No. 3 LSU moves past Nicholls St.

BATON ROUGE - Third-ranked LSU extended its winning streak to six games Tuesday night with a 5-3 win over Nicholls State at Alex Box Stadium.

The Tigers (15-2) returned to action Wednesday against Southern University and open Southeastern Conference play this weekend with a three-game series against No. 7 Vanderbilt in Nashville beginning Friday.

“It was important for us to earn this win,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “Nicholls threw some very good arms at us, and they have good hitters.”

Nicholls (8-9) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI single by Tyler Duplantis against LSU starter Brady Domangue.

LSU tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the first when Conner Hale hit a sacrifice fly to center field to plate Mark Laird.

Jared Foster gave LSU the lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI double down the right field line before Danny Zardon’s RBI groundout extended the Tigers’ lead to 3-1.

The Tigers stretched the lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the seventh. With runners on first and second, Sean McMullen drove in Andrew Stevenson on an RBI single to left-center field. Alex Bregman then hit a two-out RBI single to plate Foster.

Domangue (2-0) earned the win for the Tigers allowing two runs on five hits in five innings with one walk and two strikeouts. Joe Broussard earned his third save of the year by retiring the side in order in the ninth.

Stevenson, Bregman and McMullen each extended their hitting streaks to 15, nine and five games, respectively.