Postgame Quotes: Oregon State (Feb. 23)

2020 Mississippi State Baseball
Postgame Quotes
Mississippi State vs. Oregon State
February 23, 2020

Chris Lemonis | Head Coach

Q: Obviously, you're have to be disappointed to not get the sweep, but when you look back at the weekend overall, how pleased are you with the results?
CL: "The first two days, I was happy with. Today, we got beat. Oregon State outplayed us in every phase of the game, and we got beat. Two out of three is good, but when you lose on Sunday it leaves a bit of a bad taste in your mouth."

Q: The offense goes one-two-three in six of the nine innings today. What was going wrong?
CL: "I thought their guy pitched well, first thing. They threw good arms at us all weekend. But we weren't really sharp offensively, either. I think there were some at-bats that our timing was off a little bit, and like I said, 'Is that their guy or is that us?' I think it's a little bit of both. But they pounded the zone and they made plays. They made it very tough for us to get anything going."

Q: You get five innings out of [Eric] Cerantola, and it seemed like a couple innings he had to get four outs. How pleased were you with his efforts today and what does he need to do to get better?
CL: "I thought Eric was great. For Eric, competing in the strike zone is the biggest thing, but I thought he had a great outing. We don't make a couple plays behind him to give them a little bit of momentum, but I thought he pitched really good today."

Q: How good was it to get Tanner Allen back in the lineup today?
CL: "It's good. He's been close. Yesterday, he got an at-bat and the warm weather made a big difference, but we wanted him to run around and see how it felt, and he came in today and said he felt good. He just needs some at-bats. He's been out a week, so getting back and getting some at-bats are big for him, but I think it's good for our lineup. It gives us balance."

Q: When [Eric] Cerantola can get that curveball to drop in the zone like that, how lethal does that make him, especially as a Sunday guy?
CL: "[The curveball] And his changeups. Some days, if they put a lot of lefties in there, he'll be better with his changeup. But, being able to show something else for a strike is huge and being able to show it near the zone is a good piece. He bounced a couple of them, but I thought he threw some great breaking balls today, too."

Q: As far as areas of improvement, what are some things that you will be emphasizing to the team?
CL: "I think consistency. I thought we've been a little inconsistent lately. I'd like us to be a little more consistent. Just showing up and doing what we do. Today was a little bit out of character, just not playing good defense. Our pitching late wasn't very good and then the at-bats...we just need to get some consistency in our lineup."

Q: Playing a team like Oregon State this early in the season, how important is that?
CL: "I think it's good. We're facing a lot of really good arms right now. We have faced two really good teams who defend well. Yesterday we got some freebies, but it feels like everything we're doing right now, we have to earn, which is good. It'll help us in the long run. Pitching wise, we just have to compete, but I think we've done a good job there."

Q: When Justin [Foscue] went yard, did you feel like that might get the offense going?
CL: "I actually thought that when the double landed. We kept saying in our dugout, 'There's going to be a ball fall outside the shift.' They had shifted and played us really well defensively, and we thought a ball would fall and we could get [our bats] going again. It did, but unfortunately we weren't able to hold them."

Tanner Allen | Junior | OF

Q: How did it feel being out there full time today?
TA: "Awesome man. I have been telling everybody that I am tired of sitting out there watching. I want to be out there with my buddies playing the game. It was fun to be out there today."

Q: You had the opportunity to get out there yesterday, and you had a nice standing ovation from the crowd. What does it mean to you to have that kind of relationship with them?
TA: "It's a special place. You know, that's what my walk up song says. 'Proud to say I love this place,' and I do. These fans, and this fan base is unbelievable. It is not like this anywhere else in the country."

Q: How does your knee feel?
TA: "It's getting better. It's probably about 90 percent. I wanted to play today so bad, and I told coach I said 'Look, I feel like if I move around and get some blood flow, it'll heal quicker.' So, he let me play today, and I am very grateful."

Q: Talk us through that play with the Foscue hit, where he knocked you in.
TA: "It was a big swing. As soon as the ball went into the air and had a chance to get down, I thought I might as well jump on the horse, and it ended up dropping. It got us some momentum, it tied the game, and we just didn't get the hit. [We] didn't get to hit to break it up and get the crowd into it, but that's baseball. The sun comes up tomorrow, and we will be ready to play Tuesday."

Justin Foscue | Junior | IF

Q: It was kind of an off day offensively. What was he doing to keep you guys off balance?
JF: "He had a fastball and it had a lot of spin on it. We had that report going in. He's a big spin rate guy. He blew it by a couple of guys, more than we usually want to do that. [He] struck out a lot, but he had that fastball going early."

Q: Take us through the home run there for you.
JF: "Yeah, like I said, he's a big spin rate guy, so I was just trying to sit and wait on a good fastball to hit. Then, he elevated it, and I was lucky enough to put a good swing on it."

Q: Once you got the home run, did you think that the offense would be jump started?
JF: "Yeah, you would hope so. Hopefully that would have gotten us a little bit of momentum, give us some confidence, but I guess it didn't, and that's baseball."

Q: What do you think about the potential of the offense?
JF: "I think we have a lot of potential. If everybody is clicking on all cylinders together, we could score a lot of runs each game. It's just a matter of, can we do that? Can we put our bats together like we want to and not strike out? So, I think there is a ton of potential."

Mississippi State University Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Oregon State (Feb. 23)

Players Mentioned

Tanner Allen

Justin Foscue

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