Tuesday night brought the annual non-conference Governor’s Cup game between the 10th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs and the 17th-ranked Ole Miss Rebels to Trustmark Park in Pearl, Mississippi, for a Tuesday night of baseball that most of the state looks forward to all season long. When these two meet in any sports, records, talent, roster depth, all don’t matter when the boys from Starkville play the boys from Oxford; however, this year had a little bit extra riding on it as Mississippi State would look to complete the 4-0 season sweep of the Rebels, while Ole Miss looked to get revenge while keeping an Oxford Regional alive. 

Both teams have been weird and downright hard to figure out this season. Mississippi State completed the three-game sweep of Ole Miss a few weeks ago before back-to-back home losses to Tennessee and Georgia, where the Bulldogs were swept, before two get-right sweeps over South Carolina and LSU last weekend, carrying a bit of mometum into the matchup with the Rebels on Tuesday night. Then there’s Ole Miss, which rallied after being swept by Mississippi State, winning the next three series against Florida, Tennessee, and LSU, two of which came on the road, before falling to Georgia two out of three this past weekend at Swayze Field. 

Mississippi State jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the bottom half of the 1st inning, largely in part due to timely hitting with base hits and extra-base hits that scored the four runs in the first. Mississippi State would add another run to the scoreboard, making it 5-0 in the bottom of the 2nd inning off a base hit from Jacob Parker that scored Blake Bevis. Ole Miss would make things interesting in the top half of the 6th inning with base hits that scored three runs for the Rebels, cutting the Mississippi State lead to 5-3. Ace Reese would add another Mississippi State to the scoreboard with a sac fly to left field that scored Milewski, making it 6-3 Mississippi State heading to the 7th inning. Mississippi State would add another insurance run in the bottom of the 8th to make it 7-3 for the Bulldogs. 

Since this is technically a non-conference midweek game for both the Rebels and Bulldogs, the starting pitchers would be the standard midweek guys for each team. Owen Kelly would get the start for the Rebels, while Brendan Sweeney would get the start for Mississippi State. Kelly would be the first one to be pulled, lasting only 1.2 innings, giving up six hits and five runs, while having zero strikeouts. Ole Miss would then turn to the combination of Landon Waters and Wil Libbert out of the bullpen. Sweeney had the short leash as well for Mississippi State on Tuesday, going three complete innings, giving up two hits, zero runs, with four strikeouts, and only one walk. From there, like Ole Miss, Mississippi State would go with a host of Bulldogs to close out the game. Maddox Miller, Peyton Fowler, Chris Billingsley, and Tyler Pitzer would all come in before the 7th inning to pitch for Mississippi State. 

Another really good matchup between the Rebels and Bulldogs on Tuesday night. In the end, though, the early lead from Mississippi State was too much for Ole Miss to overcome, as the Bulldogs secured the 4-0 season sweep of the Rebels, bringing home another Governors Cup back to Starkville. Something to think about as both teams enter May: tonight was not an elimination for hosting rights, but it was likely an elimination for Ole Miss in hopes of reaching a top-eight seed, while Mississippi State will now have the four-game head-to-head over the Rebels. If it comes to either team for the final top-eight seed, then the head-to-head will likely come into play, and Mississippi State will hold that advantage over the Rebels. 

With the win over Ole Miss on Tuesday night, Mississippi State improved to 34-10 on the season, while Ole Miss dropped to 31-14 overall.

Mississippi State and Ole Miss will both be hitting the road this weekend. Ole Miss will be heading to Fayetteville to take on the Razorbacks of Arkansas, while Mississippi State heads to Austin, Texas, to take on the Longhorns of Texas in a massive weekend series. Both series will start on Friday and run through Sunday. 

Photo Credits- Mississippi State baseball on X