BATON ROUGE - Senior left fielder Xavier Qualls doubled in to the gap in left center scoring two runs in a five run fifth, senior left handed starter Rene' LeBlanc struck out five and walked none over 6.1 innings and the Southeastern Louisiana Unviersity baseball team (7-6) came to life in a 6-3 win over perennial SEC power LSU (12-3) on Tuesday night.

The win comes after the Lions struggled to a 1-3 finish last week against intrastate rival UL-Lafayette and America East favorite Stony Brook.

"We knew we were playing a tough schedule and we just told our guys to keep playing hard," Southeastern coach Jay Artigues said. "We wanted to keep focusing on playing our game and giving ourselves a chance to win the ballgame, and we were able to execute tonight and come up with some big hits in key situations."

Once again, LeBlanc found himself battling an established national power in a midweek road game. Once again, the Lockport native pitched brilliantly. Fortunately, for the Lions, the offense was able to put together a big inning against LSU starter Ryan Byrd to get LeBlanc some run support.

The Lions struck first in the top of the third as junior second baseman Jordan D'Arensbourg doubled to the gap in left center and advanced to third on a wild pitch. A one-out single from redshirt freshman Cass Hargis, which extended his hitting streak to five games, put the Lions up 1-0.

The big inning came in the fifth as a single, a hit by pitch and a sac bunt put runners at second and third with one out. The Tigers, looking to set up a double play ball, intentionally walked Hargis to face Qualls. The Brookhaven, Miss. native's double to the gap gave the Lions a 3-0 lead and a single and a bases loaded walk gave Southeastern a 3-1 advantage.

The Tigers brought on a string of five relievers, keeping the Lions in check the rest of the way, but it was all the Southeastern pitching staff would need as LeBlanc and junior reliever Ryan Collins held LSU to three runs on nine hits.

LeBlanc ran into trouble in the home half of the fifth, allowing a pair of runs and gave up a run in the seventh before Collins came in to shut the door with 2.1 innings of one-hit shutout relief to earn his first save of the season.

"Rene' did an outstanding job for us tonight," Artigues said. "He throws strikes and gets ahead in the count, and when he was mixing his pitches in the way he was, he's tough to beat. Then Ryan coming on, being as consistent as he has been for us all year is a big plus for us."

The Lions win over the Tigers was the first since Southeastern beat LSU in Alex Box Stadium in 2002 by a 4-3 score. It was Southeastern's first win in three tries under current head coach Jay Artigues.

The Lions will return to action on Wednesday night when they face Jackson State at Alumni Field. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. Damon Sunde will have the play-by-play on KSLU 90.9 FM and on www.LionSports.net.