SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 28, 2021

Tim Corbin

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Vanderbilt Commodores

Postgame Press Conference

Mississippi - 4, Vanderbilt - 1

Q. Tim, what went wrong for the offense today?

TIM CORBIN: Well, we just didn't hit. I mean, the obvious. We crashed the first inning. We chased some balls that were well off the plate, got a little bit anxious, and then in the eighth inning, we just hit the ball right at someone. I thought Dom's at bat was pretty good leading up to that moment. He put the ball in play, fought off some good fastballs. He just couldn't get enough of it, and it was just hit right at Gonzalez.

You've got to give some credit to Myers. That kid did a nice job. He spun the breaking ball. He landed the breaking ball. He gave them a lot of mileage, and that's a reliever, at least when we've played against him. But that kid did a nice job, and certainly Johnson finished well.

Q. Jack certainly rebounded after that second inning. Since he had that week off, how has his -- how has he looked maybe compared to what you and Brownie hoped for when you did give him that week off?

TIM CORBIN: I think good. I think he responded well. The two weeks right after he took the break, he pitched well, and he pitched well today too. The second inning was tough, but outside of that, he responded well. He threw a lot of pitches in that second inning. So his ability to be efficient from that point forward and get us deep into the ball game was very effective.

At the time he left, it was within reach. So he did what he needed to do to keep his team in a ball game, but I think he's been good, and he's going to be good moving forward.

Q. Playing in such a tough conference with the SEC, do you think that that provides any kind of advantage going into regionals knowing that you've already played so many of the best teams in the country?

TIM CORBIN: It's just a tough proving ground. The pitching that's here, the hitters, the level of baseball is high. There's no doubt about it. So it does create a great foundation moving forward when you get out of it. You take a deep breath, and you leave the regular season and the tournament behind you, and you move forward.

That being said, it doesn't matter. When you play someone else, every team that's going to be in this tournament, for the most part, is playing with a lot of confidence and has a Friday night, Thursday night, whatever you want to call them, a No. 1 that's won 10, 11, 12 games, so everyone's good.

But this conference has a way of gearing you up for those moments. They do a good job of profiling the kids. The baseball environment is very intense. The level of involvement from the fans is very intense, which adds a higher temperature to some of these games, and certainly the tournament here is a great proving ground for being a good baseball team.

Q. You probably heard that Paul Mainieri announced his retirement today at LSU. I'm just curious your thoughts on him and the run he's had in the league.

TIM CORBIN: Yeah, I heard that before we went on the field. I don't know if I'm equipped to say the right things about Paul because it's just in passing. I'll have a moment with him at some point in time, but he spent a lot of years giving a lot of time to a lot of kids, whether it's small school, Notre Dame, of course LSU. That certainly has been a situation, you come after a legend in Skip and then take them to Omaha many times, win a National Championship.

But beyond all of that, he's been a good leader of a lot of young men, and he's a special guy. He wanted to do something on his terms, which is good because you don't always get an opportunity to do that. I think, when you get older, there's probably more people trying to show you the door than show you the entrance. So I'm happy that he got to do the things that he did inside the game, and he carries on a great legacy with his family. His dad was a very prominent factor in professional baseball and college baseball at the junior college level. But I'm happy if Paul's happy.

Q. Also, I wanted to follow up on your team. You get to this tournament, every team is playing with a lot of confidence. What's your confidence level with this group now going into NCAAs?

TIM CORBIN: It's good. You got to get by this game first. This is -- any time there's an ending point in the tournament, you're not really feeling your best, but as we get into Saturday and Sunday and then re-equip ourselves on Monday, see the selection show, see where you are, it rejuvenates you in a lot of different ways.

Yeah, we're confident. We played a lot of good baseball now. We've put ourselves in some good situations with a very consistent body of work for what is an inexperienced group in a lot of different ways. But we're happy and proud of them and certainly wish we could have stayed here a little bit longer, but played some good baseball teams too.

Q. I know you take workloads very seriously and you monitor Jack a lot with analytics and just your eyes. What went into the decision to extend him into the seventh today?

TIM CORBIN: Efficiency. The fact that he felt good and was pitching well. We felt like we could get one more inning out of him, and for all intents and purposes, we did. But he was pitching well, wasn't losing command. His command was good. He was getting off quick outs. So that's what we did.