Rebs take game one against Bulldogs

OXFORD – Coming into Thursday's series opener between Mississippi State and Ole Miss, both teams entered having underperformed expectations.

Ole Miss hasn't had anyone to count on as starters this year for the weekend and the Bulldogs haven't provided any pressure on opposing starters, especially in game one. As something was going to have to give, the Rebels were the one that came through.

Freshman Dylan DeLucia entered having started just two games this season and he rolled right through the MSU lineup. State's Brandon Smith pitched one of his best games as well, but an error in the first provided the difference in the game as Ole Miss took game one 4-2.

That first inning was a brutal inning for Smith. He gave up a leadoff single but was set to get out of the inning on a two-out chopper to RJ Yeager at second. After a bobble, Yeager couldn't get the out at first and the inning stayed alive. Veteran outfielder Kevin Graham made the Bulldogs pay for that with a three-run home run to right field.

“We're actually a really good defensive team,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said. “When we're making a mistake, we've got to be able to make a pitch behind it. Brandon pitched a great game. That's the way baseball goes sometimes. He knows he pitched good and he wants to win. He's probably more frustrated we didn't get the win.”

It put a damper on what was an otherwise strong performance from Smith for the third-straight game. He threw six innings, gave up four hits, four runs with just one earned, walked two batters and struck out a careerhigh nine. In his last three games, Smith has thrown 17 innings, surrendered 14 hits, four earned runs, four walks and struck out 15 batters.

State has lost two of those three games and trailed in another when he left the game, however. The Bulldog offense was again virtually nonexistent against a first-game starter. DeLucia kept Ole Miss from using a single bullpen arm as he threw a complete game against the State hitters striking out eight batters and walking zero.

It was solo home runs or bust for MSU for the secondstraight Southeastern Conference game. The Bulldogs had five hits, as did the Rebels, and two of those were blasts from Brad Cumbest in the fifth inning and Kellum Clark in the seventh. There really was no more pressure put on the back of DeLucia, who pitched comfortably throughout.

“He was a fastball, slider, changeup guy and commanded all three pitches well,” MSU's Luke Hancock said. “I thought he did a really good job of keeping us off balanced. When we squared the ball up, it seemed to go right at him. They're a good team. They came out and played better than us. It was a tough loss.”

Clark was the only player that consistently had some good at-bats in the game for the most part as he had a 2-for-3 night with the home run. While the offense struggled, the pitching staff did enough to give the team a chance. After Smith, Drew Talley, Cam Tullar and Jackson Fristoe threw the final two innings. Tullar came in with two runners on and one out in the seventh inning and got a strikeout followed by Fristoe getting a fly out to end the threat.

Fristoe threw 1.1 innings, gave up just a walk and struck out a batter.

The win for the Rebels was the first in Oxford against MSU since 2015 breaking up a string of back-to-back sweeps for State on the road against the Rebels. It was also the first SEC win for Ole Miss at home this season.

The two teams met again on Friday night and conclude the series with a 3:30 p.m. first pitch on Saturday.