Well, I’ll be the first to admit that I was wrong with my prediction, but hey, I can’t always be perfect. I will say, though that some of the things I wrote about in the last blog did come true. Cade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson did show that they were two of the best pitchers in the SEC. Arkansas did a good job of getting the pitch count up. The main issue was the clutch hitting or, hitting with runners in scoring position.

Let’s take a look at some of my notes from each game.

Game 1: Arkansas got out to a 4-2 lead in the seventh inning, and at this point in the game, I thought Arkansas had a good shot to win. Unfortunately, Aiden Jimenez had an uncharacteristically bad appearance out of the bullpen. Struck his first guy out, then a tough ground ball where Wehiwa Aloy could not field and throw out the runner at first. (I still am curious on the defensive positioning during this play.) Jimenez then walks the next two which has not been seen all year. At this point, you could feel the pressure of the LSU crowd getting to Jimenez. From then on it just kind of felt like LSU was going to take this one, which they did in the end. Gaeckle pitched well in relief of Jimenez, but the offense was not doing much.

Game 2: This game started off rough. Gage Wood was very hittable early on and only got through two innings. The rest of the team really showed no energy, which is how much energy I’m going to put into the notes for this game.

Game 3: Going into game three, it felt like a sweep was coming. The Saturday game where there was no life from the team did not give me much confidence. LSU opened up the game with a couple of solo home runs. When Arkansas could not score with runners on 2nd and 3rd in the 2nd inning and no outs, I thought the sweep was in play. However, Arkansas ended up scored four runs in the 3rd inning, and that is pretty much held the rest of the game. The bullpen, with an assortment of pitchers, did a very good job of closing this one out. Jimenez came back in late in the game again and got into an interesting spot in the ninth inning. Parker Coil, who has not made an appearance in over a month, came in and shut down the Tigers to give Arkansas the 7-4 victory. This was a huge showing for coil.

So overall, for the whole weekend, what were the issues? The main thing I am looking at, mentioned earlier, is the clutch hitting. Arkansas went 8-37 with Runners In Scoring Position (RISP) – that is a .216 average. I do not have the exact numbers, but a couple of those hits did not even end up scoring runs. Arkansas hit 2 HR, both solo shots in game 1. The team hit .290 for the entire weekend, which is not far off of the season average going in at .210. 12 runs were scored without a HR, but the average with RISP will need to get better and be something to watch going forward.

It was a rough weekend for Wehiwa Aloy and Brent Iredale. Both at around 50% K rate and batted close to .170. This was an uncommon weekend for the older Aloy, but I am sure he will bounce back. Iredale has struggled outside of Baum Stadium. We will just have to hope he gets hot at some point.

Starting pitching is also showing its ugly head again. While Zach Root notched another Quality Start, Wood and Cheese did not perform well. In the Regionals and Omaha, we will need someone outside of Root to eat some innings.

Another issue, that may not be that big of a deal, is the lack of energy. At home, fans can provide the team some extra energy to hype them up. I am not saying Arkansas needs to fist pump every strikeout or pimp every hit, but guys have to find a way to make that energy when on the road. It kind of seems to me that there is no “vocal leader” that will get the guy’s mind right when things do not start well. I may just be making a mountain out of a mole hill though.

Diamond Hawgs of the Week

I am introducing the Diamond Hawg of the Week! This will just highlight some of the performances I think deserve a shoutout. Even though the series ended up with an L, I will still go through with it:

Ryder Helfrick (offensively) – .600 avg, .667 OBP, 4 doubles, 1 RBI

Zach Root – 6.0 IP, 5H, 2ER, 6 K, 0 BB

Parker Coil – 0.2 IP, 1 K, 6 pitches, 6 strikes, 1 Save

Helfrick had 4 doubles throughout the weekend, which led the way for the offense. Unfortunately, no one was on base to capitalize. Root pitched well, as mentioned earlier. It was great to see Coil come into a tough situation and just throw strikes to get out of it and secure the victory. A valuable piece of the bullpen is back.

Looking Ahead

The Tennessee Volunteers come into Fayetteville next weekend. Even with just 1 win, Arkansas is pretty much a lock to get a national seed and host through the Super Regionals. Tennessee is in a similar spot as Arkansas, having lost their last 4 SEC series. Arkansas has lost 4 of their last 5 series, with 3 being on the road. Since this is a Thursday through Saturday series, it will be interesting to see how the pitching rotation shakes out. Tennessee’s Liam Doyle is, arguably, the SEC’s best pitcher – you could consider him an auto-lock to win. Does DVH start Zach Root, on 1 day’s less rest, to go head-to-head with Doyle? Or try to have a better shot at winning on Friday? Both teams are in slumps on the hitting side, but the talent is there for this to end up an explosive weekend.

References

Scaglione, M. (2025). Steven Milam [Review of Steven Milam]. https://lsusports.net/news/2025/05/12/gallery-baseball-vs-arkansas-2/#article-12

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