The Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Junior of the Year and top returner for the Warriors looks like he’s going to be the top returning player on paper in the entire Central Coast Section. Despite being an underclassman, Jacob Hudson was named the Most Valuable Player of the West Catholic Athletic League, and that’s quite an accomplishment.

Now, he adds the Prep2Prep honor to his selection as a Cal-Hi Sports all-state first-team Juniors, and San Francisco Chronicle all-Metro and BANG first-team selections.

“It’s an absolute honor,” said Hudson via direct message on Twitter after returning from a camp in Arizona.

“It’s definitely a great feeling to get recognized and put out there for my accomplishments,” Hudson continued. “But I couldn’t have done it without support of so many people behind me like my parents and coaches, and my trainer, Matt Rossy, one of my biggest supporters.”

Hudson didn’t pitch as much as he did in his sophomore season with other arms like Prep2Prep Co-Freshman of the Year Quentin Marsh in the mix, but he did well enough, and at the plate and on defense at third base, he was outstanding.

Jacob was second on the Warriors in average to Prep2Prep Co-Freshman of the Year Hunter Fujimoto, hitting .343. He tied Fujimoto for tops with 37 hits. Hudson had one home run, tied for the team lead with nine doubles, tied for third with 24 RBIs, plus he had 20 runs scored and five stolen bases.

On the mound in four starts and 14 appearances the 5-11, 205-pound right-hander was 3-2 with a very respectable 2.62 ERA for the level of competition. Hudson also had 43 strikeouts in 37.1 innings.

On defense he only had four errors in 139 total chances, putting him among the team leaders with a .971 fielding percentage.

Valley Christian came up a little short in the CCS D1 playoffs and in the D1 NorCals, but they still had an outstanding 25-8-1 overall record and tied for second in the WCAL at 10-3-1.

When asked about personal and team goals for next season Hudson had this to say.

“I would say my personal goals for this upcoming year are to just keep getting better in every aspect of the game, both on the mound and at the plate. But it all starts now in the off-season training and making sure we are all getting stronger, faster and tougher.”

“I think last year as a team we learned a lot and even though our season didn’t end how we anticipated, I think it fueled our fire, and we’re coming for it all this year.”

According to perfectgame.org, Hudson gets some high marks for his pitching, including a capsule that includes saying he has a “power arm that stands out and continues to see fastball jump, now up to 92 MPH.”

That’s the kind of stuff that should help Jacob get to the next level but so far he says he’s been looking at a few different schools but still waiting for the right offer to come along.

If he has the kind of off-season he’s planning and duplicates his feats of this season next year, the offers should come pouring in.

Congratulations to Jacob Hudson, the 2022 Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Junior of the Year for baseball.

Other players considered for this award include Archbishop Mitty's Jared Advincula and Matt Blandino, Live Oak's Diego Castellanos, Saint Francis' Elias Duncan and Palo Alto's Sam Papp.

NOTE: We would like to thank our media partners, coaches, parents, players and fans for contributing photos for our all-section features. We salute all of the players that have made this a wonderful season of CCS baseball.