LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri knew he needed freshman pitcher Chris Matulis to eat up innings Wednesday night against Harvard with a critical series against No. 11 Ole Miss looming this weekend.The LSU bullpen had been overworked in the last few games and pitched a combined 8 1/3 innings since Sunday’s 11-3 win against South Carolina.Matulis gave the Tigers’ bullpen much-needed rest Wednesday and pitched seven innings, allowing just two runs in the Tigers’ 10-2 win against the Crimson.”That’s just the way baseball is,” Matulis said. “Sometimes the bullpen picks up the starting pitching, and sometimes the starting pitching helps pick up the bullpen. I was glad to do what I could out there to help those guys today.”The teams traded scoreless innings until the bottom of the second when LSU sophomore shortstop DJ LeMahieu and freshman center fielder Mikie Mahtook each hit home runs to spark a three-run inning.Mahtook was one of four Tigers who aren’t regulars in the batting lineup to get the start against the Crimson — a move Mainieri said was made after he saw a lack of effort from a few players in Tuesday’s 4-3 win against Harvard.”I wanted to play some kids who were really hungry to play [Wednesday],” said Mainieri.Mahtook made the most of his second start of the season and went 2-for-4 with a pair of home runs and four RBI.The Lafayette native said he was trying to avoid doing too much at the plate with limited at bats this season.”You’re not supposed to really think too much at the plate,” he said. “I was just trying to do the best I could, and I just put a few good swings on a couple of balls.”The Crimson battled back for a pair of runs in the third inning on a two-RBI single by sophomore centerfielder Dillon O’Neill.Those runs were the only ones the Crimson could plate off Matulis who struck out five hitters and allowed just five hits in his seven innings to improve to 4-0 on the season.”He did a good job,” Mainieri said. “We expect a lot out of him, but I think he has a chance to be a really great pitcher, and he’s almost there.”Mahtook struck again in the bottom of the fourth inning and hit a towering home run over the left field fence to put LSU ahead, 5-2.The Tigers added five more runs in the seventh inning to put the game away.Sophomore Ben Alsup and freshman Randy Ziegler pitched the eighth and ninth innings to preserve the win for LSU.Mainieri said it was important for him to get Alsup and Ziegler into Wednesday’s game because the Tigers are searching for middle relief pitching to fill the gap from the team’s starters to the team’s closer, freshman Matty Ott.”We’ve become so accustomed to [Anthony] Ranaudo and [Austin] Ross and [Louis] Coleman pitching six and seven innings for us,” Mainieri said. “But that may not happen every game. In those days when we can’t do that, we’ve got to have someone else, so I was happy with the way Alsup and Ziegler threw today.”—-Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]