Everything Paul Mainieri said after Texas A&M walked off South Carolina

Following an 8-7 loss to Texas A&M on Thursday, South Carolina head coach Paul Mainieri spoke one-on-one with GamecockCentral. Here’s everything he had to say.

Can you just describe the feeling after that game?

“It’s a tough loss. We had our chances, but we dug ourselves a hole with walks. Just had too many walks tonight. Outside of that, we pitched really well, except for the walks.”

Jake McCoy didn’t have a great outing today that put you guys in that early hole. What do you see with some of his struggles on the mound?

“I don’t know. I can’t answer a question like that. I don’t know what he did. He walked four batters in a row.”

What did you think of the at-bats to be able to fight back to tie the game?

“Had a couple of good ones, and then we had some really bad ones at the end there. We had chances. Runner at third base, less than two outs. The best player up strikes out, and then another strikeout by the four-hole hitter. You’ve got to put the ball in play to have a chance. We couldn’t do that there.”

With the 16 strikeouts, do you just attribute that to…

“We didn’t hit the ball with two strikes. We struck out. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s a tough League. You’ve got to be able to rise to the occasion in those tough situations. And obviously, when the game is on the line in the ninth inning, 10th inning, we didn’t put the ball in play. Struck out too much.”

Before Brendan Sweeney gave up the walk-off homer there, it was a really good night for the bullpen. What did you think of their performance?

“I thought the bullpen was terrific tonight. Marlatt, Crowther, Jones and Sweeney were all tremendous. Guy ambushed the first-pitch fastball on Sweeney, a 95-mile-per-hour fastball. You have to give him credit there. But everybody pitched great, except our starting pitcher walked four batters in a row and gave up a five-run inning. And because of it, it’s a lot to overcome. We did, and then we got the game tied. We just couldn’t come through after that and take the lead. It would have been nice to get the ball to Sweeney with the lead, but unfortunately, we couldn’t get the runs across.”

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