SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 25, 2021

Jacob Young

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Florida Gators

Postgame Press Conference

Florida 4, Kentucky 1

Q. Jacob, the way that Tommy battled back in the first inning, how important was it for you to get things started in the bottom of the first inning there?

JACOB YOUNG: Tommy competed really well today. He had some tough situations he pitched out of, made really big pitches. We needed that start from him. After the weekend, we wanted some momentum, and it kind of all got started in the whole first inning.

Q. It's a rare clean jersey for you today. (Laughter).

Were you just kind of sitting dead-red to start the game, fastball, just ambushed the fastball to start?

JACOB YOUNG: Yeah, I was looking for a good pitch kind middle, middle end, and I got it, and luckily I didn't miss it and kind of got the team rolling.

Q. Tommy obviously threw over 100 pitches five days ago, do you kind of get fired up because he's answering the bell, he's answering the call?

JACOB YOUNG: Yeah, he's our guy. Since day one, he's been our guy, since all of fall, all spring. We have all the confidence in the world in Tommy. When he has the ball, we know we're going to have a chance to win when he comes out in the ball game. It was a great feeling knowing he was starting.

Q. You've been in this tournament a couple of times. Was there a different feel this go-around having to play an elimination game to start?

JACOB YOUNG: We played an elimination game last time. It feels better to win it and have a couple of days here to get to the double elimination portion. This was a great game for us. We needed it for confidence and seeding and all of that. It felt really good to get back on track.

Q. That was actually kind of my question. How important was it to get a win today given the four-game losing streak and to kind of go into regionals next week with a little bit of momentum if you can keep this going?

JACOB YOUNG: It was huge. Postseason baseball started today. It's kind of that mentality, win or go home. We knew we needed this game, especially after the weekend. But just kind of postseason, you've got to kind of flip that switch, and you've got to start -- the little things start mattering more and everything. It's really good to get going the right direction. That was a start today.