2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 29, 2021

Preston Johnson

Mississippi State Bulldogs

Postgame Press Conference

Mississippi State - 13, Vanderbilt - 2

Q. You go five innings there. What did it feel like to be able to contribute to your team and provide that kind of length out of the bullpen?

PRESTON JOHNSON: It's just been kind of a thing all year, coming after the starter, which Hootie gave us four great innings holding a team like that, a team like Vandy that's that good at hitting and just an all-around team to four innings with one run was huge for us, especially being down one in the series.

Coming in, I was just like pound the zone. Lemonis made it very clear. His go-to is pound the zone and we'll have a good chance to win. That's what I wanted to do for the team. And it was a dream come true to be out there and get in front of that crowd. It was like a home game. It was nice.

Q. You mentioned the fans. What was it like to see the maroon and white and have that atmosphere of all those fans coming all the way out to Omaha?

PRESTON JOHNSON: I got chills when you said it. It's amazing. It's why every little boy in the world wants to come here. That's why we enjoy it so much to be here. Our fans are the best in the country. And that's just a hundred percent fact.

To have that many people travel all the way across the world to just be with us and live our dreams with us is unbelievable. On the mound, hearing those maroon and white chants and "let's go, State!", and seeing the smiles on their faces makes it even more bliss. It's awesome.

Q. I think that was almost twice as many pitches as you've thrown in any outing this year. Did you know you had that kind of length in you?

PRESTON JOHNSON: I did. The whole thing with coming in, I've always been a starter. I never relieved a game until I got to State. And me and Coach Fox and Coach Lem we had three, four good starters that are just as good as anybody in the country. And getting a spot to start would be hard, would be a challenge that anybody wants to achieve.

But coming in, I fell into the role of being the go-to guy in the pen and coming in after the starter. And I just wanted to do it.

Like, you mentioned twice as many pitches as I've thrown this year. The whole thing is -- I think that was twice as many innings I've been in this year. And I love doing it. It's awesome. Gets you the adrenaline rush.

And the whole thing with coming in, I'd come in Fridays and be able to throw just as many on Sunday, which has kind of, I guess, prepared me for this moment.

Q. Pretty sure you waved goodbye to that home run. Did I see that correctly? How much fun were you having out there?

PRESTON JOHNSON: It was a lot of fun. It was a dream come true, like I said. The Lord has blessed me with so many opportunities. And that opportunity to do that was unbelievable. And the whole thing was just thanking him the whole time in the dugout, after the innings, before the innings.

I threw that pitch and it was kind of -- I had thrown two sliders first pitch to the other guys. And he was sitting on it. And he hit it. He got it. He got me. A good team like that, you can't make mistakes. And I made a mistake with one pitch, and he hit it a long way. Hats off to him. Good swing. That's about all it is.

Q. After your first start, your first appearance, you made a comment that you kind of prayed to yourself and said, hey, show them that you belong, Preston. Now here you are. You won the game that's got Mississippi State one win away from its first national championship. Can you talk a little bit about your path, how you kind of maybe matured this year, kind of accepted this role?

PRESTON JOHNSON: Yeah, I came in the thing, like I said in previous questions, I never relieved a game until I got here. It's a whole different process of getting ready and getting your body used to that and prepared for that.

And like you said, I got "you belong" right there. And that's what -- when I talked to the Lord before the inning I'm, like, Lord, you got me here. Just be with me. Get me through this and all glory to you. Some people see you through me.

It really comes down to going out there and competing. The journey has been unbelievable. And I've definitely matured. The hitters are unbelievably talented. The pitchers are unbelievably talented. And you've got to do everything right. That's just like that guy hit that ball a long way. I made one mistake.

To see all the crowd and coming in there and throwing in front of that many people, you definitely have to mature. The path is hard, gruesome. I've never thrown in front of more than 200 people before. Now I'm throwing in front of 25,000.

The journey has been -- an unbelievable journey. And I would not want to do it with anybody else besides the guys in that locker room.