2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 28, 2021

Chris Lemonis

Mississippi State Bulldogs

Postgame Press Conference

Vanderbilt - 8, Mississippi State - 2

COACH LEMONIS: Tough first inning. We just couldn't get out of it. We gave them too many freebies there in the first. And tip your hat to a good team. They took advantage of it. And when you give Jack Leiter seven runs in the first, a great pitcher, which he is just took it and ran with it.

So proud of my guys. We stayed locked in most of the game. I thought we did a great job offensively competing off of him. And our bullpen did a good job coming in and throwing strikes and extending the game for us.

Q. You mentioned them hanging the crooked number. Did that affect the way you pitched it the rest of the ball game? When they begin to extend there, were you thinking you know what, let me get some guys some work, but not burn anybody for the series?

COACH LEMONIS: That's exactly what we did. We just had to -- we know we're going to have to pitch 18 maybe more innings the rest of the way. So, we pitched everybody. We got everybody out there. Got their feet wet in this. And I was happy.

Guys went out there, threw strikes and competed so that we'll have them available the next two days. We just tried to spread that out. We probably didn't use -- a couple guys we'll use tomorrow.

Q. Obviously you mentioned the free passes. And both losses that you've had so far, most of those free passes have scored, against Texas and also against Vanderbilt. Just how frustrating is that to see that the other team hasn't really had to do a whole lot. It's been your guys at times haven't been able to execute?

COACH LEMONIS: It's real frustrating. Like I said tonight, I just told our team, man, you just can't give it to them. Make them earn it. When you make them earn it, our guys came in today after the first and they pitched great. But it's really frustrating to come in here and play one way all year long and then not command the strike zone and pitch aggressively, it's frustrating.

Q. You've talked all weekend about your team's resiliency, your ability to bounce back. What do you say to the team after this one and kind of moving forward into tomorrow about flushing it and moving on?

COACH LEMONIS: Well, we talked -- I'm not a big moral victory guy, but I did tell our kids I was proud of them afterwards because after the first inning, we locked in and played great baseball. That was the type of game we thought it would be. We thought it would be 2-1, 3-2, something like that as the game went on.

They should feel confident in some ways in the fact when we did go out there and execute pitches and make plays, man, we're right there. It should be a nip and tuck game the rest of the way. If we'll pound the strike zone and be aggressive in the strike zone.

Q. You talked about it a minute ago, the bullpen was pretty much locked down all night long -- two runs over, I guess, seven and two-thirds innings. But just how much does that kind of exemplify what this team is and just the grittiness and toughness and bought in, I guess? You put anybody out there, some of those guys haven't seen a ton of action lately, but it seemed like everybody you put in there was invested and there was complete buy in. Was that a glimpse of what this team?

COACH LEMONIS: We have a tough group. I'm really proud, like KC Hunt hadn't pitched probably in a month, and I thought he was really good. And Jackson Fristoe went out and gave us a good inning.

Those guys kept working and pitching. And Fox has been telling me the pens are good and these guys are ready. Sometimes in the postseason it's hard to get guys in there because everything is so tight and you just don't know because they haven't pitched in a while. So, it gets harder and harder.

These guys went out and competed. That's what we have to do. If we want to win this thing, we have to compete. We have to play tough. And we'll have to make them earn it. We didn't do that at times tonight but we're going to do that the rest of the week.

Q. You guys beat Leiter earlier in Nashville. Do you think today he was sharper? Was that because of the lead they had in the first inning?

COACH LEMONIS: I think it was the lead more than anything. He was good, don't get me wrong. We ran the pitch count up. We had a couple of opportunities. You got a closer game and the crowd's in it and everybody's cheering. When you have that gap in there, it just makes it hard, hard to gain momentum and get momentum back.

We had some good swings on him. He's good. I mean, that guy's going to be in the top five picks in the country for a reason. He'll be in the Big Leagues here soon. But I thought we were fine. I thought it would be a 3-2 game, we'd have to win it late against him. We just didn't get that opportunity.

Q. Can you put a finger on why Christian's command seemingly has been off for these past couple of weeks?

COACH LEMONIS: Not really. I just think he's trying to do too much. Trying to do too much in the moment. And it's just kind of gotten away from him. He's been great all year for us. Pitched in big stadiums, pitched in big moments. Last couple of weeks has been frustrating. And it's probably more frustrating for him than anybody else. Because knowing him and how hard he works, he wants to do well for the team. That's what everybody's wanting to do right now. It's really hard when you fail on this stage.