Yeah, yeah.
Hello, I'm on our fans.
Welcome back to the Hudson Homers podcast.
I'm Gary joined, as always by cb.
We will have, uh, coach Finwood joining us here in a little bit.
And then, uh, Zach Lee is our player guest this week.
Cb how was your weekend?
It was good.
Saw high school baseball.
That was fun.
Saw Cape Henry a few times.
Uh, saw Lansdown, so I got to see one of our guys, cam Teon,
who's coming, uh, to us next year.
He is a, a massive first baseman.
He had a, a great three hit day with a double lansdown beat him.
Uh, so it was pretty good.
Yeah, I gotta see, um, uh, Bailey Matela younger brother
Harley play for the first time.
That was cool.
He used, played, pitched a couple times, both games I saw and, um, saw
some, uh, ODU royalty and the, uh, and Tim Hummel is out there coaching
with Cape Henry and his brother Rusty, also an ODU alum as a pitcher.
Uh, and saw both, both of them with their sons of the team.
So it was a good time.
That's awesome.
I think the first baseman, you pointed him out to me at War
Memorial a couple weeks ago and Yeah.
You can't convince me that kid's like 17, 18 years old.
Yeah, he's a monster.
He, I saw him, uh, he was at like a fall ball game, uh, and I didn't even recognize
him 'cause I hadn't seen him since the spring and he, he got even bigger, like
he was already a big kid and got bigger.
So yeah, he's, uh, hopefully he is him.
Get him and Tanner Shado a couple of big dudes right from
right here in the 7, 5, 7.
That would be a nice addition, a big towering figure at first base.
Uh, 'cause man, if he can swing it that matches, if he can swing
it the way his size is, he's gonna hit a lot of home runs for us.
So, excited about that.
Excited about the future.
I know you're catching a little bit of baseball after
we record tonight too, right?
Yeah.
Trying to get over to, uh, Greenbrier Christian, uh, Jackson.
Okonkwo, who's another one of our, our local kids, uh, who's played
with him and Cam played together since they were little kids.
Uh, he said he is pitching tonight, so I was like, oh yeah, I got, I, I'll bust
over so I'll be rude to Gary as soon as this is over and say, alright, good job.
And then exit immediately and, and go run over.
I told him he's gotta pitch more than two innings so I can get
that over there and see him.
Yes.
Yeah.
We'll, we'll get you over there quickly.
I have to do similar things with work travel this week.
Okay.
And of course getting back into town Thursday night.
Yeah.
So I can drive down to Norfolk for the games at Harbor Park
this weekend against Troy.
I know I'll be there Friday, Saturday.
I don't think I'm gonna be able to stick around and make it to the Sunday
game, but definitely watching, but.
Uh, excited to see the guys back in action and a pretty
good Troy team coming to town.
But before we talk about Troy, we gotta talk about the week that was,
uh, monarchs go one in three this week.
Uh, they lose a, a tough road game at ETSU.
I think if you could see if you saw the video of that, you can see
how that stadium plays a little bit like a band box and man, they are a
good hitting team in their ballpark.
Then, uh, drop the first two against App state.
Little impromptu double header.
We get the second game and salvage a win.
Uh, but not, not the week I think we were hoping for, but I don't know if
it should necessarily be unexpected.
Yeah, I mean, it was just a continuation of some of the, the
problems they've been having.
You know, they, they really, yeah.
You know, the pitching in general wasn't like outstanding,
but it really wasn't terrible.
What really was not good was our hitting.
I mean, we had, uh, I think we had 15 hits in the second game Saturday.
And I, I've just looked at it.
We had 18 hits in the three games combined before that, and
that's 10 in the game on Tuesday.
So we then we had, uh, I, what was that?
The five three and five three in the game on Friday and five
in the first game Saturday.
So, I mean, if you're not, and we actually were putting the ball in play a lot too.
We weren't even striking out much.
That, that's the funny part.
Um, was this only six strikeouts in the Friday, or that's the first game.
Saturday, only five strikeouts in the Friday game.
Only seven strikeouts in the Tuesday in the Wednesday game.
So, I mean, it's not like we were going up there just hacking and missing,
they actually we're putting the ball in play, but just, it was either right
at guys or it just wasn't getting down.
So it's, that was a new kind of frustration that was just dovetailing
with the old kind of frustration.
And I, I noticed from all the pitchers really we faced this week, they were
filling up the zone early in the count.
They were not given too many opportunities for our guys to
get, you know, plus counts.
Get those two ones, get those three ones they were pitching to soft contact.
They were eating around the edges and getting called strikes and it was, it was
just tough getting a lot of soft contact.
I'm happy to see we aren't striking out as much 'cause at least.
Yeah, you put the ball in play, something can happen.
You can stay in the game.
Uh, I know the first part of the season's been really frustrating to watch some
of those bat guys swinging right over top of the ball trying to, trying to
hit that 97 mile an hour fastball.
That's up and in that you're never gonna do anything with.
So positive to see the contact.
Just wish it would've been a little bit harder contact and, uh, maybe,
maybe get a couple breaks our way.
I think that Friday game at, at Boone, and we'll ask Coach Finwood,
When he comes on, it seemed like the wind was actually dead in Boone for
the first time in recorded history.
'cause uh, Tanner again hits one to the track in that game that I think on a
normal win day in Boone would've been clearing the fence by 30 or 40 feet.
Uh, so not, not the best conditions, but APP was playing in it too.
And man, that's it.
It, it can be a little bandbox there when it gets going.
They know how to hit well in their park.
And I feel like ETSU is pretty similar in that regard too,
of just mountain baseball.
Yeah.
That, uh, the kid Caleb cross the Friday picture.
I mean, you know, you.
Seven, no hit innings.
Right?
I mean, that was, that guy was pretty outstanding.
And like I said, it wasn't mowing guys down, striking 'em all out.
It was just putting them, they put the ball in play and
nothing getting out of it.
Um, yeah, Tanner is, he's at least, you know, hitting the ball of the wall is
better than not hitting the ball, I guess.
You know, it's, it's still frustrating, but it's, it's nice to see him.
He was a little bit sick down there in Auburn, so I think he's finally
gotten healthy and strong again.
And, um, you know, they, I like the, I like getting to play in the
outfield some, you know, he's, he's not most, he's not bad in the outfield.
I mean, he was a, he was a shortstop most of high school, so he is athletic enough.
He's just not, he hadn't played out there a ton.
Uh, but it's, it's nice to get that bat in that lineup that way.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, um, I thought we had a, a really good second game on Saturday, which
is naturally the one game that I was not able to watch this entire week.
So maybe I'm the, the bad luck when it comes to games on the road.
Well, that, that was
the one that I was able to watch every single pitch of.
So maybe, yeah, we need, we have the right mojo.
Yeah, we gotta, we gotta figure out this combo, uh, and, and get
some more wins on the board here.
But we, we had to battle a good bit in that game.
We had to come back, uh, with the scoring two runs there in the ninth.
We had to hold off App State late.
They made a run.
But it does feel a lot better to come out of that series with the win.
But I think he said, was it the, the mud breaking, you're kind of, you're
getting the, the win on the way out to feel better on the way home, but not,
not getting a series win like you wanted.
But
yeah,
tough to get that series win down at app.
It's, I mean, it's hard to win a series on the road no matter who you're
playing, especially in conference.
But yeah, you know, you, you, that's the problem of you didn't
hit enough in the first two games to give yourself even a chance.
Uh, so what they did in this third game is they hit a lot.
They, they put the ball in play and got some great hits.
Uh, Zach Leite had a three hit game.
Um, let see, Jack Slater had a great, had a three hit.
Jack Slater, he's been playing.
Yeah.
Great lately.
Um, Scotty Young, uh, on base, I think four different times.
TJ was on four times.
I mean, these guys were.
They were filling it up and the pitching did just what they needed to do.
You know, Blake wasn't amazing, but he was a, he was a senior leader.
He got through it.
Uh, Frankie Wright had a great outing in relief, uh, in the middle relief
too scoreless when we needed him.
And then Kellen and Bailey, you know, again, they weren't perfect.
Uh, they, they struggled a little bit, but they got through it.
And that's, sometimes that's all you can do is just get through.
I mean, I was telling, uh, Kellen after that, we were at the airport after
that game in Southern Miss, and I said, look, man, at a certain point it was
just like, Hey, we need to not give up three runs before we get six outs.
I said, sometimes that's just the math.
Like, just don't give up X amount of runs before you get X amount
of outs or y amount of outs, whatever the equations are.
I'm not math guy.
Yeah, I was not a math major either.
Uh, we saw Maverick Stallings come to life a little bit at the plate
for the first time this season, so that was, that was good to see him.
That's a neat, a bat we definitely need back in the lineup.
But I see down below that we have a guest that has joined us now.
Hey, coach Finney, how's it going?
Let's go.
How we doing?
What's up Finny?
Good to be back.
Uh, sorry I'm a little bit late with navigating some traffic.
No worries.
Heading that nice
hat on.
Thats all.
Always, always ing.
Yeah.
Had to get it
back from the dry cleaners.
Right?
There we go.
Yeah.
The uh, yeah, I heard, I heard some of that.
I heard, I heard the comment about Stallings.
Yes, you're definitely right.
It was nice to see him swing the bat a little bit better.
We need to get him back in, uh, second half of the season shape of last year.
Yeah.
He was a terror down the stretch for us last year.
It felt like every bat he was gonna hit a bomb.
Uh, and he, he was huge.
I love to see that.
Uh, we were talking a little bit about how the offense looked a little bit
different over the last four games.
The cut down on the strikeouts, put more balls in play.
Uh, so just wondering if, if you had any thoughts on the kind of a
lot of pitching to soft contact.
It seemed like we were getting there filling up the zone early.
Yeah, we um, we've been certainly working on it, you know, and, and unfortunately.
If you don't want to hit a bunch of fungos to the infielders either, uh, game one
of the double header on Saturday, man.
Golly.
Um, it's just, you know, continuing to work on trying to shorten the swings
and I was proud of how we, we competed at the plate, uh, in the, you know,
the back end of the double header.
Um, and we finally got some, you know, big hits.
Um, you know, can, and George had a better week swinging the bat.
He drove some balls, made a, you know, a couple mechanical adjustments
with him, and I think it was helpful.
Um, but again, you know, this team isn't, isn't quite put together
the way most of my teams are.
I, I like lefthanded hitters.
And finally, after game one Saturday, I said, you know, Dagum it we're
putting all the lefties in the lineup.
We had four, which gives you more balance in there.
You know, that's about the best we can do positionally and, uh, on a given day, but.
Um, you know, and the top was good.
I mean, TJ had a good day, let off the game of the home run.
He had another hit.
Scotty, uh, young had a good day.
He had a couple knocks and walked twice.
He was on base four times.
Um, and Zach Lee had was three for three with the, you know, the biggest one
being in the top of the ninth there.
Hit the double to kind of get us going with one out, and
then came and doubled him in.
And, you know, Ron had the big hit there to, you know, to give us, give us
a two run cushion, um, which was huge.
So, uh, it's a hard place to play.
App State, man.
The turfs a little different.
It's, they're good, you know, they, they compete.
I, I think they do as good a job with their hitting approaches
as anybody in the league.
Like, they're, they're tough outs, man.
Like, they make you pay and they stay in the zone.
And I was trying to tell our guys, you know, like, ah, they got a lot
of blue pits and stuff like that.
They did.
But you get those when you're in the zone.
Not when you're bailing out or, or spinning off balls, you know, you
get those when you're in the zone and that's something, you know,
to learn from an opponent, which, you know, is always a good idea.
Um, we didn't, you know, game one, we didn't pitch well.
I mean, Ben kind of was struggling out there.
Uh, their mounds a little different.
Like they got a, this, it's crazy.
I've never seen anything like it.
They have this piece of rubber, it's a turf mound to begin with, but they have
this piece of rubber on the front of it.
It's just rubber and it's raised up and it's, it's unusual.
Um, and Ben, you know, we, we were there Thursday night and practiced.
The guys knew about it and Ben was trying to figure out how to navigate it, and
he did the worst thing he could do.
He got over on the side of the mound where none of his stuff was balanced up.
You noticed he missed a lot on his arm side high.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that was partially because of his alignment.
So, you know, and having said that, it's still a four nothing game going
into, you know, whatever the sixth or.
Seventh and, um, we just weren't getting any big hits and, you know, um, uh, LaVar
and, and, um, who, who'd we pitch behind?
LaVar?
Scott.
Scott did, didn't do the job, so they got us out of it.
Um, and then in, in game one, you know, we didn't pitch poorly.
I mean, Dylan threw, you know, one, the, the, the misses were loud though.
He, that change up, that got hit outta the park.
Hurt Us a little bit.
The positive though, I think if you take something positive, uh,
overall from the weekend, uh, was Hubble came in that game and mm-hmm.
Threw score, threw the ball really well.
Um, and then, you know, Blake, Blake battled his butt off.
I mean, we, we caught some 25 pitches on defense.
Um, which is why we played three different third bases.
You don't see that every day, but, you know, routine plays, and I'm
always after for those infielders, you know, your job's to save the pitch
of pitches, not add to his pitches.
And both of those plays were easy plays.
We just screwed them up.
Um, but he battled, man.
He really battled and gave us five strong innings, you know, kept us in it.
And I thought Frankie Wright and, and Kellen got a little bit unlucky.
We struck the guy out and it was breaking ball in the dirt and kicked away.
Mm-hmm.
You know, or, or they don't score in the, in the bottom
of the eighth, I don't think.
Uh, and then Bailey did a good job, you know, he, he, he, after they tied it up,
man, he made a huge pitch base, loaded two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
Corre was having a pretty good weekend, and he struck them out and then, uh,
hung on there in the, in the ninth.
So.
I mean, you see it across the board.
A lot of teams get swept, especially on the road.
And, you know, if you can keep from getting swept, we've been saying
that, you know, it, hold, serve at home, then you got a chance.
And so just getting that one is, is a big deal.
So, um, I was proud of the guys for that.
And we, we, we, we got a, you know, I, I think, uh, the other guy I didn't
mention, you know, bullpen wise is veins.
Um, I thought he threw the ball really well.
In fact, their coach was like, oh my gosh, we didn't have a chance to miss that guy.
When he's on, he's something.
Yeah.
And he is starting to become a little more consistent.
Mm-hmm.
You know, um, he just has to stay away from the free bases, you
know, the walks and hit batters.
And he's a good guy to throw behind Ben Moore.
'cause they're, it's similar stuff from the complete opposite side.
It's like a mirror image of, of itself.
And, um, down the stretch, I think, you know, so you got,
you got veins, you got right.
You got Davis, you got Nutella, you got some guys starting to, you know, emerge
out of the bullpen that you can count on.
And, and that's big.
So, um, I, I'm, I'm happy to see that kind of coming along to,
to go along with our starters.
Yeah.
And you gotta look at a lot of different arms in the game against East Tennessee
and I think you, I think you used nine pitchers, eight or nine pitchers.
Yeah.
But, uh, Ja, Jayce Park looked pretty good to start that game.
Was that kind of the plan to just basically give an ending out each, or,
uh, were you hoping get a longer look?
It was
that day, you know, and this part of the, it's the catch 22, you know, not knowing
what we can depend on on the weekend.
We figure we need everybody available.
I prefer to have him throw more than one inning and hopefully he will tomorrow.
Mm-hmm.
Um, hopefully he'll pitch good enough to throw two or three innings.
We'll see.
Um, I thought Alex Hunt was the only guy that threw in that game
against East Tennessee State.
That was good.
I mean, baes was okay, but.
You know, it, it is just like the ball was, the wind was
blowing out, the ball was flying.
We actually swung the bats pretty good, but we just, you know, didn't
pitch good enough to, to stop them.
They're a good offensive team and, and at home especially.
So, um, that was a, a day we didn't pitch good enough.
But, you know, Saturday in that doubleheader, we pitched really well.
And really after the, you know, I, I was really happy with, um,
with how the guys competed in, in that second game especially.
That's a long day, man.
I mean, yeah, 18 innings of baseball, nobody really wants to do that.
Um, I was glad we were able to play some different guys in that second game
because they were excited about playing.
They were tired.
Um, and they got in, you know, Scotty and TJ in particular got
in and, and did a good job for us.
So, uh, then Ron came back in and, and did, we're gonna, we're gonna try Ron
out at third, a little bit tomorrow.
He played there some in the fall and.
You know, we just need to get some solidity going in that, in, in our lineup.
It's just been, it's really frustrating, you know, 'cause
I, I'm not built that way.
Like, I prefer to have a more set lineup and know who's playing and we
just haven't been able to have enough consistency yet this year to do that.
Um.
So hopefully, um, you know, some of these guys that are older will get in there and,
you know, start picking it up here for us.
Yeah.
I was out at a few high school games this weekend and, you know, of course people
talk to me about ODU and one guy was, you know, I was like, wow, they really haven't
had like that much of a set lineup.
I was like, we're dying for guys to tell Finny they need
to be in a lineup every day.
Yeah.
We're, we're not having enough guys that come up and say, you must play me that.
You can't, there's no other option for you but to play me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And play, you know, you get your chance, you play well and it's not
even about, I don't need you to go four for four 'cause baseball is hard.
I just need to see competitive.
I, I, I thought TJ was, his bats were more competitive.
Mm-hmm.
You know, we've been talking to him about that and, you know, his grit
was in there and he sparked us.
I thought Scotty Young gave us a little spark.
You know, those, those guys and we just need some toughness in there
and, and guys that are gonna battle.
And, you know, Scotty's a good defender.
He can run, he can bond.
Um, you know, he's gotta get the ball and play, which he did.
Uh, and he was on base four out of five times up.
Man, that's, that's winning baseball.
Um, that's what we're after.
Uh, especially at one time you had
both those guys on base and I was like, man, lead hits it anywhere.
They're both gonna score.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And it
maybe that's what happened.
Maybe we'll help Zach get more fastballs to hit too, you know, with having some
speed on base in, in front of him.
And Scotty's a real aggressive base run.
Of course.
He, you know, he overs slid third base and the first thing that cost us a run.
Um, and then he should have just kept going on the one pass
ball and he hesitated twice.
Yeah.
And I was
like, dude, when you're 20 feet from home plate, there's no,
no turning back, keep going.
No turning back's.
Not gonna do anything good, I promise you.
Yeah.
Uh, I think he'd have scored both times.
Um, yeah.
But you know, he, he is a, he is an aggressive kid.
He cares, he is one of our best guys in the dugout when he isn't playing
and he hasn't gotten a ton of chances.
And I think now it's time to.
You know, give them some shots.
Yeah.
And I like left-handed hitters.
I mean, it's just not a ton of good lefties.
We haven't, I was asking our staff how many good left-handed
starters or relievers have we seen this year across the board?
You know, Southern miss had two lefty starters.
I like the freshmen on Sunday.
The Saturday guy was below average.
Um, I thought, and you know, so again, you know, back to recruiting
philosophy, like I said, I, I don't know how we got away from this.
It's my fault 'cause I allowed it to happen.
But you get left-handed headers, especially outfielders, like
don't come talk to me about right-handed hitting outfielder.
I don't even want to hear about it unless it, like Andy Garland
can hit it out there in the road.
Right.
Yeah.
We'll make some exceptions.
Yeah.
The outliers, uh, you know, you get a center field or like a Kyle
Battle or Connor Meyers or mm-hmm.
Somebody like that.
Yeah.
You make an exception for that, but.
You can't have just a run of the mill right-handed hitting outfielder.
'cause it's, it's harder to get your balance then because catchers
and, um, infielders just harder to find left-handed hitters.
Mm-hmm.
At those positions you can find left-handed outfielders, um, easier
and you need to go after those guys so you can have a balanced lineup.
You know, we've just been so right-handed, um, and just been
getting chewed up by righties.
Um, I mean, if you need a
right-handed outfielder, you half the time you end up, it's a former
infield, like a Luke Waters guy.
You, you need to go out and find him.
Guy.
Yeah,
guy you convert out there.
'cause he could hit and, um, you know, and, and Luke's a guy, we gotta get going.
I mean, he's mm-hmm.
Starting to show signs and then, you know, it's like two
steps forward, one step back.
Um, his VP today practice was good.
He was better, you know, working on stuff and he's trying, man, he
is just, you know, you're getting these funks like this and mm-hmm.
It, it, you just don't know when you're gonna come out of it.
Um, you know, I thought maybe he had the two home runs on the
Saturday game at Southern Miss.
Maybe he's coming out of the den.
But, um, it's, uh, hopefully he will, uh, you know, he has at least been
making more productive outs.
He's had a lot of like ground balls over to the right side, and he's had, he's
had, he's probably leave the team in rbis on like ground outs and flyouts.
Yeah.
So at least and, and,
and, and you're right.
And he did line out four times, uh, on, on Saturday in the double header.
So, you know, that's the, when it ain't going great, that's, that's what
happens, right when it's going great.
Those balls blo over the second baseman head, uh, it looked like
line hit one off the handle, right in the, in the box score.
Right?
Everybody goes, oh man, that guy was three for four, you know?
Yeah.
But when it's not going great, you, those are line outs and that's just,
that's just what's happening right now.
We gotta just keep fighting and try to turn it around.
So, um, you know, the, the Tuesdays, like you mentioned,
Gary, and, and the pitching.
We, you know, we've gotta, we've gotta understand, you know, we
gotta have, make sure our best bullpen guys, like those guys we
count on are fresh for the weekend.
Yep.
Um, and so you probably can't throw them much, um, and, and in those types of
games, but hopefully some of the younger guys can step up and throw the ball.
Well, I mean, it's never easy against, uh, Virginia's offense is always
very disciplined and, you know, they're, they're hard to strike out.
So, uh, you gotta make plays behind 'em and hopefully
we'll do that tomorrow night.
Speaking of Virginia, I was, we were just looking at the stats, I
was shocked to see our, our, my guy Harrison Wick from West Western Branch
Yeah.
Can happen.
Uh, really scuffle him this year.
Yeah.
Him and waters are similar stat.
Yeah.
I keep, but he's, do you,
have you heard any reason what's going on?
Or just troubles?
No, I haven't.
I haven't.
It's um.
You hate seeing that when a kid turns down bunch money and comes back and then Yeah.
That's unfortunate that that's not good for anybody.
Um, you know, because the naysayers are all, oh, he should have
signed, you know, what they doing.
I mean, Virginia guys are really good coaches, I promise you.
They're not screw.
Yeah.
Uh, and, and, and he is a great kid too.
I mean, great.
He's a hell of a ball player.
He's just going through it.
He a fantastic ball player and.
Recruited him a lot when he was, you know, in high school and know his dad.
Oh.
I remember
seeing him when he was like 14 and I was like, oh man, there's
no way he's gonna end up ODU.
That's unfortunate.
I was like, I know y'all were going after him.
I know, I, every time I, it was like, oh yeah.
Every time I saw him, the OU man we're pretty great.
We're right here.
Yeah.
I and dad can watch it.
Yeah.
We were hopeful, but so yeah, it can happen to good players, man.
Yeah.
Good players can get in funks and you just gotta hope they can If they go in
one, they go in one earlier in the year.
Yeah, yeah.
Maybe then they come out of it.
Um, and, you know, kinda like Luke and Maverick.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe if those guys can get going, um, you know, that can
really be a, a big shock for us.
So
Yeah.
Because yeah, we haven't quite reached the halfway point.
That's kind of more or less Yeah.
This weekend.
So, I mean, you, there's plenty of season left to do some stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
For sure.
Absolutely.
So, yeah, and, you know, and 21 conference games left, so, you know, you figure
you probably gotta win 11 of 'em or thereabouts to get in the tournament.
Um, and so, you know, you gotta play a little bit better than 500
baseball and give yourself a shot.
Yeah.
And I, I think, uh, you were talking about the coaching staff at uva.
I think Oak got 900 wins after they swept Stanford over the
weekend, so Yeah, I think he was,
yeah, that's awesome.
Doing, doing some good stuff there.
Uh, I, I was gonna ask you too, Jack Slater, uh, caught the second
doubleheader, which he may have been catching on Sunday, if would've
been on Sunday anyway, but Right.
He had three hits and I think that's kind of been a missing piece of the
lineup a little bit, is offensive production from that catcher spot.
No doubt.
Jack had, you know, our, our best offensive day of
the year behind the plate.
And, uh, that was good to see.
And again, he is a left-handed hitter and good for him, man.
He hit all three of those balls hard.
I thought the one he hit for the double might have a chance to get
out when he hit it, because that's where the ball was going out.
Uh, left, left field, left center that day.
But you know, he had good at bats for us and.
He is a battler, you know, he is a senior and comes from a baseball
family and, and really cares.
And you know, Evan just hadn't been swinging back good left handed at all.
And so I think what we may try to do originally in the game, one morale
Effin was gonna catch, but he got hit, you know, his lasted battle on Friday.
He had a bone contusion kind of in his lat rib area.
He couldn't even swing.
And I don't think he'll swing tomorrow.
We're we're, we think he'll be fine by this weekend.
Um, so he couldn't catch.
So, you know, we said, all right, you know, they're starting a lefty.
Let's catch Evan in the first game, Jack in the second game.
But I think where we may go that way, um, and Jack will, you know, catch uh,
against righties as much as possible.
And then we'll see on the, on the lefty.
So you're right, I mean, we gotta get some, some offense out of catch position.
Um, uh, we have enough for sure.
Yeah, I think, uh, another picture I wanted to talk to you about.
I know we all know that Nick Sulpizio is a good pitcher.
We have seen him do it.
We've seen him do it on the mound.
I is there anything specific you're working with him right now to try
to get him back into that form that we saw from him last year?
Like is it mental, is it from the stretch?
Is, uh, just trying to, trying to pinpoint kinda what to think about him so far
this year.
He is just missing all of his spots.
Like he's throwing the ball right down the middle and I mean, he is
not getting any swing and misses on anything fastball, breaking ball.
And he is not giving up a ton of like rockets.
Like he is giving up singles and ground ball singles, but
he's not getting anybody out.
I mean, that's two outings in a row where you're giving up five
runs, you know, and gotten one out.
Um, and that blew that.
You know, we, that blew that game open on Wednesday.
I mean, we clawed back in, it was six five, uh, when he came back in the game.
And by the time we got him out, it was 11 five.
You know, and, and so, I mean, pitchers can go through slumps too, and he, he's,
I, you know, early in the year we thought he was throwing the ball pretty good.
And then, um, you know, his start even against Mississippi State
was fine down there, I thought.
And, um, then, uh, just kind of taking a step back.
So yeah, he's, he's a very talented kid.
He's gotta really work hard on, you know, some things I think mentally, I think,
you know, uh, just competitively, I think sometimes it starts going sideways for
him and he just gets a shoulder slumped in his body language turns south and it,
you know, when you do that, man, like you, I, I tell the guys all the time like,
you have to do things to give yourself a chance to get rewarded in this game.
Like the baseball guides are always watching.
And if you're bad body language and you mop around, TJ Aiken and I have had this
talk and you just look like, oh, poor me man, they're never gonna help you.
But if you suck it up and fight through the tough times and you hustle and
you, you know, play the game the right way, you'll get rewarded eventually.
That's how the game works.
And it's the same thing on the mound.
Like you gotta hit your spot and you can't throw the ball down the middle, but you
can't give up either because when you give up the whole team's energy goes south.
'cause you're the guy standing in the middle of all of it and
everybody's looking at you and it's like blood in the water.
And as I say, that energy transfers to the other team 'cause they can
see it and feel it and they're like, let's kill 'em, you know?
Yeah.
Um, oh, listen to the broadcast.
It sounded like Friday night at app might've been the least win they've ever
had there for a baseball game, because I know we had a couple to the track
that just didn't have that win push.
I know.
Yeah.
Kainen hit one of the right field that got caught right at the wall,
and I think there was maybe Leite might, maybe there was another one.
Um, but yeah, I mean, again, you know, we just, we just, their,
their guy, I'll give him credit.
He kept hitting the, the spot down in a way.
And the Empire was giving it to him, and we just didn't make enough
adjustments, um, in that, you know, to, to make him have to change.
And, um, you know, he, he threw it in there.
He did a good job.
But, you know, he can't, he can't take anything away from him.
Certainly.
So, no, no.
He, and, and we gotta figure out something with Ben.
It it's uncanny.
Like Ben starts during the day.
This is, this is baseball stuff, right?
His day starts with Ben.
Been very good.
Um, Georgia Tech, the home, and maybe, maybe it's only been two
home against, um, Georgia State.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Um, it was night game.
Uh, second Charlotte was a a day game and e threw three, four good
innings and, and that one, but his nighttime starts have been not good.
Auburn, it wasn't very good.
Um, you know, uh, the, um, well, the, uh, who we call Southern Miss St.
St. Bonaventure Southern Miss.
He came in, it was night and, and this past weekend, and so I don't
know what, what's going on at night.
Maybe he's a reverse vampire.
Yeah, I know.
But I was like, do we just need to start pitching in during the day?
Yeah.
Um, is it an eyesight thing?
I mean, that's how I wonder sometimes I see guys I'm like, you know, especially
after ney a few years ago where these guys just don't realize they can't see.
Yeah.
Well, you
think hitters see the ball worse at night?
I mean, that's what everybody says.
Yeah.
Um, you, you see the ball better in the daytime, but, uh, I don't know.
So hopefully I'll turn that around this weekend.
But, you know, I'm thinking about those last couple series at, at,
uh, war Memorial and maybe we just play those all day games.
Yeah.
Well maybe by then you'll have enough daylight to maybe save light till about
eight o'clock and you can get through the first six and then you're, you're set.
'cause I mean, we're 6 35 here and I could still play baseball outside.
Right?
Yeah.
Good.
Got another hour or so of daylight.
But, so we got Harbor Park this weekend.
We got Troy coming in who's, you know, playing very well.
I think they're in second place right now.
Um, and you know, they had three really close games with Marshall this week.
Yeah, yeah,
they did.
Pretty
low scoring for at Troy.
Mm-hmm.
I thought I, I was looking, 'cause I said, are those games at Marshall?
'cause Marshall, you know, field can play very big, uh, but Troy's not, and
those games were pretty low scoring, so Marshall must have pitched them.
Pretty well.
Um, yeah, I think it was,
it was what, four three?
Four three?
And I think, what was the last game?
Was it six, seven to six?
Yeah.
6, 6 5. Yeah.
Six five.
Yeah.
And Marshall got that last game
and Marshall got him once.
So that, um, yeah, that's, uh, you know, and we know the lefty
Blevins is really good for Marshall.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, he's, he's been good in the past, but, so yeah.
So they, um, Troy's got good pitching too.
Um, you know, they, they, they've got an older group and.
Um, they like to play, so we gotta make sure we, we play well against them.
Yeah, absolutely.
It should be some good time for baseball and I'll be down
there for Friday and Saturday.
Would love to get a ton of fans out there, make that feel like home.
I saw a picture from Harbor Park, uh, just the other day and there was a, a Tides
game or something, uh, going on there.
That's an early season for them.
Uh, but there were a lot of, there a lot of people wearing ODU gear in
those stands for the Tides games.
So.
Cool.
I like that.
It gives me some, some hope.
We're gonna get a good crowd out there for this weekend.
They got, they got brand new seats come out, enjoy those brand new
seats, brand new help, break 'em
in.
Yeah.
And um, I guess they're having some issues with the parking maybe out there.
Mm-hmm.
Because of, uh, the construction for the casino.
Um, yeah, get
there early, that's
for sure.
Think
it's only about a thousand spaces, I think they said.
Yeah.
So we, um, I know some people are shuttling in and things like that.
Um, but again, it'd just be nice for the guys to have people
cheering for 'em, you know?
Yeah.
I mean, we've only had that three games really this year.
Um, you know, it's, I, I think it, I think it helps immensely sleeping in your
own bed, having your fans cheer for you.
And, you know, over the years we've played pretty well at Harbor Park,
so hopefully that magic can continue.
Yeah, we're definitely hoping.
So I'm, I'm excited to get down there and see a game at Harbor Park and I was just
get, enjoy some college baseball, man.
It's a fun thing to do on a Friday night, or I think Saturday
or three o'clock, so Perfect.
Middle of the day.
Won't disrupt your dinner or anything like that to come out.
Yeah.
'cause those, those guys played better in that Georgia State series at War Memorial.
When that crowd started getting into it, putting some pressure on Georgia
State, uh, it was a lot of fun.
So.
It'll, it'll do until the new bud is ready to roll here.
That's right.
That's what we gotta deal with it.
And, um, I know, I know you guys, y'all have Zach coming on, right?
Yeah, he's, uh, just popped him backstage actually.
I'm really, I'm really proud of Zach.
You know, he went through a big adjustment period I think in the fall, you know,
trying to work on his conditioning and his, his body wasn't in great shape.
Um, he worked really hard on that, his footwork around the bag, becoming
a better defensive first baseman.
I think he's improved as this year's gone on over there and just becoming
a tougher out, you know, he was a little bit prone to strikeouts in
the fall and man, he is got a ton of two strike hits, um, this year.
And, you know, become a guy that's, you know, one of our better
guys for driving runs in and.
Hitting the ball.
You know, you talk about a guy that uses the whole field.
I mean, he is, you know, hit extra base hits all over the ballpark.
So, um, I'm really proud of him.
He's, he's been our most consistent hitter, certainly, um, from, from the get
go and, um, hopefully we'll keep that up.
He is a, he is a neat kid and, you know, California smoothie
kind of guy I call him.
But, uh, he's a good kid and we're, and I'm proud of how
he's going about his business.
He is a little bit banged up too.
He got hit on the hand, um, the other day and, you know,
he gutted out that second game.
He had a great game for us, but he, uh, he didn't swing today.
He is fine.
He just needed to kind of a couple days to rest.
Um, but he'll be in there and, you know, we're, he, he's, he is been kind of a,
an anchor point for our lineup, uh, when a lot of guys have moved all around.
He's been a guy right there kind of in the, in the middle
of it, um, the whole time.
Awesome.
Yeah, we'll have him on here in just a little bit.
Um, what time are y'all heading out over to Charlottesville tomorrow?
I think we're leaving at 1245.
And, um, you know, we'll get there and stretch takes the BP and play six o'clock.
Looks like the weather's gonna be pretty good and um, should be a
nice, it looks like our weather, this weekend's pretty good.
I think it's a chance of showers maybe Saturday, but not, not,
not too, too much I don't think at this point to worry about.
So hopefully we will, you know, weather will be good.
We'll get some nice good fans out there.
It'll be a nice weekend for college baseball back in Norfolk.
I love it.
Now.
Time this year back in Norfolk.
Yeah, officially back in, in, in Norfolk.
Yeah.
But, uh, 6:00 PM game in Charlottesville.
You're listening to this.
It's today, uh, a CC Network Extra.
And Fox Sports Radio 1310 will have the broadcast.
I figured out the a CC network extra by the way.
Yeah.
How's that work?
So you can watch it on ESPN plus if your cable or streaming
provider has a ACC network.
Okay.
So if you have to have that combo to watch the games.
I, I was good.
'cause I think I have every sports package.
I say, I think I have it too on Sun.
Um, but that's how that works.
But if not, um, I think
What's TV provider Gary?
I, I, I switched to YouTube tv.
That's what I have.
Okay.
Yep.
So if you have YouTube tv, you're good.
Or about tv.
There you go.
I think we, I think we were okay with Cox.
I think we had last time we wanted to watch on a CC network.
It was fine.
Okay.
So.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
That's good to know.
'cause I think a lot of people don't realize that.
Um, but if you have the ACC network, then you can watch it on ESPN Plus.
Okay.
Yeah.
You're good.
But if you live in Richmond or Parts West, it's only about an hour drive
over there to park in Charlottesville.
You can go support 'em in person.
There you go.
It's a beautiful ballpark if you've never been there before
the renovations They did.
Yeah.
For or just, just amazing.
Uh, so thank you
Ryan Zimmerman.
Yeah.
Beautiful ballpark.
Um,
yeah, so, um, speaking of ballparks, so we got a little updates.
We, we had like a couple weeks where not a whole lot was going
on, you know, in our construction.
And I finally talked to, just at practice today before practice the, the,
uh, project managers, great guy Ryan.
And he said, yeah, the design was off on part of one of the
buildings by more than six inches.
Oh wow.
And he said like, two inches is up to two inches is acceptable, but six is not.
So they had to go back to the design, re um, survey, redo that.
Long story short, that was the issue.
And then now, um, they're gonna start pouring the footers and the pads for.
The building where our locker room and the offices and all that will be tomorrow.
So that'd be nice to see some stuff going, you know, going in.
Um, you know, it's just looked like a war zone back there.
And, uh, you know, now, now it, uh, now, well, you know, when stuff starts going
up, that's when you start getting excited.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
Um, they're, and they're gonna wait until the middle of May to close that road down.
Parker Avenue's gonna actually completely closed.
Um, so they're gonna wait till after graduation, so it'll be less.
Makes sense back there.
Those tennis center people will be complaining like crazy.
I'm sure
they're gonna complain
anyway, but Yeah, exactly.
Mm-hmm.
Um, so yeah, so that's a little bit of updates and.
He, he seems to think he's not gonna put 'em off schedule.
Um, they're just gonna have to make up some time here and there.
But, um, you know, they, they have pretty good weather here for the next
eight months, so, um, yeah, that, that'll be in pretty good shape.
So still a go.
Alright.
Yeah, we love it.
That's, that's all that matters.
Still a go, still
a Yep.
So definitely excited for the new park, man.
That's, that's gonna be just a game changer I think for the whole program,
for the fan experience, for everything.
It's,
it is, and I, I don't think anybody, and I, I haven't, didn't, don't
whatever really can understand, you know, the toll that this kind
of travel can, can take on you.
Like we, we have to have some light workouts.
The guy's gotta, you know, told him you gotta take naps, you
gotta rest more, you gotta.
Because man, you know, it's just like, even today I got up and I was like,
whew, I know those guys are tired.
I'm gasped.
I mean a double header and then, you know, seven hours
back and, you know, all of that.
So, you know, it's just, it is cumulative, right?
Like it just keeps adding up.
Um, so it's nice to be home for, you know, 10 days or so before we
gotta go down to Georgia Southern.
Even next, next Tuesday we play at Norfolk State, so it's
still, you know, really close.
So we won't, um, we won't have to travel much, uh, until we head down to Georgia
Southern, and I think this is, these next nine games are, you know, could make you
or break you in the, in the conference slate because it's nine tough ones.
You know, you got, and you got Troy at home and you go to Georgia Southern
and they're always really good at home.
Um, and then you got Louisiana coming in.
Um, and so fortunately we got, you know, six of those not at home.
So, um, you know, that'll be.
That'll be big.
Yeah.
Right now all three of those teams are in the top five of the Sunbelt.
So you're not kidding about tough competition.
Uh, we already know it's tough just being in the Sunbelt.
Yeah.
But that will will be a test you'll, you'll kind of have a pretty good
idea of, of where you're gonna be, I think after those, those nine games.
Yeah.
Without a doubt.
And, you know, after Louisiana, I think, you know, it's, none of it's easy,
but I think the schedule lightens up a little bit for us in terms of that.
And we just gotta hang in there through this next nine and, you know,
do our best and, and try to win our share of 'em and then, you know,
maybe make some hay down the stretch.
Absolutely.
Well, most poor game is the game tomorrow.
UVA would love to hang another l on those guys 'cause uh, we do actually have the
all time series lead against Virginia, so.
Wow.
That's good.
Let's keep building up.
And
we've beaten them up there a handful of times, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Through the years.
And, um, so it's not like we've never won up there.
We've, we've won up there a few times and.
Not, none of it's easy.
I mean, well the one time was we whacked them pretty good in 22.
Um, yeah,
yeah.
But you know, most of the other wins have been kind of, you know, back and
forth, you know, very close games.
Um, that was
the, some of the best days that I had working up there.
I'd have a hundred staff working that UVA baseball game and Odus coming
to town and I've got my ODU shirt underneath my polo and we'd be up
like seven to three in the ninth.
And I'm just sitting over there going, hold on, hold on.
It was great times.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was good.
So I saw they're, you know, they're obviously playing better.
They swept Stanford this weekend at home.
I think so It's it's crazy to say that, isn't it?
They SW stands, yeah, they're,
yeah.
Classic Atlantic coast schools, uh, say at Stanford.
Yeah.
It's a, they should name it all Coast Conference
now.
Yeah, right.
There we go.
There you go.
Yeah, that work.
So, but that's every league nowadays, so Yeah.
You know you got UCLA playing in the big town against Rutgers.
Yeah, good Thursday night football matchup there, right.
Classic.
Yeah.
Crazy.
So,
well I'll let you guys get to it with Zach and as always, thanks
fellas and any, anybody that had had any questions this week.
No questions this week.
But I have a feeling I'm gonna fill my little notepad at Harbor
Park Friday and Saturdays.
Come find me and I'll ask if you're free call find Gary.
Yes.
Alright.
Yeah, yeah.
Come find Gary.
And thanks.
Thanks guys.
Good Monarchs.
Good monarchs.
Thanks coach.
Thanks.
Go monarchs.
All right, we're gonna take a quick break.
We'll be back.
We will have Zach with us.
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Thank you for listening and go Monarchs.
Welcome back.
Monarch fans of the Hudson Homer podcast.
We are now joined by Zach Leite, who had an awesome weekend
on the road at App State.
Zach, thanks so much for joining us.
No problem.
Thank you so much for having me on.
Absolutely.
I, I heard you were excited when you got the invite.
Are we becoming like a, a thing with the baseball team now with being on the road?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
I mean, even my mom watches and, and lets me know about
what's going on on the podcast.
So
yeah, it's, it's cool to be on here for sure.
I think that's 90% of our listeners, but I'll gladly take that.
Hundred
percent.
I'm fine with that.
If, if our, most of our listeners are just the, the family members.
We're good with that.
'cause I, I met your mom there.
We, Morris seemed a great lady.
So that's, that was cool.
Oh yeah.
Is that the first time they'd be able to come out and see you play with ODU?
Yeah, it was, it was, uh, my mom and my brother, so it was really
cool to be able to play in front of
' em for sure.
And they, are they still back in California?
Yep.
Yeah.
Okay.
So that's all right.
So that, we'll start there.
You're, you're from California.
How the heck do you end up at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Virginia?
Yeah, so I mean, um, I got reached out to by, uh, Finney and I
came out here on a, on a visit.
Um, a smooth six hour flight out here.
One way.
Um, yeah, I just checked it out.
I, I loved the area.
Um, to me, it, it actually just seemed like home, so there was
no, no real problems there.
Um, I just loved everything about it.
I loved all the players that I met.
They were super nice to me, and so just felt, like I said, like home.
So that was, that was that for me.
That's awesome, man.
So you're originally from Dana Point, California, which I
have no idea where that is.
I know California's huge.
Can you give us us East coasters who don't know anything about it?
Like a where kind of in the state it is?
Yeah.
So, um, if you know where San Diego is mm-hmm.
It's just a little bit more north of San Diego.
Okay.
Yeah, so pretty much right there.
Okay.
And then you played JUCO at Orange Coast College, which is in Costa Mesa.
So where is that in relation to, I guess, the state and then, uh, Dana Point?
Yeah, that's also like just 30 minutes north.
So super close to to home for me, which was, was perfect for the JUCO route.
Yes.
That's great.
So how, so tell us a little about playing there at JUCO and Yeah.
So get, get to play, I guess close to home was nice, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, it was really nice.
Um, being able to, to play in front of my family every day was awesome, for sure.
Um, yeah, being close to to home and, and, uh, the high school and everything.
Um, playing with a lot of guys that, that I know, playing with against
a lot of guys that I know too.
So, yeah, I think it was a, a pretty cool environment for sure.
Has that been like a big culture shock for you?
I mean, 'cause that's, that's the exact opposite of what you have going now
where you're not playing in front of your family like at all, and you're
not playing against anybody, you know?
Yeah.
It's a little bit different, you know, hearing the guys talking about
all these players that they know on different teams and me having
no clue who really anybody is.
It's, it's definitely a little bit, uh, different and kind of weird.
But, I mean, I like it getting to know all these new people.
It's, honestly, it's awesome.
I gotta reach back in the Brain archives here from something,
a girlfriend from long ago.
So Dana Point's near Laguna Beach, right?
Yeah.
Yep.
Okay.
I thought I remember a reference to it in that show that I was unfortunately
forced to watch at the time.
Um, but that, but that area of Southern California is awesome.
I've been out to San Diego, stayed at Mission Beach, did
all the stuff down there.
Like, it's a, I think people, uh, forget that that area south of LA
exists sometimes and it's one of the best parts of California really.
Oh yeah.
It's, it's beautiful.
I love growing up there.
Doesn't, doesn't get much better than that for me.
Yeah.
I mean, so how is getting to play
in the most glamorous places in like Mississippi and Alabama comparing to
getting to play in Southern California?
Oh, I, it is very different, but I've had a blast getting to
play in these amazing places.
Go to a bunch of states that I've never been to.
I mean, yeah, I've loved every second of it.
Yeah.
We'll, we'll check back in with you after the Louisiana Monroe series
and see how you're feeling on those other ballparks and things like that.
But now, yeah, go, I
really enjoyed that moment after you hit the home run there in Biloxi.
I mean, you were, you were jacked up in the dugout and like, I
got that really great picture.
You celebrated.
It was like, I was like, man, you know, you just see a lot of guys
like going right for the camera.
It's like you were, you were trying to find it that day.
Was that, was that what it was?
Were you just so jacked up?
You didn't even know what was going on?
No, I
was, I was fired up.
I was looking right for you.
I wanted to get, I wanted to get a cool picture going for the fellas.
There we go.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was cool.
I love it.
That's awesome.
That is one of the sickest photos in ODU baseball.
Yeah.
That's fun.
Yeah.
That is awesome.
And our RIP the chain.
Oh man.
I'm gonna miss it.
It was cool to wear it for the, for the first two.
Yeah.
So you got the hard hat now.
Construction helmet.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Oh yeah.
The hard hat's.
Very good.
I like that New edition.
Yeah.
Very fitting for this team, because the construction's going on at home,
but you all have just been stuck on the road pretty much the, the whole time.
What's that experience been like for you just living in and outta
hotels for weeks at a time?
Um, for me, I got to get a little bit of a taste for it over the summer.
Um, I played for a summer ball team that also had no home field,
so we were traveling everywhere.
Like we would go six hours to play one game, six hours back home.
So honestly, like, I would like to say, you know, it's
kind of nothing too new to me.
Um, I've ma I've mainly just had a lot of fun going to all these new
places with, with my brothers and, you know, just competing and, and
enjoying the new states and, and places.
And, uh,
coach Finney talked a little bit about some adjustments you've made
from the fall coming into the spring.
Can you talk a little bit about those?
Uh, yeah.
I think for the most part, over the fall, um, me and Finney talked about it.
I was just getting too big, trying to do too much and, and most of my bats.
Um, and so I kind of just worked on like trusting what I got, trusting my
swing, my eyes, everything like that, letting the ball travel and not trying
to get too big and, you know, hit homers every at bat and just more, more.
So put the ball in play I think has been a really big help for sure.
That's one thing that's so impressive about you.
'cause you are certainly a guy that can hit the ball off the
wall, over the wall anytime.
Mm-hmm.
But we've seen a lot of at bats where you're just putting that
ball in play the other way.
I, I mean that, that's huge for a team to have the guy, you know,
really the best hitter on the team.
Frankly, let's be real at the moment and probably throughout the rest
of the year to be able to do that.
Appreciate.
Yeah.
I mean, so does that, is that a thing you're, you're constantly thinking of?
Like, Hey, I gotta be this guy for the team?
Um,
I mean, not, not too much.
I mean, I like to think sometimes, um, you know, I can kind of get the fellas
rolling with a, with a hit here and there.
Um, but, you know, I also trust all the, all the boys above and
behind me to, to spark it as well.
So I think it's, you know, just a mixture of, of both.
I.
Yeah, and you had like a, a really impressive bat that ended in a walk
earlier season was that it was against Georgia State on that Sunday and mm-hmm.
The pitcher had been filling up the zone all day, kind of getting a lot
of soft contact and things like that.
You go down an O2 hole, you battle back.
I think you fouled off three or four pitches, end up drawing the walk.
Do you feel like your eye for that ball has just gotten better as the
season has gone on, or, or is that just kind of how you've always
been able to operate in the box?
I think I've always sort of had it, but I think sometimes it comes and
goes a little bit with, like I said earlier, uh, trusting the eyes and just
going up there and competing and not really worrying about everything else.
I think when I do that well, I, I tend to see the ball really well,
so I I love that you, you refer to the guys as brothers.
I think that's awesome.
Who have you gotten the closest with on the team, you think?
Like, who are the guys?
You're like, these are, you know, yeah, we're all brothers, but
this is like my favorite brother.
Uh, definitely my roommate, Scott Young.
We just like, you'll always see us together, you know,
we're just always hanging out.
We're we're boys for sure.
It's been, it's been great being able to be roommates with him.
I've, I've had a great time.
Yeah.
He's, he's one of those guys that day, first day I met
him, like this kid's awesome.
I, I'm a huge fan, so yeah, that, yeah, he's a character for
sure.
What's been your favorite thing, um, non-baseball at ODU, you know, again,
it's your whole other side of the country.
What have you found, like, again, I mean, I'm sure it might be hard 'cause you
spend so much time with all the guys, but what, what's the thing that you're
like, okay, this is what I like out here.
Um, I know you didn't really want me to, to reference the guys in this
aspect, but like, just first getting here and, and the way that they kind
of just treated me and embraced me.
That was by far my favorite part.
Like, just welcoming me right away was, was awesome.
I I love that so much.
That's good.
I'll, I'll accept it.
It's fine.
Yeah.
Is it, is it
just you and Scotty in your apartment where you're at?
It's, uh, me, Scotty and, and Toron, so, yeah.
Oh yeah.
I've got an awesome house.
Oh, that's like, this is like the all personality house, for sure.
Yeah.
We'll wait for like some, I'll put that one up against any other house.
Geez.
Yeah.
I feel like there could be a standup comedy competition in
that house at some point, so.
Oh, no doubt.
I think, uh, to Ron would definitely take the cake for that one.
Uh, all right, well, we've asked all the guys who come on this
year with, uh, you know, college football video game coming back.
We've got some college stuff in the new MLB, the show.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, what would be your overall rating and like, what subcategory would you
have the highest rating in as a hitter?
Ooh.
I mean, I gotta put myself at the 99, right?
Yes.
We got someone this year that did it.
Of course.
I just, just
have to.
Why not?
Right?
And then, um, definitely wanna boost the, the power stats up for sure.
That's, that's gotta be the go-to.
Yeah.
If you're, if you're
99 overall, I think you gotta be 99 power against left and right, right?
Yeah.
Yep.
I, I love it.
I, I, all the false humility these guys have, I love it.
This is, this is what we need.
It's like, no, I'm a 99.
This is why.
Yeah, why not, why not?
It's a video game, let's go.
Right?
Yes sir.
Yes.
About, say, are, is there any video game competition going on in the house or is
that, can't do that this time of year?
I would like to say that we can't do that at this time of year, but
there definitely is some, some video gaming going on for sure.
Uh, with me and Scotty.
Yeah.
Uh, what's the high game right
now?
What are
y'all playing the go-to?
You guys probably have not heard of it.
It's called Sea of Thieves.
It's where you're a pirate and I. You sail the seven Cs.
It's, it's awesome.
We have a great time on that.
Is it like a, like an open world game or is that like a story?
How does that one work?
Yeah, it's a, it's a open world game.
You get to go around and, and, uh, collect treasure and all that sort of thing.
It's, it's
pretty cool.
So you guys are like, you're like leaving the locker room, like, all right, we're
gonna go search for some booty and everyone pick so, so else's, right.
Alright.
There's nothing wrong with, uh, playing some video games in
season to blow off str stress.
The iron computer.
Yeah.
You played for the Orange Coast Pirates.
Right.
Look at you.
This is just in your, in your blood.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
No doubt.
Pirate for life for sure.
Pirate Life's for me.
Yeah.
As long as it's not East Carolina.
As long as it's not East
Carolina.
We're good on that, so, oh yeah.
No,
no, no.
Not them.
Yeah.
So, uh, for you, I know you're, you're a junior, but I know that
sometimes that classification is just really for the website.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, like what are your plans beyond this season, if you have any at all yet?
Um, I'm just kind of playing it by ear, you know?
I mean, I'm definitely, definitely coming back here, but if somehow,
you know, get, get picked up, I'm definitely taking that chance for sure.
But yeah, playing it by ear about to say, has that been like a
dream and a goal for you?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I, I've been dreaming about being a professional baseball player
since I was a little kid, so yeah.
That's, that's definitely the, the end goal.
Me
too.
But you actually have a chance to do it.
We try.
We're trying as I, I'm, I, I, I think the dream might be dead for me.
I keep dreaming it, but I, every year, no, you never know.
You never know.
I think every year the draft comes around, I'm like, I'm lefty.
I got, I got a fresh arm.
There's no, no miles on this arm, and they don't, uh, yeah, some
team could use that for sure.
I'm telling you.
Yeah,
I mean, no doubt.
I think there's a Monarch that's the oldest player in the four main
pro sports now with Verlander.
I think he's gonna be 43 before the playoffs.
So yeah, there's still hope for us.
Cb,
hope he's still younger than me.
That's the funny part.
Alright, so there's hope for me, but No, I,
there
you go.
But hey, but z, if you don't get picked up this year, at least you'll
have the opportunity to come play in a, basically a brand new ballpark
next season with real home games.
Real home games.
Oh yeah.
That's super exciting.
For sure.
Well, Zach, what, what have we not asked you that you want to tell Monarch fans or
anyone else who might, might be listening?
Um
hmm.
I'm not really sure about that one.
Um, alright.
Yeah.
I'm just a, I'm just a guy that, that loves playing ball
and, and going out there and competing with the boys every day.
Nothing wrong with that.
Yeah.
That's about it.
Nothing wrong with that.
That's awesome.
No,
this is great because I, I really, I haven't talked to you a ton as I've
out there because you always look like you're like so serious and ready
to play that I don't wanna bug you.
Like, I'm gonna be honest.
And maybe that's just 'cause you're just like in the mode.
You're like, you're loving it.
You're probably having a blast in your head.
Oh
yeah.
But you just have this like dead serious face the whole time.
So I'm like, I'm, I'm like, I gotta say what's up and kind
of try to stay outta your way.
Yeah.
No, you can come say what's up to me whenever I'll, I'll put the
smile on my face when you say, hey, to me it's all, it's all good.
I'm locked in, but, but you can always come say, what's up?
We love it.
Good man.
Yeah.
I, I've, I've thoroughly enjoyed it as a, as a, uh, as a, a
bigger size lefty, lefty myself.
I'm, I'm a, I'm a big fan.
I'm always, I'm always rooting for the guys that I'm like, yeah, that, that was
kind of my body type when I was playing.
I'm, I'm into it.
That's great.
I love to hear that.
All right.
Well, awesome, Zach.
We appreciate you taking some time outta your day to come chat with us.
I know you've got a, a what, 1245 departure to Charlottesville and then
a, a big weekend against Troy coming up, but really appreciate the time.
It was great to meet you.
Great to meet you guys too.
Great to, to be on here.
Thank you guys a lot.
Yeah, man.
Look for gonna be a good week before you get to play at Harbor
Park and at, uh, dish there at UVA.
That's a couple more nice stadiums for the, the belt there.
Oh yeah.
I'm, I'm excited.
I'm excited to check it
out.
All right, man.
Well, good luck.
Great talking to you, Zach.
Thank you.
Great talking to you guys.
Appreciate it bud.
Good kid.
Yeah, yeah.
No, I serious.
I, I've, I've like barely, that's the most, that's, that's like 50 times as much
as I've talked to him all since the fall.
'cause like he always looks so serious and locked in that I'm like,
I don't wanna mess with this guy.
Yeah.
He even looked locked in like after the games against Georgia
State and all that, so, yeah.
Yeah.
I think until that series is over, man, he is dialed in and it, it's showing up.
Like you said, he was, you know, the best hitter on the team right now,
and statistically you can't argue with it hitting, uh, was it, well,
speaking of him being the best hitter on the team.
Oh,
yes.
Oh, congratulations.
Oh, look at that.
What a, what a segue.
Look at us.
Yes, he is.
Um, he and I, of course don't have it pulled up as we do it.
He had another, I know we had three hits in that final game,
and for the week, he had, oh crap.
This is just, uh, I think I have,
I think it was five, five for 15.
He was five for
15, two doubles, three rbis, three walks, and a hit by pitch.
So another great week.
He, he really, I think he, he, you arguably could have been the
player of the week last week.
Um, I know he won at least one other time this year.
He is, he's, he's been a very consistent hitter for us.
He's, he's hitting what, about three 50 for us right now.
Yeah.
Three 50, uh, 9 91 OPS.
I mean, he's lead the team in, in, uh, doubles.
I think he's, Zach's been doing it.
And, uh, we talked about Frank Wright earlier.
I mean, it was, you know, again, wasn't a ton of outstanding pitches.
Um, Ethan Hubble had a great.
Outing in the, uh, the first game or in the, in the, the, yeah, the
first game on Saturday, but he didn't pitch as well on, uh, Tuesday.
So that kind of, to me, I, I, that's why we, we picked Frankie.
I think he, you know, again, looking like a guy who was kind of becoming
another, uh, reliable arm at a bullpen, which what really need.
Yeah.
And I think, I think that's what they wanted from Frankie to begin with.
He's a veteran guy who, you know, transferred in.
Uh, and I think he's just kind of getting up to speed now and they've, they're
gonna find a role for him somewhere.
But if he continues this trend of improving the way he's looked on the
mound, uh, that's just such a weapon for us to be able to roll out on
either Friday or Saturday, whenever, uh, and then, and potentially could
even start some midweek games for us.
But I think at this point, Finney was kind of alluding to it.
Yeah, we gotta save everything we can in the tank for these Sunbelt series.
'cause that's really what's gonna make or break us as we go down the stretch.
Yeah, we like winning on Tuesdays.
I mean, we need to get one.
We have, we have not won, uh, midweek yet this year.
Uh, but you're, that's, that's the truth.
Like I said, 21 more Sunbelt games.
Uh, let's go win those.
Yeah.
If we could start with UVA and winning a midweek, that'd be great.
But there's also a couple VCU and Richmond and I know we wanna get those wins.
And then of course, I think everyone's got the JMU series up in Harrisonburg
later this year circled, uh, which they're having kind of a similar season to us.
They haven't, they don't have nearly the strength of schedule,
but they're right there with us at four and five in the Sunbelt.
They're nine and 19 overall.
Uh, they just got swept up this past weekend, uh, losing four straight, but
I mean, Sunbelt's wide open Southern Miss seven and two, they dropped the
one to South Alabama this weekend.
You got Troy Coastal, Louisiana at six and three.
You got three more teams at five and four.
You got four teams at four and five.
Like, it's still very much wide open and I. You get hot for a couple
weekends and you can find yourself in the top three of this conference.
I like that because it is just a meat grinder, as we
always say, to get through it.
Yeah, I mean, we've, we, I think we said this all last season.
We we're gonna say this all this season.
I'm sure that at any point you can start doing the things and have the
things start falling going, and your fortunes can turn around entirely.
Uh, this is, yeah.
Well, this is a talented team.
There's a lot of talent in this team.
The, the question is, can they make it all happen at the same time?
A little bit of improvement here and there, but it'll be
a tough test against Troy.
I mean, they're ranked for a reason.
They play good ball.
We know that we're gonna see our good friend Steven Meier, who's
having a hell of a year for Troy
Hell of a year.
What was he, 360?
Where is that at?
Yeah.
Uh, we're, oh yeah, 360, 2 10 doubles.
Uh, triple five homers, 20 rbis.
He is got 16 steels, uh, 40 runs.
I mean, he, he is, uh, doing it all, which, you know, is not surprising
as long when he is healthy.
We, we've known this when he is healthy, he's a beast.
Um, I thought it was funny when we played the opening, uh, montage there
and they had the picture of Fineman.
Uh, 'cause Ryan Fineman is the court a coach of Troy now, so we get to see him.
So it's nice to see a couple of guys we know.
Um, and with a good opponent.
Yep.
Should be a, a good contest that can't recommend enough just getting to Harvard
par for one of these games this weekend.
You don't have to go to two or three if you want to, that's fantastic.
But just get out there to one.
Go support these guys.
You're gonna see some good pitching, good matchup between two really
good baseball programs right now.
Uh, I am excited.
I'll go talk to Steven for a little bit.
I won't boo him.
He went to Troy.
So I can't, no, I'm not gonna boo him.
He's great.
No, he's like,
I mean, he's, he's a guy we, we got, I don't like to boo any
of the other team guys unless they do something out of pocket.
'cause like in general, they're just college kids.
I mean, I've seen enough guys that, with other teams that ended up playing for
ODU, it's, there's no reason to do it.
Uh, some people love it.
That's not me.
Yeah, no, I'd just rather just cheer for our guys.
But
yeah,
I won't necessarily be cheering for him to do Well unless, you know.
No.
If the game's outta reach, you know, he can do, he can do well.
Oh, if he goes over for the weekend, I won't be sad about it.
You know, he can get all his hits in another week.
He is hitting 360 2.
He can stand to go O for 12, he'll be fine.
Yeah.
But if I could not see him do that amazing bat flip he had against Coastal Carolina.
Yeah.
If you haven't seen it, you need to go track that down.
'cause it got coastal worked up to say the least.
Uh, but we all, we, we know that Steve Meier, he hit some
clutch home runs for us, so
he's great.
Yeah.
Look, looking forward to seeing him.
Looking forward to seeing him play again.
Um, hope we sweep him.
Yes, that's the perfect way.
We'll.
Well, I think that'll do it for us today.
I'll appreciate all of you are listening in.
Definitely tell your friends if they're not listening.
Uh, I will see you at Harbor Park Friday, Saturday.
Yes.
Go find
Gary and ask him a lot of questions and talk to him about
all your thoughts and opinions.
I'll be busy taking pictures.
I'll get one of those deli like take a number tickets and Yes.
And get to everybody on the course of the weekend.
If
you, if you find me.
Uh, I'll, I'll be sure to point out wherever he is for you.
I appreciate your support with that cb I'm gonna let them know
where to find all your pictures.
Uh,
this, this thing came down, the one side came down about what?
39 minutes in the other side came down about when?
When Zach joined.
Oh, I actually missed the other side, but the first side fell down 38 56 if
you're keeping track at home, I think
right about when Zach.
So it's, it, I literally put it up just for this, so we gotta get a more,
a better solution, but that's okay.
All right.
So I appreciate it.
I'm gonna go try to watch, uh, Jackson, the Conwell over at Green Briar,
Christian, and uh, see some of our future.
We love it.
Awesome.
We'll see you all this weekend.
Go Monarchs.