Mississippi State has picked the perfect time to get on a serious roll.

Brent Brownlee went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, two runs scored and two stolen bases, and Ryan Collins and C.T. Bradford drove in two runs apiece as Mississippi State beat its archrival Ole Miss 7-4 on Friday night in Oxford.

It was the second straight victory over Ole Miss for Mississippi State, and its eighth in a row overall. The winning streak has vaulted the Bulldogs from the edge of the Southeastern Conference race to smack dab in the middle.

Heading into today’s action, the Bulldogs (32-18, 13-13) are a half-game ahead of Alabama and Arkansas in the SEC West and in fifth place overall. The top eight teams advance to the SEC Tournament.

Ole Miss (27-23, 11-15) slipped to ninth place, two behind Auburn in the loss column for the final tournament berth.

The game started about an hour late because of thunderstorms in the Oxford area — the same bad weather across the southeast that forced the postponement of one SEC game Friday night in Auburn, a three-hour delay in Columbia, S.C., and yet another to be suspended in Nashville.

The teams traded the lead early on before Mississippi State took the lead for good with two runs in the top of the sixth inning. Brownlee’s two-out, two-run single broke a 3-3 tie.

C.T. Bradford delivered a backbreaking two-run double with two outs in the eighth inning to make it 7-3.

Will Allen homered for Ole Miss, and Tanner Mathis had two hits.