FAYETTEVILLE — When Arkansas pitching coach Matt Hobbs asked Hunter Hollan if he was good to go back to the mound in the ninth inning of Sunday's 5-1 win over South Carolina, Hollan responded confidently by saying he wanted it.
Hollan went out and finished things off in the top of the ninth inning to record the first complete game by a Razorback pitcher in an SEC game since Dominic Taccolini threw a 10-inning complete game shutout against Kentucky in 2016.
According to Hollan, it was his first ever nine-inning complete game performance. It was easily a season-long outing and he also added a season-best 10 strikeouts while allowing one earned run on five hits and walking one.
"Me and Parker (Rowland) were talking before the game," Hollan said. "We looked at each other and we were talking about kind of how we wanted to attack people, and we knew that we wanted to go in early and then start expanding away, and he said, ‘This is about to be a dogfight. That lineup’s good,’ and I was like, ‘We just have to compete, fill up the zone, and we’re going to hit,’ so I knew if I just had quick innings to get back in the dugout, we were going to have a good chance."
Filling up the zone and pitching to contact was a big key to Hollan's outing, according to head coach Dave Van Horn, who said Hollan was "just missing" during his outing last weekend at Mississippi State.
"Command was big," Van Horn said of Hollan. "We were hoping his command would get a little better than last week. Today I felt like he just really pitched. He just pitched. Fastball, changeups, cutters, sliders. He just mixed it, and all of them were right around the plate. Even his misses a lot of times were really close."
Hollan retired 19 batters in a row across the fourth through ninth innings and he retired 20 of the last 21 total batters that he faced. The only mistake he made was a 1-1 pitch that South Carolina's Will Tippett drove to left field for a solo homer in the top of the third inning.
"He gave up a home run to, I think, the 8-hole hitter, and he was lights out after that honestly," Van Horn said. "I know he went probably five innings toward the end of the game where he didn’t work out of the stretch. They finally got a hit off him there in the ninth. We thought about taking him out … Going into the eighth we thought, ‘This will be his last inning.’ Then he goes out and works a great inning, quick.
"He’s in the 90s, but there was no way we could take him out…The number of pitches, they do matter, but not as much as how stressful were they? How many tough innings did he have to fight out of?"
Hollan said he looked up and saw his pitch count was still manageable after the sixth inning and that's when he had an idea that he could go nine innings.
"I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m probably going nine today,'" Hollan said. "Hobbs came to me after the eighth and he was like ‘Well?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I want it!’ So that was cool. I threw 113, that’s the most I’ve ever thrown. But yeah it was good."
All of Hollan's work came while he continues to battle what head coach Dave Van Horn has described as shin splints and Hollan told reporters last weekend that it is a nerve in his knee that's caused the area from the bottom of his kneecap down to his ankle to go numb.
He said after Sunday's game that the issue is with his push-off (left) leg, and he's going to pay for the 113 pitches that he threw when Monday rolls around.
Hollan's complete game is the second of the season by an Arkansas pitcher. Right-hander Will McEntire threw a complete game on March 11 against Louisiana Tech.
On the season, Hollan now boasts a 7-2 record and a 3.75 ERA. He is up to 61 strikeouts compared to just 26 walks across a team-high 69 2/3 innings pitched.
Arkansas' next challenge will be the last series of the regular season in Nashville, Tennessee, against the Vanderbilt Commodores starting Thursday. First pitch for Game 1 is set for 6 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.
