By JOEL COLEMAN
sports@starkvilledailynews.com
His outing wasn’t without flaw, but Dakota Hudson took another step towards becoming the ace Mississippi State desires him to be on Friday night.
The junior right-hander earned his first career quality start, setting new career bests with six innings pitched and nine strikeouts as Mississippi State topped UMass Lowell 4-2 at Dudy Noble Field.
“I thought Dakota’s stuff was brilliant,” Mississippi State head coach John Cohen said. “I thought he showed tremendous composure.”
Hudson did walk four batters and throw a wild pitch, but he rebounded to retire 11 of the last 12 batters that he faced including sitting down a string of eight batters in a row over the course of the third, fourth and fifth innings.