FAYETTEVILLE -- First-year Arkansas pitching coach Wes Johnson could hardly have asked for a better debut from the pitching staff Friday.
Three Arkansas pitchers combined for a six-hit shutout as the Razorbacks thumped Miami (Ohio) 7-0 at Baum Stadium.
Starter Blaine Knight and relievers Jake Reindl and Cannon Chadwick combined to strike out 12 RedHawks and allowed no walks. No Miami runners reached third base and only three made it to second base.
Knight picked up the victory, going 4 innings, allowing 3 hits and striking out 5. Reindl gave up 2 hits in 3 innings and struck out 3, while Chadwick finished up with 2 innings that featured 4 strikeouts and 1 hit allowed.
The RedHawks put runners at second base in the fourth, sixth and ninth innings, but went 1 for 15 with runners on base.
"Knight did a tremendous job and Reindl came in and ... threw the ball well," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "He's been throwing the ball well the last couple of weeks and we wanted to get him a game. He came in and got a couple of strikeouts and gave us good innings.
"I thought Cannon Chadwick threw the ball extremely well, especially the first inning. Just a great job by our pitching staff."
Rookie rip
Freshman center fielder Dominic Fletcher got off to a strong start in his collegiate debut. The 5-9, 175-pounder was right in the middle of Arkansas' six-run first inning, and he powered up for the Razorbacks' first home run in the seventh inning.
Fletcher knocked in the second run in Arkansas' six-run first inning and scored on a Chad Spanberger single. He was robbed of a potential RBI hit in the fourth inning on a great catch by Miami center fielder Steve Sada.
Fletcher, a left-handed hitter, took a pitch from right-handed reliever Andy Almquist just over the wall in right-center field to put the Hogs ahead 7-0 in the seventh.
"I knew it had a chance, but I also remembered the wind was blowing in and I hit it to a deeper part of the ballpark," Fletcher said. "I got on my horse after a second and it happened to get over."
Sophomore Eric Cole said Fletcher came to the team with the mentality to be a difference maker.
"Personally, I think since Day 1 he's been the center fielder here," Cole said. "His demeanor, it's not like other freshmen. He was ready to go."
Opening up
Arkansas improved to 15-0 in season openers under Coach Dave Van Horn. The cumulative score of those openers is 116-32, an average score of 7.7 to 2.1.
The Razorbacks have three opening-day shutouts under Van Horn, with Friday's blanking following a 2-0 victory against Louisiana Tech in 2004 and a 5-0 decision against Delaware State in 2011.
Relief help
Miami right-hander Brad Schwartz did his job well, holding Arkansas scoreless for five innings after the RedHawks fell behind 6-0.
Schwartz, a 5-11 senior from Marietta, Ga., came on with two outs in the bottom of the first inning for Cole Gnetz and ended the six-run outburst by retiring Luke Bonfield on a fly ball to right field.
Schwartz retired the first nine Razorbacks he faced and allowed one hit, a one-out single by Eric Cole in the sixth.
"Their reliever Schwartz did a good job getting after us," Dave Van Horn said. "He was throwing the fastball borderline strikes up in the zone and we were having trouble getting on top of it.
"He got a lot of strikeouts and fly balls and he got some quick innings and actually gave them an opportunity [to] get back in the ballgame but our pitchers didn't let them."
No stopping him
Shortstop Jax Biggers got overaggressive in his first trip on the base paths and it cost Arkansas a run in the opening inning.
Biggers followed Eric Cole's four-pitch walk with a walk of his own. When Luke Bonfield rapped a single to right, Cole scored easily, but Biggers motored around third base not far behind Cole with assistant coach Tony Vitello trying to get him stopped. Biggers got hung up about 30 feet down the base line and was tagged out by catcher Hayden Senger as Bonfield alertly took second base.
Coach Dave Van Horn said Biggers got a huge break off of first base, though it was risky because he wasn't certain Bonfield's hit would get down in front of right fielder Landon Stephens.
"Cole probably felt the ball had a chance to be caught a little more than Jax did," Van Horn said. "He got close to Cole and coach Vitello really didn't see him.
"He was waving in the front runner and the second runner got a little bit confused but needed to have a little better feel right there. ... It almost cost us a big inning."
Wild man
Miami starter Cole Gnetz had a forgettable season debut. The right-handed sophomore threw balls on his first seven pitches and was shellacked for 6 earned runs on 5 hits, with 3 walks and 2 hit batsmen. Gnetz recorded two outs before being replaced by Brad Schwartz.
Stone Cole
Arkansas sophomore Eric Cole pulled off a rare first-inning feat for a leadoff hitter by scoring and driving in runs. Cole led with a walk and scored on a Luke Bonfield single. Cole came up again with two outs in the first and delivered a two-run single through the right side.
Plate replacement
Home plate umpire Scott Kennedy had to leave the game in the top of the fifth inning after taking a shot in an earlier inning. Kennedy was replaced by third base umpire Shane Metheny.
Kennedy appeared to take a foul ball off his face mask with Arkansas' Chad Spanberger batting in the third inning. Kennedy took a couple of minutes to recover after that incident, with Arkansas medical personnel coming on the field to check him out.
The fifth inning delay took several minutes, to the point that incoming Arkansas reliever Jake Reindl actually stopped warming up.
Sports on 02/18/2017