2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 28, 2021

Tim Corbin

Vanderbilt Commodores

Postgame Press Conference

Vanderbilt - 8, Mississippi State - 2

COACH CORBIN: Jack certainly set the tone tonight. He pitched very well. It was tough pitching, too. That team does not give in. They fight you on every pitch. They make it very difficult. He was able to kill (indiscernible) momentum at several points.

The first inning was obviously a big inning for us in the fact we bounced back from the solo home run, but we were able to get on base and get some big hits. CJ and of course Isaiah and Jayson. Isaiah and Jayson's were big hits because they came with two strikes and two outs.

Timing of those were good. We played pretty good defense. Caught the ball. We turned a double play. Made a catch down the line. Maldonado was efficient. Pretty good game.

Q. Did you say anything to Jack? Who knows if this will be his -- I guess it's past where he could pitch again, if something weird happens. But did you say anything to him after this knowing it might be the last time that he throws for you?

COACH CORBIN: Yeah, I said good game.

Q. What was your plan of attack against Christian MacLeod?

COACH CORBIN: Try and make him throw strikes. We watched several outings prior to, but it was just a matter of throwing strikes, making them land. His off-speed pitch up. I think that was essentially it.

We just had to get the ball across the plate. We had to bring the fastball down and had to bring the change-up up. So just a matter of adjusting our window and using the middle of the field, if we could.

Q. It was seven errors coming into this game. Zero errors tonight. Really complete game for you guys. How happy were you defensively the way they played behind Jack?

COACH CORBIN: We need to play good defense. Jack's going to give you a chance to win. And you've just got to take care of the ball behind him. Not a lot of ground balls typically with Jack. But with Maldo it's a little bit different because of the break of the ball.

But we did, we turned a big double play that Gonzo, just moving his feet well and feeding Parker. Parker had a hard time getting it out of his glove but he still redirected it and Dominic made a nice glove play.

But it was just good defense. And I felt like we were going to. I just felt like the defense that we had played in the other games, that wasn't representative of how we were. I thought at some point in time we would play better.

Q. Jayson said he thought that the team was maybe a little bit looser at the plate and he could sense it all the way back at BP. Did you think so? Did it contribute to the big first inning?

COACH CORBIN: You score seven innings you're going to be loose. I mean I thought their approach was good, whether it was loose, I don't know what you want to call it. But I thought it was steady. I thought it was mature. I thought they were -- the training session leading up to the game was good. I thought they're right where they needed to be.

We knew this was going to be difficult. And it will continue to be difficult. This place is filled with people that aren't wearing gold and black, and we're playing a very good team.

Q. I was going to ask, have you been around a game here where the crowd was as much against you as it was tonight? And did you address that at all with your guys?

COACH CORBIN: We talked about the atmosphere. And, yes, 2002, Nebraska- Clemson. It was filled with red. Shane Komine pitched. We won the game. Khalil Greene hit a three-run home run in the eighth. Tough atmosphere.

And this one was not as similar because that was all of -- it felt like all of Nebraska was in the stadium at that time.

But, yeah, I think the thing that's helped us in some regards is we have played well on the road. And we've played well in tough environments. So this was a tough environment, too. And we appreciate the fans that we had, too, because they were loud.

Q. Jayson on that home run, he was down 0-2 and came back to full count before he hit the home run. Is that just discipline? Is that an experienced hitter to face a new pitcher like that and be able to prolong the at-bat?

COACH CORBIN: Yeah, that's a tough matchup. That guy drops down. He throws a lateral slider. He threw two pretty good sliders to Jayson on the 0-2 count, and Jayson stayed off him. To fight the battle to get to 3-2 was a victory in and of itself. To get a pitch to lift to the middle of the field, he's a strong kid. If he keeps the barrel in the zone, which he did, then he can do a little bit of damage. But that was a quality at-bat for him. I was proud of him.