What Chris Lemonis Said After Falling to Austin Peay
The Mississippi State baseball team fell to Austin Peay on Tuesday by a score of 3-2, but lost again on Wednesday night 13-10. The Bulldogs were up 10-6 going into the eighth inning.
Bulldogs head coach Chris Lemonis spoke about his team's performance in the second game during the postgame press conference. Here's a transcript of what he said:
On Mississippi State's pitching:
We were pretty good in spurts. I thought Tyson Hardin started good, but then he came out in the third and just can't find it. Colby Holcombe was okay, Tyler Davis was okay and Gavin Black was good. Then we gave up seven in the eighth and ninth and I probably stretched Cam Schuelke for too long and he had to throw last night and tried to get five outs tonight. Karson Ligon's really good, he actually threw some good pitches but they just jumped on some balls. They're a good team and they're playing a lot better than us right now offensively, just being aggressive and taking advantage of opportunities at the plate.
On Mississippi State's offense:
I'm still disappointed. We had too many opportunities to get big hits and we were just not aggressive or overaggressive. In that game, they had momentum because we kept leaving them on the field and we just had to take advantage. That game could've been blown open early and we just never got the big hit. We'd get a walk or HBP but not a big hit with guys out there
On if you get the sense that players are doing too much rather than just putting the ball in play:
Yeah, I do. They have an 18-year-old freshman coming here and throwing three innings with poise and confidence. How is he able to come in here and we can't do that? We're playing soft right now. You could say pressing or whatever and that's the responsibility of the coach. We're not playing tough, we're playing a little selfish. We could look back on this and say we had a little stumble early, we figured out and got tougher through it or we could just continue to play that way but we're gonna have to get tougher to beat teams. Georgia Southern's coming in this weekend and they're as good as that ball club.
On the lack of a spark:
Late in the game, we had some opportunities to walk with the bases loaded, but we were too aggressive and then we were not aggressive enough when it was time to hit at a good pitch. Pitch selection is a big thing right now. We have good pitchers and hitters and we have a chance to be a really good team, but man we have been funky here the first couple of days.
On how he calms down the team to just play baseball:
I was really calm with them last night, and then I just chewed their ass tonight. We were up 10-5 or 10-6 and it gets to be a little selfish and about me and we wasted some at-bats and just the body language. I really chewed on them after the game today, so we're gonna have to respond. We need a good practice tomorrow and come out to play good baseball this weekend.
