Chris Lemonis recaps series clinching win over No. 2 ranked LSU

Mississippi State Baseball head coach Chris Lemonis met with the media to discuss his team’s rubber match victory over LSU

Q: You’ve walked in this room a lot over the last few years. How did it feel to walk in here today?

Lemonis: It feels good. I can tell you that. I mean the guys played great. Just a tremendous effort in all three games. The competitive spirit was really high. I challenged them on Thursday, you know, you’re going to be exhausted on Sunday afternoon just because every pitch matters so much. I think I’m exhausted right now. What a fun weekend.

Q: The offense was relentless this weekend. What did you see that kind of flipped that switch?

Lemonis: You know, we’re starting to get some guys back. You know, Hunter’s struggled a little bit early. He had some huge hits. Logan Kohler, who struggled a little bit early, he’s starting to play to his level, and then Aaron Downs and Bryce Chances and just everybody. I feel like the whole weekend, you go through that one through nine, everybody chipped in. Any time you can get two out hits, man, it’s just hard to beat, so it’s hard to get beat.

Q: The last time State won a series against LSU here was in 2003. How does history feel to you?

Lemonis: It feels good. Anytime you beat a program like LSU, that’s one of the standards in college baseball. We feel like we’re one of the standards in college baseball, and when you get a chance to win a series over these guys, it means a lot. It means a lot to our kids in our clubhouse. I mean, some validation, too. Like I told them after the game, we’re good. You’ve got to believe it.

Q: What did you think about how your team responded every time LSU landed a punch today?

Lemonis: I thought we had some big at bats in those innings. The one inning where they tie it and Johnny Long is 0-2 and works a walk, then obviously Dakota hits the eyedropper, which is nice I thought. And Dakota is at bat with the two out hit to right that really opened that ballgame up. And he’d really fallen behind that at bat, too. Like I said, there’s just a lot of confidence right now, and they’re just passing it along to the next guy.

Q: Jurrangelo Cijntje had as good of a four innings as you can have, what have you seen from him? Because he looked really sharp.

Lemonis: Yeah, and even in the inning where he walked a couple guys, it was minute what he was missing, and you’re just in a big moment and those big moments start to grow a little bit, but I thought that was about as good as he could be. I know he gave up a couple in the third. He actually got a blister on his foot during that inning, so I think that may have affected him a little bit, but his stuff was high level stuff.

Q: It seems like the team plays with an edge when Johnny’s out there. What does he bring to the table in that regard?

Lemonis: He’s a little shit (laughing) and I hate to say that to the media, but he’s a competitor. Like he just competes, and I think a couple of weeks ago he came in here and spoke, but he’s on borrowed time he says. He says ‘I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.’ And he competes. And you can yell at him, you can hug him, but it doesn’t matter. He’s there for every guy on this team, and he’s a wonderful kid to coach.

Q: Did you feel like the guys came in expecting to win this series. Did you feel that, too? And where did that come from?

Lemonis: I felt like that all weekend. I mean, we’ve even had some ups and downs in the season already, but I think they know they’re pretty good, and they want to prove it to everybody else. We haven’t had a lot of love. We didn’t deserve any love. We needed to start growing and getting better, but there’s some really good players in this program, and they’re starting to play like it.

Q: You guys were able to save some arms this weekend, but talk about Tyler Davis coming in and shutting it down the rest of the way.

Lemonis: I thought he was really good, and it was nice to have him there, because their lefties had some success on us. I thought even Cam was good. You know, we got on Cam for throwing the fastball to Tommy, and I think we threw him three fastballs in the zone this weekend and they all ended up in the left field lounge, so besides that one pitch I thought he pitched great, too. But I thought TD was great.

Q: You didn’t have to use Brooks this weekend. How big is that?

Lemonis: He was coming in there in the ninth. You know, the Louisiana kid wants to pitch against the Tigers, so he’s probably pissed at me right now, but having him ready for Tuesday will be good, and we got this short week, so every inning we get back is huge.

Q: How good is it to start SEC play off on the right foot so you don’t feel like you’re pressing?

Lemonis: Well, it’s huge, because arguably this is the toughest first three weekends in the league that anybody has. We go to A&M, who’s really good. Then, we go to Florida, so every win is huge when you’re trying to scrap and fight for every one as we build our resume.

Q: Any updates on the status of Nate Dohm, Stone Simmons and Pico Kohn?

Lemonis: So Nate is throwing. He got out there and threw a little bit today. When you have an MRI, you can’t throw until after a couple of days, so he got back out there throwing and progressing and we’re just watching him. Pico is available this week, so that’ll be fun. Pico’s back and gone through everything else, and then on Stone, we’re not going to have Stone for the season, he’s had some more issues. Ross Highfill will also be out for the season.