S3E14 - Georgia Southern Recap
CB, Gary and Coach Finny recap the Georgia State series, including the gut wrenching loss on Sunday. The guys look ahead to the final 9 SBC games of the year and what ODU needs to do to make the tournament.
Transcript
This episode is brought to you by the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation.
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Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Hello Monarch fans and welcome to the Hudson Homers podcast.
Speaker:Got Coach Finny here.
Speaker:We've got CB here.
Speaker:We got a lot to talk about, but cb, how's it going?
Speaker:I'm, I'm good.
Speaker:Uh, you know, better than I felt by this time yesterday afternoon,
Speaker:but, uh, that's all right.
Speaker:We're all in that boat, I think.
Speaker:And your and your Bravos are running away with the NL
Speaker:East.
Speaker:They're doing great.
Speaker:And, and I was gonna say, hey, how about, um, ODU, uh, women's tennis
Speaker:when they're six straight six feet?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's crazy.
Speaker:I think may, maybe they've said now where they're gonna play,
Speaker:but that's, uh, that's amazing.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:absolutely.
Speaker:Unreal for them.
Speaker:Men's, men's and women's.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The women are on four, the men are on fourth Street.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, that's, that's nuts.
Speaker:Amazing.
Speaker:Talking about entire classes.
Speaker:Come and play a full college career and, and don't not win the tournament.
Speaker:I mean, that's,
Speaker:yeah, that's
Speaker:something else.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Pretty cool.
Speaker:Congrats to both Doms, Dom and Dominic and Yes, all the
Speaker:Doms.
Speaker:All
Speaker:the
Speaker:doms, they're great guys and they've done a amazing job.
Speaker:They're, you know, and it, it shows what you can do when you have a
Speaker:good coaching staff and you got the best facility in the league.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:that's helpful.
Speaker:It's
Speaker:a great facility.
Speaker:Um, it's a great facility and they take advantage of it.
Speaker:I, I hadn't been to an outdoor one until, uh, last weekend and,
Speaker:uh, that's really great outdoors.
Speaker:It's a nice
Speaker:indoors, I think is better for the fans, but for photography,
Speaker:the outdoors was awesome.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's cool.
Speaker:But so
Speaker:good to, good to see them keep on winning.
Speaker:I know, uh, I saw a note that Arkansas cut both their men's and women's
Speaker:tennis programs last week, and you wanna talk about nice facilities.
Speaker:What they had was, was pretty impressive.
Speaker:So
Speaker:isn't that amazing?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think what a lot of those, the teams that are doing these sorts of things are.
Speaker:Turning them into, I, I don't think they're cutting, like, cutting 'em,
Speaker:like they're not gonna have it at all.
Speaker:I think they're turning 'em into basically non scholarship sports.
Speaker:Like they're mm-hmm.
Speaker:They're, no, no scholarships and, and you know, uh, reduced level
Speaker:obviously, or something like that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:It seems to be what is going through the, the wire around
Speaker:what's happening in some places.
Speaker:Kind of wrestling has done that in some places.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's why I continue to tell our fans that if there's a program you like at ODU,
Speaker:go to the games attend, show up, donate to them because it's, the landscape continues
Speaker:to change in college athletics and there could be some tough decisions ahead.
Speaker:And we're not exempt from that by any means.
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:Without a doubt.
Speaker:It is the situation we are currently in and, um, you know, people are spending
Speaker:more money and they're not bringing in any more money and so something
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We gotta get it from somewhere.
Speaker:Um, it's, it's unfortunate for sure, and I, I, I, baseball is
Speaker:certainly not immune to that.
Speaker:I, I unfortunately think that in the northeast that's gonna be a decision
Speaker:that some people are gonna come to, especially if you're a school.
Speaker:Uh, Mike and I are talking about this on our thousand thousand mile ride home.
Speaker:You're a school that's good at hockey, for instance, and you're getting a couple,
Speaker:two, 3000 plus for hockey, you know, and then you're getting three and five
Speaker:people for baseball game where it's,
Speaker:because it's 20 degrees outside most of your season.
Speaker:And it's just like, where do you want to allocate your resources, you know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:On the, on the men's side.
Speaker:Um mm-hmm.
Speaker:So that, that could, it's, it is gonna be interesting.
Speaker:I mean, I think, um, you know that the five for five thing
Speaker:that's gonna get voted on mm-hmm.
Speaker:Here in May, uh, gonna change the landscape.
Speaker:I was talking to a.
Speaker:High school coach, friend of mine this today, not this morning, this afternoon.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, and we were talking about high school kids and he's got a pretty good rise.
Speaker:He's a pretty good junior.
Speaker:Um, and it's just like, now this five for five's gonna hit again.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And everybody's gonna get another year.
Speaker:And then what are the, what are the high school kids?
Speaker:This is like the fifth year in a row.
Speaker:Something like that happen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you got like a whole
Speaker:class.
Speaker:I think the thing with this one is it, it may not affect the current seniors.
Speaker:That's the thing I keep seeing is that it might be, doesn't seem
Speaker:fair at all to me
Speaker:it, it seems weird.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Doesn't randomly pick one class
Speaker:of
Speaker:people and exclude them.
Speaker:It would make more sense to almost say if you're in college
Speaker:right now, it doesn't affect you.
Speaker:Just take everybody and then say all the incoming freshmen is where
Speaker:it starts would make more sense.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But I guess they're saying, you know, the seniors are
Speaker:graduating, you know, potentially.
Speaker:Moving on.
Speaker:I mean, if you think about like a football, any of the fall sports, they've
Speaker:already gone through their portal.
Speaker:They've already gone through, they've given away all their,
Speaker:their scholarship money.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:all their NILI think that's another reason.
Speaker:I think that's another reason.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:I think that definitely is another reason.
Speaker:So that could very well be, um, and then, you know, your juniors
Speaker:are gonna have two more years.
Speaker:Your sophomores are gonna have three more years.
Speaker:Your freshman are gonna have four more years.
Speaker:You know, you think about kids like Nick Felton who's just starting to
Speaker:figure it out and play really well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, you know, I think he had his best weekend, um, of the season, obviously
Speaker:with the two homers yesterday.
Speaker:He's got four more years.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's not
Speaker:true.
Speaker:Well I think part of it too is they're talking about doing like
Speaker:a, it's a onetime transfer portal.
Speaker:You, you can't
Speaker:one, one time
Speaker:do every single year
Speaker:screw up without sitting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So with that, and that would, I think at that point, I
Speaker:dunno what your feelings are.
Speaker:I, I, I haven't, you know, obviously sat and thought long about it, but
Speaker:it seems to me like five years.
Speaker:In five years.
Speaker:And so that's no more extending, you know, nothing within their seventh
Speaker:year and that one time transfer that, that kind of makes it to where
Speaker:you actually could bring kids in.
Speaker:Develop 'em.
Speaker:You, you don't worry about if you wanna play a freshman sum early on,
Speaker:you play 'em, you know, here and there.
Speaker:You're not worried about killing their year of eligibility 'cause it's,
Speaker:it's gonna go away no matter what.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I mean, it seems to me like it could have, has, it seems like it has.
Speaker:It's, it almost makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:So it feels like they're not gonna do it or they'll mess up somehow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because I hate the current rule.
Speaker:If you play a kid at all
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:He lose the year.
Speaker:If he's not hurt in baseball.
Speaker:I mean, it's like football now they're trying to get Yeah.
Speaker:Football, you get half the season.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which I mean, come on.
Speaker:But it gives you an opportunity to get that kid in there and get
Speaker:some experience and not lose it.
Speaker:And so I like the thought of that, you know, um, and, and you know, as the kids
Speaker:develop at different rates, certainly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the idea of a one-time portal is good because I mean you, you know, all
Speaker:the time there are guys who after a year or two it's like, Hey man, we like you.
Speaker:You're a great kid.
Speaker:This just isn't the spot for you.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker:And it's not necessarily about all the kids that are going and chasing money.
Speaker:It's about the kids that's like, Hey, we want you to be able to go somewhere
Speaker:and find your level and find your place.
Speaker:Yep, yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The other side of the equation would be interesting too, because you don't
Speaker:have that option to hop in the portal.
Speaker:You may be mm-hmm.
Speaker:Stuck with some guys on your roster for longer if maybe they're
Speaker:not the caliber to come and play or there's some other issues.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I'm curious to see if there's gonna be some carve outs for that for coaching
Speaker:changes and things like that too.
Speaker:But I wouldn't mind some guardrails 'cause it went from you can't
Speaker:move at all to go to a different school every year for 20 years.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think like somewhere in the middle is actually where
Speaker:the right answer is there.
Speaker:And this at least get us towards that.
Speaker:Well, yeah, there's no doubt.
Speaker:And, and you know, it went from, you're stuck with a portal kid
Speaker:forever till he graduates to.
Speaker:Don't about it now worry you, you're gonna be stuck with a portal kit again,
Speaker:so you better evaluate it the right way.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:Count against you until he graduates, no matter where he goes.
Speaker:And so, yeah, it's, um, I'm hopeful.
Speaker:We had a long recruiting meeting today.
Speaker:I'm hopeful that we're not going to be in the portal a ton this summer.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, we have, we've done pretty well.
Speaker:You know, our high school guys have been signed for a while, but we've done pretty
Speaker:well with, um, some pretty good junior college kids we've gotten recently.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And, and I'm excited about that.
Speaker:And it may be like one hitter and one or two pitchers maybe.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, so I like the thought of that because you could really zero in it.
Speaker:It's an inexact science, no matter.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know how you scramble.
Speaker:Well, yeah.
Speaker:You currently have a lot of, especially pitching wise, a lot of good young
Speaker:guys and like, they're freshman, redshirt, freshman, sophomores,
Speaker:there's, there's a, a certain amount of depth there already, so that's
Speaker:kind of a nice position to be in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And uh, you know, van Olsteen will be back next year.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Red shirt this year with the Tommy John surgery.
Speaker:Um, and you know, Kuski and Gati will be back.
Speaker:I mean, they, they're getting better.
Speaker:Like Ga wasn't, Kuski was really good on, on,
Speaker:he was
Speaker:Friday, the guy strike zone was so Dagg on small man, it cost
Speaker:him a ton of pitches, you know?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, but.
Speaker:He threw the, he's thrown, you know, he is had four quality starts in a row.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And Gati up until then had had four in a row.
Speaker:He, he'd been throwing the ball better.
Speaker:Those guys are getting better.
Speaker:I think next year.
Speaker:You know, a lot of times transfers is that second year where you really see, I mean,
Speaker:you think about guys like Sam Armstrong.
Speaker:Sam was just okay his first year, like very pedestrian and then he was
Speaker:absolutely dominant his second year.
Speaker:John Hobe was kind of the same way.
Speaker:Um, so
Speaker:I think you said it one time with a, with a transfer or juco, you
Speaker:basically get one year out of him.
Speaker:It's a question that's the first year and they're great and get drafted or
Speaker:they're the first year they're okay.
Speaker:Then the second year, they're great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And now you might get, so
Speaker:that was pretty accurate.
Speaker:If they got three instead of two, you might get two.
Speaker:So that, that's yous a good thing, you know?
Speaker:Um, like Will, will Johnson, I think is another good
Speaker:example, you know, will mm-hmm.
Speaker:Struggled a little bit, um, you know, the first part of the season.
Speaker:Um, and he has just really played well the, the last three or four weeks, um,
Speaker:both off offensively and, and defensively.
Speaker:He's really picked it up a notch, I think.
Speaker:Um, so that's a good thing.
Speaker:So, and, and no, you know, will just needs strength.
Speaker:Like a lot of them, he was a product of being at a place where he red shirted
Speaker:his freshman year and they didn't care.
Speaker:Um, and then he went to junior college and didn't lift and probably didn't eat right.
Speaker:He's probably 15 pounds lighter than he would be if he had
Speaker:been here the whole time.
Speaker:Um, so he can work on that this summer though.
Speaker:And, uh, some, I think 15 pounds would make a big, big difference for a guy.
Speaker:He can
Speaker:hang out with me.
Speaker:I'll put 15 pounds on it.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:me too.
Speaker:Just
Speaker:follow my diet.
Speaker:We got it.
Speaker:Me
Speaker:too.
Speaker:I was gonna say steak, potato and iron.
Speaker:That's about the, the recipe this summer for him.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Nick Felton another example.
Speaker:Like he,
Speaker:yeah, for
Speaker:sure.
Speaker:He needs to work hard put on weight this summer and
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, I'm really proud of Nick.
Speaker:He's, he's coming along, you know, with better at bats and, um, playing
Speaker:fantastic in center field as well.
Speaker:Now is Nick or I, I may might be a later conversation, but is Nick the
Speaker:kind of guy you're gonna have to play summer ball somewhere, or he is gonna
Speaker:focus on maybe him just working out and getting stronger in the summer?
Speaker:Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker:I, I think.
Speaker:If it is, it might be just part of the summer.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, we may send him out to get, we'll see how many at bats he ends up with.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, these freshmen, a lot of times if they get, you know, I don't
Speaker:know how many he's got right now.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But if they get, you know, over a hundred at bats per se, um, they go out and
Speaker:play in the summer and, and all summer and they come back just dog tired and
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It, it doesn't help 'em develop like Nick.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He does need to keep working on his swing and his approach and some of those things,
Speaker:but he needs strength more than anything.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, and so I think that'll be something we'll address that we
Speaker:don't have in place right now.
Speaker:Um, because we weren't just Sure.
Speaker:Every, every kid's a little bit different, you know?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, Tyler Zedalis is a good example.
Speaker:Like he's just, he likes to play, he's gonna go play.
Speaker:He's strong enough, you know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's fine.
Speaker:Yeah, fine.
Speaker:Um, guy guys like that.
Speaker:So, uh, we kind of take each of those a little bit differently, um,
Speaker:when we look at each guy towards the end of the end of the year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, on the topic of eligibility, I think we all saw the post
Speaker:from Luke before the weekend.
Speaker:It sounds like that that potential extra year is not going to happen.
Speaker:At least it seems that way.
Speaker:No, he got that denied and, um, you know, I hated that they kept the
Speaker:kid in limbo and us for so long.
Speaker:That was, that was kinda weak in my opinion.
Speaker:It was very weak actually.
Speaker:Um, they should be ashamed of themselves for that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, it should have been cut more, much more cut and dry.
Speaker:And um, you know, you live and you learn.
Speaker:It's just, you see these guys thinking they're gonna get, you
Speaker:know, talking about getting their.
Speaker:But the one quarterback from, uh,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:Ole Miss is like,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:got an injunction by the Mississippi Supreme Court for his
Speaker:seventh year or whatever it is.
Speaker:It's like, come on.
Speaker:All different rules for football.
Speaker:But that's where the, the five for five thing will clean up a lot of as well.
Speaker:You know, you don't have to, you don't.
Speaker:Go down that street.
Speaker:Yeah, he did for Luke.
Speaker:I'm sure he would've liked one more season just to kinda bounce back from last year.
Speaker:But obviously appreciate everything he did for the program.
Speaker:His dad, Roger is awesome.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:You know, I saw him at, at several games.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:This year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, whole family is awesome.
Speaker:His sister's a, a pretty accomplished athlete too.
Speaker:So sad to see that that journey come to an end.
Speaker:But, uh, yeah, I think he's, he's made some connections for life food.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Beneficial for him.
Speaker:He's working in compliance, helping them out.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Working
Speaker:on his masters.
Speaker:He wants to be a coach, I think, and
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, great kid and had a good career here, so,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:You know, that was, that was good.
Speaker:Um, you know, unfortunately, you know, didn't get that last year.
Speaker:We, we could have used him in lineup this year too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Adding that, adding that one more bat sometimes can make
Speaker:a big difference, you know?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Well talk a little bit about last week.
Speaker:I know we're all still kinda a little green in the gills
Speaker:from the way Sunday ended.
Speaker:I know you all had a late night, early morning getting back in, but, uh, it, it,
Speaker:I mean, honestly, I think you outplayed 'em for pretty much the entire series.
Speaker:Just a little bit of a, a headache We ran into there in
Speaker:the ninth inning on game three.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, and, and it overshadows.
Speaker:I thought we did play well.
Speaker:We didn't play poorly on Saturday.
Speaker:We just mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, some, they took advantage of, uh, you know.
Speaker:Some dirt balls, pass balls.
Speaker:It was sloppy on the mound.
Speaker:I thought GA was just, you know, it was a mess out there actually.
Speaker:And then, you know, you're the way series go when you're pitching is
Speaker:limited, which both our staffs were
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, are, um, numbers wise of quality guys.
Speaker:You know, if you win on Friday and you get behind, you know,
Speaker:by six or whatever mm-hmm.
Speaker:On Saturday, like you're gonna punt.
Speaker:I mean, unless,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:you're gonna throw guys, you know, the down bullpen guys and they
Speaker:just gotta go out there and do the best they can unless you get back
Speaker:in it and then it could change.
Speaker:I mean, you can see they did that on Friday.
Speaker:They did that on,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And so, you know, so tale of two completely
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:Different but the same games on opposite side.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then when that happens, when you don't play a close one either Friday
Speaker:or Saturday, both teams end up with their better bullpen guys mm-hmm.
Speaker:For Sunday.
Speaker:So then Sunday ends up being the close one.
Speaker:And you know, it's just how it works, man.
Speaker:Um, so, and it was, and it was, it was, we did, we outplayed it for
Speaker:25 outs and you got up out playing for 27 out, especially on the road.
Speaker:Um, and that's, that's unfortunate.
Speaker:So, um, you know, give your, give them credit.
Speaker:Uh, I like their club.
Speaker:I thought their, um.
Speaker:I, I think there are limited on the mount and the number of pitchers they have.
Speaker:And, um, but they got, you know, they catch the ball.
Speaker:Even their third baseman is a phenomenal player.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, McGinnis, uh, wills
Speaker:well then, and then Beverly, the center fielder is really good too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Beverly can, can play.
Speaker:He, he, uh, yeah, he can be pitched to, he can really run.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He knows you give him some credit.
Speaker:He knows what he is.
Speaker:He tries to chop the ball and run and, and he covers a lot of ground in the center,
Speaker:but their lead off guy, I mean, a third baseman, he must have made 15, or he must
Speaker:have 15 or 16 assists on the weekend.
Speaker:Like, and he made every one of 'em look easy.
Speaker:Uh, and he's got a good arm, good body.
Speaker:I was very impressed with him.
Speaker:And you know, when you're coaching third, you spend a little bit
Speaker:of time talking sometimes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:To third if you like him.
Speaker:And, uh, and he's a very, he's a very likable kid, very respectful,
Speaker:good kid, good competitor.
Speaker:And of course he hit the walk off to beat us too, you know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so, but that's how it goes.
Speaker:I mean, we've walked a couple people off this year.
Speaker:It, it sucks on both sides of it.
Speaker:When you win, it's great and you lose, it's, it stinks.
Speaker:And, um, I've been through a bunch of them, unfortunately.
Speaker:Well, the ones we've lost, unfortunately, the ones we won were great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's stoic saying that says, no man is crushed by the, uh, fortunes
Speaker:of defeat unless he's puffed up by the fortunes of victory.
Speaker:So we try to stay somewhere in the middle and, uh, we just gotta get back to work.
Speaker:We, we did play good baseball for the most part.
Speaker:You know, we caught the ball in defense, um, and, you know, through,
Speaker:through strikes and I thought, um, you know, yesterday Okonkwo
Speaker:again, uh, you know, three quality innings, um, gets us into the game.
Speaker:He had a good week, you know, he threw,
Speaker:yeah, he did, threw
Speaker:quality innings against East Carolina and then three against Georgia State.
Speaker:We, we thought we were gonna need to get Kellen into that game earlier,
Speaker:being fresh to keep us in it, uh, knowing what we had in their lineup.
Speaker:And, uh, it worked.
Speaker:He did a good job.
Speaker:I mean, gave up the one home run, but, um, you know, then three, and Bailey came
Speaker:in and did good job, and yeah, certainly, you know, um, if you had a crystal ball
Speaker:and you knew what was gonna happen, we'd run Bailey back out there for the ninth.
Speaker:But that's not how it works.
Speaker:So, uh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I think that's, that's one that, you know, it's easy to second
Speaker:guess because it didn't work, you know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If Nick goes out and it's 1, 2, 3, you don't think anything about it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but it's, I guess that's,
Speaker:that's baseball.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's baseball.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, was there, was there even a thought in the moment of like,
Speaker:we should throw Bailey out, or are you just like, no, Nick's got this?
Speaker:Uh, I think we just said, Hey, we need Bailey for if we, if we wouldn't have
Speaker:had to bring him in in the seventh.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I thought.
Speaker:I thought Kellen was outta gas after the six.
Speaker:Yeah, I think
Speaker:you were.
Speaker:We talked about it.
Speaker:We let him go out and try to get, you know, see how we could he, you know, he,
Speaker:when he is outta gas, everything's up the breaking ball's up and he walks the first
Speaker:guy and then we got Bailey in, I think.
Speaker:Not a good, you well
Speaker:up either.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:So, and Bailey came in and did a good job.
Speaker:He got us out.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Both of those innings.
Speaker:But yeah, it just is what it is, man.
Speaker:I, it's, uh, I'll, I'll take, I'll take full responsibility for it because
Speaker:it, I would've made the same move.
Speaker:Shoulda said.
Speaker:Maybe we should, and maybe next time we will, you know, no one's going, but
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Maybe we should have said, Hey, let's let him go out and start it and see
Speaker:how he does, and then we can get Nick in behind him if he doesn't have it.
Speaker:We, we, I tend to like guys coming in to clean innings
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Outta the bullpen.
Speaker:Me too, if possible.
Speaker:Unless they have strikeout stuff.
Speaker:If they've got strikeout stuff, you don't worry about it as much, but
Speaker:some guys, you know, you can help 'em if you're gonna bring 'em in anyway.
Speaker:It's just easier on them mentally, I think, to, to start any clean than
Speaker:come in with a bunch of traffic.
Speaker:And so that's usually my, what I'm in favor of if we can, if
Speaker:we can work it out that way.
Speaker:It just didn't work out, you know?
Speaker:And, and the guys, I tell 'em all the time, like, you know, somebody
Speaker:says, oh, that was a good move.
Speaker:And I go, it's not a good, it's only a good move if you guys make it good.
Speaker:You are the ones that make it good or bad.
Speaker:It's not.
Speaker:The move is the move.
Speaker:If you guys go up, you know, you pinch hit and a guy gets a hit, and then
Speaker:it's a great move way to go, coach.
Speaker:You know, and if
Speaker:you
Speaker:out, you big dummy whatcha hitting that guy for, you know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:See, and, and that's always my, my problem is that people,
Speaker:people wanna judge the result.
Speaker:And to me it's like you judge what the logical choice was in the moment
Speaker:and logical choice in that moment.
Speaker:It's like, yeah, you could have let Bailey go back out, but how many times
Speaker:does he throw more than two innings in his whole career At Old Dominion,
Speaker:especially this year, KY has it all.
Speaker:And so Nick was just coming off a week where he was great.
Speaker:You know, it's like I even said like, we're going through the game.
Speaker:I'm like, who's still out in the bullpen?
Speaker:Like, okay, so Pio all right, throw him in the knife, boom.
Speaker:It's like, it's, the moves in the moment are logical.
Speaker:That's the thing.
Speaker:When, when it's a bad move, when it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:So we just gotta get past it, man.
Speaker:And, and I think this group will, um, they, they know what they gotta
Speaker:play for and, you know, we talked, I said, man, there ain't nothing I
Speaker:can say to you guys right now that's gonna make you feel any better.
Speaker:No,
Speaker:nobody here's gonna feel good on this bus ride home.
Speaker:We just gotta move past it, move, get to the next most important thing.
Speaker:That's the definition of metal toughness.
Speaker:And we still got what we need to do in front of us.
Speaker:You're coming home for the next five games and you know, you gotta find a way to
Speaker:definitely win that series this weekend.
Speaker:And if you play like you've been playing, you can.
Speaker:You can.
Speaker:And so that's, that's just how we gotta look at it.
Speaker:You gotta put the past behind you as, uh, Rafiki said in Lion King
Speaker:and the way that everything else played out this weekend, you're
Speaker:still, you're, you're one game out of being in potentially a six
Speaker:seed, like in a big tie for six.
Speaker:You're two games out from being the five seat.
Speaker:So like, yes, you lost the game, you lost the series, but it's not like you
Speaker:got swept or, and you're out of it.
Speaker:Like, you know, you saw Georgia Southern, the wheels kind of fell
Speaker:off for them this past weekend.
Speaker:Say jmu, I think they, they won a game in that series, but you still have, you know,
Speaker:even a top six seat is still right there.
Speaker:You could focus on that for your remaining nine conference games.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Without a doubt.
Speaker:And, and, and, and in particular the team we're playing this weekend,
Speaker:our state game ahead of you.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So if you beat 'em the series, you'll, your records will be the same but.
Speaker:You'll be ahead of, because you have the tiebreaker over them.
Speaker:And so those tiebreakers are definitely gonna come into play.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, you can see it coming.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:it's gonna be wild, because they're gonna have to go 3,
Speaker:4, 5 16 tiebreakers going on.
Speaker:I mean, it's, it's jam packed.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:And that's where we could get screwed.
Speaker:'cause we only got a tiebreaker over George Southern right now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so, but, but look, Georgia State ain't got an easy, I mean, they,
Speaker:they gotta go to Louisiana this week who's fighting for their lives.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, and that ain't ever an easy place to play, you know?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And then, um, I, I forget who they, they, they get, they do have
Speaker:Georgia Southern in there, but I forget who they finished with.
Speaker:Somebody else pretty good.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So, um, yeah.
Speaker:And, and everybody has to still play each other, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like, so kinda like everybody's sitting there idle and you're winning or losing,
Speaker:like they're playing each other and they're moving themselves up and down the.
Speaker:The, you know, the standings as, as well.
Speaker:So you just gotta take care of yourself and try to play good baseball.
Speaker:And, you know, we, we, um, we did this weekend and so I was, I was proud of that.
Speaker:And I'm also happy that I never have to go play on that field again ever forever.
Speaker:And
Speaker:that's an interesting looking place.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's a, it's a bad junior college feel at best, but yeah, they, well, you
Speaker:know, we went by and, and hit their indoor cages Saturday because it was
Speaker:raining for the game and saw the, the, the, the lot, the basically mm-hmm.
Speaker:Spot, you know, it's cleared and they're moving dirt around.
Speaker:They got some poles.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Old
Speaker:Turner field.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:They got a ways to go.
Speaker:Um, and, and old, old, uh, you know, Fulton
Speaker:County?
Speaker:Fulton County Stadium right there.
Speaker:But it's gonna be a cool venue, I think, you know, I think it's gonna be
Speaker:way better than what they're doing and
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, you know, it's probably, I don't know, a quarter mile away from where
Speaker:their locker room and everything is.
Speaker:And, and, and they're, they're gonna have a hitting place to hit there, but
Speaker:their locker room's gonna still be in the old Turner Field where it is now.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And it's the old Braves locker room.
Speaker:It's awesome.
Speaker:That's cool now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I've, I've been down there.
Speaker:That's, that's nice.
Speaker:That was 25
Speaker:years ago.
Speaker:You're gonna have to get in your car and drive over to the field, um,
Speaker:from the locker room to the field.
Speaker:'cause it's, you can't walk.
Speaker:It's not like walking right across the street.
Speaker:Yeah, they're gonna be kind of set up there.
Speaker:'cause they have the new basketball facility on one side of that parking lot.
Speaker:You walk across, there'll be new baseball.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In the old Turner Field, which is now center park where they play football.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So they're, they've got it set up and they built up around it.
Speaker:So, I mean, they're,
Speaker:yeah, they got, they're
Speaker:trying to give the campus
Speaker:field.
Speaker:They got, they got, uh, public.
Speaker:Yeah, I saw the dorms.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:they've got dorm, they've got, it is a, it is gonna be a pretty
Speaker:good setup without a doubt.
Speaker:So we'll see how it ends up.
Speaker:If you play football and nobody comes to watch, are you playing football?
Speaker:That's,
Speaker:uh, that, that play that's, that was
Speaker:sad to see.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, it's, uh, it's kind of a mess.
Speaker:They've tried to make it look smaller.
Speaker:Um, but I get it for them.
Speaker:I mean, it made sense to do it and I'm sure they're getting kickbacks
Speaker:from the city to keep it up and stuff like that and all of that.
Speaker:So it makes sense to me.
Speaker:What a wildlife for that stadium.
Speaker:You went from the Olympics to the Brave Stadiums and now a, a football stadium.
Speaker:It was
Speaker:great.
Speaker:It was only, it was only the Braves home field for 20 years.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's like 20 years positive.
Speaker:I saw the first game ever there as an exhibition against the Yankees.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean that's like, gotta be one of the shortest lifespans
Speaker:of a baseball stadium ever.
Speaker:If not the shortest it has to be.
Speaker:It's that and the Rangers, the, those are the only two, uh, that I can think of.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:because
Speaker:that was about the global life.
Speaker:It was about the same time, wasn't it?
Speaker:Or
Speaker:the
Speaker:one before
Speaker:Arlington,
Speaker:they needed to put a roof and air conditioning on that thing.
Speaker:Yeah, because you'd be bacon a hundred degree afternoon games in July and August.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, hey, how about Nick Felton?
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:Man, a little power surge yesterday.
Speaker:He, it's a good thing he did it there because, uh, I dunno if you
Speaker:saw the distances they weren't gonna make it at, at, at ODU?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:I didn't see them.
Speaker:What
Speaker:were they?
Speaker:It was like 3, 3 85 and like three nine.
Speaker:Like they were the one to center field wasn't gonna cover and the one
Speaker:to, to the right center wasn't gonna cover, but he hit it in the right
Speaker:got, he did it in the right place.
Speaker:Got
Speaker:it.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So
Speaker:that's great.
Speaker:Uh, well, when he starts feeling himself, we will Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That, oh, they, we, they got the little graphics they put
Speaker:out now with all the, uh, info.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They look great.
Speaker:So that is cool.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And both of 'em, you know, scraped some paint off the back of the fence.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They were, they were long
Speaker:flyouts
Speaker:over year five rbis worth, and we needed them, so that was huge for us.
Speaker:And, uh, I thought Nick had had good at bats this weekend.
Speaker:He's, he's getting better.
Speaker:And man, I tell you what, uh, it's like having a good shortstop, you know?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:When you got a center field that just, when it's hit you just,
Speaker:it's, he catches everything.
Speaker:Like, I guess
Speaker:them,
Speaker:you know, it's like the, what was the old saying?
Speaker:The two, you know, a third of the, two thirds of the earth,
Speaker:thirds of the plants covered our
Speaker:water.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the other third, the rest is covered by
Speaker:Nick Felton.
Speaker:Felton.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:That's how you probably didn't see.
Speaker:But, uh, last week on the podcast, at the very end before, uh, he
Speaker:and uh, TJ left, Nick made sure to mention how much he loves mom's
Speaker:cookies and, uh Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker:We were, I was watching the game yesterday with my parents and my
Speaker:mom after the first, like, he's getting cookies next weekend.
Speaker:Oh
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Smart
Speaker:to look forward.
Speaker:He's
Speaker:smart too.
Speaker:He knows how to get
Speaker:cookies.
Speaker:He does.
Speaker:That was, that was good.
Speaker:Oh, we, we were ready to come in hot and heavy today with the podcast Boost
Speaker:because TJ hits one out on Friday.
Speaker:Then Nick hits two out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh man.
Speaker:I was, I was glad to see TJ finally get into one.
Speaker:'cause I think he's been, yeah, he's been in his head at the plate.
Speaker:He is, he's been struggling, but hopefully he can keep working through it.
Speaker:Come back out on the other side of it.
Speaker:We can Sure.
Speaker:Use it.
Speaker:And, um, you know, I think it's probably time to start thinking about
Speaker:moving Nick up in the, in the lineup and seeing how he can do his last few
Speaker:weeks at, at the top of the lineup.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:he can always move guys over with bunting, which is great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and you know, FF is such a good hitter.
Speaker:I, I feel like we're, he gets on base, but he can't run.
Speaker:Not a runner.
Speaker:Uh, you know, he's running hard.
Speaker:He is just those little,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:He's, he's, he looks like Mario when he is like, like tiny Mario before he gets the
Speaker:mushroom spray at bats.
Speaker:Yeah, he is.
Speaker:I feel like if we can stick him in the middle somewhere, we need some
Speaker:more RBI production in the middle.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, and so I think we're gonna play around with that tomorrow.
Speaker:I think, you know, these, these next two midweek games, you're gonna,
Speaker:certainly, you're always trying to win, but they're relevant in the big
Speaker:scheme of things for us right now.
Speaker:So it's, it's nice to beat the Virginia
Speaker:teams.
Speaker:That's about it.
Speaker:It is, it is.
Speaker:Um, you just, you know, these games, this time, everybody's in the same boat.
Speaker:Like you gotta
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Save all your bullets for the weekend.
Speaker:'cause everybody's trying to make their tournament and Absolutely.
Speaker:You know, all those things.
Speaker:And, and so, you know, you end up throwing some other guys and, and
Speaker:we got some guys that need to throw, like, Lanford needs to get out there,
Speaker:SIA needs to get back out there.
Speaker:Jack, Jack and Calvin Ante need to keep pitching.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Another good thing, you know, that came back, uh, getting Pat Johnson
Speaker:out there for an inning on Saturday.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For a month.
Speaker:And he threw, well, he looked good.
Speaker:Felt good after.
Speaker:So that's a, that's a nice arm to get back in the mix.
Speaker:And then, um, I think Nick's next Tuesday, not this Tuesday,
Speaker:um, we'll have Bain's, uh, yes.
Speaker:The deal.
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah, I was talking to him last weekend about that.
Speaker:So that be, that'd be a big addition at the end.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think we're gonna, we'll probably just open him next Tuesday so he
Speaker:didn't have to come in to anything.
Speaker:He can go through his whole routine.
Speaker:Throw an inning or two and, and get out there and then we'll see where he is
Speaker:at for the, for the weekend at Coastal.
Speaker:So, lots four and exciting time.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well your note on Nick felt will make Bo happy because within four seconds of the
Speaker:second home run going, oh, I got a text.
Speaker:Hey, can you ask Finn if you thought about moving Nick up in the lineup?
Speaker:And I was like, I don't know, but we'll find out
Speaker:all, all, all on you Bo I'm gonna tell him.
Speaker:Bo that's a great idea.
Speaker:I would've never thought of it.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:yeah, yeah.
Speaker:But we got the Rams, uh, Rams tomorrow night and uh, hopefully people come
Speaker:out and they're having a good year.
Speaker:I saw Richmond just beat 'em two out three this weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, eight, 10 play.
Speaker:So, um, I don't know where that puts them in their league, but Richmond's
Speaker:having a pretty good year in a 10, I think they're, yeah, 13 and nine
Speaker:maybe, or something like that.
Speaker:Uh, 12 and nine.
Speaker:Yeah, VC had gone through a little bit of a rut.
Speaker:They had lost I think six in
Speaker:a row.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Six in a row.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Going into that.
Speaker:Gotcha.
Speaker:Going into that game.
Speaker:Um, like they beat Virginia and they, they didn't win again
Speaker:until they, they beat Richmond.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So, uh, but they're still very much in the mix there at the top.
Speaker:I think there's, there's a couple decent teams actually fighting
Speaker:at the top of the eight, 10 year,
Speaker:I think the eight 10 only.
Speaker:I think the eight 10 only takes like six teams their tournament
Speaker:though, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker:So
Speaker:it's a small group for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:All right guys, well I appreciate you.
Speaker:Thanks for moving this up today.
Speaker:And
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:go Monarchs.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
Speaker:See ya.
Speaker:Letter.
Speaker:The Old Dominion Athletic Foundation are commonly referred to as the
Speaker:ODAF 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
Speaker:specific support and athletic department operations Funds are raised through
Speaker:annual giving, multi-year pledges, events, premium seating, and plan giving.
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 OD DAF are investments
Speaker:in the lives of our student athletes.
Speaker:ODAF members receive exclusive benefits such as priority points for postseason
Speaker:and away games, seating, parking, VIP, and hospitality experiences and more.
Speaker:Because of you, we create winners in the classroom, in
Speaker:athletic competition and in life.
Speaker:Contact the ODAF and become a member today.
Speaker:There you
Speaker:go.
Speaker:Thanks, Blaine.
Speaker:Yeah, thanks Blaine.
Speaker:Uh, welcome back to Hudson Homers, everybody.
Speaker:Uh, little slight schedule change for us this week.
Speaker:Yeah, Finny had to go a little bit earlier, guys didn't get back home
Speaker:until about 3, 3 30 in the morning.
Speaker:So since players have a game on Tuesday, we're not gonna, you know, make them more
Speaker:tired than they probably already are.
Speaker:After
Speaker:a
Speaker:really tough
Speaker:and finals this week too, so,
Speaker:oh, yeah.
Speaker:That, that little Yeah, too with, with that.
Speaker:Um, but with here, we will just start out with our players of the week this week.
Speaker:Hey, look at those guys.
Speaker:Couple of freshmen.
Speaker:Not too bad.
Speaker:When your freshmen are, uh, are leading things this late in the year means
Speaker:they're stopping to be a freshman, huh?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so Jackson Okonkwo, he was our fig. He had a good week.
Speaker:If you remember, he started the game on Tuesday against East Carolina.
Speaker:He was about the only guy that pitched well that night.
Speaker:Well, Yarussi came in late and pitched well, I, I will say that.
Speaker:Um, but at Conquest.
Speaker:So he had two games through six innings total, one and run, six
Speaker:hits a walk, two strikeouts.
Speaker:So he just came in and just threw some good innings.
Speaker:Um, other guys that pitched well, Ben Tanton and the game on Friday, the win.
Speaker:Um, down there, four scoreless, two hits, two walks, six strikeouts.
Speaker:That was probably his best performance of the year, to be honest.
Speaker:He's, and he is, has some good, we'll talk in a minute.
Speaker:He's had some good ones.
Speaker:Um, Ky had another very nice start.
Speaker:Uh, as Finny pointed out, uh, four innings, two runs.
Speaker:Three hits, three walks, five Ks, and, and Bailey Nutella came
Speaker:in, was great there at the end.
Speaker:Two innings, uh, no hits.
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:Yeah, no hits, no runs, no walks do strike outs.
Speaker:I mean, that was just, you know, when Bailey is on, that's when they start.
Speaker:I, I if people might not be able to hear, but the thing that our guys do,
Speaker:um, is sometimes when Bailey's coming out, they call out B Bley because
Speaker:that was down in Southern miss.
Speaker:He came into a game, it was tight one, I think it was, I
Speaker:think it was the Saturday game.
Speaker:And they threw, I think, I think he threw like three
Speaker:straight balls to the first guy.
Speaker:And then you hear the fans all bley instead of Bailey.
Speaker:And then I think he struck that guy out and then he do, that's where that picture
Speaker:you actually keep sharing on Twitter, um, of, of Bailey shouting after getting
Speaker:the, the third strike of that inning.
Speaker:Um, so that's one that when he's on, that's when our guys really started
Speaker:yelling Bali and cheering him on.
Speaker:It's my favorite picture of Bailey ever.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's just so gassed up coming off the mound.
Speaker:Yeah, he, Bailey's not a very, um, emotive guy in his day-to-day life
Speaker:and really not much on the mound.
Speaker:That was definitely one of the few times where you really got him like,
Speaker:man, he was, he was, he was hype.
Speaker:So that was cool.
Speaker:One.
Speaker:Yeah, that's, that's why I keep using that one.
Speaker:If it's JJ Gatti, I got that one covered.
Speaker:I've got a
Speaker:JA dozen.
Speaker:But yeah, it was,
Speaker:yeah, when you do the, taking the pictures that there's some guys, I think, I think
Speaker:I had, I was trying to get Tanin last week and I was like, watch, I think
Speaker:I was saying to whoever's standing next to me, I was like, watch, he's
Speaker:gonna turn and just walk right back.
Speaker:He's gonna strike the out.
Speaker:He struck him out and just walk him back.
Speaker:Like, it's like, okay.
Speaker:It's like, hey, you know what?
Speaker:I don't, I don't mind you if that's what you need, but.
Speaker:For photography's sake.
Speaker:It's really cool when they shout and scream and look like they're having fun.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Tanton just a stone cold assassin when he is up there
Speaker:he
Speaker:is.
Speaker:This is all business.
Speaker:Just gonna blow
Speaker:stuff
Speaker:by you,
Speaker:man.
Speaker:He is the baby faced assassin, that's for sure.
Speaker:He's a, he's in, he's in the crib with a little gun just poking out of the crib.
Speaker:Yeah, that's, that is, that has been tan.
Speaker:That's, um, so then for our hitters, uh, I think we all know now, my
Speaker:mom again was watching the game.
Speaker:My parents yesterday.
Speaker:My mom was like, Nick Felton better be player of the week.
Speaker:And I was like, well mom, we gotta see.
Speaker:I mean, I don't know.
Speaker:He had two home runs, but I far all I know he was like two for 16 for the week.
Speaker:Well, he wasn't, he was five for 13.
Speaker:He did have the two homers.
Speaker:Um, had seven rbis on the week.
Speaker:I think five in that game.
Speaker:Couple of walks, four runs, got hit by pitch.
Speaker:Another a sacrifice fly.
Speaker:So just a great honor week.
Speaker:And just Finny pointed out, just playing phenomenal defense.
Speaker:So, I mean, he's, he is really.
Speaker:Killing it.
Speaker:Um, shocker.
Speaker:Efrain Morales had another great week.
Speaker:Uh, five for 16, had a double hit a homer.
Speaker:That's always fun when f fits a double and a Homer.
Speaker:Uh, four Ribbies scored.
Speaker:Some runs got hit by a pitch a couple times.
Speaker:Um, Maverick Stallings had a nice solid week five for 15
Speaker:double a Homer, four R bis.
Speaker:Scotty Young was kind of in and outta the lineup.
Speaker:Uh, just mostly 'cause you know, lefties pitching, but he was
Speaker:three for 10 with a double in RBI.
Speaker:Uh, and Brody Connors, Brody Connors only had two chances, but he was two
Speaker:for two with a double and two rbis.
Speaker:So that's, you know, you wanna make sure he gets some love for a guy
Speaker:who's, it's not easy to sit on the bench and, and, and not play, but
Speaker:like once every four, five games and come out there and take your at bats.
Speaker:I got to watch some good hitting performances.
Speaker:I got to watch him take some batting practice last weekend when they were at
Speaker:home and Duke can piece up some baseballs.
Speaker:I mean, he's got good exit velo, he is got good launch angle.
Speaker:All those things just probably just needs reps. But I mean, it's a
Speaker:little tough to get into that infield right now with the way that Will
Speaker:Mav and Tyler are playing right now.
Speaker:Yeah, Brody's a dog, man.
Speaker:He's, it's one of those things that, you know, sometimes you
Speaker:look at it and, you know, maybe is he gonna get a shot next year?
Speaker:You know, might have some, you know, differences in the lineup.
Speaker:You know, maybe he, maybe he goes and play some outfield too, I don't know.
Speaker:But, uh, he can play third, he can play second.
Speaker:Um, I think he's obviously better at third and you can see him playing first and play
Speaker:in the outfield and, yeah, I mean, it's, he, he, he can play, that's for sure.
Speaker:One thing I know about Brody that that dude can hit, he's, he is a ball player.
Speaker:Um, but I did say I was, I was telling you, I, so I pulled together
Speaker:some stats and some guys from, they, they've recently been hot.
Speaker:Um, so Nick Felton talking about his last nine games, so before his last
Speaker:nine games, he was, uh, hitting for the season 1 71 with a 4 47 OPS.
Speaker:So, you know, freshman struggling, right?
Speaker:Last nine games.
Speaker:Um, he is hitting 3 79 with a 1041 OPS.
Speaker:So 4 55 on base, 5 85 slugging, right?
Speaker:11 for 29, 2 homers, 11 rbis, um, four sacrifices and a sac fly.
Speaker:I kind of picked since he, that was about the, the Sunday game of
Speaker:Marshall, which I think was the weekend where he started bunting.
Speaker:So much
Speaker:Uhhuh
Speaker:and that's when he picked up the couple of hits in that game.
Speaker:So that's, again, just to let you know it, if it feels like he's
Speaker:been doing really well, it's 'cause he is been doing really well.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:yeah, and I mean, he's having the two home runs on Sunday obviously
Speaker:helps that, but it probably would've helped him more if he would've gotten
Speaker:the double on this walk off too, so,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that would've helped.
Speaker:But yeah, I mean, he's just, the way he's turned it on and yes, the curtain fell.
Speaker:What does that, A 40 minute mark here.
Speaker:So
Speaker:there
Speaker:we go.
Speaker:Curtains down.
Speaker:For those of you betting at home,
Speaker:that curtain's down.
Speaker:Um, Efrain Morales, again, another guy we know he's been hot lately.
Speaker:Um, and you, you know, to say he, he started out slowly, right?
Speaker:So this is, we're, I'm looking back to, it was his last 15 games.
Speaker:This is basically all of April.
Speaker:So pretty much before April hitting 2 97, which isn't bad
Speaker:had but had a 7 33 OPS, right?
Speaker:Because he has a high on base 4 0 9, um, and a, but a 3 24.
Speaker:'cause you know, he had to get like one double before that.
Speaker:So his last 15 games, which again, pretty much since from April on, um, he's
Speaker:hitting 3 75 with a nine 50 OPS, right?
Speaker:So 4 81 on base, which again, it doesn't walk a ton.
Speaker:I mean his, his difference between his on base and his, his batting
Speaker:average is less than a hundred.
Speaker:Um, but a 4 69 uh, slugging, which again, you know, Efrain not a big
Speaker:time doubles home run guy yet.
Speaker:I think he's going to become one.
Speaker:I think you see it here.
Speaker:He is getting better.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, so over that stretch, 24 for 64 3 doubles of Homer, 11 rbis,
Speaker:10 walks, three hit by pitch, right?
Speaker:I mean, so he is 12 runs make pretty much all hitting to the top of the order.
Speaker:You know, Efrain been now that once he got healthy, he's been killing it.
Speaker:Yeah, it'll be curious to see what happens, you know?
Speaker:Where does Nick Felton fit in, in the top five, six spots in the
Speaker:lineup that Finny was talking about?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, he kind indicated that, you know, he would like to get
Speaker:f into more RBI situations, right?
Speaker:'cause he is a little bit slower on the base base paths.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, he's also had, I don't know how many balls that are hit, 3
Speaker:93 95 to dead center at the Budd.
Speaker:That would be, would've been home runs at Georgia State and some other places.
Speaker:Uh, so that'll be curious to see how that fits in.
Speaker:But man, you've got some young guys that are just doing some serious damage
Speaker:on the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker:Well, and speaking of a young guy doing some serious damage on the,
Speaker:uh, pitching side of the ball, I was gonna say defensive, it's
Speaker:pitching side, uh, Ben Tanton.
Speaker:Again, another guy I think, you know, we rightfully, he probably could
Speaker:have won the award again this week.
Speaker:Could have won the award last week.
Speaker:I think we didn't give it to him either week, but he, he really
Speaker:could have had a stretch of like,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Was that like five or six straight weeks?
Speaker:I mean, he is, he's, he's angling towards being the best pitcher, the
Speaker:pitcher of the year, to be honest.
Speaker:Um, so Ben, I was looking at his last six appearances.
Speaker:The last six appearances.
Speaker:Um, he is pitched 14 and a third scoreless innings.
Speaker:Um, he had a game against app state.
Speaker:He gave up five runs.
Speaker:That's the last time he gave up any runs.
Speaker:And so since then, six 14 and a third scoreless, um, 15 strikeouts
Speaker:in the time had a 1.13 whip.
Speaker:I mean, so he is been done great.
Speaker:Um, what's funny is if you look before that, so even if you include
Speaker:the app state game before that, before this six, six game stretch, he
Speaker:had 10 point 10 in a third innings, had a six 10 ERA, and a 0.97 whip.
Speaker:So he still wasn't giving up a lot of hits and walks.
Speaker:He just kind of, when they were hitting them, they were scoring, um.
Speaker:And this is what I was, I think it's interesting 'cause it's like,
Speaker:well take out the guy's worst game.
Speaker:What would he, what, what was the season look like?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Which again, you can't do that.
Speaker:He had to pitch that one game.
Speaker:But, so if you take out that one appearance against, uh, app State where
Speaker:he gave up five runs in an inning and a third, his season would be 23 innings,
Speaker:only two earned runs, 22 strikeouts.
Speaker:So we have a 0.78 ERA and a 0.91 whip.
Speaker:I mean, that's to tell you that, that Ben, I mean that's, that's, you know,
Speaker:because he gave up two runs and another appearance, which again, it just happens.
Speaker:The five run game was just a bad one.
Speaker:I mean, this kid has been Yeah, phenomenal as a freshman.
Speaker:And that just tells you, really illustrates again, if you take out
Speaker:the one bad game, like he has been dominant, man, that's impressive for a
Speaker:kid who's, I mean, having the guy, he's the first guy with the bullpen on Fridays
Speaker:when you're trying to win the series.
Speaker:That's, that says a lot about a kid.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, he's been impressive and like we were talking about earlier,
Speaker:he's just cool, calm, and collected.
Speaker:He's up there, it's a business trip to the mound for him, and
Speaker:it, it's paid off in a big way.
Speaker:I mean, 1.07 WIP for the season is, is pretty nuts.
Speaker:The fact that five of his seven are runs, were just in one outing
Speaker:against App State, which by the way, app State is, uh, tied for second
Speaker:right now in the Sunbelt standing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they miss
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, they're kind of sneaky.
Speaker:I think their RPI is somewhere around 37.
Speaker:So you wanna talk about a potential at large team, uh, app State.
Speaker:So it makes losing that series feel a little bit better and still
Speaker:not great, but at least, you know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If we would've lost a series of Georgia Southern who's now five and 16 and
Speaker:only has 12 wins on the season, be a little bit more, uh, upsetting.
Speaker:But I mean, Ben, like, there's very few guys that think of that bullpen.
Speaker:When I see them come into the game, I'm like, all right, we're good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Ben is, is one of them.
Speaker:Ben's that guy right now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he's a freshman and it's, it's wild that he's doing this.
Speaker:So we're early in his career.
Speaker:He's leading the team in ERA right now at 2 55.
Speaker:He is got, he's got six wins.
Speaker:No one else has more than two.
Speaker:Um, I think he's, he's like fourth or fifth on the team
Speaker:in innings right now, I think.
Speaker:But I mean, that might just keep going up and up as the season goes on.
Speaker:You know, it just comes from being a freshman to start out and going kind
Speaker:of slow as now he is eating up three and four innings every time out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, it's, it's, it's really fun to see these guys who are young.
Speaker:I mean, that's the upside of having, uh, uh, inconsist season
Speaker:is that lots of opportunities for guys to prove themselves.
Speaker:Lots of opportunities for guys to prove themselves in a bad way, unfortunately.
Speaker:Uh, but lots of opportunities for guys to prove themselves.
Speaker:And that's what we're seeing.
Speaker:I think with Felton.
Speaker:Conco and Tan and, and Morales, we already knew, he proved himself last year.
Speaker:We knew that he's had to get healthy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Just needed him to be healthy for an extended period of time.
Speaker:And I. I could be wrong on this.
Speaker:I'm trying to look it up before I say something dumb, but I'm pretty sure
Speaker:that the runs that Ben gave up to App State were also the first time and
Speaker:only time he has started this year.
Speaker:So
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:Wasn't a start.
Speaker:I didn't realize that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I believe, yeah, because pretty sure it was my idea when I asked Vinny the
Speaker:question of like, Hey, have you thought about moving Ben 10 into a starter role?
Speaker:Pretty sure it's one of our YouTube shorts that's out there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well that did not work very well.
Speaker:Just for the record.
Speaker:Well, and again, I think it will, I think Ben has gotta be, you know, right up
Speaker:there Oh, with, uh, O Conwell and, and Ga and Ky, when you talk about next year
Speaker:guys who have options to be a starter.
Speaker:But again, when you're that good of a reliever, um, let's see.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or is
Speaker:it, he threw
Speaker:four innings
Speaker:game started
Speaker:pitches.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:That was his one start of the season.
Speaker:You're correct.
Speaker:So that was, uh, I think I was right there with you chant that too.
Speaker:So it's not like, you know.
Speaker:And Finn's gonna do whatever he is gonna do.
Speaker:Us talking to the podcast is he probably, he walks up to us on Mondays
Speaker:already know what, what's gonna happen.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:I, we didn't actually, the decision was already made.
Speaker:Just made it easier for him to answer the question 'cause he already made it.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but yeah.
Speaker:But b Ben's been fantastic and I think like if you wanna look for
Speaker:some, someone who's gonna do some damage for a couple years to come at
Speaker:ODU, he's the one for sure right now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That I'll be like, yep.
Speaker:Keep an eye on him.
Speaker:Um, Ocon I thought was, was great too.
Speaker:I mean mm-hmm.
Speaker:The wheels fell off when he came out of the game, but people forget it
Speaker:was one nothing through three against East Carolina on Tuesday and then East
Speaker:Carolina.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He'd give up eight run ending and a seven run inning after that.
Speaker:It was, it was pretty tough.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean the, all I can say about that night, it was, it was cool to see
Speaker:Boucher talked to him for a minute.
Speaker:Um, and it was cool to see Austin Irby from, um, from Cox, uh, back home.
Speaker:He had, he had a big day and he had three hits.
Speaker:He was complaining at first base at the end of the game.
Speaker:He was warming up.
Speaker:So like, I just, I missed that perfect game by that one, that one out.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:But, uh,
Speaker:yeah, we had some guys put up some good offensive numbers in that East Carolina
Speaker:game and we put up a nine spot on 'em.
Speaker:Just, I mean, the, the, the pitching just was not there after O Conco
Speaker:until we got all the way to Yi at the end, ending in a third, uh,
Speaker:didn't, didn't give up anything.
Speaker:Uh, well
Speaker:Cash Jay coming off the bench, getting a home run the first time
Speaker:he batted in like three weeks.
Speaker:I mean, that was great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Happy to see that for cash too.
Speaker:'cause I mean, I, you know, there's a couple different ways
Speaker:the kids deal with this stuff now.
Speaker:Like, one, they just shut down, they go in the tank.
Speaker:And you don't see 'em in the dugout anymore.
Speaker:And then there's cash who's in there hyping guys up, moving equipment around
Speaker:and just waiting for an opportunity.
Speaker:He got it and cranked it outta the ballpark.
Speaker:So happy, happy for cash, getting at least that moment.
Speaker:He, he is a great example of how they focused on character and it's, it helps
Speaker:because like I said, that, I mean, you really could, yeah, it's very easy
Speaker:to crumble and, and pout and, and not care, and you don't see that in cash.
Speaker:He looks, he is the exact, if you weren't.
Speaker:Looking at the field and just watching the dugout, you'd think it was the exact same.
Speaker:He is just there starting every day because he is exactly who he is.
Speaker:He is just a good kid.
Speaker:He cares about his teammates and he's gonna root everybody on.
Speaker:And yeah, you need that because right there, there's a chance.
Speaker:You guys, you guys opportunity, he scored the, the pinch run in, um, the,
Speaker:the game a week before when, uh, Slater drove in, drove him in, he pinched, ran.
Speaker:I mean, it's so, you know, he's, the, the idea that he could come in games and
Speaker:be useful is not outta question like we, we know he is got, he is got some skills
Speaker:and ability, so it's gonna come up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you never know what's gonna happen and the game's going ahead.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And especially, you know, if you, you look at some of our games, we've
Speaker:unloaded the bench a few times and
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And all of a sudden the game gets close again and you need those guys just subbed
Speaker:in to actually go produce up at the plate.
Speaker:We've seen that a few times too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but, you know, wanna talk a little bit about Friday.
Speaker:I, the way I typically listen to our way games is I've got Ted or Andy in my
Speaker:ear, and then I'm watching the ESPN Plus broadcast for a while there on Friday.
Speaker:I couldn't, so I was listening to Georgia State's.
Speaker:ESPN plus broadcast.
Speaker:I think their announcer said the umpire had a strike zone, like a checkerboard,
Speaker:I believe was the terminology he used, which I thought was great.
Speaker:Uh, but that really kind of held us down a little bit.
Speaker:I mean, ske ended up with two walk or three walks.
Speaker:Tanton and Park both had two walks.
Speaker:Uh, but they were on the other side too.
Speaker:I mean, we, we drew 13 walks in that game.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So clearly something going on there, but, um, our pitching was able to
Speaker:overcome it, get through, get a big win.
Speaker:Uh, TJ Aiken had the home run, but just kind of dominated
Speaker:him, I feel like on Friday.
Speaker:Yeah, that was good.
Speaker:Why want you to move this thing off if we can?
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Let let the people see our beautiful face.
Speaker:That's okay.
Speaker:Uh, no, I was
Speaker:forgot.
Speaker:I was up there.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:No, it's, yeah, I know.
Speaker:Um, Gary, you're awesome.
Speaker:I would never, uh, your curtain by the way, is
Speaker:completely
Speaker:gone
Speaker:now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Curtain is really, it's, well, it's, it's still hanging by.
Speaker:It's, it's just like my life.
Speaker:It's hanging by a thread.
Speaker:It's, uh, yeah, no, Kuski came in, um, like I said, another good start, I think.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Again, because of the.
Speaker:Bad umpire zone, which has happened a lot.
Speaker:He, he's, that's kind of been what's his problem's been all year.
Speaker:He throws a lot of pitches.
Speaker:Um, finding a way to be more economical is gonna help him go late because I mean,
Speaker:it's, it was still only 82, but then at a certain point it's like, well, 82,
Speaker:when you're having to fight and every single 82 over the course of four is
Speaker:almost worse than 84 over the course of five or six, because it's like every
Speaker:at bad is like seven, eight pitches.
Speaker:Yeah, we had some longer offensive innings too during that stretch.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:We, you know, wet think we only put up six runs, but we left quite
Speaker:a few on base and there was some longer innings there for him.
Speaker:Um, and
Speaker:then Ben came out and was phenomenal.
Speaker:I mean, that was again, probably his best outing of the year.
Speaker:And Jayce Park after not pitching very well on Tuesday, I mean, I
Speaker:don't remember what he, I remember he came in and just did not look good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which is a shame because Ja has been pretty phenomenal
Speaker:for a big part of the year.
Speaker:Uh, but coming back and, and throwing, well to finish that game
Speaker:was nice because, you know, Jace is an important part of the bull.
Speaker:He is been a guy kind of right there when, when Tanton comes out and then park comes
Speaker:out, you know, depending on the score.
Speaker:Um, so it's, he's a guy.
Speaker:You need to again, have that belief in himself because he is a very good pitcher.
Speaker:Yeah, he is.
Speaker:He's also a guy that can come back on like a day rest too.
Speaker:So like, there's potential that he could have come back on Sunday if we needed it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, we didn't until like.
Speaker:The very, very end on Sunday, but, uh, he has, he has that flexibility.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, and think Saturday, the weird thing about the game, obviously we
Speaker:lose 10 to four and we score three of those four runs in the ninth inning.
Speaker:We weren't, weren't necessarily in it, but the ground balls we were hitting
Speaker:in that game, I, it, it was insane.
Speaker:I think we ended up with 16 ground outs to four flyouts in the game.
Speaker:So we were making contact, we only struck out five times in the entire game.
Speaker:Meanwhile, you know, Friday we struck out 10 times and Sunday was, I forgot what
Speaker:we had on Sunday, but it was, it was 9 0
Speaker:9.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we weren't striking out a lot.
Speaker:We were making a lot of good contact.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And I guess you could make the argument, was it because they were up big and they
Speaker:were just throwing a lot of strikes?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Or were we just able to make good contact?
Speaker:I don't know, but man, I mean, we hit some seed ground balls that
Speaker:were just right at their really good third baseman mc Guinness.
Speaker:Um, I mean, they, they defensively played, played pretty well over the weekend.
Speaker:And, and this is the game that I didn't really get to watch.
Speaker:I was off watching, um, green Bar Christian and Hickory.
Speaker:Um, mm. You know, green Bar.
Speaker:Christian, of course has our, our good buddy Pat Nichols, former ODU
Speaker:catcher, um, and Hickory has a, has a kid, uh, that's coming to play for us.
Speaker:Jake Cozaar, um, who's, he's injured right now.
Speaker:He's a left-handed pitcher.
Speaker:He's gonna be for us, but right now he's ding.
Speaker:So it was my first time get to see him.
Speaker:I think I might've seen him a long time ago when he like, and he was
Speaker:like 14 U or something like that.
Speaker:But it was my first time seeing him at least get to see him play a little bit.
Speaker:Um, and so I was just kind of keeping up with the course.
Speaker:Like, you know, that was a weird game.
Speaker:They ended up.
Speaker:Green bar Christian scored nine runs in the first inning.
Speaker:So that was just an odd one.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Um, and then, and they're all, it's high school ball, so you got
Speaker:all the guys talking about like both teams have, uh, different
Speaker:players who are fighting over girls.
Speaker:And so it's like the first, the first batter of the game gets hit because the,
Speaker:he maybe stole the pitcher's girlfriend.
Speaker:It's,
Speaker:oh boy.
Speaker:Just a bunch of, bunch of high school nonsense in a weird, like
Speaker:four and a half, 11 to nothing game.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, so I was as between all that, I'm looking down at my phone just
Speaker:to kinda like in disgust of course.
Speaker:'cause the score is not going the way we want it to.
Speaker:Uh, but yeah, I mean it's, you know, I've, one of the better moments,
Speaker:this one, I guess to see Maddox Jack coming back strong after again,
Speaker:had had a, had a bad adding on Tuesday and he's been really good.
Speaker:So that have actually had a couple of bad addings in a row.
Speaker:Um, so seeing him come back and have a good one and ante the same thing.
Speaker:Having a nice scoreless inning after having, uh, a bad appearance on Tuesday.
Speaker:And then Patrick Johnson coming in, um, after being, I wasn't real sure
Speaker:what his injury, I was talking to him on, uh, I think Sunday last week.
Speaker:And he said he sounded, he sounded like he felt really good.
Speaker:Um, so him coming back, which again, that's, that we kind of forget.
Speaker:That's a guy who was out there throwing, you know, two, three innings for us.
Speaker:Yeah, every Friday or Saturday
Speaker:he's good.
Speaker:He's also a really good leader on this team.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like we've witnessed a couple things kind of outside the dugout and
Speaker:around there where it just shows that
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:He's a good leader.
Speaker:He, the guys respect him and listen to him and he's ultimately
Speaker:leading him in the right way.
Speaker:So we love getting arms back.
Speaker:And I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited to get Hunter Bains back in the mix.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Not often.
Speaker:You can add a, you know, low to mid nineties fastball guy,
Speaker:uh, this late in the season.
Speaker:Uh, it might be more like a mid to high nineties 'cause that he
Speaker:kind of was hitting that anyway.
Speaker:And, uh, everything I've seen and heard is, is, sounds
Speaker:like now that it's pain free.
Speaker:Um, 'cause he had, he had thoracic outlet syndrome, which I guess
Speaker:is what is like a nerve in your.
Speaker:Kind of around your clavicle, I think
Speaker:something to do with blood flow into your arm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Some with blood flow, it's
Speaker:not wide enough.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's one of those things that, like he was talking about, you know, the
Speaker:future of maybe playing pro ball and he is like, pro teams don't care about
Speaker:it because it's not an arm injury.
Speaker:It's a thing that guys have it all the time and get it fixed.
Speaker:And so that he, he was telling me that he is like, you know, as a, as a
Speaker:player, you, you never really expect to be a hundred percent, you know,
Speaker:you're always kind of feel like, yeah.
Speaker:You know, it's like somebody, how do you feel?
Speaker:It's like, I feel good.
Speaker:You know what good is is like, you know, you're thinking like 85%, you know, 80%.
Speaker:Um, he's like, I didn't realize that.
Speaker:My, like, normal was very, very bad.
Speaker:He's like, he said, now he is like, I feel amazed.
Speaker:Like I, I haven't felt this since I was like a little kid.
Speaker:Um, and so, and I've seen him out there through, I know like one of our, um,
Speaker:one of our, uh, student managers was, was, had to help warm him up while
Speaker:somebody else was, was doing something.
Speaker:Oh
Speaker:no.
Speaker:And he came, I think he said it broke the glove.
Speaker:He's like, it broke my glove.
Speaker:He is like, I almost broke my thumb.
Speaker:He's like, I don't wanna ever do that again.
Speaker:I'm so scared.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:of
Speaker:all the guys on the
Speaker:team
Speaker:and that's just Hunter, just throwing, you know, off the, I I mean, I'm
Speaker:back there taking pictures sometimes.
Speaker:I'm like, I know he is gonna throw it straight, but, oh boy.
Speaker:Um, so yeah, so he's a, he is, and, and Hunter is one, but we gotta
Speaker:get, we gotta get Hunter on here 'cause he's one of my favorite guys.
Speaker:He's, I think last year I was, I actually, I sat and talked to him
Speaker:about 10 50 minutes, uh, last weekend.
Speaker:'cause I was like, man, we we're not hanging out, out in the
Speaker:outfield like we were every day last year on the, on the road.
Speaker:He's like, yeah, I know.
Speaker:So, so he, he is just a good kid and, uh, yeah, having him back and
Speaker:having him back and actually being healthy for maybe the first time ever.
Speaker:'cause he is, he's had a ton of control issues.
Speaker:But now that you realize like, well it's, 'cause he, he's like,
Speaker:I literally couldn't feel my arm.
Speaker:He's like, I didn't realize like I'm throwing the ball.
Speaker:And he is like, I have no idea where it's going.
Speaker:He like, and you had to, when you're trying to adjust and correct things, and
Speaker:it's like, I don't, and now it's like, oh.
Speaker:He's like, now I know if I let go and it's not right.
Speaker:He is like, oh, I know.
Speaker:Immediately.
Speaker:He's like, before I didn't know until I saw what the pitch did.
Speaker:So that's, yeah.
Speaker:It's very, very odd.
Speaker:And so, I mean, that's a guy that you, if you can have him back that, that's like
Speaker:a late season trade if you have him and healthy enough to throw some innings.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean that's like hell of a deadline acquisition to bring in that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A Mason Miller type coming in there.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I mean, it's, he is he, I mean, we forget this guy went to IMG, like
Speaker:he's, he is been a, he went to Maryland outta high school originally.
Speaker:Mean he, this guy is, he's a big time arm.
Speaker:So it's a, could be, it could be a nice addition, hopefully.
Speaker:And, and again, hopefully for, for him, nevermind the team.
Speaker:Just for him.
Speaker:'cause Hunter's such a good kid.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I would love to see him come out and just dominate for a couple of weeks
Speaker:and then kind of see where, where things go from there in the off season.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but anytime you can add quality arms this late in the season, knowing
Speaker:that you're gonna have a very tough road if you make Sunbelt tournament.
Speaker:Like
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I
Speaker:mean, top six is still with a possibility, but
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:The road there is really difficult now, and it's about like, how do you
Speaker:just secure being the home team for, for that Tuesday down in Montgomery?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause that's, that's really, that's realistically where we're going to land
Speaker:here if, if we make the tournament.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I, but I mean, again, like, like you've pointed out,
Speaker:we're only a few games away.
Speaker:I mean, I, I think realistically, I think Finny said five and four, I think six
Speaker:and three is really what you need to do.
Speaker:Which six and three just gives you to 15 and 15.
Speaker:It's not even like you're, that'd be the same record we've had.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I looked up as we've had, we've been 15 and 15 all three
Speaker:years we've been in the sun.
Speaker:Which is interesting.
Speaker:Um, it tells you we're kind of just in the middle of the pack, which again,
Speaker:based on playing in weird stadiums, and the amount of like money that is spent on
Speaker:the program is probably accurate, right?
Speaker:I mean, we're not, you know, we're not one of these teams.
Speaker:We're not coastal and southern miss where people are putting some money into it.
Speaker:So 1515 is probably realistically what we should expect.
Speaker:And we're in the fourth best conference in the country.
Speaker:I mean, that's, that's a thing.
Speaker:So, um, yeah,
Speaker:we're, we're a power conference here.
Speaker:This is not,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:this is not like some of the other sports where, you know, we're eighth, ninth,
Speaker:10th, best conference or basketball, we're like 400 best conference.
Speaker:Like we're top,
Speaker:this is, this is a P four conference.
Speaker:Um, so, but you know, to go six and three, you, if you, you know, again, you
Speaker:could even lose the series to coastal as long as you don't get swept if you win
Speaker:the other two, two in one, two in one.
Speaker:Again, I, I hate to, I hate to look at it.
Speaker:I'm just trying to say realistically, I think I can go
Speaker:and beat coastal, screw coastal.
Speaker:They're not that good.
Speaker:They're the team.
Speaker:We can go out beat anybody.
Speaker:Um, but just again, just realistically.
Speaker:You know, worst case scenario, you know, you can win two, win your two series,
Speaker:not get swept in the series against Coastal and be six and three and be right.
Speaker:15 and 15 and probably, you know, again, maybe sneak into that six spot again.
Speaker:I, I mean, how many teams are really gonna be above 500 at the end of the year?
Speaker:Might be a lot.
Speaker:Now, again, we might lose some tiebreakers 'cause we didn't do things
Speaker:right in the first part of the year.
Speaker:But yeah, I, I, I think again, it's, it's all in front of 'em.
Speaker:There's nine games left, there's 11 left in your whole season.
Speaker:Um, five of those was not, not five is, uh, yeah, five of those
Speaker:games are against Virginia schools.
Speaker:Um, you got how many of those eight of the 11 are at home.
Speaker:I mean, this is all within your grasp.
Speaker:Um, you're playing.
Speaker:Arkansas State, which is this one game better than you in conference playing.
Speaker:Ja.
Speaker:James Madison, which is one game worse than you in conference.
Speaker:Um, there are teams you can go up against.
Speaker:And again, coastal, they're not unbeatable.
Speaker:17 to four people haven't beaten 'em.
Speaker:They lost one this weekend, right?
Speaker:They're,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:There's a team.
Speaker:We, we, we beat Southern Miss and they were number eight in the country.
Speaker:Like,
Speaker:yeah, we
Speaker:can do this.
Speaker:I mean, I think Coastal's lost their Someday game the last three weekends.
Speaker:Yeah, you can definitely get one from 'em.
Speaker:I think if we're talking about going, going six and three down
Speaker:the stretch gets us to 15 and 15, that puts us right in the mix for
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:4, 5, 6, potentially in there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I think to get to six wins, we are gonna have to sweep one of Arkansas
Speaker:State or JMU, like, you're gonna have to get five wins from those
Speaker:two series and then hope you go get one from Coastal, then you're there.
Speaker:It's not the end of the world.
Speaker:If you're 14 and 16, you're still gonna make the tournament, but that
Speaker:seven to 10 range is, is your ceiling.
Speaker:Staying outta that Tuesday game.
Speaker:I mean, again, we know what's, what's one of our biggest issues,
Speaker:inconsistency of the season, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And part of that is on the mound.
Speaker:Um, and part of that comes through the depth again, we just don't
Speaker:get, we don't have starters that go deep in the games where we're
Speaker:happy when they get five innings.
Speaker:And it doesn't even happen that often.
Speaker:Um, we don't have the depth for playing six games, whatever.
Speaker:I mean, what you're playing Tuesday, gotta play like, what, five or
Speaker:six games to get to the final?
Speaker:I
Speaker:mean, I think
Speaker:the way it plays out is
Speaker:seven.
Speaker:You gotta, you gotta win the Tuesday game.
Speaker:Tuesday, which is basically a single elimination.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then if you win your next two, so you gotta win Wednesday, Thursday
Speaker:three, then you get the Friday off.
Speaker:The Friday, yeah.
Speaker:Then you'd have Saturday, which you, if you won, you'd have to, you'd
Speaker:have to, you'd have to win five straight if you were gonna win it.
Speaker:If you lost one, it might be six or seven.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because if, if you lost one that'd be six and you lost no one that be se Yeah.
Speaker:So I mean, it's, it's, it's a, it's a, if you wanna, if you wanna go do
Speaker:it from the bottom seeds, it's a lot.
Speaker:Nevermind.
Speaker:The do or die first game is a lot of pressure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I mean I feel pretty confident about our ability now to go and
Speaker:win that game because Yeah, you got, cus you can go KY Tanton and
Speaker:then somebody else to close it out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's,
Speaker:but again, then you're using those bullets and when are they available again?
Speaker:Right,
Speaker:right.
Speaker:And then say, you know, you win that Tuesday, you go into
Speaker:Wednesday, you're gonna be playing either the one or the two seed.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So you got coastal or southern Miss who's gonna throw their ACEs and
Speaker:then you can throw Gaty out there.
Speaker:Feel pretty confident with him.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You got Bailey and Kellen behind it, then you gotta go
Speaker:win a third game the next day.
Speaker:And that's where it gets a little bit.
Speaker:Sketchy.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And if you lose one of those first two games of the double elimination portion,
Speaker:I think you add three games to your schedule that you have to go and win.
Speaker:Which like, we're yet to see a team in the Sunbelt come close to doing that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You, I mean, realistically you wanna do everything you
Speaker:can to get in those top six.
Speaker:That's the, and and again, it's in front of you.
Speaker:You got, you got nine games left.
Speaker:I, I'd say, you know, again, the, the coastal ones are the hardest ones.
Speaker:But again, they're just a team.
Speaker:And the other one, the other six are at home against teams that are right there
Speaker:with you that you could and should beat.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, frankly, we swept James Madison last year.
Speaker:I don't see a reason why we shouldn't sweep 'em again
Speaker:on the road Last year
Speaker:too, on the road last year.
Speaker:Now that they're probably, I don't know.
Speaker:They're, I wanna say they may, they're better.
Speaker:1824. They're not better.
Speaker:No, they're about,
Speaker:they're
Speaker:about the same.
Speaker:Yeah, they're about the same.
Speaker:I mean, we really, I was thinking about this the other day with, because
Speaker:about the new stadium, you know, it's, it could come to a point where if a
Speaker:kid chooses James Madison over ODU, it better be just 'cause we didn't.
Speaker:Even try or care.
Speaker:It's not even, or
Speaker:they just like purple.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean there's no, there's gonna be no real reason in baseball to
Speaker:go play at James Madison when you, you know, if you got a player, it's
Speaker:like, well, I could go to JMU or ODU.
Speaker:It's like, what are you even talking about?
Speaker:You can play in a nice, beautiful stadium.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like, or you can play in kind of a dump in the middle of nowhere for a nothing team.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I mean, Jamie is not exactly pouring money into their
Speaker:baseball program right now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like they're, they're all in on football and basketball.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Which.
Speaker:And think to a degree we are too.
Speaker:But there's a lot more coming for ODU baseball with this new stadium and some
Speaker:new NIL pushes or rev share, I should say Monarch Plus is, uh, on the way now.
Speaker:But yeah, it, it, it'll be interesting, but I do think like five and
Speaker:four gets you in the tournament.
Speaker:Probably in a seven to 10 seat, four and five, you're rolling the dice,
Speaker:you're gonna need other people lose.
Speaker:You don't have a lot of tiebreakers, so it doesn't really,
Speaker:that's, that's not gonna work.
Speaker:Which again, that just, and, and, and again, this is just us
Speaker:talking on the podcast when it comes to your players and coaches.
Speaker:Uh, the same thing I've been saying for a few weeks now.
Speaker:Just the pitch in front of you.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Win this pitch.
Speaker:And you know what, we saw a lot of that this week.
Speaker:We saw a lot of guys not losing the pitch.
Speaker:Um, a lot of guys competing.
Speaker:I mean, the comp, the comp, a lot of the competition we've been.
Speaker:Showing on our guys has been much higher the last few weeks.
Speaker:I mean, you still see every now and then, it's like, oh man, why'd you come on?
Speaker:You gotta, you gotta want that more.
Speaker:Um, but there have been a lot more guys who it feels like are really
Speaker:getting out there and going up and saying, I'm not gonna get beat.
Speaker:Uh, which is good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, you, you could see it through and through.
Speaker:And the thing is, if we were playing like this earlier in the season,
Speaker:we'd have a couple more wins and
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Blowing that game Sunday would not hurt as much as it does.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But it's wild, like.
Speaker:We, we got the first outta that ninth.
Speaker:So all of that, those five runs unfolded there with two outs
Speaker:in, in the bottom of the ninth.
Speaker:It just kinda, you could feel it too, like,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:you, we, it was like a single and then an error got in a second, and then it's
Speaker:a walk and hit by pitch and a run scores.
Speaker:And you know, I don't blame Tyler stat at all.
Speaker:Like he pitched really well last year and I guarantee you that batter was like, all
Speaker:right, if he throws me this exact pitch in this exact spot, I'm gonna crush it.
Speaker:And he got it right there and put it outta the ballpark.
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah, it's, I mean, again, it is frustrating.
Speaker:I don't think anybody's, nobody's happy about it.
Speaker:Um, but like you said, I mean, when you look back, is that gonna be the game
Speaker:you point to that messed things up?
Speaker:I mean, you got plenty of other games you could point to.
Speaker:We're nine and 12.
Speaker:That means there are 12 games.
Speaker:You could point to it probably.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:20, 25 spots in every game you could point to.
Speaker:And a bunch of those game, a bunch of those 12 losses.
Speaker:We were not even competitive early in the
Speaker:year.
Speaker:Yeah, we down
Speaker:eight.
Speaker:Nothing in the first,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:How many did you not even start to play until the eighth inning in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So they're, they're playing better baseball, they're getting there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They still have an opportunity to do what they want to do.
Speaker:Like they could, I mean, they could backdoor in there and end
Speaker:up in the, you know, the fifth seat or something like that.
Speaker:It could happen, but we, we got a last
Speaker:year I think.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean that's, we end up in, I
Speaker:remember, I, I, we have to look back at where they were at this point
Speaker:in the year, but I, I feel like, I remember like it being like, Hey
Speaker:man, we gotta do some winning here.
Speaker:And they did some winning at the very end.
Speaker:They got, they were 15 and 15.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And
Speaker:it was kinda like, okay, this is like, it feels like, I mean, after the
Speaker:season they were having last year where they, I mean, if you remember last
Speaker:year, I think they were like 21 and 31 or something like that last year.
Speaker:I mean, that's again the overall record, but then 15 and 15 in conference and
Speaker:it felt like, hey, this is a win.
Speaker:Um, so again, you know, it's, it's is more inconsistent this year
Speaker:than, than down, which I dunno, maybe is better, it's hard to say.
Speaker:But yeah, this is, you can come up with the same result at the
Speaker:end and it's all in your control.
Speaker:Last year, we, we have more pitching depth this year because last year mm-hmm.
Speaker:We couldn't get it out in the midweek.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Be like, not, wasn't even a question.
Speaker:I mean, I, I watched this meltdown in multiple ballparks.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so at least getting, getting those wins, you beating VCU, beating
Speaker:Richmond and getting one over William and Mary finally after a while of
Speaker:a drought playing against them.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, but no, it's still, still got a chance.
Speaker:And like the, the Sunbelt's just gonna be wild down the stretch.
Speaker:Like any of these teams just go in the tank for the last nine games.
Speaker:Um, everyone's got faults.
Speaker:I mean, Southern Miss, they got a loss to us.
Speaker:App State's got a loss to us.
Speaker:Troy's got a loss to us.
Speaker:South Alabama's got a loss to us.
Speaker:And that's your top five in the conference right there.
Speaker:If, if, if this is surprising, you go look at the SEC standings.
Speaker:SEC is the top baseball conference and it's a wood chipper.
Speaker:It's a, it's almost the exact same thing.
Speaker:It's a bunch of teams in the middle with, you know, 10, 11, 11, 10 records.
Speaker:A couple at the top.
Speaker:High, a couple of top by, I think I see Clemson was way down at the bottom.
Speaker:Um, you know, and Clemson's, a very good baseball program has been for years.
Speaker:And it's just like, that's just what happens when you have a really good
Speaker:conference is it's just some teams, a lot of teams kind of have the same record
Speaker:because they're all beating each other up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, Georgia is leading this, the, uh, SEC right now in the
Speaker:13 and five in conference play.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:13 and five is gets you the leader.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's a,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:like.
Speaker:And that's, I mean, that's, that's, that's an a and m it's
Speaker:right there at 12 and five.
Speaker:Texas 11 and six.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I mean, it's, we, we mirror them quite a bit when it comes to standing.
Speaker:So I think the big thing is like, we have two really important
Speaker:home series left for the Sunbelt.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:With Arkansas State and JMU.
Speaker:The weather's supposed to be nice.
Speaker:I sadly will not be able to get down there this weekend for Arkansas State, but I'll
Speaker:be there for all three of the JMU games.
Speaker:So come out to the ballpark, come enjoy it.
Speaker:Like we think those outfield seats might be there next year, but they might not.
Speaker:So this might be your one chance to watch an ODU game from the outfield.
Speaker:Uh, so come support the team.
Speaker:They're gonna need your help on it.
Speaker:Uh, to get through these last two home series that we have.
Speaker:And of course, I mean, who doesn't wanna see us?
Speaker:BVCU.
Speaker:So I think you're, if you're listening to this, it's the day of the game.
Speaker:We'd love to get another one on those guys.
Speaker:They can hit, they can hit, they can hit.
Speaker:We watched it in the
Speaker:Southern catcher is, uh, he started out a little funky, but he's back to Jacob Lee.
Speaker:He is back to being a monster again.
Speaker:He was a freshman of the year for the conference and uh,
Speaker:he, he is back to being in it.
Speaker:So yeah, they can hit a little bit.
Speaker:Yeah, they, they got a good ball club and I'm sure they want some revenge
Speaker:after, you know, we had that comeback win to beat him up there in Richmond.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, got another U of R game on the schedule.
Speaker:I can't remember who else we have from non-conference, but big
Speaker:ones.
Speaker:That was it.
Speaker:Those was the last two.
Speaker:That's we got, we got nine, uh, conference games in the two midweeks
Speaker:I should have known.
Speaker:This is our 14th episode of this season this year.
Speaker:So
Speaker:getting down to the nitty gritty here, boys
Speaker:getting down to the end.
Speaker:So we gotta do some winning.
Speaker:Uh, so hopefully they start with that, with a win over VCU on Tuesday.
Speaker:Roll that in.
Speaker:Uh, give the red wolves a good run for their money.
Speaker:And, uh, we'll go from there.
Speaker:But one game at a time.
Speaker:Go get some wins.
Speaker:Let's go Monarchs.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
