HOOVER, Ala. -- Blaine Knight got his mojo back last week, right on time for the No. 13 Arkansas Razorbacks to start their postseason run.
Knight threw six shutout innings during the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's 8-0 victory at Texas A&M on Saturday for his first victory since a 14-4 rout of Georgia on April 13. The 6-3 right-hander from Bryant said Wednesday he's feeling strong after experiencing fatigue in his pitching arm, which led the coaching staff to push back his start against Vanderbilt by a day two weeks ago.
ARKANSAS BASEBALL
vs. MISS. STATE
WHEN 9:30 a.m. today
WHERE Hoover, Ala.
RECORDS Miss. State 35-22; Arkansas 39-15
SERIES Mississippi State leads 52-45
LAST MEETING Arkansas swept a three-game series by scores of 3-1, 5-4 and 6-1 to open SEC play March 17-19 in Fayetteville
PROBABLE PITCHERS Miss. State RHP Denver McQuary (2-3, 4.60 ERA); Arkansas RHP Trevor Stephan (5-3, 3.24)
RADIO Razorback Sports Network. Not all games will be carried by affiliates. Check local listings.
TV SEC Network
"I feel good," said Knight, who is scheduled to pitch Arkansas' third game at the SEC Tournament if the Razorbacks are still alive. "I went out there and did what I was supposed to do.
"I'd had rough outings the past however many weeks, and stuff hadn't gone my way, you know. But to go out there and shut them out for six innings and limit their hits and give our guys a chance to get a win, it feels really good and I feel really confident going into this week."
Knight felt some cramping in his forearm and left lower back against the Aggies, but he battled through it to allow three hits and no walks while striking out two.
"I almost got him [out], but he said, 'No, no, no, I'm fine. I'll fight through it. It's just cramps.' " Arkansas pitching coach Wes Johnson said. "So that's what we had going on. His arm's fine."
Knight said it was hard to stay hydrated pitching in southeast Texas.
"You don't hydrate enough, your muscles are going to cramp because they have nothing to replenish themselves with," Knight said. "I'm out there throwing every pitch, and so I'm putting a lot of stress on my arm and my body at the same time.
"Me not hydrating caused that right there, the muscles to be working like that and not able to be replenished and stay loose. They just tightened up."
Knight's best outing in six weeks gives the Razorbacks a pair of healthy aces at the top of their rotation entering the postseason. Trevor Stephan (5-3, 3.24 ERA) will start today's 9:30 a.m. game against Mississippi State, while Knight (7-4, 3.23) will either throw Friday or get his first postseason start at an NCAA regional next week.
"He only threw like 69 pitches and we got him out of there," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said of Knight's work at Texas A&M. "Not a lot of strikeouts, but he pitched to contact and that's what we want to do.
"It's not all about striking people out. It's about getting back in the dugout and going on offense. He did a good job with that the other day. He could probably be ready for Thursday, but we don't want to stress him out."
Johnson said Knight is "not the fastest recovery guy" on the team, which is one of the reasons why he's thrown each of the last three Saturdays, culminating with the shutout string at Texas A&M.
"His stuff was really good, and one of the things we've really been working on a lot is just him pitching," Johnson said. "He's obviously got a really live arm, but if you noticed last week he got a lot of groundballs.
"He's been working hard on his two-seam [fastball], sinking it a little bit, and it showed up and I was really happy for him."
Knight's struggles late in the year, when he took three losses and a no decision in a four-start span, were surprising given his five-start stretch to open SEC play, which included consecutive victories over Mississippi State's Konnor Pilkington, Missouri's Tanner Houck, Alabama's Jake Walters and LSU's Alex Lange.
"He's the ultimate competitor," Johnson said. "He can't stand to lose, whether it's checkers or pingpong or fungo golf that they're having to play today.
"He really likes to go against those front-line guys, because of course they got all the pub and he didn't get any."
In his five consecutive victories, Knight pitched 33 innings and allowed 19 hits, 5 runs and 5 walks while striking out 36.
"It's baseball. You're not going to be perfect all the time," Knight said. "I had a really good first half of the season and you're going to run into a buzzsaw at some point. I finally let it run its course. I kept grinding it out and doing what I had to do to just keep on a routine. I finally passed it, and I'm on the upper end of it now."
Sports on 05/25/2017