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

South Carolina interim head baseball coach Monte Lee spoke to the media following the team’s 4-3 loss to No. 17 Mississippi State on Sunday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Congratulations to Mississippi State. Played a great game today — pitched it really well, made every play defensively. We hit some balls fairly hard today that they caught, but they played a really good baseball game. Pitched really well and found a way outlast us. That’s the bottom line.”

“As disappointing as today was, I was really proud of the guys and how they competed in the second half of the game. I thought at about the halfway point of the game… We’ve been pressing at the plate, obviously. I mean, we have not been swinging the bat very well, and just felt like our guys were down in the dumps, pressing. Brought them up, said, ‘Hey, we got to get over this. Like, look, guys, you’re going to struggle from time to time as a baseball player. It’s part of it. But what we need right now is we need everybody, just put all your struggles to the side. Let’s pull together, and let’s just compete. Just compete as hard as you can. That’s all any of us can ask of you.’

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“And I thought they really did a good job of that in the second half of the game. I thought our at-bats were better. I thought we threw the ball really well. Pitched really well today. [Alex] Valentin was awesome; [Alex] Philpott was awesome. I thought all those guys threw the ball well. Zach [Russell] had some tough luck. We found a way to tie the ball game up in the eighth and, again, had some opportunities, put together some good at-bats — which I was strongly encouraged by. And we just came up short.

“We just got to keep fighting. That’s the name of the game with this group, and I told them that. However long we wind up playing this year, we just got to show up every day and compete as hard as we can together. Make it about the team, stay selfless, have a lot of fun, and compete for nine innings every single day. And if we do that, hopefully, we’ll get on the right side of this thing.”

With 44 strikeouts in three games, is that the pressing you were talking about a deeper issue?

“Yeah, I think part of it is pressing. A huge part of it is, we just got some guys that have been pressing at the plate and trying too hard and not being quite as selective as we would like for them to be. But again, with us being competitive there in the second half of the game, last nine outs of the game or so, hopefully, by putting together some good at-bats there at the end…

“Pat Evans, two-strike base hit. Thought [Tyler] Bak looked good today. Golly, Talmadge [LeCroy] fought his rear end off. If the wind wasn’t blowing in, might have left the ballpark there. Jake Randolph came up with a big hit for us and hit a ball hard to left-center field. Thought he looked better at the plate today. [Dawson] Harman had a nice day today. A handful of those guys that have been scuffling some at the plate, if we can get them going again, we got a chance to be more productive offensively and win more games.

“It’s that simple because we continue to pitch pretty well. I was proud of how we pitched today.”

In the eighth inning there, a few big base running issues, it seemed: Evans running on contact with third and second, no outs; and then, on LeCroy’s ball that hit off the wall. Talking to the players afterwards, did they get a sense, maybe, that the ball was gone off the bat? What happened there?

“I’ll talk about both as two separate things because they’re two separate things.

“Number one, okay, you got second and third. The third baseman’s [Ace Reese] playing back. The pace of the ball is what led to the play at the plate. So think about it this way: If he hits, like, a big-hop ground ball to the third baseman, and it takes the third baseman to the left, we got to score. He’s not going to throw the ball to the plate there. More times than not, the third baseman’s playing back, he’s telling you, ‘I’m going to throw the ball to first base.’ That’s what every baseball coach in America says. You’re playing back, you’re throwing to first. You’re conceding the run to throw the ball to first base to get an out.

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“The reason he threw the ball to the plate was because he [Craddock] had to hit that ball 105 miles an hour. When he hit it, Pat was going just because the third baseman was playing back. And he threw the ball to the plate.

“I would ask anybody: How many times have you actually seen that with a third baseman playing back, and he throws the ball to the plate? I’ve seen it a time or two, but eight out of 10 times, ground ball hit to third base with the third baseman playing back, he’s going to concede the run and throw the ball to first base. He just hit it too hard. And I think he saw, ‘I got a play here,’ and he threw the ball to the plate.

“Now, the other play. Talmadge hits the ball off the wall. We’ve got to get as far off the base at first base as possible. I don’t know exactly what happened, but it looked like Will came back to first base and tried to tag, which I have no idea why. Which is why Talmadge could only stay at first base because he couldn’t get to second base.

“We just got to be better there. I mean, it’s really that simple. The ball was hit. I don’t know if he thought it was going to get caught, but he’s got to get off as far as he can. And then, when that ball hits the wall, he’s going to third. But I will say this: I’m not so sure that he could have gotten to third because the ball, when it hit the wall, came right to the left fielder [Bryce Chance]. And if the left fielder is smart, as soon as he catches the ball, if he checks him, he may have had a play at third.

“But we teach our guys, if they’re doing things the right way on the bases, when the ball’s hit in the gap anywhere over the outfielder’s head from first base, you get as much as you possibly can. And for some reason, Will went back to first base on that ball, which is why Talmadge only got one base out of it.”

Their starting pitcher, [Charlie] Foster, was really good through the first seven innings. What was he doing to keep you guys off balance so well?

“He just did a really good job of mixing his pitches — a heavy dose of mix, a lot of spin, a lot of off-speed. But he just threw a lot of strikes. I think that was really it: just a lot of different pitches. He would add and subtract, speed you up and slow you down. He just did a good job of pitching. It’s just really that simple.

“We need to do a better job of just staying on the baseball. I mean, that’s really it. We’re out front a little bit on the off-speed stuff, and then we’re late on the fastball. We just got to do a better job of just selling out the one pitch, being on time and staying more through the middle of the field, especially on a day like today. Wind was blowing in; we were going to have to hit a lot of low line drives to be able to get runners on base and score.”

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