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LSU sweeps Arkansas in doubleheader to win series

Will McEntire throws during the first of Saturday's two losses at LSU.
Will McEntire throws during the first of Saturday's two losses at LSU. (Arkansas Athletics)

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BATON ROUGE, La. — The No. 5 Diamond Hogs got to see the LSU offense everyone raves about after holding it to one run through nine innings Friday.

The top-ranked Tigers, who entered Saturday hitting more than 100 points higher versus right-handers than lefties, took it to an Arkansas staff that exhausted its two best southpaws — Hunter Hollan and Hagen Smith — in the series-opening win.

LSU hung a grand total of 26 runs on the Razorbacks across 16 innings, defeating them 12-2 and 14-5 to win the series.

Arkansas and LSU matched each other run for run during the first three innings of the rubber match in the nightcap. Left fielder Jared Wegner opened the scoring in the first with his team-leading 11th home run, a solo shot with two outs. First baseman Brady Slavens kept the inning alive with a double on the next pitch, and he doubled the lead after three consecutive walks.

The Tigers were quick to respond in the bottom of the frame, as center fielder Dylan Crews made Razorback starter Cody Adcock pay for a walk. He belted his second homer of the day and third of the series, leveling the score at 2-2.

"Crews is an incredible, incredible player that we were all surprised when he didn’t get signed out of high school," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. "He really doesn’t have a weak part of his game. I mean, he just doesn’t. He can run, he can throw, hit, hit for power. He’s really good."

Adcock traded scoreless frames with LSU starter Thatcher Hurd in the second, and neither starter made it through the third. Cali chased the latter with a two-run double, the third of three straight pitches he hit over 100 mph. Crews' RBI single with first base open made it 4-3 and ended Adcock's night, and he was charged with the fourth LSU run when designated hitter singled against lefty Zack Morris.

"They were all over him," Van Horn said. "They were hitting him hard. Just needed to get him out because they were getting ready to hammer us. Needed a change, go to a left-hander."

With one away in the top of the fourth, Wegner laced Tiger left-hander Griffin Herring's fourth pitch of the at-bat 110 mph off the fence, but it spelled the beginning of the end for Arkansas. Right fielder Josh Pearson fielded the ball cleanly and threw a bullet to second in time to tag Wegner out.

The LSU fourth began with a leadoff triple, and fielding errors by shortstop John Bolton and Cali both came back to bite the Hogs in the form of home runs.

Second baseman Gavin Dugas' second of the day made it 7-4 with Morris still pitching, and third baseman Tommy White doubled the lead with a three-run bomb off righty Dylan Carter.

Arkansas threatened to eat into the six-run deficit in the fifth, loading the bases with one out. Friday hero Reese Robinett drove in a run with a groundout in another pinch-hit appearance, but center fielder Tavian Josenberger struck out, leaving the seventh and eighth runners on base for the Razorbacks.

Carter worked a 1-2-3 fifth against the Tigers in the fifth, but he entered a world of pain in the sixth. He sandwiched a single with a pair of walks against the top of the LSU order, only for White to take him yard again. Trailing by nine, he issued another walk, tasking righty Ben Bybee with staving off another run-rule defeat.

The freshman did his job in the sixth and the seventh, tiding the Hogs over to the eighth, when fellow first-year pitcher Christian Foutch stepped in to record a third straight zero. The 14-5 deficit was too much to overcome, however, as they suffered their second loss of the day and the series.

"There was a lot of 0-2 hits," Van Horn said. "That’s just either they hit some good pitches — which they weren’t, they were mistakes. I mean, if a guy hits an 0-2 pitch, goes down and gets it, give credit to him. But those were just mistakes."

Down three after the early innings, the first game was easily within reach for an Arkansas team with a knack for putting up a crooked number. LSU starter Ty Floyd had thrown a whopping 76 pitches, and the Razorbacks had put nine men aboard.

That number only grew by one, however, as Floyd needed just 32 pitches to record 10 outs. All the while, the Tigers ran the score up, eventually walking the Hogs off via the 10-run rule in the seventh inning.

Wegner recorded the only Arkansas RBIs to speak of on a two-run homer in the first. His first of two longballs on the day traveled 380 feet and 101 mph to the opposite field before LSU ever came to bat.

A pair of hit batsmen with one out kept the pressure on, but Floyd rang up designated hitter Kendall Diggs and third baseman Harold Coll to end the threat.

Three more free passes in the third inning posed a threat to the Tigers’ 4-2 advantage, but catcher Hudson Polk struck out, stranding the fourth, fifth and sixth runners of the game.

Arkansas starter Will McEntire worked around a pair of two-out singles in the bottom of the first, but that was about all the success he had. LSU struck four times in the second, including an RBI double by shortstop Jordan Thompson and back-to-back jacks by second baseman Gavin Dugas and left fielder Tre’ Morgan.

Two more extra-base hits cost McEntire a fifth run in the third inning, and the Tigers tagged him for another couple on his way out the door in the fifth. Right-hander Austin Ledbetter entered in relief and chunked a pitch to allow the seventh LSU run to score, closing the book on his former Bryant teammate with nine hits, a walk and two strikeouts.

"He didn’t command the ball today," Van Horn said. "I mean, he was behind in the count. I think he had one inning that was pretty good. Other than that, it was just a fight for him. He was up in the zone. You’ve got wind blowing out about 10 miles an hour, air’s a lot thinner today, ball was flying. They were hitting some balls hard that just backspun. You’ve got to pitch down in the zone, and he didn’t do it."

Consecutive singles turned into consecutive sacrifice flies for the Tigers in the sixth, and Ledbetter turned the ball over to freshman righty Gage Wood with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh. With the game-ending run at first base, LSU strung together a bloop single, a hit-by-pitch and another sac fly to spare both bullpens two innings and snap the Hogs' 15-game winning streak.

In getting swept in the doubleheader, Arkansas relinquished its lead in the SEC West standings. Both teams sit at 4-2 in league play, with the Tigers in the driver's seat.

"We need to shore up a little bit of our defense, we need to have another pitcher or two be able to pitch on the weekend," Van Horn said. "We’re just going to have to get a lot better if we’re going to compete with them."

Next, the Razorbacks will return to Baum-Walker Stadium, where they are scheduled to take on the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The midweek contest will stream live on SEC Network Plus, accessible through the ESPN app.

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