S3E5 - Niagara Recap with Cole Lanford
CB, Gary and Coach Finny recap a weekend sweep of Niagara. Cole Lanford joins after a key outing to complete the sweep. He also tells his comeback story from brain surgery a year ago.
Transcript
episode is brought to you by the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation.
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Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Hello, Monarch fans.
Speaker:Welcome to the Hudson Homers podcast.
Speaker:Coming to you after a sweep of Niagara awesome.
Speaker:Weekend out at the ballpark.
Speaker:Coach Finny with us, CB's with us Coach Finny.
Speaker:How you feeling today?
Speaker:I.
Speaker:Tired.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That's a long, uh, second, you know, 12 hour Saturday in the,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:in a row.
Speaker:You get to the ballpark about eight in the morning and leave about eight 30.
Speaker:Um, but good, you know, good long day of baseball.
Speaker:It's nice to, to finish it off with a, with a win in, in the Hudson Homers
Speaker:and we were in the Hudson Blues, so,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Very well.
Speaker:Hey, I was thinking about this, uh, something to add to
Speaker:the show and get feedback on.
Speaker:So we used to always do, when it was the Extra Finish podcast, we
Speaker:would have a song for that week.
Speaker:I know you got the, maybe somehow we can incorporate it, but we based
Speaker:it on, you know, just something pertaining to who we were playing the
Speaker:week coming up or had just played.
Speaker:Um, and so let's put our heads together, like, we gotta backtrack
Speaker:'cause we're two weeks behind.
Speaker:So we had Quinnipiac, which is in Rhode Island.
Speaker:Uh, Rhode Island.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so we gotta come up with something for Quinnipiac that we would've played.
Speaker:And then all
Speaker:the great songs about Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Speaker:You know, Connecticut on my mind,
Speaker:if you can make it
Speaker:in, there's so many from, uh,
Speaker:if you can make it to Hartford, you can make it anywhere.
Speaker:And then, and then this weekend, of course we get Niagara, which is Buffalo.
Speaker:Um, it's gotta be a song about Buffalo.
Speaker:It's like
Speaker:Buffalo Soldier a song, isn't
Speaker:it?
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:That there Bob, Bob Marley.
Speaker:Buffalo.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That Bob.
Speaker:There,
Speaker:there we go.
Speaker:Look at me
Speaker:knowing things.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That we could, we could play that one.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Work.
Speaker:'cause 'cause we just played Niagara.
Speaker:So Buffalo.
Speaker:We could do a, uh, we don't, we good.
Speaker:Charlotte was a band, but I don't know.
Speaker:We want good, we want, we want Bad Charlotte this weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We want bad Charlotte.
Speaker:So I, I was thinking maybe Carolina on my mind.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:yeah, that's a great one.
Speaker:Playing Carolina.
Speaker:I was watching, speaking of Carolina, I was watching the, um, east Carolina,
Speaker:North Carolina game and it was three, three in the fifth and they
Speaker:had a rain delay, so I don't know if they picked that game up or not.
Speaker:Ah.
Speaker:Um, it was a good ball game though.
Speaker:They were battling, I guess Carolina whacked them on Friday and then East
Speaker:Carolina came back one yesterday.
Speaker:Um, yeah, east
Speaker:Carolina's had a tough time on Friday so far this season.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The, um, I was peeking at some of the, I watched a little bit
Speaker:of Charlotte and Wright State.
Speaker:Uh, I was watching Troy a little bit, and some of those, those two, I saw
Speaker:Southern Miss beat Oregon State yesterday, I think, um, out there, which is good.
Speaker:Good win for the league for sure.
Speaker:So, but yeah, so we got, um, I mean, we could go through the games,
Speaker:I guess if you guys want Sure.
Speaker:Week and, uh,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, we get the, we get the sweep.
Speaker:We gotta talk through 'em.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, you know, Wednesday, uh, Manhattan came in and, um, I mean, it was a,
Speaker:it was a pretty good day to play.
Speaker:It was nice and warm and.
Speaker:Um, I thought they had a solid club.
Speaker:I really did.
Speaker:They're older, they's physical kids, and, um, we just, we just, you know, it's
Speaker:early in the year and it's not never an excuse, but we just didn't play well.
Speaker:We didn't pitch, you know, give 'em 14 hits and I think
Speaker:we only had seven or eight.
Speaker:Um, we hit the grant slam to go up and then we just kind of blew up.
Speaker:Um
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, from, from there.
Speaker:And still, you know, our, in our two losses, we've, we've had a chance.
Speaker:We didn't play particularly well in either one of those, but we had
Speaker:a chance to still win those games.
Speaker:Um, you know, a hit here or there.
Speaker:But we, um, you know, I told the guys, you just got beat to
Speaker:those unacceptable performance.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Like, we, we can't play like that.
Speaker:And, um, we got some guys a little bit in between on their
Speaker:swings right now, approach wise.
Speaker:And, you know, when you get like that as a hitter, you're, you
Speaker:know, you're late on the fast ball, you're early on the breaking ball,
Speaker:you're not really on anything.
Speaker:And we talk about like.
Speaker:When you start going that way, you gotta sell out to something like, I'm
Speaker:just gonna hit the first fastball I see and take the breaking balls, or
Speaker:I'm gonna sit on a breaking ball here.
Speaker:You have to be better at looking and being convicted and more
Speaker:intentional in, in your approach.
Speaker:So it, it swings that way.
Speaker:I mean, I think we got a few guys that are in that category and
Speaker:we'll keep working 'em through it.
Speaker:It's a long season of ups and downs and ebbs and flows.
Speaker:So, you know, that put us at, at two and two and.
Speaker:Um, we had a Niagara team that, that, you know, had a bunch of guys back
Speaker:from last year and went and played them, I don't think ever, maybe not
Speaker:since I've been here anyway, but, um, you know, so, and Fridays are good.
Speaker:We knew they had three good arms 'cause they played Texas to state last week
Speaker:and we talked with their coaches and we knew their starters were good.
Speaker:And they had one guy in the pen that was pretty good and we saw 'em
Speaker:both on, uh, you know, on Friday.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Uh, I thought those, those kids all pitched well and, and so did we, you
Speaker:know, um, I thought Ske gave us a good solid start, you know, um, he
Speaker:gave, he gave up the, you know, the couple and then the two run home or
Speaker:to, to get them to, to four to two.
Speaker:And then we had the, you know, Zach, I mean Zach had a big
Speaker:day, uh, for us, obviously, and.
Speaker:With the five rbis.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, two home runs and it's a, it's an odds right?
Speaker:When, when all one guy gets all your rbis, um, unless it's like a two
Speaker:to one game or something like that.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I have five.
Speaker:Um, and I thought our bullpen came in and really pitched well, uh, part Yeah, it
Speaker:is,
Speaker:um, you know, through the seventh and then, and then Davis eight,
Speaker:nine, and, uh, did a good job.
Speaker:So we get a, you know, hard fought five four win and obviously the here that
Speaker:day was, was Zach late with, with the two home runs and five rbis and mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, I don't know.
Speaker:What'd you guys y'all's take away from that Friday game?
Speaker:Yeah, I, I was happy to see Jayce Park come in in another tight spot and
Speaker:get out of it without allowing a run.
Speaker:I think that's really good for him to see him with, with back to back kind of clutch
Speaker:performances in those high leverage spots.
Speaker:Uh, and then Zach's two, two home runs, I think vertically.
Speaker:They combined cleared the fence by about two feet, but they probably would've put
Speaker:a hole in 'em if they had hit the fence.
Speaker:Uh, but yeah, good.
Speaker:We got the little bit of wind blowing out to right center on Friday.
Speaker:Uh, and that was huge.
Speaker:He hit him
Speaker:in almost the
Speaker:exact same.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Zach was definitely the hero from the offensive side.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I knew the first one was gone because the wind was blowing pretty good.
Speaker:And you can kind of see on the trajectory.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I couldn't tell on the second one.
Speaker:I thought the, the, you know, the grand slam, the guy had, it looked
Speaker:like he was gonna have a chance to catch it right at the wall and just
Speaker:snuck over the fence right there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we were happy that it did.
Speaker:Uh, for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No, it, it's, uh, I mean, Zach's impressive.
Speaker:I mean, he's, you know, we know he had a great year last year even with having
Speaker:a, what broken hand and his, a broken bone in his hand and he's come out strong
Speaker:and, and, you know, picking up right where he left off and playing great.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Kellen and Jason, I, I mean obviously had a great start, but
Speaker:Kel and Jay is outta the bullpen.
Speaker:That was, that was, that's what you want.
Speaker:I mean, that's those guys stepping up and showing you like, okay, we're gonna be
Speaker:your guys that you can count on this year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We need some guys to step up with Mark being out for the year with the
Speaker:UCLA or UCL Terror, which is, you know, unfortunate man, kid hadn't
Speaker:had, I can't even remember the last one we had of a current picture.
Speaker:Um, here.
Speaker:It's been so long and he's never had an arm injury.
Speaker:It's like it was really, you know, disheartening.
Speaker:Now he is gonna have the, the repair, uh, the, the, the sleeve.
Speaker:So, uh, we feel like we'll get him back for next year because of that,
Speaker:you know, if he can, he's gonna get it done here really quick, quickly.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, so we should have him and Bains back next year, which
Speaker:will bolster the, the, the pit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hunter was, hunter Bains was telling me he had, um, like something his clavicle,
Speaker:like a piece removed and he said that they told him because when you remove
Speaker:the thing, it actually makes it all better and say he might even, he's
Speaker:like, it might come back through harder.
Speaker:I'm like, how you throw a high five?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He had that thoracic outlet syndrome thing, you know, and that's scary man.
Speaker:'cause you know, yeah.
Speaker:Blood flow matters and, uh, when you, when you get blood clots
Speaker:or things stopped up like that.
Speaker:So he's doing great.
Speaker:He's starting to work out again.
Speaker:He's, he's got, he is, you know, in a real positive mood, but that's
Speaker:two big, you know, hits outta the bullpen for us for the year.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:some other guys are gonna have to step up and, you know, I think this
Speaker:weekend, you know, some guys did, um
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:It was good to see, uh oh.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, JJ Gotti gave us a really good start in the first game
Speaker:of the double header yesterday, much better than his first start.
Speaker:I thought.
Speaker:He, he commanded the, the strike zone.
Speaker:He, he was in the strike zone with all, all of his pitches and, you
Speaker:know, really looked sharp for us.
Speaker:And, you know, unfortunately, I mean, the ending, they got the, the
Speaker:lead on us then, um, you know, we, we, uh, TJ has that ball in center.
Speaker:He just slips in the mud and we field, and yeah, it
Speaker:was, it was pretty,
Speaker:pretty rough out there in some spots.
Speaker:It was rough out there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I soggy.
Speaker:And we were trying not to play too deep.
Speaker:'cause the wind was blowing in yesterday.
Speaker:It was colder and
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:He just, you know, he just lost it.
Speaker:He's played great out there.
Speaker:I told him, don't worry about it.
Speaker:You know, shake it off.
Speaker:And that led to a big inning for them.
Speaker:Um, they, you know, bled a few through there and then the guy
Speaker:hit the big double and, you know, we're kind of down, um, that game.
Speaker:We told the guys when we got to the field, like, this is
Speaker:the day we gotta play offense.
Speaker:I mean, the ball's not going anywhere.
Speaker:Keep it outta the air.
Speaker:We're gonna have to get our bunts down.
Speaker:We're gonna have to run a little bit and, and, you know, put some pressure on them.
Speaker:And I, I think that's exactly what we were able to do.
Speaker:You know, the one inning, uh, we had the big inning.
Speaker:I think we, uh, you know, after we made it four, three with Will's home run,
Speaker:and then did we get five in that inning?
Speaker:Um, the next thing to go up 8, 8, 4, and, and we had three bumps in that inning.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:Yeah, I know, but Bun said, well, because you had no, you kept
Speaker:having no outs, so you, you kept bunting and they didn't get an out.
Speaker:It's like, well keep the same strategies going.
Speaker:Keep, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:So, you know, we kept bunting,
Speaker:which is great to see Nick Felton get one down.
Speaker:I mean, that's not, when you're a freshman, that's not an easy thing to do.
Speaker:I mean, sometimes I look at, you know, some of these guys like, you know, Felton
Speaker:and like, uh, somebody else was, uh, had had trouble bunting one, but it's
Speaker:like, yeah, they might be good at it, but how many times in games have, have
Speaker:Nick Felton actually been asked to bunt?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I mean, guy, one of the better hitters on one of the better
Speaker:high school teams in the country.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Nick is a very good bunner.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He didn't get a couple down earlier.
Speaker:Um, but he got that one down when we needed him to.
Speaker:And so that was, that was great.
Speaker:Um, you know, safety Squeeze scored a run and they, you know, screwed it up.
Speaker:So we got on and that was a big ending for us, man.
Speaker:Uh, it really was.
Speaker:And then I thought, you know.
Speaker:Mann came in and kind of settled things down for us.
Speaker:Huey's really been effective so far this year.
Speaker:And then Bailey Matela threw a, a solid, you know, ninth force.
Speaker:Um, Bailey, Bailey all seems to find a way to keep it, you know, get
Speaker:strikeout, popup or something like that.
Speaker:And then it's two house.
Speaker:Nobody on you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's got the foot.
Speaker:Next thing you know, it's, you know, base loaded and run in.
Speaker:It's like, come on.
Speaker:But
Speaker:Bailey doesn't want anyone to change the channel.
Speaker:Don't ever assume.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:You know, he, yeah.
Speaker:Stay involved.
Speaker:Watch the game.
Speaker:You know, his stuff was good and we said, look man, he is our most experienced guy.
Speaker:He was getting hot the third, the ninth, no matter what.
Speaker:Um, let's go for try to win the series and then we are gonna throw, you know, all the
Speaker:young guys in the second game anyway, so,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:So was that, I was, I was kind of watching as you and Mike were having conversations.
Speaker:Was that a thing that you had kind of said that, you know, if
Speaker:we're in a situation where we can win the second to win the series?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:We'll, we'll put Bailey in, otherwise we'll have him start
Speaker:like we did the week before.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker:I, we just, you know, as we try to, you know, we didn't have Johnson
Speaker:um, because of the longer stint on Wednesday and he would've been able
Speaker:to go if we were playing today, but we weren't gonna push him too much.
Speaker:He threw, you know, it was his longest outing since he's been here.
Speaker:Hubble, you know, we used for, you know, a hitter or two, we knew
Speaker:that that was all we had outta him.
Speaker:Um, also, so it was like, we got to Bailey, he's been in this
Speaker:position before, nobody else has.
Speaker:Let's just bring him in.
Speaker:Let's use him.
Speaker:Whether it's a one run game or three or four, whatever.
Speaker:He is hot.
Speaker:Let's, let's use him.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, I think the worst thing you can do sometimes in Doubleheaders
Speaker:is get guys up and down a bunch.
Speaker:Don't use 'em in the first game and think they're gonna be as effective
Speaker:in the second game after they've been sitting out there for two more hours.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And having to get and look man, bringing guys back.
Speaker:It takes a special kid.
Speaker:I mean, their guy that threw great on Friday outta the pen for them, um, the
Speaker:kid that kind of changed his arm angles
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:Wasn't effective at all yesterday.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, and he came in, in that, in that inning that blew up on him and he
Speaker:couldn't feel bumped at all either.
Speaker:I hurt him, but, uh, it's just back to back days in college.
Speaker:Pitchers, you gotta be a really special guy to be as effective that second time.
Speaker:Um, so, uh, we got that one, you know, and then, um, you know, we got a five
Speaker:15 or whatever start on the cold.
Speaker:It's getting cold and uh, you know, it's just, uh, I thought Ocon will
Speaker:looked good, man, for three innings.
Speaker:His stuff was really good and, you know, we're trying to get
Speaker:him one more and start throwing
Speaker:hard.
Speaker:What's going hard?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, he just made a few mistakes and, you know, walked a guy and, and you know,
Speaker:do a wild pitch and, you know, then, uh, you know, I thought that we were a
Speaker:little unlucky out of the, out of the pen.
Speaker:I, I think, um, I think Yi made a good pitch and some, some, mm-hmm.
Speaker:Something happened where Maverick and Will just got their wires
Speaker:crossed on that ball up the middle.
Speaker:I thought that was gonna be a double play ball, and they were kind of.
Speaker:Looking at each other, you know, like, uh, I you take it, I got it.
Speaker:Like that kind of thing.
Speaker:I mean, that's literally, I I was close.
Speaker:You could hear That's literally what was happening there was You take it.
Speaker:I got it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, we took, we, we'll talk about it tomorrow.
Speaker:I, I, it's one of those things they'll learn from.
Speaker:I, I thought it was Matt's ball.
Speaker:I think he thought it was more over the bag, but it was on
Speaker:his side of the bag and mm-hmm.
Speaker:That would've been a big double play to turn.
Speaker:Um, instead of gave up two, two runs, uh, we go, we go down.
Speaker:You know, that, that was tough.
Speaker:But, um, the guys after that, like, everybody kind of combined
Speaker:to keep us in it, you know?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I mean, I think Dot, who's a senior and then
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Freshman, uh,
Speaker:we had Mad Jack making his college debut after being hurt last year.
Speaker:That was cool.
Speaker:And he had a, had a scoreless inning, and then, yeah, Cole Lanford came in and gave
Speaker:everything he had, which is great to see.
Speaker:Yeah, that was by far.
Speaker:Cole's best performance.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, since he's been here.
Speaker:Um, and it was exactly what we needed.
Speaker:And look, man, it wasn't easy to hit that then.
Speaker:And we had some guys scuffling through it.
Speaker:I didn't like the energy at all and the dugout and so we just took some
Speaker:guys out and put some base guys in trying to get more energy in.
Speaker:And I thought for the most part, those guys did a good job.
Speaker:Brody Connors comes in and gets hit by a pitch and gets a single, uh, Cole
Speaker:McKenna gets his first college hit.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, his first at bat scores a run.
Speaker:Um, and, and so made a couple
Speaker:nice plays in the field too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, he did.
Speaker:So that was good to see.
Speaker:And you know, TJ Aiken had, uh, had a big hit in the first game, had a
Speaker:couple big hits in, in that one, and
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:we took advantage of a couple walks as well.
Speaker:Um, I thought, you know, Tyler Zedalis had a big RBI, so mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, then we come back and, and, and take the lead, um, five four.
Speaker:Jack Slater played great all day, man.
Speaker:Yeah, he really got the shot in the arm.
Speaker:You know, he had three hits I think in game one and, you know mm-hmm.
Speaker:Caught good in game two, just good energy and runs some bases.
Speaker:He is a really good bunner, as you can see.
Speaker:Um, so that Jack had a big day.
Speaker:I was really happy to see that.
Speaker:But, uh, and then, you know, we try to get fr out there in, in the ninth, maybe
Speaker:we got a little greedy, probably probably shouldn't have sent him back out there.
Speaker:Um, and you know, he gets himself in a little, little bit of a, well, he
Speaker:didn't get himself, he got, we got him in, I mean, ground ball, third road, he
Speaker:throws in the dirt and we don't get the routine play there that can't happen.
Speaker:Uh, unfortunately it did.
Speaker:And then they get a, you know, we get a walk and single next we get an out.
Speaker:I can't remember how we got, oh, they tried to bun and they they
Speaker:popped it up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So yeah, they gave us an out, we end up with, um, the left dude.
Speaker:We wanna get him through the left and he walks him.
Speaker:And so we got basically loaded one aisle.
Speaker:We're up, one, we're gonna
Speaker:play.
Speaker:There were a few too there where there were walks.
Speaker:That should have been strikeouts.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There were a couple of
Speaker:those this
Speaker:weekend.
Speaker:There were, there were, this weekend was not the, uh, a great example of umpiring.
Speaker:That's for sun.
Speaker:The second game, Sunday, Saturday was the worst.
Speaker:When did this get so hard?
Speaker:Golly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That just baffles me.
Speaker:We got the TrackMan when
Speaker:both teams are arguing, you know, it's, it's not good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean the, and look man, it went, it went in our favor.
Speaker:But Paul, we got the TrackMan thing on the iPad in the dugout, like we can see,
Speaker:I mean the, the ball that spar walked on.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, he stayed box and I was like, what are you doing man?
Speaker:It's the ball.
Speaker:You know what?
Speaker:And he ball the ball's like literally almost right down the middle.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then I thought Yi threw some good pitches.
Speaker:I thought Uhhuh Lanford threw some good pitches.
Speaker:You know, the guys just strikes him, was just so inconsistent.
Speaker:And game one, game one was worse.
Speaker:Um, some of those pictures were not even close that he was ringing TJ up
Speaker:on, so, uh, I mean, we'll talk to the signer and, you know, these are the
Speaker:things we gotta go through and make sure that we don't, those guys aren't
Speaker:back there in conference game for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But so bring in Charlie Pearce, you know, it's
Speaker:Chuck
Speaker:and he strikes the kid out, you know, I mean, he is got,
Speaker:gets down what, three one?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Throws two, two really good fastballs.
Speaker:Um, and strikes the kid out and then gets popup game over.
Speaker:So great for him.
Speaker:And those are the kinds of things that you have to, those young guys
Speaker:just have to go through, I mean.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And some of them don't work out like, uh, Calvin Ante's first outing.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, a lot of picture and
Speaker:he came out looking fantastic.
Speaker:I mean, he looked, he started out so strong.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it's the walks.
Speaker:It's always the walks.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like
Speaker:it's always the walks.
Speaker:I, Chris the, you gave up a solo home run, then you gave up a
Speaker:single, and then you walked two guys and you gave up a grand slam.
Speaker:Like it's always the walks.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So stop walking guys.
Speaker:You know, and we walked too many in that last thing, but like you guys said,
Speaker:I don't think we walked those guys.
Speaker:If the call strikes early, we strike some guys out.
Speaker:So
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But really, really proud of Charlie.
Speaker:Those, that was a big time situation to put a freshman in, you know, with only his
Speaker:second appearance or whatever, and Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, I think, uh, that says a lot for, for him.
Speaker:Hopefully he can get some confident outta that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It, it felt like Ky and Gotti when they were starting those games on Friday and
Speaker:Saturday, like they were just filling up the zone, like making guys put the
Speaker:ball in play and it paid off for 'em.
Speaker:'cause yeah, look 'em in the fourth, fifth inning and they're in like
Speaker:fifties, sixties pitch count.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Was get an extension.
Speaker:It was good to get KY through six.
Speaker:He came out, you know, and wanted to go out for the sixth
Speaker:and, uh, felt good about it.
Speaker:And then, uh, GA was similar.
Speaker:Um, you know, so I, I think he, he ran outta gas a little bit, you know.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But he was, he was trying to get through that too.
Speaker:Um, but those guys, you know, incrementally stretching
Speaker:them out a little bit.
Speaker:Um, which is good.
Speaker:We'll, we'll need them to, to be able to do that.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:um, yeah.
Speaker:And we, we talked about it a little bit earlier on, but, you know, I was talking
Speaker:to Bo and he wanted me to ask the question 'cause he said it looked like a track
Speaker:meet this weekend with the amount of.
Speaker:Running we were doing on the bases and getting all those stolen bases.
Speaker:And his question was, you know, is this kind of an overall
Speaker:strategy for you this year?
Speaker:Or is this more matchup and weather type dependent?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm just not of the mind that, you know, we're just gonna
Speaker:try to steal a hundred bases.
Speaker:Like we we're not, you know, we're not in that mode from a personnel standpoint.
Speaker:For one.
Speaker:I just believe that when it presents itself Yeah.
Speaker:And the situation looks like you need to or you want to,
Speaker:then you take a shot at it.
Speaker:I think you gotta be careful running, running and running,
Speaker:because you can wear some guys out.
Speaker:I mean, it's a long season.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, a guy gets his hand stepped on, or, I mean, Auburn lost
Speaker:their best hitter for probably two or three weeks, uh, because his
Speaker:ankle trying to steal second base.
Speaker:And they're like, why did we do that?
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:So it needs to matter.
Speaker:And we felt like we needed to yesterday because.
Speaker:The wind was blowing in, the ball wasn't going.
Speaker:You had to manufacture some things.
Speaker:You're gonna have to bun, gonna have to hit and run, gonna have to steal
Speaker:some bases, things of that nature.
Speaker:And we were able to, to do it.
Speaker:So, and, and put the, you know, TJ's running really well.
Speaker:He is getting some skull bases.
Speaker:Um, he's just having such good at bats.
Speaker:I mean, even when he gets out, I think feel like it's, it's good swings.
Speaker:He is on the ball, he is balanced, he's intentional about what he wants to hit.
Speaker:Um, you know, that double down left field line in the first
Speaker:game yesterday was awesome, man.
Speaker:Huge.
Speaker:So
Speaker:whole mental shift from last yearMy.
Speaker:I talked to him a few times about, I talked to him between the games yesterday.
Speaker:I was like, man, this is a lot, a lot better than the other way.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And he is like, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like
Speaker:just having fun playing baseball.
Speaker:I'm so proud of him.
Speaker:And he, he is playing good, you know, good smart baseball in the outfield.
Speaker:He, he made one throw, he probably should have just thrown
Speaker:the ball second yesterday.
Speaker:But he's, he's doing a good job and he is in the middle of most
Speaker:of our, our run scoring rallies, you know, as is Zach late, so.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, we gotta get a couple of these other guys back.
Speaker:Will Morgan swung about really well this weekend too, man, he lined out three
Speaker:or four times, said, you know, he drove the ball, just missed another home run.
Speaker:Uh, hit a home run yesterday.
Speaker:I think he's having very, really good at bats.
Speaker:His hamstring tightened up on him a little bit in that
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:Second game yesterday.
Speaker:So we took him out.
Speaker:Uh, that's why he came out.
Speaker:He's fine.
Speaker:He just said, you know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:One of those things, which I, I,
Speaker:again, I'm kind of there in the dugouts, seemed like you were kind of about
Speaker:to make that move anyway, and that
Speaker:just
Speaker:made it easy for you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I got, you know, some of those guys, I was tired of watching our, uh,
Speaker:give their infielders popup practice.
Speaker:Yeah, there were, I was gonna ask, so that was some, there
Speaker:was a lot of popups this week.
Speaker:And do you think part of that is, like, I was wondering like on Wednesday,
Speaker:you know, the wind's blowing out, was that popups tend to happen,
Speaker:everybody's trying to hit the ball out.
Speaker:Do you think it was?
Speaker:I don't think so.
Speaker:Case of, of guys, I, I think college hitters in general, and we certainly
Speaker:fall into that category at times.
Speaker:Um, just get long and uphill.
Speaker:I mean, cash day's going through that right now, like his swing is so
Speaker:long and uphill, man, he can't get to anything on the inner half and he is
Speaker:around everything on the outer half.
Speaker:And it's gotta change.
Speaker:If he wants to keep playing and be productive, like you have to
Speaker:flatten the swing out, you know?
Speaker:I see.
Speaker:These guys are a product of listening to all this launch angle bullshit.
Speaker:And they're not good enough to hit like that.
Speaker:Like you have to be an animal to hit like that.
Speaker:Um, and so, you know, having a flat swing and being on top of the ball and trying
Speaker:to create back spin and hit line drives is the way to have a good college offense.
Speaker:And I think we're getting some of those guys back in, in that mode.
Speaker:You know, it's just a daily harping on it.
Speaker:Like, you know, if you're just gonna hit a bunch of popups,
Speaker:it's just not competitive.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:and it's funny to be, because that's what the actual launch angle of conversation
Speaker:is, is you hit line drives and if you do it correctly, it creates that launch.
Speaker:You're the guys who go and try to artificially make the launch angle
Speaker:are the ones who are doing it wrong.
Speaker:Correct?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and the, the steeper your launch angle.
Speaker:The harder it has to come off the bat to go anywhere.
Speaker:Anywhere.
Speaker:You know, if you, you're gonna hit the ball 80 miles an hour and
Speaker:have a 35 degree launch angle, man, it's like a popup practice.
Speaker:So yeah, we got, we had a few of those this weekend, but the, um, I think that
Speaker:this team, we are doing a much better job.
Speaker:Early, early, I don't think we faced terrible arms.
Speaker:I don't think we faced great arms.
Speaker:I think we've been, it's been solid, but we're doing a much better job of
Speaker:our, our free bases, the strikeouts ratio, which is something we pointed to.
Speaker:We wanted to fix that.
Speaker:Um, you know, uh, our walks and hit by pitches are close to
Speaker:even with our strikeouts on the season, I believe it's not far.
Speaker:They're not far apart.
Speaker:And we had a 15 strikeout game in there.
Speaker:So, um, other than that, we've been pretty solid, um, on it.
Speaker:So, and we're scoring guys, we're doing a good job of scoring guys for third,
Speaker:we're less than two, two outs overall.
Speaker:So I'm pleased with that.
Speaker:Um, and most of the guys on base percentage outside of a
Speaker:couple has been pretty solid.
Speaker:So I think we've got the makings of being a, a tough minded offensive group and,
Speaker:um, you know, the defense has been solid.
Speaker:It could be much better, but we, we, we, we've been playing solid
Speaker:defense, especially for early and it's cold and all of that.
Speaker:We'll, we'll continue to get better at that, I believe.
Speaker:Yeah, and I mean, you've had to gut out some wins this weekend to get to
Speaker:three and Oh, I mean, you got five to four, eight to five and five to four.
Speaker:I mean, and some of those were comebacks and I feel like as a team
Speaker:you get more out of that than say just whacking somebody 15 to five.
Speaker:Like, you know, you don't really test anything on that.
Speaker:So I feel like you come outta this weekend if nothing else battle tested and three
Speaker:and oh, which is not a bad spot to be.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:there's, there's no doubt those games make you better, man.
Speaker:And you know, I told the guys before, I said, you know, we're
Speaker:not playing anybody crappy.
Speaker:Like, uh, and the in the old days of.
Speaker:I mean, when we were, had some really, really good teams, you know, you just,
Speaker:you'd just beat some of those guys up.
Speaker:But we also, in 21, lost two out of three to Rhode Island, it was just
Speaker:like, yeah, these guys we've been playing, they're just scrappy and solid
Speaker:and you gotta play well to beat 'em.
Speaker:So yeah, those games help you.
Speaker:They help create a little more comfort when you're in those tight
Speaker:situations, which is what you want.
Speaker:Um, all those things that present themselves from a player standpoint
Speaker:and a coaching standpoint.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, you know, I think all of that is, is really important.
Speaker:And, you know, we, um, we gotta go through it too as we're learning more
Speaker:about our guys and who can do what and, you know, who might be a good pinch
Speaker:hitter or who might be a good pin, defensive replacement, all those things.
Speaker:You know, it's a long season.
Speaker:All the roles that you think you're so smart about, you know, when the season
Speaker:starts, uh, it all changes pretty quickly within a few weeks typically.
Speaker:So that's, that's kind of how it goes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well one thing I've been really impressed with you all, maybe just from
Speaker:a strategic standpoint, is the number of Pickoffs you've had this year.
Speaker:You had several against, Quinnipiac had at least two this weekend, and they seem like
Speaker:they're just timing plays and like really just smart defensive minded moves from
Speaker:either the, the dugout or catcher pitcher.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, you know, Ocon was really good at holding.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Such a good athlete.
Speaker:His inside moves good.
Speaker:That's something Ky he's gotta get better at.
Speaker:I think J's pretty good at it.
Speaker:Um, Darren's gotta get better with his, his pickoff stuff.
Speaker:Um, but you need to just pay attention.
Speaker:It's something kind of Mike and H are kind of co-opting that like, um, h can
Speaker:call in to pick off, uh, and Mike can.
Speaker:So it allows us to have a little more flexibility in that.
Speaker:Um, whereas we may see something like too hard to communicate to the pitching
Speaker:coaches thinking about what pitch to call.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Whereas we could call it in on the, on the wristbands.
Speaker:The guys get it.
Speaker:And we've worked harder on picks, um, this year just trying to be better at it.
Speaker:And, uh, I think it's something we'll continue to do.
Speaker:'cause you know, you, you just want guy, you want to have it in their
Speaker:mind that you'll do a time and pick at second, do a glove drop pick at first.
Speaker:Do an inside move.
Speaker:When that's on the scouting report, they gotta talk about it.
Speaker:It's in the hitter's minds, you know, in the base runner's minds.
Speaker:And so it, it can change their aggressiveness a little bit.
Speaker:Um, and so we didn't see
Speaker:step can be a lot, right?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And we didn't see any of that really with them.
Speaker:Like, I thought you could pretty much run, you know, when you
Speaker:had a chance for the most part.
Speaker:Um, because they weren't picking a lot or really, and did pick at all a second.
Speaker:Yeah, they def definitely saved us a couple runs this year, definitely in the
Speaker:Quinnipiac series, so happy to see that.
Speaker:I wanna, I wanna go back to TJ for for just a minute.
Speaker:He's our, our hitter of the week we're gonna talk about later in the episode.
Speaker:But, uh, between games, definitely made a fan's day.
Speaker:I bothered Bryce Jones for a ball before.
Speaker:Uh, my, my wife's cousin's kid was there at the games.
Speaker:First ODU event he's ever been to.
Speaker:He loves baseball, soccer, all the things.
Speaker:And he actually caught pretty much everybody, I think, in a uniform
Speaker:between the games out there.
Speaker:Uh, in the power alley patio.
Speaker:TJ took a picture with him.
Speaker:Uh, you can check it out on our social medias on the Hudson Homers account.
Speaker:But, uh, TJ made his day by just taking a minute, talking to him, taking a
Speaker:knee, getting a picture, and there was no white space left on the baseball.
Speaker:By the time the guys got done, I think they were signing laces there at the end.
Speaker:I,
Speaker:I was sitting there, I was eating my cheeseburger between games.
Speaker:I was, I was looking at, I think Ezio was sitting there.
Speaker:I saw him like really having to work to find a spot on the ball to sign.
Speaker:So just awesome fan experiences out there again this weekend.
Speaker:Um, I've watched most of the games out there in the outfield
Speaker:with them on Friday and Saturday.
Speaker:Uh, really excited that OD fans have picked up the tradition of throwing
Speaker:the other team's home Run balls back.
Speaker:We have one for Manhattan, one on Friday, zero hesitation ball gets picked up, Chuck
Speaker:back towards the, uh, the left field line.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:Love that you fans.
Speaker:The Bleacher bums strike again.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Well, hopefully I don't have to throw too many back, but, you know, and we
Speaker:need talk about this week coming up.
Speaker:I think guys with the, you know, midweek at Norfolk State on Wednesday.
Speaker:Um, and then we have Charlotte come into town, you know, our
Speaker:longtime conference, USA rivals.
Speaker:We've had some great battles with them
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, through the years and then even in the, in the few years here since
Speaker:we left the league and, and they did.
Speaker:Um, and so, you know, we've had some really good series and.
Speaker:You know, they'll all, they'll be, you know, the competition
Speaker:level will go up a notch.
Speaker:You know, we beat 'em down there, two out of three and I'm sure
Speaker:they're wanting to return the favor.
Speaker:So they're always very talented.
Speaker:Um, always have good arms and it'll be a, you know, hard fought, hard fought
Speaker:series force, which gets you closer.
Speaker:And then, you know, the next week we got VCU, midweek and then Yukon in here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Who's, uh, I saw Beat Arizona at least once over the weekend.
Speaker:I don't know what they did today, but uh, I watched a little bit
Speaker:of their Friday, Friday game.
Speaker:They look, look, they've got a good club as always.
Speaker:They always do.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wednesday you got that really long road trip coming up.
Speaker:It's gonna be just like last year.
Speaker:I mean, just the extensive travel.
Speaker:I mean, you gotta use everything you learned in 2025.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:We'll, uh, we'll head, head up three miles down the road and, you
Speaker:know, head over and, and play the Spartans and, I mean, it's a big game
Speaker:obviously, 'cause it's a, you know, two division one schools in the same city.
Speaker:Um, I tell the guys all the time, it's, it is another game.
Speaker:You gotta go play and you can't get too up or down for it.
Speaker:It's, it's easy to say all the people.
Speaker:Oh, it means way more to them than us.
Speaker:I, I just never believed in approaching, you know, any
Speaker:competitive environment like that.
Speaker:I think you show up, you respect your opponent and you better understand that
Speaker:they might play the best game of, of the year right there and you better
Speaker:be ready to play as well to beat 'em.
Speaker:Um, and it's baseball.
Speaker:You gotta throw strikes.
Speaker:Um, we have to do a better job.
Speaker:Some of the guys that pitched last, um, you know, Wednesday have to do a
Speaker:better job of that, this, this time.
Speaker:And, um, we gotta do a better job of showing up and being ready offensively.
Speaker:I, I didn't think we were very good last Wednesday and that was our first
Speaker:midweek game and whatever that means, I don't know, but we, we, we've gotta
Speaker:just lock in and, and have some better focus and we're capable of that.
Speaker:We've shown that so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In, and they've got a new coach, um, ML Morgan who was one of your, a, a player
Speaker:you had when you were coaching VCU, right?
Speaker:I mean that's, yeah.
Speaker:Ml and you've had that experience a lot.
Speaker:You've had a lot of guys that you had, uh, uh, as players
Speaker:that you've coached against.
Speaker:That's, that's, that's I'm old.
Speaker:That's,
Speaker:I
Speaker:appreciate you
Speaker:not saying that.
Speaker:Um, ML played for Coach Keys and I. Yeah, my first couple years
Speaker:at, at VCU and, uh, was a really good left-hand hitting outfielder,
Speaker:could run and had a good approach.
Speaker:He's a good baseball guy, man.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And I'm really happy that he's getting this opportunity.
Speaker:He
Speaker:signed, uh, Blake Morgan to the race too.
Speaker:That's, that
Speaker:was the best thing as a scout, right.
Speaker:Left.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we, we like him for that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's a good person.
Speaker:He is a good man.
Speaker:And I'm, I'm glad that, uh, he's over there running, running things now.
Speaker:So
Speaker:we've also got, um, tag Mongu, uh, his former ou.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Assistant coach with He's a great guy.
Speaker:A lot of baseball experience.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I forgot about that.
Speaker:Tag's.
Speaker:Tag's back there.
Speaker:So that'll be good to see him as well.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:We'll, uh, we'll play over there, uh, I think three o'clock Wednesday.
Speaker:Does that sound about right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:That's correct.
Speaker:And then, um, get going and we've added a game to our schedule in May.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:We were talking about that early May 6th.
Speaker:We're gonna play Richmond.
Speaker:Uh, again at home.
Speaker:So we'll have them three times this year.
Speaker:Once up there and twice.
Speaker:But, uh, yeah,
Speaker:I I love adding another game in May too.
Speaker:'cause you know, that weather's gonna be nice.
Speaker:It's gonna be 6:00 PM start.
Speaker:I mean, that's, yeah, I would recommend getting there early.
Speaker:'cause I think those bleachers are gonna fill up pretty fast.
Speaker:If, uh, this weekend was any vacation with
Speaker:that's time of the year, you'd much rather play than practice too.
Speaker:Yeah, we're coming exams, we leave the next day to go work out at Coastal, so
Speaker:it'll be good to get that, get that, uh, get that game in, uh, Wednesday, may six.
Speaker:So long way to go between here and there.
Speaker:And, uh, yes, before our next podcast.
Speaker:Um, I'll be a granddad, so that's another cool one.
Speaker:Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So any day now.
Speaker:And
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:if they don't have it by Tuesday, I think they're gonna induce.
Speaker:And um,
Speaker:and that's Gray.
Speaker:Chrissy,
Speaker:Greg, little, little boy Gray and Chrissy.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A couple of former Old Dominion athletes.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I've got a baseball player in the field.
Speaker:Hockey player.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:A kid will be a stud man,
Speaker:kid.
Speaker:The kid's gonna just come out athletic, that's for sure.
Speaker:Yeah, I got, I got the glove and everything already waiting for him.
Speaker:Do we know
Speaker:a boy or a girl?
Speaker:Yeah, boy.
Speaker:Little boy.
Speaker:Boy.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:So they picked the name out, but they're not telling
Speaker:anybody yet, so I, that's fine.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I just keep calling him Tyrone.
Speaker:So
Speaker:Tyro and Phil Wood, we'll see if any,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So lot of, lot of good stuff going on and um, that's fantastic.
Speaker:You know, we really appreciate the people that came out, um, you know, enjoyed the
Speaker:games out there and hopefully if this weekend we can play three singles, uh,
Speaker:anyway, from those double headers, man.
Speaker:'cause they're, uh.
Speaker:They, they, they take me a little longer to recover from in the old days, so,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:me too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it was a, it was a great time out there.
Speaker:It was good crowds, love seeing everybody.
Speaker:Uh, again, the, the setup there is awesome.
Speaker:If you haven't been out, get out there this weekend for Charlotte.
Speaker:You're gonna see three great baseball games.
Speaker:Uh, weather, long-term forecast looks good even though it's Florence into the snow
Speaker:falling in my yard right now in Richmond.
Speaker:Um, but it's gonna be, I think, good weather this weekend.
Speaker:Get out there.
Speaker:Uh, 'cause it's, it's a lot of fun in those outfield bleachers.
Speaker:Awesome man.
Speaker:Well guys, thank you.
Speaker:Enjoy the time with, uh, Lanny and uh, really happy for him man.
Speaker:He is been through a lot in the last year, you know, with the brain surgery
Speaker:and, and having to shut down last season.
Speaker:And his story's pretty cool.
Speaker:I think you guys enjoy it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, thank you as always, Finny.
Speaker:We really appreciate the time and um, we will see you here in a couple days.
Speaker:Alright guys, go Monarchs
Speaker:all.
Speaker:Go Monarch.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:The Old Dominion Athletic Foundation are commonly referred to as the
Speaker:OD DA was established in 1964 as a nonprofit organization.
Speaker:The mission of the OD DAF is to raise financial support for ODU Athletics
Speaker:to ensure that our coaches and student athletes have the resources
Speaker:necessary to compete for championships.
Speaker:The ODAF is integral to the success of ODU Athletics and is the channel through
Speaker:which our fans and alumni can partner with our coaches and student athletes for
Speaker:the advancement of the athletics program.
Speaker:Through the generous efforts of our donors loyal fan base and community, the
Speaker:ODU alumni from around the globe, the ODF raises money for student athletic
Speaker:scholarship support and endowments, capital projects, program specific
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Speaker:With questions about how to get involved in one or more of these initiatives,
Speaker:reach out to an OD DA representative give to the ODAF are investments in
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Speaker:OD DA members receive exclusive benefits such as priority points for postseason
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Speaker:Contact the OD A and become a member today.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Love the ODAF ads.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It, it's weird that like the basketball coach that I almost worshiped as a
Speaker:student is doing the voiceover for an ad in the podcast that I'm on now.
Speaker:It's a little surreal sometimes, but it's also to have ling.
Speaker:Blaine's voice somewhere associated with mine for probably no reason to mind.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Anyway, um, yeah, it's great having Finny on chatting through.
Speaker:Uh, I could tell he is definitely a little bit worn out from the double
Speaker:header yesterday in the cold and all that.
Speaker:I'm too.
Speaker:You too.
Speaker:Yeah, I, uh, I had to head out there about the, the fourth inning, but.
Speaker:I was watching the live stats and thought maybe someone was going crazy with
Speaker:all the subs I saw coming in and out.
Speaker:But, uh, there's a reason behind the madness there, which is great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you can see, like I said, I'm kind of, you know, in and around the dugouts
Speaker:and you can see 'em having a kind, you kind of watch Finny wheels spinning
Speaker:here and there a little bit and it's like, yeah, I mean, pretty clear.
Speaker:I, I was wondering if it was just like, look, we're in the second weekend, we got
Speaker:some guys who haven't been in games yet.
Speaker:Let's just, let's get 'em in games.
Speaker:We win this, we win this.
Speaker:We don't, we don't.
Speaker:Um, but then also his, his point of the energy, you know, it really
Speaker:did, it changed some things up.
Speaker:So that was good moves.
Speaker:Kinda surprising once you, once, you know, you say theoretically gave up on the game.
Speaker:I don't think that's what happened at all.
Speaker:But, you know, once you take your, your, your starting guys out, that's
Speaker:when things kind of switched up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's kind of a good balance of like thinking long term for the healthier guys.
Speaker:'cause it did get cold out there.
Speaker:This is your second straight Saturday playing two, uh, and,
Speaker:but then you had some guys come through in the clutch and you end up
Speaker:coming back and winning that game.
Speaker:I think you have guys that maybe a little bit more battle tested that you're
Speaker:gonna be less nervous about putting in those high leverage situations.
Speaker:Um, absolutely.
Speaker:But speaking of high, one of those situations.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:we've got Cole Lanford here with us.
Speaker:Uh, there he is.
Speaker:Two and a third.
Speaker:Hey, what's going on Cole?
Speaker:Hey, man.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Heck of a, not much this weekend.
Speaker:Uh, two and a third, no runs, two hits, strikeout, uh, really
Speaker:came through in the clutch.
Speaker:Ended up getting the win in that third game.
Speaker:But thanks for hopping on with us today, Cole.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Thank you for having me.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well take us through Saturday under, under the lights and, uh,
Speaker:a little bit of chilly there.
Speaker:Uh, take us through kind of your mindset going into that game on Saturday.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:You know, coming in, I think, uh, you know, we just wanted,
Speaker:we wanted to win both.
Speaker:We were looking for a sweep this weekend and, you know, I think,
Speaker:I think we brought everything we needed to sweep, so that was awesome.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:In terms of coming into the game, you know, we sent, uh, coach Marin sent a
Speaker:lot of us in there and, you know, Ryan Moore and Pond told us, you know, uh,
Speaker:stack Zeros and that's what, you know, we've been talking about in our meetings
Speaker:and stuff, you know, for relievers to come in and put up zeros and, you
Speaker:know, that's, that's what we did.
Speaker:So that was awesome to see.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that, and that's great for you.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:I know, you know, I hate to always lead off everything with
Speaker:this, but it's, it's a big deal.
Speaker:You know, you are coming off a brain surgery last year.
Speaker:Um, tell the folks who maybe haven't heard this before, a little bit about what
Speaker:happened with you, you know, what's been happening with you for few years, and then
Speaker:what happened last year with your surgery?
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:So, uh, I was diagnosed at 15 with a cavernous malformation in the,
Speaker:uh, temporal lobe of my brain.
Speaker:And, uh, we found out after a few MRI scans and stuff like that, that I ended
Speaker:up having a brain bleed and that's what was causing, uh, my seizures.
Speaker:So they're not grandma mal seizures?
Speaker:They were, they're called focal aware.
Speaker:So, I mean, I was still aware of most of what was going on, but sometimes
Speaker:I didn't have full control of it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's obviously a really, really difficult thing to go through, especially
Speaker:pitching and you're going through strenuous activity and things like that.
Speaker:But, uh, tell us a little bit about the procedure as much or
Speaker:as little as you wanna share, and then just how you're feeling now.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, so, I mean, last year I, I mean, I think the most vivid one I
Speaker:remember was, uh, I mean, right before I went in against Auburn, I had a seizure
Speaker:at the end of the dugout and then Wow.
Speaker:You know, ran down to the bullpen, got ready and then went and pitched, um.
Speaker:But I mean, yeah, those, those things were, they were something else last year.
Speaker:They kind of came around.
Speaker:I started having a lot, uh, towards like the middle of the season and,
Speaker:you know, I Maren kind of sat down and chatted with me and stuff.
Speaker:And I mean, I, we knew I was having surgery at the end of the year, but,
Speaker:uh, I mean, we tried to see if we could push it up to maybe see how
Speaker:early I could get in there to be fully recovered for the next upcoming fall.
Speaker:So last fall.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And, um, we got in kind of, my dad had a buddy in Virginia
Speaker:Beach that could get us in with a children's neurologist at Sentara.
Speaker:And we got in with there and, you know, the stack of papers
Speaker:for my case is like this stick.
Speaker:And, you know, he, he recommended us to Dr. Elias at Virginia.
Speaker:Uh, Virginia University and we went on the same day that we played
Speaker:Virginia in a midweek and, uh, got my consultation and there they scheduled
Speaker:it for two weeks out from that day.
Speaker:So I watched the guys play Virginia that day and then went home and shaved my head
Speaker:and shaved all my beard and stuff, and then got ready for surgery in two weeks.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, I remember seeing you at the Norfolk State game last year,
Speaker:and I was asking how you're doing?
Speaker:You're like, oh, not so good.
Speaker:And I was like, oh, you, you, you, you're hurt.
Speaker:And, uh, you're like, yeah, I'm a little hurt.
Speaker:And I was like, oh, something wrong with your brain.
Speaker:I was just, I was joking.
Speaker:You're like, no.
Speaker:Yeah, actually, it's like, well, I'm, I'm the asshole.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:No, I sounded understandable.
Speaker:Yeah, no, that's, I mean, it's a great, you, I mean, it is impressive.
Speaker:Like I was actually, I pulled up your, your stats from last year.
Speaker:I mean, you got, you pitched at Georgia Tech, you pitched at ECU, pitched
Speaker:at Auburn, pitched at Biloxi against Mississippi State, pitched Southern miss.
Speaker:I mean, you got, you got into some games against some big time teams.
Speaker:Um, while all this is going on, and, you know, I mean, the numbers
Speaker:aren't like amazing, but again, you know, you had some good outings and
Speaker:considering everything was happening and that's, that's a pretty big deal.
Speaker:That's, that's impressive and strange.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That week in Mississippi was a rough week.
Speaker:That was
Speaker:it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, I mean, after everything's went on, I mean, I've recovered pretty
Speaker:well and I mean, I can't complain.
Speaker:I came back pretty fairly quickly.
Speaker:The surgeon thought I was gonna be out a little bit longer, but I was able
Speaker:to start, like they started me off, I think I was lifting milk jugs and
Speaker:water bottles and stuff like that.
Speaker:And then, I mean, I got, I got bored doing that.
Speaker:I mean, so I started like doing, you know, body weight squats, but I could
Speaker:definitely tell, I mean, he told me after surgery, I mean I'd have like cranial
Speaker:pressure, cranial pressure and stuff like that, um, which is like, you know, when
Speaker:you bend over and you get lightheaded
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:Stuff like that.
Speaker:I mean, I could, I could tell that, uh, when I got back to school and I was
Speaker:lifting weights with Cade in the summer, I think that was like a month and a half
Speaker:post my surgery and, you know, I could tell we had to take it slow in there.
Speaker:I mean, 'cause I get dizzy at some points, but.
Speaker:Yeah, that was all part of the recovery.
Speaker:So how, now that, you know, you're, I mean, you're not, not a year,
Speaker:but you're getting closer to a year, how is it all feeling now?
Speaker:Uh, it's tremendous.
Speaker:I mean, I don't have to, I don't have to worry about having
Speaker:a seizure anymore, you know?
Speaker:On the plane.
Speaker:On the bus
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Was where some of the spots last year.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:But it is, it's a good feeling to not have to, you know,
Speaker:worry about having one anymore.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I know I ran into your parents after, uh, the game last Friday
Speaker:that your, the first game of the season that you got in and great.
Speaker:Um, and they were saying it's like it's the first time in six years having worried
Speaker:about him having a seizure on the mound.
Speaker:I mean, that's just gotta be such a wonderful feeling
Speaker:for them and for everyone.
Speaker:Yeah, it is.
Speaker:I mean, and especially I think those first three, I mean, we didn't, we knew
Speaker:what it was, but I wasn't like openly, you know, telling everyone I knew like,
Speaker:yeah, it's epilepsy and stuff like that.
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:I imagine that was even more of a scary thing last year given
Speaker:that we were on the road so much.
Speaker:Like you said, we're in Atlanta, we're in Mississippi, you're, you're far from home.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so you're just really happy to see the outcome that's come Now, I
Speaker:know ODU fans are happy, I'm sure teammates, coaches, all of that.
Speaker:Just to see where you're now, where, I mean, you're, you're key arm
Speaker:outta the bullpen with two great appearances so far in this early season.
Speaker:Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker:I mean, I absolutely shout out, uh, Charlie Pearce for coming
Speaker:in and shutting that game down.
Speaker:That was, that was tremendous.
Speaker:It was fun to come in and watch him pitch in that, you know, high
Speaker:leverage situation, especially to get the outcome we had.
Speaker:So it was awesome.
Speaker:Yeah, Chuck was, Chuck was nails, uh, coming in after you there.
Speaker:But I mean, you, you got it to that point.
Speaker:Kept it, you know, within reach where we could have that comeback.
Speaker:Uh, do you feel any different when you're on the Mount now?
Speaker:Is there like a boost of confidence there or just, Hey, I, I had a
Speaker:little bit of time downtime with my arm and feeling great nowadays.
Speaker:Uh, I mean, I don't really notice it when I go out there.
Speaker:I mean, just 'cause I don't know, I feel like I'm in kind of like a world
Speaker:of my own when I'm out on the mound.
Speaker:I mean, I don't know, I just feel excited when I get out there.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, I mean, not to have to worry about it all.
Speaker:It's a good feel.
Speaker:Well, to get to more normal baseball talk and not mm-hmm.
Speaker:Have to make everything about that injury.
Speaker:Uh, talk to us a little about, you know, how you ended up at ODU, you, so you
Speaker:played at Pro Five Academy, was it just your senior year that you played there?
Speaker:Yeah, I, I just played there, uh, my LA my last year of high school.
Speaker:Senior
Speaker:year?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, well, I, I, I, I, maybe even before the od, but tell, tell us about that.
Speaker:So that's, that's kind of the new thing now, is the baseball academies.
Speaker:I think I, I think I was counting, we had about eight or nine guys
Speaker:on, on our team that played at 'em.
Speaker:Um, I think Sulpizio was at Pro Five the year before you were there.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, so tell us a little about, I mean, and another question, you
Speaker:know, that's down in Raleigh.
Speaker:Were you close enough that you weren't able to like, still live
Speaker:at home and go, or did you stay actually at the, at the place?
Speaker:Uh, yeah, so I stayed at home and it was just like, uh, it was a 35
Speaker:minute commute, like every morning.
Speaker:Uh, practice started at 9:00 AM and then,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:we went and drove to school.
Speaker:I think school was only like 20 minutes from the field.
Speaker:So that was kind of our day.
Speaker:We went to the field at nine, practiced until 1130, and then went
Speaker:to school at 12 until, you know, whenever our class schedule was done.
Speaker:Um, do
Speaker:you feel like 12.
Speaker:Uh, I mean, I'd say Pro five definitely got me ready for college.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I mean, it's, it's pretty like copy and paste somewhat of the day that,
Speaker:you know, you'd have, I mean, I, I know like in the spring we had a 12
Speaker:hour bus ride to Orlando and, you know, we're having to do, we're having
Speaker:to do school on the bus and stuff.
Speaker:And I mean, that was absolutely what we had to do last year.
Speaker:I mean, school in the airport.
Speaker:Um, but I mean, yeah, I, I loved Pro Five a lot.
Speaker:I think it got me better.
Speaker:I mean, it's baseball every single day just like it is here.
Speaker:So, I mean, I think that's only something a baseball player could dream of as well.
Speaker:Going to a school is just pretty much just baseball.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You're definitely seeing a lot.
Speaker:I was actually looking today, we have a few kids at a couple of 'em
Speaker:that are, they're playing later.
Speaker:I'm trying to figure out how I can go down.
Speaker:We got about four of our commits, uh, that would be playing in those games, but, uh.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I mean, I, I know like you said, you got to play baseball all the
Speaker:time, and you played good competition.
Speaker:I, I, I saw you pitch a game here in Virginia Beach against Bryant
Speaker:Stratton, the local junior college.
Speaker:I mean, do you feel like not in addition to just playing every day, was a level
Speaker:of competition a step up from what you've been seeing in high school?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I mean, it's a, it's a totally different, uh, it's a different
Speaker:caliber of high school ball.
Speaker:I mean, especially, I don't think, uh, pro Five is in the NAA conference anymore, but
Speaker:I mean, we were playing against like TNXL who was like pretty much top to bottom.
Speaker:They were committed to D one schools.
Speaker:Um, I'm trying to think, uh, we played Efrain Morales too, you know, uh,
Speaker:seven,
Speaker:one of our guys,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Efrain lives only like five minutes from me at home too, so.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:We're, we're pretty tight.
Speaker:Um, I mean, their school was, their school was stacked.
Speaker:Maddox went there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, I mean, the level of con the hitters were extremely good.
Speaker:The pitching was good.
Speaker:I mean, it was, it was awesome.
Speaker:Kinda that wave of the future, right?
Speaker:I mean that's, that's the new, I think they, yeah, I think there was one
Speaker:in Virginia Beach just started up.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean that's
Speaker:this, this week I think.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I think that wave of prep school, not e not just in baseball, but
Speaker:I think people are looking to, you know, get ready for the next level earlier.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, tell us a little bit about, I guess the, the recruiting process that,
Speaker:that got you here and you know, what you thought if you came on an official visit.
Speaker:What'd you think when you got here?
Speaker:Uh, yeah, I did an unofficial and an official, um, so I think Marin
Speaker:saw me at the futures games for PBR.
Speaker:Um, and we started talking and, you know, I started to really like it.
Speaker:And, you know, I cut my, like four schools I wanted, I cut it down and, you know,
Speaker:I came and toured here and, you know, I told my mom, like, as soon as I stepped
Speaker:on the field, I got this feeling like, you know, this is where I want to be at.
Speaker:And it was, it was a weird feeling.
Speaker:And, you know, we went to lunch, I talked it over with, you know,
Speaker:my mom and my dad and I ended up committing that day in Finny office.
Speaker:So it was pretty cool.
Speaker:Yeah, it was definitely a cool experience.
Speaker:And then had to wait like a year to get to play a real game in that field.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's fun.
Speaker:But I mean, I, I loved it as soon as I came here, so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, what was that experience like last weekend when you got your first
Speaker:appearance Actually at the Budd?
Speaker:I mean, I, I think Jay's talked about this too.
Speaker:It felt like we were in a scrimmage almost.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, we've been scrimmaging there for so long and I mean, to actually see a
Speaker:different opponent in the box and, you know, we're cheering against someone else.
Speaker:I mean, and playing against someone else who's was nuts.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What, uh, what, what have been your favorite things about being,
Speaker:because you know, you're from North Carolina, you know, it's, you're a
Speaker:little smaller, but you're outside of Raleigh, so it's not, not so
Speaker:small that Raleigh's a very big city.
Speaker:So how do you, what do you liking about, uh, old, old Dominion and Norfolk?
Speaker:What, what are some of your favorite things?
Speaker:Um, well, I mean, obviously living in the townhouse across from the field.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That was, yeah.
Speaker:This is amazing.
Speaker:I mean, not being in the dorm is pretty cool.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:who are your roommates?
Speaker:Uh, hunter, Chris and Brody.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's pretty good.
Speaker:That's pretty solid.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Good house.
Speaker:Good house.
Speaker:Solid house.
Speaker:Solid.
Speaker:Good group of guys.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Um, but I mean, I love, I don't know, I love being here.
Speaker:I love the city and everything, you know, everything's close to campus and I love
Speaker:fishing, so I go to, in the fall, I go to beach a lot and fish off the surf.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:oh, nice.
Speaker:That's one of, that's one of the fun things that I do.
Speaker:So what's
Speaker:been your best catch so far, being down
Speaker:there at the beach?
Speaker:Um, I've caught a few good blue fish this last fall.
Speaker:I didn't catch any red fish running at all, so I struck out there,
Speaker:but I think I probably caught like a five pound blue fish.
Speaker:That was a pretty good catch.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You're, you're a big hunter too, right?
Speaker:Uh, yeah, when I can.
Speaker:I mean, I just
Speaker:mm-hmm.
Speaker:Not
Speaker:here, Rob.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Not nor There's no time up here now.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:okay.
Speaker:You gotta find you some spaces down in like Franklin or Sussex
Speaker:a little farther out in the
Speaker:middle
Speaker:of nowhere.
Speaker:We've in, uh, in Danville before, so that's a little fall from here.
Speaker:But Danville and Blairs is where we hunted at when I was younger.
Speaker:There's, yeah, Danville, um, used to have a, a Braves minor league team, so
Speaker:I would go out there once or twice a year, watch 'em, and my, my directions
Speaker:for going to Danville is just get on 58, drive East until you wanna kill
Speaker:yourself, and then drop about an hour more than you're in Danville.
Speaker:That's the way it's, it's, yeah.
Speaker:Just so long going dead east.
Speaker:Now for you, it's just going straight up.
Speaker:It's actually pretty close.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, we always ask the question, you know, what are the bullpen hijinks?
Speaker:This year we've, we've gotten a number of different answers.
Speaker:We've had, uh, we've had Jay Song, we've had Lenon, we've had
Speaker:a bunch of different guys on.
Speaker:But, uh, any, any new shenanigans develop over the weekend out there in the bullpen.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:I mean, not really that I can think of.
Speaker:I mean, we play hacky sack every day.
Speaker:I mean, that's kind of, that's the thing.
Speaker:Um, but I mean, I don't think, I don't think anything really crazy
Speaker:went on in the bullpen this weekend.
Speaker:Still
Speaker:during the season?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We were fired up when we took the lead though.
Speaker:Or, or started, you know, clawing back at it.
Speaker:Everyone in there was getting hyped.
Speaker:So
Speaker:Now are you a big, uh, yelling guy for the bench?
Speaker:Sometimes I can't exactly tell 'cause it's, you know,
Speaker:just a lot of guys yelling.
Speaker:Are you a big, uh, shouting, yelling guy on the bench?
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I yell every now and then.
Speaker:Uh, for sure.
Speaker:I mean, I don't know.
Speaker:I think every, I mean, the pitchers are the pitchers down the end of the dugout.
Speaker:I mean, we get fired up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You guys gotta bring the energy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The hitter is all, you know, doing their hitter nerd thing.
Speaker:Yeah, the gotta gotta bring the energy.
Speaker:Yeah, but I mean, you know, I'm sure you saw us standing on the,
Speaker:on the bleacher the whole time.
Speaker:When it gets tight, we get up on the top step too, and it's
Speaker:great.
Speaker:That's little high there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's one thing that the, the, the new, the bench setup where like there's
Speaker:like the, the second bench in front that's really making it interesting.
Speaker:You feel a little more on top of the game, especially you guys are doing that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, and I think what we yell, uh, what we yell all the time, like when,
Speaker:you know, a crazy play that not normally happens in a baseball game, you know, it's
Speaker:welcome to the bud and stuff like that.
Speaker:Yes, I
Speaker:heard that several times yesterday.
Speaker:Yeah, that's a good
Speaker:one.
Speaker:Yeah, it was funny.
Speaker:It was before the first game on Saturday, you know, getting ready for
Speaker:first pitch and I, I saw Niagara, a bunch of their guys pop up on that
Speaker:second level and I heard our dog.
Speaker:I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And I saw just a ton of heads pop up.
Speaker:Is that like a competition to get the, the better head count
Speaker:on the second level there?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I mean, I've just noticed in every tight game we've had, it is every
Speaker:towards the end, everyone's up on the top, the, the top, top of the bench.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, it's funny,
Speaker:I mean, it seemed like there was kind of a friendly back and forth
Speaker:with Niagara at the benches.
Speaker:It's like you guys were, were both, I actually, the umpires got upset
Speaker:about it, but it, like, at the end of the day, y'all were all both
Speaker:just having fun, getting rowdy.
Speaker:Does it feel that way?
Speaker:Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker:I mean, we were, I mean, we were getting after it was a good competition.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Well, how much are you all hearing in the dugout from those outfield bleachers?
Speaker:Because I feel like I was kind of screaming into the void at some
Speaker:points there on Friday and Saturday.
Speaker:I mean, I can definitely hear, uh, I can definitely hear y'all out there for sure.
Speaker:I mean, maybe not, maybe not all the yelling, but, uh, you know, when a big
Speaker:hit happens, I mean, it's, it's awesome to see everyone go nuts out there.
Speaker:I heard a Niagara fan very clearly at one point, 'cause the
Speaker:umpire was doing such a bad job.
Speaker:It was like, figure it out.
Speaker:I was like, yeah, I'm, I'm with you man.
Speaker:You're, you're correct.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Early in the first game on Saturday, I felt like Scotty Young was sitting next
Speaker:to me when he turned and said something to TJ and center, like two outs or whatever.
Speaker:Just the way the sound bounces off those bleachers is kind of funny.
Speaker:You feel like you're in the outfield conversations there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:I know my parents like it out there too.
Speaker:They told me it's, yeah.
Speaker:Pretty awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Well, cool.
Speaker:Well, Cole, we appreciate you hopping on with us here.
Speaker:Uh, especially on a Sunday after a double header.
Speaker:Uh, you know, you were gonna get some rest, but really appreciate you coming on.
Speaker:We're just really happy for you and to see you come back and be successful after
Speaker:everything you've been through, man.
Speaker:It's, it's inspiring for a lot of people out there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker:We appreciate it.
Speaker:Thanks so much.
Speaker:Excited
Speaker:for you, man.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:It's a good kid, man.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I, I had a chance to, to see him pitch there.
Speaker:It was great.
Speaker:He, pro five came and played the game at Bryan Stratton, so I got to see him
Speaker:make a start, um, right here in Virginia Beach in our own backyard, and got to
Speaker:talk to him a little bit, and he and his parent, they're just great people again.
Speaker:You know, we, we talked about they were TJ and the whole team.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Taking care of your, what was it, cousins, wife's kids, whatever,
Speaker:wife's cousins,
Speaker:whatever.
Speaker:I'm
Speaker:sure there's a
Speaker:shorter version for that.
Speaker:I'm just not smart enough
Speaker:to know it.
Speaker:So sorry.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Sounds like a nephew to me.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that's basically what I call, so that was, that's that's what I,
Speaker:yeah, it's a nephew to me, but Yeah.
Speaker:But I mean, it's just again, what it is, just really just wonderful
Speaker:people and Yeah, it is, it, it's, you wanna tell the story, but at the same
Speaker:time it's like, Hey man, like this.
Speaker:He's, he's his own great guy and he is, he is got his own
Speaker:talent and, you know, uh, yeah.
Speaker:We don't wanna make him, he's not the o only the story about the brain injury,
Speaker:but it is, it is important to talk about.
Speaker:It's, it's a big deal.
Speaker:Mean through that.
Speaker:His, his performance in that second game Saturday is a key reason why we won.
Speaker:Like, 'cause if that game gets a little more outta hand, you're, you're definitely
Speaker:throwing in the towel at that point and just kind of going through the motions.
Speaker:So kept the Senate, there
Speaker:was a lot of stacking zeros for sure.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I love that.
Speaker:Um, that's, I love that, that comment.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:That's, that's gonna, that may need to become a t-shirt at
Speaker:some point here in the future.
Speaker:Stack, stack od stack.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, let's, uh, let's stack some, not zeroes.
Speaker:They were heroes.
Speaker:Oh, look at that.
Speaker:Uh, some of our, our, our players of the week, uh, so these are our
Speaker:guys who have not won it this year because it's only the second week.
Speaker:Nobody's hardly won it.
Speaker:Um, so JJ Gatti, he had a really good start.
Speaker:Came, I had a nice, good long conversation with him before the
Speaker:game, uh, Friday, talking about just being too amped up the week before.
Speaker:And, um, you know, talking about, you know, he had conversations all week with
Speaker:mayor and the coaches about, you know, how to approach things in a better way.
Speaker:And, and, uh, when he came off, uh, in the dugout, he, I, I would, came up to him.
Speaker:He is like, Hey, it's just exactly what we talked about yesterday.
Speaker:I was like, yeah, sure was.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so he, he ended up with what, five and two thirds innings, uh, no runs.
Speaker:Four hits, one walk, three strikeouts.
Speaker:So again, I mean, only three strikeouts.
Speaker:You know, again, not like the most, like, it wasn't like Ske last week
Speaker:with like nine strikeouts dominant, but I mean, it was just doing exactly
Speaker:what you gotta do to win a ball game.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:lot of soft
Speaker:contact
Speaker:and then,
Speaker:uh,
Speaker:yeah, yeah, exactly what's going on.
Speaker:Fill
Speaker:in his own, getting soft contact.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:he looked great.
Speaker:And the awesome shot that some photographer for CB
Speaker:Sports Photography got.
Speaker:So it's a great shot at jj.
Speaker:I mean, you're gonna see that everywhere.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All,
Speaker:all season
Speaker:long.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's a, that, and, and as I'm making these, you, this is like
Speaker:our baseball card design this year.
Speaker:And some of these may not be the final fixtures, but this might
Speaker:be the final baseball card.
Speaker:'cause that's pretty disgusting.
Speaker:Um, gonna be tough to
Speaker:top that one.
Speaker:Yeah, that's, it's a picture for him.
Speaker:Just pitching isn't gonna be as good as that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, but.
Speaker:Kellen had another, Kellen was also up for, I think after his performance Friday.
Speaker:I think we were texting each other.
Speaker:Well, wow.
Speaker:Zach and Kellen are all, are trying to be repeats again.
Speaker:Um, yeah, Kellen, two innings, uh, scoreless, uh, one hit, no
Speaker:walks, do strikeouts, got the save.
Speaker:Cole Lanford was right up there in our, our conversation.
Speaker:Two and a third innings, no runs, two hits, one walk strikeout.
Speaker:Uh, and Connor Schumann.
Speaker:Connor Schumann pitched in two games, uh, two and a third,
Speaker:uh, scoreless, only two hits.
Speaker:I mean, that's again, for a guy who in four years has like 11 career innings.
Speaker:I mean, he's coming out and, and doing phenomenal.
Speaker:I, uh, I saw Con Connor, uh, throwing from a different angle from the outfield.
Speaker:And let me tell you, I'm so glad that I'm not a lefty batter facing him.
Speaker:'cause that is absolutely terrifying the way he drops down to that side.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, he was talking about a weapon.
Speaker:I mean, uh, if he continues this and Jayce continues this, we got
Speaker:a bunch of high leverage arms, uh, that can get some good matchups.
Speaker:'cause shoot like that.
Speaker:He's just filthy man.
Speaker:Filthy.
Speaker:And that's what you need.
Speaker:I say, I say it every year, that the way you're gonna go as far
Speaker:as your pitching will take you.
Speaker:Um, you know, you, you see suddenly missed it a couple times where they had
Speaker:phenomenal pitching and kind of a mediocre hitting and they, they, and they win,
Speaker:won the conference a few times like that.
Speaker:Uh, so you can do it.
Speaker:Uh, but somebody who does not have mediocre hitting this week,
Speaker:uh, TJ Aiken had a great week.
Speaker:He was seven for 15, had a double four rbis, two walks, and four stolen bases.
Speaker:I was actually very surprised that he had four steel.
Speaker:I didn't, he had three in the game on Wednesday.
Speaker:Um, which again, like I think we were talking about, you know, I don't
Speaker:think it's a lot of like this running.
Speaker:I think it's just situational.
Speaker:It's like, mm-hmm.
Speaker:We can take a bag here, I can take it off this catcher.
Speaker:I can take it off this pitcher.
Speaker:Uh, just making it happen.
Speaker:But yeah, tj, I mean, again, his, his whole perspective body language like
Speaker:mentality is a complete 180 this year.
Speaker:Like he's, you know, we, I talked to him a few times and he talked about just.
Speaker:Just play some baseball, be athletic and have fun.
Speaker:And, and you can see it, the, the joy he is having being out there,
Speaker:it's, it's really fun to watch.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He seems much more confident and just much more sure of himself.
Speaker:I mean, I know he had the, there was a, the error in center field, but
Speaker:sitting in those outfield stands, if you looked at that dirt every
Speaker:time the ball hit it, it looked like someone had hit a nine iron into it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, it's nasty.
Speaker:And he left a, you know, a two foot deep divot where he was
Speaker:trying to go for that ball.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But a little redemption.
Speaker:He hits the two run double.
Speaker:That proves to be the game winner.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Uh, it's a big, big, uh, props to tj.
Speaker:Just so happy to see him develop over the couple years here.
Speaker:Phenomenal.
Speaker:He's in that wave room too.
Speaker:He,
Speaker:yes, he is definitely, he's still skinny.
Speaker:He's still skinny as could be, but he is not as, as skinny as he was.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's got, uh, because,
Speaker:and we said that from day one, I mean, he is, he is a big kid.
Speaker:He, he's got a big lanky frame and he can throw on some weight and I'm sure, I'm
Speaker:sure, you know, get this year and another year and he'll, he'll really be something.
Speaker:Um, but couple other guys, obviously Zach Leite, um, he had the, you know, the
Speaker:two homer including the Grand Slam game.
Speaker:So he was five for 16 on the weekend or during the week.
Speaker:Uh, two Homers, seven rbis had five in the one game.
Speaker:Uh, will Johnson was five, five for 16, also two home runs,
Speaker:three rbis had a sacrifice.
Speaker:Uh, Jack Slater was, uh, four for nine, uh, on the week, which is great.
Speaker:I mean, that's, I I have to look it up.
Speaker:He, I don't know if he had four hits last season, the last couple, like he that
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Great for him.
Speaker:Um, and Tyler Zedalis?
Speaker:Oh, sorry.
Speaker:He was hitting the two hole,
Speaker:two hole,
Speaker:uh,
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:for, for on Saturday.
Speaker:Uh, which obviously, you know, he had been hitting further down the
Speaker:lineup, so got him some more bats and it, it paid off in a big way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that, that's, it's big.
Speaker:And you know, and Jack's a guy, you know, he is a coach's son
Speaker:and he's, he is a smart guy.
Speaker:He is a, a fifth year senior.
Speaker:He, he knows what he's doing at this point.
Speaker:Um, and then also Tyler Zedalis, I mean obviously had that, that
Speaker:grand slam on, um, Wednesday.
Speaker:Uh, he was three for nine, had had the home run five rbis and had a sacrifice.
Speaker:So, so again, some, some very, very good hitting pitching performances, you know.
Speaker:All around.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I will plug, uh, our Instagram that I butcher your photos on,
Speaker:uh, the Hudson Homer account.
Speaker:You got a great shot of Tyler Zedalis hitting that grand Slam, like you can see
Speaker:the ball on the back compressing on that.
Speaker:So, uh, go check out, make sure you're following along for those social
Speaker:media, uh, those social media accounts.
Speaker:'cause CB's got some great content there going from the game.
Speaker:We try to get you a little more than what you're getting from the live stats.
Speaker:Uh, but man, that was, I think this week you took potentially
Speaker:your two shots of the year already.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Zedalis.
Speaker:I mean, that's another one where it's like, that's
Speaker:probably gonna be his baseball.
Speaker:I mean, that's, that's one that's, that's what you want.
Speaker:You want that ball on bat.
Speaker:I mean, you can see instead of the ball deforming, which you
Speaker:get something that the bat was actually deforming a little bit.
Speaker:Uh, because you could see when you, when you close it, you
Speaker:can really see how it kind of.
Speaker:Worn out that, that part of the bat was because that's clearly where
Speaker:they're trying to hit the ball.
Speaker:So yeah, I mean got, you know, getting fortunate to get some, some, some great
Speaker:shots and the sun came out, um, Friday and Saturday for a bit, which was surprising.
Speaker:I didn't think it was gonna happen at all.
Speaker:So we able to get some good shots off of that.
Speaker:So it's, uh, it's nice man.
Speaker:It's, it's, it's fun.
Speaker:It's what i's part of why I, it keeps me engaged in the game.
Speaker:Gives me a, um.
Speaker:A purpose to add value for people, you know, the players and their families
Speaker:and friends and all get to enjoy it.
Speaker:Ben Tanton might be the most popular guy in America, or he's like, literally
Speaker:all his picture will get shared by like 50 different people, like, so.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:I was asking, like, I was like, Ben, were we the prom king?
Speaker:He's like, no, I'm just a guy.
Speaker:So just a good kid.
Speaker:Just a good kid from a down and humble as can be still.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So he is, he probably, he probably was the prom, he was prom king, he was a
Speaker:valedictorian or, so I don't know what he, but uh, but yeah, so it's, it's,
Speaker:it's fun to see this time of year the guys, they'll get excited about it.
Speaker:So, yeah, I, I, it makes me, it makes me happy when I get a picture
Speaker:because I know what it means.
Speaker:It's gonna be good for somebody else.
Speaker:I'm, I think a lot of that's where I always say like, I'm not a photographer.
Speaker:I'm a, I'm a sports fan with a camera.
Speaker:Um, I think a lot of which, you know, I, I love it.
Speaker:We have all kinds of, like, young, um, the kids that work with the,
Speaker:with the, with the, the students that work with the school who are,
Speaker:you know, they are photographers.
Speaker:They want to be photo, they wanna do this job and, and make
Speaker:it and that, and that's awesome.
Speaker:I hope they, they're, some of 'em are extremely, extremely talented.
Speaker:Some of 'em are starting to be and will be, talent will be
Speaker:very skilled and talented at it.
Speaker:Um, and I think it's, it's cool and I hope they all have their, but for me,
Speaker:I just wanna go hang out, take some pictures for people in their family.
Speaker:So I'm not trying to be an artist trying, I just want, I want that shot.
Speaker:Like, like I said, if it was Zedalis or Gatti where it's like I want the
Speaker:guy doing the thing looking really good, um, at the thing he enjoys
Speaker:doing or the, or, or the lady too.
Speaker:I take pictures of all the women's sports too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you had a great job last week too, uh, when Will Johnson was racing to the
Speaker:plate and the catcher was running from the backstop with the ball and you got both
Speaker:of them and the umpire signaling safe so.
Speaker:So definitely.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:He's like a good picture.
Speaker:You, you get, you're, you're crushing it right now, man.
Speaker:I'm just butchering all your stuff on Instagram.
Speaker:Maybe one of those kids you're talking about.
Speaker:That's really good at taking pictures.
Speaker:Take time.
Speaker:Show how to teach me how to use Instagram.
Speaker:I'm
Speaker:still just, just free.
Speaker:No, it's funny.
Speaker:I was like, I was telling a couple of guys yesterday, I was like, now
Speaker:that it's not the f like the first weekend, I'm just like so amped up.
Speaker:I'm excited 'cause we're watching baseball.
Speaker:We're, and like, I felt like, like it is amazing.
Speaker:I got any good pictures at all because I, I felt like, I'm
Speaker:like, I'm missing everything.
Speaker:I'm like, I wanna get everything, but you can't get everything, you know?
Speaker:So now I'm like, okay, we're gonna watch the games and stuff
Speaker:happens and you miss stuff.
Speaker:Sometimes.
Speaker:Somebody walked one of the, I was, 'cause you have to kind of
Speaker:stand behind the dugout to face to get the right-hand batter faced.
Speaker:Um, so Cole McKenna is first at bat.
Speaker:As he's like swinging to his first hit, one of their players
Speaker:just happens to walk by.
Speaker:He, you know, he wasn't doing it on purpose.
Speaker:They, they were all very nice kids.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It just, so it's like, well I didn't, I didn't get Cole getting
Speaker:his first hit, but you know what, Cole's gonna get a lot of hits.
Speaker:I'm gonna get a lot of shots of him.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:yep.
Speaker:I, it, it sucks.
Speaker:I didn't get that one, but I guarantee you I'm gonna get a lot of Cole
Speaker:McKenna hits before he's done it.
Speaker:Old Dominion.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Especially being able to play at home too.
Speaker:I mean, we get so many more opportunities there.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Uh, and we got, got a couple more, our first quote unquote road game
Speaker:where we're just going down Hampton to Brambleton over to Norfolk State.
Speaker:Uh, that's gonna be on Wednesday.
Speaker:I haven't seen anything about TV coverage yet.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:So say tuned to the baseball.
Speaker:Be shocked.
Speaker:I would be shocked.
Speaker:I, I was thinking the same thing, but you never know.
Speaker:At the very least, I know we'll have like a live stats link.
Speaker:You follow along.
Speaker:We'll, we'll get you what you can.
Speaker:Charlotte's coming to town this weekend.
Speaker:They're always just a tough team.
Speaker:I think it's a good list test for road of you.
Speaker:If anybody remembers that in 2021, we had eight games in a row.
Speaker:FM Yeah.
Speaker:Um, that was phenomenal.
Speaker:And I, I, that might have been like the best stretch of eight
Speaker:games I think I've ever seen.
Speaker:Uh, uh, that that was awesome.
Speaker:And so it's all, it is always fun when we play Charlotte.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, both teams have a lot of talent.
Speaker:I think they're both well coached.
Speaker:I mean, they're, you're gonna see strategy here, strategy there.
Speaker:I think Finn says they're litigious, which we will keep those umpires in
Speaker:check, which may not be a bad thing for us either to get those guys going.
Speaker:But, uh, Charlotte,
Speaker:Charlotte's got local kid, um, Johnny Sutric, uh, from, uh, I think,
Speaker:I think he went to Kellum before he ended up, down at IMG talking
Speaker:about the, the baseball academies.
Speaker:Um, so that's always, it's always fun to see, uh, a local kid get,
Speaker:come back, play at home again.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they're, uh, they're four and three to start the season.
Speaker:Uh, you know, don't read too much into that record.
Speaker:They, uh, had three games set with University of San Diego, who's good.
Speaker:Uh, they took one outta three there.
Speaker:They lost, uh, midweek to Clemson.
Speaker:They just swept right state, uh, to kind of get right and get back in that,
Speaker:the winning side of the column there.
Speaker:Uh, they've got some dudes.
Speaker:I mean, uh, Joseph Taylor's kind of their ace.
Speaker:He's got eight and two thirds, uh, inning so far this year.
Speaker:A little over two ERA 16 Ks in a walk.
Speaker:Like they're, they're not gonna walk a ton of guys, eight
Speaker:and two thirds all in relief too, which is interesting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, I mean, he's, he's gonna be a, a, a problem.
Speaker:I wonder if they're doing an opener, something like that.
Speaker:I haven't been able to watch.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I wonder.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:16
Speaker:ks and eight innings is nuts and one walk.
Speaker:Those are video
Speaker:game numbers.
Speaker:Yeah, that's, that's pretty nuts.
Speaker:Uh, Cody Gunderson, one of their bigger hitters, hitting 4 0 7 4 bombs, eight
Speaker:Ribbies, uh, Spencer Nolan's hitting 4 23.
Speaker:He's played every game this year.
Speaker:So, I mean, they're, they're gonna put the ball in play.
Speaker:They're gonna have good pitching.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, I think this is a good series to look at, like.
Speaker:If we sweep them, whoa.
Speaker:That's, that's gonna be pretty wild.
Speaker:Uh, but I think we're gonna be much like Niagara fighting and clawing
Speaker:to get everything we can, every run and keep everything off the board.
Speaker:I think like anything else, you, you go on the weekend, you, you want to win the
Speaker:series, I think that's gonna be the goal.
Speaker:And then, yeah, if you win the first two, then it's like, all right, let's sweep.
Speaker:But I think that's as always, especially when you're playing,
Speaker:what's gonna be, I mean we're, we're now getting into where like, okay,
Speaker:we are playing some legit teams who have been known and good for years.
Speaker:And then, you know, getting into the conference.
Speaker:So this is, yeah, just let's just go in, like I said, stack Zeros.
Speaker:If you're the, the, the, the bull end, the, the hitter, the pitchers,
Speaker:um, put up crooked numbers.
Speaker:That's the other side of it.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:I was trying to figure out how to, how to wrap it to hit you Crooked numbers Stack.
Speaker:Stack zeros, put up crooked numbers, win
Speaker:the
Speaker:series.
Speaker:That's all you're trying to do every weekend.
Speaker:Do that and you'll, you win every single game.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:I mean, yeah, if you do that, always say, if you win every
Speaker:inning, you'll, you'll win the game.
Speaker:That's typically what happens.
Speaker:And, you know, I'm, I'm really pumped that we're five and two
Speaker:at this point in the season.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, 'cause early season college baseball is crazy.
Speaker:Uh, I don't know how much anyone looks outside of DU baseball, but, you know,
Speaker:Arizona's preseason, top 25 UConn was, if they weren't ranked, they
Speaker:were really close to being ranked.
Speaker:They both started the season Oh and four, uh, they went and played each other.
Speaker:They went extra innings Thursday, the first game of their series.
Speaker:Uh, I will tell you that Arizona lost that game because, uh, their reliever was in,
Speaker:uh, nobody on two outs, two strike count.
Speaker:Uh, I guess he was getting frustrated with the pitch comp, so he just held
Speaker:up a two to his catcher, threw a curve ball, gets laced right back up the
Speaker:middle, single, single end up being I think a three or four run ending for 'em.
Speaker:Uh, but it's, it's wild out there when you get some of these really good
Speaker:teams, like East Carolina's another one.
Speaker:They have had a rough start to the year, so you just never know week to week.
Speaker:But I think Charlotte is, I feel like they're always the litmus
Speaker:test for us early in the season.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause we know what they've got and that they're, they're a good ball club.
Speaker:I love seeing, and you know, Charlotte was a school I actually went to
Speaker:first outta high school before I came back home, went to Old Dominion.
Speaker:So I always, I always enjoy, um, you know, getting to see Charlotte.
Speaker:I, I didn't get, I didn't go down last year.
Speaker:I think it was rainy that weekend, so I decided not to, but I'm, next year.
Speaker:I, I'd love to try to go back down.
Speaker:It's always fun.
Speaker:Um, and yeah, it's always a good competition.
Speaker:It's, it's one of those, uh, having this non-conference rivalry, if
Speaker:we could just keep that going every year, I, I'm all for it.
Speaker:I think it's, it's, it's really great.
Speaker:Yeah, it's gonna be fun.
Speaker:Another, uh, interesting one from this weekend, uh, UTSA sweeps, Dallas Baptist.
Speaker:Uh, Dallas Baptist, again, another ranked team expected to
Speaker:be just a beast in conference USA.
Speaker:So we're, we're not playing perfect baseball right now.
Speaker:We got a lot to figure out, but we're five and two.
Speaker:We just got it done to sweep Niagara, fought and Claude, and got those wins.
Speaker:And I feel like last year, those are some of the games we lost.
Speaker:Like we didn't have those high leverage arms.
Speaker:So you're already kind of seeing a little bit of a difference, and now you're
Speaker:gonna get a real test with Charlotte and then UConn the following weekend.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and like Finny pointed out, you know, you, you know, you knew going into
Speaker:Hunter Baines wasn't gonna be available.
Speaker:Um, and then, uh, Marcus van Alstein, you know, unfortunately having an elbow
Speaker:injury, um, taking him out for the year.
Speaker:I mean, that, that's, that's a huge arm.
Speaker:That's a guy who was gonna be, um, you know, a very valuable
Speaker:part of your, your bullpen, your pitching staff, maybe making starts.
Speaker:Um, but like, like I was talking to him yesterday for a little
Speaker:bit, you know, and said, Hey, look man, you're, you're still here.
Speaker:You're still, you, you still have the value of being around and being who
Speaker:you are and what that, and that's, I know Hunter is this exact same way.
Speaker:And so having those guys, they're still, they're still there
Speaker:contributing with their personality.
Speaker:That's one thing I always talked with, like, uh, if we remember Brett Smith,
Speaker:who was with the team for, for seven years and only got to pitch about
Speaker:three and a half of those, you know, same thing I told 'em a couple times.
Speaker:Look, man, you being here is a plus.
Speaker:And so just 'cause you can't get on the mound doesn't mean you can't be
Speaker:a positive influence on your team.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you know, you never know.
Speaker:That could change.
Speaker:He could come back next year, be healthy.
Speaker:You know, I, I think another guy, when you're talking about good personality,
Speaker:good knowledge, guys, Connor Schumann's another one, and now he's getting his
Speaker:moment to shine out on the mounds,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, you, you never know, like you, everyone who's in
Speaker:that dug ass contributing in some way, shape or form, Hey
Speaker:Tyler Stott just threw a great inning.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:um, yeah,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:Like these guys who've been around, I mean, this is, and that's the one
Speaker:thing, it, it's the, the upside of the downside, you know, okay, van ine is
Speaker:hurt, some other guy's gonna have to step up who maybe weren't gonna get
Speaker:as many innings now, so it's gonna be opportunity for skies to shine.
Speaker:And, you know, so if those guys can come out and show what they can do, I
Speaker:mean that's like, like we talked about, Finn, you're, you're waiting on them
Speaker:to tell you they should be playing.
Speaker:And so you got some guy, what you need is some guys to, to say, Hey,
Speaker:I deserve to be playing, not with their mouth, but with their play.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And gutty performances, uh, I mean, sometimes you need one dude to carry.
Speaker:Zach did that on Friday, driven all five of the runs, uh, and it when you can
Speaker:win games when a lot of lineup's not hitting, uh, that's also a very good sign.
Speaker:'cause yeah, we set it a lot last year after loss is of, eventually this team
Speaker:is gonna match up their hits all together and they're gonna put up a bunch of runs.
Speaker:Uh, I mean, we didn't allow more than we allowed four, four and five this weekend.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:that's great.
Speaker:Bitch staff did a great job and they, the offense can get it going here soon.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think this is not how you would've like written up as your dream weekend, but I
Speaker:think this is probably better than that because they learned a lot of things.
Speaker:They, they, they, I'm sure there was a lot, a lot more growth than
Speaker:like, if you did what Texas State did tonight or that's where they whipped
Speaker:'em by like 10 runs every game.
Speaker:It's like, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker:It makes you feel good, but you learn it this week.
Speaker:They learned, like I said, they learned how to, how to stay
Speaker:ahead, how to, how to maintain.
Speaker:They learned how to come from behind.
Speaker:They learned some guys can step up and have big moment.
Speaker:Lot, lot of positives from this weekend.
Speaker:So that, that was great.
Speaker:Af after a, uh, not great Wednesday where like, as I said,
Speaker:didn't really come out Yeah.
Speaker:And perform.
Speaker:So good, good comeback for 'em all.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We found out that Chuck has ice water in his veins, come in
Speaker:and slam the door to the worst possible scenario you could be in.
Speaker:And he comes out, he looks like a
Speaker:accountant.
Speaker:Throws like a demon.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't, I had to freak Ira out.
Speaker:They see him come out of the pen.
Speaker:They're like, who's this guy?
Speaker:And then boom.
Speaker:Yeah, it came over.
Speaker:You're ing three.
Speaker:Enjoy your ride home.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, well thank you everyone for tuning in this week.
Speaker:Uh, thanks for you, you all came up and said hello.
Speaker:Uh, in the stands Yeah, at the games.
Speaker:Uh, just getting started here.
Speaker:Long, long way to go, but a fun week ahead for this team.
Speaker:Hopefully, uh, coming out three in one would be a would be a win in my book.
Speaker:Be That'd be perfect.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Four knows the best, but three, three in one is definitely, you know what,
Speaker:what you should be shooting for.
Speaker:Um, I mean, you wanna win every game, but at the same time
Speaker:that's, you wanna be real.
Speaker:It's, it's baseball, it's gonna, I
Speaker:mean, mean,
Speaker:uh, Norfolk
Speaker:State
Speaker:took
Speaker:one for Manhattan, so do
Speaker:not
Speaker:sleep on them on Wednesday.
Speaker:Nor, I mean, Norfolk State has half as many wins as last year.
Speaker:They're, they're not the same team as last season.
Speaker:They, they got a brand new coach.
Speaker:They, they got, um, they're letting their pitching coach actually be a
Speaker:pitching coach, and he's phenomenal.
Speaker:Um, that was the thing last year, they were not letting him do his job.
Speaker:Uh, and he is a pheno.
Speaker:He, Brett Mays is a really, really good pitching coach.
Speaker:Um, and so yeah, Norfolk State, I mean, it's, it's, it's great.
Speaker:I, I like seeing Norfolk State do well.
Speaker:It's much better when they're doing well.
Speaker:It's fun.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:To have that local teams do do well.
Speaker:I have every desire to see Norfolk State succeed, uh, except on
Speaker:Wednesday and the final score.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Well, fans, thank you all so much.
Speaker:Uh, hope to see you out at the ballpark this weekend or the next weekend.
Speaker:But go Monarchs.
Speaker:Go monarchs.
