Hogs look to take control of West in Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE, La. — With just three weeks remaining in the 2018 regular season, Arkansas heads to Baton Rouge this weekend to play an important three-game series with LSU at Alex Box Stadium starting on Friday.

Arkansas (32-13, 13-8 SEC) currently sits atop the SEC West with a one-game lead over Ole Miss and a two-game lead over Texas A&M.

A series win over the Tigers would keep the Hogs in the driver’s seat for a division crown as the season enters its final month and it will also be their first series win over LSU in Baton Rouge since 2004.

The Razorbacks enter the weekend on a four-game winning streak after taking out No. 4 Texas Tech during the midweek and then sweeping the Alabama Crimson Tide, their third conference series sweep of the year.

Against the Red Raiders, the Arkansas pitching staff struck out 17 batters, a single-game high, 10 coming from junior reliever Barrett Loseke.

Loseke had a career week, en route to earning NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week and SEC Pitcher of the Week honors.

He pitched 8.1 scoreless innings combined over three separate appearances and earned one victory with two saves.

Of those 8.1 innings, 4.2 came against Texas Tech where he closed the game out, retiring 13-consecutive batters.

The Razorback offense has also been hot as of late, most notably sophomore Dominic Fletcher. Fletcher finished the month of April with a stellar .448 batting average and is now hitting .305 after hitting under .200 through the first month of the year.

Five of Fletcher’s last six games have been multi-hit performances and he has hit two home runs in his last three games to up his season total to six for the year.

FOLLOW LIVE

Friday and Sunday’s games will be available online only via SEC Network+ on WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app.

Saturday’s second game of the series can be seen on the SEC Network with Clay Matvick (PxP) and Ben McDonald (Analyst) on the call.

Phil Elson will call all three games on the radio for the Razorback Sports Network from IMG. That radio broadcasts are also available on the Razorback Gameday app.

IMPORTANT LINKS (ALL TIMES CENTRAL)

Fri, May 4 – Arkansas vs. LSU – 7 p.m. – LIVE STATS | WATCH (SECN+)
Sat, May 5 – Arkansas vs. LSU – 7 p.m. – LIVE STATS | WATCH (SEC Network)
Sun, May 6 – Arkansas vs. LSU – 2 p.m. – LIVE STATS | WATCH (SECN+)

PROBABLE STARTERS

FRI: ARK RHP Blaine Knight (7-0, 2.45 ERA, 63 SO, 15 BB) vs. LSU RHP Zack Hess (6-4, 3.92 ERA, 77 SO, 31 BB)

SAT: ARK LHP Kacey Murphy (5-3, 2.54 ERA, 53 SO, 8 BB) vs. LSU RHP Ma’Khail Hilliard (8-3, 2.89 ERA, 54 SO, 19 BB)

SUN: ARK TBA vs. LSU TBA

RAZORBACK PRIME 9

• Arkansas will look to break a five-game road-losing streak when it travels to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers for a three-game set starting on Friday at Alex Box Stadium.

• The Razorbacks are coming off their third conference series sweep of the season after dispatching Alabama. It’s the first time since 2010 that the Hogs have swept three or more conference series in the same year.

• Arkansas pitcher Blaine Knight became the 13th Razorback in school history to strike out 200 or more batters in a career when he struck out Cobie Vance of Alabama last week in the first inning.

• Two wins over LSU this weekend would mark the first series win for the Razorbacks over the Tigers since 2011. It would also be the first series win in Baton Rouge since 2004.

• Heston Kjerstad (.368, 9 HR) and Casey Martin (.336, 10 HR) are the only Division I freshmen with a .330 average or higher and nine or more home runs.

• Kacey Murphy matched his career-high in strikeouts last week against Alabama, even while only working five innings. He also has the second-lowest strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.6) in the SEC.

• The Razorbacks are currently the best hitting team in the SEC with a .310 combined batting average and also leads the SEC in hits (476), RBIs (307), and total bases (771). The 69 home runs is 13 ahead of last year’s pace.

• Junior pitcher Barrett Loseke was named the SEC and NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week after his flawless week with a combined 8.1 scoreless innings and 17 strikeouts, 10 coming against Texas Tech.

• After hitting just .190 in his first 17 games of the season, sophomore Dominic Fletcher has had the hot bat, hitting .370 in SEC games (seventh-highest among SEC hitters), including .389 over his last 10 games overall.