After opening the Astros Foundation College Classic with a run-rule win over Rice, Mississippi State did not enjoy the rest of the weekend as much. The No. 18 Bulldogs fell into big early holes against Arizona on Saturday and Oklahoma State on Sunday and could not quite dig all the way out.

The Bulldogs fell behind in the first inning against the Wildcats when Mason White hit a two-run home run off Karson Ligon. White came up big again an inning later with a two-run single to put Arizona ahead by four. MSU clawed its way back with single runs in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, but the comeback stopped there in a 6-5 loss.

Ace Reese homered twice for the Bulldogs, going deep in his first two at-bats in the first and fourth. He collected his third hit and third RBI with a run-scoring double in the sixth, and MSU pulled within one in the seventh on Gehrig Frei’s RBI single.

The Bulldogs’ bullpen was excellent — freshman Ryan McPherson struck out six in three innings of relief, though he did allow what turned out to be an important run in the sixth before leaving the game. Dane Burns, Mikhai Grant and Nate Williams pitched a combined four innings with one hit allowed, no walks and nine strikeouts. MSU pitching struck out 18 Wildcats batters in total.

Nolan Stevens led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, then Ross Highfill bunted for a hit to put the tying and winning runs on base. Dylan Cupp’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third with one out, but Frei then hit a bouncer back to the mound, and pinch-runner Michael O’Brien was caught in a brief rundown between third and home before being tagged out. Bryce Chance’s flyout to left field ended the game.

“It’s a shame, because from the second inning on, I felt like we handled the game, but that’s what starting pitching is all about,” Bulldogs head coach Chris Lemonis said. “We don’t get a good start. Making an error in the middle of all that doesn’t help. Give our guys credit for playing catch-up, but once you catch them, you have to overtake them, and that’s twice this week we don’t get the runner in with less than two outs at the end of the game.”

Chance gave MSU the lead in the first inning against the Cowboys with a solo homer, but Oklahoma State evened the score in the bottom of the frame against Simmons before breaking it open in the third. Simmons walked the first two batters in the inning before retiring the next two, and then he allowed back-to-back hits to give the Cowboys the lead.

An error on second baseman Sawyer Reeves extended the inning, which was capped by Colin Brueggemann’s two-run double to give Oklahoma State a five-run lead. That ended Simmons’ outing.

The Bulldogs’ bullpen was solid again outside of Robert Fortenberry, who allowed a three-run homer in the sixth to Nolan Schubart that seemingly put the game out of reach. MSU responded with a five-run seventh, though, with Reid Stallman’s three-run blast — his second home run of the game — cutting the deficit to 9-7. That was as close as the Bulldogs would get.

MSU fell out of the D1Baseball Top 25 after the weekend and will face No. 20 Southern Miss at home on Wednesday. The Golden Eagles defeated the Bulldogs 3-0 in Hattiesburg on Feb. 18.

“We’re walking the leadoff guys, which isn’t helping, and we’re throwing a bad play in the middle of those innings. That’s the tough part,” Lemonis said. “They got a big hit here and there, but to have that big a gap was not necessary.”