Everything Paul Mainieri said after South Carolina's road win over The Citadel

Following a 9-1 win over The Citadel on Wednesday, South Carolina head coach Paul Mainieri spoke with the media in Charleston. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“I thought that was the best, most complete game we’ve played all year. I mean, in every phase. Obviously, Petry gave us a lift right from the get-go. Jarvis Evans was in complete command the whole day. We showed power. We had clutch hits. We executed a couple of plays, a couple sacrifice bunts, a nice hit and run. Kaczmar swung the back great, you know, on that hit-and-run off the wall, and then he made that tremendous play.

“Braland played; such a shame that he got hurt. I sure hope it’s nothing serious because he played fantastic both these last two days. We just really did everything we would have hoped to have done against a good ball club. So I’m just really proud of the guys, and I think we showed today what we’re capable of being. Hopefully, we’ll keep going. Some of these guys I give a chance to, they act like they want to play. Beau Hollins gets out there, and he’s played great two games in a row. Braland’s played great. Jordan Carrion does all the things that you need a guy to do. So we’ve got a lot to think about as we go forward.”

What led you to giving Evan Stone the start in the two-hole tonight?

“Well, they started a left-handed pitcher, of course, and Mashore is out. So, I just had a gut feeling about Evan. There’s not a finer young man on our team than him. He’s just the consummate team guy. He’s always positive. He works so hard every day. He hit a home run here in the fall against College of Charleston, so he must like to hit at this ballpark. And boy, that home run that he hit was great. But then I was even more proud of his two-strike RBI base hit there. We’ve been lacking those kind of clutch hits. And he came through for us, just like a lot of guys did tonight.”

How do you guys feel like you hit situationally tonight?

“We did everything we possibly could, really. We executed a hit-and-run. We sacrifice bunted twice, we drove in runners from in scoring position. I mean, nothing’s perfect. If you’re perfect, you don’t make 27 outs. You know, the game will go on forever. But I just thought the guys played tremendous in every phase. I could not be happier tonight with how we played. Well, the only thing that would make me happier is if Gavin Braland didn’t get injured. But what a tremendous play he made there. And the play that Kaczmar made, the stretch that Hollins made on the play. Petry hustled on that ball that got past him, he almost made a tremendous play on that. We just left it all out on the field. Played great. And I’m just really proud of the guys tonight.”

What did you like about Jarvis Evans tonight?

“He threw a lot of strikes. I mean, his pitch count was so low; he got everything over that he needed to get over, even at the end there, threw a couple of good sliders. I would love to develop a good midweek guy for us, because you never know in a regional if you got to go to a fourth starter, and it saves your arms for the weekend, if you got a guy that can really go out and pitch a good game for you in the middle of the week, and that’s why we let him extend and go seven innings. His pitch count was down. He was in complete command. I was really happy for the kid. He works really hard, and he deserves that kind of success.”

On KJ Scobey

“Scobey is an unbelievable third baseman. I’ve said it is so many times this season that I would sound like a broken record. You really don’t know you don’t have a great third baseman until you don’t have one. And Scobey makes everything so routine, and he makes the plays in the clutch. He’s just a ballplayer, and it’s nice to see him swinging the bat better to hit a couple of balls really good today.”

Did you have any thoughts about bringing Evans back out for the eighth?

“Oh no, no, no. I wanted to get Zach Russell in the game in his hometown here, number one. And I wanted to get Palmer and Kimball on the mound as well. His pitch count was, I think, around 80 something. That was plenty. So he did a fantastic job.”

With Kennedy Jones, did you have a scan on him or anything?

“Kennedy should be ready to go Friday. We’re feeling pretty good about that, actually. So we’ll see how he is tomorrow. He’s going to start swinging the bat a little bit tomorrow. If he feels good and can take a full batting practice on Friday, then he’ll be ready to go.”

And then with Talmadge LeCroy, is it kind of just a pain tolerance?

“Talmadge is probably not going to play this weekend. It’ll probably be middle of next week before he possibly can play.”

So you feel okay about getting LeCroy back for SEC play?

“Well, I don’t know. If I felt great about it, he’d be ready to play this weekend, but I don’t think he will be.”

If Braland and LeCroy are out this weekend, do you have an emergency third catcher behind Max Kaufer and Ryan Bakes? Is there a fifth one on the roster?

“When I pinch-hit for Kaufer, and Talmadge wasn’t available. That’s one of the reasons why I hesitated to put Bakes in in the eighth inning, was because, what if you put Bakes in and something happens to him? Who do you have? So I was literally scanning the dugout, wondering, who has ever caught in their life? I’m gonna have to find out for Thursday. I was wondering about Will Tippett, if he’s ever caught. I’m gonna have to ask him if he’s ever put the gear on.”

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