Will Furniss, Connor Spencer talk Ole Miss win over LSU in SEC Tournament

Ole Miss Baseball advanced to the SEC Tournament Championship game with a 2-0 win over LSU on Saturday. Will Furniss and Connor Spencer spoke with the media after the big win.

Q. What was the pitch you recognized during your at-bat, and also just trying to help the offense with Mitchell and Luke striking out to start the game?

WILL FURNISS: I was actually sitting fastball, but he threw me a hanging slider, and I just saw it out of hand. He left it over the plate, and I just honestly tried to hit it hard. I didn’t really think it was going to get out today because of the wind, but somehow it got out.

Q. Connor, like Mike was saying, there’s a ton of LSU fans here. Everyone kind of saw purple everywhere. To pitch in the ninth inning, game on the line, take me through that moment and what that final out was like for you?

CONNOR SPENCER: Yeah, it’s awesome. Those are the kind of moments that I really live for as a closer. I feel like that’s kind of where I thrive, the last three outs of the game.

It did get very loud with two outs and after I walked a guy. I couldn’t really hear my pitch count. So I was trying to make sure I was throwing the right pitches before anything else.

But no, to do that, and especially against a really good team like that, it’s awesome.

Q. Connor, I do want to ask you about this pitching staff. Unreal performances this week and really done well to close out the season. What’s been different the last couple weeks, and how do you feel heading into the championship and also the rest of postseason?

CONNOR SPENCER: Yeah, we don’t have to worry about school anymore, which helps a lot, so we really get to focus on just baseball.

I really think the biggest thing the pitching staff has kind of been doing lately is really, really hanging out together and just coming together for the most part.

We’re always hanging out with each other even outside of the field, and we’re not just teammates, we’re buddies. I think that really helps for encouraging guys who whenever they do go out there, and you also get a realization for what makes people tick, and you can say the right things to them to get them in their right head space to go and compete the way they’ve been doing all week.

Q. Connor, you’ve been pretty busy the last couple of days. How much does adrenaline help you in this time of year and getting you ready? As a pitcher, what did you think of Cade Townsend today? Did you know that he had that kind of performance in him?

CONNOR SPENCER: So Cade Townsend is my roommate on the road, actually. He’s a little 19-year-old freshman, and I’m a 24-year-old senior. We get along well.

I’ve kind of talked to him about what I’ve learned in college and what’s helped me, and to kind of almost feel like I’m his big brother and guiding him in a way that I feel if I had all this energy pent up the way he does, kind of just straighten him out and be able to kind of use that to go and perform the way he did.

I’ve seen it in him since the first day that I met him. He’s always been one of my favorite little freshmen. Yeah, he’s a really good dude and really competitive, too.

Q. Will, I think you said out there on TV that you’ve been on this program for three years but you said this team feels different. Can you expound on that a little bit?

WILL FURNISS: We’re really together. The last couple years it doesn’t seem like we’ve had a bunch of fight, and when we’d get down we’d just kind of give up or we’d ride the ups and downs too much. We don’t stay even keeled.

This group is older and I think we’re honestly tighter. When things go bad, we don’t dip too low, and when things are going good, we don’t go too high. I think that’s the recipe for success, like Coach B says. Just a very mature group of guys, and we’re all kind of like family. It’s good to have this group with us.

Q. Will, with what Connor has done here in Hoover but also just all season, what sort of comfort does that bring an offense to have a guy like that coming out in the ninth?

WILL FURNISS: Oh, it’s awesome. Offenses sometimes joke around, as long as we have the lead going into the ninth we’re going to be good because we’ve got this guy in the bullpen. It’s really comforting, especially seeing him jog out of the bullpen. “Enter Sandman” comes on; that’s freaking sweet. It’s cool. It’s a cool song and it gets me pumped up, and I know it gets him pumped up, too, but not only that, he’s really good up there. I don’t really know many pitchers that can just throw fastballs and shove it down somebody’s throat, especially the good teams that we face, but he can do it, and he does it every time.