Senior center fielder Jake Mangum meandered down the third base line at Dudy Noble Field following an April 27 home win over No. 7 Georgia.
With each step he took, autograph seekers who waited long past the game’s end reached across the banisters in hopes of securing a signature.
For nearly an hour after almost every home game Mangum endures this selfless tradition. And for one, potentially two, more weekends, this postgame ritual will persist as the Mississippi State baseball team hosts a regional and possibly a super regional in the 2019 NCAA tournament.
“We built this stadium for this reason,” Mangum said of hosting. “And I think it’s going to shine this weekend. People are going to show up and people are going to be loud. It’s going to be Mississippi State baseball for three days.”
And though the larger focus is on returning to the College World Series for the second straight season, Mangum and the team’s five other seniors — Cole Gordon, Elijah MacNamee, Marshall Gilbert, Peyton Plumlee and Jared Liebolt — are taking their final few games at Dudy Noble in stride.
“If this is our last super regional here, (or) our last regional here, I’d rather baseball be here than it be anywhere else,” senior reliever Gordon said.
The four years most of this senior class has endured in Starkville have been rather tumultuous by program standards. Four different head coaches have led the team in their time — the most coaching changeover MSU has experienced since a five-year span between 1905 and 1909 when the Bulldogs also went through four head coaches.
Despite the front office changes, the win column has been largely unaffected. Over the past four seasons MSU is 169-87-1, appearing in one College World Series (2018), three super regionals and twice earning a national seed with the 2019 postseason still to play. The Bulldogs also won the SEC regular season championship in 2016 and earned a share of the SEC West Division title this year.
In terms of the seniors’ legacy, Mangum and MacNamee will go down in MSU lore for their on-field exploits.
Mangum will leave Starkville as the SEC’s all-time hits leader and needs just three more knocks to record his second 100-hit season and the sixth in program history.
MacNamee, or “Big Hit Mac” as he oft-referred, clocked two of the more memorable walk-off home runs in recent MSU history in NCAA tournament wins over Florida State and Vanderbilt last season.
Hobbled by a foot injury of late, his status for this weekend remains uncertain, though Mangum is confident he’ll be ready.
“Mac’s going to do anything he can to get out there,” he said. “He’s not going to miss this.”
Then there’s Gilbert — a converted catcher and junior college transfer whose move to third base has stabilized what was a shaky MSU infield through the first half of 2019.
Pitchers Gordon and Liebelt have tossed a combined 154 innings over the past two seasons while the former has anchored the back end of the MSU bullpen in 2019 with nine saves this year.
Liebelt entered the year on the fringe of the bullpen rotation after posting a dismal 13.15 ERA in 2018. But his 2.60 ERA this season is the best mark of any MSU reliever with more than seven appearances and his five saves are second only to Gordon.
“I wanted to come back and prove myself to everyone here and myself,” Liebelt said. “I feel like I’ve done that partially. The postseason is the real season. It’s the biggest part of the year. I feel like proving yourself really can’t be truly (done) until you do something in the postseason.”
Following a yearlong suspension in 2018, Plumlee has responded resoundingly as the No. 3 starting pitcher. After a four inning, one run, three hit, three-strikeout outing against No. 14 Ole Miss in the Governor’s Cup April 23, three of his past four starts have lasted six innings or longer.
“We have great leadership, great seniors, guys who have been there and done it so many times, with their backs up against the wall even” MSU coach Chris Lemonis said of his team. “They’ve just performed over and over.”
The season may well extend beyond this weekend, but the seniors are cherishing their final moments at Dudy Noble.
“Senior Day, I think I was able to keep myself together and kind of get back in my head that we were probably going to be able to play a couple more games here,” Liebelt said. “Knowing that I have a little bit longer to soak it in, the atmosphere, the fans and just being able to be with my teammates that are home is very special.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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Senior pitcher Cole Gordon has notched nine saves this season. Photo by: Dispatch file photo
Gilbert, Plumlee, Liebalt
