Bulldogs will play Washington in first round Friday night

Mississippi State reacts to its NCAA Tournament draw Sunday evening. The Bulldogs will play in the Lubbock Regional with a first-round game Friday night against Washington. (Photo courtesy of Mississippi State athletics)

STARKVILLE — Despite a late-inning rally, Ole Miss baseball lost at Mississippi State in the series finale on May 10.

The No. 22 Rebels scored two runs in the seventh inning and two runs in the eighth, but stranded the tying runner at first in the ninth inning in their 6-5 loss. The teams had split a doubleheader on May 9, with the Rebels winning the first game 10-4 and losing the second 4-1.

Because Ole Miss won 8-7 in the Governor’s Cup in Pearl on April 22, the overall season series is tied 2-2.

“Just disappointing,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “We didn’t play well enough. They outplayed us again. Disappointing way to end the weekend.”

Here are three takeaways:

Where Ole Miss baseball stands in regional host outlook

Four regular-season games are left on Ole Miss’ schedule. Three of them provide a chance to impress.

The Rebels (34-17, 14-13 SEC) will host UT Martin on May 13, then close the regular season with a three-game home series against No. 8 Auburn. The Tigers (36-15, 16-11) are No. 3 in the RPI.

As it stands heading into that stretch, Ole Miss hasn’t done enough to earn a host bid. It entered the Mississippi State series projected as a No. 2 seed in a regional. Winning one of three games against the unranked Bulldogs isn’t going to help the forecast.

Sweeping Auburn and going on a run in the SEC Tournament, however, could be enough to put Ole Miss into the conversation for a top-16 seed.

“We’ll get over it,” Bianco said. “Obviously a disappointing night. This will sting for a few days but we’ll be ready to go.”

Strikeouts are hurting Rebels’ offense

The second game of the series on May 9 illuminated Ole Miss’ struggle. Mississippi State recorded 16 strikeouts, 15 of them by Evan Siary in eight innings.

The Rebels have struck out at least 10 times in their past six games, and it’s adding up. They have struck out 476 times this season, the most in the SEC.

More: How transfer catcher Austin Fawley became biggest surprise for Ole Miss baseball, Mike Bianco

Oftentimes, strikeouts and home runs go hand-in-hand. That is true in Ole Miss’ case, with 93 homers, fourth-most in the SEC.

The strikeouts aren’t totally stunting the offense, however. The Rebels have scored 388 runs, No. 6 in the SEC. But on days when the home runs aren’t coming in droves — such as May 10 against Mississippi State, in a rainy, five-error game, with the wind blowing in — Ole Miss could have scratched more runs across by putting balls in play.

“We didn’t have a ton of base runners,” Bianco said. “Credit their pitching staff. Disappointing offensively for us.”

Ole Miss baseball starter Riley Maddox is back on track

It’s easy to overlook Ole Miss pitcher Riley Maddox’s strong start. The Rebels lost the game 4-1, but most of the action came after he left the game. Maddox pitched 6⅓ innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits. He struck out a season-high eight and walked just two.

Maddox was coming off a rough outing on May 3, when he allowed five runs on eight hits against Oklahoma in 4⅓ innings.

When he has his best stuff, as evidenced against Mississippi and in a seven-inning, one-run performance against Vanderbilt on April 26, he is a major asset. Consistency has been his problem.

Sam Hutchens covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at Shutchens@gannett.com or reach him on X at @Sam_Hutchens_

No. 24 Ole Miss will return to action on Saturday for a Southeastern Conference matchup against the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville.

Hunter Elliott propelled the Rebels to a Game 1 win in the first game on Friday after firing 5.2 IP with seven strikeouts.

“I thought we punched them early, which is always super big on game one Friday night,” Elliott said. “I thought the offense was incredible.

“I really thought we won the momentum game. When they kind of had just a little bit of momentum we brought it to a halt and punched them right back.”

Fast forward to Game 2 and it was the Bulldogs that got off to a fast start in Starkville.

Now, the stage has been set for a critical rubber match on Saturday night with the series finale being moved up due to expected inclement weather in the area.

A look into the pitching matchup for Saturday night’s Game 3, the broadcast information and recap from Friday’s doubleheader.

The Pitching Matchup: Game 3 Edition

Ole Miss: RHP Mason Nichols (3-1, 5.40 ERA)
Mississippi State: RHP Karson Ligon (4-5, 6.75 ERA)

Broadcast Information:

Sunday’s game will be streamed live onSEC Network+ with Bart Gregory (PxP) and Charlie Winfield (analyst) on the call.

Fans can listen to all games, home and away, on theOle Miss Radio NetworkwithDavid Kellum(PxP) and Brad Henderson (analyst) on the call.

The Doubleheader Recap: Rebels Split Friday’s Slate

No. 24 Ole Miss baseball split a doubleheader against Mississippi State Friday night, winning the first game 10-4 and losing the second game 4-1.

The series finale has been moved up from Sunday to Saturday and will now start at 7 p.m.

Starting pitching was good for the Rebels in both games as Hunter Elliott and Riley Maddox combined for 12 total innings and gave up just four runs while punching out 15 hitters.

Elliott worked 5.2 innings and gave up two earned runs on just three hits while striking out seven batters in game one.

He has now given up just five earned runs and struck out 20 hitters over his last three outings.

Maddox worked 6.1 innings and gave up just two earned runs on four hits while striking out a career-high eight batters. He has matched or set a new career-high in strikeouts in back-to-back outings against the Bulldogs.

Judd Utermark went 3-for-8 on the night with a three-RBI home run in the first game and a double in game two.

Mitchell Sanford went 2-for-6 with three walks and two runs scored, reaching base a combined five times.

Austin Fawley hit his 16th home run of the season in the first inning of game one to put the Rebels up 2-0. He has now hit 10 home runs in his last 16 games.

The Bulldogs tied things up with a solo home run in the first inning and an RBI triple in the fourth.

Ole Miss took the lead on a sacrifice bunt that turned into an error and then followed it up with three home runs. The first was a three-run shot right down the left field line by Utermark that made it 6-2.

Collin Reuter hit a solo shot later in the fifth inning and Ryan Moerman followed with a solo shot of his own in the sixth inning.

The Rebels would score two more runs in the eighth inning on an RBI groundout from Luke Cheng and an RBI single from Luke Hill to extend their lead to 10-2.

The Bulldogs put up two runs in the eighth inning, but a hitless 1.1 innings of work from Will McCausland silenced the threat and locked down the win.

The Rebels had seven hits in game two but could not string anything together until the ninth inning.

Mississippi State’s Evan Siary worked eight innings and struck out 15 Rebels without issuing a walk. Ole Miss had just two runners reach second base through eight innings.

They were able to put together a rally in the ninth inning with Siary out of the game but scored just one run on a sacrifice fly as they dropped game two.

Game three of the series will be played Saturday at 7 p.m.

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Follow Zack Nagy on Twitter: @znagy20 and Ole Miss Rebels On SI: @OleMissOnSI for all coverage surrounding the Ole Miss program.