Ole Miss, winners of last year’s Governor’s Cup, lost 5-1 to Mississippi State in this year’s edition in Pearl. The Rebels walked 10 batters and managed just six hits, as they lost their sixth straight game.
PEARL — No. 23 Ole Miss dropped its sixth straight game and has lost 8 of 10 since starting the season 21-2 with a 5-1 loss to No. 21 Mississippi State in Tuesday’s night Governor’s Cup at Trustmark Park in Pearl.
The Rebels (23-10, 4-8 SEC), losers of three straight Southeastern Conference weekend series, look to right the ship with a three-game home set against Alabama this weekend. This is the first time Ole Miss has lost six consecutive games since losing six games in a row to end the 2004 season.
“The message is we have got to get tougher, and we have to realize that,” head coach Mike Bianco said. “You can’t fall into a time where you say, ‘It’s next weekend.’ Well, next weekend is now. We’re not through the midway point of conference play, but you can’t just play like this and assume that you will recover.
“To me, it’s to the point where I was worried about them mentally, but now, it doesn’t matter. Now it’s all hands on deck. Now, you need to get tougher. Now, you got to compete better than we’re competing.”
For the Bulldogs (27-9, 5-7 SEC), sophomore left-hander Ross Mitchell proved the difference, stifling the Ole Miss offense with six scoreless innings in relief. The Governor’s Cup MVP pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the second and gave up just two hits with a walk and four strikeouts to earn MVP honors.
“It’s disappointing,” Bianco said. “I just thought we took too many at-bats off, and too many innings that were easy. Again, I’m not taking anything away from him. He did a great job and deserves a lot of credit.
“But that’s kind of been the issue with us. We’re not able to put it together. And then the few times that we do, we’re not able to get the big hits, we’re not able to make something happen. Somebody’s got to get the big hits, somebody’s got to grind out the at-bats.”
Ole Miss pitchers combined to walk 10 batters, including five by sophomore right-hander Josh Laxer, who got the start for the Rebels, while the offense managed just six hits and left eight runners on base, including the bases loaded in the second.
“You can’t walk 10 guys and hit a guy and expect to win,” Bianco said. “It’s amazing that they only got five runs. To give them 11 free base-runners and for them to score only five runs, we were fortunate.
“At the end of the day, we’re not tough enough. We got to be tougher on the mound, we got to be tougher defensively, we got to be tougher at the plate.”
The Rebels grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second, as junior catcher Stuart Turner led off the inning with a single to center, his first of two hits on the night. He then scored on a RBI single by freshman designated hitter Holt Perdzock, who made his third start of the season.
Mississippi State tied the game in the fifth, taking advantage of two wild pitches by Laxer. Junior left fielder Derrick Armstrong led off the inning with a single to left, the Bulldogs’ first hit of the night, then scored on a two-out RBI single to left-center by junior third baseman Alex Detz.
Freshman left-hander Jeremy Massie, who stranded runners at first and second with a strikeout to end the fifth, pitched into trouble in the sixth with a leadoff walk, followed by a hit by pitch.
With runners on first and second in the sixth, freshman Brady Bramlett got two outs with a sacrifice bunt, followed by a strikeout, but loaded the bases after working a full count to senior catcher Nick Ammirati.
Junior shortstop Adam Frazier, after hitting two balls just foul down the left-line, delivered a two-RBI single to left to give Mississippi State a 3-1 lead. The Bulldogs added two runs on three hits in the seventh to extend their lead to 5-1.
Ole Miss was unable to mount a rally in the late innings, advancing a runner into scoring position just once after the second inning, and was retired in order in the first, fourth, sixth and seventh innings.
Buchanan, Waguespack return
Sophomore right-hander Hawtin Buchanan (shoulder) and freshman Jacob Waguespack (elbow) returned from injuries and combined to give up no runs and no hits in the eighth and ninth innings.
Buchanan, last season’s MVP of the Governor’s Cup, made his second appearance of the season, his first since February 20 against UT-Martin, while Waguespack made his Ole Miss debut.
“Trying to get him in,” Bianco said of Waguespack. “He’s finally healthy to throw, both him and Hawtin. It was good to get him in. It’s disappointing, obviously. It could have been under different circumstances.
“It’s tough, especially where we are in the season for Jacob and Hawtin because you do have some midweek games, but they’re all against very good opponents. And if they’re ever going to get into the mix, you got to find a way to get them into these games, and I thought they did OK.”
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss baseball, follow @austinkmiller and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
