OXFORD | For 8.5 innings on Saturday, Ole Miss wasn’t good enough.

Drew McDaniel did a solid-to-superb job in his first weekend start, but the Rebels committed three errors, struck out eight times to just three walks and had a leaky bullpen that allowed three runs in 3.1 innings.

“It was just one of those days where it was just a little different us,” Mike Bianco said. “Usually we’re good with runners on and today that wasn’t us. And we weren’t clean enough on the other side. We enhanced their opportunities and credit to them.”

Ole Miss (13-2) was 1-for-15 Saturday with runners in scoring position.

But Ole Miss did have Kevin Graham. The junior, who started at first base for the first time this season, went 4-for-5 with four RBIs including a walk-off, two-run home run to beat ULM, 6-5, and clinch the weekend series.

The Rebels go for the sweep at 1:30 on Sunday.

“(Graham) is loose and free, and it’s different swings at the plate,” Bianco said. “No one else you want up there when you’re getting a lot of fastballs. Certainly he was on time.”

Graham has four home runs in his last five games.

Training 5-4 after ULM scored three runs in the eighth off Ole Miss closer Taylor Broadway, Tim Elko was hit by a pitch with one out, and Graham hit the third pitch he saw 355 feet out of right field. The hit had a 106 MPH exit velocity.

It was a line drive no-doubter, and the Rebels mobbed Graham just as he finished his trot.

“We knew immediately,” catcher Hayden Dunhurst said.

Graham scored on a fielder’s choice in the second inning, and he hit a two-run single in the third inning that put Ole Miss up 3-0 at the time.

ULM scratched a run in the fourth off McDaniel and cut it to a one-run deficit in the sixth thanks to two Ole Miss miscues. McDaniel got the first two batters out before back-to-back throwing errors put two on and kept the sophomore from getting to the dugout unscathed. The next hitter singled in a run and ended McDaniel’s outing.

McDaniel struck out five without a walk and scattered four hits with the one earned run and two total runs. His velocity briefly dipped in the fourth inning, but he found it again for his final two frames.

Ole Miss added a run back on a Calvin Harris ground out in the seventh, but the eighth inning was an ugly one for the Rebels.

Broadway walked the first batter and the next hitter singled. After a sacrifice and a line out, ULM scored single runs on back-to-back singles to tie the game. Then, with runners on the corners,

Dunhurst threw through when the runner on first broke for second. Ole Miss botched the rundown, failing to get the trail runner out and throwing home too late to catch the runner from third with the go-ahead run.

“We’re tough and gritty and show up even when we don’t have our best stuff,” Dunhurst said. “We compete enough to still find ways to win.”