Mississippi State Baseball Brings the Party to Oxford with Series-Clinching Saturday Victory Against Ole Miss

It may have taken 11 innings, but Mississippi State secured its sixth series victory in a row against Ole Miss with a 7-6 win in Game 3 on Saturday afternoon.

Brad Cumbest hit the game-winning home run and batted 2-for-5 at the plate with one run and one RBI. RJ Yeager added two runs and two RBI with one home run on 2-for-5 batting. Hunter Hines totaled 3 RBI of his own thanks to a three-run home run. KC Hunt picked up the victory on the mound after recording two strikeouts and giving up no runs or hits in the final 2.2 innings of action. Starting pitcher Cade Smith gave up four runs on four hits with four batters walked and six strikeouts.

For the third consecutive day, Ole Miss started the game with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead.

Mississippi State scored its first runs of the game in the top of the third inning. Yeager got the inning started with a single and was later driven in by Logan Tanner to knot the score at one run apiece. The Diamond Dawgs managed to load the bases with no outs, but two unsuccessful at-bats prevented any more runs from reaching home.

In the fifth inning, the Bulldogs got their first lead of the game. Luke Hancock singled and Tanner doubled to reach base, then Hines brought both teammates home on a three-run homer. With the 4-1 lead, the visiting team was rolling offensively and blowing through the Ole Miss bullpen. The Rebels got a run back on a solo shot by Hayden Leatherwood in the bottom of the inning.

Lane Forsythe singled up the middle to start the sixth inning and was brought home on Yeager's two-run home run, giving the Diamond Dawgs a 6-2 lead. Smith ran into his first major struggle on the mound in the bottom of the inning and couldn't get out of it. He loaded the bases on two walks and a single before being taken out of the game. Relief pitcher Cam Tullar walked batter TJ McCants with the bases loaded to bring home a run and was quickly replaced by Jackson Fristoe. Fristoe gave up a sacrifice fly to the outfield but managed to hold the score at 6-4.

The game remained quiet yet tense until the bottom of the ninth inning. Pitcher Pico Kohn forced the first out before giving up a single to leadoff hitter Justin Bench. Ole Miss shortstop Jacob Gonzalez made Kohn pay for a fastball down the middle-- he sent his second homer of the game into right field, tying the game at 6-6. Hunt came into the game and escaped the frame, giving the fans a chance to watch some free baseball.

Both defenses recorded 1-2-3 frames in the 10th inning, but that didn't mean that the game would last much longer. Some of the Bulldogs' hardest hitters came to the plate in the top of the 11th inning, and one was ready to put the game away...the Mule. When Cumbest stepped up to the plate, he sent a no-doubter to left field that nearly sailed out of the park and gave the Diamond Dawgs a 7-6 lead.

Hunt had to make it through just one more inning to pick up a crucial victory for his team, and he did just that. He forced three consecutive flyouts to lock up the series win and push MSU up in the SEC West standings.

Mississippi State will face off against Ole Miss one more time on Tuesday evening in the Governor's Cup. The game will be held in Pearl and will not be counted as an SEC game but can still affect the Bulldogs' RPI. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. CT.