STARKVILLE - A bullpen trend is developing, and for Ole Miss, that's very good news.

The No. 18-ranked Rebels struck early on Saturday afternoon, regained a lead from a tie game then scratched out two unconventional runs in the ninth.

It all added up to a 6-2 win over Mississippi State to tie the SEC series at one game each.

Both teams are going for a conference series win at 1:30 p.m., today.

Mike Mayers pitched five scoreless innings but allowed a two-run home run from MSU's Mitch Slauter in the sixth.

R.J. Hively (4-3) entered and retired the first three men he faced. He went on to pitch four innings of one-hit ball with a walk and two strikeouts. He closed the game with a perfect ninth, a pop-up and two ground balls.

He kept the Bulldogs off balance with his breaking pitches and said he made "simple adjustments" to get out of the eighth after an infield hit, a walk and fielder's choice put three runners on base.

"You hope you don't have to bring him in before the seventh, but today we had to," Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. "He was dominant, much like some guys we've had in the past."

Mayers and Hively combined last Saturday on a 1-0 shutout win against Arkansas with Hively, the former weekend starter, pitching 22/3 innings on the back end.

The Rebels (28-15, 10-10 SEC) struck early with a three-hit inning in the first against MSU's Kendall Graveman. The money swing was a two-run home run to right-center by Matt Snyder, his 10th of the year. Graveman settled down and went 61/3 innings with six hits, four runs, three earned.

"Certainly he pitched well enough to have a chance to win this ballgame, and we just didn't defend it as well as we should have behind him," MSU coach John Cohen said. "There were about five plays that we cannot make, and you're not going to win any day in our league when you make the four or five blunders defensively that we made."

The Rebels out-hit MSU 10-5. Will Allen had a pair of doubles, and Alex Yarbrough singled to extend his hit streak to 22 games.

After the Bulldogs (26-17, 9-11) tied the game in the sixth, Ole Miss got the runs back in the seventh when an RBI hit by Austin Anderson and an error charged to MSU third baseman Daryl Norris - who had two of MSU's three errors - scored two runs.

The Rebels stretched the lead by two in the top of the ninth with three hits against MSU reliever Nick Routt. John Gatlin and Auston Bousfield had back-to-back singles. Gatlin scored when Tanner Mathis was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and Bousfield scored when Mistone struck out, but the third strike got away from the catcher Slauter.

Hively was glad to have the runs, but his focus didn't change.

"I try to have the mindset of having a tight game every time out. The more you can do that, the more you're prepared for the hitters," he said.

parrish.alford@journalinc.com