Ex-rivals spice up rivalries

MOUNT PLEASANT — Of course, Monte Lee recalls his three-home run game against mighty South Carolina.

"It was almost like a dream," Lee said. "It was a lot more luck than anything."

He was a College of Charleston outfielder back then, one enchanted 1999 afternoon in Columbia diminished only by a 5-4 loss. Lee, 32, was in the third base coach's box Tuesday night at Patriots Point Stadium congratulating James Darnell on each of his three homers during No. 13 South Carolina's 13-1 victory over the Cougars. He's a Gamecock now, a sixth-year South Carolina assistant coach who took over as recruiting coordinator in the offseason when Jim Toman left to take over at Liberty.

"Monte is mature beyond his years," Gamecocks head coach Ray Tanner said. "He'll make a great head coach and sooner than later."

Coaching against your former school is par for the Palmetto State, and part of what makes college baseball in South Carolina the best in the nation, per capita.

In the other dugout Tuesday night, former Citadel base-stealing whiz and current Charleston assistant coach Chris Morris was doing what he does every day, stressing the importance of the running game.

Cougars head coach John Pawlowski pitched at Clemson and, after playing for the Chicago White Sox, served as pitching coach at his alma mater.

Clemson's first-year pitching coach Kyle Bunn pitched at The Citadel.

Citadel assistant coach Stuart Lake (Charleston Southern '94) also has been an assistant coach at the College of Charleston and South Carolina.

Winthrop assistant coach Mike McGuire played at South Carolina.

Band of Bulldogs

"The Citadel gave me my start and I'm always thankful for that," said Morris, a second-year Charleston assistant drafted in the 15th round of the 2000 Major League draft by the St. Louis Cardinals. "I appreciate so much everything about The Citadel, but then you go to pro ball and kind of get away from it and then when you want to coach you have to figure something out."

No hard feelings. Fred Jordan is proud of his line of former players and/or assistant coaches. Ex-Bulldog Dan McDonnell, with fellow Citadel grad Chris Lemonis serving as an assistant, led Louisville all the way to the 2007 College World Series.

"We could never get him out when we played against The Citadel," Pawlowski said of Morris, "so when we had the chance to hire him, we did."

Morris didn't get to pro ball as an undersized prospect without tuning resourcefulness up a notch. He stole a Midwest League-record 111 bases for the Class A Peoria Chiefs in 2001. Morris thrived playing "Whitey Ball," the Cardinal organization's approach to non-power fundamentals founded by former St. Louis manager Whitey Herzog.

"The Cardinals do such a good job of teaching how to run the bases properly and what your goals are as a base runner, and that's what I try to bring," Morris said. "The biggest thing you can control in baseball is the way you run the bases."

Alma mater matters

Lee first caught Tanner's eye while serving as an assistant coach for the (summer league) South Carolina Diamond Devils. Tanner paid more attention when Lee was hired at Spartanburg Methodist College.

When Toman left, Tanner did not immediately promote Lee, instead interviewing other candidates. But Lee was the favorite all along, Tanner said.

"When you evaluate a player, you talk about the five tools and Monte Lee certainly does everything very well as a coach," Tanner said. "He can coach, he can evaluate and he can do other things. Unlike myself, he's a very level person. I'm sort of high and low at times but he's very professional."

Lee seemed to thoroughly enjoy facing his alma mater.

"I'm obviously very happy about the College of Charleston and the program that coach (John) Pawlowski and (pitching) coach (Scott) Foxhall and those guys have built over the last few years," said Lee, who is married with two daughters. "I still keep up with their program on a daily basis and I still pull for them."

Except Tuesday night.

No hard feelings.

Reach Gene Sapakoff at gsapakoff@postandcourier.com.