By Nate Allen
Special to the News-Times
FAYETTEVILLE - Whether surging with momentum after winning a 10-inning 6-5 thriller over the Kansas State Wildcats on a wild pitch in the 10th inning after little-used freshman reliever Jacob Kostyshock struck out one of K-State’s best hitters to end a scoreless 10th with the bases loaded, or exhausted from playing 10 innings then busing home in the rain to a 3 a.m. Fayetteville arrival, the Arkansas Razorbacks are scheduled to commence a three-game SEC West series with the Ole Miss Rebels tonight.
Allegedly at Arkansas’ Baum Stadium, coach Dave Van Horn’s 14th-ranked Razorbacks (33-10, 12-6) and coach Mike Bianco’s Rebels (25-16, 9-9) play at 6 tonight on the SEC Network, 6 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday.
Allegedly is the term because it has mostly poured buckets in Fayetteville since after midnight Wednesday with forecasts from damp to deluge through and especially Saturday.
At this point, Van Horn says he knows the Razorbacks and Rebels will try to play tonight as scheduled and then decide whether to play a doubleheader Friday or proceed as scheduled should Saturday’s forecast improve.
With almost as much certainty as knowing they’ll try to play tonight on SEC Network time, Van Horn believes beating K-State will more refresh the Hogs from losing two of three last weekend at Auburn than weary them from playing a four-hour game and the long ride home from Kansas City in the rain.
“I think we’ll be fine by tomorrow,” Van Horn said Wednesday inside the Fowler Center indoor baseball workout facility. “There are no excuses. We’ll play good tomorrow I think. I look at the other teams across the league, They played last night and got off a bus and traveled back. Ole Miss has to travel here. It’s all the same. It’s just the way Division 1 baseball is.”
Until last weekend at Auburn, Van Horn was certain to get at least six competitive innings out of ace starters Blaine Knight (6-2) and Trevor Stephan (4-2).
At Auburn Knight got chased in the third of a 15-2 loss, then Stephan got banished trailing 3-0 in the second, though Arkansas did win that game 7-3.
Is Van Horn concerned?
“Well after what you saw last weekend, obviously concerned,” Van Horn said. “Hopefully they’ll make some adjustments and feel a little more comfortable pitching at home and kind of turn that around a little bit. We definitely need them to.”
And he believes they will starting with Knight, who has pitched his name on to the Golden Spikes Award watch list.
“I look for him to bounce back and command the baseball a little bit better and do what he’s capable of doing and that’s throwing a lot of strikes down in the zone and make them earn it,” Van Horn said. “Last weekend he was behind in the count and left a lot of pitches up. Trevor actually had good stuff, they just fouled off a ton of pitches. He couldn’t finish them off and they got his pitch count up to 50 in the second inning. They’re human. They are not always going to have good days. I’m sure they’ll bounce back.”
Knight, meeting media Wednesday, said he’s sure, too.
“Give credit to Auburn,” Knight said. “They had my number. They had Trevor's. Not every pitcher is going to go out every time and have his best stuff. I’m 100 percent healthy, feel great and I’m ready to go tomorrow."
Unless he’s needed extensively in left-handed relief, it appears sophomore Kacey Murphy, throwing a one-hit shutout for seven innings against Memphis last week with Josh Alberius closing the last two innings of that 2-0 victory, will start the third game against Ole Miss.
Alberius, who also did not survive three innings as a starter against Auburn, can help a bullpen that was overworked last weekend, but is now bolstered by Dominic Taccolini, who was cleared to return from the sore forearm that benched him at Auburn.
Though with first baseman Nick Fortes hitting .307, right fielder Will Golson hitting .304 and catcher Toby Bortles and second baseman Tate Blackman hitting six and five runs, the Rebels aren’t a fierce hitting club, holding a team batting average of .246 to Arkansas’ .294 with 54 home runs, including starters hitting from six to nine homers paced by the nine each by catcher Grant Koch and first baseman Chad Spanberger.
However for team pitching, the Rebels’ staff earned run average is 2.98 to Arkansas’ 3.85.
“They really can pitch,” Van Horn said. “They’ve got the best overall team ERA in the SEC by a pretty good amount.”
Freshman right-hander James McArthur, only 2-3 but recently the Rebels’ hottest pitcher, starts tonight with lefties Ryan Rolison (5-2) and David Parkman (5-2) starting next.
Rebels relievers Dallas Woolfolk (3-1) and Will Stokes (1-0) have recorded eight and four saves.
Andy Pagnozzi, the son of Tom Pagnozzi, the former St. Louis Cardinals and Razorbacks catcher and former Arkansas assistant coach, also has pitched out of the Rebels bullpen.