FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ baseball team is hoping Barrett Astin can pitch this weekend in the Houston NCAA Regional as well as he did when the Razorbacks played in the Houston College Classic during the first week in March.
“If we’re going to make a move in this regional, Astin’s got to be a big part of it,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said.
Arkansas plays Sam Houston State at 1 p.m. Friday atRice’s Reckling Park in the double-elimination regional tournament. Top-seeded Rice plays Prairie View A&M at 6 p.m. Friday.
Astin, a sophomore right hander from Forrest City, pitched 4 scoreless innings with 1 hit and 8 strikeouts while picking up 2 saves when the Razorbacks beat Texas Tech 3-1 and Texas 7-3 in Houston earlier this season as part of his dominant stretch to open the season.
Through his first 20 innings in 10 appearances, Astin didn’t allow an earned run while holding opponents to 6 hits with 22 strikeouts and 7 walks.
Mississippi State became the first team to score an earned run against Astin when he allowed 1 run on 3 hits in 3 1/3 innings in the Razorbacks’ 8-5victory in 11 innings March 25. The next weekend Arkansas was swept in a three-game series at LSU and Astin took two losses in relief when the Tigers won 2-1 with a run in the ninth inning and 3-2 with a run in the 10th.
In Astin’s past 18 appearances since giving up his first earned run, his ERA is 3.82. In 302/3 innings, he has allowed 35 hits with 36 strikeouts and 16 walks.
“I think it has to do with confidence,” Van Horn said. “It’s like he’ll get one or two strikes on a hitter, and then he starts nibbling too much.
“He goes from 1-2 counts to 3-2 counts instead of just attacking and letting the defense work for him. We talked to him about that after the conference tournament, that he’s got to finish people off. Just be more aggressive with his stuff - and he’s got good stuff.”
Astin said he hasn’t been doing a good enough job of pitching to contact.
“I’ve been coming in with the bases loaded, two people on, trying to get out of a jam,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get hitters to miss instead of pitching to contact and getting a ground ball and getting out of the inning.”
On the season, Astin is 3-5 with 9 saves and a 2.31 ERA with 58 strikeouts in 50 2/3 innings.
“He’s just got to get his delivery back, and his control,” Arkansas pitching coach Dave Jorn said. “His delivery got a little bit away from him. He got a little bit out front with his body. His arm was dragging, and he wasn’t able to find that release point that was allowing him to make those quality pitches.”
Jorn said it can be difficult for a reliever to work on his mechanics during the season if he’s pitching as frequently as Astin, who earlier pitched in five games during a nine-day stretch, including all three games in the South Carolina series.
“You’ve got to rest, so you can’t go out there and work in the bullpen and try and make some adjustments and fix some things like you can with the starters,” Jorn said. “You’ve got to be able to stay in touch with your body and really know how to repeat your delivery. But once it gets away from you, it’s kind of hard to get it back.”
Astin and Arkansas’ other relievers have had more than a week to practice since the Razorbacks were eliminated from the SEC Tournament with a 2-0 loss to Ole Miss on May 23.
“This week off we’ve gotten two bullpen sessions tokind of straighten things out,” Astin said. “Coach Jorn has done a great job with us getting back to our basic mechanics. I think we all look good right now.”
Cade Lynch, who often has been the first left-hander out of the bullpen, is questionable for the regional after being hospitalized by migraine headaches.
If Lynch isn’t able to pitch, Jorn said the top options among left-handers are Trent Daniel and Ty Wright. Astin, Colby Suggs, Brandon Moore and Nolan Sanburn are the top right-handers in the bullpen.
Astin said the relievers’ arms and minds are fresh and ready to go for the regional.
“Our goal is to go down there and play three games and be out of there and go on to a super [regional],” Astin said. “But our bullpen is built to where we can go four or five games.”
Sports, Pages 19 on 05/31/2012