Maybe you had to dig deep, but there was a bright spot from LSU’s disastrous Southeastern Conference road trip to Auburn last weekend.

In losing all three games, the Tigers might have left their bats at home — 4-for-27 with runners in scoring position — but they emerged from the frustration with new confidence in their previously dicey bullpen. The relief corps is no longer just Zac Cowan and Casan Evans.

That trend continued when the No. 9 Tigers (32-6, 10-5 SEC) returned home from a nine-game road trip to beat McNeese State 10-3 Tuesday night.

The LSU bats also awoke from their slumber with 13 hits against the Cowboys.

But will it hold up in the SEC? LSU will find out when it hosts No. 11 Alabama (8-7, 30-8) for three games beginning tonight.

It’s the Tigers’ third consecutive weekend against a team ranked in the top 12.

“That’s just the way it is in our league,” Johnson said of the competition. “There’s no other conference in baseball like this. No rest for the weary.”

Johnson wasn’t surprised by Tuesday’s offensive reawakening after batting .188 and stranding 26 base runners last weekend.

“They’re all really good players,” he said. “You can’t hold them down for long.”

The improved bullpen, on the other hand, has been a recent development, particularly with some freshmen still feeling their way around the college game.

“It’s OK to get better, and they are getting better,” Johnson said. “We feel like we have a great core of freshmen pitchers. We’re expanding that window of guys that we can go to in any situation.”

Cowan (2-0, 0.79 ERA) and Evans (1-0, 0.73) have been dominant all season. They combined to shut out Auburn over the last six innings of the final game.

The rest of the bullpen had been the proverbial box of chocolates — Johnson never knew what he was get ting mostly due to trouble throwing strikes. But last weekend Cooper Williams, Mavrick Rizy and Jacob Mayers, held Auburn to one earned run over the last 32/3 innings of the first game.

Another trio, Conner Ware, Connor Benge and D.J. Primeaux, held Auburn scoreless in the last three inning of the middle game.

All were involved for brief stints in the McNeese game with encouraging results — a combined 52/3 innings allowing one run.

Throw in freshman William Schmidt, who started against the Cowboys, and they struck out 15 in nine innings. Rizy had six of the strikeouts in 22/3 innings. All should be available against Alabama, if not for the first game, at some point during the series.

“I think some of these guys got lost in the shuffle a little bit,” Johnson said. “They’re improving as they go along. There’s a learning curve coming to college baseball.”