Thanks to a couple of freshmen, Mississippi State is in position to make some noise in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

Wes Rea belted a three-run home run, Brandon Woodruff threw five shutout innings in his first SEC start, and Mississippi State beat Arkansas 9-1 Tuesday in its tournament opener.

State will now face top-seeded LSU in a winners’ bracket game today at 12:30 p.m., and will have both ace Chris Stratton and No. 2 pitcher Kendall Graveman available as it moves forward.

Mississippi State coach John Cohen said Stratton (10-1, 2.16 ERA) will start today’s game. LSU will counter with freshman right-hander Aaron Nola (6-4, 2.03 ERA), although he’s expected to throw just a few innings as Tigers coach Paul Mainieri tries to set up his pitching staff for games later in the week.

Stratton, the Ferriss Trophy winner, had 17 strikeouts against LSU on March 16, but Mississippi State lost 3-2 in 10 innings. MSU coach John Cohen didn’t think revenge would be foremost in Stratton’s mind.

“I don’t think there’s any added motivation for playing LSU. I think he just wants to pitch,” Cohen said.

On Tuesday, it was Woodruff and Rea who powered the Bulldogs (35-21).

Woodruff struck out five batters, walked one and gave up only two hits. Rea’s monstrous home run over the left field fence staked Woodruff to a 3-0 lead in the second inning and allowed his teammate to find a comfort zone.

“I was a little anxious, a little nervous, it being my first SEC start. After I got in and settled down, I was fine,” Woodruff said. “Then, after Wes hit his home run and got three runs up, I settled in. I knew I had to throw strikes and let the defense work.”

State blew the game open with six runs in the top of the ninth inning and went on to claim its first SEC tournament victory since the 2005 championship game. It had lost four straight over its last two appearances.

Arkansas (39-18), meanwhile, slipped into an elimination game this morning against Ole Miss, which lost 2-0 to Kentucky in the

tournament opener Tuesday.

Bobby Wahl held Kentucky (42-15) to two runs over six innings in the opener, but didn’t get any run support. The Rebels (34-23) had seven hits — four of them by Matt Snyder — left eight men on base and lost their fifth straight game. In their last four games, the Rebels have been shut out twice and scored a total of five runs.

“It’s been happening the last few weekends. Up through about three-quarters of the season, we scored a lot of runs and hit really well with runners in scoring position,” Snyder said.

Florida 6, Auburn 1

Justin Shafer had three RBIs and Jonathon Crawford finished with nine strikeouts as Florida (41-16) beat Auburn (30-27) in the opening round of the SEC Tournament.

It will play Georgia in an elimination game today at 4:30 p.m.

Vanderbilt 4, Georgia 1

Vanderbilt used a pair of outstanding pitching performances to beat Georgia in the first round. Vanderbilt starter Drew VerHagen (6-2) was sharp over 51⁄3 innings to earn the win before handing the ball over to freshman Brian Miller.