Hundreds of fans had a chance to meet the Diamond Hogs Sunday at the NWA Mall. 5NEWS Sports’ Heather Geller spoke with Van Buren native Tyler Spoon.
Q: What are you expecting this season from the Razorbacks?
A: I expect a good year. We've got a good group of guys. Lot of talent, lot of young talent but I see a lot of guys that are maturing and just a good all-around team. Pitching, defense, offensively, I think we're going to be a really good team.
Q: Not just your team is good but the whole league is, the SEC. Tell me about that. Do you feel like you guys are the underdogs this year in the SEC?
A: Obviously we lost two of the middle guys in our order and lost (Chris )Oliver and (Jalen) Beeks as well. People probably had the idea that we lost some of our top guys and thought we're not going to be as good this year but we don't feel that way at all. We feel good about the team we have. We may be an underdog a little bit but that's only to everybody that's not us. We're excited. We're looking forward to it and we're ready to go.
Q: Season opens next weekend, next Friday at home. What are you expecting against North Dakota?
A: They're going to be a good team. We can't expect anything else. They're going to be competitive, going to come in ready to play, going to be excited. It's probably the warmest they've seen in a while so they'll be ready to play and we just have to be ready for them.
First pitch Friday with North Dakota is set for 3:05 p.m. Saturday’s and Sunday’s games both start at 1:05 p.m.