By: Alex Altman
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) – The Arkansas baseball team currently ranks as the sixth-best team in all of college baseball. However, it hasn’t been easy to keep their prominent ranking.
With pitchers Jaxon Wiggins and Koty Frank out for the season with injuries and Brady Tygart out for an extended period of time, the Hogs have been forced to find new guys to step up and fill their roles on the mound.
One example of someone stepping up would be sophomore relief pitcher Austin Ledbetter, who has already seen action on the mound in seven games this year. Ledbetter said that it’s all about other guys being just a little bit better.
“We just all have to be a little bit better. Coach Van Horn got us all together and told us that we all have to be 5% better for them and for this team. We are working harder every day try to perfect our craft. Not just for our season but for those guys,” Ledbetter said.
Ledbetter also said that while these injuries are tough to deal with as a team, they have to keep getting better because every team in the SEC is good.
“The SEC is the best league by far. It’s not even close. I think (right now) there are three or four teams in the top five and six or seven in the top 10. It’s unreal,” Ledbetter said.
The Razorbacks just finished playing one of those four SEC teams ranked in the top five in the country, the LSU Tigers last weekend on the road. The Hogs lost the series two games to one, but Ledbetter said the teams’ spirit is still high.
“Even though we didn’t take the series against LSU, we are not hanging our heads. We’re high and tight and ready to go,” Ledbetter said.
Next up for the Razorbacks is a three-game series against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Baum-Walker Stadium. Game 1 of the series gets underway at 6:30 p.m. this Friday.