Last summer, we got to see Mitch Hilligoss firsthand and knew he had a future. After a solid rookie season in Staten Island in which he helped the Baby Bombers repeat as NY-Penn League champs, the recently turned 22 year-old third baseman has continued to excel with Single A Charleston this season.

Recently, the former Purdue All Big Ten standout was honored by the Riverdogs for his South Atlantic League record 38-game hitting streak. The streak began on April 18 and concluded on June 3. Last Saturday before a home game against Augusta, he was presented with a commemorative plaque from Charleston skipper Torre Tyson, general manager Dave Echols and assistant GM Jim Pfander.

Hilligoss was also given the record-tying and breaking game balls (35, 36, 37 and 38) during the ceremony with plenty of support from a crowd which gave him a nice reception. What else would you expect?

Last night, the third baseman who hit .313 with two home runs, 27 RBI’s, 19 doubles, two triples along with a club high 85 hits and 13 steals in the first half took part in the South Atlantic League All-Star Game.

So how did he do? How else? By taking home the MVP trophy even though the South fell 3-1 to the North. In a losing effort, he finished with three hits, an RBI single, steal and defensive gem which started a double play. It’s worth noting that during last year’s Penn-League AS Game, the third baseman shared Most Outstanding Player honors with teammate Nick Peterson. Not a bad track record for the former 2006 sixth round selection!

As usual, last night’s MVP was modest afterwards in an article featured on milb.com:

“It’s a real honor. There were a lot of great players in this game. … We played well, we just didn’t win. That’s the only thing detracting from this.”

To read the entire article, go here:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070619&content_id=262320&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp
Congratulations to Mitch on this honor and best wishes for continued success in his pro career!