Dave Van Horn, Ryder Helfrick give thoughts on ABS challenges at SEC Tournament
The SEC Tournament kicked off on Tuesday morning, with a new twist: automated balls and strikes challenges (ABS challenges).
Ole Miss was the first team in college baseball history to initiate a review of a call from behind the plate — though the Rebels lost the challenge. Missouri later challenged a pitch a few innings later, and it was successful. The first successful challenge in college baseball history belongs to the Missouri Tigers.
It’s a new change that is being implemented at the SEC Tournament this year, but has been in Major League Baseball all year. Teams have three challenges to use throughout the game — if the call is overturned, the team retains the challenge. If the ruling is confirmed, the challenge is lost.
If the game goes into extra innings, each team gets one challenge per inning and they don’t roll over to the following inning.
Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn met with the media on Tuesday morning to preview the SEC Tournament, where he was asked several questions about the implementation of the ABS system.
“We were educated about it last week from the SEC, had a Zoom call,” Van Horn said. “Coaches were in there, and then we’re trying to analytically look into it. We have talked to pro people about it, when’s the best time, what count that really makes sense (to challenge in), and just to get a little bit of that.
“And then obviously just the feel of the game. But you get a couple of them, and if you get it right, you keep them. So (we’re) watching a lot today to see how it goes.”
Much like the pitch clock, which was implemented in the MLB in 2023 and later brought to the college game in 2024, Van Horn expects ABS to become standard in college baseball in just a few years. But he’s not entirely certain if it’s for the good of the sport or not.
“Whenever we do this, we kind of experiment a little bit, do what Major League Baseball is doing, it’s just a year or two before it’s in (college baseball),” Van Horn said. “I would think it’s coming down the road. Do I think it’s good? I don’t know yet. Don’t want the umpires all upset all the time, but you know, whatever. We got to do what we got to do. We’re going to do what the big leagues do.”
The decision of whether or not to challenge a pitch will most likely fall on the shoulders of catcher Ryder Helfrick. Behind the dish, he’s probably got the best perspective of anyone on the field outside of the umpire himself. Lefty ace Hunter Dietz said he probably won’t be initiating any challenges from on the mound.
“I feel like I have a good sense of what the strike zone is and isn’t,” Helfrick said Tuesday. “I was talking to (director of analytics DJ Baxendale), and he kind of joked. He’s like, ‘I don’t think there are a lot of pitchers that tap their glove or do anything, because if they see me receive something they’ll think it’s a strike…so I think I’m just going to keep it plain and simple.”
Helfrick does boast the nation’s best frame rate (19.93) and was named the SEC All-Defensive Team on Monday afternoon. While the ABS system may help batters in terms of challenging a pitch, Helfrick doesn’t believe it will take away from his ability to frame pitches.
“I don’t think it’s really affected by ABS,” Helfrick said. “Because you only get two challenges in a game. When you catch so many pitches, I mean, maybe, we’ll see, but I think you still try to catch every pitch best as possible and, you know, don’t mess up.”
Helfrick has been on Arkansas’ campus for three years now, and has earned the confidence of Van Horn because of his ability to make borderline pitches look like strikes.
“I love having Ryder back there,” Van Horn said. “You know, Ryder makes a lot of pitches that are marginal look like strikes, so it kind of makes me nervous too, because he thinks everything he makes look like a strike is a strike, kind of jokingly. But I appreciate that.“ Yeah, I don’t know.I mean, it’s, we just want him to be pretty sure about it.”
Arkansas will face the winner of Tennessee and South Carolina, which play this afternoon, in the second round of the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama, on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch will be roughly 4:30 p.m. CT and the game will air on the SEC Network.
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