STARKVILLE - More than a few pages had to be turned and a litany of results scoured as the No. 3 Mississippi State baseball program was on its way to its third straight shutout victory, 4-0, over Louisiana Lafayette on Wednesday night at Dudy Noble Field.

For the first time since 1976, the Diamond Dawgs have blanked three straight foes and carry a streak of 27 straight scoreless innings into a weekend series with Eastern Michigan.

The '76 squad went 29 straight innings during their streak. This is the 10th such streak in school history, with the only longer stretch of shutouts coming during the 1909 season with five straight blankings.

Junior starting pitcher Houston Harding (2-1) set the tone with five innings of work. He scattered three hits, walked one and struck out eight to earn his second straight win.

Sophomore Preston Johnson struck out four in two innings of work with one hit allowed. The final two innings went to Landon Sims, who allowed three hits and struck out five.

The offense came in the first and sixth innings, as MSU scored two runs in each frame. A wild pitch scored the first run of the game, before a Kamren James sacrifice fly made it 2-0 State. Déjà vu struck in the sixth inning as a wild pitch accounted for the first run before Luke Hancock capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly.

Team Statistics

PITCHING W: Harding, Houston (2-1) L: Perrin, Austin (0-1) Louisiana

Louisiana BATTING 2B: Osborn, Drake 1; Cofield, Josh 1

Mississippi State BATTING: 2B: Hatcher, Josh 1 RBI: James, Kamren 1; Hancock, Luke 1

BASERUNNING: RUNS: Dubrule, Scotty 1; Jordan, Rowdey 2; Allen, Tanner 1

SB: Allen, Tanner 1 CS: McGowan, Drew 1

HBP: Hancock, Luke 1