Pitchers remember near no-hitter vs. ORU

Seven future MLB draft picks nearly no-hit the Golden Eagles in 2012

Arkansas pitcher Trent Daniel fires a pitch during a 2012 game against Missouri at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.

— The last time Arkansas played Oral Roberts, the Razorbacks nearly made history.

In the 6-1 win, seven Arkansas pitchers combined to throw a one-hitter, with the Golden Eagles’ only hit coming in the ninth inning.

The hit – a double by Jose Trevino with no outs – ended what would have been just the 13th no-hitter in school history and first since 2006.

However, it was a near-miss that displayed the depth of an Arkansas staff that would end the year with a 2.83 team ERA and the core of the following year’s staff, whose 1.89 ERA was the lowest in college baseball since 1976.

Where are they now?

In 2012, seven future MLB draft picks came close to throwing a combined no-hitter against Oral Roberts. Here is a look at where they are playing or what they are doing today, listed in order of appearance in the game.

-Trent Daniel: Pitching for the Modesto Nuts (A+) in the Colorado Rockies organization

-Nolan Sanburn: Pitching for the Birmingham Barons (AA) in the Chicago White Sox organization

-Brandon Moore: Retired, but rehabbing a strained UCL - will attempt to pitch again

-Tyler Wright: Retired and working at Perfect Timing Baseball and Softball Academy in Northwest Arkansas (Moore is also working there while rehabbing)

-Colby Suggs: Pitching for the Greensboro Grasshopper (A) in the Miami Marlins organization (currently on the disabled list after having arthroscopic elbow surgery)

-Michael Gunn: Pitching for the Greenville Drive (A) in the Boston Red Sox organization

-Barrett Astin: Pitching for the Daytona Tortugas (A+) in the Cincinnati Reds organization

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Here is the pitchers' box score from Arkansas' near no-hitter against Oral Roberts in 2012, in which seven future MLB draft picks pitched for the Razorbacks.

Trent Daniel, making one of his four starts as a junior, shut Oral Roberts down for three innings. He would have faced the minimum, but a fielding error in the second allowed a base runner.

During his outing, Daniel struck out five batters while keeping the Golden Eagles’ off-balance.

When he came out of the game and went into the locker room to change out of his cleats, Daniel noticed his successor on the mound, Nolan Sanburn, was throwing 102 miles per hour, according to the radar gun on the TV’s broadcast.

Sanburn breezed through the fourth inning, retiring all three batters and sending the broadcast to a commercial break. That’s when Daniel saw it: a zero in the hits column.

“That’s when it really kicked in for me what we had going,” Daniel said. “We just rolled in guys left and right and they were struggling to get into any kind of groove against us.”

In the fifth, Sanburn got into a jam, walking a pair of batters before another error loaded the bases for Oral Roberts.

He bounced back, though, getting a batter to look at strike three to end the inning.

Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn brought in Brandon Moore to pitch the sixth. While he knew that the Razorbacks had a no-hitter through five innings, Moore didn’t think of it while pitching.

“Once you get out there in a game, that’s the least of your worries,” Moore said. “The biggest thing is just getting outs, whatever that looks like.”

Moore was able to do just that, inducing two groundouts and a pop up to retire all three batters he faced.

Tyler Wright had arguably the best stat line of the night, facing three batters in the seventh and striking out all three, but it wasn’t easy. He needed 18 pitches to accomplish the feat.

Coming back into the dugout at the seventh-inning stretch, Wright still had no idea what was brewing.

“I walked into the dugout, looked up (at the scoreboard) and said, ‘Oh my gosh,’” Wright said. “(My teammates) immediately looked at me with eyes of fury. ‘Don’t you dare say a word.’”

Wright kept his mouth shut and watched as Colby Suggs got the first two outs in the eighth – a strikeout and groundout – before being relieved for Michael Gunn, who got an Oral Roberts player to swing and miss on a 1-2 pitch.

With Arkansas holding a 6-0 lead, thanks partly to a pair of home runs by Tim Carver, Van Horn brought in closer Barrett Astin, who finished the season with 11 saves.

It wasn’t a save opportunity, but the bullpen ace knew no-hitters didn’t happen often. In the dugout, his teammates were ready to celebrate.

“Everyone was up on the fence,” Sanburn said. “We were pretty excited because we were that close. Any time you throw a no-hitter, whether it’s combined or one person doing it, it’s a cool experience.”

It wasn’t meant to be. Astin walked the leadoff man before surrendering the double. He got the next batter to groundout to first, which allowed a run to score and breakup the shutout, then struck out the last two batters to close it out.

“It kind of felt like I let the team down a little bit,” Astin said. “It was frustrating, but we got the win.”

Wright remembers Trevino’s double as one that was not well hit.

“I think that’s pure luck from the other end,” Wright said. “As soon as it got hit, everybody just went, ‘Really? That’s how it ended?’”

Other teammates couldn’t believe, of all the players sent to the mound during the game, that Astin, who ended the year with a 1.99 ERA in 58 2/3 innings, was the one that finally gave up a hit.

“It was kind of ironic to us because he had been our best reliever all year, then he comes in to close it out and gives up a hit,” Daniel said. “We were disappointed for him.”

Despite losing the no-hitter in the ninth, Arkansas went on to win the following road series at No. 5 Florida and eventually won the Rice regional in Houston and Baylor super regional in Waco to reach the College World Series.

It was the Razorbacks’ first trip to Omaha since 2009.

“Being a freshman, that will spoil you,” Gunn said. “It was really an unreal experience. I haven’t seen anything quite like that ever since, just being there in that atmosphere.”

Arkansas was one win away from reaching the championship series for just the second time in school history, but back-to-back losses to South Carolina ended its season.

Sanburn was selected in the second round of that year’s draft, while staff ace DJ Baxendale was taken in the 10th round.

The other six guys that pitched in the Oral Roberts game, as well as weekend starters Ryne Stanek and Randall Fant, were back in 2013 and were the core of that year’s record-breaking staff.

“Coming into 2013, we knew we were good,” Suggs said. “We knew we had the best pitching staff in the nation. A lot of teams can’t handle that, but we were able to.”

On top of being the lowest in college baseball in 37 years, the 1.89 team ERA that season also shattered Arkansas’ previous school record of 2.74 set in 1976.

In 2013, Suggs (second round), Astin (third round), Daniel (17th round), Moore (17th round) and Wright (26th round) were all drafted. Gunn joined them in 2014, when he was taken in 16th round.

That means all seven of the pitchers that played in the Oral Roberts one-hitter were eventually picked in the top 26 rounds of the MLB draft, with all but one taken in the first 17 rounds.

“We knew that every guy coming in was going to be good and keep us in the ballgame,” Astin said. “We also knew that if you came into the game and didn’t do so good, you might not pitch for a while because there’s so many guys in that bullpen that could come in, throw strikes and get people out.”

When Arkansas takes on the Golden Eagles for the first time since the 2012 matchup, it will do so against a completely different team.

Oral Roberts is second in the NCAA with a .321 team batting average, and the pitchers of old know that it’ll take a strong performance by this year’s staff to keep the Golden Eagles from avenging the one-hitter.

“I think the pitchers are definitely going to have to do their job,” Wright said. “It’s going to take everybody from top to bottom.”