SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 26, 2021

Luc Lipcius

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Tennessee Volunteers

Postgame Press Conference

Alabama 3, Tennessee 2

LUC LIPCIUS: I thought we played really well. I thought Alabama came ready to play too. I thought we swung it really well. I thought we played defense well. It wasn't a bad game by no means. We just fell short. I do like how we played and how we didn't really let all the emotions of the tournament really get to us.

Q. What was your perspective on hitting performance today? I guess it seemed that you all were hitting balls hard. How frustrating was that?

LUC LIPCIUS: It's frustrating, but every time it happens, we know it helps us win. Getting those hard contacts are part of our game, and we know we're stacking those up to fall later. Hopefully, we come out and keep swinging it like we have, and they'll just fall later in the tournament.

Q. What was your vantage point of that play in the 9th? Have you ever seen a call like that one in your baseball career?

LUC LIPCIUS: Yeah, I don't think I've seen one like that when it matters so much, but there's nothing really much we can do. The umpire made the call, and it affected us. We're just going to bounce back from it and go out and get them tomorrow.

Q. Tony was talking maybe a week or two ago, saying that you had the hardest kind of -- or the best hard hit percentage on the team, and you were talking today about hitting some balls right at people. Does it feel like that's been the story of the season for you? It just seems like the at bats that you've had and the actual numbers that have produced from it don't look like they match. How tough was it been to fight through all that?

LUC LIPCIUS: Yeah, it is a grind, hitting hard balls at people all over the park, but also it brings confidence knowing that you're not getting beat really. You're just having a little bit of bad luck. Then also, one thing that's really helped me is telling myself that they're going to fall. So it's good to get hot at the right time, and I'd love for them to start falling in the postseason. I had a pretty good day today, and I'll try to keep it rolling.

It's just a testament to the rest of our team, not only me, is that we love hitting the ball hard. I don't think it really gets us down whether the other team catches it or whether it gets down. So we're just going to keep on going with our approach and hit balls hard.

Q. You mentioned how the team handled the stage well. Did you see a difference from 2019 when you all were here for the first time in however many years, and kind of the maturity in the approach of the team?

LUC LIPCIUS: Yeah, it's funny because in that 2019 team, I was injured, so I was actually watching from the stands. I couldn't really feel what was going on in the dugout. From what I saw, there was absolutely no back-down from us. People were quiet in their swings. Defense wasn't bad. Pitching was phenomenal again. So, yeah, I thought we were very composed for a lot of our guys' first SEC tournament, which brings a lot of confidence to us moving forward, especially with Chad Dallas on the bump tomorrow.

Q. Jacob McNairy seemed to keep you all off balance the first couple times through the order. What was he doing well?

LUC LIPCIUS: I think he was spotting his fastball well. He was mixing his off-speed pretty well. I think we just got a little bit too under the ball. We heard on the scouting report he had a lot of onside run on his ball. So we really focused on getting to the outside of it. I think we got just under a few balls. It's not like we were striking out every time missing it completely, but he did keep us off balance and was able to get the fly ball outs.

Q. You all have had a couple games this year where you've maybe dropped that Friday night game in an SEC series. In all those cases, you all have bounced back Saturday and played better. Do you expect that same sort of mindset tomorrow? I know it's an early game, but it's a big game against two highly ranked opponents. Do you think you all will be able to bounce back?

LUC LIPCIUS: 100 percent. I have full confidence that we'll come out tomorrow really ready to play, focused on one thing, and that's getting the win.