Everything Monte Lee said after South Carolina's Saturday victory over Kentucky

South Carolina interim head baseball coach Monte Lee spoke to the media following the team’s 9-4 win over Kentucky on Saturday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“What a great series win for our program. The two guys beside me here [Brandon Stone and Talmadge LeCroy] were a huge part of that. Pitched it incredibly well. Brandon gave us some length, threw the ball very, very well. Bullpen was outstanding. I thought Logan Prisco, Zach Russell at the end of the game both were just phenomenal for us.

“And offensively, man, another great day. I think we scored in six out of eight innings, something like that. But just the quality of the at-bats, how competitive our at-bats were, so many big hits with runners on base… I know that’s been an issue at times for us, but man, did it look like we got better with runners on base today.

“So just all in all, pitched it well, played great defensively, swung it good, complete game, won the series. And hopefully, we can continue with all this great momentum that we have going into tomorrow.”

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It took a bit in that fifth inning for Stone to get out of it. What went into the decision to let him start the sixth?

“We knew that he was getting pretty close on the pitch count side of things when he gave up the first homer in that inning. At that point, we started getting [Connor] Chicoli hot. I felt like, based on the matchup, because we had right-handed hitters past a lefty, that he was a good matchup for him. He just threw a pitch that probably caught too much of the plate, gave up a second home run at the inning. And once that happened, the game was too close at that point, and his pitch count was probably getting at that point to where we needed to make a change and give them a different look.

“You always want to try to give your starter as much length as you can, as long as they’re throwing the ball over the plate. But you also have to look at the quality of the pitches, where you’re at in the game, who’s the right matchups based on where, what part of the lineup they’re in. Felt like he was still a good matchup at that point past a lefty that hit the ball opposite field in the bullpen. Still felt like he was a good matchup for those guys.

“Once he gave up the second homer in the inning, they had had back-to-back innings where they had scored some runs. And you could see that he was starting to fatigue a little bit, leaving some balls up. So we felt like it was time to go get him.”

Since you took over this team, you guys have already outperformed in SEC play your predecessor. I know it’s more complicated than a simple “yes” or “no” behind the scenes, but is the head coach permanent position a job you would want? And do you feel like you’re making a good case with what you’ve done so far since you took over to get that permanent role?

“Well, I’ll try to answer it the best that I can. I mean, yes, there’s no question I’d love to be the head baseball coach here at South Carolina for a long, long time. It would be a dream come true to be able to to have this position. There’s no doubt about that. And obviously, I’m working as hard as I can to see if that could be a potential opportunity. There’s no denying that.

“But that being said, my main focus is, again, trying to get the most out of this team and really only focusing on what I can control. The only things I can control, really, is my effort with this team every single day, my attitude that I bring to the field every day and just trying to prepare this team to do the best of their ability. It’s really out of my control past this season what happens. So that’s probably the best way that I can answer it.

“I’ve been given the responsibility of managing this ball club for the rest of this season, doing the very best I can with this team this year. I’m going to do that, continue to do that. And then, the administration can decide what they want to do once the season is over, whenever that is.

“Look, I’d love to be the head coach here. But again, my primary focus is only controlling what I can control, which is just showing up here every day, trying to get the best out of these players.”

You mentioned the number of quality at-bats today and yesterday. What do you think has been the chief driver in improving the quality of the at-bats?

“I would say, again, it’s a contagious situation. You’re just building one game after one game. We’ve had three games in a row now where we swung the bats really well. I think part of it, we changed our pregame routines a little bit, just trying to put more emphasis on using the whole field, being a tougher out. The focus this week is, ‘Hey, we just got to be tougher outs, period.’

“After looking at yesterday’s game, we had one of the lowest chase rates that we had had the whole year. We did a really good job of staying in the strike zone in yesterday’s game. And I just made it a point that, our guys who are in our lineup day in and day out, who tend to chase some — we have a few guys that tend to chase pitches out of the zone a little bit — when those guys are disciplined in their at-bats, when they have the most disciplined at-bats of the group, we score a lot of runs. So just trying to, again, press upon them how important having discipline at-bats [is].

“And then, also, look how many pitches early in the game today… Like, [Ethan] Lizama hit a ground ball to short, where they make an error. That’s an eight pitch at-bat. [Tyler] Bak had a walk. That was a 10-pitch at-bat. Just winning pitches, fighting pitches off, driving up the pitch count number.

“We started a reward system this week, giving them stickers based on certain things. They love it, stick them on the helmet. Just trying to reward them for putting together better at-bats. We have a little sticker ceremony after every game, and the guys go crazy. It’s a fun thing to do, but we’re just trying to reward the kids for success. Ultimately, that’s what this game is all about. They work so hard, and if they do some things that you value as a coach, you need to reward them for it. So I don’t know if it’s had anything to do with that, but the guys have done just a great job.

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“I mean, heck, we were going to push batting practice back today because of starting earlier, and Talmadge LeCroy texts me in our group text with the whole team and said, ‘Hey, let’s hit early. Like, let’s come out and hit early.’ Just like we did today, we came out early and hit. I was going to let them sleep in a little bit, and, heck, they wanted to hit early. So it just shows you these kids aren’t giving in. They’re going to keep coming out here every day and fighting and competing and preparing. Really proud of them after winning the series today.”

It’s one thing for your opponent to make some mistakes, make some errors. It’s another thing to be able to capitalize off of them. How did you see your team out there today being able to capitalize off of some of the mistakes that Kentucky was making?

“It’s just grinding out at-bats, having competitive at-bats, not giving in. Good teams make you pay when you make mistakes. If you make mistakes over the plate, or you make an error or two, once you start to put pressure on the opponent, you got to take advantage of it. That’s simply what we did today.

“I don’t think it was necessarily a message or a thought process or anything like that. I mean, I think yesterday’s success probably helped it out a little bit. Our guys were pretty confident going into today. We were pretty confident knowing, based on the fact that they did not announce a starter until about 10 a.m. this morning, that it was going to be probably a ‘Johnny whole staff’-type day for them, where they were going to pitch a number of guys — a bullpen-type day. So we felt like the recipe to score runs was going to be there today, and we certainly did that.”

You’re going to say, ‘Win one game at a time,’ but do you allow yourself to look at the schedule, look at how you’re playing, look at who you’re going to be playing, and see a path, besides winning the SEC tournament, to the postseason for this team?

“What I have told the team is, they have an opportunity to really write a unique story for themselves. I truly believe that. And I told the guys after we played Mississippi State, after that weekend, that, with everything that has happened, we have an opportunity to write our own story — and write a very unique story.

“When you look out on that wall, and you look at all those teams that have played in the postseason, there’s some pretty cool stories there. But a lot of those teams were pretty much postseason teams the whole year. They had the résumé to get in basically the whole year. They had put themselves in that position early in the season and kind of kept it there. And we haven’t, so we have an opportunity to really do some unique things that haven’t been done in this program.

“But we’ve got to believe. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be difficult, but it’s not impossible. So that’s really been my message to this group every day: All of us here have a unique story to tell, and it’s just a matter of us writing that story. That’s the way we’ve been approaching it.

“So far, look, it’s been up and down, but boy, have they been competitive. I mean, one thing you can say about this group is this group has been competitive. They bring their very best effort every single day to the ballpark. That’s something we can hang our hat on, and hopefully, we’ll continue winning ball games and just see what happens.”

You talked Thursday about the unique brand of baseball that Kentucky plays. Tomorrow may be a different story, but it seems like you all have managed those things very well the first two games. What do you attribute that to, and how do you feel like your team has handled some of the things that Kentucky does?

“I mean, we certainly made them aware of it. We made the guys aware of it once we got past Presbyterian in regards to how we were going to practice this week. Just handling the bunt, managing the running game, being quick to the plate, pounding the strike zone and forcing them to swing the bat — that’s the key. You have to win the ‘free 90’ battle versus teams like this. We certainly made it interesting late in the ball game with the ‘free 90s’ and the walks, but I think our team has done a pretty good job of it, all in all.

“The infield has to have the expectation of the runners at all times. I think, when you play a team that can run, and they can bunt, and they can steal, the infielders have to hold their ground a little bit longer than when you have a team playing that’s not going to run. You got to hold your ground in the middle. You got to know this guy’s a 4-0 down the line, so a ground ball hit to you, you got to get rid of it. Like, he can run. All these guys can run, so the speed of the game is much faster when you’re playing a team like a Kentucky. You got to be ready for it. And you got to expect anything that could happen. I think our guys have done a great job of that, all in all.

“A big part of that, too, is your catcher. Talmadge has done a pretty good job behind the plate today. I mean, in these first two games, he might have caught his best two games, in my opinion. The catcher’s a big part of it, and he’s certainly done a good job.”

Do you expect [Beau] Hollins to be back this season?

“I don’t think Beau Hollins will be back this season.”

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