STARKVILLE — The last two outings haven’t been kind to Dakota Hudson.
The Mississippi State junior right-hander allowed four runs on nine hits in five innings to LSU last week in the Southeastern Conference tournament. On Friday against Southeast Missouri State in the opener of the Starkville Regional, he threw a season-low 3 1/3 innings and allowed four runs on four hits. Ryan Rigby and Daniel Brown allowed one run on three hits in 5 2/3 innings of relief to bail out Hudson and help MSU win 9-5 and advance to the winners’ bracket.
Seeing-eye ground balls beat Hudson against LSU, but that wasn’t the case against SEMO.
“They were hitting balls to the outfield in the air and I thought that was a little strange,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “(Catcher Jack Kruger) mentioned his cutter really wasn’t separating from his fastball.”
Cohen credited Redhawks for using their experience against Hudson. No. 3 hitter Branden Boggetto, who had two hits before leaving with an injury, struck out his first time against Hudson in the first inning, but he slapped an RBI double to left-center field in the third. Chris Osborne didn’t have a hit off Hudson, but he walked to begin the third.
“When he missed, he was definitely missing out of the zone. It made for easier takes,” Osborne said. “We were trying to be aggressive in the zone. When we got a pitch he missed a little over the plate, we were able to attack it. We were able to get a few good hits early in the game.”
Hudson threw 41 of 74 pitches for strikes.
Before his LSU outing, Hudson had thrown complete games against Auburn and Arkansas. He went 8 1/3 innings in an 8-2 victory against Missouri on May 5.
After seeing him this past week, Cohen felt like Hudson was going to return to his normal form that earned him first-team All-SEC honors and semifinalists honors for the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award.
“His bullpens in between are electric,” Cohen said. “When you watch his preparation, it’s just really good and he’s really confident. It just didn’t happen for him.”
Even though Hudson didn’t have a high pitch count, Cohen doesn’t expect Hudson to pitch again in the regional.
Delay? No problem
Cal State Fullerton coach Rick Vanderhook is no stranger to rain affecting baseball games.
Last summer, Vanderhook led the Titans to the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju City, South Korea. Representing the United States, it rained almost every day from July 3-14.
So when Cal State Fullerton’s game Friday against Louisiana Tech had a 1-hour, 54-minute rain delay and then another delay that forced the game to be suspended until 10 a.m. Saturday, Vanderhook wasn’t worried.
“We kind of knew how to sit and wait in a dugout for hours,” Vanderhook said. “We were joking we had already practiced this once.”
Cal State Fullerton (36-21) returned Saturday to beat Louisiana Tech 1-0 to advance to the winners’ bracket.
Vanderhook said around 20 current players were on that team, so it was nothing new to them.
The game was suspended in the bottom of the seventh with no score. Ruben Cardenas drove home Josh Vargas on a fielder’s choice in the eighth for the winning run.
Junior right-hander Scott Serigstad (2-1) came in to begin the eighth. He threw 1 2/3 inning and didn’t allow a hit. He struck out two.
“We had to wake up early, but we were excited,” Serigstad said. “If you aren’t excited for this, I don’t know what will get you going.”
Vanderhook said rain usually isn’t a factor in California. “I thought the guys mentally handled it pretty good,” Vanderhook said.
Daigle’s big day
Louisiana Tech coach Greg Goff had to take Cody Daigle out of the lineup two weeks ago because the junior first baseman was struggling at the plate.
Goff and hitting coach Jake Wells, a former volunteer assistant at MSU, sat down with Daigle and tried to find a way to get him back on track.
“It was really affecting him mentally and his body language,” Goff said. “We just sat down with him and told him, ‘Hey, let’s just get to work. You’re a big cog in this thing.’ That positive spirit just kind of continued to build with Cody and he started having some confidence and got some hits.”
Daigle showed how much his hard word has paid off as he hit his first-career grand slam and drove in a Louisiana Tech postseason-record five RBIs in a 9-4 victory against SEMO Saturday in an elimination game.
After taking a 4-3 lead in the fourth, Daigle hit his grand slam to left field.
Daigle said he was striking out too much. He said Wells woke up early to watch video and hit off the tee with him. He credited Wells and Goff for his turnaround.
“Coach Goff really helped me a lot with my two-strike approach,” Daigle said. “Just sitting in my legs and letting the pitch come to me, not going out and getting them.”
Poised to get back
The experience of the NCAA tournament will be a driving force for SEMO in 2017.
After being eliminated by Louisiana Tech, fourth-year coach Steve Bieser and his team were disappointed, but he said the experience was an eye-opener and something everyone wants to have again.
“We hope to get the same results of this year, just move on a little farther,” sophomore second baseman Trevor Ezell said. “We just want to get back to this point. It will be something we’re used to. It won’t seem as foreign, and I think we’ll be more prepared.”
Ezell went 3-for-4 with an RBI, a run, and a walk.
SEMO looked poised to move on after Dan Holst hit a three-run home run in the first, but Louisiana Tech took advantage of SEMO’s depleted pitching staff. The Redhawks ended their season at 39-21.
It was the first appearance in the NCAA tournament for the Redhawks since making an appearance in the 2002 Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Regional.
Bieser credited his seniors for helping to get the program to where it needs to be. Moving forward, he hopes this will be a good recruiting tool.
“The hope is the success we’ve had in the last few years will help us attract those players and give us the depth we need,” Bieser said. “I was talking to our athletic director about how we just didn’t have enough depth. We were really playing with guts the last half of the season, and that’s a testament to our seniors.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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