Streak snapped: LSU baseball finally wins SEC series, takes two of three at Missouri

The wait is over.

A streak LSU baseball hasn't experienced since 1977 was snapped Sunday as it claimed its first SEC series of the season and first conference series win in the last six tries, winning two games at Missouri this weekend, capped by a 6-2 victory at Taylor Stadium Sunday afternoon.

LSU opened the three-game set with a 12-1 run-rule win Friday night before a rally was too late Saturday, falling 8-7 to set up the rubber match Sunday.

It's been an agonizing start to league play for the reigning national champions. And while they won the series at Missouri, there's still plenty of work left for the Tigers (25-16, 5-13 SEC) as the issues that have plagued the group are still glaring.

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LSU put together what Jay Johnson categorized as its best overall performance in an SEC game this season in the series-opening win Friday night.

Then the Tigers followed it up with struggles on offense, defense and pitching the rest of the series, continuing with the weeks long trend for them of inconsistencies from game-to-game. LSU's bats couldn't get anything going for much of the game Saturday. The aggression at the plate didn't equate to what it did in the first game, just two hits through five innings.

Johnson had Paxton Kling bat leadoff all series while freshman Steven Milam batted in the No. 2 hole the first two games before Johnson moved freshman Ashton Larson there Sunday. Star Tommy White hit third. Milam went 2-for-10 while Kling fared better at 3-for-10 with a double in each of the first two games.

On defense, the Tigers committed three errors, including two in game two, one error led to an unearned run, which proved to the difference.

Struggles for LSU pitchers of getting off field with two outs lingers

The biggest part of LSU staff's woes has been two-out execution and that problem reared its head again at Missouri, most especially on Saturday.

Mizzou's seven, two-outs runs were the difference in game two of the series. Starter Luke Holman couldn't get off the field, giving up a few hits to Missouri while its had runners on base, opening the floodgates and getting an offense that's not equipped to deal with a sizeable deficit. At the beginning of the season, Holman was the staff's best at getting off the field. In his last few outings, SEC teams have found ways to get to him.

For the series, LSU pitchers gave up eight total two-out runs, proof that when the staff is able to keep those down, the team wins.

Freshman playing his way into everyday lineup in SEC play for LSU baseball

While its struggled of late, there's still an abundance of talent and good hitters throughout LSU's lineup.

Amid the Tommy Whites and Hayden Travinskis of the LSU baseball world, it's freshman Ashton Larson that's leading the team in batting average during SEC play. He came into the Mizzou series hitting just below .400 but quickly raised it to .419 after going 3-for-3 in the opener Friday night.

Larson got a hit in the first two games and finished the weekend 5-for-9 with two RBIs and four runs scored.

Gage Jump jumped off LSU Tigers at Mizzou

How sophomore starter Gage Jump performed in the series opener Friday night set the table for LSU in the three-game set.

The staff has faced woes of not getting out of innings and Johnson has been forced to dip into the bullpen and use pitchers earlier in games and series during the team's struggles in SEC play. Jump's complete game outing in LSU's 12-1, seven-inning win Friday provided LSU the freedom it needed the rest of the way.

Jump struck out a career-high 14 in the series-opening victory.

His stellar outing allowed for LSU's best reliever Griffin Herring to be available for the rubber match Sunday, which was key as Herring tossed five shutout innings, striking out eight while allowing one hit.

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LSU baseball still on outside looking in of SEC Baseball Tournament field

Despite winning its first SEC series, LSU baseball still hasn't surpassed the teams in front of it, including Missouri, of being inside the top 12 teams in the conference.

At 5-13 now in the league standings, LSU has closed the gap down to one game out of Ole Miss and Missouri, who are 6-12.

Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball snaps SEC series skid, wins two games at Missouri