Gaeckle, Niu Named Perfect Game Preseason All-Americans
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas’ Gabe Gaeckle and Maika Niu have been named preseason All-Americans by Perfect Game. Gaeckle earned second-team recognition as a relief pitcher, while Niu earned third-team honors as an outfielder.
Last season as a sophomore, Gaeckle made 19 appearances with nine starts on the mound, posting a 4-2 record with a 4.42 ERA in 71.1 innings of work. The right-hander from Aptos, Calif., who tallied 92 strikeouts while limiting opposing hitters to a .235 average on the year, turned in his best outing of the campaign during the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., striking out a career-high 10 batters over six innings of one-run ball in relief against LSU on June 14, 2025.
Niu, meanwhile, enters his first season at Arkansas after beginning his collegiate career at New Orleans (2023-24) and transferring from Marshall (2025). Last season as a junior, the Mechanicsburg, Pa., native slashed .276/.343/.560 with a team-leading 15 home runs and 52 RBI in 58 games for the Thundering Herd. Over the summer, Niu was named MVP of the Cape Cod Baseball League, which is considered the premier wood-bat summer league for collegiate players, after slashing .280/.364/.508 with a league-leading eight home runs and 23 RBI in 35 games for the Falmouth Commodores.
Arkansas is one of 14 programs nationally and one of six SEC schools with multiple Perfect Game preseason All-America selections, joining LSU (3), Texas (3), Georgia (2), Tennessee (2) and Texas A&M (2).
The Razorbacks, led by 24th-year head coach Dave Van Horn, begin the 2026 season against Oklahoma State on Feb. 13 in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. In 2025, Arkansas went 50-15 overall and 20-10 in SEC play to clinch its sixth 20-win SEC campaign and make its 12th trip to Omaha in program history.
Van Horn’s Hogs, the winningest team in the nation since the start of the 2017 campaign with 383 total victories, are the only SEC program, and one of only two programs in the country along with Southern Miss, to win 40-plus games in each of the last eight full seasons: 2017 (45), 2018 (48), 2019 (46), 2021 (50), 2022 (46), 2023 (43), 2024 (44) and 2025 (50).
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