College Baseball
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Arkansas walked off in wild fashion in Saturday morning thriller

BATON ROUGE, La. — It took until 1:17 am but No. 3 LSU (39-11, 16-9 SEC) toppled No. 7 Arkansas (40-10, 17-8 SEC) 5-4 on a walk-off sac fly in 10 innings.

In a game that featured a three-hour, 27 minute rain delay before three hours and 19 minutes of game action, LSU manufactured the winning run to pick up a game on the Hogs in the SEC title race.

LSU is just one game behind Arkansas for second place. Arkansas remains two games behind Texas at 19-6 after the Longhorns lost to Florida Friday.

Both teams had their 2-3-4 hitters up in the 10th inning. Arkansas loaded the bases with two outs for first baseman Reese Robinett. Robinett, who is coming off a two homer performance against Texas in the series finale Sunday, struck out on four pitches on a check-swing.

LSU did not waste such an opportunity in the home half. First baseman Jared Jones led off with a single off Gabe Gaeckle in his fourth inning of work and moved to second on a costly wild pitch.

Jones got to third on a groundout to the right side before designated hitter Ethan Frey plated the game-winning RBI on a sac fly to left-center field. Jones slid in just under the tag of catcher Ryder Helfrick.

The early rain delay did little to dampen the sharpness of both starting pitchers. Two of the premier lefty starters went back and forth in a pitcher’s duel.

Zach Root put together back-to-back good starts, allowing two runs in six innings and striking out six. In the past two weeks, he has thrown 14 innings to the tune of a 1.29 ERA, dropping his season mark to 3.88.

Fellow lefty Kade Anderson matched Root step for step, allowing three runs in 5 2/3 innings of work.

The Razorbacks took advantage of the one weakness in Anderson’s game, the homer. Two of its three runs off Anderson came on solo homers.

Anderson has now allowed 14 homers on the season.

Cam Kozeal broke the ice for the Hogs with a 399-foot shot to left in the fourth, his 12th of the year.

Kuhio Aloy followed suit in the sixth inning with his 13th, as part of a stretch where the Razorbacks scored one run in four straight innings from the fourth to the seventh, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead.

Arkansas couldn’t make the lead stick as Aiden Jimenez allowed the game-tying single in the bottom of the seventh to center fielder Derek Curiel. It was only the second time in 16 appearances that Jimenez has allowed multiple earned runs.

Coach Dave Van Horn was not made available to the media postgame due to the game ending at such a late hour.

The Razorbacks and Tigers now have less than 17 hours to regroup before the second game of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Saturday and will be broadcast on SEC Network.

News and Notes:

Deja Vu for LSU:
On April 26, Jones hit a walk-off homer against Tennessee at 1:17 a.m. after another delayed start due to weather. According to the broadcast, Friday’s game also ended at 1:17 a.m. with Jones scoring the winning run.

Root’s Rare Play:
LSU tried to bunt the first run of the game home in the second without success. Root charged the ball right in front of the plate and dove for the plate, tagging Frey out just before he got the hand in safely for the rare unassisted putout on a tag play by a pitcher at home.

In an act from the baseball gods, it was Frey who hit the shallow fly ball that scored the winning run on another close play at the plate.

Anderson Leaves Game Abruptly:
Anderson left the game with two outs in the sixth with a trainer and appeared to be flexing his wrist. He came into the night with the second most innings pitched in the SEC (70.2). LSU coach Jay Johnson sent Anderson back out to start the inning at 99 pitches.

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