Postgame Quotes: Texas Southern (Feb. 25)

2020 Mississippi State Baseball
Postgame Quotes
Mississippi State vs. Texas Southern
February 25, 2020

Chris Lemonis | Head Coach

Q: What is your message to the team?
CL: "We have to be tougher. We're not competing right now in a lot of different ways – defensively, pitching-wise and then, most of all, offensively. We just have a lot of non-competitive bats. That started this past weekend, and we're still in that mode. We're just a little frustrated right now."

Q: What pulls them out of that struggle and frustration?
CL: "Playing again tomorrow. We can get out there, play again and play well. We've had two extremes. We went from the weekend of all the velocity and power arms, but it was a little softer tonight. You have to credit their guys. We just chased a lot tonight. We tried to make too much happen instead of letting the game come to us."

Q: What is the challenge in all of this?
CL: "Well, what happens is when you fall behind in a game like that, that's when they start to press. Early in the game, we didn't press. We had a couple opportunities early that we didn't take advantage of, then you get frustrated and behind. Then you're fishing all night."

Q: How were you able to get runners on base, but weren't able to get that big hit?
CL: "We never got the big hit. We had the ability to run tonight, but we couldn't even run. Every time we ran, somebody fouled it off. [We were] very impatient and trying to do too much."

Q: How do you get the team back into gear after an uncharacteristic midweek loss?
CL: "We just have to be productive at everything. We have to get a good start tomorrow. We didn't get a good start tonight. We have to play defense, and we just have to be able to match and put some good at-bats together. I said it the other day, right now [we'll get] a good at-bat, a good at-bat and then it's a gross at-bat, and we have to get out of that. I have to figure out how to put that lineup together so we can avoid some of that."

Q: What happened to KC Hunt after that first inning?
CL: "He couldn't throw a breaking ball for a strike after the first inning. It doesn't matter who you're facing. You have to be able to command your off-speed [pitch], and he couldn't even get close with it. He was bouncing them in front of the plate, but he's got a good [breaking ball]. That's the frustrating thing. He was as good as he could be in the first. But this goes to all of our pitchers. We have to be able to pitch after mistakes. Right now, we're making an error, then it's a walk, a [hit by pitch], and now we're in a jam. Across the board, we have to be a little tougher."

Q: What is the goal of midweek games?
CL: "To win. We're having to figure out our bullpen, we're figuring out some offensive pieces; we're figuring out a lot of different things right now. That's what this time of year is for. That's why we play the two midweek games early – so that we can get out there, see some guys and see some arms. Hopefully we'll be a little better tomorrow."

Q: What did you see from David Dunlavey?
CL: "I thought he was good until he got in the jam, and then he lost his stuff a little bit. His stuff has been really good, but you have to be able to throw breaking balls when you're in a jam. You can't just rely on your fastball to get out of bases loaded, or [runners at] second and third, and that's kind of what happened to him. He started bouncing his off-speed stuff."

Jordan Westburg | Junior | IF

Q: You were on the verge several times during the game, just never happened today.
JW: "I think we came out flat. We had some chances early on to put them away and separate ourselves from them, and we didn't do it. They did a fantastic job on the other side of when they had momentum. They took their chances and ran with them. We need to do a better job of that and a better job of competing on offense."

Q: It seemed a lot of times the team was on the front foot a lot with a guy throwing 75 miles per hour. I know it's a difficult adjustment. What are those conversations like in the dugout when you guys are trying to adjust to that level of pitching?
JW: "I think guys were not being themselves. We have some really talented hitters in this lineup who are going to be good, who are good and have been good for us, and I think we were just uncharacteristic tonight as an offense. I think we didn't compete as well, and we were trying too hard. I think we were swinging and hitting a lot of pitches that weren't what we wanted, and we were just anxious instead of just relaxing and being ourselves and letting the game come to us."

Q: Did pressing to try and get something going come into play late in the game?
JW: "I never want to say that that was the case, but I'm sure that there was some pressure. Texas Southern, nothing against them, but I don't think they had a win [this season] coming into tonight and they played really good baseball. They came out and competed and played with a lot of energy and took the game to us. I think when we were down, instead of just relaxing and trusting in our approach and who we have in the lineup, we didn't do that tonight."

Q: I know there's still a ton of baseball left to play, but with as many new guys as you have on the roster does a game like this give you guys a wakeup call?
JW: "I thought Sunday was going to give us a wakeup call, but obviously it didn't. This a really big wake-up call…It should hurt. It should hurt for everybody on the team, guys that are on the bench, guys that started, guys that came late in the game. It sucks, but it's early in the season. The good thing is that we have a game tomorrow, so we get to go to sleep, come back to the ball field and compete right away, which is the best thing for us."

Mississippi State University Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Texas Southern (Feb. 25)

Players Mentioned

David Dunlavey

KC Hunt

Jordan Westburg

Related Videos