Walks will haunt.

Give opponents too many free bases, and eventually most teams are going to pay. That’s exactly what happened to Mississippi State in the fifth inning of Thursday night’s series opener at No. 8 LSU.

The Bulldogs were cruising along with a four-run lead and had scored in every inning. Sure, spot starter Evan Siary had been pulled after just three innings, but MSU had hit three home runs against Tigers ace Kade Anderson and built itself some cushion.

But then things began to quickly unravel. Freshman Ryan McPherson, after working a scoreless fourth, walked the first two batters in the fifth, then allowed a three-run homer to Daniel Dickinson that suddenly made it a one-run game. Another freshman, left-hander Dane Burns, entered and gave up a single, followed by a two-run shot from Steven Milam that gave LSU the lead. After Burns walked the next batter on four pitches, he was pulled without recording an out.

The Bulldogs could do nothing in four innings against Tigers relief ace Zac Cowan, and LSU won 8-6 to hand MSU another frustrating defeat.

“You have to throw strikes,” Bulldogs head coach Chris Lemonis said. “We had the game under control at that point, and we come in and just start a fire and we’re behind on every hitter. They get two pop-ups into the wind there, but it’s because we had guys all over the bases because we walked them.”

The game started well for MSU (16-10, 1-6 Southeastern Conference), which took the lead in the first inning on a two-run blast by Ace Reese. Catcher Joe Powell, still filling in for the injured Ross Highfill, hit a solo shot in the second.

Hunter Hines than answered the Tigers’ first run of the game with a solo homer in the third, moving into sole possession of third in program history in home runs behind Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro. Hines went through a slump earlier in the year but is 8-for-15 with two doubles and two homers in his last four games.

“Over the last couple weeks, he’s found his swing a little bit,” Lemonis said. “He’s seeing some balls, just a little more relaxed and seeing the baseball a little better. He’s in better counts and taken some nice swings.”

The Bulldogs continued to work good at-bats against Anderson, adding on in the fourth on a Powell sacrifice fly and scoring again in the fifth on Nolan Stevens’ RBI double off Connor Benge. But once LSU (24-3, 5-2) took the lead, the Tigers turned to Cowan, who allowed just one hit and no walks with seven strikeouts over four scoreless innings.

“(Cowan has) a plus-plus changeup,” Lemonis said. “What it does is it takes you off the fastball. We adjusted to him, and then he went to a lot more fastballs there late.”

Chase Hungate settled things down for MSU after the fifth, but Nate Williams wild-pitched home a run in the eighth to give LSU an insurance tally it would not need.

Nine of the Bulldogs’ 10 losses have come by three runs or fewer, and relievers have been the pitchers of record in four of their six conference defeats.

“Everybody’s leaving pissed because you feel like you win the majority of the game,” Lemonis said. “But you don’t win it because you give up too big of an inning right in the middle.”