SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 24, 2026

Dave Van Horn

Camden Kozeal

Cole Gibler

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Arkansas Razorbacks

Postgame Press Conference

Georgia - 11, Arkansas - 1 (7)

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Arkansas.

DAVE VAN HORN: Congratulations to Georgia. They played great. Starting pitcher did a great job against our offense. We got a few hits here and there. We just couldn't get the hit. We couldn't get over the hump.

And it was tough that we spotted them a couple of runs there in the first. And then they hit the big three-run homer. All of a sudden we're down five.

It's one of those games where we knew that we had to have a lot of things go our way with where we were with our pitching. And you could see where we were a little sluggish, a little tired.

But no excuse. Georgia just got after us. We're going to get back -- we haven't been home in about 12 days -- get back, regroup and get ready to make a run.

Q. What do you think you learned or the team learned about itself the last 12 days? How much better you feel like you guys got during this road trip?

CAMDEN KOZEAL: I think we got a lot better. We haven't been home for about two weeks, I think. And just shows that we can go win on the road. We can win wherever we are at. The team got closer. I think we got stronger. A lot of good memories made. And we're excited to make a run at it wherever we go.

COLE GIBLER: What Kozy said, we got a lot better these 12 days, especially, like, I can only talk for the pitching side, but we've thrown the ball a lot better. Today it was obviously a little outlier, but I think we've been throwing the ball better these past 12 days.

Q. Cam, a lot of highlights from this tournament. What's your favorite memory this year?

CAMDEN KOZEAL: Just winning the first three games. I think hopefully the season ends how we want it. Those three games might propel us to do that. We played really good baseball I think just all around, offensively and defensively. And we're just hoping to keep doing that the rest of the year.

Q. Cole, what makes the Georgia lineup so difficult to navigate?

COLE GIBLER: I don't really have an answer for that. I don't think they're much different than any other lineup.

Q. We'll find out here in an hour if you guys get to host. If you get to host, Cam and Cole, what does it mean to the team given where you guys were six or seven weeks ago?

CAMDEN KOZEAL: That's awesome. I think we're excited. We kind of came into some of these games, it's like we win and we have a chance at hosting. So it's kind of a motivator for us to play well.

We want to play in front of our fans. I think we have the best fans in the country. We have a lot of support. A lot of people will show out for us. It's a heck of a home-field advantage. And we're really excited.

COLE GIBLER: I mean, I know all of us want to have a regional at Fayetteville. But I think we'd be excited to go on the road.

Q. How difficult is it to deal with what you had to deal with last night and today -- the rain delays, you're in the clubhouse, you come out, you have to wait today? How much of a challenge is that to come out and play your best ball?

CAMDEN KOZEAL: It's just baseball. It's just how it is. You have rain delays and you have things not go your way. You've got to find a way to weather the storm, literally and figuratively, and just keep playing baseball.

Can't ever make excuses for yourself. Georgia would be saying the same thing if they would have lost today. Just keep playing baseball, keep your head up and keep going.

Q. Cole, two outings out here obviously went a lot better than the last few have gone for you. What do you feel was different for you down here in Hoover?

COLE GIBLER: I just had to bounce back from -- I think it was my last probably three outings before I got here. But it's just another outing. You have to go out it the same way, but also learn from your past ones and learn from your mistakes. And you've got to do better.

Q. The projections say that Arkansas is going to host. I know we have to wait to see what the selection committee does. Do you think you guys have done enough over the past couple of weeks to earn a hosting spot?

DAVE VAN HORN: Yeah, I mean, I think we helped ourselves the last couple of weeks. I don't think it's about what we've done the last couple of weeks, because I think it's about the whole year.

Like I've said, we've won seven series out of ten in the SEC, won three games here, played a lot of Quad One teams and we won a lot of games. Yeah, I hope we get to play at home.

Q. Going back to the first inning, Dave, did it feel like the home run they hit there in the first was a little bit of the back breaker? And do you feel like it maybe goes a little different if you're able to keep those runs off the board?

DAVE VAN HORN: Oh, yeah, I mean, two runs down to five. We've been swinging the bat fairly well, really, for the last five, six games and hit some balls out of the park. Five's a lot different than two.

It was a changeup. He left it right up there, and he hammered it.

But the game wasn't over. We needed to come in and score. They scored five. You need to score at least one. You've got to flip it a little bit. We didn't do it. I mean, Farley, he didn't give us anything. He didn't walk anybody. He didn't hit anybody.

We got six hits on him but we didn't get a hit when we needed it. We had runners -- I don't know how many we left on -- but we had some innings where we had a couple on. We had a couple on with no outs, didn't score. And that was the difference in at least getting back in the game.

Q. Put into perspective for us, the difficulty of winning just one championship in this league let alone winning the regular season and the tournament the way Georgia did this year?

DAVE VAN HORN: We did it in '21. I remember we came in here, you know, loose, and we get to play. We'll just keep playing until we get to go home. I didn't want to burn us out. We ended up winning it.

I think it's super difficult because your mind starts to wander to the Regionals. And you start seeing the future. So it's hard to do. It's been done.

That's why I said, Georgia, they've got a really good team. They field the ball. They're hard to -- we might have had someone say they're no different than others. They are different. They are different because, 1 through 9, they can hurt you. And they pitch really well.

So they're just a really well-rounded team. Very physical, and they're old.

Q. Looked like in the first two or three innings especially outfielders were having trouble getting their footing, slow to the ball, balls were dying in the outfield. How much of an effect do you think that had, especially in the first because seemed like there were a couple of plays on that dry track might have gone differently?

DAVE VAN HORN: I think it was -- I thought it was in the second inning where right fielder had the ball go off his glove. Left fielder came in and dove. And they just couldn't get really get going. It's like you're running on foam. It's soft, and you couldn't get rolling.

Because we thought both of those balls would be caught. And maybe with a little dive. But they both had to extend pretty good and you know same for both teams. They just hit a couple of balls that really affected us.

Q. I know it got away there toward the end of the day but your bullpen, seems like you guys took a pretty significant step forward here especially with Hunter not being able to go very far the other night. I just wonder how much confidence, if any, did you gain in your pitching staff during these days?

DAVE VAN HORN: You hit the nail on the head. We had to use our bullpen more than we were planning. I mean, when Dietz only gave us a inning and a third, I think we knew if we got today, it was going to really affect us.

But the bullpen guys did what they needed to do, and I feel like they got better, and they gave us a chance to get here. And we could have went 2-1 and got out of here and not get hammered today. I'd rather be 3-0 and get my brains beat in today to get here, because that's what you do, you try to win every game.