No. 1 Hogs use Kendall Diggs blast, hold on to down LSU 7-4

FAYETTEVILLE — No. 1 Arkansas got another outstanding pitching performance from Hagen Smith and a clutch home run by Kendall Diggs to down No. 8 LSU 7-4 on Thursday night in front of 11,027 at Baum-Walker Stadium.

It was Diggs who had struggled at the plate Thursday night who broke the game open for the Razorbacks in the bottom of the eighth when he sent a Gavin Guidry pitch over the fence in right field for a 3-run blast. The Hogs were clinging to a 4-3 lead entering the bottom of the eighth. Wehiwa Aloy walked, Ben McLaughlin struck out and then Jared Sprague-Lott walked. Diggs, who was hitless in four previous at bats, fell behind in the count 0-2 before hitting the blast that got the fans going crazy with some breathing room on the scoreboard.

“It had not been a great day for me,” Diggs said. “I hit one ball hard. He left a slider up a little bit and I lined out to center. Other than that I wasn’t happy with my at bats. I’d take a strike or swing at a bad pitch. Something we talk about all the time is you still can have a good day. A little bit cliche but very, very true. I’ve taken pride in that in my career here. I’ve used that a whole lot.”

Smith (5-0) remained undefeated on the season. He worked six innings, allowed five hits, two runs, walked none and struck out 10. His only trouble came in the top of the fourth when he allowed back-to-back home runs by Tommy White and Hayden Travinski that gave LSU a brief 2-1 lead. Dave Van Horn liked what he saw from Smith.

“Really, really good,” Van Horn said. “Facing a tough lineup, I thought he was good. The amazing thing is, he keeps his stuff. The last inning he was still pumping 95, 96. He could have gone out another inning. We’re just trying to take care of him a little bit. That pitch count’s built up. But his stuff was real good. I’ve seen him great. Today he was real, real good, but I’ve seen him great.”

Arkansas quickly regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Jack Wagner hit a solo home run. Hudson White then walked with one out. After Will Edmunson flied out to center field for the second out, Ty Wilsmeyer delivered a single that moved White to third. White then scored on a Peyton Stovall single to break the 2-2 tie.

The Hogs had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third when Wilmsmeyer singled with one out. Stovall and Aloy then walked to load the bases with one out. McLaughlin hit a sacrifice fly to get Wilmsmeyer across the plate.

LSU did add a run in the top of the ninth, but Stone Hewlett came in to strike out Josh Pearson to end the game. Hewlett fell behind in the count to Pearson 3-0 before dialing up three straight strikes to earn his first save of the season. Hewlett’s strike out of Pearson was the 19th on the night for the Arkansas staff while only walking two.

“That was good to see Stone come in there and get that lefty,” Van Horn said. “That was his job, get that hitter right there. Finish the game. He spun a couple breaking balls, didn’t throw it for a strike. Then maybe three in row. Then he threw three fastballs in a row. I liked the way he didn’t get all uptight about it and just basically did what we wanted him to do, and that was throw the ball over the plate. If they hit it, they hit it. But you don’t want to walk him with White on deck, who seems to be swinging the bat extremely well right now.”

Former Bryant standout Will McEntire gave Van Horn some nice innings in relief of Smith. McEntire pitched 2.2 innings, allowed four hits, two runs, walked a pair and struck out eight.

“Just a really good job by our pitching staff,” Van Horn said. “They recorded a lot of outs, maybe 19 of them. It was just kind of a back-and-forth game. We made a base-running mistake, and it could have been a big swing there, but fortunately the pitchers kept them down. 

“I just really liked Mac out of the pen. He was filling it up away and busting a couple fastballs. I don’t know if he got tired a little bit there at the end.”

Arkansas (21-3, 6-1) finished with 10 hits, but stranded 12 runners on the night that prevented them from blowing the game open earlier. LSU had nine hits and stranded seven runners.

LSU (20-7, 2-5) used seven pitchers on the night. Starter Javen Coleman lasted 2.1 innings. He was followed to the mound by Fidel Ulloa who worked 1.1 innings, allowed two hits, a pair of runs and walked a couple. He took the loss which was his first decision of the season. The LSU pitchers combined to allow 11 walks in the game.

The two teams will play Friday night with the first pitch set for 7 p.m. on the SEC Network. Arkansas will send Mason Molina (3-0, 2.57) to the mound to face LSU ace Luke Holman (5-1, 0.78).