stuff out of the bullpen in Houston and could be a guy in that rotation eventually. 

Best Player on the Field: Heston Kjerstad, with an honorable mention nod to Robert Moore. Kjerstad has performed at a very high level thus far overall in 2020 and was loud at Shriners as well. His veteran presence in the middle of the order along with his obvious high-level hitting tools give him first round upside. Robert Moore is playing at a high level as a still 17-year old freshman who early enrolled in January; the game just moves so slowly for him that it's really incredible to watch. 
 
Fearless Forecast: Deep postseason run. The Razorbacks are taking a bit to find their rhythm early on in 2020, but make no mistake, with a team as talented as this and with an offense with the upside that their's possesses, there's certainly no reason to panic yet. They started to find their stride with a series win over South Alabama most recently, and as they continue to find the right combination in the weekend rotation, this should be a club that competes for Omaha, as they do every year.

Previous player reports:
Feb. 28: Connor Noland
March 1: Kole Ramage, Elijah Trest

Players covered: Heston Kjerstad, Robert Moore, Casey Opitz, Patrick Wicklander, Matt Goodheart



Heston Kjerstad, OF
Arkansas corner outfield and presumptive first round pick Heston Kjerstad has been on fire to start 2020 with a 1.299 OPS through roughly 70 plate appearances thus far, hitting for the power that was expected with five doubles and six home runs, and also doing a noticeable job of cutting down on his strikeouts.

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