FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Louisiana Tech got both a double in the fifth that broke up a no-hitter and a two-run homer in the sixth by true freshman Karson Evans, but Arkansas built a 5-0 lead through three innings and never trailed to win 7-4 in Game 1 of a three-game set on a cool Friday late afternoon before 9,273 at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Game 2 is Saturday at 2 and Game 3 Sunday at 1 on a daylight saving time weekend, the final tune-up for these teams before they open league play next weekend.

Tech is 8-5; No. 8 Arkansas, which hasn't lost a home weekend series to a non-conference opponent since 2014, a streak the Bulldogs want to break, is 11-2.

Tech has trailed by at least four runs in seven of its 13 games; the Bulldogs have come back to win four of those but couldn't claw all the way back against lefty sophomore starter Hagen Smith (3-0), 6-3, 215 and on the All-SEC Freshmen team last year when he was 7-2. Tech got his pitch count up early and drew four walks and hit two balls hard but could get nothing to fall in the first four innings.

Meanwhile the Hogs built the early lead on a pair of two-run homers in the second and one run in the third on a hit, two walks and a ground ball out, all off senior starter Jonathan Fincher.

"We had some good at-bats against a tremendous arm," Tech coach Lane Burroughs said. "You're facing a guy (Smith, 1.40 ERA, 28 strikeouts and 14 walks in 19.1 innings) who doesn't give up any
runs. We competed well at the plate, got runners on and gave ourselves a chance … we've just got to get some shutdown innings."

When Tech got on the board with two runs in the fifth, Arkansas scored one in the bottom half. When Tech added two in the sixth, Arkansas got one in the seventh.

"They kept answering us; traffic all day long," Burroughs said. "Credit their hitters. But in my opinion, we've got to get better starts and we've got to clean up the bullpen."

To illustrate, Tech has trailed in 11 of its 13 games. Fincher was the victim Friday. He walked an uncharacteristic three hitters in his four innings of work, struck out two and couldn't get his velocity up.

"I hold him to a higher standard," Burroughs said of his Friday starter. "He's gotta be better. He's expected to pitch us into the sixth and seventh inning. Today, he just couldn't put anybody away.

"We were able to keep Ole Miss in the yard (last week in Oxford). We couldn't do that with Arkansas today."

Tech got its first hit of the game and Evans got the first hit of his college career when the freshman first baseman, starting in place of Philip Matulia, expected back Saturday but out Friday with a sore neck, doubled to right center on an 0-0 pitch. Logan McLeod reached on an infield single down the third base line, and Brody Drost singled sharply to right to load the bases. Dalton Davis singled to right on a 1-2 pitch to make it 5-2.

Arkansas got a run off Nick Fraginals in the bottom of the fifth off a single, two hit batters and a sacrifice fly to make it 6-2. Justin Williams relieved and got out of the bases loaded jam with a one-pitch groundball out.

Junior righthander Cody Adcock relieved Smith, the Arkansas starter, in the sixth and struck out the first two batters he faced. But Walker Burchfield singled sharply up the middle and Evans, a highly recruited catcher/infielder out of Taylorsville, Miss., hit the first pitch he saw from Adcock over the bullpen in left, a no-brainer with an efficient, compact swing, to make it 6-4.

"He ain't scared, and he'll be playing from here on out, I can tell you that," Burroughs said of the right-handed hitting 6-2, 210-pound freshman. "I can live with the strikeouts (Evans struck out his first and last at-bat, the final one a 10-pitch effort); he's young and learning. He's tough, athletic and he's got power. Just an awesome kid. I'm very proud of him."

Williams gave up nothing in 1.1 innings, Alec Sparks gave up one run in the seventh, and Isaac Crabb pitched a scoreless eighth. Tech got two runners on in the seventh, but a diving stop by Hog first baseman Brady Slavens on a hard hit ball hit down the line by Ethan Bates ended the rally, and a double play washed out a leadoff single by Adarius Myers in the Bulldogs' eighth.