A hiatus from Southeastern Conference action didn’t help Ole Miss’ performance.

Memphis outplayed the Rebels at Fed Ex Park and used a five-run seventh inning to beat Ole Miss, 9-4, and split the season series. The Rebels have lost four straight games and take an 18-12 (3-6) record to Fayetteville to face No. 1 Arkansas starting on Thursday.

Mike Bianco met with the team for 20 minutes following the game.

“Enough blame to go around,” Bianco said to the Ole Miss Radio Network. “Obviously we’re just not good enough. It’s in us but we won’t let it and not tough enough to play through it right now.

“That was the message out there. We have to be tougher and we’re not, and it’s my fault. We didn’t handle the game… It starts to snowball on you.”

Ole Miss out-hit Memphis 11-10 but again struggled with situational baseball.

The Rebels were 4-for-19 with runners on and 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Memphis had four two-out RBIs compared to none for Ole Miss. Memphis also scored two runs on a sacrifice bunt without an error.

Ole Miss hit into a double play with the bases loaded, and Memphis stole three bases and took advantage of three hit by pitches.

The Rebels had three different leads and then tied the game in the seventh, right before Memphis put it away.

In the pivotal seventh inning that started with a tie game, Memphis put three of four on base against Mitch Murrell. Gunnar Dennis entered and allowed a walk, a single and a double along with a passed ball.

Austin Simmons was a bright spot, striking out five in two scoreless innings. He threw 19 of 32 pitches for strikes and lowered his season ERA to 2.38.

Ole Miss threw eight different pitchers, and Simmons is the only one with more than 1.1 innings. Five allowed at least one run.

Ethan Lege hit three doubles, and Judd Utermark had three hits including two doubles. The Rebels scored only four runs despite seven doubles.

Jackson Ross had two hits, and Ethan Groff, Treyson Hughes and Trenton Lyons all reached base twice.