OXFORD, Miss. – Bryce Massanari went 4-for-5 with three home runs and five RBI, but No. 11 Ole Miss scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to rally past top-ranked Georgia 10-8 in front of an overflow crowd of 9,478 Saturday at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field.

Massanari had given Georgia (33-10, 14-6 SEC) an 8-6 lead with his third home run in the seventh, but Ole Miss (31-12, 12-8 SEC) scored a run in the seventh and three in the eighth including two with two outs to take the lead for good. The Bulldogs now have a one-game lead over LSU in the race for the SEC championship.

“We were in good position and an opportunity was lost,” Georgia coach David Perno said. “We struggled at the top of the lineup, but Bryce had an unbelievable day and it makes you sick to your stomach we couldn’t win with that. The seventh inning was the game when we had the bases loaded with one out and couldn’t score any more runs. We get a couple more and it’s over. A lot of things went wrong for us today in the wrong situations.”

Massanari is the seventh Bulldog in school history to hit three home runs in a game and second in five days as Rich Poythress hit three against Kennesaw State on Tuesday. Before Tuesday, the last Georgia player to hit three home runs in a game was Jeff Keppinger in the 2001 NCAA Athens Regional. Massanari now has 15 home runs this season and it was his fourth career multi-home run game.

Georgia scored twice in the first for the third straight game. Matt Cerione led off with a walk, then with two outs Massanari launched his first home run to opposite field to give the Bulldogs the early lead. Ole Miss answered with a run in the bottom of the first on a two-out RBI double by Matt Smith.

The Bulldogs struck for three runs in the third as Michael Demperio and Matt Cerione led off with back-to-back singles, and Colby May reached on a fielding error that also allowed Demperio to score from second and Cerione to advance to third. Poythress drove in his 70th run with a sacrifice fly, and after a single by Massanari and a strikeout by Joey Lewis, Johnathan Taylor doubled down the left field line to score May and make it 5-1.

The Rebels then scored five unanswered beginning with two runs in the bottom half of the third on a leadoff home run by Taylor Ferguson and an RBI double by Zach Miller. Ole Miss plated three runs in the fourth on two hits and a Georgia error to take a 6-5 lead.

Massanari blasted his second home run of the game in the fifth to tie the score at 6-6, then he followed a one-out single by Poythress with his third home run to opposite field home run to give the Bulldogs an 8-6 edge in the seventh.

Ole Miss got one run back in the bottom half as Kyle Henson doubled with two outs then scored on a single by Michael Hubbard. The Rebels tied it in the eighth on an RBI single by Evan Button, then took the lead on a two-out double by Logan Power.

Jake Morgan pitched the ninth for Ole Miss to pick up his ninth save. Brett Bukvich (6-1) earned the win while Justin Earls (0-1) was charged with the loss after allowing two runs on two hits in one inning.

Levi Hyams had two hits including a double, Cerione scored two runs, and with his RBI, Poythress becomes the first player in Georgia history to drive in 70 runs in two different seasons. He had 75 RBI last season, and is now just seven shy of tying Gordon Beckham for the single season RBI record.

The rubber game of the series is slated for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern as Justin Grimm (2-2, 4-12) will face Ole Miss’ Scott Bittle (4-2, 2.33).

-UGA News Service