Everything Monte Lee said after South Carolina's Saturday defeat to Mississippi State

South Carolina interim head baseball coach Monte Lee spoke to the media following the team’s 9-0 loss to No. 17 Mississippi State on Saturday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Just really, really disappointing. I just told the team, obviously, I did a poor job, as a coach, of preparing them for today’s game. We didn’t execute very well on the mound. We certainly didn’t execute offensively very well today. Defensively, I thought we played a pretty good baseball game. That was the one positive thing that we did today.

“But look, we didn’t execute. We didn’t look like we were prepared to play. That falls on me, and we got to be much better than we were today. See if we can get them ready to go tomorrow.”

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With the strikeouts piling up this weekend, what really is it, in your opinion? Is it just what the pitchers are doing, the hitters’ timing being off, the approach? What do you feel like it is?

“I think it’s a little bit of all of it, quite honestly. I mean, we faced two really good starters [Tomas Valincius and Duke Stone], but we’ve got to be better than that. There’s just no excuse for how many times we go down looking on pitches on the outside part of the plate, when we preach and preach and preach to just hunt the ball away, just look for the ball away, and fight and compete, let the ball travel.

“We’ve got to do a better job in two-strike counts. That’s just all there is to it. We literally talked to the team about it before we hit today, the whole group, about two-strike approach and what we want them to do and how we want them to go up to the plate in two-strike counts and compete. And we’re just not.

“I don’t know if it’s just a pressure thing, but I’ve got to find an answer. That’s just the bottom line. As their coach, I’ve got to find an answer because we’ve got to be more competitive in two-strike counts than we are. It’s just that simple. And I’ve got to find the answer because we’re not where we need to be in that area at all.”

Amp [Phillips], in the fourth inning, had that error that started off the inning, and things unraveled for him a little bit. What did you see from him there?

“Well, unfortunately, the error was an incredible play, right? I mean, shoot, [Will] Craddock has just been phenomenal at first base. And look, he just dropped it. I haven’t seen the video exactly kind of what happened, but a lot of times, when the pitchers are covering first base, they’re running full speed like that. He just mishandled the ball. I’m not really sure exactly what happened, but it was unfortunate because it did lead to a tough inning for him.

“I think after that, quite honestly, he just didn’t execute some pitches as good as he has been in-two strike counts. I think several of those hits were with two strikes. Just left some balls over the plate that I’m sure he wishes he could have gotten back. But we can’t fault Amp too much. I mean, he’s been so good for us. He just wasn’t at his best today.

“We had opportunities early in the ballgame. Got the leadoff man on base in the first and in the third, and had them in score position. I honestly think, if we find a way to punch a run across, two runs across, there early in the ball game, that game doesn’t turn out the way that it did. We’re so momentum-driven based on if we score early in the game or not, and we’ve got to find a way to come up with a hit with runners on base early in the game, when we get the leadoff man on base. We just didn’t do it today.”

Do you know who’s going to start for you guys on the mound tomorrow, or is that still TBA?

“No, we’ll go with [Alex] Valentin.”

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Stone came in with a pretty high era in SEC games and batting average against. Did he surprise you with how good he was out here today?

“Not really. I think that he’s probably has some starts that got away from him in SEC play. But if you look at the stuff, and you look at the video and the scouting reports and everything on him, his stuff is pretty good. He had incredibly high strikeout numbers, so he’s got legitimate stuff. He’s really good. He’s probably just had maybe an outing or two that didn’t go his way.

“So I wouldn’t say that it surprised me that he was good. I was surprised that we had the results that we had. I felt like we were in a better position than that going into today to be able to compete offensively, but I thought he threw the ball really well.”

You mentioned at the beginning of the opening statement that you didn’t do enough today. What do you feel like you can do differently to get the results from the guys, especially at the plate?

“Well, I wish I knew that answer. I feel like I may be almost over-coaching them to a degree. Just constantly trying to show up every day and work on the things that we need to improve on and we need to get better at, and maybe they’re just hyperfocused in those areas, and it’s leading to some failure. I mean, that’s really the only answer I can give you. But probably just trying to do maybe too much as a coach to put them in a better position to be successful.

“I feel like we’re working on and talking about the things that we need to improve on and we need to get better at maybe to a fault. So I think, at this point in the season, look, it’s largely up to them, right? I mean, they have to go out there and play, and I think they have to take ownership in it, as well.

“Look, I’m just the kind of guy that it always should fall on the coaches, right? If things aren’t going well, you’re supposed to be accountable for the failures of your team because that’s why you got into coaching in the first place. So I take responsibility in that. I just have to figure out if I need to back off or just keep pushing forward and trying to find a way to send the right messages.

“I think it’s a combination, too, of, when pitchers execute and they do a good job, as talented as the pitchers are in this league, they can make it tough on you.

“So I think it’s probably a combination of all of that, but we need to find the answer. We need to be better than we were today. Again, this was a bad game for us. I mean, this was a tough one in all areas for us. That’s just the bottom line. We’re much better than what we showed today, and we need to find a way to be better tomorrow and get going back in the right direction.”

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