FAYETTEVILLE - Dallas Keuchel wants to be a starting pitcher. After Friday, he might get his wish.

Left out of the weekend pitching rotation as Arkansas opened up its 2008 baseball season against Wright State in front of 681 brave fans at Baum Stadium, Keuchel made quite a statement in the Razorbacks' 9-4 win against the Raiders.

Pitching out of the bullpen, the sophomore lefthander relieved a struggling James Mahler in the second inning and worked 5 1/3 innings of near-perfect ball. With his fastball finding the corners and his changeup keeping the Wright State hitters off guard, Keuchel gave up no hits, struck out a career-best six batters and was the main reason Arkansas was able to rally from an early, 4-0 hole.

"Dallas was the key," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "Just came in and had something to prove and he proved it. He came in and threw strikes with about three or four different pitches. He had a two-seam fastball that was running away from them and I think they thought it was a changeup. Then he would throw his changeup a little bit slower.

"He did a tremendous job."

A starter at the beginning of 2007, Keuchel (1-0) was moved to more a reliever's role by midseason after struggling. But Friday, it was the Raiders who were in a dogfight trying to figure out the Arkansas southpaw.

"You know last year in the first half I thought I was doing pretty well in the starting rotation," Keuchel said. "Then I thought I dropped off a little bit because my offspeed wasn't as consistent as it had been. So over the summer, I worked on my consistency. And playing in the Cape (Cod League), it helped me tremendously with the hitters and how good they are. And then I just come back here and do what I do, which is throw strikes and be accurate with my pitches."

Making his first Razorbacks appearance, Mahler showed some freshman jitters. In just 1 1/3 innings, he gave up four runs, five hits and one walk before giving way to Keuchel. But even with Arkansas facing a 4-0 deficit after one inning, there was no panic.

"We've got a good lineup, and we had no doubt we were going to come back," Keuchel said. "Because we've got freshman guys, juco guys and guys coming back like (Ben) Tschepikow, (Casey) Coon and (Logan) Forsythe. So we had faith in those guys and the pitching staff, I think we're pretty good. I think we're much deeper than we were last year and we didn't freak out and just kept with it."

And now thanks to his ability to slam the door shut on Wright State, Keuchel might get his wish after all.

"That will probably happen," Van Horn said. "I mean he deserves a start and whether he starts Friday or Saturday (at the Texas A&M tournament), we'll just see."

TODAY'S TICKET

Wright State at Arkansas

WHEN: 1:05 p.m., today

WHERE: Baum Stadium, Fayetteville

RECORDS: Wright State 0-1; Arkansas 1-0