FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas opened preseason baseball practice Friday with some uncertainty about how best to utilize its two most experienced pitchers in 2017.
Senior Dominic Taccolini and junior Keaton McKinney were expected to have big seasons in 2016, but both struggled to ever fully recover from offseason surgeries — Taccolini to remove a portion of a rib that had caused a blood clot, and McKinney to repair a torn hip muscle. Taccolini started 13 games and finished with a 5.75 ERA, while McKinney’s ERA was 6.66 as a 12-game starter.
Their struggles contributed to an overall drop-off on the mound and Arkansas finished the season with the SEC’s worst ERA (5.