After losing its last two SEC series with its final regular season league series starting Thursday at Georgia, slumping now-4th ranked LSU welcomes any kind of victory.

Even a Tuesday night struggle vs. McNeese State in the Tigers' final non-conference contest of the regular season in Alex Box Stadium.

Blowing a 3-0 lead and trailing 4-3 after 5½ innings, LSU used consecutive solo homers by designated hitter Cade Beloso and first baseman Hayden Travinski in the bottom of the sixth inning to regain the lead for an eventual 7-4 victory.

LSU improved to 40-12, marking the first time since 2016 and 2017 that the Tigers have had consecutive 40-win seasons. The Tigers were 40-22 last year.

“Winning 40 games is a real credit to our players,” LSU second-year head coach Jay Johnson said. “We’ve got a lot more baseball ahead of us, but I want to pause for a second and appreciate our players for getting to that 40-win mark. It’s a big deal.”

After nine LSU relievers in consecutive home SEC losses to Mississippi State last Saturday and Sunday gave up 25 hits and 21 runs in 10.1 innings, Tigers' relievers Griffin Herring, Sam Dutton, Gavin Guidry and Thatcher Hurd held McNeese to one run in the final six innings.

LSU offense, keyed by third baseman Tommy White's first-inning RBI, provided Tigers' starting pitcher Blake Money with a 3-0 lead after two innings.

But in the McNeese third, the Cowboys ripped Money for five straight two-out singles to tie the game 3-3

The visitors edged ahead 4-3 in the top of the sixth before Beloso led off the bottom of the sixth with a solo homer over the right field stands. Two pitches later, Travinski hammered his dinger just to the right of the left field bleachers.

“We needed to get back in the win column tonight, and our older players like Cade and Hayden have been through the battles,” Johnson said. “They know how to work their way through obstacles. Cade didn’t have a good at-bat earlier in the game with a runner in scoring position, but he put it behind him, he competed, fouled off several two-strike pitches, got to a 3-2 count, and then blasted the baseball.”

LSU added a pair of runs in the eighth, including national RBI leader White's second RBI of the game on a sacrifice fly.

The Tigers' Thursday SEC series opener at Georgia starts at 5 p.m. CT. It will be streamed on SEC Network+ and heard on the LSU Sports Radio Network.