FAYETTEVILLE — The beginning of the game was rough for Isaiah Campbell, but he battled through it and turned in yet another quality start for Arkansas.
Three of LSU’s first six batters got hits, including Daniel Cabrera’s leadoff home run in the second inning, before the Razorbacks’ ace got locked in and helped his team to a 14-4 series-opening win over the No. 16 Tigers.
Campbell retired 15 of the last 17 batters he faced and got through six innings on 95 pitches. Allowing only two earned runs on four hits and one walk, it was his 10th quality start in 13 appearances this season.
“Isaiah settled in after that and started throwing the ball over the plate a little more and getting ahead of the hitters,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “He kind of relaxed. It’s almost like at the beginning of the game he wasn’t throwing the ball really where he wanted to and got behind.”
The game started when Campbell jammed Josh Smith on a 2-2 pitch and he got just enough of it to notch a leadoff bloop single.
Two batters later, he threw three straight balls to Antoine Duplantis and then left a 3-1 pitch over the plate. A senior who is climbing LSU’s all-time hits list, he made Campbell pay by crushing it into the right-center gap for an RBI double.
Just as he has done most of 2019, Campbell bounced back and limited the damage. He struck out Cade Beloso and got Chris Reid to pop out to end the inning, stranding Duplantis on second. That is a stark contrast to last season, when things usually snowballed.
“I’ve said this many a time this year that Campbell, a lot of times in the past he might have given up more runs, but he’s learned how to get out of those jams,” Van Horn said. “He just gave up one.”
Cabrera’s leadoff shot in the second was the third home run Campbell has allowed in his last four starts, but it was also the last time he let the Tigers get past first base.
In fact, they had just two more base runners - a one-out single by Zach Watson in the third and a two-out walk by Giovanni DiGiacomo in the sixth - until the Razorbacks went to their bullpen.
Although the four strikeouts were Campbell’s third fewest of the season, he still improved to 9-1. That is one more victory than Blaine Knight had at this point last year, when he broke the UA single-season record with 14.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Thursday’s start, though, was something he didn’t do. With the wind blowing out and the ball carrying better than usual, it could have easily turned into a slugfest.
The Razorbacks did their part by hitting four home runs, but Campbell gave up just the one. (Cabrera hit another home run in the seventh, but it was against reliever Kole Ramage.)
“Just seeing so many balls fly out early like that, you could tell it was going to be a really offensive game,” second baseman Jack Kenley said. “I think Isaiah did a fantastic job. Had he not, we would have seen a lot of runs going up on the board.”
Game 2 of the LSU series is at 6:30 p.m. Friday and will be streamed on SEC Network-plus, meaning it can be watched online on ESPN3.com or on the WatchESPN app.
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