Nick Mingione, who joined the Mississippi State baseball family in June 2008, is in his fifth year on the Diamond Dog baseball staff and his first as an assistant coach in 2012-13. The affable 12-year coaching veteran served for four years as the coordinator of Mississippi State's popular summer and winter baseball camps and as a volunteer assistant coach prior to assuming his current position following the 2012 campaign.

Mingione coaches the Bulldogs' outfielders, first basemen and hitters and on game day serves as MSU's third base coach. He will also help coordinate Mississippi State's recruiting efforts and continue working with the operation of MSU's camps program.

This is Mingione's second coaching affiliation with MSU skipper John Cohen. Mingione, who worked as an assistant coach in 2008 at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C., served on Cohen's 2006 and 2007 baseball staffs at the University of Kentucky, where he worked extensively with the UK outfielding corps and with Wildcat hitters. During that span, Kentucky won 78 games, set or reestablished 12 team marks and set a school mark with 44 wins en route to capturing the school's first SEC championship in 2006.

While serving on coach Bobby Moranda's baseball staff at Western Carolina, Mingione was recruiting coordinator and hitting coach, helping direct a Catamount team that in 2008 earned top 40 national ranking among 286 NCAA Division I programs in 11 different offensive categories.

A native of Tarrytown, N.Y., Mingione grew up in Florida and played high school baseball for coach Scott Jones at Mariner High School in Cape Coral, Fla. He continued his baseball career and was a standout outfielder for four years at Embry-Riddle University in Daytona Beach, Fla., where he played for coaches Greg and Todd Guilliams. He earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace studies with a triple minor in business, psychology and humanities in 2000. Upon graduation, Mingione served two years as assistant dean of students and as an assistant coach on Steve Larsen's baseball staff at Mariner High School.

Mingione then moved on to coach on the collegiate level, first as a volunteer assistant baseball coach under Dave Tollet at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Fla., in 2002, and later at his alma mater, Embry-Riddle. The Eagles captured Florida Sun Conference crowns and advanced to the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho, all three seasons, earning national runner-up honors in 2005.

During 11 seasons coaching on the collegiate level, Mingione, 34, has helped direct teams to four conference crowns, three advancements to the NAIA World Series, a conference tournament title and three NCAA regional tournament berths, including Mississippi State's back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in 2011 and 2012. Additionally, six of the last seven recruiting classes with which Mingione has been associated and all four at Mississippi State have earned national ranking.

Mingione, is married to the former Christen Reeves of Meridian, Miss.