Everything Monte Lee said after South Carolina's Sunday defeat to Kentucky

South Carolina interim head baseball coach Monte Lee spoke to the media following the team’s 9-5 loss to Kentucky on Sunday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“That was tough. Give Kentucky a lot of credit. They jumped on us early in the ball game. Thought their starter [Connor Mattison], through the first three innings of the game, was really good. We didn’t do anything first time through the order against him. They jumped on [Alex] Valentin there early in the ball game and then put together a big inning in the third. We were down 4-0.

“Really proud of how our guys bounced back there in the middle of the game. We hit the two-run homer [in the fourth inning]; we had the big inning in the fifth and took the lead. And then, late in the ball game, the eighth, they put together the big inning and scored a couple more there in the ninth.

“Quite honestly, early in the ball game, in the big inning, the third — and in the eighth, for that matter — I needed to do a better job. They have so many guys and, as part of their offense, where they bunt for hits and had runners on base, I had [Dawson] Harman in a little bit, trying to take away the base-hit bunt. And they hit two doubles by him.

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“And then, some tough luck there with [Alex] Philpott. That was my fault, too. We’d been playing the left-handed hitter, [Braxton] Van Cleave, in a full shift, and he had hit two balls to [KJ] Scobey in the full shift. We threw him a changeup, so I moved Scobey, who was holding the runner at second base, over, obviously anticipating him pulling the change up. And he hit it right where he would have been. So that was on me, and I told the team that after that.

“Look, we didn’t play our best baseball game by any means. [But] even though the pitching line didn’t look very good overall, to see those guys take the ball after most of those guys had already pitched this weekend and compete the way they did, I was proud of them for that. We put ourselves in a position to win the game. It’s just unfortunate there at the end that the game got away from us a little bit. Part of it is on me, but we were certainly banged up, as you could tell, just based on our lineup today. But it’s not an excuse. I thought the top half of the order did a nice job. We just didn’t get much in the bottom half and needed to be a little more complete offensively.

“But Kentucky was the better team today. They played a better baseball game than we did, and I was proud of how we fought. How we started, it didn’t go well, but we fought our way back into it, and we took the lead. And then, unfortunately for us there in the eighth and in the ninth, we just gave us some hits. They did a good job swinging the bat with runners on base and came up with the win today.

“So it was tough. But all in all, we had a good week. If you’d have told me — and I told the team — with six outs to go on a Sunday, we had a chance to sweep the week, I would have said, ‘Well, we’ll sign for that.’ It just didn’t work out for us there at the end of the game.

“And part of that’s my fault. I’ve also told the team, ‘I’m always 100% accountable. My fingers always going to be pointing towards me and never away from me.’ I didn’t put us in a position with some of the things that I made decisions on in regards to positioning that hurt us today. So that’s not players fault; that’s my fault.”

On the Van Cleave situation in the eighth inning, where he scores after stealing second, what did you see on that play? And you guys have been a lot better defensively. How disappointing was is to see those throwing errors?

“I mean, look, you got a kid in center field [Aaron Jamison] that hadn’t played in quite a while, and I think he’s just trying to be aggressive and make a play. But he shouldn’t have thrown the ball. I think he knows that.

“How many times have you ever seen it? That’s the thing where catcher throws the ball to second base, it gets into the outfield — happens all the time. He did a good job of being aggressive to get to the ball, but how often do you see it where the center fielder actually throws a runner out at third base once he attempts to go? It very rarely happens.

“I wish we could have gotten that one back. That was the wrong decision, but it was an aggressive decision. I understand it through the lens of a player just trying to be aggressive and make a play, but certainly wish he would’ve just thrown the ball second base.”

Just wanted to check in with you on Tyler [Bak].

“Yeah, he was out for today, unfortunately. We’re hoping that, maybe, we’ll get him back by Tuesday. We feel like he’ll be back by LSU, not real sure. It’ll be more of a day-to-day situation. But unfortunately, he was not available for us today.”

Was he sick, or did he get banged up?

“He got banged up in the game yesterday, just diving back into the base at third. Jarred his shoulder some, and he was pretty stiff this morning. We made the decision that he couldn’t go today.”

After you had the big inning, you only had two hits over the last four innings, had several strikeouts. What did those last couple of relievers do to you guys offensively?

“They gave us some different looks. We saw different types of fastballs. And then, from what I could tell — and it’s hard sometimes from the side view to tell where the pitches are — I thought we were underneath some fastballs. And we just didn’t do a good enough job of covering the outer half of the plate, especially with two strikes. That’s the reason why our strikeout numbers were as high as they were.

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“We’ve got to do a better job of competing on the outer half of the plate. We’ve gotten better at it; we’ve been better at it. But I just thought they did a nice job of executing fastballs and breaking balls away from our right handed hitters, and we just didn’t do a good enough job of covering those pitches.

“We just needed to be better. That’s what I saw. I thought they did a nice job of executing pitches, and we didn’t do a good enough job of competing with a two-strike approach.”

After they got to Valentin, the bullpen gave you four good innings in the middle of the game. Just what did you see from the bullpen before Kentucky was able to add on late?

“Toughness — just pure toughness. That’s it. I mean, that’s just what I saw. Parker [Marlatt] did a great job. Cooper [Parks] did a good job. I thought Alex [Philpott] did a good job. I mean, shoot, Alex got the double play to end an inning. It was unfortunate on the HBP — like, the bunt. I thought the ball hit the bat. Don’t know, but it’s hard to tell. So it was just tough luck there.

“And again, it’s my fault. I moved our shortstop over into a full shift because that’s where he’d been hitting it, and he hit a ball where he would have been. The game probably would have been a little bit different, and I felt bad for Philly in that regard because I didn’t help him. I didn’t think it was his fault necessarily — I think it was a two strike count. But I feel like I let him down by making the decision to move Scobey over. I was also anticipating him pulling the ball because he had pulled everything.

“I know that it happens. But when you do those things as a coach, you feel like, ‘Look, this is my fault.’ So that’s the way I felt about it.”

Bullpen depth got really tested this weekend with some short starts. You guys really haven’t had to encounter that situation because the rotation has been so good. How do you feel about the bullpen with the way they’re able to go out there, in spite of these short starts?

“Well, they’ve done a great job. Again, you can’t fault the guys out of the bullpen for today because a lot of those guys are throwing on short rest. We haven’t gotten deep enough, quite honestly, in the game where we could keep those guys in short stints. We’ve had to get four to five outs, and then go to the next guy for four to five outs. We can’t really stretch those guys out a ton because they’re throwing on short rest, so it certainly makes it challenging on your bullpen.

“But those guys, look, they take the ball, and they compete as hard as they can. We certainly would love to get deeper into the ball game than we have in two of the games this weekend because it does tax your bullpen, for sure.”

What’s your overall thought on the weekend? Obviously, the goal is to win the series, but the sweep was potentially there. What are your thoughts on how things went?

“Well, anytime you win two out of three, that’s a good weekend. As disappointed as I am right now because we were in a position with six outs to go to sweep the series, it was good to see the guys as competitive as they were. Even when we were down, they didn’t give in. They competed hard.

“And they were really disappointed, too. I think they felt like, ‘We’re going to sweep this series.’ I think the expectation of winning today was super high. I don’t think the guys just settled on winning the series; I did not get that vibe today. The guys came and hit early. They did all their early work — good work defensively, a great batting practice. I thought everybody was amped up and ready to go.

“I was proud of how we approached the game today, having already won the series, in regards to the mindset of players and how we competed during the game. Again, we didn’t play our best baseball game, but we put ourselves in a position to win with six outs to go. We just didn’t get it done at the end of the game.

“So it was a good weekend. Would have been a great weekend if we could have held on and won that game. That’s certainly disappointing, and that’s how I feel about it.”

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