STARKVILLE - The brand new Dudy Noble Field turned into a launch pad in Thursday's series opener between No. 15 LSU and No. 2 Mississippi State. The Bulldogs clobbered three home runs all off LSU ace Zack Hess as the Tigers lost 6-5 to Mississippi State. The loss marked their third-straight SEC game and fourth-straight overall. 

Zack Hess suffered his second loss of the season after allowing six runs on 11 hits, walking one and striking out three in 4.1 innings.

“We had a chance,” head coach Paul Mainieri said. “We had some big at-bats, big hits. (Trent) Vietmeier was tremendous, gave us a chance and we had situations with the heart of our order up. We came close; we just came up short.”

LSU rallied late scoring three runs in the eighth but the damage was already done. With the tying run on first in the ninth Daniel Cabrera struck out looking and Duplantis was caught stealing to end the game.

Game 2 of the series between LSU and Mississippi State is slated for Friday at 6 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.