LSU takes series with dominating 13-3 win over visiting Arkansas

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

Plenty of fun can be found on a Saturday night in Baton Rouge, but there was little for the Arkansas baseball team on this trip.

Jake Brown had two of LSU’s four home runs and a career-high 5 RBIs as the No. 3 Tigers jumped on the No. 7 Razorbacks early and often en route to a 13-3 run-rule win at Alex Box Stadium.

LSU (40-11, 17-9) got a pitching gem from starter Anthony Eyanson (8-2), who fanned 11 and allowed three hits while pitching six scoreless innings against Arkansas (40-11, 17-9).

The seven-inning win coupled with Friday night’s 5-4 victory over the Razorbacks in 10 innings gave LSU the series win ahead of Sunday’s 3 p.m. finale.

Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn credited the opposing pitcher more than the disappointment from Friday’s late game that ended at 1:37 a.m.

“I’d say maybe a little bit, but Eyanson just stuck it to us,” Van Horn said. “We had some frustrating at bats, chasing balls and left runners out there.

“We had a chance to get back in the the game down 4-0, but…we don’t score and it easily pretty difficult after that.”

The game ended on a swinging strike wild pitch that Arkansas misplayed and allowed a runner who started at second to score.

“Like I told the media, it reminded me of Benny the Jet Rodriguez in Sandlot as he ran around the bases there,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said.

“We were lucky it was our night tonight and I think that play just typified it.”

Johnson was also quick to laud Eyanson, who had pitched a complete game in a win over Texas A&M the previous weekend.

“When we laid out the series and talked about execution and what did execution mean in this series to be successful,” Johnson said, “…and strike one was going to be a big deal. Nobody goes and gets that better than him, especially these last three weeks.

“It allowed him to do what he wants and what he wants to do is hard stop deal with when he is doing it.

“I’m really proud of him and winning starts and ends on the mound and he was spectacular again tonight.”

Johnson did not think about sending Eyanson out for the seventh inning with his team up 12-0 at the time.

“I just felt like he did his job and I felt like he had put zero, zero, zero, zero and zero up,” Johnson said. “…But he did pitch out of traffic a couple of times, once with the bases loaded and one out in the third inning and then he left two guys on in the fourth or fifth.

“I thought he did his job and it was time to get him out and go to something else.

Brown, who had just four homers all season entering the game, started the scoring with a three-run blast off Arkansas starting pitcher Gage Wood (1-1) in the bottom of the first.

Wood also gave up Cade Arrambide’s solo shot leading off second inning to make it 4-0 before being replaced by Ben Bybee.

Wood allowed four runs on four hits, walked two and fanned two while throwing 60 pitches, 34 of which were strikes, in his two innings.


“Lot of three ball counts, whether it was 3-1, 3-2, 3-0,” Van Horn said of Wood. “Really the whole staff. I think we had like 20 three ball counts in a seven-inning ball game and that’s just way too many.

“With Gage, he was just behind in the count and they hit some ball into right field and that’s the way you could hit it out the park tonight if you either pulled it as a lefty or sliced it to right as a right hander.

“And they did it. Just not the command that he has had.”

Brown led off the third inning by taking the second pitch he saw from Bybee over the fence for a solo blast and a 5-0 lead.

LSU’s lead moved to 6-0 in the fourth inning when Ethan Frey was issued a bases-loaded free pass from Collin Fisher, the third of six Razorback pitchers during the contest.

Those pitchers walked a season-high 9 batters and allowed a season high of 12 runs.

The Tigers then scored six runs in the fifth, an explosion that included Brown’s RBI single and Frey’s three-run home run off Razorback relief pitcher Tate McGuire.

That outburst made it 12-0 and put the 10-run rule in play, but Arkansas did break up the shutout with three runs in the top of the seventh.

Justin Thomas and Charles Davalan had RBI singles while Logan Maxwell’s sacrifice fly plated the other run in that frame

The bottom of the seventh inning was noteworthy because of the first appearance of injured Arkansas left handed pitcher Hunter Dietz, who followed in Steelee Eaves.

The 6-6 Dietz had not appeared in a Razorback game since April 9, 2024.

Dietz allowed a lead off single to Daniel Dickerson, but then retired the next two batters.

He fanned Steven Milam on what was a wild pitch, one that Arkansas catcher Ryder Helfrick chased after to corral.

Running from second on the pitch, Dickerson overran third base and Helfrick threw behind him.

The throw was caught by leaping third baseman Reese Robinett, but Dickerson raced home and beat the throw to end the game.

Van Horn was happy to see Dietz finally back on the mound.

“There is enough time,” Van Horn said of Dietz being a key contributor down the stretch. “He will pitch again next week. He threw really well. His velocity was good – anywhere from 94 to 97 (miles per hour).

“His misses were close. He threw a couple of different breaking balls. He strikes the last hitter out and bounced away from the catcher and then all chaos broke out.

“But really good outing for him and it was great to see.”

Photo courtesy of Razorbacks Communications