Everything Paul Mainieri said after South Carolina's Friday win over Clemson

South Carolina head baseball coach Paul Mainieri spoke to the media following the team’s 7-0 victory over Clemson on Friday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Obviously, it was a great win for our team, our program, our university, our state.

“When you pitch great, you got a chance to win, and our pitching was unbelievable tonight. I think we struck out 15 batters, gave up three hits, and that just set the tone. And Josh Gunther, obviously, was the story of the game.

“We didn’t hit a lot — four hits — but they all were big hits. Patrick Evans leading off the (third) inning and starting a rally for us. (KJ) Scobey had two separate RBI hits, and Ethan (Lizama) had an RBI hit. So, we took advantage of the hits we had.

“I thought we grinded out a lot of great at-bats. Ran the pitch count up on a really good pitcher (Aidan Knaak) there in the fourth inning. I think he was at 70 pitches after three innings. But he’s a great competitor, and he hung in there. They had great arms.

“So, it was a good win for us. Good way to start the series. Hopefully, we can come out tomorrow and play with great enthusiasm the same way.

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Have you found your Friday night starter for next week?

“We’ll divulge that next Thursday.”

You’ve seen a lot of the guys when they’re in that zone. Where was Gunther tonight? Is he one of the best that you’ve seen?

“That was unbelievable. I told y’all yesterday when you asked why we started him — through the fall and through the preseason, he’s been one of our top couple of guys. He was disappointed when I didn’t put him in the rotation to start the season. Being a team player, he understood that the starting pitcher was probably only going to go a maximum of four innings, and we still were going to have five innings to play. But he was happy when I told him that I wasn’t going to use him as a one-inning closer. I made that promise to him.

“So, when he pitched four innings the first time out — or four-plus innings, as I remember — and then, last week, even though he didn’t pitch well, he pitched a few innings… Moving him to the rotation, to a starting role, I knew he had built up enough endurance that he could pitch deep into the game. I didn’t really expect him to go seven innings tonight. I was hoping for five, but he was in such a groove. And I think, after five innings, he was only at like 59 pitches or something. So, he was really efficient.

“I think he finished with 89 pitches — which, I gave him about four more than I would have liked to, but I just couldn’t take the ball from him with two outs in the seventh inning. I wanted to see him finish that inning. Fortunately, he got a couple quick outs, or got a first pitch out of the inning, and then got the last guy pretty quickly. So, I didn’t really want to have to take him out in the middle of the inning, but that was going to be his last batter.

“He was really something. He was special. And I’d like to tell you I’m surprised, but I’m really not. I think he’s a really great pitcher, and I think he’ll continue to pitch well for us all year.”

You spoke yesterday about the guys having short-term memories and how that could really helped them moving forward. How, in your opinion, were you able to bounce back so convincingly after everything that happened on Wednesday?

“It’s baseball. You play so many games; you just can’t dwell on negative things, and you can’t dwell on positive things. We have a midnight rule. I extended it to one in the morning; I told them we’ll go Central Time for this so they could wind down a little bit. But once one o’clock in the morning hits, they’re not allowed to talk about this game anymore. It’s over. Tomorrow’s a new day, and the score is 0-0.

“We’re going to face another great pitcher tomorrow and, obviously, a really good team overall. Clemson, I’m sure their coach is telling them, ‘It only counts as one game. It’s over with. Now, let’s get ready for tomorrow.’ So, we got to be ready to go again.

“That’s just the mindset that you have to make your players have. I sell it to them because, when they’re in professional baseball, you can run off an 0-for-20 in four days or five days, and you can go from hitting .300 to .280 in a week. So, that’s why you have to learn to put things behind you, whether it’s good or bad, and get ready for the next day. Baseball’s so unique that way, more so than any other sport, because you play so frequently. And three days in a row now, we have to play — or we will get to play. But you have to be able to compartmentalize each game.”

With Gunther and Alex (Valentin) being able to do it themselves tonight, how big is it the rest of the weekend, knowing every other bullpen arm is available to support Amp (Phillips) and Riley (Goodman) the rest of the way?

“And I wouldn’t count Alex out, either. He’ll be begging for the ball tomorrow, I’m certain of that.

“But that was huge. You know, it was a seven-run lead. Maybe you think, ‘Why is he using Valentin?’ But we had such great momentum in the game, and we’re shutting them down. Honestly, I just really wanted to take it one game at a time. Had we scored one more run, maybe I wouldn’t have sent Valentin out. But I just thought he had a chance to dominate a couple of innings and just finish it off. We could count one in the win column, and we’ll worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

“But you’re right. We’ve got everybody available, and maybe even Alex. But just an unbelievable pitching performance by both of those guys. I mean, I can’t remember last time I’ve had a staff strike out 15 against a team that was hitting .335 coming into the game. It was unbelievable.”

The rivalry helps, but where did that swagger and energy and emotion come tonight?

“Well, I think our kids were really excited about it. We bought into this rivalry, believe me. We felt like we competed really hard last year and just came up a little bit short at the end of the games. I knew we had better pitching to pitch at the end of the game than we had last year. So, if we could be close and have a chance to win, I made the guys believe that we had the talent to do it.

“Let me tell you — it was a great environment tonight. I appreciate our fans so much waiting out an hour, 45-minute rain delay. Even though not the whole stadium was filled because of the delay, probably, it was still a great environment. The fans were loud. It really energized our team and showed them really what South Carolina baseball is all about.

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“So, hopefully, again, we can take this experience from tonight and carry it into tomorrow. I’m sure there’ll be a nice crowd at Segra Park tomorrow. It should be a beautiful day. Hopefully, we’ll play well. And Amp will pitch well for us, like he’s capable of doing us, as well.”

Ray Tanner was talking to you outside before you came in here. Are some wins just better than other wins?

“Well, I don’t know. Are some losses worse than other losses, too? I mean, it goes both ways.

“Look, I’m not going to play this one down. That was a special win tonight; it really was. The team was undefeated. Their earned run average was ridiculously low; their batting average was ridiculously high. They’re hitting like .340 or something with runners in scoring position. I mean, they have a very talented team. And we played well. I’m proud of our guys, but it’s one game, and I’m not playing it down. It was a great win, and I loved it.

“I’m fortunate to have coached in a lot of great games through my career, and there’s been a lot of big wins. This one felt like some of those big wins that you’ve had in your career. But, by the same token, we haven’t won the series. All we did today was avoid getting swept. So, one more win, and you get to win the series. And then, you worry about another one if, hopefully, you have two wins after two games.”

In seven of the nine innings pitched tonight, you struck out the last hitter of the inning. Gunther and Valentin both showed a lot of emotion coming off in those moments. What does that do in terms of establishing momentum and that energy that you talked about a little bit? Does that do anything more than just getting the ground ball to the shortstop for the final out of the inning?

“I didn’t really realize that we struck out the last batter of the inning seven times. But both those guys, I think I use the word to describe them frequently is ‘fearless.’ If you’re out there worrying about failure or listening to noise and all that stuff, then you don’t play with that kind of passion and that enthusiasm, which all stems from self-confidence. They weren’t showing anybody up. They were just being energetic and enthusiastic and passionate about the game and passionate about their team. I just thought they both were phenomenal tonight.

“I’m not surprised at all that we pitched as well as we did. And I won’t be surprised if Amp pitches like that tomorrow. He pitched against a really good Clemson team last year in the (NCAA Tournament) Regional, and I thought he was awesome. Then, he went into the transfer portal. And I told you, when I saw him pitch from my living room, I was like, ‘That’s a kid I want.’ So, I’m sure he’s excited about pitching tomorrow.”

You talked a little earlier about working the count against Knaak. That seemed to really work for you. You only had four hits and were able to score seven runs. How impressive is that to you, just the way you guys were able to produce without getting a ton of offense with the hits?

“You know, we didn’t go up there looking for walks. There’s a difference between earning a walk and looking for a walk. We were aggressive at the plate, but he’s good. He changes speeds as well as anybody in the country, and he’s got enough fastball that, if you sit on his change up, he’s going to throw that fastball right by you. He’s got a decent breaking pitch as well. So, he’s a tough hombre.

“All you can do to coach them is tell them to grit their teeth and dig in and battle as hard as you can. Even though you don’t get a lot of hits, sometimes, you make him work hard. Then, he starts to get a little bit tired, and his command maybe gets off. I don’t know how many walks we had tonight. Does anybody know? Five? But then we have a couple of hit by pitches, I think? One, okay. But somehow, we got him to 70 pitches after three innings. So, I kind of felt in my heart that, if we could battle him again for another inning, we might have him out of the game after four innings, maybe five.

“He actually shut us down for two pretty quick innings. I think it was 10 pitches and 12 pitches the next two innings. But it was time for him to come out of the game. I think he’s over 90 pitches. So, when you can get a guy out… But then, gosh, they bring in this left-hander (Justin LeGuernic) throwing 95 (mph). I’m like, ‘Man, everybody should have the blessing to, with the score down 6-0, bring in a lefty throwing 95.’ That kid was good too, and we battled him pretty hard.

“I thought Scobey’s at-bat… You know, he had a couple of pitches called on him that were corner, maybe a little bit in. He didn’t feel sorry for himself. And then, he smoked that ball up the middle and drove in that other run. It was a big run to get, kept the momentum in our favor.

They mentioned on the broadcast that Reese Moore is banged up and out. Is he available at all?

“He’s not available this weekend. We’re going to have to see how he recovers. I’ll let you know probably next week what his status is.”

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