After a 1-8 start to conference play, LSU enters its series against Arkansas with victories in five of its last nine SEC games.
If not for an eighth-inning meltdown in their series finale last Sunday, the Tigers would have swept a road series at No. 14 Ole Miss. LSU allowed the Rebels to tie the game with eight two-out runs in the eighth inning, then lost 10-9 when Ole Miss hit a home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth.
LSU lost two seven-inning games on the same day to drop a home series against South Carolina on April 17. The Tigers won two of three at Kentucky for their first SEC series win the week before.
It has been a trying season for LSU, which starts three freshman and two sophomore position players who had never played an SEC game before this year. The Tigers lost their former No. 1 starting pitcher, Arkansas native Jaden Hill (Ashdown), to Tommy John surgery three weeks into SEC play.
Paul Mainieri, the 15th-year LSU coach, said recent success can be attributed to maturity of his freshmen. The Tigers are led offensively by freshman right fielder Dylan Crews (.362 batting average) and first baseman Tre’ Morgan (.358).
“We’re a hardened team now,” Mainieri said. “When we played earlier this year we had a bunch of young kids who hadn’t had that much exposure to the SEC schedule. The last six weekends of SEC play we’ve faced five teams in the top 10, and after this weekend against Arkansas we’ll have played six teams in the top 10 over the last seven weeks.
“These young kids — Tre’ Morgan, Dylan Crews, (freshman shortstop) Jordan Thompson — I don’t look at them as freshmen anymore. They’re not playing like freshmen. They’re experienced.”
The Tigers (25-15, 6-12 SEC) have seasons judged by whether they end at the College World Series, but with four weeks remaining in the regular season the Tigers are in a fight just to make the 12-team SEC Tournament.
LSU enters the Arkansas series in 11th place in the conference, ahead of Texas A&M, Missouri and Auburn.
“They’re capable — like any team in the league — of having a great weekend and getting after you pretty good,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said, “so we’re not taking anybody lightly, obviously.”
Third starter
Arkansas and LSU have yet to nail down a third starter.
The Razorbacks will not designate a third starter prior to the series, Van Horn said Wednesday. The Tigers have not announced a weekend rotation, but did not name a third starter prior to their series against Ole Miss.
Arkansas plans to start left hander Patrick Wicklander (2-1, 2.20 ERA) on Friday and right hander Peyton Pallette (1-2, 3.98) on Saturday. Wicklander allowed 2 hits and 1 run in 7 innings last week at South Carolina, and Pallette has had solid outings the past two weeks against South Carolina and Texas A&M.
Van Horn said left hander Lael Lockhart (1-1, 4.38) and right hander Zebulon Vermillion (2-0, 4.11) are options for the third starting role during the LSU series. Lockhart and Vermillion have each started multiple weekend games this season.
“Those would be the two that jump out at me because they have experience starting for us this year,” Van Horn said.
LSU junior right hander Landon Marceaux (4-3, 2.10) has held the No. 1 role since before Hill’s season-ending injury at the beginning of the month. Redshirt-junior right hander AJ Labas (3-0, 3.15) was the Game 2 starter last week at Ole Miss.
The Tigers started freshman right hander Will Helmers (6-1, 3.09) in the series finale against Ole Miss. Helmers allowed 1 run on 2 hits and 1 walk in 3 innings.
Streak stoppers
Arkansas won its first series at Mississippi State and Ole Miss since 2010, and its first series at South Carolina since 2013 this year, but those droughts pale in comparison to the Razorbacks’ time without a series win at LSU.
The Razorbacks have dropped seven consecutive series in Baton Rouge and have not won a series there since 2004. Arkansas has a series win at every other SEC ballpark since 2010, and at every other SEC West ballpark since 2017.
LSU has never lost a series to Arkansas at the second Alex Box Stadium, which replaced the Tigers’ previous stadium with the same name in 2009.
“It’s been a tough place for us, a tough place to win a series,” Van Horn said. “I think with this team we have a chance to win a series anywhere we go.”
The Razorbacks are 12-3 this year in games away from Baum-Walker Stadium, including 9-3 in true road games at Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and South Carolina.
LSU is 19-10 at home this season, but only 2-7 in SEC games. The Tigers were swept at home by Vanderbilt and lost two of three games in series against Mississippi State and South Carolina.
If Arkansas wins this weekend’s series, its longest amount of time between victories at an SEC ballpark will be 11 years at Vanderbilt. The Razorbacks have lost two series at Hawkins Field since their last series win there in 2010.
Because Vanderbilt is an out-of-division opponent, Arkansas won’t play there again until at least 2023.
Stopper of the Year
Arkansas right hander Kevin Kopps was one of 65 pitchers named to the midseason watch list for the Stopper of the Year Award on Wednesday.
The award, which is presented by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, goes to the best relief pitcher in college baseball. Finalists will be named June 9 and the winner will be announced during the College World Series.
Kopps (6-0, 0.97 ERA, 5 saves) has pitched in 18 games this season and a total of 37 innings. He has pitched in 10 of Arkansas’ 18 SEC games.
Kopps leads all Arkansas pitchers with 66 strikeouts. He struck out 12 of 15 batters he faced and did not allow a base runner in five innings during the South Carolina series.