FAYETTEVILLE -- Eastern Illinois right-hander Will Klein had to tip his cap to University of Arkansas three-hole hitter Heston Kjerstad after Friday's season opener at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Kjerstad went 3 for 4 with 2 home runs and 3 RBI to lead the No. 5 Razorbacks to a 5-1 victory.
"The plan on him was to try not to let him hit it," Klein said.
Kjerstad victimized Klein with a two-strike RBI single into the hole on the left side in the first inning, then pulled a solo home run into the Eastern Illinois bullpen during the Hogs' three-run fifth inning.
"I thought I had him the first AB, but he poked one through the hole," Klein said. "I was like, 'All right, good hit.' Next AB, I don't really remember. But then that last one, 3-0 to him, got behind and had to throw him fastballs, and he did what he's going to do for about 10 more years."
Said Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn of Kjerstad: "For a hitter at this level, his development is incredible. He just keeps getting better and better. What you saw today is what we've been seeing all year here. He battled. He got his pitches, and he hit them hard."
Kjerstad said he was just looking to support starting pitcher Connor Noland with his first-inning at-bat.
"[Braydon] Webb was on second base, and Connor was already pitching really well," Kjerstad said. "You could tell he had command of all his pitches. He was just going after hitters. Runner on second base, I was just trying to put the ball in play, sneak it through a hole and get a run on the board for our pitchers out there."
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Said Van Horn: "You think about first run of this game, their guy is throwing 95, 97 miles an hour, the No. 1 ranked prospect in their league. Heston is behind 1-2 and took a fastball and just did what he could do with it, drove in a run and hit it hard in what we call the 6-hole over there. Just a professional type at-bat."
Kjerstad is now tied for 10th on the Arkansas career home run list with 33. He is tied with a quality trio of Hogs: Kevin McReynolds, Ryan Fox and Dominic Fletcher.
Noland nails it
Arkansas right-hander Connor Noland faced the minimum of 15 batters through five innings, settling in after a shaky first inning to strike out a career-high 11 batters while earning the opening day win.
"It felt great," said Noland, who exceeded his previous high of 10 strikeouts versus Tennessee last year. "Obviously you want to get off to a good start for the season. Coming out and playing like we did, it was really good for us. Hopefully we can carry that over for the next couple of days."
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op9MEMgWeu8]
Arkansas home run hitters Christian Franklin and Heston Kjerstad could tell the right-hander from Greenwood was dialed in.
"I definitely thought he did a good job getting ahead in the count, and I also think he did a really good job mixing, keeping the hitters off balance so they weren't really ready in any situation and throwing a lot of strikes, not throwing too many balls," Franklin said.
"Connor was going at it," Kjerstad said. "You could tell all of his pitches were working for him, which that's the ideal situation for a pitcher. He was getting ahead of the count.
"He was just throwing every pitch for a strike and he just kept going at him and got a lot of strikeouts, so we didn't get too much action out there. That's always good for us and great for Connor."
Noland struck out five consecutive batters in the first and second innings. Matt Mackey, Ryan Knernschield and Dalton Doyle all fanned in the second inning, though catcher Casey Opitz had to corral loose balls and fire down to first base after strike three on the last two of those batters.
Base blunder
Eastern Illinois center fielder Grant Emme made a costly base-running mistake in the opening inning, moments after getting himself into scoring position.
Emme singled through the right side as the first batter in the game, and he swiped second ahead of Casey Optiz's throw as three-hole hitter Christian Pena was striking out for the second out.
Emme took off for third base when Connor Noland's pitch for strike two to Matt Mackey bounced away from Opitz. The Arkansas catcher jumped on the loose ball, and his throw to Jacob Nesbit at third base was in plenty of time to nail Emme.
Eastern Illinois Coach Jason Anderson, whose team has had very little practice time outside, was concerned there could be some mistakes.
"It went about like I expected," Anderson said. "I thought we were going to make some mistakes because we haven't been outside, we haven't been on dirt. It just came in the form of the base running."
Later, Opitz fired behind Dane Toppel at first base and picked him off to end the third inning.
Dueling lefties
Arkansas sophomore Patrick Wicklander and Eastern Illinois junior-college transfer Trey Nicholson, both left-handers, will square off in today's 2 p.m. game.
Wicklander, a 6-1, 200-pounder, allowed 50 hits and 37 walks while striking out 90 batters in 66 2/3 innings last year. He had a 6-2 record and a 4.32 ERA.
Nicholson, a 5-10, 195-pounder, amassed 74 strikeouts in 73 2/3 innings with a 3.05 ERA as a freshman at Rend Lake Junior College.
"He's a bulldog," Eastern Illinois Coach Jason Anderson said. "He's not Will Klein, you know. They're not gonna see that. But he's gonna pitch, he's gonna compete, he's gonna mix things up. It's going to be a different look as a lefty. We're expecting some big things out of him this year."
Opening data
The Razorbacks won on opening day for the 26th consecutive season. Coach Dave Van Horn improved to 18-0 in season openers at Arkansas.
Van Horn said you never know what you're going to see on opening day.
"You get guys that are a little nervous, new guys in the dugout that are just getting a feel," he said. "As a coach, you just kind of watch to see how they react. We have some veterans that kind of kept it calm.
"With Connor pitching the way he did, we never felt that we were in trouble. It was a really good opener. I think it was a really good challenge for our team facing a pitcher like [Will] Klein right out of the chute."
Sports on 02/15/2020