Postgame Quotes: Quinnipiac (March 7)

2020 Mississippi State Baseball
Postgame Quotes
Mississippi State vs. Quinnipiac
March 7, 2020

Chris Lemonis | Head Coach

Q: Is that just how baseball goes sometimes?
CL: "It's playing us pretty tough right now. We're probably trying too hard [and] pressing a little bit. I give them a lot of credit for [continuously] fighting. We got out of some jams late and we had a couple opportunities to score and couldn't make it happen. We just got the next guy to the plate in the ninth [inning], then [Josh] Hatcher was able to squeeze one through there.

Q: The timely hit has been hard to come by, so how does it feel to get some good at bats at the end?
CL: "We've hit some balls hard…They catch one in the gap on Rowdey [Jordan]. Brandon [Pimentel] hits one early. [Brad Cumbest] hits the pitcher and it goes to the first baseman. I laughed in the dugout and said, 'I'm ready for us to get the soft one that lands.' It ends up being the last hit of the game. It's baseball and baseball plays you really funny. We're pressing a little bit right now offensively. It's about competing and competing to the last out. I thought our guys did a great job with that."

Q: How do you feel about how Will Bednar did today?
CL: "I thought he was really good. We pulled him a little early, but with it being his first start and wanting [him] to get out of there feeling good, feeling clean. We felt like we could match up with the lefty and obviously that didn't work. We have to make plays. Everybody is looking at us and talking about our offense. When we don't play well and we lose, we don't play defense. Defense has to show up every day. Teams are going [to go up and down] hitting-wise over the year but you [have] to defend if you want to be a good team. We pitch well enough and defend well enough that we should be [competitive] with anybody."

Q: How did it feel having errors on so many routine plays?
CL: "It was tough. It's trying too hard. We're trying to make the great play. We're trying to stop the whole inning. [We just have to] step back, relax, and let them have one run. If we had just picked the ball up and thrown it to third to give them the one run, we would have been out of that inning. Right now, everything is magnified for us. We're just pressing it a little bit."

Q: How do you get your players to relax and let the game come to them?
CL: "I'm probably not too good at that which is why it probably it's not working right now. I'm trying to give them some confidence. We're trying to prepare [them]. You always feel like the kid who prepares pretty well has a better chance. So, coming out every day [and] having a good scouting report, good early work and coming out ready to go…We have really good players. We got a couple guys just struggling right now so we just have to help them get out of it."

Q: With Josh Hatcher being so up and down, how do feel about the good things he has been doing lately?
CL: "He keeps fighting. I'm happy with him. It was a good matchup right there for him [in the ninth inning with] where we were. I'm probably still going to have to mix-and-match our lineup just because of [left handers] and [right handers] in our matchups right now. We're still trying to find the right mix."

Q: With the big hit by Kamren [James] yesterday and today how do you feel about him right now?
CL: "He's had some really good at-bats lately. I thought he's been really good. That was a big home run [in the seventh inning] with a good matchup for him. They switched it there at the end. I was hoping he'd get another shot at him."

Mississippi State University Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Quinnipiac (March 7)

Players Mentioned

Will Bednar

Brad Cumbest

Josh Hatcher

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