FAYETTEVILLE — Nearly an hour after Arkansas kicked off its football game at 12th-ranked Tennessee, a crowd of several hundred — possibly in the thousands — was at Baum-Walker Stadium to watch the Razorbacks’ baseball team finish a 5-3 exhibition victory over Dallas Baptist. 

“[DBU coach Dan Heefner] talked to me and goes, ‘Your fans are unbelievable here,’” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “I said, ‘Yeah, we’ll probably have a lot of people here today even though we’re playing football.’ We had a lot last night. You know, they love baseball here and they love the Razorbacks.” 

Nearly 30 minutes after the exhibition ended, some Arkansas players were still signing autographs and posing for photos with a mix of fans and family members in the stands. 

“Our fan base is phenomenal, man,” Arkansas pitcher Steele Eaves said. “Out of every park I’ve been to, this is by far the best crowd. I really appreciate our fans.” 

Heefner spoke highly of the environment. Not only was it a large crowd by fall ball standards, but a vocal one that loudly disagreed at times with the strike zone of the home plate umpire. 

“We’ve got a bunch of high school and junior college guys,” Heefner said, “so to play in one of the best stadiums in college baseball with several thousand people there in the fall is awesome.

“We love playing great teams in great environments. We’re going to do that every year in-season. This is one of the best in college baseball, so it was really fun to get to play here.” 

Quick turnaround

Arkansas pitcher Cole Gibler threw a first pitch Saturday at 1 p.m., about 16 hours after the Razorbacks finished an 8-1 victory over Little Rock. 

The night-to-afternoon turnaround was strategic for Van Horn and his coaching staff — an attempt to prepare the team for the Friday night and Saturday afternoon schedules it will face during the regular season. 

“This is real life on the weekends, especially on the road it seems like. You’ve got to play, hit the sack, get up and play again,” Van Horn said. “You’ve got to be able to handle it, especially when you win Game 1. You’ve got to show up the next day with a little bit of an attitude, and I thought guys did a pretty good job with it.” 

The Razorbacks were in a different situation than DBU, which did not play Friday night and was stacking its pitching. 

Arkansas left fielder Brenton Clark said the team could have started better both games, but added, “I think it’s huge to end your fall on two wins against outside competition.” 

Helfrick update

Arkansas catcher Ryder Helfrick missed Saturday’s game after going to the emergency room the night before for with an injury. 

While playing behind the plate against Little Rock, Helfrick was struck in the groin area by a foul tip during the top the first inning. He batted in the bottom of the inning and grounded out, then came out of the game. 

“He took a shot and we were really concerned about it,” Van Horn said. “He ended up going over to the ER and had an MRI done. It looks like he just has a little laceration down there.” 

Van Horn said he and assistant coach Bobby Wernes visited Helfrick at the hospital shortly before he was released Friday night and he was in good spirits. 

“He’s so tough,” Van Horn said. “I can’t even believe he stayed in the game and hit, too, and then ran down the line. He said, ‘No, there’s something bad wrong here. I better not do this.’” 

Happened again

When Clark robbed a would-be game-tying home run in the ninth inning, Heefner had flashbacks to the last time he went to Baum-Walker Stadium. 

DBU lost 4-3 to the Razorbacks in the championship game of the 2018 NCAA Fayetteville Regional. During that game, Arkansas left fielder Heston Kjerstad robbed Devlin Granberg of a home run in the sixth inning that would have tied the game 3-3. 

“It was the exact same spot,” Heefner said. “That brought back some bad memories.” 

Defense ‘damn good’  

Arkansas has hung its hat on defense over the years, ranking first or second in the SEC in fielding percentage each season since 2021. 

The Razorbacks’ .983 fielding percentage in 2025 ranked second nationally behind Charlotte. 

If Saturday was any indication, Arkansas will be solid in the field again in 2026. The Razorbacks seemed to make slick defensive plays all over the field.

“That’s another thing DVH talks about,” said Maika Niu, a center fielder who transferred from Marshall over the summer. “He’s like, ‘We’re good at defense and we’re damn good at defense.’ We’ve got the players to do it and showed it off today. People got to see it.” 

Van Horn said the team has “gotten a lot better” on the defensive side this fall. 

“We don’t even have [rehabbing second baseman Nolan] Souza out there right now and that’s going to give us a little more depth and make my job a little tougher to figure out who to play,” Van Horn said. “But I like that. The defense has been really good.” 

Heefner said the Razorbacks’ defense made the Patriots’ day at the plate look worse than it was. DBU finished with 6 hits. 

“I actually thought we did a lot better offensively that we had the results for,” Heefner said. “We hit a number of balls hard right at people. A home run got robbed in the ninth inning….I thought we had good at-bats.”