Everything Brian O'Connor said after the Mississippi State run rule over Southern Miss

Revenge was on the menu for No. 6 Mississippi State on Tuesday night.

After the Diamond Dawgs lost to Southern Miss earlier this month in Hattiesburg in a 7-6 thriller, State had this one circled. The Diamond Dawgs came out and dominated every phase of the game and run ruled the No. 11 Golden Eagles 12-0 in seven innings.

After the game, head coach Brian O’Connor spoke to the media about the performance from his pitchers, the offense and gave an update on starting pitcher Ryan McPherson’s injury status.

Question: It seems like everybody you threw out there was throwing strikes. Why was Chris Billingsley the right guy to start and how impressed where you with him?

BOC: “Coach (Justin) Parker and I discussed it Sunday night and then talked about it (Monday) on how we wanted to break this up. Nobody was going to go out there and pitch three or four innings.

“Chris Billingsley started in junior college. We’ve exclusively used him out of the bullpen. We just felt like he was the right guy to pitch one time through the lineup, get us off to a good start and we would matchup from there. I thought he did a terrific job. He really went after them in the first inning. Certainly scoring three runs in the bottom of the inning helped and everybody went out there and did a really nice job.

“We’re trying to develop guys. Maybe that leads to another start for Chris Billingsley next week in the midweek, I don’t know, we’ll just take them one at a time. We just felt like he was the right guy. We’ve used him in a couple of high leverage situations this year because he had earned that and the stuff is real. It’s good stuff. Hopefully that’s a springboard for him moving forward.

“All of them threw strikes – no walks. It was great to get Jack Bauer out there. I think it’s probably been three weeks since he’s pitched and that was intentional. There were some delivery changes coming out of Arlington that we committed to make with him that coach Parker worked with him on. That was going to mean that he wasn’t going to pitch in a game for a period of time until those delivery changes happened. Tonight was the time to get him out there and I thought he looked terrific. That can be a real shot in the arm for us.”

Q: You had 12-straight innings with runs scored dating back to last game against Vanderbilt. What does that say about the offense and how does that affect how pitching performs?

BOC: “Who would have thought seven innings against Vanderbilt and the first five innings here that you’d score at least a run in every inning. That’s tough to do. It shows the balance of the lineup. The lineup has been the same for a handful of games here. (Aidan) Teel had the best night that he’s had, arguably, in a State uniform, but certainly since he was ill. That was great to see. Jacob Parker’s three-run home run and just throughout the lineup, there’s so many different players that can make an impact on the game.

“I think the sign of a great offensive ball club is throughout the lineup you can score runs in different ways. Stole some bases tonight, took advantage of some situations. Just the last couple of games a complete offensive performance for sure.

“When you’re out there pitching with a three-run lead and then a four-run lead and a nine-run lead, you can certainly attack the bat and do somethings that loosens them up a bit. There’s certainly some advantages to it for sure from a pitching end.”

Q: What have you seen from Billingsley?

BOC: “Ever since Chris Billingsley has come here, I’ve been incredibly impressed with him. First of all, he’s an incredibly delightful young man. He’s fun to be around. He’s got a smile on his face. He comes to the ballpark with joy every day and the stuff is pretty good. The Arkansas game that he pitched in game three, the inning got away from him a little bit and that could happen to anybody.

“He’s pitched in junior college and this is a huge step up for him, but the stuff is very good. As he gets out there and gets more and more experiences, I believe he’ll get better and better. I believe in the young man.”

Q: Do you have an update on Ryan McPherson?

BOC: “We did an MRI on Ryan. First and foremost, his ligament in his arm, his UCL, is absolutely pristine. There’s no issues there at all. He’s been diagnosed with a mild forearm strain. There’s not a timetable to it right now. We’re still consulting with doctors and stuff, but that’s the diagnosis with Ryan McPherson, a mild forearm strain.

“We’ll kind of figure out in the coming days what we’re looking at from a time table standpoint, that’s just more protective that he has a brace on. We’re all encouraged by what the results are. Certainly, when you see that happen you get concerned about somebody’s UCL and it’s not that. We’ll continue to evaluate him and talk to the doctors to see long term what we’re looking at as a timeline. I think it’s highly doubtful that (he pitches against Ole Miss).”

Q: What are your thoughts about your first rivalry matchup with Ole Miss?

BOC: “I completely understand and love this rivalry. Ole Miss-Mississippi State, it’s going to be an awesome weekend. Great crowds, two really outstanding ball clubs. I’ve had an opportunity a number of times to compete against Ole Miss and have the utmost respect for their program. It should be a great weekend in Oxford.

“I was proud of our guys that we didn’t look ahead. How could you ever look ahead of Southern Miss? I think they’re the number one RPI team in the country. We took care of business in front of us and now we turn our attention to the opportunity up in Oxford. Our guys will look forward to it and look forward to the entire weekend.”