There’s no reason to panic for Ole Miss’ baseball team. It’s still in the top half of the Southeastern Conference standings, in no real danger of missing the conference or NCAA tournaments, and there’s even plenty of time to rally toward a charge at the West Division championship.

So no panic is needed, even if eyebrows are starting to rise just a bit.

Vanderbilt swept a doubleheader from the Rebels on Sunday, winning both games 8-7 with late-inning rallies. It’s the first time Ole Miss (29-8, 8-7 SEC) has lost back-to-back games this season, and also handed them losses in consecutive series for the first time.

Ole Miss dropped into third place in the SEC West, two games behind Arkansas (27-10, 10-5) and one behind LSU (24-13, 9-6). Tough series loom the next two weekends against Georgia (25-11, 9-6) and LSU, although both are at home.

“It’s been a tough two weeks against some really good teams,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco told the Oxford Eagle after Sunday’s losses in Nashville. “We didn’t play well enough to win a few more.”

A big reason for the recent slump has been the bullpen. In their last six SEC games, the Rebel relievers have a 7.50 ERA and have blown leads in three losses.

Two of the four losses during Ole Miss’ skid have come on walk-off home runs, including game one of Sunday’s doubleheader.

Vanderbilt’s Ethan Paul hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning after Ole Miss had taken the lead in the top half. Vanderbilt also scored in the bottom of the seventh after Ole Miss had taken the lead in the top of that inning.

In game two, the Commodores scored three runs off of relievers Will Etheridge and Austin Miller after the Rebels had overcome a 5-1 deficit to take the lead.

Both games Sunday were scheduled for seven innings rather than nine.

In all, Ole Miss’ relievers combined to allow seven earned runs on nine hits while walking three in 5 ⅓ innings Sunday.

Closer Parker Caracci, who is tied for third in the SEC with six saves, threw 48 pitches in game one and was unavailable for game two. Caracci surrendered two runs, on three hits and a walk, in 1 2/3 innings.

Caracci also blew a save last weekend in a 7-5 loss to Mississippi State, although he had pitched four scoreless innings before that.

Ethridge, who had been solid in two other outings over the past week, took the loss in game two. He loaded the bases with one out in the sixth before giving way to Miller, who gave up a bases-clearing double to Ty Duvall that put Vanderbilt ahead 8-7.

“Their job is to come in and take the momentum away from the other team, put zeros up and get off the field unscathed,” Bianco told The Oxford Eagle. “We were real good at doing that at a time when I was disappointed in the starters. It felt like we were really leaning on the bullpen too much. Now the starters have really caught fire and pitched well, and we’ve got to do a better job out of the bullpen.”

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The Oxford Eagle contributed to this report.