SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 24, 2022

Scott Stricklin

Parks Harber

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Georgia Bulldogs

Postgame Press Conference

Alabama 5, Georgia 3

SCOTT STRICKLIN: Well, I thought the game was won and lost in the first two innings. We get off to a slow start and -- that's what I said to the team in right field before we started was it's 9:30 in the morning, who's going to start, who's going to come out of the gate ready to play, and next thing you know it's 5-0 really quick. After then that I thought Jaden Woods did a great job of settling the game down, gave us a chance. This guy to my right got a big hit, got us off the schneid and gave us a run. We were able to got scratch another two runs and get an infield hit and a home run. It's 5-3.

So as poorly as I felt like we were playing, we're still in the baseball game. And I thought Ben Hess for them did a great job of kind of shutting us down. Really, really good stuff. I thought Guffey was really good, and obviously Dylan Ray, bullpen is very, very accomplished.

Bottom line we got beat. We got outplayed. It's disappointing, but I know we've got more to play for, and we're going to rest up, get healthy and get ready for next week.

Q. Parks, what did Hess do to keep you all off balance all day long.

PARKS HARBER: I think he did a really job throwing four pitches for strike. He was throwing a curveball, a slider, a changeup and fastball, and he was pretty much locating all of them. So it was kind of hard to be on time.

Q. What was the mentality coming in? Y'all looked a little sluggish the first two games against Missouri and you get that big win. What was the mentality coming into today, and how did this make you feel going into the postseason?

PARKS HARBER: You know, I think the win on Saturday was big for us. It was a big win. We showed a lot of character and a lot of fight. We hoped to carry that momentum into today, and unfortunately we just didn't have it today. Lucky enough for us, I think we've put ourselves in a good enough position to keep playing baseball and that's -- our number one goal at the end of the year is to make a regional. So I think we've put ourselves in a good position for that and just got to work hard this next week and a half to get ready to go.

Q. You talked about Woods' stuff, but how big of a confidence boost was this for him after a rough season?

SCOTT STRICKLIN: Yeah, I thought that was really good. I thought some of the best stuff that he's had all year long, the breaking ball, he was throwing it more consistently for a strike, and that's the key for Jaden. The fastball is so explosive, but everybody knows he's going to throw a lot of fastballs. So when he can throw that breaking ball for a strike, it can keep people off that fastball a little bit. He threw a couple good changeups. We all know how talented he is and we've seen flashes of greatness last year. He certainly was really, really good as a freshman All-American. And that was the best I've seen him throw. Hopefully that can carry over and he can keep going.

Q. In regards to getting off to a quick start, what are some of the challenges of getting these young guys up early and just getting them ready?

SCOTT STRICKLIN: Well, we all faced the same challenge. Alabama had the same wake-up call that we did. They ate breakfast the same time we did. Bottom line is it's just the mentality of get yourself ready to go.

They brought McMillan back. He's their No. 1 starter. He's really good. Luke Wagner, that's his second appearance in the last month coming back from injury, and who knows what happens. If we get a ball that's hit at somebody, say "if" all you want, but bottom line, they outplayed us in the first two innings, and that was a huge key to this game.

I wish I had an answer for you. I'd write a book about it and maybe not coach anymore. I think we all deal with that. These guys mentally were ready to play. Just Alabama had better at-bats, made some better pitches, and made some more players in those first couple innings to win that game.