No. 1 LSU baseball falls to No. 3 Arkansas in extra innings despite strong Paul Skenes start

BATON ROUGE - If No. 1 LSU baseball has any weaknesses at the plate, hitting against left-handed pitching would be chief among them. Heading into Friday's series opener against No. 3 Arkansas, the Tigers had just a .264 batting average against left-handed pitchers.

After Friday, that batting average certainly didn't get much better.

LSU dropped the first game of its three-game set with Arkansas on Friday, falling 9-3 in 10 innings. Despite a brilliant performance from LSU ace Paul Skenes, the Tigers (19-3, 2-2 SEC) failed to score a run until Brady Neal hit a solo home run in the eighth inning.

Against Arkansas (20-2, 4-0) starter Hunter Hollan and top reliever Hagen Smith (both left-handed), the Tigers had seven hits but only mustered two extra-base knocks through nine innings.

After Skenes exited in the seventh inning, Chase Shores threw two scoreless innings in relief. But the bullpen fell apart in the 10th, as Christian Little surrendered a three-run home run and Will Hellmers allowed a sacrifice flyout and a grand slam.

The Tigers will play a double header tomorrow with Game 2 of the series coming at 1 p.m.

Paul Skenes dominates again

What else can be said that hasn't already been said about Skenes.

LSU's ace has arguably been the best pitcher in college baseball this season. And on Friday against a top-5 team in the nation, he struck out 12 batters and allowed just a run in seven innings pitched, as his ERA now sits at 0.72 on the year.

Skenes came out of the gates firing, hitting 101 mph on the radar gun multiple times. The only hard hit he surrendered was a double in the fourth inning. The only jam he ran into came in the sixth inning when he walked three batters but escaped without allowing any runs.

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Sluggish start for the bats

As Skenes continued to deal, LSU's bats couldn't do him any favors to start the game.

The Tigers were held scoreless and only recorded two hits through five innings. Only one ball was hit hard: Tre Morgan laced a triple off the center field wall in the fourth inning with two out.

However, Morgan's big hit didn't translate into any runs, as he was thrown out while trying to take home plate on a wild pitch.

Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser and the USA TODAY Sports South Region. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball: Tigers fall to Arkansas despite strong Paul Skenes start