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COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 22, 2018

Omaha, Nebraska

Oregon State - 12, Mississippi State - 2

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Mississippi State coach Gary Henderson and student-athletes Jake Mangum and Hunter Stovall.

COACH HENDERSON: We obviously didn't do enough to win a victory today. I think you've got to start with the fact we didn't get a lead-off guy out until the sixth. We only got two out all day. We gave them 11 freebies. Oregon State did a great job of keeping the pressure on.

A very good job of hitting mistakes. And that really encapsulizes the ballgame there. We did a poor job of getting the lead-off guys on. And we put too many freebies on for them, and they took advantage of that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Jake, seems like you guys always play your best when your backs are to the wall, and here you are again. How do you feel about it?
JAKE MANGUM: It's the position we're used to. We've been here a lot. We're going to come out tomorrow and compete and look to win a ballgame.

Q. Hunter, is this just one of those games where you have to flush it and try again tomorrow?
HUNTER STOVALL: Yeah, I mean, it's baseball. Stuff like that happens. Flush it and move on to the next day. You carry it on to the next day, it ain't going to do nothing for you.

Q. Jake, when you guys kind of -- I know you're practicing, but when you sit around for a few days after winning the first two, do you feel like kind of in a way it makes you lose a little of the momentum you had?
JAKE MANGUM: Not necessarily. We felt ready to play today. They just capitalized off of mistakes. And all we can do is worry about tomorrow and be ready to go tomorrow.

Q. Did y'all see what happened during batting practice with Ethan?
JAKE MANGUM: No, we did not. Ethan will be ready to go tomorrow. He'll give us a good start.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. Just looking at Oregon State, 37 runs their last three games. From your perspective in the dugout, what have you seen from their lineup top to bottom right now?
COACH HENDERSON: Well, besides the fact that they've got really good players, exceptional players through the first four, they do a really good job of making you pay for mistakes.

Now, when you make good pitches, you get them out. And that's kind of a standard saying that every pitching coach has ever uttered to his staff. And it's true if you make good pitches you get them out. But the margin of error when you're facing them right now is not very good. And on top of it, we put 11 guys on base, the entire time, plus the two through the lineup, we just put them over there.

Really just turns your margin of error into just about nothing. You have to be really, really good. And we just weren't sharp enough today to earn a victory.

And obviously they hit some balls on the nose and they had their share of soft contact. Couple checked swing balls that fell in, and you put it all together and it's the game you just watched.

We have to do a really good job of whatever term you want, to flush it, forget it, and we've got to get in tomorrow. Fortunately with this group they're well aware, first game, Friday night in Tallahassee. Saturday in Nashville. We've come back many, many times, this group has. So-called clichÃ© your backs against the wall, we're in a corner, and so we'll respond well.

And to Kendall's question regarding momentum, and I always -- in 1990 I was pitching coach with Dennis Rogers at Riverside Community College and had the opportunity the entire fall to go over at lunchtime, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and be a participant in Coach Calinas's [phonetic] noontime lunch chalk talk. Wonderful experience in my life. And he constantly preached momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher.

And we're big believers in that. And Ethan will come out. He'll give us a good start. And we'll do everything we can to get in that Monday night ballgame.

Q. Oregon State had to win today. Did you see more of a sense of urgency from the Beavers?
COACH HENDERSON: No. I think they didn't play well their first game here and the last, what, two, today is their fourth game, correct? Is that right? The two before this I thought they played very well. Sharp. Aggressive.

It's a good team with a lot of good, older players. And they'll show up tomorrow as well.

Q. Where were you when the deal happened with Ethan and batting practice and what did you see?
COACH HENDERSON: I saw it. I was on the field. So, yeah, it's unbelievable. I don't even know what to say. Other than the kids are bulletproof. I'm like -- I don't know what -- a grandma, a mom, or overprotective father telling them all the time you're not bulletproof. That's where they are all their life. Stay behind the screen they've heard that ad nauseam from me. But freak accidents happen and it hit him and we're planning on him pitching tomorrow.

He's doing his job, I would just like him to do it behind the screen, like all the time. It's like anything in life. You are raising your kids or whatever, maybe you're talking to grandkids or you're a teacher in an educational setting or whatever it may be, and whenever you have a position of leadership or you're trying to teach somebody something, there's that feeling that life has taught you through pain and you're trying to get those guys to, you're trying to educate them, you're trying to have them skip the pain part in all areas of life.

Teaching your son or daughter how to drive, how to respond socially, or how to be effective in an extracurricular activity. We do obviously playing baseball. Anyway, we talked to them a lot: Get behind the screen. Those guys have heard that from me a couple hundred times from me. They laugh and, yeah, we'll get ya, and unfortunately it got him today.

And so that's life. We'll see where it takes us. And we're planning on him pitching.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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