LSU a bit down, definitely not out

FAYETTEVILLE --Opossum appearances, a long stretch of history and urgency of the moment all look to be stacked against the No. 4 Arkansas Razorbacks heading into a key three-game series against wounded LSU starting tonight in Baton Rouge.

The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (32-13, 13-8 SEC) will take a one-game lead in the SEC West into the series, which will pit ace right-hander Blaine Knight (7-0, 2.45 ERA) against LSU righty Zach Hess (6-4, 3.92) at 7 tonight.

The Tigers (26-19, 10-11 SEC), a long-time standard bearer in the SEC with six NCAA championships, have supreme motivation to kick their season in gear. LSU, which has qualified for the NCAAs each of the last 10 years with the exception of 2011, was listed as one of the first five teams out of the NCAA tournament by D1Baseball.com this week.

"Let's a dream a little bit and see what happens over the course of these next two weeks," LSU Coach Paul Mainieri said Tuesday. "I would not be surprised if we make one of our patented LSU Tiger late-season runs. And in two weeks, let's look at the standings and see where we are."

LSU has a 23-6 home record, including a 7-2 mark in SEC games with series victories over Missouri, Mississippi State and Tennessee.

Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn is well aware the Tigers are getting healthier and looking dangerous.

"You're going to have a year where maybe it doesn't go your way," Van Horn said when asked about LSU's struggles. "But when you look at it, they're just a few wins away from being in the top 25 and just a few wins away from hosting a regional and being in first place in the West."

Knight said its "always interesting" when the SEC West rivals hook up.

"I'm sure there'll be some talking going on," Knight said. "I mean, it's typical LSU.

"Growing up, I always knew it was a huge rivalry between us and LSU. I know we don't like each other for that reason. It is what it is. I'm going to treat it like I did last year and come out and try to beat them."

Knight's 9-3 win over the Tigers in the series opener last year in Fayetteville is Arkansas' only victory over LSU in the last 10 games dating back to March 19, 2015.

Since Arkansas swept a series at the old Alex Box Stadium in 2004 by scores of 11-8, 11-10 and 7-5, the Tigers have won six consecutive series against the Hogs in Baton Rouge, including sweeps in 2012 and 2016.

"They're always good," Arkansas outfielder Eric Cole said. "Always good."

Two years ago, the Razorbacks blew a 9-1 lead in a 10-9 loss to the Tigers that gave birth to the "Rally Possum" cry after an opossum made it onto the field during the middle innings and caused a slight delay with LSU trailing 9-4 and Knight on the mound in a relief appearance.

Van Horn said Wednesday he is convinced a fan let the opossum go under a fence at Alex Box.

Arkansas has suffered other painful losses in the series in recent seasons -- such as a 10-8 setback in game 2 last year after the Razorbacks led 8-1 through six innings -- and has generally served as a foil for the Tigers since joining the SEC.

LSU has won 22 of 26 series since the Razorbacks joined the SEC in 1992 and has a 53-25 record (.679) in regular season games against Arkansas in that span.

Even though the Tigers have dropped five of their last six SEC games, including a sweep at South Carolina, history says they cannot be counted out.

"I'm expecting a good team to come out there," Cole said. "They really are a good team though their record might not show it."

Arkansas center fielder Dominic Fletcher said a quick look at the SEC West standings, where the Hogs are a game ahead of Ole Miss but six teams are within four games of the lead, is revealing.

"It's anyone's conference to take right now, so we've got to go down there and take care of business," said Fletcher, whose clean slide that upended LSU second baseman Cole Freeman in the Tigers' 4-2 victory in the SEC Tournament championship game last year drew the ire of LSU fans. "They're a good team and we know they're going to want to beat us pretty bad, so we're excited to go down there."

Sports on 05/04/2018