HOG CALLS

Farris takes seat, gets back on feet

Arkansas second baseman Jordan Farris tags out Ole Miss baserunner Stuart Turner as he completes a double play to first base in the sixth inning of a May 22, 2013 game in Hoover, Ala.
Arkansas second baseman Jordan Farris tags out Ole Miss baserunner Stuart Turner as he completes a double play to first base in the sixth inning of a May 22, 2013 game in Hoover, Ala.

FAYETTEVILLE - It took benching his shortstop for Dave Van Horn to make that shortstop Arkansas’ shortstop.

Now the Razorbacks baseball coach soon will learn if benching his second baseman will make that second baseman Arkansas’ second baseman.

Junior college transfer Brett McAfee went from the rookie early-season shortstop to benched shortstop to entrenched shortstop.

The same road could await freshman second baseman Jordan Farris.

Farris’ foray starts Friday against Bryant University in the four-team double-elimination NCAA regional tournament in Manhattan, Kan., that also features Wichita State and host Kansas State.

A spectacular mid-season insert into Arkansas’ lineup at second base, Farris’ bat went mostly silent during a meager May.

Last week Van Horn benched him in Arkansas’ last two games at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.

That benching, Van Horn said after regionals pairings were announced Monday, was strictly temporary.

“Farris has really struggled at the plate,” Van Horn said. “So we sat him down, honestly just getting him ready for this weekend.”

Grounders hop hard through an entirely synthetic turf infield at Kansas State’s Tointon Family Stadium. Van Horn said that requires that his best first baseman, Dominic Ficociello, plays first base instead of second base, so Farris is back at second.

“The whole synthetic turf infield, it’s very fast,” Van Horn said. “It could be very lively, so we need to be a little quicker in the middle.”

Farris believes the seat he took in Hoover will steady his game just as sitting steadied McAfee.

“It gave me time to relax and just calm down out there and slow the game down and get back in it,” Farris said. “I think I was putting too much pressure on myself, thinking too much up there. [Van Horn] told me Monday that I had needed a couple of days off to get mentally and physically prepared and he had wanted me to stop thinking too much, so hopefully I can get the job done.”

The benching showed Farris, a former high school football player, what his baseball coaches in Ventura, Calif., and Arkansas have told him incessantly.

“My coaches have had to tell me way too many times to slow the game down,” Farris said. “I bring my football mentality out here to the baseball field and those two can’t mix. You have got to slow the game down. I can’t just make a bad play and then go and hit someone like in football. I have to go up there relaxed on the next at-bat.”

Farris believes Kansas State’s artificial infield actually will be easier for him defensively.

“I played on one a couple of times in high school and I like it more than the dirt,” Farris said. “You get some good hops. I want the ball hit to me every time. I feel really confident that me and McAfee can roll a double play nice and easy.”

The two newcomers feel bonded from being counted upon to stand out after they were sat down.

“Yes, sir,” Farris said. “We stay confident with each other, and it’s going to come.”

Sports, Pages 14 on 05/29/2013

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