Arkansas Razorbacks vs. #11 LSU Fighting Tigers at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field

The LSU Fighting Tigers (25-8-1, 6-5-1) welcome the Arkansas Razorbacks to The Box this weekend to mark the halfway point of the SEC schedule. The Tigers try to keep the momentum going after a sweep of Mississippi State last weekend and a 5-0 win over Lamar on Wednesday. The victory over Lamar marked the 11th shutout by LSU this season, breaking the record previously held by the 1996 staff. The Tigers have won 5 straight after going 0-4-1 in the previous 5 games. Arkansas (23-13, 6-6) is coming off of a series win over #2 South Carolina and a midweek split with UNLV. They have won both SEC series at home and lost both that were on the road. LSU leads the all time series over Arkansas 57-28, including wins in 9 of the last 12 played in Baton Rouge and 10-29 all time. LSU and Arkansas are 1.5 and 2 games, respectively, behind Alabama for the overall lead in the SEC.

Friday night’s game will start at 7:00pm and be broadcast on CST. Saturday’s game will also be televised, but this time on ESPN2 and first pitch is at 12 noon. The first pitch on Sunday is at 1:00pm and will be televised once again on CST. All 3 games this weekend will be broadcast on ESPN3.com with blackouts in force in the CST network on Friday and Sunday. Saturday’s game will be on ESPN3/WatchESPN nationally without blackouts.

Arkansas Razorbacks
Record: 21-13
Conference: 6-6, t-4th SEC west
Non-Conf: 15-7
Home: 17-6
Away: 2-6
Neutral: 2-1

Record vs. RPI: (LSU numbers in parentheses)
Team RPI: 78 (20)
vs Top 25: 6-5 (1-6)
vs Top 50: 8-8 (6-6)
vs Top 100: 8-11 (9-6)

Team Overview:
Arkansas is under the leadership of head coach Dave Van Horn in his 12th season. The Razorbacks have been to a regional every one of the 10 seasons under Van Horn and made the College World Series 3 times falling one game short of the championship series in both 2009 and ’12. The 2014 team lost a lot of leadership from a pitching standpoint including all 3 weekend starters from last year, the biggest being first round draft pick Ryan Stanek. The pitching has been impressive, but the offense is weak again outside of a couple guys. Some young guys have filled in very effectively and Arkansas is on track for another nice season.

Team Stat Comparison (LSU in parentheses)
Runs/game scored: 5.0 (6.1)
Runs/game allowed: 2.9 (2.4)

Team ERA: 2.30 (2.13)
Opponent ERA: 4.87 (5.08)

Team BA: .259 (.275)
Opponent BA: .206 (.206)

Team Fielding %: .970 (.978)
Opponent Fielding %: .974 (.966)

Good OOC wins: Nebraska (1-1), UNLV (1-1)
Bad OOC losses: None

SEC Series Wins: vs Alabama (2-1), vs South Carolina (2-1)
SEC Series Losses: @ Florida (1-2), @ Mississippi State (1-2)

Common OOC Opponents:
South Alabama: 1-2 (LSU 1-0)
Tulane: 1-0 (LSU 0-1)
Grambling: 2-0 (LSU 1-0)

Starting Pitching:
Arkansas has been one of a few teams with some consistency among its starting rotation, which is a miracle considering they lost all of the weekend starters from last year’s team. The 3 weekend starters have been outstanding in 2014 combining for a 1.83 ERA in 137 innings with 4 complete games among them. As for Friday night, Van Horn is playing strategy and holding out Jalen Beeks, the staff ace, to pitch on Saturday. Instead, Trey Killian will make the start on Friday with the unfortunate task of facing off against Aaron Nola. Killian wasn’t available to play the first two weekends of the season due to suspension, but jumped right into the starter role the 3rd series. His record as a starter is just 1-5, but that mark includes a few tough luck losses which is indicated by his 2.70 ERA. He has taken 1-0 and 2-1 losses against Florida and South Carolina, respectively. He also threw a complete game 4 hitter against Alabama allowing 1 run, recording his only win. The right handed Killian throws a fastball from 90-92mph. He will also feature a plus changeup in the upper 70s with good sinking action as well as a breaking pitch that sits in the low 80s and has a sliding motion.

Saturday will feature a shouthpaw showdown between Arky junior ace Jalen Beeks and LSU freshman Jared Poché. Jalen Beeks lead the team with 29 appearances last year all in relief. His first career start was the season opener in February. This year, Beeks has the second lowest ERA among starters in the SEC behind only Nola. Beeks struggled in his first two SEC starts, but has really come on strong. The last two outings at Mississippi State and vs South Carolina, Beeks did not allow an earned run in 17 innings of work. His fastball works in the low 90s from the left side and a he will back door a nice curve.

On Sunday, Chris Oliver will face off against Kyle Bouman for LSU. Oliver is a big 6’4 right handed junior, who was drafted in the 27th round out of high school. He is also spending his first year as a full time starter, getting 1 start in each of his freshman and sophomore seasons. His velocity has improved tremendously since then and will be a pro prospect again this summer. Oliver’s fastball sits 92-95 and has been clocked as high as 97. He also will throw a very good power slider in the mid-80’s. LSU has not officially announced Bouman as the starter on Sunday, but we should see him back in that slot after a successful outing last week following the ankle injury.

Friday's Pitching Matchup:
So. RHP Trey Killian (1-5, 2.70 ERA, 40.0 IP, 33 H, 12 ER, 6 BB, 22 K, .231 OBA)
Jr. RHP Aaron Nola (6-1, 0.47 ERA, 57.0 IP, 27 H, 3 ER, 11 BB, 71 K, .141 OBA)

Saturday's Pitching Matchup:
Jr. LHP Jalen Beeks (5-2, 1.05 ERA, 51.2 IP, 36 H, 6 ER, 13 BB, 40 K, .200 OBA)
Fr. LHP Jared Poché (6-2, 2.25 ERA, 44.0 IP, 31 H, 11 ER, 14 BB, 31 K, .201 OBA)

Sunday's Pitching Matchup:
Jr. RHP Chris Oliver (3-3, 1.99 ERA, 45.1 IP, 33 H, 10 ER, 11 BB, 35 K, .213 OBA)
Jr. LHP Kyle Bouman (3-1, 2.23 ERA, 32.1 IP, 27 H, 8 ER, 4 BB, 19 K, .233 OBA)

continued in next post....

This post was edited on 4/11/14 at 7:11 pm