The Arkansas Razorbacks may have come up short in their weekend series against the No. 7 nationally-ranked Georgia Bulldogs, but sophomore catcher Ryder Helfrick's long-ball exploits helped his team keep things interesting and earned him Razorbacker of the Week.
Ryder Helfrick- Razorbacker of the Week
Batting in the eight whole in the batting order for an Arkansas team that came into the weekend series at Geogia's Fulton Stadium ranked No. 1 in the country and tied for first in the SEC, the Discovery Bay, California native had three of his eight home runs on the year so far while going 4-12 at the plate with four runs batted in and a pair of walks over the three-game series. That made for a .500 plus on base percentage and another outstanding effort catching behind the plate according to Razorback coach Dave Van Horn.
"Well he hit three home runs. He struck out a few times but I thought he caught great," Van Horn said after seeing his team lose a series for the first time all season on a pair of one-run losses Saturday and Sunday. "I thought he had an excellent weekend behind the dish. He caught everything. He blocked everything. He did good."
Holy cow, Ryder Helfrick just DRILLED this ball to left-center. The sophomore catcher doing his best to jumpstart a rally.pic.twitter.com/HnNfkTQq4e
— Michael Main (@MichaelMain__) April 13, 2025
Helfrick's first homer came in Friday's 13-3 series-opening win where Arkansas spotted Georgia a three-run early lead before scoring 13 unanswered runs. Razorback relief pitcher's like Aiden Jimenez, who almost won this week's ROW with five stellar innings of work in two games in the series, nearly helped the Razorbacks stay unbeaten in SEC series play as Arkansas couldn't quite pull off late-game rallies in games two and three.
Arkansas ended up losing both those games by 7-6 margins with the last one on Sunday coming in 11 innings. Helfrick's clutch bunt to advance a runner into scoring position for a game-tying run helped extend Sunday's contest. However, Georgia got a walk off homer by Hunter Henry in the bottom of the 11th to win the series.
On the year, Helfrick is batting .313 with eight home runs and 22 rbis.