BATON ROUGE — For the first time since 1988 an opposing Southeastern Conference team swept LSU at Alex Box Stadium as Arkansas completed a three-game sweep over the Tigers, 7-5, on an overcast Sunday afternoon.
LSU dropped three straight games to Auburn to conclude the 1988 regular season, marking the last time the Tigers suffered an SEC series sweep at home prior to Sunday.
Arkansas improved to 23-11, 8-4 in league play and captured its first series at LSU since joining the SEC in 1992. The Tigers (No. 2 Collegiate Baseball, No. 3 Baseball America and ESPN/Sports Weekly) dropped their fourth straight contest and first weekend series, falling to 24-9, 6-6 in SEC.
The Razorbacks pounded on LSU pitching through the weekend, accumulating 29 runs on 41 hits, eight of which were homers.
LSU was led at the plate Sunday by right fielder Jon Zeringue, who registered his seventh three-hit game of the season, going 3-for-4 with his 10th home run of the season.
“There is nothing really wrong,” said Zeringue. “We hit the ball, but they just hit it a lot better than us and got a lot more breaks than we did this weekend.”
Jake Dugger singled to lead off the game and then stole second. Three batters later, Scott Hode lined a two-out single through the middle, scoring Dugger.
The Hogs’ aggressive play continued two innings later. Scott Bridges singled and swiped second. Dugger followed with his second hit of the day, setting the table for Danny Hamblin who unloaded the first pitch from Bumstead over the left field wall for a three-run homer. It was Hamblin’s second three-run shot of the series.
Bumstead was able to get the Hogs up and down in order in the fifth and sixth, the first 1-2-3 innings on the weekend.
Bridges added a solo shot in the fourth after two were out, and Haas Pratt collected his second homer of the series in the seventh.
Trailing 6-3 entering the bottom of the seventh, the Tigers closed to within one run on RBI singles by Ryan Patterson and Clay Harris, but were unable to tie the game as Clint Brannon (1-1) struck out Ivan Naccarata, stranding two runners on base.
Boyd Goodner and Charley Boyce combined to work two scoreless innings to preserve the victory.
Boyce registered his first save of the season, securing the win for Brannon, who pitched 2.2 innings of relief, allowing two runs on four hits.
Bumstead suffered his first loss of the season, as he worked 7.2 innings. The senior right-hander was roughed up for seven runs (six earned) on 12 hits while walking one and striking out two.
LSU plays host to Nicholls State on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. before traveling to Metairie, La. to face Southeastern Louisiana in the Wally Pontiff Jr. Classic on Wednesday night at Zephyr Field.
Arkansas 7, LSU 5 (Apr 11, 2004 at Baton Rouge, La.)
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Arkansas………… 103 100 110 – 7 13 1 (23-11, 8-4 SEC)
LSU…………….. 011 010 200 – 5 13 2 (24-9, 6-6 SEC)
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Pitchers: Arkansas – White; Brannon(5); Goodner(8); Boyce(8). LSU – Bumstead; Smith, G.(8).
Win-Brannon(1-1) Save-Boyce(1) Loss-Bumstead(5-1) T-2:41 A-7282
HR ARKANSAS – Hamblin (6); Pratt (4); Bridges (1).
HR LSU – Zeringue (10).