BATON ROUGE — Dave Van Horn knows how LSU Coach Paul Mainieri feels.

One week after blowing a nine-run lead and losing, Arkansas rallied from nine runs down Saturday to overtake LSU 14-13 on Tim Smalling’s home run in the 10 th inning.

A crowd of 4, 028 at Alex Box Stadium watched as LSU built a 9-0 lead after three innings before Arkansas stormed back to tie the series. LSU won Friday’s game 8-7 on Matt Gaudet’s home run in the 11 th inning.

Arkansas (14-7, 2-3 ) began its comeback with six runs in the fourth inning, and the Razorbacks scored two runs in the ninth to force extra innings. The game was similar to a week ago at Baum Stadium, when Georgia rallied from a 10-1 deficit after five innings to beat Arkansas 15-11 and went on to take the series.

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Obviously, Van Horn was glad to be on the winning side this time and said the Hogs should have some momentum going in to today’s series finale at 1 p. m.

“A win like this builds a lot of confidence and character,” said Van Horn, the Razorbacks ’ sixth-year head coach. “It shows you’re never really out of a game. The wind was blowing in, and who would’ve thought we’d had a slugfest ? It was just an amazing game.” Arkansas’ comeback wouldn’t have happened without the sterling relief pitching of Justin Wells,

1 who went 7 / 3 innings for the victory. Wells started slowly after taking over for Shaun Seibert in the third inning, then held LSU (13-7, 1-4 ) scoreless over the last five innings. Wells threw 128 pitches and easily topped his previous long outing of four innings. Arkansas pitching coach Dave Jorn was about to take Wells out after the fifth inning, but the junior from Bryant convinced Jorn he could go longer. “I asked Coach Jorn to give me another chance and he stuck with me,” Wells said. “I dropped my delivery down to high threequarters instead of over the top and it worked for me. I didn’t have to think about anything mechanically and just went out and pitched.”

Casey Coon continued his hot streak with three hits for Arkansas, which outhit LSU 18-14. Coon has seven hits in two games against LSU and has reached base 10 times.

“Getting hot couldn’t have come at a better time, but it’s not just me,” said Coon, who has raised his average nearly 100 points after entering the series batting. 185. “The whole team has been hitting, and a lot of people contributed.”

Jacob House had three hits and Thomas Hauskey had two after entering the game as pinch hitters. Ben Tschepikow also had a good day with a double and a triple that drove in five runs.

Neither Seibert nor LSU starter Ryan Byrd lasted long. Seibert was charged with eight runs in 2 / 3 innings, while Byrd failed to hold a nine-run lead after left after

pitch-2 ing 3 / 3 innings. D. J. LeMahieu hit a three-run home run and Blake Dean and Matt Clark hit home runs to stake LSU to its 9-0 lead. Arkansas got back in the game with six runs in the fourth inning and two in fifth to cut LSU’s lead to 13-8. Tschepikow had the big blow with a three-run triple in the fifth.

Arkansas continued to chip away against four relievers, including Jared Bradford, the winner in Friday’s game. Bradford pitched 3 innings Saturday and was roughed up for 4 runs on 6 hits.

Mainieri met with his players for several minutes inside the Tigers’ clubhouse after the game before emerging from the dugout. He chose his words carefully and appeared almost stunned to see his team waste such a big lead after three innings.

“I haven’t had a lot of experience with losses like this,” Mainieri said. “I give Arkansas all the credit in the world to come back after a tough game Friday night. Their kids never quit for a second, even after getting behind 9-0.”

“I admire them, I really do. I hope our team can develop that same kind of fighting spirit someday.”