LSU defeats Arkansas to win 2017 SEC Tournament

The LSU Tigers are the 2017 SEC Tournament Champions!

The Fighting Tigers finished off their run to the title with a 4-2 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday afternoon in Hoover. As a result, the regular season SEC West champs get an automatic bid into this year’s NCAA Baseball Tournament.

Arkansas threatened to put a damper on the celebration in the ninth inning, loading the bases with two outs. However, the Tigers were able to escape with minimal damage, ending the game on a fielder’s choice to third base that spearheaded their celebration.

The Tigers offense was complemented by Antoine Duplantis and Josh Smith who each went 2-4 on the day. Duplantis hit a double and scored two runs while Smith drove in a run on one of his hits. The other runs were driven in by Beau Jordan and Nick Coomes, who did damage in the fourth inning on a walk and sac fly respectively.

LSU utilized four pitchers en route to the win on Sunday. Eric Walker got the start and went 7.2 innings, allowing five hits, one earned run, had eight strikeouts and just one walk. Eric Cole homered off Walker in the third inning, but that was the lone run scored all day for the Razorbacks. Hunter Newman pitched the ninth to pick up his 10th save of the season, even if it was a skittish performance. Newman allowed a run and walked tow batters but was still able to come out of it by inducing the final outs. Nick Bush and Zack Hess appeared and allowed no runs in their innings of work.