Helfrick Named D1Baseball Preseason All-American
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Ryder Helfrick has been named a preseason first-team All-American by D1Baseball.
The Razorbacks’ star catcher played in 61 games with 56 starts as a sophomore last season, slashing .305/.420/.616 with 15 home runs and 38 RBI to help lead Arkansas to its 12th College World Series appearance in program history. Helfrick, who totaled 14 multi-hit games and 11 multi-RBI games on the year, was even better in SEC play, slashing.337/.449/.635 with seven home runs and 21 RBI in 30 games with 30 starts against conference opponents.
Defensively, the Discovery Bay, Calif., native was also one of the best behind the dish in all of college baseball last year. Helfrick committed only three errors in 629 total chances (.995 fielding percentage) and threw out 10-of-45 attempted base stealers (.222 caught stealing percentage). He was named to the ABCA/Rawlings South All-Region First Team after landing on the midseason watch list for the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award.
Helfrick is the third Razorback to be named to a preseason All-America team so far. Pitcher Gabe Gaeckle (Second Team) and outfielder Maika Niu (Third Team) were previously named preseason All-Americans by Perfect Game.
Arkansas, led by 24th-year head coach Dave Van Horn, begins the 2026 season against Oklahoma State at 7 p.m. Friday, 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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