No. 7 Arkansas lost the series to No. 3 LSU, but did avoid the sweep with a 7-4 win on Sunday while only a home series remains with Tennessee beginning Thursday night.
Arkansas (41-11, 18-9) regained sole possession of second place in the SEC with the win over LSU (40-12, 17-10). It was a near four-hour game that saw 14 pitchers take the mound, LSU Coach Jay Johnson ejected for arguing balls and strikes and the game go down to the final pitch. Parker Coil got LSU catcher Luis Hernandez to line out to Wehiwa Aloy at shortstop to end the game while stranding two runners. Dave Van Horn was pleased to avoid the sweep and get the win now heading home.
"Yeah, another four-hour game on a Sunday," Van Horn said. "It was a really good win for our team, obviously, after that rough game yesterday when nothing went right. We didn’t play well. We didn’t pitch or hit well. ….he goes over the opening game a little … When you look back on it, we should’ve won game 1, yesterday’s game happened, today’s game was a real kind of back-and-forth type game. We just pitched extremely well, got out of a couple of jams. Got a couple of big hits. Put together that four-run inning after being down two and then just pitched our way to the end.
"That was big scoring there in the top of the ninth after they cut the lead to one there in the bottom of the eighth. This is a tough place to win and to hold onto games and I was proud of the team for bouncing back."
The Arkansas bullpen was good using five pitchers after starter Landon Beidelschies only lasted two innings. Dylan Carter (6-0) was the second Arkansas pitcher to the mound and got the win. He worked two innings striking out a pair, walking one and allowing two hits. In seven innings, the Hogs bullpen only allowed one run. '
"Yeah, he got us six outs," Van Horn said of Carter. "That’s what we were hoping. We were hoping that Landon Beidelschies would give us at least three. He only gave us two. We had it scripted out a little bit. We knew we had seven guys available for today, counting the starter. We ended up using six guys counting the starter. Yeah, it was big. He didn’t have his best stuff, but he kinda just got them out. Couple of big punch outs, but he just let them hit it a few times, and then we handed it off to Christian (Foutch)."
LSU took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second on solo home runs by Hernandez and Steven Milam off Beidelschies. But the Hogs answered that with four in the top of the third inning.
Justin Thomas Jr. led off the bottom of third with a double. A ground out moved him to third where he scored on a Wehiwa Aloy sacrifice fly. Carson Boles then walked with two outs. Kuhio Aloy singled to left. Ryder Helfrick then laced a double down the left field line to plate Boles. Cam Kozeal then singled to center field to get both Kuhio Aloy and Helfrick home for a 4-2 advantage. Van Horn was pleased to see the Hogs get some runners in after stranding two in the third.
"Well, it was huge because things weren’t going our way," Van Horn said. "They weren’t going our way the night before. Rough day, and then they go out and score two. We have a runner at third base, one out, and Wehiwa Aloy’s at-bat, I think he was 0-2. We’re thinking, please put the bat on the ball. We’ve got to score on here at a minimum, and then he actually hits a really good ball. Line drive to right field, sac fly, and we still had a runner on at I think second, and then we end up scoring three more runs. Just missed a three-run homer. Got a double there and then a big two-out hit I think by Cam, and all of a sudden we’re up 4-2. Then we just kind of held on. It was 4-3, and then we punched one in, in the fifth. They’ve got some really good arms. I mean, everybody they threw at us that was right-handed was 95-100, and even the lefties were pretty good, as well. We did a good job."
LSU got three singles in the bottom of the third, the first coming against Beidelschies. They managed to get a run to pull within 4-3 after three innings.
The Hogs got back on the scoreboard in the top of the fifth when Helfrick walked to lead off. He went to second on a ground out by Kozeal. He moved to third when Brent Iredale singled. Helfrick came in to score on a Reese Robinett ground out giving Arkansas a 5-3 lead.
LSU scored a solo run in the bottom of the eighth to get within 5-4 of the Razorbacks. However, disaster struck in the top of the ninth for LSU. Four of the first five hitters walked. The only hit in that series was Robinett hitting an RBI single to right field. The Hogs had scored a run one hitter earlier when Iredale walked with the bases loaded.
Johnson was tossed in the top of the eighth for arguing balls and strikes, but Arkansas stranded Thomas at third base and couldn't capitalize on it.
LSU used eight pitchers with starter Cason Evans (3-1) taking the loss. Evans pitched 3.2 innings, allowing seven hits, four runs, walking three and fanning four.
Parker Coil pitched for the first time in several weeks as he returned from an injury. Coil retired the only two hitters he faced to earn the save which was his first of the season. Christian Foutch, Cole Gibler and Aiden Jimenez were the other Arkansas pitchers.
"I mean typical Coil," Van Horn said. "He comes in and throws six pitches and it’s six strikes. The last ball was an 0-2 pitch and he got it in on the hitter a little bit. He only hit it like 75 mph. It looked like a line drive but it wasn’t hit super hard. I’m just glad it went right at him. They already got a bloop base hit the inning before that helped them score a run. But yeah, I thought he did a great job. His bullpens have been really good is what I’ve been told by Coach (Matt) Hobbs. We just felt like that was the right move. And we knew they were going to pinch hit, bringing in a right-hander but he gets righties out as well."
Both teams ended the game with 10 hits while the Razorbacks stranded 12 runners and LSU 11. Each team committed one error. The first pitch Thursday will be at 7 p.m. and televised on ESPN2. Friday night's game starts at 6:30 p.m. and can be streamed on the SEC Network+. Saturday's game will begin at 2 p.m. and will be televised on the SEC Network.
Tennessee (39-12, 15-11) lost two of three against Vanderbilt this weekend. The Vols have now lost five of its last six SEC series while the Razorbacks have dropped four of the last five. The Hogs are 30-3 at Baum-Walker Stadium.
LSU 13, Arkansas 3
As good as No. 7 Arkansas looked last week against top-ranked Texas at home, they have looked just as bad against No. 3 LSU in Baton Rouge with a 13-3 loss on Saturday night.
This comes after LSU took a 5-4 10-inning win on Friday. That game didn't start until 9:57 p.m. just three minutes before the SEC deadline to start a game. The rain was gone Saturday, but LSU took a run-rule win over the Hogs. Dave Van Horn blamed Saturday's showing more on LSU starter Anthony Evanson (8-2) than any letdown from Friday's loss.
“I’d say maybe a little bit, but Eyanson just stuck it to us,” Van Horn said. “We had some frustrating at bats, chasing balls and left runners out there.
“We had a chance to get back in the game down 4-0, but…we don’t score and it easily pretty difficult after that.”
The Hogs did load the bases with just one out in the top of the third on a single by Ryder Helfrick, walk to Reese Robinett and single by Charles Davalan. But Evanson struck out Wehiwa Aloy and Logan Maxwell.
The game ended in the bottom of the seventh on a swinging strike wild pitch that Arkansas misplayed and allowed a runner who started at second to score.
“Like I told the media, it reminded me of Benny the Jet Rodriguez in Sandlot as he ran around the bases there,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. “We were lucky it was our night tonight and I think that play just typified it.”
Arkansas starter Gage Wood allowed four runs on four hits, walked two and struck out a pair while throwing 60 pitches, 34 of which were strikes, in his two innings.
“Lot of three ball counts, whether it was 3-1, 3-2, 3-0,” Van Horn said of Wood. “Really the whole staff. I think we had like 20 three ball counts in a seven-inning ball game and that’s just way too many.
“With Gage, he was just behind in the count and they hit some ball into right field and that’s the way you could hit it out the park tonight if you either pulled it as a lefty or sliced it to right as a right hander. And they did it. Just not the command that he has had.”
The Hogs didn't score until the top of the seventh off three relief pitchers. Helfrick doubled, Robinett walked and Justin Thomas Jr. singled. Thomas drove in a run with his single, Davalan another with a single and then Maxwell with a sacrifice fly.
In all, Arkansas used six pitchers. They combined to allow 13 runs on 11 hits, walked nine, struck out eight and allowed four home runs. Wood (1-1) took the loss.
Evanson worked six innings. He allowed five hits, no runs, one walk and struck out 11. He had plenty of run support with three runs in the first, one in each of the 2-4 innings, six in the fifth and then the final one in seventh.
LSU 5, Arkansas 4
Zach Root logged his team-leading fifth quality start with his six frames of two-run ball and six strikeouts on the mound, but No. 7 Arkansas coughed up a two-run lead in the seventh inning and was handed a 5-4 series-opening loss in 10 innings against No. 3 LSU Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
Friday night’s game, which was originally scheduled for 6:30 p.m., did not begin until 9:57 p.m., only three minutes before the latest allowed start time by the SEC, due to steady rain in Baton Rouge. Despite the delayed first pitch, Root settled in quickly and worked six innings on the bump, allowing two runs on five hits to lower his season ERA to 3.88.
The left-hander racked up six strikeouts against the Tigers, his eighth consecutive start with six or more punchouts, and raised his season total to a team-leading 98 in a team-high 72.0 innings across 13 appearances on the mound.
Thanks to solo home runs by Cam Kozeal and Kuhio Aloy as well as RBI from Charles Davalan and Wehiwa Aloy, Arkansas provided Root with four runs of support and led, 4-2, entering the bottom half of the seventh inning. Kozeal swatted his 12th homer of the season in the top of the fourth before Kuhio Aloy connected on his 13th blast of the year in the sixth.
Aiden Jimenez, who took over on the mound in relief of Root in the seventh, struck out the first batter he faced, but LSU tagged the right-hander for two runs on two hits and two walks to even the game at four apiece. Gabe Gaeckle would emerge from the bullpen to strand a pair of runners in the seventh, giving the Hogs an opportunity to reclaim the lead.
Arkansas, however, could not answer over the game’s final three frames. Gaeckle’s strong relief outing sent the game to extra innings, where the Razorbacks loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the 10th but were unable to capitalize.
The Tigers finally broke through against Gaeckle, who tossed 3.1 innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts, in the bottom of the 10th. LSU scored the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly to center to eke out the 5-4 walk-off win.
Offensively, Justin Thomas Jr. (3-for-4) paced the Razorback offense with a career-high three hits, while Wehiwa Aloy (2-for-5, RBI) and Ryder Helfrick (2-for-4, 2B) also turned in multi-hit efforts. With his two-hit performance, Aloy raised his team-leading season slash line to .377/463/.710 with a team-high 17 home runs and 53 RBI over 50 games.
