As a 10-run lead quickly trimmed down to one, Caleb Jones was an out away from ending Texas A&M\u2019s roaring comeback. After Brendan Sweeney had given up a pinch-hit grand slam to Hayden Schott, Jones entered in the ninth inning and retired two of the next three batters.<\/p>\n
The South Carolina right-hander was rolling right along and had the middle of the Aggies\u2019 lineup coming up. Before Jones could lock back in, head coach Paul Mainieri made his way out to the mound.<\/p>\n
Mainieri wasn\u2019t making a pitching change but rather just talking to his pitcher. Although he did have left-hander Ashton Crowther warming up in the bullpen just in case. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just thought, Caleb\u2019s out there competing like hell. He\u2019s making all the good pitches that he can, and (Texas A&M\u2019s) just tough,\u201d Mainieri said. \u201cSo that was what I told him. I told him, you know, don\u2019t just lay one in there for this guy, because, you know, this guy will leave the ballpark on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Mainieri headed back to the dugout and Jones stepped back on the rubber, his outing quickly crumbled before his eyes. He proceeded to walk the next two batters, with the crowd chanting after each of the eight straight balls he threw. He then served up a walk-off grand slam to Kaeden Kent as the Gamecocks suffered a disastrous 15-12 loss on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Mainieri didn\u2019t regret leaving Jones in when he had the potential lefty-lefty matchup at the ready. But that wasn\u2019t necessarily the issue. It was more so him making a mound visit at a point when Jones was pitching well.<\/p>\n
Get the inside scoop on all things Gamecocks for just $1 for 7 days\u2014lock in this special offer!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Pitching coach Terry Rooney normally makes the trips and talks to the pitchers. Mainieri comes out when it\u2019s time to make a pitching change. This was one of those rare cases where he decided to do it on his own. Whether or not it impacted Jones\u2019 rhythm after just striking out a batter, he never looked the same once the mound visit was over.<\/p>\n That\u2019s happened a few times this year. It seemingly threw off Matthew Becker\u2019s outing on March 30 when he was one out away from getting out of a jam against Tennessee. He had just struck out two straight batters when Rooney came out to the mound. It led to an immediate two-run single in the next at-bat, ending Becker\u2019s start.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s the reason for the timing of it? Why not go out there when a pitcher is struggling and unable to locate the strike zone?<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s more to do with how (Rooney) wants to attack the next hitter in the situation that we\u2019re in,\u201d Mainieri explained. \u201cJust kind of getting the pitcher to refocus on the next batter after he\u2019s done well against the previous guy, and just make sure that he\u2019s got his game plan for what he wants to do with that next guy. So it has more to do with strategy than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to the pitching staff, Mainieri trusts a lot in what Rooney wants to do. He said they talk about everything when it comes to making decisions. They\u2019ve known each other for years. They worked together at LSU and Notre Dame, where Mainieri was the head coach and Rooney an assistant.<\/p>\n \u201cI do what Terry wants to do, because he\u2019s the one who works with those guys all the time, and he knows their strengths and limitations,\u201d Mainieri said. \u201cIf he\u2019s that convicted about something, it\u2019s generally what I will go with. But if he\u2019s not terribly convicted, then I go with what I think is the best thing. Most of the time, we\u2019re on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the results on the mound haven\u2019t been good, with the second-worst team ERA (8.69) in SEC play. There are a lot of reasons for the pitching staff\u2019s latest struggles. Some of it has to do with decision-making. But Mainieri is confident that he knows what he\u2019s doing as a longtime veteran in the game.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s a regrettable decision, you know, I always analyze my own decision,\u201d Mainieri said. \u201cAnd people can second-guess them all they want, but nobody reanalyzes them more than I do.\u201d<\/p>\n The post How Mainieri manages pitching staff and when to make mound visits<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a 10-run lead quickly trimmed down to one, Caleb Jones was an out away…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Discuss South Carolina baseball on The Insiders Forum!<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n