Thursday Recap

The two games that went down on Thursday night were essentially laughers. One ranked team, however, didn’t find it to be too hilarious.

That would be 14th-ranked Arkansas who fell 9-1 at the hands of the Ole Miss Rebels. The Hogs were tagged with just their fourth home loss of the year by the Rebels, who picked up just their fourth road win of the season, conversely. Tate Blackman, Colby Bortles and Tim Rowe all went deep with Bortles smashing two homers in the victory. Blackman added his ninth stolen base of the season in the win while Ryan Olenek picked up double number 15.

James McArthur stood tall for the Rebels on the mound, throwing eight innings of one-hit ball, struck out six while walking two and allowed just one earned run. That tally came off the bat of Arkansas’ Jared Gates who took him deep with a solo shot in the fifth inning. At that point, the Razorbacks were fixing to make it a game as it was just 2-1. But, the Hogs couldn’t keep the fort down as they allowed three runs in the eighth and then four more in the ninth.

11th-ranked LSU, on the other had, was able to celebrate as they locked up an 8-2 win over Alabama to improve to 11-8 in SEC play. After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first, the Tigers saw that lead be trimmed down to one run as the Tide answered for two in the second. But from there, the Bayou Bengals stretched things out as they added two runs, one apiece, in the third and fourth inning combined. They held firm to a 5-2 lead before erupting for three runs in the top of the ninth to seal things up.

There were doubles aplenty for LSU as five batters hit a double in the win. Cole Freeman, Antoine Duplantis, Josh Smith, Michael Papierski and Nick Coomes were the ones to hit the two-baggers in the win as the Tigers shied away from the long ball and instead opted for big extra-base hits. The aforementioned quintet, plus Jordan Romero, were responsible for the runs driven in on Thursday.

Alex Lange held firm to the mound, and while he allowed eight hits, the Tide batters couldn’t figure him out enough to plate more than two runs on the board. Those runs came off the bat of Alex Webb who hit a two-run homer in the second inning. Lange figured it out after that, going 7.1 innings with 10 strikeouts and one walk. Dylan Duarte on the other hand was shelled as the Alabama pitcher lasted only three innings, allowed seven hits, five earned runs with two strikeouts and no walks.

Baseball’s already underway right now as Ole Miss is up 4-0 on Arkansas, apparently insistent on making the Razorbacks’ lives hell.

The two lead games today are Kentucky-South Carolina and Auburn-Mississippi State. These are both Top 25 encounters and could very well prove pivotal in the SEC standings as the season’s conclusion continues to get closer with each passing day. Only one game separates State and Auburn in the SEC West now, so whoever wins this series could either have a commanding lead or be nestled up at the top for the time being. In the case of UK-South Carolina, the Wildcats hold a three game lead over the Gamecocks, so suffice it to say they’ll be looking to pad that up or in the case of South Carolina, chip away and perhaps draw even closer to the top of the East standings.

Not only that, but they should be pretty entertaining if both teams play up to their ability level.

Apart from that, Florida will look to climb up in the SEC standings as they face Georgia, who dwells at the bottom of the SEC East with Tennessee at 5-13. Texas A&M looks to make a climb but must face a Missouri team that isn’t too far behind them. Vanderbilt looks to avoid trouble against the aforementioned Volunteers while LSU and Alabama resume their series with a doubleheader.