Ping! Ping! Ping! The fireworks began immediately.

The LSU baseball lineup had waited long enough. It was time for the bats, which had fallen into a six-game cold spell, to heat up again. All LSU needed was for its stars to set the tone on Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.

First, junior Derek Curiel ripped a ball that deflected off the bag at first base. He then stood at second base with a double as junior Jake Brown cranked an opposite-field home run to left field that handed LSU a 2-0 lead.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. Curiel homered and Brown launched another ball over the fence in the second, stretching LSU’s advantage to 7-0 by the end of the inning. The Tigers scored eight more runs, as their offensive explosion allowed them to run away with the 15-4 win in seven innings over Sacramento State. The game ended early due to the 10-run mercy rule.

“We needed a little bit of a reset and to get back to training and practice,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “Just made a couple of small adjustments collectively. A lot of times it’s individual. But collectively, we needed (an adjusted) mindset approach, some swing mentality adjustments, and the guys did a great job tonight.”

Hitting the ball with authority was LSU’s biggest issue during its six-game slump, but that was dispelled emphatically on Friday. LSU (12-3) had twice as many extra-base hits in the first two innings on Friday (six) as it had in its last two games combined. The Tigers had just 10 extra-base hits over their last six contests. They matched that mark by the fourth inning on Friday, and six of those hits were homers.

Brown homered in each of his first three at-bats. Curiel went 3 for 4 with two doubles. Sophomore Cade Arrambide blasted his fourth homer of the year, and junior Steven Milam smacked his first. By the end of the fourth inning, LSU led 15-0 and started to take out its starters.

“Tonight there weren’t a whole lot of at-bats that we gave away,” Brown said. “Everyone was up there taking convicted swings at the right pitches.”

It was never a question of talent for LSU as it struggled to smack the ball across the yard. Swing decisions and impatience at the plate were the main reasons for the power outage. There were too many hacks at pitches that weren’t going to be easy to drive and not enough walks.

But the opposite was true on Friday: LSU stuck to its approach and capitalized on mistakes. The Tigers only generated three walks, but it felt as if every swing resulted in a baseball getting smashed somewhere.

“We’re looking to impact the baseball, and we’re looking to walk,” Brown said. “And … that’s going to lead to us swinging at the right pitches, not getting ourselves out, which is a lot of what we’ve done the last few games that we played.”

As LSU dominated the Hornets at the plate, sophomore right-handed starter Casan Evans was flawless on the bump early for the Tigers.

Evans had nine strikeouts and was tossing a perfect game through five innings, pounding the strike zone and fooling Sacramento State (3-10) hitters with his slider.

“I think the big difference between this outing and the other ones,” Evans said, “is just pitch execution early in the game.”

He eventually ran into trouble in the sixth, when he allowed three hits, including a triple, that put two runs on the board and prompted LSU coach Jay Johnson to turn to his bullpen. After he threw 88 pitches in his last start, Evans believes his struggles in the sixth had nothing to do with fatigue.

“Just needed to get my pitches down in the zone,” Evans said. “That’s it.”

LSU faces Sacramento State in the second game of the series on Saturday. First pitch is set for 6 p.m., and the game will be available to stream on SEC Network+.