Tigers run rule Hogs to take series

(Photo Credit: @LSUbaseball on X)

By Hunt Palmer

THE STORY

Hours after a late-night nail biter, LSU removed the drama early in Saturday’s game two.

The Tigers blasted Arkansas 13-3 in seven innings using the longball and another stellar start from Anthony Eyanson to clinch the series and move to 17-9 in SEC play with four games left.

LSU’s offense made everything difficult on talented Hog hurler Gage Wood. He only lasted two innings, and it took him 60 pitches to get the six outs.

Jake Brown launched a three-run homer on a hanging 0-2 breaking ball in the first, and Cade Arrambide drilled a solo shot to the opposite field to lead off the second. It was his first SEC home run.

A week after Wood silenced bats of No. 1 Texas over four scoreless frames with eight punchouts, he only tallied two strikeouts Saturday and allowed four earned runs.

The rest of the Arkansas staff didn’t fare any better.

LSU scored in its first five at bats including a six-spot in the fifth that was capped by Ethan Frey’s second opposite field home run of the weekend. This one was the three-run variety.

As the Tigers were ambushing the Arkansas arms, Eyanson threw the clamps on a potent Razorback lineup.

For an encore to his complete game performance in College Station a week ago, Eyanson shut Arkansas out over the six innings and struck out 11.

The only real trouble Eyanson stared down was the third when a walk and a pair of singles loaded the bases with one out for the third and fourth spots in the Razorback order. Eyanson struck Wehiwa Aloy and Logan Maxwell out swinging to hang another zero and keep the Tiger lead at 4-0.

LSU’s duo of Kade Anderson and Eyanson can now be considered perhaps the best in the sport. LSU’s home SEC record of 12-2 is extremely loud, and the Tigers are rapidly approaching locking in a top eight national seed which would force someone to come to Alex Box Stadium to beat them in the postseason.

Eyanson gave way to freshman Mavrick Rizy in the seventh, and the lanky rookie yielded a leadoff double and a walk to open the frame. An RBI single that followed ended Rizy’s day in a disappointing follow up to a great outing at Texas A&M.

DJ Primeaux immediately surrendered an RBI single to make it 12-2. Jaden Noot was next up out of the LSU bullpen. He struck Aloy out, but the ball got away from Arrambide to allow runners to move to second and third. Logan Maxwell’s sacrifice fly plated the inning’s third run to keep the game going at 12-3.

It ended half an inning later when Dickinson singled and moved to second on a sac bunt from Brown. With two out, Steven Milam struck out and the ball got away from the catcher. As Milam reached first base, Dickinson got caught in a rundown between third and home, but Arkansas botched it. The catcher’s throw to third dropped third baseman Brent Iredale to the ground, and he couldn’t get the return throw back in time as Dickinson slid in under the tag. It was the second game-ending play at the plate in 20 hours for the Tigers.

THE SCORECARD

Anthony Eyanson’s line: 6IP, 5H, 0R, 1BB, 11K, 93 pitches, 65 strikes

Jake Brown: 3-for-4, 2HR, 5RBI, 3R

Ethan Frey: 2-for-3, HR, 4RBI, 2BB

Cade Arrambide: 3-for-4, HR, 2R

Derek Curiel: 2-for-4, 2R, BB

LSU got the leadoff man on in six of seven innings. He scored all six times.

LSU played error-free baseball for the second straight game.

THE QUOTES

Jay Johnson on Anthony Eyanson’s improvement compared to other pitchers in his coaching career…

“I think we’ve had a few here, actually. I’m proud of that. Going back to ’22, like, everybody improved because we only used like six guys. So, that was great. Ty Floyd comes to mind at the end of that year and then all through the ’23 season. I thought Gage Jump, I mean, he’s striking out everybody in pro baseball right now and, and he’s got electric stuff, but I thought very similarly to Anthony he improved as the season went along.”

Johnson on Arrambide getting SEC starts…

“That’s three game two wins, if I’m not mistaken, with Cade catching in the last four weeks, and that’s awesome, especially when you consider who we’ve been playing of late. He had one game where he had a tough game early in the year. I think it just speaks to the character, how you handle the setbacks says a lot about you as a person and as a player. You have to have character at that position. Our program, this year, we really needed character at that position, and we got it with Luis and Cade. I wouldn’t trade them for anybody.”

Jake Brown on his interaction with the student section in right field…

“I think they were cheering today because of the homer which was nice. They’re usually on my good side when I hit a homer. When I don’t, they’re just on the other guy’s bad side. Whoever is out there on the other team, I kind of feel bad for because that’s a rowdy group of guys. I know they were excited when we got the run rule going so they could leave and go to the bar. That’s pretty much all they were talking about all game, so glad we got to do that for them.”

WHAT’S NEXT

LSU aims for its fourth SEC sweep on Mother’s Day. The game is set for 3:00. Neither team announced a starter prior to the series.

All signs point to Casan Evans for LSU and Landon Beidelschies for Arkansas. Both have served in the game three roles the last few week, and neither has pitched this weekend.

Beidelschies has an SEC ERA of 6.03. Evans was inefficient at Texas A&M last weekend in his second league start.