Coming off a sweep of Auburn to open Southeastern Conference play, Mississippi State suffered another confounding loss Wednesday as the Bulldogs could not come up with enough timely hits in a 3-2 defeat against Middle Tennessee at Nusz Park.

No. 19 MSU (22-4, 3-0 SEC) looked to be in good shape for most of the afternoon. Sophomore left-hander Delainey Everett made her fourth start of the season and held the Blue Raiders (10-15, 1-2 Conference USA) without a hit through four innings. The Bulldogs rallied for single runs in the second and fourth, with Morgan Bernardini driving in both runs on a second-inning double and a fourth-inning single.

Everett exited the game after five innings of one-hit ball and threw just 58 pitches, 40 of them for strikes. She struck out four batters without issuing a walk.

“After coming out of this previous weekend with just a couple of innings, I wanted to come back and get in another groove for this (upcoming) weekend,” Everett said. “I was just using this midweek to prepare for the next couple games. Commanding the zone, hitting spots, staying ahead of batters is super important. That way I don’t waste a lot of pitches.”

Freshman Sara Phillips took over in the circle in the sixth and plunked the first batter she faced, then allowed a two-run home run to Addy Edgmon to tie the game. Following a one-out single, Phillips was replaced by Josey Marron, who induced a double play ball to get out of the inning.

But Marron ran into trouble of her own in the seventh, giving up three singles, the last of which brought in the go-ahead run. Sabria Ritto scored from second on Ava Tepe’s hit, sliding in just ahead of the tag after a strong throw from Bernardini in left. The Bulldogs had to use ace Raelin Chaffin to get the final out of the seventh, though she threw only five pitches.

MSU had its share of scoring opportunities, the best of which came in the third. Morgan Stiles and Sierra Sacco led off that inning with back-to-back singles, and a stolen base put runners at second and third with no outs. Nadia Barbary hit a ground ball to shortstop, and Middle Tennessee caught both runners in pickles. Sacco was out after joining Stiles on third base, at which point Stiles broke for home and was thrown out for a double play.

Stiles was thrown out on another rundown in the fifth following an infield single. A double play erased a leadoff hit for the Bulldogs in the sixth before Leila Ammon retired MSU in order in the seventh.

The Bulldogs, who previously had shutout losses to Jacksonville State and Northwestern State, head to No. 25 Alabama for a three-game series beginning Friday at Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa.

“It’s a long season, but we have to be able to compete every single day, not just bring enough for an SEC weekend, an opening weekend, whatever it is,” MSU head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “Any time we had a little bit of a rally, with two double plays, they were really able to just shut us down. We have to do a better job of competing for our pitchers, and also just making better pitches in the situations where we need to.”