Skip to main content
mississippi-state logo

Chris Lemonis recaps Mississippi State's series win over Air Force

IMG_4594by:Tanner Marlar•02/18/24•

tanner_marlar

On3 image
(Justin Tafoya/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Mississippi State baseball head coach Chris Lemonis spoke to the media about Jurrangelo Cijntje’s first outing of the season and his team’s offensive capabilities

Q: I know Jurrangelo had a scare there in the third, but what were your thoughts on his outing today?

Lemonis: I thought he was really good, and he’s fine. He slipped on a pitch, said it just felt awkward, threw another pitch, didn’t feel it and didn’t feel anything else the rest of the game. Obviously, you never like to see that but, he was able to come back and everything. He doesn’t throw as much left handed right now, even though I think he threw a batter or two today. You know, pitch counts where they were, we’re being safe this time of year and trying to build these guys up. I thought he was really good.

Q: Bradley Loftin was one guy we didn’t get to see all weekend, do you have an update on him and will he be able to go in these mid-week games?

Lemonis: He’s working back. He’s had a little tendonitis. We’re being slow with him. It’s a day-to-day right now.

Q: Dylan Cupp struggled at the plate this weekend, but he didn’t take it out in the field. What do you make of his performance?

Lemonis: You know, he’s actually a really good hitter. I think the opening weekend got a little big. But he hits in our scrimmages against our staff. He’s got to get comfortable, but he does play great defense. He played good.

Q: Johnny Long was paired with a young guy in Jurrangelo today, is that kind of by design? What are the benefits?

Lemonis: Him and Joe (Powell) did an amazing job this weekend. The amount of strikes we’re getting that are balls and vice versa, we’re winning that battle by a good way, but I like the communication, the energy, the talk from both of them. Luke Dotson got behind a guy today and I could hear (Long) back there chirping, and I like that in a ball club and I like that in our catchers.

Q: It seemed like when DJ got his home run today it sparked something. Is that the case?

Lemonis: Hey, when him and Hines hit, we’re pretty good. They both had good days, and with Bryce right behind them, that’s a pretty good middle of the lineup right there. It was just a little bit of pressing this weekend, trying to get off to a good start. I thought that once we got the lead you really saw them relax a little bit.

Q: Three quality starts from your rotation, how do you feel about your starters?

Lemonis: I feel really good. There’s a lot of attitude, there’s a lot of strike throwing. They’re just being aggressive and being in the zone. I thought the last three guys that came out were pretty good. They were feeling their way around for the first time. Parker was all over them about throwing strikes, which I like. He coaches them, he coaches them hard and they respect that.

Q: What did you think of how the bullpen pitched today?

Lemonis: I thought they were great. Even when Tyson Hardin came in, we wound up making a play. He’s a sinker ball guy, we’re going to get a lot of grounders out of him. (Tyler Davis) was great for the second day this weekend, which was nice. Karson Ligon was really good, Luke Dotson, to run out there as a freshman was really good…We’ll use all those guys this week in the midweeks.

Q: What does it say about your team being able to stay the course and find themselves offensively?

Lemonis: (Weber) pitched good. He was able to keep us off balance offensively, and we were able to put some balls in play at the right time. We felt like we won on Friday in the bullpen game, we won today in the bullpen game, so we felt like that’s an area that we were stronger in, and it showed in two of the games.

You may also like