Tigers rally late to walk off Arkansas in game one

(Photo credit: @LSUbaseball on X)

By Hunt Palmer

THE STORY

From a matchup of SEC aces, a battle of the bullpens broke out in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Zac Cowan and LSU won it in 10 innings, 5-4.

The Tiger closer rebounded from a rough weekend in College Station where he was involved in both losses by firing three shutout innings against one of college baseball’s best offenses.

LSU’s bats finally solved Gabe Gaeckle, Arkansas’ Friday night starter-turned bullpen weapon. Jared Jones blistered a leadoff single into left to open the 10th. He moved to second on a wild pitch and third on Daniel Dickinson’s clutch two-strike groundout to first base. Ethan Frey capped his stellar night with a sacrifice fly that resulted in a bang-bang play at the plate that Jones just beat to give LSU a victory.

It was huge come-from behind-win for the Tigers who created some early opportunities off Arkansas starter Zach Root.

Frey led off the second with a double. He was bunted to third by Josh Pearson but retired trying to score on Michael Braswell’s safety squeeze that bounded directly to Root. The Hog hurler gloved it moving forward and lunged to tag a sliding Frey out just before he touched home to preserve a scoreless tie.

Chris Stanfield doubled to open the third, and he came home on Jared Jones’s bloop single to right off the end of the bat to open the scoring.

After Arkansas answered with a missile of an opposite field home run to leftcenter in the top of the fourth off the bat of Cam Kozeal, Frey produced a carbon copy from the other side of the plate over the wall in rightcenter in the bottom half. 2-1 Tigers.

Arkansas’ offense was persistent against Kade Anderson, meticulously driving his pitch count up inning over inning. A pair of singles and a sacrifice fly off Anderson in the fifth retied the score, and Kuhio Aloy’s leadoff blast in the sixth gave the Hogs the lead for good.

It took Anderson 23 pitches to complete a scoreless first and 26 more in a fourth inning that only saw four Hogs bat. Arkansas was content to take pitches early and battle with two strikes. They lost some of those battles, striking out 10 times against the LSU ace. But ultimately Anderson was at 99 pitches through five and came out of the game after 109 when the training staff came out to observe his wrist.

The sophomore southpaw has been the workhorse of the Tiger pitching staff and was in the top five in the country in strikeouts entering the weekend. His availability moving forward will be a massive story for LSU. Head coach Jay Johnson said after the game that there were “no concerns” and that the decision to remove Anderson was precautionary for “a cramp in his wrist or something”.

Arkansas led 3-2 as Anderson departed the game.

The Hogs doubled their lead in the seventh with some help from LSU.

Justin Thomas flared a single into center and moved up on a ground out. He was gifted third by a Chase Shores wild pitch that probably should have been caught by Hernandez behind the plate and came home on Wehiwa Aloy infield chopper that Braswell had to throw to first base.

The Hog bullpen reciprocated the help in the bottom half. After Jake Brown’s pinch hit infield single, Aiden Jimenez walked Steven Milam and Chris Stanfield on nine total pitches. Nothing sparks a comeback like walks.

Derek Curiel sprayed a two-run single into left to knot the score. Milam was initially called out at the plate but replay overturned the call.

Dave Van Horn turned to Gaeckle with two on and one out, and the right hander struck Jones and Dickinson out to extinguish the threat. He froze Jones on a 95 mph fastball, the first one he’d seen in the at bat, and then put Dickinson away on a nasty 3-2 slider.

Arkansas threatened to take the lead in the top of the 10th. Wehiwa Aloy singled to lead off the inning. After a sacrifice bunt and a strikeout, Johnson elected to walk Kozeal to set up and right on right matchup for Cowan with Brett Iredale. Cowan plunked Iredale with the second pitch the load the bases, but Cowan got Reese Robinette swinging to leave the bases full of Razorbacks.

Add Root to the growing list of elite arms that LSU has won games against. Add the Arkansas lineup to the growing list of elite lineups Anderson and Cowan have won games against. With Cowan firing 40 pitches, he won’t be available until Sunday if at all, so it was imperative that LSU find a way to win the first game of the series.

They did.

THE SCORECARD

Kade Anderson’s line: 5.2IP, 7H, 3R, 3ER, 1BB, 10K, 109 pitches, 73 strikes

Zach Root’s line: 6IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 6K, 91 pitches, 66 strikes

Zac Cowan’s line: 3IP, 2H, 0R, 2BB, 3K, 40 pitches, 25 strikes

Gabe Gaeckle’s line: 3.1IP, 2H, 1R, 0BB, 5K, 45 pitches, 31 strikes

Ethan Frey: 2-for-4, HR, 2B, 2RBI,

Jared Jones: 2-for-5, R, RBI, 3K

Derek Curiel: 1-for-5, 2RBI

Arkansas pitching struck out 12 Tigers and only issued two walks, back-to-back in the seventh.

LSU pitching struck out 13 Razorbacks and only issued three walks, one intentional.

Neither team made an error.

Arkansas was just 1-for-15 (.067) with runners on. LSU was 2-for-13 (.154).

THE QUOTES

Jay Johnson on Anderson’s injury…

“He’s fine. No problem. He threw the two pitches 92 mph when we had him throw the extras. I made a decision that not only is he too important for us, he’s probably in college baseball the one guy that you can pencil into a big league rotation within 24 months. So, it was just the right thing to do. I think he’s fine…

We’re past the Tommy John thing, so I wasn’t worried about that. It was just like a cramp in his wrist. I felt much better after the two pitches that he threw. We got him right in. Isaac (Trujillo) evaluated him and had no concerns of anything. So, we feel good.”

Johnson on his conversations with Cowan after the series at Texas A&M…

“I sat with him in the dugout, me and Gavin (Guidry). It was more like, ‘hey man, I love you no matter what.’ That dude’s an all-American. There’s better pro prospects. There’s more electric stuff. There’s nobody been more valuable to a college baseball team being 39-11 than Zac. Lucky me to get to coach a pitcher that’s that good a person.”

Johnson on the crowd at after 1:00am…

“The crowd tonight was phenomenal. I really want to point that out. The people that stayed, I know it wasn’t full, it felt like it was full. And it mattered. It really, really mattered when they started walking people. Clutch hit. It was The Box tonight for sure.”

Cowan on his response to the setbacks at A&M…

“Pretty much the same thing for me. I had a good week of work. Nothing really changed. I know last weekend wasn’t the best necessarily, but just get the ball. Coach Johnson has a lot of faith in me, and I have a lot of confidence in myself. Just go out there and compete.”

Ethan Frey on the final at bat…

“Just kind of went out there going I gotta swing at something in the zone regardless of what it is or if I’m ready or not. You can’t really miss pitches in that situation. Thankfully Bear (Jones) is fast enough.” 

WHAT’S NEXT

LSU and Arkansas will try to get some sleep and them come back Saturday for game two. It’s set to begin at 5:30.

LSU will go with right-hander Anthony Eyanson who is coming off a complete game performance at Texas A&M. Arkansas will send sophomore righty Gage Wood to the mound. Wood is coming back from a shoulder issue and has been on a limited pitch count. He’s got electric stuff but may only be around for 70 or 75 pitches.