Baseball Splits Saturday Doubleheader with Arkansas

First the good news: LSU wasn’t swept by Arkansas.

That’s about where the good news ends however as the Tigers dropped two out of three against the Hogs and grim 2021 season grew bleaker.

LSU split a Saturday doubleheader with Arkansas, losing the first game 17-10 but holding on to win the second 5-4. As the calendar flips to May the Tigers are 26-17 overall and 7-14 in conference play.

Game two of the series was an offensive explosion from both sides. Arkansas got on the board in a hurry scoring five runs in the first inning off of AJ Labas. The Hogs would then erupt for seven runs in the fifth and added four more in the sixth to claim a commanding 16-2 lead.

LSU, to its credit, didn’t go quietly. The Tigers would get a run back in the bottom of the sixth and score six the next time up. LSU and Arkansas each scored a run in the eighth inning to land at the final 17-10 score.

Gio DiGiacomo, Drew Bianco, and Collier Crawford all drove in two runs while Gavin Dugas and Zach Arnold both scored one. DiGiacomo had a four-hit game highlighted by an RBI double in the sixth inning.

Saturday evening was a different story as LSU was able to hold on to beat the number one team in the country 5-4.

Ma’Khail Hilliard got the start and improved to 4-0 on the season thanks to a strong five innings where he only allowed one run and two hits. Hilliard did have some control issues however and waked three.

Garrett Edwards came on in relief of Hilliard and had maybe the best outing of his freshman season. Edwards faced 10 batters and only surrendered a single hit.

Things got dicey in the ninth inning when Devin Fontenot took the mound to close the game out. Fontenot gave up three runs off of three hits and a walk as Arkansas cut a four-run deficit down to one. But with the tying run on first Fontenot was able to get Zack Gregory to strike out looking to end the game and avoid the sweep.

While Arkansas jumped out on top early in the first game of the doubleheader, LSU returned the favor in game two. Cade Doughty hit a three-run home run in the first to put the Tigers up 3-0. Dylan Crews hit an RBI single in the second to push the lead to 4-0, and Doughty was scored thanks to an RBI groundout by Bianco in the third.

With three conference series remaining, LSU’s postseason fate is still up in the air. LSU is two games up on Auburn, Missouri, and Texas A&M. The Tigers will travel to the Plains on Thursday for a massive series in terms of qualifying for the SEC Tournament. LSU also ends the regular season on the road at A&M the weekend of May 21 so the Tigers very much control their destiny in regards of making it to Hoover.

But before that, LSU has a midweek game against Southern set for Monday. The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday but got moved up. First pitch for Monday is set for 5:00 and the game can be streamed through SEC Network+.