SATURDAY’S GAME — LSU 16, West Virginia 9.

SUNDAY’S GAME — 5 p.m. / ESPN2

For all its thrills and chills over the years, LSU had never hit matching grand slams in the NCAA tournament’s super regional era.

Mark another one off the bucket list as the Tigers used two of them — bases-loaded bombs by Steven Milam and Josh Pearson — to slam West Virginia 16-9 in the Baton Rouge super regional opener.

They came in handy as West Virginia actually out-hit LSU 11-8, but the Tigers took advantage of eight walks and five hit batters and scored 11 of their runs on just three big swings of the bat.

Derek Curiel’s 3-run homer in the fourth inning — the Tigers first hit of the game — gave LSU the lead for good, 3-1, and Steven Milam and Josh Pearson hit their grand slams in the fifth and sixth innings respectively.

“I thought it was a complete performance,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “The hits didn’t come the first few innings, but made the pitcher work — that was really important.

“Those free bases helped … set the table … It’s like turnovers in football, you want to captilalize on them and we certainly did today.”

It left the Tigers (47-15) one win away from reaching the College World Series for the 20th time in school history.

The Tigers will likely send their other ace, righthander Anthony Eyanson (10-2, 2.50), to the mound for Sunday’s 5 p.m. game.

The Mountaineers (44-15) are in a super regional for just the second time and looking for a first-ever trip to Omaha.

With LSU’s efficient use of eight hits, the Tigers didn’t need a vintage performance from ace lefthander Kade Anderson.

It hardly mattered that he gave up season highs both with seven runs and nine hits.

“I wasn’t commanding the fastball and working off of that as well,” said Anderson, who took a line drive off his forearm in the second inning but said it didn’t bother him. “They put up a couple of good at-bats but I don’t think it was them, bit was just me not making the pitchers when I had to.”

He pitched seven innings and left with a 16-7 lead that allowed the Tigers to finish the game with the nether regions of the bullpen and not use any of the better arms that might be needed to finish the three-game series.

“Proud of Kate,” Johnson said. “That was not easy. I think everybody can attest that watching the game wasn’t easy. Giving everything he had on ever pitch was awesome.

“The sixth and seventh innings, just getting those two innings checked off without having to use somebody else out of the bullpen  becomes very valuable, not just today, in tomorrow’s game and the rest of the series.

“We won, he’s happy we won. He’s ticked off because he gave up some hits and runs. Those are usually your highest performers that have that competitive level.”

All 16 LSU runs were scored over the fourth, fifth and six innings. LSU led 10-1 after five innings and 16-5 after six innings.

Curiel added a pair of RBI singles to finish with five RBIs on a 3-for-3 day with three runs scored. Chris Stanfield added a late 2-run single.

At least one Mountaineer wasn’t discouraged.

“They could have beat us 40-0 and tomorrow it’s still 0-0 at first pitch,” said DH Sam White, who went 3-for-5 and scored three runs. “It’s a series. We don’t have to crawl back like it’s a regional and win four more. We just got to win two games.”

Johnson certainly isn’t assuming anything.

But, he said, “There’s something I feel like I learned in the game today that we need to make some movement on to be better prepared for tomorrow. So use that time well.”