SEC BASEBALL

Hogs finally reach the lead, win in 10

Arkansas' Dominic Taccolini throws a pitch during a game against Western Illinois on Friday, March 11, 2016, at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.
Arkansas' Dominic Taccolini throws a pitch during a game against Western Illinois on Friday, March 11, 2016, at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Arkansas had just taken its first lead in 81 innings of SEC play when Dominic Taccolini started his 10th inning of work Friday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

It didn't matter to Taccolini that he was past his season-high pitch count or that he had never pitched 10 innings in a game.

"The 10th inning was the hardest inning for sure, but I made some good pitches," Taccolini said.

Taccolini's final pitch, his 125th of the night, was grounded to shortstop Michael Bernal, who completed the putout to give the Razorbacks a 1-0 victory, ending an eight-game skid.

"Tonight, he was a different pitcher than what we had seen through the first part of SEC play," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said of Taccolini.

Taccolini (4-2) entered the evening with a 5.57 ERA, much of it adding up during a series of short, ineffective SEC starts.

"We would have taken five innings of shutout ball," Van Horn said.

Taccolini gave Arkansas (23-15, 5-11 SEC) much more than that, but it was still a 0-0 game when Chad Spanberger led off the top of the 10th inning against Kentucky starter Zack Brown.

Spanberger, the man who Van Horn called Arkansas' biggest home run threat,took a 1-0 fastball over the right-field wall to give the Razorbacks their first lead in an SEC game since April 1, when they beat Missouri 7-6.

"It kept going, and I said, 'That's a pretty big wall,' " Spanberger said. "But then the right fielder turned around, and I knew it was gone."

Arkansas had struggled against Brown much the same way Kentucky (23-14, 9-7) struggled against Taccolini.

The Razorbacks had a chance in the third inning when Rick Nomura and Tucker Pennell led off with back-to-back singles and were moved into scoring position by a sacrifice bunt. But consecutive groundouts silenced the Razorbacks' threat, one of the few they put up against Brown, who pitched nine scoreless innings before the Spanberger home run.

Brown helped himself in the sixth inning by fielding a soft grounder down the third-base line and throwing out Bernal with a Razorbacks runner on third base and two outs. He exited with two outs in the 10th inning, giving up 1 run on 6 hits and 2 walks in 9 2/3 innings.

"His curveball was really working, and his fastball was spotting well, too," Spanberger said.

Taccolini struck out a career-high 10 batters. He retired 15 consecutive batters from the third through the seventh innings in his first quality start since March 11 against Western Illinois.

"He didn't try to overthrow," Van Horn said.

Taccolini's 10-inning performance was the season's first complete-game shutout for an Arkansas starting pitcher and the first time an Arkansas pitcher had 10 strikeouts since 2012.

"To get a win is a big deal," Taccolini said.

Especially after the way Arkansas has struggled in April.

"It was not good baseball," Van Horn said of the losing streak. "Tonight, we didn't make any mistakes. We didn't do a whole lot either, but to get that win and knock down the SEC losing streak is good."

The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader today at 11 a.m. central, to make up for Thursday's rainout. Zach Jackson will face UK's Dustin Beggs in the first game. Both games are slated for seven innings.

Sports on 04/23/2016

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