Southern Miss used three pitchers who issued six walks, hit a batter and gave up four runs without a hit.

And that was just in the first inning.

LSU used four bases-loaded walks to take an early lead it never relinquished Wednesday, and beat Southern Miss 8-3 in a game that featured more pitching changes than hits.

LSU (27-7) used eight pitchers, and Southern Miss seven. The teams combined for 12 hits, just four of them by LSU.

Blake Brown went 2-for-4 with two RBIs — both on a double in the first inning — for Southern Miss (19-13), and Dillon Day also had two hits. Arby Fields was 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI for LSU.

The parade of pitchers started in the bottom of the first inning. Taylor Nunez started for Southern Miss and got leadoff hitter JaCoby Jones to ground out. Then things went south in a hurry. He walked three of the next four batters he faced and hit the other before he was replaced by Cody Livingston, who fared no better. Livingston issued bases-loaded walks to Tyler Hanover and Ty Ross to give LSU a 3-2 lead.

James McMahon then relieved Livingston and gave up another bases-loaded walk to Jared Foster before striking out Jones to end the inning.

McMahon went on to pitch five innings, the longest stint of the night for a pitcher on either team. LSU’s bullpen was the more effective in the game, combining to allow just one run and two walks while striking out 11 in eight innings.

Southern Miss’ pitchers issued a total of 10 walks.