Hunter Dietz injury update heading into Arkansas baseball road regional

Arkansas baseball expects Hunter Dietz to be healthy for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

The Razorbacks (39-20) are the two seed in the Lawrence Regional hosted by No. 15 Kansas. They open the regional against Missouri State on Friday, May 29.

Dietz recorded two outs during his start against Texas in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament on Friday, May 22. A 105 mph line drive off the bat of Casey Borba struck Dietz in the shin, and the lefty ace immediately exited the game to go get an x-ray. There was no fracture.

"Thank goodness (Dietz) is going to be available for the weekend, it looks like," Dave Van Horn said.

The Arkansas coach said that Dietz will throw a bullpen in the coming days. The Hogs will decide how they want to use the redshirt sophomore based on that practice session.

"Do we want to pitch him the first game? Do we want to give him another day’s rest? We’re still lining all of that up," Van Horn said.

Dietz is 7-3 with a 3.40 ERA this season. He led the SEC in strikeouts (117) during the regular season. Arkansas' season hit a turning point when Dietz was elevated to Friday night starter.

The other most-likely option for Game 1 of the regional is Gabe Gaeckle (6-3, 3.99 ERA). The junior righty pitched six scoreless innings against the Longhorns in the SEC Tournament. He has 16 strikeouts in his last 11⅓ innings pitched.

Gaeckle and Dietz did not pitch against Missouri State during the regular season. The Bears and Hogs split two midweek games.

On the season, Missouri State hit .276 against lefties and .305 when facing righties.

Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Hunter Dietz injury update heading into Arkansas baseball regional