Mississippi State Baseball Ace Dakota Hudson Returns to Form

The ace of the Mississippi State Baseball team struggled through a four week stretch, but he has returned to form the last two weeks.

Fans of Mississippi State baseball have seen the 2016 season shape up to be a special one, and the type of season that could be remembered for a very long time. But the possibility of having it derailed was there when Dakota Hudson went through a four week funk.

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Starting with the series against the Florida Gators, Hudson allowed 18 earned runs in 23.1 innings pitched. He only struck out 17, walked eight and gave up 32 hits during that span. While he registered wins in two of those contests, Bulldog fans knew they would need more from their ace if they wanted to achieve greater things in 2016.

With that being said, the last two weeks of the season have been encouraging. Hudson has pitched 17.1 innings his last two starts and only given up one earned run in both starts. Opposing hitters have struck out 17 times and only reached base 14 times on 13 hits and one walk.

Some would argue the only reason Hudson has returned to his early season form is because of the competition. For Missouri, you could make such an argument. The Missouri Tigers rank in the bottom four of almost every offensive statistic in the SEC.

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But the Auburn Tigers are a different story. No, the Tigers aren’t very good, but they can hit. Auburn had the third highest team batting average, fifth highest slugging percentage, and scored the fifth most runs in the SEC. The Tigers have been bad, but it has been because of their pitching and fielding, not their hitting.

So to see Mississippi State baseball ace Dakota Hudson step to the mound Friday and completely shut the Tigers down was a very encouraging sight. The Auburn offense had the potential to send Hudson back to his struggling form, but Hudson never gave them a chance.

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This week, the Bulldogs have a chance to lock up the team’s first national seed in the school’s history since the tournament switched to the current format. A sweep would likely do so. If Hudson comes out and shuts down the Arkansas Razorbacks on Thursday night, it’ll put the Bulldogs one step closer.