PEARL — Ole Miss is leaving Trustmark Park in worse shape than it arrived, and for a baseball team that is already banged up the M.A.S.H. unit list is growing.
Ethan Lege took a ball to his right hand in the top of the sixth inning and came out of the game in the bottom of the frame. Treyson Hughes manned left field the rest of the game in the Rebels 5-1 loss to Mississippi State.
The initial report from Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco on his outfielder’s hand was not a positive one and just added another name to the injury list.
“Going to get x-rays. Ball hit him in the thumb,” Bianco said postgame. “Swollen and struggled to move it. Going to go with (trainer) Josh (Porter) to one of the hospitals here and get an x-ray.”
Ole Miss is staying in the Jackson area for Wednesday night and then heading to Auburn on Thursday.
Last week Austin Simmons suffered an elbow injury and left the game after only a handful of pitches. There was not any updates over the weekend and that continues through this week.
Simmons is scheduled to have a doctor visit sometime early next week, possibly on Tuesday, according to Bianco. Until that appointment not much else will be known regarding the extent of Simmons’ injury and the treatment plan to follow.
Lege’s injury just compounds the somber mood after Ole Miss once again let a crooked number inning give away the game.
This time it was in the bottom of the eighth inning of a 1-1 game when Mississippi State scored four runs off two hits and a RBI walk. There was a failed double play that would have gotten Ole Miss (23-21) out of the inning still tied, but a run scored. From there the dam broke as has been the case this season with the big innings.
“It’s been that way kind of all year, seems like,” Jackson Ross said after the game. “An inning here, an inning there. Just like in the (eighth) there. …Sometimes you got to make the tough play and we’ll get them. We just got to stay with it.”
Ole Miss was held to one run off five hits, with the lone score coming in the top of the second inning. Judd Utermark hit a high fly ball that stayed in the air until bouncing off the left field wall. From there the Rebels managed only three more hits across seven innings.
Since taking the series against Mississippi State in Oxford last month Ole Miss has gone 3-5.
“Guys are, like, tired of it but I think that can be a good thing,” Ross said. “We’re tired of losing. We got to get this thing back on track. Hopefully that’s how other guys are feeling. That’s how I feel.”
Ole Miss and Auburn start their series on Friday at 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network+
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