'It's all gamesmanship' – Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn responds to question about some of Tennessee's tactics against Razorbacks
At times on Saturday against Arkansas, the Tennessee Vols utilized timeouts/play stoppages in an effort to disrupt the Razorbacks' rhythm. The strategy didn't work for the Vols as they dropped the rubber game of the three-game series 8-4 on Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville. After the game, a reporter asked Razorbacks head coach Dave Van Horn […]
At times on Saturday against Arkansas, the Tennessee Vols utilized timeouts/play stoppages in an effort to disrupt the Razorbacks' rhythm.
The strategy didn't work for the Vols as they dropped the rubber game of the three-game series 8-4 on Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville.
After the game, a reporter asked Razorbacks head coach Dave Van Horn about some of Tennessee's tactics during the game.
"Tennessee does more things to delay a game with calling timeout, how does your dugout take that," asked the reporter.
"We told our guys before the series, let's don't worry about all that stuff, just play ball," responded Van Horn. "Whether it's Tennessee or a west coast school or whoever, a lot of times that goes on. They've changed some of the rules, so you can't do it as much. It used to be you could call timeout all the time or infielders could go visit pitchers [to] disrupt things and break rhythm [to] try to frustrate people. A couple of times when they took some offensive timeouts, it was two quick outs and they're trying to just calm down a little bit. We had a lead, they were trying to break the rhythm of the pitcher. It's all gamesmanship. It is what it is.
"Our guys, we told them, whether it's that type of stuff, no matter who you play, if they try to get you distracted somehow, don't let it happen."
If a team can get under their opponent's skin, then it's probably going to result in an advantage.
Tennessee, however, clearly didn't do enough to get Arkansas frustrated, as evidenced by the result of the three-game series.
Arkansas infielder explains why Razorbacks had so much success against Tennessee LHP Liam Doyle, and it’s something Vols need to fix
Need to fix it before postseason play
