2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 27, 2021

Dominic Keegan

Vanderbilt Commodores

Press Conference

Q. Dominic, what do you remember about Mississippi State's pitching and what made them particularly difficult from the three games you played earlier?

DOMINIC KEEGAN: They were competitors. All the guys throw pretty hard, and they got good breaking stuff.

Q. As a member of the 2019 team who wasn't necessarily in the starting lineup, what is it like for you to be back here in Omaha as a starter kind of leading your own team back into the College world Series finals?

DOMINIC KEEGAN: It's great. A lot of guys in this program go through different roles in their time here and I think I served a role my freshman year that's different than this year. But feels the same to me to be on a team that cares about what they do and goes out there and competes every day.

Q. Your overall assessment of the production in the College World Series and how to heat up the bats more going into this final against Mississippi State?

DOMINIC KEEGAN: Just stop putting pressure on ourselves. We're here for a reason. We earned our spot here and we got here because of our abilities and what we can do. So just not putting pressure on ourselves, and just having fun. When this group's having fun, I think we're at our best.

Q. If we're being honest, a lot of fans, especially outside of Nashville, probably at this point will be rooting against you guys, and I know you're on social media and stuff like that. How do you as a leader of the team, I guess, talk to your guys about how to compartmentalize that and ignore that and tune out the noise and stuff?

DOMINIC KEEGAN: I mean, that's fine whenever they write about that. We worry about ourselves and what we can do, and you know, just compete.

Q. You guys have played some really important series against Mississippi State over the last few years, both in the regular season and then seeing them in the postseason. Has this developed into a little bit more of a rivalry than just the typical SEC-type weekend, and how important is it to get off to a good start tomorrow night in Game 1?

DOMINIC KEEGAN: I think we're just two teams that are very talented and like to compete. No one is going to give into one another. I don't know if I'd call it a rivalry, but I just call it two teams that are very talented and like to compete, like I said.

Every game is important, so I wouldn't say Game 1 is more important than Game 2 or 3. You kind of just go out there and you compete every single day.

Q. Just curious how you guys spent the day yesterday processing everything that went on, and at what point did you turn the page and how did you do that?

DOMINIC KEEGAN: We hung out with one another. We went and ate. Nothing really out of the ordinary. We just kind of hung out. But you know, we took the news in. We heard it from Corbs. We met about it and we put it past us.