LSU Clutches Game 1 over Arkansas

On a humid Friday night at Alex Box Stadium, LSU and Arkansas went blow for blow in a heavyweight SEC top 10 showdown that never let up and it was the Tigers who finally landed the last punch.

LSU edged out Arkansas 5-4 in 10 innings that went into the early hours of Saturday morning in the opener of a crucial series, with junior Ethan Frey delivering the walk-off sacrifice fly that brought the home crowd to its feet at 1:17 a.m. and sent his teammates sprinting onto the field in celebration.

The game was a true seesaw affair, with both teams refusing to give an inch. Every time one side scratched across runs, the other came right back with a counterattack.

The Tigers struck early, jumping ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the third with a single to right field from Jared Jones sent Stanfield back to the dugout. And again, the Tigers struck again with a solo homer from Ethan Frey in the fourth.

That back-and-forth rhythm became the theme of the night after three scoreless innings that were going quick, at first it seemed as if it would be a repeat of the A&M series last weekend.

With starter Kade Anderson on the mound delivering five inning, with 109 pitches the Razorbacks were seeing the ball with 11 hits, but with Zach Root on the mound in the top of the innings the Tigers saw just as well acquiring nine hits.

In the top of the seventh, Arkansas pushed across another run on a groundout from Aloy momentarily silencing the LSU faithful

The Razorbacks answered with a solo home run in the fourth, a wild pitch in the seventh gave the Hogs a 4-2 lead, only for LSU to knot it up again in the bottom of the inning and after LSU saw the hope of a win again in the seventh on a single from Derek Curiel single sending a pair home, LSU tied it again in the seventh.

Neither team managed to score in the eighth or ninth, sending the game into extras with both bullpens grinding. With each team using three pitchers, except Root was able to outlast Anderson by a single inning and only 91 pitches.

In the bottom of the 10th, LSU got things going when Jones drew a walk and advanced to third on a groundout from Daniel Dickinson.

That set the stage for Frey.

With one out and the pressure on, the junior didn’t flinch. He lifted a fly ball from Gabe Gaeckle deep enough into the pocket of center field to bring in Jones from third the game-winning run and end a tense, emotionally charged battle.

“I went up there with the mindset that I got to swing at something in the zone,” Frey said postgame. “I mean my confidence in Jones making it home was pretty high he's a big guy but we're pretty fast.”

LSU head coach Jay Johnson praised his team’s resilience.

“He is a great player and I mean one of my favorite players,” Johnson said. “I'm probably not supposed to say that as a coach, but he does everything right and talk about a team guy.”

The victory pushes LSU to 39-11 (16-9 SEC), while Arkansas drops to 40-10 (17-8 SEC).

The two teams are set to square off again Saturday night in Game 2 of the series, with LSU looking to clinch and boost its postseason resume down the stretch.