BULLDOG BITS
Baseball
Mississippi State senior baseball student-athlete Jake Mangum has been selected one of 30 candidate for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award.
A four-year starter for the Diamond Dawgs, Mangum has appeared in 2017 career games and currently ranks No. 4 in MSU history and tied for No. 13 in Southeastern Conference history with 314 career hits. Of those hits, 59 of those are doubles, which rank him No. 3 in Bulldog history.
Pursuing his degree in business administration, Mangum has been drafted in the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft twice during his time at State. He was selected as a first-team preseason All-american by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, and was chosen the top returning senior student-athlete by D1baseball.
Mangum is also a preseason candidate for the Golden Spikes Award, given to the top amateur baseball player in the country by USA Baseball in partnership with the Rod Dedeaux Foundation.
To be eligible for the Senior CLASS Award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four C's of community, classroom, character and competition. The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2019 College World Series in June.
Men's Tennis
Down a break at 4-2 in the third set, senior Niclas Braun put together some late-match heroics to lift No. 8 Mississippi State to an exciting 4-3 victory over No. 19 Tennessee on Friday at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.
Braun won 14 points in a row – and 16 of the last 18 points – to win his match against Scott Jones of the Volunteers (11-6, 2-4 SEC) on court 3, which extended the Bulldogs' (14-3, 6-1) home winning streak to 23 matches with 13 of those matches coming in SEC play.
MSU had to battle hard to take the doubles point, with courts 1 and 3 going to match tiebreakers, and the point ended up proving quite large in the match's outcome.
State got an advantage when its fourth-ranked duo of Braun and Giovanni Oradini posted a 6-3 triumph over Tennessee's Martim Prata and Adam Walton on court 2. On court 3, MSU'S Trevor Foshey and Gregor Ramskogler led 5-3 on serve, but Tennessee's Pat Harper and Jones took three of the next four games to force a 6-all tiebreaker, just when court 1 was also forced into a breaker.
Foshey and Ramskogler mounted a 5-1 lead in the breaker at No. 3, but Harper and Jones responded by taking three of the next four points to make it 6-4 with the Volunteers going back on serve. State returned nicely to take the point and clinch yet another doubles point.
At the clincher, the eighthranked Bulldog tandem of Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic trailed 6-4 in their tiebreaker to No. 31 Timo Stodder and Preston Touliatos. MSU has now won 27 of its last 28 doubles points, including eight in a row.
The Volunteers took four first sets in singles action, but State went up 3-0 early with straightset wins on courts 1 and 5 just minutes apart.
MSU'S second-ranked Allamerican Borges took a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over No. 66 Stodder at No. 1 singles (Borges' 16th consecutive victory) just before Foshey completed a 6-2, 6-4 decision against Tennessee's Touliatos on court 5 to give the Bulldogs a commanding 3-0 lead. However, the Bulldogs had to have some three-set magic at one of the last four positions if they wanted to come away victorious.
The Volunteers capped off three straight-wins on courts 2, 4 and 6 to knot up the match at 3-all with the final court – court 3 – deadlocked at a set apiece where the match would be decided.
On court 2, Tennessee's 87th-ranked Walton fended off the Bulldogs 94th-ranked Oradini 6-4, 6-4. Moments later, the Volunteers cut MSU'S lead to 3-2 with a tight 7-6(5), 6-4 win by Luca Wiedenmann over Rakic on court 4. UT then set up the exciting finish when Andrew Rogers downed State's Florian Broska in a hard-fought 6-3, 7-6(8) battle on court 6 to even the score at 3-3.
All eyes then turned to court 3, where Braun was knotted up at a set apiece with Jones after dropping the first set 6-4. After Braun took the second frame 7-5, Jones quickly went up a break at 1-0 and held serve to 4-2. Then, the dramatic comeback began.
Braun surged back to go up 5-4 and broke Jones at 30-40 when the Volunteer's shot went just long. Braun closed out by taking 16 of the final 18 points in the contest, including 14 in a row to start that trend. With the win, Braun won his fifth straight match-clincher for the Bulldogs.
MSU continues its home stretch with another marquee SEC battle against No. 22 Georgia at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The Athens-based Bulldogs dropped a tight 4-3 decision at Ole Miss Friday night. Admission to Sunday's match is free.
Softball
A six-run third inning propelled Mississippi State softball (20-8, 1-3 SEC) to a 7-6 come-from-behind victory over No.17/13 Auburn (265, 3-1 SEC) Friday night at Nusz Park.
The victory was not only State's first conference victory of the season, but also the first over a ranked opponent. The win also snapped a four-game skid against the Tigers.
Seven Bulldogs combined for hits in the contest as MSU was led by the Davidson sisters as both freshman Mia and sophomore Montana picked up two hits for State. Mia Davidson went 2-for-4, slugging her 15th home run of the season, to drive in two runs. Senior Sarai Niu also drove in two runs with a single in the third.
Junior Alyssa tossed the complete game to pick up her seventh win of the season and the first in conference play. The right-hander worked around seven hits, giving up three home runs to the Tigers, and a walk.
Loza struck out only one, relying on her defense forcing 11 groundouts and eight fly outs. Of her six runs allowed, only four were earned.
After a scoreless first, Auburn led off the second inning with a Tannon Snow home run to left center field. After a throwing error put a Tiger on Justus Perry tripled to right field to score a run. Perry came home on a second Bulldog error of the inning to extend the lead to 3-0.
Junior Candace Denis led off the home half of the inning with bunt single to third base and advance to third on a Montana Davidson single through the right side. Auburn fielded a double play at second, but conceded the run as Denis score to cut the lead to 3-1.
The Tigers got a run back in the fourth, leading off the inning with a home run to straight-away center from Casey Mccrackin.
Mississippi State began its rally in the third as senior Bevia Robinson got on base with a throwing error on her bunt attempt. Mia Davidson made it a 4-3 game with a home run to left field, her 15th of the season.
After an Auburn pitching change, junior Fa Leilua singled to second base. After advancing to second on a groundout and third on a wild pitch, Leilua scored as Carter Spexarth tied the game up with an infield single to short.
With two on base after a second Auburn error of the inning, Montana Davidson put the Bulldogs in front with a double to right field. Niu capped the inning with a two-run single off the top of the left field wall to extend the State lead to 7-4.
Auburn pulled within one run in the sixth with a Kendall Veach two-run home run and brought the top of the Tiger order in the seventh inning. Loza forced two outs at second and recorded her lone strikeout to retire the side and record the win.
Women's Golf
Returning from a fifth-place finish in Arizona, the Mississippi State women's golf team will return to action today at the Evans Derby Experience in Opelika, Alabama.