Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Taccolini tears it up
Hogs senior ties career high in win
FAYETTEVILLE — With injuries mounting to his pitching staff, Arkansas Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn turned to his most experienced pitcher Tuesday.
Senior right- hander Dominic Taccolini tied a career-high with 10 strikeouts in the Razorbacks’ 12-3 victory over Louisiana-Monroe in front of 1,453 at Baum Stadium. Taccolini scattered 7 hits and 2 walks across a 6-inning performance in his first start of the year.
“It’s good for his confidence,” Van Horn said. “… I’m proud of him. He came out and competed and gave us what we needed, and that was six innings, and gave us a chance to get the bats rolling.
“That’s where it all started. He had a good outing.”
Taccolini’s most effective pitch was his breaking ball, which he relied on heavily during a 100-pitch outing. He didn’t allow a hit in his first three innings.
“It seemed like he could go to his breaking ball just about any time and throw it for a strike,” Van Horn said.
Taccolini bounced back well from a disappointing appearance last Wednesday at Louisiana Tech. He gave up seven runs in the second inning of that game, which the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville came back to win after trailing by nine runs.
Van Horn said he will consider starting Taccolini in the SEC-opening series against Mississippi State in two weekends. The Razorbacks have left their Sunday starter to be determined in each of the first three weekends this season.
“I’d have no problem starting him,” Van Horn said of
Taccolini, who improved to 3-0 this season and recorded his 16th career victory. “We’ve started him plenty of times in his career here. We may bring him out of the bullpen late this weekend and figure out if we’ll start him that first [SEC] weekend or not. It’s nice knowing it’s there if we need it.”
The Razorbacks are down three pitchers. Right-hander Keaton McKinney had Tommy John elbow surgery in the preseason, and Van Horn said Tuesday that right-handers Isaiah Campbell and Cody Scroggins could miss the rest of this season.
The Razorbacks (9-3) gave Taccolini plenty of run support. The Razorbacks scored a run in the first inning, two runs in the second and five in the third to take an 8-0 lead.
Grant Koch and Carson Shaddy each hit two- run home runs to left field during the third. Koch’s SEC-leading fifth home run chased ULM starter Cole Hendrix, who allowed five runs on seven hits.
“We put together a big inning and had five hits in a row,” Van Horn said. “We had some innings here and there where we just kept scoring runs. We just kind of kept it going.”
The Razorbacks finished with 16 hits, including three each by Shaddy and Jax Biggers, and two apiece from Chad Spanberger, Luke Bonfield and Alex Gosser.
Van Horn said Monday he was looking for more production from his older hitters, including Spanberger and Bonfield, who hit second and third in the batting order against the Warhawks (4-9).
“Our better hitters have been lining out a lot,” said Gosser, a senior catcher who scored a career-high three runs in his first start after
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suffering a preseason hand injury. “To see them get hits builds confidence.”
Michael Haun was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and William Hancock was 2 for 5 with 1 RBI and 1 run scored, but the University of Central Arkansas fell to Vanderbilt 10-5 on Tuesday at Hawkins Field in Nashville, Tenn.
Hancock hit an RBI double to right-center field in the first inning to give the Bears a 1-0 lead. After an RBI groundout by Jason Delay tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the second, UCA scored two runs in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead. Rigo Aguilar scored when Eddie Sanchez reached on a fielder’s choice, then Sanchez scored on Haun’s double to left-center field.
The Commodores (8-5) scored five runs in the fifth inning and three more in the seventh to break the game open and added a final run in the eighth. Sanchez had an RBI groundout and Haun hit an RBI single in the eighth inning to account for UCA’s final runs.
The Bears (6-7) managed just 7 hits and had 1 error, while the Commodores had 10 hits and 2 errors. Reed Hayes was 3 for 3 with 2 RBI and 1 run scored to lead Vanderbilt. Left-hander Will Brand took the loss for UCA after allowing 3 earned runs on 3 hits in the Commodores’ five-run fifth inning.