S2E13 GA Southern Recap w/ Evan Holman
CB, Gary and Coach Finwood recap a series win at Georgia Southern. Evan Holman joins later in the show to talk about his huge day on Sunday, Pitch Com and more. Plus a look ahead to games with VCU and Louisiana.
Transcript
Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hello Monarch fans.
Speaker:Welcome to the Hudson Homer podcast.
Speaker:We're we went three and one this week.
Speaker:We won a road series.
Speaker:No,
Speaker:I'm feeling good Soon.
Speaker:We won.
Speaker:How are you?
Speaker:It's pretty good.
Speaker:It could have been four now, easily.
Speaker:Yes, it was very close on Saturday of making that a nice, clean
Speaker:sweep of Georgia's Southern.
Speaker:But, uh, three in one week, the, uh, first winning week we've had since we
Speaker:just had the Charlotte series earlier this year, won four of the last five.
Speaker:Something, something's starting to click, I think, at least
Speaker:with the offense for sure.
Speaker:I think
Speaker:things are moving in the right direction.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, you know, pitching's still up and down sometimes, but there was some, and,
Speaker:and some of the offense was really just taking advantage of the other team making
Speaker:mistakes, which we've had some games where other teams have not made mistakes
Speaker:at all for like an entire weekend.
Speaker:We had some other ones where they made some mistakes and
Speaker:we just don't take advantage.
Speaker:So it was nice to see us, you know, like the, the Tuesday game, Norfolk
Speaker:State, just walking everybody in the world and throwing the ball around.
Speaker:And then this weekend Georgia State was just kick, or Georgia Southern
Speaker:just kicking the ball around and we actually were taking extra base.
Speaker:We had complete disrespect for their arms in the outfield.
Speaker:It was, it was hilarious to watch our guys like the second this in the outfields,
Speaker:like I'm taking two bases on this guy.
Speaker:I mean, running on him when the ball's in the outfield stealing basses.
Speaker:Taking good pitches, working walks, like we look like a very
Speaker:competent and professional lineup.
Speaker:And we did, we punished them when they made errors.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think it, what I think what was a little bit surprising for me is I think Saturday,
Speaker:Georgia Southern ended up with four errors and that was the game we lost by one run.
Speaker:Um, right.
Speaker:It's nice to be on the other side of taking advantage of people's opportunities
Speaker:because I know we've been snake bitten quite a bit with errors and walking.
Speaker:Too many guys, hitting too many guys.
Speaker:Uh, nice to see them be in the, uh, uh, wearing the other shoe for a change.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:I mean, we still did that a little bit this whole week.
Speaker:I mean, like the Norfolk State win was a very ugly win.
Speaker:Um, you know, we score a bunch of runs just off of them walking people and,
Speaker:you know, we didn't, couldn't quite, we still had some moments this weekend
Speaker:we couldn't quite get runs through, but man, that game yesterday, uh, on, on
Speaker:Sunday, you know, Finney said a few times we're not built to come from behind.
Speaker:So when you get down, you're down five, nothing after three.
Speaker:And it's just like you're feeling like, okay, well this
Speaker:is probably gonna be what it is.
Speaker:This is, you know, the, because realistically the team has
Speaker:not shown that kind of fight.
Speaker:So when they come back, score five runs.
Speaker:So we're tied five to five, bottom six.
Speaker:Then we give up a run.
Speaker:Okay, that happens.
Speaker:All right, we're just 6, 7, 6, 5, we're fine.
Speaker:But then we got four more in the seventh and it's like, okay, now
Speaker:we're down by five runs again.
Speaker:And, uh, just crazy 10 run eighth inning.
Speaker:I mean, we haven't scored 10 runs in like we've had two or three games in a row
Speaker:where we haven't combined that many runs.
Speaker:Yeah, to put up that many in one ending.
Speaker:I, we do, we even have 10 in the series before Troy.
Speaker:Like
Speaker:I don't, I don't know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We definitely had a few, like two, three game stretches
Speaker:where we didn't score 10 runs.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they started off the series right.
Speaker:By winning on Friday.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Because that has been the biggest problem.
Speaker:We've been non-competitive on Friday games for most of the season,
Speaker:except for Georgia State when they came down, we won that game.
Speaker:Uh, but to see this team put up runs like that on Friday and,
Speaker:and get that win after how we saw them play on Friday against Troy.
Speaker:I mean, that's a massive night and day difference and it just seems like guys
Speaker:that kind of ratchet up that compete factor a little bit, especially to
Speaker:overcome two five run deficits in one game and it had to kind of mentally
Speaker:mess with them a little bit because we'll say it's the worst performance
Speaker:for Blake so far this season.
Speaker:It really wasn't that terrible of a performance.
Speaker:You're probably expecting him to make it through five, if not six.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it, it, the game kind of got turned on its head in terms of scripting and
Speaker:the way we've seen those Sundays play out and they rose the occasion, put up a 15
Speaker:burger on Georgia Southern to get away
Speaker:Crazy.
Speaker:Even had Robin AKs kid in there getting touched up.
Speaker:That was, that was a fun little moment for any of all my early
Speaker:two thousands, uh, pirates fans.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, there were, I tell you what, uh, Finney emptied the
Speaker:bench pretty good on Sunday.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I was one point and, uh, Bo reached out to me on Twitter and
Speaker:was asking me like, how many other guys did we have left on the bench?
Speaker:And I think a couple, because I don't know who traveled.
Speaker:Shadell and Jones typically, yeah.
Speaker:Again, we're not always sure who travels, but I typically, I mean, 'cause
Speaker:we know Shadell played in the other game, so, you know, he was there and
Speaker:I'm assuming Bryce Jones was there.
Speaker:He didn't get in yet, just unfortunately hadn't gotten in a ton this year.
Speaker:Um, I don't know that there was anybody else left out in the bullpen to call
Speaker:on by the end of the day, someday day.
Speaker:'cause he had Bailey, uh, and Kelly had both come back for
Speaker:the second time that weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Bailey, I mean, putting the bow on two
Speaker:pitched twice this weekend.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, we, we emptied the tank.
Speaker:I, I think this is the first at least conference series that
Speaker:we have not had a starter get through more than five innings.
Speaker:Uh, Ben was five, Dylan was five, and Blake was four and a third.
Speaker:And I believe that's the, yeah, ironically,
Speaker:ironically only the second time all year Ben is gone five.
Speaker:So there was actually a, a huge plus for him that he pitched.
Speaker:Uh, one of his better starts of the whole season.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And weirdly in a weekend where then Dylan only got five when he's been, you
Speaker:know, good for six and sometimes seven.
Speaker:And then Blake, who's been good for six and sometimes
Speaker:seven, both got five and less.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So a little extra test for the bullpen.
Speaker:I, I think some guys pass, maybe some guys still have some work to do.
Speaker:Uh, I don't know if we're in a situation where we give up 10 runs and I feel
Speaker:super confident about the pitching staff, but they got outs when it mattered.
Speaker:They avoided too many big meltdown innings, and they responded really
Speaker:well after we put up the 10 spot.
Speaker:I mean, Bailey Mattel, like, eh.
Speaker:That dude was, was nails force this weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He struggled a bit in the game on, um, on Friday.
Speaker:Uh, but he still got the safe.
Speaker:He did just enough to keep them.
Speaker:I, I, I talked to Kellen about that.
Speaker:We were coming back from the, um, the series down there in Southern Miss.
Speaker:I said, Hey, sometimes all you gotta do is get, get the, the, you know, if you need
Speaker:three outs, get three outs before we give up, you know, whatever number of runs.
Speaker:And that's kind of what Bailey did on Friday and then yesterday.
Speaker:And he just looked like primetime Bailey, when he is dominant and nasty.
Speaker:The other teams just going back to dugout, like, well, I got no hope.
Speaker:Um, so that was, and, and Kellen had a huge inning, uh, in that game too.
Speaker:He, which he had a couple of, he he pitched on what, Saturday and Tuesday and
Speaker:neither one of 'em very well, honestly.
Speaker:And then he came out in that, in the, um, what was it, the sixth inning,
Speaker:seventh inning in, um, on Sunday.
Speaker:And was outstanding.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean that, that was kind of almost back to his role that he had last year.
Speaker:He was kind of the stopper a lot of times to come in, in that fifth,
Speaker:sixth inning and, and bridge to the rest of the arms in the bullpen.
Speaker:Uh, I was gonna say, talking too much about the ending on Friday until Coach
Speaker:Finwood joins us, he should be hopping on here in the next couple of minutes.
Speaker:Uh, that was a wild ending.
Speaker:I didn't see it live, but I was getting the text live and I went back and watched
Speaker:it and woo, we, we got outta there.
Speaker:We, we got it done the way we needed to get it done.
Speaker:Error tag out a second ball game.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:Interesting weekend to say the least, in some of those games.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And again, that's sometimes what you gotta do is sometimes
Speaker:you gotta get lucky sometimes.
Speaker:And that's, realistically, that's one of the things I think you could probably
Speaker:go back and look at our season and say, the luck has just not been on our side.
Speaker:Like, we really have not, you know, I don't think you obviously,
Speaker:you know, say luck isn't a scale.
Speaker:That's one of things.
Speaker:Like the saber metric guys will say you can't account for it.
Speaker:But it exists.
Speaker:It's a thing.
Speaker:And we have not had it.
Speaker:We, it seems like every play that could go against us has gone against us.
Speaker:Every call that could go against us, go against us, goes against us.
Speaker:And this weekend that just kind of wasn't the case this weekend.
Speaker:It was like the things that we're gonna go wrong we're going
Speaker:wrong for us in the right way.
Speaker:So it was, it was interesting.
Speaker:Hey, if we can save all of our quote unquote luck for late regular season into
Speaker:the tournament, I will will take that.
Speaker:Uh, but we were already in a hole to begin with, with schedule.
Speaker:I mean, we know the non-conference schedule is was, was crazy.
Speaker:We knew that going in.
Speaker:But if you go look at the Sunbelt sanding right now, you've got Coastal
Speaker:in first, we've got them coming up.
Speaker:Troy Southern, miss App, state Georgia State, Louisiana, Georgia Southern.
Speaker:That's the top half of the league right now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And uh, we're either, we've either played them or we'll be playing them very soon.
Speaker:Uh, we get, I guess, a little bit of reprieve with Marshall, ULM and JMU, but
Speaker:I, I don't think you're gonna expect to just be like, oh, those are easy sweeps.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It just
Speaker:doesn't, doesn't work that way.
Speaker:It's, it's a
Speaker:plus that we get to play three of the bottom four teams coming up here after,
Speaker:like, after we pay, uh, ul was it ULL?
Speaker:I don't know what they we're supposed to call Louisiana, but
Speaker:they're, yeah, Don, I don't wanna, I don't wanna upset them on Twitter.
Speaker:Uh, but when, lemme tell you, when you try to Google Louisiana
Speaker:baseball, they don't come up.
Speaker:So I have to go ULL.
Speaker:Um, but it's nice, you know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like I said, they're not gonna be pushovers.
Speaker:It's still conference games, but you hope that okay.
Speaker:Maybe you have a little better shot, uh, especially on some of those road
Speaker:when you go to the road to James Madison, you, you're hoping you
Speaker:know, which again, going the road.
Speaker:James Madison, man, that's in state, that's gonna be instate in conference.
Speaker:That's a tough one.
Speaker:And they're, they're struggling this year.
Speaker:Uh, 12 and 24.
Speaker:Overall, they're five in 10 in the conference.
Speaker:But you know, they're gonna be up for the series against us, just like we would be
Speaker:up for the series against them and ULM.
Speaker:Yes, they did.
Speaker:Uh, upset the Cajun fan base there by, yeah.
Speaker:With the social media message of sending 'em home with another L. So
Speaker:I guess it's kind of a thing 'cause ULM is ULM no matter what, and.
Speaker:Louisiana is formerly Louisiana, Lafayette, whatever.
Speaker:I don't care.
Speaker:I
Speaker:guess
Speaker:I'm gonna call 'em the Cajuns.
Speaker:Hope we get two outta three from 'em, uh, coming up here
Speaker:soon.
Speaker:Even Rag Cajun, I gotta be honest, everything about them
Speaker:is, is not very original.
Speaker:Uh, it's the rag Cajuns.
Speaker:It's like, isn't that everything in Louisiana?
Speaker:Like I'm, I'm sorry they're not, you know.
Speaker:Yeah, they're, but I, and they're, and they're having a tough,
Speaker:they're having a tough year.
Speaker:They're typically a really good team.
Speaker:Um, I think it was Chase Morgan is, is still having a really phenomenal
Speaker:year, and then the rest of the team just seems like they're struggling.
Speaker:I mean, when you lose that kid, Kyle DeBarge, uh, he was a first
Speaker:round pick and he was phenomenal.
Speaker:I saw he is playing really well for the twins Minor League team.
Speaker:So they, they're, they're coming in this weekend here at Harper Park and, uh, you
Speaker:know, again, conference game, I'm sure.
Speaker:And they're, they're right there.
Speaker:Records.
Speaker:You know, only one game better than we are.
Speaker:Uh, but they're not quite the same team you thought they were
Speaker:gonna be at the start of the year.
Speaker:They've had some injuries and I think they're getting, starting
Speaker:to get some guys back from injury.
Speaker:But I mean, at this point in the season, it's, it's kind of tough to
Speaker:get guys ramped up and back into game speed with any kind of regularity.
Speaker:Uh, but yeah, I mean, de barge, they had a couple other guys that are really good
Speaker:that, that aren't with the team anymore.
Speaker:Like they're, they're gonna be a challenge and, you know, it's, it's
Speaker:the sunbelt weird stuff will happen.
Speaker:Uh, but you know, we kind of go back to like, how do you just
Speaker:get to 500 in the conference?
Speaker:Because if you get to 500, you're gonna make the tournament.
Speaker:You're good.
Speaker:So if you lose a series at home, you gotta go win one on the road.
Speaker:And they did that this week against Georgia Southern.
Speaker:Uh, so they're kind of evened out the ledger a little bit.
Speaker:They're seven and eight halfway through conference play.
Speaker:I'll take seven and eight in conference play with the way
Speaker:we've looked this season.
Speaker:Like that.
Speaker:We're not in the worst position going down the stretch.
Speaker:Yeah, I'll take seven and eight today.
Speaker:I mean, it's not where it felt like it was gonna be probably a few weeks ago even
Speaker:so, it, it's, yeah, but I, I'm greedy.
Speaker:I don't wanna just be 500.
Speaker:I wanna be in the top six.
Speaker:So being those, uh, those bottom four, we gotta play the single
Speaker:game elimination that first night.
Speaker:That's, I know we, we won it last year, but that's tough.
Speaker:That's a, that's a rough, rough bid to go all the way down there and, and get
Speaker:one game and maybe have to go home.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's very tough for travel planning purposes.
Speaker:So, uh, I'm, I'm keeping an eye on like this series and the next
Speaker:series and looking at the hotels and flights and all that fun stuff.
Speaker:'cause if I couldn't go on the Fun Southern tour like you did,
Speaker:I at least wanna get down there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For some of these conference tournaments games
Speaker:I spent, I spent all my money earlier in the year.
Speaker:So you can do that one for me.
Speaker:And I'll left a chunk of change in Florida too at the, uh, Steinbrenner field.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:well, I'm, uh, I'm looking down here and I see that Coach Fin Wood has joined us.
Speaker:We'll bring 'em on in a second.
Speaker:Let's go.
Speaker:Uh, but fans, we wanna let you know, Evan Holman is our player guest who'll
Speaker:be coming on later in the episode.
Speaker:So we've got a pretty fun one.
Speaker:But let's bring on the man himself, Mr. Chris Finwood.
Speaker:Hey, bang, bang, bang, bang.
Speaker:This, this edition of Hudson Homers is brought to you by Bang Energy Drink.
Speaker:Um, they're, they just got me an NIL deal at the Wawa.
Speaker:I buy
Speaker:one, get one working on about three hours of sleep today.
Speaker:So there we needed.
Speaker:Well, hey, maybe you can hold out for 4 million cans of them, like
Speaker:the quarterback in Tennessee.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:And a Bugatti.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes, it's good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So how, how you guys doing?
Speaker:Great, man.
Speaker:How you feeling?
Speaker:Nice little, uh, series wind down there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, 10 in the eighth.
Speaker:Use the cures, whatever's ailing you.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Makes a, covers up a lot of problems, doesn't it?
Speaker:As soon as you think you've seen it all in college baseball, you know,
Speaker:you have, you realize you haven't.
Speaker:And, uh, to be, be down five, twice in that game and you know the guys be
Speaker:able to keep fighting back and, uh.
Speaker:I don't know if we got maybe five straight hits or two outs or
Speaker:something like that in that inning.
Speaker:Uh, something crazy, um, including the Grand Slam.
Speaker:So, uh, you know, and then tj, you know, I think made the last out on the ball.
Speaker:A guy had his butt against the fence, um, and the ball, it wasn't, the field wasn't
Speaker:playing particularly small yesterday.
Speaker:It wasn't much wind to speak, speak of.
Speaker:So, um, it was, uh, you know, our best, obviously our best.
Speaker:Performance of the year.
Speaker:You know, the, the ending kind of reminded me of the one we
Speaker:had at Auburn early in the year.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, you know, and that comeback win, so, which was more than five, but to
Speaker:be able to go up by five, knowing we were running thin on pitching and,
Speaker:um, you know, really not pitching very well at all up to that point.
Speaker:And we had, you know, one more bullet to fire in Bailey and we were hoping
Speaker:to not have to use him till the ninth, but when we got the lead, we were
Speaker:like, all right man, he is, he's just gonna be running off fumes in the
Speaker:ninth if he can get through the eighth.
Speaker:And of course it wasn't super clean.
Speaker:I think he walked three and hit two in two innings, but he didn't give up a hit.
Speaker:Uh, and uh, that's life in the closer world, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like, it doesn't matter.
Speaker:You don't get any style points, like you just get it done.
Speaker:It's all about the bottom line.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I was sitting there in my house and I said, Bailey, just get six
Speaker:outs before you give up five runs.
Speaker:That's all we gotta do.
Speaker:That's all that matters.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't, I don't care if we win by one, that's fine.
Speaker:Just, yeah, do the job.
Speaker:Just
Speaker:like, uh, you know, Friday we're, we're up by three and then, you
Speaker:know, he gives up two, but we won by one, so that's all it matters.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And, um, yeah, so, you know, the, um, our first, gosh winning week of the
Speaker:season, you know, to go three in one and, um, all on the road of course,
Speaker:but, um, so proud of the guys and, you know, the game we lost was a five four.
Speaker:Good ball game.
Speaker:And, uh, we won a close one on Friday.
Speaker:Didn't play particularly well, but we had a bunch of big hits.
Speaker:And then Saturday we didn't get any big hits really.
Speaker:Um, and Sunday started out that way.
Speaker:You know, we got first and third no outs and the first and don't score.
Speaker:And, you know, that's been kind of the broken record of, of this team
Speaker:this year is just not taking advantage of those types of opportunities.
Speaker:And, um, then they, you know, they did a good job.
Speaker:They, they got to Blake a little bit.
Speaker:That was probably, as, you know, as hard as Blake's been hit, you
Speaker:know, that I can remember this year.
Speaker:Um, they did a good job staying on, you know, change up with two
Speaker:strikes and things like that.
Speaker:So, um, you know, got up, got up five to, to nothing, and then we tied it
Speaker:up and then came, you know, then they, then they made it, you know, 10 to five.
Speaker:And then, um, we, we, you know, played everybody but uh.
Speaker:Wood Wood Celick text me and said, were you guys playing the catcher in
Speaker:left field at the end of that game?
Speaker:I go, yep, we sure are.
Speaker:It was one of those games, and we had to, because we only had one more player
Speaker:left on the bench that was Tanner Shale.
Speaker:And, uh, if something would've happened to Hallman, you know,
Speaker:we'd already put him in for Slater.
Speaker:If we took, uh, you know, Morales outta the game, we wouldn't
Speaker:have had a catcher available.
Speaker:And so he's played some left field and some practices and scrimmages.
Speaker:He takes fly balls out there just in case.
Speaker:So we, uh, we put 'em out there and, um, you know, I, I told him after
Speaker:he pitched it, you're gonna have to play left for at least at anything.
Speaker:And, um, you know, he ended up playing for two, so he didn't have any plays, but.
Speaker:He's fine.
Speaker:He can catch the ball, you know, the routine plays.
Speaker:And, uh, he's a baseball player, so, uh, but Ev Evan Holman, you know, who you got
Speaker:as a guest was obviously the, the hero, I mean, comes off the bench and hits
Speaker:a, a double right-handed down the line.
Speaker:Um, then it hits a double left-handed off the wall, and then
Speaker:a Grand Slam right handed and.
Speaker:You know, we all think Evan's a better right-handed hitter
Speaker:than left and certainly mm-hmm.
Speaker:Got more power right-handed.
Speaker:Um, obviously they didn't have that because, you know, they brought in
Speaker:the lefty to face him his second time and, um, he, he was able to hit the
Speaker:home run and, and boy we needed it.
Speaker:That was big.
Speaker:'cause you know, five's way better than one being up on the road
Speaker:when you're running low on, you know, when the tank's running low.
Speaker:Uh, that's an expert,
Speaker:uh, coaching that's from all your many years of doing it.
Speaker:You know, the five is better than one.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Five's better than one.
Speaker:So we dialed up that, that grand slam right there.
Speaker:And ebs, um, you know, ha like a lot of our guys hasn't gotten off to a
Speaker:great start swinging the bat, but starting swinging a little bit better.
Speaker:And, um, you know, the warm weather certainly helps.
Speaker:And some guys came off the bench in addition to him.
Speaker:You know, Tylers of Dallas had a big home.
Speaker:To tie the game up earlier in the game.
Speaker:Um, so yeah, it was definitely the epitome of a, of a total team effort
Speaker:because just about everybody played and, um, that's sometimes what it takes.
Speaker:It was, yeah, Evan came into the week.
Speaker:He had I think a, a homer and a double, and then he hit
Speaker:the double at Norfolk State.
Speaker:So he ended up with three doubles and a homer on the week.
Speaker:Yeah, after only a double and a homer before that.
Speaker:So great week for him.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's baseball, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, and right guy in the right spot, and Ed's a great kid.
Speaker:He works hard and you know, we, it's nice to see him get
Speaker:rewarded with a, a day like that.
Speaker:And we, and we needed it, you know, I mean, there's a big difference
Speaker:between seven and eight and six and nine, that's for sure.
Speaker:Um, and even though it's one game, it feels like a lot more, and, uh, you
Speaker:know, in the standings it actually is, you know, instead of one game
Speaker:below 500, you'd have been three.
Speaker:And you know, I think, you know, with everything jumbled up, there's so many
Speaker:teams at eight and seven and seven and eight, um, and even nine and six.
Speaker:So, um, you know, we're, uh, halfway through and we've got three of the.
Speaker:Last five series at home, uh, quote unquote.
Speaker:And, you know, we won't be traveling as, as much this, this
Speaker:last, you know, five, five weeks.
Speaker:And that'll be nice for the guys.
Speaker:I think they've certainly earned that.
Speaker:Um, so hopefully we can get rested up a little bit and get ready to go.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, you're seven and eight, but you're two games out of the four
Speaker:spot and three games out a third.
Speaker:Like, that's just how tight it is.
Speaker:And, and you're right, that seven eight's big.
Speaker:'cause if you're six to nine, you're actually in 11th and
Speaker:not in this four way tie.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's,
Speaker:you, you talked about, I think last week of, you know, there've been a lot of
Speaker:sweeps in the Sunbelt this year, but we haven't been on the wrong end of one yet.
Speaker:So like, getting that one extra game here, one extra game
Speaker:there has, has been been huge.
Speaker:And then the schedule difficulty, man, I mean, I. Coastal Troy,
Speaker:Southern App, Georgia State, Louisiana, Georgia Southern.
Speaker:That's the top seven.
Speaker:You've got 'em this year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We didn't get any breaks on the, on the schedule makers, that's for sure.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Um, no.
Speaker:But after this weekend, we'll have played all of them except coastal.
Speaker:And, and so we will, you know, we'll, we'll have, not that any of 'em are
Speaker:easy by any stretch, but, you know, we'll have, um, you know, some teams
Speaker:maybe that have potential to be below us in the standings coming up.
Speaker:And, um, you never know how that can work out.
Speaker:So, uh, you just gotta go play and play better.
Speaker:It's funny, you know, we've played pretty well down at Georgia Southern.
Speaker:That's, you know, we've been down there, well, we've played well against them.
Speaker:We, we've won all three of our regular season series against them,
Speaker:uh, and two of them down there.
Speaker:So, um, you know, I don't, I don't know what the dynamics of how you play
Speaker:better against some teams than others.
Speaker:Are, but they seem to be one of the teams that we play, you know,
Speaker:fairly well against overall.
Speaker:Which that's fascinating because, you know, at after three years it's
Speaker:not at all the same players and
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Coaches
Speaker:are different.
Speaker:Styles are different.
Speaker:It's, it is interesting how, yeah, just sometimes throughout the years
Speaker:you just have certain programs that you play better against.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, it's, it's a crazy phenomenon.
Speaker:I was telling Mike Marron and I were talking about it, uh, back in
Speaker:the old Sunbelt days when I was at Western Kentucky, we never lost to
Speaker:FIU Florida International Home away.
Speaker:We could've played 'em on Mars.
Speaker:We always beat 'em and we swept them a lot.
Speaker:We couldn't beat FAU Florida Atlantic.
Speaker:Same thing in reverse until we got here.
Speaker:And actually, you know, had some of our better teams.
Speaker:And then 19 21, 22, we beat, we beat FAU and FIU.
Speaker:But it was just, it was just strange.
Speaker:I mean, how that, how that works out like that, you know, um, so I, I can't
Speaker:explain it, but some, some guys you, you know, play some teams you just
Speaker:seem to play better against some, maybe, maybe it's a style of play thing
Speaker:sometimes, but like you said, there's different players over the years as well.
Speaker:So, um, they're, they're doing a, it's such a great place to play, like college.
Speaker:Baseball wise, the weather's always good for one.
Speaker:Um, the, uh, the facility's phenomenal.
Speaker:They, they have the best surface.
Speaker:But it's all natural.
Speaker:Their grounds guy's are credible.
Speaker:They have the best surface in the league bar, bar none.
Speaker:There's not even a close second, I don't think.
Speaker:Guy, a guy does an amazing job.
Speaker:It plays great.
Speaker:It looks great.
Speaker:Um, and they're doing that $10 million, you know, renovation down
Speaker:the, down the left field line.
Speaker:It's gonna be really, really cool when they, when they get that done.
Speaker:So they're going through a little bit, much smaller version of what we
Speaker:are, you know, they had to move outta their locker room, um, and switch
Speaker:dugouts and do some things like that.
Speaker:They're still able to play and practice there, certainly,
Speaker:obviously, and have games.
Speaker:But, um, yeah, that made that, um.
Speaker:That made that nine and a half hour bus ride home a little bit more bearable.
Speaker:You know, I
Speaker:figured you guys were flying on that one.
Speaker:Nah, it's so, it's so hard to get there by the time you fly Yeah.
Speaker:And drive to the airport and do all that, you're really not
Speaker:saving that much, that much time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because of course that was a four and a half hour game, uh,
Speaker:you know, to, to top it off.
Speaker:So we didn't get done with it.
Speaker:We didn't get outta there until six 30.
Speaker:It was a one o'clock game.
Speaker:We thought we were gonna be on the road by five.
Speaker:Um, so
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:A lot of long games this whole week.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:I, I, I, I'm not a big fan of those.
Speaker:Gotta get that pitch clock going a little faster.
Speaker:Yeah, I would like that.
Speaker:You know, throw more strikes and get the ball and play and let's go.
Speaker:So yeah, when you walk everybody and change pictures.
Speaker:The week started with, uh, you know, with a win at Norfolk State and mm-hmm um,
Speaker:kind of a little bit of a sloppy game.
Speaker:They walked a bunch of guys and, you know, we had a couple big hits, but,
Speaker:uh, we were able to kind of, you know, play some, play some guys that hadn't
Speaker:played a ton and throw some guys that haven't thrown, thrown a bunch and,
Speaker:you know, come away with a win there.
Speaker:And, um, yeah,
Speaker:Jayce did a good job starting that game.
Speaker:Jayce did a good job.
Speaker:He's gonna get started again tomorrow against VCU and we need him to
Speaker:step up, you know, we need another guy or two to, to step up for us.
Speaker:Um, you know, especially showing they can help us on the, on the weekend.
Speaker:And, uh, so, you know, I tell 'em all the time, you know, those Tuesday,
Speaker:those midweek games are some of you guys opportunities to, to do that?
Speaker:How you throw there?
Speaker:Let's just have a feel for what you might be able to do on the weekend.
Speaker:And we saw that you gave Connor Schumann some chances on the weekend after.
Speaker:He hadn't pitched much at all, but he got the Tuesday looked real.
Speaker:I was behind the plate when he was pitching Tuesday.
Speaker:It looked phenomenal.
Speaker:Um, did a good job for you Saturday and then, you know,
Speaker:had some struggles on Sunday.
Speaker:Well, he did, and you know, we don't, you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker:Can he bounce back a day after?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And to be fair to him though, he got a ground routine, ground
Speaker:ball a second that we made an error on to open up that inning.
Speaker:And then he threw a pick off.
Speaker:That was, wasn't even the same area code as first base, like it, it must
Speaker:have missed first base by 25 feet.
Speaker:I, I don't know what, what was going on with
Speaker:that,
Speaker:but, uh, some, some of the things we do, uh, baffle, baffle me.
Speaker:Um, but you, he gets, you know, we, you never know.
Speaker:He, we make that play and wasn't a hard play.
Speaker:And, you know, he, he feels, he, he's kind of cruising.
Speaker:Um, so, but Chewy did a good job at Norfolk State.
Speaker:He did a really good job on Saturday, like you said.
Speaker:And so, you know, um, it's, it's another lefty that maybe we can use to flush
Speaker:him lefties out, you know, in the course of a game when we don't want to
Speaker:use Bailey yet or something like that.
Speaker:And, and to Bailey's credit, I, I'll give him that man.
Speaker:He was, he was gassed yesterday and the breaking ball was kind of
Speaker:backing up on him and he flipped gears to fastball change up.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:After that first inning, he just pretty much eliminated the breaking ball, uh,
Speaker:and just flipped gears and fast change.
Speaker:And the last two pitches game he started to kid out were really good changeups.
Speaker:And so, you know, credit to him, he is becoming much more of a, a pitcher
Speaker:and being able to kind of process his way through some of these things.
Speaker:'cause the fact is you, you know, he's thrown twice for us a couple
Speaker:times on the weekend and done just as good a job the second time.
Speaker:That's not easy.
Speaker:You don't see that a lot in college baseball anymore.
Speaker:You used to, your closer through, man, he might throw in all three games.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But you don't see it much anymore.
Speaker:And Bailey's been able to do it, or if you do see it that
Speaker:second time, they're crappy.
Speaker:Like they get the crap knocked out of them.
Speaker:Um, and so Bailey's been able to do it in different ways.
Speaker:Um, so that's been, that's been good to see.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I, I like him moving to fastball changeup too, because sometimes the reason
Speaker:they look crappy in that second outing is the guy's got a feel for what he's gonna
Speaker:throw and if they time to breaking ball.
Speaker:So almost, almost basically bring in a different pitcher.
Speaker:Throwing different stuff can be a nice little change there too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he was huffing and puffing out there, and I'm really proud of him
Speaker:because yeah, he, he wasn't a guy that could fight his way through not
Speaker:feeling good his first two years here.
Speaker:He would just start throwing the ball all over the place and, you know, we're
Speaker:down the middle and now he's, and, and, and some of this is just what
Speaker:experience does, you know, you gotta learn the lessons the hard way, uh, and
Speaker:then you get better at it, hopefully.
Speaker:And that's, that's what's happening with Bailey.
Speaker:He's, he's, um, had some good outings.
Speaker:He's gotten his butt whooped and he's taken all of that and
Speaker:chalked it up and learned from it.
Speaker:And he is becoming a really, really valuable pitcher for
Speaker:us on this year's staff.
Speaker:Certainly, I'm really proud of them.
Speaker:Saw that compete factor, I think show up a good bit on Sunday too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like you get punched in the, you get punched in the mouth early
Speaker:and you get kicked in the teeth later and you still come back
Speaker:and, and put up 10 in the eighth.
Speaker:I still can't get over.
Speaker:That's one of the craziest games I've seen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We had a game CB probably remember, I think it was 17, we
Speaker:were down 11 to two in the eighth.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Against FIU on senior day.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we came back and took the lead maybe scored 10 runs in the eighth.
Speaker:I think that was the last time that's happened.
Speaker:Um, and, and ended up hanging on winning by one.
Speaker:And that one, I think that was at home, you know, on senior
Speaker:day a little bit different.
Speaker:And we had two seniors at home runs in that inning.
Speaker:Uh, Nick Walker and Turner Bishop.
Speaker:I think Nick hit a grand slam actually.
Speaker:But yeah, to do it on the road.
Speaker:Um, you know, when it didn't looking good, and I was trying to remember
Speaker:even how that inning got going.
Speaker:Do you?
Speaker:I can't, I couldn't even, I couldn't even tell you right now.
Speaker:Uh, it's a blur what happened, but you know, I, I know, I know the
Speaker:first time when we tied it up, Jorge and, uh, and Zedalis hit home runs.
Speaker:Um, but that next time we just seemed to get a bun.
Speaker:You know, there's some walks in there, obviously, which
Speaker:they're always are, right.
Speaker:But, um, we seemed to get a bunch of singles in there, you
Speaker:know, uh, four or five, and then we hit the big, big home run.
Speaker:So see
Speaker:Walks by waters in Zedalis, double by Holman, uh, loads of bases.
Speaker:Uh, wild Pitch, brought in waters, uh, Aiken and Morales walked.
Speaker:So that's ten seven.
Speaker:Uh, lake.
Speaker:It's a two run single at the left.
Speaker:That's when, uh, Kainen hits the homer to tie the game at 10.
Speaker:Uh, let's see.
Speaker:With the RBI single, it's the Edwards, uh, RBI single, uh,
Speaker:Edwards stole second Luke walks.
Speaker:Uh, that's when then Holman hits the grand slam.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So yeah, I mean it's, it was just walks.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like Gary and I were kind of talking before you came in.
Speaker:This is one of the first weekends where it feels like we were really
Speaker:able to, it's not just we were able to capitalize in the team making mistakes.
Speaker:The other team actually made mistakes.
Speaker:It feels like a lot of the year, the other team has, has not made mistakes.
Speaker:Even when they do, we don't get much out of it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that was the disappointing thing about Saturday.
Speaker:Man.
Speaker:They made four errors.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They played awful defensively.
Speaker:Like their second baseman got hit in the foot more than his glove.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:and
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And they took him outta the game finally.
Speaker:But, but we couldn't get a big hit.
Speaker:We had so many chances in the first five innings and you only get so many.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And we just weren't, we just couldn't catch 'em in.
Speaker:And then, you know, they got a couple and that's the game.
Speaker:Um, and I was telling the guys like, the, the chances aren't unlimited
Speaker:sometimes we got some guys that I think put a little bit too much pressure
Speaker:on themselves in those situations.
Speaker:You know, you can't make yourself get a hit, you just have to zero in
Speaker:and try to hit the ball hard and, and make sure there're strikes can.
Speaker:And Jorge, you know, issue is he, he's swinging at balls in those situations.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, that happened in the first inning.
Speaker:He swung a three run, three, one slider in the other batter's box.
Speaker:And I said, if you just take a walk there, Kyle's hit a, a
Speaker:deep fly ball, there's a run.
Speaker:You know, it's that, that's where you gotta be willing to let the guy walk
Speaker:you and let your teammate pick you up.
Speaker:Um, these are all things I think that are experience, you know,
Speaker:oriented to, to some extent.
Speaker:And it's just things that we gotta keep.
Speaker:You know, just keep playing.
Speaker:And as these guys, some of these guys are good players and they gotta,
Speaker:we gotta keep working with 'em and helping 'em get better and, you
Speaker:know, um, but it's a lot of new guys that haven't played at this level.
Speaker:Even if they played in junior college and they haven't played at
Speaker:this level that much, or if at all.
Speaker:And there's a learning curve there.
Speaker:You know, a lot of junior college Co. Paul Keys used to always say, you get
Speaker:one good year out of a JUCO hitter, man.
Speaker:It's either that first year and they sign, uh, 'cause they're awesome.
Speaker:Or they're learning that first year and they're okay up and down and then
Speaker:their senior year, they're awesome.
Speaker:And so, you know, we got some guys going through a little bit of that.
Speaker:I, I think, you know, Kainen Jorge has got.
Speaker:Tremendous ability.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, he, he just has a bad approach some days and he tries to, you
Speaker:know, swing, swing at everything between the dugouts and, uh, once
Speaker:he is, but he's an awesome kid.
Speaker:He cares about it.
Speaker:He worries a little bit too much, you know, but he, he is a great kid.
Speaker:And, and you're gonna work with those guys and keep working with 'em.
Speaker:And keep working with 'em.
Speaker:'cause I mean, he can hit it out there in the road when he
Speaker:gets it on the barrel, you know?
Speaker:I thought it was funny.
Speaker:Uh, I think all three days you had, they had a different sideline
Speaker:reporter ask you questions.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I, I think all three asked you about pitching and all three times
Speaker:you're like, well, if we got a hit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, I couldn't even hear two of them, so I just decided I talk about the, uh,
Speaker:the, the, yeah, the, you know, they, they wanted to, uh, the girl yesterday,
Speaker:I couldn't hear one word she said.
Speaker:I heard, yeah.
Speaker:I can tell I heard her say Blake Morgan, and then, but that was it.
Speaker:And Blake wasn't Pi very good.
Speaker:So I didn't wanna talk about him.
Speaker:Uh, but the, uh, I, I thought, I thought, you know, going back to pitching
Speaker:though, I thought Ben Moore had one of his better outings of the season.
Speaker:Um, reminded me a lot of the Georgia State.
Speaker:Outing at home a few weeks ago.
Speaker:He threw strikes, he was held his velocity.
Speaker:He was still throwing 91 in the fifth.
Speaker:We really debated whether to send him out there for the sixth because he
Speaker:was doing well, but he was over 90 pitches, which has been a lot for him.
Speaker:Um, we got a long way to go and we're just like, you know, uh,
Speaker:we've, some of these guys outta the bullpen have to be able to do that.
Speaker:I don't remember what the score was at the time, but we were up and he was pitching.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:the, the, the difference for him was he was getting his change up in play.
Speaker:You know, he, he, he hadn't had that for probably the last three weeks,
Speaker:but he threw a number of changeups that were really good, kept 'em
Speaker:all balanced, um, and had the good fastball and he was throwing strikes.
Speaker:Um, so, and then I thought Hubble came in behind him and
Speaker:threw the ball real well and.
Speaker:Probably should have left him out there for one more out, as
Speaker:you know, hindsight I guess.
Speaker:But he was, he, he's gotta be able to give us, get us through that third and he,
Speaker:he is, he's been throwing the ball much better outta the bullpen force last month.
Speaker:So that's good to see.
Speaker:Um, and and Dylan was, Dylan was good on Saturday.
Speaker:I mean, he left up three to one after five.
Speaker:His pitch count was unusually high for him.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:He spray the ball a little bit lately.
Speaker:He is missing more on his arm side high than he, than he has the last two outings.
Speaker:So that's something he is gotta work on this week to try to fix.
Speaker:'cause he is just wasting pitches.
Speaker:You know, they're just non-competitive fastballs that
Speaker:are kind of up and outta the zone.
Speaker:They don't really do anything for you, you know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Didn't seem as efficient as he was early in the season with his pitch.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which I agree.
Speaker:It, it kind of put you in an interesting position 'cause this is the first
Speaker:time, at least within conference play, that you haven't had a starter
Speaker:or more than five all weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you add that with the taxing bullpen.
Speaker:I mean, you, you had to, to pull some interesting levers to get
Speaker:out there with that series win.
Speaker:Yeah, and we couldn't throw Baines on Friday.
Speaker:His hamstring was a little sore, and of course he goes after the
Speaker:buck and works it on Saturday.
Speaker:That's been a, a nemesis for him this year.
Speaker:But, so we, you know, um, he, you know, he gave up a couple
Speaker:right there, but hopefully we'll get him back for this weekend.
Speaker:I told him, just don't try to field any more bunts.
Speaker:We'll just play the third baseman in.
Speaker:You just let him go because it's always decelerating.
Speaker:That's the third time this year that's happened on the same play.
Speaker:Uh, and it's just hamstrings are crazy.
Speaker:Like sometimes, I mean, you, they'll, they'll be feeling
Speaker:better and you do one thing and.
Speaker:They, they snatch up on you and that's what's happening with him.
Speaker:So unfortunately, trust
Speaker:me, fan, I'm old.
Speaker:I know that to be true.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:me too.
Speaker:Um, Frankie Wright hasn't been good the last two weeks.
Speaker:He's gotta get back going.
Speaker:I, I think he's gotta move faster.
Speaker:He, he is back kind of moving slow and he's gotta get himself back going.
Speaker:And, and Davis has had a couple outings where the, the breaking ball's
Speaker:staying up, it's not quite as sharp.
Speaker:So some of those guys, and that's part of a season, right?
Speaker:Your bullpen guys are just like anybody else, you know,
Speaker:starters have some bad starts.
Speaker:Bullpen guys go through the ups and downs of it.
Speaker:As well.
Speaker:Um, and you know, they've, they've gotta keep working through that.
Speaker:And, um, you know, I, I kinda wonder sometimes if some of those guys don't
Speaker:just need to get out there, you know, for an inning during the week just to
Speaker:try to stay sharp on those weekday games.
Speaker:Um, it's, and it's different strokes, right?
Speaker:Like hubble's not wired that way.
Speaker:Um, and we need some length outta him out of the bullpen,
Speaker:so he's probably not a guy.
Speaker:You would do that.
Speaker:And, and this week's gonna be a different journey anyway 'cause we're
Speaker:playing on Thursday instead of Friday.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So your day short with all the pitching and, you know, maybe it could be
Speaker:a blessing that none of those guys went, you know, more than five.
Speaker:Um, because if you had a guy go nine and then all of a sudden he is coming back
Speaker:on a day shorter, that's a little bit even tougher than, you know, than normal.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And really you almost lose two days because, well, you said you all
Speaker:left around 6:00 PM nine hour drive.
Speaker:I wasn't a math major, but that's three, four in the morning.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Imagine a summer rehab, but that's
Speaker:about it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I got to bed at like four 15 shoot, um, this morning.
Speaker:So by the time we got home and got in bed and all of that, so we switched buses in,
Speaker:in beautiful Emporia, Virginia at the, at the truck stop at, uh, one in the morning.
Speaker:So is that why you were
Speaker:getting one of the, their famous speed trap speed tickets on the bus too?
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:I don't think they, I don't think they messed with the buses o on there,
Speaker:but, so we watched a little bit of the masters, you know, to get the
Speaker:trip started and I was really happy to see McIlroy win that thing, man.
Speaker:That's cool for him.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's nice for him.
Speaker:Um, seems he just seems like a good person.
Speaker:And
Speaker:when he missed that punt on 18 the first time, boy, I fell for him because, you
Speaker:know, he, he pulled that thing, you could tell that was a little bit of,
Speaker:little bit of nerves, but then when he stuck that one in there about three feet
Speaker:in the playoff, I was like, all right, he ain't gonna miss this thing again.
Speaker:Um, they had, they had to keep it interesting.
Speaker:They had a little bit of daylight left and you know, the masters, they
Speaker:like to do that trophy ceremony when it's basically dark there at Augusta.
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:hit the buffalo wild.
Speaker:What happens if
Speaker:it gets dark?
Speaker:I, I, has it ever happened where, 'cause I know if they tied again,
Speaker:they were going to 10 and then they go back again 18, that kind of thing.
Speaker:Have they ever had a situation they have to have had where they
Speaker:had to go into the next day?
Speaker:I,
Speaker:I don't know if it's happened at the Masters.
Speaker:I know it's happened for all the other majors.
Speaker:It probably happened, but it was a while ago.
Speaker:I know they started, they started using earlier t times for the guys.
Speaker:One, they hit a better TV window, but.
Speaker:It'd be kind of anti-climactic to come back at like 9:00 AM on Monday
Speaker:morning to finish out the question.
Speaker:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:That's a good point.
Speaker:Um, well, I heard you guys talking about the tournament and some of those
Speaker:things, and certainly that's, you know, just, just making the tournament.
Speaker:But the last, you know, two years, um, we've been in that playing and the,
Speaker:uh, you know, last year you could see how that catches up to you, right?
Speaker:Like we won our first two games, but we were, we were pitching on game with game
Speaker:three pitchers where Georgia Southern was pitching game two pitchers, and, and it
Speaker:caught up to us right there a little bit,
Speaker:and especially last year when we didn't have guys that went
Speaker:with any kind of depth, when we didn't really have starters.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And then, and so, you know, and, and, but in fact, Dylan threw the ball good.
Speaker:He, he gave us, I don't know, five SI think against Georgia Southern.
Speaker:He was, but it, we were, we were just out of bullets in the bullpen
Speaker:at that point, you know, just from those having that extra game.
Speaker:And they were close, you know, well the, the south out game was close,
Speaker:but, um, so yeah, you want to try to finish in that top six if you can.
Speaker:Certainly.
Speaker:And man, that ain't easy.
Speaker:So, no, no, we, um, you know, you got three of the last five at home and.
Speaker:Obviously they're all big and you can point to any of 'em, say
Speaker:this is a big weekend for us, but Louisiana's always one of the better
Speaker:teams in the league, and they got off to a little bit of a slow start.
Speaker:Looks like they're playing, you know, pretty good now and they
Speaker:have one of their better pitchers out earlier who's back now.
Speaker:And so it's all a, you know, it's all a good challenge.
Speaker:And after VCU tomorrow night, we're back at Harbor Park.
Speaker:Looks like the weather's gonna be great this week.
Speaker:And, you know, good week for, uh, some, some good college baseball.
Speaker:We hope people come out and watch us.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think I wanted to ask you something about the, um, the dugouts
Speaker:you're, you've chosen at both Harbor Park and, uh, and War Memorial.
Speaker:Now I know that the last few times we played at Harbor Park, you've
Speaker:chosen the third base dugout, which is traditionally the visitors dugout.
Speaker:And I know, I think part of that was just easier to get in
Speaker:and out of outta the stadium.
Speaker:I, I was curious, was there a reason why you chose the
Speaker:visitors dugout at War Memorial?
Speaker:Uh, we're, it's our home dugout when what we're used to, you know, at
Speaker:home, at, at when we play at home.
Speaker:So I think the game's always easier to manage in the third base dugout.
Speaker:Um, you're not across the field from your team or your third base coach and, um,
Speaker:you know, you're just closer to everything that needs to go on right there.
Speaker:So, um, I, I'd prefer the, the third base dugout.
Speaker:If ever given a choice, I'd always prefer third base.
Speaker:So that's, I figured it's a simple, easy answer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:coach, we got one call from Paula coming in and it's talking about, uh.
Speaker:Hitting an error scoring and official stats.
Speaker:So hopefully you're able to hear this one.
Speaker:If you're not, we will recap it for you.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Uh, when it's over.
Speaker:But this is Paula.
Speaker:Hi you guys.
Speaker:It's Paula Ambrose.
Speaker:I was calling to say one, congratulations to the coach for his 400th win.
Speaker:Very exciting, and I think I've been here for most of them,
Speaker:or at them, for most of them.
Speaker:Anyhow, I had a question about official score keeping.
Speaker:I noticed sometimes as a fan, you can't tell on the scoreboard.
Speaker:It looks like it was a hit.
Speaker:When was probably an error.
Speaker:And if the official score is kept by the team or by the home team,
Speaker:or does anyone ever check it?
Speaker:And of course I'm sure you realize that I'm always taking this from
Speaker:a pitcher's perspective, so I'm usually pretty stingy on scoring a.
Speaker:SI can follow first.
Speaker:Uh, no, I was, so it sounded like her, her, and you can
Speaker:tell me if I'm incorrect, Gary.
Speaker:Uh, it sounded like her question was, uh, basically who is doing
Speaker:the score keeping, uh, the home team or is anybody checking on it?
Speaker:Um, that, was that more or less what was, what was I was saying there, Gary?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then do you ever go back and review hits and errors that are scored because
Speaker:as she said, she is looking at the game from a pitcher's perspective and looking
Speaker:at those unearned and, and earned runs.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Since her, since her husband was a pitcher at ODU, um, and, and a darn good one.
Speaker:Um, yes.
Speaker:Yes and no.
Speaker:Uh, we do, I, I'll look up there sometimes and go, man, they gave
Speaker:the guy error on that, you know, and I'll make a little note on my.
Speaker:They gave the guy a hit on that.
Speaker:I'll make a little note on my, my sheet and then sometimes we'll go back and ask
Speaker:our sports info people if it's egregious.
Speaker:Um, typically the scores are somebody in the sports information department.
Speaker:You know, I know c Hud when he was here forever, uh, was always
Speaker:our official score, um, for baseball games and did a great job.
Speaker:Um, and you know, but sometimes, you know, I'll just say, Hey
Speaker:man, I think that was a hit.
Speaker:Like, come on, it's college.
Speaker:This a college baseball game.
Speaker:Like if a big leaguer, maybe you say should make that play.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Guy hits a ball 105 miles an hour off a bat in a college
Speaker:game, he probably deserves a hit.
Speaker:Uh, you know, that's
Speaker:fair.
Speaker:Um, so yeah, and, and I always, sometimes I'll have some questions on, um, fielder's
Speaker:choices because that, that rule can get a little bit, you know, conflicted
Speaker:about, uh, with, with some things being arbitrary in terms of scoring.
Speaker:Um, was the guy safe?
Speaker:Uh, would he have been safe, the, was he out?
Speaker:Those kinds of things like that.
Speaker:When a guy safe on a fielder's choice, it actually can be
Speaker:dealer's choice on the score.
Speaker:Whether he wants to give the guy an error or wants to give the guy a hit, you know?
Speaker:And my, my, my contention, it happened, um.
Speaker:Morales was on second, and Luke Waters hit a bullet up the middle.
Speaker:That was, ended up being the shortstop caught like in between hops kind of going
Speaker:up the middle and Morales ran the third.
Speaker:And the guy, instead of throwing the first, tried to get Morales out at third.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:He made a good throw, he made a perfect throw.
Speaker:Morales just beat it.
Speaker:And so I'm looking up there and I think we had one hit at the time,
Speaker:and I don't see anything like, I don't see a error, I don't see a hit.
Speaker:There's gotta be something.
Speaker:Uh, and you know, my, my, through the years in scoring, I always thought if
Speaker:it was a fielder's choice, like let's say the shortstop catch the ball on
Speaker:a hole and tries to go to second for the force out and the runner beats
Speaker:it, you can give the guy a hit on that because that was his only play.
Speaker:Wasn't gonna get the guy first.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:His only play was the second and the runner beat it.
Speaker:You can also call the fielder's choice to not give him a hit.
Speaker:Um, but I always think if he didn't have another play and that was his
Speaker:only play and it was a good throw and we just beat it, the hitter deserves
Speaker:a hit because he was gonna get a hit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If he didn't have another play.
Speaker:And so I think, you know, you, you usually want to look at it that way.
Speaker:Um, so that, that's, that's my, you know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sometimes the, sometimes the reason he made that throw is that's the
Speaker:only throw he had because Exactly.
Speaker:It would've been easy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When I, I think you're right on that play, that, that the only
Speaker:real chance he had was going after Efrin who made an amazing slide.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, he did.
Speaker:He did.
Speaker:And, and so sometimes that's just baseball and it's just like, to give a guy fielders
Speaker:choice on that, uh, I always thought a fielders choice needed to be an out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, and, and if it was, if a guy was safe, it needed to be a hit or an error.
Speaker:Not a fielder's choice.
Speaker:That, that's the way I always look at it,
Speaker:because typically the fielder is gonna choose to make the easier play.
Speaker:And if they can't make the easy play, then they probably couldn't
Speaker:have made the other play either.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And if they can't make the easy play,
Speaker:usually they screwed something up.
Speaker:Um, if they screwed it up, it's an error.
Speaker:If they didn't screw it up, then it should be a hit.
Speaker:So I, I don't think a fielder's choice from a guy's safe makes much sense
Speaker:to me from a scoring standpoint.
Speaker:I know that, uh, the error helps the pitcher.
Speaker:I don't, I'm not even sure what, in terms of scoring what a
Speaker:fielder's choice does to, in terms of earned runs or unearned runs.
Speaker:They still count as earned runs.
Speaker:They do.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Then you would like them to call.
Speaker:Why not give them hit?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Then you'd, you'd rather, so an error is the only thing that doesn't
Speaker:count as an earn on the earned run.
Speaker:Then.
Speaker:So a hit or a field of choice, then it's irrelevant.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, Beau Cowan and I were going back and forth earlier in a, a direct
Speaker:message because he was asking about an earned run when the pitcher
Speaker:is the person that has the error.
Speaker:And I said, that's still an unearned run.
Speaker:Like, yeah, the leader back to the pitcher, he throws up
Speaker:the first basement's head.
Speaker:It's an unearned run, even though it's an E one.
Speaker:Uh, so, you know, if you're ever having problems on the mount, I guess you just
Speaker:chucked the ball over the first base.
Speaker:Oh, darn.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:All your unearned runs.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Don't, Hey, don't put that out there, Gary.
Speaker:That's, man, we, we don't need anybody thinking that.
Speaker:Uh, yes, pitchers have, pitchers have, uh, interesting fielding escapades
Speaker:anyway, um, typically as much as we work on it, but they, uh, do it so well.
Speaker:Uh, any other questions?
Speaker:No, that was it.
Speaker:Bo had another question about who was left to play, uh, in
Speaker:the, in the field on Sunday.
Speaker:And you answered that with just one, with Tanner being there
Speaker:because that was one of two, Taylor
Speaker:was the only one, and we debated putting him in there and I was like, man, if
Speaker:we put him out there and Evan takes one off the, the hand or something,
Speaker:I, I couldn't even tell you who, who we'd put back there to catch, you know,
Speaker:maybe Edwards probably put Edwards.
Speaker:I was gonna
Speaker:say Kyle, that was my first, my first choice.
Speaker:He'd
Speaker:probably be the, you know, typically your shortstops.
Speaker:Maybe the only one that's got a chance would be, Hey, has anybody caught before?
Speaker:Yeah, right.
Speaker:So maybe Brody, but he
Speaker:was outta the game.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Brody's outta the game.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And uh, yeah, so, um, tomorrow night, hopefully uh, people
Speaker:over on the peninsula come out.
Speaker:I think it's supposed to be a good day tomorrow and this weekend and, uh, it's be
Speaker:nice to be back in our own beds this week.
Speaker:Big game against VCU on Tuesday at War Memorial.
Speaker:That's, that's still always the biggest rival for me.
Speaker:Just from being in school, oh five to oh nine, we had some crazy games with VCU.
Speaker:We were looking at, Bo actually reminded me to go back and look through some
Speaker:of those old crazy games in oh nine.
Speaker:My senior year.
Speaker:We beat VCU at the diamond, like 28 to nine or something.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And it was just, and I think we only scored in four innings of the game.
Speaker:Uh, so it, it's a big rivalry for a lot of that, that crowd.
Speaker:I think even the, the classes before me in a little ways afterwards.
Speaker:Always wanna have some fun at vcu U'S expense.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:And of course, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at, uh, Harbor Park.
Speaker:Those will be good.
Speaker:I think tho I think everything's ESPN plus this week.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Uh, this weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The game I, I was informed today actually, our games tomorrow will, our
Speaker:game tomorrow will not be streamed.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Better get out there people.
Speaker:I don't know why, but it will not.
Speaker:So if you hear this and you wanna see us get out, get out to Warm Memorial and,
Speaker:um, I'm, I'm not sure what's going on with that, but we, it won't be streamed
Speaker:and um, we won't have replay tomorrow.
Speaker:So it'll be old school.
Speaker:Old school.
Speaker:Old school.
Speaker:Hey.
Speaker:But you get to argue for a change 'cause no replay.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Might get some venting on, Hey, speaking of replay, before I go, we
Speaker:won our first challenge of the year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yesterday.
Speaker:You
Speaker:said that in the living room when it happened, we're like finna got one.
Speaker:We're not gonna get.
Speaker:We can't lose them all now.
Speaker:And, uh, I, I asked that 'cause I, I thought for sure he was
Speaker:safe and he got called out.
Speaker:Oh, easy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're gonna challenge this.
Speaker:And I asked, uh, John Ke, you know, he goes by beans and I said, beans if we
Speaker:wanna challenge this year, he goes, Nope.
Speaker:And uh, so then, then the guy, they overturned it and I was like,
Speaker:well, now we have, there you go.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:all right.
Speaker:Got, got one in the wind column for the challenges.
Speaker:I'll, I'll take it.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:I'll take it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:One in, one in one in all the rest of them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Haven't been a lot overturned this year either way.
Speaker:Like even on the other teams, I think they're going in there and colluding
Speaker:with each other like Yep, a hundred percent for the most part, unfortunately.
Speaker:But absolutely they're
Speaker:deleting footage.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:we didn't get a good look at it.
Speaker:You know, the camera angle
Speaker:back.
Speaker:I've had 'em walk by me before and say, all right, let's go
Speaker:in here and see that I'm right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Cool, man.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Old silver fox.
Speaker:You gotta love that.
Speaker:All right guys, go Monarchs.
Speaker:Thank you for all y'all.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Thank you Coach.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
Speaker:Alright, go Monarchs.
Speaker:All right, we're gonna take a quick break and when we get back, we will
Speaker:have Evan Holman and a normal sized CB.
Speaker:This episode of the Monarchist Podcast is brought to you by
Speaker:the pride of O DDU 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 are 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:Uh, thank you for tuning in, uh, for Coach Finwood there.
Speaker:Obviously we're, uh, all pumped coming off the three in one week, but we are
Speaker:definitely excited to bring on Evan Holman, starting catcher for the Monarchs.
Speaker:Evan, thanks so much for joining.
Speaker:For sure, guys.
Speaker:Thanks for having me on.
Speaker:Well, you had a big day on Sunday, I think to put it, uh, put it nicely.
Speaker:We had three for three, two doubles and a grand slam.
Speaker:Not a bad day for a, for someone who didn't start the game too.
Speaker:No, no, certainly.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah, it was pretty great.
Speaker:Like I mentioned, you had, I think coming into the week a double and a homer and for
Speaker:the week he had three doubles and a homer.
Speaker:Not, not too bad.
Speaker:Yeah, no, that was a good week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Turned out to be.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, were you doing anything different at the play?
Speaker:Did the ball just look like a beach ball to you?
Speaker:Like what, what was going through your mind there to, to rack up stats like that?
Speaker:I mean, that's one thing I was seeing it well all week, but I've been
Speaker:consistently throughout the whole year.
Speaker:Like trying to make adjustments and keep working on my swing
Speaker:and my mental approach.
Speaker:So it was good to kind of have some of that workout on
Speaker:Sunday and this whole week.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Has that been different for you this year?
Speaker:'cause I know last year, I mean, I like that you played 48 games last.
Speaker:I started 48 games.
Speaker:I think you played 51.
Speaker:I mean, you were playing basically every game.
Speaker:And then this year it's, you know, it's gone from Friday, Saturday to
Speaker:then maybe Tuesday and Friday, and then getting in, possibly in late in games.
Speaker:So has there been a big adjustment between playing, you know, basically
Speaker:every single game and then kind of having to pick your spots this year?
Speaker:I mean, it's definitely an adjustment.
Speaker:It's not a big adjustment.
Speaker:It's the way I look at it.
Speaker:It's anytime I can make an impact on the game, like I'm ready to go.
Speaker:So like I'm, I'm locked in, even when I'm down the bullpen, if I'm, I'm ready
Speaker:to go and yeah, I'm just always waiting.
Speaker:Always waiting to get in.
Speaker:I know it's been a unique year with so many games on the road and that kind
Speaker:of has its own version of wear and tear on guys, but are you feeling a little
Speaker:bit fresher in your legs not having to do that, even though I know there's a
Speaker:lot of other duties you're responsible for there, even if you're not playing?
Speaker:I, I have
Speaker:noticed that there's been, these last couple Mondays last year I was pretty,
Speaker:usually pretty banged up on Mondays and usually I would just go sit in the ice
Speaker:bath for, that was my work for the day.
Speaker:But these last couple of Mondays I've been able to, to really hammer the weights and
Speaker:get in the cages and just keep working.
Speaker:So that's been good.
Speaker:That's been a, that's been a solid, yeah.
Speaker:Because there was some points.
Speaker:That's be a big plus.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause you, I mean, you're seeing that you can go and put that work in.
Speaker:And that was one thing I talked to Ryan more about when he was talking
Speaker:about his last year playing pro.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:He was so injured that it was taking all his energy and time recovering
Speaker:that it couldn't get better.
Speaker:So you're saying that you could take time now to actually, like you said,
Speaker:hit the gym, hit the weights, hit, hit the cage, and improve yourself.
Speaker:That's gotta be a, a nice thing for
Speaker:sure.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:for
Speaker:sure.
Speaker:Because there were some games last year, man.
Speaker:I mean, you get hit by a pitch two or three times in a weekend,
Speaker:take like a half dozen foul balls a bat to the back of the head.
Speaker:Um, so imagine just like you, you're maybe not getting as many of those things now
Speaker:as you were, even though you're catching some bull pins and stuff during For sure.
Speaker:Yeah, definitely not as many.
Speaker:There's still all, there still is some days though.
Speaker:The next day I'm pretty banged up.
Speaker:You got
Speaker:one in the thigh the other day, didn't you?
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:Uh, that's a, yeah, that pretty
Speaker:much happens every game.
Speaker:You just need a photo book of all the crazy, gigantic purple bruises you have.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Seriously.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, one thing I noticed, and I, I'm not even sure when you did it,
Speaker:was sometime during the year here, but you switched from the kind of
Speaker:old style two piece catcher's mask
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:To
Speaker:now the hockey style catcher's mask.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When exactly did you do that and why?
Speaker:Well, you guys know I was wearing the, the two piece traditional mask all last year.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And then, uh, I switched over to the hockey mask pretty much
Speaker:the whole fall and preseason.
Speaker:I don't know if you noticed that, but I was wearing a, I think I
Speaker:didn't, I might have missed.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I
Speaker:was, I was wearing a hockey mask most of the fall.
Speaker:And then, uh, the last couple inner squads in the spring, I went
Speaker:back to the two piece and then I started the U with the two piece.
Speaker:And then I, it is just kind of like a, a feel thing and the
Speaker:hockey mask is definitely safer.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, just like from what I've seen and what I've read about
Speaker:it and it just covers more and.
Speaker:Like, the more protection you have from getting hit on back swings or
Speaker:weird foul tips and stuff is good.
Speaker:So, and uh, I know Slate Slater will agree with me on this.
Speaker:You can, I think you can see better out of the hockey mask too.
Speaker:You got that?
Speaker:The side vents.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:I remember when Charlie O'Brien in the nineties, he basically created those,
Speaker:and I remember it being a big deal.
Speaker:It was like, it was so unique.
Speaker:He was the only guy in the big leagues wearing We did with the Braves.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think it was the Blue Jays might have when we started wearing them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And uh, and then, you know, here we are, what, 25, almost 30 years
Speaker:later, and it's like, I, you don't see a youth game anymore where
Speaker:somebody's even using the other style.
Speaker:No, I think where I think they really got popular was probably Yadi or Molina.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Because he just, his whole career, he wore a hockey mask.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And a lot of guys were still wearing the two piece masks and
Speaker:everybody wanted to be yadi.
Speaker:Of course, of course.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Who was he, was he your catcher?
Speaker:Like who was your like catcher idol growing up?
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:I'm a, I'm a Seattle Mariners guy.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So growing up, I mean, big Scott Servais guy, they didn't, when I was growing
Speaker:up, it was like Mike Zunino but Oh yeah, Mariners, the Mariners didn't
Speaker:really have, like, they didn't have the, the Cal Raleigh they have now.
Speaker:So it was, it was Mike Zunino and then, uh, obviously Adley and yeah.
Speaker:But now it's, now I, I love watching Cal Raleigh catch.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Nice
Speaker:big, the big dumper.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Whenever I get a chance, I turn on Mariners games.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What do you think of that?
Speaker:I see.
Speaker:He's like, he's like doing dumping for people at the game.
Speaker:If people don't know that's Cal Rally, that's his nickname is the big dumper.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I guess now they have like promotions where he is like
Speaker:dumping people at ball games.
Speaker:Like if someone was to break up with their, their significant
Speaker:other, I think it's hilarious.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's real.
Speaker:That's,
Speaker:that's awesome.
Speaker:I mean, if, if you could do.
Speaker:If you can do the engagement photos and you can do the, will you marry me?
Speaker:Like you should be able to do the other side of that too.
Speaker:Like, Hey, thanks for coming to the game.
Speaker:It's the sixth inning.
Speaker:Uh, we're not going home together.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Yeah, that's that's awesome.
Speaker:I, I hate the wedding proposal of the game.
Speaker:I'd be so hyped to see the big dumper take somebody out.
Speaker:That'd be awesome.
Speaker:That, yeah.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:well you, you've got a number of different pitchers this year.
Speaker:Um, I know you're typically kind of in there on, on Fridays with Ben and
Speaker:whoever's coming in behind him, but what have you seen kind of evolve from our
Speaker:pitching staff from the beginning of the season, maybe even in the fall to now?
Speaker:Like is there anyone that's standing out to you as kind really
Speaker:upping their game a little bit?
Speaker:I mean, it's hard to not talk about Ben Dylan and Blake 'cause they've
Speaker:been so good and the three of them, like, they're so fun to catch and.
Speaker:Every time you go out there, it's a privilege to like get to work with them.
Speaker:Um, but I think just the staff as a whole, we've seen improvement from all
Speaker:the guys, bullpen guys kind of finding their roles and guys kind of developing
Speaker:conviction behind their pitches and uh, getting in the right head space.
Speaker:So it's been, it's been awesome to see the bullpen on the weekends
Speaker:develop and turn into something good.
Speaker:And I've, I wanted to ask you this or, or someone catching in college about
Speaker:the pitch comm and how that works.
Speaker:'cause you've got Yeah, the piece, you've got the risk, you've got all that.
Speaker:Like, take us through the process of how that actually works when pitches
Speaker:are getting called and how you and the pitcher are working to relay those.
Speaker:So we, how we do it, we have Marron, uh, in the dugout calling
Speaker:pitches, and then everyone on the field is wearing the, they're
Speaker:like, they honestly look like this.
Speaker:They just look like an Apple watch.
Speaker:Um, and everyone on the field has them.
Speaker:And they're relaying the pitch, uh, to everyone.
Speaker:And then it's really quick.
Speaker:Like that's basically all it is, is um, as soon as I throw the ball back, they call
Speaker:in the pitch and then we're ready to go.
Speaker:That's, that's pretty much all it is.
Speaker:And then I have the earpiece in too, and if there's like a pitch that they
Speaker:thought was a strike and the ump call it a ball, and they can talk to me through
Speaker:the earpiece and ask me where it was, and then I can communicate back with them.
Speaker:Or if they want me to go, I. Take a mound visit, something like that.
Speaker:They can talk to me through the ear piece too.
Speaker:But all the pitch calling comes through our, our, uh, wristwatches.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Does the Umpire ever overhear that in your ear?
Speaker:Is he ever like I hope not.
Speaker:I hope not.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Marron's like, where was this guy sucks.
Speaker:And you're like, Hey man, I'm just here.
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:Yeah, no, no.
Speaker:Uh, they're gonna send you out there with like actual speaker on the back
Speaker:of your belt that you don't know about and just maren barking at the umpires.
Speaker:Yeah, that'd be awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is it, is it just me or does the, the, the wrist thing run outta battery
Speaker:like every single game during the game at some point it seems like.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:they do.
Speaker:They, they'll run outta battery or me and slate multiple times.
Speaker:We've either blocked a ball and it's hit the screen and shattered it,
Speaker:or
Speaker:I've had it happen a couple times.
Speaker:Uh, plays at the plate.
Speaker:Where I get cleats or knees or guys sliding into me and
Speaker:that, that's broken it too.
Speaker:So I, I'll have to go in there and get a new one.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, we definitely go through those.
Speaker:I did not know about the breaking, I hadn't even thought about that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Here you go.
Speaker:There's some, there's some work.
Speaker:Look at this guy, man.
Speaker:I gotta get the glove down.
Speaker:Look at that.
Speaker:No, it was coming up.
Speaker:You did good.
Speaker:It was coming up.
Speaker:You got, you got on.
Speaker:Record your chest.
Speaker:I think the next, the next picture was just going off your, your chest protector.
Speaker:Yeah, that was good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so, so you've been catching your entire life.
Speaker:I mean, did, have you ever, did you ever play other positions or how, when
Speaker:did you, how'd you start catching?
Speaker:I started catching, uh, eighth grade is when I really started catching.
Speaker:I played shortstop, uh, up until then.
Speaker:And, and then I got into high school and all I did was catch.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Pitched a little in, in coming up in middle school and stuff.
Speaker:And, but yeah, really once I, I, once I got into high school, um, I caught.
Speaker:For all of my high school career.
Speaker:And then I think I played 20 something games at third base my
Speaker:freshman year of junior college.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, here just catching.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Oh, when you were pitching, man, what was the pitch selection like?
Speaker:You got like a nasty breaking ball sinker, like what were you working on?
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:um,
Speaker:if you ask again, if you ask Slate, he'll tell you because we're playing catch
Speaker:every day and he knows my pitch arsenal.
Speaker:But, uh, I had the, I was a big Sports illustrated guy growing up and there
Speaker:was a Sports Illustrated article on Taiwan Walker when he was with the
Speaker:Mariners and his knuckle curve where you, like, he spiked this finger.
Speaker:And so I started throwing that in like seventh, eighth grade and
Speaker:that was like my bread and butter.
Speaker:That was awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, if there's ever a situation where we need a position player on the mound,
Speaker:I've gotta see the knuckle curve.
Speaker:I wanna see what that does on track, man.
Speaker:Yeah, I think, uh, I don't know if I would be first, I think
Speaker:probably Eddie would be first.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The first position player to get an opportunity.
Speaker:I've heard he's pretty good up there.
Speaker:Yeah, Shaneel was a pretty good pitcher in, uh, in high school.
Speaker:Oh, I bet.
Speaker:Yeah, he, yeah, I bet Zedalis could probably run it up there too.
Speaker:Yeah, he's got a good arm.
Speaker:We got a, we got a few guys who I think
Speaker:would be okay at it.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:Yeah, because the white whale was, was Kenny Levari
Speaker:and we, we didn't get to see him pitching.
Speaker:He was throwing like 96, 97 last year.
Speaker:I know catching him in the fall was interesting 'cause
Speaker:you just, you don't expect it.
Speaker:'cause you see him throw from third and, I mean, he looks like
Speaker:an infielder with a good arm and then he gets on the mound and it's.
Speaker:It was firm
Speaker:pop.
Speaker:The mit Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We got the dry hump on that for four straight years.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, uh, so Evan, how, I mean, you're from, and I, I I, can you say the
Speaker:name of the state you're from?
Speaker:'cause I feel like I always mispronounce it,
Speaker:Oregon.
Speaker:Oh, you actually said that way as Oregon.
Speaker:That's how I would say I, I always hear like Oregon.
Speaker:This the Oregon, no, Oregon.
Speaker:Yeah, Oregon.
Speaker:All
Speaker:right.
Speaker:So you're, you're an Oregonian telling me the right way to say it.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So how do you, how do you end up at ODU from Oregon?
Speaker:How does, how does that happen?
Speaker:Well, outta high school, I, uh, I mean, just going back, I didn't play travel
Speaker:ball in high school and I played, I played soccer and basketball all four
Speaker:years of high school and baseball.
Speaker:So I wasn't like super focused.
Speaker:I mean, I was very focused on baseball, obviously I knew that
Speaker:was my sport, but like I wasn't really traveling around or getting
Speaker:recruited or anything big like that.
Speaker:So I, I went to junior college outta high school up in Bellevue, Washington, in the
Speaker:NAC in that conference, and that's where the ODU coaching staff saw me out there.
Speaker:And then I came out here and visited it and loved it and yeah, ended
Speaker:up out here and it's been awesome.
Speaker:And I, I heard you were actually a pretty damn good soccer player too, at that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I, I enjoyed it.
Speaker:Yeah, it was, it was awesome.
Speaker:Those are some of my favorite memories with my boys back in high school.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What position did you play in soccer?
Speaker:Um, I was, I was always, defense.
Speaker:Usually left back or senior year.
Speaker:I played center back too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And from, from what I understand, pretty tough back there on that back line.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:See it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Guy's playing.
Speaker:He is always playing defense and keeping the ball from going behind him.
Speaker:That's, that's, I was a, I was a few pounds
Speaker:lighter though.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:You, you gotta run all that so it, it makes sense.
Speaker:You gotta run a
Speaker:little bit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Very good.
Speaker:Jose, do you, do you drop a ton of weight during the season?
Speaker:I know some catchers do that quite a bit.
Speaker:Not on purpose.
Speaker:Um, last year, last year I did.
Speaker:Um, but I, I've done a much better job this year.
Speaker:Um, just, I just, you gotta eat four or five meals a day and you
Speaker:gotta just keep pounding protein and getting it in pregame postgame.
Speaker:So that's one.
Speaker:That was one of my goals this year was to be better about maintaining
Speaker:my weight and keeping that up.
Speaker:Yeah, because obviously it is, it's a long season and especially this year on
Speaker:the road, that's a big factor, so, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, you're
Speaker:basically, Gary's Gary.
Speaker:It's funny you asked that.
Speaker:'cause like the first day of the season we're down there at Georgia Tech and,
Speaker:and Evan's like housing this bottle of this like weird colored liquid and, and
Speaker:he's like, this is my protein shake.
Speaker:He's like, I'm just pounding this all the time.
Speaker:He is like, this guy gotta, I can't lose all that weight.
Speaker:I lost too much weight last year.
Speaker:And yeah, so I, I just laugh and you ask that 'cause like that's, that's
Speaker:been a big focus for Evan this year.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I do that as I'm drinking beers on like Friday and Saturday.
Speaker:I'm like, oh, I gotta even, sure.
Speaker:I'll lose this week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I've been bulking up for a while now.
Speaker:I'm pretty good at it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Longest
Speaker:bulk phase ever.
Speaker:No shred.
Speaker:All bulk.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, uh, Mariner's guy growing up, right?
Speaker:I mean, you gotta believe each hero's gotta be like one of your
Speaker:like all time favorites, right?
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Uh, Ichiro, Ken Griffey, um, yeah.
Speaker:Got Randy Johnson in there too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Randy Johnson.
Speaker:Yeah, it was
Speaker:Randy Johnson even there when you were alive.
Speaker:I can't, I don't think he was, was he?
Speaker:I don't
Speaker:think, no, not that.
Speaker:Yeah, no.
Speaker:I mean, I'm sure you
Speaker:got memories of it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, Michelle, I love Hank Aaron, but he wasn't alive, you know, when I was,
Speaker:he wasn't playing when I was alive.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah, of course.
Speaker:Thanks for the reminder that I'm much older than Evan.
Speaker:Appreciate that.
Speaker:We get traded to the Astros, like what happened, right.
Speaker:I don't know if you guys
Speaker:remember the name, but Kyle Seger.
Speaker:Corey Seeger.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Kyle Seeger was a big one for me.
Speaker:I loved watching him and Robinson Cano when he was there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Robbie Canoe.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:See,
Speaker:I love, see this is fun for me 'cause like all like Cano and, and, uh, Seager
Speaker:and Zino, I saw those guys playing the minor league, so it's, it's fun to Yeah.
Speaker:You know, that's cool.
Speaker:Be big stars.
Speaker:And I got, I got to meet Ichiro when he was at the Marlins down in spring
Speaker:trading, and that was like, like I've met a lot, a lot of ball players and that was
Speaker:one where I was like, I am starstruck.
Speaker:Like this is E Row.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Like, that was a whole nother level.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's real cool.
Speaker:Well, we're asking all the guys when they come on.
Speaker:I think most we're like, who all is in your baseball house this season?
Speaker:We're trying to get a judge on who has the best house.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I only have two roommates.
Speaker:I have F and Rocky.
Speaker:Fran and Rocky.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:you might win just on F alone there, I think.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:I remember we said that we have a great house.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:F said that, I think it was last, was it last week?
Speaker:We had have fun.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He said, he said, with Evan, I was like, yeah, that's a pretty good,
Speaker:and then Rocky's a great kid too.
Speaker:Yeah, he's awesome.
Speaker:It's a pretty good house.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:And I, I don't think you're a big video game guy, but we're gonna ask the question
Speaker:anyway 'cause we're asking everyone.
Speaker:Uh, if you were to have a player in like MLB, the show or the college
Speaker:baseball version of that, what's your overall rating and then what like, stack
Speaker:category would you spike in like contact versus left East Power versus Righty.
Speaker:So overall and your, your best, uh, best attribute there.
Speaker:Well, let's see.
Speaker:I, I'm not a big video game guy.
Speaker:I probably, I gotta be, I don't know, in the low eighties, right?
Speaker:Something like that.
Speaker:Humble,
Speaker:low eighties is like the safe range for guys who wanna be realistic
Speaker:and don't wanna be arrogant.
Speaker:I, I like it.
Speaker:We get a lot of like 82, 80 threes outta the guys who are
Speaker:like, I'm trying to keep it real.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I like, this is very, this is very Evan Holman.
Speaker:To me.
Speaker:This is just like a blue collar answer, A blue collar, hardworking guy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Something like that.
Speaker:And then category,
Speaker:I'd probably say contact versus, I mean either, like, I've always
Speaker:been really good bat to ball and it, for me, it's kind of just been
Speaker:adding the plate discipline to that.
Speaker:'cause like with two strikes, I know I can hit the ball wherever it is, but
Speaker:I don't need to hit it if it's a ball.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And I know I'm going defense nine on 'em.
Speaker:That's, I usually don't chime in and give somebody, but I'm, I'm
Speaker:going defense nine nine on that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Alright, I'll take that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'll be confident for you.
Speaker:We're gonna talk you up.
Speaker:No, I, Evan, you're, you're an awesome guy, man.
Speaker:I, you're, you, you know, I get to meet a lot of wonderful people through ODU and
Speaker:you are just, you top of the class, man.
Speaker:Like your parents are amazing people.
Speaker:Did a wonderful job with you.
Speaker:You're, you're just, you're, you're everything we want out of a Monarch man.
Speaker:Just thanks for, thanks for being here.
Speaker:Thanks for choosing us and thanks for showing up every day
Speaker:and, and making us proud, man.
Speaker:Yeah, of course.
Speaker:A lot of credit to my parents.
Speaker:Um, I'm thankful for them and I'm sure my dad will be watching this, so I love you.
Speaker:And shout out dad.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:I got, I got to actually spend some time with them, uh, before
Speaker:the Saturday game against Troy.
Speaker:We were kind of all over at, at waterside, hanging out in Sha and just
Speaker:awesome people and, and everything just kind of makes sense, so, yeah.
Speaker:Well, thank you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, Evan, thanks so much for joining us, man.
Speaker:And we know it's a, a short week.
Speaker:You had a lot of travel last night, so we really appreciate your time,
Speaker:but, uh, awesome having you on
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:Yeah, thank you guys for having me.
Speaker:Looking forward to the rest of the year and getting going.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mom's bringing some cookies tomorrow night, so you guys get some fuel.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Between
Speaker:innings, that's where it's at.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What's up?
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Thanks so much, Evan.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Appreciate you man.
Speaker:Take care.
Speaker:Good kid, man.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I'm, I'm a huge fan of that.
Speaker:That's, that's a guy.
Speaker:I just always, you know, sometimes you go to the ballpark and you're like,
Speaker:okay, I gotta make sure I find certain guys and talk to him for a little bit.
Speaker:And Evan's always one of those guys.
Speaker:You gotta, you know, he is.
Speaker:And again, you see there, he's not the most talkative guy.
Speaker:I mean, he wasn't, you know, he, he wasn't.
Speaker:Giving us super verbose answers and every one of those.
Speaker:But he's just a genuinely good guy, and he's just, he is
Speaker:really humble and hardworking.
Speaker:Well, we're coming off of f and Zach late, so I think f is just more like in
Speaker:like the normal baseball category, right?
Speaker:These guys, yeah.
Speaker:Uhhuh love talking.
Speaker:We love having them on too.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, but, uh, definitely shout out to all the parents.
Speaker:I know, uh, a lot of the parents listen to these games on like Thursday
Speaker:when they're traveling down for like a Friday series or Wednesday before.
Speaker:Uh, so appreciate all the support there.
Speaker:And the, uh, the telegram group is always very entertaining and fun.
Speaker:Uh, just all the hospitality too.
Speaker:Anytime I feel like there's a, a game going on, somebody's gotta
Speaker:tailgate, someone's gotta meet up, uh, for everybody to come through.
Speaker:So greatly appreciate getting a, getting to be a little part of that, that puzzle.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we, we have such good people on the team, and, and
Speaker:the reason is they're parents.
Speaker:They, again, they, they were, they were raised, right?
Speaker:I mean, that's the reality is we just have really good kids who are raised by
Speaker:really good people and, and they think and act and treat people the right way.
Speaker:And it's, it's just, it's what you wanna see.
Speaker:I mean, you know.
Speaker:Yeah, it, it, it, you know, I, you don't wanna have a team
Speaker:full of butt heads, you know?
Speaker:I think even, I wouldn't, I wouldn't care if we were like undefeated for
Speaker:the whole year if it was just like, man, these guys suck to be around.
Speaker:Like, that would not be fun.
Speaker:Um, so, you know, I, I, I love that having just a great bunch of guys.
Speaker:It, it's, it's awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Evan's so polite.
Speaker:He just kept hanging around.
Speaker:We had to, we had this hotel leave.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I would've felt bad if he stuck on there.
Speaker:I'm sure he has much more important things to do than listen to us talk.
Speaker:No, he's got, I know.
Speaker:I'm sure he is
Speaker:gotta go do anything other than listen to two old guys talk on a, on a podcast.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean getting back at what, like 3, 3 34?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right in the morning.
Speaker:I mean, he guy just probably needs dinner and a and a nap.
Speaker:So that's
Speaker:why it's good to be like, what, a 21 or 20, whatever he is and yeah.
Speaker:I'm sure his body bounces back like you and I would be out for a week and a half.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I didn't do half of the physical stuff that Evan did over the
Speaker:last couple days and I'm just gassed and I was mostly walking around and.
Speaker:Drinking and eating and doing all that.
Speaker:All good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And just having a great weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm like limping around the house.
Speaker:'cause apparently I stood wrong on one leg through too
Speaker:long.
Speaker:He's getting crush.
Speaker:That's, he's getting crushed with the foul ball in the knee.
Speaker:And he's, I'm
Speaker:good.
Speaker:I'll play.
Speaker:I had three.
Speaker:I
Speaker:slam.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I twisted my knee the other day just getting out of the car and I'm
Speaker:like, how, how, how did I do that?
Speaker:And because I'm just old and everything's falling apart.
Speaker:Uh, so before I turn to dust, let's talk about our players of the week, man.
Speaker:Oh, yes.
Speaker:And it was a tough, yeah, it was tough this week, man.
Speaker:This
Speaker:was, I'll be honest, this was, it was tough.
Speaker:Uh, and sometimes it's tough because nobody was good.
Speaker:And this wasn't one of those weeks.
Speaker:Uh, because my, I think, you know, we go into it, I try to look at the
Speaker:stats and kind of give it to both of us so we can kind of pick it together.
Speaker:And my first instinct was go with Evan just based off of just yesterday.
Speaker:Um, you know, you get three hits, you have a two doubles, a, a grand slam.
Speaker:I mean, for the week.
Speaker:Evan was four for eight, three doubles, a grand slam, six rbis.
Speaker:Got hit by a pitch, had a sacrifice bunt.
Speaker:That's an awesome week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:Can, and George had a better week, uh, and, and consistently 'cause
Speaker:Canan played in all four games.
Speaker:He had hits in all four games.
Speaker:He was eight for 18, had a double a homer, eight rbis, a walk
Speaker:hit by pitch, and three steals.
Speaker:He's actually second on the team with six steals now.
Speaker:Um, and so, I mean, Kainen had an awesome week.
Speaker:Uh, Efrain morales, nice little four for 15, double four rbis, set a sack fly.
Speaker:Kyle Edwards, another solid week six for 16.
Speaker:A double four rbis, two walks, five stolen bases for Kyle this week.
Speaker:Um, he was, he was enjoying that Norfolk State game.
Speaker:He was excited about that one.
Speaker:Um, tj very quiet, nice week.
Speaker:He was five for 15, two doubles, three rbis had seven walks.
Speaker:He's actually leading the team with 22 walks now.
Speaker:Uh, so, so the hitters, uh, again, it was, it's nice because we had
Speaker:some weeks where it's like, well, we gotta pick one of these guys.
Speaker:And this week it was like, man, we got a whole list of guys we could choose from.
Speaker:Yeah, it was tough.
Speaker:My, my initial gut was the go with Holman because of how well he played
Speaker:on Sunday, just like you said.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Uh, it was, it was tough, but I, I think Kainen Jorge kind of turned in
Speaker:a corner, I think a little bit this week offensively, seeing much better
Speaker:at bats, uh, getting the ball in play.
Speaker:But our guys, being a little bit more patient with those quality
Speaker:at bats was huge this week.
Speaker:Getting, taking those free passes, uh, putting the ball in play, doing,
Speaker:doing all the right things, we kind of waiting for that offense to click.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah, it was, it was good.
Speaker:So, congrats.
Speaker:Kainen Jorge.
Speaker:Yeah, big, big week, man.
Speaker:Three bats too.
Speaker:I think it's second.
Speaker:Yeah, I think it's the second time we, we have to, at the end of the year kind
Speaker:of put all these together and, and show all the, all the players of the week.
Speaker:I think that's at least the Ka and second time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, and Dylan, this is his third maybe, maybe fourth outta outta nine weeks.
Speaker:Um, he, so he, Dylan had a great start.
Speaker:He, I mean, didn't, we didn't win that game, which is, uh, upsetting,
Speaker:but five innings, one earn run, four hits, three walks, six strikeouts.
Speaker:One of his.
Speaker:One of his worst good starts.
Speaker:Is that the way you say it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like it was a good start, but not his best.
Speaker:Good start.
Speaker:Um, but we had, guys had a great, I mean, Ben Moore, you know, he had, he,
Speaker:it was to me, kind of neck and neck, five innings, two earn runs, three hits, two
Speaker:walks, five strikeouts, and got the win.
Speaker:I mean, so just that one earned run was really what kind of did it, but.
Speaker:Was one of Ben's, Ben's had two really, really great starts, and they've both
Speaker:been the ones, he's gone five innings.
Speaker:Um, so if he can keep being a little more economical with his
Speaker:pitches, I mean, it's great.
Speaker:And then, uh, Jayce Park had a great start in the midweek three innings.
Speaker:He gave up one unearned run, four hits, no walks, four strikeouts and three innings.
Speaker:So that, that's a great midweek start.
Speaker:And then Bailey, uh, ended up, he got a save, uh, two and a third innings.
Speaker:Did give up two earn runs.
Speaker:One hit three walks, struck out two.
Speaker:So it's not his best appearances, but he held down a save.
Speaker:He had a save in the one game and then held the win in the other game.
Speaker:So another, again, another great week for Bailey.
Speaker:So, so yeah, I, I, it's fun when you actually get to have a hard
Speaker:time picking who's the best out of guys that actually played well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it, it's tough not to give it to Bailey there because of how tough
Speaker:he was on Sunday to stay in there.
Speaker:I mean, for a reliever to basically work two and a third innings,
Speaker:uh, throwing Friday and Sunday.
Speaker:Uh, so he was, he was very, very close in second there.
Speaker:Just on, on toughness alone, if nothing else, to stay in there
Speaker:knowing that I, I don't know what else is in the bullpen, what Coach
Speaker:Finwood would've been able to do.
Speaker:We might've seen Eddie.
Speaker:We might've seen Evan had to swap positions and then go pitch, uh,
Speaker:but they put it together, held it in, got the win, got the series win.
Speaker:At the end of the day, that's, that's the, the most important thing.
Speaker:A tough team won a weekend series.
Speaker:It was huge.
Speaker:I mean, it's a big, like I said, winning four last five, uh, winning a road series.
Speaker:It's, it's big and you hope you're, it's, it's what you've been kind
Speaker:of hoping all year you said.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We, it's been tough.
Speaker:It's been tough.
Speaker:It's been tough.
Speaker:We've been on the road.
Speaker:If all this play, these really good teams, our RPI is 75.
Speaker:I mean we're, we're what?
Speaker:12 and 21 and our RPI is 75.
Speaker:Like that doesn't happen.
Speaker:Uh, usually you're 12 to 21.
Speaker:Your RPI is like two 40.
Speaker:So it, it, it's impressive what they've been able to do.
Speaker:And you're hoping they're turning a corner.
Speaker:Um, you know, we're playing VCU tomorrow night, Tuesday night,
Speaker:I guess tonight probably if you're hearing this on Tuesday.
Speaker:They have not been great this year.
Speaker:Um, they're, what was their record again?
Speaker:It was.
Speaker:Kind of like ours, honestly.
Speaker:11 and 24.
Speaker:Yeah, five and 10 conference.
Speaker:I mean, they're not, their record is not that dissimilar from ours.
Speaker:And you look at their hitting stats and their pitching stats
Speaker:are not dissimilar from ours.
Speaker:So, you know, it's on paper.
Speaker:It's like, well, we should, you know, it's a pretty even game.
Speaker:But, and they played some top 25 teams.
Speaker:It's not like they haven't had some good competition, but this is a team
Speaker:that you should be able to beat you, you've beaten much better teams.
Speaker:Um, playing Louisiana again, Louisiana looked like they were
Speaker:gonna be like, you know, top of the conference and they have not been.
Speaker:Um, and again, this is a team that, you know, you got 'em at home.
Speaker:At home, you're, you're in, in the same city in a way.
Speaker:Um, and, you know, you get to sleep in your own beds.
Speaker:It's a plus.
Speaker:And they don't.
Speaker:And so you hope, you know, you can, again, you'd like to win the series.
Speaker:What we like to do is sweep the series.
Speaker:It may be, you know, it's, it's not easy, it's never easy, but, you know,
Speaker:hey, we, we got the, if our weekend starters are doing that, and if
Speaker:Jayce Park and keep doing, uh, keep getting even better in the weekdays.
Speaker:Some of these relievers can keep moving the right direction.
Speaker:Man, we got some stuff.
Speaker:And then the hitting again, if the hitting just hits, which is, that's
Speaker:been, I think the bigger problem all year is the hitters weren't hitting
Speaker:and now they're doing some stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, putting up 15 runs they showed they can hit.
Speaker:Um, and I think we've been waiting for the offense to come
Speaker:together like that all season.
Speaker:Like it just, I think they were, could not, they were
Speaker:fighting to get to the bat rack.
Speaker:They were not looking down the line for the next guy to kind
Speaker:of get the hit to get it going.
Speaker:They wanted the bat, they wanted to go do it themselves.
Speaker:We've been waiting for that like aggressive mentality
Speaker:to go attack all season.
Speaker:So I'm hoping that's just the start of something new.
Speaker:But it the VCU game, it reminds me of us when we were talking about William
Speaker:and Mary, where on paper we should beat.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We've got a ton of talent.
Speaker:We've got all of this.
Speaker:Then we went out there and just kinda laid, laid an egg at William and Mary, uh,
Speaker:VCU will undoubtedly be up for this game.
Speaker:I think there's some cool nostalgia to them playing this game at War Memorial.
Speaker:Like that's kind of a, a cool little throwback, I know for a couple years.
Speaker:There's the Key Dog classic there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, they'll, they'll be amp for it.
Speaker:So, uh, you'd love to see J Park get another great outing.
Speaker:Some of those other guys in the bullpen step up 'cause we need a
Speaker:couple more bullpen arms if we wanna be realistic about the tournament
Speaker:or we're in a great shape with starting pitching if Ben's good.
Speaker:Dylan's good, and Blake's good.
Speaker:Like, well, we got three legit starters.
Speaker:There aren't a lot of teams that have three legit starters, but, uh, as we
Speaker:saw on Saturday, you, you've gotta have some good arms that aren't named Kellen
Speaker:and Bailey to, to get you out of there.
Speaker:So opportunities for, for dudes to step up.
Speaker:Um, I like the way we match up a little bit against Louisiana.
Speaker:I think Coach Finwood mentioned it last week, but they do have a lot
Speaker:of left-handed hitters and that's actually a strength for our pitchers
Speaker:is, is throwing against lefties.
Speaker:So I like to see that come through.
Speaker:If they win this series, we're what, nine and nine?
Speaker:If we sweep the series, we're 10 and eight.
Speaker:There's a big difference between those two numbers.
Speaker:If you go look at the standings, uh,
Speaker:it's, yeah, it is, it is wild how big the one win can really, 'cause
Speaker:it's not just one win, it's one loss.
Speaker:It's that big.
Speaker:It's, it really is a two game switch either time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Louisiana's eight and seven right now in the conference.
Speaker:Uh, and they're tied for fifth.
Speaker:We're seven and eight.
Speaker:And I guess technically tied for seventh is where that is.
Speaker:Yeah, you're right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I think this, this weekend series with Louisiana is kind of a good litmus
Speaker:test of like, where are we gonna be?
Speaker:Because it's gonna be kind of hard to get a judge off ULM and
Speaker:Off Marshall and off of JMU.
Speaker:Then we'll have.
Speaker:Top of the conference team right now, coastal to end it, uh, I
Speaker:think this weekend could change, uh, if I just go ahead and start
Speaker:booking some hotels in Montgomery.
Speaker:We'll see.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, you hope you, you hope you come out again.
Speaker:You get to play at home.
Speaker:I know we've, the last, uh, time couple weeks ago we were here, had a ton of ODU
Speaker:fans, ton of ODU alumni, uh, a little weirder this time with a Thursday night.
Speaker:Uh, we, uh, Friday afternoon and then a Saturday afternoon.
Speaker:So hopefully we can still get some good crowd.
Speaker:I know I'm gonna miss most of the game Friday.
Speaker:I'll be there hopefully the last few innings on Friday.
Speaker:Um, but you know, hopefully we get good crowds and people
Speaker:come out and we get the same.
Speaker:We have a ton of alumni out there and hopefully we have a lot of that.
Speaker:And, and just, uh, again, these guys getting, getting people
Speaker:actually rooting for them instead of always against them is nice.
Speaker:I secretly hoping we get some sort of announcement that the Friday game got
Speaker:moved to six or seven or something.
Speaker:I don't think it's gonna happen, but
Speaker:Finney would be, it'd be more the opposite that the Thursday
Speaker:game would get moved to three.
Speaker:That's the way Finney has been wanting to go.
Speaker:Every time I talk to him and I'm trying to like, he goes like, yeah, you know, we
Speaker:just, we're not winning the night games.
Speaker:We gotta play the day games.
Speaker:I'm like, yeah, you know, six o'clock is you get more people at the ballpark.
Speaker:I'm trying to, not to say like very selfishly, like, I can't go man.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:Yeah, I think I'm in the same boat.
Speaker:I will likely be Thursday and that's it, just down and back on Thursday.
Speaker:I wish I could go to the game Tuesday down at War Memorial.
Speaker:Not, not in the cards for me, but uh, Fox Sports 1310 will have the radio broadcast.
Speaker:Uh, don't quote me on this, don't throw me under the bus.
Speaker:I think you can listen to that through the 94.1 ESPN radio app.
Speaker:If not, there will be a link at ODU U Sports on the schedule.
Speaker:I'm looking at it right now, so like.
Speaker:If someone takes it off there in the next few minutes, I'll be aggravated.
Speaker:But right now there is an audio link that's there.
Speaker:Uh, so listen, if you can't get over to War Memorial, definitely
Speaker:listen to the game.
Speaker:Uh, but get over Memorial.
Speaker:'cause I'm doing it, I'm leaving work at five and crossing that bridge.
Speaker:So if I'm, I can do it.
Speaker:Anybody can do it.
Speaker:Get over there.
Speaker:Just we, we need a, you know, one of those teleporter things.
Speaker:Just get everyone go meet at Harbor
Speaker:Parking.
Speaker:That's one of the reasons I don't go as many pilots games during the summer.
Speaker:I'd love to go to a lot of pilots games.
Speaker:Sometimes it's just like, man, that's summer traffic and trying
Speaker:to get there from five o'clock, even for a seven o'clock game.
Speaker:It's like I can't spend an hour and a half in traffic.
Speaker:So hopefully it's not that bad tomorrow.
Speaker:We'll, we'll, you know, or on Thursday, whatever day.
Speaker:No, it's tomorrow.
Speaker:I dunno what day it is.
Speaker:It's on Tuesday.
Speaker:It's odu odu, u's winning ballgames four, last five.
Speaker:We're doing great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I had a bit of like a weird meta moment on Saturday night.
Speaker:I'm sitting at a bar in Tampa and I'm looking up, they got
Speaker:Sports Center on one of the TVs.
Speaker:It's like 11 30, 12 o'clock.
Speaker:And I look up and I see J U'S Field.
Speaker:I'm like, oh no, don't, don't ruin my day.
Speaker:I don't wanna see this.
Speaker:Uh, but it was actually Jacob Wax from Troy, their stud, defensive shortstop.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:They got the number one play on SportsCenter catching a
Speaker:ball in shallow left field.
Speaker:No idea how he caught it.
Speaker:He ran from shortstop, he overran it, he bitten himself backwards to catch it.
Speaker:Uh, so then I felt better 'cause it was Troy's top play.
Speaker:I don't think we talked about it last week, but he made a
Speaker:play on a ball up the middle.
Speaker:That's one of the best plays I've ever seen a shortstop make.
Speaker:It was a chopper up the middle.
Speaker:It chopped off the bag.
Speaker:He caught it in throwing motion bare handed and threw it to first.
Speaker:Yeah, like I think he was showing off.
Speaker:He didn't need to do all that.
Speaker:Frankly.
Speaker:That's how I felt about that play.
Speaker:Probably didn't, but man, like what?
Speaker:It was great.
Speaker:It
Speaker:was phenomenal.
Speaker:He, he stole a couple runs from us in that game on, on Saturday there.
Speaker:Uh, so, you know, it was kind of weird looking up seeing that and the bartender's
Speaker:like, who the hell is Troy and JMU, right?
Speaker:I'm like, well, I just saw that kid play last weekend.
Speaker:He's a freaking stud.
Speaker:So yeah, he's good.
Speaker:Number one play on Sports Center.
Speaker:But, uh, I think that gives you an idea of the eyes that are on the Sunbelt
Speaker:right now and how strong the conference is, where you've got teams that could
Speaker:potentially make the tournament and they're like 19 and 16 right now.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, that's, it's a tough league man.
Speaker:It's really tough.
Speaker:Yeah, we, well, you got a team that's, uh, 12 and 21 that can make the tournament.
Speaker:They just gotta do some stuff.
Speaker:I mean, just need to make a little run in the tournament.
Speaker:I mean, we, we've got this pitching.
Speaker:If we can score 15 runs at Georgia Southern, I think I feel
Speaker:pretty good about our offense.
Speaker:Just gotta keep that up.
Speaker:We gotta come out and hit the ball again on Friday.
Speaker:'cause I think that's what kind of got everything going.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is that confidence build on Friday to get ahead and, and go fight and win.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:I, I'm, I'm excited.
Speaker:Get to watch, uh, some games this week.
Speaker:It's always fun.
Speaker:So, uh, that's all, that's all I got.
Speaker:Gary.
Speaker:Let's, let's get out here.
Speaker:Let's let the people will go and, and, uh, probably watch a ball game.
Speaker:That might be, they've just pulling up to the park right now.
Speaker:I'm gonna believe
Speaker:that it could be.
Speaker:Uh, the curtain fell at 25 50.
Speaker:Oh, did
Speaker:it, did it fell at i, it just, the corner.
Speaker:Just the corner.
Speaker:Oh, look at that.
Speaker:I saw it.
Speaker:25 50. So.
Speaker:Alright, that'll do it for us.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
