Postgame Quotes: Samford (March 16)

2021 Mississippi State Baseball
Postgame Quotes
Mississippi State vs. Samford
March 16, 2021

Head Coach Chris Lemonis

Q: What does Luke Hancock bring to this team?
CL: I always feel that the five and six spots in the lineup are huge, just those extra RBI's. You are always standing out there trying to get a two out hit when you are in those spots. He has been good all year, but he was really good tonight. He had some really big swings. He is a steady ball player. He shows up every day ready to get after it. He gives our lineup some length, which I like. The more hitters you can add in, the better.

Q: Was there anything in the off season that changed about Luke [Hancock] or was it just maturity?
CL: I think he has matured. He has been a good hitter, he hit a lot in that lineup in 2019. Last year he wasn't one-hundred percent. I can't sit here and say what he was last year. Right now, he is healthy and one hundred percent. He is getting to catch a couple days a week and his ability is starting to show.

Q: Seven straight wins heading into SEC play, could you have imagined a better start than this?
CL: You would always like to be undefeated, but we had a couple of tough games. It has been a good start. We have challenged our group. We went on the road and played in that great [College Baseball Showdown]. We have played some good competition and some good midweeks. We have had the chance to learn a lot about our team. We like where we are at right now. We are excited to go down to Baton Rouge. We know it will be tough. It's always tough to get a win out of there. That is SEC play, we are ready to go.

Q: How do you think Samford affected Houston Harding?
CL: I didn't think he was great tonight. I told him that afterwards. We took him out a little earlier than expected. He is such a competitive kid. He still gets outs when he is not great. His velocity was down, but he was really in the middle of the plate, which he hasn't been all year. I think he had more hard contact tonight then the whole year combined. I give him credit for competing. He still got out of three jams. He wasn't his one hundred percent self tonight.

Q: How is it to have a guy like Houston Harding and he be happy with his role pitching in midweeks?
CL: I don't know if that is totally true, but he handles it well. They all want to pitch on the weekends. They all want to start. He has done really well in his role. He is going to pitch in all different type of ways as we go forward. He is competitive. He is happy with the role and we have had some really big midweek games. He pitched against Southern Miss, Louisiana-Lafayette, and Samford. Those have been some big games. Like I tell the team, they're resume games. Samford is going to win a lot of games in the Southern Conference. Houston has been a big part of that.

Q: How close do you feel like Brayland Skinners is to possibly cracking that lineup and playing a little more?
CL: He's real close. I've had a bad history with the hamate bone guys, that strength of your hand you know is coming back. It's coming back, you need him to be one hundred percent. A lot of times what happens is you rush them back. They're not hurting anymore, they're in a slump. Which is worse than being hurt sometimes. We want to get him back and give him a chance to compete, especially at this level, to be one hundred percent. But he's close. He had a couple at bats tonight. We'll see how he does tomorrow. He gets a little sore at times after the game. Hopefully he'll be ready to roll and he can get in that lineup here soon.

Q: What do Luke and Logan Tanner provide and how much of a luxury is it to have those guys rotating?
CL: It's huge. I'm really excited that I can kind of space them out now and give them a little rest. Their offense is very important. You don't want to wear them out. Sometimes you see one catcher get worn out the whole year and then they have a hard time swinging at the end. I feel like we can be able to give our guys some rest here and there. They kind of have different skill sets that play to each one of them. So, we can kind of match them up and mix them up a little bit. It's nice having them on our team. And Logan Tanner has been playing great lately too. He's had some really big swings.

Q: You had Xavier Lovett out there, he got two outs and then you brought in Dylan Carmouche. Was that planned?
CL: It was planned. We had the only two lefties in the lineup [coming up] and Carmouch was getting one of the lefties. We were hoping X would get three outs, get off the field and then Carmouch could come in and get the lefty. Our lefty guys, we're going to need them for the weekend, and we are trying to get them some work and trying to match them up left on left. Didn't really workout but that was the whole plan. I thought Xavier was great. It may have been one of his better outings in terms of things that he's had this year. Just left one ball in the middle of the plate.

Q: Do you see Brayland Skinner as a left fielder, as a factor there or is he a center fielder?
CL: He can play every field. He can play centerfield. He's a really good center fielder. Right now, the luxury, if you have him out there is you have two center fielders. Rowdy Jordan and him. He can kind of play them all. He has the ability to play centerfield, too. He can play right, play left. And Rowdy has the ability to play them all. He's shown that in the past. It'll be a situation where we have a couple of center fielders playing at one time.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Samford (March 16)

Players Mentioned

Dylan Carmouche

Luke Hancock

Houston Harding

Xavier Lovett

Brayland Skinner

Logan Tanner

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