Arkansas baseball fans were able to cherish one season with talented left-handed pitcher Hunter Hollan, but he said Tuesday that his time in Fayetteville might not be done.
A junior college transfer from San Jacinto College, Hollan earned an 8-2 record and a 4.13 ERA as a junior for Arkansas in 2023. He gave up 37 earned runs on 82 hits, walked 29 and struck out 74 in 80 2/3 innings pitched.
Hollan entered the year as an intriguing draft prospect and he finished it at No. 83 on MLB Pipeline’s list of the top 200 draft prospects.
During an interview on 103.7 The Buzz’s show “Out of Bounds” with John Nabors and Joe FranklinHollan made a comment that’ll give Razorback fans a glimmer of hope.
“I’m definitely thinking about it, man,” Hollan said. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to throw a baseball at Baum-Walker (again). I want to keep throwing baseballs and I want to do it at Arkansas. It depends, man. I really don’t know. I guess it’s something I haven’t thought about too much, but don’t be surprised if I’m in an Arkansas uniform again.”
While it would be a welcomed development for head coach Dave Van Horn and his staff, Hollan is looking at being a highly drafted lefty. It wouldn’t be the first time Hollan was selected in the MLB draft, as he was taken in the 15th round of the 2021 draft by the Milwaukee Brewers after he struck out 104 batters across 16 starts for San Jacinto.
The decision to transfer to Arkansas worked well for Holland. He said his story wouldn’t have played out the same way if he didn’t have those two years at San Jacinto, though.
“If I came to Arkansas out of high school, I probably wouldn’t have pitched,” Hollan said. “If I did, it would be very rarely. I came into Arkansas at 150 innings in college. So if I didn’t have that experience, I wouldn’t be as composed on the bound.
“To do it better, you have to go through it. You have to be on the mound. You have to fail. You have to remember what it feels like, that way you can learn from it and be better.”
Not only does getting on the mound help, but so does competing with the talent that Arkansas has. The Razorbacks routinely have some of the best hitters in the SEC, but they also had a pitching staff full of arms that will likely throw at the next level.
“Coming here, I step on campus and I’m competing against Jaxon (Wiggins) and two All-Americans in Hagen (Smith) and Brady (Tygart),” Hollan said. “We’ve got Koty Frank coming from Nebraska and of course Will and Zack all the guys that have been here for a while.”
The competition only made Hollan better in the fall, and when injuries started to hit the squad over and over again, he knew he had to step up.
“We got a hit with Jaxon and then Koty and then Brady,” Hollan said. “And then it was this guy is going to be banged up for a few weeks. Jaxon went down. That was at least 80 innings right there on the year. It was like, every single one of us has to be five innings better. You have to give us five more good innings because we have to pick him up.
“And then Koty Frank went down. He was probably on pace to throw 100 innings and it was like, everybody’s got to be five innings better. Then Brady went down and it was just the same thing. It was always just, you know what it happens and yeah it sucks in the moment, but the main feeling after it was like alright, we’ve got to go.”
Even Hollan dealt with an injury of his own for the better part of the second half of the season. Van Horn described it as shin splints and Holland described it as a pinched nerve, but either way, it had to have been painful.
Not only was he challenged by those around him, the feeling of needing to step up when guys go down and his own injury, but Hollan was able to learn from Van Horn and pitching coach Matt Hobbs along the way.
“It’s been an absolute honor to play for both of those guys,” Hollan said. “Just the chance that they gave a junior college kid that was okay. It was unbelievable that they gave me the opportunity to come here.
“I bet on myself and I wanted to come to place where I didn’t know if I was going to get to pitch or not. I wanted to go to a place where we were going to win and we were going to be really good .”
Originally a TCU commit, Hollan flipped to the Hogs on June 7, 2022. Ironically, the team that eliminated Arkansas from the NCAA Tournament was the Horned Frogs on Monday. Despite the loss, Hollan said he appreciated his first experience of regional baseball in Fayetteville.
“My first regional experience at Arkansas was something I’ll never forget,” Hollan said. “It was a blast getting to play in front of everybody this year and I hate that it’s over.”
Although the season is over, Hollan made memories with this year’s Razorback squad that he doesn’t plan on forgetting.
“Within a month of being here in the fall, we all enjoyed being around each other and enjoyed each other’s company. We’d just sit at the field for hours and hours just talking. We’d play in ping pong tournaments and just hang out.
“You know that’s probably the part that I’ll enjoy the most, is that I’ve never been a part of a team that was this good with so many guys that are going to play the game for a long time and how close we were. So that was special. That was awesome to be a part of.”
While he said not to be surprised if he’s in an Arkansas uniform again, it seems unlikely for Hollan to be back in Fayetteville for the 2024 season. He accomplished what he set out to do with the Razorbacks and now he’s set up to have a very bright future.
“They give me every chance I could’ve ever wanted to be successful here at Arkansas,” Hollan said. “I wouldn’t have done anything different. I was supposed to come here and it worked out.”