Everything Paul Mainieri said after South Carolina's 9-5 loss to Florida on Friday

Following a 9-5 loss to Florida on Friday, South Carolina head coach Paul Mainieri spoke to the media. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Well, all losses are frustrating, but that one tonight seemed to be especially frustrating. Got off to a great start, and obviously they got a very powerful lineup. Gave up a two-run homer and a grand slam, so six runs on two swings. We had a lot of hits tonight, but we left a lot of runners on base. So at the end of the day, we didn’t do what it took to win the game. We’ll have to bounce back tomorrow.”

Why did you guys decide to start the game knowing what the weather was going to be?

“We were getting all conflicting reports on what the weather was going to be, and we have an administrative staff here that manages the game, and it’s easy to second-guess guess weather. Nobody knows what the weather is going to do. Had plenty of years where we didn’t start the game and sit there for two hours and watch it not rain and not lightning and everything else. We got reports that the line of stuff wasn’t going to come through until about 8 or 8:30. What are you going to do? Sit there while nothing’s happening? You never know when it’s gonna come. So the decisions are made to the best knowledge we have, and nobody can predict the weather accurately for sure.”

Bringing Brandon Stone back out after three and a half hours of not pitching. Can you kind of just take us through the process of that decision and how that conversation went down?

“He only threw 11 pitches in the first inning, and because the decision was made kind of late to get started, he really didn’t even throw that many pitches in the bullpen prior to the game. It was more like a reliever coming in, you know, after he was ready. We were going to not bring him back, and really, the kid pleaded with us. He said, I feel fine, and I thought he actually threw well. He had no tightness. He threw well. They just got to him there in the fourth when they hit the two-run homer against him. You make decisions based on what you feel is the best thing. And the kid was pleading to pitch. So obviously he felt good and didn’t think he was at risk. We weren’t going to let him throw 150 pitches out there. He gave us three more innings and did a very courageous job.”

What was the difference in those three at-bats when you guys left the bases loaded with nobody out in the seventh?

“(Jake Clemente) made some good pitches. We swung at some bad pitches. I don’t think any of the three pitches to Beau were strikes. He swung at three bad balls in a row. And then Scobey, you know, just couldn’t make contact. And then Bakes couldn’t make contact. So you give credit to their kid. He was throwing the ball hard. He’s been pitching really good baseball for him. And obviously, Kevin thought that that was a critical time in the game, and we just didn’t come through. And their pitcher did. I couldn’t tell you what the difference was, except for the fact that, you know, we just didn’t get the job done when we needed to right there.”

Situation on the catch, no catch in left field. Did you believe the run should have counted?

“I believe the run should have counted. I mean, anybody who’s watching the game could see that Blake was running. He believed the ball was going to be down. He was two-thirds of the way home around third base when the signal went up. But the explanation I got was that the umpires are supposed to be very conservative in where they apply the runners. But for me, it was pretty obvious that the kid was going to score. That left fielder landed on his stomach out there, and your runner is 30 feet from home plate. I don’t understand how anybody in their right mind could say that he wouldn’t have scored on that ball. He was clearly going to score, but obviously, it didn’t affect the outcome of the game. We lost by four runs. But I think that the call that maybe the umpires that are at the game have a better sense for it than even maybe somebody on replay, but the decision was made back in Birmingham.”

On tomorrow’s changed start time

“It’s been switched to 1 o’clock.”

It’s now almost 2 a.m. How does that affect your approach for tomorrow and your preparation?

“Well, nobody said it was going to be easy. We’re just gonna have to go home, get some sleep, and get back here early in the morning, be ready to go at one o’clock. It’s gonna be a challenge, for sure, but same for both teams.”

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