FAYETTEVILLE, AR - No. 9 LSU baseball lost the first game of its series against No. 1 Arkansas 7-4 Thursday evening.

LSU briefly took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth after home runs from Tommy White and Hayden Travinski, but the Razorbacks responded with two runs of their own to take the lead and did not look back.

The Tigers have not fared well in SEC play so far this season. They dropped back-to-back series against Mississippi State and Florida, and were mercy-ruled in the finale of both series.

Now, they are on the road to face the best team in the conference and in the country, according to all major polls.

The Razorbacks have a stellar pitching staff that leads the conference in ERA (2.50). The Tigers pitching staff comes in at seventh in ERA (4.04).

LSU announced that left-handed pitcher Javen Coleman would start the first game of the series. That decision was not made public until about an hour before first pitch. He pitched 2.1 innings with two hits, one run and three strikeouts.

Right-hander Luke Holman will pitch in game two Friday and leftie Gage Jump will start in the series finale on Saturday.