Everything Monte Lee said after South Carolina's Friday loss to Mississippi State

South Carolina interim head baseball coach Monte Lee spoke to the media following the team’s 5-3 loss to No. 17 Mississippi State on Friday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Give credit to Mississippi State tonight. Man, their starting pitcher [Tomas] Valincius is something else. They jumped on us early — three home runs. I think, through three innings, we’re down 4-0. But I tell you: Brandon Stone wasn’t at his best, but I have so much respect for him for being able to stay out there and keep us in the ball game so we did not have to use our bullpen. Just gave us a chance. Bullpen was great for us tonight. This guy to my left [Ethan Lizama] stepped up and hit a big three-run homer to breathe some life into the dugout and get us back in the game. We had some opportunities but, unfortunately, just couldn’t come up with a big hit there at the end of the game.

“Mississippi State, they deserved to win. They played a better ball game than we did tonight, but we fought. To be down four, giving up three home runs within the first three innings, I’ve seen a lot of teams roll right over and just take a beating there. And we didn’t. We gave ourselves a chance, and I’m proud of the kids tonight, how they competed and kept us in the ball game.”

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What did you say to Will [Craddock] in the ninth inning with the two guys on? You pulled him over before the at-bat.

“I just told him that he represented the winning run and that they were going to be careful with him. They were going to pitch him away with fastballs and off-speed. Just to hunt the ball up and try to literally just hit a line drive off the batter’s eye. Literally just try to get him to stay in the middle of the field to the best of his ability and to cover away and up so he could see the breaking ball up in the zone when he got it. And that’s kind of what they did.

“I haven’t had a chance, obviously, to see a video on where those pitches were, but he got a couple good swings in there. I think he took a strike that looked like a pitcher strike, maybe down and away. He took some good cuts. But again, you got to give their reliever [Ben Davis] credit. He made pitches, and he’s tough.”

Brandon [Stone] had a pretty good outing overall, but eight of the nine hits he allowed were to lefties, and all three of those home runs were lefties. Was there something you noticed from him of how lefties were approaching it, or is that something that’s been going on for a couple of weeks now?

“Well, I would say that probably the biggest difference between Brandon Stone this year and Brandon Stone last year is he’s been much better versus left-handed hitters this year than he was last year. Look, when you’re a sinker, cutter-type guy, lefties tend to hit sinker righties pretty good. And they got some really good hitters. I think that, quite honestly, he just left some balls that got too much of the plate, and they did a really good job of staying on the baseball and got some balls up in the air.

“Again, it just wasn’t his night tonight. Mississippi State’s got a good offensive club. With that many left-handed hitters in the lineup, that’s that’s not an easy matchup for Brandon. But he’s been a lot better versus lefties this year than he was last year. Just thought tonight he probably left some balls up. They took advantage of it.

“They got some momentum going early in the game. But shoot, again, after giving up three home runs — I think, through the first three innings, if I’m not mistaken — heck, he settled in, and he gave us a fighting chance. I mean, what else can you ask for, right? He could throw the towel in right then and there, start moping and pouting and feeling sorry for himself, and next thing you know, it’s 6-0 or 7-0. And then, we got to start using as many guys as possible just to get through the game.

“He didn’t do that. He stayed out there, and he competed for us. And he gave us a chance to only have to use two more guys out of the ‘pen. We hit the three-run homer to get us back in the game. Gave us a chance to do those types of things just because he’s a tough kid. He made some big pitches after that, and I’m proud of him for that.”

In your opinion, is there anything in particular as to why the power hadn’t been coming along for Lizama throughout the year? And was there anything lately that you feel like has been the big difference for him at the plate?

“If you watch him take batting practice, day in and day out, you would think he’s got 10-plus home runs. I mean, he hits balls with ease out of the ballpark. He certainly has power. It just hasn’t happened.

“There’s guys that, from time to time, it just doesn’t happen for them, and it hadn’t happened for Ethan. So no, I can’t explain it. I wish I could. He just hadn’t ran one out of the yard. But finally, he got one. Who knows, here down the stretch, maybe he’ll start running into some more. We certainly need someone like a Lizama to step up and drive some baseballs for us.

“It was good to see him do it tonight. Hopefully, he can continue to do it.”

You’ve wanted a little bit more from the bottom of the order, and you got that tonight. What does that mean for you guys?

“It means a lot. [Tyler] Bak had two two-strike bas hits tonight and a walk, [Luke] Yuhasz had a couple hits, and Lizama had two hits. So that was awesome to see that those guys stepped up for us down at the bottom of the order. Really, the top of the order didn’t do a lot.

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“I mean, I’m telling you guys: Like, Valencia, just holy smokes. A 1.53 ERA, 53 innings, 36 hits, 12 walks with 72 strikeouts… I mean, he’s a dude. This was a lefty that’s up to 97 [mph]. They didn’t have the velocity on the scoreboard night. I guess it malfunctioned. But I don’t know if I wanted it up there. He was like, ‘Hey, what’s he throwing over here?’ ‘Like, 96.’ Ninety-four, 96 up to 97 lefties with that type of stuff and that type of command, he’s tough. He’s a true Friday night guy.

“We put together some good at-bats at the bottom of the order. I wish we would have found a way to do something a little earlier in the game against him, but there’s a reason why he’s one of the better starters in the league and pitching on Friday night for Mississippi State.”

You’ve improved so much defensively since you took over — .980 fielding percentage. What’s been the difference for you guys in terms of being able to turn that around?

“I just tell them what’s important in winning. I’m not saying that that’s the reason by any means, but I think part of it is just personnel. But I also think it’s really important that you tell your team what it’s going to take for this team to win games. With the way that we pitch, we just have to play good defense behind our pitching staff. We can’t give anybody anything, so just the heightened awareness of playing one pitch at a time.

“I tell our players that they should be in unison on defense. When a pitcher starts his delivery, you ought to see every guy behind him getting ready for the ball to be hit to them. Great defenders always expect a ball to be hit to them, and that it’s going to be hit hard.

“Those are the things that I really demand out of the guys: Play the ball off the bat, and practice every single day. Every ball that’s hit to an infielder in batting practice, they have to throw it across to first base. And they have to do it at game speed. I don’t allow them to practice at less than game speed. So it’s just daily reminders of the importance of defense behind a pitching staff.

“We don’t have a power pitching staff, so to speak. Like, we don’t have a bunch of guys that are throwing 98 miles an hour. We’ve got to play defense behind those guys. I think part of it’s just confidence and being loose and relaxed and just allowing them to be kids and play.

“I don’t know if that answers your question, but that’s my belief on it.”

Valincius is a really good pitcher, but what specifically did you guys see in the scouting report that you really wanted to harp on with the approach tonight?

“The thing that makes Valincius so good is he’s left-handed. He throws north of 95, but you never see the ball until it comes out of his hand. So when he breaks his hands, he basically hides the ball in his uniform. Like, he literally will break his hands, and his hands go right here. So you never see the ball behind him, and you never see the ball climb up. He breaks his hands, and then as his glove comes up, you basically never see the ball until it’s here.

“So the approach for us was going to be, basically, when he moves, you move. Like, you better start loading up when he moves because the ball, you’re not going to see it until literally it’s in flight because, when he breaks his hands, he doesn’t expose and show you the ball at all. It’s really, really hard. There’s just a ton of deception there. So if you’re not ready at release — like, if you’re not ready to hit as he’s releasing the ball — you’re just not going to be able to square it up.

“And the fact that he throws a slider, his slider has no hump in it. Like, it doesn’t climb out of his hand. It literally just starts on the same plane as the fastball, and then the bottom falls out of it. Same thing with his changeup. He tunnels his pitches really well, and he hides the ball really well. He’s a guy that, if you’re not ready to hit when he releases the ball, you got no shot. That’s why he’s got 72 strikeouts in 53 innings: the deception and the fact that he throws three pitches in the same tunnel. He makes it really hard to hit.”

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