Razorbacks Get 9 K's From Wiggins, Sweep LSU in Series
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas broke out the brooms and swept LSU out of Baum-Walker.
Behind Jaxon Wiggins’ career-high nine strikeouts, the No. 6 Razorbacks (28-7, 11-4 SEC) completed a three-game sweep of the No. 15 Tigers (23-12, 7-8 SEC) with a 6-2 win in Saturday’s series finale.
With the win, the Razorbacks captured their first series sweep of the Tigers since 2011.
Despite the strikeouts, it wasn't the smoothest performance for Wiggins, who had to battle all afternoon.
"He’s got a knack for getting out of jams," Hogs coach Dave Van Horn said later. "That’s why you kind of learn that your players will show you what to do a little bit."
Gifted with a three-run advantage, Wiggins worked into the sixth, recording an out before giving way to the bullpen.
The hard-throwing right-hander battled all afternoon but fanned a career-high nine batters, allowing only two runs on nine hits and three walks over 5.1 innings to improve to 5-0 on the year.
LSU scored first and held Arkansas scoreless through the first four innings, but the game took a turn in the fifth. The Hogs jumped ahead with four runs in the bottom half behind Cayden Wallace’s go-ahead two-run single to center.
Zack Morris was the first man out of the Arkansas bullpen and matched his career long with 2.2 scoreless innings of relief.
He responded to Van Horn's pregame challenge.
"I said, ‘You be ready today. We’re going to need you today,’" Van Horn told him. "He went out there and did it."
The left-hander struck out a pair and completely silenced the Tigers until handing the game off to Brady Tygart in the ninth.
By the time Tygart took over, the Razorbacks had extended their cushion to four. In the bottom of the seventh, Brady Slavens deposited his seventh homer of the season over the wall in right to push Arkansas’ lead to 6-2.
Slavens finished the afternoon with a game-high three runs batted in, also driving home one on a sacrifice fly as part of Arkansas’ four-run fifth inning. He leads the Razorbacks in RBI with 35 this season.
Tygart worked a scoreless top of the ninth to preserve the Razorbacks’ win and second SEC series sweep of the season.
Arkansas has another five-game week ahead, starting with a midweek set against in-state foe Arkansas State.
First pitch in the two-game series is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on SEC Network+ and FuBo TV.
Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
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