Postgame Quotes: Arkansas (March 26)

2021 Mississippi State Baseball
Postgame Quotes
Mississippi State vs. Arkansas
March 26, 2021

Head Coach Chris Lemonis

Q: What did you see from Christian MacLeod and why were they able to jump on him early?
CL: I don't know, I think his stuff was a little bit down today. He wasn't as sharp as he was last weekend. When you are not sharp and don't make good pitches to good hitters that's what happens. They were able to get on him in the first [inning] and set the tone for the night.

Q: What did you make from the approach at the plate today?
CL: We have to get aggressive and be able to hit the fastball. Right now, we are not hitting the fastball. Hopefully we will be a little bit better tomorrow. Their better arm is throwing tomorrow. We saw two good arms tonight with these mid-90 guys. In this league you are going to face [velocity], and you have to be ready to hit [the fastball]. It felt like too many foul balls tonight from our lineup.

Q: Speaking of tomorrow, [Zebulon] Vermillion a guy who doesn't get too many punch outs, but he gets a lot of ground balls. How concerned are you about that and how are you going to make the adjustments?
CL: We are going to try and see the ball up a little bit more. A lot of his outs are on off speeds in trying to pick the right pitch. Maybe we put a little bit more pressure. Today, we never put pressure on them. They never had to play with any fear, and they played with the lead most of the day. They had it on cruise control and just rolled us."

Q: Riley [Self] looked like he was in a lot of pain getting off the mound, do you have an update on?
CL: I don't have anything yet. We will look at that on Monday and try to figure it out ... You hate it for an awesome and passionate kid. He's. a big part of who we are, and you hate to see him walk off the field.

Q: What do tell your guys after a loss like tonight to try and get them back on track and set the tone for the rest of the series?
CL: Well, we talked a little bit after the game about being the aggressor. We have to be more aggressive. We have to go after it, I thought we were setback all night. In the other pieces, when you play this game in this league, we get to play another game in less than 24 hours. We have to have short term memory, be able to throw it away, and come back and be better tomorrow. Just because the sun comes up tomorrow doesn't mean we are going to be better. We have to come out and have a better approach tomorrow.

Q: Stone [Simmons] gave you a couple good innings tonight, we did you see from him and how valuable is him when he throws that way?
CL: He is good, and he has a chance to be really good. I would like to see him handle it a little bit better when he is out there. Around the last inning that he was out there he kind of lost his command. He is a powerful guy and has the chance to be a really good pitcher for us.

Q: Brayland [Skinner] hit leadoff in the midweek and then you went with Scotty Dubrule today, what is the thought process with that?
CL: They had a left-handed pitcher and Scotty [Dubrule] hit [well] off of lefthanders. In [Wicklander's] last start he didn't throw a lot of strikes. Scotty has a really good eye, and [Wicklander] threw a lot of balls tonight. We were hoping to get the inning going in the first with him maybe not throwing many strikes. Braylen, with four or five starts underneath his belt, we wanted to have a situation to have him relax and hit down the order.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Arkansas (March 26)

Players Mentioned

Scotty Dubrule

Christian MacLeod

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