BATON ROUGE - After outscoring No. 2 Mississippi State 21-7 to win the series, LSU is back inside the top 10 at No. 9 in the latest Collegiate Baseball poll. After four straight losses and three consecutive SEC losses, the Tigers reeled off back-to-back wins over the Bulldogs.

The LSU bats finally found some consistency at the plate especially at the top of the lineup. Antoine Duplantis, Josh Smith and Zach Watson combined to go 13-for-27 in the final two games. During that stretch LSU pounded out 21 runs and 24 total hits.

"It's just the nature of the game," said Paul Mainieri at Monday's practice. "Confidence affects things, good fortune affects things, the quality of the other pitcher. But to answer your question, we needed that." 

Here's the latest SEC hitting stats heading into week 4 of league play.#LSU is 4th in average hitting .261 through 9 games. pic.twitter.com/L9yenEUk6C

— Mike Gaither (@MikeGaitherTV) April 1, 2019

Meanwhile senior Antoine Duplantis was asked about his recent power surge after clobbering two home runs in game three's 11-2 win. 

"They were joking that they need to drug test me," laughed Duplantis.

After only hitting six home runs through his first three seasons combined, Duplantis now leads the entire LSU lineup with seven long balls this season.

"The key is you can't lose confidence, you have to stay with it and you have to believe in yourself," said Mainieri. 

The #LSU bats are heating up following a huge series win over No. 2 Mississippi State. 21 runs, 24 total hits in the final two games left the dug with a new level of confidence heading into a 5-game home stand. @WBRZ pic.twitter.com/1bpXeOKzOY

— Mike Gaither (@MikeGaitherTV) April 1, 2019

NEXT UP: Grambling (12-15) at LSU (19-9)         

LIKELY STARTERS: GSU – Jr. RHP Kerry Boykins (3-0, 9.00 ERA, 22.0 IP, 6 BB, 21 SO)                                                                      LSU – Sr. RHP Clay Moffitt (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 8.1 IP, 0 BB, 7 SO)