FAYETTEVILLE -- Junior outfielder Luke Bonfield has been battling a leg injury on and off since last season, but Arkansas baseball Coach Dave Van Horn said he doesn't expect him to miss any playing time because of it.
The Razorbacks open their season a week from Friday at Baum Stadium against Miami (Ohio).
Van Horn said Bonfield looked good defensively during the Razorbacks' scrimmage Sunday. Bonfield is the team's projected starter in left field.
"He ran down a couple of balls and just missed another one," Van Horn said Monday after speaking to the Swatter's Club at Hilton Garden Inn. "He said he feels as good as he has felt in a long time.
"Luke really gets good reads on the ball. He's not real smooth out there, but he gets the job done."
Bonfield hit two home runs, including a grand slam, during Sunday's scrimmage and finished with seven RBI, Van Horn said, which is a direct result of Bonfield's improved health.
"When his legs are underneath him, he's as good a hitter as there is in our league," Van Horn said.
Bonfield hit .304 last season, tied for the team lead with 8 home runs and led the Razorbacks with 39 RBI.
Baseball America listed Bonfield, who is from Skillman, N.J., as one of the 100 best draft prospects in 2014, but Bonfield fell to the New York Mets in the 21st round that year because of a high asking price to skip college. He went undrafted last year after indicating he wanted to return to college.
"The coaches have been so good to me while I've been here that I didn't want to leave them and my teammates after the type of season we had (in 2016)," Bonfield said in October. "I felt like it was almost my duty to come back."
Roster tweaks
Arkansas may not have to count pitcher Keaton McKinney against its 35-man roster this season.
McKinney, a junior, will undergo Tommy John surgery this month to repair a torn ligament in his elbow. The NCAA requires players on scholarship to count toward the official roster even if they are redshirting, but Van Horn said there can be an exemption when players are injured before the season begins.
"We're working on that," Van Horn said. "The NCAA used to be real strict on that. ... but they've lightened it up. We don't know yet, but we feel pretty good that we're going to be able to get someone else on (the roster)."
Arkansas will have four junior-college transfers and 12 freshmen on its 35-man roster, Van Horn said.
Future schedules
Arkansas is scheduled to play home weekend series against Southern Cal and Kent State, and home midweek games against Texas and Texas Tech next year, Van Horn said. The Razorbacks' away schedule will include midweek games at Oklahoma State and North Carolina-Charlotte, and a trip to San Diego for the Tony Gwynn Classic, an event that includes Arizona and Michigan as part of an eight-team field.
"Next year's schedule will the best in the country, hands down," Van Horn told the Swatter's Club crowd.
In 2019, Arkansas will play a weekend series at Southern Cal and a midweek series at Texas. Home games will include Oklahoma State, Stony Brook and UNC-Charlotte, Van Horn said. The Monroe, La. News Star previously has reported Louisiana Tech also will play at Arkansas that season.
Not all games have been finalized and are subject to change.
Welcome back
Arkansas has two former players on staff -- former infielders Rick Nomura and Cullen Gassaway -- as student assistants this year after they exhausted their eligibility in 2016.
Nomura worked with the team during the fall and Gassaway was added to the staff in January.
Getting younger
Van Horn provided an update on high school recruiting on Monday.
Van Horn said he couldn't discuss individual names because of NCAA rules, but said the Razorbacks' 2018 recruiting class includes 17 players.
"It's a superstar class," Van Horn said.
Arkansas also has eight commitments for the class of 2019 and even one commit for the class of 2020, previously identified as Bowie, Texas, freshman right-handed pitcher Heston Tole (6-5, 180 pounds).
"We actually have (numerous) offers out to that class," Van Horn said. "When a ninth-grader is 6-3 and throwing 90, you might as well go ahead and offer him."
Sports on 02/07/2017