SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 26, 2021

Chase Lee

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Alabama Crimson Tide

Postgame Press Conference

Alabama 3, Tennessee 2

THE MODERATOR: We'll now begin with questions for Chase Lee.

Q. Fantastic outing for you up there on the mound today. Your longest start of the season coming from another long start against Mississippi State -- not longest start, but longest outing.

Talk about your confidence on the mound today. You came in with a sticky situation. Talk about what's going through your mind when you're out there on the mound today.

CHASE LEE: Incredible defense behind me. It's really easy to pitch with guys behind me. Peyton had a great play. Zane had some great plays. It was all around just a really good defensive effort, and it was really easy to pound the zone when guys like that are behind you.

Q. You guys kind of came into this tournament on the bubble, and the pitching staff especially has been lights out. So what was the conversation like leading up to these games, and where do you feel like you guys are at now when it comes to that bubble?

CHASE LEE: Nothing's really changed. We had the mindset of coming in and knew we had to win some games to get into the postseason. Everyone understood these were the most important games and the most important innings we'd play all year. So nobody really had to say anything or nobody did anything special. We just went out there and played with the expectation of winning because that's what we had to do to continue playing in the season.

Q. Just wanted to ask you, what was your vantage point of the play in the 9th, the run interference call? What were you thinking? What was going through your head when you were watching that develop? And then seeing them celebrate on the field and ultimately gets a return?

CHASE LEE: I was pretty upset at myself for actually tipping the ball. It was a tailor-made double play if I'd have let it go, and I ended up tipping it up and slowing it down and making it a closer play had the play developed and finished out.

I didn't see the slide, so I didn't know what was going on when they went to review. But I pretty much understood once they put it on the Jumbotron that it was going to get overturned and we were going to get to keep playing.

But as far as seeing the play develop, I didn't really see much of it.

Q. Kind of to go off what Tyler asked, how much can you guys look at that as a turning point, not only for this game, but for your NCAA Tournament hopes?

CHASE LEE: Hopefully we carry it with us. Tomorrow's a new day. So we're going to go enjoy this win and wake up tomorrow and try to do it all over again. Baseball games don't really carry over, but the momentum should help us roll into tomorrow knowing we can win any game at any time, especially playing in an extra inning game like that. We had to compete for a little bit longer against a really good Tennessee team. So being able to do that really helps build our confidence going into tomorrow.