The biggest series of the season so far for Mississippi State got off to a rousing start.

Jonathan Ogden hit two home runs, Cody Freeman added a solo shot, and the Bulldogs outslugged fourth-ranked Florida for a 7-5 victory Friday night at Dudy Noble Field.

Mississippi State scored four runs in the bottom of the first to take the lead, added single runs in the second and third and then held off the Gators in the later innings.

“We came out expecting to hit the ball,” Ogden said. “We knew their guy was good but we didn’t think of him as unhittable. We expected to see strikes and put good swings on the ball. Luckily, we found a couple of holes with those swings.”

Preston Tucker had three hits for Florida, and Brian Johnson was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.

The Gators (24-7, 7-3 Southeastern Conference) left 12 men on base, including two in the top of the eighth inning. Caleb Reed retired the side in order in the ninth to earn his fifth save of the season. Reliever Taylor Stark (2-0) earned the victory for Mississippi State (21-9, 5-5) with two scoreless innings.

“Caleb did a tremendous job,” Mississippi State coach John Cohen said. “We didn’t worry about him coming back on short rest once he got out there and we saw what he was throwing. He loves throwing in front of these crowds. He had great command of his fastball and got big time outs tonight.”

Georgia 9, Ole Miss 8

Jonathan Hester went 2-for-4 with a homer and two runs scored, Brandon Stephens had three hits and scored a pair of runs, and Georgia (17-14, 7-3 SEC) held on to beat Ole Miss (19-12, 4-6) in the series opener.

Hester’s solo homer in the eighth and a pinch-hit RBI single by Conor Welton in the ninth gave Georgia a 9-6 lead. Ole Miss cut it to a single run on Jordan Poole’s two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, but the Rebels couldn’t get another runner on base.

Poole finished the game 2-for-4, and Preston Overbey drove in two runs for Ole Miss.

“Tonight was a tough night,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “The game was hard-fought all the way through, we just didn’t have the complete performance we needed to win. Offensively, we scored eight runs. When you score eight on Friday nights you are supposed to win. We just didn’t have a huge inning that could match their consistent ability to score all game long.”

Memphis 6, USM 5

Isaac Rodriguez’s throwing error in the bottom of the ninth inning allowed two runs to score and gave Memphis a victory over Southern Miss.

Southern Miss scored four times in the top of the eighth to take a 5-4 lead and was one out away from closing out the victory. With the bases loaded, Eli Hynes hit a grounder to second that Rodriguez threw away, allowing the tying and winning runs to score.

T.J. Rich finished the game 4-for-4 with two RBIs for Memphis (18-11, 2-2 Conference USA). Rodriguez homered for Southern Miss (22-7, 5-2), and Adam Doleac tripled.

Arkansas 2, LSU 0

Three Arkansas pitchers combined to shut out LSU in the series opener on Friday night.

Starter D.J. Baxendale and relievers Barrett Astin and Nolan Sanburn allowed 10 hits, but managed to work around the trouble. LSU left 11 runners on base, spoiling a strong outing by starting pitcher Kurt McCune.

McCune allowed one earned run and struck out nine in 7 2/3 innings, but took the loss. Dominic Ficociello touched McCune for a solo homer in the sixth inning and the Razorbacks added an unearned run in the seventh.