Cowbell Corner

Mississippi State lets two leads slip away in loss to Ole Miss

The Bulldogs continued a trend from the Florida series of building a lead only to see the opposition comeback to defeat them.
Taylor Hodges|
Mississippi State pitcher Noah Sullivan started Tuesday's game against Ole Miss and helped secure the Bulldogs' first lead of the game.
Mississippi State pitcher Noah Sullivan started Tuesday's game against Ole Miss and helped secure the Bulldogs' first lead of the game. | Mississippi State Athletics

Mississippi State have struggled to hold leads late in games and it happened again Tuesday night against its biggest rival, Ole Miss in the 18th edition of the Governor's Cup.

The Bulldogs twice held multi-run leads against Ole Miss and both times the Rebels clawed their way back to win 8-7 in extra innings. Will Furniss completed the second comeback with a single to center field that scored Brayden Randle in the 10th inning at Trustmark Park.

Ole Miss used nearly half of their available pitchers (assuming the Rebels’ weekend starters weren’t available, they had 19), but the last pitcher to enter the game may have been the most important.

Hudson Calhoun came into the game in the eighth inning, no outs and runners at first and second. He’d end the inning with a strikeout, fly out and another strikeout. He then recorded three strikeouts in the top of the ninth, setting up the Rebels’ comeback in the bottom half of the inning.

Calhoun also pitched 10th inning and ended the game with seven strikeouts against 10 batters faced.

Mississippi State did plenty of damage to the Rebels’ other pitchers.

The Bulldogs a 1-0 lead before a 53-minute weather delay in the second inning. They extended that lead to 3-0 in the third on Gerhig Frei’s RBI single and Frei scoring on a wild pitch.

Ole Miss answered back with five unanswered runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 5-3 lead. Isaac Humphrey got the Rebels on the board first with a sacrifice fly to centerfield. Ryan Moerman put a groundball just out of reach of Bulldogs’ shortstop Sawyer Reeves.

Furniss added two more runs in the fifth inning on a one-out home run to left field. Humphrey scored the fifth run on a Bulldogs’ fielding error.

But a couple awkward bounces in the sixth inning put Mississippi State back out in front for good. Chance drove in two runs on a single to right field and Highfill hit a two-out RBI single that allowed Chance to score on an Ole Miss throwing error.

Mississippi State will stay on the road for its weekend SEC series at No. 11 Auburn (27-13, 9-9 SEC). Game one is set for 6 p.m. Friday on SECN+.

Ole Miss and Mississippi State will meet again in a couple weeks for their SEC series. That series will take place May 9-11 at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville.

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Taylor Hodges
TAYLOR HODGES

Award-winning sports editor, writer, columnist, and photographer with 15 years’ experience offering his opinion and insight about the sports world in Mississippi and Texas, but he was taken to Razorback pep rallies at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth before he could walk. Taylor has covered all levels of sports, from small high schools in the Mississippi Delta to NFL games. Follow Taylor on Twitter and Facebook.

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