S3E12 - Marshall Recap w/ JJ Gatti
RHP JJ Gatti joins this week, fresh off this third consecutive strong start. CB, Gary and Coach Finny recap a 2-2 week and look ahead to a big weekend series with Georgia Southern
Transcript
Episode is brought to you by the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation.
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Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Hello, Monarch fans, and welcome to the Hudson Homers podcast.
Speaker:We got CB here and Coach Finny as usual cb.
Speaker:How's it going?
Speaker:I'm great.
Speaker:I I, I saw some different sports at the Boys on the Road this
Speaker:week, and I went and saw the, uh, volleyball and women's soccer.
Speaker:Had some spring games, went and saw those on Saturday.
Speaker:That was a nice full day.
Speaker:And I saw the, uh, the men's tennis, uh, yesterday.
Speaker:I had their, had their last one.
Speaker:So it was, it was, uh, and, and made sure I still caught the games, most
Speaker:of the games, uh, keeping up with the guys, you know, sitting there.
Speaker:My parents at the volleyball had the game on the phone sitting
Speaker:there in their lap watching.
Speaker:Uh, so yeah, so it's good.
Speaker:Nice to do a little different.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:I'm, I always see Coach Chao out at the baseball games.
Speaker:I see women's lacrosse there a ton.
Speaker:I see tennis.
Speaker:So glad we could return the favor a little bit.
Speaker:Coach Finn Ricky
Speaker:was out there watching the,
Speaker:uh, tennis,
Speaker:so, yeah.
Speaker:Oh
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Ricky's always around, but yeah.
Speaker:When, when did you get back?
Speaker:Uh, on Sunday or Sunday night?
Speaker:Monday morning.
Speaker:We got back about two, a little before two o'clock, so, mm-hmm.
Speaker:That, that's why the bag's under the eyes.
Speaker:Uh, you know, they, um, the, I'll tell you what I, I'll say this, Marshall,
Speaker:they built a really nice ballpark.
Speaker:Perfect size for them.
Speaker:Um, they, they do, uh, I mentioned this on the broadcast yesterday.
Speaker:They, from an administrative standpoint, they put on a good production, you
Speaker:know, with their PA and their music and the ushers and the, and the, the
Speaker:things they do in between innings.
Speaker:They, they, they really run a, a good product out there.
Speaker:So, you know, those are things, you know, hopefully, I told Ted, I said, you know,
Speaker:when you, every time you're on the road and you see something, you like, write
Speaker:it down and make sure we to our people.
Speaker:'cause there's always things you can learn.
Speaker:And I think, um, Georgia Southern, you know, we've got some teams in our league
Speaker:at Georgia Southern's very much that way.
Speaker:It's a, you know, it's an event and, um, it makes a difference.
Speaker:You know, people come enjoy it and, uh, they, they really do a good job.
Speaker:They have a, uh, uh, a police officer, um, and he's.
Speaker:Not on duty.
Speaker:He is, he is just in there and is Marshall Green and he's a bigger guy and he sits
Speaker:right next to our dugout and great fan.
Speaker:I mean, great fan, very friendly.
Speaker:Um, not abusive at all.
Speaker:Real, really Cheers heart for, for Marshall, but had all the, the
Speaker:best lingo, man, because I mean, and their, his seat is, you know,
Speaker:three feet from where I'm standing.
Speaker:They hit a, they'd hit a fly ball and he'd say, oh boy.
Speaker:He goes, did he get it?
Speaker:He goes, Nope.
Speaker:It's a lieutenant.
Speaker:Dan didn't have
Speaker:ball, ain't got no legs.
Speaker:He would say that every time, man.
Speaker:And uh, he had some great sayings, but we just got to talking to him
Speaker:like, you know, before the games.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:While standing around and super nice guy.
Speaker:Lot of fun.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:And, you know, been coming to Marshall Games ever since they built the stadium.
Speaker:He goes, I never came to games till they built this and now Oh
Speaker:wow.
Speaker:Miss a game.
Speaker:Uh, and so those are the kind of things that a, a real nice ballpark can, can
Speaker:gain you in, in terms of fans, you know?
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:As long as we don't play that little DJ sound effect after every single out that
Speaker:we get, that, that would be my only thing.
Speaker:'cause you could hear that coming through Ted's broadcast quite a bit
Speaker:on, uh, yeah, on Friday for sure.
Speaker:I, I end up not hearing half of that stuff miraculously, like somebody will
Speaker:say, did you hear that guy's walkup song?
Speaker:I'll be like, huh.
Speaker:Yeah, no.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:thinking about baseball,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:I, I just don't, I don't, I don't hear half the stuff that goes on out there.
Speaker:Um, so, but, so good, you know.
Speaker:We had, we had a chance again yesterday, you know, fifth straight series.
Speaker:We've gone into Sunday with a chance to win the series
Speaker:and you haven't won one yet.
Speaker:And it's super disappointing.
Speaker:Um, and you know, again, we get got behind, but we fought back, took the
Speaker:lead, and we had lots of chances.
Speaker:We left, we left playing.
Speaker:I, I think it wasn't, 'cause they played great yesterday, by any
Speaker:means, they made four errors.
Speaker:They were, they were doing their best to let us have a chance
Speaker:to win too, it seemed like.
Speaker:Um, but we, we had, you know, the first inning, I mean, we, we
Speaker:don't score in that first inning.
Speaker:We got first and third one out and we got basically loaded one out and don't score.
Speaker:And then we left some out there.
Speaker:Um, for sure.
Speaker:You know, so that's disappointing.
Speaker:And, you know, the middle of the lineup just didn't do much this weekend at all.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, uh, you know, I some match three hits on, on Friday, but, um, you know, they,
Speaker:they pitched just pretty tough and um.
Speaker:You know, we, we manufactured some runs on, on Saturday to
Speaker:win and again on yesterday.
Speaker:But we've gotta be better with guys in scoring positions.
Speaker:Certainly better with guys in, in third base in less than two outs.
Speaker:And those, that's the game, you know, when you get the hits.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I feel like there were a lot of hard hit balls deep in the center, got caught
Speaker:at the track or right in front of it too.
Speaker:I know f almost got one out of there I thought the ball would be carrying.
Speaker:'cause I could see the flags blowing straight out the
Speaker:center, at least, uh, on Sunday.
Speaker:It's a big park.
Speaker:Uh, and it plays bigger, I think, than the, the minute
Speaker:Friday the wind was blowing out.
Speaker:Um, and I think, you know, Mav had two balls on Saturday.
Speaker:That would've been out of there on Friday for sure.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:We had a couple yesterday.
Speaker:I think TJ's Ball is center and maybe Will Johnson's ball or right
Speaker:center, um, get out if it's Friday.
Speaker:But they're, you know, they're right field made a real nice catch on one of Mavs
Speaker:balls on, on Saturday to, um, rob 'em.
Speaker:But yeah, it's a big park.
Speaker:You gotta, you gotta be able to, you know.
Speaker:Put hits together to win there.
Speaker:'cause what was there?
Speaker:Two, two home runs hit on the weekend, I think.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That, that was it.
Speaker:And the one on Friday that Marshall hit off of Kuski, I mean, that was the most
Speaker:wind assisted home run I think I've seen.
Speaker:Yeah, so far this year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That one got up in the wind and got out of there for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the wind was blowing.
Speaker:Did
Speaker:they make it a little bigger because of the, like the Colorado Rockies thing where
Speaker:they're up in the mountains a little bit.
Speaker:So you made it a little bigger to account for that,
Speaker:or I don't think, that's a great question.
Speaker:I, I don't think the ball care, that's the second time we've played there and
Speaker:the ball has carried much, you know, and they say it doesn't, you know,
Speaker:now Thursday the one was blowing out, the ball's flying out of there and the
Speaker:bat practice goes out down the lines.
Speaker:The, the middle of the field plays big.
Speaker:Um, so, you know, you know, the, uh, I mean, going through the games last
Speaker:week, you know, I guess starting with William and Mary, um, on,
Speaker:on Tuesday, we go there Tuesday.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, um, you know, we played, played pretty good baseball, I think, you
Speaker:know, 10 run, rolled him and got a bunch of big hits and, um, just
Speaker:jumped up on him kind of chilly night.
Speaker:And, you know, it was a good night for us to get the bats going.
Speaker:Uh, you know, we had a bunch of guys get an FF swung the
Speaker:bat real well for us morale.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Four hits
Speaker:he's gotten, you know, he's, he's swung the bat good since
Speaker:we got him back in the lineup.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So that's been a plus for sure.
Speaker:Um, you know, and we pitched, pitched pretty good, you know, uh, Friday,
Speaker:man, that, that little lefty blevins, we, we just hadn't done anything.
Speaker:Of course, nobody really does.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:I bet his three starts against us.
Speaker:He's averaged seven innings and one or two runs, you know,
Speaker:giving up maybe at the most, so.
Speaker:He's pretty, he
Speaker:looks so frustrated he couldn't finish off the ninth.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:Um, but they, and they throw him a lot, so he hangs in.
Speaker:He's pretty impressive.
Speaker:I mean, he keeps the ball, you know, if the knees are lower and
Speaker:he just floods the strike zone and kind of suffocates hitters, man.
Speaker:It's, it's kind of a little bit of a throwback kind of guy.
Speaker:'cause he, there was 85, 86, um, three pitches for strikes and they're
Speaker:all at the bottom of the zone.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:craft, crafty vet. He
Speaker:is that.
Speaker:He is that.
Speaker:So, um, I'm glad we never got a face him again.
Speaker:I, at least they passed his five for five.
Speaker:He is got another year.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That'll kill.
Speaker:But anyway, so, and we, you know, ske actually didn't pitch poorly, gave
Speaker:up the home run the first, um, and they got one more on a, you know,
Speaker:they got a, they got a single and then a pass ball, wild pitch thing.
Speaker:The guy band.
Speaker:And scored on a double play.
Speaker:That was the three runs he gave up.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, you know, and, and, and then in the, we sent him back out for the sixth.
Speaker:That may have been a mistake, but when you're down, you know, by four or five
Speaker:you're, you're, you on Friday, you think about the game differently than you would
Speaker:Saturday or Sunday, um, because you've got two more games to play and you just,
Speaker:you know, unless you have a, a, a very deep pitch of staff, you know, with plenty
Speaker:of arms, which we don't, um, you gotta kind of just manage innings and save your
Speaker:best bullets for, you know, if you get back in the game or for the next step.
Speaker:And our guys that came in just quite simply did a poor job.
Speaker:They didn't do a good job.
Speaker:They, you know, let them expand the lead and you end up getting beat eight to one.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Oh, it is what it is.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I think bringing Kuskie back out for the six was actually pretty smart, because
Speaker:I mean, he had been super efficient.
Speaker:I mean, e even with that, you know, the, the plus inning he got
Speaker:there in the six, he was only at 55 pitches when you pulled him.
Speaker:So, you know, you think guy like that who's, you know, being super efficient and
Speaker:give seven, seven hits, but really ain't giving up anything big since the first.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He, um, sometimes it's not just the pitches though, it's the up downs.
Speaker:And, you know, he didn't, you're, you're right though, Gary, he didn't have a
Speaker:lot of stressful innings, you know?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And so his last two outings have been better.
Speaker:I mean, I think that's, uh, if you're looking for positives,
Speaker:his last two outings have been better, um, than certainly his
Speaker:first three in conference play.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:no, it does feel like some of the pitching is starting to trend better for sure.
Speaker:I mean, you're right.
Speaker:Obviously some guys came out and didn't do their job, but they've done it before.
Speaker:Uh, but yeah, I mean between, uh, Kuskie and Gatti, you, you're
Speaker:seeing some, some progress in the last few weeks, which is nice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Gatti, that was his third pretty good start.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I would say it's a quality start in a row.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The hot day, he, uh, he kind of ran outta gas there in the fifth, but,
Speaker:you know, we had our best bullpen guys lined up to come into that game, and I
Speaker:thought they all did a really good job.
Speaker:I mean, yeah.
Speaker:Uh, Ben Tanton came in, did a good job.
Speaker:Um, Bailey came in, did a good job, and, uh, Davis came in, did a good job, so.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, those guys, you know, they did exactly what we a asked them to do and Yeah.
Speaker:Offensively, I mean, I told the guys that we bunted the ball well
Speaker:and they kept screwing up the bunts, so, um, you know, we'll take it.
Speaker:I mean, and, and, and.
Speaker:Uh, will Johnson had a, had a big, uh, two RBI single in that
Speaker:game to kind of get us going.
Speaker:Um, so, and then we scored two on, on, you know, safety
Speaker:squeezes with, with Nick Felton.
Speaker:So we get a four to one win and even the series up and, you know,
Speaker:going to Sunday, beautiful weekend to play all, all three days.
Speaker:Yeah, it was nice.
Speaker:Sunday was no exception.
Speaker:It was a little warmer on Sunday.
Speaker:Uh, I mean, I've been to Huntington before in April when
Speaker:it snowed, so I was real happy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, and, and you know, again, we just get, get down.
Speaker:You know, we had our, the first inning, I think the momentum just shifted, man.
Speaker:And we get, you know, we get first and third, uh, and then we get bases loaded.
Speaker:Uh, don't score one out and don't score, and then they come in and
Speaker:get three and you're like, golly, they, and it's hard, you know, for
Speaker:the guys, you know, they gotta fight through the, here we go again thing.
Speaker:'cause it's human nature.
Speaker:Um, and they did a good job of it.
Speaker:Um, they helped us some, you know, they, they made a couple errors
Speaker:and we, you know, we, we, getting the two back I thought was big
Speaker:to make it a three to two game.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We were trying just to, you know, that one inning, um, you know, we had, we had
Speaker:the guys on and we, it again to make it three to one and first third we moved
Speaker:up and TJ got a big two, RBI single up the middle to make it three to two.
Speaker:And so you, you're back in, it's a one run game.
Speaker:Um, and then we, we hang three on him and so now we're up five to three.
Speaker:Um, and, you know, uh, I mean, having to go to your bullpen with
Speaker:whatever one out in the one out first inning, and it just, yeah.
Speaker:You, you can end up running out of bullets on Sunday.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Which, kind of what happened, I mean, I thought Maddox Jack came
Speaker:in and did a good job, like.
Speaker:Stem at the momentum.
Speaker:And
Speaker:he made some guys look dumb at the plate too.
Speaker:Like he had that one dude down on one knee after a swing.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And you know, again, we, we handled Maddox a little bit differently just because
Speaker:he's coming off Tommy John's surgery.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hasn't been, you know, really more than two up downs in an outing.
Speaker:And we thought, you know, JO threw the ball really good last weekend and
Speaker:it was time to get him in the game.
Speaker:And, you know, he gets out of the first one, gets a double play ball,
Speaker:uh, which was a rocket off the bat that will, you know, knocks down and we end
Speaker:up turning double play ball on that.
Speaker:Um, but he just made too many mistakes over the, you know, middle of plate.
Speaker:So he hung the breaking ball to the catcher again, and he
Speaker:hit it for the double and then
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:It kind of nickel and dined him.
Speaker:You know, we, we, we didn't make a couple.
Speaker:We didn't, and we didn't help him.
Speaker:You know, we threw a bun away.
Speaker:Uh, we didn't make a play on a infield kind of chopper, so.
Speaker:You gotta make those plays and you gotta be better if you want to win.
Speaker:And that, that allowed them to take the lead back.
Speaker:And we didn't do much.
Speaker:You know, they, again, you know, you get a complete game basically on Friday.
Speaker:You're saving some arms.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they didn't throw a lot of guys, only threw a couple guys Saturday there.
Speaker:They're better bullpen guys still to go on, on Sunday.
Speaker:And we didn't do much off Krebs or reliever that came in.
Speaker:No, he looked, he looked good.
Speaker:His stuff
Speaker:looked
Speaker:pretty filthy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we were chasing too much.
Speaker:We have to get back to being more disciplined at the plate.
Speaker:I, I think the thing that's, that, that went on this weekend is like you passive
Speaker:on fastballs in the zone and chasing too many breaking balls outta the zone.
Speaker:It's a terrible way to hit.
Speaker:It's
Speaker:the opposite of what you wanna do.
Speaker:Talk
Speaker:about that exact opposite.
Speaker:What are you doing?
Speaker:We talk about being ready for the fastball.
Speaker:I mean, we got guys sitting in the middle of order taking fastball strikes
Speaker:like we runners in scoring position.
Speaker:It's just.
Speaker:We gotta be better.
Speaker:And so we'll get back to work on that tomorrow and challenge 'em on that.
Speaker:And, you know, the second half of the season, I mean, is usually when
Speaker:you need to be more offensive because the wind starts blowing out in a
Speaker:lot of parks, certainly in ours,
Speaker:heats up, the mall flies
Speaker:more.
Speaker:Well, balls flying, the fields get harder.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, you just gotta hit and that's the thing.
Speaker:But hitting is not just about mechanics and what you're
Speaker:doing, hitting is a mentality.
Speaker:And if you don't climb into that box Yeah.
Speaker:As a confident competitor, you're already beat.
Speaker:And I think what happens sometimes on below average hitters is they
Speaker:default to struggle too easily.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Instead of just get it done, I gotta run around third, I need to hit a fly ball.
Speaker:I, I'm gonna go, I can just go up there and stand on my head and do it.
Speaker:I'm gonna do it right.
Speaker:I gotta get a bunk down.
Speaker:I'm gonna do it.
Speaker:It's not, everything in the game isn't about the aesthetics of it, it's
Speaker:about the, you know, finishing the job
Speaker:that's, you know, Gary and I are watching the games and, you know,
Speaker:talking about like, just the way Efrin Morales approaches batting.
Speaker:And it's, it's very much exactly what you just said.
Speaker:Like, this is a guy, he's, he's not gonna get beat.
Speaker:It's like, yeah, he, it might, it's gonna happen here or there.
Speaker:Obviously that's just the sport, but he goes up and you can see the mentality
Speaker:that he is going to do what he needs to do, and in a bat to get on base.
Speaker:And, and yeah.
Speaker:It's, it really is.
Speaker:It's, you see the guys where that's not the case where it's
Speaker:like, all right, well, all right.
Speaker:I struck out.
Speaker:I mean, it, it, it, it doesn't like whisper at you, it screams at you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I mean, the guys that are dudes, it screams and the guys that don't
Speaker:look like dudes, that also screams,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:We need some guys to, you know, step up at the end of the day.
Speaker:Look, we gotta at least go eight and seven to get into,
Speaker:probably get in the tournament.
Speaker:13, 14 wins gonna get you in there usually.
Speaker:Um, and you need some tiebreakers.
Speaker:We don't have any tiebreakers right now and we pretty much got, you know,
Speaker:we gotta win, you know, certainly four of the five series and you
Speaker:definitely gotta win your home series.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:so to have a chance and that's just the reality of it.
Speaker:And so just let's do it.
Speaker:We got Richmond here on Wednesday and, and get into, you know, Georgia Southern's,
Speaker:a team that's right around you, you know, so you're playing some teams that.
Speaker:You could end up in front of if you, if you just play better.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Now a thing that to me, you know, I think like Gary and I here as fans,
Speaker:we can sit here and talk about, and like you were just kind of mentioning,
Speaker:you know, 'cause you're looking at the bigger picture, what, you know, yeah.
Speaker:We gotta win this mini series to make, you know what we wanna be in the season.
Speaker:I would you, I would think that if you are in there and you're playing,
Speaker:especially for you guys coaching, you gotta be just in the moment
Speaker:like, we gotta win this at bat.
Speaker:We're winning today.
Speaker:Like, you really can't think bigger about
Speaker:No,
Speaker:no, it's not.
Speaker:Absolutely
Speaker:can.
Speaker:There's no past, there's no future.
Speaker:There is this exact moment we gotta win right now.
Speaker:'cause nothing else matters.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and that's the way you should approach every game and every
Speaker:piece of competition, frankly.
Speaker:And life.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:You know, I got a little.
Speaker:Thing on my wrist that says, be here now.
Speaker:And when I catch myself thinking too much about future, I snap it.
Speaker:Um, because life solved just a bunch of nows, right?
Speaker:And yes, they don't really matter.
Speaker:Uh, if you take the lessons and you know, that's, that is the big picture.
Speaker:That's the reality of it.
Speaker:But you can't win, you know, eight games on Friday, you, you got a chance to win.
Speaker:Winning.
Speaker:I can't win eight games with this at bat.
Speaker:I can't win any
Speaker:game games.
Speaker:You gotta win with this pitch.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:You gotta win a pitch.
Speaker:You gotta win in that bat.
Speaker:You gotta win winning.
Speaker:Uh, and then you gotta stack 'em.
Speaker:Um, so it, it is just a choice though.
Speaker:I've seen teams do it.
Speaker:I tell the guys a story all the time.
Speaker:Um, my first year at Auburn Man, 2001, we started off the year 16 and oh, and
Speaker:we're, I don't know, ranked second.
Speaker:We started off SEC play.
Speaker:Oh and nine.
Speaker:Whew.
Speaker:We lost our first Got swept our first three series.
Speaker:At Mississippi State at home against Ole Miss and at Georgia.
Speaker:And we had Tennessee coming in who was ranked second in the
Speaker:country the fourth weekend.
Speaker:And the guys got it together man.
Speaker:And we swept Tennessee.
Speaker:We ended up five and 10 in the first half 'cause we got swept the first three.
Speaker:So we ended up five and 10 and we went 10 to five in the second half
Speaker:and finished 15 to 15 and like ended up in six place or something.
Speaker:And we're in a regional.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:so it can be done.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it takes some guys, you know, playing and playing with a special kind of want
Speaker:to and feel and all those things because the other guys aren't gonna let you
Speaker:do it like they're trying to win too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You have the same mindset you do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They the same lines, you know.
Speaker:Um, and so, you know, you see, uh, you know, even last year, I mean we got to,
Speaker:in a couple of those, I remember we had, uh, at Monroe and then Marshall at home.
Speaker:Uh, and then JMU and we're like, we need to win these three series to, to
Speaker:get, you know, get in a tournament.
Speaker:And we did.
Speaker:We, we, we beat, uh, Monroe.
Speaker:We, we beat Marshall and we swept JMU.
Speaker:And so you can do it, you just gotta have some guys like step
Speaker:up, um, on the mound on the thing.
Speaker:Right now we're just pitching and playing good enough to win one game a weekend.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, and you gotta, you know, we gotta have some better starts so we can like, you
Speaker:know, not use as many guys maybe in a win and have some more guys for the next one.
Speaker:And, but they gotta do it, you know, like if you're not pitching good, we're
Speaker:not gonna keep running back out there,
Speaker:you know, and, and I mean it's, it's one of those things like, I don't think we've
Speaker:had over a six inning start this year.
Speaker:Maybe we've had one six inning start.
Speaker:Um, but there's some guys tr you know, I do think some of the young arms are.
Speaker:Are, you know, exciting for the future.
Speaker:I think Jackson Ocon was going through a lot of same things.
Speaker:Guy like Hunter Gregory, Ryan Moore.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:They all went through his freshman.
Speaker:Um, I think Ben Tanton has been really good and very consistent.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think Chris Cavalcante has got a chance is in that same boat.
Speaker:And Maddox Jack, who's a retro freshman, is definitely
Speaker:trending in the right direction.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, and then Cole Lanford, who's also a retro freshman, um, is, is showing
Speaker:us signs of, of what he's capable of.
Speaker:He's been very rollercoaster ish this year, but when he is been
Speaker:good, he is been really good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He has,
Speaker:um, and nasty and he was that way in the eighth, yesterday again.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Those, those five guys, you know, certainly for the
Speaker:future, um, look pretty good.
Speaker:So we're, we're, we're happy about that.
Speaker:And we just gotta get some, you know, it's gonna take some special performances,
Speaker:you know, somebody to have a, a three for four with four rbis and mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, somebody to have a, you know, a six inning, you know,
Speaker:eight or nine strikeout, one walk, three hit type of performance
Speaker:like, and those kind of things.
Speaker:Um, interesting.
Speaker:I thought about this yesterday.
Speaker:We don't play on turf anymore.
Speaker:We play on grass and dirt every game the rest of the year.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:and no road midweeks either
Speaker:and no.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Three home series.
Speaker:All our road, our midweeks are home and then we play at Coastal and
Speaker:that Georgia State we have grass.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So no more turf.
Speaker:It's kind of crazy.
Speaker:That's
Speaker:interesting.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:that
Speaker:our first three road series in the conference were all turf.
Speaker:I'm gonna be honest, I thought Coastal had turf.
Speaker:Maybe I'm just thinking of the football field.
Speaker:Yeah, no, they, they got a beautiful surface, but it's natural.
Speaker:They got a beautiful everything.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well that's one of their, their biggest majors, I think is like golf course
Speaker:and landscape management down there.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:Myrtle Beach.
Speaker:Yeah, that makes
Speaker:sense.
Speaker:They got a lot of interns, very willing.
Speaker:9,000 golf courses to work on
Speaker:down there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I I also thought that Will Johnson played really well this weekend across the board.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, he had some com really good competitive at bats.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:He, his clock was good.
Speaker:It is almost like he got a second win.
Speaker:I, I've been thinking he's been running on fumes for a little while now and
Speaker:been kinda on him about, you know, his energy and, and those kind of things.
Speaker:And just wondering if, if it's gonna come back.
Speaker:And I thought this week, um, I thought this weekend, I mean he
Speaker:made a bunch of good plays, man.
Speaker:Like, yeah.
Speaker:And
Speaker:threw out some guys that can run pretty well and, and was moving around and,
Speaker:you know, so that was good to see.
Speaker:That was,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:I also think Tyler Zedalis at third has been a fantastic move
Speaker:both offensively and defensively.
Speaker:I mean, he threw two guys out at the plate on Sunday and that was big in the,
Speaker:those clutch moments, but he just looks smooth and polished over there at third.
Speaker:He's been very consistent, right?
Speaker:Like he's making the routine plays look routine.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Which
Speaker:we infielders do.
Speaker:And he, um, he definitely has, has shorted us up over there.
Speaker:Like we're not giving away outs over there at third, like
Speaker:we were earlier in the year.
Speaker:Um, so that's been good.
Speaker:He didn't have a great weekend, but I tell you what, man,
Speaker:sometimes it's just how it goes.
Speaker:They, they pitched him really tough.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I mean, they, they were dotting balls on the outside corner and he had the
Speaker:one double on on Friday, but, and then now he also swung at too many balls
Speaker:that weren't strikes, but he, um.
Speaker:They, they pitch some fruits up.
Speaker:That can happen sometimes
Speaker:is Do you think that there's a carryover from game to game?
Speaker:Like Friday you face blevins fills the zone.
Speaker:Saturday you, you face a different pitcher that's trying to go out of the zone.
Speaker:Do you think there's that carryover of like, I looked at too many pitches.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Too many strikes yesterday.
Speaker:Now I'm gonna be aggressive.
Speaker:Could be, yeah.
Speaker:Could be.
Speaker:Um, a guy like Blevins, like you need to swing more 'cause
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Pitches.
Speaker:They, even the misses are gonna be hittable, like they're close.
Speaker:Um, and a guy like Harlow Saturday was kind of spraying it.
Speaker:You need to be more selective.
Speaker:And, um, I thought we did a decent job on Harlow, like you said, we hit some balls.
Speaker:Hard that Yeah.
Speaker:Would've some runs the night before and, you know, we didn't have a ton to shuffle,
Speaker:but we took our walks, um, and we took advantage of their, their mistakes and,
Speaker:you know, uh, and Sunday just, we just, we weren't ready to get that big hit.
Speaker:The moment got us man, and.
Speaker:That was too bad.
Speaker:'cause that game was there for the taking.
Speaker:Yeah, I think we were all waiting for that one more hit with guys
Speaker:on like, I mean, one single and it's a completely different game.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And I mean, to, to the guy's credit, I mean, they made some hard contact.
Speaker:I didn't see Exit Velos or anything, but yeah, I don't think you hit it to the
Speaker:track in that ballpark in dead center without putting some ass behind it.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:The one, the one that's gonna on that is the first inning
Speaker:because we, you know mm-hmm.
Speaker:You got that.
Speaker:And we don't hit a ball outta the infield.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's
Speaker:just that that can't happen.
Speaker:That's, we gotta be better.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, but we, we overcame it.
Speaker:We came back and still took the lead
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:And couldn't hang on to it.
Speaker:So, um, you know, um, positives, we, we are playing overall better defense.
Speaker:Um, you know, Zach's gotta catch those two cutoff balls just plain and simple.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Like they're throwing to you, catch 'em, they're not going anywhere with it.
Speaker:You just gotta catch it.
Speaker:Um, and that's just a focus thing for sure.
Speaker:Uh, and then we gotta get him back going again.
Speaker:Like he's
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:He's, um, you know, we gotta get him out of the jar.
Speaker:Uh, so get back to work tomorrow and try to get him back going
Speaker:because, you know, early in the year he was carrying us some games.
Speaker:We gotta get that guy back.
Speaker:Are they, are teams pitching him differently now?
Speaker:Like I feel like they're pitching
Speaker:backwards.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Going in more.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Uh, we talked about getting off the plate a little bit 'cause he, he's
Speaker:the guy that handles the ball out over the plate and hits it in the middle
Speaker:of the field better than he pulls it.
Speaker:Um, you know, usually we pull the off speed pitches.
Speaker:What good hitters do they hit the, you know, the fast balls to the opposite
Speaker:gap and pull the off speed pitches.
Speaker:And he's been that way.
Speaker:Guys are really throwing him hard in.
Speaker:Um, and he and today's hitters, for whatever reason have this aversion
Speaker:to moving around in the batter's box.
Speaker:Yeah, it's
Speaker:interesting and for ever, when I was growing up, I heard Pete Rose say this.
Speaker:Guy's sewing hard.
Speaker:You move back guy's.
Speaker:So soft, you move up guy's on you end, you move off, guy's,
Speaker:sew on your way, you move on.
Speaker:That batter's box is four feet by six feet.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And all you guys stand in the exact same spot every time.
Speaker:I, I swear I watch games and like, especially I go to high school
Speaker:games sometimes and like sometimes I'm, you know, right there either
Speaker:in the dugout or by the dugout.
Speaker:I'm sometimes tell them, Hey, move up in the plate.
Speaker:Like the way this guy is throwing, like move up and a couple of guys actually
Speaker:listen and get hits, you know, because it's, it's not rocket science, man.
Speaker:No, it's not.
Speaker:It's angles.
Speaker:Well, I think Zach's gotta get off the plate.
Speaker:Um, give himself a little more space.
Speaker:I, I think Nick Felton's one of those guys we're trying to get
Speaker:him to hit the ball the other way.
Speaker:Um mm-hmm.
Speaker:And he's gotta get off the plate a little bit and let him, so some things
Speaker:like that and, you know, it's, it's good we're, we gotta practice day tomorrow.
Speaker:It's gonna be a nice day.
Speaker:We're gonna be able to get out there and some shorts and take plenty of swings
Speaker:and get some of this stuff works out.
Speaker:Hopefully.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, one other person I wanted to talk with you about Kellen Davis.
Speaker:I, I thought, I mean, we know he's a dog.
Speaker:He is a gutsy dude.
Speaker:He is gonna go out there and pitch his ass off.
Speaker:But for him to, you know, go back to back days, get a save all scoreless, I
Speaker:mean, we wanna give him his flowers even, you know, even though we usually do.
Speaker:Anyway,
Speaker:Kellen Davis is one of the best stories.
Speaker:You know, I, I'll be telling Kellen Davis stories long after I'm done, because
Speaker:those are the wins, man, I think, and not, not because of anything we've done.
Speaker:I mean, I, I'm, we've worked hard with him collaboratively.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Collaboratively.
Speaker:But that kid has just found a way to, in, in reinvent himself in a way.
Speaker:I, I, I liken it to what Jason Hartline did.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:He is a guy that spent the first couple years trying to throw hard and then
Speaker:realized it wasn't gonna be hard enough.
Speaker:And then I gotta find a trick because.
Speaker:If I do, then I can pitch more.
Speaker:And for Heartline it was the cutter and for Kel, and it's
Speaker:been that spike breaking ball.
Speaker:And
Speaker:you're telling me that if you adjust to the situation, you
Speaker:might have success instead of just
Speaker:banging
Speaker:your head doing the same thing.
Speaker:It's crazy
Speaker:what
Speaker:concept.
Speaker:Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker:Crazy
Speaker:how that might work.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:What a concept that is.
Speaker:You know, people that are recording this could actually,
Speaker:you know, learn something here.
Speaker:I mean for more than just baseball too, I feel like.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Adapt or die.
Speaker:And you're talking about a guy that you know was a red shirt.
Speaker:Um, and then we were like, this guy's no good.
Speaker:He is a great kid.
Speaker:He is never gonna pitch.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then he figured the next year and then he, and then he figured that, you know,
Speaker:that spike breaking ball out and he was a guy we could bring in to get out of a
Speaker:gym early in games and all this stuff.
Speaker:And then last year the role was a little better than that.
Speaker:And you know, this year he is been one of our best, you
Speaker:know, late played in guys so.
Speaker:Incredible kid, incredible story.
Speaker:Um, just the nicest kid in the world, you know, and, and, um, you know,
Speaker:just, he's, he's been on so much fun.
Speaker:I had, um, my phone came up the other day, it was five years ago, this past week.
Speaker:I went on a trip and I saw, um, all 'em playing their senior of high school,
Speaker:Kellen and Blake Morgan and, um, Luke Waters all playing in that same week.
Speaker:So that was, that was pretty, those are three guys who had some
Speaker:pretty solid monarch careers.
Speaker:Got to see em.
Speaker:Yes, they
Speaker:did.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Blake Morgan all time.
Speaker:Appearance leader, uh, starts
Speaker:all time.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, game started.
Speaker:Starts game started.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, uh, obviously Luke, Luke was up there for
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, career at bats and all that, so, yeah.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:And, and so yeah, Kellen, he went out, he was back to, you know, he kind of was
Speaker:back to himself I thought this weekend.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, it's funny that his breaking ball, it's like when it's breaking this,
Speaker:this sounds strange to say, but when it's breaking too much, it gets hit.
Speaker:When it's breaking more, when it breaks less than you think it's gonna break, it's
Speaker:the opposite of what most guys, it stayed.
Speaker:And I'll be in the dugout, I'll be like, hung it just enough, and
Speaker:it'll stay on plane and the guy will pop it up, or, or, you know, and
Speaker:then when he, when he is throwing it, I think it, I think it's when
Speaker:he throws it, uh, maybe too soft.
Speaker:It breaks more than guy's head.
Speaker:It's weird.
Speaker:It's a weird dynamic.
Speaker:I don't, and I don't even know strange what all the numbers say.
Speaker:That's just what I see.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But he had it going back again and, you know, that was good to see.
Speaker:Yeah, he, he looked good.
Speaker:Obviously Bailey threw back to back days as well.
Speaker:He looked good.
Speaker:Um, you, a lot of young arms coming up, but I think some of
Speaker:your more veteran guys have evened out it seems like a little bit.
Speaker:Especially in the starting rotation for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We need those guys to, to figure it out.
Speaker:And we're gonna do something different on Sunday, um, this week.
Speaker:So, we'll, we gotta, you know, I don't know what that is yet.
Speaker:We're, we're still mm-hmm.
Speaker:Talking through that, um, to see who's the best option
Speaker:winning.
Speaker:We're gonna try that.
Speaker:That'd be a different thing
Speaker:that first, that
Speaker:get a Sunday win.
Speaker:It may be, I mean, there's plenty of, you know, baseball, college,
Speaker:baseball programs this way the last five weeks of the season.
Speaker:It's like, we're gonna, we're gonna use everybody.
Speaker:We got to try to win those first two games and then Sunday, whoever's left,
Speaker:you know, we'll figure out the best guy to start Sunday, whoever's left.
Speaker:So that could be that type of situation.
Speaker:And, um, if it is okay.
Speaker:And, you know, we'll do the best we can.
Speaker:That's, that's where we're at.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:One other shout out from this week, from the game on Tuesday, Jack Slater
Speaker:gets a start is catching, ends up going two for three, two ribbies, two walks.
Speaker:Thought he did a good job, just kind of seizing the opportunity.
Speaker:Got there, gave m and break and paid off for you driving in some runs.
Speaker:Yeah, we, and we started Jack because he's probably our best
Speaker:thrower, um, of our catchers.
Speaker:Uhhuh, even Mary, you know, was running like crazy up till then.
Speaker:I don't think they had a stolen base that night, but that's what happens.
Speaker:Get up.
Speaker:Uh, the and, but Jack Cock goody had a, you know, got us going with
Speaker:a big two out two RBI single to right center in, in that game.
Speaker:And um, you know, got another hit and he was good man.
Speaker:So that was good to see.
Speaker:And he'll probably.
Speaker:He'll probably catch, um, he'll probably catch against Richmond, I would imagine.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A good, good pinch hit option if you're facing a righty too.
Speaker:I think getting him up there, you
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he, he came in and whacked the ball, lined out the center.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Hit it well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you know, neat story about Jack.
Speaker:I mean, Jack got back from his, so Jack's going into Secret Service.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And he had his physical fitness test Monday in Richmond.
Speaker:Um, and you know, we, we were off last Sunday 'cause of
Speaker:Easter, so we practice Monday.
Speaker:So he, he drives to Richmond for Easter, takes his physical fitness
Speaker:test, which was, I think, uh, as many pushups as you can do in a minute.
Speaker:As many situps as you can do in a minute, and then a mile and a half you had to
Speaker:make under 12 minutes and all in a row.
Speaker:So, um.
Speaker:I can do a mile and a half and 12 minutes on the car.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I've seen your car, Stevie.
Speaker:You sure?
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:man.
Speaker:Well, might be my just barely.
Speaker:Well, he gets back to do some catching work.
Speaker:'cause we said, Hey, you're gonna catch Tuesday's, get you little extra work.
Speaker:And, and then he came out and played really well and I was like, man, we
Speaker:need to take your physical fitness test for, we may run so tomorrow
Speaker:you guys are
Speaker:practicing.
Speaker:Tell him start running
Speaker:later.
Speaker:You got running pushups and sit ups, let's go.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but that's such a cool thing.
Speaker:I mean that he's gonna do that.
Speaker:His, uh, that's
Speaker:great.
Speaker:His mom's brother, JT Tanny is, uh, has been a career.
Speaker:He is retired now I think, but he's been a career long secret service member so.
Speaker:Um, it kind of runs in the family a little bit, so that's kind of neat.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, elsewhere around the Sunbelt, I don't think we saw any near altercations
Speaker:with any dugouts or anything like that.
Speaker:Like previous weekend, uh, we did have some weird stuff.
Speaker:If you want to talk about JMU, they go to Charlottesville.
Speaker:They beat UVA in extras, then they go to Georgia State and get swept.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Like I can't wrap my brain around that completely.
Speaker:Well, Georgia State playing at Georgia State is like going
Speaker:to another dimension of 12.
Speaker:I mean, it's a disaster there.
Speaker:Uh, it's a, it's a, it's a bad junior college field set up.
Speaker:You'll be there next week.
Speaker:We'll be there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We'll be there soon enough.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:and they're good.
Speaker:Like they're, they're fine.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They can be good.
Speaker:They got plenty of good players.
Speaker:They get 'em from all over the place and you know, you usually like to
Speaker:play them later in the year because they're just wore out from all of it.
Speaker:Um, 'cause they gotta drive like 45 minutes from campus.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, you know, they're getting a new ballpark, so that'll be better
Speaker:for them and happy for them.
Speaker:Their, their coach does a good job.
Speaker:Um, and you can, and it's a small park.
Speaker:I mean, you know, you gotta hit some home runs to win there.
Speaker:So
Speaker:this, that one that's got, like, you can almost see like people walking.
Speaker:It looks, it looks like a city park, basically.
Speaker:It's,
Speaker:it's just like people walking the side.
Speaker:Junior college, there's a football.
Speaker:Yeah, there's a city football stadium right next to it.
Speaker:Um, it's, it is not good, man.
Speaker:It's not good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, you know, uh, so yeah, this will be the last hurrah for us there, but
Speaker:yeah, we'll be there soon enough.
Speaker:But you can get swept there for sure.
Speaker:Yeah, I can.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then, uh, Louisiana, the Cajuns, uh, get the series from
Speaker:Southern Miss, uh, as well.
Speaker:So I mean, the, the Sunbelt standings are just a, are are
Speaker:just a beat down of everybody.
Speaker:I mean, you got us and Georgia Southern at the bottom at five and 10, but in
Speaker:the three spot you got Southern Miss Southern a, uh, south Alabama, ULM,
Speaker:bunch of teams at eight and seven.
Speaker:So, I mean, it's, it's still fairly wide open to get any of
Speaker:the city other than Coastal.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Other than coastal 13 and two
Speaker:and ULM lost to the, at Appalachian, right?
Speaker:I believe so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I know they lost Sunday.
Speaker:I think they.
Speaker:Lost one loss
Speaker:there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, um, yeah, and you gotta, uh, and then Troy, Troy lost their
Speaker:first one then won a double header at Texas State, I think, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They played a double dip on on the second day.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:So, I mean, it is all gotta start Friday.
Speaker:Like, you know, the, you know, you hate to say it that way, but the team that loses
Speaker:that, that series gonna have uphill climb.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For,
Speaker:it's just the reality of it.
Speaker:You might as well just get it outta the way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's not like they're terrible.
Speaker:So, you know, that's the thing about the league.
Speaker:I mean, the margin for error between winning and losing
Speaker:is usually pretty small.
Speaker:And it's, you know, giving that battle away here and not catching a popup there,
Speaker:not, you know, keeping the golf second, like the, all the little things that.
Speaker:Don't even show up in the box score oftentimes are the difference
Speaker:between winning and or losing.
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And, uh, I guarantee that they're gonna be, uh, be pretty fired up 'cause they're
Speaker:gonna, they're gonna feel the same pressure that we're feeling like, Hey,
Speaker:gotta gotta win this series coming in.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Without a doubt.
Speaker:And, um, so just gotta come out and match it and play good and decide,
Speaker:you know, it's deciding time.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:Play, play to play to live, not play to die.
Speaker:Uh, that's, that's kinda what we're trying to do.
Speaker:But it's a great weekend to get out to the ballpark, uh, weather
Speaker:and the weather's great Weather.
Speaker:Weather looks great all week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Richmond, uh, we, uh, Wednesday looks good and mm-hmm.
Speaker:The weekend looks awesome.
Speaker:It's gonna be upper eighties, um, so it should be really nice.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wednesday, six o'clock.
Speaker:Friday, six o'clock.
Speaker:Saturday is gonna be at three.
Speaker:So you can go to the spring game of football then hum on over to the ballpark.
Speaker:They'll have live music, plenty of fun stuff to do and hang out there.
Speaker:And then the finale on Sunday is at one.
Speaker:So, I mean, perfect weather, you're gonna see some good
Speaker:competitive baseball going on.
Speaker:Other things going around campus.
Speaker:No excuse not to pop over, say hello and catch out some baseball games.
Speaker:Awesome, man.
Speaker:That's my pitch.
Speaker:You guys got, uh, who you got JJ coming on.
Speaker:Got jj?
Speaker:Yeah, JJ Gatti.
Speaker:He'll be on here in a
Speaker:minute.
Speaker:The deepest voice in town,
Speaker:man.
Speaker:It is crazy.
Speaker:I told him he could just like talk, he, he could do the PA
Speaker:just by speaking regularly.
Speaker:He does.
Speaker:It's like now bating number 10.
Speaker:It's like, turn your echo off.
Speaker:I'm proud of JJ though, man.
Speaker:He, he had, yeah, he's
Speaker:been fighting,
Speaker:you know, he's, he, he had some rough ones early.
Speaker:And he, he had, he didn't fold up his tent.
Speaker:He owned it and got back to work with our pitching coaches.
Speaker:And, um, he's, he's pitched much better the last three weeks.
Speaker:And, you know, that's, that's the reason we've, we've won almost Saturdays.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Um, hopefully we'll keep that up.
Speaker:And, you know, uh, I think that's, um, that says a lot about young man's
Speaker:character and his want to, and you know, we always talk about, um, if
Speaker:it's endurable, endure it, like, and figure out how to, you know, Winston
Speaker:Churchill said when you're going through, hell just make sure you keep going.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Het stop.
Speaker:He was going through hell and he kept going and he is
Speaker:fought and he is gotten better.
Speaker:And the main thing is he's not giving a bunch of free bases.
Speaker:You know, these, these last few starts, he's making guys hit the
Speaker:ball and, um, he wasn't getting hit, he was just walking everybody.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And, and, you know, giving up a, a bad inning 'cause of that.
Speaker:So he's been much more efficient and.
Speaker:You know, giving us three what I would consider quality starts in a row.
Speaker:So need him to keep it up.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:We're excited to have him on.
Speaker:And Finny, as always, thank you so much for your time, especially after another
Speaker:late night coming back on the road.
Speaker:Uh, but we will definitely catch you at the ballpark this week.
Speaker:All right guys.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Go Monarchs Oh
Speaker:my A Monarchs.
Speaker:A thanks.
Speaker:The Old Dominion Athletic Foundation are commonly referred to as the
Speaker:ODEF was established in 1964 as a nonprofit organization.
Speaker:The mission of the ODAF is to raise financial support for ODU Athletics
Speaker:to ensure that our coaches and student athletes have the resources
Speaker:necessary to compete for championships.
Speaker:The ODAF is integral to the success of ODU Athletics and is the channel through
Speaker:which our fans and alumni can partner with our coaches and student athletes for
Speaker:the advancement of the athletics program.
Speaker:Through the generous efforts of our donors loyal fan base and community,
Speaker:the ODU alumni from around the globe, the ODAF raises money for student
Speaker:athletic scholarship support and endowments, capital projects, program
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Speaker:With questions about how to get involved in one or more of these initiatives,
Speaker:reach out to an ODAF representative give to the ODAF are investments in
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Speaker:ODAF members receive exclusive benefits such as priority points for
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Speaker:experiences and more because of you, we create winners in the classroom,
Speaker:in athletic competition and in life.
Speaker:Contact the ODAF and become a member today.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Welcome back, Monarch fans.
Speaker:Thanks Blaine as always for the ad read there.
Speaker:Uh, again, shocker, uh, pretty realistic view from Finny.
Speaker:And yeah, this series is gonna be a big one this weekend with
Speaker:Georgia Southern for sure.
Speaker:Yeah, they're all gonna be big ones.
Speaker:Um, and you know, I, I was just thinking of that yesterday, the, what I brought
Speaker:up there that you, if you're one of the players, one of the coaches,
Speaker:you really can't think about that.
Speaker:For us, just being here as fans talking, we can think about it
Speaker:'cause we're not affecting anything.
Speaker:But for them it's gotta be like, we're just going out.
Speaker:We, I mean, what's the, the football team are like, go one and Oh, right.
Speaker:It's just one, oh, let's, let's go one.
Speaker:And oh every single pitch, every bat.
Speaker:Like, it's all we can do.
Speaker:We can only focus on the right now.
Speaker:We can't control everything before, can't control everything going forward.
Speaker:All you can control is this exact moment and you just gotta, and, and
Speaker:like I said, it's what you wanna do all the time, but now you're really
Speaker:gonna lock in and make it happen.
Speaker:Now's the time to work on that and make that be what it really is,
Speaker:is just focus on win this moment.
Speaker:And there's definitely been some times this year where I feel like, you know,
Speaker:especially when we get down early and we're down 3, 4, 5, and like the
Speaker:first, second, third innings, like, I feel like every guy's swing is, I'm
Speaker:gonna get all eight runs back now.
Speaker:Yeah, all six runs back now.
Speaker:And it's just not the way it works.
Speaker:You gotta, you gotta chip away at it and try to get yourself back in the
Speaker:game by having smart at bats, not trying to, you know, hit everything
Speaker:out of the ballpark each time.
Speaker:10, 10, 7 already a few times.
Speaker:That's the whole, like, how do you eat the elephant?
Speaker:You know, it's like, well they're, they're all trying to eat the elephant
Speaker:in one bite, so you're gonna choke or you're gonna break your jaw, like
Speaker:you're not gonna eat the elephant.
Speaker:But if you take a little bite here, a little bite there, just keep
Speaker:going at it, going at it, going at it eventually, maybe only the
Speaker:whole thing, but you'll eat enough.
Speaker:Yeah, I'll give everyone who works in corporate America, the
Speaker:chills here, don't boil the ocean.
Speaker:It's ironic considering that's what we're actually doing to the world.
Speaker:But that's fine.
Speaker:Yeah, no, it's a completely different story on that one,
Speaker:considering corporate America is doing that, but that's fine.
Speaker:Well, we're gonna have JJ Gatty on here in just a second waiting for
Speaker:him to pop up backstage, but I figure since we got a, got a minute here.
Speaker:Well, no, JJs popping on now.
Speaker:I was say kick him out.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No, I think he was, he was running somewhere.
Speaker:We're gonna get him here in just one second.
Speaker:But, uh, another really strong performance from JJ Gaddi this weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, I think third straight quality start, I don't know what the official MLB metrics
Speaker:are, but their quality starts and it's,
Speaker:the quality start in the major leagues is six innings and three runs or less.
Speaker:Uh, but I would, again, I would argue in college, yeah, you throw a four,
Speaker:you throw a four and a third one run.
Speaker:I, I'm calling that quality, especially when you consider we
Speaker:have not been getting four and a third one run most, most starts.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:I'm with you.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Well, let's, uh, let's not tease it anymore.
Speaker:Jj, welcome to the show, man.
Speaker:Jj,
Speaker:thank you guys for having me.
Speaker:What's up, man?
Speaker:Appreciate you being here.
Speaker:Yeah, appreciate it.
Speaker:I heard y'all had a late night.
Speaker:Always, always a guy.
Speaker:I love talking to, uh, by the way, one of, one of my favorite dudes.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, I appreciate that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Same here.
Speaker:I think we got some time to chat, uh, before the third game
Speaker:of the series, last weekend.
Speaker:Just kind of what all was going on.
Speaker:But how are you feeling today?
Speaker:Uh, coming off the weekend?
Speaker:I'm feeling good.
Speaker:Um, yeah, like you just said, we had a little bit of a late arrival
Speaker:last night, so, um, didn't get to bed till pretty late, but ended
Speaker:up getting into the field today.
Speaker:We, we just had an open field, um, kind of getting in there
Speaker:and doing whatever we need.
Speaker:After a long travel day, so it was good.
Speaker:How does that kind of travel affect the classes?
Speaker:I know we, we talk all about the baseball, but occasionally we
Speaker:remember you guys are students.
Speaker:Um, and, and I have to imagine with online work and maybe online classes,
Speaker:maybe it's not as bad as it used to be.
Speaker:I mean, you didn't have to show up for like an 8:00 AM class today, did you?
Speaker:No, no.
Speaker:In my case, I'm lucky enough that most of my classes are online.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:So I haven't had an early morning like that after a
Speaker:travel day, but that is tough.
Speaker:I know, I hear guys talking about it having to go to 9:00 AM or.
Speaker:Something like that right after we get back.
Speaker:'cause they do stuff, they go, unfortunately.
Speaker:Yeah, that's me.
Speaker:That was me last year.
Speaker:We did the southern miss trip and I came back at, we got back at like 3:00 AM
Speaker:and I went to work at, you know, eight.
Speaker:Yeah, it's brutal.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But how was the, uh, the double decker bus ride up there other than trying to find
Speaker:a tunnel that you could get underneath?
Speaker:Um, yeah, that was good.
Speaker:I love traveling in that thing.
Speaker:It's got plenty of room up top.
Speaker:That's where all the players sit and uh,
Speaker:it's not bad having your own kind of setup like that.
Speaker:Anytime we need to go on the road.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I saw Ted's video kind of giving a tour and it was funny when he popped it to the
Speaker:player side, you saw a bunch of eyes come up and then heads go down below the seats.
Speaker:Yeah, that was, that caught me a little bit off guard.
Speaker:I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I can't say I blame you at all on that.
Speaker:Well, uh, one definitely wanna talk about the game on Saturday.
Speaker:You have four and a third.
Speaker:You give up just one run, three hits, you get four strikeouts.
Speaker:Uh, how were you feeling going into that game and was there any kind of
Speaker:pressure that you felt that was maybe a little extra after, you know, we dropped
Speaker:the game on Friday to open the series?
Speaker:Yeah, I felt good going into the game.
Speaker:I feel like I wanted to keep the momentum that I've kind of created a little
Speaker:bit in these last few weeks going.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, and as far as like the added pressure, I, I can't really afford to, um, kind
Speaker:of give any, any attention to that.
Speaker:I can, I can really only control as much as I can and I feel like times, um, times
Speaker:where I'm maybe trying to do too much outside of what I can control, which
Speaker:is, you know, the start of the game, um, and putting us in a position to win.
Speaker:It kind of just adds another element that doesn't make it as simple
Speaker:just going out and performing.
Speaker:It's hard enough to, to pitch without needing all that extra stuff.
Speaker:Right,
Speaker:right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:As simple as it can be, it's as, uh, it's as easy, easier, easier that it gets.
Speaker:So that was kind of my mindset going into the game.
Speaker:I knew that it was a lot hanging on that game.
Speaker:I, I'm, I'm, I'm glad that we won.
Speaker:The big thing about it had Ben coming in behind me too, like he's such a stud.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And having him come in, you know, with, with guys on like that
Speaker:too, I, I kind of put him in that position and he did a great job.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We had him on a couple weeks ago and he was cool, calm, confident.
Speaker:I was like, are you sure?
Speaker:Like, how old are you again?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's a New York kid too.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:there you go.
Speaker:Funny enough.
Speaker:But, um, yeah, like I said, he, he is a.
Speaker:Do you guys have beef about which the better part of you?
Speaker:'cause you're, you're Long Island, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you, I'm sure you're like, we're better.
Speaker:You're up there in Binghamton.
Speaker:People don't even know where that is.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He knows.
Speaker:There's not really a debate there, honestly.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's fair.
Speaker:That's fair.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:well just, you know, thinking, uh, about your season journey this year,
Speaker:you know, started out strong, kind of went through it some tough times
Speaker:there for a couple of weeks, but the last three weeks you've bounced back.
Speaker:Tell us a little bit about that journey and just the work you've put
Speaker:in to get back to where you are now.
Speaker:Yeah, that was definitely frustrating those few weeks.
Speaker:Um, kind of not feeling like I am putting us in that position to win.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But, um, it just kind of reaffirmed why I am, I'm glad that I am here, that
Speaker:I, that I ended up here because just everything about this kind of situation
Speaker:that I'm in, that I found myself in was, um, like the, the coaching stuff.
Speaker:Wavered there at all with me.
Speaker:Um, and I feel like everything kind of stuck with me through that time and
Speaker:it made it easier to kind of make it simple, make it more simple going out and
Speaker:continuing to try to work through that.
Speaker:And that's why I feel like you've kind of seen these last few weeks.
Speaker:It's been a lot easier for me to go out there and, um, I've been able
Speaker:to put us in a better position.
Speaker:Well, I know we, we talked to you at the banquet, uh, but it's been
Speaker:a while and the audio was, was much better this year than last year
Speaker:with many people forgot or couldn't.
Speaker:You talk to us a little about how you ended up voting here.
Speaker:People don't know you started outta Dayton.
Speaker:Um, you pitched in 2023 as a freshman.
Speaker:Uh, I'm not sure.
Speaker:Did you get hurt that year or you hurt the next, I know you missed 2024.
Speaker:Yes, I got hurt that before my sophomore
Speaker:season.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Okay, so you got hurt.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So then missed, missed the 2024 year pitched 2025 for Dayton.
Speaker:Had a, had a pretty solid year then.
Speaker:So how, how did you end up at du coming outta the portal?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I first heard from Coach Panic actually, who he's the man.
Speaker:Like, um, I love talking to him and he's great to have around for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But he told me that on that call that I gotta speak with Coach
Speaker:Marin, our pitching coach, and me and him connected really well.
Speaker:Like he is just, I could go on and on about him.
Speaker:He is, he is been awesome.
Speaker:With all of us.
Speaker:And we had a few conversations.
Speaker:I hadn't, I wasn't really familiar with ODU, um, at all really
Speaker:before I had been in the portal.
Speaker:And, and they reached out just because I didn't really know anybody
Speaker:that had, that had gone here before.
Speaker:Um, but when I came down here for a visit, I absolutely loved it.
Speaker:And every single person that I came across was just awesome.
Speaker:Me and my mom.
Speaker:They made sure that my mom had come down to see it with me.
Speaker:And, um, like on the ride back, we were pretty much like, there's
Speaker:no way that, that we can't, um, that we can't come here now.
Speaker:I loved it.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:And like I said, like we've had, we've had a few, um, you know,
Speaker:rough stretches at times, but
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:I'm, I'm super glad that I did make the decision.
Speaker:I've loved it and I still have a ton of confidence in this group.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, you know, just thinking back to the, the past couple weekends, and I've
Speaker:seen your family up in the stands, I've interacted and talked to 'em quite a bit.
Speaker:They're always loud and cheering from you, but I think that you might be
Speaker:the loudest person I've heard cheering in our dugout in du baseball history.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:Like there's a, there was a guy a couple years ago, Jason Hartline,
Speaker:and he was loud and consistent.
Speaker:Uh, and, and, yeah, I gotta be honest.
Speaker:Sorry, Jason.
Speaker:Love you buddy.
Speaker:But JJ is, he's thrown the, the booming voice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A lot of 'em say that my voice echoes.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:When we play, when we play in the, uh, in the stadiums, it kind of,
Speaker:it kind of carries pretty well.
Speaker:So that's, that's funny you say that.
Speaker:It's kind of been my thing for a while.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I mean, I, I had heard it at home games, but it wasn't until we were at the
Speaker:diamond of VCU where you've got, you know, 13,000 empty seats in that bowl thing.
Speaker:Uhhuh and CB and I are sitting only two rows behind the dugout, and it sounds
Speaker:like we are sitting in front of you.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that's exactly what I was thinking of actually, with the stadiums.
Speaker:It was really banging off the walls in there.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:I mean, it was constant and you could hear the delayed echo all, all over the place.
Speaker:But
Speaker:yeah, that game was exciting too.
Speaker:That was a good one.
Speaker:Oh, that, that was a great game.
Speaker:I mean, I think we were down early in that one and I told CB, I said, Hey,
Speaker:it's a midweek early in the season, we could hit, we're gonna be okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Ping, ping, ping.
Speaker:Everything starts going out.
Speaker:But
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:the entire time.
Speaker:Heard you going nuts.
Speaker:I mean, uh, just tell us a little bit of kind of, I guess, like
Speaker:the bonding with the teammates.
Speaker:Like you, you're always getting the guys fired up.
Speaker:I mean, just, just tell us a little bit about that and how that
Speaker:plays out in the dugout there.
Speaker:Like I said, all the people who I've interacted I love, I've been, I've been so
Speaker:lucky to come into the group that we have.
Speaker:Because it's really like a collection of really good guys and it makes it
Speaker:really easy to pull for each other.
Speaker:Um, I remember that day, like we ne we never thought at any point that we were
Speaker:gonna lose that game, even though that ton of runs getting dropped on the board.
Speaker:The ball was flying.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but it's awesome to be in there.
Speaker:And that's something, like I said, that I, that's always kind of been there for me.
Speaker:I'm super passionate and, you know, not pitching every single game.
Speaker:It kind of, when I was younger, that's like, I, I used to think that
Speaker:that's how I would impact the game.
Speaker:Um, I don't know how ent that is necessarily, but now I still love to kind
Speaker:of get everybody going and if, if I can, if I do have that effect, I, I hope that
Speaker:I do have that effect on other people.
Speaker:But I, I can really feel it in myself that, um, when I'm pulling forest,
Speaker:it is, that's how I express it.
Speaker:You just mentioned when you were younger.
Speaker:So now that had me wondering, uh, high school, were you a hitter also?
Speaker:Honestly, I stopped hitting before, um, my varsity, my junior year,
Speaker:varsity season started because we had a absolutely loaded team.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You guys, you guys won a state championship year last
Speaker:year, right?
Speaker:Yeah, we did.
Speaker:We had, we had, um, double digit division one commits on that team.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Uh, I think we went 25 and two, if I remember correctly, that year.
Speaker:Woo.
Speaker:That's pretty good in
Speaker:baseball.
Speaker:But yeah, coming from the northeast, like we were, we were pretty, uh, like
Speaker:that doesn't really come about as often.
Speaker:Like we didn't really get as much like recognition.
Speaker:That's how, that's how we felt.
Speaker:Honestly.
Speaker:It's a little bit bitter, but, um, it was good.
Speaker:It's
Speaker:true though.
Speaker:I mean, it's, it's a real thing.
Speaker:It's,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:I mean, we've had some guys on the squad drafted too.
Speaker:Um, boy Joe Ola just went to the Diamondbacks in the
Speaker:seventh round last year.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, so it, it was a talented group.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:I didn't get to, I believe that I could swing it though a little
Speaker:bit when I did play travel ball.
Speaker:I wanna see it.
Speaker:I
Speaker:wanna see it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I was, I was gonna say you had to go further back in the yearbook
Speaker:to tell everyone how great you were hitting, that's all.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:No, I definitely had my glory days at the plate.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For, uh, for, for travel ball, summer ball teams.
Speaker:What, uh, what positions did you play other than, uh, the pitcher?
Speaker:I was the primary first baseman.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I played at corner and Field.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I would, I would slide from third to first, but honestly in my, like, that
Speaker:was my most comfortable position.
Speaker:I would imagine you, uh, you're a bit of a talker, so I'd imagine on first
Speaker:you were a talker, but it wasn't like a, it's that that's one where everybody
Speaker:can hear the entire conversation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, usually it's like, what are they, what are they
Speaker:talking about first base?
Speaker:Now we just, we know exactly what you're talking about at first base.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:Do you ever, and that's one of those, you know, obviously you're a guy, you
Speaker:got all kinds of future ahead of you.
Speaker:Do you ever think about like someday, like trying to do like
Speaker:radio broadcast, that kind of thing?
Speaker:Like I've, yeah.
Speaker:I honestly.
Speaker:I don't, I don't know.
Speaker:I feel like I'd be, I'd be suited pretty well for that kind of thing, but
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, I, I can't really, I can't really say, I can't really see
Speaker:past baseball as of right now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's all right.
Speaker:We'll, we'll figure it out.
Speaker:That's, yeah.
Speaker:I'm all for it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Play the baseball.
Speaker:We'll, there's plenty of life, man.
Speaker:It's, it goes long after, even, even if you have a long 20 year career,
Speaker:there's pl like plenty of time, actress.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:We'll, we'll figure it out.
Speaker:We we're gonna make it happen.
Speaker:Especially if that is the case, a long career like that, I would love
Speaker:to like hop into a broadcast booth
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or something.
Speaker:' cause a better smolt in the booth, I think.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He
Speaker:just, just don't hate, uh, don't hate baseball like he does now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, it's so unfortunate.
Speaker:It's one of my all time favorite players growing up, and he just
Speaker:really, I get people who like baseball, like, I'm sorry, it's
Speaker:uhhuh.
Speaker:It's
Speaker:a, it
Speaker:evolves, the game progresses.
Speaker:Like, yeah.
Speaker:And, and every generation is the same thing.
Speaker:And, and there's more guys that you hear that are more loud about it
Speaker:than others, but it, it happens.
Speaker:Every single generation in the game is always gonna evolve.
Speaker:Yeah, if you don't like it, just wait a couple years.
Speaker:'cause it will change again.
Speaker:I mean, you Right.
Speaker:I've seen the, I mean I'm, I'm not quite 40 yet, but I've seen the
Speaker:evolution change, I think three times in mine, just in my life.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:and it's been going well for the sport, I would say.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's
Speaker:great.
Speaker:I mean, our, our guy Ben Verlander is always sharing numbers and he
Speaker:talking about, you know, record numbers, open a weekend, record
Speaker:numbers in the minor leagues, and it's just like, people like it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And college baseball has grown a ton too, because I'm catching some
Speaker:ESPN two games now and I think it's because people are making so much
Speaker:noise about, there's nothing on ES ESPN right now, but you got 4,000 college
Speaker:baseball games on s espn plus like, let's put some of this stuff on there.
Speaker:So I think the exposure's just growing and growing.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:Well, um, well, speaking
Speaker:of
Speaker:that, the brand of college baseball too is just such a, it's so much fun
Speaker:and like there's so much passion that goes around with, with every team
Speaker:and every kind of, you know, like, especially when we get into conference.
Speaker:Like, you can feel that for, for they're so much fun to watch.
Speaker:And they can,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:You're a big celebrator too.
Speaker:You're, you're good for that.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:You're a big celebrator too.
Speaker:You're good for getting that, that great reaction shot.
Speaker:You know, that was like, that was like the first weekend.
Speaker:I was like, we got a guy, let's, let's get him, you know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's, some guys, like, no matter what they do, they just walk off the mound.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That kind of, that kind of flows through me, you know, like I said, I think I said
Speaker:at the, at the dinner, um, like that's not something that I ever plan out.
Speaker:That's not something that I ever like, try to do or think about.
Speaker:It just kind of boils to the top moment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, take us through the pitches that you throw.
Speaker:We're trying to get a good repertoire for everyone who's, uh, coming through here.
Speaker:So tell us a little about your pitches.
Speaker:So I throw five pitches.
Speaker:I throw a four scene fastball, um, and then a cutter, which is more of like a,
Speaker:more of a fastball than a breaking ball.
Speaker:I'd say it's in like the fastball family.
Speaker:And, um, then I throw a slider.
Speaker:Which is a, which is a more of a sweeper, side to side kind of profile.
Speaker:And then my change up is really my go-to pitch.
Speaker:I've been throw on that for a while, since I was, since I was younger, as
Speaker:the first off speed pitch I learned.
Speaker:And then I throw a big curve ball, like a slow curve ball.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Usually it's like 69 miles, 69, 70 miles an hour.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:six, seven.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's my, that's my thing.
Speaker:That's what I kind of try to do with all those offerings, ski hitters off
Speaker:balance and try not to let them get, you know, comfortable swings off.
Speaker:I think that sometimes I don't even know what I wanna throw in certain
Speaker:counts, so I know the hitters probably don't have the best idea.
Speaker:It usually keeps 'em off balance on their front foot.
Speaker:And you threw that slow curve to end an inning against Southern miss.
Speaker:And I could see it from where I was on the side, like, uh, when
Speaker:it came outta your hand, it looked like it was gonna be a fastball.
Speaker:And then all of a sudden this thing just like, and the hitter
Speaker:was so far in front, but he was on his backswing before it came in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's what I was asking you about the next day.
Speaker:Like what is that thing?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's, at least, it's at least like 20 miles an hour slower than my fastball.
Speaker:So especially when I show the fastball after throwing that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:That's what it, it worked really well for me against Marshall, kind of
Speaker:getting the ahead of hitters with that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, and then that puts them on, gets 'em out on their front foot and
Speaker:gets me, um, it helps me to throw my fastball by them more, or at least get
Speaker:them, um, like I said, off balance.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, that's how their missed call was good.
Speaker:That was actually Mac, um, because I had shaken, I, I had, um, shaken off
Speaker:the pitch that we got on the watch and then I don't remember if he had put down
Speaker:the right pitch or not, but he ended up going to the curveball and if you
Speaker:see, if you watch it back, I had, um.
Speaker:I had like started, I had started shaking my head like pretty violently.
Speaker:'cause I wanted to go back to that one.
Speaker:I think it was a three, two count.
Speaker:Um, and like I said, I'm pretty comfortable with throwing any
Speaker:pitch in any kind of count.
Speaker:I feel like that's kind of what helps me to get guys out.
Speaker:And that was, that all came together pretty nicely.
Speaker:'cause that was, there was a guy on third, if I remember correctly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was one of the highest leverage pitches you had in that game and
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Landed that thing.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:It reminded me of Zack Rinke.
Speaker:'cause he'd occasionally outta nowhere throw that gyro ball
Speaker:thing that he had, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It'd be like 55, 60 miles an hour after he just buzzed you with like 92, 93 Uhhuh.
Speaker:And
Speaker:I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker:Like, and that's a good hitter too, that you struck out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's always the one, the, the, the delta on pitches, you know, the, the difference.
Speaker:And that was like, I remember I watched, um, Levon Hernandez a few times throw
Speaker:in the big leagues and it's like, yeah, it's says fastballs like 84.
Speaker:But then he is also throwing, he threw, had pitches at 58.
Speaker:He was throwing Yeah.
Speaker:It's like, this is crazy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If you're in the box with like, you know.
Speaker:When guys are in the box, it, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day.
Speaker:Like what?
Speaker:Um, you know, as long as you can keep them between a variance of, you know, speeds.
Speaker:Like that'll, that takes care of like the time.
Speaker:'cause the, the biggest thing is timing.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Like if you throw, I don't, um, like if you throw like a, like a top level
Speaker:fastball, but that's all you really got.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like, hitters are able to time that up and keyhole mm-hmm.
Speaker:That that's what you're gonna throw.
Speaker:And it just makes it much easier to hit.
Speaker:Like, it, it, not that it's easier to hit a very hard fastball, but.
Speaker:If that's what you can guess and, and sell out your timing for.
Speaker:I think that even a hitter would tell you that that probably
Speaker:puts them, um, at better odds.
Speaker:You see pitchers all the time that have like high nineties fastballs, but
Speaker:they're flat, they don't move, and it's like, man, guys will tee off on it.
Speaker:I mean, what makes a one effective that speed in addition to the other
Speaker:pitches is, is movement, but yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:If you, you don't see a lot of big league pitchers have a lot of success
Speaker:with just one pitch, that's a fastball.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Especially with the pro guys, they have, their whole arsenal
Speaker:is kind of tooled mm-hmm.
Speaker:To keeping hitters in that limbo.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And if you have the hard fastball and all you really have with that is like
Speaker:a, you know, a, a, a hard breaking ball that you may or may not have command
Speaker:of that just, you know, like, like a hitter is always in the same gear that
Speaker:you're gonna be coming at them with.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, our guy Yee is with the Yankees.
Speaker:He's like eighth season in the big leagues, and I think he might be the
Speaker:slowest, average fastball in the big leagues for the last few years, but he
Speaker:does exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker:He, he keeps 'em off balance with a bunch of different stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's Ryan Yarborough, right?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, it's been been fun watching him.
Speaker:Then of course, uh, you know, Dylan Brown and John Holobetz have been lighting
Speaker:it up and I watch all of John Holobetz strikeouts the other day, and I think
Speaker:he had a different strikeout pitch for every single one, and it was wild.
Speaker:Wild.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah, they've been talking
Speaker:about another guy shows, another guy shows the motion when
Speaker:he comes off the mound too.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Follow following the footsteps of the great John Hobe with the,
Speaker:uh, the great reaction picks.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, and that's one thing I saw.
Speaker:I,
Speaker:sorry.
Speaker:I was thinking, um, JJ, you, you played at, at Dayton there in the Atlantic 10,
Speaker:how does that level, that conference compare to the Sunbelt now that you've
Speaker:seen about half a season of Sunbelt play?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, I think that.
Speaker:We definitely saw, at least I saw when, when we played App State and certain
Speaker:schools like Marshall too, um, that I wasn't really as familiar with.
Speaker:Uh, it's, it's very deep.
Speaker:Like the Sunbelt obviously is like, uh, every team has
Speaker:has some dudes on their team.
Speaker:The arms also, I will say we see consistently much better arms.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, the A 10 was more of like a, an offensive conference.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You see a lot of like super high scoring games, which we haven't seen
Speaker:as many, um, at all really here.
Speaker:But I would say, I mean, it, it's been a, it's been a difference for sure.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But, um, you know, it's the A tends a solid conference.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:There's not like a
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh yeah, it is.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's some solid teams in there for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Um, but, but you know, like.
Speaker:I think that any of these teams that we played against would do, would
Speaker:do pretty well, pretty well in the A 10, especially considering, like
Speaker:I said, the arms, like the bullpen depth on, on some of these teams.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Like Marshall was bringing out dudes, um, you know, on a pretty consistent basis.
Speaker:And so it's pretty much every, obviously Southern Miss had had a great bullpen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'll always love to bring some guy out, but it's like he's got
Speaker:six innings and 11 year a and then he comes out, he's throwing bbs.
Speaker:You're like,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:What is happening?
Speaker:And the talent level is definitely a, a noticeable difference.
Speaker:Um, but, and also the top and like we saw it a little bit with Southern Miss.
Speaker:There is, and we'll see when we play Coastal later on too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, some of these teams that, like, there is a, like the, the upper echelon of the
Speaker:conference is definitely like, that's, those are the games you wanna play in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, the coastal series is looming there towards the end of the season,
Speaker:and they just continued to be a buzz saw, but they, they did drop one
Speaker:this weekend to Arkansas State who,
Speaker:yep.
Speaker:You know, Arkansas State has not historically been a strong college
Speaker:baseball power, but I mean, they're right in the mix of everything this year.
Speaker:I think that's why the Sunbelt's so tough.
Speaker:Like, I mean, we're tied for last with Georgia Southern, and I know that
Speaker:both of our programs are really good and that's a little scary when you
Speaker:think about the rest of the Sunbelt.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And also, like, I, I haven't looked at the standings in the last, um, two weeks
Speaker:or so, so I'm not really as familiar with where everything lies, but I do know that
Speaker:it's been a little bit of a, like a mess.
Speaker:It is,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:It's still every
Speaker:year.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:always.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, that's what I'm saying too, about the confidence that I have in the group.
Speaker:I think that, like I have, I have confidence in us to
Speaker:be able to go on a run here.
Speaker:And like put us in a put ourselves in a good position.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean if you look, uh, third place right now is a big tie at
Speaker:eight and seven in the conference.
Speaker:So like your, your three wins behind being third.
Speaker:So it's still very much up to grabs.
Speaker:I'm glad to hear the guys are, are thinking that way too.
Speaker:'cause like it's, it's still a lot of baseball to be played here.
Speaker:So, JJ I want you to tell me something.
Speaker:What is, what is better here in Hampton, rose, Norfolk,
Speaker:Virginia, than up in New York?
Speaker:Long Island, you know, the big, the big time.
Speaker:What, what's better here?
Speaker:Um, definitely I almost, and this is gonna be, this is gonna be a probably biased
Speaker:answer, but maybe some people wouldn't really care about this, but the baseball
Speaker:setup that we have, that I have access to down here is just like something that
Speaker:I've never been able to have in my life.
Speaker:And I have always like.
Speaker:I've wanted to be able to play outside all year long.
Speaker:I've wanted to have access to like a field.
Speaker:Um, you know, like we have such a great setup.
Speaker:It's obviously gonna be incredible once it's all finished, the
Speaker:renovations and stuff like that.
Speaker:But even when I came down here, it was all still being rebuilt and
Speaker:everything that we have is, is, like I said, I've wanted a setup like that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:My whole life.
Speaker:'cause I can, I'm, you know, I'm sitting in my room right now,
Speaker:I can see the field from here.
Speaker:It's probably, yeah, it's like a two minute walk.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:And like it's, it's awesome.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:So I'll say that my home does not have a setup that I got here.
Speaker:You heard it here first.
Speaker:JJ Gatti said that, uh, Norfolk, Virginia is better than Long Island.
Speaker:Um, just we'll clip that chat clip that it's,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We'll,
Speaker:oh, well, JJ, we greatly appreciate your time hopping on here and chatting with us.
Speaker:Uh, excited to see the games this weekend.
Speaker:I know we'll both be down there, uh, you know, getting to see you
Speaker:work, uh, on that Saturday game.
Speaker:Uh, but just appreciate the time man, and good luck the rest of the way.
Speaker:Yeah, no guys, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:I do enjoy talking to both of you.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Cool, Raymond, we, we enjoy it, man.
Speaker:Good luck.
Speaker:Keep, keep killing it.
Speaker:Keep looking forward to hanging out, spending some time in the ballpark, man.
Speaker:Yes sir.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Thanks jj.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Good kid, man.
Speaker:Yeah, he's a, he is a fun guy to talk to.
Speaker:And you see right there as you talk to him like he is, he is very cerebral.
Speaker:Um, very much a pitcher, which I sometimes, I think gets guys in trouble.
Speaker:Um, you, you wonder if maybe that was the thing that was happening.
Speaker:Maybe.
Speaker:'cause he, I know I see him, I, I forgot to ask where we're
Speaker:talking to him, but he seems like he charts like every single game.
Speaker:Um, and I think he, he thinks it's, so you, sometimes you
Speaker:wonder if guys think too much.
Speaker:I've seen that with guys before, but, you know, he's, he's a really talented
Speaker:ball player and, and a really good kid and it's, it's good to see him
Speaker:have the success and hopefully he just keeps pushing forward and gets even
Speaker:better here as the year finishes out,
Speaker:if you can impress Finn with your work ethic, you're doing something right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, uh, I think Fannie made that, that pretty clear, um, that he's not
Speaker:afraid of the, the feedback and to go and get better, which is, which is
Speaker:awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:yeah, that's, and that's one thing about JJ too, is he, he doesn't
Speaker:have that kind of ego that says like, I know what I'm doing.
Speaker:It's like, no, he is, he's the first guy's be like, Hey, I need to get
Speaker:this better, this, and you get better.
Speaker:He's gonna tell you really, which is what you want.
Speaker:You want the guys who are aware of what they've gotta work on.
Speaker:And even, even when you're having success, you want to have that, you know,
Speaker:it's not, you're not downing yourself.
Speaker:You're just like, Hey, we're gonna make this better.
Speaker:Um, that's, that's how great players play better.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we've seen it play out the last three weekends.
Speaker:So getting those Saturday winds have been, it's the reason that the, they're
Speaker:still still in contention to do some good things this year if we can.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:So we're
Speaker:not, we're not in such a situation where it's like, there is absolutely
Speaker:no hope of digging outta this.
Speaker:Like, no, they just gotta go out and play and, and, you know, good stuff can happen.
Speaker:We're not, no way, we're packing our tents up just yet.
Speaker:No, not
Speaker:me.
Speaker:All right, well, we're gonna move on here to Players of the Week.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Plus a new award and then something else.
Speaker:But
Speaker:that new award might just be for the one week, but it was fun for this week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:but yeah, but, uh, so we, speaking of jj, we, he was definitely in contention
Speaker:for pitcher of the week, um, you know, four and a third innings, one run, um,
Speaker:three hits, two walks, four strikeouts.
Speaker:Uh, Ben Tanton was in the conversation too.
Speaker:Um, got the win coming in after JJ two and a third scoreless,
Speaker:uh, two walks, four strikeouts.
Speaker:Um, ended up off of, off of Gary's suggestion, uh, which I fully
Speaker:agreed with, uh, Gilman De Kellen.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:A little bit just based on what he's been doing.
Speaker:Uh, but also he, he pitched in two games back to back, picked up a save
Speaker:three and a third scoreless innings, one hit, one walk, two strikeouts.
Speaker:Um, he's been back to pitching like himself.
Speaker:Uh, you know, again, we, we know he's just such an important part of the team.
Speaker:Um, and a few other guys, you know, Maddox Jack, uh, inning in two
Speaker:thirds there came in, um, no runs, two hits, two walks of strikeout.
Speaker:Uh, Cole Lanford did pretty solidly, had two games, uh,
Speaker:four innings, uh, gave up a run.
Speaker:Four hits, two walks, four strikeouts.
Speaker:And Bailey Ella, he actually pitched in three games this week.
Speaker:Um, and I don't know how many innings he pitched 'cause I didn't
Speaker:write that down, but it was several.
Speaker:Only gave him one run.
Speaker:I think it, I think it was about, um, two and two thirds.
Speaker:Might have been three innings.
Speaker:I dunno why that didn't, he wrote strikeout six and however
Speaker:many innings he pitched.
Speaker:Yeah, he threw two, two against William and Mary, uh,
Speaker:on Tuesday.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So it's probably two, two a third.
Speaker:So I think he had two and two, uh, three and two thirds.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:In three games.
Speaker:That sounds right.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, that's crazy.
Speaker:I just didn't write it down.
Speaker:Um, Mike
Speaker:was
Speaker:a year ago, so, yeah.
Speaker:Weird.
Speaker:Um, and so batting, we get Rin, right?
Speaker:He's hot.
Speaker:I mean, he had seven hits last week.
Speaker:Had seven hits this week, seven for 17.
Speaker:Um, added two doubles, three rbis, walked three times, so got on base, 10 out of
Speaker:20 times, um, and scored three runs.
Speaker:So he, he had a great week.
Speaker:Um, will Johnson Finny pointed out right for five, for 14, four rbis,
Speaker:three walks, scored four runs.
Speaker:Had a great week.
Speaker:Zach late.
Speaker:It didn't seem like he did a ton five outta 17.
Speaker:It's not amazing, but three rbis, a walk, a run.
Speaker:So again, he, he's not, he, he, he got a little more on track from where he was.
Speaker:Um, and then we had our extra special might just be for this one week
Speaker:because it was, it was kind of wild.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Nick Felton is our, our Bunter of the week.
Speaker:He had six, six sacrifice buns.
Speaker:Um, had three rbis.
Speaker:I think all three rbis were on sacrifice buns.
Speaker:He also went two for six for a week.
Speaker:Had a couple of hits in the Sunday game.
Speaker:Um, so, you know, it's good to see.
Speaker:I think Finny pointed out last week.
Speaker:He's like, I just want Nick to go out play good defense and, and.
Speaker:Uh, get his bunts down and that's exactly what he did this week.
Speaker:Um, he was, made some great plays that really won really phenomenal
Speaker:catch out in the center field.
Speaker:Um, bunch of other great plays and getting those bunts down, which is, it's not easy.
Speaker:Uh, so that's, yeah, we had wanted to make sure we had a special,
Speaker:uh, little nod for him this week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean he drove in two of the four runs on Saturday in the win.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And very selflessly going up to plate with runners in scoring
Speaker:position to go and do that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, executed it well and definitely deserves the recognition for that.
Speaker:And then also, I, I don't know if anyone calculates defensive runs
Speaker:saved in college, but he's gotta be up there, uh, uh, this week.
Speaker:Just the balls he is able to run down in the gaps, how quickly he gets it in.
Speaker:Uh, I mean, just, just doing a lot of great stuff to make this team go.
Speaker:Uh, so I think that's, that's part of the reason he's buncher of the
Speaker:week, but, uh, ultimate team guy right here and, and really yeah.
Speaker:Propelled us to win on Saturdays.
Speaker:Him and the Will Johnson two run single, I mean, that was.
Speaker:That's the difference between getting swept and, and getting a game at Marshall.
Speaker:And it's a case of doing whatever you need to win.
Speaker:I mean, this is a kid who was on a, he's, he is a third team baseball All American
Speaker:last year as a high school player.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, he's a phenomenal player.
Speaker:You know, he could very easily be like, Hey man, they got me o to you.
Speaker:They got me buttoning every bet.
Speaker:I don't wanna be here.
Speaker:I'm just gonna pout and decide and just go in the portal, uh, and go
Speaker:to something bigger and better.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I got tell and it, but it said, I don't see that in him at all.
Speaker:He's the guy, he, he, you know, we need to have him on here at some point.
Speaker:Seems to love being here.
Speaker:Um, seems to wanna do everything he can do to, to be a guy and to
Speaker:play, to develop and believe in it.
Speaker:And, um, and you saw how he has a unique skill set and we're gonna
Speaker:use that and we, we know he can hit.
Speaker:Um, and that's gonna come and gonna gonna keep developing, um, as he goes.
Speaker:So it's, it's great to see a guy really buying into what they need him
Speaker:to do at the moment to help the team.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think him bunting so much is helping him see the ball a little bit better.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:'cause he was two for six outside of that.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And what I'd seen from him before was just the timing.
Speaker:The timing with the leg movement.
Speaker:Mm-hmm Getting, and that's something just comes with experience in reps 'cause
Speaker:he hasn't really gotten that many at that's played appearances this year.
Speaker:Um, so may maybe this is the way to get his back going overall, but uh, you just
Speaker:gotta highlight contributions to the team like that where dude's like, yep, I'm
Speaker:gonna do it, I'm gonna lay down the bunt.
Speaker:Sometimes I'm gonna beat it out.
Speaker:'cause he is beating a couple of them out too by
Speaker:that pressure, that smash that he hit to the shortstop, the hole where the
Speaker:shortstop had to kind of dive back at it And it's like that guy has no shot.
Speaker:'cause Nick is fast.
Speaker:And that's another thing.
Speaker:Once he, the more he gets on base, he's gonna be a base Steeler.
Speaker:He's gonna be a guy who's gonna get out there and, and take advantage of people.
Speaker:I mean, you, you know, he played for, uh, Kevin Gibbs there in, in
Speaker:high school, um, who has the all time record for you, stolen bases.
Speaker:He's a guy who might, might, uh, get after one season, you know, he could
Speaker:see him as a junior senior going out there, and he might be a 40 50 stolen
Speaker:base guy if you really wanted to do it.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:He also might be hitting the ball over the fence too much at that point
Speaker:to, to really take advantage of it.
Speaker:Well, if he doesn't break the record, I hope it's for that reason because he's
Speaker:hitting too many doubles in home runs.
Speaker:That's not a bad, not a bad
Speaker:because he, he's a large kid.
Speaker:He's a kid that when he, he got to camp, the guy, I'd seen him, you know,
Speaker:before when they, they'd come for their, their, um, their official signing visit.
Speaker:Um, and then, you know, he, big tall kid, you know, skinny,
Speaker:like most high school kids.
Speaker:And then when he came back and, and just saw him over the summer, uh, he's huge.
Speaker:I mean, he probably had gained 20, 30 pounds of muscle.
Speaker:You look at him, he's still pretty skinny.
Speaker:Uh, so it's one of those, like you, the same thing with tj.
Speaker:That same kind of like, you see there's a lot of frame to build on here.
Speaker:You can keep adding muscle and getting bigger and maintain that speed.
Speaker:I mean, there's a lot, lot to like about, uh, Nick Felton's future For sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A lot of great work coming from the strength and conditioning side of things.
Speaker:'cause yeah,
Speaker:tj, Kate, Kate Kelly is a dog man.
Speaker:That dude gets after it.
Speaker:He, he is all about it.
Speaker:Um, the guys love him.
Speaker:Um, and then Hannah takes care of, um, keeping him healthy.
Speaker:Yeah, we, we have some amazing support staff that's for sure.
Speaker:Hannah's one of the busiest people at a baseball game.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I mean, she's in, in and out of the dugout doing this, that, and the other thing.
Speaker:Oh, well, watching, taking care of the guys, cheer the guys on high five
Speaker:when they come back into, uh, take
Speaker:care of all the, all the little boys and their boob boos.
Speaker:Sometimes it feels for her.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Ha.
Speaker:Can I get an aspirin, Hanna?
Speaker:Can I get a bandaid?
Speaker:Comes with the territory.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, well.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Well, one more thing.
Speaker:I know we wanted to plug Yes.
Speaker:Before we signed off here, baseball cards.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I can't recommend you all getting these enough.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and so this is, and I, I have to be honest, if somebody's seeing
Speaker:this, I may not have gotten to some of the people who put in, um, message
Speaker:orders just 'cause I've been bad.
Speaker:But I will make sure that happens between tonight and tomorrow.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, so this is the last week.
Speaker:We're gonna make sure we're gonna get the orders in.
Speaker:Might might give it till next Monday, but we, we gotta get 'em in, uh,
Speaker:to make sure they're here by the last series, um, against, um, JMU.
Speaker:Uh, so yeah, if you want the entire set, I put 50.
Speaker:It might actually be more than 50 cards, but the entire set,
Speaker:just one card of every player.
Speaker:Some people don't understand what set means.
Speaker:So one card of every player for the whole team, $25.
Speaker:Um, if you want that, you, you don't have to get anything.
Speaker:You know, you can, if you just want some cards of your own player, like, you know,
Speaker:JJ gad, he's right there at the top.
Speaker:If, if maybe J's family just wants some extra cards of him, just tell
Speaker:me, Hey, we want 10 of him, 50 cents each, so it'd be five bucks.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Whatever you wanna do.
Speaker:If you wanna get a set, some extra pull cards, you just wanna get some
Speaker:cards to your player, you don't wanna buy anything, that's fine too.
Speaker:Um, and you see I put on there, uh, just reminder, I'm not making money on this.
Speaker:I've never have.
Speaker:I think in fact, most years I probably spend a few bucks, uh, because I make sure
Speaker:everybody gets few of their own cards.
Speaker:Um, and so it's all just, um, you know, we're just trying to.
Speaker:Make sure people have 'em.
Speaker:It's the thing I, we, I think I talked about doing for a long time, and my buddy
Speaker:Derek, he was looking at some old hockey cards back in like 2012 or something
Speaker:like that, and he noticed there was a place that made them up in Yorktown.
Speaker:Um, and so we went and started getting 'em Maid and they actually moved and now
Speaker:we get, have they place outta Richmond.
Speaker:Um, but they're, they're pretty awesome.
Speaker:It's one of my favorite things I do every year.
Speaker:Every year.
Speaker:This is the time of year where I'm finishing 'em up and I hate them.
Speaker:I think they look ugly and terrible and they're the worst,
Speaker:the worst set I've ever made.
Speaker:And then by the time they, they get printed and come to me,
Speaker:I'm like, these are beautiful.
Speaker:This is the best thing I've ever done.
Speaker:Um, so this, that, this is a fun week for me where, where I hate them more
Speaker:than anything else, uh, because I'm just staring and I feel like I'm doing
Speaker:a bad job of letting everyone down.
Speaker:And then they come out and they're beautiful and I feel
Speaker:like, well that was silly.
Speaker:I gave that poor emotional effort to it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Well, yeah, they, they do look awesome.
Speaker:And I also love too, you get like the sports staff and they
Speaker:were just talking about Kate.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There you got, there's a, his part from last year.
Speaker:You know, front and back.
Speaker:Pretty legit.
Speaker:Yeah, they're real nice
Speaker:guard.
Speaker:I usually try to order a couple of sets just 'cause I got all kinds of
Speaker:nephews and nieces that are excited about baseball and all that fun stuff.
Speaker:Makes a good gift for them as well.
Speaker:And, uh, some of these guys in these stacks, like this Dylan
Speaker:Brown guy I heard he's pretty good.
Speaker:John Ho's decent.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:well I know, uh, that was one, like Vinny, uh, PA Tino, one of his
Speaker:first years, he was doing like a, a podcast when he was at the Royals.
Speaker:Um, and they were like, oh, you got your first baseball card?
Speaker:He's like, nah man, I've had baseball cards since college
Speaker:telling about me making 'em cards.
Speaker:So yeah, it's, it's, it's new.
Speaker:We, we've definitely had, uh, I mean what PPJ Higgins just
Speaker:got back in the big leagues.
Speaker:I made PJ some cards, you know, back in the day he was in the first set I ever
Speaker:made actually, uh, PJ and Yarborough, a couple of big leaguers in that set.
Speaker:Actually, three, it was a, ya Overton was in that set too.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So at least three big leaguers in the first set I ever made.
Speaker:That's pretty neat.
Speaker:Yeah, that's not bad.
Speaker:And, uh, I, I'm hopeful to get to see PJ play.
Speaker:I'm gonna be in Chicago when the Reds are there and, uh, I just, you know.
Speaker:Nice to have team events at baseball games.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we're gonna go there and, and hopefully be able to see him, uh,
Speaker:get some action there with the Reds.
Speaker:When is
Speaker:that?
Speaker:Because
Speaker:Hits the other night.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He pitched you there.
Speaker:When when is that?
Speaker:Because, you know, I mean, you know, he is, we, we hope he stays for everybody.
Speaker:I know he is up because somebody else is hurt.
Speaker:So hopefully I'll still be there by
Speaker:then.
Speaker:The May 6th is when I'm up there.
Speaker:It's uh, it's ODU u second game against Richmond.
Speaker:I'll be up there, so, we'll, we'll see.
Speaker:Uh, last time I was in intend for a PJ Higgins game.
Speaker:It was up at the Nats when he was playing for the Cubs and he hit a home run.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:You know, there, we'll see what
Speaker:happens.
Speaker:PJ's a great, great guy, man.
Speaker:That's a guy.
Speaker:And, and it's been four years since he was in the big leagues.
Speaker:So that's a, that's a, a, a story of a guy just staying with it.
Speaker:Just kept on playing and been with the Reds for about three years
Speaker:now and they finally called him up 'cause the guy deserves it.
Speaker:He plays a bunch of positions, he knows what he is doing.
Speaker:He is a pro.
Speaker:I mean, he got a strikeout on the mound the other night.
Speaker:Not any position players can say that, so
Speaker:it's fun.
Speaker:Oh, awesome.
Speaker:Well definitely get your orders in for the ODU baseball cards.
Speaker:Got all the contacts here.
Speaker:If you're listening to the audio only just pop over to YouTube or also, uh, the
Speaker:Hudson Homer Social Media will continue to push that out here over the next
Speaker:couple.
Speaker:It's fine.
Speaker:On the social media, CB Sports Photography, Hudson Homers, um,
Speaker:email CB sports757@gmail.com.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Any way to, any, any way to contact us.
Speaker:We'll figure it out and make it happen.
Speaker:And then again, I apologize if I, if I hadn't got you.
Speaker:I'm, I'm working on it.
Speaker:I, I'm just, I'm slow and bad sometimes.
Speaker:My bad.
Speaker:We are overwhelmed with demand, but keep putting your orders in.
Speaker:No, there've been there already been a few.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, it's, yeah.
Speaker:Pe people like 'em and sometimes people don't know about 'em.
Speaker:So hopefully we talk about here on the podcast and maybe
Speaker:some folks that weren't aware.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:Just wanna make sure we're making some nice ones.
Speaker:Their, of their, their kids.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, CB yeah, it's fun as always.
Speaker:Uh, appreciate all the fans.
Speaker:Tune in, listen in, uh, our social media.
Speaker:Uh, things still continue to grow.
Speaker:Obviously, we're new accounts, so yeah, if you're not following
Speaker:at Hudson Homers on Twitter or X, please do same thing with Instagram.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Get to see all of CB's awesome pictures, uh, pictures out there and watch me get to
Speaker:butcher them with my poor editing skills.
Speaker:So
Speaker:I gotta, I gotta get on you about using more of the edited ones that
Speaker:to share you like, you like to share with the unedited ones a lot.
Speaker:We gotta get you, some of 'em have gone back and fixed them up nicer now.
Speaker:Yeah, I do, I do
Speaker:try to search.
Speaker:That was cool.
Speaker:The day of.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But like,
Speaker:yeah, for the, you're right, you're.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Come on buddy.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:No, it's fine.
Speaker:Just, that's again, just me nit that's my nitpick because, you
Speaker:know, I'm a, I'm a dork about that.
Speaker:It doesn't matter.
Speaker:They're all great and we all, we, anything, anything that celebrates
Speaker:the ODU U plan and us having a good time, enjoying watching it
Speaker:and being fans, I'm all for it.
Speaker:So, that's just me tease a little bit.
Speaker:You can always bet on, by the time I figure out how to properly
Speaker:use the social media platform, it will no longer be a popular one.
Speaker:Like my MySpace page was legit, and then it wasn't.
Speaker:It was excellent.
Speaker:You were coding like a, like a monster.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Don't even need to do that anymore, so.
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well, thank you all for tuning in.
Speaker:We appreciate it.
Speaker:Hope to see you out at the ballpark this weekend.
Speaker:Gonna be some great weather and hopefully some really, really good baseball.
Speaker:Gonna be a tough series
Speaker:and it's gonna be fun.
Speaker:So go Monarchs.
Speaker:Go Monarch.
