Hudson DeVaughan wiped away anger from state final loss. His slider wipes away opponents
MOORESVILLE — Hudson DeVaughan was the losing pitcher for Mooresville in the longest IHSAA baseball state championship game ever last season.
He walked three straight including the winning run, giving Lake Central the 2-1 win. The loss was controversial. Mooresville supporters were not happy with the strike zone the entire game and DeVaughan's final walk was the culmination of several missed calls.
To his credit, DeVaughan hasn't dwelled on the performance. The 54th-ranked prospect in the 2026 class, per Baseball America, quickly shook off the loss and used it to fuel a breakout summer playing for Canes Midwest.
"Disbelief and anger," DeVaughan said of his emotions walking off the mound at Victory Field. "For me, I basically wiped it away immediately. I got back to work, worked even harder, and hopefully we can get another (championship appearance)."
These Pioneers (13-8) are a lot younger than the group that reached the Class 4A state final. Junior Tyler Denny (five HRs, 23 RBIs) and sophomore Liam Delap (16 RBIs) lead the offense. In DeVaughan, Mooresville has an ace capable of getting a win every time he takes the mound. This season, the Alabama commit has a 4-0 record with a 1.85 ERA and 60 strikeouts over 34 innings. He's reached double-digit strikeouts in four of six starts.
His arsenal was on display May 7 against Greenwood — even with a technical glitch.
In fifth inning, after four scoreless frames, DeVaughan was having a problem with his PitchCom, a device used to relay signals from the pitching coach to his catcher to him via an earpiece in his hat.
After a lead-off walk, DeVaughan's father, Derek, the Mooresville pitching coach, came out to talk to his son on the mound. Hudson wasn't, looking for words of advice.
"PitchCom was messing up. It was glitching on our catcher and it was hard to get the calls in," Hudson said. "We used the mound visit to fix it, and I told (Derek) to get outta there, because I knew what needed to be done."
What DeVaughan needed to do was what had been working for him the entire game — rely on his devastating slider to strike out Woodmen.
DeVaughan has prototypical starting pitcher size at 6-4, 195 pounds. His fastball has touched 97 mph. Against the Woodmen he was sitting around 92 mph, allowing the visitors to better time it up. Without a dominant fastball, DeVaughan turned to his secondary pitches to take control of the game.
"(The slider) has always been my put-away pitch," DeVaughan said. "Just years of throwing it. Just going out there and practicing and getting it down. It's my go-to pitch, I can throw it for a strike 95% of the time."
He used a high fastball to get out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth. Mooresville added six runs in the bottom half of the inning and DeVaughan closed the door. He used a slider with heavy run away from the right-handed hitter for his sixth strikeout of the game. He fooled the next hitter with a front-door slider for strikeout No. 7. He showed off his command with a well-placed inside fastball to a left-handed hitter for his eighth and final strikeout, helping the Pioneers clinch a 10-2 victory.
"He had a three or four-pitch mix going..." Mooresville coach Eric McGaha said. "You're cheating to the fastball because it's mid-to-upper 90s and if the slider is around the plate, you don't have a chance."
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