Rewind: LSU 17, Mississippi State 4

LSU collected a season-high 20 hits as it completed a three-game sweep of Mississippi State with a 17-4 victory Sunday afternoon at The Box.

HOW THEY SCORED

LSU first inning - With one out, Mark Laird walked. After Alex Bregman popped out to the pitcher on an attempted drag bunt, Kade Scivicque walked. Laird scored on a single by Tyler Moore. Scivicque scored on a single by Conner Hale. LSU 2, MISSISSIPPI STATE 0

LSU second inning - With one out, Christian Ibarra singled. Ibarra was safe at second on a throwing error by shortstop Seth Heck on Andrew Stevenson's ground ball. A single by Sean McMullen loaded the bases. Ibarra and Stevenson scored on a double by Laird. LSU 4, MISSISSIPPI STATE 0

LSU third inning - With two out, Jake Fraley singled and Ibarra was hit by a pitch. Fraley scored on a single by Stevenson. Ibarra and Stevenson, who went to second on the throw to the plate on his hit, scored on a double by McMullen. LSU 7, MISSISSIPPI STATE 0

Mississippi State fourth inning - With one out, Jake Vickerson singled. Vickerson scored on a double by Gavin Collins. LSU 7, MISSISSIPPI STATE 1

Mississippi State fifth inning - With two out, Brett Pirtle struck out. However, he reached first when the ball got away from the catcher Scivicque. After Derrick Armstrong singled, Pirtle scored on a single by pinch-hitter C.T. Bradford. LSU 7, MISSISSIPPI STATE 2

LSU fifth inning - Ibarra and Stevenson singled. A walk to McMullen loaded the bases. Ibarra scored on a single by Laird. Stevenson and McMullen scored on a single by Bregman. LSU 10 MISSISSIPPI STATE 2

LSU sixth inning - With one out, Ibarra hit a home run over the leftfield fence. Stevenson and McMullen walked. Stevenson scored on a double by Laird. After Bregman walked, Scivicque hit a grand slam over the leftfield fence. LSU 16, MISSISSIPPI STATE 2

LSU seventh inning - Fraley reached on a two-base throwing error by third baseman Alex Detz. Fraley moved to third on a bad-hop single by pinch-hitter Jared Foster and scored on Stevenson's ground ball to the first baseman. LSU 17, MISSISSIPPI STATE 2

Mississippi State eighth inning - Vickerson singled and moved to third on a double by Collins, Vickerson scored on Cody Walker's ground out to the shortstop Bregman. LSU 17, MISSISSIPPI STATE 3

Mississippi State ninth inning - With two out, Armstrong singled. He went to second on defensive indifference and moved to third on a wild pitch by Brady Domangue. Armstrong scored on a double by Bradford. LSU 17, MISSISSIPPI STATE 4

LSU WASTED SCORING OPPORTUNITIES

Fourth inning - With one out, Scivicque singled. Scivicque was forced at second on Moore's ground ball to the shortstop. Moore moved to second on a single by Hale. Fraley grounded out to the pitcher.

Eighth inning - Scivicque singled. After Kramer Robertson flied out to the centerfielder, Scivicque moved to second on an infield single by Danny Zardon. Fraley grounded out to the first baseman and Chris Chinea struck out.

TOP OFFENSIVE PLAYER

Laird had his best day of the season with three hits and four runs batted in. Two of his three hits were doubles. Laird had a two-run double in the second which gave LSU a 4-0 lead. He also drove in runs with a single in the fifth and his second double in the sixth. Laird also walked, stole a base and scored two runs. He extended his hitting streak to six games. Laird is 8-for-21 during the hitting streak. Laird's four RBIs and two doubles were career-high. His three hits equaled his season-high.

STARTING PITCHER

Kyle Bouman gave coach Paul Mainieri just what he wanted in his first start in three weeks. Bouman gave up one run and five hits before being replaced with a runner on second and one out in the fourth. Bouman walked one and struck out four. He was in trouble in just one of the first three innings. Mississippi State loaded the bases with two out on two infield singles sandwiched around a hit batter. Bouman was the recipient of some good fortune when Heck lined out the first baseman Moore to end the inning. Bouman had made one appearance since spraining his ankle nearly three weeks ago. He struck out the one batter he faced last Wednesday against McNeese State.

BULLPEN

Parker Bugg got credit for his first victory although he wasn't particularly effective. Bugg escaped trouble in the fourth when he struck out Zack Randolph and got Heck to fly out to the rightfielder Laird. Bugg yielded a run-scoring, two-out pinch-hit single by Bradford. Bugg was the recipient of some bad luck when Pirtle reached first base on swinging strike three when the ball got past the catcher Scivicque. Replays showed that the ball hit Pirtle in the foot after he swung and missed. Therefore, he should have been called out. Pirtle would score the run on Bradford's hit. Alden Cartwright threw a scoreless sixth in which he allowed one hit and struck out one. Kurt McCune gave up one run and two hits in his two innings. Domangue allowed one run and two hits in one inning. The bullpen yielded three runs and seven hits with one walk and five strikeouts - three by Bugg - in 5.2 innings.

NOTES

Fraley got his first start of the series in leftfield. McMullen was the designated hitter. Moore was the first baseman with Hale at second base. Scivicque was the catcher as the Tigers used three players at that position in the series. . . McMullen extended his hitting streak to five game with a second-inning single. . .Ibarra matched his career high with three hits. This was Ibarra's first multiple-hit game since March 29 at Florida. Ibarra was 1-for-11 since that game against the Gators. Ibarra scored four runs in a game for the first time in his career. . .Thanks to his grand slam, Scivicque tied his season-high for RBIs in a game. He also equaled his season-high in hits with three. . .Stevenson, who had two hits, scored four runs in a game for the first time in his career. . .After going hitless in the first two games of the series, Hale had two hits. . .By the end of the fifth inning, each LSU starter had a hit. The last Tigers starter to get a hit was Bregman. . .LSU stranded 12 runners, nine in scoring position. The Tigers were 10-for-22 with runners in scoring position. . .Mississippi State starting pitcher Dakota Hudson allowed six runs and six hits in 2.2 innings. Jonathan Holder, the Bulldogs ace closer, gave up run-scoring hits to Stevenson and McMullen in the third inning. He was removed after retiring Laird on a ground ball to end the third. . .The bottom three batters in the Mississippi State lineup had seven of its 12 hits. Vickerson had three, while both Collins and Zack Randolph had two. . .The 17 runs were the most scored by LSU in a SEC game since it beat Florida 18-6 last season. The 20 hits were the most for the Tigers in five years. LSU had 23 hits against Mississippi State in a 15-4 victory in 2009. . .LSU swept the Bulldogs for the first time since 2008. . .The Tigers are 24-8-1 overall, 6-5-1 in the SEC. LSU is in fifth place in the overall league standings - 1½ games behind Alabama. . .Mississippi State is 20-13 overall, 6-6 in the SEC. The Bulldogs are tied with Arkansas, Kentucky and Vanderbilt for sixth place in the overall SEC standings. . .The paid attendance was 10,373. The actual crowd was 3,102. The actual crowd for the three-game series against Mississippi State was 15,553.

FROM THE CLUBHOUSE

Paul Mainieri

"I'm extremely proud of our players for earning this win today. It was a huge win for us because it gets us back above .500 in the league and puts us within striking distance of first place. Once we won the first two games this weekend, I knew it was important for us to play well today. Our players certainly responded to the challenge. Kyle Bouman wasn't 100 percent, but he gave us everything he had. I thought he did a tremendous job especially since he hadn't started a game in three weeks. Our bullpen was also excellent against today. When you can pitch and play defense, your offense is going to eventually come around. That's how this game unfolded."

NEXT UP

LSU will play host to Lamar at The Box on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The Cardinals (18-14, 5-7) swept a three-game Southland Conference series at Abilene Christian this weekend. Mainieri is undecided on the Tigers' starting pitcher.