Held in check most of the night Thursday, Georgia broke loose when it mattered most.

Kyle Farmer’s bases-clearing double with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning gave Georgia its first lead of the game, and the Bulldogs erupted for six runs total in the inning to beat Ole Miss 8-4 in the opener of a three-game series.

It’s the second straight time in an SEC series opener that Ole Miss has given up the winning run in the opposing team’s last at-bat.

“It’s frustrating,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “When you have a lead with six outs remaining, we have to figure out a way to close that out. We’ve tried different ways of handling that situation and we have to learn how to stop the bleeding and close it out.”

Farmer went 3-for-5 with four RBIs for Georgia (21-13, 6-7 Southeastern Conference), while Michael Palazzone pitched a complete game. Palazzone (1-4) gave up nine hits, but didn’t walk anyone and struck out eight batters to earn his first win of the season.

Although Palazzone was effective, Ole Miss (23-11, 6-7) never trailed until Farmer’s double. Tanner Mathis plated the game’s first run with an RBI single in the third inning, and Alex Yarbrough added an RBI double later in the frame.

RBI singles by Levi Hyams and Farmer tied it at 2 in the fifth inning, but the Rebels scored twice in the sixth to retake the lead. Yarbrough singled and scored on an error, then Will Allen had an RBI single to make it 4-2.

Georgia then went ahead for good in the eighth. It loaded the bases before Conor Welton brought in a run with a fielder’s choice. Nelson Ward tied it with a pinch-hit RBI single, and three batters later Farmer slammed a pitch into the gap in right center to bring in three runs and give the Bulldogs a 7-4 lead. Farmer later scored on a base hit by Hunter Cole.

It was the second straight game in which Georgia used a six-run inning to propel itself to victory. The Bulldogs scored six times in the fifth inning of an 8-7 win over Clemson on Wednesday.

“We made one bad play, but the guys picked each other up and we got the big inning we’ve been missing a lot in SEC games,” Georgia coach David Perno said. “Kyle had a big night, and we got production from everybody in the lineup and off the bench too. Tonight was a good start.”

Yarbrough and Austin Bousfield had two hits apiece for Ole Miss. Reliever Brett Huber (1-2) was charged with four runs during his stint in the eighth inning, and took the loss.

The teams continue the series tonight at 6.