Taccolini had outing for the record books

Arkansas' Dominic Taccolini throws a pitch during a game against Rice on Friday, Feb. 26, 2016, at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

— Dominic Taccolini turned in a historic pitching performance in Arkansas’ 10-inning 1-0 win over Kentucky last Friday.

How historic? It was the first extra-inning shutout by a Razorbacks pitcher since Charlie Corbell pitched 10 scoreless innings in 1982.

“I haven’t thrown that many innings in one game in my life,” Taccolini said. “I was just thinking to myself, ‘I need to go deep in the game for us.’”

Coming Full Circle

Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn also played a part in Charlie Corbell's 10-inning shutout in 1982, when Arkansas beat Houston 1-0.

He laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved the eventual game-winning run into scoring position in the 10th. That runner scored on a wild pitch during an at bat by Chris Shaddy, the father of current Razorback Carson Shaddy.

The outing seemingly came out of nowhere. He entered the game with a 10.34 ERA in conference play.

Taccolini lasted just 12 total innings in his first four SEC starts. He hadn’t thrown more than four innings in a game since Arkansas’ conference opener at South Carolina March 18, when he allowed eight earned runs in six innings.

Against Kentucky, he gave up only five hits and had a career-high 10 strikeouts while walking none on 125 pitches in 10 innings.

“He had a pretty easy 125 (pitches),” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “When I say that, it wasn’t real stressful. He was just not overthrowing.”

Instead of trying to throw 92 MPH, Van Horn said Taccolini was keeping it in the upper 80s, allowing him to hit his spots. He threw more than twice as many strikes (84) than balls (41) and didn’t get into a three-ball count until the 10th inning.

“He’s capable of doing that every week,” Arkansas catcher Tucker Pennell said. “The biggest thing for him was working ahead. He was able to throw his curveball for a strike and locate it, so that was huge, too.”

Taccolini also changed the way he pitched out of the stretch, which made him more comfortable pitching with runners on base. It was a tweak that came after watching Florida’s Logan Shore pitch against Arkansas the previous weekend.

“I watched him throw and he looked really comfortable in the stretch, so I kind of emulated him a little bit,” Taccolini said of Shore, with whom he shared the SEC co-pitcher of the week award. “He was able to be on time to the plate and he looked comfortable throwing strikes, so I picked that up a little bit and added my own twist on it.”

Taccolini breezed through the first nine innings, needing just 98 pitches, but got into trouble in the 10th. Kentucky managed a couple of hits and got the game-tying and game-winning runs in scoring position, but Taccolini stranded them by getting a groundout.

“I’d been cruising most of the game, so I felt they were pretty confident in letting me go out there,” Taccolini said. “Even when I got in a jam in the 10th inning, I was happy the coaches had enough confidence in me to keep me out there.”