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Zebulon Vermillion turned in his second straight gem to help Arkansas even its series with Alabama on Saturday.

The right-hander flirted with a no-hitter, but ultimately gave up just one hit in eight innings as the Razorbacks cruised to a 9-1 win over the Crimson Tide at Baum-Walker Stadium.

It was a dramatic turnaround from the 16-1 drubbing Alabama handed Arkansas the night before and it snapped the Razorbacks’ three-game losing streak.

“They knew how important this game was and whether they won it or not, we just needed to play better and be more competitive,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “They came out and they took care of business. They set it up for tomorrow to be a big-time game.”

Although the offense pounded out 12 hits and scored nine runs, something it had struggled to do the last few games, the story of the game was Vermillion’s performance on the mound.

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound senior faced only three over the minimum, giving up a pair of walks in addition to the lone hit. He had just four strikeouts, as he pitched to contact and induced 11 fly outs and nine ground outs.

“Fastball was really cutting tonight,” Van Horn said. “Really didn’t have the off speed pitch that maybe he had last week, but he threw a lot of strikes. He moved the ball in and out and had really good movement on his fastball.”

When asked what specific pitches were working for him, Vermillion echoed his coach’s sentiment and said it was definitely his fastball.

“My off speed was pretty inconsistent today,” Vermillion said. “There were some times when I made some really good off speed pitches - my changeup and slider - but overall, I just really executed with the fastball today.”

Through five innings, Alabama’s only base runner came on a two-out walk by Caden Rose in the third and Vermillion was officially on no-hitter watch after Vanderbilt’s Jack Leiter no-hit South Carolina earlier in the day.

Jim Jarvis ensured that wouldn’t happen by leading off the sixth with a line drive single into right field.

“I was trying to stay focused on my goal of executing pitches,” Vermillion said. “I guess it crossed my mind, but I wasn’t thinking about throwing a no-hitter or anything. I was just thinking about executing pitches and my defense will work behind me, we’ll get a lead.”

That hit ended up also being the only run Vermillion allowed, as Jarvis took second base on a wild pitch that didn’t get too far away from catcher Casey Opitz, tagged up on a fly out and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Peyton Wilson.