BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU right-hander Christian Little recorded 3.2 innings of brilliant relief Saturday night, and the Tigers erased an early 3-0 deficit en route to a 6-4 win over top-ranked Texas A&M in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
LSU, which has won nine of its last 11 games, improved to 31-17 overall and 9-14 in the SEC, while Texas A&M dropped to 39-8 overall and 15-8 in conference play.
The Tigers have now won three straight SEC series and have captured six of their last eight conference games.
LSU and Texas A&M will play the series finale at 1 p.m. CT Sunday in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field, and the game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and streamed on SEC Network +.
Little (2-0) entered the game at the start of the sixth inning and limited Texas A&M to one run on two hits in 3.2 innings with one walk and six strikeouts.
“I’m really proud of our team,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “I think the story was our pitching; Christian Little threw 64 pitches and gave a completely dominant performances. I couldn’t be prouder of him.”
LSU starting pitcher Luke Holman allowed three runs in the top of the first inning, but then recorded four straight scoreless frames. Holman was charged with three runs on three hits in 5.0 innings with five walks and 10 strikeouts.
“Luke, after giving up three in the first, to give us four zeroes in a row, was awesome,” Johnson said.
Trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the third inning with two outs and nobody on, the Tigers struck for three runs. Third baseman Tommy White and first baseman Jared Jones launched back-to-back homers to narrow the gap to 3-2, and LSU tied the game when leftfielder Josh Pearson doubled and scored on designated hitter Hayden Travinski’s RBI single.
The game remained tied, 3-3, until the bottom of the seventh, when catcher Alex Milazzo walked, moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on groundout by White, and scored on a wild pitch by Aggies reliever Evan Aschenbeck.
LSU added two more runs in the eighth as Milazzo and White each provided run-scoring singles.
The Aggies reduced the deficit to 6-4 in the top of the ninth on centerfielder Jace LaViolette’s RBI single, and Texas A&M later placed runners second and third with two outs.
However, reliever Gavin Guidry retired catcher Jackson Appel on a fly ball to center field to end the game and record his second save of the season.
Texas A&M reliever Shane Sdao (3-1) suffered the loss, as he was charged with one run on one hit in 3.1 innings while recording one walk and two strikeouts.
“We’ve got a quick turnaround, and we’ve got to be ready to go on Sunday,” Johnson said. “We’re going to throw on the gold jerseys and go for it. We’ve got a lot of arms available to pitch, which is a good thing against a very potent Texas A&M lineup.”