Arkansas Razorbacks started the current season with the label of the “best team in the SEC,” and although they are not at the top of the standings right now, there is no doubt that they have been one of the teams to beat.
The team led by head coach Dave Van Horn is currently second in the conference with 17-7, but they have won more overall (40-9) than the leaders, the Texas Longhorns.
Arkansas Faces a Tough Weekend
It should come as no surprise that the Razorbacks are in contention for the top spot in the SEC. However, they have a three-game series ahead of them that will be more difficult than many may have initially thought.
The “difficulty” comes in the form of Anthony Eyanson and Kade Anderson, LSU’s star pitchers. The Tigers and Razorbacks will meet next May 9-11 in a series that could be pivotal for both teams’ seasons.
The presence of Eyanson and Anderson levels the playing field to the point that expert Joe Healy, host of D1Baseball’s “Weekend Waypoints” podcast, doesn’t see a clear advantage in this series
“My first response, just off the top of the head, was Arkansas. However, if Anthony Eyanson’s going to pitch a lot more like what we saw last [Saturday] night, suddenly, for me, that changes the calculus with LSU because that’s two guys who were as good as just about anybody in the country, between him and Kade Anderson.”
Eyanson gave up three hits and one earned run to Texas A&M, striking out 14 in nine complete innings. A day earlier, Anderson pitched 6.0 innings, giving up three hits and one earned run with 12 strikeouts, but was unable to prevent his team’s loss.
Obviously, both pitchers are not going to be at this level forever, something Healy touched on in his analysis:
“He [Eyanson] is not going to pitch exactly like that every night, right, he’s not going to throw a CG [Complete Game] with one run allowed every night, but if that’s the quality, the relative quality that LSU can expect, like, it’s hard to turn them down as an option too.”
Eventually, Healy picked his favorite for the weekend series, but he felt it was so close that he didn’t even rank them 1-2.
“I have a little more faith in Arkansas’s lineup to do something like what it did this weekend against Texas, where it just blitz the Texas pitching staff all weekend, essentially, that tends to be where I lean.”
“So, I’m leaning Arkansas-LSU, those are the two teams I’m choosing between, and I think I lean Arkansas because of the balance, but man, with Eyanson pitching like he is, that’s a real 1A-1B for me.”
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Anderson and Eyanson are expected to work LSU’s first two games against Arkansas. After that, the Tigers will close out the regular season against South Carolina, while the Hoggs will close out the regular season against Tennessee.
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