OMAHA, Neb. -- Every weekday since the school year began last fall, John Hudgins' alarm clock has jarred him out of bed at 7 a.m. Quickly, he's gotten dressed, put on his running shoes and headed out the door to meet the rest of the Stanford pitching staff for the least favorite part of his college life.

Running.

	John Hudgins' 10-hit performance kept Stanford's title hopes alive.

He's run up hills, down hills, across campus, up and down the stadium stairs, in between buildings -- whatever he's been told. Sometimes it's one mile, sometimes it's three miles. It's never fun.

"I hate running," Hudgins said.

Well, in Sunday's Game 2 of the College World Series against Rice, all those early mornings and exhausting jogs may have finally paid off, as Hudgins turned in one of the gutsiest pitching performances in CWS history.

With his team facing elimination, and on just three day's rest, the junior right-hander sweated his way through a seven-inning, 10-hit, three-run performance en route to an 8-3 Cardinal win on a steamy summer afternoon.

Three days after throwing 135 pitches, he threw 131 more. That's 236 pitches in four days. Throw in his 84-pitch performance in Stanford's opening CWS game, and it's a perfect 350 pitches in 10 days.

At least part of the credit, Hudgins says, must go to his training.

"It's a pride thing," he said. "There aren't many teams that go out there and do what we do. We're all there, trying to beat each other out. And it gets to the point where conditioning is just not a factor for us anymore."

The Texas Rangers selected Hudgins with their third-round pick in last week's Amateur Baseball Draft. And one can only imagine how John Hart & Co. feel about the lofty pitch counts. But Stanford head coach Mark Marquess, who gave Hudgins the final decision as to whether or not he could go Sunday, walked away more than impressed.

"What he's done here, I don't care if he throws 75 miles per hour and is 5-foot-2," Marquess said. "I don't remember ever bringing a pitcher here who has done what John has.

"Am I saying he's the best pro prospect I've ever coached? No. But I don't know if there's ever been a better pitcher in the College World Series. Find me one."

For the second game in a row, Hudgins took the mound on shortened rest and with his team facing elimination. Last time, he drew the task of beating Cal-State Fullerton, a team the Cardinal was 0-4 against all season. Sunday, he faced the Owls, a team that was 4-0 in the World Series and had first-team All-American Wade Townsend, who was 11-1 with a 1.92 ERA, on the hill.

Though he was hardly dominant, Hudgins again delivered. In five of his seven-plus innings, he worked with runners on base. But clutch pitching stranded nine of those runners. In the fourth, he surrendered three straight singles with one out, yet managed to give up only one run, after inducing a pop out and a fly out.

During his pregame warm-ups in the bullpen, he knew he didn't have his best stuff. But because he isn't a power pitcher who relies on a lively fastball, he still felt confident. Especially since he had his control.

	“	Am I saying he's the best pro prospect I've ever coached? No. But I don't know if there's ever been a better pitcher in the College World Series. Find me one. ”
		— Stanford manager Mark Marquess on John Hudgins

"When you warm up in the pen, you're like, 'OK, I don't have that today. Let's try this,' " Hudgins said. "I knew I wasn't going to blow anybody away. So I just tried to locate and keep the hitters off balance."

Marquess asked Hudgins on Friday if he thought he might be able to go on Sunday, should Stanford lose Game 1. Hudgins told his manager that he'd prefer pitching in Game 3 on Monday, but could go on Sunday if his manager needed him.

And he did, Hudgins had no problem with the decision.

"There's a difference between having soreness and being dead," he said. "If you're sore, you really shouldn't go. But if you've got a dead arm, if your fastball just isn't as live as it usually is, you're OK. Dead is OK. Sore is not." Hudgins did his part to control the wear on his arm, limiting his warm-up pitches between innings to just a couple. And just to prove how confident he was in the Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year, Marquess didn't even have anybody sitting in the bullpen, much less warming up, until the eighth inning.

"We were going to win with our best or lose with our best," the coach said. "And he's our best."

In seven of his last eight starts, Hudgins has gone at least eight innings. In four of those seven, he's gone the distance. And not once did he get the loss.

After Sunday's game, a reporter asked Hudgins the obvious, yet important, question. After 350 pitches in 10 days, 265 pitches in four days, just how does an arm feel?

"Well," Hudgins said, grinning. "I can't go tomorrow. But I'm doing OK."

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn3.com.