STARKVILLE — Nathaniel Lowe decided to make a minor change to his swing.

While watching the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox on ESPN on Sunday night, the Mississippi State baseball junior noticed many of the hitters lifted their leg lift when they swung, so Lowe decided to try it in practice. He felt comfortable enough with it and implemented it Thursday.

The move paid off, as Lowe went 5-for-5 with three RBIs to help No. 3 MSU beat Missouri 8-2 in Game 1 of the Southeastern Conference series at Dudy Noble Field.

“I changed a little bit of mechanical stuff that I was doing,” Lowe said. “Where I was doing a toe tap before and it was always a progression thing to start the leg lift, I went back to the leg lift. I got some balls on the barrel, and I was happy with the result.”

Lowe used the leg lift early in the season, but he said he didn’t feel comfortable to keep using it even though he hit 17 home runs last year at St. Johns River (Florida) Community College.

On Thursday, Lowe had two singles with the leg lift, including an RBI hit in the sixth inning. Despite the success with the leg lift, he went back to the toe tap with two strikes. He hit a single, a double, and a two-run home run in the fifth to give the Bulldogs (31-14-1, 13-9 SEC) a 4-1 lead.

“As the season goes on and you’re facing different guys, you really kind of try a little different scheme, especially with your trigger mechanism depending on who you’re facing,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “When he says that, it sounds like something big and a huge alteration, but it’s really not.”

The five hits are a career-high for the Marietta, Georgia, native and the most by a Bulldog this season. Lowe is the second player (South Carolina’s Gene Cone against Missouri April 24) to record five hits in a SEC game this season. He leads the Bulldogs with 18 multiple-hit games. He is batting .483 (15-for-31) in his last eight games.

After doubling to left-center field in the eighth, Lowe was replaced by pinch runner Mike Smith. Although he was a triple shy of the cycle, Lowe’s prospects of getting a sixth at-bat were slim. Lowe wasn’t upset, though, and joked “triples are kind of hard for me.”

“The neat thing about his stroke right now, you throw him an off-speed pitch he can hit it over the right-field fence, and if you throw him a fastball, he’s going to hit it hard in the middle or to the left side of the ballpark,” Cohen said. “He’s a big guy who doesn’t swing and miss a ton, and he’s just a complete hitter. He’s done so much for us as an offensive player.”

Trailing 1-0, MSU tied the game on a leadoff solo home run to left field by Brent Rooker in the second. The Bulldogs took a 2-1 lead in the inning on a single by Jake Mangum. Along with Lowe’s home run in the fifth, Gavin Collins scored on a single by Jacob Robson to make it 5-1. Lowe singled home Mangum in the sixth, John Holland drove home Robson with a single in the seventh, and Smith scored on a sacrifice fly out by Collins in the eighth.

The Bulldogs tied their season-high with 19 hits. Mangum had four hits, Rooker three, and Robson and Jack Kruger two. Ryan Gridley was the only Bulldog who batted and didn’t have a hit.

“It was exciting getting to see those guys get some good swings off and just seeing them go,” said MSU starting pitcher Dakota Hudson (7-3), who was two outs away from a complete game. But Hudson allowed a one-out single to right field to Zach Lavy and was lifted for Blake Smith, who got the final two outs after an error helped Missouri score the final run.

Cohen and pitching coach Wes Johnson had decided they weren’t going to let Hudson go very long in the ninth because he was close to 100 pitches. Johnson was quick out of the dugout after the single and was met with boos from the remaining fans.

“I was like, ‘They’re booing you coach. There’s a reason for that,’ ” Hudson said. “My pitch count was getting up, and that was the plan.”

Hudson allowed one earned run on seven hits in 8 1/3 innings. He didn’t issue a walk and tied his career-high with 11 strikeouts in the 104-pitch outing.

Brian Sharp groundout scored Lavy, who reached on a leadoff single to right field, to give the Tigers (24-23, 7-15) a 1-0 lead in the second. Hudson then retired eight in a row from the third to the sixth. He recorded five 1-2-3 innings.

“I thought Dakota came out and he really pitched well,” Cohen said. “He gave up a couple of infield hits that are tough to give up, but he came back strong. I thought he was just really a dominant SEC-caliber pitcher.”

Missouri starter Reggie McClain (4-3) threw 6 2/3 innings and allowed seven runs on 15 hits. He walked one and struck out six.

MSU will look to clinch its seventh SEC series 7 p.m. today (ESPNU).

Lowe might try to watch more Major League Baseball games to pick up tips, but he is happy with the leg lift and plans to stick with it.

“I think early in the count I get a little more into a ball when I lift my leg up,” Lowe said.

Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait

Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.