FAYETTEVILLE -- Dave Van Horn was in good spirits and he was sharing that vibe on a chilly Thursday at the University of Arkansas baseball facilities.
Why shouldn't he?
Van Horn and the Razorbacks are fully operational in the new Hunt Baseball Development Center, the three-level, $27 million, 49,000-square-foot facility beyond the right-field fence at Baum-Walker Stadium.
They are coming off a 50-13 season in which they were ranked No. 1 most of the year, won every series until the NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional against North Carolina State and captured the SEC regular season and tournament titles.
Van Horn's 20th edition of the Razorbacks are a consensus preseason top 10 team with plenty of offensive firepower and lots of pitchers to sort through between their starting rotation and bullpen.
On top of that, the Razorbacks have their first official practice today to kick off the 2022 season.
"The way I look at it it's just an extension of the fall," Van Horn said. "It's not like it's our first practice. We're just picking it up.
"We're not there with our arms right now as far as number of pitches that our pitchers can throw. But we're in good shape. We know what we need to work on is to figure out how to handle our pitchers and our rotations. So we have three weeks before we open up."
The day before the start of spring practices, the facility was abuzz between grounds crew members, the spacious equipment room, the coaches offices, expansive locker room and the centerpiece weight-lifting area.
Downstairs, the "pitching lab" was populated by ex-Razorbacks of varying professional experience, from Blake Parker to Jalen Beeks, Zach Jackson, Blaine Knight and recent draft choice Ryan Costieu, among others.
Media members toured the entirety of the new facility on Thursday, including the long walk down the underground tunnel that connects the addition to the first-base dugout, the new home for the Razorbacks.
The Hunt facility has locker rooms for the coaching staff, the current players and ex-players, a sure-fire draw to keep the Razorback baseball "family" together.
Van Horn said he was hard pressed to name a "favorite" locale in the facility, which has a third-floor viewing deck for friends and family of staff members right next door to the suites and perches of the "Bases Loaded Landing," where power-hitting left-handers are sure to aim their best pulled shots.
"Just about every day I walk in, I just kind of shake my head, thinking, 'Wow, this is amazing,'" Van Horn said. "How far has college baseball come in the 20 years I've been here?
"I've been coaching college baseball ... 35 years now plus, somewhere in there. You just look at the game as a whole. The players are bigger, stronger, better. They hit the ball further. They throw the ball harder. They're faster. The facilities across the country are unbelievable compared to what they used to be, even 15 years ago."
The Razorbacks also released the names of senior pitcher Zebulon Vermillion, junior outfielder Zack Gregory and sophomore third baseman Cayden Wallace as team captains.
"I think we had 12 or 13 players get votes," Van Horn said. "And it wasn't like they just got one vote and voted for themselves, which is good. We took the top three vote-getters. If we had just two guys that ran away with it we would have just taken two. But we could have taken four or five."
Van Horn was asked if the 2022 Razorbacks might have a signature trait, such as the power prowess of last year's team that notched a school-record 109 home runs in 63 games, easily topping the previous record of 98 home runs in 69 games for the 2018 team that lost to Oregon State in three games in the College World Series championship series.
"I think we're going to hit home runs, no doubt," Van Horn said. "We have most of the power guys back from last year and we added a few. We got three transfer hitters ,and they can all hit the ball a long way, and they're all middle-of-the-order guys. All three of them. I don't even know if I can get them all in the lineup at the same time."
The transfer hitters are catcher Michael Turner, outfielder Jace Bohrofen and infielder/outfielder Chris Lanzilli.
"We're going to be every bit as electric as we've been the last couple of years," Van Horn said.
There are a handful of injuries or players coming back from injury that cause concern, beginning with shortstop Jalen Battles, who is coming back from late summer shoulder surgery.
Additionally, presumed starting center fielder Braydon Webb has been dealing with a quad injury, right fielder Brady Slavens has an arm bothering him and Turner is coming off a hamstring issue from the winter. Slavens, last year's first baseman, has been back at that position some, where Peyton Stovall is the presumed starter.
Van Horn sounded as if filling out the starting lineup card each day will be a good problem.
"I don't know exactly who's going to start in the outfield every day yet because there are four or five, maybe six, really good options," he said. "Somebody can DH, but you only have one of those."
Perhaps even more important than sorting out playing time in the outfield is establishing the pitching hierarchy and finding weekend starters between now and the season opener against Illinois State on Feb. 18 and the conference opener versus Kentucky on March 18.
"We have three weeks before we open up, but in our minds we have to have a couple of guys that we feel like are going to start if we started in a couple of weeks," he said. "And we have to get them on track so to speak.
"So a lot of those guys that are going to start in three weeks will be starting games this weekend and the next weekend and then that third weekend, and after that will be game weekend.
"We have a lot of good arms. We just have to figure out how to use them."
The weight room of the University of Arkansas J.B. & Johnelle Hunt Family Baseball Development Center is seen Thursday during a tour of the facility at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. The Hunt facility has locker rooms for the coaching staff, current and former players. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)Gallery: Hunt Baseball Development Center tour
