SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 27, 2022

Tim Corbin

Javier Vaz

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Vanderbilt Commodores

Postgame Press Conference

Kentucky 10, Vanderbilt 2

TIM CORBIN: I mean, I don't need to make a statement. It's 10-2. I'll just take questions, Javy will take questions.

Q. Javy, what do you think is the difference between the games when the offense is going really well and the games where it's hard to get much at the plate?

JAVIER VAZ: Just aggression, going after the fastball, hunting the fastball.

Q. What do you think this team needs to do going into the regionals to kind of regroup?

JAVIER VAZ: Just compete.

Q. Javier, it sounds like you're suggesting that you don't feel like you guys did compete while you were here. Is that what you're saying? What would you attribute that to, if so?

JAVIER VAZ: No, I would say we competed. We're not trying to not compete. It's just we've got to be more aggressive, attack the opponent.

Q. What do you think has kind of gone wrong for the majority of the pitching staff, Carter Holton excluded, over the past month or so.

TIM CORBIN: Oh, all I'm thinking about is this particular game. I'm not going to revert back to what's happened last month and try to think that through right now. We just weren't very good today in any department, pitching, offense or defense. And they were.

Q. Is Jack Bulger hurt?

TIM CORBIN: No, he's not.

Q. What is the approach to flush this and move on and be at your best next week?

TIM CORBIN: Just get back to Nashville. We've done this before. You know, it's happened, and you don't feel very good right now, nor should you really. You didn't play well.

But we've been in this tournament enough and played well in it; but 2014 we played poorly, we went limping out of it.

I think the thing about the league is it can sometimes make you think unfavorable things about your team because there's a lot of resistance to it. And I think what leaving Hoover does is it just allows you to reset in a lot of different ways, understanding that the battles that you've been in in the last 10 weeks will give you enough experiences to compete outside of the conference.

But I think when you get inside this conference, you see the elevation of the mountain, so to speak, the Tennessees, the Texas A&Ms, and Nick's team. Nick's team, that's a lot of older kids there that have had a lot of experiences, and they're certainly capable. And I wish him luck going forward with his team because it would be nice to have as many SEC teams going forward out of this conference as possible.

Q. Speaking of Nick's team, what changes have you seen between his team the last time you all played -- I think last time your starters combined for a no-hitter against them and now they come out today and get 16 hits on you. Is there anything specific that stands out to you about how Kentucky is playing now?

TIM CORBIN: I think Anu back in the lineup has probably helped them. They're very balanced. When a guy like Fogle who's a five, six-year player -- I don't know how old he is, I know he was at Hawaii for four years -- is at the bottom of the lineup, that's a real threat. That's a guy who can leave the ballpark and he's somewhere in the 7, 8, and 9. And I just think when you look at their lineup, it's got a little bit more balance than when we played them at the beginning. No-hitters are no-hitters; that was a good night for us. It was not such a good night for them.

But I think when you look at really what it is from a perspective of just baseball, they've got a good team. They've got a good offensive team. They've found a balance with Thrasher at the top, and they're all strong kids and they can move well.

Q. You jumped out on them early, and the fact that you weren't able to pour on a little bit more with their starter in there, how much of an effect did that have on your team?

TIM CORBIN: Well, I think a big effect. You know, in these games right here where you've got your back against the wall, you want to try to gain some momentum. If you don't get some momentum, you start pressing a little bit on both sides of the baseball. The pitcher does it because he says I've got to keep my team close, and then at the plate you start taking pitches or you start swinging out of the zone. You just don't play comfortable baseball.

Yeah, I think there were several points today where we had guys on base and we just couldn't get the hit, and that kind of -- it just killed momentum.

Q. You haven't lost this many games in a row in some time. Is it shocking to you at all?

TIM CORBIN: Yeah, we won one game here, beat Ole Miss. We're still here. We played three games. Granted, the last two weren't very enjoyable to play or to watch for the kids. But at the same time, you're playing conference opponents, and someone has got to lose, someone has got to win.

But the body of work -- I appreciate RPI, but if you look at RPI and you look at strength of schedule, there's a No. 1 next to our name. There's something to be said about that. We've played a lot of tough opponents. It hasn't always looked well, but at the same time we've won over 35 games and moving closer to 40, although that feels like we're walking in mud sometimes. But we'll regroup. We will. It doesn't taste good right now, but we'll regroup.

Q. The last time that McElvain started that you guys won the game was that no-hitter against Kentucky. What's kind of gone wrong from him and what's he need to do to get back on track in the regional?

TIM CORBIN: Yeah, I think he's made some mistakes up in the zone in key parts of the game. I wouldn't say it's gone wrong for him. He's pitched reasonably well. He's just giving up some big hits at key moments. In these last two games we just didn't really help him much defensively. We didn't make any defensive plays that stopped momentum, kind of like Tennessee did last night with us. They made some really good plays on hard-hit balls. We did not do that.

I think to try to create some defensive momentum for Chris, whether it was behind the plate or out in the field, we just didn't do that. But you know, I appreciate his effort, and I appreciate Schultz's too.

Q. They were pitching around Spencer Jones a little bit, intentionally walked him a couple times. Do you think that had an effect on the lineup when they were not even allowing one of your best players to get anything to hit?

TIM CORBIN: I mean, you know, I don't know. It's baseball; they walked a good hitter because they don't want him to leave the ballpark or swing the balance. That's what you do. It's left up to the next hitter, that's all.