South Carolina head baseball coach Paul Mainieri spoke to the media following the team’s 9-8 loss to Queens on Wednesday. Here’s everything he had to say.
Opening statement
“Tough one for us tonight, obviously. Credit Queens a lot. They came out smoking. We had a chance to take an early lead there in the first inning and couldn’t get a hit with a runner in scoring position. They threw up a three spot in the second inning and another one in the third inning. All of sudden, we had a big hole.
“I’ve seen this happen many, many times over four decade where a team comes in, and they start getting confident. They start making great plays, diving plays. You hit balls hard, and it’s right at people. Things happen. And we made a run there at the end, but unfortunately couldn’t get all the way back.
“We only shut them out for four innings, I think, tonight, out of nine. So, obviously, they were tough on our pitchers. We had some hits, but just not enough when it mattered. So, congratulations to Queens. They deserved it.”
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With what’s ahead this weekend — you are probably looking forward to that series — but was there any point where you felt like you, as a team, maybe just overlooked this game a little bit?
“I certainly didn’t. I can’t speak for all the players, but I’ve been around long enough to know. All you had to do is look at the scores yesterday from the SEC — LSU lost to McNeese, Arkansas got hammered by Arkansas State. I think there were some others. As soon as you don’t respect an opponent, they’ll beat you in this game. But I’m not saying we didn’t have respect for Queens. I certainly did. I knew how hard their coach works at it, and it beat Southern Illinois a couple of times this weekend, who’s always been a traditionally good program.
“So, I didn’t take them lightly at all. But I can’t speak for the mental state of each player. I thought they were excited about playing and had a good, positive attitude, and ‘We’re ready to go.’ But things just didn’t go our way early in the game. We dug ourselves a big hole and then had some bad luck as the game went on.”
No matter what was coming up this weekend, this wasn’t the result you wanted. But now that it’s over, and it happened, how do you regroup your guys before probably the most important series so far this season?
“Well, you play 56 of them, so you try to teach them right from the start that each day is a new day, regardless of what happened the day before. We’ll get together with them tomorrow at 2 p.m. and get ready for the weekend series. We’re just going to have to play better, that’s for sure.”
What were your thoughts on (Connor) Chicoli’s outing? And it seems like (Parker) Marlatt’s just had a real tough start to the year. Can you put your finger on anything as to why his struggles have been going on?
“I mean, it’s hard to say. He’s doing as well as he can, you know? They’re hitting some pitches. He’s not overpowering. He doesn’t have great stuff. And he throws strikes; sometimes, they hit it. But the three- run homer the kid (Queens first baseman Grayson Childers) hit to center field… I mean, he threw a strike, and the kid hit it. You give credit to the Queens kid.
“Chicoli was throwing strikes. He just probably threw too many strikes. He had guys down in the count, then gave up hits with 0-2 counts and things like that. He’s got to learn to make them chase his pitch once he gets ahead in the count because he doesn’t have overpowering stuff, either.
“They’re tough kids, and they compete hard. But you got to just make perfect pitches sometimes when you don’t have overpowering stuff, and both of them got hit around a little bit today. We got in a hole, and (it was) just a little bit too much to overcome.”
You talked a little bit about what your pitchers didn’t do right today. But for Queens, it’s seemed like, no matter who was throwing, they were able to keep their offense steady. What did you see from them at the plate that seemed to be going right for them today?
“They were just really aggressive. You know, the first pitch, I think it was off (Josh) Gregoire, it was a slider, and the kid (Queens outfielder Mitchell Basterrechea) crushed it to right field for a home run. I mean, their best player’s their two-hole hitter (Queens outfielder Bradley Brown). He’s hitting like .380; he took an 0-for tonight, and yet they still swung to bat so well.
“The rest of their team… I don’t know if it was our pitching or just great hitting by them, but they were on fire today. They took a lot of good swings and hit a lot of balls hard, and they hit a couple home runs. We ended up hitting a couple of home runs, too, to get ourselves back in the game, but we hit an awful lot of balls hard that were right at people, or they made diving catches. To be honest with you, I thought when (Aaron) Jamison hit that ball in the eighth inning, I thought it was out of the ballpark. I was shocked. I guess he just hit it a little bit high, but he hit that ball really, really good. Can’t say that’s bad luck. I mean, it’s physics. The ball didn’t go far enough to go over the fence.
“I mean, Beau Hollins had a great night. He had two big hits, and then he crushed two balls and had nothing to show for the other two at bats. We had a few of those. (KJ) Scobey hit a couple balls to the fence, just not enough to get them out of the park. So, I don’t know how else to explain it. I give credit to Queens. They played a great tonight.”
What surprises you the most about the results so far through nine games?
“I don’t know. I mean, we’ve done some good things. Obviously, there’s three losses there that you’d like to think that you were good enough to win those games. One game, we had the right guy up there with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning and was struck out. Today, we had a chance, but just couldn’t quite get over the hump. One game, we were terribly outplayed by Army. So, those are the three losses that we had.
“It’s a long season, and we just got to keep getting better. There’s obviously areas that we need to improve in and get more consistent in, and we’re going to keep working at it. This weekend would be a good time to put it all together.”
You talked about on the radio earlier about how, despite the comparison to last year, when you guys were undefeated up until this point, it feels different, even though you have those losses. What positives do you see, even in these losses?
“Well, there’s always some positives. I thought Hudson Lee threw really great there at the end. Patrick Dudley, a freshman, threw the ball pretty good. And we didn’t give up. The kids kept battling.
“Like I said, I’ve seen this happen so many times in my lifetime — where you play these games (against) teams that you feel like you probably have more talent than, and you should beat them. But what happens is they gain confidence early in the game because you don’t take advantage of a scoring opportunity. They do; they get a couple of big hits. Maybe you don’t make quite as good of pitches. And next thing you know, you’re in a hole. Then, when you guys really start focusing, they start smoking balls, but they’re right at people, or they’re making diving catches. You get some bad breaks go against you. I mean, it’s baseball. It happens. I love this game, but there’s some days, not so much because those things start to happen.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Queens. They played great today. They deserved to win, and we didn’t. We’re just going to have to regroup. But there’s always positives. Right now, I’m not thinking too much about them because I’m pretty disappointed about the result of the game. But we’ll analyze it all and get ready to go tomorrow for the weekend.”