Everything Monte Lee said after South Carolina's Friday defeat to Alabama

South Carolina interim head baseball coach Monte Lee spoke to the media following the team’s 8-3 loss to No. 19 Alabama on Friday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Give Alabama a lot of credit: played a great baseball game. They jumped on us early, put together the big inning in the second. Look, they pitched, they hit, played good defensively. They played a complete game, and they deserved to win. That’s it.”

What did you think about the guys’ energy tonight?

“I thought their energy was fine. It’s tough. I just talked to the team about it. One of the things that we can control every single day is just our attitude and our effort level, right? Like, that’s the one thing that every single one of us can control.

“It’s a really tough stretch that we’re going through right now. We’re not playing good baseball, really, in any of the facets of the game. And quite frankly, as their leader and their coach, I’m not doing a good job of leading them, either, and coaching them. I’ve got to find that answer. They’re down in the dumps; they’re frustrated. I think we all are, but we just got to keep showing up.

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“I told them, ‘Look, tomorrow is Senior Day, and we’ve got guys that are being recognized and celebrated for their time here. Every single one of those guys deserves our very best.’ So, just got to keep showing up and competing as hard as we can, and it’ll turn.

“Look, we got to swing the bats better. We haven’t been able to put together two or three good at-bats in a row. That’s been a big issue for our offense. We just got to find a way to do that. If we can put two or three good at-bats in a row and score some runs and get some momentum going, I think we can turn this thing.

“We got to get deeper into the game with our starting pitching and not give up a big inning. Big innings will kill you this game. But I give Amp [Phillips] credit. I mean, good Lord, after the second inning, it could have went south quick. He stayed out there, and he battled. He got deeper into the ball game and helped us not have to burn too many guys out of the ‘pen. So, he did a good job of competing and staying out there for us.”

Alabama hit a few long flyouts in the first, and that was probably an omen for what happened in the second. What’d you see that went wrong there in that inning?

“When teams come out, and they square the ball up like that in the beginning of the game, it just gives you confidence. I mean, I think that’s the key. It just gives you confidence as a lineup that, ‘Hey, we’re going to hit this guy.’ They see their teammates do it, and they feel a lot more confident going up here at the plate. And I think that’s just what happened.

“And then, I felt like, once Amp got through that, and the adrenaline went down, he started pitching. I thought he made a lot of really good pitches from the third inning on and did a nice job.

“Sometimes, you just try too hard. But all in all, I think the first inning set up the second inning. They were smoking balls; they were hitting balls on the barrel pretty hard. And I just felt like they had a lot of confidence early in the game, which led to a big inning.”

Amp was pretty much able to recover after that second inning. Was it really just command on his pitches that led to that? What did you see?

“No, I just thought he did a better job of executing. Look, I’d have to watch the video. It’s hard sometimes from the side to tell where the pitches are. But look, I would assume that, early in the game, he was probably just missing over the plate. They were in a lot of good counts to hit. And basically, from the third inning on, it just looks like he executed pitches a lot better. Just watching Talmadge [LeCroy] and where he set up, he wasn’t moving a whole lot to catch the ball.

“So, I just felt that Amp did a really good job of locating down, keeping the ball out of the middle of the plate. The breaking ball was a little bit sharper. He was executing that pitch a little bit better. And just thought, all in all, from the third through the fifth inning and until we took him out of game, he did a good job.”

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Jack [Reynolds] has been out with injury, back into the lineup tonight. What made you want to put him in there, and what did you see?

“I thought he played fine. Hit a ball hard to center field and lined out. Hit a ball to the warning track there at the end of the ball game. I thought he played fine defensively, made a couple nice plays.

“We wanted to get another left-handed hitter in there against the starter [Tyler Fay] tonight. The split stats — you know, righty versus lefty — the matchup with left-handed hitters was advantageous for us to try to get another left-handed bat in there. And just felt like, after watching Jack over the course of this week, he’s been working his way back into getting to 100%. Thought he had some good at-bats in an inter-squad on Wednesday. He’s been raring to go. And look, we’ve given everybody a chance. It felt like it’s time to give him a chance.

“I thought he played a pretty good game tonight. Again, hit two balls on the barrel and played pretty solid defense. So, all in all, I thought he did a good job.”

Offensively, another tough night for you guys. It’s been like this for a little bit now. You’ve tried changing some things with the routine. Do you try to change anything with this — with your messaging, or anything?

“Yeah, probably just need to stop talking and start doing. I mean, I think that’s probably it. Look, I talk too much sometimes to the players. I try to coach my way through things sometimes with the players just to try to give them everything I can. And I think, oftentimes, just backing off is the best thing that can happen. I didn’t say anything to them, really, today at all. I just kind of let them go through BP in the cages.

“They work hard. Stu [Lake] works really hard with them; John [Hendry] works really hard. We all work really hard with the kids and just try to keep encouraging them. But we didn’t say very much to them today.

“So, you just keep trying different things until you see if you find something that works. But ultimately, this deep into the season, I think the hay’s in the barn. The guys got to go out, and they got to do it. They’ve had plenty of at-bats and opportunities, and ups and downs, and they should be able to make the adjustments that they need to make. We just got to keep encouraging them. We got to keep working on it. And hopefully, they’ll get on the right side of it.”

What made Fay so tough to hit?

“Well, he threw two fastballs; I think that was the one thing. We were watching the video and trying to prepare for him. He threw a two-seam fastball and a four-seam fastball. He was a really hard matchup for right-handed hitters because you can’t really sit on one side of the plate or the other just because he’s throwing a sinker that’s running in on you, and he’s throwing a four-seam ride fastball at the top of the zone, too.

“The breaking ball was good. His command of the breaking ball was pretty good. He threw a changeup, too, and he threw a changeup to right hand-hitters. You don’t see a lot of guys that can do that. So, it’s really kind of a four-pitch mix, I would say, because he’s throwing two fastballs, the breaking ball and the changeup.

“So yeah, he was good.”

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