OXFORD | The first inning what-if will linger with this one.
With two outs, two runs already in and two more scoring on the play, Mississippi State second baseman Justin Foscue let a soft ground ball slip by him into short right field. But instead of changing his momentum immediately, Foscue kept his direction and crashed into Kevin Graham running from first to second.
Instead of interference on Foscue, second base umpire Tyler Simpson inexplicably called it on Graham, wiping away more runs, more first-inning opportunity, more JT Ginn pitches and a bushel of Ole Miss positive energy.
"I didn't even know what happened," Graham said. "He missed the ball and then hit me... I tried to avoid the ball."
Mike Bianco raced out immediately and served Simpson with plenty of rage and expletives, but the call stood. Turns out, Ole Miss badly needed it to not be botched.
Mississippi State used a six-run seventh inning to beat Ole Miss, 8-5, to clinch the series and get a sweep opportunity on Sunday at noon. The Bulldogs (41-10, 17-9) have won 11 of the last 12 and 13 of the last 15 against the Rebels.
Ole Miss (32-19, 15-11) entered the day at No. 23 in the RPI, sliding because of home losses that have more negative value than those on the road or at neutral sites despite the Bulldogs having a top five RPI. It sets up a potential probably-have-to-win series finale if the Rebels hold hopes of hosting an Oxford Regional in June.
Simpson’s call sent the game in a completely different direction and provided a lot of adversity to Ole Miss, but it wasn’t the only issue with the night for the Rebels. Holding a 4-2 lead after six innings, Ole Miss fell apart for a half inning.
Ole Miss was 25-0 entering Saturday when leading after six innings, but the first blemish was a big one, as Austin Miller gave up two doubles, a walk and a single before Bianco went to Parker Caracci with two on and no outs in a tie game.
Another walk and two more singles sent the two-run lead into a four-run deficit and seemingly ended the drama for the night. Caracci has given up nine hits and eight runs in 2.1 innings during this past week.
"I don't have an answer on why it happened," Bianco said. "Arguably our two best pitchers and couldn't get through the inning, couldn't get off the field. We have to win those games obviously."
Ole Miss made a mini-run in the seventh when Cole Zabowski hit a one-out double with two on, but MSU threw Thomas Dillard out at the plate on a poor decision to attempt to score. Grae Kessinger singled in the ninth inning to run his reached-base streak to 39 games.
Ryan Olenek missed his second straight game with a virus. Bianco said his availability Sunday is unknown.
A night after the Rebels had three strikeouts and a double play on four at-bats with runners in scoring position, MSU again just played better. It’s been the lone theme of this four-year dominant streak for the Bulldogs.
MSU repeatedly takes extra bags and maximizes chances while Ole Miss runs into outs, squanders some chances and struggles to separate. The first inning Saturday was the exception and even that turned sour thanks to no fault of their own.
"We have to extend innings," Bianco said. "We aren't able to put crooked numbers up and put at-bats together. We have to do a better job."
The loss wasted another solid — and particular gutsy — outing from Doug Nikhazy. The freshman gave up two runs on four hits and three walks in six innings. He threw 114 pitches, two away from his career high, and worked through most of his trouble.
Nikhazy wasn’t as sharp as usual but got double plays in the third and fourth innings. A 1-2-3 double play got out of a bases-loaded spot in the third. MSU scored a run in each of those innings.
"He did what he was supposed to do," Bianco said. "He got us into the seventh inning and we couldn't hold it."
