Hudson, Wildcats set sights on Atlantic 10 Tournament

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DAVIDSON — Josh Hudson, a Siler City native and former Jordan-Matthews star, and the Davidson baseball team has secured second-place in the Atlantic 10 — its best finish in five seasons — and will enter next week’s A-10 Tournament at Fordham with a matchup against No. 7 Saint Louis.

The Wildcats (26-20, 14-6 A-10) and Billikens (13-11 A-10) will play at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. The seven-team, double-elimination event is being hosted by Fordham at Houlihan Park in The Bronx, N.Y.

With a sweep at St. Bonaventure this week, Davidson clinched at least a third-place finish. Then Fordham beat Dayton twice to drop the Flyers below the Wildcats in the standings.

VCU (19-5 A-10) earned the top seed and has a first-round bye. Dayton (No. 3) and Rhode Island (No. 6) will meet in the first round, as will No. 4 Fordham and No. 5 Richmond.

Davidson hosted Saint Louis in a three-game series April 26-28. The Wildcats won the first two games 6-5 and 10-6 before the Billikens salvaged a 5-4 Sunday win.

Josh Hudson threw six innings and allowed three hits while walking one and striking out eight to propel Davidson to a 2-1 win at St. Bonaventure Friday afternoon and putting the finishing touches on a second Atlantic 10 Conference sweep and the regular season portion of the schedule.

After scoring 25 runs in Friday’s dominant twinbill, the Wildcats had to find another route to victory Friday. With the score tied 1-1 in the ninth, Justin Lebek led off with a single and scored two batters later when Nussbaum doubled down the right field line.

Gabe Levy (3-1) then pitched a scoreless ninth and ended the game by striking out Ben MacDonald with runners at first and second.

Davidson took a 1-0 lead in the second inning after Brett Centracchio, who reached on a walk, scored on a wild pitch. The Bonnies (13-32, 6-18) pulled even in the eighth on an RBI-double by Jake Foden.

Second baseman Matt Frey was hit by a pitch in the fifth inning, which extended his reached-base streak to 41 games and also set the program’s single-season hit-by-pitch record (17).

The series sweep is Davidson’s fourth. The Wildcats swept La Salle in the opening A-10 series and also swept non-conference foes Towson and North Alabama.