STARKVILLE — Mississippi State inched closer to a first-round bye in the Southeastern Conference Tournament Thursday night and turned its attention toward a league championship.

Jake Mangum went 5-for-5 and scored three runs, Dakota Hudson threw a complete game shutout, and Mississippi State beat Arkansas 7-0 in the opener of a three-game series at Dudy Noble Field.

Hudson (9-3) struck out 10 batters, walked two and allowed five hits in his third complete game of the season. It was his second shutout in a row.

“Dakota was outstanding tonight,” Mississippi State coach John Cohen said. “You want that complete-game shutout but he was up there in pitches. He is throwing 94, 95 and touched 96 there at the end. That says a lot about his conditioning, character and toughness.”

Mississippi State (38-14-1, 19-9 SEC) has won nine consecutive games and is tied with Texas A&M (40-12, 19-9) for first place in the West Division. The Bulldogs can clinch a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament with one more win over Arkansas (26-27, 7-21) or a Texas A&M win over Ole Miss (39-15, 17-11).

“I’m going to check scores on Saturday. For now, we’ve got to take care of our own business. I thought the kids did a great job on the bench tonight. I didn’t hear anybody talking about any of that. I didn’t see anybody running back to check their phones or anything like that. I think they wanted this baseball game,” Cohen said. “Whatever happens, happens. Our kids are going to compete their tails off, and we can only control what we can control.”

With his five-hit night, Mangum raised his batting average to an SEC-leading .423.

All of Mangum’s hits were singles, and he scored in the first, third and sixth innings.

Mississippi State scored three unearned runs in the third inning to take a 4-0 lead

“In my 24 years of doing this, I don’t know if I have a seen a guy who doesn’t hit fly balls (like Mangum),” Cohen said. “He finds a way to get on. There were some things we didn’t do situationally. However, scoring runs early was big.”

Nathaniel Lowe doubled twice, drove in one run and scored another for the Bulldogs. Jack Kruger also had two hits, an RBI and a run scored.