Hogs' bullpen settle Jaguars in series-clinching win

Arkansas pitcher Zebulon Vermillion throws during a game against South Alabama on Sunday, March 8, 2020, in Fayetteville.

— Arkansas has needed a pitcher to shut things down at the end of games and junior Zebulon Vermillion and sophomore Elijah Trest proved to be up to the task Sunday.

Vermillion pitched three innings of hitless ball while fanning six in a tied game that ended when Heston Kjerstad hit a walk-off home run with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Razorbacks a 5-3 victory over South Alabama at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Kjerstad, whose homer was sixth of the season, was impressed with the jobs Trest and Vermillion did keeping Arkansas in the game.

“You’ve got to give it to our pitching staff,” Kjerstad said. “(Starter Kole) Ramage went out there and did a tremendous job and handed off to Trest. I think he only gave up one hit. You can’t ask for any more than that.

“And Zebulon Vermillion comes in and he’s outstanding striking everyone and not giving up any hard contact or anything. That was awesome to be able to play defense behind those guys.”

It was the longest outing and the first win of the season for Vermillion, who also has a save this season in five appearances for the Razorbacks (9-5).

“Three innings is definitely my longest outing and I knew the situation,” Vermillion said. “Trest was going to go out and do his work, I just needed to come in whenever he was finished, and he did a great job of setting me up.”

Vermillion, who pitched the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, used his slider and fastball to breeze through the Jaguars' lineup.

“I just came in, and just kept pounding the zone and attacking, and letting my offense do some stuff,” Vermillion said.

Vermillion and Trest, who allowed one hit while also throwing three scoreless frames, finished the game for starter Ramage, who gave up 3 runs on 6 hits while walking 1 and hitting 1 in the first three innings.

“Well, it was big,” Van Horn said of his bullpen. “Both of those guys can finish games for us. Like I said yesterday after the game, we have some of our older guys available for today and we didn’t mess around too long.”

Van Horn, whose team had lost five straight before winning 15-2 on Saturday, could see Ramage was living dangerously in his time on the mound.

“You know, Ramage gave up six hits in three innings and most of those came in the first and the third,” Van Horn said. “We just felt like we were living on the edge with him. He did get out of the third inning with a nice strikeout on three pitches, but to us we just needed to change it up. We had some guys, and we’d just rather be early than late, and that’s kind of went on today.”

Trest walked a batter and hit one in the fourth inning, but worked his way out of the jam.

“Great job,” Van Horn said. “They’re both relievers, obviously, and they both know how to get out of a jam. Trest kind of worked himself into a jam (in) his first inning, I think he had runners at first and second with nobody out and he got out of it. That was big for his confidence and the team’s confidence, and then he came back and gave us two quick innings after that.”

Vermillion was done for the day regardless of whether Kjerstad had ended the game.

“Vermillion faced 10 hitters, I think, and the only hitter that faced him twice was their last hitter, and that’s always concerning because it was their clean-up hitter,” Van Horn said. “I’m just glad he got him out."