The offense has come and gone at times for Ole Miss this year, and it was not there in Pearl on Tuesday as the Rebels were shutout 2-0 by Mississippi State in the 37th annual Governor’s Cup.
Freshman right-hander Ryan Cyr’s four shutout innings along with Zac Houston’s 2.2 innings of relief set up sophomore right-hander Jacob Billingsley to close the game out with the final 2.1 innings of relief in the win. It was Cyr’s first career start for Mississippi State.
Ole Miss started junior right-hander Chad Smith. The former middle man in the Rebels’ weekend rotation pitched well, allowing two runs on six hits in five innings pitched, but he was out-pitched by the Bulldogs’ collection of arms on Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs scored the game’s first run after its freshman standout center fielder and leadoff hitter Jake Mangum singled the first inning and later scored on an RBI single through the right side from Reid Humphreys. Mangum has nine hits against Ole Miss this year and is hitting .429 in 22 games started on the year. Mangum is a frontrunner for SEC freshman of the year.
Mississippi State scored the final run off of Smith, and the final one of the game, in the third inning on a one-out Nathaniel Lowe single up the middle that plated Jack Kruger.
Smith was replaced by Connor Green after the leadoff hitter in the sixth reached base. Green kept the Bulldogs off of the board for the next two innings before Dallas Woolfolk pitched a scoreless eighth inning, but it was to no avail as Ole Miss was never able to get a run across.
With the loss, Ole Miss fell to 31-11 on the year. The team has a quick turnaround as its weekend series with LSU starts on Thursday. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.
