STARKVILLE — On Friday night, Dakota Hudson pitched a complete-game four-hitter for Mississippi State against Ole Miss.

It turns out he was showing the Bulldogs’ other pitchers how it’s done.

Junior right-hander Austin Sexton followed Hudson’s gem with one of his own on Saturday, allowing four hits and no earned runs in a complete-game victory as the Bulldogs beat their in-state rival 6-2 at Dudy Noble Field.

“We were pleased with Austin Sexton,” Mississippi State coach John Cohen said. “Our pitching has been great for both games in the series. Two complete games are huge.”

No. 12 Mississippi State (20-7-1, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) remained in first place in the SEC West by winning its fourth consecutive series. The last time an MSU team did that was when the 2003 squad won five in a row.

Mississippi State also won its first series against No. 11 Ole Miss (20-7, 2-6) since 2012. The finale is Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

The Bulldogs haven’t swept Ole Miss in a three-game series since 2003. They’ve also failed in two attempts this season to sweep SEC series after winning the first two games against both Vanderbilt and Georgia.

Cohen said the efforts of Hudson and Sexton have put them in a prime position to end both streaks.

“What those guys have done for us is allowed our bullpen to stay intact so that we can use our bullpen full force on Sunday,” Cohen said. “We have this opportunity again to sweep a team, and we have to take advantage of this opportunity because they don’t come around very often.”

After Hudson got the Bulldogs the victory in the series opener, Sexton followed him with another nearly flawless performance.

Sexton didn’t allow a run until the eighth inning. He didn’t walk a batter and finished with eight strikeouts.

Mississippi State’s pitchers have not allowed an earned run in 20 2/3 innings, and have not issued any walks in their last 27 2/3 innings.

In its last 17 home games, MSU’s starting pitching has gone 12-0 with a 0.49 ERA. Cohen said Hudson and Sexton have been at the forefront of that effort.

“What’s really special to me is just to see their body language and the way they approached this week. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen two more focused players in my career than Dakota Hudson and Austin Sexton. Those guys were ready to pitch,” Cohen said. “This is a rivalry series, but they also didn’t pitch as well as they wanted to in Oxford last year. That’s what great athletes do. When they’re not successful, they find a way to come back, make adjustments, and become successful later on.”

At the plate, the Bulldogs jumped on Ole Miss starter Chad Smith (2-3) early. They roughed him up for four runs on five hits in only 1 1/3 innings.

Reliever Brady Feigl pitched well for 5 1/3 innings, allowing only two runs, but Ole Miss never recovered from its shaky start.

Freshman Jake Mangum hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning to put MSU on the board, and in the second he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in another run.

Jacob Robson and Ryan Gridley also had RBI singles in the second inning as the Bulldogs jumped out to a 4-0 lead.

Mangum added an RBI double in the seventh innning and finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a run scored.

“Mangum’s been great. He hit a line drive out of the ballpark today. He hangs in there and gets an HBP, and that’s another RBI. That’s big,” Cohen said. “That’s really advanced for a freshman. Usually freshmen go into the mode of average fly ball or weak ground ball, and he’s hitting the ball hard almost every time up there.”

Robson and Nathaniel Lowe had two hits apiece for MSU. Eight of its nine starters had at least one hit. The only one who didn’t, John Holland, walked and scored a run in the second inning.

Auburn 8, LSU 5

LSU 8, Auburn 6

Jordan Romero and Chris Reid drove in two runs apiece as LSU (17-9, 3-5 SEC) beat Auburn 8-6 in the second game of a doubleheader Saturday.

LSU’s Jared Poche allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings to get the win.

In game one, Anfernee Greer went 3-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored and Joshua Palacios homered as Auburn won 8-5.

Blake Logan doubled twice and had four RBIs for Auburn (13-14, 2-6).

Georgia 12, Alabama 4

Skyler Weber was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, Michael Curry went 2-for-5 with a home run, three RBIs and two runs scored, and Georgia (17-12, 4-5 SEC) beat Alabama (16-11, 5-4) to win their three-game series in Athens.

Stephen Wrenn also homered for Georgia.

The two teams combined to hit seven doubles in the game.Alabama’s Cobie Vance had two.

Vanderbilt 10, South Carolina 6

Jeren Kendall went 2-for-5 with a double, home run, two RBIs and two runs scored to lead No. 3 Vanderbilt (23-5, 6-3 SEC) past No. 5 South Carolina (24-5, 7-2).

Penn Murfee drove in three runs for Vanderbilt, which rallied from a 4-1 deficit after 4 1/2 innings. The Commodores scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead, and three more in the seventh to extend it.

Jonah Bride and D.C. Arendas both homered for South Carolina.

With the win, Vanderbilt won the key series between the SEC East powers. The Commodores also won the opener on Thursday to take two out of three. South Carolina still leads the division by one game over Florida and Vandy.