BATON ROUGE — In its last two Southeastern Conference series, LSU baseball hadn't scored more than six runs in an entire game.

No. 18 LSU stacked up six runs in the third inning alone to take a big lead over No. 6 Vanderbilt inside Alex Box Stadium on Thursday night.

The Tigers (21-10, 3-7 SEC) gave starter Luke Holman run support, something they've done sporadically his last couple of outings, and LSU held on to snap a four-game losing skid with a 10-6 win to open the series against the Commodores (23-7, 6-4).

LSU baseball takes advantage of Vanderbilt baseball mistakes

Vanderbilt starting pitcher Greysen Carter left a breaking ball up in the zone and Josh Pearson turned on it, sending the ball out to the right field bleachers to leadoff the bottom of the third.

The mistakes snowballed for Vandy from there.

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Davis Diaz couldn't get the ball out of his glove on the exchange and LSU's No. 9 hitter Steven Milam legged out a bunt attempt for a single. Next batter, Mac Bingham reached on what should've been a double-play grounder to second but Jayden Davis threw the ball wide to the base, which allowed Paxton Kling to score.

Later, Carter hit Hayden Travinski with a pitch and the next pitcher threw a wild pitch that moved Brady Neal up to third. LSU shortstop batted Neal in on a sacrifice grounder the stretched the lead to 6-0.

Luke Holman continues steady start to SEC play

Junior starter Luke Holman struck out six of the first nine batters he faced.

He didn't give up a hit through the first four innings and despite a hiccup in the top of the fifth, the right-hander controlled the game and Vanderbilt's lineup while he was in the game. The lineup gave him plenty of breathing room by the arrival of the fifth at 9-0 when he gave up the four runs he surrendered in that inning.

In his four Friday night starts in the SEC, Holman has given up 15 runs off 20 hits along with 31 strikeouts in 20⅔ innings worked. Holman has won two of those games.

LSU reliever Griffin Herring silences Vanderbilt bats in the late innings

By the time LSU coach Jay Johnson emerged to get Holman, Vanderbilt was cooking. The Commodores has trimmed what was a 9-0 deficit to 9-4 and things started to tighten up for the Tigers.

Sophomore Griffin Herring relived Holman. With momentum and two runners on base, Vandy collected back-to-back to start Herring's appearance, scoring both runs to make the score even tighter, 9-6 as the game headed to the back half.

After giving up those two early hits, Herring settled in and cooled off the Dores' hot bats, allowing one hit with two outs in the ninth the rest of the way. Herring struck out six of the 15 batters he faced.

Herring has been one of the few bright spots for the Tigers out of the bullpen lately. The lefty hasn't given up a run in SEC play in three appearances and has earned two saves, including against Vanderbilt Thursday night.

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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball knocks off Vanderbilt behind taking advantage of miscues