BATON ROUGE, La. - The sooner Jared Bradford is finished with college baseball the better for Arkansas. And it wouldn't hurt the Razorbacks if Matt Gaudet decided to move on as well.

Already a thorn in the Razorbacks' side after picking up two wins on the same weekend last season, Bradford was back to bite Arkansas again Friday. This time - out of the bullpen - Bradford worked three scoreless innings of relief which allowed LSU to fight off a Diamond Hogs rally in an 8-7, 11-inning win in front of 3,847 at Alex Box Stadium.

But all of Bradford's work - including working in and out of a pair of jams with two inning-ending double plays - would have meant nothing if not for Gaudet, who slammed a leadoff home run in the bottom of the 11th to send the Tigers to their first SEC win of the year.

"Both teams had their chances there in the ninth, 10th and 11th innings, whatever they were," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "And finally they just finished it off with that homer."

At first, it didn't appear as though the Tigers (13-6, 1-3) would even need Bradford - or for that matter, any heroics. Scoring four runs in the first inning off Razorbacks starter Cliff Springston, LSU took control early and stayed in command for much of the game. But led by a struggling Casey Coon - who tore out of his slump with a 4-for-5 night - Arkansas (13-7, 1-3) chipped away and even managed to briefly take a 7-6 lead in the top of the seventh.

But after tying the game, 7-7 on a solo home run from Sean Ochinko in the bottom of the seventh, LSU turned to Bradford.

At least he appears that way every time against Arkansas - with three career wins now in three appearances.

"Don't say that. If you say that it'll jinx me," said Bradford, when asked about his record against the Razorbacks. "I don't know, I've been lucky I guess and tonight it wasn't just me it was the entire team."

Stephen Richards took the loss for Arkansas, which used four pitchers.

"I guess the one good thing that came out of this game was we got into their bullpen," Van Horn said. "But they ended up getting into ours.

"We'll just have to come back and battle and find a way to score some runs (today)."