Hogs grow SEC ace after pains

Arkansas Razorbacks pitcher Blaine Knight has become the team’s Friday night starter after gaining 15 pounds in the offseason and increasing the velocity on his pitches.
Arkansas Razorbacks pitcher Blaine Knight has become the team’s Friday night starter after gaining 15 pounds in the offseason and increasing the velocity on his pitches.

FAYETTEVILLE -- When the Arkansas Razorbacks lost potential weekend starters Isaiah Campbell and Keaton McKinney with season-ending injuries earlier this year, how they would get through SEC weekends became a question mark.

Through three weeks of league play, the Hogs have had an answer. No. 15 Arkansas enters this weekend's home series against No. 13 LSU tied with Auburn for the top spot in the SEC West.

Blaine Knight at a glance

COLLEGE Arkansas

CLASS Sophomore

HEIGHT/WEIGHT 6-3, 165

POSITION Pitcher

HIGH SCHOOL Bryant

NOTEWORTHY Has started all seven Friday games for the Razorbacks this season. … Has walked 2 batters in 40 1/3 innings. … Is undefeated in 3 SEC starts against Mississippi State, Missouri and Alabama. … Is draft-eligible this summer because he will turn 21 on June 28, which is within the allotted 45-day window after the MLB Draft.

In league games, the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville leads the SEC with 91 strikeouts and is second in opposing batting average (.231) and hits allowed (68).

A key has been the evolution of Friday starter Blaine Knight, a sophomore right-hander from Bryant who enters tonight's start with a 3-0 record in conference play. Knight has a 2.23 ERA, .197 opposing batting average and has walked only 2 batters in 40⅓ innings.

In three conference starts, Knight has pitched a combined 21 innings with 4 earned runs and 25 strikeouts to 1 walk.

"We couldn't have really asked for him to pitch better at the beginning of the season," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "The first three conference series have pretty much been lights out. The fact is he doesn't walk people, but he also hits his spots and mixes his pitches.

"He's a confident guy, and he's got a little attitude out there. That's what you have to have if you're pitching on the weekend in this league, and it even has to be a notch higher if you're pitching on Friday."

The key to not walking batters has been not throwing too hard, Knight said. It's a delicate balance given his velocity has increased significantly since last season while working with first-year pitching coach Wes Johnson, who emphasizes lower-body strength to develop power pitching.

Knight, who gained about 15 pounds during the offseason, has touched 97 mph with his fastball. He also developed a cutter that has served as an out pitch. He has 48 strikeouts, including 17 looking.

"It's just learning how to spot-up every pitch and not trying to burn everything by everybody, because you ain't going to beat anybody with any fastball in this league," Knight said. "They can catch up to 100 very easily. I don't throw 100, so I don't try to anymore."

LSU Coach Paul Mainieri said Knight stood out last year during a game Arkansas players would love to forget. Knight was on the mound when a possum ran across the field in the seventh inning of a loss to the Tigers.

What followed was a flurry of errors from the Razorbacks over the final three innings, which helped the Tigers overcome an eight-run deficit and win 10-9 in extra innings.

"I just remember remarking to somebody in the dugout, 'Boy this kid has got a good arm and a nice, loose delivery, and I wouldn't be surprised if he develops into something special,' " Mainieri said. "Sure enough, he did.

"Those numbers of innings pitched to walks and strikeouts, they remind me a lot of a kid we had named Aaron Nola (a first-round draft pick of the Phillies in 2014), who had great control and great stuff. We know we have a nice challenge with him on Friday night."

Knight's outings also have helped the Razorbacks later in the weekend. He has pitched until at least the seventh inning in all three of his conference starts, including an eight-inning start last week in a 7-1 victory at Alabama.

"Watching a guy go into the eighth like Blaine does really helps us out," said Kacey Murphy, a sophomore reliever. "It takes a lot of pressure off us knowing we can use one guy Friday night, and we'll have the rest to go the other two days."

Knight's stamina has improved since the nonconference season when he twice was pulled in the fifth inning because of a high pitch count.

"Once conference play kicked in, he's picked it up a notch and built up his pitches and gotten stronger," Van Horn said. "He's proven he needed to be in there. It's not like he's faded or ran out of gas.

"The first couple weekends, you saw that. It was better the first three innings and then he faded. But once we got to league play, I think he got himself in shape to go that long and he proved he could do it."

Knight, who is draft-eligible this summer because he will turn 21 within 45 days of the MLB Draft, will pitch opposite one of baseball's top draft prospects tonight -- LSU right-hander Alex Lange, who is rated by Baseball America as the No. 7 college prospect.

It will be the fourth time this season that Knight has matched-up against a projected high-round pick, having also gone head-to-head against Missouri's Tanner Houck (Baseball America's No. 8 college prospect), Rhode Island's Tyler Wilson (65) and Bryant's James Karinchak (66).

"I'm not scared of any of those guys," Knight said. "The better they are, the better I do. I hope it keeps coming like that, because I'm going to keep doing better and better each time."

Sports on 04/07/2017

Upcoming Events