Weekend Wrap Up: California Love

The Hogs went on the road for the first time this season and took 2 of 3 from USC. While this USC team isn’t at the level of Trojan teams past, you take two wins every time you make a west coast road trip. The Hogs had a chance at the sweep, so losing the series finale does have a bit of disappointment, but for right now things are looking just fine for the Diamond Hogs.

Oh and Hog fans took over USC’s ballpark for a weekend.

Hitter of the Week - Casey Martin

4/14 isn’t a weekend that blows you away, but it’s not often your leadoff hitter leads the team in RBI’s over a week end like Martin did. He opened the scoring this weekend with a bases clearing, 3-run, double in the second inning. In the second game he had a two run home run that turned a deficit into a 5-4 lead and the Hogs wouldn’t trail for the remainder of the game.

Pitcher of the Week - Matt Cronin

Cronin came in for the Hogs first two games and was absolutely lights out. Trojan hitters had no clue what to do with him. He came in for seven batters, and in 31 pitches struckout five of them and allowed 0 hits while getting his first two saves of the year. How dominant was he? Here were the results of the seven batters he faced.

Game 1

• Strikeout Swinging
• Strikeout Swinging
• Strikeout Swinging
• Strikeout Swinging

Game 2

• F9
• 6-3 Groundout
• Strikeout Swinging

Most Important Stat

Patience at the plate and seeing a lot of pitches is a staple of Arkansas’ approach, and it’s let to a good amount of baserunners so far in the first six games. So it’s not surprising to see that Arkansas drew 15 walks in the two wins, and just two in the lone loss. That kind of approach can lead to a high amount of strikeouts, but it will also test the depth of opponents’ pitching staffs. It paid off for the Hogs this weekend, as USC threw a combined 518 pitches throughout the series.