STARKVILLE — Mississippi State took the nation’s top-ranked baseball team to the wire Thursday night.

Then, it literally tripped trying to cross the finish line.

Conner Hale’s two-run double in the 14th inning brought in the go-ahead runs, and LSU survived to beat Mississippi State 5-3 in the opener of a three-game series at Dudy Noble Field.

Mississippi State (23-23, 7-15 Southeastern Conference) lost the opening game of a conference series for the seventh time in eight weekends. The Bulldogs have lost 23 of 33 games since starting the season on a 13-game winning streak.

Mississippi State appeared to have the game won in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Trailing 3-2, it put runners at first and second for Reid Humphreys, who smoked a ball to the center field wall.

Luke Reynolds scored to tie the game, but Matt Spruill tripped rounding third and was tagged out as he tried to scramble back to the bag.

The Bulldogs had another runner thrown out at the plate to end the 11th inning, and stranded the winning run at third in the 13th.

“Right now, it’s just not happening for us,” Mississippi State coach John Cohen said. “The weirdest of the weird seems to keep happening to us. We are undermanned but we are doing the very best that we can. I feel so bad for the kids because there were so many ways in which we should have won that game. They are battling their hearts out right now. Again, it’s just not happening right now.”

LSU improved its record to 39-7 overall, and 15-6 in SEC games. The victory was the 400th for coach Paul Mainieri at LSU. He is now 400-156-3 in nine seasons with the Tigers.

“It was an unbelievable game and a very important win for us as we play what is essentially a pennant race down the stretch,” Mainieri said . “We made some tremendendous plays to stay in the game, and I thought our pitching was outstanding.”