With Mainieri gone, how interim baseball coach Monte Lee is tweaking USC’s approach
Perhaps South Carolina interim baseball coach Monte Lee felt a question about the duties of pitch calling shifting to the coaching staff was ripe to explain his core coaching philosophy. Or, maybe, he was further outlining the fact that Paul Mainieri is no longer with the Gamecocks (13-13, 1-5 SEC).
Mainieri and South Carolina parted ways last Saturday, ending the College Baseball Hall of Famer’s tenure in Columbia after just 80 games (USC went 40-40 in that span). Replacing the 68-year-old was hitting coach Monte Lee, a Midlands native who has tried to inject fun and optimism into the USC program following Mainieri’s departure.
And, well, one other thing: Ownership.
“If things go well, players deserve the credit,” Lee said Thursday, ahead of USC’s three-game series at No. 7 Georgia. “If it doesn’t go well, I deserve the blame, right? That’s how coaching works. It’s called accountability. … That’s the way we’re gonna do things around here.”
Lee’s response was part of a larger answer about why he took the responsibilities of pitch calling away from catcher Talmadge LeCroy and delegated it to, mainly, pitching coach Terry Rooney. While LeCroy proved he can call pitches, Lee didn’t want to burden him with the accountability, especially as he’s trying to focus on being a hitter, catcher and leader.
Naturally, Lee’s answer veered into a speech on leadership — which felt especially poignant in the wake of Mainieri’s departure.
While reasonable minds could disagree about some of the strategy and philosophies Mainieri implemented at South Carolina, he was the active wins leader in college baseball (1,545) before Saturday. It’s impossible to question his knowledge of the game.
But, on numerous occasions over the past two years, Mainieri struggled to take responsibility for the poor play of his team, often resorting to calling out individual players. Last year, he blamed Jase Woita for being “too selective” in an at-bat where he struck out, criticized Jordan Carrion for grounding out to third with the infield back and seemed to question Beau Hollins’ injury.
In February, after South Carolina lost a Sunday game to Northern Kentucky, Mainieri said that he thought his team was “tired” after the doubleheader the day before.
Earlier this week, he spoke to NOLA.com about leaving South Carolina and, among other things, said: “I think the (Gamecock) fans and the media, everybody here was pretty impatient.”
It seems impossible to think Lee would ever say something along those lines.
Now, does that mean the former College of Charleston and Clemson head coach will be able to lead the Gamecocks to victory down the stretch? Time will tell, but Lee is 1-2 so far, with his lone victory coming Sunday against Arkansas.
And in those three games, the energy shift inside South Carolina’s dugout has been quite noticeable. Unlike the Mainieri era, the Gamecocks have been watching games from the top step of the dugout. They’ve been flowing out of the dugout to greet their teammates after innings. Heck, they’ve started celebrating home runs.
“We had a talk as a team (and) we just needed a boost of energy,” LeCroy said. “It was nothing with Coach Mainieri holding us back at all. … I mean, it was one of the toughest weekends I’ve been through in college, and we needed everyone to be with each other.”
LeCroy said he and Mainieri were very close, developing a “great relationship” over the past two years that included many long conversations and the trust to ultimately call pitches.
While Mainieri spoke to the team Saturday, letting them know he was no longer their coach, he returned to Founders Park on Monday to clean out his office, which gave him a chance to say goodbye to guys like LeCroy.
“He wanted to meet with me, and we talked for a good while,” LeCroy said. “I’ll forever be indebted to him and what he’s done for me and my career.”
