S2E12 - Troy Recap w/ Efrain Morales
Efrain Morales is our player guest this week after a four hit game on Sunday. CB, Gary and Coach Finny chat through the Troy series and look ahead to Norfolk State and Georgia Southern. We've also got a new way for you to track Monarchs playing pro ball later in the episode.
Transcript
Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hello Monarch fans.
Speaker:Like we,
Speaker:we got the, the shot of Brock Gallardi there, uh, enjoying
Speaker:a, a, a a, a cold beverage and some ODU fandom at Arbor Park.
Speaker:And we saw some that this weekend.
Speaker:That was nice.
Speaker:Saw Brock and then a Tell me about night out there this weekend.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Now, now we can intro.
Speaker:Hello?
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:Monarch fans.
Speaker:I, you always do.
Speaker:Me.
Speaker:I should.
Speaker:Welcome to another episode of Hudson Homers.
Speaker:Uh, I'm CB and I'm here with Gary.
Speaker:Gary, how are you doing?
Speaker:You know what I'm doing Great.
Speaker:I have one more day at work before vacation.
Speaker:I got to go see some college baseball in person.
Speaker:Things are, things are, uh, okay.
Speaker:I mean, you know, aside from some things, but other things
Speaker:are, are doing great, man.
Speaker:How are you?
Speaker:The, the okay things are okay and the not okay.
Speaker:Things we're, we're gonna worry about the Okay.
Speaker:Things.
Speaker:We'll worry about those later.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I'm great man.
Speaker:Yeah, we got so some college baseball like I saw, I mean, we could have
Speaker:fielded a whole team full of law.
Speaker:Our alumni that are out there watching this weekend, that was fun to see.
Speaker:Um, and then, you know, we'll talk about the other stuff, but then
Speaker:tomorrow get more college baseball right here in Norfolk against
Speaker:Norfolk State, so That's great.
Speaker:Got the afternoon off so I can go out and watch it.
Speaker:Yeah, we actually had, we actually had baseball weather this weekend too.
Speaker:Almost a little hot man.
Speaker:At some points I am sunburn.
Speaker:If it wasn't for the, the breeze, it'd have been awful out there.
Speaker:Uh, I was at the lacrosse game Saturday before going to the
Speaker:baseball and on that turf it was hot.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, I was over with Mike and Aaron at SB Ballard watching football practice.
Speaker:And the same thing, I had my back to the sun and I not put on sunblock
Speaker:yet, so the back of my neck is.
Speaker:Is roasted and ready, uh, to be in some more sun later this week.
Speaker:I've got the, the nice strips on top of my knees, like the, like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:I got those.
Speaker:Those are, those are solid right now.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I had a haircut earlier this week, so, you know, the, the nice areas to get
Speaker:protected got, got toasted up pretty good.
Speaker:Uh, but yeah, but it was good to see some baseball, uh, not the week
Speaker:we wanted in terms of, of record.
Speaker:We lose the series to Troy, but we do salvage Sunday, uh, lost earlier in
Speaker:the week up in Charlottesville to UVA.
Speaker:Uh, so the, the win totals did not kick up this week, but I
Speaker:feel like we're a broken record.
Speaker:It was good to at least win one in the series and keep things alive for us.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, and it, it's funny how, again, your whole attitude
Speaker:about the team changes.
Speaker:Like, I sitting here and again, probably just 'cause I, I
Speaker:like sitting and doing this.
Speaker:This is a, a fun part of my week.
Speaker:Uh, so you feel good anyway, but yeah, they, and they went on
Speaker:Sunday, so you could like, oh yeah.
Speaker:And they, and they look great doing it, um, had, you know,
Speaker:one rough ending pitching.
Speaker:But that's the team that you're like, man, why aren't they
Speaker:doing this every single game?
Speaker:You know, I'm sitting there during the game, I'm like, you
Speaker:know, where is this all the time?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Friday was a tough one to watch.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, losing seven, nothing.
Speaker:Just watching the struggles at the plate, just not, not having good at
Speaker:bats and, and credit to Troy's pitching.
Speaker:They were throwing the ball very well.
Speaker:Uh, but I, I don't think that a four hitter was what
Speaker:I had in mind on that Friday.
Speaker:Uh, especially when you see the guys at about the sixth inning on Saturday.
Speaker:Suddenly turn it on and they look like the lineup.
Speaker:We've expected it's a little, little too little, too late on Saturday,
Speaker:but the bat stayed alive Sunday.
Speaker:We were able to get runs early, get ahead and go and win that ball game.
Speaker:Some good pitching down the stretch there from Bailey Mattel to seal that one up.
Speaker:Yeah, Bailey is man, and, and that's, uh, what I liked about that is, you know,
Speaker:we've seen him, like in Southern Miss, he came in back to back days, right?
Speaker:And he got a, you know, a few outs.
Speaker:Um, I think he had like two thirds of inning on the Saturday game and like
Speaker:inning a third for the save on the Sunday.
Speaker:Uh, and then now we see him here getting a save with two and a third innings.
Speaker:You know, obviously I think they really were hoping Frankie Wright
Speaker:would get him into the eighth inning and then, you know, if it's with one
Speaker:out or, or if it just need two innings outta Bailey, then you could do it.
Speaker:But they, I, I guarantee they did not intend to bring Bailey
Speaker:out in the seventh inning.
Speaker:Uh, but knowing he can do it, you know, knowing he's got that ability, he can
Speaker:stretch it out and he, he can dominate.
Speaker:Um, he's, he's one of those guys that, you know, when you sit by the other
Speaker:team's dugouts, you hear him, they're just like, this guy's disgusting.
Speaker:Uh, so yeah, Bailey is always, and, and, and Blake with another, you
Speaker:know, just a, just a stud senior.
Speaker:I mean, he's just what you want of a senior.
Speaker:The guy brings the attitude and the energy every single time and, and he
Speaker:brings the, the pitching to match.
Speaker:I
Speaker:ran into Blake on Saturday morning over at the Chick-fil-A at the village
Speaker:as I was trying to figure out how to go through that ordering system.
Speaker:Talk to him for a few minutes.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, great.
Speaker:Doubting from him.
Speaker:C yeah, he came in clutch from my chicken minis, that's for sure.
Speaker:Uh, but another, along the same line with Bailey being able to go two and a
Speaker:third to close out that game on Sunday.
Speaker:The reason he was able to do that was actually because of Kellen being able to
Speaker:go two scoreless innings the day before on Saturday, and we didn't have to go
Speaker:to Bailey on that on that Saturday game.
Speaker:Uh, I thought Kellen looked great, he looked great.
Speaker:Coming back out for a second inning of work on Saturday, kept us in that game.
Speaker:It was a one run game down, down to the final outs there.
Speaker:Uh, just didn't have enough offense early in that game
Speaker:to, to stay at.
Speaker:And while we're breaking up relievers, hunter Baynes had a
Speaker:great outing on, uh, on Friday.
Speaker:Um, and, and honestly, I, you know, I know they took him out after an out in the, um.
Speaker:And what was it, the seventh inning?
Speaker:I'll be honest, I'm not real sure why.
Speaker:I'd be curious to ask if there was a reason, if, you know, 'cause it looked
Speaker:like he was kind of rolling right then.
Speaker:I mean, obviously we were, you know, we were down pretty big.
Speaker:It really didn't have any effect on the game 'cause it didn't hit no matter what.
Speaker:Um, but, and then Marco, he had, he had a little bit of trouble, but he
Speaker:got outta the inning with no runs.
Speaker:But, so Hunter Baynes had another great one.
Speaker:So that, that was really fun to see.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Well, you've got a question and I'm gonna bring on the man
Speaker:with the answers, coach Finwood
Speaker:but before you answer
Speaker:that Coach, how's it going?
Speaker:Hey.
Speaker:Hey, I got to hear that question too.
Speaker:That was awesome.
Speaker:Oh, did you?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:CB always has the best questions.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Real.
Speaker:So I don't forget, in regards to Baynes, he's, he's been throwing
Speaker:the ball a lot better for us.
Speaker:And, um, he was a little tender.
Speaker:Mike said nothing bad.
Speaker:He, he wanted to go back out there.
Speaker:And you know, I, at that point, you know, we're down.
Speaker:Pretty good.
Speaker:And I said, I didn't really, we, we didn't really find it out and
Speaker:I, I didn't find it out anywhere.
Speaker:I wouldn't have sent him back out there at all.
Speaker:Um, but he said no, he wanted to go try it.
Speaker:And I said, all right, well let's just get somebody going.
Speaker:Let's get LaVar going.
Speaker:And he got that.
Speaker:He threw, I don't know if he threw one pitch or whatever it was, and he
Speaker:got an album Better safe than sorry.
Speaker:'cause he's, he's trending in the right direction.
Speaker:That's gonna be, you know, helpful down the, down the stretch.
Speaker:And like you said, we were, you know, we weren't hitting that night
Speaker:and we, we didn't play with the hoop Friday night, uh, on top of that.
Speaker:So, um, but it is nice to see him getting.
Speaker:In those games, getting more experience talking about Hunter,
Speaker:um, and throwing the ball.
Speaker:Well that's, you know, two or three outings in a row that
Speaker:he's been pretty good for.
Speaker:So hopefully down the stretch he could, you know, we just been behind on Fridays.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So much.
Speaker:Um, and, but he's a guy that you can bring in right as he develops and that's okay.
Speaker:Um, I'd like to see him come into there, you know, come in in the fifth or sixth
Speaker:inning when we're up and see what we got.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's the next step.
Speaker:Well, I, I appreciate that answer because you know that, and that's the thing that
Speaker:I, I try to tell people when they're sitting there in the stands and they
Speaker:ask me so later, it's like, you know, you don't really know what's going on.
Speaker:Like I, my assumption was like, okay, there's something going on.
Speaker:There's some kind of plan.
Speaker:There's some reason they didn't just take 'em out 'cause their idiots
Speaker:that dunno what they're doing.
Speaker:Like that's not what's happening.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:And yeah, we're always
Speaker:gonna.
Speaker:Trend towards guy's health.
Speaker:I mean, it's just not, you know, none of this is worth getting a kid hurt.
Speaker:And he, he wasn't hurting.
Speaker:He had just, he had a couple, you know, and he was throwing the
Speaker:ball well, but he hasn't thrown a ton of pitches in a row yet.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:And so we're trying to build that up a little bit.
Speaker:And, um, I don't know what his pitch count, you know,
Speaker:was that day, but it might.
Speaker:42. It might have been.
Speaker:Yeah, 42 in the forties is about as long as he's, he's gone, so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, speaking of knowing what you're doing, we are gonna, gonna
Speaker:put you on the spot here and wish you a congratulations on 400 career
Speaker:coaching wins at Old Dominion.
Speaker:So, congratulations
Speaker:coach.
Speaker:Thank you guys.
Speaker:I appreciate that.
Speaker:And, uh.
Speaker:It's, um, I did not, not know that until I heard Jack Ankerson say
Speaker:it when we were shaking hands.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't tend to pay that much attention to those things, but it, it, it's
Speaker:humbling and a nice honor to be mentioned.
Speaker:You know, like on the graphic you, you guys put up, um, in
Speaker:the, in the same sentences.
Speaker:There's been some great co bud Metheny to finish that thought.
Speaker:And there's been so, so many great baseball coaches at Old Dominion and,
Speaker:um, you know, just to be thought of, um, I'm sure there's plenty of people that
Speaker:don't think I'm being that way, but for those that do, uh, you know, to be thought
Speaker:of in those same, um, conversations, uh, mark Newman's, pat McMahons, Tony
Speaker:Guzzo, bud Metheny's, um, guys that, you know, I grew up learning the game from.
Speaker:And so, uh, that's, that's a nice, nice honor to, you know,
Speaker:get to 400 here and, um, you know, hopefully keep on, keep on rolling.
Speaker:Absolutely only, only 23 behind Bud too.
Speaker:So you're uh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Hopeful on
Speaker:24 game winning streak.
Speaker:That's, Hey, that's what I've been saying.
Speaker:I said we can make it happen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, it's gotta be when once you start getting close to the guy whose name is on
Speaker:the stadium, that's, that's pretty good.
Speaker:Things are, good things are happening.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well it's, um, like I said, you know, numbers are all, um, records
Speaker:are gonna get broken, um, sooner or later, and numbers are there to create
Speaker:interest and it's a lot of wins.
Speaker:It means you were around for good enough time and people thought you did a good
Speaker:enough job to keep you around there.
Speaker:So, uh, I guess that's the good, good part of it.
Speaker:Now let's get back to talking about the games.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Well, we, we hadn't talked too much about, uh, the game in Charlottesville this week.
Speaker:I dunno if there's anything you want to touch on there.
Speaker:I know you ran through some, some bullpen arms there too, and
Speaker:maybe saw some improvement from a couple guys in that department.
Speaker:Well, gosh, it seems like four, four months ago now.
Speaker:It does, it does, it
Speaker:does.
Speaker:Last
Speaker:Tuesday, you know, a four hour game again, another long Tuesday game.
Speaker:We just walk too many guys and give up too many free bases in those midweek games.
Speaker:And I, I told the guys, you know, these midweek games are supposed to be for
Speaker:some of you guys, like trying out to throw more on the weekends, like you,
Speaker:and you're not doing it like you, you're not giving us anything to, to, to go on.
Speaker:Like these are, these are opportunities for you guys to earn,
Speaker:you know, innings on the weekends.
Speaker:And right now all we do is walk a bunch of guys and get behind and
Speaker:we actually swung the bats fine.
Speaker:I mean, they only, I think they all hit us nine to eight and we lost by six.
Speaker:So, uh, that's disappointing.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:But you know, it's, we need some guys to throw a little bit
Speaker:better, obviously, in there.
Speaker:And, um, hopefully tomorrow, you know, a couple guys will get a
Speaker:chance, uh, and, and, and perform better against Norfolk State.
Speaker:I, I'm, I'm pretty, you know, I think overall our top.
Speaker:10, eight to 10 guys are throwing the ball pretty well right now.
Speaker:Overall, um, competitive with whoever we're playing and it's the guys down
Speaker:the line after that that aren't.
Speaker:And so, you know, it's real simple guys.
Speaker:Like if you're not gonna throw the ball better, you're gonna stop getting chances.
Speaker:That's how it works.
Speaker:And we're gonna have to throw some of these other guys more.
Speaker:And guys like Jayce Park are gonna have to go out there on Tuesday
Speaker:and you know, you're gonna give us three or four innings, man.
Speaker:And if you want to give up one or none, or if you want to
Speaker:give up 10, you figure it out.
Speaker:Um, and, uh, we're gonna need to stop rescuing him.
Speaker:He is gotta grow up and it is time, you know, we got four or five
Speaker:more midweek games and that's it.
Speaker:And he needs to, he needs to start on his keep.
Speaker:He is, he is.
Speaker:He was very good in the fall.
Speaker:He cut his finger open in January that put him behind.
Speaker:He just hasn't been himself a, been a shell of the pitcher
Speaker:he was for us in the fall.
Speaker:And that's, that's been disappointing.
Speaker:'cause we, we expected a lot outta him and he, he still can do it.
Speaker:He just has it yet, you know, so his time, you never know when the
Speaker:worm can turn and, and hopefully it'll start to turn off for him.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I love Jason.
Speaker:Like I said, he, I, every time I think he pitched every single time
Speaker:I was out there in the fall and it was like, man, this kid's awesome.
Speaker:And we've seen some flashes of it.
Speaker:So, so you're right.
Speaker:I, and I, I, you know, frankly, I know it doesn't always feel good for
Speaker:them when you leave him out there and say, Hey, it's your inning.
Speaker:I don't care.
Speaker:I mean, he runs, you give up.
Speaker:But I think sometimes that helps the guy if you get the guy with
Speaker:the right mentality, that's a great learning experience.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think sometimes we, we, you know, and, and a lot of years for us anyway,
Speaker:you're in the RPI conversations where you gotta try to win those
Speaker:midweek games and we're, we're not gonna be in that boat this year, so.
Speaker:We need to, we need to lean towards development.
Speaker:And I think a guy like Kim, a guy like Will Orberson, um, I mean they're the only
Speaker:two freshmen left, you know, that freshman class, uh, through injuries and, and crazy
Speaker:things has just basically all redshirted.
Speaker:Um, but they, uh, they need to go out there and just do it.
Speaker:Like you said, this is your inning, this is your two innings,
Speaker:this is your three innings.
Speaker:You go figure it out.
Speaker:If you give up a few, then you know, if you give up two, try not to give up three.
Speaker:Um, and learn from it and grow.
Speaker:And I think that's where we need to be at with those guys
Speaker:at this point in the season.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Don't want them looking to the bullpen to see all who's getting
Speaker:up to come get me outta this.
Speaker:Yeah, I think you had a pretty good example of that on Saturday with Kellen.
Speaker:Uh, you know, he came back in for a second inning of work.
Speaker:I kept looking out in the bullpen and like, this is Kellen's inning.
Speaker:We're, we're not going anywhere else.
Speaker:Kellen's got it.
Speaker:And he stepped up and did a great job and lets you say Bailey for Sunday.
Speaker:And uh, it's going close out the win against Troy.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Hunter and him both really, you know?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, it, it's a, people don't think about the, like CBU were saying.
Speaker:I, it's, and it's hard to, as a fan, like a series is you're trying to
Speaker:win the series and if you can't win the series, you're trying to win
Speaker:a game in the series and mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, so it becomes the next best thing.
Speaker:On Friday, you're trying to win all three.
Speaker:You get down early on Friday, alright, you have to start
Speaker:thinking about the next two games.
Speaker:And so who can I throw in this?
Speaker:That might give us a chance, but you know, we're down, we're down one there.
Speaker:We're down two and then we scratch back to make it one.
Speaker:And we just said, we have to save two guys in the pen for tomorrow.
Speaker:Um, and let's, let's kellen's already thrown, so he is gotta go back in.
Speaker:He is gotta throw another one.
Speaker:And whether we give up none or one or five, five, it's, it's, it's the, the
Speaker:dilemma of being down as opposed to up and not having a ton of depth down there.
Speaker:Um, yeah, I was just
Speaker:gonna say, and that's the problem of those guys that you're giving chances
Speaker:to on Tuesday, not seizing their opportunities because then you are,
Speaker:you're like, well, I only got two guy, I only have two guys instead of
Speaker:like three, four guys I can pick from.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:you're, you're limited.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're limited, uh, somewhat, you know, right now on the weekends
Speaker:with guys that you really.
Speaker:Trust, trust.
Speaker:I mean, baes has turned into one of those guys, uh, Kellen Bailey and, and Frank
Speaker:is, uh, you know, so, you know, it's, it's kind of those guys minus the starters.
Speaker:And so we need to get good starts, obviously.
Speaker:And then you gotta pick your spots, um, for those guys.
Speaker:And, and a couple of 'em have shown the ability to throw more than once.
Speaker:Um, you don't wanna go that well too often, but, you know, it's just like
Speaker:Marco, Marco threw a really good inning, uh, in, at, at Virginia, um, clean.
Speaker:But then you bring 'em in with one out and nobody on, and next thing
Speaker:you know, there's bases loaded and it's just like, come on man.
Speaker:Like, and two of them were freebies, you know, it's like one hit.
Speaker:He just wanted to show you.
Speaker:And if he can just stay away from the freebies, his stuff is good enough
Speaker:to be successful at this level.
Speaker:He hasn't done it yet.
Speaker:There's plenty of guys that end up as college juniors throwing the ball real
Speaker:well that, uh, were Marco Lari, you know, and so we just got, he's a great kid.
Speaker:He's got to learn how to compete better and, and trust his stuff
Speaker:better and throw it in there, man.
Speaker:If they hit it, then they hit it, we'll figure the rest out.
Speaker:But when you walk guys and hit guys and you're just all over the
Speaker:place, that's, it's hard to, you know, manage the game that way.
Speaker:It's hard to call that game that way for pitching coach.
Speaker:Um, it's hard for guys to play behind you and that's been
Speaker:his, his snake bite, right?
Speaker:Like, it's just the free basis.
Speaker:So, and
Speaker:may, maybe this is just a dumb fan theory, but I, I feel like the
Speaker:pitcher's pitched differently when the offense is putting up some runs,
Speaker:whether you're in the lead or not.
Speaker:Just kind of having that thought of.
Speaker:If I give a run up here because I am gonna throw fastballs in the zone,
Speaker:I feel like my, my lineup behind me can, can go get that run back.
Speaker:I don't Yeah.
Speaker:Think that was necessarily true Friday for sure.
Speaker:No, you're a hundred percent right.
Speaker:Um, and that's the, you know, the issue when you're not hitting, hitting and
Speaker:pitching certainly compliment each other, just like pitching and defense.
Speaker:Do you know, uh, it's a lot easier to throw when you're,
Speaker:when you're up five to one.
Speaker:Um, than when you're down five to one, uh, you feel like you gotta
Speaker:be perfect, you know, when you're down and we've been down a lot.
Speaker:Um, and so that puts a lot of pressure on those pitchers.
Speaker:Um, it was nice to get the lead for Blake on, on on Sunday.
Speaker:We kind of did that last, the following Sunday.
Speaker:And, you know, Blake's just been lights out for us on Sundays, man.
Speaker:I mean, you know, he, he's been so consistently good, even when he
Speaker:doesn't have his best stuff, he is just battled his tail off and kept
Speaker:us in the game and given us a chance.
Speaker:Um, and we've won, you know, a, a bunch of his starts on, on Sundays, you know, and,
Speaker:and since league play started, certainly.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And it's, you know, kind of on that offensive side, it seemed like the
Speaker:guys didn't really wake up until about that sixth inning on Saturday.
Speaker:And then when they did, I mean, you have.
Speaker:Pretty good series after that, kind of, once the bats get going,
Speaker:you get right back into the game.
Speaker:Saturday they fought down to the final out.
Speaker:I think you, uh, I won't make you say it, say it, but the, uh, umpire was, uh,
Speaker:a little all over the place on Saturday.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Trying to figure that out.
Speaker:I
Speaker:don't think any, any of the three guys were any good.
Speaker:Uh, I was just gonna say the same thing.
Speaker:CB, I'm not gonna say it, but you said it.
Speaker:Uh, that was, that was as inconsistent.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:Three days as I can remember, man.
Speaker:And, um, you're right.
Speaker:They were all over.
Speaker:When you got both dugouts yelling at you, then, you know, it's just not a good day.
Speaker:That's, that's what I said at some point yesterday.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's the way it was.
Speaker:And you know, we, we just didn't play, you know, we were awful Friday,
Speaker:let's just call it what it is.
Speaker:And we told the guys, you know, we challenged them like, come on.
Speaker:And then Saturday we played a good ball game.
Speaker:We got beat, their starter Saturday was fantastic.
Speaker:On ball.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I mean, it was low to mid nineties with a real breaking ball.
Speaker:We could not figure him out until he just got tired and, and they
Speaker:probably, you know, left him out there maybe anything too long.
Speaker:But that can happen.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And, and then the kid they brought in deal was up to 98.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, and so we, we had, you know, we had a couple guys that were gonna
Speaker:be tough for anybody to deal with.
Speaker:We had to face Saturday, so that had something to do with, with why we
Speaker:didn't score more than three runs.
Speaker:Um, and Sunday we came out and swing of bats and had some big hits.
Speaker:Kyle Edwards, you know, hits two home runs and, uh, we needed 'em.
Speaker:And er, Morales goes four for four.
Speaker:I thought F gave gave us great energy behind the plate.
Speaker:You know, he's gonna be a really catcher, he's a talker back there.
Speaker:He's just, yeah, he's a winner.
Speaker:That's what he is.
Speaker:Yeah, he's a winner.
Speaker:He is competitive.
Speaker:He is a tough little.
Speaker:SOBI love that kid.
Speaker:And, um, he is just gotta keep working on the arm, which he will, you know,
Speaker:he is just had some arm issues.
Speaker:Nothing major, but.
Speaker:Uh, it just kind of gets underwater on him sometimes.
Speaker:And, um, but he caught good, he blocks good.
Speaker:He just gives you tremendous, you know, desire back there.
Speaker:And I think it bleeds into everything we do.
Speaker:And Blake, I, I mean, I think it helps Blake.
Speaker:I mean, not that Blake hadn't been throwing good to whoever's showing
Speaker:too, but he, he's, you know, he seems to work, work well with him as well.
Speaker:He kind of matches Blake's energy.
Speaker:'cause Blake's a very high energy.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:He's, I mean, he's a talker even when he's pitching.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's a good point.
Speaker:I think, I think that's a good way to put it.
Speaker:And, you know, um,
Speaker:as we get farther down the road, hopefully we can catch stuff a little bit more.
Speaker:He is just not quite ready for it yet arm wise.
Speaker:So, um, but we're moving in that direction.
Speaker:I think he's gonna be our, you know, our future catcher.
Speaker:So, um, and then, and then, you know, we had some big hits.
Speaker:Scott thought, Scotty Young.
Speaker:Obviously his first at bat to double down the line, you know, gets us going.
Speaker:Uh, uh, he had a, he had a really good day in game three, uh, last week
Speaker:at, at Appalachian State, and should have had a home run last night too.
Speaker:I mean, he murdered that ball, dead end 30 mile an hour wind.
Speaker:And having said that, my gosh, man, it's just like you start to feel
Speaker:like you snake bit a little bit, you know, Friday we probably hit
Speaker:three, uh, tj, Luke, you know, maybe three home runs that didn't go.
Speaker:And, and TJ had another one Saturday.
Speaker:Um, and then, you know, uh, I mean, Kyle got his, uh, hit his to the right b part
Speaker:of the ballpark, fortunately, but Scotty, that's as hard as you can hit a ball, man.
Speaker:And it didn't go out.
Speaker:So, uh, it's too bad.
Speaker:Were they telling you,
Speaker:um, it looked like there were a few.
Speaker:Hit the center where Scotty like, it seemed like, I think the wind
Speaker:kind of carried him away from him.
Speaker:'cause I noticed, like when I was sitting they did.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, they did.
Speaker:We should had him more and left center, I think.
Speaker:Um mm-hmm.
Speaker:That's on us.
Speaker:I, I think we should have played the wind a little bit more, um, than we did.
Speaker:'cause, you know, a couple of those balls I think he'd had a better
Speaker:chance of if he was just over, you know, four or five more steps.
Speaker:And, um, so that's on us.
Speaker:But yeah, he, he had a little bit of trouble reading some of those,
Speaker:but man, it wasn't an easy day.
Speaker:I mean, not easy.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Every ball in the air was gonna be an adventure.
Speaker:And I thought we did a pretty good job on a bunch of popups, man.
Speaker:The one guy, I don't remember who hit it, but I thought it was going
Speaker:to Elite and it ended up, Kyle had to catch it in front of the third base.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I was like, wow.
Speaker:That's, you know, 50 feet.
Speaker:That ball moved.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There was an, there was another, another one on.
Speaker:Blake and Zach ran into each other on the one, fortunately we call it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, hold on.
Speaker:I think we got that here.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:There it is.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:That's, that's, that's a good shot right there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and fortunately Blake.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Blake is Blake, he is just, he's sitting there laughing
Speaker:on the ground afterwards.
Speaker:You know, he's just got that great attitude no matter what,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And he's probably our best fielding pitcher.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so, you know, you feel good about him catching a popup, which not all
Speaker:left-handed pitchers, if that the case.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:it, it was definitely an adventure.
Speaker:Looked like some points in the outfield.
Speaker:There was a line drive screamer hit to dead center on Saturday.
Speaker:I watched it go over the second base bag and then it curled into left.
Speaker:And I think TJ took like three steps to his left and caught it in left field.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you can see just that jet stream cutting across right center
Speaker:towards that left field foul pole.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Pushing everything that way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I really think the stadium was kind of blocking and then once it got
Speaker:past that and like, you know, mid outfield, it was just pushing hard.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Took
Speaker:off.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I mean, it was great weather temperature wise and yeah.
Speaker:Um, it was nice to play some baseball and short sleeves and sweat a little bit.
Speaker:That was fun.
Speaker:And you know, um, uh, you know, we'll be back tomorrow in the, in
Speaker:the mid fifties and cold, windy.
Speaker:Gotta love it.
Speaker:Close it in.
Speaker:We're heading down the Georgia, it's gonna be in the seventies all weekend,
Speaker:so, uh, maybe spring is finally here.
Speaker:We got pollen
Speaker:everywhere again, so, oh, yeah,
Speaker:yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:I'm glad to see
Speaker:the, glad to see the rain wash and some of that pollen away.
Speaker:Uh, but I, I want to go back a little bit on the umpire discussion here.
Speaker:'cause we actually have two voicemails today and one of 'em is
Speaker:about, and a very interesting play that occurred over the weekend.
Speaker:But, uh, it's from Aaron who was sitting with me most of the game,
Speaker:and he had this question for you.
Speaker:What's up fellas?
Speaker:This is Aaron here.
Speaker:First and foremost, congrats.
Speaker:Vinny.
Speaker:400 wins at ODU.
Speaker:What an awesome accomplishment.
Speaker:Uh, I've got a question for coach.
Speaker:On Friday night, there was a bang, bang play at first where from the
Speaker:stance, it looked like the ball bounced off the first baseman's glove.
Speaker:The umpire called the runner out, and many of us in the stands were really confused.
Speaker:Um, after a few moments of us,
Speaker:so to to, to paraphrase and thank you Aaron.
Speaker:Uh, 'cause I have this question too.
Speaker:The, the play at first base on Friday, uh, where the first baseman for Troy
Speaker:caught the ball and it looked like the ball pops out immediately and he's
Speaker:called out and we're all confused.
Speaker:And I guess it turned out they had a ball in his pocket.
Speaker:No, no, that, that's great.
Speaker:No, uh, it's, that's like the, uh, you know, the, the circle game where
Speaker:you go around and you start saying one thing and then by the time you
Speaker:get back to the end of the circle, it's something completely different.
Speaker:So I thought it was a ball too.
Speaker:And I went, went out.
Speaker:Was was, now I saw balls laying on the ground, like what's going on?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He said, was it a guard, his finger
Speaker:guy,
Speaker:the guy has a thumb guard.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That he keeps, 'cause he, he busted his hand up on his glove hand.
Speaker:And it, it's at a point where, you know, where your gloves open on your wrist.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And sometimes the ball hits and it flies.
Speaker:And from a distance, it looks like, 'cause it happened again yesterday.
Speaker:Yeah, it did.
Speaker:I dunno if you guys saw that.
Speaker:And I, I went, there it is again.
Speaker:Then I saw him go pick it up.
Speaker:Uh, and so that, that's what, that's what went flying off.
Speaker:It wasn't his, it wasn't a ball.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's the, i I did see
Speaker:it, uh, yesterday.
Speaker:I was, I was on that side when it happened and it was his, it was his finger guard.
Speaker:'cause he had his finger out, I'm assuming.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so it was like outside the glove and it just shot right off.
Speaker:That's what it was.
Speaker:And that was the same thing the, the other time.
Speaker:'cause I, I asked the same question.
Speaker:I was like, yeah, it looked crazy.
Speaker:You know, uh, how's, how's, how's he out?
Speaker:He's gotta catch the ball because that wasn't the ball as his finger guard.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:That
Speaker:we had the exact same call, though, two different days that
Speaker:they called two different ways.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Stallings got hit on the, yeah.
Speaker:On the wrist on Friday, I guess.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, they said, hit the bat first.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:It, it's, it's almost impossible to get hit on the hand and have it hit the bat.
Speaker:First.
Speaker:You, you're supposed to call and hit the bat and if they wanna review that.
Speaker:You go back in and you say it, they, they actually got it right the second time.
Speaker:Unfortunately it was for them.
Speaker:'cause I went out and he said, no, I got it hitting his hand and in the back.
Speaker:And that's almost all, unless it hits the bottom of that knob.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Somehow it, it's, it's impossible to hit the bat and not your hand.
Speaker:And so that's what I said.
Speaker:I said, you gotta be kidding me, that at no point did that ball hit his
Speaker:hand and they review it and say no.
Speaker:And I was like, I don't, I don't believe it.
Speaker:I I, I told the guy the next day, I said, I, I watched it.
Speaker:Like, I don't know how you can say that ball didn't hit some part of his hand.
Speaker:Um, I'm, I'm convinced
Speaker:Replay just exists that I can say they're right.
Speaker:I don't think they even look at 'em
Speaker:anymore.
Speaker:I mean, think about what, what call, when's the last time
Speaker:you saw a call overturned?
Speaker:I've had 'em walk by me and say, let's go, let's go see them.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Like they don't.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I remember
Speaker:that last year when we first, when we first, you know, had it, you were
Speaker:seeing a lot of calls overturned and now, and now they're going, oh yeah,
Speaker:well, we're getting them all right.
Speaker:Well, that's garbage.
Speaker:You guys are just colluding.
Speaker:You're colluding in there.
Speaker:Uh, I
Speaker:don't like either that the guy that makes the call goes in the room.
Speaker:It's like, that's crazy.
Speaker:One of the other guy should go, that's not supposed cakes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I think it happens every
Speaker:game.
Speaker:I think it's supposed to be the crew chief and the guy that didn't make the call.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Unless.
Speaker:It's got something to do with the home plate umpire.
Speaker:Like they don't want the guy having to run in there with all
Speaker:his gear on and stuff like that.
Speaker:Oh, suck those buttercup.
Speaker:Yeah, I know, I know.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:but I mean, they were in there long enough.
Speaker:Yeah, they're in there long enough and I can't even tell you the
Speaker:last time I saw a call overturned.
Speaker:Nah, it's been a while.
Speaker:I can't remember.
Speaker:I don't know if there's been one this year.
Speaker:Like if we do, I
Speaker:guarantee it was against us.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Spoken
Speaker:like a true Monarch fan.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It's never, never in our favor there, honestly.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:Well, um, Norfolk State, uh, tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on when
Speaker:you're, you're listening to this.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, then head down to Georgia Southern.
Speaker:Uh, it, it's obviously, it's still tight race in the Sunbelt.
Speaker:I mean, I feel like everyone is still very much bunched together.
Speaker:'cause uh, Troy actually moved into a, a first place tie this week,
Speaker:eight and four with Coastal and Southern Miss and Georgia State.
Speaker:Uh, so it's, it's all still pretty jammed up, but.
Speaker:What have you seen from, uh, from Georgia Southern so far, if you've
Speaker:had a chance to take a look at 'em?
Speaker:Well, they're good and they really play well at home.
Speaker:You know, they lost two outta three to south on the road this weekend.
Speaker:Um, so again, after we played Georgia, Southern Louisiana.
Speaker:You know, outside of the last weekend against Coastal Wolf
Speaker:played six of the top seven teams.
Speaker:Um, so the schedule makers didn't do us any favors this, this year either.
Speaker:Of course, right?
Speaker:When, when they started out with Troy and Southern Miss, it was like, oh, thanks.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, uh, Louisiana's getting healthy.
Speaker:They're, they're playing back, playing good now.
Speaker:So, but it is what it is.
Speaker:You know, I, I'm, I am, we're, you know, there's been a lot
Speaker:of teams that have been swept.
Speaker:Um, you know, I'm proud of our guys for hanging in there and not, you
Speaker:know, when we haven't, you know, won on Friday, Saturday, we haven't
Speaker:allowed our subs to be swept.
Speaker:And that gives you a chance, man, that's a, such a big two
Speaker:game swing in those weekends.
Speaker:Um, when you, when you just keep from being swept, you still got a, a shot.
Speaker:So, um, you know, we were five and seven last year at this point, and uh,
Speaker:difference was we had JMU coming in this year we're going to Georgia Southern, so.
Speaker:But I mean, if we can keep pitching, you know, overall the way we're
Speaker:pitching, find a way to get some more timely hits and, you know, we've
Speaker:gotta, we've gotta play better defense.
Speaker:I mean, we're costing our pitchers too many pitches by not making routine plays.
Speaker:And, um, those guys have to play like, uh, I don't know what
Speaker:we're gonna do at third base.
Speaker:So it is just been a mm-hmm.
Speaker:Disappointing, terrible black hole for us right now, this year.
Speaker:And I can't put it any simpler than that.
Speaker:Those guys need to step up and somebody's gotta play better over there.
Speaker:So, um.
Speaker:Plain and simple.
Speaker:And if we can do that, then, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm proud of some guys trending
Speaker:in the right direction offensively and, you know, some other things, you
Speaker:know, bullpen wise are, are better.
Speaker:And so, we'll, we'll give ourselves a chance.
Speaker:'cause our starting pitching's good.
Speaker:You know, I mean, and you know, most, most of these weekends you're seeing,
Speaker:you know, somebody's just crappy, uh, in one of those three games on the mound.
Speaker:And we really haven't been, um, for the most part.
Speaker:So, um, that's good.
Speaker:And, you know, Ben's feeling better.
Speaker:He got some new medicine for his migraines and I think he's been, you
Speaker:know, a week now without, you know, feeling dizzy or any of that stuff.
Speaker:He looked better.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like he looked better walking around, like physically.
Speaker:And I think that, I think too, you know, every weekend, here's something
Speaker:else maybe you don't think about.
Speaker:Every weekend is a, is a different.
Speaker:Um, approach from a hitting standpoint, like what their hitters
Speaker:do and what they're good at.
Speaker:I, I really believe.
Speaker:Appalachian state and Troy, um, how they hit makes it as difficult
Speaker:on your pitchers as, as just about every other team in the league.
Speaker:I mean, they don't give that way at bats.
Speaker:They don't strike out much.
Speaker:They grind out bats, they put pitches in you.
Speaker:You know, you play a Georgia State, like they're gonna be more free
Speaker:swingers, they're gonna strike out a little more, that kind of stuff.
Speaker:And, uh, Georgia Southern has been that way.
Speaker:Um, so having to fight through those six games in a row maybe can help you, uh,
Speaker:down the road, you know, as, as you work.
Speaker:'cause maybe you get a little bit easier outs, you know, in some of these places.
Speaker:So I think that's the case.
Speaker:You know, Louisiana's, uh, usually a very left-handed heavy lineup and,
Speaker:you know, that's, um, uh, a strength of ours is left-handed pitching.
Speaker:So you like that matchup, I think.
Speaker:And, uh, we just gotta show up and, and play better behind those guys.
Speaker:Now, like when you have teams like App State and Troy, which
Speaker:I absolutely agree with you.
Speaker:The way they bat is just wonderful.
Speaker:Is that something you point out to your guys and say, Hey,
Speaker:oh, always.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Look at this.
Speaker:Yeah, because that's not, we're not good at that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:You know, I, I mean part of that's personnel.
Speaker:Um, and part of it's coaching, like we gotta do a better job with 'em.
Speaker:Like it's, it's, you know, Tylers Zedalis was oh, for four, four
Speaker:strikeouts yesterday and didn't have one competitive at bat.
Speaker:Like, and he's just bailing out, you know, heads facing the third
Speaker:base coaches box on every swing.
Speaker:And I was like, go back and look man.
Speaker:Like, how can you hit that way?
Speaker:Like, nobody any good hits like that.
Speaker:And I hate to be, I'm not picking on him because he is a great
Speaker:kid, but you can't hit like that.
Speaker:It doesn't work.
Speaker:Well, the one at bat,
Speaker:he actually did have the RBI ground out was great.
Speaker:He did stayed in there the ground out.
Speaker:He, he got, yeah, but you're right.
Speaker:The other four was like, what are you doing?
Speaker:Like, why even go up?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which it is.
Speaker:He is a great kid.
Speaker:It's, you're right.
Speaker:It's not to stick on him, it's just to point it out.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And so it's something that guys gotta take pride in and um, unfortunately, you know,
Speaker:not enough of 'em in today's game do, but we gotta make it a point, we gotta make
Speaker:'em, I guess is a better way to say it.
Speaker:Uh, and
Speaker:that, and that's what's frustrating is because, uh, there are enough guys
Speaker:who do, you got a whole, you just saw two whole teams of them that do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I, I've even noticed Troy starting to crowd the plate a little
Speaker:bit more when they got two strikes.
Speaker:So it was even more than just the choking up, like at least the top
Speaker:half of that lineup was moving in about an inch closer to the plate
Speaker:anytime they got in two strike count.
Speaker:And I think that's, yeah, Ben was stay,
Speaker:if you come inside, they'll, they'll wear it.
Speaker:And again, you know, that's part of the approach.
Speaker:And um, you know, we hit a number of guys, you know, unfortunately this
Speaker:weekend and we got hit a few times too.
Speaker:But I think, uh, Ron, did Ron get hit twice yesterday trying to bunt?
Speaker:Yeah, he did.
Speaker:Trying to bunt both times.
Speaker:Competing, yeah.
Speaker:You know, it's funny, sometimes you just show bunt and the pitcher just freaks
Speaker:out and throws the ball over the place.
Speaker:Like it happens all the time.
Speaker:We've had a
Speaker:few instances this year when we're pitching and a guy shows bunt.
Speaker:Oh, oh.
Speaker:We somehow get two called strikes and then end up winning the at bat.
Speaker:We even had someone foul out this weekend against us.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:They went to bump with two strikes and they fouled it off.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Right back into the cage.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's, uh, yeah, that's, there's different, different thought processes
Speaker:on bunting with two strikes, I guess.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:I was always told no.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm not a fan of it.
Speaker:You fail that twice.
Speaker:Why do a third
Speaker:one?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker:They're probably not gonna get it done on that.
Speaker:So sometimes slashing in that, in that instance is better 'cause you still show
Speaker:the bunt and get the people moving for the bunt and then you pull back and swing and
Speaker:if you foul that off, it's a foul ball.
Speaker:Um, so yeah.
Speaker:So
Speaker:Finney uh, national championship for basketball tonight.
Speaker:You got Florida and Houston.
Speaker:Yeah, Florida.
Speaker:I mean obviously by Florida by time to
Speaker:say airs tomorrow.
Speaker:We'll know if you're right or not.
Speaker:Florida
Speaker:is so good.
Speaker:That's Pick Jr. Is unbelievable.
Speaker:Having said that, uhoh, I loved the analogy of Houston.
Speaker:Uh, somebody called him the cockroaches, like, you can't kill 'em.
Speaker:Fair.
Speaker:And they are so tough, uh, and so resilient on, on the, the rebounding
Speaker:side of things and defense.
Speaker:Yeah, there's defense.
Speaker:I think they're gonna be in the game, man.
Speaker:I mean, I really do.
Speaker:Um, and I, I think Florida's more talented.
Speaker:It wouldn't surprise.
Speaker:I think it's gonna be a great game.
Speaker:It would not surprise me in the least if Houston beats them though.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Kelvin s Samson's tough man.
Speaker:He's always a tough out from the tournament.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They play that defense first.
Speaker:Basketball man.
Speaker:That's, yeah.
Speaker:You talk about a
Speaker:guy that kinda reinvented himself.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:He was, uh, in the Bruce, him and Bruce Pearl, they were in the, uh, cheaters
Speaker:anonymous, uh, uh, meetings there back in the, uh, back in the early two thousands.
Speaker:You know, they, hi, my name is Bruce.
Speaker:I'm, I'm fan by the ncaa, hi, my name is Calvin.
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:Uh, and, and they've reinvented themselves and done a great job and, you know,
Speaker:take second chances, third chances, and they're, they're taking advantage of
Speaker:'em and obviously great coaches and got great teams and, you know, so, um, I
Speaker:saw something on, I don't know if it was Instagram or something where they wouldn't
Speaker:let hakeem olajuwon, on the court to celebrate with Houston after the thing.
Speaker:Like who in the world?
Speaker:Crazy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What Dummy wouldn't let hakeem olajuwon on the court?
Speaker:I would let him do anything.
Speaker:If he just showed up and walked to my house, I'd let him hang out.
Speaker:Like, I'm not gonna, like Elijah could do anything else.
Speaker:Come on
Speaker:man.
Speaker:Like that deserves to come on, man.
Speaker:Like, yeah.
Speaker:Do you not know who that is?
Speaker:He is right.
Speaker:Seven, seven feet tall and yeah, that was, that was a bad move.
Speaker:I hope that guy's happy with himself for that.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:he's probably, he's probably having a fun day yesterday until, oh
Speaker:yeah, he was getting smashed everywhere.
Speaker:Like, uh, and, and deservedly so have some feel.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Some guys think take their jobs real seriously and, you know, lack feel, but
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Alright, so you guys got F coming on.
Speaker:What a wonderful kid.
Speaker:And
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Remind
Speaker:him that, uh, when we got to the ballpark yesterday.
Speaker:They had, uh, some Latin music going and, um, whenever that's happened, I'll, uh,
Speaker:I'll ask eff, you know, what's the, you know, what are, what are they saying?
Speaker:What are, he always translates it for me.
Speaker:So it's great.
Speaker:He's
Speaker:he's smiling backstage right now.
Speaker:I can seen there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, he's a great kid.
Speaker:We're, we're really happy.
Speaker:He is a monarch.
Speaker:He's ultra competitive.
Speaker:Uh, he's a winner and he is gonna be a big part of, of this program
Speaker:for, for the next few years.
Speaker:And, you know, we're, we're really proud of him.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:We're, we're excited to have him join us today.
Speaker:We did get one more voicemail and hopefully you can hear this one.
Speaker:They actually called him Wednesday, so it was before the game this weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it kind of goes back to some defensive positioning in the question they had.
Speaker:So we'll see if you can hear it here.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Hi.
Speaker:I was wondering if, uh, coach Finwood consider playing Luke Waters.
Speaker:I can hear in the infield.
Speaker:Possibly at second base or third base.
Speaker:I know in his freshman year, Luke played a little second base and
Speaker:certainly played that in high school.
Speaker:So no, in the volatility we seem to have in the infield, just
Speaker:wondered if he paraphrase any
Speaker:thought.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:See, it was tough to hear, but, uh, they're, they were asking if you
Speaker:considered, uh, moving Luke back into the infield because of some recent volatility
Speaker:with fielding within the infield, if that was an option that was on the table.
Speaker:I really haven't, I mean, Luke's, Luke's been, you know,
Speaker:going through it offensively.
Speaker:And last thing I wanna do is add, you know, having to worry about.
Speaker:All the things you gotta worry about in the infield with him.
Speaker:And he's, you know, he had, he had some better at bats yesterday.
Speaker:He had a big single force, he walked, um, and he hit some balls Hard.
Speaker:I mean, right now what Luke's going through is part of the thing that,
Speaker:you know, classifies the S-L-U-M-P.
Speaker:Uh, when you hit it hard, it set somebody and you know, you, he's
Speaker:gotta get more balls in play.
Speaker:Certainly he knows that.
Speaker:But he'll, you know, maybe I said maybe they're just saving 'em all up
Speaker:for second half of the season, man.
Speaker:Like, yeah, think about it that way.
Speaker:That's possible.
Speaker:So when he gets hot, he can carry you.
Speaker:And so hopefully we, we got that coming up.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Well, we, we appreciate the calls that came in, uh, both from Aaron and, uh,
Speaker:didn't leave the name on that second call, but appreciate the, the call in.
Speaker:We'll definitely be getting to 'em.
Speaker:Uh, coach, we appreciate as always you coming on here.
Speaker:Uh, it's been a blast having you on this season.
Speaker:Got a lot of compliments from parents and fans.
Speaker:About the show and mainly because we have you on and we have players
Speaker:on it, so we, we appreciate you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, and, and I tell our players the, these same things, so I don't think
Speaker:any of them are surprises and I don't ever wanna come across as trying to,
Speaker:um, you know, blame or deflect or complain about anyone's performance.
Speaker:These guys are college kids.
Speaker:They're trying their butts off.
Speaker:Um, it's our job to help 'em and support 'em.
Speaker:And sometimes that's being honest and, you know, being honest and, uh,
Speaker:being able to handle honest feedback from people that care about how you're
Speaker:doing, um, and are invested in it.
Speaker:You know, like we work our tails off of these guys.
Speaker:So, um, I think we're entitled to be honest with 'em and give them honest
Speaker:feedback and, um, we want them to be better and we're gonna keep on working on
Speaker:trying to find ways to help 'em be better.
Speaker:You know, as long as they're playing in our program, that's our job.
Speaker:And, um, so I, I just think it's important that, you know, when, when
Speaker:a guy does well, you, you tell 'em.
Speaker:And when he is not doing well, you tell him that too.
Speaker:And it's equal opportunity.
Speaker:Um, we're not, we're not just trying to candy coat everything,
Speaker:but we want guys to, you know.
Speaker:We want guys to be honest about their own performance.
Speaker:'cause I don't think a lot of kids are, I think they can, you know, live
Speaker:in this candy shell of a, of a, you know, a barrier where they're just not
Speaker:gonna admit what's really going on.
Speaker:And some guys got competition anxiety, like they're afraid of failure.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And so what does that cause guess what?
Speaker:Failure, uh, that's how it works.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, you know, and that's the beauty of guys and some of
Speaker:this comes down to recruiting.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Uh, I've heard it said, Hey, if you don't want, uh, problems with
Speaker:your team, don't recruit kids with a bunch of attitude problems.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:If you want a competitive team.
Speaker:You need the crew to recruit a bunch of dudes like Effer Morales.
Speaker:'cause that sucker likes to play.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And he hates to lose and he'll bite your knees off to get a win.
Speaker:So, uh, we need more guys.
Speaker:Is that the right level for it?
Speaker:Quite honest.
Speaker:And, um, that's a, that's just the, you know, that's the, on us to find
Speaker:that type of attitude, that type of desire, that type of competitive spirit.
Speaker:Um, because it, it is contagious.
Speaker:And when you don't have enough of it, it's contagious as well.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Well said.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Appreciate, we'll see you out tomorrow.
Speaker:Looking forward to it.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:See you.
Speaker:Good luck.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:All right, go Monarch.
Speaker:Let's take a go Monarchs.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
Speaker:All right, we're gonna take a quick break.
Speaker:When we come back, we will have Efrain Morales joining us.
Speaker:Yay.
Speaker:This episode of the Monarchist Podcast is brought to you by
Speaker:the pride of ODU Collective.
Speaker:Their mission is to elevate the experience of student athletes through
Speaker:name, image, and likeness, while also elevating the fan experience.
Speaker:If you or your business are interested in getting involved,
Speaker:you can reach out to us directly or go over to the pride of odu.com.
Speaker:That is the pride of odu.com.
Speaker:Thank you for listening and go Monarchs.
Speaker:Welcome back, Monarch fans.
Speaker:We are joined by Morales, uh, catcher dh.
Speaker:I'm heard, I've been told that you can play pretty much anywhere
Speaker:in the field, but Efrain, thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker:A hundred percent.
Speaker:Love to be here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, uh, I think that was your first time playing in Harbor Park, at least for ODU.
Speaker:What was that experience like over the weekend?
Speaker:It was awesome.
Speaker:Um, really playing in a big stadium like that is like an honor.
Speaker:It's like a really, like a blessing, especially at like such a high level.
Speaker:And competing against a really good team too, was also like a
Speaker:very, very good experience for me, especially as a freshman.
Speaker:Well, I know you got to play at the AA park down there in Biloxi.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:I wanna hear about how that was, but have you played in any other pro parks?
Speaker:Um, so at P 27, um, uh, there's this team that we played against us called PDG.
Speaker:Uh, they played in the national Sing a, um, stadium.
Speaker:It's a pretty nice stadium.
Speaker:I think it's here in Virginia actually.
Speaker:Is that the one in in Fredericksburg?
Speaker:Fredericksburg, yes.
Speaker:It's a really nice park.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Very nice park.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:How'd you like?
Speaker:And so Biloxi, I dunno know about you.
Speaker:For me, Biloxi, that was, that was pretty wild that they had that place packed.
Speaker:Like, I couldn't leave the dog out to take pictures.
Speaker:There's nowhere to go.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:That place was, there were so many fans, like all around the ballpark.
Speaker:It was, it was insane.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Those Mississippi State fans showed up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:So a hundred
Speaker:percent.
Speaker:You mentioned P 27.
Speaker:Now, uh, now a lot of folks maybe don't know about this.
Speaker:So you, you went to, it's called P 27 Academy.
Speaker:It's like a baseball high school basically.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yes, sir. It's uh, just the academy for baseball and that's it.
Speaker:Just baseball.
Speaker:And then we have school online.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So you were there
Speaker:for what, one year?
Speaker:Two year?
Speaker:How many years were you there?
Speaker:I was there for two years, my junior year and, and senior year of high school.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:And how far away is that?
Speaker:'cause that that's in South Carolina, correct?
Speaker:In, yeah.
Speaker:South Carolina.
Speaker:In
Speaker:Lexington?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And you, but you live uh, with Raleigh?
Speaker:I'm trying to, I'm trying to, yeah.
Speaker:Raleigh, North Carolina.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So about was about like
Speaker:four hours.
Speaker:How far is that?
Speaker:About four, because depending on traffic too.
Speaker:'cause you have to go through Charlotte and Charlotte's never fun to go through.
Speaker:Always traffic.
Speaker:I used to
Speaker:live in Charlotte, so Charlotte's more fun to stay in than to go through.
Speaker:Oh yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So much
Speaker:traffic around there.
Speaker:But yeah, it's about four hours.
Speaker:So you, so you're
Speaker:living away from home all throughout, you know, the school year, right?
Speaker:Is that, that's what's happening?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Junior and senior year away from home.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:How is that?
Speaker:I mean, that's, that's, that's different, man.
Speaker:You don't see that, I mean, I guess you're seeing it more now with these academies,
Speaker:but like, what's that like for you?
Speaker:So like that first year was, was a little tough 'cause like I was
Speaker:definitely homesick, especially as a junior in high school.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, but it is definitely built a lot of maturity in me.
Speaker:Like not much high schoolers get to go, um, out of state and be with a
Speaker:bunch of guys that love to compete and it just matured me a lot.
Speaker:Especially matured me and uh, preparing me for college for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean we're definitely seeing that a lot more.
Speaker:Sorry, Gary.
Speaker:'cause but we're, 'cause I know what Cole Lanford, he was at the P five we got Yeah.
Speaker:Pro five.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oron and Baes both were IMG, uh, SIO was, was P five to, uh, pro five.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think somebody else was PI mean we, it's starting to become a thing now,
Speaker:especially as you see the D one level.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:What I mean, so as someone, you know, you don't have to sell it if
Speaker:you thought it sucked, but it sounds like you probably had a good time.
Speaker:What, for people who might be thinking about maybe sending their
Speaker:kid to one of these academies, what would you tell 'em about it?
Speaker:Um, I would tell 'em for sure.
Speaker:It definitely gets you ready for the next level.
Speaker:Um, uh, the difference between, um, college and, uh, the academy baseball?
Speaker:Um, playing wise, it's gonna be like, uh, the fastball, uh, velos would be the same.
Speaker:The only difference is that like D one, you're definitely coached a lot better.
Speaker:Um, and the pitchers know how to locate a lot more and they're not
Speaker:throwing 97 to your head 24 7.
Speaker:So, uh, but yeah, it's, uh, that's the only difference and
Speaker:the competition is really good.
Speaker:Um, yeah, the competition all around, I mean, um, our whole lineup,
Speaker:um, this last year we're all, uh, division, uh, one, um, players in
Speaker:the lineup, so it was very cool.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:Oh, that must have been just a stud lineup there.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:It was, it was insane.
Speaker:Uh, our first five were, and it was insane.
Speaker:It was, uh, a great experience for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I see you share stuff on social media.
Speaker:You got guys like all over, like Florida and some different places.
Speaker:Oh
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:We had, we had some studs, like our first five were like all going
Speaker:to like the SEC and like Arkansas.
Speaker:Florida, yeah.
Speaker:Um, wake Forest, like bunch of dudes, like they're bunch
Speaker:of dudes that are really good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The few times I've seen like IMG or seen Pro five, it's like, this is really good.
Speaker:This isn't high school baseball.
Speaker:This is really, really good.
Speaker:I, I've seen 'em like beat JUCO teams who were pretty solid JUCO teams.
Speaker:Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker:We've played, uh, we've played a couple really good jucos too.
Speaker:As a matter of fact, we, uh, we played, uh, north, north Greenville University.
Speaker:They're a very solid D two school down in South Carolina.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they're, lemme tell you, they're pretty good.
Speaker:And we put a good fight against them last year.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I imagine with that much D one talent, there's, there's probably not
Speaker:a huge difference in rosters, even, even with the age differences there.
Speaker:Oh, no.
Speaker:A hundred percent.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I know you've, you've gotten the chance to start catching, uh,
Speaker:a couple times for us this year.
Speaker:I know you're still kind of rehabbing off of an arm injury,
Speaker:but have you always been a catcher?
Speaker:Is that something you've moved to recently, or what was, what was
Speaker:your positional journey there?
Speaker:Um, so it was, uh, so starting off with like the young days, uh,
Speaker:like literal league, uh, I was always a second basement because I
Speaker:was never the tallest, like what?
Speaker:I, yeah.
Speaker:Like I was cb you know, I'm short, I'm short.
Speaker:Um, and I, I admit no.
Speaker:And so how tall
Speaker:are you for people who aren't aware?
Speaker:How tall?
Speaker:How tall do you tell people you are, I guess the reality,
Speaker:so I tell 'em I'm five nine.
Speaker:In reality, like, I'm like five, seven, and like three fours.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I'll let you see.
Speaker:I
Speaker:was gonna let you go with what you said.
Speaker:I, I was gonna let you go with what you tell 'em.
Speaker:You didn't have to, you didn't have to give yourself out like that.
Speaker:But that's, I, I appreciate the honesty.
Speaker:Yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker:Uh, but with cleats on, I'm definitely five nine.
Speaker:Oh, I was gonna say.
Speaker:And spikes.
Speaker:And spikes.
Speaker:You're good.
Speaker:That was always my out too.
Speaker:Five, nine.
Speaker:You put like thick socks on.
Speaker:You're like six one.
Speaker:I see you.
Speaker:Yep, yep, yep.
Speaker:You play it like you're seven feet tall, that's what's what matters.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, but going to like the positional like, um, topic.
Speaker:Um, I started off as a second basement.
Speaker:Um, I was a second baseman, outfielder, and then one of my
Speaker:coaches, uh, from middle league was like, you have a really good arm,
Speaker:uh, that's probably behind the plate.
Speaker:And this was like maybe sixth grade.
Speaker:And my dad was a catcher too, and uh, back in his day.
Speaker:So he was all for it.
Speaker:And ever since then, um.
Speaker:Just became a catcher and I enjoyed it, but I also miss like, being
Speaker:in the outfield, like it's always fun to like go in the outfield
Speaker:and, and catch 'em fly balls.
Speaker:I haven't played second for a while though.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You, you probably would not miss, you know, taking a foul ball to the
Speaker:inside of your knee, which I think is what happened on Sunday, right?
Speaker:Like, you're just
Speaker:getting beaten up back there.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I, hmm.
Speaker:I have a big bruise right now in that, in that, uh, inner
Speaker:thigh, it's not the best feeling.
Speaker:Was that one of the biggest things, because I know you, you've been
Speaker:playing a lot, you've been ding
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I
Speaker:know you've been catching a ton of bullpens, but then when you actually
Speaker:getting in the game is that reminder of like, oh yeah, this is what it's really
Speaker:like when you're getting those foul balls.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It's gotta be a kind of a shock to your body.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, and then the first, the first game I caught, I got a bat to the knee.
Speaker:Oof.
Speaker:That one did not feel good either.
Speaker:That was Georgia State, right?
Speaker:Georgia State?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't know how you stayed in that game.
Speaker:'cause I, I heard the bat hit your knee and I was hoping it just hit the pad,
Speaker:but obviously it didn't and I think you got on base the next half inning
Speaker:and I saw you trying to run the second.
Speaker:I was like, oh no, that's, that looks painful.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's, there's one thing about me and it's like, I never want
Speaker:to get out of the game ever.
Speaker:It's, uh, it's more of like a, it's just like the competitive in me.
Speaker:It's like, even if I'm limping, like I never want to get outta the game.
Speaker:It's just the way I was taught by my father and mom's just being tough.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You, you're a competitive guy that's, I know yesterday you had
Speaker:a, you had a really, you swung it really well and I think it just
Speaker:got caught like at the last second.
Speaker:And, uh, you, you let anybody in, in hearing distance knew
Speaker:you were not happy about that?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, I was not happy for sure.
Speaker:I was not happy.
Speaker:Well still, you know, going four for five, uh, against the 23 team in
Speaker:the country is not, not a bad day.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:no, uh, no, not a bad day at all.
Speaker:So first four hit game at college.
Speaker:I gotta imagine you've had some four hit games in the past.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I really don't, I mean, I've definitely have, but like,
Speaker:don't really like, focus on that.
Speaker:Like yesterday all I was focused on was winning that game.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that's great.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Hey,
Speaker:you were part of it for sure, man.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:That was awesome.
Speaker:That's too, so I, I have to imagine probably you probably haven't dhd a
Speaker:ton in the past before the season.
Speaker:How has that been kind of transitioning and figuring that out?
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:honestly, it definitely saves the legs a bunch.
Speaker:Like, and my legs feel fresh, but it was definitely like hard 'cause like
Speaker:DH and like, if you have a bad day at dh, like you can't say, oh, I did
Speaker:really good on the field, you know.
Speaker:Like if you have a bad day hitting and then you do good on the field, it's like,
Speaker:all right, now tomorrow let's do better.
Speaker:But like, ding, it's just like if you do bad ding, you can't
Speaker:say you did good on the field.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, speaking of that, you know, you, you get off a really great
Speaker:start, you know, you're killing it.
Speaker:We're like, Hey, this guy's amazing, right?
Speaker:Uh, we got on to Auburn first at bat of the whole series to smoke one over
Speaker:the wall, and it's like, holy crap, RAI is the best player we ever had.
Speaker:This guy, I love this kid,
Speaker:which I still,
Speaker:you're still, you're still awesome.
Speaker:I still love you.
Speaker:Um, but then like you hit that home run.
Speaker:And then I think, I think I was looking at minute.
Speaker:I was like, oh, for 25 until, yeah, like the rest of that trip.
Speaker:What was, so what was that like, you know, after all that success, I
Speaker:mean, like you said, you're, you're clearly the guy you like to compete.
Speaker:I mean, how did you, how did you deal with it?
Speaker:How'd you get through it?
Speaker:And I mean, clearly you're, we're on the other side, now you're back kind
Speaker:of, you know, being yourself again.
Speaker:Um, so talking about that, like, I have such a great roommate,
Speaker:my roommate's, Kyle Edwards.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Um, so like every day he's always like boosting up my energy and making sure
Speaker:to tell me like that I'm that guy.
Speaker:Um, and every, every good baseball player, um, everybody goes through slumps.
Speaker:I mean, it's just part of the baseball.
Speaker:Like baseball's not just skyrocket going up.
Speaker:It's a more of like a wave, you know?
Speaker:And I, you was gonna get, uh, out of it soon.
Speaker:Uh, it was just about time that I was gonna get out of it, so.
Speaker:Well, you've definitely been hitting the ball well of late and of course going
Speaker:four for five on, on Sunday against Troy.
Speaker:Uh, you've also had some pretty epic photos taken.
Speaker:I don't know if you've noticed it.
Speaker:I think that the Georgia State series, you had, I think, I think our social
Speaker:media outlets, the teams, everyone else had you celebrating in second base.
Speaker:And then, uh, CB grabs this one yesterday.
Speaker:Oh, that was
Speaker:a great one.
Speaker:I saw that one yesterday.
Speaker:Yeah, he have F's, uh, he's a handsome man, so he, he's, he's
Speaker:a big fan of photos of himself.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So he, he's definitely a guy that I, I know appreciates him, that's for sure.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Love the photos, especially the one that I'm hyped up in.
Speaker:I love seeing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hyped up during the game for sure.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:You had, I think the Georgia State one, I, I don't have it up at the, the
Speaker:moment, but you had slid into second.
Speaker:It popped up and I think you're giving like a double
Speaker:thumbs up back to the dugout.
Speaker:Yeah, that's a good one too.
Speaker:Amazing, uh, series win picture that we used for sure.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And then, uh, course CB got another good one yesterday.
Speaker:One of your, one of your four hits on Sunday there.
Speaker:One of the many hits.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And this is what I love too, is this like, you always have this like textbook swing.
Speaker:I mean, this is like exa like, if you were gonna like draw what a baseball
Speaker:swing looks like, like, I mean I, the, I have so many pictures because you
Speaker:have so many hits, but I have so many pictures of like, just like this where
Speaker:it's like just head down, hands to bat.
Speaker:I mean, uh, hands to barrel, like bald at bat.
Speaker:Like it's just the best, what you wanna do every time.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:That's
Speaker:great man.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well what
Speaker:that's go every time.
Speaker:What is kind of your mindset when you go to the play?
Speaker:'cause you know, obviously we're, we're seeing some guys that are, they're
Speaker:scuffling a little bit right now.
Speaker:They're, they're trying to have more competitive at bats.
Speaker:Uh, facing good pitching.
Speaker:I'll definitely caveat with that.
Speaker:They face good pitching, but what's going through your mind from on
Speaker:deck circle, getting some warmup swings and then going into the box,
Speaker:uh, on deck circle.
Speaker:I don't know if you guys see me, but I get close to the fence.
Speaker:Um, and I just from trying to have a short swing, try to hug myself.
Speaker:'cause if I try to hug myself, the shortest I can be, the more
Speaker:barrel I'm gonna get to the bowl.
Speaker:Um, and I try to have an approach before I get into the box because once you
Speaker:start thinking so much, like my dad will make me watch like Tony Gwin growing up.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And he always said like, if you start thinking in the
Speaker:box, your abs already over.
Speaker:Um, so I have an approach before the box, um, and I talked to h uh, about
Speaker:the approach, what the guy has, and I mostly just try to sit on the fastball.
Speaker:Um, I try to really hit that fastball and then if he pops a slider and I
Speaker:can see the slider of his hand and he hangs it, um, definitely swing at it.
Speaker:And I like to drive those pitchers a lot, but mostly, uh, getting in
Speaker:there and swinging at a fastball anywhere near the strike zone.
Speaker:Really try to be aggressive.
Speaker:And that's just a game plan that I have always.
Speaker:You, you talk about that kind of shorter compact swing, get
Speaker:more barrel over the plate.
Speaker:I also noticed that you do crowd the plate a little bit more than
Speaker:maybe some other footers do.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And that shows up with, I think you've been hit by a pitch
Speaker:nine times so far this season.
Speaker:Nine times.
Speaker:Nine times.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But that I, I think you have the right idea of that short compact swing.
Speaker:And, uh, I, CB actually pointed out to me in some photos of Kyle yesterday
Speaker:on his, the home runs he hit, you can see his hands are tucked in tight.
Speaker:He's got that shorter compact swing.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And he hits two bombs to the left center.
Speaker:So maybe he's been watching you a little bit on those avs.
Speaker:No, I've been watching him.
Speaker:I look up to Kyle a lot for sure.
Speaker:Well, that's, that definitely a good one to, uh, to look out for.
Speaker:He is, he's been on with us a couple times, uh, and we, we certainly
Speaker:enjoy chatting to him as well.
Speaker:No, I've been watching, I dunno if I've ever told you, I've been
Speaker:watching Kyle play since he was like 14, and kid's just phenomenal.
Speaker:I'm, I'm always been such a fan.
Speaker:Um, so, so f how did you end up at ODU, right?
Speaker:I, you said you're, you're from North Carolina, playing down in South Carolina.
Speaker:How do you end up here at ODU?
Speaker:Uh, so, um,
Speaker:recruiting process.
Speaker:Talking about the recruiting process, um,
Speaker:I didn't really talk to a lot of schools, like, not really like it would be
Speaker:talking to like schools close to home.
Speaker:And they all wanted me as like a utility outfielder.
Speaker:Um, the only school that wanted me as a catcher was Old Dominion.
Speaker:Um, and so I took the opportunity, uh, Logan Robbins was the one
Speaker:that was recruiting me at the time, and so did Marin, um, and.
Speaker:Funny story is when I committed, um, I think it was he's first
Speaker:day or something like that.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:And I think it was, he's like, first zoom call and I committed,
Speaker:uh, that day with, uh, hey, on Zoom call and Marin on Zoom call.
Speaker:That's a hell of a first day.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Pretty
Speaker:good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, how, how have you adjusted coming to ODU being in college?
Speaker:I mean, it sounds like where you're at prepped you a little bit.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, what have been some adjustments you've had to make coming into the college world?
Speaker:Um, so coming into like the college world, I mean, definitely like school part of it.
Speaker:Uh, like I said, like I had online school, so it was just online, so
Speaker:it was kind of weird like going into the first day of, uh, school and.
Speaker:Going into class and I actually had to like pay attention to a teacher.
Speaker:That was definitely like a big, a big adjustment to Yeah, the school.
Speaker:As a former
Speaker:teacher who taught during Covid, I I absolutely understand
Speaker:what you're talking about.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it was definitely, uh, quite a bit of a adjustment for sure.
Speaker:And I imagine that just the student population's a lot bigger too.
Speaker:'cause you've just got a bunch of kids playing baseball.
Speaker:How many, how many kids were in that, that academy?
Speaker:Um, so there was, I think there was exactly 52 kids.
Speaker:So yeah, 52 compared to walking around campus.
Speaker:And it's just a bunch of people that I do not even know.
Speaker:It's kind of a, definitely a big adjustment.
Speaker:You could meet 52 new people every single day and still not
Speaker:probably by the end of the year.
Speaker:And not even come close to gotten everybody.
Speaker:No, definitely not.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You were in classes that were bigger than your school.
Speaker:I had that experience too, so I know how you feel.
Speaker:Yeah, it was a, it was a pretty big adjustment for
Speaker:the first two weeks for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's great, man.
Speaker:Well, I know you're in the house with Kyle.
Speaker:I think I, I can't remember who all lives there.
Speaker:Kyle was sold this before, but Is Luke in that house too?
Speaker:Uh, so, no.
Speaker:So, um, Kyle was my roommate on, uh, on the road.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Uh, so my house, it's, uh, Rocky and Evan.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Uh, Holman.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:There's no other Evan, I dunno why I'm asking.
Speaker:Yeah, not currently.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, okay.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Not, but yeah.
Speaker:So Rocky Green is a freshman.
Speaker:Freshman pitchers, yes.
Speaker:Red Shirting, uh, and then Evan catcher.
Speaker:So, so you and Evan, you guys have, you guys have catcher talks a lot.
Speaker:You guys just sit there like in your mask, in the living room and, and
Speaker:have catcher, the master living room.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:We'd be talking a lot about baseball and we love to watch, uh, wheels on YouTube.
Speaker:Um, so we love to watch baseball.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I noticed he started using the, the hockey mask.
Speaker:Is that something, did you get him to, to do that?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:No, I did not.
Speaker:I'm surprised he started, uh, doing that actually.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I have to talk to him.
Speaker:I don't, I don't, I don't remember
Speaker:him using it during the fall, during the scrimmages at all.
Speaker:He is, he's always been using the, uh, the old style two piece.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I talked, I talked to his parents for quite a while before the game on
Speaker:Saturday when we were over at Waterside, and I did not think to ask that mass
Speaker:question, so I should have done that.
Speaker:That's fair.
Speaker:Well, we got a podcast.
Speaker:We'll ring on at some point.
Speaker:Ask him.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:Save some content.
Speaker:So
Speaker:I, I know like Finney, like one, I think one of the very first podcasts we did
Speaker:this year, you know, we're talking about you and what you may be able to do and he
Speaker:was talking about the possibility of you playing some second base in left field.
Speaker:Now I know.
Speaker:And now again, you probably mm-hmm.
Speaker:You just heard him saying is like, this is probably gonna
Speaker:be our catch for the future.
Speaker:And I, I'm all for that.
Speaker:'cause you're awesome.
Speaker:Uh, and I, I love your energy back there, but is that playing other positions?
Speaker:Is that something you're like down for?
Speaker:You're like, that's okay by me.
Speaker:Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker:I mean the, I just love to be on the field and competing with guys that I love.
Speaker:That's all I really care about.
Speaker:I could be first basement, I mean, I'd probably be the shortest first
Speaker:basement in the whole country, but, uh, I'll definitely love,
Speaker:uh, to play anywhere on the field.
Speaker:It doesn't matter with me.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Kind of the answer I expected, that's why I wanted to ask it
Speaker:eventually.
Speaker:All the short guys that are decent at baseball are told you can't
Speaker:play first base anymore because you're, you know, 5 7, 5 8.
Speaker:Yeah, you're right here.
Speaker:I got, I have some old first baseman m for you.
Speaker:The funny thing is I've been to plenty of AAA games where they just like,
Speaker:well, we need a guy in the lineup.
Speaker:So they end up throwing like some like five, nine guy to play first base.
Speaker:So weirdly it like in the minor leagues kind of turns around
Speaker:just like, whatever, man.
Speaker:Go over there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, uh, my junior year, uh, I forgot what it was of high school.
Speaker:Um, uh, we were playing a game and I think when our first baseman got hurt.
Speaker:And our, uh, our catcher was usually like the back and first basement.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And I was, eh, hing.
Speaker:'cause you know how you could hit like 10 guys in the lineup during high school?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I was like, eh, hing.
Speaker:So they just put me to first base
Speaker:and it was, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker:Lemme tell you.
Speaker:It was a lot of fun.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You probably get a chance to talk to everybody.
Speaker:That's why I know some guys love that.
Speaker:Like Vinny Serino played here.
Speaker:That was his favorite thing about playing first base.
Speaker:Talked to everybody.
Speaker:Everybody.
Speaker:Everybody.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I
Speaker:definitely talked to everybody when I was playing.
Speaker:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker:I played two innings and then it was a lot of fun.
Speaker:You tell 'em guys just throw it low.
Speaker:If you throw it low, we're fine.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Because you've got the flexibility.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You've got the flexibility to get down and stretch for it.
Speaker:No doubt it's those.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah, it's the high.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't know if I'll be able to catch those.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:so, uh, hey, we, we asked finna a minute ago, national Championship tonight.
Speaker:Who you got?
Speaker:Florida.
Speaker:Houston.
Speaker:What do you think?
Speaker:Man, I don't know.
Speaker:Um, I forgot who was talking about it, but he's a famous, um, like reporter and that,
Speaker:and he was saying that he has Houston because Houston just wants it more.
Speaker:And like, they're more like, they're tough.
Speaker:But I think I have the Gators win.
Speaker:Uh, I've got with
Speaker:the Gators too.
Speaker:I just, I like the talent.
Speaker:I like their bigs.
Speaker:The kid, Clayton, the point guard's really good.
Speaker:But I like the, I like, you know, I'm a big guy.
Speaker:I like, I like centers and power forwards anyway.
Speaker:And they got some good advice.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:I think I got the Gators with 'em, uh, this game.
Speaker:They've had a good run this whole year.
Speaker:They said by the time this comes out tomorrow, we'll know we're
Speaker:either correct or we're incorrect.
Speaker:We, oh yeah, they'll,
Speaker:oh yeah.
Speaker:I, I, I need the gators for both the bracket pool and uh, you know, a. A wager
Speaker:that was placed back in, uh, November that had some pretty good odds on it.
Speaker:So go, go Gators to me,
Speaker:I had a 97% bracket on the women's bracket.
Speaker:I, I crushed that one.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I almost had, I had the points down to like two points.
Speaker:Like I was, I I did really well on that one.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Did you have Yukon winning the whole thing?
Speaker:I had Yon Yukon, the over South Carolina.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I, I picked like the final four.
Speaker:I had it, like, I, I crushed it on the women's, the men's brutal like 56%.
Speaker:But I
Speaker:feel like, I feel like with men's, like you, you never know what's gonna happen.
Speaker:You know what's funny though?
Speaker:That, and that's why I thought I had a chance, but I think this year was more
Speaker:like the, the better teams just won.
Speaker:It's almost like this, this year for sure.
Speaker:The, the, the portal is more like, because that was always the
Speaker:thing with the women's, it was like the, the very best player.
Speaker:It was like a, the pyramid went kind of straight up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The very
Speaker:best players at the very top.
Speaker:So I was just like, Hey, you picked the best schools.
Speaker:That's why I picked you guys.
Speaker:It's like they got Paige Becker's, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:but with the men's teams, I think it became more like that this year
Speaker:where it was like, no, the, the talent is gets pushed upwards.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It was wild.
Speaker:Only the second time ever.
Speaker:There's been all one seeds in the final Four.
Speaker:And then, uh, on the women's side, I think it's the first time in a while
Speaker:that a one seed does not want it.
Speaker:'cause somehow eComm was a two.
Speaker:Uh, but I swear, CB you and I must hang out too much.
Speaker:You must be high mine because I'm in the 97th percentile as well.
Speaker:And I had a perfect Final Four and National Final
Speaker:Game Champion, so, wow.
Speaker:Uh, Gary, you gotta ask him my, our favorite question.
Speaker:Oh, yes.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So, uh, college football, video games come out.
Speaker:We know there's a college component to MLB, the show.
Speaker:So we're asking all the guys what would your overall rating be and what
Speaker:would be your, like, your strongest category, whether it's like power
Speaker:against lefties, contact bunting, fielding could be anything, but what's
Speaker:your overall and what and where do you spike there on those ratings?
Speaker:Man, like overall, if they made like a NCA baseball,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:If they made that again, that'd be great.
Speaker:That would be awesome.
Speaker:Yeah, I'll be playing that 24 7 for sure.
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:I used to, I'll be putting myself on road to the show and
Speaker:just grinding that out for sure.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That would be so much fun.
Speaker:Um, I don't know.
Speaker:I mean, I'll like, I'll give myself a high rating just 'cause like
Speaker:freshmen come in.
Speaker:I'll give myself like an 85 overall coming in.
Speaker:All's pretty good.
Speaker:Freshman solid.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Solid for freshman.
Speaker:Zach.
Speaker:Late last week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Zach Leite last week, said he was 99.
Speaker:Overall, there were no questions, no hesitation.
Speaker:He went full 99.
Speaker:Well, big late big lake's.
Speaker:Different big lake's, hitting that ball hard every time.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:He, yes.
Speaker:He's, he is raking right now
Speaker:and with two strikes, he gets that contact approach and, and hits it that other way.
Speaker:Like it's, yep.
Speaker:Yeah, he's putting on a clinic, that's for sure.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:He sure is.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:so what's the second part?
Speaker:What would your, what would your top, uh, if you could give yourself
Speaker:like a, like a highest score in one of the, one of the category?
Speaker:So Lefty, uh, hitting off a lefty, I'll give myself like a 99 overall.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Uh, love, love hitting off lefties.
Speaker:One of my favorite things to do, love, um, off variety, depending on if it
Speaker:throws submarine or over the top.
Speaker:'cause some guys, some variety, uh, their sinkers are pretty gross.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so probably like off variety.
Speaker:Probably give myself like a. 85 to 80 grade, which is still really good.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You put some numbers up at those ratings.
Speaker:I like it.
Speaker:We got it.
Speaker:See, I see the ability to, to grow.
Speaker:Are you a big video game guy?
Speaker:I'm not, actually.
Speaker:I like to.
Speaker:Okay, that's fair.
Speaker:I like to explore out and I'm more of like, I like to go out to the
Speaker:beach and like do stuff like that.
Speaker:What's, uh, the best spot you've found so far here?
Speaker:You don't have to give away if it's like secret.
Speaker:I don't want you to give away, like you spot everybody else gets Do
Speaker:you have have fans lining up there waiting for you?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Oh, no, it's not, it's not a secret.
Speaker:Uh, I forgot what it was called actually.
Speaker:It's, I just went last week with Rocky actually.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:it's not, it's it's the bay.
Speaker:It's pretty, it's pretty, it's not like Virginia Beach.
Speaker:It's like the View streets, that area.
Speaker:Yeah, I think it's uh, like Ocean View.
Speaker:Ocean View.
Speaker:That's what it's called.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Ocean Beach.
Speaker:It is pretty, man.
Speaker:Yeah, it's pretty nice just going out there and seeing the ocean.
Speaker:I like to do that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, because growing up
Speaker:in North Carolina and, and living in South Carolina, you did
Speaker:probably didn't see it too much.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah, not too much.
Speaker:Well, I, I actually grew up in, uh, so I was born in Puerto Rico,
Speaker:so there's just water all around.
Speaker:And then from Puerto Rico, I moved to Miami, so there was a lot of water too,
Speaker:and I didn't move to North Carolina until my sophomore year of high school.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:wow.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:When did you
Speaker:leave Puerto Rico?
Speaker:Uh, I think I was three or four years old.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So there few years.
Speaker:And then Miami for a good chunk.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you, so you are used to the water.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So you get back to it, that's ice.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But moving to North Carolina was like, oh yeah.
Speaker:It's just freeze and mountains.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and, and hot and humid in the summer.
Speaker:Oh man.
Speaker:It is so bad.
Speaker:And the pollen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I, the pollen is bad.
Speaker:Pollen's gone bad.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:Just, just this weekend I feel like you could cut through the air with a knife.
Speaker:You could just see it floating underneath the lights.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And now since it just rained, like you could see like the pollen,
Speaker:like right now outside my window.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You could see like the water and like the, yeah.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:that's crazy.
Speaker:I could see
Speaker:it.
Speaker:'cause I was taking pictures through the net.
Speaker:I could see in my pictures, I had to like, change the tint 'cause everything was like
Speaker:yellow through the, through the pictures.
Speaker:Oh, awesome.
Speaker:Well, rem we'll, uh, we're gonna let you get outta here, but really
Speaker:appreciate your time coming on.
Speaker:It was great to chat with you, uh, awesome.
Speaker:This awesome past weekend and definitely rooting for you.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:In Norfolk State and then Georgia Southern this weekend coming up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Thank you so much, man.
Speaker:It's been a blast, man.
Speaker:Thank you guys for having me on.
Speaker:You're, you know, I, I tell a lot of our guys this, but like, you're,
Speaker:you're what a monarch should be, man.
Speaker:You're just, you're here, you're engaged, you're, you're a fighter.
Speaker:We love it, man.
Speaker:I'm, I'm excited to get to get to watch with you.
Speaker:You, you're gonna play at Charlottesville this summer, is that right?
Speaker:From the top box?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Charlottesville.
Speaker:So I'm, I'm pretty close.
Speaker:It's only two hours away.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:My born too, but yeah, but it's, it's, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:But we'll, so yeah, we'll definitely, we'll definitely pop up there and
Speaker:get to see you and that's, that's the one anybody who's in Virginia
Speaker:get, go out and see a, a Tom.
Speaker:So game this summer and catch Efron.
Speaker:Uh, probably getting three or four more hits every day of that one.
Speaker:A hundred percent.
Speaker:Thank you guys for having me on.
Speaker:Alright, thank you.
Speaker:Thanks
Speaker:man.
Speaker:Appreciate you man.
Speaker:Take care.
Speaker:Thank you guys.
Speaker:Good kid.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:That's
Speaker:weird when that, when that camera went back to me, I had like a
Speaker:weird angle I was sitting at.
Speaker:Well, we can zoom it in a little more if you want.
Speaker:I look like, look like I got a neck today.
Speaker:I dunno what's going on.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Yeah, no efron's awesome man.
Speaker:So he is a good kid.
Speaker:I, I, I was getting a chance to talk to him a little bit.
Speaker:You know, I met him, uh, at, when he came for, they, they had the, their
Speaker:weekend, like official visit weekend before they do the signing day.
Speaker:And we, you know, took some pictures and I talked to him a little bit through social
Speaker:media, just like, man, this kid's awesome.
Speaker:And yeah, he's, he, he's the real deal.
Speaker:He's fun to watch, play.
Speaker:Uh, he's really fun to watch when he's in the batters box and working
Speaker:through account, uh, 'cause you're seeing him do all the things that
Speaker:Finney is talking about with getting a little bit more in on the plate,
Speaker:having smart at bats, fighting up there, making the picture uncomfortable.
Speaker:He does a really good job of that.
Speaker:And you're seeing it show up in the stats.
Speaker:I mean, I think he's moved up to second on the team in, in average or, uh,
Speaker:third on the team in average, 2 98.
Speaker:Uh, getting on base pretty well at 3 85, uh, six dubs.
Speaker:I mean, not striking out a ton either.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:He's
Speaker:only striking out 21% of the time, which is phenomenal in the modern game.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So he's, he's a fun one to watch.
Speaker:So if you come out to a game, definitely keep your eye out for
Speaker:ing and, uh, you know, he's got a very, very bright career ahead of
Speaker:him here at ODU u that we're pretty,
Speaker:and it is great to, that's one of the amazing things about baseball is, you
Speaker:know, he isn't, he is not a big guy.
Speaker:I mean, like, he, he did really admit like five seven, like, that's pretty,
Speaker:he might be shorting himself a little.
Speaker:Actually, five eight might be right.
Speaker:But that's the cool thing about baseball is that, you know, we all
Speaker:love, like the picture of Altuve standing next to Aaron Judge, right.
Speaker:I mean, and I've stood side by side by both those guys, and Altuve is every bit
Speaker:of five three and Judge is every bit of six eight, maybe he might be six, nine.
Speaker:I mean, they, I think they actually short his height.
Speaker:Um, and the fact that you can go on a baseball field and both those
Speaker:guys can be amazing at the sport.
Speaker:Like they're both phenomenal.
Speaker:They're both, they're both just.
Speaker:Top of the world ball players, and that's such a cool thing.
Speaker:That's one of the amazing things I think about baseball.
Speaker:They both won an MVP and that's the difference.
Speaker:That's, that is is wild.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:I've, I've stood on the field at Minute made with Altuve and my dad and mm-hmm.
Speaker:Not one of us is even sniffing six foot.
Speaker:And we're lucky if we, we get mistaken for five nine.
Speaker:So it's, uh,
Speaker:I, I am a full foot taller than Tuve, like, for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and at the same time, judge Towers over me, it makes me feel tiny.
Speaker:So it just to show that, that that difference, it's what a, there's those, I
Speaker:mean, you see basketball, you occasionally see like, oh, there, it's been a while
Speaker:since Mugsy bogs is out there playing.
Speaker:So it can, it can happen, but baseball is really the only
Speaker:one where you really have that.
Speaker:A guy rim size can really go out and be as big as anybody.
Speaker:And that's, I think it's just a cool part of the sport.
Speaker:It is, it's very fun.
Speaker:All right, we got a couple things to cover here.
Speaker:We're gonna definitely hit players of the week, uh, but stick around because
Speaker:we have a new way to track monarchs that are now in the minors, the majors and
Speaker:indie ball that we wanna walk you through as well, and a couple other things, but.
Speaker:We gotta go with players of the week here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There we did it.
Speaker:So, let's see.
Speaker:Uh, and of course I, I immediately had my phone away when it was time for this.
Speaker:Uh, but Kyle had a great week.
Speaker:He, he really is.
Speaker:He, the big thing is he, yesterday's game hit the two home runs.
Speaker:He was four for 13 for the week, which isn't amazing, but two Homers, three
Speaker:rbis, had a walk, played great defense.
Speaker:I mean, I, I, I was telling him yesterday before the game, I was like, man, you
Speaker:really were playing phenomenal defense on, on, uh, Friday and Saturday.
Speaker:And he kept it up yesterday.
Speaker:So that's as much as anything.
Speaker:Um, uh, and of course I just put this down as I had more point to make, uh, 'cause
Speaker:Raim, you know, with the four hit day, he was four for nine for the week, as I
Speaker:think he didn't start one of the games.
Speaker:RBI and A walk, and, and Zach late, another great week, five
Speaker:for 13, three rbis, four walks.
Speaker:Um, you know, before yesterday's game, there weren't a lot of
Speaker:options for hit of the week.
Speaker:It got kind of like, no, who had two hits this week.
Speaker:Uh, so it was good that a few of the guys pulled it out there.
Speaker:It was, and Kyle was the catalyst that got us to that win on Sunday.
Speaker:Uh, he homered in the two innings that we scored runs, uh, on, on Sunday.
Speaker:So kind of being that senior leader again, stepping up in big moments,
Speaker:taking a good approach at the plate and getting two balls up and outta the
Speaker:ballpark on a very, very windy day.
Speaker:Uh, but we needed that win.
Speaker:Getting swept there would make the math really difficult to do.
Speaker:Be, to be in any kind of good position comes Sunbelt tournament time.
Speaker:It's also just a killer for your, your.
Speaker:Feel and your culture and your, you know, it's just, yeah, getting
Speaker:swept by anybody just hurts you.
Speaker:Uh, and, and again, not just Kyle, but at the, on the mound, Blake
Speaker:Morgan, of course, a huge part.
Speaker:I think this is at least the third or fourth time he is
Speaker:won this out of eight weeks.
Speaker:Um, he went five and a third innings, one earn run, one walk, two strikeouts.
Speaker:Uh, just phenomenal again and really could've, could've as easily given it
Speaker:to Bailey Patella for that same movie.
Speaker:We talked about him two and a third, uh, came in, got a, got
Speaker:a two and a third inning saved, one hit, one walk, one strikeout.
Speaker:Um, those guys were huge.
Speaker:You know, hunter Baes had a great week also.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Uh, Kellen Davis outta the bullpen.
Speaker:Kellen.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and again, Dylan and, and, uh, Dylan Brown and Ben Moore, they pitched five.
Speaker:I mean, Ben Moore won earned, run in four innings.
Speaker:He had some really not great defense behind him that's kind
Speaker:of got his inning to count up.
Speaker:Dylan Brown, three earned runs in five innings.
Speaker:I mean, to me, in a college game, if you get the three run runs in five
Speaker:innings, like you're doing pretty good.
Speaker:So the, the pitching has, like I said, it's been going a lot
Speaker:better in the right direction.
Speaker:And, you know, having guys like Blake who can step up and be that senior
Speaker:star, just, it's, it's invaluable.
Speaker:I've been trying to tell people how important it is that we essentially have
Speaker:an ace going every single Sunday because weird things happen on Sunday games.
Speaker:If you watch any other college baseball on Sunday, I mean, you saw some good
Speaker:teams getting their doors blown off.
Speaker:East Carolina got swept at home.
Speaker:They were not able to kind of overcome that and win on Sunday to avoid the sweep.
Speaker:Forest State got blown out twice by Wake Forest at home.
Speaker:Uh, things can go south, but knowing that we have someone like Blake that we can
Speaker:depend on to get you five, six, maybe 70 good innings on a Sunday and keep
Speaker:you in there because, you know, in this situation we had already lost a series,
Speaker:but we still need to win that game.
Speaker:But there's a lot of times you're going into that Sunday with a split series,
Speaker:and I'll put Blake up against anyone else who's throwing on Sundays in the Sunbelt
Speaker:easily, like without, without question.
Speaker:And then, uh, you know, this guy getting his, uh, well-deserved construction
Speaker:helmet crown there after his second
Speaker:helmet.
Speaker:Yeah, I know, I know we talked about the helmet.
Speaker:The, I don't know if we, uh, we had, I seen a picture of it
Speaker:yet, but yeah, there's the, with the construction helmet for the
Speaker:celebrations, which I think is great.
Speaker:Like I said, it's, it's very much, you know, if we're this team, we're uh,
Speaker:we're building the stadiums, that's why we're kinda these, these road warriors.
Speaker:And at the same time it's got that kind of, that lunch pail, you know,
Speaker:drinking, uh, water outta the garden hose mentality that you wanna have.
Speaker:I don't know that all our guys have, but I, we wanna have it.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Well, as much as I love that picture, I'm gonna get that framed.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Either him or one of the FM ones.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:You, you've taken some, uh, just awesome shots.
Speaker:I frankly, I think about 90% of the pictures I put up,
Speaker:we could, we could frame.
Speaker:'cause I, you know, we really good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, but again, guys gotta do cool stuff and y'all don't see
Speaker:all the ones that weren't good.
Speaker:I leave those and in the, and the camera.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We, and we'll talk in a minute about the, the, the great, uh,
Speaker:link we have there on the site.
Speaker:Uh, but it was, it was nice seeing Steven Meyer.
Speaker:It was great.
Speaker:I know you said you gotta talk to him a little bit before the game Saturday.
Speaker:I gotta talk to him for, for a bit, uh, Sunday, you know,
Speaker:just guys a phenomenal kid.
Speaker:Um, just a really high quality person having a great year, uh, there with Troy
Speaker:and they're having a great year and, you know, he said he is rooting for us
Speaker:and I told him we're rooting for him.
Speaker:Uh, you know, we want them to, we want, and at the end of the day, you know,
Speaker:it's like, yeah, we wanna beat 'em where you're playing, but like, Hey, we want
Speaker:you guys to succeed and do really well.
Speaker:You know, we want, we want the, the conference teams to, to to, to
Speaker:have nothing but success, um, and.
Speaker:Kind of the best of both worlds.
Speaker:You know, we, the two games they won, we had, Steven was Hitless, I think he had
Speaker:a walk and a, and maybe hit by a pitch.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And in the
Speaker:game we won, he got a couple hits and score a few runs.
Speaker:So, you know, I think he was like two for 12, two for 13 on the weekend.
Speaker:A couple of walks and, and hit by a pitch, you know, so it, it dropped his out.
Speaker:He went from, when you take a, a hitter on the top 20 team in the
Speaker:country is hitting like three 70 and holding the two hits on the weekend.
Speaker:You're doing pretty good.
Speaker:He did a good job of limiting him and I think the times he did get on base
Speaker:there was a runner in front of him so he wasn't able to beat us with the speed.
Speaker:'cause he has a lot of stolen bases this year.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Uh, it was great catch up with him.
Speaker:Only got him for a couple minutes before they had to go huddle up
Speaker:and get ready to play on Saturday, but good to chat with him.
Speaker:I did not get an answer on why he went with the shorts, the baseball shorts.
Speaker:I know the crowd was letting him hear a little bit, but
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't think we didn't, I didn't, I don't think we keyed up a picture of that, but
Speaker:it, I, I'll share some later this week.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, his, his, he's doing the, uh, the, the pants at the, like the
Speaker:mid thigh situation, and he told me it was the only pants they had and.
Speaker:I kind of looked around, I was like, eh, a little dubious, but you know, I, I said,
Speaker:Hey, you're, you're making it, you know, when you look good, when you're hitting
Speaker:three 70, you do whatever you want.
Speaker:That's what I told him.
Speaker:Um, and he, he did admit that they do get higher as the game
Speaker:goes on, especially on base.
Speaker:He said he, he does think, he kind of unconsciously pulls 'em up on base.
Speaker:So they, they did, because that was the first time I noticed I
Speaker:had been taking pictures of him.
Speaker:And it wasn't until the time he got on base and I was like, I looked.
Speaker:Back of the camera, and I was like, why are his pants so high?
Speaker:What, what's going on here?
Speaker:I figured he was just messing with us in after each of bat, putting
Speaker:on a smaller size each time.
Speaker:So I'm glad we didn't get to like 6, 7, 8 of bats.
Speaker:I didn't know what that would look like,
Speaker:but yeah, no, I told, I I, I told him, uh, if anybody's seen Reno 9 1 1, the
Speaker:Lieutenant Dangle character who wears the, uh, he's, he's a sheriff, but he wears
Speaker:like Daisy Duke shorts, so he could, so he is mobile, he can move around and get
Speaker:mobile and, and so I, I was like, that's, that's what you got going on, right?
Speaker:He's like, yeah, the best Gotta be agile.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Gotta be.
Speaker:It was, it
Speaker:was great seeing, uh, Ryan Fineman too.
Speaker:And of course he coached with us and he's, he's there with Troy and, you
Speaker:know, he's, he's, and again, he's having a blast and they're, they're,
Speaker:you know, it's, Hey, when you're top 20 in the country, things are fun.
Speaker:So, uh, good for them and wish 'em well.
Speaker:And you know, we hope, we hope they have a great season.
Speaker:Um, and we hope we turn things around and start moving in the
Speaker:right direction and, and become a problem for 'em later in the year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, a couple of people wanna shout out from the weekend.
Speaker:Uh, Alex Hunt's, uh, parents, uh, ran into them actually getting
Speaker:on the tide at MacArthur Center, and we rode the tide to the game.
Speaker:Ended up being on the same train coming back.
Speaker:Uh, great to chat with him and get to know them a little bit.
Speaker:Uh, Evan Holman's parents were both at, uh, blue Moon
Speaker:at Waterside before the game.
Speaker:Uh, Dylan Brown's family kind of got that a little bit organized over there, so we
Speaker:were able to hang out with some of the parents, spend some time with them, uh,
Speaker:Kellen's mom and uh, uh, I guess Kellen's grandfather was in there with us as well.
Speaker:So, good to see all those people.
Speaker:Uh, Bo I know you're, you're listening, we got to, uh, to chat
Speaker:for about four innings on Saturday.
Speaker:So that was, uh, that was a lot of fun, but good to see you to you fans.
Speaker:Good to be at the ballpark.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, uh, Blake's, uh, Blake, uh, his mom and brother
Speaker:surprised him, so that was nice.
Speaker:Good to see them.
Speaker:And, and she got to meet my mom, and so they're like,
Speaker:they're like mom besties now.
Speaker:So that's, that's always fun.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Your parents always, always take care of me.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:Gotta, gotta request more cookies at some point.
Speaker:'cause I got sent home with some of those after Georgia State.
Speaker:No, everybody,
Speaker:everybody loves my mom.
Speaker:And I'm like, I dunno what happened to me.
Speaker:I'm sorry that, that, she's great.
Speaker:And clearly there was a, clearly there's a disconnect.
Speaker:I kind of blame my dad on that one.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Uhhuh.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But yeah, so,
Speaker:so tell him about, tell him about the website.
Speaker:Gary, what do we got there?
Speaker:Yeah, well, um, you and I kind of kicked this idea around and Mike Langston,
Speaker:uh, was also with us in the monarchist, kind of brought this to light, but we
Speaker:now have a site on the pride of odu nil.com, and I'm gonna pull this up here.
Speaker:Uh, it, it is basically just a really easy way to track all the former
Speaker:monarchs that are either in the pros, like Verlander, YBI, uh, pa
Speaker:in the majors.
Speaker:In the majors.
Speaker:The other guys are pros.
Speaker:Also, sir, don't, don't, don't, don't make my major pet peeve
Speaker:happen in real life in front of me.
Speaker:I've clearly been talking too much today.
Speaker:Uh, but all the guys that are in the majors.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And then, uh, if you scroll down, you got our guys that are in the
Speaker:minor league systems right now.
Speaker:Uh, if you click these links, it'll take you right to their bio page for MILB.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So if they move up and move down, if they get traded, whatever,
Speaker:the link will always be accurate.
Speaker:We may be a few days behind updating the text, but you can go on there and you
Speaker:can see their stats, how they're doing.
Speaker:I know we were keeping a close eye on Jacob Gomez and Trent
Speaker:Buchanan down in Augusta.
Speaker:They both had scoreless outings to start their minor league
Speaker:career, which is really awesome.
Speaker:We've got Kyle Battle down for Indie Ball.
Speaker:I know, I think there's a few other guys that are playing or will be playing soon.
Speaker:We will keep this as a living breathing list for now.
Speaker:Uh, but wanted to really have one clear, good, up-to-date spot
Speaker:where you can keep track, see if they're coming to your neighborhood.
Speaker:I know, uh, you know, with Hobe being down there with Mudcats,
Speaker:he's gonna be traveling up to Fredericksburg, out to Salem Del
Speaker:Marva, kind of all over the place.
Speaker:And, and
Speaker:Mudcats are only like two and a half hours away if you're in Hampton Roads.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:I'm gonna go down there, uh, a few weeks.
Speaker:Uh, and I mean, I know, um, they're, Augusta doesn't come up here a ton.
Speaker:They've got both Gomez and Buchanan, but I know they're coming to Del
Speaker:Marva, I think the last weekend of April when Odus on the road too.
Speaker:So that's perfect.
Speaker:Go up and see them.
Speaker:Um, yes.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:good chances to see those, those guys come through.
Speaker:But, uh, you know, big, big shout out to Mike Langston for getting that together,
Speaker:getting that on, on the Pride websites.
Speaker:It's the pride of odu.com.
Speaker:Uh, you can also find our podcast, get posted there in case you're
Speaker:looking for a different way to.
Speaker:Consume us.
Speaker:There's also some good, uh, merch on there for some of the guys,
Speaker:and that is just gonna continue to expand with what we're offering.
Speaker:I know there's some really cool stuff on the horizon that will impact this
Speaker:show in a very, very positive way.
Speaker:Not, not ready to announce all that good stuff yet, but,
Speaker:um, good thing to bookmark.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I know last year we had, I think 23, uh, former Monarchs
Speaker:playing pro ball somewhere.
Speaker:Um, we'll see, you know, as Indie Ball gets started up here and then they
Speaker:usually start about the beginning of May.
Speaker:They wait till, you know, guys get cut out of, out of the organizations
Speaker:and then end up signing with them.
Speaker:Um, and so hopefully we'll add, we'll add some more and then as the summer goes on,
Speaker:hopefully some of our current guys will end up playing pro and you know, we will.
Speaker:Hopefully we get up towards that 23 number again.
Speaker:'cause it's, it's pretty nice to be able to say, I know that was one
Speaker:thing that we were down in Auburn and they kept saying we'd had like
Speaker:36 current professional players.
Speaker:And I was like, that's, that's a ton.
Speaker:And I was, you know, kinda like, how many do we have?
Speaker:It's like 23.
Speaker:23 is a lot for the school.
Speaker:People don't normally think of as, as, you know, ODU.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's a good thing to show off.
Speaker:And, uh, we may add to that some of the summer ball things, uh, we found last year
Speaker:that's very difficult to track because Yeah, guys will play two games with one
Speaker:team and move to a different league.
Speaker:I moved to another one, uh, you know, as, as much as I'm, well it's funny you
Speaker:had, um, we got Ybi up there, Ryan Yarborough, I think the last time
Speaker:we played a game at Norfolk State.
Speaker:Yee started the game.
Speaker:Um, and he's in like his eighth year in the big leagues with like
Speaker:his sixth team or so, I don't know how many teams he's been with now.
Speaker:Um, so to tell you how long it's been since we played a game at Norfolk State,
Speaker:uh, it's, that's, it's been a while.
Speaker:So I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker:Yeah, that'll, it'll be interesting.
Speaker:I, I haven't looked at the Norfolk State site to see if they've
Speaker:added us to their schedule yet.
Speaker:I know they were.
Speaker:They are.
Speaker:They did.
Speaker:Um, they, they're, and, and we haven't talked about, I think we
Speaker:talked about this for a minute.
Speaker:I know we we're, we're going real long here, so we wanna get done, but they
Speaker:are, uh, they're having a tough year.
Speaker:They're one in 22.
Speaker:Um, but they got some hitters.
Speaker:They got some guys, especially the top like three in the
Speaker:lineup are really phenomenal.
Speaker:Um, and they, the pitching has been a struggle for 'em, but, you know,
Speaker:hey, you're, you're one in 22, I guarantee those guys are grinding,
Speaker:fighting and they're tired of losing.
Speaker:So, you know, don't wanna walk over there and think, oh, this is an easy one.
Speaker:Like, nah man, they've, I'm sure fairly Dickinson thought that till they lost.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And if there's one game they probably have circled on their calendar, it's us.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Do, they would love to meet the cross down team badly.
Speaker:They get hype every single time we've ever played them.
Speaker:They're, they, they, there was a game I think they did beat us at, at ODU and I
Speaker:mean, they were just losing their minds because that's, that's their World Series.
Speaker:Um, which good for them.
Speaker:It should be, you know, you gotta, you know, I'm sure plenty of 'em probably
Speaker:would've liked to have come to O to U and end up go Norfolk eight instead.
Speaker:And so it's like, Hey, I'm gonna show 'em up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Get those bragging rights for a while.
Speaker:So our boys will need to be ready and have those bats hot early and
Speaker:often, uh, to get some runs up in that game and, and put it away.
Speaker:But yeah, they're gonna, they're gonna give us hell.
Speaker:And there's some scary thoughts creeping in the back of my mind
Speaker:going into this game on Tuesday.
Speaker:So hopefully you're listening to this on like late Tuesday, Wednesday.
Speaker:We've already won.
Speaker:It's fine.
Speaker:But, uh, I'm, I'm telling you, we're gonna get everything we
Speaker:can handle from the Spartans
Speaker:and I'm, I believe it's a, it's another great chance for our guys to step up
Speaker:and, and do some big things and keep moving here in the right direction.
Speaker:'cause like I said, you see the game like they played on Sunday, it's like,
Speaker:Hey, this is what the team can be.
Speaker:We, we keep having those kind of games where it's like,
Speaker:Hey, this is what we could do.
Speaker:And so I was talking with a Hunter Baynes about this, you know, we were talking
Speaker:after his game Friday, he pitched so well.
Speaker:I said, yeah, just keep stacking those ones.
Speaker:He's, that's what I'm trying to do.
Speaker:It's what the team's trying to do.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Um, awesome.
Speaker:Then yeah, go down to Georgia Southern this weekend.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:They're always good.
Speaker:Uh, they're always tough to play at home.
Speaker:I think they got a guy situation hit 400.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Gotta watch out for that guy.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, they got a, they got
Speaker:a few dudes, uh, yeah, Sean Smith hitting 4 0 2 with a 1239 OPS.
Speaker:Uh, they got the top like three guys in their lineup are ridiculous.
Speaker:Um, so they, they got, they got some stuff.
Speaker:So, and again, they, they've had kind of up and down, you know, they're
Speaker:six and six, 18 and 13 overall, they've been kinda up and down.
Speaker:So yeah, that's, it's not gonna be easy weekend.
Speaker:And no weekend on the road is easy, but you know, again, if this team
Speaker:plays like they can and they grind out, some of bats take, take that
Speaker:Efrain Morales approach of, of you just wanna win every single time.
Speaker:We can do some stuff.
Speaker:And with the situation we're in of losing a home series, it's now imperative
Speaker:that we have to win a road series.
Speaker:'cause if you.
Speaker:You go two in one for all your home series and one and two on the road, you're gonna
Speaker:be 500 Sunbelt, you're gonna be okay.
Speaker:Come conference, tournament time.
Speaker:It's when you drop one of those series at home, you really have to work.
Speaker:Now we've, we've got some, some teams that we have the potential to
Speaker:do that against, but, uh, Louisiana Monroe isn't exactly a team that
Speaker:likes to be swept at home either.
Speaker:So let's, uh, not, not count those chickens yet, but we are gonna
Speaker:have to go win a road series.
Speaker:And why not start with this weekend?
Speaker:Why not get it right back right now?
Speaker:Let's good.
Speaker:And put ourselves in a good spot.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It's a good week to have a good week.
Speaker:So, uh, we, we've definitely gone very long.
Speaker:I say we, we left the one, even though I, I will say you could
Speaker:just pause it and watch it again later, but whatever, uh, you, you
Speaker:do your podcasting however you want.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Well, I got, uh, one more announcement and, uh, you know,
Speaker:oh, like I didn't even noticed that that's
Speaker:Oh, yep.
Speaker:Didn't notice.
Speaker:I dunno when that happened.
Speaker:I don't, I didn't, I missed it too.
Speaker:I have to go back in and review there.
Speaker:Uh, one, one other note we wanted to send out.
Speaker:Uh, I just wanted to send out well wishes and all the good
Speaker:thoughts to Ted Alexander mm-hmm.
Speaker:And his family.
Speaker:He announced on Friday that his wife passed away after a, I believe,
Speaker:a 15 year battle with cancer.
Speaker:Uh, so definitely send in all the good vibes, all the support,
Speaker:uh, to the voice of the monarchs.
Speaker:We've, we've missed him.
Speaker:Uh, and just, uh, you know, anything you can send his his way
Speaker:would be appreciated, uh, just for what he's done for our program.
Speaker:Then obviously going through a really difficult time right now.
Speaker:And, and I know he, he said in that same video, he is like, she
Speaker:would've wanted me to get back out there and, and do what I do.
Speaker:And so he is, like I said, I will be soon.
Speaker:And that, and that's great to hear.
Speaker:'cause I, I, you know, and you hope that it can be a place that,
Speaker:that brings him that comfort.
Speaker:Um, you know, uh, yeah, Ted Ted's awesome.
Speaker:He's a great guy.
Speaker:He is, he is.
Speaker:I really love listening to him calling games and yeah, really just
Speaker:thinking about him and his family.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well, that's gonna do it for us today.
Speaker:We appreciate everyone who's tuning in.
Speaker:Um, everyone that ever, I, I miss probably a hundred people
Speaker:that came up and said hello.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:At some point, the course of the weekend.
Speaker:But we appreciate, we appreciate the love, keep telling everyone you can think of.
Speaker:We're, we're definitely trying to grow this thing, but.
Speaker:I'll do it for us.
Speaker:Cb.
Speaker:Anything else?
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
