FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas' only losing pitcher in its three-game SEC series at No. 1 Texas A&M last weekend opens the Razorbacks' next SEC series tonight.
Arkansas, 24-17 overall and a sizzling 9-9 in the SEC West after a 1-5 start, host the Mississippi State Bulldogs (22-19, 6-12) at 6:30 tonight, 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
Trey Killian, normally junior ace right-hander of this Arkansas staff, now stands 1-3 with a bloated 5.87 ERA after taking one for the team against A&M in College Station.
The Aggies hammered Killian early and often while he was hammered for 11 runs and 11 hits but labored into the fifth inning of a 13-6 loss from which Arkansas recovered to beat the Aggies 9-8 and 8-2 Sunday.
Arkansas won the last two on bullpen depth that Killian saved from pitching too early by laboring on in the opener at the expense of his ERA rising like the national debt.
"That's probably the roughest outing he's ever had." Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "He just didn't have it and he'll admit it. Normally he can locate that fastball. He wasn't able to do that. It really started with the first hitter. But what he did for us, he gave us four-plus innings. I was proud of him for that. He didn't complain. Just kind of took it for the team and saved our bullpen. I'm sure he can't wait to get the ball on Friday."
Killian's teammates concur.
"He had one bad start," senior left fielder Joe Serrano said. "We still believe in him. We still expect him to put up good numbers and we still expect him to compete like he always does."
Shortstop Michael Bernal said, "Trey's going to be just fine. He's good for a reason."
The Razorbacks need a good start out of Killian to continue the momentum gained at A&M and to remind that the temporarily lowly Bulldogs are capable of doing to Arkansas what the Razorbacks did to A&M, 35-3 before Arkansas stunned the Aggies twice on Sunday.
"You look at Mississippi State, this was a preseason Top 20 team most every poll," Van Horn said. "They have good players. They are not going to quit. They are just one or two good weekends away from being where everybody else is and we are within a couple of losses of being in the same position that they are. We can't go patting ourselves on the back because we had a really good day. We have won some series in a row but you can't say, 'This team has this record and all we have to do is show up. Or this team is way ahead of us.' You can't play that way."
Right-handers Dominic Taccolini, 5-3, 4.97 on Saturday, and freshman Keaton McKinney, 3-1, 3.93, on Sunday, follow Killian in the rotation.
McKinney has been Arkansas' best starter the last two weekends throwing a complete-game victory two Sundays ago against Kentucky and Arkansas' only starter, with Zach Jackson netting the save, to beat A&M.
"He's been going in that rubber match game three weeks in a row he's been out there on a Sunday," Van Horn said. "Three weeks in a row we've won that game. He comes in, he throws strikes, keeps them off-balance."
Taccolini exited trailing A&M but the Razorbacks rallied from an 8-3 deficit and won behind reliever Jackson Lowery with James Teague saving it in the ninth.
Coach John Cohen's Bulldogs are expected to start lefty Lucas Laster, 4-3, 3.11, tonight with right-handers Preston Brown, 5-4, 3.21 and Austin Sexton, 3-4, 4.03 starting Saturday and Sunday.
Sports on 04/24/2015