The No. 1 LSU baseball team is set to take on its first true road test in the Southeastern Conference when it travels to Arkansas for a three-game series beginning at 6 p.m. tonight at Baum Stadium.
The Tigers (19-2, 2-1 SEC) hit the road to Fayetteville, Ark., to take on the Razorbacks (10-8, 0-3 SEC) after squeaking out an extra-innings affair with inner-city foe Southern, 4-2, on Tuesday night.
“Our guys love going on the road,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I guess it’s just team camaraderie and all of the excitement that goes with it, feeling like everybody’s against you and you can only depend on each other. We’ve had pretty good success on the road during the years I’ve been here, and I’m very proud of that.”
Arkansas has struggled so far this season, ranking dead last in the SEC in pitching with a 4.30 ERA while allowing 87 runs, 87 walks and 10 home runs and hitting a league-leading 27 batters.
Mainieri said Arkansas’ recent struggles on the mound have come as a surprise to him based on their recent history.
“That’s very unusual for them,” Mainieri said. “They’re usually strike zone pounders, and I’ve noticed they’ve been hitting a lot of batters, so who knows. We don’t take a lot of pitches, so I’m not sure if that plays into our favor. We’re going to go up there and hack away and hopefully drive some balls into the gap and out of the ballpark.”
The Razorbacks’ pitching struggle comes a season after finishing with a 2.63 ERA and striking out 435 batters, but Mainieri isn’t buying into Arkansas’ shaky stat book.
“Their record is not indicative of their talent level, I can assure you of that,” Mainieri said. “I’ve always loved playing Arkansas. [Arkansas coach] Dave Van Horn coaches the game very strategically similar to what I do offensively, so it’s fun matching wits with him.”
Arkansas’ fall from grace this season comes after consistently being one of the best pitching teams in the SEC over the past few seasons.
LSU leads the series with Arkansas, 61-29, and the Tigers have won nine of their last 10 SEC regular-season series versus the Razorbacks, including a 2-1 series victory last season in Baton Rouge.
The only series win for Arkansas against LSU in the past 10 seasons came in 2011 when the Razorbacks swept three games from the Tigers in Fayetteville. The Tigers are 25-11 against Arkansas over the past 10 seasons.
“One thing I know from the past is Arkansas has always had good pitching,” said junior shortstop Alex Bregman. “They have the guys. They all compete. From the little video I saw on them, they compete, and they attack you. You better be ready to go when you step in the box.”
The Tigers’ biggest challenge heading into the weekend is their inexperienced pitching staff. Freshman pitchers Alex Lange and Jake Godfrey will be making their first road starts of the year.
Lange is coming off of his best performance of the season in his last start against Ole Miss, going eight innings, while allowing only three hits and striking out 13.
Both Lange and Godfrey have been solid additions to the Tigers’ rotation in 2015, but their starts this weekend will put their performances into perspective.
“It’ll be an interesting task for us. Our team is ready to handle any adversity that comes our way,” Lange said. “I don’t feel like it’s any different. We’re going to come out there and play ball like we know how to and take on Arkansas this weekend. We’re 100 percent ready.”
You can reach Jack Chascin on Twitter @Chascin_TDR.