5/9/2019 baseball Edit

Arkansas slaps five homers, issues 14-4 beatdown of LSU in series opener

It was another awful night for LSU pitching coach Alan Dunn's hurlers

Ron Higgins • Death Valley Insider

Columnist

Fourth-ranked Arkansas showed Thursday night why it's the third-best home run hitting team in the SEC.

And 15th ranked LSU demonstrated why it has some of the worst pitching in the SEC in league series openers.

The Razorbacks launched five homers in the first four innings, three off LSU starter Ma’Khail Hilliard and two off reliever Riggs Threadgill, to springboard Arkansas to a 14-4 pounding of the hapless Tigers to open the three-game series in Fayetteville.

While LSU (30-20 overall, 14-11 SEC West) scratched across a run in each of the first two innings, it didn’t even matter once the Western Division-leading Hogs (38-12, 18-7) began abusing Tigers’ pitchers like it was batting practice.

By the time the fourth inning ended, Arkansas built a double-digit lead at 13-2 off the first 11 hits of its game total 15 off four LSU pitchers.

Hillard (0-3) lasted three innings, allowing six runs on seven hits. He gave up a solo homer to Arkansas shortstop Casey Martin in the first inning, a two-run homer to catcher Casey Opitz in the second and another two-run homer to center fielder Dominic Fletcher in the third.

Little-used reliever Threadgill replaced Hilliard to start the fourth, and Arkansas hammered him worse than Hilliard. Threadgill was tagged for six runs on four hits, including a leadoff solo homer by Hogs’ first baseman Trevor Ezell and a grand slam via second baseman Jack Henley.

Arkansas sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning, which led to the yanking Threadgill to begin the fifth in favor of reliever Matthew Beck.

Beck finally cooled the Razorbacks slightly, but by that time Arkansas starting pitcher Isaiah Campbell was breezing.

After he allowed LSU runs on Tigers’ right fielder Antoine Duplantis’ first-inning RBI double and the first of two solo homers by left fielder Daniel Cabrera in the second inning, Campbell chilled LSU bats.

He retired 15 of LSU’s next 17 batters, calling it a night after six innings.

Friday’s game two starts at 6:30. The Tigers will try to avoid losing two consecutive SEC series in the month of May since 2010, the year after LSU won its last national title in 2009.