LSU needed a solid performance from a starter to in order to have a chance against Auburn and Senior right-hander Ma’Khail Hilliard answered the bell. The Baton Rouge native tossed 5.1 shutout innings with seven strikeouts, as No. 12 LSU defeated Auburn 9-2 Friday in game two of the SEC series inside Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.

After a clean top of the first from Hilliard, who picked up his third win of the year, sophomore centerfielder Dylan Crews crushed a home run to right field. Crews’ seventh dinger of the season was the only run for either team before the LSU Tigers tacked on two more in the fifth.

That 1-0 stood until the 5th when sophomore shortstop Cade Doughty one hopped the wall in left center for a ringing double to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. With Doughty on second and sophomore first baseman Tre’ Morgan on first base following a walk, Crews drove in his 31st RBI of the season with a single to left.

The remaining four runs the LSU scratched across in the inning also came with two outs. Auburn intentionally walked designated hitter Brayden Jobert to load the bases before Crews scored on a wild pitch. Sophomore shortstop Jordan Thompson laced a double down the left-field line, scoring Berry and Jobert, who advanced on the wild pitch. Senior left fielder Gavin Dugas drove in the final run of the inning with a bloop fly ball that found some grass in left-center and scored Thompson, giving the Tigers an 8-2 lead.

LSU extended its lead in the bottom of the eighth to seven with two singles, a groundout and a wild pitch.