OXFORD | Ole Miss had a silent Sunday offensively, scoring three runs in 14 innings of a doubleheader sweep.

Kentucky, which entered with only two SEC wins on the season, beat up the Rebels, 4-1 and 4-2, during a pair of seven-inning games to take the series and drop Ole Miss to 25-12 and 9-6 at the halfway point of SEC play. The Rebels had won six straight SEC games until Sunday.

Persistent rain caused Saturday’s game to be postponed, and the SEC requires seven-inning games on the final day if a doubleheader is being played.

Here are thoughts and observations from the day.

First the good news: Despite blowing a huge opportunity on Sunday, Ole Miss gets to the halfway point of league play at 9-6, tied for the best record in 15 games since being 11-4 in 2004. The 2014, 2009 and 2008 teams were all also 9-6 at the halfway point. Two of those teams hosted regionals. The 2008 team struggled in the back half and was a No. 3 seed in the Coral Gables Regional.

The Rebels took the unusual path of being 5-1 against Arkansas and Florida but only 4-5 against Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri. The second half is considerably harder for the Rebels with home dates against Texas A&M (9-5-1) and MSU (10-5) and away trips to Auburn (8-7), Tennessee (6-9) and LSU (9-6).

Ryan Olenek crashed into the center field wall during an RBI double in the fifth inning. He was on the ground for nearly a minute before limping on his feet and leaving the game favoring his right hip. Mike Bianco said there wasn’t an update after the game other than it was a hip injury.

Seven-inning doubleheaders have been bad for Ole Miss. The Rebels are 4-12 overall and 0-8 in the SEC in seven-inning doubleheaders since 2010. The wins are two against Grambling in 2017 and one each versus Wright State and UCF in 2015.

It’s hard to pinpoint a specific reason over multiple seasons and multiple levels of talent, but short games amplify pitching decisions and give extra momentum to teams playing loose in early innings.

Kentucky threw a couple left-handers on Sunday who continued the Rebels’ poor trend this season. Ole Miss entered the week with a .256 average against lefties compared to a .305 average versus right-handers this season.

Ole Miss was 5-for-20 against lefties in the opener with Mason Hazelwood allowing no runs on five hits in 5.2 innings. In the final game of the day, Kentucky saved ace Zack Thompson and he gave up two runs in six innings despite five walks.

Doug Nikhazy had his worst start of SEC play, giving up six hits and four runs in 3.2 innings. He struck out six without a walk but was hit on balls up in the zone. UK had two doubles and two home runs off the freshman, leading to the four runs between the second and fourth innings.

Not much mattered, as Hazelwood kept the Rebels from reaching third base during his 5.2 innings. Kevin Graham’s pinch hit solo home run came against the Wildcat bullpen in the final inning.

Gunnar Hoglund struck out eight in 4.2 innings including four of the first five hitters he faced. It was scoreless through three innings before TJ Collett hit a three-run home run with two outs and two strikes, flipping a bad changeup over the right-center wall. It was to the correct side of the field after Ole Miss had two long drives knocked down into a left-to-right wind. A hit by pitch started the inning.

Hoglund worked his breaking ball effectively for most of the start — the best he’s been with that pitch this season. Ole Miss lost the series without using closer Parker Caracci at any time during the weekend.

Grae Kessinger went 3-for-4 in the final game of the series and ran his reached base streak to 25 games. Ole Miss stranded 16 runners in the two games including 10 in the final one. Cooper Johnson hit a hard line drive that looked to be a tying single off the bat, but Kentucky snared it for the second out. Cole Zabowski struck out to end the game.

Kessinger's double scored the two Ole Miss runs in the game. Johnson and Zabowski also doubled in the finale.