The No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks (40-9, 17-7 SEC) travel to play the No. 3 LSU Tigers (38-11, 15-9) at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge (La.) this weekend aiming to build off of a home sweep of top-ranked Texas.
Arkansas snapped a three-series skid and capped a perfect weekend behind career outings from pitchers Zach Root and Gage Wood, along with unheralded star Reese Robinett's two homers in the slugfest finale.
Root threw eight innings in Thursday's 9-0 shutout win, allowing only two hits and striking out 11 batters, while Wood went four innings on a pitch count in Friday's 6-1 win with nine punchouts. Both strikeout totals for Root and Wood were career highs. Robinett, Brent Iredale and Wehiwa Aloy all notched multiple hits in Saturday's 13-8 triumph that completed the sweep.
The Tigers are hoping to get back on track after dropping last weekend's series against Texas A&M, in which they had the lead until the bottom of the eighth inning in Sunday's rubber match.
It was great news for the Razorbacks when Thursday's injury report released as two notable names were left off: reliever Parker Coil and outfielder Logan Maxwell. Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn mentioned during Monday's Swatter's Club luncheon that there was a good chance both could return against the Tigers in some form.
Maxwell has not played since re-tweaking his hamstring, which has been a lingering injury for the Ohio native this season, on April 25 against Florida. Coil has been recovering from a back injury that he sustained against South Carolina on March 23.
There have also been a lot of questions about redshirt freshman reliever Hunter Dietz, whose season debut was delayed due to a freak accident during the midweek series with Little Rock.
"We are going see what situation we have and probably just put him in," Van Horn said of Dietz. "It could be this weekend, left on left with two outs and a runner on second to go get this one hitter."
Both squads are still very much in the hunt for the SEC regular season championship, a race that Texas currently leads with Arkansas trailing two games behind them. LSU is four games behind the Longhorns in a tie with Georgia for third with only one more series remaining after this week.
Below are details on how to watch, BetSaracen betting lines and links to stream.
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How to Watch/Listen
Who: No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks (40-9, 17-7 SEC) vs. No. 3 LSU Tigers (38-11, 15-9)
When: Friday, May 9 at 6:30 p.m. CT
Where: Alex Box Stadium – Baton Rouge, Louisiana
TV/Stream: SEC Network+ (Lyn Rollins and Ben McDonald)
Radio: Learfield Razorback Sports Network (Phil Elson)
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Starting Pitchers
Arkansas – LHP Zach Root (6-3, 3.95 ERA)
LSU – LHP Kade Anderson (6-1, 3.57 ERA)
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BetSaracen Odds
Below are details on the betting odds for the game and Double R Prop bets. To get in on the action, visit BetSaracen.com and click on the Arkansas Specials tab.
(Lines and odds are subject to change at any point after the publishing of this story. HawgBeat does not guarantee any bet as a winner or loser. You must be at least 21 years of age to use BetSaracen. If you have a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit 1800gambler.net)
*All odds accurate as of the publishing of this story. They are subject to change.*
Moneyline/Spread
- Arkansas: -105
- LSU : -125
Double R Props (More available in the BetSaracen app)
- Zach Root under 3.5 hits allowed and over 92.5 total pitches
- Kuhio Aloy Over 0.5 hits and over 0.5 strikeouts
- Charles Davalan and Wehiwa Aloy each over 0.5 singles
- Justin Thomas over 0.5 hits and over 0.5 strikeouts
- Ryder Helfrick over 0.5 hits and over 0.5 strikeouts
- Cam Kozeal and Brent Iredale over 0.5 home runs
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