Star turn in rotation

Murphy yields bunt single in 1-hitter

Kacey Murphy has turned into a midweek star for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

That star got only brighter Wednesday night.

Murphy, a sophomore lefthander from Rogers, limited Memphis to a seventh-inning bunt single as the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, won

2-0 over the Tigers in front of 8,543 fans at Dickey-Stephens Park.

“You never really expect something like that,"Mur- phy said. “You just go out and throw as many innings as you can to save some arms for the weekend. Just execute one pitch at a time.” A night after Arkansas and Memphis combined for 23 runs and 23 hits in Fayetteville, the two teams managed

only seven hits Wednesday night. Junior first baseman Chad Spanberger slugged his ninth home run — a two-run blast over the right-field fence in the fifth inning— to account for the game’s only runs.

Murphy (4-0) struck out seven and walked one in seven innings. He threw 91 pitches before senior Jake Alberius entered in the top of the eighth. Murphy made his sixth start in midweek games and lowered his ERA to 2.70. He has allowed no more than three runs in any of his last eight appearances.

“He’s been throwing really well lately,” said catcher Alex Gosser, a senior from North Little Rock. “I’m back there calling pitches and he’s hitting leather every time.”

“He’s just filling up the zone,” Spanberger said. “He’s throwing strikes and getting up 0-2 on almost every batter. … He kept pounding the zone and he had them off-balanced.”

Arkansas (31-8) extended its winning streak to seven games and improved to 2513-1 all-time against Memphis (21-17).

Murphy retired the first 11 batters before giving up a four-pitch walk to right fielder Chris Carrier in the fourth inning. Carrier also broke up the no-hitter when he laid down a one-out bunt in the seventh inning. Carrier beat the throw from third baseman Jared Gates by a step.

“Th at ’ s kinda bush [league],” Spanberger said. “But it didn’t matter.”

“Memphis was just competing,” Arkansas Manager Dave Van Horn said. “They’re trying to get a runner on and get the tying run to the plate. I’m not saying I would have done it, but he did it and it was a great bunt. They could have called him out. It was awfully close.”

Alberius, who played high school for Little Rock Christian, was the winning pitcher in last season’s game at Dickey-Stephens. Alberius threw only 14 pitches in two perfect innings for his second save.

“We wanted him to pitch tonight, obviously,” Van Horn said. “We’ve started him on the weekends during conference. We’ve used him out of the pen. He’s kinda like our wild card. We use him to do a little bit of everything.”

Memphis starter Alex Hicks (4-4) allowed six hits in six innings. He struck out six, walked none and hit a batter.

The Razorbacks banged out four hits in the first three innings but had no runner advance past second base. That all changed in the fifth inning.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MITCHELL PE MASILUN Arkansas Razorbacks first baseman Chad Spanberger fouls a ball off his foot during Wednesday’s game against Memphis at DickeyStephens Park in North Little Rock. Spanberger would eventually provide the Razorbacks with all of the offense they would need,...

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MITCHELL PE MASILUN Pitcher Kacey Murphy had a no-hitter going through six innings for Arkansas before giving up a bunt single in the top of the seventh to Memphis right fielder Chris Carrier. It was the only hit Murphy and reliever Josh Alberius allowed to the Tigers.