The last thing an up-and-down Ole Miss team needed to see twas the top-ranked team in the country on top of its game.

But that’s what the Rebels got.

Carson Fulmer struck out a career-high 14 batters, and No. 1 Vanderbilt hit three home runs to beat Ole Miss 6-0 in the opener of a three-game series in Nashville on Thursday night.

Fulmer allowed two hits, didn’t walk a batter, and retired 10 straight batters at one point. Ole Miss (16-18, 5-8 Southeastern Conference) was shut out for the first time in 52 games and lost its fourth in a row overall.

“That’s something I’ll definitely remember,” Fulmer said. “It wasn’t just that. It was being able to command all three pitches and our defense did a great job behind me. They made some incredible plays. We kept tacking on runs late in the game, kept the momentum on our side, and that was huge for us going deep into the game.”

Vanderbilt (28-7, 11-2) got solo home runs from Dansby Swanson in the first inning, Brian Reynolds in the third and Rhett Wiseman in the fifth.

Reynolds later added an RBI double in the seventh inning to score Swanson and give the Commodores a 6-0 lead.

The Rebels’ only hits were a double by Colby Bortles and a single by Errol Robinson.

Ole Miss left-hander Christian Trent (5-3) went 6 1/3 innings and allowed six runs on nine hits to go along with five strikeouts.

Fellow southpaw Mitchel Babb pitched the final 1 1/2 innings and retired all five batters he faced. The relief appearance was the sixth consecutive scoreless outing for Babb.

“He gets out of that second and third jam, and then runs through the bottom of the eighth for us,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said of Babb. “It really saves the bullpen. The last three outings he’s really been lights out.”