So close but so far
LSU is in the thick of an absolutely brutal stretch of SEC competition and the Tigers (20-7, 2-5) once again ended up on the wrong side of a 7-4 final score Thursday night against #1 Arkansas (21-3, 6-1).
Arkansas’s Hagen Smith showed why he’ll be a first round pick later this summer as the Hogs’ ace went six innings where he only allowed five hits, two runs, and struck out 10. Give credit to the LSU offense though, up until last night Smith had not allowed a run in SEC play and the most hits he had allowed this season was three.
“I thought we did OK against Hagen; he’s the best,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “There were some encouraging moments in the game that can give our players confidence. We’ve faced probably the two best pitchers in the country (Smith and Florida’s Jac Caglianone) in our last two SEC games, and I thought we showed a lot of improvement tonight.”
Instead of countering Smith with Luke Holman, LSU elected to keep Holman on his usual rest and opted instead for Javen Coleman. Coleman was just “okay” as he went 2.1 innings but got pulled after putting two on in the third for Fidel Ulloa. Ulloa was charged with the loss after allowing two runs and two hits in 1.1 innings.
Despite the final score, LSU was in Thursday’s game for most of the night. Tommy White and Hayden Travinski hit back-to-back homers off of Smith in the fourth inning to give LSU a 2-1 lead, and Jared Jones hit an RBI single in the top of the eighth to pull LSU to within 4-3.
But as has been the case many times through the first two SEC series, the LSU bullpen let the game get away. Cam Johnson came on in relief of Christian Little in the bottom of the seventh with two on and two outs. Johnson walked the bases loaded, and then walked in a run to give Arkansas a 4-2 advantage.
Gavin Guidry came on in the eighth and gave up a back-breaking three run home run to Kendall Diggs. Guidry was pulled in favor of Will Hellmers, but not before he walked a pair, and surrendered the killshot homer. Guidry was only able to record one out in his 15-pitch outing.
LSU was able to get a run back in the ninth when Ashton Larson scored off of a wild pitch but the damage in the bottom half of the eighth had already been done by the Hogs.
LSU will attempt to even the series tonight at 7:00 P.M. Luke Holman will get the start for the Tigers.