No. 5 Joseph Hunter
Outfield * 6-0 * 187 * R-R * Sophomore * 1L *Germantown, Tenn. (GermantownHS)2004
MSU's opening day starter in center field as a true freshman in 2003* One of four Tennesseans and five Memphis natives on the MSU team * Fullyrecovered from a mid-season hand injury that sidelined him for 15 games *Noted for his impressive defensive skills and instinctive play in theoutfield * Benefited significantly from a year in the Mississippi Statestrength program.
2003
One of four true freshmen to play for MSU in 2003, seeing duty in 46games with 40 starts, all in center field * Hit .274 for the season and .246in 19 Southeastern Conference games * Missed 15 games, 17 starts and threeSEC series with a mid-season hand injury * Opened the season in the NBCClassic as MSU's starting centerfielder against Birmingham-Southern (Feb.22) * Lashed a triple for his first career hit and later added a double inMSU's 4-3 win over Connecticut (Feb. 23) * Delivered eight multi-hit games,getting two hits in each * Ripped a double and a career-first home run inthe series finale against East Tennessee State (Mar. 2) * Also belted longballs against Vanderbilt (Mar. 15) and at Memphis (Mar. 18 & 19) * Loftedseven sacrifice flies, tops on the team and tied for the fourth-most in theSEC * Shared the team lead with four triples * Also struck by nine pitchesto rank as MSU's most-plunked player * Committed but one error in 88attempts (.989) and threw out four baserunners from the outfield.
HIGH SCHOOL
Three-year starter as an outfielder at Germantown HighSchool*Coached by Phil Clark * Hit .395 as a senior, earning all-district,all-metro and all-region honors * Lashed 10 doubles, five triplesandthreehome runs and registered 17 stolen bases in 19 attempts * Rated byProspectsPlus as the top outfielder in Tennessee and the state's No. 3 playeroverallin 2002 * Helped lead the Red Devils to a 32-5 mark, district andregionalchampionships and a No. 16 final national ranking by Baseball America*Hit.358 and earned Tennessee Sports Writers All-State honors as a junior onGHS' 2001 Tennessee 3A state championship team * Tabbed MVP of the2001state tournament after hitting a tournament-record .900 (9-for-10) witha1.700 slugging percentage * Played on national championship summerleagueteams the last four years.
PERSONAL
Born Joseph Hugh Hunter on December 2, 1983 in Memphis, Tenn.*Son of Chip and Janet Hunter * Majoring in General Business Administration.
YEAR AVG GP-GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB HB SO SF S SB-SA PO A E FLD2003 .274 46-40 124 25 34 6 4 4 24 11 9 27 7 0 1-3 83 4 1 .9892004 .311 56-48 180 29 56 8 1 3 39 7 17 29 3 4 1-4 145 2 2 .987 TOTAL .296 102-88 304 54 90 14 5 7 63 18 26 56 10 4 2-7 228 6 3 .987