Mississippi State baseball has had to overcome adversity. Losing to Ole Miss is new, though.
OXFORD — Mississippi State baseball coaches have had to deal with overcoming lows. It comes with the nature of playing the game, even for a program such as MSU where national titles are annually an expectation.
Chris Lemonis is no exception. The second season of his coaching tenure was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bulldogs responded by winning the program’s first national championship the following year. The last two seasons, Mississippi State (22-14, 7-8 SEC) has failed to make a postseason appearance. MSU has responded with a promising start to 2024.
However, since 2015, having to overcome a series loss against rival Ole Miss (20-16, 5-10) hasn’t been a concern for Mississippi State’s coaches.
That is no longer the case. After Sunday’s 14-2 loss in seven innings, Lemonis and the Bulldogs landed on the wrong side of the SEC’s most heated baseball rivalry.
“It is tougher,” Lemonis said. “But the reality is, you’ve got to flush them.”
Perhaps more surprising than the result is the nature in which it happened.
Mississippi State dominated the opener, cruising to an 8-0 victory. The pitching was put in a pristine spot with starter Khal Stephen throwing eight of the nine innings.
The defeat gave Ole Miss its eighth-straight loss. With a loss Saturday to extend the skid to nine, the Rebels would’ve had their longest losing streak in coach Mike Bianco’s tenure which started in 2001.
It was headed that way. MSU lead by four runs in the eighth inning Saturday. The Bulldogs were six outs away from bragging rights yet again. Instead, Ole Miss rallied to tie it. The Rebels tied it again in the 11th after Hunter Hines hit a solo home run. And again Ole Miss rallied in the 12th, scoring two runs to negate a Johnny Long home run.
Mississippi State has proven it can overcome gut-punch defeats. But in the face of success, as the expected victor in the rivalry, the Bulldogs crumbled – though Lemonis doesn’t think it was due to a poor effort.
“I thought our guys were still locked in,” Lemonis said. “It’s just rivalry. Nobody is putting their head down. Nobody is feeling sorry for themselves. Everybody wants to win so bad.”
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There will be a simmered level of emotion in the remainder of the regular season for Mississippi State, but showing an ability to win amid raised expectations will be necessary.
Trips to Vanderbilt and Arkansas will be difficult. However, the other three SEC series are at Dudy Noble Field against Auburn, Alabama and Missouri. Those three have combined for 13 SEC wins this season and only two have come on the road.
A series loss against your biggest rival in mid-April doesn’t end a season. Ole Miss lost the series at Swayze Field in 2022, fell to 6-12 in SEC play and rallied to win a national title.
Mississippi State, albeit in a better position than that Ole Miss team, will need to dig deep to make the 2024 rendition of the rivalry series an easy one to forget in Starkville.
“They can’t stay with you,” Lemonis said. “We can’t go back and play it again. It’s over.”
Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State baseball faces uncommon adversity: A loss to Ole Miss
