Ole Miss baseball beats itself again vs Mississippi State: Rebels say they're 'tired of it'
PEARL ― The first seven innings of Ole Miss baseball's loss to Mississippi State on Wednesday night offered little foreshadowing of the impending implosion.
The Rebels pitched uncharacteristically well, leaving Mississippi State without an extra-base hit and with just one run. They made an error but counterbalanced it with a couple of slick defensive plays. It was, for the most part, clean baseball.
But bad habits are hard to kill. And in the bottom of the eighth, the Rebels did what they've done all year — they got in their own way.
First came the hit-by-pitch. Then a wild pitch allowed MSU's Connor Hujsak, carrying the go-ahead run, to take two bases. He scored when Ole Miss failed to turn a double play. After a single, two more walks followed before David Mershon struck a two-run double.
The final damage assessment: Three free passes, two misplays and four runs that turned a well-played, brisk 1-1 game into another ugly notch on the list of missed opportunities for Ole Miss this season. The Governor's Cup went home with Mississippi State after a scoreless ninth ended a 5-1 game.
"Unfortunately, we just let it kind of unravel," Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said afterward.
The Rebels' season threatens to do the same, and that danger would have been present regardless of Wednesday's outcome.
Ole Miss (23-21, 7-14 SEC) has won two conference series all season, both at home. It now must find a way to extract six wins from its final nine conference games to reach 13 SEC victories, the typical standard for at-large NCAA tournament consideration.
Missing out on the SEC tournament for the second consecutive season is also a looming threat. The Rebels are in 12th place, the final spot that earns a berth in Hoover. Missouri trails them by just one game.
"Guys are tired of it," Ole Miss first baseman Jackson Ross said. "But I think that can be a good thing because at some point, we're tired of losing, we gotta get this thing back on track. Hopefully, that's how other guys are feeling. That's how I feel."
GAME STORY: Mississippi State baseball prevails in Governor's Cup vs. Ole Miss, splits season series
The Rebels are hoping arguably their most productive player this season, left fielder Ethan Lege, will be in the lineup when they begin a three-game series at Auburn on Friday (6 p.m., SEC Network+).
Lege was hit on the hand by a pitch in the sixth inning and left the game in favor of Treyson Hughes. Lege entered the night batting .327 with 13 home runs.
"He'll get X-rays," Bianco said. "Ball hit him in the thumb. Swollen and struggled to move it, so he'll . . . go to one of the local hospitals here and get an X-ray."
Should he miss time, it would be a blow to a lineup that managed just five hits against the Bulldogs (30-15, 12-9). Ole Miss' sole run came on Judd Utermark's second-inning homer.
Early in the season, it seemed like the Rebels might be capable of slugging their way past the mistakes like the ones that plagued them in the eighth inning. That hasn't proven to be the case.
So the search for answers continues.
"I've always said losing sucks the life out of you," Bianco said. "But it is what it is. We've dug ourselves into this hole. You've gotta fight your way out of it."
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
Get the latest news and insight on SEC football by subscribing to the SEC Unfiltered newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Ole Miss baseball unravels, costs itself chance vs Mississippi State
