No. 24 Ole Miss drops series to Mississippi State, damaging postseason outlook in the process

The final two weekends of the regular season needed to be No. 24 Ole Miss going 4-2 at worst at Mississippi State and then home against No. 8 Auburn.

Now the best it can be is 4-2 but only if a sweep of the Tigers takes place back at Oxford-University Stadium due to the Rebels dropping a must-win series to the Bulldogs on Saturday.

A late rally was not enough in the 6-5 loss in the rubber match to decide series at Dudy Noble Field. The game was moved to Saturday night after the decision was made to not sit around and wait to play it at its regularly scheduled time of 2 p.m. CT on Sunday due to more rain coming in.

In the end it did not matter as more errors in the field and strikeouts at the plate doomed Ole Miss (34-17, 14-13 Southeastern Conference). Three errors by the Rebels to be exact with two of them leading to Mississippi State runs that ultimately decide the game and the series.

After winning the opening game of the series on Friday, 10-4, the offense managed 6 runs across the final 18 innings of the weekend. Four of those in two of the last three innings on Sunday with the late-game rally attempt.

The loss all but ensured Ole Miss is firmly off the hosting bubble. A series win was going to keep that possibility alive but then would need to do so against Auburn next weekend. Now it is about winning as many as as possible in the last four regular season games, plus SEC Tournament, to try and stay a two seed in someone else’s regional.

“Just not enough,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “Disappointing to play like we did in the first game and not play better than that through the next two games. Just a disappointing weekend.”

In the final two games of the series Ole Miss struck out 26 times in 64 at-bats.

Against Evan Siary the Rebels struck out 15 times then once more when he came out of the Bulldogs 4-1 win in Friday’s nightcap to level the series. On Saturday it was 10 more strikeouts against Mississippi State pitching.

That is a mechanical issue and plate adjustments that I am not near qualified to guess on how to fix or what to do, but whatever it is needs to be fixed. The consistently inconsistent offense is killing Ole Miss more than pitching or even the fielding errors are.

Between the final two games of the series the Rebels stranded a total 19 runners on base and went 4-for-30 (.133) with runners on. With runners in scoring position they went 0-for-11. In the final two innings of Saturday’s game the tying run was stranded at second and third base, respectively.

Collin Reuter came in to pinch-hit for Luke Cheng and hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning to get it back to within a run. Third baseman Luke Hill was stranded to end the inning when second baseman Judd Utermark struck out. In the ninth inning Connor Chisolm pinch-ran for Will Furniss and was stranded at third base following a double-play ball hit by Isaac Humphrey and then a fielder’s choice to end the game.

“I feel we beat ourselves tonight,” Ole Miss third baseman Luke Hill said after Saturday’s game. “They’re a good baseball club and I firmly believe we’re a good baseball club as well. I hope we meet up with them again, because next time we should get them. It’s tough. They’re a state rival but you just have to swallow it and go on.”

Before Auburn comes to Oxford for the regular season finale starting Thursday Ole Miss hosts UT Martin for the final midweek game of the year. First pitch set for 6:30 p.m. CT on Tuesday.