By Hunt Palmer
No team has won more College World Series than LSU in the last 30 years. No team has won more games without a College World series title than Arkansas over the last 20.
Both programs are rich in tradition and have eyes on Omaha this summer.
What happens over the next three days will have a large impact on the path there. Arkansas already has 17 SEC wins banked and can lock up a top eight seed with two wins in Baton Rouge. The Tigers, meanwhile, have 15 SEC wins but would inch ever so much closer with a pair of wins over the Razorbacks.
The Hogs rebounded last week from three straight series losses to Georgia, Texas A&M and Florida by ambushing No. 1 Texas in Fayetteville last weekend. Arkansas won that series by an aggregate score of 30-9, and the closest game was a five-run differential in game three.
LSU had a late game three lead ripped away in College Station and lost the series to Texas A&M.
Both teams are ranked in the top seven by the polls and stand in the top eight of the RPI. Both teams boast plenty of pitching talent and thump in the lineup. And the defenses have been excellent, as well.
The weekend promises to deliver some high-level baseball with stakes about as high as they come in the regular season. There’s no better setting for that than Alex Box Stadium.
Buckle up.
SOUTHPAW STRUGGLES
The statistics are indicating that LSU is, in fact, struggling with lefties. It takes a little bit a cherry picking, but the narrative is largely true.
Missouri started three left-handed pitchers in Baton Rouge, and LSU handled them all. The Tigers scored 17 runs in nine combined innings on the Missouri trio. Then LSU roughed up Oklahoma’s Cade Crossland in Norman. He was tagged for five earned runs on six hits in five innings.
Jared Spencer from Texas is down for the year, but he was the ace of the nation’s top team when he was healthy. LSU collected seven hits off of Spencer and scored four earned runs in five innings. That was arguably LSU’s best offensive effort of the season considering the circumstances. That’s the only SEC game Texas has lost in Austin this season.
But if you turn to seven other left handers with good stuff, it gets ugly.
Ryan Prager (A&M), Justin Lamkin (A&M), Myles Patton (A&M), Liam Doyle (Tennessee), Pico Kohn (Miss St), Cade Fisher (Auburn) and Zane Adams (Alabama) have combined to post an ERA under 3.00 against the Tigers.
Prager allowed one run in seven innings. Doyle only allowed one hit in 6.2 shutout frames. Adams and Fisher have struggled mightily this year. LSU mustered a single run off of each pitcher in 10 total innings.
Here comes Zach Root. The Arkansas ace put Texas in a blender last week over eight shutout frames. He struck out 11.
Root is 6-foot-2 and features a herky-jerky windup that involves patting the ball in his glove for deception. He throws a fastball at 92 to 93 mph, but it plays way up because his 83 mph changeup is filthy. That’s his best pitch. He’ll throw a big bending curveball (a la Jared Poche), but the fastball-changeup combo is his best.
If LSU’s left-handed struggles continue, it could be a long Friday night.
BUILDING WITH WOOD
There’s got to be some botanical play on words I could come up with going from Zach Root to Gage Wood, “Root to Wood”, but I’m not smart enough to figure it out. I do know that Wood is starting game two of the series for Arkansas, and he’s got some of the best stuff in America.
He’s got a high-spin fastball that whistles through the strike zone at 98 mph and a vicious slider he features to get punchouts.
Wood missed time between February 23 and April 18 with a “shoulder impingement”. Add that to the list of things I don’t know anything about. He’s working back to health steadily. He threw 20 pitches against Texas A&M, then 42 against Florida and 57 last week against Texas. That indicates 70 is probably the target this week. It’s LSU’s job to make sure those 70 pitches record closer to 12 outs than 21.
Last week Wood worked four innings and struck out nine without a walk. Texas only got two hits; one left the ballpark.
When Wood leaves the game, Gabe Gaeckle enters. He was Arkansas’ Friday guy to begin the season, but it didn’t really work out. He’s now the….piggyback, for the Hogs when Wood leaves games. Gaeckle was a dominant closer last season as a freshman. He’s got more high-90s stuff and a hard breaking ball.
Dave Van Horn would love five innings from Wood and then four from Gaeckle if he can get it. That’s the game two blueprint in the visiting dugout.
HOLDING THE HOGS
If Arkansas is so good, why did they lose three weekends in a row prior to Texas? Well, the offense didn’t quite produce as well.
The Hogs swept Ole Miss scoring 10 runs per game, South Carolina scoring 11.7 runs per game, Missouri scoring 17 runs per game and Texas scoring 9.3 runs per game.
In series losses, those numbers go way down. They only scored 5.3 per game at Florida posting run totals of 4-7-5. Against Texas A&M, they scored four in one loss and two in another. The win was an 11-spot. Georgia held them to six in both Bulldog wins.
That’s been LSU’s magic number. LSU is 31-1 when they score six. When LSU’s opponents score five or less, the Tigers are 31-4.
Easier said than done against these Razorbacks.
ALOHA, ALOYS!
A pair of brothers spearhead the Arkansas attack. Wehiwa and Kuhio Aloy are the SEC’s bash brothers. Wehiwa is leading the Hogs with a .356 batting average and 17 homers. Kuhio leads the team with 65 RBI.
They’re tough right-handed bats that are threats to leave the yard at any moment. Kade Anderson’s buggaboo has been the longball. He’s kept that in check for two weeks. Friday night brings a tall task.
Arkansas leads the SEC in on base percentage and runs scored and is third in home runs.
ANDERSON AND EYANSON
Right now, the strength of LSU’s team is in the top of the rotation. Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson are as good a 1-2 punch as college baseball has to offer as we enter May.
What they did against Tennessee and Texas A&M, combining for 28IP, 18H, 6ER, 45K, 11BB, 1.93ERA is what has to give the entire program and fanbase hope for June. If they can replicate than in any way against this Arkansas lineup, they’ll have seen everything college baseball has to offer.
There isn’t a college baseball lineup more talented than Tennessee, Texas A&M and Arkansas.
Let’s see what they’ve got.
SERIES SCHEDULE
Friday: 6:30 ESPN+
Saturday: 5:30 SECN
Sunday: 3:00 SECN
Baton Rouge listeners can find the games on WDGL 98.1FM, the flagship station of LSU athletics.
