By JOEL COLEMAN
sports@starkvilledailynews.com
Back in 2007, an 11-year-old Jake Mangum sat in front of a television at a hotel awaiting his next game in a youth league baseball tournament. On the screen were the Mississippi State Bulldogs as they battled Clemson in a super regional that ultimately punched MSU’s ticket to Omaha, Nebraska, and that year’s College World Series.
Fast-forward to nearly a decade later and now some kid in some hotel room somewhere in America is about to have the opportunity to watch Mangum as the freshman outfielder suits up for the Bulldogs in what will be his first-ever taste of postseason college baseball when MSU faces Southeast Missouri State in the first game of the Starkville Regional on Friday.