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HawgBeat's coverage of the Diamond Hogs' Road to Omaha is brought to you by CJ's Butcher Boy Burgers, which has locations in Fayetteville and Russellville.

Each Monday or Tuesday throughout baseball season, HawgBeat’s Andrew Hutchinson will take a look back at the pitching staff for the previous week and assign each unit - the rotation and the bullpen - a grade on their performances. (NOTE: This week’s report card was delayed by one day.)

Facing a deep and veteran lineup on the road at a hitter’s ballpark, Arkansas’ pitching staff did a nice job of keeping Louisiana Tech’s bats in check most of the weekend.

Over the three-game series, the Bulldogs hit just .227 as a team and averaged just 3.3 runs. Those figures are well below their .313 batting average and 8.4 runs/game before facing the Razorbacks.

Most of that damage came in Game 1, when Louisiana Tech pushed Arkansas to the brink before losing 9-7 in 10 innings. Even though they split the next two games, the Bulldogs did so by scoring only three total runs and hitting a minuscule .161 (9 for 56).

Returning to Fayetteville for their first midweek game of the season, the Razorbacks had a tough time against yet another deep lineup in Oklahoma.

Here’s the HawgBeat Pitching Report Card for the last four games…

Head coach Dave Van Horn raised some eyebrows when he reinserted Zebulon Vermillion into the weekend rotation, but the move couldn’t have worked any better.

After lasting only seven total innings and struggling with his command in his first two starts of the season, the big right-hander turned in an absolute gem in Game 2 of the Louisiana Tech series.

Vermillion carved up a Bulldogs lineup that had just racked up seven runs on 13 hits the night before, retiring the first nine batters he faced and scattering three hits and three walks. Even the run he allowed was manufactured, as it involved a runner tagging up to third on a fly out and then scoring on a fielder’s choice ground out.

If the Razorbacks weren’t up 8-1 and he needed to keep pitching, Vermillion probably could have thrown the ninth inning because he was at just 87 pitches.

“He worked fast, he was in the strike zone for the most part and he’s just one of those guys he’s hard to get gauged up with because it is over the top and it’s tilting,” Louisiana Tech head coach Lane Burroughs said. “Those guys, when they’re on, it’s extremely hard to get in a rhythm with them.”