FAYETTEVILLE — In his second crack at being Arkansas’ ace, Gabe Gaeckle will head into SEC play on a much different note this year.
The right-hander wasn’t necessarily dominant, but tossed six scoreless innings in the No. 6 Razorbacks’ 7-1 series-opening win over Stetson at Baum-Walker Stadium on Friday.
Although he gave up some hard contact throughout his outing, Gaeckle managed to scatter five hits and one walk while navigating the traffic and striking out six.
“I thought he did a good job throwing the ball over the plate and I thought he did a really good job working out of some jams,” Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn said. “He seems to be good at that. He did make some mistakes ahead in the count where they hit some balls hard. It didn’t cost us, but I thought he pitched well.”
The Hatters were hitless in seven at bats with runners in scoring position against the Arkansas starter.
Their best chance to score came in the third inning, when Nelphie Lopez led off with a single and Corey Robinson reached on a throwing error by third baseman TJ Pompey. That put two on with no outs and the top of Stetson’s order coming up.
Those runners eventually executed a double steal, but Gaeckle got Foster Apple to look at a breaking ball to end the threat. The Hatters also couldn’t do anything with back-to-back two-out singles in the sixth, as Jayden Hylton whiffed at another breaking ball. It was Gaeckle’s 99th and final pitch of the day, matching a career high.
“I don’t think it really bothers him a whole lot,” Van Horn said about Gaeckle’s ability to get out of jams. “Obviously, he seems to not get too distracted and make some pitches. I feel like that’s just from all the experiences he’s had in some really, really tough games, tough situations coming in with runners on.”
With Friday’s performance, the Aptos, Calif., native lowered his season ERA to 2.61 in 20 2/3 innings through his first four starts. At this point last year, he owned a 6.16 ERA, prompting the Razorbacks to flip him and Zach Root in the rotation.
However, Gaeckle’s struggles persisted and he eventually lost his starting spot entirely midway through SEC play. The move to the bullpen worked wonders, as seen in his splits:
| Split | Games | Innings | ERA | WHIP | BAA | K/9IP | BB/9IP | K/BB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 9 | 36.1 | 6.69 | 1.54 | .264 | 10.4 | 4.5 | 2.33 |
| Reliever | 10 | 35 | 2.06 | 1.09 | .202 | 12.9 | 3.3 | 3.85 |
The way he’s pitched in four non-conference games is certainly an encouraging sign, but it’s also fair to point out that the right-hander hasn’t quite reached his full potential just yet.
Posting a sub-3.00 ERA is what you want from an ace, but his 1.31 WHIP is only slightly better than last year’s 1.42 WHIP through four starts and opponents are actually hitting him better this year (.263) than they were at this point last year (.247).
