Everything Monte Lee said after South Carolina's Saturday loss to Texas

South Carolina interim head baseball coach Monte Lee spoke to the media following the team’s 4-1 defeat to No. 2 Texas on Saturday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“First and foremost, Texas has got a great club, and they played a really good baseball game today — pitched well, played great defensively.

“Thought we threw the ball well, too. Certainly disappointed that we couldn’t find a way offensively to help our pitching staff. Had a great crowd today, and so grateful to the fans for coming out and supporting the guys today, supporting the team. You could feel the crowd — especially there, I think, in the sixth inning, where we had Talmadge [LeCroy] up there at the plate. The crowd really got behind the guys. It was just great to see the crowd come out and support the kids today. I apologize that we couldn’t give them more, couldn’t find a way to win for them today. But certainly appreciate them coming out and supporting the players.

“Amp [Phillips] did a great job, quite honestly. We didn’t help him in the first inning. We had a couple miscues that… Look, the margin of error is so small when you’re facing a team that pitches the way they do. You got [Dylan] Volantis on the mound and a bullpen like they have, you can’t give them anything. And we certainly did there in the first inning — fell behind there 2-0 in the first. After that, we misplayed another ball. Again, just didn’t help ourselves on the defensive side of things, and they wind up scoring some runs because of it.

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“But offensively, we just got to find a way. We had some opportunities in the seventh. If we do a better job of just staying in the strike zone… I thought we chased a little bit out of the strike zone, had some 3-2 counts where we chased a little bit where we could have gotten some guys on base. [Logan] Sutter, got him in at-bat there and smoked a ball to second base. But ultimately, we just couldn’t find a way to score runs and get enough guys on base to give us some chances. And the opportunities that we did have, they did a great job of making pitches when they needed to. They were the better team today.

“Pitching staff did a great job again today. We just got to find a way to support the pitching staff on the offensive side of things. It’s been great to see us pitch the way that we’ve been pitching, but I thought we had started to turn it in the right direction. And look, I know that great pitching is going to shut down offense, but we just got to find a way to be better. It’s really that simple.

“And that starts with me. I got to find a way to send a message in a different way, to get the players a little more confident, to compete a little bit better. That’s certainly on me, and we’ll go back to work. Give them the day off tomorrow for Easter, and then we’ll get back to work on Monday and try to fix some issues that we’re having.

“We’re just going to keep working. That’s all we can really do. The kids are fighting as hard as they can. We just got to keep working, and we will.”

The quality of pitching you guys faced all weekend was really good, but it seemed like there was a big difference between Thursday and then Friday and Saturday. What do you feel like was the reason for the struggles these last two games?

“The biggest thing was both of their starters were really good. Honestly, I thought [Luke] Harrison and Volantis both were just very, very good. They didn’t make a lot of mistakes. A lot of off-speed pitches, and a lot of off-speed pitches that were either in the strike zone or looked to be in the strike zone, and then right at the last second would fade out of the strike zone. Just thought that they made pitches. They made it really, really hard on us. They didn’t give us anything. I mean, we only had one walk and a hit-by-pitch. We didn’t have a lot of 3-2 counts where we could have won a pitch and got on base. But ultimately, I think that was it: They just pitched really well.

“And then, I mean, shoot, [Thomas] Burns comes in, he’s 96 [mph], 97, whatever he was. [Haiden] Leffew is really good, and [Sam] Cozart is one of the best relievers in the country. So they’ve got great pitching. But that’s part of playing in this league, and you got to find a way. You just got to find a way to be more effective than we were.

“Again, I know the kids are doing the best they can. But as a coach, we’ve got to find a way to help them. We’ve got to find a way to get them, from an approach standpoint, a little bit better, and we’ve got to find a way to coach the guys in a way that we can compete against pitching like this. That’s just all there is to it. So I think the kids are doing the very best they can. But as coaches, we got to do a better job of getting them better.”

You mentioned the approach in general. And you want some different things now, as you’re sitting in that chair, from an offensive standpoint. How difficult is it to get the players to flip that switch, and where do you see them in their growth standpoint over the last couple of weeks?

“I would say, we certainly are not there, and we need to just continue to work to get there. We certainly have some evidence that we can score runs, right? I mean, just in the last couple weeks, the Sunday game with Arkansas, the Sunday game with Georgia, the Wofford game, game one here against Texas — I mean, we certainly have evidence that we can score runs, and we can have disciplined at-bats and do some things.

“I think that the key for us is just really doing a good job of swinging at pitches up in the zone. The hardest thing about hitting is, when a guy throws you a breaking ball, the breaking ball that starts as a strike is going to be a ball. The breaking ball that starts as a ball is going to be a strike. Just think about that for a second: From a hitter’s perspective, you have to see the ball up above the strike zone for it to actually be a strike. So when guys see pitches that start in the strike zone, and then right at the last second, when you’re making your decision to hit them, they’re no longer in the strike zone, that’s what makes hitting so darn hard.

“It’s just trying to get guys to really buy into the process of, like, ‘Hey, this is how they’re pitching us, so we have to hunt up. Up is ours, down is his.’ And you just got to constantly keep reminding them of that. But you also have to think about it from a hitter’s perspective. Look, it’s frustrating. They go up there, they want to do well, so they tend to be aggressive. When things aren’t going quite the way they want, they tend to be more aggressive and try to make something happen.

“Look at Texas as a prime example. We punched out way too many times today — 15 times. How many times did they punch out today? They punched out 15 times. How did they punch out? They punched out a lot by taking, right? Like, they took a decent amount of pitches. They’re very, very patient. But we also executed some pitches when we got into two-strike counts and punched them out.

“So there’s a fine line, and I think that’s the key for us to understand. We got to just get back to one pitch at a time, see the ball up, stay in the middle of the field and not try to do too much. But we were facing a really, really good pitching staff, so you got to give them credit. That’s about as good a pitching staff as I think we’ve seen this year so far.

“We still got to find a way because our pitch of staff is giving us a chance. We got to find a way, and that’s all there is to it.”

From your vantage point, what happened on that fly ball that Patrick [Evans] couldn’t catch in the fifth inning?

“Well, I’ve played the outfield, so I have been Patrick Evans. I’ll tell you this: When you get a ball that’s hit that high, and you’re running after the ball, as you’re running, when you run, you run heel to toe. When you got a ball that high in the air, and you’re running heal to toe, that ball’s doing this. So when it’s that high, and it’s coming straight down on you, it’s really hard to judge it.

“If you look at fly balls that are hit that high, even really good outfielders, if they don’t get camped under it, it’s super hard to judge it. Like, if you’re moving as the ball is trying to come down, it’s really hard to judge that ball — especially when you’re getting around the warning track, and you got the wall right here behind you. You’re trying to judge the ball, and it’s just moving all over the place.

“Had he gotten to the wall immediately and kept the ball in front of him, and then be able to settle his feet, let the ball come down, probably would have been able to catch it. But because he was moving as the ball was coming down, I think he just misjudged it with it being that close to the wall.

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“There’s not a lot you can do about it outside of he needs to play more outfield. He’s been an infielder his whole life, and we’re asking him to play the outfield to try to, again, put what we think is the right combination of players on the field.

“I think, look, he’s got to make that catch. We got to make that play. It certainly cost us. But I also know how difficult it is because I have been there as a player. I know how difficult a high fly ball that comes down right around the warning track can be for a player to judge.”

You’ve had some stability in the starting lineup. What makes that a good thing? As you said, the results last couple of days haven’t been great offensively. Are you going to keep riding with those guys for a little bit longer?

“Well, we’ve tried to create some stability just so the players can settle in. But you always have to look at the game and say, ‘Okay, when do you make some adjustments?’ And you have to let the game tell you that, right?

“For instance, we believe in Logan Sutter. He’s been really good at times, and then he’s struggled at times and comes in off the bench. One of the hardest things to do in baseball is pinch-hit. When you don’t play and you come off the bench literally within 10 seconds, it’s like, ‘Hey, grab a bat. You’re in the game.’ And you’ve got to get ready to go. It’s really hard to do that, especially when you’ve been an everyday player. And for him to go up there in that at-bat and hit the ball hard, you’ve got to take that into account. When you’re looking at your offense and you’re not quite where you want to be, you got to say, ‘Okay, based on that at-bat, is that something that we need to look at? And how do we do that?’

“There’s always a domino effect. You put players that aren’t playing back into the lineup, then you got to move somebody either out of the lineup or to a different defensive position. You have to kind of look at it, ‘Okay, well, does that compromise our defense?’ Well, I don’t necessarily want to compromise our defense a whole lot because of why? Because we’re pitching it so well. I would compromise our defense if we weren’t pitching it well, and we need to put as many offensive players out there as we could to try to outscore people.

“We have to take all that into consideration. We’re not getting as much offense as we would like in the last two games. We had had several games in a row where we swung the bat pretty well. But, again, it’s a give-and-take with everything. I’m certainly going to look at it, discuss it with some guys on the staff and see, is there any changes that we feel like we need to make to maybe give us a little more offensive boost? But also, I don’t want to compromise our defense because our pitching staff has been so good here lately. I don’t want to compromise that side of the ball for us.”

It’s been a few weeks now where the pitching really has kept you all in the series. Aside from the overhaul that went into reconstructing the roster in the offseason, what has been the biggest difference? And is there any assurance knowing the pitching has done really well, it’ll only be a matter of time before the offense picks it up?

“Yeah, look, I don’t have a crystal ball, you know? I can’t take a magic wand and just wave it over the hitters and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to start scoring seven runs a game.’ Because if we do with the pitching that we have, we’re going to win a lot of games. But what I got to do is look at each individual player and say, ‘Okay, what are they doing well, and what do we need to work on to get them better?’ That’s what it boils down to right now: What areas are working for this player, and what areas do we need to improve on? And we got to go to work.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily right now a holistic, ‘Every hitter in the lineup is doing this, and we’ve got to fix all of this.’ I think it’s more, individually, what do we need to do to get certain guys just a little more consistent? I think that’s what it boils down to right now. More of this week, we need to look at the individual plans for each player and see, like, what do we need to do to get that player better? I think that’s the key for us right now as I sit here. Again, two days ago, that offense was pretty dang good, so I don’t want to go from one extreme to the other.

“When I’ve been through this before — and I have been through this before — I think sometimes one of the worst things you can do as a coach is just change everything. The players right now, they need consistency from the coaching staff more than anything else — small adjustments with individual players, kind of one-on-one. And then keep the messaging consistent — what we’re doing in the cage is what we’re doing pregame, all those things. We got to remain consistent because the players, I believe, over the long haul, thrive on consistency. What they don’t respond very well to is just overhauling. ‘Anytime something doesn’t go well for a couple days, Coach is just jumping off his bandwagon, we’re going to do something totally different.’ So we just got to keep showing up, working, making small adjustments with each individual guy. I think we’ll get there because we have been there.

“And look, the pitching staff, we got to keep doing what we’re doing because they’re giving us a chance every day. They’re giving us a chance to be in the ball game and win.”

Of course, winning is the only thing that matters. But when you compare what you’ve got right now to the three programs you’ve just played — Arkansas, Georgia and Texas — how close are you? And what do you think what separates them from you all?

“I think that each one of those teams is a little bit different. For instance, when you look at a team like a Georgia, Georgia’s got so much power. When you look at a team that hits for that much power — and they play on turf — why do they turf their field? Because they want to have big sluggers all over the field. Turf creates no bad hops whatsoever, so they build a roster to the playing surface that they have. They want to slug, and they want power arms. So they want their 27 outs, a lot of them to come via strikeout because they don’t have a ton of guys that defend the field like a Texas does.

“But they absolutely just obliterate the baseball. If they make a couple errors, well, they’re going to hit some three-run homers. They can overcome that. That’s what they built their roster to do: on power bats and power arms. They were fine defensively against us, but when you play a team like that, you’ve got to keep the ball down. And again, you can’t make any mistakes when it comes to the ‘free 90.’ They’re very disciplined. You walk a couple guys, they’re going to hit a three-run homer. It makes it really hard.

“A team like Texas, they didn’t swing the bats great this weekend. We pitched pretty well. But when you pitch the way that they pitched, you can’t give them anything in regards to defensive miscues. You give up one run that you shouldn’t have given up, two runs, that could be the difference in the ball game. Just look at the game today: We gave them two runs there in the first inning, and the rest is history.

“I just think the margin for error is small. And how we compare to those teams, we need to be able to play our best baseball in all phases as often as we can to be able to compete with those teams. You know, Georgia game three, we didn’t defend the field well. We didn’t win that game — swung the bat well, and we actually pitched it okay. The other two games, we pitched pretty good, we didn’t score enough, right? So it’s a matter of being able to find a way to score runs at a more consistent basis to be able to compete with these teams because we’re pitching it pretty good.

“But each team’s a little bit different. Texas is not going to give you anything. They can defend, they can pitch. You gotta go beat them.

“That’s the name of the game for us: We’ve got to find a way to be our very best, day in and day out. And if we do that, then I do believe that we can compete with anybody because our pitching staff certainly is going to give us a chance. Just got to find a way to score more runs. That’s the bottom line.”

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