Arkansas left-handed freshman Patrick Wicklander will make his first college career start on the mound in Wednesday’s mid-week game against Memphis at 3 p.m. (CST) in Baum-Walker Stadium.

Wicklander has made three relief appearances so far this season for the Razorbacks. This season, the freshman has struck out 6 batters in his 4.1 innings pitched. Although his 6.23 ERA doesn’t look great on paper, there has been more good than bad from Wicklander up to this point in the season.

“I think [Wicklander] will throw well. First of all, he’s a tough kid and he wants the ball. He’s used to having a lot of success. He was one of our top recruits as far as pitchers,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said on Tuesday. “He’s shown us what he can do. We don’t expect him to pitch very long. We just want to give him a start, and maybe he goes two or three innings.”

In his first appearance as a Razorback in Game 3 against Eastern Illinois two weekends ago, he struck out 4 of the 9 Panther batters he faced. After coming in to relieve starter Jacob Kostyshock to start the sixth inning, he pitched 2.1 innings and allowed a single run off of two hits. Three of his strikeouts that day came in his first ever inning to pitch at Baum-Walker Stadium. He struck out EIU’s 2-hole, 3-hole and 4-hole hitters while throwing only 10 pitches. His sixth inning performance was met with a standing ovation from the crowd.

Wicklander was called in to pitch in last Thursday’s game against the USC Trojans in Los Angeles. The San Jose (Calif.) Valley Christian product, who was playing in front of friends and family, stepped to the mound with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth with a 4-run lead. After hitting the first Trojan batter to bring in a run, the freshman lost control and walked the next two hitters to bring in two more USC runs. He was replaced by Kole Ramage, and his day ended with with him facing three batters and allowing runs by means of either HBP or walk against all three.

“To go there and throw the ball the way he did, he was just wild and couldn’t command it. You kind of saw it when he was getting loose. Once we brought him into he threw a couple to the backstop and his curveball slip out of his hand a couple times. He kept looking at his hand, like the ball was slick,” Van Horn said of Wicklander’s Friday performance. “I think it was a little bit of everything. A lot of nerves, a lot of family in the stands and friends. There were four or five guys on USC’s team that he played either high school ball or summer ball with. Hopefully, he learned from that, and we feel like he did.”

He followed up his poor performance on Friday with a good relief outing on Sunday. With Arkansas trailing the Trojans by a run, Wicklander came into the game with two outs and runners on second and third. He got the final out of the inning to strand the two runners. After Casey Opitz scored on a past ball to tie the game at 4 runs a piece in the top of the ninth, Wicklander threw a three-up-three-down bottom of the ninth to push the game into extra innings. Dominic Fletcher hit a solo homer in the top of the tenth to put the Razorbacks up by a run, and they decided to stick with Wicklander for the bottom of the inning. He allowed a lead-off single to put the tying run on base for USC. The runner was moved over on a sac bunt and then he struck out the next hitter to make it two outs with a runner on second. Nursing a one-run lead, he allowed a single that tied the game up and was taken out in favor of Marshall Denton. Trojan catcher C.J. Stubbs hit a walk-off homer in the next at-bat handing the Hogs their first loss of the season.

“A guy like Wicklander, his first outing the last weekend here at Baum-Walker he had probably one of the best outings he’ll ever have,” Razorback All-American closer Matt Cronin said. “To go from that to walking three in a row, you’re never as good as your best outing and you’re never as bad as your worst outing. I think he did a good job of proving himself when they brought him back in the next game.”