2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 20, 2021

Chris Lemonis

Mississippi State Bulldogs

Postgame Press Conference

Mississippi State - 2, Texas - 1

COACH LEMONIS: I just walked in. I was telling some of the guys you're going to look up in a couple of years and see all those guys pitching in the big leagues. Just some special arms, special competitors on both sides. Their guy was phenomenal tonight.

I was proud of Will Bednar and Landon Sims, the way they pitched. And you gotta tip your hat to Scott Foxhall, our pitching coach. I kept telling him before the game when we saw the wind, I said the best thing to do is just strike them out and he was able to do that. I really did make that comment. But he was -- our pitchers were phenomenal tonight.

Q. You talked about Will's performance tonight. Could you go on?

COACH LEMONIS: I thought Will was excellent. He was able to command the fastball throughout the zone. Once he got that slider going, it was just hard to sit on either pitch. And he competed. He fell behind in some counts. He was able to get back in there and win counts when he fell behind which I thought was huge as the day went on. And just gave them no momentum all day long. He was just really good.

Q. This is just one of those grind-it-out, tough-it-out ballgames. It's been typical for you guys all year long to find a way to hold on late. Do you think this kind of speaks to your team's toughness?

COACH LEMONIS: I do. There was never a loose moment in the game to where you feel like, oh, we had this game. You're playing on the edge of your seat the whole game. I feel that's been the entire season for the most part. Every game is close, and every game is tough. And the talent and the arms that were out there tonight, nobody could break away from each other.

Q. This was a game that obviously where runs were going to be hard to come by even with the wind. Talk about your offense just scratching something out, starting out with a base on balls by Kamren James?

COACH LEMONIS: And I thought he threw some really good sliders to Kam at that at-bat that he laid off. And he chased the same pitch at the at-bat earlier. The huge hit by Luke.

Just being able to put balls in play. I think one of the positives, I joked, our defense I felt like they were the best part of the game tonight. In reality it was hard to play defense out there. Fly balls were landing, Cumbest's ball lands and Rowdey's ball lands. It was tough to play D out there. Fortunately for us we picked a night where we strike out a lot of guys. But us putting balls in play gave us that cushion.

Q. Obviously the number suggests that it's always big to get this first one. Just talk about how big it is now to move into the winners' bracket and to win a game like that, too, to hold on in the ninth inning and beat a really good team like that.

COACH LEMONIS: You're just trying to get every win out here. We knew obviously the numbers speak over the years that winning game one is huge and gives you the bigger advantage. But you're just trying to win games out here.

And every opponent is tough. And we're going to play a great Virginia team here in a couple of nights. But that's why we used Landon the way we did. Usually we bridge him a little bit more. But we just felt like at that point in the game, with the middle of the order up, that he was the guy to go to. And he did a tremendous job.

Q. What kind of development do you see from Bednar to be able to pitch deeper into the game as the season has gone on? I know he wasn't fully healthy at the start of the season, but what's allowed him to get deeper into the game like he did tonight?

COACH LEMONIS: Earlier in the year we had to get his arm in shape. That was the biggest thing. Once his arm got in shape he's pitched deep into a lot of games. In some games we didn't feel like we had to; we could take him out and be okay. He's one of the strongest players on our team if you put him in the weight room. He has the ability to handle it. And he works, just phenomenal worker.

So what he does off the field between the starts is what makes him have a chance to throw that much pitches.

Q. It was the fifth inning that Will was out there, and there was a beach ball or something, and as they got it he didn't even budge. He didn't move a muscle on the mound. He was just locked in. You've seen him have several performances that were really, really good. But from a mental standpoint, did you notice anything different was he maybe locked in more than ever today?

COACH LEMONIS: He was locked in, no doubt about it. All night long. When he hit the groove about the third or fourth inning he was as good as I've seen him.

I remember the pitch and the thing. I was hoping he would step off and just relax. But he was ready to pitch. You've got to be able to handle -- we've talked all week about being highly focused.

And I guess that's the epitome of being highly focused. He didn't come off that rubber and he stayed locked in. But there's distractions out here. You've got to handle things. And we did a really nice job tonight as a whole.

Q. I know you've been a part of a ton of games, and forget the combined strikeout record for both teams, but what was the last time you've been a part of a staff like yours that had that type of performance? Is that the best pitching performance you think you've seen your team have?

COACH LEMONIS: That's at the top of the list. I mean, I'll tell you, it was pretty impressive against a really good team. Texas is good. They've been hot lately.

I grabbed Will after the game, handed him a game ball, and I just told him that's one of the better performances ever here. I mean, six innings, one hit, 15 punchies. Not many guys have come here and done that, because the talent level is so high.

This is a night the wind was blowing out. Some nights pitchers are pitching great because the wind is blowing in. But tonight the wind is blowing out. He didn't give them any swings all night long.

Q. Just take us through how you managed trying to make the decision of when to go to Landon Sims? Because Bednar was so good. You probably didn't want to pull him if you didn't have to. How did you make that decision?

COACH LEMONIS: We knew we had Landon ready for the last nine outs. But we ran Will back out there to the fifth inning was -- I guess the sixth inning, Will was really good. And then we ran him back out in the seventh. The vela was down. He went from 92 to 93, he threw a couple of 87s and an 88.

We felt he threw a good 3-2 pitch but he walked the guy. I'm trying to get to the top stop and go out there, my catcher calls a pitch. That's how he goes 0-1. It's hard to get everybody's attention out here. Landon was lucky to come in and have an 0-1 count.

When we see stuff fall off, and we felt like we may use another arm. But being in the middle of the lineup there with the big power hitters -- and those guys are really talented -- we wanted Landon to pitch against their best.

Q. You talk about experience in Omaha being so valuable, but tonight it was a lot of your first-time guys kind of coming through. Brad Cumbest with a hit there and Kamren James starts a rally for you and of course Bednar and Sims. I know you love to have an experienced team. What does it say about the youth of this team to perform the way they did?

COACH LEMONIS: They played with poised. We play in the SEC. And we play in as nice a park and crowds as you find. So there is a big deal about being in Omaha, but we've been on this stage a bunch. And our kids are used to it.

I was more worried about Regionals and Super Regionals and the pressure of it. I thought our kids came out and played great. I'm sitting there in about the sixth or seventh inning, and Tanner Allen is on deck. I looked over to him and said, are you going to help us out tonight.

He just laughed because he's usually got three knocks and leading the way. I just thought they pitched Tanner really well tonight. So for us to be able to win a game like that and have the young kids help, that was a huge night.

Q. You made the joke about defense being the best part of the game. But you finally get some ground balls in the ninth inning. It would have been easy for those guys after the strikeouts to lose the focus, but they made the plays perfectly?

COACH LEMONIS: If you're not on the field, I don't know if you realize, the ball to Scotty Dubrule is cap spinner. He had to sit on it. It was a tough play. It was nice to get a couple of balls late in the game and to throw that -- I turned to Fox as soon as we made the out it was a slider. We got 2-0 count on a guy and Landon throws a really nice slider to get us out of the game.

It was great to see those guys -- Lane Forsythe picked that ball up, through a BB, and Scotty sat on that last one. Defense, we didn't have a lot of it, but when we needed it we got it.

Q. We joked with Will about the ice in his veins picture. You got to do that the other day as well. But really that's kind of been how he's been all season long, even in the games where he's hit hard. Never seems like he's really been discouraged or anything like that. How has he been able to kind of maintain his composure out there and pitch like he has ice water in his veins?

COACH LEMONIS: You look up and that's a baseball family. Dad's a coach. Brother's pitching in the Big Leagues. He's been like that since he's been here. He's just a competitor. And we have a handful of those guys. We have some real alpha leaders in that clubhouse. And the way they like the play the game, and you have to have it. And the biggest moment we were watching these guys play their best, which is a lot of fun as a coach.