How to watch No. 5 Arkansas at No. 1 LSU, starting pitchers, more
The No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks (19-2) will make their first roadtrip of the season as they face the No. 1 LSU Tigers (19-2) for a three-game series at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge starting on Friday.
Arkansas is coming off of a 12-2 run rule midweek win over Southeast Missouri State and have won 14 in a row entering this weekend’s series with sweeps of Wright State, Louisiana Tech, and Auburn during the streak.
“Opening weekend against Auburn went our way and now we are going to play a great LSU team that has a lot of experience, they are physical, can really pitch, can really hit and are playing great defense as well," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said Tuesday.
LSU comes into this weekend’s series with a 10-4 win over Central Arkansas on Tuesday and a series win over Texas A&M last week. The Tigers had won 13 in a row before losing to Texas A&M on Sunday.
“It is a very tough environment (in Baton Rouge) and then you throw in that there are the number one team in the country," Van Horn said. "And they are doing pretty much all three phases of the game, the main phases - pitching, hitting and fielding for the most part, about as good as anybody in the country."
Arkansas’ starting rotation remains unchanged from last week with left-hander Hunter Hollan getting the start on Friday. Hollan enters the game with a 4-0 record and a 2.36 ERA. The southpaw has allowed 9 runs on 22 hits and struck out 24 in 26.2 innings pitched. Hollan pitched 6.0 innings against Auburn last week, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and fanned 3 batters.
LSU will throw their ace on Friday, right-hander Paul Skenes, whose numbers look like they have come straight out of a video game with a record of 5-0, an ERA of 0.59, and batters are hitting just .115 against him. The Air Force transfer has also struck out 59 batters in just 30.1 innings and he's also allowed just two runs on 12 hits, two of those hits for extra bases.
"You usually don’t get too many chances to get him,” Van Horn said. “He has got an incredible fastball, a good breaking ball, he throws strikes. He’s big and can go nine innings and throw 110 pitches or whatever what he needs to do."
Friday's game was moved up from a 7 p.m. CT first pitch to 12 p.m. CT due to the threat of weather in the evening, and the game was also moved from ESPN2 to the SEC Network Plus. Beginning in approximately the 2nd or 3rd inning, the game will also be televised on the SEC Network after prior programming is completed.
LSU announced Friday that there will be a doubleheader on Saturday, with Game 2 beginning at 1 p.m. CT on the SEC Network and Game 3 starting at 6:30 p.m. on the SEC Network Plus.
HawgBeat will have you covered with live updates, stats, commentary and much more throughout the game, and you can check out details on how to watch, starting pitchers, starting lineups when they're posted, notes and more below:
How to watch/listen
Who: Arkansas Razorbacks (19-2, 3-0) vs LSU Tigers (19-2, 2-1)
When: 12 p.m. CT Friday, 1 p.m. Saturday, 6:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Baton Rouge, Louisiana — Alex Box Stadium
Stream/Online: Friday - SEC Network+, Saturday (Game 2) - SEC Network, Saturday (Game 3) - SEC Network+
Radio: Learfield Razorback Sports Network (Kyle Schassburger)
Starting Rotations
Friday: Arkansas LHP Hunter Hollan (4-0, 2.36 ERA) vs. LSU RHP Paul Skenes (5-0, 0.59 ERA)
Saturday (Game 2): Arkansas RHP Will McEntire (4-0, 3.71 ERA) vs. LSU RHP Ty Floyd (3-0, 0.80 ERA)
Saturday (Game 3): Arkansas TBA vs. LSU RHP Thatcher Hurd (2-0, 2.57 ERA)
Notes
~ Arkansas is ranked by all six major college baseball polls entering the weekend:
D1Baseball – No. 5 (+2)
Perfect Game – No. 3
NCBWA – No. 3 (+3)
USA Today Coaches – No. 6 (+3)
Collegiate Baseball – No. 3 (+4)
Baseball America – No. 6 (+1)
~ LSU leads the all-time series against Arkansas 75-39, however, Arkansas has won seven of the last nine in series.
~ Arkansas is looking for back-to-back series wins in Baton Rouge for the first time in school history. The Razorbacks won 2 out of 3 in 2021 in Baton Rouge.
~ Arkansas is looking for their 15th consecutive win, which would extend their longest winning streak in a single season under Van Horn.
~ A series win for Arkansas over LSU would give the Razorbacks four consecutive series wins over SEC West opponents.
Some notes courtesy of Arkansas Communications