SATURDAY’S GAME: LSU 3, Oklahoma 2

Going into LSU’s first-ever baseball trip to Oklahoma, the Sooners had not been swept in a 3-game home series in four years.

That streak is over.

The No. 7 Tigers’ strong pitching continued as LSU escaped with a 3-2 victory over the 10th-ranked Sooners Saturday to complete their third sweep in four SEC series.

The Tigers (30-3, 10-2 SEC) used only five pitchers for the three games, which is the way they would draw it up with an iffy bullpen beyond Casan Evans and Zac Cowan.

LSU’s pitching, in fact, did not give up an earned run the entire Thursday-Saturday series.

After Thursday’s complete-game shut out in a 2-0 LSU win, the Tigers on Friday got 5 2/3 innings from starter Anthony Eyanson, with Evans pitching the final 3 1/3 inning of a 10-2 win.

On Saturday, Chase Shores bounced back from two so-so starts and gave LSU five strong innings, allowing only one unearned run, which came on a second-inning passed ball moments before he ended the inning with a strike out.

“Chase was great today and he just keeps better,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “He got the next pitch every time today, and he did a great job. He continually got what we needed very, very well.”

Cowan pitched the final four innings for his fourth save. The Sooners’ other (unearned) run came in the ninth after Brayden Horton reached on an error by Michael Braswell and eventually scored on a two-out single to pull within a run.

The Sooners (23-8, 5-7) got the potential tying run to second and with another runner on first before Cowan got a fly out to end the game.

It was LSU’s first road sweep over a top ten team since 1999 in Knoxville against Tennessee.

In frigid, misty conditions with the wind-chill in the low ‘30s, the Tigers struggled for runs as well.

Freshman Derek Curiel’s two-out double in the fourth inning scored Chris Stanfield from first on a hit-and-run for the game’s only earned run.

“That run ended up being the difference in the game,” Johnson said. “Awesome at-bat by Derek.”

Curiel extended his career-long on-base streak to all 33 games this season, the longest ever by an LSU freshman.

LSU’s other two runs came with two outs in the second inning when Tanner Reaves and Luis Hernandez scored when Curiel’s routine ground ball went through Sooner second baseman Kyle Branch’s legs.