Advertisement
baseball Edit

LSU defeats Arkansas 5-4

Hunter Newman retired Clark Eagan on a line drive to centerfield with the tying run on third base and two out in the ninth inning to give LSU a 5-4 victory against Arkansas in the opening game of their Southeastern Conference series at The Box on Friday night.

Alex Lange
Alex Lange

HOW THEY SCORED

Arkansas first inning – Eagan singled and Carson Shaddy doubled. Eagan scored on a ground out to the second baseman by Luke Bonfield. ARKANSAS 1, LSU 0

LSU first inning – Antoine Duplantis reached safely on an error by the first baseman Eagan. Duplantis advanced to third on a hit-and-run single by Jake Fraley. Duplantis scored on a ground out to the shortstop by Kramer Robertson. ARKANSAS 1, LSU 1

LSU third inning – With one out, Fraley walked and stole second. Fraley moved to third and scored on two wild pitches by Dominic Taccolini. LSU 2, ARKANSAS 1

Arkansas fifth inning – Jake Arledge doubled and scored on a single by Tucker Pennell. LSU 2, ARKANSAS 2

LSU sixth inning – Beau Jordan singled and went to second on a wild pitch by Taccolini. Greg Deichmann walked and Bryce Jordan singled to load the bases. Beau Jordan scored on a walk to Cole Freeman. Deichmann scored on a walk to Duplantis. Bryce Jordan scored on a sacrifice fly to the rightfielder by Fraley. LSU 5, ARKANSAS 2

Arkansas eighth inning – Eagan hit a leadoff home run over the rightfield fence. LSU 5, ARKANSAS 3

Arkansas ninth inning – With one out, Arledge walked and stole second. Pinch-hitter Chad Spanberger struck out and Arledge moved to third on defensive indifference. Alex Gosser walked. Pinch-runner Darien Simms stole second. Arledge scored and Simms advanced to third on a wild pitch by Newman. LSU 5, ARKANSAS 4

LSU MISSED SCORING OPPORTUNITIES

Fourth inning – With two out, Freeman singled and stole second base. Duplantis grounded out to the second baseman.

Seventh inning – Beau Jordan was hit by a pitch. Beau Jordan was forced out at second base on a pop up to the shortstop which was dropped. Deichmann stole second. Bryce Jordan lined out to the first baseman Eagan, who doubled Deichmann off second base.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Lange didn’t deliver a complete game, but he pitched into the eighth inning. Lange left with a 5-3 lead. Lange gave up three runs and eight hits with one intentional walk and six strikeouts. Lange gave up five of the eight hits in the first and fifth innings. Lange struck out Michael Bernal and Rick Nomura with two runners on base to end the first. A botched umpires’ call led to a pseudo-triple play to enable Lange to escape a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fifth. Lange, who picked up his sixth win of the year, retired seven of the last eight batters he faced.

Lange’s comments: “I wished that’s how we drew it up (regarding pseudo-triple play in the fifth inning). I know it couldn’t have come at a better time. The first inning was huge when I limited them to one run. It could have escalated to two or three runs. It was crucial to hold them to one run in that situation.”

ABOUT THE HITTERS

No LSU player had more than one hit. The Tigers had just six singles, none of which drove in a run. Three starters did not pick up a hit – Robertson (0-for-3), Deichmann (0-for-3) and Jordan Romero (0-for-2). . .The Tigers stranded nine runners – five in scoring position. LSU was 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. The one hit, a single by Bryce Jordan, did not bring home a run. Beau Jordan was stopped at third base on the hit.

ABOUT THE PITCHERS

Newman did not have it easy in registering his third save of the season. He entered the game with a two-run lead and one out in the eighth. After getting an out, he walked Cullen Gassaway. Newman struck out Bernal, who was the tying run. In the ninth, Newman walked two batters and threw a wild pitch which allowed a run to score. With the tying run on third, Eagan lined out to Fraley in centerfield to end the game.

NOTES

The same players were in the starting lineup. Romero was the catcher and batted fourth. Third baseman Chris Reid hit fifth in the batting order. . .Fraley extended his hitting streak to six games with a single in the first. Bryce Jordan extended his hitting streak to ten games with a single in the sixth. . .LSU was the victim of misfortune when Fraley was called out at the plate in the first inning. The pitcher Taccolini dropped Romero’s line drive. After looking to second base to try for a double play, Taccolini threw home. Replay showed that Fraley was safe. . .Fraley stole two bases giving him 22 for the season and 53 for his career. Fraley is now tied with Chad Cooley for ninth place on LSU’s all-time list. Fraley passed up Josh Dalton with his second steal of the night. . .A missed call by the umpires enabled LSU to get out of a bases loaded, no-out jam in the fifth. Shaddy hit a line drive to Robertson, who short-hopped the ball. Robertson threw to Romero at the plate, who forced out Pennell, the runner at third. Romero then threw the ball to Reid, who tagged out Cody Scroggins, who was coming from second. But, second base umpire Chuck Pack ruled that Robertson caught the ball in the air. Therefore, Shaddy was out. Pennell was not out because he was never tagged. Scroggins was still out because he was tagged by Reid. But, Pennell didn’t tag up because he thought that Robertson did not catch the ball. After time was called, Lange threw the ball to Reid and Pennell was called out on the appeal play. . .Taccolini gave up five runs and five hits in five-plus innings. . .Eagan and Shaddy each had two hits for the Razorbacks. . .Arkansas committed two errors, while the Tigers had none. . .LSU is 29-16 overall, 12-10 in the SEC. The Tigers trail Western Division-leading Texas A&M by 2½ games. The Aggies lost to Vanderbilt 6-1 in College Station on Friday night. . .Arkansas is 26-20 overall, 7-15 in the SEC. . .The paid attendance was 10,408. The actual crowd was about 6,100.

FROM THE LOCKER ROOM

Coach Paul Mainieri’s comments: “This game defines what I always say that it is really hard to win a college baseball game. This game was such a grind. It was certainly not a picturesque game. But, there were some really great things that happened. Arkansas came out like gangbusters against Lange. The biggest at-bat was Lange striking out Bernal in the first inning and limiting Arkansas to one run. Then, we had that crazy play. They had the bases loaded and nobody out and it looked like we were going to fall behind. Like they say, you can always go to a baseball game and see something you have never seen before. That’s what happened tonight.”

UP NEXT

LSU will play host to Arkansas in the second game of their SEC series at The Box on Saturday. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. Central. Jared Poche (5-4) will be the starting pitcher for the Tigers. The LSU-Arkansas game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

Advertisement