OXFORD | Ole Miss wasn’t good enough on Sunday.

Damn close. One pitch. One out. Close, oh so close.

The Rebels fought back from a deficit. They set up some opportunities, and they got out to an early lead which is usually a deciding factor in series finales.

But, over the course of nine innings, Arkansas was the better team because it produced more opportunities and made fewer mistakes, and that led to the Razorbacks’ 12-9 victory. It gave the Hogs two out of three on the weekend and dropped Ole Miss to 15-4 overall and 1-2 in the SEC.

“Just not good enough,” Mike Bianco said. “This is what happens in the SEC. Nine weeks of this to come, and you have to play well or you lose. We didn’t play well enough. I don’t think they played great either. They walked eight, hit two, gave up four home runs and still won the baseball game.”

The No. 13 Rebels won the opener on Friday but dropped back-to-back games to the No. 3 Razorbacks who are now 18-2 overall on the year.

The Southeastern Conference has at least 14 and maybe 15 teams worthy of NCAA Tournament play relative to the rest of the nation. Arkansas is maybe the most consistent regular season program in the nation over the past decade or more, and the Rebels are trying to reclaim some relevance after two poor seasons.

There’s no harm overall in dropping a couple games to a team like Arkansas, even at home, but the way that it happened can’t be a harbinger for the other 27 league games this season.

Ole Miss had a one-run lead and two outs when Arkansas singled off Connor Spencer to tie it and then hit a three-run home run to ice it in the ninth inning. An error on Owen Paino, his second of the day, and a bloop started the frame.

Paino, the true freshman, has seven errors in 52 chances.

The Rebels trailed by three runs going into the stretch but put up three in the seventh and one in the eighth to take the lead. Judd Utermark led Ole Miss with three hits, and Will Furniss and Mitchell Sanford had two each. Furniss hit a home run.

Ole Miss stranded the bases loaded in the first and sixth innings and left two on in the seventh and ninth frames.

The Rebels led 4-0 after three innings thanks to Luke Hill and Utermark two-run home runs. Mason Nichols gave up just a run in 4.2 innings, but the bullpen was a mess until Spencer put up 1.2 innings of scoreless relief prior to the pivotal ninth inning that got away from Ole Miss.

Arkansas had 27 at-bats with a runner on base compared to just 12 for Ole Miss and 20 with runners in scoring position compared to Ole Miss going 2-for-7 in that category. The Razorbacks fouled off pitches, caught some luck with hard grounders and took advantage of inferior Ole Miss defensive plays.

“We didn’t get off the field with defense or on the mound,” Bianco said. “It’s down to a couple plays, and we didn’t make them.”

The Hogs’ Will McEntire gave up just one run in 3.1 innings of relief, which allowed Arkansas to get back in it and take the lead.

Through it all, Ole Miss found itself ahead but couldn’t close it out from the cusp. The effort and fight and resilience are indeed better. Cleaner play has to follow for it to matter.

“Stuff happens, and you have to wear it on the chin and it sucks,” Hill said. “We’re going to learn how to win these games. We have big expectations… We fought and were right there and it’s tough.”

OXFORD | Arkansas sent a cavalry to the left-field bullpen four batters into the bottom of the first inning.

Ole Miss had a run on the board and the bases loaded with no outs after Ryan Moerman took first base on a hit by pitch. That came after Hayden Federico reached on a strikeout passed ball, Luke Hill doubled, and Mitchell Sanford walked.

Arkansas starter Gabe Gaeckle didn’t have a consistent release point or any outs, and the Razorbacks hurried to replace him. Isaac Humphrey walked which brought in another run, and the first-inning uppercut was in play with one more good swing.

Instead, Judd Utermark struck out looking, and Will Furniss rolled into a double play to end the inning. Gaeckle settled and didn’t allow a hit through three more innings to keep Arkansas within a run until the fifth inning.

“When they open the door and give you an opportunity you want to take advantage of it, but more disappointing is we didn’t do anything after that,” Mike Bianco said. “We didn’t do anything offensively and didn’t give ourselves a chance.”

That’s when hell broke loose.

Arkansas sent nine batters to the plate before Ole Miss recorded an out and used the eight-run frame to rout the Rebels, 12-3, and even the weekend series. The two teams play the rubber match at 1:30 on Sunday.

Riley Maddox had allowed one run through four innings, facing the minimum in the second and fourth innings and stranding the bases loaded in the third. An infield single and a home run started the fifth and ended his day.

“Riley was OK,” Bianco said. “He pitched well enough to win and got us to where we wanted to be. One pitch away from getting through the fifth maybe. We were at the edge there after the fourth, and that’s why I came so quickly. We were ready to go to the pen, but we wanted to give him an opportunity there.”

The Razorbacks made it back-to-back-to-back home runs with two straight off Will McCausland, who allowed five batters to reach and four hits in 11 pitches. Ryne Rodriguez and Alex Canney also pitched in the inning that included 12 batters, four extra base hits, an error and 29 minutes.

“Credit them, but you can’t blow up like that,” Bianco said. “Credit to them, but you have to make a pitch and make a play.”

McCausland gave up one run in 3.2 innings against Clemson for his Ole Miss debut but has yielded 10 runs in 7.1 innings since the win over the Tigers.

Ole Miss is 15-3, with the three losses coming by 10, nine and nine runs. Arkansas is 17-2. Both teams are 1-1 in the SEC.

Arkansas started the game 0-for-5 with runners on base but went 5 for its next 7 in that category. Ole Miss was 2-for-8 with runners on for the game. The Rebels went 0-for-10 to close the game and didn’t have a runner on base after the fifth inning.

Maddox threw 68 pitches, 40 strikes, in the four innings. He struck out three with two walks and four hits. The outing ended his straight of three straight starts of five innings.

Austin Fawley hit his fifth home run of the season in the sixth inning. Five of his six hits on the year have been out of the park.

Ole Miss struck out 18 times as a team including four by Utermark and three of Owen Paino. Federico, Humphrey, Collin Reuter and Fawley each struck out twice.

Arkansas hit back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning.