What Chris Lemonis said after Bulldog beatdown of Southern Miss

Mississippi State went to Hattiesburg a couple of weeks ago and laid an egg against Southern Miss.

The Diamond Dawgs have been thinking about that game ever since and the anger came out of them on the field on Wednesday night. State returned fire at No. 20 USM in a big way in the rematch as the Diamond Dawgs rolled to a 18-3 run-rule victory.

After the game, Chris Lemonis discussed the importance of the win, the offensive explosion and more.

Question: What did you think of your team’s overall performance tonight?

CL: “I thought it was great. Really good ball club and the opportunity to get these guys going a little bit at home. Those days as a manager scares you with the wind blowing out like that because a walk, HBP, a pop up and it’s close all game. We battled early. I thought that at bat by Ace Reese really kind of opened that game up when he hit the double down the line and it really spread us out. Man, our guys took advantage of it.”

Q: Sometimes hitters can see that wind blowing out and get excited but your guys seemed to stay within themselves and have good at bats?

CL: “Hunter Hines didn’t hit a home run all BP so that was nice. Just staying on the ball and hit it hard. The message was you don’t have to try harder today. There’s more holes. Balls land because of the wind. I thought they did a great job with it.”

Q: How did it feel to see Hunter come through with the two hits to drive in runs?

CL: “It was awesome, and we need him. I know it’s been tough. My heart goes out top him because I know how hard that kid works. We need him to be a special offense. We have a lot of special pieces, but he has a chance to be one of the best players in the league and he’s done it before.”

Q: Seemed to be some nice, easy swings for Nolan Stevens tonight.

CL: “That’s been the approach is easy swings. He’s very talented and had a really good night. Good player. Sometimes he tries to hit it a little too hard, but he’s a really good player.”

Q: What does this win do for your team?

CL: “It’s great. We’re good, we’ve just got to play better. I think this is a step in the right direction. We have a week and a half here before we get to SEC play that we can build some confidence and momentum.”

Q: What did you get out of Jacob Pruitt tonight?

CL: “I thought he was competitive. When you’re a breaking ball guy, tonight can be tough. I didn’t feel like he landed the off speed as well as he did last week, but we’re trying to build up his volume too and get him to a four or five inning guy. I thought he competed, just had a hard time finding that slider.”

Q:. What did you think of that offense?

CL: “Noah (Sullivan), what a night. A perfect night. I thought Ace got it going late. Some really good at bats and not trying to do too much.

“That’s why you see a score like that – the bottom of your order was really good too. Gatlin (Sanders) is a good player and he should have played more to this point. He’s a slow heartbeat guy and made a nice double play late. I thought he played well and Dylan Cupp had some really good at bats.”

Q: When you have a wind like today, how much does that factor into making a lineup?

CL: “We spent a long time talking about hitters, where it’s blowing and when is it going to stop. It was kind of a weird wind anyway because it knocked down a lot in left. Noah got one out, but a lot of those hung up. We spent a good bit of time talking about it.”

Q: You have so much depth. Do you like making decisions day by day for your lineup based on matchups or would you rather have a core nine?

CL: “I like having about 12. We do have some guys I want out there. Like tonight we put the lineup up and Aaron Downs isn’t out there. I’ve got to get Gehrig Frei in there. I’ve got two of our hottest hitters in there but the other guys matched up better and they performed. It’s a good problem to have and the good teams in the country have those problems. The more they hit as a group, the more they’ll get to play. I like having it set, but I’d rather have a couple extra good hitters.”

Q: What’s Chase Hungate’s availability after throwing 22 pitches?

CL: “He could probably throw tomorrow. Those side arms are like a softball pitcher so he’ll be good. He’ll be around this weekend. That was the nice part is I thought we’d have to throw a lot of arms tonight against those guys.”

Q: What are the chances we’ll see a Nolan Stevens or Noah Sullivan pitch in Biloxi?

CL: “And some of our young guys. We’re going to need them. WE’re going to have to use everybody because we’ve got to be ready to go against Texas so you’ve got to have your best bullets in there. Some of them just have to pitch more. They’ll all get increased a little bit as we go through the next couple of days.”