FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Junior left-hander Greg Smith fired his second complete game in as many starts, blanking No. 11 Arkansas, 6-0, and securing a series sweep for the 12th-ranked LSU baseball team on Sunday at Baum Stadium.
The Tigers (29-13, 10-8) ran their Southeastern Conference win streak to five games and remained in second place in the Western Division standings. The Razorbacks fell to 31-11 overall and 8-10 in league play.
LSU travels to Nashville, Tenn. next weekend for a three-game series at Vanderbilt.
Sunday’s victory marked the Tigers’ first sweep at Arkansas since 1993, and in the process, LSU shut out an opponent in consecutive games for the second time in the past four seasons.
Lane Mestepey and Brian Wilson pitched consecutive shutouts for LSU on April 26 and 27, 2002, in Baton Rouge, also against Arkansas.
The Razorbacks entered the series with the league’s second-highest team batting average of .321, but Tiger pitching held Arkansas scoreless over the last 23.1 innings, concluding with Smith’s brilliant outing.
Smith (6-2) scattered eight hits, walked two and struck out three for the second complete game of his career. Last Sunday, Smith hurled nine innings in LSU’s 5-1 triumph over Ole Miss at Alex Box Stadium.
Smith has fired 16.2 consecutive scoreless innings in his last two outings.
Right-hander Lee Land (1-1) took the loss in his first collegiate start. Land went just 2.1 innings and allowed one run on three hits, walked four and struck out three.
Nick Stavinoha went 3-for-5 with a double, a run and two RBI, while Chris Jackson collected two hits to extend his hitting streak to 12 games.
Land struggled early, surrendering a single and two walks in the second. Bruce Sprowl staked the Tigers to an early 1-0 advantage with his single through the right side.
LSU loaded the bases again in the third, ending Land’s day with one out, but the Tigers stranded all three runners for the second consecutive inning.
Reliever Daryl Maday earned back-to-back strikeouts on Will Harris and Sprowl to erase the threat.
Maday set into a groove by holding the Tigers off the board between the third and fifth innings, but LSU finally got to the right-hander in the sixth.
Matt Liuzza and Jackson connected on singles, and following a walk to Blake Gill, Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn made the change to Charley Boyce.
A critical error by third baseman Clay Goodwin on Ryan Patterson’s groundball allowed Liuzza to score and left the door open for another opportunity LSU would not relinquish.
Boyce, who surrendered the game-winning homer to Stavinoha on Friday night, was tagged again by the senior right fielder. Stavinoha belted a two-run double for the Tigers’ first extra base hit of the game after seven singles.
Liuzza added an insurance run in the ninth with an RBI single.
LSU 6, Arkansas 0 (Apr 24, 2005 at Fayetteville, Ark.)
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LSU………………… 010 003 011 – 6 13 0 (29-13, 10-8 SEC)
Arkansas………… 000 000 000 – 0 8 1 (31-11, 8-10 SEC)
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Pitchers: LSU – Smith, G.. Arkansas – Land; Maday(3); Boyce(6); Smith(9).
Win-Smith, G.(6-2) Loss-Land(1-1) T-2:49 A-8068