A beautiful Friday  afternoon in Oxford, Mississippi, delivered a highly underrated non-conference game one between the hometown Ole Miss Rebels and the visiting Missouri State Bears. Two programs with a combined one loss between the two, and a good bit of recent history with Missouri State leading the overall series 3-2, with Ole Miss taking the last game in 2024 by a margin of 12-3. 

Missouri State, always a threat to be taken seriously in Conference USA, came to Oxford with a 3-1 record, with the lone loss coming to Louisiana 13-12 in game two of the Opening Weekend series. 

For Ole Miss, the Rebels came into the three-game series with Missouri State looking to remain unbeaten after a 5-0 start to the season with a sweep of Nevada, and midweek wins over Arkansas State, and an 18-3 beatdown of Jackson State on Wednesday night. 

With it being a Friday and the first game of the series, Ole Miss would go with Hunter Elliott as the starting pitcher for the Rebels. For Missouri State, it would be Michael Yusypchuk getting the starting nod on Friday night for the Bears. Missouri State would be the first to the bullpen with Yusypchuk finishing his day after three complete inning giving up eight hits, seven runs, while only striking out three Ole Miss batters. Trent Ash would come in during the top half of the 4th to pitch for the Bears. Trent Ash would see his day end with a two-run RBI double from Collin Reuter, extending the Ole Miss lead to 9-3. Adyn Schell would be the new pitcher for the Bears. Hunter Elliott would finish his day with two outs in the top half of the 5th, giving up four hits, three runs, with five strikeouts. Hudson Calhoun would be his replacement. 

Not the best of nights for Hunter Elliott, but he got the job done and settled down when Coach Bianco and his staff needed him to. 

Missouri State would strike first in the top half of the first inning, taking an early 1-0 lead over the Rebels. That lead would be short-lived as the Rebels would plate a run to tie it, before Austin Fawley sent a ball into orbit for his first home run of the season that gave Ole Miss a 5-1 lead with the grand slam. Judd Utermark would add his own flavor to the lead with a two-run shot in the bottom of the second to extend it to 7-1. Carter Bergman wanted in on the action for Missouri State as he cut the Ole Miss lead to 7-3 with a two-run shot in the top half of the third inning. Collin Reuter would add two more runs of his own with an RBI double that extended the Ole Miss lead to 9-3 with two outs in the bottom of the 4th. Missouri State would add two runs to the scoreboard in the top half of the 5th to cut the Ole Miss lead to 9-5. With a light rain shower coming down in the 6th, Ole Miss would add another run to the lead to make it 10-5 at the end of the 6th inning. Judd Utermark would send his second home run of the game into the bricks of left field to extend the Ole Miss lead to 11-6 in the bottom of the 8th inning. 

The bats were on fire for Ole Miss on Friday night as they got just enough from Hunter Elliott to give the offense some space to secure a game one win on Friday night. 

Game two between Ole Miss and Missouri State will get underway on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 on SEC Network Plus. A reminder for fans coming to the game who want to pull a doubleheader on Saturday: if you show your baseball ticket before the basketball game at 11, you get a free lower-level seat to watch the Rebels take on the Florida Gators before walking over to Swayze Field. 

Photo Credits: Ole Miss baseball on X