FAYETTEVILLE - This Arkansas Razorbacks baseball team isn’t playing the 2013 SEC Tournament building for 2014.
NCAA regional-bound teams sporting a large senior class and a larger load of draft-eligible juniors who are likely soon to sign professionally think almost entirely in the now.
Nevertheless, the Razorbacks, who are coming off 2-1 and and 4-1 SEC Tournament victories over Ole Miss and LSU in Hoover, Ala., stride into today’s SEC Tournament semifinal taking a big step into 2014.
Now Coach Dave Van Horn knows he has a catcher who is catching on even if indispensable junior catcher Jake Wise signs to play professionally in June.
On a team led by preseason All-America pitchers Ryne Stanek, Barrett Astin and Colby Suggs, and 2012 College World Series star position players Dominic Ficociello and Brian Anderson, Wise has been regarded as the Razorbacks’ indispensable man.
Wise is batting only .211, but Van Horn, pitching coach Dave Jorn and the players talk up the catcher’s importance at the drop of a mask. They stress his defense, his arm, and especially how he handles pitchers so wisely that he calls the pitches, which often isn’t the catcher’s call in college ball because coaches tend to call all the shots.
Everybody talks up Wise, but what has gone essentially unspoken made him the most essential. Everyone had to shudder at the prospect of playing Jean Ramirez, Wise’s redshirt freshman backup.
Starting the third game of what presumably would be a season-opening February sweep of Western Illinois, Ramirez was shaky behind the plate and charged with a pivotal run-scoring passed ball in a 7-5 loss.
After that, Ramirez logged but four more starts to Wise’s 49 heading into Hoover and the SEC Tournament.
At Hoover, Wise became too ill to eat, much less play a complete game.
Ramirez caught every inning of the 10-inning, 2-1 masterpiece that starter Astin and winning reliever Jalen Beeks threw against Ole Miss.
“I thought Ramirez did a very good job,” Van Horn said after Tuesday’s game. “The reason I say that is you didn’t notice him. That’s the sign of a catcher doing his job.”
Unfortunately Ramirez, 0 for 4, wasn’t noticed as a hitter, either.
He amended that as a hitter and runner Thursday. Catching the first seven innings of Stanek’s 4-1 victory over LSU, Ramirez singled up the middle off ace Aaron Nola (10-0) with Arkansas trailing 1-0 in the fifth inning. On Joe Serrano’s hit-and-run double to left-center, Arkansas’ supposedly slow-footed catcher scored the tying run all the way from first so hastily that the throw home was cut off.
“When he got on first we joked it would take three hits to bring him home,” Van Horn told the Fox Sports TV sportscasters between innings. “He did a good job.”
Good enough that the Razorbacks will start 2014 with an incumbent catcher even if their 2013 mainstay turns pro.
Sports, Pages 22 on 05/25/2013