BATON ROUGE - No. 4 LSU started its season with a back-and-forth game in which the team finished strong Friday afternoon as they won 11-8 over VMI.

LSU started with a 3-0 lead at the top of the third, but by the top of the fifth inning, VMI took the lead to make it a 6-5 game. However, thanks to five players being hit by pitches and a 2 RBI double from Mac Bingham in the bottom of the sixth, LSU scored five runs to take a 10-6 lead.

VMI responded with two runs in the eighth, but LSU added another run to make the final score 11-8.

LSU plays Central Arkansas Saturday at home at 1 p.m.