On Easter Sunday, Ole Miss’ search for a series victory and some positive momentum in the Southeastern Conference standings proved tougher than finding a green-colored egg in a field of tall grass.

Drake Owenby allowed two runs in eight strong innings on the mound, and Tennessee backed him with a fast start at the plate to beat Ole Miss 4-2 in the rubber match of a weekend series in Oxford.

The Rebels (16-16, 5-7 SEC) dropped two out of three to Tennessee (14-14, 4-8) to stay at .500 overall and under .500 in conference play.

Ole Miss hasn’t been more than four games over the break-even mark at any point this season, and hasn’t had a winning streak longer than three games. It’s only won one of its four SEC series so far.

Despite all of that, Ole Miss is still in third place in the SEC Western Division, behind Texas A&M and LSU and in the middle of a jumble of similarly struggling teams.

Tennessee, meanwhile, won its first SEC series of the season.

“Its about time. I’m very proud of this team,” Tennessee coach Dave Serrano said. “This was probably the biggest game of the year for us. It was a pivotal game to get back into the numbers where we need to be in this conference.”

Owenby kept Ole Miss in check all day Sunday. He scattered four hits and two walks, and struck out six in his eight innings of work.

The Volunteers gave him plenty of run support early on. Christin Stewart drove in the first run of the game with an RBI single in the first inning, then Nick Senzel knocked in two more with a base hit in the second to make it 3-0.

Senzel finished the game 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored.

Will Golsan had an RBI single in the third inning for Ole Miss, and Sikes Orvis brought in another run with a seventh-inning ground out, but the Rebels never got the lead. They only scored the single run in the seventh after loading the bases with one out, and failed to score in the eighth with the tying run at the plate.

The lack of offense spoiled a strong start by freshman right-hander Will Stokes (0-3).

After giving up the three runs in the early going, Stokes retired 12 of the last 14 batters he faced. He wound up pitching 5 2/3 innings, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out four. Stokes gave up four runs, but only two were earned.

“It was nice to get an extended outing from him,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “He’s terrific. We need to help him a little bit. We need to give him some run support and catch some balls for him.”

Ole Miss will play Southern Miss Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Trustmark Park.