FAYETTEVILLE -- A night after a struggling Arkansas team surprised No.1-ranked LSU in their SEC series opener, the Tigers struck back.
LSU came out swinging Friday night and hammered five Razorbacks pitchers for 21 hits in a 16-3 victory in front of 4,317 fans at Baum Stadium. It marked the seventh time this season opponents have scored at least nine runs against the Razorbacks.
LSU's Alex Lange (5-0) remained undefeated and lowered his ERA to 1.42 as he allowed 3 hits over 7 innings while striking out 6.
"They put the game away early," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "I thought their starter, Alex Lange, came out threw the ball with a lot of velocity and threw a lot of strikes. That's a pretty good combination, and it was an impressive performance for a young freshman."
Arkansas (11-10, 1-4 SEC) and LSU (20-3, 3-2) meet in the series finale at 2:05 p.m. today.
Arkansas will send ace pitcher Trey Killian (0-0, 0.84 ERA) to the mound. Killian has made only two starts this year after being slowed by an arm injury, but he was strong in his last outing when he pitched seven perfect innings Sunday in a 1-0 loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn.
LSU will pitch freshman right-hander Jake Godfrey (4-0, 2.33).
"We were very happy with the way Trey came out and pitched last weekend," Van Horn said. "He came out with a lot of energy and leadership. You could tell he wanted the ball.
"We'll hope for another good performance from him, and if we can get some offense going we still have a chance to win the series."
The Tigers set the tone early Friday night, roughing up Arkansas starter James Teague (0-1) for two runs in the first inning as four of the Tigers' first five batters reached base safely.
Leadoff man Chris Sciambra drew a walk and Mark Laird followed with a single. Konner Hale singled to drive in Sciambra for a 1-0 lead, and Laird came home on Kade Scivicque's single to make it 2-0 with one out. Teague escaped further damage by getting two fly balls to end the inning.
Teague settled down and worked well in the second and third innings but was chased in the fourth after he gave up a single and a double to open the inning. Keaton McKinney allowed only those two runs to keep the Razorbacks within 4-0.
Arkansas still had a chance to make a game of it at that point and loaded the bases with nobody out on a single by Clark Eagan, a walk by Joe Serrano and a single from Andrew Benintendi. But LSU starter Jake Godfrey worked out of the jam by striking out Bamberger and Rick Nomura after giving up a sacrifice fly to Tyler Spoon that cut the lead to 4-1.
LSU broke open the game in the top of the fifth, scoring four more runs off McKinney to take an 8-1 lead.
The Tigers extended their lead to 10-1 in the seventh inning on Jared Foster's mammoth two-run home run to left that carried to the back of the Hog Pen area.
LSU pushed the lead to 16-1 with six runs in the top of the ninth inning before Carson Shaddy gave the Arkansas fans who were still left something to cheer with a two-run home run to right field to make the final score 16-3. Spoon had singled to lead off the inning.
Sports on 03/21/2015