Dominate. That was Arkansas’ starting pitcher Blaine Knight. He kept the Alabama hitters off balance all night.
Coming off the South Carolina series, it seemed that the Alabama offense had figured it out. The first inning was a continuation of that, when the Crimson Tide scored first. Cobie Vance lead off the inning with a double down the left field line and advanced to third on a fly ball to right field. He then came in to score from a single off the bat of Hunter Alexander.
From then on Knight allowed only one hit. He retired the next 19 Alabama hitters, before Tanner DeVinny’s double in the eighth. He went 8 innings and allowed only one run on three hits. He struck out seven and finished without allowing a walk in the 8-1 win.
“Hats off to him, he pitched his tail off,” DeVinny said. “He was able to locate and kept us off balance. As an offense, we are going to have to come back tomorrow and put this one behind us. He was really good at throwing any pitch in any count.”
The run was the only one of the game for Alabama, and it kept the lead till the top of the third.
In the third Chad Spanberger lead off the inning with a single. He came into score on the very next pitch when Luke Bonfield hit a home run over the left field fence giving the Razorbacks the lead that they never looked back from.
The Razorbacks would add a pair of runs in the top of the fourth and one run in the fifth, eighth and ninth innings. Bonfiled added another RBI in the fourth with a RBI single. He finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored. He was one of three Arkansas hitters to finish with three hits in the game. As a team, it put up 17 hits.
Jake Walters started for Alabama. He went 4.1 innings and gave up five runs off 10 hits and finished with his third loss on the year. Deacon Medders came in after him and pitched well, giving up one run off five hits in 3.2 innings. Medders came into the game with bases loaded and escaped the jam without giving up a run.
“That was awesome wasn’t it,” head coach Greg Goff said. “I was really pleased with him. We’ve had some injuries, and some guys are going to need to step up for us. He kept it [the game] right there for us. He’s doing tremendous. The more we get him out there, the more comfortable he’s going to get.”
Dylan Duarte takes the mound on Saturday in game two of the series. First pitch is at 7 p.m.
