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

South Carolina interim head baseball coach Monte Lee spoke to the media following the team’s 5-3 loss to No. 2 Texas on Friday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“That was tough. Brandon Stone was phenomenal for us. We went to him early in the ball game, and man, did he give us a chance. Their starter [Texas’ Luke Harrison] was really good — just pounded the strike zone, gave us a lot of different looks, changed speeds, but pitched really well. Luke Yuhasz came up with a big two-run homer in the fifth to make it 3-2. We had a lot of good momentum in our dugout at that point in time.

“We had some opportunities later in the ball game. But really, I felt like we didn’t do a good enough job of being aggressive. When we had some opportunities, runners in scoring position, I felt like we were a little bit too defensive swing-wise. And look, the bottom line is, I just told the team the ninth inning is completely my fault. We cannot have our guys going up there afraid to fail. [Will] Craddock hit the home run in the ninth, but we strike out three times looking. We’ve got to compete better. It’s really that simple.

“And that’s on me as a coach, bottom line. I’ve been working with the hitters here. Just felt like we had a little bit of fear of failure there instead of just going up there and competing. It had nothing to do with winning and losing the ball game. It’s just trying to give us the best chance to win the ball game. I’ve got to do a better job of getting the guys to buy into the fact that, ‘Look, you’re going to fail in this ball game. You’re going to lose ball games. But you can’t have any fear of losing. You can’t have any fear of failing.’

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“I know the kids care. They competed as hard as they could tonight. I just felt like we were a little bit too tense, a little bit too defensive there in the last nine outs with some of the opportunities that we had. And that’s a reflection of me as a coach. That’s just the bottom line. I’ve got to make sure that the guys… And I made them very clear of that just a minute ago: that we just can’t have any fear of losing a game. We can’t have any fear of failing. We got to go up there and be aggressive and attack pitches.

“Look, we were facing one of the best relievers [Texas’ Sam Cozart] in the league, too. He’s phenomenal. But we got to give ourselves a better shot there at the end of the game with some of the opportunities that we did have, and we didn’t do that. Again, that’s a reflection of me as their coach. I got to make sure the kids understand, ‘Hey, if you go up there and take your shots, and it doesn’t work, you strike out, then so be it.’ But it just felt like we were a little bit too tentative there at the end of the ball game.”

Stone was at 76 pitches heading into the ninth inning. Was there any thought about potentially going to somebody else in the bullpen? Did you sense that he was getting to the end before those home runs?

“Yeah, and that was partly my fault, too. They had back-to-back righties coming up, and Brandon’s so good against right-handed hitters. Because we had such an emotional end to the inning, I certainly considered taking him out of the ball game. And then, obviously, after we gave up back-to-back homers, I was kicking myself for not taking him out of the game, quite honestly.

“We talked about it as a staff. I went over and talked to him in between innings, and he said, ‘Look, I feel great. But there was some questions whether we should have stuck with him or went to somebody else. We leaned on the fact that he was throwing the ball over the plate, and he had had success against those guys, and he felt good. But really, the emotional ending there in the eighth inning, I probably should have strongly considered taking him out of the game.

“As a head coach, you’re always going to second-guess. And you should. You should look back at the game and think, ‘Okay, what do I need to do a better job of? What are some decisions that I’ve made that I need to think about when they come up next time? And that was certainly one of them: staying with him or not. But again, [Texas’ Ethan] Mendoza and [Carson] Tinney, we felt like Brandon was a good matchup for both of those guys. He’s been chewing right-handed hitters up all year, but he was coming off of an emotional ending to the eighth. We had some guys throwing and discussed it.

“Look, he wanted the ball. I went and talked to him. He really wanted the ball, but they always want the ball. So that certainly could have been a decision that, looking back on it, I wish I would have probably went with somebody else there.”

You mentioned that you guys struggled with their relief tonight. But also, Harrison started out, retired the first 12 batters. You guys just weren’t getting into a lot of deep counts early on in the game. Was that more of what you were saying about the way you guys were approaching at the plate, or is that more about the stuff he was throwing?

“I think it was really more about the stuff he was throwing. I mean, he just had really good command of his pitches. He’s getting in 3-2 counts, and he’s throwing a curveball for a strike in a 3-2 count. When you got a guy that has that level of confidence in his pitches to where he can throw an off-speed pitch in a 3-2 count, where it’s either going to be ball four or a punchout, in a lot of at-bats like that… He just had that level of confidence in his stuff. Tells you a little bit about about him and the outing he had today.I thought he was really good.

“But I also thought, you look at it, heck, in the second inning, Talmadge [LeCroy] lined out to center field with two strikes. Yuhasz hammered a ball to third base. They played an unbelievable game defensively. I mean, heck, [Beau] Hollins lined out to shortstop in the third inning. We hit the Homer. Pat [Evans] smoked a ball to the second baseman full extension with two strikes to lead off an inning. I mean, we hit some balls pretty good off of him. They just made some great plays; they really did. They played great defensively behind him.

“And again, we just got to be a little more aggressive later in the ballgame when we get some opportunities. I mean, they’ve got a great pitching staff. It’s not necessarily about coming up with a clutch hit or winning the game. It’s just, again, you can’t worry about what’s going to happen in the game. Just get up there and be aggressive, especially when you get those opportunities.”

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With Josh [Gunther]’s struggles tonight, it seemed like you had Stone warming up almost immediately. Was the plan for Gunther to be on a little bit of a tighter leash knowing he had struggled a little bit his last few outings? And what do you feel like is the biggest issue for him right now on the mound?

“I hate it for Gun. Even though we went and got him early in the game, I actually thought he had better command today than he did last week. But, unfortunately, their first nine at-bats, six of them were quality at-bats, so I just made a decision that, early in the game, I’m not going to put us in a position to where we give up a big inning. And that was really the reason.

“If you look at their lineup, they got a lot of right-handed hitters. I thought Stone was a great matchup for them because of that. I just wanted to go to Stone as early in the game as I felt like I needed to, if Josh struggled some. And we just felt like, at that point in time, that we needed to do that. We needed to get some ground balls.

“Unfortunately, we did throw the one they safety squeezed. We threw the one ball away and gave them a run early in the game. But besides that, Brandon was great. I mean, he gave us everything we could have asked for and kept us in the ball game. So yeah, my mindset was, ‘If he struggled at all early in the game, I was going to go right to Brandon, to stretch Brandon out.”

You talked about after your first game after taking over, that the guys need to learn how to move on after a tough loss. This is another tough loss. Everything’s still in front of you guys, a chance to go win the series tomorrow. How do you, as the leader of the program, make sure the guys are able to flush it, forget about it, and focus on trying to get the job done tomorrow?

“That’s a great question, and it’s a tough one to answer just because of my nature. I think my nature as a head coach is that I’m trying to teach these guys what it takes to win, and that’s winning behavior. So I just can’t let things go. Now, I’m not into getting on players after a loss. I think that’s counterproductive. But you got to go over the things that we need to focus on in this game, that we need to improve upon to get ready for tomorrow.

“I sent my message. I told the guys that, ‘Hey, when they show up tomorrow, let’s be ready to go. We got a chance to win the series tomorrow.’ So I think it’s really just about having great body language as a coach, number one. If you want the players to be upbeat and positive and flush it and move on, you got to do it, too, as a coach. I can’t walk around here disappointed tomorrow about what happened today, and I won’t be. The kids are fighting as hard as they can. We just got to go out and do it tomorrow.

“Look, the momentum of the game is going to be dictated by the starting pitcher. Let’s look at the game today, right? And if Amp [Phillips] does what Amp’s capable of, he’s going to create some momentum for us and put us in a position to win the game tomorrow. So feel really good about Amp and feel good about our offense. I mean, we have had some good games as of late. Today, we had some opportunities. We just got to go up there and let it fly and be more aggressive when we get some opportunities, and we’ll be fine.”

You guys are facing another tough lefty [Texas’ Dylan Volantis] tomorrow. You talked about being aggressive. Is that the biggest change that needs to happen tomorrow: just going up there, facing another tough lefty and simply being more aggressive?

“Yeah. I mean, really, you just got to hunt a pitch in the spot. And when you get it, you got to hit it. Like, you can’t fall behind in the count when you’re facing guys that have great command and great stuff. You can certainly shrink the strike zone more with guys that spray it and really put them in a bind and put yourself in more hitter’s counts. You can be more patient when you’re facing guys that don’t walk anybody, and they’re coming right after you. When you get good pitches to hit early in the count, we got to attack them.

“But every game, every start by a starter, can be different, you know? You see, sometimes, guys that have great command struggle, and guys that struggle commanding the ball have great command. So it really depends on how the game unfolds the first time through the order so that you can see what’s working for the pitcher and what’s not. But we’re certainly going to go into the game tomorrow with the mindset that we got to attack this guy early in the count and get to some fastballs and put some pressure on them early in the ball game.”

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