Climb for Mangum continues up MSU'S all-time hits chart

Jake Mangum continues to climb his way up the Mississippi State career hits chart this season.

He's doing it at a pretty rapid rate. Mangum added four more hits to his total during Saturday's 15-2 win by the Bulldogs over the Auburn Tigers and he now has 319 for his career. He passed Steve Gendron (316) into fourth place in MSU history and is only 16 hits shy of Jeffrey Rea's school record of 335.

“Best hitter in the country and it's nice,” Sophomore infielder Jordan Westburg said about hitting behind Mangum in the State lineup. “What he does on a day to day basis is unbelievable. I was talking with him earlier and said he's the best at just competing every at-bat no matter what the score is and that's why he has such a successful career since he's been here.”

During last week alone, Mangum had five hits Tuesday against Little Rock, added three more Wednesday against Samford and had one hit in Friday night's 6-5 loss to Auburn.

Former LSU slugger Eddie Furniss has the record for the most career hits in the Southeastern Conference with 352.

Big crowd motivates Ginn

The attendance for Saturday's second game between the Bulldogs and Tigers was announced at 12,343.

It was the 18th largest crowd in Mississippi State history and was the first time JT Ginn was able to pitch in front of a crowd that size on a Southeastern Conference weekend.

It seemed to motivate the freshman hurler, who only gave up three hits and two runs in seven innings to improve his record to 6-0.

“You can't beat it,” Ginn said of the atmosphere. “That's the first taste I've got of SEC play at home. It was awesome.”

(Photo by Danny P. Smith, SDN)