Everything Paul Mainieri said after South Carolina's 7-5 loss to Tennessee on Saturday

Following a 7-5 loss to No. 1 Tennessee on Saturday, South Carolina head coach Paul Mainieri spoke to the media. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Well, just unbelievably gut-wrenching, heartbreaking loss against a great team, number one team in the country, defending national champions. I thought that we played a great game virtually in every phase, and it just wasn’t enough. We had a lead there in the eighth. Thought we had a chance to close it out. And then we had a tremendous rally, and they made a couple of plays. Honestly that I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen plays like that. Shortstop made the first baseman turn in that 3-6-3 double play. I was shocked he even went for the double play. Thought for sure he’d be going home with the ball. But they made terrific plays, and they came through with some clutch hits. We played them tooth and nail the whole game, and thought we had them. But like I told the team, the wonderful thing, and also the difficult thing about baseball is, you know, the clock doesn’t run out on you. You get 27 outs. You’ve got to get them out 27 times. They can’t run out the clock on you either — you get your 27 outs. And today we just came up a little bit short. Just heartbroken for the kids.”

What were your thoughts on the way you guys battled back at the plate today?

“I was just really proud of the guys. They never gave up. They battled hard against, I mean, everybody in this league throws 98 miles an hour. I mean, I’ve never seen one like this when I was coaching before; the quality of the arms is unbelievable. And, you know, our guys were right in there battling hard. They battled tooth and nail. We got some big hits. A little bit of base running that we could have done a little bit better maybe, you know, when Beau got his hit. On the throw the plate, I would have liked to see both runners move up. And then right after that, I think Carrion got a base hit, we had to hold him at third base. So those little things like that, when you add up, they’re tough to overcome if you’re not taking advantage of all your situations. But we played a pretty flawless game today, really, you know, except for a little thing like that, maybe. But the kids competed really hard. I think they’re growing up and understanding what it takes. We had three freshmen in there today in the lineup. Even though that was a double play that Braland hit into with two strikes on him against the guy throwing 97. A young kid, 18 years old, he hit that ball hard right at him. Listen, I give them a lot of credit, they made some unbelievable plays. But I think our kids competed as hard as they can.”

How would you assess Brandon Stone’s outing? And do you worry at all about being able to nail a game down in the late innings, given how the bullpen has struggled at times?

“Well, I don’t really know what to say. I mean, for the most part, Brandon competed as hard as he could. He threw a lot of strikes in pressure situations. He’s a sinker ball pitcher and left probably a couple pitches up a little higher than he probably could have. And they hit him out of the park. Normally, gets a lot of ground balls, and he did get a lot of ground balls, but if you slip up just a tad, they can take advantage of it, especially when it’s not a big ballpark. That first home run, I thought it was kind of a routine fly ball there to center. And I thought that Nate was going to catch it. I don’t know how far it cleared over his glove. I’ll have to see the replay of it. But if you throw the ball over the plate, sometimes they’re going to hit it. And I’d rather him hit it than him walk him. I thought he competed as hard as he could. Except for a couple of swings, he did a great job.”

On the two double-play balls in the final two innings, you challenged both of them. What kind of explanation did you receive, specifically on the first one that Gavin Braland hit into to end the eighth-inning rally?

“I didn’t know if they were (safe). I had two challenges, so why not use them? I’m sure they were called correctly. The double play that Gavin hit into was an amazing play by them. They were playing the first baseman back, which surprised me to begin with. I thought they’d play him in and try to cut the go-ahead run down at the plate, and he’s playing back. It’s so hard anytime to turn a 3-6-3 double play. It’s hard to do that in practice, much less when the bases are loaded in the eighth inning. You’ve got to give credit to them. They made the play. But I thought the kid was having trouble finding the bag, and I just wanted to make sure that he got it. But can’t take them with you, you know, might as well challenge them.”

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