SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 26, 2021

Chris Armstrong

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Florida Gators

Postgame Press Conference

Florida 13, Mississippi State 1

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Chris Armstrong.

Q. After getting a win yesterday with not many hits, today had to feel really good for the offense.

CHRIS ARMSTRONG: It was awesome. I think we really clicked together, played as a team. Barco pitched his ass off. Playing more for each other than ourselves, that's for sure.

Q. Where did this start? I think you can point back to Sunday at Tennessee when things started to turn.

I guess when did you guys start coming together to play for each other?

CHRIS ARMSTRONG: After that Arkansas series, it wasn't too fun for us. We kind of got together and talked about how we need to play more as a team and play together. Not just doing it for ourselves but for something bigger, trying to play the last game of the season for sure.

Q. And then for you, when did you learn that you were going to be playing today, and when did Sully tell you?

CHRIS ARMSTRONG: You never know until you see the lineup. We had a good idea. The pitcher we watched beforehand, you kind of have a good idea of who's going to be in the lineup, but you've just got to be ready to get in there and do some damage.

Q. Kind of looked like a little kid with that headfirst slide into home.

CHRIS ARMSTRONG: I know. I haven't been sliding head first often this season, so it was good to get in there and do one.

Q. Chris, only five strikeouts yesterday, only three today. Sully mentioned a little bit of a change of approach. Can you talk about that?

CHRIS ARMSTRONG: Yeah, I think it's -- I don't want to give up too much, but just kind of being aggressive, being the aggressor and not letting the pitchers get to us and get into deep counts. I think that's what we did really well today was hitting in early counts and doing damage at that time.

Q. He talked about not taking the first strike. Is that something you all did a lot in the Arkansas series?

CHRIS ARMSTRONG: Yeah, it was kind of a weird environment, and it was something a little bit different than we weren't expecting. And I think we got a little lackadaisical unfortunately. Going into this game, we really changed gears and tried to be more on the aggressive side.