BATON ROUGE, La. (Interstat) — Marcos Paz struck out eight over five innings, allowing one earned run on one hit, and Mason Braun drove in three runs with a home run as LSU defeated South Carolina 7-3 on Saturday in the first game of a Southeastern Conference doubleheader at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.

LSU outhit the Gamecocks 13-4. Deven Sheerin added four scoreless innings of relief, giving up three hits while striking out three. Cade Arrambide went 3 for 5 with a solo home run for the Tigers.

South Carolina took a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a solo homer. LSU answered with a sacrifice fly in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fourth. Braun’s two-run homer in the fifth put LSU ahead 4-3, and the Tigers added three more runs.

Brandon Stone took the loss for South Carolina, allowing four earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. The Gamecocks fell to 22-26 overall, while LSU improved to 27-21.