SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 21, 2024

Wes Johnson

Fernando Gonzalez

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Georgia Bulldogs

Postgame Press Conference

LSU 9, Georgia 1

WES JOHNSON: I think there's times in this game when you get beat, and then there's times you let the other team win.

You look at the way we played today, and I feel that's where it is. We gave up 11 singles. We walked too many guys. We missed too many fastballs in the strike zone.

I can't say obviously we came out prepared and ready to go. I thought our preparation was fine, we just did some things that are very uncharacteristic for us.

Our pitching, we walked too many guys. It's really hard -- there's no manual to overcome a starter going a third of an inning. You've just got to try to minimize damage.

But yeah, that's my opening take.

Q. The first inning Jarvis obviously did not have it. What were you seeing from him, and why was it such an issue today?

FERNANDO GONZALEZ: It's hard to defend walks. It's hard to defend barrels. That's it.

I thought he was well prepared for the game. Just things didn't go his way.

Q. What was the scout going into the game on Gage Jump? What did you expect to see, and what did he do so effectively against you guys today?

FERNANDO GONZALEZ: He was really good at filling up the zone, and like Coach said, we were just missing the fastballs and pitches in the zone. I thought he did a really good job just staying there, not walking guys. We just didn't execute the plan.

Q. Big picture question: I know you guys are going to the NCAA Tournament. You're going to get to host a regional. When it comes to resetting now, what's going to be some of the keys the team has to do between now and Friday to get back on track?

FERNANDO GONZALEZ: We definitely have some time to reset. Obviously you go back and you've just got to remember different. Like Coach says all the time, you've just got to remember different, what this feels like, and don't let it happen again. Just keep winning games.

Q. Similarly, on that note, how much do you take it upon yourself as a veteran, a leader of this team to have the perspective of yeah, this didn't go great, but we've got obviously bigger things to focus on moving forward?

FERNANDO GONZALEZ: Yeah, I think it's a pretty easy job for me and some of the older guys, too, because we have such an old team. We have guys that have been in the postseason and they know what it is to just reset, flip the page and keep going.

So it's definitely something we're going to work on for the next couple days.

Q. Coach, that's one of the more complete performances we've seen from LSU's offense this year, inning 1 to inning 9. From your perspective, what were they doing today to give you guys trouble?

WES JOHNSON: I mean, I'm not going to sit here and guess. I don't know what the answer is to that question. I think it's the other way around. We walked seven. We had some leverage counts where we left the ball in the middle of the plate. We gave up 11 singles.

Yeah, I don't evaluate the other team's -- I evaluate my team, and my team didn't execute today. I don't know if that was one of their better performances or not. Just we didn't execute. That's the way I'll answer that.

Q. Coach, what was it like getting to coach against Coach Jay after obviously the familiarity that you two have from last season?

WES JOHNSON: It's just another game, man. It's about 27 outs. It's about executing pitches. It's about going up to a plate with a plan and executing your plan there. Like I say, today we didn't execute in either phase in my opinion, and when you do that, it doesn't matter who you play. You're going to put yourself in a position that's vulnerable not to win the ballgame.

Q. (Indiscernible) again yesterday about attacking the strike zone, and for those issues to crop up again today, a day after you spoke about it, how disappointing is that?

WES JOHNSON: I don't know if it's disappointing, just means we've got a lot of work to do. The good news is we've got -- I don't know the days, seven, eight, nine, ten days to work on it.

Q. Do you feel like your team has created a resume that the committee will be willing to give a host or perhaps even a top 8 seed?

WES JOHNSON: I don't get too caught up in that, but I'll definitely say we're worthy of hosting. You win 17 games in our league, there's all kinds of stuff out there about teams getting in with 12 and 13 potentially.

So if they're going to get in with potentially 13 regular season wins, and then we won 17, yeah, that math to me doesn't add up. National seeds, that's out of my -- there's a lot of factors that have to play out this week. But I do think we are worthy of hosting.

Q. As you begin your preparation for regionals, do you want your team to remember the sting of losing, what it's like, and can that help a program moving forward?

WES JOHNSON: No, I don't worry about stings. I worry about each day. No matter who you are or what you do in life, whether it's -- wherever, you have to have the mindset of every single day you have two choices. You can wake up and get better or you can get worse.

There's no carpool lane in life. You don't just get to sit and hang out. Our mindset isn't regardless of how today goes. We have things we know we've got to get better at, and we've got, like I say, seven, eight, nine, ten days to work on that, and we will.

Our mindset has to be to get better every single day we take the baseball field.