Postgame Quotes: Missouri (May 14)

2021 Mississippi State Baseball
Postgame Quotes
Mississippi State vs. Missouri
May 14, 2021

Q: What are your general thoughts on the game and how it played out in the end?
CL: Frustrating. Real frustrating. I didn't think we were great last night, and we weren't great tonight. You have to tip your hat to Missouri. They had some big hits and made some big plays, but they won the ballgame. I'm disappointed in the way we played. [The] mental mistakes that we made [were] just very frustrating.

Q: Is there anything consistent you're seeing as why your guys are getting off on a slow start this weekend?
CL: In the fourth inning, we should've been up 6-2, and we make a couple of mistakes and do some things to let the game stay tight. They get back in in the middle of the game, and then we're playing [another close] game. If we play [close games] every night, one guy's going to win one night and one's going to win the other ... We have to expand that game in the middle. We had an opportunity, the fourth [inning], to push the lead to 6-2. We don't take advantage of that, and it comes back to bite us.

Q: Have you seen it before where Christian MacLeod and Will Bednar have tough outing at home?
CL: I don't have a split for it. They've been good at home. They've had a couple of tough outings this year at home. I didn't think Will [Bednar] was great tonight, and he's been really good for us all season. It wasn't a bad start, but it wasn't a great start. I don't know why.

Q: When Will Bednar doesn't have his best, he still goes out and competes. Do you feel like you got that tonight?
CL: Yeah, I did. I thought he struggled in the second inning a little bit, but I thought maybe his last inning, maybe the fifth, was his best inning. We just had a spot in the lineup where they were coming up with all the lefties, and we were trying to flip them out at that point. They flipped them last night, and unfortunately that backfired on us.

Q: What were the issues you saw with the bullpen later in the game?
CL: It's probably strikes and command and just putting balls in the right spot. A couple of times there late, we we're calling breaking balls in the dirt and [those breaking balls] ended up over the plate with two strikes, and they're getting hits. Us being able to locate probably is the biggest thing.

Q: How important is it for the bullpen to get through a scoreless inning to kind of set up the rest of the game?
CL: It's important. We need to throw strikes and get outs. We have been good in our bullpen all year, but we've lost two leads late in the last two of the three games, so we're going to have to do better. Part of the problem is we don't expand the game enough though. Like I said, you have to be able to expand the game.

Q: What are you seeing from Kellum Clark and what's led to him getting in the lineup a little bit more?
CL: [He's] just showing a little bit of power. He's feeling good. He's had some good practices and some good [batting practices]. He's showing some power, some left-handed power which we need.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Missouri (May 14)

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Players Mentioned

Will Bednar

Kellum Clark

Christian MacLeod

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