S3E16 - Coastal Recap w/ Darin Kuskie and Nick Sulpizio
Darin Kuskie and Nick Sulpizio join to recap a series win over #8 Coastal Carolina. CB, Gary and Coach Finwood look ahead to the final series against JMU and who you should root for this weekend.
Transcript
This episode is brought to you by the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation.
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Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There we
Speaker:go.
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hello, Monarch fans.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Welcome to the Hudson homers podcast, coming to you after a road
Speaker:ranked series- Ooh ... victory.
Speaker:How about that, CB?
Speaker:Ooh.
Speaker:Wow, that was great.
Speaker:That's, uh ... I, I've said it a few times in this podcast, I said
Speaker:one ... These guys are ... The one thing they've been consistent at is
Speaker:being inconsistent, and they might just screw around and go down and beat
Speaker:the, uh, number eight team on their, at their place, and that's what happened.
Speaker:So we
Speaker:love it.
Speaker:We've, we've definitely risen to the level of competition.
Speaker:We saw it against Southern Miss.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:See it again against Coastal, but this time we come out of there with two wins.
Speaker:You called it last week when I was like, "Oh, we just need to win one game.
Speaker:One game we keep the hopes alive." You're like, "Why not just win the series and-
Speaker:Win the series
Speaker:I guess they listened to you.
Speaker:Glad they did.
Speaker:I think, I think I said sweep, so they didn't quite listen to me.
Speaker:That's ... But, no, it was great.
Speaker:That was ... That's awesome for the guys.
Speaker:And, uh, speaking of that, we'll, we'll, we'll stop all the preamble.
Speaker:We can do a lot of talking after.
Speaker:We, we got a couple of the guys hanging out right now ready to talk to us.
Speaker:Yes, we do.
Speaker:We got- There they are ... Darin Kuskie and Nick Sulpizio joining us.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:Doing things backwards today, but what's up, fellas?
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:How are you?
Speaker:It's
Speaker:going good.
Speaker:Well, we are doing great.
Speaker:Good, man.
Speaker:I think we're all celebrating, trying to get our voices back.
Speaker:I spent a week in Chicago and then yelling at my TV all weekend,
Speaker:so thanks for that, fellas.
Speaker:How'd that feel going in there?
Speaker:I mean, that, that's ... I, I haven't been down there.
Speaker:It looks like a, looks like a minor league park.
Speaker:Looks like a great place to play.
Speaker:How'd that feel getting down there?
Speaker:Especially, like, Nick, you got the last out.
Speaker:How'd that feel?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, that was, that was really cool, but, um, it seemed like it kind
Speaker:of cleared out at the end of Sunday.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, but ... And obviously it wasn't that loud, because they didn't win.
Speaker:So it was most- Thanks.
Speaker:... main- mainly just the, the about 100 ODU fans or so cheering.
Speaker:So, I mean, it was good to see our fans down there, too.
Speaker:But yeah, definitely a nice park.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It sounded on the TV broadcast like there were a lot of ODU fans.
Speaker:I wasn't sure if that was being done on purpose because that's just where the fans
Speaker:were or not, but, uh, seems like there's a great contingent of fans that came down.
Speaker:Darrick, did you see them down there too?
Speaker:Yeah, there was.
Speaker:There was a good amount of fans and, uh, our dugout was
Speaker:definitely making some noise too.
Speaker:Yeah, you guys do a good job of getting loud when it's, uh, when you need it.
Speaker:That's for sure.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:If I remember last year at War Memorial, their fans were pretty chippy the entire
Speaker:time, partially because they seemed shocked they were getting hit by a pitch.
Speaker:Uh, but were you all feeling that kind of Friday and going into Saturday,
Speaker:just the, the fan chippiness there?
Speaker:Uh, yeah, a little bit.
Speaker:I mean, it wasn't the worst atmosphere to play in ever, but I mean, yeah, it's
Speaker:not like a friendly environment, I guess.
Speaker:What, what's the worst one you've ever played in, if you
Speaker:want to call somebody out?
Speaker:Probably Clemson fans are probably the worst.
Speaker:Ah.
Speaker:That's pretty bad.
Speaker:Yeah, those SEC schools.
Speaker:That's which- Oh, yeah ... they're tr- they're trying to emulate that.
Speaker:So that's, that makes sense.
Speaker:How about you, Nick?
Speaker:What's the worst place, uh, worst fans you've, uh... I mean, not the worst,
Speaker:but like the most aggressive or whatever you want, however you want to phrase it?
Speaker:Um, I would say, uh, the Southern Miss fans last year.
Speaker:They were- Yeah ... especially since they got that, that hill right there that
Speaker:leads- Yeah ... right next to our bullpen.
Speaker:So it was kind of like surrounded by the Southern Miss fans.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I remember being out there in BP and it's just kind of like,
Speaker:man, they're right on top of you.
Speaker:They sure
Speaker:were
Speaker:talking a lot.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, they were really close.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, you know, going into this weekend, obviously like getting
Speaker:one from Coastal is good.
Speaker:You all got two, which is even better, you know.
Speaker:How was the team feeling?
Speaker:How was that bus ride home, and what have you all been talking about amongst
Speaker:yourselves since the beating Coast-
Speaker:Um, the, the bus ride home was, um, a lot.
Speaker:It was, I mean, five and a half hours of not... I would say any silence.
Speaker:Throughout the whole six hours.
Speaker:So- No silence ... if you wanted to sleep, there was no sleeping on the bus back,
Speaker:but-
Speaker:... there was no reason to sleep after- Yeah
Speaker:... Winston
Speaker:was still there.
Speaker:I did notice a lot of the guys on social media, there, that seemed to
Speaker:be a common phrase of, uh, "Committed to having the funnest summer ever."
Speaker:Uh, which I love.
Speaker:I think that's great.
Speaker:I mean, I think that's, that's clearly an indication of like, you know, the funnest
Speaker:summer ever would be going, making a run to like the College World Series, right?
Speaker:I'd have to imagine- That's it ... that's where they're, they're coming from.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Who, was there anybody in particular who started that or who's, who's kind of dri-
Speaker:you know, driving the bus is a big thing.
Speaker:Who's kind of driving the bus on that one?
Speaker:Um, I don't, I honestly don't really know where that started.
Speaker:It seemed like one day we just showed up and it was just- Funniest song ever, so I-
Speaker:Yeah ... I'm not
Speaker:really sure.
Speaker:There's a few of them.
Speaker:Like, I think, like Maverick, Kellan, Shoe.
Speaker:Like a few of them started
Speaker:it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:The old man.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:I think I saw Maverick's post first, if that counts for anything.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I don't know when it actually started.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:I think, I think for the guys that are coming back next year,
Speaker:just start with that day one.
Speaker:Just start that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Don't wait until, uh, to May to come up with it.
Speaker:I, I love it as a, as a thing.
Speaker:But let's, uh, keep that starting next, next year, day one.
Speaker:Um, so you guys, speaking of the season, you know, you both have had, you've had
Speaker:some real great moments, both of you.
Speaker:You've had some real not fun moments, I'm sure.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, for each of you, how have you been able to kind of
Speaker:navigate the ups and downs?
Speaker:Maybe not get too high when it's high, and not get too low
Speaker:when things aren't going right.
Speaker:Uh, it's a long season, you know.
Speaker:You play 56 games, and it's my third year of college baseball
Speaker:now, so I've played a lot.
Speaker:And, you know, just treat every game the same basically.
Speaker:I mean, look at it, take the positives from a bad start or take
Speaker:the negatives from a good start or, you know, kind of a mix of both, and
Speaker:then just keep pushing week by week.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:How about you, Nick?
Speaker:Yeah, I kind of end up, uh, piggyback off what he said.
Speaker:It's like, it is a long season, and I feel like every- everyone's
Speaker:gonna have ups and downs.
Speaker:And I mean, it's kind of, with Marin, he, he definitely helps us, like, and
Speaker:reminds us to be confident and always to trust ourselves and the work that we put
Speaker:in throughout the week, that it's gonna show up when we, uh, pitch in the weekend.
Speaker:And then, Darin, I want to talk a little bit about last
Speaker:week against Arkansas State.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, just 'cause that- Mm-hmm ... that's obviously a huge series.
Speaker:A lot of really big moments happened over that weekend.
Speaker:But you coming out the gate in that first game against Arkansas State,
Speaker:six innings, no runs, I think only three hits, and then 11 strikeouts.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, was there anything different with that game?
Speaker:A little different game plan approach, feeling yourself, or just
Speaker:the ball ended in the right spot?
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:I mean, stuff-wise, everything was pretty similar.
Speaker:Um, I was just able to locate better.
Speaker:And, uh, we knew they'd be a pretty aggressive offense, so
Speaker:used that to, uh, my advantage and let them chase a little bit.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Um, I want to ta- uh, both of you guys tell us about how you ended up at ODU.
Speaker:Like, Nick, I know, you know, you've been here all three years.
Speaker:You came, uh, out of high school.
Speaker:You know, tell us a little about the process for you ending up at Old Dominion.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I think it was my sophomore summer.
Speaker:Marin saw me at, um, it was like some New Jersey, like, state games,
Speaker:um, for, like, the high school players, and he saw me there.
Speaker:And I mean, like, ever since then, he was, he would always, like, call
Speaker:me and follow me, like, throughout the summer going to, like, Georgia
Speaker:and stuff, and he just seemed ... He was, like, really personable, and
Speaker:he was always calling, checking in.
Speaker:And it kind of just, like, made you seem at home, and I haven't
Speaker:even stepped foot on campus yet.
Speaker:And then- Uh, when he showed me, when he t- I came here and took the tour,
Speaker:it was like, "Yeah, this place is awesome." Like, I'm, I would love to
Speaker:start my college baseball journey here.
Speaker:And you showed up and there were already, like, nine other
Speaker:Jersey guys, so you felt at home?
Speaker:Yeah, it was, yeah, I already knew, like, Marco was coming here.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And he was like, he went to the rival high school, so, so it was,
Speaker:yeah, definitely, like, a lot of local players that I already knew,
Speaker:which was definitely also a bonus.
Speaker:Well, it's interesting too, too, 'cause you, you know, you were in
Speaker:Jersey, but then you ended up, I think your senior year, you went to,
Speaker:uh, Pro Five down in North Carolina.
Speaker:How'd that end up happening?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, it was kind of just, um, in high school, I was like, I guess
Speaker:kind of a late bloomer, so to speak.
Speaker:Um, and then, I guess we just thought that was the best idea, and that's what I ended
Speaker:up doing for my last year of high school.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I tried to see you play for them, but you were too lazy to show up that day.
Speaker:I just want to remind everybody of that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I think, um, uh, yeah, I got hurt when I went down there, so I only ended up
Speaker:throwing, I only threw, like, one inning in the last game of the season in May, so.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I wasn't there.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I was kind of unfortunate with that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:Well, it's okay.
Speaker:Well, at least you haven't had really any injuries here that have
Speaker:been any major, so that's good.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And then, you know, with DK, you know, you had kind of a very different
Speaker:side, where you went to, um, U- USC Upstate- Mm-hmm ... or UC Upstate.
Speaker:I forgot how you say it.
Speaker:USC Upstate, you know.
Speaker:Um Right ... for the first two years.
Speaker:Then appeared through the portal.
Speaker:So tell us about how you ended up at Old Dominion.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:I mean, out of high school, I think I had two offers maybe.
Speaker:Two or three offers.
Speaker:Um, yeah, I was like a really late bloomer, like, I like
Speaker:really didn't even hit my stride until I almost got on campus.
Speaker:And then, yeah, played there for two years and, uh, I needed a change.
Speaker:Needed a, a step up and, uh, some more help in development.
Speaker:And, uh, in the portal, Marin reached out to me, and he's the best pitching coach
Speaker:I talked to in the portal, so it was pretty much a no-brainer to come here.
Speaker:Like that.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:That's a pretty good sales pitch there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And
Speaker:a little closer to home, too, 'cause you're from Maryland- Yeah,
Speaker:yeah ... so it's a little bit better.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's kind of what pushed me out, but.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's nice.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Well, Darin, let's go through what, what pitches do you throw, and how did
Speaker:you develop the arm action you have?
Speaker:'Cause CB's got some great still shots of you.
Speaker:I mean, just, like, right over top of your head.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, so just take us through all the things that lead to, you know,
Speaker:you pitching the way that you do.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:So in high school, I kind of threw like a windmill.
Speaker:Like, I, like, didn't even, like, bend my elbow.
Speaker:And my pitching coach at home was like, "Yeah, like, that's just not gonna
Speaker:cut it." So, uh, one winter he just had me throw a football, like, every
Speaker:single day- Mm ... for the winter for, like, two or three months probably,
Speaker:and then I came back and my arm action was way shorter and more over the top.
Speaker:Like, kind of like a football player, I guess, and that's kind of where I
Speaker:developed my pitching motion and, like, my velocity kind of took off from there.
Speaker:And then I got here and I, uh, developed a new changeup, like a, a kick change,
Speaker:a spike change- Mm-hmm ... um, with Marin, and, uh, a new cutter grip too.
Speaker:So I throw a four-seam, a slider, a cutter, and a changeup.
Speaker:Was Stott helping you with your arm action there on throwing the
Speaker:football at any point in time?
Speaker:No, he, he would be a really good help, though.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And same thing for you, Nick.
Speaker:Just love to know, like, the, the pitches you throw, what you've found successful,
Speaker:and just kind of how your, your journey has gone here, changing your arm
Speaker:action and grips and things like that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I'd say, uh, earlier in the year I was mainly just, like, sinker and slider,
Speaker:and, I mean, that wasn't really working out, so I would say about, I think,
Speaker:halfway through the year or, like... Yeah, around halfway, we kind of switched
Speaker:and went mainly four-seam and changeup, and that's definitely been working way
Speaker:better in the second half of the season.
Speaker:Um, yeah, I throw a four-seam, a sinker, uh, a changeup, and a slider.
Speaker:What was that last pitch you threw, uh, yesterday?
Speaker:Was that a slider?
Speaker:No, that was a fastball.
Speaker:That
Speaker:was a fastball?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's... I forget you got that nasty movement.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:There
Speaker:we go.
Speaker:Yeah, that's the thing, that four-seam, I, I don't think it ever comes out- Yeah
Speaker:straight.
Speaker:Like, it's always moving, 'cause they were having big time
Speaker:trouble yesterday picking you up.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we, we mentioned football.
Speaker:Did either one of you guys play other sports in high school or maybe
Speaker:even younger that you were any good
Speaker:at?
Speaker:Um, I played- Enjoyed ... I played basketball in high school,
Speaker:and then I played, uh, street hockey up until eighth grade.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Ooh,
Speaker:sure.
Speaker:Like some street hockey.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I never played any other sport.
Speaker:Like, I stopped playing other sports when I got to high school, but when
Speaker:I was younger, I did swimming and, uh, soccer, and I was probably the
Speaker:best at swimming when I was a kid.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's my
Speaker:best sport.
Speaker:See, you got that long swimmer body.
Speaker:I can see that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I see you.
Speaker:You got the Michael Phelps shoulders.
Speaker:I got you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Were you guys hitters in high school?
Speaker:Did y'all, did y'all get out there and swing a little bit?
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah?
Speaker:W-
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:What position did you play, other than pitcher?
Speaker:Uh, I play- Uh- ... every outfield or shortstop or third.
Speaker:I play anywhere.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah, I just played third, um, in high school.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Are you guy- are you guys... Who, who's the better hitter on the team?
Speaker:Of, of, like, who's the best pitcher?
Speaker:Who's the best hitting pitcher between the two of you and on the team?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:We haven't, we haven't really- I, we, I don't think anyone has
Speaker:ever seen each other swing a bat.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's see- And they're like- All right.
Speaker:These guys are too polite ... we'd have to pull up some old
Speaker:video and
Speaker:highlights
Speaker:for
Speaker:that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You guys are too polite, see, 'cause I... This is where you need somebody
Speaker:to be like, "I..." Obviously, me.
Speaker:Like, I bet Keller would be like, "I am." See, that's... You guys are too polite.
Speaker:I've, I've heard he's got some power, so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I saw, I saw Keller go five for five in a game with Knight schools.
Speaker:He, he can, he can ball a little bit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I feel like Ben Tann would just be quiet.
Speaker:He would go get a bat and just start hitting gappers the whole time.
Speaker:Like, it just seems like him
Speaker:Probably.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well, we've seen both of your roommates at some point in the background on this call.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't know if you're aware of that or not.
Speaker:Uh- Yeah ... but, but Nick- Yeah ... I don't know who's at the top of the stairs,
Speaker:but, uh, who's in your house this year?
Speaker:Uh, it's me, Darin, and Marcus.
Speaker:Yeah, it was, it was
Speaker:Marcus in both the first-
Speaker:And I think...
Speaker:Oh, so Marcus was in both shots that's so
Speaker:funny.
Speaker:Yeah, Marcus, Marcus came down and, and like he saw me on the call,
Speaker:and then I heard him- Yeah ... go upstairs, and he opened Darren's
Speaker:door, and he was on the call also.
Speaker:Yeah, he
Speaker:was like, "Oh, you're in here too." I was like, "Yeah."
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I would have, we would have invited...
Speaker:Marcus can come on in.
Speaker:We love him too.
Speaker:He always says no to me when he w- when I ask him to talk.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, awesome.
Speaker:Well, I know you got- you all are going to Dirty Buffalo here later.
Speaker:Is that just like a meet and greet promotion, or what's going
Speaker:on over there at Dirty Buff?
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, it's like
Speaker:a- It's like a meet and greet
Speaker:good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, it's like a meet and greet.
Speaker:And, uh, I mean, they gave us dinner last week too for their trivia night, so
Speaker:they're doing like another promotional thing, giving us dinner again.
Speaker:You guys are smart.
Speaker:That's the way to do it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's the kind of NIL I can get behind.
Speaker:Dinner, yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Especially wings at Dirty Buff too, man.
Speaker:That's- Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, my God ... that's pretty solid there.
Speaker:That's my go-to stop whenever I'm down in town.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Well, I, I know there's a lot of excitement, a lot of stuff going forward.
Speaker:You got a big series with JMU coming up.
Speaker:Uh- Mm-hmm ... have you all started talking about JMU yet?
Speaker:I mean, it, it sounds like the mindset is just win the next game.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, we've... I mean, we- every time we go into a
Speaker:series, it's we want to win three.
Speaker:Just we don't ever just want to win one or two.
Speaker:It- or just it's kind of just like win every game you can.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, awesome.
Speaker:Well, we'll certainly be cheering you on this weekend to take on JMU's, uh,
Speaker:series, uh, season finale for the home games before they head on to Montgomery.
Speaker:So Thursday, Friday, Saturday series, make sure you head over to
Speaker:the ballpark, support these guys.
Speaker:I think the Senior Day activities are going on Saturday, I believe.
Speaker:Yeah, probably.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I think it was like Mother's Day, graduation on Friday, and
Speaker:then, uh, Senior Day Saturday.
Speaker:All comes
Speaker:together, so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Should be a good, good weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What's that like for you guys?
Speaker:S- since y- you've both been through a couple of Senior Days as not seniors.
Speaker:What's it like for you as not seniors, uh, being a part of those?
Speaker:It's gotta be interesting, I would think.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, I'd say it's kind of like happy and sad at the same time.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:' Cause, you know, it's some of those, some of those guys' last time playing,
Speaker:and it's definitely the last time you guys will be on the same team.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it's also, like, cool to see your friends graduating and doing other stuff.
Speaker:Yeah, it's, it's a little sad.
Speaker:I mean, for me, I've only played with these guys for a year, but I know
Speaker:Nick's played with them for three now.
Speaker:Like, that's, it's pretty sad to see somebody you played with for
Speaker:three years, you know, I don't get to play with them again.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I mean, these days you never know, they may be able to come back for another
Speaker:year 'cause I think- Yeah ... Gatti Young had walked at Senior Day last year-
Speaker:... and is obviously, uh, back on the team.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Who knows?
Speaker:Can't get rid of him.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:No, definitely not.
Speaker:All
Speaker:right.
Speaker:Well, we appreciate you guys joining us.
Speaker:Won't hold you up any longer.
Speaker:Y'all get out there, get your, get your free food.
Speaker:We love it.
Speaker:Um, hey, we, we appreciate everything you guys are doing.
Speaker:Just keep it up, and just keep taking it one pitch at a time, so it's fun to watch.
Speaker:Yes, sir. Thank you so much.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right, awesome.
Speaker:We're gonna take a quick ba- break.
Speaker:We'll be back with Coach Finwood.
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Speaker:Yeah, thanks, Blaine.
Speaker:Welcome back, fans, and thank you, Blaine.
Speaker:Good to have Nick and Darin on.
Speaker:I know they got wings on the brain, so I want to make sure we- Yeah.
Speaker:... there.
Speaker:They go enjoy that, and, uh, of course, meet a bunch of the fans
Speaker:that are gonna be showing up, um-
Speaker:Yes
Speaker:... just to
Speaker:come out.
Speaker:And even if they don't meet a bunch of the fans, they'll meet a bunch of the wings.
Speaker:That's what really matters.
Speaker:I mean, that's... A, a win- It's great ... is a win there, and Dirty
Speaker:Buff- Win, yes ... is a good spot for it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But yes, but, uh, we have Coach Finwood joining us- Finny ... as usual.
Speaker:Finny, how about that weekend- Hello, everybody ... down in South Carolina?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It, uh, it ended up being a beautiful weekend, and we, we
Speaker:had a lot of fun the, uh...
Speaker:Especially the last two days.
Speaker:You know, Friday wasn't much- Mm-hmm ... fun.
Speaker:That was probably one of the- Yeah ... longest games of
Speaker:my entire coaching career.
Speaker:Geez.
Speaker:Um, four-hour game, and you get out hit by one maybe, and get beat by eight,
Speaker:and, uh, we just gave them a bunch.
Speaker:Mm. But the guys bounced back, you know, um- Yeah Three of those four games last
Speaker:week we played pretty good baseball, so.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, bea- you know, beating Richmond on Tuesday, then going down there and winning
Speaker:that series, which that's an awful hard place to win a series, and hadn't ... Not
Speaker:a lot of road teams have won there.
Speaker:I think, um, you know, a couple in the last few years.
Speaker:So, um- Yeah ... we, we, we just got ... You know, after Friday I had a sense
Speaker:I mean, and this is just, I don't know whether it's good or bad, it just is.
Speaker:I'm,
Speaker:I'm not a big rah, rah, let's go get 'em, this is big game.
Speaker:I just don't think baseball's best played that way.
Speaker:Mm. Um, when you got the right guys, they just focus on playing the
Speaker:game, not, not so much the opponent.
Speaker:I feel that way about scouting reports.
Speaker:That doesn't mean I, we don't wanna be prepared by any means, but I think
Speaker:you can spend too much time thinking about what the other people do
Speaker:well, and you're not spending enough time focusing on what you do well.
Speaker:And, you know, that's kind of the old John Wooden philosophy, like
Speaker:let's take care of our, um, stuff and be the best version of us.
Speaker:I thought Friday, and it, it started all week, you know,
Speaker:Coastal this, Coastal that.
Speaker:They're, they're so awesome, they're ranked, and blah, blah, blah, and we
Speaker:just overcooked the grits of that game-
Speaker:Mm-hmm
Speaker:... way too much.
Speaker:Everybody was tight.
Speaker:They were trying too hard.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, offensively we did enough, but we were just- Yeah
Speaker:not good on the mound.
Speaker:And Kusk maybe wasn't a real good match up for them.
Speaker:They do hit breaking balls fine when they're up, and he couldn't
Speaker:get the fastball in on them.
Speaker:Um, and then, you know, we, we, we made a ... We misplayed a couple balls.
Speaker:He misplayed a bunt.
Speaker:Um, we, we misplayed a couple balls on defense, and walked them too
Speaker:many times and hit 'em too many times, and you can't beat them- Mm
Speaker:giving free bases.
Speaker:So after the game we said, "Look, man, can we, can you just stop and just play
Speaker:baseball?" Like throw strikes, make routine plays, compete at the plate.
Speaker:We get some big hits, we'll have a chance.
Speaker:If you just do those things, it's just another ... Treat it like another game
Speaker:instead of all this hoopla, you know?
Speaker:And the guys came out and did it.
Speaker:I mean, the next day- Yeah ... we were much more in the groove, calm, you know,
Speaker:focused and, and I thought JJ Gatti, you know, gave us a really good start.
Speaker:Um, and you know, the lineup was turning over for the third time, uh, after four.
Speaker:And it wasn't that he was throwing poorly, it just felt like it was
Speaker:time to, to make a change and- Mm-hmm
Speaker:we debated it a little bit in the dugout.
Speaker:And, you know, I told the guys, I said, "Look, man, Ben Tanton's down there,
Speaker:who no one's hit this year. And are we gonna bring him in if we're down, or
Speaker:bring him into a mess?" I'm not gonna sleep great tonight if we don't get
Speaker:him in this game at the right time.
Speaker:Now, if he gets the shit knocked out of him, I can live with that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I can live with that.
Speaker:It's still the right move, 'cause he's been our best guy.
Speaker:And we brought him in and he was just nails, man.
Speaker:I mean, tops that out innings, I think one hit, what was it, two outs in the ninth?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Maybe.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And one walk and seven strikeouts
Speaker:and-
Speaker:Mm-hmm ... he was fantastic.
Speaker:Um, can't say anything other than that.
Speaker:Uh, and we were able to scrap and, you know, claw and get a couple more
Speaker:runs, um, you know, on top of that.
Speaker:I mean, Will- Will Johnson had a really good weekend swinging the battle.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:and defensively, you know, he's... His last month, he's... I don't know what he's
Speaker:hitting the last month, but it's a lot.
Speaker:A lot.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Gotta,
Speaker:gotta be able 400.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, he's raised his average probably 60 points.
Speaker:Um, but we- Which
Speaker:is not easy to do when you already have a bunch of at bats
Speaker:... yeah, yeah, he's just been hot as a firecracker, man, and hitting
Speaker:the ball all over the field, which is- Mm-hmm ... what he did early
Speaker:in the season, and then he- Mm-hmm
Speaker:got away from it a little bit and he's gotten back to having a really
Speaker:good aggressive approach up there and, um, swinging at strikes, you know.
Speaker:Uh, F. Morales had a lot of big at bats for us- Mm-hmm ... I thought as well.
Speaker:Um, you know, so we get a, a hard fought 6-3 win and really
Speaker:pitched well, and we only used two pitchers, you know, which was huge.
Speaker:I mean, our Achilles heel in these weekends has been we've been winning
Speaker:one because we've had to go through so many guys just to- Mm ... get that one.
Speaker:We run out of bullets a little bit on Sunday.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, um, so it saved us some.
Speaker:Uh, and, you know, again, another Sunday we're playing for the series, uh- ... and
Speaker:just like all the rest of them, right?
Speaker:Uh- Yeah ... and, and, you know, one last Sunday, that was big.
Speaker:Guys knew they could do it, and on a rubber match and, um, you know, of
Speaker:course, you know, they, we knew Cameron Fluker is gonna start, and I said,
Speaker:"Look, just do me a favor." Mm-hmm.
Speaker:"Don't get hung up on all this hype about Cameron Fluker.
Speaker:They're gonna be fired up.
Speaker:He's good.
Speaker:He's gonna be a high draft pick.
Speaker:You gotta lay off the high fastball, and he's not gonna be out there for
Speaker:that long 'cause he's on pitch count.
Speaker:So if we're patient and we can wait him out, their closer hadn't thrown yet,
Speaker:we gotta get him in the game early.
Speaker:He's good, too.
Speaker:Um, but the earlier you can get him in the game, the better chance you're gonna have.
Speaker:And they'll bring him in early, 'cause he's thrown multiple innings.
Speaker:Horn." And so, I mean, that couldn't have worked out any better.
Speaker:I mean, Will hits the second pitch of the game out of the ballpark,
Speaker:and- Yeah ... we scratched two more in the third to knock him out.
Speaker:Now their closer's in the game in the third inning, and he's good.
Speaker:Uh, but- Yeah ... we wore him out You know, we got to him Right And
Speaker:he got tired, and, and we, and we were able to expand that lead.
Speaker:And, and, in the meantime, you know ... Conkle was throwing the ball really well.
Speaker:Uh, Pat Johnson came in and didn't feel good, and we kinda knew it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:When
Speaker:he came in, it was one of those weird things.
Speaker:It, it can happen at times in a baseball game.
Speaker:You know, Pat threw real well, probably longer than he'd gone
Speaker:all year against Richmond.
Speaker:And, uh, when he came in the game, Brandon Pond kinda called down and
Speaker:said, "Man, he ain't got it." Like, he's probably ... he ain't got... Like, so
Speaker:we said immediately, you know, of course
Speaker:How often does that happen?
Speaker:It doesn't happen very often.
Speaker:Okay, interesting.
Speaker:That's
Speaker:one of the disadvantages of coaching third base when you're in the first base dugout.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Is that doesn't get communicated properly.
Speaker:Um- Mm-hmm ... and I just said, "Let's learn from this.
Speaker:You know, the next time that happens, we gotta be able to, to hell with,
Speaker:whether you're talking to me or not, like, get somebody else- Yeah
Speaker:going." Fortunately, Pat, you know, got two outs, and I think- Yeah,
Speaker:right ... walked, uh, whatever.
Speaker:Gave up a hit.
Speaker:But it was the right time to bring Bailey in, and he got- Mm-hmm ... um,
Speaker:Harthol, I think he grounded out to first to get out of that inning.
Speaker:Um, and then Bailey went back out, and this is what we got now, but
Speaker:then this just wasn't, wasn't great.
Speaker:And it just felt like the right time to bring Sulpizio in.
Speaker:And he came in and did a great job, man.
Speaker:I mean, you know, he give, we give up one in that one inning, and then that was it.
Speaker:Um, JL was really good, you know, in four innings to start the game.
Speaker:Um, so, you know, pitching wise the last two days, I don't know, what
Speaker:did we hold them to, like, 10 hits in two games or, or something like that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um- It, it wasn't much.
Speaker:It was what, six hits on Sunday and-
Speaker:Six and five, so 11 hits.
Speaker:11 hits.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Against the number 18 in the country on the road.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's pretty damn good.
Speaker:Pretty good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we didn't walk them.
Speaker:You know, I think we had 13 strikeouts Saturday and two walks, and yesterday
Speaker:maybe 4, eight and 4 or something.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:4 and 10.
Speaker:Yeah, 10 and 4.
Speaker:We didn't walk them, and I, I, you know, sometimes it takes... Th-
Speaker:these are the intricacies of a game.
Speaker:Um, you need an umpire that's got the balls to ring guys up back there-
Speaker:Yeah ... especially in that environment.
Speaker:And I thought that was a really good crew we had this weekend and, and the
Speaker:Saturday and Sunday guys definitely did.
Speaker:Um- Mm-hmm ... and, you know, it was a bigger zone yesterday for both teams.
Speaker:Friday was a really tight zone.
Speaker:It
Speaker:was.
Speaker:Um, but both those guys
Speaker:Yesterday started tight it felt like, and then it got bigger about the third.
Speaker:Then they
Speaker:loosened it up.
Speaker:You're right, they did.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:' Cause
Speaker:they barked at them on a, on I think, uh, Morales' first at bat.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:F was walking back to the dugout and the guy followed him and made... You know,
Speaker:when the hitter does that, I mean, you're just setting- Yeah ... setting the guy up
Speaker:I w- I was laughing at that one, like, "Oh no, it's gonna be a long
Speaker:day if that's not strike three." Yeah.
Speaker:That
Speaker:guy's good.
Speaker:That guy's usually good.
Speaker:He's a good umpire, and he, and he settled down and, you know, he was
Speaker:throwing strikes, which, what you want.
Speaker:Um, and-
Speaker:I said sometimes I think the umpire just needed a drink of water.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:I th- I think sometimes they go get a drink of water and all of a sudden
Speaker:the, the strike zone's clear again.
Speaker:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker:Um, but Nick was, Nick was really good.
Speaker:Ben was really good.
Speaker:I thought our pitching, you know, the last two days was, was really solid.
Speaker:And, and we played good baseball.
Speaker:We, we caught the ball on defense.
Speaker:We had so many big hits, especially with two outs.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, a bunch of two out RBIs, you know, uh, and a bunch of
Speaker:two out and two strike RBIs.
Speaker:Um, so approach wise offensively, that was probably our best weekend
Speaker:of the year, um, you know, against a, a very good pitching staff.
Speaker:Yeah, I was really encouraged Friday.
Speaker:Like, I, you know, we gave away, I think, 14 free passes, and I just felt
Speaker:like we kinda gave that game away.
Speaker:We had the one inning where we didn't allow a hit, but I think five runs scored.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But what I was encouraged by was that the bats just kept going.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like, they kept getting hits, they kept chipping away.
Speaker:Like, they w- they weren't just mailing it in 'cause they were down by a lot.
Speaker:And I, I think CB and I were texting each other at the same time saying,
Speaker:"If we can hit like this the rest of the series, we're, we're definitely
Speaker:gonna win a game, if not two."
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, when you think about their Saturday guy, they're pretty good
Speaker:all year, um, for them, and we, we hit him around good, and it, it just was a
Speaker:good, you know, good solid team effort.
Speaker:It w- it wasn't just one guy, although Will was probably the, the highlight,
Speaker:but we had a bunch of big hits, F, you know, and Scotty got a couple big ones,
Speaker:and Nick felt big ones, and Zach Leite and Mav, and those guys just, we just
Speaker:hung in there at the plate and, and, and really defended the field well.
Speaker:You know, they hit a lot of fly balls, just kinda, kinda how they swing,
Speaker:but we, uh, the balls that were on the ground, we made the plays on.
Speaker:So, um- Yeah ... that's, that's, that's solid.
Speaker:And it just, the guys just felt, it felt like they were ... You know, to me it
Speaker:felt more like, I don't know, four or five years ago how we played all the time.
Speaker:Um- Right.
Speaker:... close, expecting to win, but focused- Mm-hmm ... and, and
Speaker:just played good baseball.
Speaker:Um, and we've played more like that this second half- Of the
Speaker:season, so hopefully we can keep it
Speaker:up On this podcast, at one point, the halfway mark, you
Speaker:were like, "We're 5 and 10.
Speaker:I've been through this before when I was at Auburn.
Speaker:You started the season 5 and 10, and then you went 10 and 5 the rest of the way."
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I mean, you realize you could actually exceed that, right?
Speaker:Well, one game at a time.
Speaker:That's, uh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:You could.
Speaker:You could.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You gotta win Thursday, but-
Speaker:Yeah, you gotta win Thursday and-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:... you know, uh, Kuskie's just been up and down this year, man.
Speaker:He just has been- Yeah ... very, very up and down.
Speaker:We need him to be up, you know?
Speaker:He's gotta keep the ball down.
Speaker:Um, and he's gotta get that breaking ball in play and throw, throw
Speaker:those changeups- Mm-hmm ... where he needs to get the lefties.
Speaker:And when he does that, he's been good and, and, you know, you just can't
Speaker:get, he just can't get us out of it.
Speaker:Um, I think that's certainly possible if we play like we did
Speaker:this, you know, last two games, then yeah, you, you got a chance to-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:... you know, have a chance to win all three, so but let's, let's get
Speaker:Thursday and get in that tournament.
Speaker:Um- Mm-hmm ... and then you're just working for seeding.
Speaker:Um, you know, Coastal's playing Louisiana, uh, over there, and they have
Speaker:to win because Southern Miss is a game behind them, and they're playing- Yeah.
Speaker:Northern at home, so they're probably- Yeah,
Speaker:Southern Miss fans were loving us this weekend.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:I heard a lot.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:but,
Speaker:you know, so Coastal's, they, they gotta, they gotta win and, um, th- th- so that,
Speaker:that's good for us in regards to Louisiana 'cause they're, they're, you know, they,
Speaker:they're fighting to try to win the...
Speaker:You know, and, and they, you know, their, their hosting chances took
Speaker:a big shot, um- Mm-hmm ... this weekend I think because, so they're
Speaker:gonna have to, you know, get it back.
Speaker:You know, they need to win the league- Yeah ... something like that.
Speaker:So-
Speaker:If you-
Speaker:Uh, they gotta play-
Speaker:If you ask some of the Coastal fans, they would tell you that they're
Speaker:no longer making the postseason at all 'cause let me tell you-
Speaker:they were down in the dumps about the seventh- Yeah ... inning on Sunday,
Speaker:and I enjoyed every second of it.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Isn't it great?
Speaker:Like, college, college baseball fans, sports fans are amazing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:It's like all those guys stink now.
Speaker:Everybody's firing the coach.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You know, it's just the sky can get fallen in a hurry, can't it?
Speaker:Yep, and, um- But I, I said, "Look, man, how you handle success, how you handle
Speaker:failure, all of 'em, you know, both of 'em can be imposters, so to speak. All
Speaker:that matters to me is how we play." I, I'm happy when we win, obviously.
Speaker:Um- Yeah ... but, but when we play well, I can live with the losses.
Speaker:I know you guys, I feel bad for you guys when we play well and lose.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:... our job is to get you guys to play well, and that's- Yeah ... what matters.
Speaker:And so- I said, "All these people are gonna be patting you on the
Speaker:back tonight telling you how great you are. They were the same people-
Speaker:Mm ... that were telling everybody how shitty you were two weeks ago."
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So-
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, you know, just remember that.
Speaker:That's life.
Speaker:That's how it works.
Speaker:Be, be respectful and, and, you know, be humble, and know we still got a lot to
Speaker:play for, 'cause if you lose this series this weekend or don't play well and, and
Speaker:don't make the tournament or, uh- Mm-hmm ... whatever, then last weekend, people
Speaker:are gonna forget about that in a hurry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, and, and the point you just made about it's, uh, playing well,
Speaker:you can handle it, I think that's been kind of one of the problems is this
Speaker:year is when you have lost games, a lot of times it, it wasn't that you
Speaker:played well and happened to lose, it's that you just did not play well.
Speaker:There've been, uh, you would probably have less- No question ... than a handful of
Speaker:these, those games that were like, "Okay, you know what? We just lost that one." Um-
Speaker:Yeah, I agree ... but that, you're right.
Speaker:If, if that happens, that happens.
Speaker:Like, hey, you know what?
Speaker:That's baseball.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we were a bad defensive team for the first half of the season.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:We weren't good enough- Yeah ... uh, in, in, you know, taking hits away,
Speaker:for one, and we were terrible.
Speaker:We were making too many routine errors, and I think two, quite frankly,
Speaker:like, two position moves helped us become a pretty good defensive team.
Speaker:Putting Feltman center field, obviously, and putting, um, Zedalis at third base.
Speaker:Um- Oh, yeah ... he'd been up and down offensively, I know, but he solidified-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:... the defensive part of third base, and we were really struggling there.
Speaker:Uh, really struggling, and it was costing us games.
Speaker:And those two moves, I think, helped us become a pretty good defensive team.
Speaker:Reliable maybe is the best word.
Speaker:And then Will Johnson figured it out, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Like, he went through a little, you know, space there where he was scuffling
Speaker:offensively and defensively and, you know, it was kind of a streaky
Speaker:thing that was hurting him, but he, he got it all worked out and he's
Speaker:playing his tail off on defense now.
Speaker:And, and all three of those guys you mentioned made big plays all weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, Tyler had some hot shots that he knocked down at third, and-
Speaker:Mm-hmm
Speaker:... you just, y- you just know he's gonna make the throw across the diamond.
Speaker:Like, uh, at, it, it's, you're not worried about where the ball's gonna go.
Speaker:You know it's gonna go right to Zach.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then Nick on, on Sunday, I mean, they- Yeah, he had a couple in the first inning
Speaker:hit a couple balls deep in that left center gap, and he tracked them
Speaker:both down, kept runs off the board.
Speaker:I mean, I-
Speaker:Yeah, the- ... is
Speaker:there a ball he can't get to?
Speaker:... the ball Barthol, the ball Barthol hit in the first inning, I mean, that's a double,
Speaker:you know, in most cases, and- Yeah ... and a run from first, so that's a run in,
Speaker:and they're getting it going, right?
Speaker:And he takes that away, man, and, and those are just
Speaker:momentum changers, you know?
Speaker:They takes it away from them, gives it back to us or helps us keep it-
Speaker:Mm-hmm ... so to speak, so- Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I think that, that helped us.
Speaker:And the bullpens, you know, worked its way into being much more
Speaker:reliable, uh- Mm-hmm ... overall.
Speaker:Um, you know, the starting pitching has still been up and
Speaker:down, but it's, it's the, the...
Speaker:We got a few more pieces that we've been able to
Speaker:go to.
Speaker:Yeah, and I, you know, speaking of momentum, you know, y- yesterday when
Speaker:Coastal gets a run and you kind of feel, uh-oh, and then we go and add a run
Speaker:in the next half inning, and we just kinda kept going, getting those runs
Speaker:back, and then ultimately pulled away with runs in the eighth and the ninth.
Speaker:That's something I didn't see us do earlier in the season-
Speaker:Mm-hmm ... that we are doing now.
Speaker:And I mean, it, it's a lot more comfortable when it's just
Speaker:Sulpizio out there when it's nine to two, and not, you know-
Speaker:Right
Speaker:... five to two or something.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:No, no doubt.
Speaker:Yeah, you can never have enough runs on the road.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:we've- Yeah ... we've proven that.
Speaker:But- Learned that one ... uh, I, I think, I mean, as a coach, you want your guys
Speaker:to develop a, a resilience and a, a way to get up off the mat, so to speak, and
Speaker:I think this group has gotten there.
Speaker:Um, we, we've been, you know, left for dead and, uh- ... they clawed their
Speaker:way, clawed their way out the hole and now you can see the light, so to speak,
Speaker:and now they just gotta go take it.
Speaker:And, you know, you get to this part of the year, man, it's not as much about
Speaker:trying to keep 'em fresh and feeling good, but it's- Yeah ... it's not as
Speaker:much about anything other than them just wanting it, um, and playing that way.
Speaker:And you gotta thread the needle of trying too hard, I think sometimes, 'cause that
Speaker:can get you, but you gotta just go play.
Speaker:And if we can play that steady, um, like that, then, you
Speaker:know, I think we'll be fine.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think the, the most fun, funnest summer ever, I think, was the thing I saw coming
Speaker:from a lot of your players on there.
Speaker:Yeah, fully,
Speaker:fully committed to the funnest summer ever.
Speaker:That's what, uh, the bunch of the guys were sharing yesterday, uh, probably
Speaker:while they were on the ride back.
Speaker:Um, which I love- ... 'cause that, that implies, you know, the funnest
Speaker:summer ever would be, like, a run to the College World Series.
Speaker:So I, I've, I've said, uh, maybe next year they could start out with that, and
Speaker:not wait till May to discover that plan.
Speaker:But I like, I love the approach.
Speaker:That'd be great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I would, I would, uh, agree, I would agree with that.
Speaker:Um, so-
Speaker:Well, it's, uh-
Speaker:We got three games left, man, and, you know, in the regular season, uh, at the
Speaker:beginning of each year, I tell 'em, "We got 56 scheduled. You know, we gotta earn
Speaker:every one after that, the opportunity to play after that." And so we've got three
Speaker:left, and we've gotta earn the rest.
Speaker:And, you know, it, it, it's nice to know that you actually are playing,
Speaker:not just to get in the tournament, um, but to maybe be in the real tournament.
Speaker:To get, have the opportunity- Yeah, yeah ... to get that sixth seed.
Speaker:Um, and to win your way into it.
Speaker:You know, last year we, we kind of backed into it when we were getting
Speaker:swept by Coastal, and then- Having the stuff go the way it needed to go
Speaker:so we could get the six seed, but it would be fun, much more gratifying
Speaker:to play your way in, way into it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A lot
Speaker:nicer to have- But then- ... three
Speaker:wins at the end and
Speaker:Yeah, a- and like you said, you know, have an opportunity to, to go, you
Speaker:know, whatever it is, nine and six, 10 and five- Mm-hmm ... 11 and four.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, in the second half of the season, you would be as hot as anybody in the league.
Speaker:Um- Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah ... you know, and that's significant.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Playing your best ball at the right time of year is also, I think, really important
Speaker:for that tournament too, 'cause- Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah ... you do get the six seed, it's not like it's a magically easy road.
Speaker:You still are gonna be playing good teams.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Um- Without a doubt.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, right now it's what, Coastal, Southern Miss, um, s- what, uh, App State,
Speaker:Troy, South Alabama, something like that.
Speaker:Yeah, South Alabama and Troy are tied.
Speaker:South
Speaker:Alabama, Troy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Then Louisiana's 14 and 13 sitting there in the six seed.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, yeah, I mean, it's still all, it, it's still all right there.
Speaker:I mean, I, the six seed is what we're targeting, but there are some scenarios
Speaker:where five is on the table too.
Speaker:But you gotta depend on other outcomes, and- Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah ... we know we don't necessarily wanna do that, just As always, just
Speaker:go and play your, play your game.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Pitch in
Speaker:front of you.
Speaker:That's all you can
Speaker:do.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Go, go-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:... go play your best on Thursday and see what happens, you know?
Speaker:I know we got a little bit of rain coming in Wednesday night, and then
Speaker:Thursday hopefully getting out of here sometime, you know, before noon, and
Speaker:then the rest of the weekend- Yeah
Speaker:looks pretty good, so.
Speaker:Yeah, wouldn't
Speaker:be- And
Speaker:we got, uh- ... better today out of
Speaker:it.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Uh, today was nasty.
Speaker:Uh- Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:... we, we got, uh, you know, graduation and we got senior- Mm-hmm ... senior day
Speaker:and all of those things this weekend as well, so, um, should be a lot of fun.
Speaker:Uh-
Speaker:Yeah ... in terms of a pitching plan, I know it's a funky week 'cause
Speaker:it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Speaker:Are you still rolling Kuskie, Gatti, Jackson, or how you feeling?
Speaker:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker:Uh, it, it'll be TBA again on Sunday because, you know, what we do on
Speaker:Sunday will depend on what we did Thursday and Friday and where we're at.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You know, if Sunday doesn't matter, I mean, it all matters, but if we
Speaker:need to hold some guys for, you know, whatever, then, then we will if
Speaker:it, if it doesn't matter that much.
Speaker:Um, if it matters on, yeah, you g- you win, you get the six seed, then
Speaker:we're going after it, obviously.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but Kuskie didn't throw that many pitches.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, neither did Gatti, so the short, the two days short
Speaker:shouldn't hurt them too much.
Speaker:It's not like they threw, you know, seven, eight innings.
Speaker:The one guy that I think it's gonna affect- Would be Ben Tanton
Speaker:because he threw 92 pitches Mm-hmm
Speaker:his longest of the year on Saturday.
Speaker:So I don't see him, we'll see how he feels, I don't see him
Speaker:being available for Thursday.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, but Friday or Saturday, obviously, yes.
Speaker:' Cause it's, it's kind of a tough pitching plan spot too, because like, yes, you need
Speaker:to win games to get in the tournament- Yeah ... but you also need to be ready
Speaker:'cause you could be playing on Tuesday in the tournament, and that's single
Speaker:game, you wanna have your best arms.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I'm not envious of you trying to figure all that stuff out
Speaker:over the next couple hours.
Speaker:No, it
Speaker:always, it always is.
Speaker:And you know, it's interesting because the conference will actually
Speaker:allow you to play this past weekend on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, if
Speaker:both- Mm ... teams agree to it.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:So that you're only sh- you know, you're short that week- Mm-hmm
Speaker:but then it's kind of normal the next week.
Speaker:Uh, we just couldn't 'cause we were in exams, and- Mm-hmm ... we couldn't
Speaker:move that, that day early to do it.
Speaker:So, um, obviously if you can, then, you know, you'd, you'd like to do that.
Speaker:It's less obtrusive for this weekend coming up.
Speaker:Um, so, it, but that, that's where we're at.
Speaker:So yeah, but those guys will go, and then we'll figure se- you know,
Speaker:game three out when we get there.
Speaker:A lot can happen between now and game three, so hopefully it's just
Speaker:a couple of ODU wins- Yeah ... and we have the, all the power, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you know, quietly, I, I think that, um, Jackson Okonkwo's last
Speaker:three starts have been pretty good.
Speaker:I, I think- Mm-hmm ... he's gone three and, uh, three or four, and then four.
Speaker:Um- Mm-hmm ... you know, uh, they've been, they haven't been messy.
Speaker:You know, he, he's been good.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So he's getting better.
Speaker:He's starting to really move in the right direction, which is good to see.
Speaker:He looks
Speaker:amazing.
Speaker:Yeah, I was at Greenbrier Christian on Friday, and they were asking
Speaker:about him, and I was like, "It's going pretty good right now."
Speaker:You know- Yeah ... obviously he's a freshman, had some bumps,
Speaker:but- Yeah.
Speaker:And Jackson's one of those kids, I tell people sometimes the, the tr- trajectory
Speaker:of a lot of kids that end up being really good college pitchers, um, goes, they're
Speaker:strike, one, they're strike throwers.
Speaker:Um- Mm-hmm ... and, and sometimes when you're a strike thrower,
Speaker:I love that personally, um- Yes
Speaker:you're throwing too many hitter strikes, and so you give up a lot of hits.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But you're not afraid to throw strikes.
Speaker:Then as you get better and learn and get some experience and get tired of,
Speaker:you know, giving up hits- ... you learn how to throw more pitcher strikes.
Speaker:Um- Right ... it's the guys that don't ever throw the strikes that
Speaker:can't get to the next thing, um- Mm
Speaker:because they're either afraid of contact or don't have the command
Speaker:to, you know, command the baseball and, or, or something of that nature.
Speaker:So Jackson's certainly in that first category.
Speaker:And you know, I think Mike and, and the pitching staff have-
Speaker:Have done a good job helping him.
Speaker:You know, he's, he's gotta continue to work on his arsenal
Speaker:and get the breaking ball better.
Speaker:He's a big time sinker, you know, pronator, so sometimes that breaking
Speaker:ball and those guys like that, takes a little while to figure out, uh,
Speaker:the breaking ball and the changeup.
Speaker:But he, you know, like yesterday, I mean, everything was at the knees, man.
Speaker:He was throwing ground balls- Mm-hmm ... it was boom, boom, boom.
Speaker:And he, in that environment, you know, you're, you're starting as a true
Speaker:freshman against a guy that's gonna be one of the top- Yeah ... five picks
Speaker:in the draft maybe, 10 picks in the draft, uh, on the other team, and
Speaker:I thought he handled himself great.
Speaker:I was really proud of him.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah, he looked as smooth as I've seen him all season, just dicing guys up.
Speaker:I mean, four innings, no runs, three hits, one walk, and three strikeouts.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I'll, I'll take that from a freshman or from anybody against number eight.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, it was good.
Speaker:And, um, you know, again, that's the longest he's gone.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, you know, and, and, you know, I, we may be guilty of overprotecting guys,
Speaker:I think when they're young especially, but we want them to continue to develop.
Speaker:And when you don't do that, I think it's hard to develop when
Speaker:you're, when you're banged up.
Speaker:And so I think we- Mm-hmm ... we've done that with this, this group.
Speaker:And, you know, Ben Tanton, uh, you know, the, both those guys, those are their
Speaker:longest outings of the year, and that's
Speaker:in-
Speaker:Mm-hmm ... week 13.
Speaker:Um, so they certainly have built up to that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, the Baby Face Assassin.
Speaker:That's, that was
Speaker:the-
Speaker:CP, you need to, you need to trademark that or something, 'cause it was good.
Speaker:Yeah, I gotta- Yeah ... I need to get a, get into my, uh, in my Canva and do
Speaker:something, 'cause I got an idea for it.
Speaker:Yeah, I don't, I don't like the, uh, his dad shared something that, you know,
Speaker:I'm, I'm not a fan of the AI slop, so I gotta make something of my own maybe.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But- There were, he, he was getting some national attention while he was
Speaker:absolutely shoving- Mm-hmm ... uh, which, you know, we don't want it to get too
Speaker:national, but- No ... but there were a lot of fan bases very jealous that
Speaker:we had a Ben Tanton and they didn't.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Put it that way.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Well, the, uh, you know, those words get out certainly.
Speaker:It's just part of the, the, what we're dealing with in our, you know,
Speaker:timeframe of the, of the thing.
Speaker:Gary Gilmore, they had a really nice, uh, ceremony for the- Yeah ... uh,
Speaker:2016 National Championship team before Saturday's game.
Speaker:And Coach Gilmore was there, and I've known him forever, and we got to visit.
Speaker:And, um, he sent a nice text after the game yesterday and said, "Man, some
Speaker:really good looking young arms." He
Speaker:said-
Speaker:Mm-hmm ... um, you know, uh, what'd he say?
Speaker:He said, uh, "Don't let 'em play this summer. Take their phones away from 'em."
Speaker:The way this stuff's going nowadays.
Speaker:Honestly.
Speaker:So he said, you know, that's just how, how it is.
Speaker:But the, uh, I- Tho- those guys have g- all gotten better, and, you know,
Speaker:I, I still think that, you know, Chris Cavalcante and Maddox Jack- Mm ... those
Speaker:two guys can- Yeah ... they're a little bit behind those other two,
Speaker:but they're, they're gonna come.
Speaker:I, I believe those guys al- also have a bright future here.
Speaker:And, you know, everybody's journey is a little bit different, right?
Speaker:Uh, when they, when they actually figure it out and it pops, you just
Speaker:don't... I don't have a crystal ball big enough to know the answer to that one.
Speaker:Working it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And if they're the right kids and they're talented enough,
Speaker:then, then it happens for them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think that was Chris Cavalcante's third time facing Richmond
Speaker:this year too, wasn't it?
Speaker:Hasn't he pitched in all three Richmond games?
Speaker:I don't know
Speaker:about that.
Speaker:I know the first one there he did, he threw two innings.
Speaker:Um- I
Speaker:can't remember if he did the second
Speaker:one ... I don't remember the second one- Yeah ... if he
Speaker:did
Speaker:or-
Speaker:Well, just, you know, I, I've been trying to quietly- Probably ... keep,
Speaker:keep track of who we've played in the non-conference, and you've really caught
Speaker:VCU and Richmond playing their best ball.
Speaker:I mean, they're, they're tied for second right now in the A10 behind St. Joe's.
Speaker:Um, so, like, even that midweek work is actually against some pretty damn good
Speaker:offenses, even though they're in the A10.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He did.
Speaker:He faced Richmond all three times, faced East Carolina both times.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Battle tested, at least.
Speaker:Well, yeah.
Speaker:I mean, and the thing, you know, we've talked about with him is, like, building
Speaker:experiences, not having to start- Yeah ... every time right down here,
Speaker:like taking the next step, and some days- Mm-hmm ... he's gotta be better at that,
Speaker:without a doubt, but we think he will.
Speaker:You know, I think Maddox Jack is... I hate it e- we didn't get him in
Speaker:there this weekend, but, um- Mm
Speaker:we, it just, that's the way it worked out.
Speaker:You know, if you had a... Again, if you had a crystal ball, you'd have
Speaker:thrown him in that game on Friday.
Speaker:Um, but you don't, so that's the nature of the bullpen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, at the end of the day, you came away with two huge wins down there.
Speaker:I mean, it just opens the door for more possibilities, but I think it just
Speaker:adds to this quiet confidence that the guys on your team have been building.
Speaker:Like, since that Southern Miss series, it's a different team in that dugout.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hopefully we're playing... But we're definitely playing better baseball, and,
Speaker:and hopefully we can keep that up and, and take it into the postseason with us.
Speaker:Mm. So for all the things, you know, this group's had to go through, the
Speaker:players and the coaches the last two years, it's, it's, it's fun to
Speaker:be playing well right now and- Mm
Speaker:kinda overcoming some of those things.
Speaker:I, I think people will tend to maybe forget about them, um, but we won't.
Speaker:You know, uh, uh, we're a few months away from, you know, hopefully being in
Speaker:that b- ballpark, so that's exciting.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I think that's a very fair point, that a lot of people, the people
Speaker:that tend to be angry the ballpark's not, not complete and it's like, who is
Speaker:this hurting more than the, the people that are trying to use it every day?
Speaker:Like, I don't, I'm sorry it's inconvenienced you slightly.
Speaker:These guys are out there working every day and that, trust me, they're the
Speaker:ones really having some, some issues.
Speaker:So yeah, I, I think you're right that that's gonna be the kind of
Speaker:thing that just will get overlooked, especially as you move them into
Speaker:the br- beautiful place next year.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, the, the people you talk to.
Speaker:I, I was talking to Kevin Schnall, their coach, and he's like, "Man,
Speaker:we're watching video of y'all's games and like there's nobody there." Yeah.
Speaker:And we hear, you know, we hear people say, "Yeah, it's just dead, you know.
Speaker:There's no atmosphere at all." Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And, uh, I was like, "Yeah, that's what we're dealing with every day right now."
Speaker:I, I don't think anybody understands-
Speaker:Mm-hmm
Speaker:... how, really how much a home field, uh, fan base that gets loud and, you know,
Speaker:when you're in a venue that allows that, um, can help 'cause it really can.
Speaker:And so, you know, for two years now we haven't really had that.
Speaker:And, and so- Mm ... that's, um, but we need to, we need to suck it up for
Speaker:three more games and not worry about that, just create our own energy.
Speaker:And we probably let the guys go a little bit crazier than normal this year-
Speaker:... just 'cause we felt like that's, that's the only energy down here, and we need it.
Speaker:And I, I probably been, have had, you know, gotten warned more for
Speaker:dugout noise this year than ever.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:you
Speaker:know,
Speaker:the guys are, "Hey, Coach, the guys can't bang on the thing," and I'm like, "Okay.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, I'll tell
Speaker:them." Yeah, yeah,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:After the next half inning I'll tell them.
Speaker:Uh-huh.
Speaker:Literally have certain times they do it every single time.
Speaker:Yeah, let me get this new pitcher's adrenaline dump real quick- Yeah
Speaker:and then, yeah, we'll be quiet.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, and then I, I never do so.
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:Uh, it's kind of what we, what we need to go through, you know,
Speaker:to try to boost the energy up at certain times in the game, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Where, where normally the fans are doing that.
Speaker:Right, yeah.
Speaker:You know, anything.
Speaker:They're getting loud and clapping and some of the- Well,
Speaker:especially, you know, they're right, I know to you they're kind of right on
Speaker:top of you a lot, too, which is nice.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It really helps that, feel that energy- It
Speaker:gets awesome ... flow
Speaker:down.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's gonna be close and, and even behind the plate with all the people
Speaker:are gonna be right there- Mm-hmm ... on the field, in Rally Alley, I think
Speaker:we got a chance to really kind of, it can, it can, you know, be a
Speaker:suffocating feeling like that, you know?
Speaker:Um, so we're hopeful for that anyway.
Speaker:Oh, I'm, I'm excited for the first, like, Sun Belt series next year when
Speaker:they're not used to anything going on at ODU 'cause they- ... been on the
Speaker:road, in construction, or playing at another ballpark or something, then all
Speaker:of a sudden there's a guy nine beers deep at Rally Alley on the corner-
Speaker:of that dugout.
Speaker:And I mean, it's not gonna be me, but it might be.
Speaker:Who knows?
Speaker:Probably, probably Sam Sinnon.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We got plenty.
Speaker:We got
Speaker:plenty.
Speaker:Maybe so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:So, um, yeah.
Speaker:But again, I know we'll, we'll, uh, I guess the next one of these would
Speaker:be from the, from, uh, traveling to the tournament potentially.
Speaker:That's what we meant to talk to you about, how we have to figure out how to
Speaker:do this, uh, uh, if, if we do it Saturday.
Speaker:We'll, we'll talk to you about that.
Speaker:Yeah, we'll figure out what night is, if- Yeah ... how the best way to do that is.
Speaker:Yeah, maybe it's you and me on the bus, who knows?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That'd be
Speaker:fun.
Speaker:I could do that.
Speaker:Tales from the
Speaker:road.
Speaker:Figure
Speaker:something
Speaker:out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh-
Speaker:We'll figure it out.
Speaker:Hopefully it is on the way down to the tournament.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That's the, that's the hope and the goal.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, so.
Speaker:But thank you guys
Speaker:again.
Speaker:Finny, we appreciate you.
Speaker:For everything.
Speaker:Yeah, we missed you last week.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Well, I don't know.
Speaker:I thought about it.
Speaker:I was like, man, I don't know, maybe I didn't do it last week
Speaker:and we picked- ... it all up.
Speaker:Hey, you know, hey, I-
Speaker:Yeah ... we
Speaker:love having you, but
Speaker:whatever
Speaker:works, man.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:W- we had, we had the same conversation about possibly recording yesterday instead
Speaker:of today- Yeah ... just to keep it going.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we, Steph came...
Speaker:This is a good story.
Speaker:Steph came with us, you know, it was Mother's Day weekend and, and, um, you
Speaker:know, the, on the way back the guys were all saying, you know, she's a
Speaker:good lu- good luck charm and all that.
Speaker:And- Mm-hmm
Speaker:... he
Speaker:said, "Well, maybe I'll have to go on another trip." And so Hayes
Speaker:goes, "You say that like you
Speaker:have a choice."
Speaker:Like, you don't have
Speaker:a choice.
Speaker:Like, you don't mess with a, with a winner's streak.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Let's go.
Speaker:You... So that was fun.
Speaker:That's
Speaker:funny.
Speaker:But, uh, yeah.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:So, and, uh- You had a good
Speaker:contingent down there ... hopefully-
Speaker:Huh?
Speaker:You had a good contingent of ODU fans down there- Yeah ... 'cause I could hear a, a
Speaker:whole game on Sunday It was pretty good,
Speaker:man.
Speaker:It was a lot of parents and family and friends.
Speaker:Can't imagine people wanna go to Myrtle Beach.
Speaker:And we stayed at a really cool old beach resort right on the-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:... the north, uh, the south end o- of the beach, and we were
Speaker:right on the beach, man.
Speaker:It was, it was neat.
Speaker:The guys did stretching and stuff out on the beach one day and,
Speaker:uh, you could walk out there.
Speaker:It was beautiful and, um, that was, that was really neat, so it was good.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Well, all right, I'll let you guys go.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
Speaker:Go
Speaker:Monarchs.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
Speaker:Thanks, Finny.
Speaker:Thanks, Finny.
Speaker:All
Speaker:righty.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Missed that last week, man.
Speaker:That's something else.
Speaker:I know, but now I'm afraid we've jinxed the whole damn thing.
Speaker:Well, you only jinx it if you believe you jinxed it, you know?
Speaker:If you, you just... Hey, we've had 'em on all year.
Speaker:It's, and I always say, like, I, I love baseball and I'm super... Trust me,
Speaker:when I played, I, I would, you know, you, you, you'd sprint to the field and
Speaker:you, you jump over the, the foul line.
Speaker:But at the same time, it's like I, I'm well aware that nothing I'm doing is
Speaker:affecting what these guys are doing.
Speaker:It doesn't matter what shirt or hat I'm wearing, where I stand,
Speaker:it's completely irrelevant.
Speaker:So if other people believe that, I guess, but I know me personally,
Speaker:nothing I'm doing is affecting what's going on in this game.
Speaker:It's irrelevant, but when it works, it messes with your brain.
Speaker:Like- Yeah ... Friday I did the whole listen to Ted and watch ESPN+ on mute.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And then Saturday I just watched the ESPN+ broadcast and we won, so
Speaker:you can guess what I did on Sunday.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I'll say the only game I didn't watch this weekend, uh, like I saw the
Speaker:very end, was the, uh, Friday game 'cause I was at a high school game.
Speaker:So, you know, so the two games I sat and watched the whole
Speaker:game, we played great and won.
Speaker:So, you know, if you wanna start talking about superstitions and
Speaker:that, maybe that's, maybe I did it.
Speaker:Who knows?
Speaker:Whatever you were doing last Saturday and Sunday, I need you to replicate it-
Speaker:Right ... but on Friday- Yeah ... and Saturday of this week coming up.
Speaker:Well, I, I'll be at all three of 'em, so I'll be replicating that.
Speaker:We'll be- We'll be there.
Speaker:Yeah, I definitely have Saturday, TBD on Friday.
Speaker:Apparently it's difficult to get a hotel in Norfolk on the
Speaker:Friday night of ODU's graduation.
Speaker:Who would've thought?
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:who'd have thought?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Who would've thought?
Speaker:Um-
Speaker:Hey, if you want to come sleep on my couch in my condo and
Speaker:have the cat, uh, on your face-
Speaker:you can do that.
Speaker:You're, you're more than welcome.
Speaker:Yes, I'll, I will find some way, shape, or form to get down there.
Speaker:Uh, definitely not gonna miss Saturday 'cause that's when
Speaker:they're gonna do the graduation- Yeah ... ceremony for the players.
Speaker:Uh, that's obviously a, a big deal for them since baseball really can
Speaker:never attend a spring graduation.
Speaker:I think Saturday is the, is the, uh, senior day.
Speaker:I think Friday is the graduation.
Speaker:Friday's grad- okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, that makes sense 'cause they're all gonna be at graduation-
Speaker:Yeah ... on, on Saturday, at least the, the faculty and staff will be.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, all right.
Speaker:Well-
Speaker:There we go
Speaker:... we gotta get to players of the week here real quick.
Speaker:Oh, do we?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So give me a second to get your stats.
Speaker:Uh- I was gonna say, let's see if we have that or
Speaker:not.
Speaker:Oh, I don't think- There we go.
Speaker:Hey, look at that ... either, I don't think either one of these
Speaker:guys are gonna shock anyone- Yeah
Speaker:... for
Speaker:their player
Speaker:of the week selection.
Speaker:What a shocker, right?
Speaker:Um, yeah, so Ben Tanton, I mean, yeah, y- you were kind of saying it
Speaker:during the game, and I don't know if any of those awards have come out or
Speaker:not, but, uh, them, it's kind of like national pitcher of the week type stuff.
Speaker:Um, five scoreless innings on the road as a freshman at number
Speaker:eight is pretty phenomenal.
Speaker:Uh, only one hit, but like, as Finny pointed out, with two outs in the
Speaker:ninth, one walk, seven strikeouts.
Speaker:So, uh, Ben is, he's well on his way to... We're kind of at the point in the year
Speaker:where you're kind of cementing the guys who are gonna win the year-long awards,
Speaker:and, I mean, I don't know what somebody else would have to do here at the end
Speaker:of the season to take over for Ben being the pitcher of the year for the team.
Speaker:So that says a lot about him as a freshman.
Speaker:I, I think I, I shared that the other day.
Speaker:He's got seven wins.
Speaker:Um, that's the most for a Monarch since Sam Armstrong had nine in 2023.
Speaker:Um, the last time a Monarch had double digits was 2007, Anthony Shaller.
Speaker:He went 11 and 2.
Speaker:Um, and for people who might remember Anthony Schaller,
Speaker:he was also, he was a hitter.
Speaker:He was an outfielder at DH also.
Speaker:Uh, that same season he also hit three, I think it was 305 with 10 doubles,
Speaker:five triples, five homers, 35 RBIs.
Speaker:So Anthony had a pretty good year.
Speaker:Yeah, pretty good.
Speaker:Um, I can't remember if that was... I think that was his, his senior year
Speaker:before he ended up playing a few years in the minors for the, um, the Tigers.
Speaker:Got... I think he made it all the way to double A. Um, so yeah.
Speaker:So Ben's having a great year and then couple other guys
Speaker:obviously had a great time.
Speaker:Okonkwo we pointed out, four scoreless on Sunday.
Speaker:Um, three hits, a walk, three strikeouts.
Speaker:Uh, Sulpizio.
Speaker:I let the cat be in here and now she's trying to get up
Speaker:on me.
Speaker:This is,
Speaker:this is, it was a mistake.
Speaker:It was fine until I all of a sudden wanted to start talking.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:The,
Speaker:the
Speaker:cat
Speaker:just wants a voting player of the week, that's all.
Speaker:He really does.
Speaker:Just agreeing on Ben Tanton.
Speaker:I was like, she's a year old now.
Speaker:She's just fine.
Speaker:No, she's not.
Speaker:Um, so Sulpizio, uh, we know he got the win yesterday.
Speaker:Um, but that was interesting scoring 'cause they could either give him the
Speaker:win or the save, but I think giving him the win was the right way to go.
Speaker:Uh, got the win, three and two-thirds innings, one run, two
Speaker:hits, no walks, six strikeouts.
Speaker:No walks, six strikeouts is phenomenal.
Speaker:And then Patrick Johnson.
Speaker:Um, Patrick, uh, he was in two games.
Speaker:He got the win on the Tuesday game.
Speaker:Uh, three and two-thirds innings.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:Let's see the cat here.
Speaker:We just have a new, uh, co-host
Speaker:on the podcast.
Speaker:Here's, here's, here's Bucky for anybody who's been wanting to see Bucky.
Speaker:It's killing me.
Speaker:Oh, the star of the show has finally arrived after 16 episodes.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Three and two-thirds innings, no runs, no hits, two walks, five strikes.
Speaker:So, and, and as I pointed out, you know, we have the context of
Speaker:knowing that he didn't, he just didn't have it when he came in the
Speaker:game, uh, on yesterday, on Sunday.
Speaker:Uh, it's, it's good to know he, he was able to get those two outs anyway.
Speaker:Well, uh- So anything, anything you want to add about the pitching
Speaker:now that I'm dealing with a cat?
Speaker:Well, just Patrick Johnson.
Speaker:I mean, he got two outs and didn't allow a hit or a run, and they
Speaker:said he doesn't have it today.
Speaker:Uh, I think we've had many times this year when we've probably had
Speaker:someone who looked like they had it and they did substantially- Yeah
Speaker:worse coming out of the bullpen.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So for not having your best, like that's a hell of a job by Patrick
Speaker:Johnson to not melt down that inning, 'cause that could've gone
Speaker:sideways- Yeah ... in a hurry with the momentum they could've built, so.
Speaker:Uh, pumped for that.
Speaker:I mean, I, I'm so happy for Nick Sulpizio.
Speaker:Like-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:it makes sense to hear him now talk about how he's throwing the
Speaker:four-seam fastball more 'cause it already had a ton of movement.
Speaker:Uh, but like that's, that's an arm we've been waiting to look like
Speaker:this and he's looked like this the last couple- Yeah ... of weeks.
Speaker:Uh, but I mean, Ben Tanton.
Speaker:H- How... I couldn't find another pitcher that has gone on the road to a top 10 team
Speaker:this year to throw five scoreless innings.
Speaker:Anywhere.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:SEC,
Speaker:ACC.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:If I'm wrong, point it out to me.
Speaker:But that's like- Y- usually guys that are doing that are being talked about
Speaker:in the first round of the draft.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he's a freshman.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:I mean, Ben's been phenomenal.
Speaker:And, and, you know, we saw, we had him, what was it last week we had him?
Speaker:Uh, no it wasn't last week, it was a few weeks back.
Speaker:It was about a month ago now probably.
Speaker:Um, just the best kid too.
Speaker:I mean, best kid, great, great parents, great family.
Speaker:Um, you know, we, we, we got a gem and it's great, and we just, hopefully he
Speaker:just keeps on being himself and keeps on having the success and, uh, hopefully
Speaker:he just does it for rest of this year and two more years and then maybe we'll
Speaker:be talking about a first round pick.
Speaker:That'd be something else.
Speaker:That'd be cool.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's, he's got the competitiveness for it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like, he is that quiet competitive guy.
Speaker:That's why he is the baby-faced assassin.
Speaker:It's all, it's all the golf.
Speaker:It's all the golf did it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So then our hitters, uh... And this is another one I think we, I think before we
Speaker:even got to Sunday we were like, "Well, it's probably gonna be Ben and Will."
Speaker:And it's like, well, and then Will I think had, what, three more hits yesterday?
Speaker:Uh, so he, yeah, he was nine for 17 for the week.
Speaker:Um, had two doubles, a homer, four RBIs, added in three
Speaker:walks, five runs, a stolen base.
Speaker:It's another just phenomenal week.
Speaker:Um, I think he was the player of the week two weeks ago for the hitter of the week.
Speaker:I think it was, or it was last week.
Speaker:It was last week he was hitter of the week.
Speaker:So- Mm ... off a couple of great weeks as, as Finny pointed out,
Speaker:having a great second half.
Speaker:Uh, Maverick Stallings, another really great week.
Speaker:Six out of 13, uh, two homers, both of them in that Tuesday game against
Speaker:Richmond, six RBIs, five walks, couple hit by a pitch, five runs scored.
Speaker:Um, Efrain Morales, another good week, five out of 12, had a double, three RBIs,
Speaker:had five walks and a hit by a pitch.
Speaker:That's a ton for Efrain.
Speaker:He is, he's not a guy who really walks or gets hit a lot, and he's, and he's up
Speaker:over 20 walks now, so he's, he's doing a lot better with that, which is great.
Speaker:Um, five runs and stole a base, which is wonder- uh, the, the new
Speaker:thing around the house when I watch with my parents, I've compared, uh,
Speaker:Efrain to, um, uh, little Mario.
Speaker:Like tiny Mario before he hits... Yeah, before he gets the mushroom, like, so in
Speaker:the very beginning of, like, Super Mario when he's kind of... 'Cause it's just,
Speaker:when you watch Ef, like he's not slow, but he's not fast, and when he's running it's
Speaker:like a whole lot of, whole lot of motion.
Speaker:You know, he's, he's a, he's a gamer, he's a dude, so it's a whole lot of motion
Speaker:but it's just not kind of going anywhere.
Speaker:But he, he made a few, he made a nice, I think first to third, and I think
Speaker:he made a second to home, uh, run, so made some nice runs yesterday.
Speaker:Um, and then finally Mack Dye, who is, who had struggled for a while, really
Speaker:had struggled for a bit, but he was six for 14 with a homer, an RBI, and five
Speaker:runs scored this week, so he got back on the, on the horse and had a nice week.
Speaker:And so if Mack could, could keep that going through the end of the season here,
Speaker:again, could do some really great things.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, it was good to see Mack.
Speaker:He's just getting around the, on the baseball, so everything-
Speaker:Mm-hmm ... is going a little bit more to the pull side now.
Speaker:And before he was popping up so many balls to- Popping up a lot.
Speaker:Yeah ... first base foul territory that side.
Speaker:So he's kind of smoothed out his swing a little bit.
Speaker:Uh, I mean, Will was on fire.
Speaker:Like, all nine of those hits were against Coastal.
Speaker:Like, he- Yeah ... he was oh for three against Richmond with two walks- So
Speaker:nine hits against the conference leader.
Speaker:That's pretty awesome stuff.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Uh, y- you're talking about F. He, he's kind of flown
Speaker:under the radar a little bit.
Speaker:We've talked about him.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:We know he's tough at the plate, but even I didn't realize that he is now leading
Speaker:the team in batting average at 362.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:His on-base percentage is 472.
Speaker:And when we had him- Yeah, his on-base
Speaker:percentage is nuts
Speaker:it's, uh, I mean, his OPS is 902, and I think he only has
Speaker:one home run and six doubles.
Speaker:Like-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:... that's, that's pretty, pretty solid there.
Speaker:Uh, but when he was on the podcast- He's,
Speaker:he's definitely a guy that, like, if he can keep adding that strength and
Speaker:become a doubles hitter, I mean, what a phenomenal baseball player that is.
Speaker:Uh, I mean, those are crazy numbers.
Speaker:And when he was on the podcast, I guess it was about a month ago now, maybe
Speaker:five weeks ago, he was talking about being much more selective at the plate
Speaker:and- Mm-hmm ... watching more balls, and you've seen that come through now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, and when he hits like he does and he's got the good eye, you get a kid that's
Speaker:hitting over 360 And, I mean, that's, that's not necessarily common for us
Speaker:without, like, a lot of power behind it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It, it, that's great.
Speaker:It's, it's really, he's a, he's kind of a throwback player.
Speaker:He's that kind of guy, like, you, you think of, um, Luis Arias in the big
Speaker:leagues- Mm-hmm ... where they don't know what to do with him, you know.
Speaker:He's always got a spot and he's always playing, but teams don't
Speaker:really seem to value him because he didn't hit a ton of home runs.
Speaker:I mean, I think he's got, like, he's been playing, like, eight or nine years and
Speaker:has maybe 30 home runs of his career.
Speaker:Um, you know, he's a guy, but he goes out and hits 340 every year.
Speaker:And it's like, well, it's a lot of singles.
Speaker:It's like, well, what's wrong with that?
Speaker:I don't understand what the problem is with a guy getting on base.
Speaker:It's a, it's a very weird thing where he- we've, like... These guys
Speaker:who, I mean, back, back in the day, Luis Arias would have been, like,
Speaker:as revered as Pete Rose, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And now it's just like, yeah, he's really great, but, like, so what?
Speaker:You know, it's, it's, it's... There's nothing wrong with a guy getting
Speaker:a ton of hits and getting on base.
Speaker:That, that's a great thing.
Speaker:Um, so I thoroughly appreciate and understand how important Efrain
Speaker:Morales is and, uh, I'm, I, I think our, fortunately our team does also.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Tony, I mean, the thing about, like, if Tony Gwynn came up into
Speaker:Major League Baseball right now- Yeah ... would he get the love and
Speaker:admiration that he deserves- Right
Speaker:just from being, like, basically impossible to strike out?
Speaker:Maybe that's the biggest thing is he, Tony Gwynn never really struck out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, he struck out more in his career than some guys, you know,
Speaker:do an entire season, which is nuts.
Speaker:Um-
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:F has 13 in 130 at bats.
Speaker:That's kind of unheard of for hitters nowadays.
Speaker:Especially against some damn good pitching, too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's not like we're playing a bum conference here.
Speaker:We got some dudes that are gonna get drafted.
Speaker:And
Speaker:almost all of his at bats have been coming in conference, because he, he
Speaker:really was kind of hurt before that.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:He didn't get to pad it, uh, with, with any of the earlier series- Mm-hmm
Speaker:really.
Speaker:Um, Maverick clicks over to double digit home runs this week.
Speaker:He's got 11 now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:so- He's on pace to be the home run leader for three s- his
Speaker:three seasons he played with us.
Speaker:That's- Which is pretty great.
Speaker:That's, that's pretty phenomenal when you, you end up, you know, leading the team.
Speaker:I think he's, he's not, you know, obviously the, the, the records
Speaker:got reset when, um, Coutney and Garriola hit all those home runs.
Speaker:I'm not, I think the record right now is, like, 43 or something.
Speaker:But Maverick's getting close-ish to, you know, a few years back
Speaker:would've been, like, coming up on the all-time home run record for ODU.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it just tell you, in three years he's forgot... You know,
Speaker:again, it's like, what is it?
Speaker:10, 9 and 11 now.
Speaker:I mean, not, like, the craziest numbers of all time.
Speaker:It just shows you he's, he's been consistently doing it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he's still hitting with a good average at 324.
Speaker:He's getting- Yeah ... on base, doing all those things.
Speaker:Um, no- He's
Speaker:got 1,000 OPS.
Speaker:That's-
Speaker:Nuts
Speaker:... not,
Speaker:not bad.
Speaker:Not bad.
Speaker:Fi- 589 slugging.
Speaker:He's slugging what?
Speaker:Like 100 points higher than anybody else.
Speaker:Yeah, he's got- And Maverick is, yeah
Speaker:a lot of the power ... over 100... Yeah.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:He, Maverick's the dude.
Speaker:And, and the th- and what's really been good for him this year is it w-
Speaker:it wasn't like the last couple years, remember, I mean, we, what'd we pick out?
Speaker:That April 15th was the date where he was just like- ... honestly kind
Speaker:of terrible and then was phenomenal.
Speaker:This year he just started out really good and he's been... He really hasn't ha- um,
Speaker:I don't wanna say it and jinx him, but now we're talking about- Oh, boy ... all
Speaker:these jinxes, now you got me in my head.
Speaker:Uh, but he started out playing well.
Speaker:He's been pretty consistent.
Speaker:Obviously you have a game here or there, but and Maverick has just been...
Speaker:He's, he's a fifth-year senior.
Speaker:Um, and he's exactly what you would expect and hope for from a fifth-year senior.
Speaker:It's a guy who is just, he's a ballplayer.
Speaker:He's been, we've been talking about he's phenomenal on defense.
Speaker:Uh, Ma- and, and you know, and this is one of those cases where it's such
Speaker:a shame that they've ruined the minor leagues because Maverick Stallings
Speaker:should be a professional baseball player.
Speaker:Um- Should
Speaker:be, yes.
Speaker:And the reality is he's not, he's a fifth-year senior.
Speaker:He's probably not gonna get drafted.
Speaker:Um, I would lo- hopefully somebody would sign him.
Speaker:You hope with that kind of power as a second baseman, he plays great
Speaker:second base, somebody will sign him.
Speaker:Maybe somebody will, will draft him.
Speaker:I just, I would be shocked just because of the, not because of him, but because
Speaker:of the way they've done things now.
Speaker:Um, it seems like he might have to go play indie ball.
Speaker:Uh, but Maverick Stallings is a professional baseball player and looks
Speaker:like a professional baseball player, plays and acts like a professional
Speaker:baseball player, and should be one.
Speaker:And it's, it's frustrating to me that that's... It, it's gonna be
Speaker:the kind of thing where you're going to make the game worse.
Speaker:It might, again, it might be 10, 20 years before we realize it, but, uh, they're
Speaker:much worse off because guys like Maverick Stallings don't have a spot to play.
Speaker:I mean, second base is one of those positions where if you can
Speaker:steal some power, you should.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Maverick has the power and he's got the defensive chops.
Speaker:I mean, he made a play pretty deep in the gap on the right side.
Speaker:I thought he blew his knee out.
Speaker:He was limping a little bit when he got up.
Speaker:But to go track that down with a fast runner and make the throw look- Mm-hmm
Speaker:... easy to first, I mean, he, he makes those things look, look super easy.
Speaker:So I, I agree.
Speaker:Someone, somebody in a front office somewhere is gonna go, "You mean the
Speaker:guy that hit 11 bombs his final year of college, like, can play second-
Speaker:Right ... base at a plus level too?" Someone's gotta give him some shot
Speaker:there, uh, just to see what he can do at the single A, double A level.
Speaker:That's... It's, it's surprising 'cause I, I was, you know, I don't, I mean, I
Speaker:think honestly Maverick's a better player, but Zach Morris is a local kid here.
Speaker:He went to VMI, but ended up at Duke his final year.
Speaker:And that guy was an All-American and didn't get signed to play pro.
Speaker:And it just tells you, and he was the same thing, second baseman
Speaker:with some pop and some steals, had a little, actually more speed.
Speaker:And again, it's just like both those guys should be playing professional
Speaker:baseball and I just think that...
Speaker:I, I, I hate to be that downer as we're talking about guys and how great
Speaker:they are, but it's just a, a matter of like- What a, what a travesty of what
Speaker:they've done to minor league baseball.
Speaker:Uh-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:... I hate it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'Cause you're only gonna end up in the, in the end not having as
Speaker:good of players, because you're, you're missing out on that.
Speaker:'Cause sometimes, like, you know, sometimes... The worst case, you sign that
Speaker:guy, you, you sign a guy like Maverick and you send him down to A ball, you know,
Speaker:the rookie level team, and he's there and he's basically, like, the pro already.
Speaker:He's the guy that's there with, you got your high school guys that got
Speaker:drafted maybe that year or the year before, and he's like a pro for them.
Speaker:You got the Dominican kids who are, like, you know, 17, 18, 19 coming up.
Speaker:He's the pro for this.
Speaker:So worst case scenario, you just have, like, a veteran, even if he's only- Yeah
Speaker:... in his fir- first year playing pro ball.
Speaker:Best case is you let that guy play for a few years and he screws
Speaker:around, becomes a prospect, and he's in the big leagues for you.
Speaker:It's like, I, it's just... Yeah.
Speaker:You
Speaker:can't lose.
Speaker:There's- Can't lose signing-
Speaker:There's a-
Speaker:Can't lose
Speaker:... a wide tangent off of what- ... what is actually ODU baseball, but
Speaker:it's still just that it bugs me.
Speaker:As someone who used to, like, really love going to minor league baseball
Speaker:and watching guys develop and, and seeing it, it's, it's a shame.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, it, it's a different world now and I agree with you, it's
Speaker:not necessarily for the better.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but I wanna talk f- Yes ... who you all should root for this weekend.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:'Cause it's a little bit complex.
Speaker:Uh, we- Yeah ... can't do it all ourselves, but we will
Speaker:help each, help ourselves out.
Speaker:I mean, if we sweep- Yes
Speaker:obviously five and six becomes a possibility in terms of seeding.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, we absolutely have to win this series.
Speaker:Like, there's no question about it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Like, we could still backdoor in if we only got one win, but that's
Speaker:gonna be problematic for us.
Speaker:We're focusing on that, like, five, six possibility.
Speaker:So- Yeah
Speaker:uh, obviously
Speaker:there's- I mean, James Madison is bad.
Speaker:We need to go out and win it, which again, we just gotta
Speaker:take the pitch in front of you.
Speaker:But, but again, we're here, we're just talking heads.
Speaker:We can talk about it.
Speaker:They need to go out and sweep this team.
Speaker:They're bad.
Speaker:They should go out and whip them.
Speaker:The only thing they got going for them is they got, like, eight or 10
Speaker:guys that are from around here, uh, from the 757, so they're gonna be,
Speaker:like, jacked up playing at home.
Speaker:But it, honestly, a lot of them don't play necessarily, so it might not
Speaker:even be that big of a bump for them.
Speaker:It'll be some, some feeling good on the bench that mom and dad's
Speaker:cooking is coming out at night.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It, I, I think there is, like, one scenario where they could
Speaker:sneak in as the 10 seed, but for the most part they're done.
Speaker:If they lose one game- Yeah ... they are 100% done.
Speaker:Obviously Georgia Southern is out, and then behind us is Arkansas State
Speaker:and ULM at 11 and 16- Mm ... and Georgia State at 12 and 15.
Speaker:So, uh, presuming that we win at least two games this weekend-
Speaker:Mm ... here, here's what we need.
Speaker:ODU take two or, take two or three.
Speaker:Uh, you need App State to sweep Georgia State.
Speaker:We can't catch App.
Speaker:Uh, the best we can do- Yeah ... is tie them in the standings.
Speaker:They have the tiebreaker.
Speaker:So let's just get Georgia State as one of those teams that's
Speaker:definitely not making the tournament.
Speaker:It's like the thing in curling where, like, you can't get the point but you just
Speaker:knock the other person out of the point.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That's what, that's what we're looking for.
Speaker:A lot of that.
Speaker:A lot of, like, uh, hit the rock out of the, out of the zone.
Speaker:Yes, because if Georgia State's out of the picture, that's one less team
Speaker:we do not have a tiebreaker against.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Uh, y- all the Coastal Carolina gear and all the, the terrible
Speaker:things you told their fans which they deserve this weekend- You
Speaker:gotta go root for Coastal this week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, them sweeping Louisiana is our best bet to get into that 16.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We need Louisiana to lose, uh, on top of this- They're
Speaker:one game up on us, so yeah, we need them to go, go away.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:They, they need to drop down, 'cause I, uh, the tiebreakers get interesting.
Speaker:Uh, Marshall and Texas State, this is the really funky one.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We can't have a sweep either way.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:A sweep either way is bad for us.
Speaker:Texas-
Speaker:These are the two teams tied with us.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Texas State winning that series two to one is ideal.
Speaker:Uh- Mm ... because the f- the first tiebreaker when there's two teams
Speaker:that are tied, because it gets different once you have more teams.
Speaker:Number one is head-to-head.
Speaker:We did not play Texas State this year.
Speaker:That's out the window.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:The number two is what did you do against the highest-rated common opponent,
Speaker:which would be Coastal Carolina.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we actually would have that tiebreaker over Texas State if it's a two-team tie.
Speaker:So Texas State takes- Which is phenomenal
Speaker:two out of three.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:If they could just- Yeah ... split the first two games, then we don't,
Speaker:uh, who cares about the rest?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But really we need Texas State to win that thing.
Speaker:Um, Arkansas State and South Alabama- Would be great if Arkansas State
Speaker:actually got that sweep, 'cause we have the tiebreaker- Yeah ... over
Speaker:them, and it all of a sudden would open up the five seed for us.
Speaker:'Cause if Al- South Alabama's at 15 and 15, we can get to 16 wins, or if we're
Speaker:also 15 and 15, that would be, uh, uh, super helpful to get them out of the way.
Speaker:And then Southern Miss, Georgia Southern, who cares?
Speaker:We can't catch either one, and Georgia Southern's out.
Speaker:I imagine that might be a ugly, ugly series.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I have a feeling that this is where, this is where Coastal's gonna
Speaker:get a little anxious, 'cause y- Southern Miss gets to play Georgia
Speaker:Southern at the end, and we saw Georgia Southern- Mm-hmm ... not very good.
Speaker:Um, and so, you know, a- as, as we said, the Southern Miss fans were enjoying
Speaker:ODU this weekend because, uh, ODU-
Speaker:got, helped get them within one game.
Speaker:Or of course, they went out and did their job too.
Speaker:They went out and swept JMU, uh, which we like, because, you know-
Speaker:Yep ... we like seeing JMU lo- JMU lose.
Speaker:Um, so you know, I, I would say we, we have, we have a friendly relationship
Speaker:with Southern Miss, despite what Sal- Al Sapizzio felt about them.
Speaker:Uh, on the bullpen there.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, they, they, yeah.
Speaker:So there's a rooting interest.
Speaker:That's, uh, good, and if you, maybe we need, maybe we need to, to write
Speaker:this up in, in some short way as like a ODU fans rooting guide, and
Speaker:maybe kind of update it day by day.
Speaker:I'm not the, I don't like to, I hate to put stuff on you to do, but-
Speaker:Oh, that's g- gonna- That might be a
Speaker:fun one
Speaker:gonna do that out on social media this weekend- There we go ... as
Speaker:the results come rolling in.
Speaker:But-
Speaker:Yeah
Speaker:... the biggest and most important one for us getting that six seed is Louisiana losing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So if you forget all the rest, ODU wins, we need Coastal to win.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If those two things happen, we got a lot of possibilities.
Speaker:Uh, but most importantly, we just need to go win.
Speaker:Like JMU- None of
Speaker:it works if you don't go win.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think we've, we've quietly said like You've said it, you know,
Speaker:we're consistently inconsistent.
Speaker:Well, we can go on the road and beat the top team in the league, or we could
Speaker:definitely- Yeah ... lose at home to one of the worst teams in the league.
Speaker:Uh, but hopefully we treat them like Georgia Southern and just,
Speaker:just take care of business.
Speaker:This is the don't get too high, don't get too low.
Speaker:It's like, okay, you went and you won a series at number eight.
Speaker:All right, you still gotta go play number 13 out of 14 here in the conference.
Speaker:Um- Yeah ... so go, go and take care of your business at home.
Speaker:It's your... For some of these guys, last weekend they were
Speaker:getting to play, uh, at home.
Speaker:So go and enjoy it.
Speaker:Uh, you know, take the, get the grads to do all the fun stuff and
Speaker:just go and... Like I said, James, James Madison is not a good team.
Speaker:They haven't been a good team for several years.
Speaker:Frankly, I hope they're never a good team again.
Speaker:That would be great.
Speaker:Um- Good e- good enough at football and basketball, kicking our ass there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's so, I have- Not
Speaker:baseball
Speaker:... hopefully something's, hopefully like, it's like, it's like some kind of
Speaker:thing they can catch and they'll all just be bad at everything soon enough.
Speaker:That, that would be good.
Speaker:God, even their volleyball comes and spanks us too.
Speaker:I mean, they're, they're good at, they're good at a lot of things.
Speaker:And
Speaker:their women's lacrosse team is really damn good too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, I- Yeah, yeah, I saw that too, yeah
Speaker:... I need to go do the math again, but I'm pretty sure that if ODU wins this
Speaker:series, we split the Commonwealth Cup again, or whatever the hell we call it.
Speaker:I got-
Speaker:I think Justice was saying- ... the Royal Rivalry ... we win if we sweep.
Speaker:I think we would win the Royal Ri- Royal, Royal Rivalry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That was hard.
Speaker:Speech impediment trophy, whatever they call
Speaker:it.
Speaker:The Verger.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The
Speaker:Royal Rivalry.
Speaker:But- I'm not Ted Alexander, I can't roll it off like...
Speaker:Ted's just a pro, man.
Speaker:Um- Ted's so good
Speaker:but yeah.
Speaker:Uh, the, I mean, I, I don't particularly care about that thing.
Speaker:Like, it, we gotta beat them in some- Yeah ... other sports first.
Speaker:But- Yeah ... if you, if you need more motivation for some reason to
Speaker:go beat your in-state rival, we've shown up well against Richmond,
Speaker:we've shown up well against- Mm-hmm ... VCU, against Norfolk State.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All these other, you know, you know, in-state teams that are in the- Mm-hmm
Speaker:... the group of five kind of level.
Speaker:We've, we've handled business.
Speaker:We just need to go do it again.
Speaker:'Cause if you win- Yeah ... all three, if you win Thursday,
Speaker:you're in the tournament.
Speaker:If you win all three, you're probably getting, you're probably not playing on
Speaker:Tuesday anymore, and that's what we need.
Speaker:I mean, just get that sixth seed.
Speaker:That's what we need.
Speaker:And so, you know, if you're listening, if you're able to, uh, I
Speaker:know it's a little awkward with the Thursday night and then the Friday.
Speaker:I had to take her off Friday afternoon, which is fine by me
Speaker:because I'm starting my vacation so I can go down to the tournament.
Speaker:Um, and then the Saturday afternoon, no excuse not to be at that one.
Speaker:So get on out there.
Speaker:Uh, you know, if you're able to, hey, if you have to show up a little
Speaker:bit late on Friday, go for it.
Speaker:But get out there.
Speaker:We know it, it doesn't take much to pack the, the outfield stands, so get
Speaker:out there, pack them up and be loud.
Speaker:Make sure they, make sure they, they hear you.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And if you're coming Saturday, 'cause that's the only day I know for sure
Speaker:that I'm coming to now, if you need a ticket, I've got a voucher book with
Speaker:probably 20-something vouchers in it.
Speaker:There you
Speaker:go.
Speaker:Shoot me a message @3GWilliams on Twitter, uh, Hudson Homers account- Homers, yeah
Speaker:Instagram too.
Speaker:Just let us know.
Speaker:I'll give you, happy to give you a, give you a voucher so you can come to
Speaker:the game, enjoy it, cheer on our guys, and hopefully, you know, send them
Speaker:off to Montgomery, uh, looking good.
Speaker:Yeah, that's the hope.
Speaker:We're hoping for the, the good weekend and, and have a nice, uh, nice ride
Speaker:down and, and, uh, play on Wednesday.
Speaker:That's what we want.
Speaker:In J- 'Cause
Speaker:w- we'll talk about that I'm sure next week, but then when you start,
Speaker:if you get to play on Wednesday, you know, you, if you win Wednesday
Speaker:and Thursday, you get Friday off.
Speaker:It's just a much better path.
Speaker:Yep, and I believe that the last three or four teams that have won
Speaker:the Sun Belt have gone that path.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:They've gone top seed, won their first two- Yeah ... cruised on Friday then
Speaker:just beat the brakes off everyone who's out of pitching after that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Pretty hard not to, uh, 'cause otherwise even if you win on Tuesday,
Speaker:then you still gotta win on Wednesday and on Thursday, and then by the time
Speaker:you get that day off, it's still, you're pretty depleted at that point.
Speaker:Yeah, and if you win on Tuesday, you're playing either Coastal or Southern Miss.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Which, yeah- So ... we can beat 'em.
Speaker:Well, we can beat 'em, but still- We
Speaker:can beat 'em.
Speaker:They're harder to beat, but we can beat 'em.
Speaker:We can.
Speaker:We've proven
Speaker:we can.
Speaker:They are.
Speaker:We can beat... That's, and that's the one nice thing they showed.
Speaker:They c- they, we, w- we... I, I, I love weekends like this against Coast 'cause
Speaker:it's that kind of proof of concept.
Speaker:We've been saying all year is like, when these guys are right, they
Speaker:can beat anybody, and they can.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, and that, and a lot of it, it's a lot of... it makes you look back at a lot
Speaker:of things and say, well, the reasons we lost a lot of things were self-inflicted.
Speaker:When we're losing things- Mm-hmm ... it's because the guys were walking
Speaker:everybody and making errors and, and swinging the bad pitches and just
Speaker:shooting themselves in the foot.
Speaker:Um, so you hope it, you know, they're, we forget they're college kids.
Speaker:Sometimes it takes a while to learn.
Speaker:Uh, it takes a while to, to- The things that seem obvious to us as
Speaker:wisened older folks, uh, to them are sometimes a little, little harder to
Speaker:grasp, and it takes them, they, they have to fail, uh, before they see it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We do tend to play better as a team when we don't have classes anymore,
Speaker:so that's also something- That's true ... we look forward to, uh- It's
Speaker:true ... when we can just be ballplayers.
Speaker:But, uh, I think that'll do it for us this week.
Speaker:CB, you got anything else?
Speaker:Final plugs, cat attacks or anything?
Speaker:Go
Speaker:Monarchs.
Speaker:No, okay, I don't know where she is.
Speaker:Who
Speaker:knows where she is.
Speaker:She's
Speaker:always waiting.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Go Monarchs.
Speaker:See y'all this weekend.
Speaker:Go
Speaker:Monarchs.
