There was no place like home for the LSU baseball team during spring break.The rest of the LSU student body traveled to various locales, but LSU found most of its success at Alex Box Stadium during the last 10 days.The road was a little more harsh to LSU.The Tigers (26-6, 8-4 SEC) lost two of three games to Auburn (22-11, 7-5) last weekend after winning its series against Georgia during the first weekend of the break. LSU also picked up a blowout of a non-conference opponent in midweek action.LSU coach Paul Mainieri said after LSU’s midweek home game the Tigers would have four “very tough ball games” after the home contest.He was correct.LSU faced stiff competition from both Auburn and Southern Miss and emerged from the four-game road trip with two wins and two losses.The two road losses came against Auburn at Plainsman Park.LSU took the first game of the weekend series with a 14-10 victory but dropped the next two games. It was the first time LSU has dropped two games in a row since April 18 and 19 of 2009 against Tennessee when LSU last lost a Southeastern Conference series.LSU lost, 11-7, on Saturday and dropped Sunday’s game, 6-5, in the ninth inning after Auburn junior right fielder Justin Fradejas bunted for a single, allowing sophomore shortstop Casey McElroy to score.The series win was the first for Auburn against LSU at home since 1998.”It was a hard-fought game, and I credit our players for the way they competed the whole day,” Mainieri said in a news release. “We’ve established a very good record in SEC series play, and we’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past couple of years. We’ll build from this experience and move forward.”LSU defeated Southern Miss (16-14, 1-5 C-USA) on April 6 in the Wally Pontiff, Jr. Classic, which took place at Zephyr Field in New Orleans.The Golden Eagles and the Tigers battled for 12 innings until LSU redshirt                      freshman third baseman Wet Delatte hit a walk-off single to give LSU a 6-5 victory.”It was a great college baseball game, and I’m very proud of the way we competed against a tremendous Southern Miss team,” Mainieri said in a news release. “I’m especially pleased for [freshman infielder] Mason Katz and Wet Delatte; they’re two young guys who took advantage of opportunities, and they came through for us in a big way.”Katz hit a double off the outfield wall earlier in the game and later scored to tie the game at five.The night before that, LSU picked up its third home win during the break when the Tigers met Alcorn State for a midweek game.LSU sophomore right fielder Mikie Mahtook went 4-for-4 and scored five runs as he hit for the cycle in the Tigers’ 17-5 win against the Braves.Mahtook was the first LSU player to hit for the cycle since 2003.The Tigers started their spring break with a series win against Georgia (11-21, 3-9 SEC).LSU started the series with a 4-3 win against the Bulldogs on April 2.The Tigers ran into some trouble in the second game of the series.LSU came up six runs short and lost to the Bulldogs, 12-6, in a game where the two teams combined for 27 hits.”This was just not our day,” Mainieri said in a news release following the game. “Georgia played a great game, and they deserved to win. We swung the bats pretty well, but a lot of balls were hit into the teeth of the wind. I’m certainly not taking away anything from Georgia. They have a lot of talented ball players, and they outplayed us today.”But LSU rebounded on Easter Sunday.LSU pushed across 15 runs on 17 hits and took its third SEC series of the season.Following the Georgia series, LSU had a seven-series winning streak dating back to the 2009 season.LSU junior catcher Micah Gibbs was the most effective Tiger at the plate during the Georgia series. He batted .636 with one double, one RBI, two runs and two steals in the series.Gibbs leads the Tigers with a .403 average with 33 RBIs and five home runs.Mahtook currently sits at No. 2 on the team in batting average with a .348 mark.—-Contact Johanathan Brooks at [email protected]