North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Mangini Hopes to Add Pop to Baseball Lineup
10/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 20, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - Not long after Matt Mangini and his family moved to Holly Springs from Massachusetts in 1995, he and his dad went to an NC State baseball game at Doak Field. The details of the game aren't important, but the impression made that afternoon might be significant this spring for Elliott Avent's squad.
Because the next day, Mangini put something new at the top of his list of things he wanted out of life: to play baseball for the Wolfpack.
"I fell in love with it," said Mangini, who grew up to be a three-time all-conference player at ApexHigh School . "So ever since I was in the fifth grade, I had all these goals posted on my wall and the very first one of them was to play baseball at NC State.
"It was a no-brainer."
Another no-brainer is Avent's decision to insert the 6-4, 209-pound sophomore third baseman into the vacancy left by the departure of fifth-year senior Matt Devine, last year's starter there in all but three games.
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Wolfpack Intrasquad
World Series
Friday at 7 p.m. Saturday at 5 p.m. Sunday at 1 p.m.
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But, in preparation for stepping into Devine's starting position, Mangini headed to Canada this summer to play in the Northwoods League, a wooden-bat circuit in the Northern Plains for college players.
He hit the ball so well in 53 games for the Thunder Bay ( Ontario) Border Cats - compiling a .344 average with 13 doubles, six home runs and 45 RBIs - that Baseball America named him the top prospect in the Northwoods League. He was one of three players in the league named to Baseball America's summer All-America squad and he won the league's Silver Glove Award as its best defensive third baseman.
Mangini's performance over the summer gives Avent reason to believe that he will have an explosive offensive squad when the Wolfpack begins regular-season play in February, thanks to the return of slugger Aaron Bates, an eighth-round draft pick of the Florida Marlins who opted to return to NC State for his junior season.
"Matt worked all year to become a better baseball player, even though his playing time wasn't what he might have wanted it to be last season," Avent said. "The work ethic he had at practice last year, allowed him to be the type of player that he was in the summer and that he is now."
Mangini and his teammates will conclude their fall workouts this weekend with the Wolfpack Intrasquad World Series, three days of scrimmages at Doak Field. Admission is free to the public, with games starting on Friday at 7 p.m.
"I went into the fall workouts just trying to earn a starting job," Mangini said. "I didn't want to take anything for granted. The summer was great, but it is over. I still have a lot of work to do between now and the start of the season."
But he does believe the Wolfpack, which qualified for postseason play with a remarkable second-half of play in the ACC last season, will be one of the best teams in the conference this year, thanks to its offense, defense and starting pitching. The biggest question mark is in the bullpen, which loses closer Joey Devine, now with the Atlanta Braves, and senior Jason Duncan, who is moving from setup man to the starting rotation.
The Wolfpack finished at 41-19, ending the season with a loss to Creighton in the NCAA Lincoln ( Neb.) Regional.
This year, the Wolfpack hopes to go back to Nebraska at the end of the season: to the College World Series in Omaha. The Wolfpack has made it to the CWS only once in school history, in 1968.
"Everybody has that taste on their mouth, not exactly bitter, but still hungry," Mangini said. "The last couple of years, as a team, we have been saying we want to put ourselves in position to make a regional. But now, we are starting to say we are setting our goals higher, saying we want to get to Omaha.
"Every day we were out there for fall practice, we said `One day closer to Omaha.' We keep saying it and everybody believes it."
And that would be another goal Mangini could cross off his list.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
