Chris Lemonis talks Diamond Dawg sweep over Auburn

Sunday was a huge day for Mississippi State baseball as the Diamond Dawgs needed a series sweep over Auburn and they got just that.

Three strong pitching performances led the way and State got just enough runs to take home the first sweep since 2021. It earned the Diamond Dawgs a 10th SEC win after two-straight season of winning just nine games in conference play.

After the double header on Sunday, coach Chris Lemonis talked to the media about the team finding a way to win, the pitching work from the staff and more.

Question: What’s the emotions from the team after being able to finally get a sweep?

CL: “I think they’re high. We’ve been on the other side a couple of times so for us to finally get one of those on our side… I felt like we played good all day. We weren’t super offensive, but it wasn’t a very offensive day in the ballpark with the wind and everything. I give the guys a lot of credit for staying in the fight.”

Q: What did you see there in the seventh with Aaron Downs getting picked off?

CL: “Just super aggressive. He’s a twitchy athlete and I’m thinking we’re going to need a down angle or a base hit to score and I put our fastest baserunner out there. 100 more times and it wouldn’t happen. It just happened to be that one time. Nobody feels worse than Aaron Downs, but he’s super aggressive and a great athlete.”

Q: How relieved were you to see Connor Hujsak come through with that big hit?

CL: “What he did was he really laid off the slider early. If you noticed he took two really good pitches to get ahead 2-0 and made him put that slider in the zone. How about the last couple of innings for (Hujsak)? He got us going in the seventh and then the big hit there. He had a really good day.”

Q: What did you make of the response of your players after going down 3-1?

CL: “This mentality sometimes with kids where it’s like oh we got the weekend. No, we’re trying to get every game. We’re still fighting to gain some back. It’s not ok. Once we won the first game, it’s not ok (to just win the series). It’s never about a weekend or getting two out of three, it’s just the next game and that’s how we’re trying to play it.”

Q: What did you think of Tyson Hardin and how he’s molded himself this year?

CL: “He was the MVP of the game. He comes in and gets the big out (in the first game of the double header) and then he just dominates there in the second game. He’s made a big jump. It’s a two-seamer, it’s power, it’s a cutter, it’s confidence. When we got him, he was going from a hitter to a pitcher so his history as a pitcher isn’t as much as some other guys. He’s developed into one of the best relievers in our league.”

Q: Did you feel like it was just a matter of time before Logan Kohler had a weekend like this?

CL: “Yeah it was great. I asked if we bunt (in the seventh) or if we hit. He was like ‘I want to effing hit’. I was like alright let’s go. Sometimes when you bunt you don’t know what you’re bunting into and we were bunting into a freshman that has about 10 at bats. I was excited to hear him say hey coach I want to hit because three weeks ago he might not have said that. He’s feeling good about himself right now.

“He’s a good player. That’s what we need in our lineup. We need the Logan Kohlers. We’ve had a couple of guys that have had just ok years and hopefully they’ll have great finishes.”

Q: A little tricky managing the pitching staff with all of the lefties. What was that process like?

CL: “That lefty stretch was hard. We used (Tyler Davis on Friday) and could have used him today. I thought Nolan Stevens did a great job his time through there. You’ve got to be careful with (Cam) Schuelke in that especially because you have the wind blowing in that corner down there and he’ll get pop ups. That’s why we brought Tyson in the first game because it’s the sinker and you’re trying to keep it down and give yourself a chance. It’s really not that hard to manage the pitching staff when Khal Stephen gives you eight on Friday night and Jurrangelo gives you 6.2. It let’s you have a lot of good options.”

Q: Amani Larry has struggled at the top of the order. What do you think that double in the eighth could do for his confidence?

CL: “I hope it’s big. He’s a really good player. I know people probably get frustrated (but) I trust him. We need him. He’s such a high on base percentage guy when he’s hitting it around .300 because he gets on. He walks, he can bunt, he can steal, he can do a lot of things. He’s just been a little funky lately and I hope that can get him going.”

Q: Going into two seven inning games and knowing you had Jurrangelo in the first one, how confident were you?

CL: “Nobody wants to play the two sevens. All day long I’m trying to get that game in (Saturday) and obviously it didn’t work out so you know you’re going to play these two tight seven-inning games. Jurrangelo was awesome and he probably could have finished it.”

Q: What did you see from Brooks Auger today?

CL: “I thought he was great for three innings. I thought he was great last week for three innings. I really challenged him afterwards that I think he’s better – I think he can go farther. Sometimes it (in the head). I don’t know if it’s stamina because I’m not seeing the stuff drop off. We’ve got to be able to keep our focus level as high as we can. I know he hasn’t trained for it as much as the other kids.

“I think we have a couple of other candidates coming around (as Sunday starter). I think we saw Pico (Kohn) coming around the other night. We got him to about 45 pitches. I think Nolan Stevens can do it. I don’t know how we play our weekends. I know that TBD has been a hell of a player for us over the years so everybody is excited when they see that. We take it week to week and matchup to matchup.”

Q: With the season your team has had you could have had things go south after the bad base running late in the game but they stayed with it.

CL: “They did. They’re tough. Our journey has not been easy. Sometimes when you go through that and watch teams grow, I’m hoping today helps us grow again. We’ve got a good group that can do some special things. We’re kind of waiting on a couple of guys to join the party. If they start playing a little bit better, we can be a team to reckon with.”