SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

May 22, 2025

Skip Johnson

Easton Carmichael

Hoover Metropolitan Stadium

Oklahoma Sooners

Postgame Press Conference

Vanderbilt - 6, Oklahoma - 1

SKIP JOHNSON: I thought Cade started out really good. We didn't play defense and when we don't play defense and don't give up -- get hits, it gets pretty ugly. So basically we beat ourselves I thought as much as anything. Just didn't play defense and get hits. I don't think we got a hit past the third inning or fourth inning, I can't remember.

Other than that, I thought we played really well. Playing three days in a row, we've got to be used to doing that. That's what we've been doing all season long. That's been our nemesis lately. We don't play defense and give up the lead early. And like a compound effect, it goes from one to the other.

I was really proud of the kids all week playing pretty hard and gritting it out.

Q. You only had two hits offensively. What's it going to take for you guys to adjust next week or wherever you may end up for the NCAA Tournament and also your RPI being at 26?

EASTON CARMICHAEL: First thing, stay one pitch at a time. It didn't happen. That's part of it. Just stay one pitch at a time. Stay to the approach. We've shown we could do it. They're a good pitching team and they got the better hand tonight. Just stick with it. It will come.

Q. I know this is the first year you guys have played in the SEC. How do you feel like you're more prepared, mentally, physically for regional play now that you're out of the SEC and going to play regionals?

EASTON CARMICHAEL: We knew coming into the league that it was going to be loud atmospheres and big atmospheres but at the end of the day just playing against the ball. It's a baseball game at the end of the day.

We don't get caught into the atmosphere -- as fun as it is and as fun as Hoover is and everywhere we went it's just playing against the ball it's just baseball. It's just one pitch at a time, and every game is the same game we've been playing since we were little.

Q. Was there anything different about JD Thompson today? He was a little bit more productive today than he was the last tame he faced you guys.

EASTON CARMICHAEL: When he faced us early on, we separated balls and strikes pretty well. Obviously he had some good starts after that.

Tonight probably didn't do that as well as the first time seeing him. I thought he commanded the strike zone really well. He got ahead of hitters early, got the leadoff hitter out, first-itch strikes, et cetera.

Obviously a good pitcher and, yeah, I think the biggest thing he got first-pitch strikes and commanded the strike zone really well early in the count.

Q. As a coach, how do you feel like this league prepares your team for play in the postseason, it's probably different from playing Big 12 ball or whatever, but how does it prepare your team in the postseason?

SKIP JOHNSON: I necessarily don't know if it's any different from playing in the Big 12 or not. It's still 90-foot bases, 60-foot, 6-inches and you've got to make pitches.

You saw our culture just a minute ago regurgitated of what we talk about playing against the ball and not the opponent, playing it one pitch at a time.

It was really, for a coach hearing him regurgitate the culture of what we talk about is really good to hear, and I think it will get us prepared seeing the arms that we see every day, every week in, week out and the atmosphere will help prepare move those guys forward.

Q. What was it about Vanderbilt's pitching that kept you all so off balance tonight? They had 17 strikeouts.

SKIP JOHNSON: I'm glad you said that. If you watched the game and paid attention to what the game was telling you to do, they had, I think, six walks and we left 10 guys on, and they left seven guys on and we had two walks.

The difference was they got the big hit when they had a chance to get the big hit. We didn't get the big hit. And that was a separator in the game. I think running three or four guys out at a time, JD was as good as he was against us there, like Easton said, we separated balls from strikes.

I think once the guys said get a good pitch to hit and we didn't get a good pitch to hit. But we did separate enough balls to get six walks. So I think maybe three or four hit batsmen as well. We just didn't get the big hit when we had to.

What was really special about what Vanderbilt pitching did is they beared down with men on base and got big strikeouts in big moments in that game and that's really what separated the game.