All Hogs

Three Up, Three Down After Arkansas' Sweep of LSU

A special edition of what went right and wrong for Dave Van Horn's Razorbacks after three weeks of SEC play

Daniel Shi

Arkansas Razorbacks' Hudson White after teammates ripped off his shirt celebrating after delivering a game-winning hit in the 10th inning against the LSU Tigers on Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark.
Arkansas Razorbacks' Hudson White after teammates ripped off his shirt celebrating after delivering a game-winning hit in the 10th inning against the LSU Tigers on Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. / Craven Whitlow-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas just continues to win, making half of this article incredibly difficult to write. So this was the perfect time to get creative in a new edition of three up, three down. The Razorbacks are 8-1 in SEC play and 23-3 overall. They have won 17 straight at Baum-Walker Stadium. The three-down part of this article will continue to split hairs, but the margins in baseball are thin. LSU was feet away from a go-ahead homer in the series finale and required a walk-off in extras.

Three Up:

Will McEntire:
This team would be outside the Top 10 without McEntire. The Razorbacks leaned on McEntire to put out fires all weekend. He threw 62 pitches, recorded all eight outs via strikeout, and almost took the Hogs to the end. Coach Dave Van Horn only used lefty specialist Stone Hewlett for one out to end the game on Thursday. Less than 48 hours later, not only was McEntire brought in with the bases loaded and two outs with the winning run on first base, he pitched a scoreless ninth and picked up his third save of the year in the series finale.

Jack Wagner:
Perhaps the best feel-good story of this year's team. A lot of the players who have not played are freshman who will have their moment in the sun if they stay with the Razorbacks. Wagner is not in that camp. This will be his final year in college baseball. After not playing for three weeks, he hit two homers in as many days and hit a key homer in his first SEC start.

"It changed the attitude in our dugout a little bit because you’ve got one of your better pitchers on the mound and you could see the way they reacted when they scored those runs," Van Horn said. "It was a really big swing."

New Bullpen Faces:
Hunter Dietz may have gotten the biggest vote of confidence for a first appearance in Razorback History. Not only was the true freshman making his college debut, he was also coming off an injury to face the top of the LSU lineup including Tommy White, the nation's top RBI-getter a year ago. Dietz made a good account of himself and picked up two key outs and picked up his first career strikeout. Hagen Smith, who struck out 10 more hitters like clockwork, may have some competition for the hardest flamethrower on the team. Christian Foutch retired all five batters he faced in his appearance, routinely touching 99 miles an hour. He seems to be the clear backup to Gabe Gaeckle as a key late-inning reliever.

Three down:

Hudson White's Jersey:
In the spirit of April Fools and having some fun, there is no reason to pour cold water on a team that just swept a Top 10 team in the country. So, it's time to get extra creative with the bad part of the article. Hopefully, that wasn't White's superstitious jersey because Ryder Helfrick destroyed that on national TV after White delivered the walk-off hit.

ESPN Replay:

On a key play in the fifth inning, Wagner got thrown out at third before Ben McLaughlin could come across the plate to score an insurance run in Thursday's 7-4 win, perhaps the only fundamental error the Hogs made all weekend. However, when the broadcast showed a replay, the picture quality was less than ideal. Some of the more pixelated camera shots you'll ever see on a sports broadcast.

Pitching Matchups:

It worked out for Hogs fans in retrospect but college baseball fans across the country were robbed of one of the premier pitching matchups: Luke Holman vs. Smith. LSU coach Jay Johnson insisted that it was just to give Holman his regular rest since LSU played a Friday-Sunday series before coming to Fayetteville.

"He threw 106 pitches and we’re not a very good team if he’s not pitching for us," Johnson said. "We need to keep him on full rest being that he threw 106 pitches last week."

Here's to hoping that the two can line up in the SEC Tournament and beyond. Arkansas now faces in-state school Arkansas State 6 p.m. Tuesday. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.

HOGS FEED:

Minnesota coach heaps praise on in-state recruit that chose to be a Golden Gopher instead of Razorback

Lots of former Razorbacks in MLB's opening weekend, so how did each do?


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Daniel Shi
DANIEL SHI

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