re: Official 2018 Mississippi State Baseball Thread (12-10 / 0-3)

2018 MISSISSIPPI STATE BASEBALL PREVIEW

STARKVILLE, Miss. – With Year Two of the Andy Cannizaro Era swiftly approaching, the Mississippi State head baseball coach, along with Preseason All-Americans Jake Mangum and Konnor Pilkington met with the media on Tuesday afternoon to preview the 2018 season.

The Diamond Dawgs have so for been ranked in all six major preseason top 25 polls. MSU is ranked No. 12 by D1 Baseball, No. 13 by Collegiate Baseball, No. 15 by USA Today, No. 17 by NCBWA, No. 23 by Baseball America and No. 25 by Perfect Game.

State is coming off a 40-27 year in 2017 that included a NCAA Regional Championship in year one of the Andy Cannizaro Era. On Friday, Feb. 16, MSU will open the 2018 season on the very field at which the regional title was won, Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Fans will have opportunities to meet the 2018 Diamond Dawgs prior to Opening Day at a pair of free events on MSU's campus. Fan Day is set for Sunday, Feb. 11, while Cowbell Yell will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 13.

2018 Preseason Honors
Jake Mangum – OF – Third Team Preseason All-American (D1 Baseball, NCBWA, Perfect Game)
Konnor Pilkington – SP – Second Team Preseason All-American (Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA, Perfect Game), Third Team Preseason All-American (D1 Baseball)
Spencer Price – RP – Third Team Preseason All-American (Collegiate Baseball)

Media Day Quotes
Head Coach Andy Cannizaro
Opening Statement…
"Thanks everyone for being here today. It is extremely exciting when you get to this part of the year. It is college baseball season. We are excited to get everything started next weekend against an outstanding Southern Mississippi team. We have been extremely busy and hard at work these last couple of weeks since we have been able to get back together as a team. I feel like we have been able to accomplish some outstanding things the last couple of weeks in terms of getting our guys ready to play. This season is going to create such a unique opportunity for us with us not being able to play our first home game until March 6th this season. So, obviously you would like to start the season maybe in a little different fashion than we are this year, but at the same time, every single think that we talk about here in this program is embracing the opportunity, embracing what we have ahead of us. We have known all year long that we will be starting this season out on the road. I think our guys have rallied around that in terms of bringing it each and every day ad preparing 35 guys to open the season on the road this year for so much and so long of a period. I feel like we have an outstanding team in terms of makeup and character. Guys with physical and mental toughness that are going to be able to withstand being on the road for such a long part of the early season this year. In terms of guys that we are really going to be counting on, we have got some extremely battled-tested guys who have been through the wars of the SEC and have been through winning the SEC and winning 40 games and going to back to back supper regionals and playing in front of 10,12,15 or 20,000 people. That type of thing and obviously these two guys that we have sitting up here right now are a testament to what I am talking about. Our guys have worked extremely hard. They get after it each and every day. I love where we are in terms of what we have going on on the mound right now. We are going to welcome back several outstanding arms to our rotation this year. I am looking forward to those guys either competing for weekend or mid-week starting roles or those fitting right there in the middle or the back-end of our bullpen and are going to be able to give us outstanding options in terms of elongating our pitching staff which we did not have a year ago. Position player wise, I feel like we have some outstanding veterans that are back this year that are ready to have outstanding junior college baseball seasons. Jake Mangum obviously leads that group for us. He has had a terrific fall. He has had an outstanding last couple of weeks of the season. He has done a tremendous job as far as reading our team so far and trying to get some younger guys ready to play each and every day. Guys like Hunter Stovall, Luke Alexander, Elijah MacNamee and Hunter Vansau, those guys are a core that play each and everyday last year and went through the battles of the SEC to win 40 and get to a Super Regional. Having those guys back has been able to allow us some veteran presence and some veteran leadership that is out on the practice field each and every day for us. We are extremely excited for the 2018 season. We feel like we have an extremely competitive ball club. We feel like we are going to be outstanding on the mound this year in terms of weekend starters certainly lead by Konnor Pilkington who I think has been a pre-season All American in every publication imaginable. He has certainly deserved each and every honor he has received this preseason. His work has been outstanding, his last couple of starts have been great. We are certainly going to lean on Konnor heavily this year just like we did a year ago, each and every Friday night to get us deep in the ball games and give us chances to win on Friday nights in the most competitive league, amateur baseball conference in the world. With that, obviously we are excited to be here. It is college baseball season. We look forward to a terrific season and getting things cranked up next Friday at Southern Mississippi. It is going to be a tremendous challenge for us, but I think it is one that we are certainly ready for and look forward to getting after."