Everything Paul Mainieri said after South Carolina's run-rule loss to Arkansas

Following a 12-2 loss to No. 3 Arkansas, South Carolina head coach Paul Mainieri spoke one-on-one with GamecockCentral on Friday. Here’s everything he had to say.

What did you think of Brandon Stone’s outing? Seemed like he kind of struggled with his command there in the third inning.

“Yeah, the only hit (Arkansas) got in the inning, I think, was that bloop double that just barely fell fair. But they have such a good lineup. He was trying to make perfect pitches, but he ended up walking three or so. But hey, listen, the kid competed his heart out. I think he did the best he could. He fought hard. He wasn’t missing by much some of those pitches, and it just didn’t work out for him.”

What did you make of Matthew Becker being able to come in and give you guys some innings to preserve the bullpen?

“He had a couple of good innings for us. He gave up the two-run homer, but then he gave us some good stuff, and then I think he started to get a little tired there. And unfortunately, we just couldn’t finish the inning off. I can’t remember the last time I’ve ever coached a game where got run-ruled, to be honest with you.”

Does this feel like a gut punch, in a way, to get run-ruled in game one?

“Yeah, anytime that happens, it feels like a gut punch. It’s not very fun to get beat. With the 10-run rule, back when I was coaching before, they didn’t use it in the league. So I’m sure I coached some games where we lost by 10 runs or so, but I can’t remember them very well to be honest with you. But hey, listen, fortunately, it only counts as one game, and tomorrow’s a new day. It’ll be 0-0. We got Jake McCoy going for us, and hopefully, we’ll do a lot better.”

When you took Henry Kaczmar out of the game in the fourth inning, was it simply because of his fielding error and getting picked off?

“Pretty much so, yeah. Getting picked off when your best hitter is at the plate and you’re losing and nothing’s on is kind of a mistake that you just can’t make in a game like this. It was a hard play because it hit the grass and stayed down, but it’s a play that you got to make. And I could just see that the kid was really down on himself when he came off the field. He was hanging his head, and I just thought it was time to take him out of the game.”

So was it more so because of Kaczmar being down on himself that you felt that it was time to take him out?

“No, it was a combination of all of it.”

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