Ole Miss had a great opportunity gain ground in the host pecking order and put extra emphasis on the final home series versus Auburn.

The Rebels, instead, kept one negative streak still alive and likely put their name on the No. 2 seed line come NCAA Tournament time without an improbable sweep of the Tigers. A night after MSU evened the series on the back of pitcher Evan Siary, the Bulldogs took the series with a 6-5 victory.

The Rebels haven’t had a winning record against MSU in a season since 2015. Ole Miss needs a win over Auburn to reach break even in the SEC and two wins to finish with a winning record in league play. Both those marks would be for the first time since 2021.

Ole Miss hasn’t won a series in Starkville since 2014. The Rebels are 34-17 overall and 14-13 in the SEC. UM hosts UT-Martin on Tuesday, and the series against Auburn starts on Thursday. The Tigers are 16-11 after a sweep of South Carolina.

“We were close; We beat ourselves tonight,” Luke Hill said. “They are a good baseball club, but we are, too, and I hope we meet up again. It’s just tough. You just have to swallow and move on. We have a big important series next weekend.”

The Rebels scored two in the seventh and two in the eighth to making it interesting, but after putting the first two on in the ninth, MSU escaped to back-end the series.

Back-to-back walks in the final inning set the table, but Isaac Humphrey fouled off two bunt attempts and then grounded into a double play. Ryan Moerman walked to put the go-ahead on with two outs, and MSU got Hayden Federico to ground out to end the game.

Collin Reuter hit a two-run pinch-hit home run in the eighth to close the game to one run. A walk and a ground out each scored a run in the seventh inning for Ole Miss. State led 6-1 after six innings.

The Rebels simply couldn’t do enough with so many chances. Ole Miss walked 11 times but went 3-for-20 with runners on and 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. State had 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Ole Miss hit into three double plays and struck out five times with a runner at second or third base.

“Just not enough,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “Disappointing to play like we did the first game and not play better the last two games. Disappointing weekend.”

The Rebels committed three errors, left 12 on base and allowed two unearned runs.

Mason Nichols yielded eight hits and four runs – two earned – in 3.2 innings. Taylor Rabe gave up two runs in an inning. Will McCausland and Connor Spencer allowed no runs in 1.1 innings and two innings, respectively.

Ole Miss threw 66.5 percent of its pitches for strikes compared to 57 percent for the Bulldogs. MSU allowed 12 free passes, but Ole Miss brought only two of those runners around to score.

Hill had three hits and has reached base in 35 straight games. He had half of the Rebels’ hits. Will Furniss walked five times.