BATON ROUGE (AP) — Anthony Ranaudo struck out 14 in a nine-inning outing, and Austin Nola hit a run-scoring single in the top of the 10th to lift LSU to a 3-2 victory over Baylor on Saturday night in the NCAA tournament.

Ranaudo threw 130 pitches, giving up only three hits and one earned run, capping his performance by striking out the side in the bottom of the ninth to preserve a 2-2 tie.

‘‘That was one of the greatest I’ve ever witnessed,’’ LSU head coach Paul Mainieri said of Ranaudo’s night. ‘‘The stakes were up in this game, and he had not just unbelievable talent but he was courageous, made the big pitches at the critical times and basically put the team on his shoulders.’’

Ranaudo (9-3) was credited with the win, and Tigers closer Matty Ott retired three straight in the bottom of the 10th for his 15th save, which sent LSU (48-16) to the regional championship on Sunday night. The Tigers will play the winner of the losers’ bracket final between Baylor (30-25) and Minnesota (39-18) on Sunday afternoon.

Jared Mitchell, who was 2 for 3 with an RBI and two runs scored, hit a solo home run for LSU in the top of the second. He also walked with one out in the 10th and scored the winning run on Nola’s single off of reliever Kendal Volz.

It was a bitter end to an otherwise strong outing by Volz, who entered the game in with one out in the eighth and did not allow a hit until Sean Ochinko’s hard grounder up the middle with one out and two runners on in the 10th. Baylor shortstop Shaver Hansen made a diving stop to prevent LSU from scoring on the play, but he also botched an opportunity to get an out when his flip to second base from a prone position went wide of the bag, allowing LSU to load the bases.

Nola’s soft liner to right-center appeared to be only inches out of the reach of Baylor second baseman Landis Ware.

‘‘My confidence is definitely getting better each time,’’ said Nola, whose two-out RBI single on Friday ignited LSU’s decisive seven-run seventh inning in a 10-2 victory over Southern. ‘‘I’m seeing a few more pitches and working the count in deep. … Lately, I’ve been getting good pitches to hit and everything’s going well with hitting the ball and trying to battle up there.’’

It was LSU’s first extra-inning game all season and Baylor’s first loss in five extra-inning games.

LSU had chances to win more comfortably but left 14 runners on base.

Baylor starter Shawn Tolleson pitched out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the top of the fourth, allowing only one run on D.J. LeMahieu’s fielder’s choice groundout to shortstop. LSU still had two runners on with one out, but Tolleson picked Mitchell off of second, then got Tyler Hanover on a grounder back to the mound to keep Baylor’s deficit at 2-0.

‘‘The only reason it was a game is because we were able to get out of some innings throughout the game,’’ Baylor coach Steve Smith said.

Ranaudo, who was the strikeout leader in the Southeastern Conference with 124 coming into the NCAA tournament, kept Baylor hitters off balance with his mix of sharp breaking balls and blazing fastballs, freezing several batters on called third strikes. He faced only 16 batters through the first five innings — one more than the minimum — and struck out eight of them.

‘‘I felt better in the ninth than I did in the first. For some reason, that’s the way I work,’’ Ranaudo said. ‘‘I feel like I get stronger as the game goes on. I felt that toward the end of the game I could put the ball in a teacup. I was hitting my spots.’’

His final strikeout total was one short of the career-high 15 he set against Auburn on April 24.

‘‘I just thought it was a tremendous effort on his part. I say that because I think our guys gave every bit the same effort. I was extremely proud of the way we played and competed,’’ Smith said. ‘‘The pitching on both sides was outstanding.’’

Baylor finally got to Ranaudo in the bottom of the sixth, when catcher Gregg Glime led off the inning by yanking a home run down the right field line to make it 2-1.

Meanwhile, Baylor middle reliever Aaron Miller struck out six in 3 1-3 scoreless innings before giving way to Volz.

Baylor finally tied it at 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth despite not getting a hit in the inning. Pinch hitter Brooks Pinckard walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, advanced to third on a groundout and scored an unearned run when third baseman Hanover was unable to handle Joey Hainsfurther’s high chopper toward third cleanly.