SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 28, 2021

Sam Praytor

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Alabama Crimson Tide

Postgame Press Conference

Tennessee - 11, Alabama - 0

THE MODERATOR: Open it up with a quick statement, recap the game, and we'll have questions for you.

SAM PRAYTOR: That definitely didn't go how we planned to go. We fought the whole way. No one thought we'd make it this far in the tournament, and we fought the whole year. That's definitely not the way we wanted to go out of the tournament, but we'll see what happens.

Q. If you had to make the case for why you guys should make it to the regionals, if the committee were to ask you, what would you say?

SAM PRAYTOR: I'd say it's incredibly hard to win 14 games in this league. This is the best league in college baseball. It's happened before, teams have won 14 games and gone to regional and gone on to Omaha. Especially with the injuries we dealt with this year -- and I know Tennessee just beat us, but we beat them two days ago, and they're a top five team in the country.

I mean, some things haven't gone our way, but it's incredibly hard to win 14 games in the hardest conference in all of college baseball. So I don't see how we wouldn't, but that would definitely be my statement.

Q. Will talked about his favorite part of the 2021 group is the close-knitness, how close-knit you are. You just mentioned the adversity, so much stuff you had to fight through to be so resilient. Is that kind of how you describe that 2021 group, if this is your last time together, just the closeness and the togetherness?

SAM PRAYTOR: That's exactly how I would describe this group. I think resilient is a great word for it. I've been a part of teams before that haven't been this close, but people remember forever the teams they're a part of that are as close as we are. We do everything together. On our off days, we're together. We play for the guy beside us. That's exactly how I describe this team is close and resilient.