April 22, 2016
Dominic Taccolini became the first Arkansas pitcher to record an extra-innings shutout in more than a quarter-century when he threw 10 scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory at Kentucky.
Prior to Taccolini, the last Razorback to accomplish the feat was Charlie Corbell, who threw 10 scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory over Houston in 1982.
Taccolini's 10-strikeout, 125-pitch masterpiece at Kentucky came during an otherwise frustrating season for the junior right hander. Prior to the Kentucky outing, Taccolini had only thrown 12 innings in four SEC starts, and had a conference ERA of 10.34.
“I haven’t thrown that many innings in one game in my life,” Taccolini said afterward. “I was just thinking to myself, ‘I need to go deep in the game for us.’”
Taccolini pitched without base runners for most of the game, but had to work around Wildcat runners at second and third base in the 10th inning. Kentucky's Troy Squires grounded out to end the game.
Arkansas took a 1-0 lead in the top of the inning on a solo home run by Chad Spanberger. The home run came against Kentucky starter Zack Brown, who matched Taccolini's nine scoreless innings in regulation.
Arkansas' Zach Jackson recorded a shutout in the first of two seven-inning games the following day to give the Razorbacks the series win. Kentucky avoided a sweep by scoring twice in the bottom of the seventh to walk off Arkansas in the series finale.
The Razorbacks had lost eight straight SEC games prior to the series.