On Thursday, LSU will face the Arkansas in the third round of the SEC Tournament. Arkansas defeated Texas A&M 6-5 in 11 innings following LSU’s 10-3 win over South Carolina.
The Tigers will take on the Razorbacks on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. C.T. at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama. The game will be aired live on the SEC Network.
A walk-off home run by Kendall Diggs in the 11th inning gave the Razorbacks the win.
LSU took on Arkansas in late March, where the Tigers took two of the three games in the weekend series at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge. Its loss to the Razorbacks on March 24 came in 10 innings, and in both of LSU’s wins on March 25 and 26, it scored double digit runs.
LSU’s offense has always been reliable; it’s an offense that operates on who is feeling hot that day. LSU’s hitters have shown that anyone is capable of picking up the slack on any given day.
Similar to LSU’s offense, Arkansas’ offense is very deep. Seven of the Razorbacks’ nine starters have batting averages over .300. Jace Bohrofen leads the team in home runs with 14, in hits with 62 and is tied for the most doubles on the team with 14. He boasts a .332 batting average.
Jared Wegner is right behind Bohrofen with a .328 batting average and has 12 home runs on the season. Diggs, who secured Arkansas’ matchup with LSU on Thursday, has 55 hits on the season, which includes 12 doubles and 10 home runs.
In order for LSU’s offense to thrive in the way it can, who they’re facing on the mound will be the determining factor of how LSU’s offense will look on Thursday.
The series against the Razorbacks worked out in a way that LSU fans aren’t used to seeing. The game they lost, Paul Skenes pitched in.
He pitched in the loss, although he didn’t receive the loss for the game. Skenes, who has a chance to pitch in Thursday’s matchup, went seven innings with 12 strikeouts and allowed just two hits and one run.
So Jay Johnson deciding to pitch Skenes on Thursday certainly would not put the Tigers in a vulnerable position.
Hunter Hollan started the game for Arkansas on the mound. He went 5.1 innings while striking out seven, and giving up no runs on three hits. Hagen Smith pitched 4.2 innings in relief, and he struck out eight while giving up three runs on five hits.
Neither Hollan nor Smith pitched in their SEC tournament opener against Texas A&M. So it is a possibility that the Razorbacks will go with what worked best in their last meeting, and that will most likely be their option. Smith leads the team in ERA at 2.56, and Hollan is second on the team with a 4.11 ERA.
The loss on March 24 may be one where Paul Skenes carried the weight for the pitching, and the bullpen couldn’t pick up the slack.
The bullpen has obviously had its concerns since then, but they were good enough to allow the Tigers to take the next two games.
In the Tigers’ 12-2 win over Arkansas on March 25, Ty Floyd got the win with a performance going 6.1 innings. He struck out seven while giving up two runs on three hits. He’s also a possible starter for Thursday’s matchup
Will McEntire got the loss in that game for Arkansas, going 4.1 innings and giving up seven runs on nine hits. He came in relief against Texas A&M for four innings, so the Tigers most likely won’t see him on the mound on Thursday.
In LSU’s 14-5 win on March 26, Thatcher Hurd started the game, although he only pitched 2.0 innings. He gave up four hits on four runs. Griffin Herring came in relief and received the win, also going 2.0 innings and giving up a run on two hits. Garrett Edwards pitched 4.0 innings and struck out six. He gave up no runs on two hits.
For Arkansas, Cody Adcock started the game, and he went 2.1 innings. He gave up four runs on three hits. Zack Morris received the loss in 1.0 inning pitched while giving up four runs on three hits. Both Adcock and Morris also pitched in Arkansas’ matchup on Wednesday, so they likely won’t be seen on Thursday either.
The matchup between LSU and Arkansas is certainly a matchup between two heavyweights. Both teams have their best pitching available, and they both have the offenses that could put runs on the board at any given moment.
It will be a matchup whose result is solely determined on who plays better. The Tigers are coming off a 12 hit game, and the Razorbacks are coming off a walk-off win. Both teams have the momentum, but the question will be who can get hot when it counts?
Leave a Reply