When Ole Miss and Mississippi State meet for the annual Governor’s Cup game in Pearl it usually does not go well for the Rebels.
That was until Tuesday with the help off a little rally magic from the No. 23 Rebels in a 8-7 win over the Bulldogs in 10 innings at Trustmark Park. This was only the sixth Governor’s Trophy brought back to Oxford since this series started in 2007.
A ninth-inning comeback was required, trailing by two runs, and designated hitter Austin Fawley provided it in the form of a two-run home run to tie the game up at 7. The catcher has hit a home run in six of his last seven games, including last Saturday’s grand slam in the 12-2 run-rul win over South Carolina.
In the bottom of the 10th inning first baseman Will Furniss provided the game-winning single to score Brayden Randle. All this after the Rebels had scored five unanswered runs to take their first lead earlier in the game.
“Hunting heater again. Kind of, honestly, cheating to it,” Furniss said. “He threw me one black away or maybe a ball off and I just kind of poked my butt out and tried to hit it over the shortstop, honestly, and it ended up working. Most of the time it doesn’t but it worked that time.”
Ole Miss (29-12) got its week off to a better start than last week where it went 1-3, including the midweek loss to Little Rock.
The most valuable player honor could arguably belong to someone not holding a bat, but someone on the mound.
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Hudson Calhoun came into the game in the eighth inning and worked three shutout frames, striking out seven Bulldog batters. He did not issue a walk and also picked up his third win of the season.
After Mississippi State (24-17) rallied with four runs in the sixth inning to re-take the lead the Ole Miss bullpen put up four straight scoreless innings to stay within a couple runs and punctuated by Calhoun’s performance.
“There’s a lot of starts of the game and I don’t know if there’s anyone bigger than (Calhoun),” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “To come in with a two-run deficit, (runners at) first and second and to get two punch outs and I think a pop-up, just a big get-off-the-field for us. Then to give us a couple more zeroes and, really, we were going to (Connor) Spencer and got talked into, leaving (Calhoun) back out because the bottom of their lineup was out. He was so electric tonight.”
Ole Miss now returns home for yet another important Southeastern Conference weekend series, hosting No. 9 Vanderbilt starting on Friday. The Commodores (30-11, 11-7 SEC) are coming off a 5-3 loss to Middle Tennessee on Tuesday.
