Everything Paul Mainieri said after Tennessee swept South Carolina on Sunday

Following a 7-2 loss to No. 1 Tennessee on Sunday, South Carolina head coach Paul Mainieri spoke to the media. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Well, first of all, I’d like to congratulate Tennessee. I think they really played well this weekend, and you can see why they have had the success that they have had. First of all, their pitching was outstanding, and their defense was suffocating. Their left side of the infield, third baseman, shortstop, were just really, really outstanding. Especially in yesterday’s game, late in the game, the plays that they made really kept us from winning, I think. They’ve got a bunch of gamers. They got a lot of clutch hits. And so you can see why they win.

“As for us, I was really proud of our team in the first two games. The way they fought and scratched and clawed and really competed. Today was a little bit different. Every guy in our lineup had a hit. Every single guy in our lineup had at least one hit, but we left 11 runners on base, and we had two RBI singles, and you’re just not going to beat a team like Tennessee when you only scored two runs. So obviously, we didn’t come through in a lot of clutch situations. We had a lot of opportunities. We had the right guys up at the plate, and it just didn’t happen for us today. And then we hit into three double plays. We only struck out five times. Sometimes, I would rather see a strikeout than take defensive swings where we just hit ground balls. It just wasn’t our day today. I don’t think we pitched horribly. We didn’t play bad defense. I don’t think we made an error. Everybody got a hit, but somehow, you know, we got beat by five runs.

“There’s just another gear that you’ve got to put it in to be able to beat a really good team. Somebody’s got to do something extraordinary on your team. You gotta have somebody driving four or five runs, you got to have a pitcher that does something really outstanding, and we just didn’t have that today. And so it was a victory for them. We didn’t play horrible baseball, but we just didn’t play winning baseball. And so we have to take our medicine.

“I will say this, I’m really glad the month of March is over, because when I looked at that March schedule that we just recapped it with the team, you know, had Oklahoma come in, it was a really good, solid team with great pitching, and we competed like crazy against them for three games. I thought we left it all out there on the field, and if we hold on to a ninth-inning lead, we win the series. We get off to a decent start, but then you’re staring at Arkansas, and you’re staring at Tennessee, basically the number one and number two teams in the country, in my opinion, the two best teams in the country. And we went over to Arkansas. The first two games, we weren’t really competitive. Third game, had a chance to win, couldn’t finish it off. And then, you know, Tennessee comes in, and I think we competed like crazy the first two games, and this third game just kind of methodically, we got beat. But I’m glad it’s glad we all play those two teams again, and not that anybody left on our schedule is going to be easy, I can assure you that. But there’s something special about those two teams, in my opinion. It would not surprise me to see those two teams being the final two teams standing at the end of the year. So when we strap it up against Presbyterian on Tuesday, we need to win a baseball game. I hate losing more than anybody, believe me, and it’s a very distasteful thing. I don’t care if you’re playing the Yankees seven times in a row. Just to lose seven games in a row, it’s very discouraging when that happens. Disappointing, not discouraging, disappointing. But the important thing for us is not to get discouraged and go out there on Tuesday, play as well as we can play. We’re going to treat Tuesday like it’s the seventh game in the World Series. Whatever it takes to win, we need to win a baseball game. Whatever it takes. We’re not holding anything back, and we’re gonna go out there and play as hard and as well as we possibly can to attempt to win a game. And then after that, we’ll turn the page. We’ll go to Starkville, and hopefully we’ll compete hard there and have some success. We’ll see. It’s not an easy place to go, despite what their record is, but it’s also a little different than having to play these last two teams. These two teams are well put together, and they play well on the field. So not that anything’s gonna be easy, but glad we’re done with those two teams.”

What did you think of Matthew Becker’s outing today? The first three innings went smoothly, and then in the fourth, what did you kind of notice that maybe looked different?

“He pitched great for three innings, and then in the fourth inning pitched very poorly. He hit the first batter, and then after that, he made some poor pitches. He wanted to throw a change-up to the last guy, which I think was a poor pitch selection. He had his curveball going. Today was the best curveball I’ve seen him have all year. And he had just struck out a batter with a really good curveball, and then decided he wanted to throw a change-up on the first pitch to the next batter. And the guy smoked a base hit and gave them their fourth run. So he was great for three innings. His best curveball I’ve seen him have all year. It was very encouraging, but he didn’t pitch well in the fourth inning. I can’t tell you exactly why.”

Do you see any sort of tendencies or similarities over the last month with those situations where you guys can’t come up with the big hit in the clutch?

“I mean, the pitching we’ve been facing is extraordinary. These guys are probably leading the country in pitching. Their team ERA was two coming in, and we scored two today. But the last two days we did better. We hit in the clutch last night, yesterday afternoon and the night before. We had some clutch hits. We had two clutch hits today. Gavin Braland played his heart out both days. You know. You know what. He came through with a big hit, and later on, when we had another opportunity, he didn’t. You tell me, what’s the difference between one at-bat or the other? You know? I mean, personally, I think Woita was a little too selective. He threw him a couple off-speed pitches, and he took strikes. It goes back to the age-old question. When guys swing early and they make outs, everybody criticizes you for not working the count. When they work the count and the guy strikes out, then they say he wasn’t aggressive enough. So the only, the only thing that works is whatever works.

“Personally, I think I would have liked what I teach is that we shouldn’t have been looking for the perfect pitch there. You’re the three-hole hitter of an SEC team. You have the bases loaded and nobody out. They’re not just going to lay one right down the middle for you. So you’ve got to adapt. And even if he just takes an off-speed pitch for a fly ball to left field, he gets us a run in. But he strikes out. Kennedy hits into a double play, and we go back with nothing added after working hard to get the bases loaded, nobody out. It’s the difference between winning and losing. It’s the clutch hitting. I mean, I’ve been coaching for 40 years, nothing’s changed. Do all the metrics we want. The guys are the teams that rise up and come through in the clutch situations, generally, are the teams that win today. We didn’t. We did it twice, but not enough.”

At what point today did you feel like something felt different compared to the first two games, where, as you said, the team scratched and clawed but fell short? Was there a difference in the mood in the dugout or maybe after you guys had fallen behind in the game?

“The mood wasn’t different. We didn’t have people coming through clutch situations. I just described the bases loaded, nobody out situation, and you got your three and four-hole hitters coming up. I mean, those guys are supposed to drive in the runs for you, and they didn’t. And before that inning, we had other situations. I don’t remember. I’d have to go back and look at the play-by-play. But we had other situations as well, maybe not to that extreme of bases loaded, nobody out. Nobody could come up and hit the ball hard in big situations. I think one situation Carrion was up with the runner on third. And his instruction is to the infielders are back in the middle of the field. I have a saying that I use that Branch Rickey used in the 20s. “Luck is the residue of design.” So Carrion comes up, hits the ball pretty good, but right at the third baseman. So we can’t score the run. He’s the only infielder that’s playing in but what should he be trying to do there? He should be trying to hit a ground ball at the middle of the infield where the infielders are back, and then you don’t have bad luck. Guy scores from third, and we pick up a big run there. So we left a run off the board there.

“We left runners off the board later on when, you know, as I mentioned, Jase should try to hit that off-speed pitch to the opposite field, hit a fly ball. So those add up over the course of the game. And it’s nothing different about the mood in the dugout or whatever. I told the guys we had 10 hits. Every single guy in the lineup had a hit. We only struck out five times, and we didn’t have any horrible pitching performances. We just didn’t play well enough to win because we didn’t hit in the clutch. We left 11 runners on base. And some days it’s hard to explain why it happens. Other days, you come through. Some days you don’t. It’s been the proverbial question forever, you know, why does that happen in this sport? But today wasn’t our day.”

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