North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Mangini's Remarkable Start
2/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 17, 2006
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - After watching nearly every NC State baseball game from the bench last season, Matt Mangini has learned to cherish every pitch, every at-bat, every inning and every game.
"You can't take anything for granted," said Mangini. "Just because you have a spot in the lineup, doesn't mean you will keep it. I just want to keep playing hard and let my abilities take over."
Right now, the 6-2, 209-pound sophomore from Holly Springs, NC, is getting a hit just about every time he steps up to the plate. In six games, he has 20 hits in 25 at-bats for an .800 batting average, two doubles, three triples, 13 runs scored and 14 RBIs, numbers that would be hard to match in slow-pitch softball or T-ball.
Mangini has already achieved something remarkable: his performances in two series against Delaware State and Hofstra earned him back-to-back national player of the week awards.
Last year, playing behind fifth-year senior Matt Devine, Mangini rarely played for the Wolfpack. He had exactly five hits in 31 at-bats, a .161 average. This year, he had more than twice that many hits in the first weekend, going 11-for-13 at the plate. He could go hitless in his next 98 at-bats and still end up with a better batting average than he had last year.
"I have never seen any one do something like (go 20-for-25) before," said Aaron Bates, NC State's All-America first baseman, who led the Wolfpack in nearly every offensive statistic last season and is considered one of the top hitters in college baseball. "The thing about Matt is that he is a patient hitter and he keeps everything so simple. It's one of those things that (his streak of multiple-hit games) could go on for a long time. He has a good swing and a good head for the game.
"He deserves it. He works really hard."
While his offensive numbers are eye-popping, Mangini isn't necessarily surprised or satisfied with the way he was swinging the bat at the start of this season.
"My swing is starting to feel better and better," Mangini said. "It didn't feel great that first weekend. So I have to keep going to the cage and working on it.
"But I am a perfectionist, and if I am not doing something right I have to work on it. It's something I have been doing my whole life. I am never satisfied."
Mangini learned much about hitting while spending the summer with the Thunder Bay (Ontario) Border Cats, in the wooden-bat Northwoods League. He hit .342, with 13 doubles, six home runs and 45 RBIs, earning a nod as Baseball America's top prospect in the league.
He was one of three players in the league to be named to Baseball America's summer All-America squad and he won the league's Silver Glove Award as its top defensive third baseman.
Mangini is just one of several Wolfpack hitters off to a hot start, as Elliott Avent's team set a school record by scoring 105 runs in its first six games of the season. Mangini is one of six starters who are hitting better than .400 after six games, and that doesn't include Bates, who is hitting .364 so far this season.
"Hitting is definitely contagious, and we have all caught it right now," Mangini said.
But the Wolfpack will face a huge challenge on Friday at noon when it faces Nebraska in the Homewood Suites Shootout in Charleston, SC. The Huskers (1-0) will start Joba Chamberlain, a righthander who compiled a 10-2 record with a 2.81 ERA in 2005.
Considered to be one of the top college pitchers in the country, Chamberlain was a preseason All-America by Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America.
"We are definitely excited about seeing Joba Chamberlain," Mangini said. "It will definitely be a step up from the pitching we have been seeing."
The game against the Cornhuskers, which begins at noon, will be streamed live here.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
