S2E15 - ULM Recap w/ Alex Hunt
Alex Hunt joins the guys to recap a series win over ULM and his journey to ODU Baseball. Coach Finwood gives us his take on the weekend, umpire stories and a look ahead to Marshall.
Transcript
Yeah.
Speaker:Hello Monarch fans.
Speaker:Welcome to the Hudson Homer podcast after a series win for the
Speaker:Monarchs over Louisiana Monroe.
Speaker:It was a sweaty series win, but a series win nonetheless.
Speaker:And, uh, we are joined, um, joined by CB as always.
Speaker:But our special player guest today is Alex Hunt.
Speaker:We figured since they won the series afterwards, we had to
Speaker:put the player first again.
Speaker:But Alex, thanks for joining us, man.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Nice to be with you guys.
Speaker:Thanks for having me.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:How was your experience down in Monroe this weekend?
Speaker:Getting to throw in three different games.
Speaker:Uh, I think my face just said it.
Speaker:Hot, sweaty a lot.
Speaker:I bet that turf doesn't help.
Speaker:Oh, no, no.
Speaker:Uh, it's funny, it's like you get a pregame warm, like you
Speaker:ev all the pitchers warm up.
Speaker:Pregame.
Speaker:It's like throw everything, but you have to shag BP for the hitters before that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You're done shagging.
Speaker:Oh, you're ready to throw, you're you're full sweat, dude.
Speaker:You don't need to do anything else.
Speaker:Just pick up a ball and throw
Speaker:lathered up and ready to go.
Speaker:It's bad.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But little bit different role for you this weekend.
Speaker:I, I don't think that anyone anticipated seeing you make three
Speaker:appearances over the three games, but you got the job done each time.
Speaker:Uh, what was that like for you getting the call to kind of be that stopper
Speaker:to, to bridge to the later innings?
Speaker:I find it so fun, uh, to be like completely honest.
Speaker:Like I, that's like a, you're coming to a game where like, it's like.
Speaker:It's kinda like do or die, like you gotta perform or you're going to, you are, the
Speaker:team is basically the team's on your back.
Speaker:And that type of situation is like awesome to pitch in.
Speaker:No matter if it's the fifth inning or the ninth inning or
Speaker:whenever it is, one out two outs.
Speaker:I just am happy to be in a situation where I get to pitch for the
Speaker:team, like do hopefully do well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well the team definitely got it done this weekend.
Speaker:Uh, imagine was a little anxious in the, in the dugout through
Speaker:some of those later innings.
Speaker:'cause I mean, we had three really kind of tight games coming
Speaker:down to the final out there.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:Oh, oh, yeah.
Speaker:Uh, it was funny.
Speaker:I was sitting, I was standing next to DB in the ninth inning of the,
Speaker:of the, uh, um, I'm sorry, I lied.
Speaker:I was standing next to Kellen.
Speaker:I was standing next to Kellen in the ninth inning of the last game.
Speaker:And I go right before Bailey comes out, I'm like, I can't
Speaker:do another heart attack here.
Speaker:Well, we got one, but it was, it all ended up being just fine.
Speaker:I still think there's a missed opportunity for ODU to not have some
Speaker:sort of cardio center as the official sponsor because it doesn't matter what
Speaker:sport, like football does it to us.
Speaker:Basketball, field hockey, everybody, even tennis, made it somewhat
Speaker:sweaty for their, uh, their, their championship they got the other day.
Speaker:But man, yeah, that was, uh, sweaty is a good way to put it.
Speaker:We were sweating along with you certainly.
Speaker:So, Alex, you, it, it essentially your first year at ODU u uh, it's
Speaker:your, your fifth year of college.
Speaker:Fourth year playing.
Speaker:Uh, I, I, it was really interesting to me 'cause you have these kind of connections
Speaker:to ODU before you ever got here.
Speaker:Uh oh.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you, I I'll tell you what you, you want, you want to
Speaker:tell us about 'em a little bit?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So funny.
Speaker:So my freshman year, I'm not gonna go through the whole thing, but
Speaker:it was a long, long-winded story.
Speaker:Here's it short.
Speaker:Basically I got hurt my freshman year, uh, so I didn't play.
Speaker:So however I was recruited that to like be a freshman.
Speaker:I, I at Iona by Paul Panik, that's the, that's where we start, right?
Speaker:So he was my head coach at Iona for my first year at Iona.
Speaker:Uh, and then he ended up leaving.
Speaker:So fast forward to my sophomore year, my first year eligibility,
Speaker:like first year actually playing.
Speaker:The first outing I had out back after Tommy John was at ODU
Speaker:right in, in a game.
Speaker:There was also the first appearance in college for Blake Morgan.
Speaker:I dunno if you knew that.
Speaker:Did not know that.
Speaker:And it was also my, uh, high school teammate was also
Speaker:playing third base for you guys.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Kenny LaVar.
Speaker:Kenny
Speaker:was your high school.
Speaker:You guys won a state championship right at uh, correct.
Speaker:At St. Augustine.
Speaker:And who was your pitching coach at St. Augustine?
Speaker:Mike Nay, who also was an alum.
Speaker:ODU alum.
Speaker:Mike Nay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you did, you just missed, uh, because of Covid getting to play with, uh, your
Speaker:current teammate came, uh, Marco Levari, who had been a freshman your senior year,
Speaker:correct?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We lost that senior year.
Speaker:That team would've been so good.
Speaker:I'm not gonna, would've.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:People who don't know, like saying Alex, because we got, I mean now that's
Speaker:up to three I can think of recently.
Speaker:And then there's another kid coming in a couple years.
Speaker:Yeah, we're, we're definitely taking that jersey pipeline straight from it.
Speaker:You guys produce some talent outta that school?
Speaker:Certainly.
Speaker:I mean, there's just a culture of winning there that's like unlike anywhere
Speaker:else in I've ever been a part of.
Speaker:Yeah, that's, that is pretty awesome.
Speaker:Um, I, I think that was the same weekend as a couple other guys on the team, right?
Speaker:Like they, they played the Friday, what was it?
Speaker:Kyle Edwards and
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Kyle Edwards and Luke Waters.
Speaker:Because I was, I was looking back 'cause I knew that Alex had made his debut and
Speaker:I wasn't sure which day And, uh, and Alex, Alex, you gave up one run and one
Speaker:inning in your, in your college debut.
Speaker:Uh, but in respective that whole game wasn't that bad of an appearance.
Speaker:'cause you guys, uh,
Speaker:that was a rough one.
Speaker:I think it was a, it was, it was a rough weekend, honestly, for Iona.
Speaker:It was, that was a 19 to one loss.
Speaker:And I think we, we beat y'all pretty good and all three of those.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, actually.
Speaker:First game, you GII heard Finney ripped into the fellas.
Speaker:'cause we almost took game game one.
Speaker:I I about to go back.
Speaker:Check that out.
Speaker:I think, I feel like you might be right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think
Speaker:it was like a four, three or four two ball game or something like that.
Speaker:And I heard, I went out to dinner with Kenny after and he was said they got, they
Speaker:got ripped game one after it, and then they came out the next two days and Right.
Speaker:Did what they were supposed to, but oh yeah, that was a rough
Speaker:start to a, uh, rough year.
Speaker:That was a, yeah.
Speaker:Historical run that we made not to talk bad about.
Speaker:I loved it there, but, um, it was a historical run we made
Speaker:and we all got closer for it.
Speaker:Owen 29 isn't necessarily the greatest start to a baseball season.
Speaker:Yeah, I've been, uh, you know, right here in Norfolk, we got Norfolk State who,
Speaker:you know, always root for those guys.
Speaker:They're like, they're good people.
Speaker:And, uh, especially the pitching coach.
Speaker:Brett Mays just an awesome guy and they're having a rough year.
Speaker:They're, I think they just won their second game this weekend.
Speaker:They're like two and 31.
Speaker:So yeah, it's, it happens sometimes, man.
Speaker:It's, it's, it's not like, Hey odu, we're not having the most
Speaker:amazing year either, right?
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Definitely took a good step forward over the weekend, kind of gutting out those two
Speaker:wins because if you looked at what else happened around the Sunbelt, it actually
Speaker:played into our favor pretty well.
Speaker:Uh, you, I don't know if you've looked at it or not Alex, but coastal swept.
Speaker:JMU not, not a huge shocker there.
Speaker:Southern Miss goes to App State sweeps them, but Marshall sweeps South Alabama,
Speaker:Arkansas State sweeps, Georgia State, uh, kind of, kind of topsy-turvy a little bit.
Speaker:And we've got a, a pathway now to that top six seat, which is pretty crazy.
Speaker:I know, I'm, I follow just as much as you guys do.
Speaker:I, my goal, like literally like when I was re getting recruited going
Speaker:to my fifth year, I just wanted to make the conference playoffs.
Speaker:I have never been to a conference, play conference playoffs, so I've
Speaker:been following it every single day and I am, couldn't be happier
Speaker:with how we are sitting right now.
Speaker:Yeah, that's great.
Speaker:Um, well of course you have now Red Hot Marshall team that's won five straight
Speaker:and just got a, a series sweep coming, coming into town to War Memorial.
Speaker:But at least that one is quote unquote at home for us.
Speaker:I'll take that.
Speaker:We play well at War Memorial.
Speaker:That's
Speaker:all I
Speaker:have to
Speaker:say.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:I I, I was, I was saying last week, I feel like it's, it's more our
Speaker:vibe, you know, the Harbor Park is really nice, but more memorials.
Speaker:It feels like us.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I mean, the keg in the bullpen does it for me, so I dunno if you've seen that yet.
Speaker:I hadn't seen that.
Speaker:I'll gotta check that out this weekend.
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:They have a painted gold keg out there.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:That's really good.
Speaker:Um, so Alex, so you graduated from my own right.
Speaker:So what, what was your degree in?
Speaker:So I had a, uh, undergrad in finance.
Speaker:So I have mm-hmm.
Speaker:A Bachelor's of Finance and I am currently, uh, doing like
Speaker:halfway through my MBA here.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:NBA.
Speaker:So you're gonna make like a ton, a ton of money and never talk to like
Speaker:simple folks like me ever again.
Speaker:I hope I'm paying a whole lot of money for it.
Speaker:I know that
Speaker:Well, as, as any business person knows, you gotta spend money to make money.
Speaker:I, I so far, I mean, the first half of that, I've just spent
Speaker:money and then eventually,
Speaker:apparently it all comes around.
Speaker:That's what I've heard.
Speaker:That's what, that's what they say for you.
Speaker:Probably
Speaker:not me.
Speaker:We'll see.
Speaker:I I'm still waiting.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So what, I mean, I'm sure you're getting asked this a thousand times, but, uh,
Speaker:what are your plans for after the season?
Speaker:Are you coming back for another semester to finish the MBA?
Speaker:How is that all working?
Speaker:I still ask myself those questions as well.
Speaker:Um, I will say this, I will definitely not be back in Virginia for
Speaker:finishing my MBA, uh, if I am plan.
Speaker:The plan is to finish it.
Speaker:So says my parents, but
Speaker:I was just
Speaker:say mom.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Say I, I know that they listen because I met them uh, before I think
Speaker:the Troy series down in Norfolk.
Speaker:So that, just ignore what you heard.
Speaker:Don't worry.
Speaker:They are big fans and this is going to be a surprise to them that I'm on here.
Speaker:I have not told them intentionally.
Speaker:Oh, that's fun.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That'd
Speaker:be nice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we will see to answer, to finish that question, but I am planning on
Speaker:finishing it back home in New Jersey.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Gotcha.
Speaker:That, that the motherland.
Speaker:We gotcha.
Speaker:Yeah, and
Speaker:I'm probably gonna, and, and to be completely honest, I'm probably gonna
Speaker:like slow it down a little bit and just 'cause cost will go up obviously,
Speaker:uh, without any baseball scholarship.
Speaker:And I obviously am not from Virginia, so it's very expensive to go here.
Speaker:So I'll probably stagger it over two years.
Speaker:Very good.
Speaker:While getting a job, hopefully
Speaker:hire him now.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker:Well, so, oh, go ahead, CB.
Speaker:Oh, you go ahead Gary.
Speaker:You got it.
Speaker:I'm sure you have.
Speaker:Well, I was, I was gonna
Speaker:ask a really hard hitting question of like, yeah.
Speaker:Is it just univer universally known throughout the team that you have
Speaker:the best mustache or was there like some fight to get to that?
Speaker:So there, so I, it depends who you ask.
Speaker:I think people, I think at this rate, people are thinking
Speaker:that it's a little overgrown.
Speaker:So
Speaker:I, I get some comments on being overgrown.
Speaker:Connor Schumann also has a great mustache.
Speaker:His is well kept.
Speaker:So there's a tight battle.
Speaker:I don't know, I can get the curls when I have the wax.
Speaker:So that's kind, I was, I was
Speaker:just gonna say, I feel like yours gets a little more, you got a
Speaker:little more, um, you know, vibrant, lower fingers a little more.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:You know, also
Speaker:a little more like rolly fingers action, you know?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:You also, you, you make like a face when you pitch that like, almost
Speaker:like accentuates the mustache.
Speaker:Uh, you have like, it's like a, it's like the, the like the emoji with
Speaker:like the straight line face and it just, the mustache go like dead.
Speaker:So it, the way you throw for me through the camera, I'm like, oh,
Speaker:the mustache is, is rocking tonight.
Speaker:We're rolling.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, it's taken on it mind of its own.
Speaker:I really wanna shave it, but I guess I can at this rate.
Speaker:So
Speaker:you gotta let it keep going so you can get like the full circle all the way.
Speaker:Yeah, you gotta get the full circle.
Speaker:So that way it's like the distraction up there.
Speaker:It was funny.
Speaker:I was like, I should've just kept this part too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Just had to go all the way down.
Speaker:That wouldn't pretty dope.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:Anyway,
Speaker:that's something we can do as we get ready for the, uh, the tournament.
Speaker:You can just let it all go.
Speaker:'cause I know for a while all the guys were growing mustaches and they shaved
Speaker:them after, I think Georgia State.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, and their heads too.
Speaker:I don't know why people do that.
Speaker:It's kind of strange to me.
Speaker:But they, like
Speaker:baseball players are just extremely weird.
Speaker:I think that's the one thing you probably know that from still being
Speaker:one and around them, that they're just, y'all are deeply odd and you
Speaker:get around each other and someone has a bad idea and it just keeps going.
Speaker:Ex exactly.
Speaker:Like my last, uh, when my last school, same thing.
Speaker:Kids were like, oh, we're all gonna shave our heads.
Speaker:We,
Speaker:why?
Speaker:I, I worked at Randolph Macon College when I first graduated from ODU
Speaker:and I was working in the athletic department and doing a lot with like the
Speaker:baseball team and sports information.
Speaker:And the baseball team went to their conference tournament.
Speaker:They didn't tell anybody, but they actually shaved a full horseshoe
Speaker:receding hairline into their heads.
Speaker:So when, so when you wear your hat, it looks normal, right?
Speaker:Like the sides look normal, the back and all of that.
Speaker:Then they go out there for the national anthem, and then after the
Speaker:national anthem, they all tip their cap and you see nothing but domes
Speaker:staring back at the, in the stands.
Speaker:It was one of the greatest things I've ever seen from a baseball team.
Speaker:That is commitment.
Speaker:I'll put it that way.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah, because they had to go home with that at some point a couple days later.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's
Speaker:crazy.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:there's something severely wrong with them, but that's, I hope they had fun.
Speaker:They, they had a blast.
Speaker:I'll say that.
Speaker:I was hoping they'd win the whole thing, so that way that
Speaker:is the championship photo.
Speaker:That's like in the trophy case, but, uh, didn't, didn't make it that year.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:The next year though.
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:Uh, so Alex who are you living with this year?
Speaker:So I'm with Hunter Baines and Dylan Tostrup.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's a pretty solid house.
Speaker:That's a, that's a nice group of people right there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Not too bad at all.
Speaker:Yeah, we're,
Speaker:I would, I would, I think we are, uh, one of the cleanest houses.
Speaker:Of them all.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:So I'm very happy with that, especially being, I believe that
Speaker:I'm a little over the grimy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because, yeah, because Dylan's the one, his like fourth year and then
Speaker:Hunter's, Hunter's second year, but he's a pretty mature kid, so, so yeah.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:Yeah, he's,
Speaker:it's, he's like ridiculous.
Speaker:It was funny.
Speaker:I was like, did not think he was a sophomore when I first met him.
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:I, he, he's one of those guys I talk to pretty regularly.
Speaker:I, yes, hunter's.
Speaker:Hunter's a good kid.
Speaker:Um, so, so three of you guys, y'all all came from different places.
Speaker:You're all brand new to the team this year, so you had to like, I'm sure,
Speaker:just kind of get to know each other.
Speaker:How's that been?
Speaker:Have you had, like, does you feel like, are you guys besties now?
Speaker:Are you braiding each other's hairs or, or mustache?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:uh, Dylan gets this side.
Speaker:Hunter gets this side.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:But yeah, no, it's cool.
Speaker:We, we get along very well and it's, it ended up being a great
Speaker:fit, so I couldn't be happier.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:That's, that is great to hear.
Speaker:Well, one question we've been asking everyone that comes on and
Speaker:we haven't had a picture on in a little while, so it's a little bit
Speaker:different question, but, uh, come on.
Speaker:You know, MLB the show has, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:We, I was mentioning it last week, but uh, you know, had to, had to pivot there
Speaker:at the last second with, I think Bailey had classes or something like that.
Speaker:Um, but with, with, uh, you know, the college baseball limit being an MLB,
Speaker:the show, we had the college football game back, we're asking all the guys,
Speaker:like, what would your video game rating be overall, and like, what category
Speaker:would you have the highest rating in?
Speaker:So like, control break, velocity, something like that.
Speaker:And then what was your overall
Speaker:mustache?
Speaker:99
Speaker:Mustache.
Speaker:99 mustache.
Speaker:No doubt.
Speaker:Uh, nine, nine walk.
Speaker:Geez.
Speaker:No, I'm kidding.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Uh, I see this funny.
Speaker:I don't even play any of these games, which is a, so this is a terrible question
Speaker:for me, but I'm gonna go with, if I, if it's a college baseball game, I'm
Speaker:gonna say, uh, relief pitcher at 81.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Guess fair.
Speaker:See, he's right.
Speaker:That range of like, yeah, there's, we get that from the guys who have
Speaker:like, that, like internal humility.
Speaker:We get a lot of like that 82 to 85 range of guys who are like, Hey,
Speaker:an 81 reliever can be a really good, good for you in a game.
Speaker:Sure, why not?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I love this
Speaker:though, that like, you, you have embodied the mustache 'cause
Speaker:you, there's a very much like an old man get off my couch vibe.
Speaker:Like, you're like, I don't want a dirty house.
Speaker:I'm not playing these video games.
Speaker:You can't stay, stop throwing water on my laptop.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:sometimes I do feel like an old man, and they do call me an old man sometimes.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:uh, I feel like that's a necessary part of the team though.
Speaker:You've gotta have the, the grizzled vet that'll tell you to shut up occasionally.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sometimes, you know, sometimes they deserve it, I guess Sometimes
Speaker:they don't, but it happens.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Most, I would say most of the time they deserve it, but yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Well, I, I know we talked about your hat a little bit beforehand, but would
Speaker:love to hear more about, about that and, and kind of what they've done for you
Speaker:throughout your, uh, your pitching career.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, so the hat is Baseball Performance Center.
Speaker:Uh, they're in new, a little, like a little small place in New Jersey.
Speaker:Uh, they train a bunch of athletes now, but I, when I first went
Speaker:there, it was probably a handful.
Speaker:Um, they've actually done everything for me in my baseball career, so I've
Speaker:been training with them since I was probably a sophomore in high school.
Speaker:Uh, we have a couple kids on the team that go there now and.
Speaker:I just, if whoever's listening to this and you are younger and you don't
Speaker:really, if you need to like improve your baseball career, go there.
Speaker:I'm telling you right now.
Speaker:Go there.
Speaker:They set me up perfectly.
Speaker:The, the reason I'm here, uh, the, the reason I'm the pitch I am today,
Speaker:granted, I put in the work, you have to put in the work, but they
Speaker:give you the guidance you need.
Speaker:And I'm like doing an advertisement for them.
Speaker:I feel like even though I don't need to, but I mean, uh, I couldn't be
Speaker:happier and I couldn't be more thankful for the guys there, especially Mike.
Speaker:Great dude.
Speaker:I mean, I think we just need to like endow a membership there for our New
Speaker:Jersey pipeline just to make sure they're all going through that on their
Speaker:way down to eventually getting to ODU.
Speaker:It seemed like yours was like destiny that did land here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It, it, it felt like that when I committed here too.
Speaker:It was so funny.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that's awesome.
Speaker:I don't, I don't know much about Ionas campus, but is like a huge difference.
Speaker:I mean, obviously climate's a little bit different, but is there a huge
Speaker:difference between like the way their campus is laid out and like ODU being
Speaker:somewhat in the city for Norfolk?
Speaker:Can I be honest with you?
Speaker:Um, a hundred percent.
Speaker:I think I've walked through the campus here once,
Speaker:not a great endorsement here.
Speaker:I, all my classes are online.
Speaker:I'm in the MBA program, so I don't really go to class classes on campus,
Speaker:but I'll put it this way, uh, Iona had about, I don't know, 5,000,
Speaker:6,000 students, something like that.
Speaker:This is probably double, triple, I don't even know.
Speaker:Uh, the campus we had there was in New York, so everything's more
Speaker:condensed and you could probably walk through it within 10 minutes.
Speaker:Not even maybe eight.
Speaker:Definitely half the size.
Speaker:I would probably say.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And I think OD kind of is a smaller, but you also have no concept
Speaker:'cause you haven't walked around.
Speaker:Yeah, could exactly.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I'll put it this way.
Speaker:We didn't have a football stadium, we also didn't have a baseball field.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:What'd
Speaker:y'all play?
Speaker:A city park.
Speaker:It was pretty cool though.
Speaker:So you just go, you just liked going from school to school
Speaker:that doesn't have a field.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No, no.
Speaker:I'm used to this.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:This is, this
Speaker:is, this is nothing for you.
Speaker:This is, they just like, yeah, we don't have a, yeah, fine.
Speaker:But we get here and like in the fall and like Finney's like saying
Speaker:how hard of a season's gonna be.
Speaker:Like, we're only gonna have, I think what, six home games?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's like.
Speaker:I've only ever had six home series.
Speaker:What do you mean?
Speaker:And you can even, I don't even know if they're home.
Speaker:They're like, just like 15 minutes down the road.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's not like they're on campus.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's hilarious.
Speaker:I
Speaker:think, I can't remember if it was George Washington or Georgetown had the
Speaker:same setup until a couple years ago.
Speaker:They were literally playing at a city park, uh, for their home baseball game.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:It was wild.
Speaker:Ours was great though.
Speaker:We had a, our batter's eye, sorry it was terrible for the hitters,
Speaker:but our batter's eye was a huge white public storage building.
Speaker:It was awesome.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Oh, guys, in your lineup must, must've been just brutal on like
Speaker:a bright, sunny day when the sun's reflecting off that thing.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:I don't even know how they did it.
Speaker:I, I, I don't know how hitters do what they do to begin with and then
Speaker:add that in there and beyond me.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Well that is, that is wild.
Speaker:That's crazy.
Speaker:Oh, well.
Speaker:Awesome, Alex.
Speaker:Well, we appreciate you joining us.
Speaker:I dunno, CB do you have any other, uh, questions for Alex?
Speaker:No, I
Speaker:was just say Alex, man, you're you're awesome, dude.
Speaker:I'm glad we could have you come on.
Speaker:I, I really enjoyed you, uh, being around the team this year.
Speaker:I, I, I love having an old man on the team.
Speaker:It's, it's, it's fun.
Speaker:It's good to have, uh, it's, it's necessary.
Speaker:It, and, uh, you're great man.
Speaker:We appreciate you being a monarch this last year.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:I couldn't, I couldn't be happier to be here and thank you guys for having me on.
Speaker:Um, and mom and dad.
Speaker:Hi.
Speaker:I know you're gonna see this, so
Speaker:gotta give the parents a shout out.
Speaker:Awesome Alex.
Speaker:We'll, we'll let you go.
Speaker:Uh, but yeah, great, great work this weekend and good luck.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, at War Memorial this weekend against Marshall.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Thank you guys.
Speaker:Hope to you guys there too.
Speaker:We'll be there, man.
Speaker:We'll be there.
Speaker:Awesome
Speaker:Alex.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Appreciate you man.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:See you guys
Speaker:all.
Speaker:We're gonna take a quick break and when we get back Love it.
Speaker:We will have Coach Finwood.
Speaker:All this episode of the Monarchist podcast is brought to you by
Speaker:the pride of ODU Collective.
Speaker:Their mission is to elevate the experience of student athletes through
Speaker:name, image, and likeness, while also elevating the fan experience.
Speaker:If you or your business are interested in getting involved,
Speaker:you can reach out to us directly or go over to the pride of odu.com.
Speaker:That is the pride of odu.com.
Speaker:Thank you for listening, and go Monarchs.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well, we're actually running a few minutes early, so Coach Finny
Speaker:will be hopping on here probably about five, six minutes or so, but
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Alex is cracking me up, man.
Speaker:It's funny, I, I know they called him old man a lot and dad and grandpa
Speaker:some, I didn't really realize how it permeated his entirely personality.
Speaker:That was, that's pretty great.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Well, for an old man slash grandpa, I believe he is the first
Speaker:pitcher this year to throw in all three games of a weekend series.
Speaker:I, hopefully the last, to be honest, but he did great.
Speaker:He, uh, he, yeah, all three, I think I counted he had five inherited runners
Speaker:and, uh, four of 'em left stranded.
Speaker:Uh, so that's pretty great.
Speaker:I, that's one of those stats that I think I've said this on here before,
Speaker:I really wish we would normalize and.
Speaker:And have a lot more data about what's a good number, you know, is like, to
Speaker:me, allowing one of five inherited runners to score sounds pretty good,
Speaker:but I have no idea if, like, honestly, allowing three outta five might be good.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I, I really don't know what the numbers are.
Speaker:I, I, I wish that we could find some more data on that.
Speaker:I, it's, it's out there.
Speaker:Maybe somebody has it.
Speaker:I gotta dig deeper.
Speaker:Um, 'cause that's an important thing.
Speaker:I mean, that's as important as anything with believers is can you come in?
Speaker:How many times this year have we had like, where guys come up with guys
Speaker:on base and it just trickles away?
Speaker:Trickles away, trickles away.
Speaker:It's like, ah, man.
Speaker:That's, that's the difference between being good and not being a good reliever.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I, I don't know what our numbers would be like.
Speaker:I'm sure we could probably go back and manually calculate it if we
Speaker:had all the free time in the world.
Speaker:I know it's probably not been good
Speaker:for us so far this year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, so see, but I also
Speaker:don't know if it's any worse than anybody else.
Speaker:That's, I really don't know.
Speaker:It fee, it's one of those things like, it feels like it's so bad because it's
Speaker:you, but then it's like, well, how many other times have we had guys on
Speaker:the base reliever comes in and we hit like a three run double or something?
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:It's, it's, yeah.
Speaker:You, you, you really, you always wanna believe it's bad,
Speaker:but it's like, is it that?
Speaker:Who knows?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Maybe someone who out there who's listening that, uh, is better with
Speaker:that stuff than us can let us know.
Speaker:Leave us a voicemail.
Speaker:Uh, we definitely still have the voicemail line set up, so feel free.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:One of you nerd with time.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I wish, I wish I did.
Speaker:I don't think if I use my data analyst at work for that, that I don't think
Speaker:I'd last very long, but I can try.
Speaker:If I see the writing on the wall, we'll get that.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:That's fun.
Speaker:Well, we talked about it a little bit with Alex, but it was kind of
Speaker:a crazy weekend for the Sunbelt.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Four sweeps, which on its own is weird, but then you look at the
Speaker:teams that were doing it, it's a little even more surprising.
Speaker:Yeah, it's very odd.
Speaker:And, and it's just, it goes to show, I mean, what do we say?
Speaker:We're, we're tied for eighth right now?
Speaker:Is that where we're at?
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:Was it 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 aside for seventh, actually.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, which still puts us in that, you know, single elimination play in.
Speaker:Uh, but it just shows, you know, we kind of gave away the game on Friday.
Speaker:And so if we had that, we'd definitely be in seventh place.
Speaker:And then we had a game last week.
Speaker:We kinda get, so these, these games here or there that we,
Speaker:you kind of blow and give away.
Speaker:I mean, if we just won two more games, we're sitting there at, uh, 12 and nine
Speaker:And you're solidly in fourth place.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we, we, it wouldn't be tied.
Speaker:We'd be beating them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because we'd have the
Speaker:tiebreaker over Louisiana.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so it's just one of those things where, you know, the, these
Speaker:couple of games here or there that we just can't quite finish off.
Speaker:It's like, ah, man, it's the difference between, it's, it's
Speaker:so, the league is so compact.
Speaker:Once you get past coastal and to a lesser extent Southern Miss and Troy, it's just
Speaker:like a bunch of teams who a week, like I said, a weekend sweep all of a sudden
Speaker:shoots people up to, up to the, I mean, Marshall went from being at the bottom
Speaker:at six and 12 to now they're nine and 12 and they're right there, right behind us.
Speaker:And Georgia State, who's been really in the top four or five all
Speaker:season, they now find themselves a game behind us in the standings.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Uh, so it's, it is wild.
Speaker:But I see, uh, coach Finwood has hopped on here.
Speaker:He's getting the camera set up all squared away.
Speaker:So we'll bring him on now to talk more.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:What's up guys?
Speaker:What's going on?
Speaker:What's up?
Speaker:How we doing?
Speaker:Good, man.
Speaker:How you doing?
Speaker:Good, man.
Speaker:I'm here.
Speaker:We made it.
Speaker:We're back.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:How was that travel from
Speaker:Louisiana?
Speaker:Ah, well not great, but then it was all of a sudden we were here.
Speaker:So last flight of the, of the year.
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah, I say last long one,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:and y'all came back today, right?
Speaker:You didn't try to do the late night last night?
Speaker:No, we couldn't get out, uh,
Speaker:' cause we flew outta Jackson, Mississippi, which is a couple hours from Monroe.
Speaker:Um, and we just, we'd had to play at like nine in the morning.
Speaker:Um, so we just decided with today in the mar being kind of
Speaker:reading days, um, for exams.
Speaker:We just come back today and um, a lot of guys are online classes anyway, so Yeah.
Speaker:Cost is another night a hotel, but, you know, we didn't have to play
Speaker:so early, which is just terrible on Sundays having to play that already.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You don't, don't risk, uh, getting stuck in it like Atlanta or Charlotte
Speaker:or something for the night either.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which we, which we have done before as well, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but also, you know, you don't run into any of the time constraints.
Speaker:Um, we ended up playing an extra, any game yesterday, you know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, you could run into travel curfews and things that you
Speaker:just don't want to get into.
Speaker:So, uh, worked out.
Speaker:Worked out good from that standpoint for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well we had, uh, I heard you guys talking about the, the
Speaker:race man, it's crazy, isn't it?
Speaker:Like it's, yeah.
Speaker:Um, you know, uh, Marshall, you know, went from getting swept to sweeping and, you
Speaker:know, kept themselves in it and, um, I'd like to know how many teams haven't been
Speaker:swept this year, and I'm sure coastal, Southern, miss Troy probably haven't
Speaker:maybe, but, um, I think a lot of teams, you know, maybe have at some point.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Maybe Louisiana hasn't as well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Us scratching and clawing for that, you know, salvaging a game or whatever
Speaker:on the road has, has paid off.
Speaker:I. Uh, to keep us right in the race.
Speaker:I think we're, we're tied for seventh.
Speaker:Now we have a pretty clear pathway to get into the top six.
Speaker:We just gotta, gotta go out and do it.
Speaker:But I think we took a good step in the right direction this weekend of
Speaker:not letting the Friday game drag us down, coming back and gutting out
Speaker:two wins on Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, we knew, you know, um, we needed to win these next
Speaker:three series, um, you know, after, after the Louisiana series.
Speaker:I mean, those were the, the only three series of the, of the year where
Speaker:we're playing teams actually below us.
Speaker:Um, you know, Marshall's just a game below us now, but still not above us.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, the, the schedule maker didn't do us any, any favors
Speaker:this year for sure, but they were winnable series if we played well
Speaker:and, and we did play pretty well.
Speaker:You know, um, guys, were ready to play Friday, man, I, I, I'll
Speaker:say this about the whole weekend.
Speaker:I don't, we had seven or eight hits Friday, but.
Speaker:Um, and then a bunch Saturday and Sunday we hit, starting on Friday.
Speaker:We must have lined out.
Speaker:I know we lined out 10 times yesterday on top of 16 hits.
Speaker:I kept track of them.
Speaker:I mean, we hit 26 balls on screws yesterday and I was like,
Speaker:at some point this has gotta come work in our favor, man.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:Um, and of course Saturday they lined out, you know, quite a bit, you know,
Speaker:it balanced out from that standpoint.
Speaker:But we hit the ball hard Friday too.
Speaker:Didn't have a lot to show for, but still had to lead.
Speaker:And just we Friday was we, and you gotta give them credit for
Speaker:this too 'cause they got it done.
Speaker:But we, we just could not make enough good pitches with two strikes.
Speaker:We, we hung a bunch of breaking balls with two strikes and gave up
Speaker:pits and ended up costing us the game, you know, as with one strike.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:Uh, kid did a double down the line on the hanging, breaking ball in the bottom of
Speaker:the eighth of basically loading two outs.
Speaker:And, you know, that was the, that was the ball game.
Speaker:So, um,
Speaker:and I think, I think that six inning was the same thing.
Speaker:You got two quick outs in the inning and then they were able to kind of get
Speaker:some walks, get some timely hitting and put a three up on the, on the board.
Speaker:And that, I know you look at the eighth, but the sixth inning was kind of similar.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It was so close there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, um, you know, uh, we were, we were just, you know, they, they were getting
Speaker:the big hits, you know, that day.
Speaker:We got a few early, um, not, we knocked their starters out, you know, and
Speaker:I don't think that start or go won three innings, um, all three games.
Speaker:So we did a good job on that.
Speaker:Um, but again, you know, not long enough starts four, two thirds, four, two thirds.
Speaker:Blake gave us a good one.
Speaker:Um, you know, getting into the seventh on Sunday.
Speaker:Um, which is helpful, but we gotta get better.
Speaker:Starts on, on Friday and Saturday.
Speaker:Certainly.
Speaker:And Dylan's was, is as, is aspirated a little bit by getting hit.
Speaker:You know, he got hit with that line drive that hit him in the hand
Speaker:and then in the side of the head.
Speaker:And I thought it hit him in the glove because it knocked his glove off.
Speaker:G heck went straight up.
Speaker:He made a heck of a play, um, to get the out.
Speaker:But then, um, it, it, he said it didn't bother him.
Speaker:I don't know how, I couldn't, there's no way didn't Yeah, that's, that's
Speaker:tough guy.
Speaker:Baseball player stuff.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Uh, so, you know, after a tough lost Friday, we just said, look guys,
Speaker:this is the simple fact Tomorrow, you could say at every game,
Speaker:but tomorrow is, uh, huge game.
Speaker:You know, we, we, we need to come out and play.
Speaker:Well, I hate ever saying we have to win tomorrow, because I don't think
Speaker:you wanna put that on college athletes.
Speaker:So they just tight, they just tighten right up when you say that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I said, that is the biggest game of the year.
Speaker:And you gotta decide.
Speaker:Some of you guys, you know, are default to getting frustrated, angry, mad,
Speaker:rather than finding out ways to win.
Speaker:Play better, help your team do something, show up here tomorrow,
Speaker:do something to help us win.
Speaker:And, and the guys did you know it, it wasn't pretty, I mean, I. By any means.
Speaker:I think we walked nine and hit three.
Speaker:Um, and we had a couple crazy innings.
Speaker:You know, the, I don't know if it was the sixth and the seventh maybe.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:And we had, um, out of the six outs, we had three strikeouts and three
Speaker:absolute missiles to the wall that we, you know, Luke made a heck of
Speaker:a catch on the one out right hill.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, and we gave him six free base runners and they didn't score a run.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That was, it was crazy.
Speaker:They were talking about it at one point.
Speaker:They like, they've had bases loaded like three straight innings that
Speaker:didn't have a hit since the fifth.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was like, what is happening in this ball?
Speaker:And that's
Speaker:living, that's living on the edge.
Speaker:Um, big time.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And, um, but I, you know, the guys came in at the end.
Speaker:I thought Bailey threw the ball well.
Speaker:You know, on Saturday and you know, we got a couple big hits late to expand
Speaker:that, expand that lead just enough, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, tie the series up and Sunday, man, it was kind of the same thing,
Speaker:you know, we jumped up and, um, we were hitting a bunch of balls hard.
Speaker:They just weren't finding enough holes to, to put that game away.
Speaker:We knew they were gonna go to their, their closer as early as they needed to.
Speaker:Um, and, and, and he came in and did a good job.
Speaker:He kept us kind of that bay for three or four innings there
Speaker:in the middle of the game.
Speaker:And again, they scratched and kind of got back in it.
Speaker:Um, after Blake came out, I'll give our bullpen credit for this
Speaker:though, you know, and a couple guys, you know, running on fumes.
Speaker:We asked them to go back to back to back days, get a hiter out
Speaker:or so when they on, on Sunday, they bent, but they didn't break.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And I was proud of that.
Speaker:Sometimes it's not about being perfect, it's just about being brave and tough.
Speaker:And, and you know, Marco Levari has had a rotten ear, um, but he
Speaker:is had a couple moments where he is come in and saved our butts.
Speaker:And I just keep telling you, you're capable of doing that, you know, a
Speaker:hit there and the game's over, he comes in, you know, second and third
Speaker:one out, we're up one, you can't play the infield in there and try to win
Speaker:because you know, the, the, you, you just can lose the game too easily on.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the ball the got hit, if our infield end would've got through, uh, yeah.
Speaker:Would've been a walk.
Speaker:Been a walk
Speaker:off.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so you gotta just, at that point, you're trying to just extend the game.
Speaker:If you can get a strikeout, great, but you're trying to only
Speaker:give up one and keep playing.
Speaker:Um, which is what we did.
Speaker:And Marco did a good job.
Speaker:He got two ground balls.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, and, you know, we keep, we keep playing and then, uh, you know,
Speaker:Brody finally gets a, you know, kind of a, a, a duck fart hit over
Speaker:there in the right field, which we hadn't gotten the whole day, which
Speaker:he'd been hitting laser beams all
Speaker:weekend, huh?
Speaker:Yeah, he'd been laser beams all weekend and yeah, like I said, get, yeah, get far.
Speaker:You're right.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Uh, old school baseball.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And, uh.
Speaker:Then Zach who, um, had hit the ball really hard.
Speaker:You know, it's funny, like his Zach's first, Zach been grounding
Speaker:out to the infield a lot.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:His first at bat, he gets a two oh pitch for, you know, first and
Speaker:third or base load, whatever it was.
Speaker:And we, luckily they don't, can't turn two on it and I just had enough.
Speaker:So I lit his butt up and um, you know, and his next four at bats, I think he,
Speaker:he averaged probably 105 x exit velocity.
Speaker:So I said, alright, I, I'll just start yelling at you during
Speaker:bating practice for now long,
Speaker:but a huge hit, right?
Speaker:He drives one in the gap on a three-two pitch Brody's running so we can score
Speaker:him and then Mav comes up and, and hits one, you know, second home run of
Speaker:the day to give us a three run lead.
Speaker:So, you know, I told Mav it's, you know, it's the temperature's in the eighties now
Speaker:you can start playing good like last year.
Speaker:So, uh, we rested you, he doubled his his for part season.
Speaker:He doubled his home run at RBI totals for the season in that game.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I dunno.
Speaker:You know that right?
Speaker:That's,
Speaker:that's a crazy stat.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, we, you've seen what he's capable of.
Speaker:I mean, he can take over a game.
Speaker:Um, he just got off to such a rotten start, but he's swinging
Speaker:the bat a lot better now.
Speaker:A lot of our guy, our guys are, I think, yeah.
Speaker:And, um, you know, I think Kaden, Jorge's had a bunch of really good at bats since
Speaker:we stuck them in the lead off spot.
Speaker:I mean, competitive, I like it there.
Speaker:Striking our less and what gets lost a little bit.
Speaker:So, so we get the three run lead, you know, in the, in the top of the 10th.
Speaker:And we had had to, we, we had put Saturday and Sunday we put our
Speaker:DH into the game in the ninth.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, late, late was DH and Saturday we put 'em in the game for defense in the ninth.
Speaker:So you burn your dh.
Speaker:So the pitcher, whoever's in the game pitching ends up going into
Speaker:whoever came outta the game spot.
Speaker:Um, which, uh.
Speaker:Uh, Saturday was the Dallas, um mm-hmm.
Speaker:And then Sunday was aching, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we, we, we, we spun it around to where that spot was gonna get up again.
Speaker:'cause we scored, you know, some runs in the 10th.
Speaker:Um, Marco wasn't gonna go back out there anyway.
Speaker:You know, sometimes I think especially in college athletics, when you get out
Speaker:of a big jam, there's so much emotion and just mental stuff that goes into that.
Speaker:You see it all the time.
Speaker:And that pitcher goes in the dugout and then he comes back out and he just stinks.
Speaker:He walks guys.
Speaker:He's awful.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And
Speaker:so I, I said, look, stat's down there, they don't know anything about him.
Speaker:I guarantee they don't have a scout report on him.
Speaker:Um, and let's just, let's pinch it.
Speaker:Let's hit Ron and, and let's, let's just give it a whirl.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, he gets a hard hit ground ball to Kyle to get the first out.
Speaker:Kainen had made a heck of a play center field on the second out.
Speaker:I mean, that ball is almost at the wall.
Speaker:That ball was hitting really hard.
Speaker:Um, and he, he, he's a good outfielder.
Speaker:He went back there and made a really nice catch straight
Speaker:over his head for a second out.
Speaker:And we give up a hit and then he strikes out the pinch hitter on
Speaker:a, on a good breaking ball down.
Speaker:Um, and we get the series on the road.
Speaker:So second road series, um, win of the year in the league and in a row as well.
Speaker:So, um, happy about that.
Speaker:And I thought the guys fought hard.
Speaker:You know, by no means has any of this year been cosmetically
Speaker:beautiful, but the kids haven't stopped fighting and I'm really proud of them.
Speaker:And they're tired as heck, man.
Speaker:They got back today.
Speaker:We said nothing today, nothing tomorrow.
Speaker:Like, let's, you got exams starting up.
Speaker:Let's sleep a lot, eat a lot, drink a lot of water, and try to get the.
Speaker:Batteries back to green as much as we can for, for this weekend.
Speaker:And another big big series against, against Marshall.
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah, no, no Midweeks this week, so I'm sure that'll help, uh, get 'em off
Speaker:their feet for another day as well.
Speaker:Uh, but Alex Hunt was our, our guest this week, and I think that's the first
Speaker:time you've had a pitcher throw in all three games of a weekend series.
Speaker:Is that, is that correct?
Speaker:Has to be.
Speaker:I would imagine.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and Alex was really good his first two and he just didn't have it yesterday.
Speaker:And, you know, Alex's stuff is fantastic.
Speaker:His issue is just command.
Speaker:Um, and when he is commanding the ball, it's, he's hard to hit.
Speaker:You know, he got a big strikeout or a big ground out jam the guy on Friday,
Speaker:and then big strikeout on Saturday to, to help us win that ball game.
Speaker:So he is an awesome kid.
Speaker:He is.
Speaker:Got a great personality.
Speaker:He, yeah, he's a lot of fun.
Speaker:You know, he is got the.
Speaker:Seventies, uh, you know, uh, uh, village people mustache.
Speaker:I'm trying to think of a politically correct way to say that.
Speaker:Porn
Speaker:stash.
Speaker:Is that what you meant?
Speaker:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker:You said that.
Speaker:Um, exactly.
Speaker:Um, and he is a lot of fun.
Speaker:I, I got, I got a chance to talk with his parents in the Atlanta
Speaker:airport early in the, in the season.
Speaker:And they're just wonderful people as well.
Speaker:So I think they're, um, and he's had some, you know, uh, the Charlotte Save, he
Speaker:got, he come in, comes in and gets a win.
Speaker:He's had some big colleagues for us this year, so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, I think it's a good step forward for the bullpen too, just to
Speaker:put guys in that situation that you haven't really been leaning on as
Speaker:much all this year, like Bailey or Kellen and let them have some success.
Speaker:'cause that'll pay those dividends for you in a couple weeks
Speaker:when we're down in Montgomery.
Speaker:Well, you hope so, you know, we're gonna need them all for sure.
Speaker:And, uh.
Speaker:You know, even a guy like Stott and Levari I mean, those guys are
Speaker:gonna have to be able to throw, you know, an inning or two a weekend.
Speaker:Um, it's just the way it's gonna have to be.
Speaker:I'd prefer that over having to recycle a guy three times.
Speaker:You just, you, you gotta feel like you could depend on somebody though.
Speaker:That's, that's what it is.
Speaker:I mean, when I know I can depend on you, you could fail.
Speaker:I'm okay with it.
Speaker:I get it.
Speaker:Baseball's full of, of that.
Speaker:But I'll run you back out there when you throw the ball over the place all the
Speaker:time, then I'm gonna be less, less apt.
Speaker:We are gonna be less apt. Want to depend on you.
Speaker:Um, yeah, I was thinking
Speaker:of that a minute ago when you were saying it's like, oh, just as long
Speaker:as you throw strikes, it's like, boy, it's funny how many guys you could
Speaker:say that, like, when they're throwing strikes, they're great when they're not.
Speaker:Boy, we got some problems and
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:You know, know Mike today.
Speaker:Most of
Speaker:them,
Speaker:you're right.
Speaker:Cb, I mean that, but that's college baseball.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, it's full of guys like that and mm-hmm.
Speaker:My contention is, it's the same thing in a different way with hitters.
Speaker:Um, this generation of kids is all about training and metrics
Speaker:and numbers and spin rate.
Speaker:And that's not what it is though.
Speaker:It's about getting guys out.
Speaker:That's what pitching is.
Speaker:It's called pitching and hitting, not throwing and swinging.
Speaker:But, but they don't think about it that way.
Speaker:It's our job as coaches.
Speaker:And sometimes I think this generation of coaches, I mean, I'm not gonna
Speaker:get on soapbox here about this, but they coach 'em that way.
Speaker:Everything's about the, the TrackMan numbers and the, you
Speaker:know, the, the, all of that.
Speaker:It is not though, can you throw this pitch right there, knowing that if you
Speaker:do, it's probably gonna get that guy out.
Speaker:You got, you do have all the, we got more information on hitters and pitchers
Speaker:than we've ever had, you know, and I tell our hitters this all the time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, where he is throwing and what he is throwing.
Speaker:You know, tendencies and what counts, but if your swing sucks, it doesn't matter.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:All the data in the world doesn't help.
Speaker:Let's get our swings better and get in the zone and stop spinning off the
Speaker:ball and, and we can hit stop worrying about maybe what it is as opposed
Speaker:so much as opposed to where it is.
Speaker:Because if it's out over plate and you got a good swing, you can hit it.
Speaker:It doesn't matter what it is.
Speaker:Breaker ball, basketball change up, you know?
Speaker:But you guys wanna know exactly what it is and all this cutter slide or change,
Speaker:and meanwhile your head's in our dugout every time you swing that dug works.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I've
Speaker:definitely had that thought a little bit, you know, and off and on, of course
Speaker:with all the guys where it's like, man, I wish you would just go up and
Speaker:compete and stop worrying about you.
Speaker:See, like, I, I always say hitters are dumb, frankly.
Speaker:That's why I always think pitchers have it easier because it's already
Speaker:harder to hit and the hitters think too much and they're not that bright.
Speaker:And the guys who just go up and accept they're dumb and go up and just
Speaker:compete and react, tend to be better.
Speaker:And it's, you're a hundred percent right and college hitters are way better when
Speaker:it's two and oh than when it's oh and two.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I can remember Wayne Graham yelling at one of his pitchers
Speaker:our first year down at Rice.
Speaker:This kid, his name was Lanier.
Speaker:He catching the big leagues.
Speaker:He might big here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he's carving us up and Graham is yelling at him and he is going,
Speaker:why is it always one and oh every time you pitch to every hitter, when
Speaker:it gonna be, oh, and one and, and some choice words thrown in there.
Speaker:And I'm thinking, boy, you right.
Speaker:I can say that about a handful of dudes, you know.
Speaker:Um, so, and, and I will say this, I told the guys yesterday, the
Speaker:hitters, we, we competed better this weekend for a whole weekend
Speaker:than maybe we have the entire year.
Speaker:Yeah, we did.
Speaker:I agree.
Speaker:You, you can see the difference, right?
Speaker:Guys were in there, they were fighting with two strikes, you
Speaker:know, they were getting the ball.
Speaker:And, and so I was really proud of that.
Speaker:And they, they played like they wanted to win, you know, it feels like
Speaker:observing about halfway through the year, like they're finally starting to listen.
Speaker:That's what it seems like from the outside.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I hope so.
Speaker:You know, we're, we're, we're staying on approach and, and guys getting off
Speaker:their backside and not spinning so much.
Speaker:Uh, that's a mechanical thing through some different drills, but it is, it,
Speaker:it is some of that, but a lot of it, at this point in the season, you're
Speaker:not gonna try to reinvent guy's swing.
Speaker:Certainly that would be dumb, but it's just about competing more man.
Speaker:Like, you know, just be ready for the moment when it comes.
Speaker:And, and I really think this, I know he made some errors, um.
Speaker:He is a young kid, he is a work in progress over a third certainly.
Speaker:But I think Brody has given us a good spark in our lineup.
Speaker:He is competitive at backs, he's hitting the ball hard, his energy's good.
Speaker:Um, I think Scotty Young has given us a good spark in our lineup.
Speaker:Same exact thing.
Speaker:Um, and so those two guys in particular I think have given us a little bit of a shot
Speaker:in the arm here, you know, most recently.
Speaker:And, um, I
Speaker:texted Gary and the guys the other day and I said, not playing Brody
Speaker:until now was smart because I don't think you'd be getting the same
Speaker:results and not, again, not to say bro, you know, Brody loved the kid.
Speaker:Hard worker.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's just when you come in as a freshman, that adjustment period,
Speaker:you kind of allowed him to have that adjustment period, and then now
Speaker:you're putting it on him and he looks like he looks ready for the moment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think he, I, I think we didn't play him 'cause he just, he wasn't ready to play.
Speaker:But, but you're right, right.
Speaker:Those guys need some room.
Speaker:We, we played Tanner a little bit earlier, maybe before he should
Speaker:have been ready to be in there.
Speaker:I think f was kinda ready to do it from the get go.
Speaker:But again, F's catching a little bit more and, you know, f and, and, uh, Jack and
Speaker:I thought Jack had a good day yesterday.
Speaker:We didn't talk about him.
Speaker:Uh, he's a lot of good days and, and, and hit a third one hard, you know,
Speaker:the kid made a good play on, um, and he caught good back there, so, you know,
Speaker:he had a, he had a big, big day force.
Speaker:Um, Jack and F are probably gonna have to catch, you know, for a while.
Speaker:'cause I think, uh, Holman pulled no o bleak, uh, on Friday.
Speaker:Mm. And so you never know how those are gonna heal up in baseball, man.
Speaker:'cause it's such a rotational sport.
Speaker:And, um, so, we'll, we'll see.
Speaker:But I would say this weekend, those two guys will have to be
Speaker:our guys that, that we go to and.
Speaker:You know, I'd like to say we could play Lefty righty with 'em, but I don't think
Speaker:Jeff's ready to catch two days in a row.
Speaker:And so we'll probably catch, you know, one Friday and Sunday and then, and,
Speaker:and we may do a combination, you know, of, of, uh, of guys coming in and that
Speaker:kind of thing too and in the game.
Speaker:So, um, we're, we're down to two catchers and I think Evan can catch
Speaker:in an emergency, he just can't hit.
Speaker:So if he was in there, he'd have to, you know, probably bump something like that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, at least both Jack and F have experience back there catching, it's
Speaker:not gonna be their, their first start.
Speaker:You've been able to rotate them throughout the year pretty well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The, maybe the, one of the advantages of not having a, you know, everyday
Speaker:catcher is if you lose one, you know, the other guys have caught
Speaker:plenty and you know, you're not necessarily having to drop off 'em.
Speaker:And against righties, I think Slater has swung to bat really well for us.
Speaker:I mean, he's, he's, he's hitting the ball hard.
Speaker:He is having good competitive at bats.
Speaker:He's a good thrower.
Speaker:You know, he is gotta be better at blocking at times, certainly.
Speaker:But he, he competes in there for, so I'm proud of, I'm proud
Speaker:of him yesterday for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well one group maybe I'm not proud of from the weekend is the umpiring crew.
Speaker:Now I will not, I will not get you in trouble.
Speaker:I don't know what exactly happened, but I know that both dugouts were going at him.
Speaker:The zone was all over the place, but there was some sort of incident with
Speaker:Kyle Edwards coming off of first base at the end of like the half inning.
Speaker:And it looked like the umpire at first was barking at him the
Speaker:whole way back to the dugout.
Speaker:I never heard anything, so I dunno if you had any insight
Speaker:there.
Speaker:I think something got sent out of their dugout.
Speaker:And Kyle can have rabbit ears.
Speaker:So, you know, we talk about his care, but he was frustrated 'cause
Speaker:he grounded out, you know, with the lead run on third or whatever.
Speaker:He can get, he can get the antennas up pretty easy at times, I think.
Speaker:And you know, then he barked back at them and it's just much to do about nothing.
Speaker:Sometimes these guys are, was like, what are y'all gonna do?
Speaker:Go fight each other.
Speaker:Like, right, let's play, you know, if y'all wanna fight, go
Speaker:out behind the dugout and fight.
Speaker:Most of y'all ain't never been in a fight in your whole life.
Speaker:That's, that's my favorite.
Speaker:Anytime I go.
Speaker:To like a D two, D three JUCO game.
Speaker:And it's like all they wanna do is talk trash and act like they're gonna fight.
Speaker:It's like, bro, just 'cause none.
Speaker:Waste the energy you have to say.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're in a
Speaker:tie game and going into the 10th inning.
Speaker:How about if we just focused on that?
Speaker:It's probably some backup pitcher that never pitches anyway, trying to get
Speaker:under your skin and you're letting them.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So, you know, let's, we talk about those kind of things and Kyle normally does a
Speaker:good job, but like I said, sometimes, you know, he was frustrated with, you know,
Speaker:having, not getting a big hit and probably heard it, uh, a little too easily.
Speaker:But he made a couple big plays for us down the stretch there.
Speaker:I, I thought, you know, Brody threw a couple balls away, but I thought
Speaker:Mav and, uh, Kyle played really well, uh, in the middle defensively for us.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:All weekend.
Speaker:Turned some double plays and, um, you know, overall defensively,
Speaker:we, we played pretty well.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that that fire comes, I think from that
Speaker:want to compete now too, so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I know, I think earlier Alex hit somebody to load the bases and the dude
Speaker:stared him down the whole way to first.
Speaker:Oh, did he?
Speaker:So that probably might have sparked it, but I'm like, dude, if, if you
Speaker:think that's the situation to throw at somebody, you need to baseball.
Speaker:I, I'm pretty sure
Speaker:it was a breaking ball too.
Speaker:I'm, I'm pretty sure it was a breaking ball you hit him with Did look like a,
Speaker:like during the game, if we're gonna hit you, it ain't gonna be on purpose.
Speaker:It ain't gonna be with a breaking ball.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:And some of our guys, if they tried to hit you, it might get
Speaker:thrown right down the middle.
Speaker:It's like, what game have you been watching this weekend?
Speaker:The best pitch he's thrown all year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, it just doesn't happen in college baseball anymore, like.
Speaker:In the old days it did.
Speaker:I mean, you never threw at somebody's head, but if, you
Speaker:know, if your best player got hit, you're gonna get their guy.
Speaker:That was just kind of how it worked.
Speaker:But nowadays, it's just, you know, you, you just, nobody, nobody
Speaker:really tries to hit guys anymore.
Speaker:They just do it by proxy
Speaker:because they going
Speaker:Yeah, I, and I don't, I I, I do like old school stuff.
Speaker:I don't think it's a bad thing.
Speaker:I don't think throwing, you know, tiny projectiles at people at 90
Speaker:miles an hour is a great idea.
Speaker:So that's, that's definitely, yeah, you're right.
Speaker:It's, there's, there's probably more guys getting hit now, but it's all accidental.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No doubt we hit enough.
Speaker:Not on purpose now.
Speaker:You don't, we don't need to add to it by hitting guys on, on purpose.
Speaker:And you never wanna see a kid get hit in the head.
Speaker:I mean, yeah.
Speaker:I don't like kids seeing kids get hit and get hurt, period.
Speaker:Especially the older I get.
Speaker:Um, but you, you never wanna see a kid get hit in the head, man, that's scary.
Speaker:And we've had a few, you know, through the years, I remember last
Speaker:year at Georgia State, you know.
Speaker:Uh, Alex, uh, got hit, got hit in the nose, broke his nose, you
Speaker:know, and that, that can happen.
Speaker:So you just wanna stay away from that if, if possible.
Speaker:But again, I mean, you know, that's one series we needed to win and we did.
Speaker:Um, this, this weekend against Marshall, same thing.
Speaker:Um, it's a series we need to win.
Speaker:If we play well, we got a chance to win it.
Speaker:And then, uh, you know, that's the next, the next one that's up.
Speaker:So that's the one we gotta focus on.
Speaker:And, you know, they've had good pitching most of the year and, uh, haven't been
Speaker:a great offensive team, but, um, you know, war Memorial, if the wind's blowing
Speaker:out, it can, it can flex the defense.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, which doesn't bother me actually.
Speaker:'cause we're starting to drive the ball a little bit better.
Speaker:So, um, that wouldn't bother me that much.
Speaker:And, uh, it just, we don't make any of 'em easy, man.
Speaker:I mean, that's, no, you know, I, I haven't, it was hot
Speaker:and those games were all.
Speaker:You know, as the old school says, nut cutters and man, uh, yesterday after the
Speaker:game, I was like, holy crap, I'm tired.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:You know, and I would laugh because this morning at the airport we
Speaker:get to TSA and the guy says, Hey, they got your date of birth here.
Speaker:Long, uh, wrong.
Speaker:It says you're 10 years older than you are.
Speaker:And I go, oh, I feel way more older than that money.
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:I said, I feel like a hundred years older than I. Um, uh, so I got a good
Speaker:chuckle from our team out of that one.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Gotta gotta have you flare for the dramatics this year.
Speaker:I feel like it's, you need to get the, whatever cardiologist is in Norfolk needs
Speaker:a sponsor though to your baseball team.
Speaker:That's missed opportunity there.
Speaker:I think, I think we were 10 and 11 at this point last year.
Speaker:Were we, not you, I, I wanna say that
Speaker:sounds right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And maybe even the year before, I think, I don't know.
Speaker:But um, I think we, if you know, you, you never know how things can happen, but
Speaker:if you play well, you know, you have a chance to win these next two series and
Speaker:that probably puts you in the tournament.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We'd love to get in that top six, which is possible.
Speaker:Um, certainly with we're we got, you know, tiebreakers over Georgia State
Speaker:and Georgia Southern, um, you know, and so those are two teams right in there.
Speaker:They're gonna be somewhere in there next to you.
Speaker:You just gotta, you know, you stay ahead of the ones that are below
Speaker:you by beating them, and then other people beat up on each other.
Speaker:So, you know, um, that's how that works.
Speaker:And then you kind of root for those teams in the top three or four,
Speaker:just keep winning at this point.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:This is definitely a time of year you start watching the schedule
Speaker:like, all right, I need you to win.
Speaker:Need you to win.
Speaker:Like, you know, it's, it's for sure you start rooting for other teams.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You
Speaker:start, start rooting for the top three and the bottom three.
Speaker:And then when you're Yeah, if, if you get that, then you're gonna be in good shape.
Speaker:'cause there's like legit pathway to get even as high as four.
Speaker:But I think five and six is realistic, but Yep.
Speaker:Gotta gotta go play Marshall on Friday, six o'clock at War Memorial, win
Speaker:that one, then worry about the rest
Speaker:later.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No, that's the biggest game of the year and you know, they got
Speaker:that tough little lefty blevins.
Speaker:He is tough man.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You just hope kind of late in the year, he is maybe running outta gas a little bit,
Speaker:which can happen with those smaller guys.
Speaker:Um, they had a, uh.
Speaker:They had a freshman lefty that started Saturday that, whose
Speaker:numbers were really good.
Speaker:Uh, a change up guy.
Speaker:And you could see it like that was his ninth or 10th start of the
Speaker:year and he was gassed, gassed.
Speaker:Like it wasn't, it's funny, it's just so hard on those guys.
Speaker:I think the last Blake Morgan started freshman, but he didn't, we didn't
Speaker:dump him into the rotation until probably the sixth or seventh week.
Speaker:And so he, I think he had eight starts and he was outta gas by first
Speaker:starting a tournament that year.
Speaker:He gutted out five innings.
Speaker:I remember, but you know, if you started freshman from the get go, man, usually by
Speaker:this time of the year, I think the last one we did from the opener was Johnny
Speaker:Wilson and he got hurt in like week nine.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so it's really hard on those kids.
Speaker:I mean, just the grind of a college season and having to do
Speaker:that over and over and over again.
Speaker:You gotta be somebody pretty special physically, anybody what,
Speaker:no matter what year you are.
Speaker:Um, but to be able to do that as a freshman is, is pretty impressive.
Speaker:Yeah, it is.
Speaker:And they, they've just kind of been a pest all season, I feel like with Marshall.
Speaker:Like they had three one run games with Troy, I think it was.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So they've been able to stay in games, they compete and then they got killed
Speaker:all three times against Coastal two weeks ago.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then they came out, who'd they beat this weekend
Speaker:does?
Speaker:Uh, Georgia State.
Speaker:South Alabama.
Speaker:South Alabama.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Who's gone on a jar it feels like.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:Well they had a thir 32 to 15 midweek game also.
Speaker:Did they really?
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Well, yeah, they played Morehead State.
Speaker:It was 32 to 15 on, uh, Wednesday after beating them 10.
Speaker:Nothing in seven innings on Tuesday.
Speaker:Ooh, that sucks.
Speaker:That's a heck of a week.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that's a heck of a week.
Speaker:Hey, if we end up in that situation, I don't have much left in this
Speaker:lefthanded, uh, arm, but I can probably give you a couple pitches anyway.
Speaker:Go.
Speaker:Well, we just gotta come out and, you know, Ben's gotta go out there
Speaker:and do what he does and, and try to get us five or six innings and
Speaker:we gotta get some big hits, man.
Speaker:Hopefully we'll have, you know, the weather looks like
Speaker:it's pretty good this week.
Speaker:Hopefully we'll have some people come out and watch us.
Speaker:I mean, uh, but we're, we're all disappointed with the overall record,
Speaker:but I, I will say I'm proud of our guys.
Speaker:They are, they're through all, everything.
Speaker:The disaster area that is our baseball facility right now.
Speaker:It's the, we call it the Big dig.
Speaker:All it is a bunch of holes in the ground.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Some days we have electricity for our pitcher machines and some days we don't.
Speaker:And, um, the guys have come out and they've kept showing up and playing
Speaker:hard, and I think we're playing better right now than we, than we have ear,
Speaker:than we were earlier in the season.
Speaker:And that's should just a tribute to those kids.
Speaker:Like they, they want to, they wanna keep fighting and, and try to get in
Speaker:that tournament and see what can happen.
Speaker:That's fair.
Speaker:Well, that's, that's, I saw a couple of your, uh, alumni yesterday up in, uh,
Speaker:I was in Salisbury, Maryland, saw the Augusta Green jacket, so I got to see,
Speaker:uh, Jacob Gomez and Trent Buchanan.
Speaker:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's a picture my dad took, actually took this.
Speaker:He was up there on Tuesday.
Speaker:And then also Seth Keller, who almost was a, a, a monarch, he got drafted
Speaker:before he, uh, gotta play here.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Uh, so all three of them are together.
Speaker:Yeah, I follow that.
Speaker:I didn't get to see him pitch, uh, but they, I think Jacob pitched the
Speaker:night before did really well how to score the inning, and Trent's back
Speaker:was hurting 'em a little bit, so he wasn't able to pitch, uh, yesterday.
Speaker:But yeah, they're, they're doing great.
Speaker:They're, they're loving it.
Speaker:Um, they're, they're keeping up with the team.
Speaker:They're still, you know, of course they're, they're big old monarchs and,
Speaker:and yeah, still, uh, still keeping track and proud and keeping up with
Speaker:all the guys.
Speaker:That's so cool.
Speaker:And I know you, I saw your, uh, post about you went down and, and saw Betsy
Speaker:throw, uh, Hal bet the week before and he threw the ball real well.
Speaker:Oh, sho.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Gary and I were both there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's cool.
Speaker:Well, it's always fun to watch those guys, you know, move through our
Speaker:program into the professional ranks and especially when they have this success
Speaker:and, you know, make us all proud of them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:At that, especially with such good people.
Speaker:I mean, those are those three guys through the last few weeks.
Speaker:Those are, those are three of the best human beings you'd ever meet.
Speaker:And they're, they're really good representatives of ODU baseball.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We got good kids.
Speaker:You know, um, Mike Federico is Louisiana Monroe head coach, and he
Speaker:was a long time pitching coach at Southern Miss before he took that job.
Speaker:And he is just a real gem of a.
Speaker:Human being.
Speaker:I mean, just a, you know, a real competitor, but a
Speaker:real gentleman, good person.
Speaker:And, uh, after the game yesterday, you know, that's a
Speaker:tough loss for them, obviously.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They, they're fighting to get determined and now, you know, they got a long row.
Speaker:You're looking up a six wins right now, and you're like, we gotta go, you
Speaker:know, eight one or something like that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But he, he always said, he goes, man, I just wish we could play
Speaker:people like you guys every weekend.
Speaker:'cause it's just fun.
Speaker:It's baseball, it's competitive.
Speaker:They're good kids and there's not a lot of yapping and, you know,
Speaker:bullshit going on other than the game.
Speaker:And um, you know, you were talking about the umpires though, and I know I'm
Speaker:running over here, but, oh, you're good.
Speaker:There's no top of, I forget Scott, the, the Saturday guy we have on the plate.
Speaker:He's been around a long time.
Speaker:Um, and probably past his prime, but he's a great guy.
Speaker:Uh, the, the whole crew were good, good people, good dudes.
Speaker:Like they, they were, yeah.
Speaker:Question.
Speaker:You know, college strike zones are like the twilight zone to me.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, sky came out there in about the sixth inning about a lineup thing, and I said.
Speaker:I said something, I screwed up a number or something.
Speaker:I gave to him, I fixed it, and he goes, man, that's the first mistake that's
Speaker:been made all day today, isn't it?
Speaker:And I said, Hey, you're doing great, man.
Speaker:Hang in there.
Speaker:This is gonna be about a five hour game.
Speaker:He goes, I know.
Speaker:I got plantar fasciitis and it's already been killing me for four innings.
Speaker:And I said, well get some ibuprofen and some water from our trainer, man.
Speaker:And uh, and call some damn strikes.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Call some more strikes and saying go faster.
Speaker:About three innings later I walked out and he said, he was like kind of limping
Speaker:a little bit and I said, look, can you just toughen up a little bit please?
Speaker:And he gave, he gave me a couple expletives that you can definitely can't.
Speaker:I said, we're trying the best we can.
Speaker:I know we walked nine guys or whatever.
Speaker:But he said, God, I said, you know, he goes, I'm trying to call strikes.
Speaker:I want to get out and get off my feet.
Speaker:Um, so I think, you know, sometimes when you got umpires that are good people
Speaker:and run the game the right way, I.
Speaker:They're, yeah, they're gonna make mistakes.
Speaker:Um, the Friday guy was one of the best plates we've had all year though, Jordan.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:He was fantastic.
Speaker:And he's been good.
Speaker:Uh, he's an S-E-C-A-C-C, maybe Big 12 guys were, I think he was really good
Speaker:and had enough guts to call that check swing to end the series on yesterday too.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Which I appreciated.
Speaker:Which the guy did swing, he definitely swung.
Speaker:Um, but a lot of guys don't, 'cause they're standing next to their dugout.
Speaker:They don't wanna get barked at the end of the game.
Speaker:And Jordan doesn't care.
Speaker:Like he don't, he ain't taking it from anybody.
Speaker:Um, so you know that about him and you gotta handle him the right way.
Speaker:Um, so, but yeah, that was my umpire story for the, for the weekend.
Speaker:That's a, that's
Speaker:great.
Speaker:That's a good one.
Speaker:Well, awesome.
Speaker:Well, fans are listening.
Speaker:Get over to War Memorial this weekend.
Speaker:I'm gonna be there for at least the first two days.
Speaker:I'm working on the third one.
Speaker:I gotta get the permission.
Speaker:I'll be good to go.
Speaker:Uh, six o'clock Friday, three o'clock Saturday, one o'clock Sunday.
Speaker:If you're a bum and you stay at home or you live far away, ESPN Plus has
Speaker:the streaming, but at least get to one game at war more like it's a
Speaker:fun place to watch a baseball game.
Speaker:It's great.
Speaker:It's, and, and you get two teams that are gonna be fighting like
Speaker:Marshall's not laying down for anybody.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:They fight just as hard.
Speaker:So Marshall hasn't
Speaker:been in the tournament.
Speaker:Marsha hadn't been in the Sunbelt conference tournament yet since
Speaker:they joined the league, so, oh wow.
Speaker:They're, they're trying to get in it and um, obviously they got a
Speaker:good coach and he is a good guy.
Speaker:And they're, they're building that thing.
Speaker:They're with that new stadium.
Speaker:They're gonna continue to improve, um, without a doubt.
Speaker:So, yeah, it'll be a good competitive series.
Speaker:It's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker:I, I booked my hotel and my flight to Montgomery.
Speaker:I'm not gonna tell you what days, but I, I'll be there.
Speaker:Alright, I'll be there.
Speaker:What hotel you staying at?
Speaker:Uh, the, the Renaissance, I think that's right there by the ballpark.
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah, you can walk to the park.
Speaker:All those are great down there, man.
Speaker:That's the best thing they got going.
Speaker:The ballpark's cool too.
Speaker:I like the ballpark, but the best thing they got going is that all
Speaker:the teams stay within walking distance of the, of the ballpark.
Speaker:And so the guys can just walk over and watch games when they're not playing.
Speaker:And the coaches, uh, there's a lot of cool restaurants around.
Speaker:It's just a neat area.
Speaker:You know, Montgomery, Alabama isn't, uh, you know, the, the
Speaker:tourist hub of the world, but there is some cool history there.
Speaker:I enjoy walking through town, seeing the, the Rosa Parks Monument and you know,
Speaker:some of the, some of the, the Civil War things and, you know, the, um, you know,
Speaker:the, the, the, the Martin Luther King Memorial and some of those things are
Speaker:really, really, really neat to, to look at from a history perspective as well.
Speaker:Hopefully we'll be there.
Speaker:They got a couple good coffee shops in town.
Speaker:I like
Speaker:Alright, I'll get your, I'll get your coffee recommendations when we get a
Speaker:little bit closer to it, but, uh, looking, looking forward to the games this weekend.
Speaker:I know CB you'll be there as well.
Speaker:We'll be, can't wait.
Speaker:I'll be there.
Speaker:Baseball cards for
Speaker:everybody.
Speaker:It's gonna be great.
Speaker:Oh, baseball cards are out this weekend.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sweet.
Speaker:And I, I think it's, um, graduation weekend as well.
Speaker:I think we're doing senior weekend.
Speaker:I could be wrong on that.
Speaker:Maybe graduation,
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:I think that's gonna be the Friday of the next week is the graduation coastal.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker:We them both that week.
Speaker:Yeah, they moved.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:check
Speaker:that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well, I'm getting ready to throw some burgers on the grill.
Speaker:How you guys liking.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Medium.
Speaker:Medium.
Speaker:Medium.
Speaker:Rare.
Speaker:Medium.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Thanks so much Finn.
Speaker:Appreciate you
Speaker:man.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Mon.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:there we go.
Speaker:Appreciate
Speaker:it.
Speaker:Getting some burgers on the grill.
Speaker:I'm gonna be getting some dinner here myself pretty soon.
Speaker:And Okay.
Speaker:If I remember to take out what I was supposed to take out of the freezer.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:well, before you do that, let's talk about our, our, uh,
Speaker:hitter and pitcher of the week.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Gimme one second.
Speaker:Bring those bad boys out.
Speaker:That's, I mean, I, you can take all the seconds you need.
Speaker:I, you're the one knows all the buttons.
Speaker:There we go there.
Speaker:Go look at that.
Speaker:Uh, and so Alex Hunt, look at that.
Speaker:We talked to that guy, right?
Speaker:That was, uh, and as you were getting that, I could have been
Speaker:getting the stats out instead of
Speaker:Maverick played ball.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:Alex throw Maverick Dub.
Speaker:All good.
Speaker:Alex Dub dub ball.
Speaker:So we talked about Alex.
Speaker:He was in all three games.
Speaker:He ended up, he got one out in all three games.
Speaker:Uh, so that's one inning total.
Speaker:He did give up, um, an earned run.
Speaker:Uh, he struck a guy out.
Speaker:He did hit a guy, but like I said, he, he left, he inherited five runners for them.
Speaker:Were left on base.
Speaker:So that's, that's a big deal.
Speaker:It's, it's not a small thing.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:It was kind of a weird week for pitching 'cause as we know, we had a lot of
Speaker:guy, a ton of guys pitched, weren't a lot of like really great appearances.
Speaker:Tyler Stotts, the guy I think we should mention too, he got the save in that game
Speaker:one inning, um, note runs, gave up a hit a walk, but he did get a strikeout, you
Speaker:know, and for a guy who doesn't get in a ton of games to come in, in a big spot
Speaker:where we need you, he, he showed up.
Speaker:Um, so that was great.
Speaker:Uh, Ben Moore had a, you know, again, we, it felt like a step back after throwing
Speaker:five and six inning, his last couple, but four and two thirds, only one run,
Speaker:three hits, three walks, two strikeouts.
Speaker:So not his best start, uh, by far, but, but a, a good solid start for him.
Speaker:Um, and then Frank Wright had a nice scoreless inning.
Speaker:He, uh, he, he pitched one inning, uh, no hits, no runs, two walks in a strikeout.
Speaker:So not a ton of great stuff on the pitching side, but,
Speaker:but a few guys here and there.
Speaker:Uh, the hitters were a little better.
Speaker:We had some guys had some really nice, so Maverick, uh, you know,
Speaker:you have a two Homer, five RBI game.
Speaker:I think you gotta get Player of the week.
Speaker:And he had a good solid week overall.
Speaker:He was, he was a six for 14 in the week.
Speaker:Uh, double two Homers five rbis.
Speaker:Had a walk and had a stolen base.
Speaker:So that was fun.
Speaker:It's fun, it's fun to see the guys do the kind of room, vroom,
Speaker:uh, celebration when they steal.
Speaker:So it was, it was good seeing Maverick enjoying that, uh, Zach late, which again,
Speaker:you might even argue, had a better week.
Speaker:But you know what?
Speaker:Maverick, Maverick had a two Armor game, had not one point a week where
Speaker:gave it to him, uh, but Zach late, he was five for 10 on the week, two
Speaker:doubles, four rbis, three walks to hit by a pitch, so that, that equates
Speaker:out to a 6 43 on base for the week.
Speaker:Um, so he's, he's, I mean, he's certainly been our best offensive
Speaker:player all year and continues to be.
Speaker:So it's, it's nice to see him keep that going.
Speaker:Uh, Kainen George, uh, as, as Finney pointed out, another really good
Speaker:week, five for 14, a double two rbis, two walks a sack fly and get this.
Speaker:Did you know this one, four stolen bases this weekend?
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:He, he, Kainen went from being like having a couple, he's up
Speaker:over, I think he's got like 11 now.
Speaker:So, uh, Kyles tops in the league with 20, I think 21.
Speaker:Uh, and Kainen's.
Speaker:Pretty solidly.
Speaker:Second place now on the team.
Speaker:Uh, Luke Waters another good week for him.
Speaker:He's moving in the right direction.
Speaker:He's, uh, four for 14, a double a Homer, three rbis and a walk.
Speaker:Uh, and Brody Connors, again, another nice weekend for a guy who's really just
Speaker:getting his first chance to play a lot.
Speaker:Four for 14, a double, two rbis, a walk and a stolen base.
Speaker:So another good week for Brody.
Speaker:And he said, you know, had had a couple not great plays, but had some good plays.
Speaker:And he is, he's playing like a freshman.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it, it, it, it's really hard to pick, I think the offensive
Speaker:player of the week this week.
Speaker:Like, it was, it was difficult, but we set the precedent with Evan having the
Speaker:big day and he got it because of that.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And that was, that was the separator for Maverick too.
Speaker:Now
Speaker:I will say, if Maverick was like.
Speaker:Had two homers and five rbis that day, but was like over,
Speaker:over nine with eight strikeouts.
Speaker:The previous few days, I'd had a hard time giving it to 'em, but fortunately it came
Speaker:on on in the midst of a, a good weekend.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And one other note I'll put out there.
Speaker:You're talking about stolen bases.
Speaker:Kyle Edwards currently leads the Sunbelt with 20 stolen bases in Sunbelt.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Uh
Speaker:oh.
Speaker:And play.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I think he has more than that overall.
Speaker:Um, but he is interesting.
Speaker:Current conference leader.
Speaker:Uh, I will tell you that because I didn't even think to look at it until
Speaker:I was listening to Louisiana and Rose play by play guy this weekend,
Speaker:which by the way, one of the better broadcasts in the Sunbelt period.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that dude was awesome.
Speaker:He had access to either TrackMan data or Statcast because mm-hmm.
Speaker:He was talking about all of the crazy exit velocities off of ODU
Speaker:bats that were getting caught.
Speaker:I know one specifically Luke Waters was like 1 0 9 0.5 a line out the center,
Speaker:uh, that that's, that's hitting the crap out of the baseball and I'm glad to see
Speaker:more guys in lineup starting to do that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I was gonna say, and that's why those stats are always
Speaker:interesting because it tells a lot.
Speaker:It's a, Hey look.
Speaker:Yeah, you're out.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:Right in the box score, you're out.
Speaker:Well, it was, that's a bad result, right?
Speaker:Well, not really.
Speaker:If you, you, you rope a ball at 1 0 9, like, okay, you
Speaker:happen to be out this time.
Speaker:But if you do that, you know, if you come up 10 times, do that, you're
Speaker:probably getting 3, 4, 5 hits outta that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And over the course of a series, you see that come through with even Brody
Speaker:hitting maybe his softest contact of the weekend falls in for a single,
Speaker:uh, baseball is is funny like that.
Speaker:Oh man.
Speaker:But glad, just glad to get a series win.
Speaker:Uh, but I'm hopeful that we can parlay that into a home series win
Speaker:this weekend, because I feel like we've, we've had two road series wins.
Speaker:We get high like, all right, we're over it.
Speaker:And then there's kind of that let down the following weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We gotta avoid that.
Speaker:We gotta get two from Marshall.
Speaker:At least three would be amazing that, that keeps that four
Speaker:seed, five seed and contention.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:We gotta gotta go and do it.
Speaker:Start Friday, just blow 'em out.
Speaker:Don't have to worry about your bullpen on Friday.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean that's, you keep wanting to say blow 'em out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause that's, the hitters are going good.
Speaker:But I, and I think Finney pointed out, it comes back to that starting pitching.
Speaker:You know, if, if our starters can go deeper into the game, that's
Speaker:less innings we have to cover.
Speaker:That's less chances to have the guys who have not been as
Speaker:successful, uh, not be successful.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I mean, you know, you, you keep wanting the guys to step up and
Speaker:prove that the guy, which like, like Alex Hunt has, has, has done here.
Speaker:Um, but it's just, you know, you're just getting to a certain point of the year
Speaker:where the guys you at c sometimes you gotta say, well, they are who they are.
Speaker:And sometimes you gotta, we can grind it out.
Speaker:You can't necessarily count on the guys every time.
Speaker:So the moorings you can get out of your really top three starters,
Speaker:which are really outstanding.
Speaker:They're as good as probably any three you're gonna find on a team.
Speaker:Uh, the better your off you're gonna be, the better chance you're gonna have.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's something that we'll definitely have to carry on into tournament play.
Speaker:And yeah, I think fighting hard right now to get outta that playing
Speaker:game is really important for us, given our pitching situation.
Speaker:Like we're, yeah, we gotta stay off that Tuesday and start things off on Saturday.
Speaker:I don't care where we go, four or five or six, just stay out of seven through
Speaker:10 and we're gonna be in good shape.
Speaker:Be, because the reality is we don't have the pitching depth.
Speaker:And when you have to pitch every single play every single day, by
Speaker:the time you get to that like fourth day it, our team's gonna be toast.
Speaker:And so hopefully that fourth day for us is like trying to win the game.
Speaker:The final one, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I mean, that'd be, that'd be ideal if the ideal would be to
Speaker:go out and win your first two.
Speaker:'cause we have really good starting pitching and then you get a buy
Speaker:into that third and all you need is three wins to win the thing.
Speaker:I mean, that'd be, that'd be the absolute best.
Speaker:Yes, it would.
Speaker:Well, we've gotta get there first.
Speaker:And it starts with get, it starts with, with winning the series against Marshall.
Speaker:Like, uh, you know, I'll, I'll never say like, something is a must win
Speaker:until it can eliminate your season.
Speaker:So like, you know mm-hmm.
Speaker:Playing games, things like that are important.
Speaker:But the math gets really hard if you don't win this series.
Speaker:And now you're having to rely on a sweep of JMU and taking two outta three from a
Speaker:coastal team that is on fire right now.
Speaker:They're number 11 in the country today.
Speaker:I saw they might be higher on some of, I think I saw Baseball America had 'em 11.
Speaker:Yeah, they're, they're really good.
Speaker:They're, they're on fire.
Speaker:Southern Miss has begun to separate and kind of show their talent
Speaker:and get up there to the top.
Speaker:Troy also, right up there.
Speaker:We, we saw them in person in Norfolk.
Speaker:I know that a couple weeks ago.
Speaker:We know they're really good.
Speaker:So you focus on those 4, 5, 6.
Speaker:You root for the top three.
Speaker:You root for the bottom three, unless they're playing you, which
Speaker:happens to be the case this weekend.
Speaker:So there you go.
Speaker:Um, all right.
Speaker:That's it for me.
Speaker:What do you else?
Speaker:You got ccb.
Speaker:Oh, your baseball cards will be available.
Speaker:We're ba we have some, so yeah, if you ordered some baseball cards, uh, get at
Speaker:me, find me and we'll, we'll have some.
Speaker:If you didn't order 'em, maybe I'll have extra.
Speaker:We'll find out.
Speaker:I usually have a couple, but who knows?
Speaker:That's, you know, you, you had your opportunity.
Speaker:Uh, but, but yeah.
Speaker:So hopefully hope I have 'em.
Speaker:They look great.
Speaker:Hopefully we'll see.
Speaker:Especially let come tomorrow.
Speaker:We'll check 'em out.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Come, come pick 'em up over the weekend.
Speaker:Uh, hang out.
Speaker:You probably get some guys to sign some of those.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause they can come in valuable for you later on when they're, you
Speaker:know, in the pros and if we follow through the minors and all that.
Speaker:Uh, if you wanna track the guys that are already gone, I'll plug it again.
Speaker:The pride of odu Yeah.
Speaker:N i.com.
Speaker:Uh, the pride of odu.com.
Speaker:I guess I should probably get that
Speaker:right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Since they sponsor it.
Speaker:I go look at that page, even though I'm the one that helped set it up, because
Speaker:that helps me instead of having to like look at every single box we're find.
Speaker:'cause sometimes I'm just like, oh, lemme just go see what he did because you know,
Speaker:we have, especially, we have some of our pitchers, you know, it's like when in
Speaker:the week this guy pitch, I don't know.
Speaker:So if sometimes I'm on track, like John Holts had another great start yesterday.
Speaker:So we got, our guys are doing some stuff and we got Connor Overton.
Speaker:I even, I didn't even realize until I looked him up.
Speaker:He's back, uh, he got cut by the Mets right outta spring training, but now he's
Speaker:back with the Blue Jays again in aaa.
Speaker:So hopefully he can get himself back up to Toronto again.
Speaker:Yeah, well they, I think they're still in Buffalo, right?
Speaker:Yeah, he is back in Buffalo, which he had, he had some really good times in Buffalo.
Speaker:Um, so, so hopefully he is back in the organization that, that had
Speaker:him for a while and, and liked him.
Speaker:So that's always, that's always a plus when you've been a, when you've
Speaker:been in the big leagues, it's easier to get back to the big leagues.
Speaker:Anybody will tell you that?
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:Well definitely root for Connor and all the rest of the guys.
Speaker:Uh, jealous.
Speaker:You got to go see Jacob and, and Trent.
Speaker:Uh, they were awesome dudes.
Speaker:I think we're still trying to replace the Jacob Gomez role in our bullpen.
Speaker:I. I said that to him, we were, because you know, I said
Speaker:he's keeping up with things.
Speaker:I said, yeah, there's no Jacob Gomez in that bull thing.
Speaker:He is like, yeah, no Trent Buchanan, no John Holobetz.
Speaker:I was like, yeah, it's not, it's not quite the same.
Speaker:We got, we got some dudes, but they gotta, if I, I would, and I've said
Speaker:that I would gimme a team full of 25, 30 guys with the heart of Jacob Gomez.
Speaker:Man, I'd, I'd, we'd make it work.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:We'd, I don't know if anyone would, would ever beat us.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, he's, he's just, just built differently and I'm glad to see him
Speaker:get the opportunity with Augusta and hopefully just shoots right on rank.
Speaker:Lemme, and lemme tell you, I, I didn't mention this so.
Speaker:Savvy vet. 'cause he was talking about being a little older.
Speaker:'cause they were joking about, um, Hobe, you know, said he's young 'cause he is,
Speaker:you know, he was only like a, a a junior, retro junior coming out and they were
Speaker:both like 50 or seniors and uh, they were talking about, yeah, he's got time.
Speaker:And he was an early draft pick.
Speaker:Like those are the guys, they were seniors, undrafted.
Speaker:They like, they know we don't have time, we gotta make moves, make stuff happen.
Speaker:But he showed that Wiley vet move.
Speaker:Jacob was the first guy out of the clubhouse after the game.
Speaker:Uh, they're leaving, uh, leaving the, uh, Salisbury, Maryland to
Speaker:go down to Annapolis, uh, North Carolina for, for a series.
Speaker:So it's gonna be a little bit of a drive.
Speaker:They have two buses.
Speaker:One he told me one's a sleeper bus, one's just like a regular bus.
Speaker:So he, he is first guy out.
Speaker:He's like, Hey, I'll see you guys.
Speaker:Like, I knew exactly what he was doing, put all his stuff on the
Speaker:bus so he could, he could mark his spot on the sleeper bus so he
Speaker:could have to like
Speaker:wildly vet.
Speaker:This is a guy, this is a guy here.
Speaker:He is first year pro ball.
Speaker:He knows the drill.
Speaker:He knows what's going on.
Speaker:Jake, you can't mess with Jacob Gomez.
Speaker:No,
Speaker:he is on it.
Speaker:He, he knows he's a, he likes those creature comforts and
Speaker:I don't, I don't blame 'em.
Speaker:That's a. That's a hall down there.
Speaker:All right, well, we'll be with you at the ballpark at War Memorial this weekend.
Speaker:Come out and see us get your baseball cards.
Speaker:Uh, come talk to Gary.
Speaker:Yes, actually CB will give you the baseball cards for free.
Speaker:If you could talk to him about baseball for 30 straight minutes.
Speaker:If you could, if you could be near me for, I would go up on the roof.
Speaker:That's, that's how you can't follow me up there.
Speaker:So that's, yeah.
Speaker:Good luck.
Speaker:Good luck with that endeavor.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I'll be in the dugout so fast.
Speaker:You try to talk to for 30 straight minutes,
Speaker:just follow you right on in there.
Speaker:Like a couple
Speaker:minutes is cool, but let's, let's Alright.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You can talk to me.
Speaker:It's not for too long.
Speaker:But Gary will talk to you though.
Speaker:Yes,
Speaker:yes, yes.
Speaker:Alright, well thank you all so much for listening.
Speaker:This is the 15th episode this season, which I love.
Speaker:It is crazy that we've been on doing it for 15 and hey, keep listening,
Speaker:keep telling your friends the, the, the numbers keep going up.
Speaker:So that's a positive sign for us.
Speaker:We love, it's 'cause we're having a good time.
Speaker:People like when you have a good time, even though my we talk too much.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we have the coaching player that usually helps.
Speaker:That's, you know, whatever.
Speaker:That's okay.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Semantics.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:I mean yeah, we don't see the, do we see the drop off numbers?
Speaker:Like when the coach and player leave, how would people just
Speaker:stop watching this last bit?
Speaker:Yeah, I don't look at that.
Speaker:I don't wanna look at that.
Speaker:Don't, don't blame you.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Thanks everyone listening.
Speaker:We appreciate you and go Monarchs.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
