Jake Mangum, a senior who was playing five minutes away from his childhood home, had this to say. Mangum stated, “Four runs in a row is so special.” “Winning tonight was important because of that and we were coming off of a bad series in Arkansas.” Mangum immediately changed the subject when he mentioned that Mangum had pulled within four base hits from the all-time Southeastern Conference career hits records. He said, “We had great pitching tonight.” “Defensively we made the plays when they were needed. “We got some big hits,” Mangum scored one of those big hits, a sharp single in the seventh inning. An inning later, he added a sacrifice fly. He reached a career high of 348 runs. This is four less than what Eddy Furniss, the great LSU pitcher, achieved between 1995 and 1998. The SEC is considered the best baseball conference in America by most people. It has produced some the best hitters in the game. Think about it. Will Clark, Rafael Palmeiro and Frank Thomas all played in the SEC. This is just a list of starters. Jake Mangum will soon be at the top of the hit list. He’s going to push that record even higher. There are still 13 regular reason games for State. The SEC Tournament follows. Then came a regional. A super regional may follow. Then, maybe, another College World Series. Mangum claims that this is all he cares about. These are Mangum’s exact words: “All that matters to me is that we win the last game.” That’s all that matters: We win the last game.” State is ranked No. 9 at 33-9. The national championship is won by winning the final game. Mangum returned to college baseball to play his fourth year. He wanted to win it all. What is the hits record? He said, “Had nothing” to do with it. Mangum asked if we could talk about the hits record. It’s quite an accomplishment to be the SEC’s all time hits leader. Mangum stated, “I don’t know what else to say.” “I mean, if you stay healthy, the hits will come. Although the record is nice, it’s not really sinking in. It’s not something I think about. It’s about winning. The last game won. This is priority number 1. 1. “It’s not like I came to Mississippi State to break a hit record. It’s not something that I thought about when signing with State, after my freshman year or any other year.” State fans are now thinking about it. Three-game series between the Bulldogs and Georgia will be played Friday through Sunday. Mangum may tie or break this record, it is clear. He won’t likely break the record at home if he doesn’t break it this weekend. The Bulldogs won’t be playing a mid-week match next week, and will instead play Texas A&M on the weekend. Mangum just wants to win, so it doesn’t seem to matter what. Chris Lemonis, the State’s first-year coach, knew that he was getting a great outfielder and hitter, but he believes he got much more from Mangum. Lemonis stated, “When your star player becomes your hardest worker, you truly have something special.” “Jake is a great player, but he’s also a different kind of player. He is so passionate, so determined. He is competitive, and he will win. He would also own the SEC record for fist pumping if there were one. Lemonis: “Whatever the moment is, the more he excels at it, that’s what I have learned about Jake.” Jake Mangum is doing special things right at the moment.”