As talented and deep as the LSU baseball roster he built this season is, coach Jay Johnson firmly believes scoring 18 runs over the course of an SEC series weekend is good enough to at minimum win the series.

But the No. 4 Tigers (17-4, 1-2 SEC) aren't shooting for two-out-of-three's. Johnson and company look for sweeps. And at Mississippi State (15-6, 2-1) this past weekend, LSU couldn't manage two wins with the "baseline" 18 runs because all the elements needed to secure series wins weren't there.

LSU dropped the opener at Dudy Noble Field 10-4, Friday night, then rebounded to clip State, 9-8, holding off a rally from the Bulldogs on Saturday night before being blown out in the series-decider, 15-5, in eight innings Sunday afternoon.

Here are our takeaways from LSU going 1-2, losing its opening SEC series at State.

LSU baseball starting pitchers struggled with Mississippi State's aggressiveness at the plate

Coming into the weekend, LSU's pitchers had been the flag bearers for the ballclub. Friday night starter Luke Holman (4-1) had been undefeated on the young season at 4-0 and hadn't given up an earned run. But how the Bulldogs attacked him early and often, set the tone for the weekend.

Holman pitched into the fifth but gave up 10 hits which turned into five total runs with two earned. Saturday starter Gage Jump got roughed up, too, lasting 3⅔ frames, allowing four runs on as many hits and walked three, something he hadn't done up to that point. On Sunday, Thatcher Hurd was popped for seven runs in five innings.

Across three games, LSU's starters lasted 13⅓ innings while surrendering 16 runs contrasted with nine total strikeouts and seven walks. How the Tigers' starters performed wasn't going to cut it in SEC play.

LSU errors pile up which prove costly

When talking with reporters Monday morning, Johnson was quick to give credit to Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs applied pressure on the Tigers' defense for much of the weekend and in the "environment like I haven't seen over there," as Johnson called it, they didn't execute and perform. In an odd twist, two of the errors happened in the outfield from Brady Neal and Mac Bingham.

LSU committed six errors over the three games, two in each game at State, which was nearly half the number the defense had committed over the course of the first 18 games of the season.

Johnson said he believes LSU is a good defensive team and what defensive lapses transpired in Starkville "are fixable."

Is Tommy White rounding into form?

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By his standards, the LSU star third baseman has started the season a tad slow at the plate.

But in the first SEC pressure cooker of the season, Tommy "Tanks" White responded better than anyone else did over the weekend. White raised his season batting average 20 points, now up to .321, which is the highest among the guys that have played in all 21 games.

He crushed a two-run home run on Friday before going on to bat in seven runs for the series while going 5-for-13 at the dish.

White has settled into the two-hole in the lineup and LSU is going to need him to compile timely hits when Bingham gets on base in front of him.

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: What went wrong for LSU baseball at Mississippi State. Our takeaways