Part One: The Evaluation
Nick Mingione, now an assistant coach and the recruiting coordinator for Mississippi State baseball, was sitting at a small ballpark in the Atlanta area, surrounded by the parents of high schools kids watching their sons play travel baseball. Back in Starkville, one of the members of the team Mingione was in Georgia to watch had just committed to play baseball at MSU, telling head coach John Cohen he wanted to spend his college years at State.
The young man had long been identified by the staff as a player they wanted and Mingione was waiting on him in Atlanta to show the new commit how important he was to MSU.