FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas baseball will shuffle its weekend rotation for the first time this season during its upcoming series against Alabama.
Junior lefty Hunter Dietz will get the ball for the No. 22 Razorbacks (21-13, 5-7 SEC) in Friday's game vs. the Crimson Tide (26-8, 8-4). Cole Gibler will be the starter on Saturday in Game 2, with the starter for the series finale still to be announced.
Junior righty Gabe Gaeckle is not listed as a starter after getting the opening nod in each weekend series to date.
Dietz is 3-2 with a 3.70 ERA on the season. He is coming off arguably the best start of his career after limiting Auburn to two runs and striking out 11 batters in a 3-2 victory over the Tigers last weekend.
"(Dietz) has got Friday night stuff, obviously," Dave Van Horn said. "There's a lot of interest in him for down the road because of his stuff, and he's left-handed, but what he's done is he can control the running game a little bit. He can get out of some jams., He can work back from a 3-0 count and get people out. Nothing that I didn't think he can do."
Gaeckle is 3-3 with a 4.06 ERA and looks primed for a move back to the bullpen, where he shined as a freshman and sophomore with the Razorbacks.
Dave Van Horn used Gaeckle as a reliever during the win over Little Rock on Tuesday, April 7. Van Horn said that move was designed to give Gaeckle some experience coming out of the pen after logging eight starts earlier this season.
"(Gaeckle just wants to help the team. There's been no complaining," Van Horn said. "I think you saw that the way he threw the ball on Tuesday. He was in the mid 90s the whole inning, and I thought he pitched pretty good."
Gibler has been a reliever throughout the first two months of the season, but he has some of the best stats among the Hogs' pitching staff. Gibler is 3-0 with a 2.57 ERA and has 28 strikeouts in 28 innings.
Van Horn said that he started the season in the bullpen because of his experience with the role. Gibler came on strong at the end of his freshman season. He finished 2025 with a 3.99 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 29⅓ innings.
"I think (Gibler) just deserves a chance to start," the Arkansas coach said. "Things haven't gone great for us on the weekends with a couple starting pitchers, so to me, it's the obvious thing to do."
Colin Fisher has started every series finale this season, but the lefty is 0-3 with a 10.50 ERA in the SEC.
Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network.