What He Said: LSU Baseball's Jared Jones Breaks Down SEC Tournament Loss to Ole Miss

No. 1 LSU suffered an SEC Tournament loss on Saturday afternoon at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium after being shutout by the Ole Miss Rebels in the semifinals.

Jay Johnson's crew couldn't hit their stride at the plate, but heading into NCAA Tourrnament play next weekend, the program is ready to hit the reset button.

LSU first baseman Jared Jones took the podium on Saturday following the loss to Ole Miss to dissect what went wrong, what's next and his takeaways from the weekend in Hoover (Ala.).

What He Said: Jared Jones Ready to Turn the Page

Q. Jared, since the third inning yesterday you guys haven't had any run support. What are you seeing out there, and how concerned are you about the offense?

JARED JONES: Yeah, I think it's baseball. I think there's going to be ups and downs, highs and lows, but we've got to be tougher mentally to handle those, and we weren't that today at all, and we'll be better for it and better moving forward.

Q. Jared, I was wondering what you knew about Cade Townsend coming into this game and what did you see from him? What did he give Ole Miss the first four and two-thirds?

JARED JONES: Yeah, good heater, upper 90s, and then obviously a low 90s slider. Kind of one-speed hitting, and we just didn't do a great job of separating pitches today. Kind of let him off the hook a few times in three-ball counts, and doesn't lead to a lot of success. Myself included, I've got to do better in the box at the top of the order and get things going.

Q. How have you seen the pitching maybe improve across the conference over the course of this year?

JARED JONES: Yeah, it's been a tough year, obviously. I think there's a lot of great arms throughout the league and country. I just think it's the SEC and you're going to get the best players day in and day out. There's no time to make excuses and no time to feel bad for yourself. There's going to be another game for us this season, and it's about getting on to that one.

Q. Jared, when you're facing a team you haven't seen this year and you have short time to prepare for an opposing pitching staff, how difficult does it make it for you guys batting?

JARED JONES: I mean, it's baseball. You're not really facing the pitcher, you're facing the ball. It's the same thing pretty much day in and day out, upper 90s fastball with some sort of slider or changeup.

You've got to be prepared to go out there and see something you've seen before. I've been in the league for three years; I don't feel like I haven't seen anything that I'm going to see throughout the rest of this year. It's just about getting back into character, slowing them down at the plate, and taking tougher at-bats.

Q. What's it like to have guys like Shores and Mayers that can eat innings completely and what they did today against Ole Miss's offense?

JARED JONES: Yeah, that was huge for us. I hope that doesn't get overlooked by how all three of those guys threw today. It's tough to go out there and be as bad on offense as we were, I guess, would be the word, when they threw as well as we did.

We talked before the game about how four to five runs would win the game, and it would have, and we weren't able to come through in that, but those guys gave us a really good opportunity to win this game.

Q. Jared, have you noticed any sort of pattern that pitchers are trying to execute against you guys over the last couple of games?

JARED JONES: You know, I think not necessarily a pattern, I just think guys are executing pitches and we're kind of getting ourselves out at times. I think we could be better battling and getting pitch counts up and then obviously just moving forward, it's about getting on to the next game. This game, as much as it hurts and as much as we want to maybe it dwell on it, we've just more got to learn from it and move on.

Coach Johnson always says, learn the lesson, leave the moment. That's going to be the biggest thing for today.

Q. Jared, I do want to ask you about the quality opponents you face in this conference and how does that prepare you for the NCAA Tournament and also Omaha?

JARED JONES: Yeah, it's a great training ground for Omaha. It's a 30-game playoff in the SEC. You've got to go out there and every game counts the same, and then obviously here in the SEC tournament you're playing for a chance to host a regional and a super regional and then even better, win a tournament.

That's something I didn't get to do while I was here at LSU, and it's on to the next one with regional and whatever else is ahead of us.

Q. About that playing at home, earning that right, how do you use this next couple of days to hit the reset and get ready for what you know is ahead of you?

JARED JONES: Yeah, got to get back to Baton Rouge, get recovered and get rested and get right back to work. I'm sure we'll have practice either Monday or for sure on Tuesday, and it's just about getting right back into our character of play and being ready to show up on Friday or Thursday, whenever the regional starts.

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