HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — LSU’s reward for beating Florida on Wednesday — make that early Thursday morning — was a spot in the winners’ bracket of the Southeastern Conference Tournament and a chance to sleep until the afternoon

Jordan Romero knocked home the go-ahead run with a pinch-hit single in the 14th inning and LSU beat Florida 5-3 in a Southeastern Conference tournament marathon that ended at 1:48 a.m.

The game lasted 5 hours and 7 minutes, making it the longest game in SEC tournament history in terms of time.

LSU (41-17) next plays Mississippi State (41-14-1) in the late game Thursday. It won’t start until around 8 p.m., which will allow the Tigers a chance to sleep in and recover.

Florida (44-12) isn’t as lucky. It’ll play an elimination game against Alabama (32-25) beginning at 1 p.m.

“It’s an amazing total team effort. I’m just happy it’s over. It only counts as one win but it sure feels like more than that,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said.

Romero’s single to right scored Chris Reid to give LSU a 4-3 lead. Cole Freeman followed with a bloop hit that brought home Brennan Breaux.

Florida loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 11th, but Jesse Stallings (3-0) got out of the jam when Nelson Maldonado popped up and Deacon Liput lined into an unassisted double play.

Liput had forced extra innings when he singled home Buddy Reed with two outs in the ninth. Reed had reached on a double that went off the glove of diving LSU left fielder Breaux and into foul territory, and was initially ruled a foul ball. After a replay review showed Breaux was in fair territory when he touched the ball, Reed was awarded a double.

Reed also had an RBI triple in the first inning, when the Gators scored their first two runs.

LSU scored three times in the top of the eighth inning to take the lead.

Jake Fraley singled in a run, went to third on an error, and scored the tying run on a fielder’s choice. Florida shortstop Dalton Guthrie fielded a grounder and fired home, and replays seemed to show catcher Mike Rivera tagged out Fraley before he reached the plate. Fraley was called safe, however.

LSU then took the lead on Jordan Bryce’s single that scored Kramer Robertson, but Florida rallied in the ninth to force extra innings.

LSU won for the 13th time in 14 games, with eight of the wins either coming by one run or in extra innings.

“I don’t even know how to describe it,” Mainieri said. “I could recap the whole game but there were so many ebbs and flows that I’m not sure describing it would do it justice. Suffice to say that just when you think your team shows you all that they can possibly show you, they reach inside and find something about themselves that just shows a level of determination and grit that is almost unsurpassed. A lesser team would have been so demoralized after losing the lead in the ninth inning. We just kept battling and battling.”

SEC TOURNAMENT

Wednesday

Vanderbilt 6, Texas A&M 5

Ole Miss 10, South Carolina 4

Mississippi State 4, Alabama 1

LSU 5, Florida 3, 14 innings

Thursday

Texas A&M vs. South Carolina, 9:30 a.m.

Alabama vs. Florida, 1 p.m.

Ole Miss vs. Vanderbilt, 4:30 p.m. (TV: SEC Network; Radio: 1490 AM)

Mississippi State vs. LSU, 8 p.m. (TV: SEC Network; Radio: 105.5 FM)