Mark Laird had three hits and four relievers combined for five shutout innings as LSU defeated Stephen F. Austin 8-1 in a non-conference game at The Box on Tuesday night.

LSU first inning - With one out, Laird singled. Laird moved to second on Alex Bregman's ground out to the second baseman. Laird stole third base and scored on Chris Chinea's infield single to the shortstop. LSU 1, SFA 0

LSU second inning - Danny Zardon hit a leadoff home run over the leftfield fence. LSU 2, SFA 0

SFA fifth inning - Dan O'Neill singled and scored on Hunter Wilson's triple. LSU 2, SFA 1

LSU fifth inning - Bregman walked and advanced to second on Chinea's ground out to the third baseman. Bregman scored on Conner Hale's double. LSU 3, SFA 1

LSU sixth inning - Mike Papierski walked and moved to second on Kramer Robertson's sacrifice bunt. Jared Foster was hit by a pitch and Laird singled to load the bases. Papierski scored when Bregman was hit by a pitch. LSU 4, SFA 1.

LSU seventh inning - Andrew Stevenson walked and moved to third on Zardon's hit-and-run single. Stevenson scored and Zardon advanced to second on Papierski's ground out to the second baseman. Zardon went to third on Robertson's ground out to the third baseman and scored on Austin Smith's wild pitch. Foster walked and stole second. Foster scored on Laird's single. LSU 7, SFA 1

LSU eighth inning - Pinch-hitter Grayson Byrd reached safely on an error by shortstop Trevor Podsednik. After Hale popped out to the second baseman, Byrd scored on Stevenson's double. LSU 8 SFA 1

Fourth inning - With one out, Papierski doubled. Papierski moved to third on Robertson's ground out to the pitcher. Foster walked. Laird grounded out to the first baseman.

For the fourth time this season, Laird had three hits in a game. Laird also scored a run and drove in a run. He singled and scored on Chinea's infield hit in the first. Laird's steal of third base enabled him to score on the single by Chinea. He singled in both the sixth and seventh innings. Laird's two-out hit in the seventh drove home Foster. Laird was 3-for-5 on the night.

Laird's comments: "I just try to stay with my same approach. I want to hit the ball on the ground or hit it low and hard. The ball found holes tonight. Some days, it finds holes and some days it doesn't. That's just baseball."

Hunter Newman entered the game in the fifth inning with the tying run at third base and the go-ahead run at first base with no outs. Newman, who was the winning pitcher, got out of the inning with no runs scoring. He got Matthew Dickey to foul out to Foster in shallow leftfield. Conner Fikes then popped out to Bregman at shortstop. After Podsednik stole second, Newman ended the inning by retiring Kyle Thorwell on a fly ball to Laird in rightfield.

Newman's comments: "I was trying to do my job and pick up (Kyle) Bouman. Coach (Paul Mainieri) told me that he needed me in a tight situation. That's my job. I came in there trying to not let them score a run. The first out was big. Once I got that, I thought I could roll a double play. Then, they stole a base and I got the fly ball. I am just doing what I can to help the team out."

As was expected, Hale started at third base and Zardon at first base. Papierski made his fourth start of the season at catcher. Foster was the leftfielder. Hale made the play on the only ball hit to him. . .Zardon's homer was his second of the season. He hit one all of last year. Zardon had two hits. . .Hale has hit safely in all 12 LSU games this season. . .Stevenson doubled in the eighth to keep his hitting streak alive. Stevenson has a hit in all nine games in which he has played. . .Foster reached base four times - three walks and a hit batter. . .LSU stranded 12 runners - eight in scoring position. The Tigers were 4-for-18 with runners in scoring position. . .SFA starting pitcher Eric Polivka gave up two runs and three hits in three innings. The Lumberjacks used eight relief pitchers. . .In his first start of the season, Bouman pitched very well for four innings. In that time, he gave up two hits, walked one and struck out a career-high seven batters. However, Bouman couldn't get the victory because he didn't retire a batter in the fifth. He allowed a single and a triple before issuing a walk. Bouman was then relieved by Newman. . .Bugg threw two perfect innings - the sixth and the seventh. He struck out one hitter and got four outs on pop ups or fly balls. The other out came on a topped ball down the first base line. . .Zac Person was the first Tigers reliever to permit a base runner when he hit Fikes with one out in the eighth. Person struck out the other two hitters he faced. . .Hunter Devall got the final four outs. He walked a batter in the eighth and allowed a two-out double in the ninth. Devall struck out two batters in the last inning. . .SFA stranded eight runners - five in scoring position. The Lumberjacks were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. . .The Tigers did not commit an error, while SFA made three errors. . .LSU, which won its eighth game in a row, is 11-1. Stephen F. Austin is 4-9. The Tigers are now 11-0 all-time against the Lumberjacks. . .The paid attendance was 9,581. The actual crowd was about 2,100 - the smallest of the year.

Coach Paul Mainieri's comments: "The key to the game initially was Kyle Bouman. He may have gotten through five innings if he would have handled the comebacker (infield hit by O'Neill). Then, the key to the game was Hunter Newman's performance. He came in at a pivotal time of the game and prevented the tying run from scoring. That's not the first time he has done that. His status with the team continues to grow. We are looking for someone we can bring into the game in the middle of an inning. Hunter showed a lot of poise. He may have found his niche. All the guys who followed him out of the bullpen did a good job. We didn't hit great, but we hit enough. We got a few clutch hits."

LSU will play host to Grambling on Wednesday at The Box. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. Central time. Grambling (2-8) was swept in three games at Oregon State last weekend. Doug Norman (0-1, 5.00 ERA) will be the starting pitcher for LSU. The LSU-Grambling game will be broadcast on SEC Network +.