STARKVILLE — Nate Dohm’s decision to have Eminem as the artist for his walk-up song was likely based more on the short, blonde hair the two share.

But the lyrics to the rapper’s hit “Without Me” provided a fitting soundtrack for Dohm’s return to the mound as Mississippi State baseball faced North Alabama at Dudy Noble Field on Tuesday night.

Guess who’s back, back again?

As those lyrics blared through the speakers, shortly after Dohm was the last player to emerge from the dugout and skip over the foul line, he stepped onto the mound for his first action since a 12-pitch outing against Georgia on April 7.

In his return, Dohm delivered two perfect innings to open an 8-4 victory for Mississippi State (34-18, 15-12 SEC) against North Alabama (17-33-1, 9-17-1 ASUN).

“It’s really big to have him back,” said catcher Joe Powell, who had three home runs in the game. “He’s looked really good. He’s had some ups and downs, but he’s a tough kid.”

Dohm only threw 22 pitches to get through his two scheduled innings against the Lions.

As part of his rehab process, Dohm pitched in a pair of scrimmages leading up to Tuesday. In the first, he pitched one inning and got hit around. Chris Lemonis noticed Dohm was upset with the outing. To the coach, that was promising.

“You knew he was back to his competitiveness,” Lemonis said. “He wasn’t worried about his arm. He was worried about getting hit. That was a big sign for us.”

“He has not gotten down and stayed down,” Powell added. “He got down and got back up – keeps bouncing back. He’s been really good. We all saw the Nate Dohm we know and love out there.”

Last week, he faced two innings worth of hitters.

“The goal is to have him back for the postseason and working through everything,” Lemonis said. “We’re pretty close. I thought he was pretty good tonight.”

His return comes in timely fashion for the Bulldogs. Mississippi State opens a series with Missouri on Thursday (6 p.m., SEC Network+), marking the final three-game set of the regular season.

After the series concludes, MSU has a quick turnaround relative to the usual week between conference games. Mississippi State will likely open SEC tournament play Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama − possibly creating too short of rest for starters Khal Stephen or Jurrangelo Cijntje to pitch.

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Dohm’s return could give Lemonis another option.

“He’s just going to build volume each time,” Lemonis said. “Does he get an outing next week? Does he get one the following (week)? I just think he’s trying to get in there and help us out anyway he can. I can’t script too much right now. It’s such a hard time of year to script.”

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State baseball's hopes for Nate Dohm in NCAA Tournament