LSU sophomore catcher Micah Gibbs said the LSU baseball team has been eagerly awaiting its series with Arkansas since the start of the season.The Tigers’ three-game series begins tonight in Fayetteville, Ark., and the winner of the series will be atop the Southeastern Conference Western Division standings.”We’re tight, half a game up right now in the West, and during the year we’ve been tight with [Arkansas],” Gibbs said. “We’ve been looking forward to this one from the very beginning because we knew when we got to this weekend it would be big.”Gibbs accounted for a bases-clearing double in LSU’s 10-run fifth inning Wednesday against Tulane before junior left fielder Ryan Schimpf and junior designated hitter Blake Dean hit back-to-back home runs.”That was a huge at bat for Gibbs,” Schimpf said. “The inning wouldn’t have gotten around to us if he wouldn’t have come through.”Dean agreed, and he said Gibbs’ confidence at the plate was evident Wednesday night.”It’s great to see him swinging the bat a lot better,” Dean said. “For him as the catcher, mainly a defensive guy, to come out there with two outs for us and get RBIs, that’s great.”LSU coach Paul Mainieri said hitting onslaughts like Wednesday’s provide great energy for an important series.”It’s exactly what I was hoping for as we go out to Arkansas,” Mainieri said. “These games are going to be three dog fights I can promise you. They won’t give an inch, and I hope our kids will bring a competitive zeal and meet the challenge.”Mainieri said the Tigers need to continue to be productive on offense if they want to continue their six-game winning streak.”For us to win over there — we’re going to be seeing great pitching and great defense — we have to score runs,” Mainieri said. “Arkansas is going to score some runs. Forget about what their team batting average is. Arkansas is a scrappy team that knows how to win.”Mainieri said he was happy to see junior first baseman Sean Ochinko step up to the plate in the first inning against Tulane and build on LSU’s 1-0 lead.Ochinko was playing in his first game back since missing the Auburn series with a hamstring injury.”We had scored one run, and we had [runners on] second and third … and Ochinko rose up with two outs and hit a big two-run double,” Mainieri said. “You can’t win on the road in this league by scoring one run in nine innings. You have to be able to finish off innings and put a perfect number up.”LSU will send sophomore Anthony Ranaudo (5-2, 2.89 ERA) to the mound Friday against Arkansas junior pitcher Dallas Keuchel (6-1, 4.30 ERA).Senior Louis Coleman will pitch for LSU on Saturday, and sophomore Austin Ross will start Sunday.Schimpf, whose two home runs against Tulane added to his team-leading total of 14, said the team’s hot bats have to fire up the whole team heading into the key Arkansas series.”It helps us out a lot going into the weekend, having some people feeling a little more confident,” Schimpf said. “It might carry over, but we have to put it behind us and move forward and think about the future.”—-Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]