It was the first time this season that LSU had been shut out by an opposing team. It was bound to come eventually, but it was truly an inopportune time with LSU desperately needing a win.
LSU dropped their first road series of the season to highly ranked Arkansas in a 4-0 loss, Friday. LSU managed just three hits on the evening, in a game that was moved up an hour to a 5:00 P.M. C.T. start to avoid impending rain. LHP Hagen Smith carried the Razorbacks through a beautiful seven inning, two hit, one walk shutout performance.
LSU had a decent number of strikeouts, with eight on the game. It felt like the offense could not manage to start anything, a skill that has been present for LSU throughout the ups and downs of the season. They nearly broke through in the eighth inning with a bases loaded situation with two outs for Cade Doughty, who was retired to right field on a fly out. Other than that chance, the LSU bats were choked by Arkansas’ superior pitching. Friday was not the day for LSU’s ability to create runs.
“We hit too many balls in the air against Smith, and we struck out too many times,” Jay Johnson said. “We didn’t put a whole lot of pressure on him.”
At the very least, LSU improved from the nightmare defensive performance from Thursday. They did not commit any errors on the game. Blake Money went 6.2 innings, allowed seven hits and four earned runs.
Catcher Michael Turner was the biggest hitter for Arkansas, giving the Razorbacks a 3-4 day with a double, a home run, and two RBIs.
“Arkansas has a great program and a great team,” Johnson said, “We’re going to have to play clean baseball to beat them. We’re going to focus on trying to outplay them tomorrow.”
LSU will try to steal game three on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 P.M. C.T. Lately, LSU has been pitching their two stellar freshman pitchers in game three with Samuel Dutton and Grant Taylor, so it is expected to see them pitch again as they have not made appearances this weekend yet. Arkansas will start sophomore Jaxon Wiggins, who has a 4.81 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 43.0 innings.