Mike Bianco, twice after after the game, said Ole Miss played hard against Mississippi State the last two games of the series, two losses that kept the Rebels winless in Southeastern Conference weekends this season.
The finale, a 5-3 loss that came after a Friday win and a blown bottom of the ninth on Saturday, dropped Ole Miss to 20-16 overall and 3-12 at the league halfway point. No. 1 LSU awaits next weekend in Oxford.
Ole Miss has lost seven straight series versus the Bulldogs.
Mississippi State, 22-15 and 5-10, is still well out of the postseason picture but has won two straight series. The Bulldogs, with little margin for error, made the most plays. Ole Miss, despite respectable effort, simply wasn’t good enough.
The result isn’t complicated. Ole Miss played worse than MSU in critical moments, a trend that has put the Rebels on the bad end of several winnable games the past five weekends — three two out of three defeats and two sweeps.
“They put it on the line and competed hard but what got us is what got us most of the year and we haven’t done enough to win the game,” Bianco said. “They did… They had stars and heroes and we didn’t have enough stars and heroes the last two days.”
Ole Miss out-hit MSU on Saturday by three but were 6-for-21 with runners on base, while State hit .500 with runners on and .429 with runners in scoring position. The Rebels walked three batters in the bottom of the ninth.
State, on Sunday, was 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Both hits were home runs, a three-run home run by Dakota Jordan with two outs in the third and a two-run home run from Hunter Hines in the seventh inning.
Jacob Gonzalez doubled in three consecutive at-bats over the games and reached base six straight times. Ole Miss lost both games, including this one as Gonzalez reached four times.
Kemp Alderman is playing well. The bottom of the order did enough on Saturday. Calvin Harris was all over the bases on Friday. Starting pitching was plenty good enough all weekend, but the bullpen, outside of Mitch Murrell (4.1 innings on the weekend) was subpar and didn’t pitch well enough to win games. The Rebels can’t get enough outs late in games. The bullpen doesn’t have depth or enough command, and it makes it very difficult to win.
JT Quinn gave Ole Miss a solid start on Sunday, allowing the three runs in 5.2 innings. He’s kept Ole Miss in games for three straight weeks, but the offense and bullpen haven’t helped him.
Entering the weekend, Ole Miss, in SEC games, was next to last to last in the league in advancing runners offensively and 12th in batting average with runners in scoring position.
After tying the game at three in the sixth inning on Sunday. Ole Miss had the bases loaded with one out. Anthony Calarco, who had an RBI the inning before, grounded into a double play to end the inning. The Rebels have hit into the most double plays in the SEC during league play.
Point is, it’s, more often than not, always something that has led to losses. It’s not the same thing each time, but as the starting pitching has been more serviceable, the bullpen has further faltered. The offense hasn’t performed to expectations despite one-third of it being in All-SEC contention.
Bianco was right with his quote. Ole Miss hasn’t had enough heroes or enough players helping the group that’s consistently put up good numbers.
The Rebels are finding ways to lose, and now the hole is massive with five SEC weekends left.
“To be where we’re at, it’s hard and hard to swallow after today and this weekend,” Bianco said. “You have to fight and continue to fight and believe yin your teammates and that’s when it’s hard, where we are at.
“You have to commit to each other. It’s hard on the fans and hard on everybody. We have to compete and at some point you do that and you make the pitch and the play. I still think we’re a good club. We have to play better.”
