FAYETTEVILLE — With the wind blowing out at, Trevor Ezell noticed that the ball was traveling really well during batting practice Thursday afternoon.

That gave him an idea that the series opener between No. 4 Arkansas and No. 16 LSU might be more offensive than your typical Game 1 in the SEC, but he couldn’t have predicted the show he and his teammates put on at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Ezell’s 420-foot blast in the fourth inning was one of five home runs the Razorbacks hit in their 14-4 win over the Tigers. It was their most long balls in an SEC game since hitting five in both ends of a doubleheader against Kentucky at the start of conference play last season.

All five home runs came in the first four innings of the game, with Casey Martin hitting the first one to tie the game at 1-1 in the opening frame.

He fell behind 0-2, watched a couple of balls go by and fouled off a couple of pitches before finally sending the seventh pitch of the at bat - a curveball - over the left field bullpen.

That reenergized a crowd that was quieted by Antoine Duplantis’ RBI double off ace Isaiah Campbell.

“They punch in a run in on your Game 1 pitcher, it will make you start thinking a little bit - maybe that’s what the crowd was doing,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “I don’t think there was any panic in our dugout whatsoever, we haven’t even hit yet. When Martin hit that ball, it lit the crowd up a little bit.”

The very next inning, after LSU had taken the lead again on a homer of its own by Daniel Cabrera, Casey Opitz gave the Razorbacks the lead for good with a two-run shot off the back wall of the right field bullpen.

“He jumped all over that fastball,” Van Horn said. “He was looking for a fastball in and he got it. It was a no-doubter when it left the bat.”

It was just the second home run the catcher has hit all season, but that’s not what surprised Van Horn. He was shocked by how quickly the Razorbacks shifted momentum.

LSU starter Ma’Khail Hilliard retired Heston Kjerstad and Jack Kenley rather easily and was just an our away from getting the Tigers back into the dugout with the lead. Instead, Jacob Nesbit got a two-out single and then Opitz hit the first pitch he saw out of the park.

“It surprised me a little bit because all of a sudden on two pitches we score two runs,” Van Horn said. “We got a single, then bang.”

Dominic Fletcher joined the fun in the third inning by hitting a two-run shot with a full count. It was crushed, as it had a 109 mile per hour exit velocity and would have gone 409 feet had it not hit the scoreboard.

Hilliard gave up the first three home runs and was charged with six earned runs in three innings.

“He’s got a good breaking ball with a high spin rate and he’s got a lot of break on it,” Ezell said of Arkansas’ approach against the LSU starter. “We were able to get that up and not swing at it in the dirt and hit his fastball when he threw it over the plate.”

It was against the Tigers’ bullpen that Ezell hit his gargantuan homer, as he hit Riggs Threadgill’s fourth pitch of the night 420 feet. According to the UA’s TrackMan system, it had an exit velocity of 105 miles per hour and launch angle of 35 degrees.

However, that homer was overshadowed later in the inning when Jack Kenley hit Arkansas’ fifth grand slam of the season to make it 11-2 and really put the game out of reach.

Although the junior didn’t hit any homers in 84 at bats his first two years in Fayetteville, Kenley now has 10 this season. Even before the year, Van Horn figured he would hit several, but that many has caught him off guard.

“I didn’t know he’d get to double digits, (but) we thought he’d get close,” Van Horn said. “He does a nice job of fouling off pitches and taking pitches and getting some good pitches to hit.”

The Razorbacks broke their single-season record with 98 home runs last season, but lost eight players who combined for 58.2 percent of them to the MLB Draft or graduation.

Because of that, Van Horn told the media and fans to expect an offense built around speed and one that doesn’t hit for quite as much power.

Instead, Arkansas has homered in 14 of its last 15 games and now has 69 total as a team, which is just six off the pace from last season.

Thursday's outburst also moved the Razorbacks ahead of South Carolina for the most in the SEC and into eighth nationally.

“We were expecting us to be a little bit different offense, being able to run the bases really, really well, stealing bags and taking hustle doubles as much as we can, which is something we do harp on still,” Kenley said. “But I think we’ve kind of shown weren’t not just an aggressive team on the bases, but we can still put one out of the ballpark, too.”

With Kenley and Fletcher each hitting their 10th of the season Thursday, the Razorbacks are the first team in the SEC to have four different players reach double-digit home runs.

Kjerstad and Martin lead the team with 13 and 12 home runs, respectively, both of which are just one shy of matching their freshman totals.

“I thought we would have (had a drop off) before the season started, but now I don’t think we lost any power, honestly,” Martin said. “Even our small guys can hit the ball out. It’s just a matter of when.”

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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