Anytime Arkansas Razorback head baseball coach Dave Van Horn and former assistant — now Tennessee Volunteer head coach — Tony Vitello reunite to compete on the diamond, offensive fireworks typically ensue when they deploy trademark gorilla tactics against one another.
That was the case for most of this weekend's Southeastern Conference regular season-ending series at Baum Walker Stadium until Van Horn reached up his sleeve and pulled out an ace from Arkansas' deep bullpen in the form of senior right hander Will McEntire. McEntire promptly took the mound in the top of the sixth inning with his team up 8-4 and proceeded to pitch the remaining three and a two-third innings by retiring all 11 Volunteers he faced with four strikeouts and no walks to earn Razorbacker of the Week.
"He kept saying, ‘I want to pitch. I want to pitch.’ Then when he got on the mound, he just let it go. He had to pitch fearless and he did. He just went at them and it was great to see."Dave Van Horn
Will McEntire earns last Razorbacker of the Week of the regular season
"We had Will ready to go and Will pitched great," Van Horn said. "He was just filling up the zone with fast balls, cutters and curve balls. He did a tremendous job because their lefty came in and shut us down pretty good there at the end. It was almost like both teams were getting tired there at the end to be honest with you, but yeah that was a big win for us."
McEntire's save not only secured Arkansas' third-straight 20 win season in SEC play, but it most likely guaranteed the Razorbacks (43-12, 20-10 SEC) will play at home in the upcoming NCAA Tournament regionals — no matter how they fair in next weekend's SEC Tournament quarter-final round as the No. 2 seed beginning on Friday at 3 p.m. on the SEC Network.
This past weekend however, the No. 8 ranked Razorbacks and No. 17 ranked Volunteers saw the winning team score eight or more runs in every game. Tennessee took Thursday's opener 10-7 and Arkansas bounced back to take game two on Friday 8-6. With the Razorbacks being paced at the plate all weekend by senior Logan Maxwell's seven-for-12 effort with three walks and two runs-batted-in, Sunday's series deciding contest was decided by pitching in the end.
With both bullpens nearly exhausted, Van Horn turned to his senior from Bryant, Ark. to rise to the occasion and shut down one of the most explosive offenses in college baseball. Given the opportunity, McEntire, whose earned run average is .259 in 16 appearances on the season, proved he was prepared for the challenge.
"That’s probably a lot of hard work. What I mean by that is he hasn’t pitched for a while, but he just kept working and he kept working," Van Horn said. "He kept getting more frustrated. He kept saying, ‘I want to pitch. I want to pitch.’ Then when he got on the mound, he just let it go. He had to pitch fearless and he did. He just went at them and it was great to see.
"We didn’t know if he was going to be able to go one inning or three with a couple of hitters. You always have to have plan B but we didn’t need anything — which was great."
With the SEC Tournament followed by another opportunity to get back to a College World Series on tap, Van Horn is counting on his team's pitching depth to play a key role in breaking the recent trend of postseason disappointments in the friendly confines of Baum Walker.
"I mean just look at the games this weekend. Teams are taking leads into the ninth and giving up homer after homer," Van Horn said. "Things happen and the players are good. To win 20 in the toughest league in the country, it’s special to us.
"I think it shows that we have guys who can get it done out of the bullpen. It doesn’t always have to be the guys who have been doing it all year long. Other guys have to step up. Usually you have to have one guy come on and play really well for you. Maybe it’s an arm or a hitter that may be okay, but it wasn’t during the year but now he’s just stepped it up. There are a lot of those stories over the years with teams that play all the way to Omaha."