Ole Miss faced a gut-check moment in the fifth inning on Friday.

Missouri led by a run and had the bases loaded after two errors sandwiched a hit by pitch. Ole Miss reliever Mason Morris entered the game and kept the score there with a five-pitch strikeout of Jackson Lovich, who had three hits.

The Rebels scored two runs minutes later to take the lead and then put up a four-run seventh to ice the 9-6 victory over the Tigers in Columbia for the series opener. Ole Miss is 16-5 overall and 2-2 in the SEC, while Missouri falls to 8-12 overall and 0-4 in the league.

“We didn’t play our best, but we gave ourselves a chance to win,” Isaac Humphrey said.

While it’s still somewhat early for RPI to show an accurate picture, Missouri is 215 in the metric and has five losses to teams outside the top 100. Ole Miss needs to take advantage of the weekend in its pursuit to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022.

The win broke a three-game losing streak. Mason Morris allowed one run in 2.1 innings for the win. He walked three and gave up two hits. Starter Hunter Elliott yielded four hits and three runs in 4.2 innings. He struck out seven and walked two, pitching with a hitter’s wind blowing out for much of the night.

“Not my best performance but big night from our hitters,” Morris said. “They put up a nine-spot, and you won’t lose many Friday nights with nine spots.”

The Rebels threw Brayden Jones and Connor Spencer 17 pitches and 19 pitches, respectively.

Ole Miss had 12 hits and walked seven times. Mitchell Sanford, Will Furniss, Austin Fawley and Humphrey all had two hits. Humphrey hit a home run, and Ryan Moerman and Furniss both doubled. Luke Hill, Fawley, Furniss and Judd Utermark reached base three times. Humphrey had four RBIs including two on a single in the seventh inning.

The Rebels committed three errors, struck out 11 times and went 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position, but it was enough for the needed victory. Missouri struck out 16 times and went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

It was Cheng’s first game since last Friday versus Arkansas, when he suffered a concussion.