After dropping their fourth game in a row to the Southern Jaguars on Monday, the LSU Baseball team made some locker room adjustments. Tonight they started their Vanderbilt series strong by landing themselves a spot back in the win column, defeating the Commodores 10-6.

Pitcher Luke Holman coasted through the first three innings with six strikeouts and no runs for Vanderbilt. The Purple and Gold had a field day in the third inning, which started off with a homer from Josh Pearson. With three more hits from Steven Milam, Tommy White and Brady Neal, LSU was up 6-0 by the top of the fourth.

“I think the key to the whole inning was Paxton’s at bat where he got down on the two and drew the walk,” Coach Johnson said. “That set the table. Excellent bunt by Steven, and then when you play the game the right way sometimes you get some good fortune.”

After extending their lead to nine and Vanderbilt still not on the board, the Tigers were dominating on both sides of the ball. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, however. The Commodores made a bit of a comeback in the fifth and sixth innings, with six runs on six hits, including a homer from Jonathan Vastine.

“Yeah it was getting a little dicey,” Johnson said. “I felt like we lost our poise a little bit in the middle of the game. Obviously, you know, the error, and then offensively in the next inning we didn’t respond to that adversity super well. I thought we were great tonight for the most part, but we got out of sorts a little bit.”

Despite those errors, LSU was able to hold their ground. Pitcher Griffin Herring relieved Holman in the sixth inning and after he got in the swing of things, Vanderbilt only had one hit in the last three innings. A final offensive play by Jared Jones allowed Mac Bingham to score, tallying 10 for the Tigers.

A top 10 win may be what the Tigers needed to break out of their mid-season slump, but it’s still up to them to carry their momentum from tonight through the rest of the series.