Trevor Stephan overpowering, pushing for Friday night role

Trevor Stephan of Arkansas pitches to a Rhode Island batter Friday, March 10, 2017, during the second game of a doubleheader at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.

— Trevor Stephan won his first three starts as an Arkansas starter, but wasn't credited with the win in one of the Razorbacks' most dominant pitching performances in years.

Stephan, a junior right-hander, struck out 13 and didn't allow any walks in 8 1/3 innings Friday against Rhode Island. He took a perfect game into the seventh inning and retired the first 19 batters he faced.

The 19 consecutive outs were one shy of a school record set twice, most recently by Richie Nye in a 1996 no-hitter against Iowa State. The 13 strikeouts were the most since Jess Todd set a school record with 17 against South Carolina at the 2007 SEC Tournament.

But Stephan took a no-decision, in part, because of shoddy defense over the final three innings. He lost the perfect game when second baseman Carson Shaddy booted a routine groundball with one out in the seventh, and left the game after Rhode Island loaded the bases in the ninth when Shaddy and shortstop Jax Biggers had errors in consecutive one-out at-bats.

"I'm disappointed Trevor didn't get a win there," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "The guy pitched a fantastic game."

Stephan, a junior-college transfer who turned down an 18th-round offer from the Boston Red Sox last summer, has been the Razorbacks' most dominant pitcher the past two weeks. He had 22 strikeouts, 5 hits and 3 walks in 14 1/3 innings against Nebraska and Rhode Island, both NCAA Tournament teams a year ago.

Friday's outing lowered his ERA to 0.75 in four starts. He is averaging 1.3 strikeouts per inning.

Stephan's dominance can be attributed to a fastball-cutter combo that has kept batters guessing. His fastball touched 96 mph against the Rams and nine of his 13 strikeouts ended with a swinging third strike.

"He had (all of his pitches) working, really," Van Horn said. "He got them jumping out front a little, then he busted that fastball in on them anywhere from 92, 95, 96. He was bringing it pretty good."

Senior catcher Alex Gosser, who filled in for regular starter Grant Koch in the second game of Friday's doubleheader, said Stephan's off-speed pitches worked particularly well against right-handed hitters.

"We'd start them off with it and we kept going back to it," Gosser said. "As soon as they'd jump in on the cutter, we'd go back to the fastball and kept them on their toes.

"We wanted to work on that cutter. He's been throwing it for a couple of weeks now and it's a little harder than his slider. That seemed to be his ticket all night."

It might be Stephan's ticket to future Friday starts as well. Van Horn said he'll consider starting Stephan in the Razorbacks' first SEC game next week against Mississippi State.

Blaine Knight, who has started all four of the Razorbacks' Friday games, has a respectable 2.79 ERA, but has not made it to the sixth inning in two of his last three starts against Bryant and Rhode Island.

"It could happen," Van Horn said of starting Stephan on Friday. "I guess it would be something that we would talk about and if we were going to do it, we'd need to do it right away because he's had an extra day rest now.

"That's a possibility. We'll kick that around a little bit."