Yeah.
Hello Monarch fans and welcome back to the Hudson Homers podcast.
We are fresh, somewhat back from the Sunbelt tournament.
Had a great time down in Montgomery.
Uh, got CB here with me as always, and Coach Finwood has joined.
Cb I know you were watching from afar, but, uh, how are things for you last week?
It was great.
I mean,
you know, uh, obviously we, we wanted some more wins, but, you
know, prior to the guys, you know, they, they fought hard that it's,
it's another top 25 win to start.
The thing was great and, uh, you know, just some of the, some of
the things that kind of happened all year happened some more.
And, uh, you know, again, I, it was a, it, I, I'm sure Finn will
tell you better than anybody.
It was a, it was a crazy and unique year and, um, these guys
really fought hard through it.
Yeah, they did.
And, you know, go when you go into a tournament.
You're trying to figure out the best way to give you guys
a chance to win the tournament.
And we just felt like we had to win those first two games to have any chance.
'cause once we got in the lose bracket, our pitching depth
was bound to catch up with us.
Right.
And the best way to win the first game was to put Ben in the bullpen and that all,
and Dylan and him threw great, you know, gave up four hits and he went four to two.
Um, and you know, we, we felt like okay, that part of the plan worked.
We got our most experienced guy who is beating Southern miss twice in
this career, going against them.
Um, unfortunately they hit every single mistake he made out of the ballpark.
Yeah.
They were a wrecking ball that day.
And.
You know, they're senior righty.
We just couldn't do much with him.
He was really good.
He is throwing the ball in a shoebox that day.
And um, you get behind by too much against a team like that,
you're gonna be in trouble.
'cause they got good bunch of good arms too.
Uh, but so, you know, and Blake was uncharacteristically a little outta sorts.
I thought, you know, mis played a bunt and had some things happen that sped him up.
So he might've been a little bit too fired up.
Um, but I know they were fired up to face him 'cause they're not dumb.
They know he beat him earlier in the year and, um, I, I thought they had a heck of
a club and you know, on that note, you gotta really tip your head to coastal.
Yeah, I was shocked.
Won the regular season and the tournament.
Uh, it's pretty impressive, but they haven't been done in a while.
Um, they just pitched great and they got timely hits and
played really solid baseball.
That, that, uh, one inning where they scored all those
runs off of, uh, Southern miss.
It's just like, yep, this is what they do.
They take advantage of those mistakes.
I mean, and it seemed like Southern miss doesn't make many, and it
was just like boom, boom, boom.
Every single one of them.
Yeah.
And then the arms make it hold up, man.
I mean Yep.
You know, the couple of those lefties they brought in, like they hadn't
even fixed in the tournament yet.
And uh, they're just, you know, I mean, two of those guys would've been
our Friday and Saturday guy right?
This year.
So, yeah, they've got pitching galore and, uh, so they, they
won it and, and deservedly felt,
yeah.
And, you know, being down there, I just wanted to take it all in.
I wanna see as many games as possible, see as many guys out there, and you
really get an appreciation for how just damn good the Sunbelt is when you go out
to the playing games on Tuesday night.
And you're seeing studs all over the place.
I mean, the kid from Texas State goes CG first game of, of the play in.
I mean, you just knew the talent level there is is different and
you could see it come through with Coastal and Southern miss.
But you know, the, the scores may look a little funny, but I, I don't think the gap
in talent there is as big as people think.
It's just that's how good the Sunbelt is.
If you're a 10th of a step below another team, they can put it on you in a hurry.
Yeah.
I mean, Marshall did that to Louisiana twice, right?
Like
Yeah.
You know, Marshall was playing real well at the end of the year.
In fact, other than our series where we beat them, they didn't
lose the series the second half of the season and swept three of them.
So, um, but it's not a mystery.
You know, you get a good coach's staff, you build 'em a nice ballpark,
you can get some good players and have, we're hoping that's a formula
for us moving forward as well.
I think Blevins is out of eligibility too, so I think that's gonna be
be it for him and the marshal.
Oh, he is got one more.
Oh, one more.
Yeah,
one more year.
Yeah.
So they, and they got all their pitching starting pitch.
They got most of their pitching back, so they'll lose some hitters, but they'll
be tough on the mound again next year.
Yeah.
Well, speaking of tough on the mound, Dylan Brown had a pretty incredible
performance to open the tournament for us.
I mean, he just looked, he was commanding on the mound.
He was intimidating, he was stomping around.
Troy was doing everything they could to break up his momentum
and it just made him more angry.
A lot of people may not know, and I only found this out because I saw
a screenshot of Track Man, there were 14 pitches that were called a
ball, that were striking that game.
And he still put up the numbers.
He did?
Yeah.
I thought the zone was really tight in that game.
Um, you know, and, and he didn't let it affect him, you know, it,
it affected a little bit of what he was doing, but he didn't let,
let it affect the big picture and.
You know, the only runs he gave up were that, um, two out single to Brian Slug.
He just was really on top.
And, and course Ben Moore came in throwing buzz, um, kinda like he did last year
in the tournament against Louisiana.
Yeah.
Very eerily similar performance.
And I saw a couple of their hitters walk back to the, the bench and,
and you know, you could see guys, hey, what that kind of thing.
They're like, I don't know.
The one guy was like, it's going like this.
It's breaking
three
or
four
times.
It's moving in four dimensions.
It's breaking the time space barrier.
Yeah.
Uh, and, and you know, he was throwing 90% fastballs.
So when he gets to going like that, that was good.
And Luke Waters had a big senior at bat, you know, off their closer.
Two outs, um, gets down two strikes, follows a bunch of pitches off,
finally gets a, a slider he could hit.
I get this, uh, two out signal.
We made it hold up.
So it was a good win for us to start the tournament out.
Yeah.
What did you think of, of that?
Uh, as Gary said, kind of the, them trying to mess with Dylan's timing,
uh, where that, that rule where the clock doesn't start until they
are actually facing the picture.
That was, at first I didn't really know what they were doing, but I mean,
it's one of those things like from a gamesmanship perspective, it makes sense.
I mean, it's kind of a little weird, but it you, anything to
throw a pitch is timing off.
Right.
Yeah.
I I thought they were manipulating the rule.
Yeah.
Because the rule says ready and aware, your bat has to be ready and aware mm-hmm.
To find that as any stance looking at the picture.
Mm-hmm.
Most people, as soon as the head turns towards the pitcher, the
picture's allowed to start pitching.
Yeah, they were like glancing at him and then looking down.
Right.
A
couple times he started and they're like, eh, and I was like, how's he
supposed to know which one's for real?
It's, it's like, yeah, the boy will cry wolf like, you're letting him
have do this and it's not right.
So, you know, it's tell the batters when they look at the picture he can pitch.
Um, you know, and, and Meyer was one of the ones that was
doing it, which was irritating.
But
yeah.
Um, Dylan, Dylan did a good job against those guys, you know,
worked his way through that.
And, you know, once we got the lead, Ben was, spin was pretty special.
I mean, I think that's the best part is that, you know, you see
what Dylan Brown's made of right there because he didn't care.
Like, yeah, it is a little annoying.
Okay.
Is it my timing?
Not exactly what I want.
Okay, but you know what?
I got this heat today.
It doesn't matter what kind of nonsense you do.
And that was, that was really cool to see.
Yeah.
And he was pitching, you know, he had, he had a good fast ball, but he had
his best fastball and he was again on.
A day short rest, you know, coming off of bounding on two days short rest.
So he'd had a few back to back weeks of not his normal schedule.
And we were thinking if we could get six out of him, you know, that'd be great.
Um, and he finished the six and he came in and said, I, I got one more.
Hey man.
When I, when guys get to their point in their career, like Dilla and
Blake and they come in and say that to me, I'm almost always gonna let
'em go 'cause they've earned it.
And I think that's one of the cool things about having that
relationship with your guys.
Like a freshman could come in and say that and I'll be like, no, you're done.
I,
you know, uh, but, but a guy like that, that's earned a right
to, to have that conversation.
Um, and so we said, alright.
I told Mike, you know, looking at the lineup, I said, alright,
he's gonna go back out.
But here's the compromise.
Ben's gonna be ready for, um, the first baseman, um, uh, what's his name?
The Troy Caval.
Yeah.
Caval, no matter what, no matter how many outs, nobody
on, somebody on, he's up third.
So Ben strikes the first two guys out, you know, come, come out and,
and what are you taking him out for?
You dummies
in the on deck circle.
And he had a co had had a couple good at bats off Ben, I think he
walked once, got hit by pitch.
Something like, um, when Ben came in, he watched him throw a couple
warmups and he kind went like this, you know, like, and of course he
struck him out in three pitches.
Set the, yeah, the tone for the rest of his outing.
And I thought it took the air right out of them.
Um, so that worked out in our favor.
And it doesn't always work that way.
And I told Mike when we took, took Dylan out, I said, you never know if it's gonna
work out or not, but it's the right move.
Yeah.
He's at 112 pitches on short rest.
He did his job.
We got a guy loaded up, ready to go.
If he does his job, we're gonna win.
Yeah.
I think,
think, I think there's another element of that too, of him getting
the opportunity to kind of walk off the mound to the ovation, like
pitching coach coming to get him.
Ben gets the last out.
I think, you know, being that that ended up being his last, his last time on the
mound for ODU, I think that was kind of a good emotional moment for him anyway.
Yeah.
That, that's a good, that's a good thought.
I, I agree with you.
That's different than just not going back out for the seventh.
Yeah.
Right.
You get to come off the mound.
The ODU fans, your teammates get to acknowledge that performance,
um, publicly, and so that's cool.
Did you realize that he, you had not had a guy reach a hundred
strikeouts since you've been here?
No.
And it's not, I don't think it's anything you guys are doing.
I think it's just a factor of guys throwing less in.
He did, he's done, he did like 20, 30 less innings than some of those other guys too.
Right.
Yeah.
Um, so he's really struck a lot of guys out this year.
Yeah.
I would've thought maybe Hunter Gregory in 21.
Yeah.
He was the last highest one.
Yeah.
Uh, yeah.
85 to 86.
A couple years in 19 and 21.
I mean, a hundred strikeouts.
A lot of strikeouts in the college.
It's a lot.
Yeah.
That's, and that's what made me start about halfway through through
the year, I started kind of looking up like, okay, he's on pace.
'cause I was like, this is a ton of strikeouts.
When he had like 50, in like 30 innings, I was like, man, this is,
uh, we, we might be onto something.
Yeah.
That's, that's impressive.
And the, um, and Blake getting the, you know, his 53rd
Yeah.
Start, um, that's pretty cool too.
That that's, that's really cool.
Yeah.
You gotta start a lot as a freshman.
You know, to get, get in that space.
Yeah.
Like you gotta stay mostly healthy obviously, too.
Um, because, you know, I was talking to like Ryan Moore, like he's, you
know, was here four years, but of course he only had like, I don't
know, 38 or I mean low forties, but did that many his freshman year.
One of his years was COVID.
Yeah, that too.
Yeah.
He only played 16 games that year, so Yeah, he got shorted.
Yeah,
that was, that was another one too with Blake.
I was like, you know, the same thing I, that you just said, like, not a
lot of guys start all four years.
Like, I'm gonna look at this, start looking this up and Yeah, it's, it's funny
when you, you know, you just, people are like, where do you find all these stats?
I'm like, I just kinda have a thought and then start finding some numbers.
Like, it's not like there's any magic trick to it.
I just, they're like, they're like, I, I have to look down year by year.
I'm like, yep, that's it.
You gotta be committed.
Yeah, be willing to dig in there.
I think we are, uh, we're gonna get some updates on some of those record
books here over the summer from what I was told, so I'm pretty excited about
that so that everyone can see it.
But, um, I, I got kind of a unique experience before the second Troy
game of being down in the dugout about an hour before you all were playing.
Got to have a conversation with, with Marron and we're just talking about
like the three starters you have this year all have just really awesome,
just kind of gritty stories, right?
You have been dealing with the migraines, trying to come back from
that, but still didn't miss a start.
You have Dylan who kind of had some ups and downs and started peeking
again at the end of last year.
Rolled that into a great season this year.
And then Blake, great freshman year injuries kind of started
coming back last year.
Came back this year.
Uh, you had three pretty tough dudes at the top of your
rotation throughout this year.
That gritted out a lot.
Yeah, they were, they were good man.
And they gave us a chance.
You know, each time out.
I wish we'd had one more 'cause I really would've liked to have seen
Ben be in the bullpen all year.
I think we'd have won.
Yeah.
You know, a handful more games.
Um, I said that the
other day too.
It's like, him out in the
bullpen would've been something special.
We just didn't have anybody step up and take that, that role.
So, um, you know, part of hindsight's 2020, right?
Like part of me goes, well we didn't win that much on Friday anyway, so
maybe we should have kept him there and just gave away prior chance.
Right there.
Those are the thoughts that go through your head, you know, right there.
And I, I, I think, but, and for Ben's career, you know, everybody wants
to see those guys be able to start.
And he had some good starts.
Yeah.
Um, not a ton of them, but he had some good starts and he finished
the year throwing, you know, uh, a couple scouts came up to me and
said, man, it really helped himself in the conference tournament.
Yeah.
Not, not just the first item, but coming back two days later and still.
Showing that kind of stuff, even though he gave up a couple hits.
Um, so I'm hopeful that that'll translate into a, you know, a better
opportunity for him professionally.
And, you know, I, I think he's a reliever.
I tell people that, ask me that.
Yeah.
You know, everybody wants to be a starter, but I think he's gonna
be really valuable as a reliever.
And I think he'll be one of those guys you could look up and see him
on TV someday, and he is going 98, 99 miles an hour from the left side.
I really do.
Um, yeah, I look about
like a, like Noah Dean where like he's been starting the minors, but I think
at a certain point they're gonna be like, all right, getting that pen.
You're in the big leagues next week.
Yeah.
That's how it happens for those guys.
Yep.
Exactly.
And he was like 97.8, 98.1, uh, in that, that second time that he came back out.
'cause I was able to kind of look over the shoulder and see some track
man, uh, from my perch up there and it was a, the track man miles per
hour were a little bit higher than what was showing the scoreboard.
I was like, man, Ben is throwing gas on two days rest.
Like yeah, that was fun to see.
Yeah, he's, he's very capable of that.
Um, and Dylan of course, I think.
Pitched himself into being, you know, I, I would, if I had his betting man
and the draft's so unpredictable.
But I think he somewhere in that four to seventh round range
and hopefully better than that.
But I would, I would bet on that.
And I think Blake certainly pitched himself into being
drafted this year with seniors.
It's always all over the place.
Like somebody might really like him and take him in the eighth round just to
save money on their sign, on their pool.
Um, he's one of those guys that's good enough to be in that conversation.
They don't do that with, not guys that are awesome.
Um, right.
So he'll or he'll be a later round, you know, later teens and,
and go with somebody that way.
Yeah.
Well it was, it was great to watch all three of them throw throughout
this year and then the conference tournament, but also just think they
carry a little bit of leadership either in the bullpen or in the dugout.
Blake specifically, I mean, I. Yeah, the next day after that, you know,
rough Audi against Southern Miss.
I mean, he was the same Blake.
He was getting guys fired up, getting guys ready.
Like there was no drop in his demeanor attitude at all.
No, he's, he's awesome man.
That kid been through so much, the highs and the lows and through it
all he, he's just bled ODU blue and he is the biggest fan of everybody
else when he is not pitching.
And you know, I, I could always sleep well at night no matter what happened
when I knew he pitched for us that day.
'cause I knew he gave it everything he had and I felt good about it.
And I know, um, you know, that that kid leaves here with just a really
neat story, a really neat legacy.
And I can't imagine a better guy to have leading the pitching staff and
leading our team in a year where we had to do all the things we had to do.
Like his energy never wavered.
He was always that guy and bringing it and.
Helping others be better and his, his care factor just off charts.
He's an amazing kid, you know, we'll miss him.
Uh, but he's left his mark on, on all of us.
Um, and, and I told the guys, I said, you know, you need to remember this.
Like, I'll always remember this team.
It's almost like the Junction boys movie.
Like the other teams that are gonna come take advantage of this multimillion
dollar facility are gonna do it because you guys drug your butts 14,000 miles.
Took it on ten four Yeah.
In 25.
And I'm gonna remind them of that very often, how appreciative they should be.
And all y'all come back that are leaving and come, come get in
this facility and check it out.
I, I saw something that I thought was really cool somewhere along
the line this year in the, um, in the, the office complex.
They had a board and any alum, um, could come back any baseball.
And when you came back, you signed the, you signed the board and your name and
your position, you know, year you played.
And I thought that was what a neat way to connect to the current program.
And they had, and then when they started, they had their seniors
do it, you know, before they left.
But then anybody that comes back that hasn't done it gets to do that.
And I think, we'll, we'll put that up somewhere.
I think that's really neat.
That'd be,
yeah, find a way to like, uh, make sure, make sure it stays on
the wall, it cooler and actually,
yeah, it'd be, yeah, it'd be cooler right there, you know, and people could see it
when they come in and that kind of stuff.
It'd be great if you could have somewhere in the stadium, but then anybody
would signing Yeah, signing that.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
You wanna have a little bit of a, you know, who's this Ronald
McDonald guy, right?
CB Wilkins.
Is he a
left-handed?
Yeah, I got, I'm a lefty.
This arm is fresh.
Uh, the body's not, but the arm is.
Yeah.
The neat ways to get the guys connected, you know, the, the
former players certainly feel that way, I think is always valuable.
Yeah.
Maybe Wilkins, he's got a, uh, he's a great clubhouse guy.
Trash body.
There you go.
A glue.
A glue guy.
Glue guy.
Yes.
I'll be a glue guy.
I'll, I, I can be screaming on the bench.
I can do that.
He's a glue guy.
I think we, I think we'd be on the list for the strength and conditioning teams.
We'd just be running polls all day long.
We'll
be all day long.
It might be like about 10 minutes.
We're both out.
Uh, well, Finn, you had a great recommendation on the coffee place.
I think it was Prevail Union is what it's called down there.
That was, uh, that was every morning cold brew and, uh, one of those bacon
and egg danishes they had, man, that,
oh.
Yeah, they got that cool little back area patio area.
So I, uh, sorry.
I, I found that, um, I was out for a walk one morning, uh, our first year
down there, early in the morning, and it started raining and I was just looking for
a place to duck in and get outta the rain.
And I walk in, I was like, Ooh, that smells like coffee.
So I had Apple pay, so I was like, I'm getting a cup of coffee.
And then, so now we all always, like, go in there and it's a, it's a good spot.
So it's a, you know, you, you saw it, Gary.
It's a great little setup logistically, I think for players, parents, coaches,
teams, just because of the convenience and being able to walk everywhere.
So it makes for a nice tournament.
I mean, everything is kind of right there in a little eight block radius.
Like it's a three minute walk to the stadium.
You know, you've got all the stuff in the actual hotel, which
is a really nice hotel too.
They got a spa and a conference center and all that.
But then walk right across the street and you got three or four really
nice bars, restaurants, all that.
I, I closed down Aviator a couple of nights.
I didn't know that in Montgomery last call is, is not like a
suggestion like it is in Virginia.
Like, order your last drink.
Then 15 minutes later security comes and kicks you out like you
are dumped out of that place.
Wow.
Uh, but you can open container anywhere in downtown Montgomery.
So they serve it to you in plastic cups.
You walk right out the door with it.
No kidding.
That's pretty cool.
I didn't know that.
Yes.
I thought I was being set up to like, Hey, I'm gonna walk out there and get
an open container charge in Alabama.
But no, it's, it's legit.
You get, you get thrown in one of 'em jails in Alabama.
They might never find you.
I'd be on the chain gang with cool hand, Luke.
He'd be like, where's the live stream?
We don't know.
We haven't heard from Gary in about 16 hours.
Yeah.
Garys out there.
I could have SI could've sworn a bus was driving back and we saw a guy in a
orange jumpsuit look just like a, uh, picking up trash on, on, uh, on 65.
Picking it up.
Damn boss.
Yeah.
Picking
it up.
Damn, boss.
Oh,
well I think we'll have, you know, obviously at the end of every year,
um, we were talking about before the show started, you know, you,
you're gonna have personnel changes.
Um, some are mutual, some are, you know, one side or the other and
it's just part of the business.
And as well as, you know, the incoming guys.
And I think one of those summer.
Our summer, uh, episodes could be just about the incoming guys.
'cause we don't put those out like we used to.
'cause people use it against your recruiting and all that other stuff.
So, but at some point in the summer, we usually do a press announcement
with the whole class, um, you know, including the portal guys and all of that.
So that could be a fun, maybe right after we do that, it'd be a fun,
you know, uh, uh, you know, topic for the, for the podcast as well.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, and we've heard you fans, you want more ODU baseball content outside of the
season, and we're gonna bring that to you.
So over the summer, probably do one episode a month and we'll put it out
there, let you know when it's dropping.
Uh, we're gonna do a good bit around fall ball.
We've got some ideas for that mixing in with like, the new stadium and
then rolling right into the 26 season.
So we're not gonna be done.
Uh, this is the last time we're talking about games, probably for a little while.
But, uh, we definitely want to keep things going.
We've built a, a good fan base.
It was awesome to see and talk to a lot of the parents, some of the fans
that were out there in Montgomery.
Uh, there's just, there's still a lot of good vibes in the ODU baseball program.
A lot of good people too, uh, spent a lot of time with, with Connie
and Craig Brown over the weekend.
Uh, they're some of the best.
Uh, the Brown sent Mike a really cool text and had two pictures side by side.
CB probably took both of them, but one was, he was in the Hudson Blues.
It was his freshman year, and he just looks like this scarecrow of a kid,
gangly and uh, kind of a baby face.
And the other one was from the, the start against Troy.
And he is like, like this, you know, he looks like fricking
wolverine, you know, like Yeah.
Uh, and his dad was just like, what a difference three years makes, you know?
Yeah.
Um, and that's the, maybe the, the most gratifying part of coaching to me is
seeing that transition from a little boy to a young man and seeing those
guys grow, knowing better than anybody.
'cause we've been right there with 'em.
All the things that go into that, all the hard times, all the heartbreak,
all the, the good times, all the, all the and everything in between.
And Dylan went through a lot of it, man, like his first two years.
Mm-hmm.
Struggles until the very end of his sophomore year.
Um, but he worked his butt off in the summers and just got better.
You know, he just got better and better and better.
And he became, you know, one of the better pitchers in our league this year.
And, and he was good just about every time out.
You know, the, the really, the only time I think he was bad was probably at Auburn.
Um mm-hmm.
Two reasons for that.
One, they're national four C with the second best.
RBI comes, and two, they had his pitches, he was tipping his pitches,
and so that had something to do with it.
Um, but other than that, man, he's been lights out and
what a, what an amazing kid.
Um, great family.
He's, he is just so solid in every aspect of his life.
He is just a really, really reliable human.
Um, he, he, he, you know, he is got great habits, personal habits.
He cares about all the right things.
He is the guy.
If you had a daughter you'd love for her to marry Dylan Brown,
he'd feel like best as a parent.
Um, and so he is just a joy to coach.
And all three of those guys were in many different ways.
Um, you know, sometimes you say something to Benny, he kind of looks at you crossey
and sideways and he, he's super smart too.
They just have a different way of, uh, yeah.
Communicating.
Um,
I wanted to ask, 'cause I, I wanted to ask his, uh, because I saw his, his
girlfriend in the game, I wanted to ask her like, is he emotional with you?
Because like, I was, I got a really great shot at the last game of war Memorial
of Ben coming off the, or of, of Dylan coming off the mound and that war.
He's like, he's like beating his chest and like, and, and Dylan had like a,
or uh, Ben had a huge strikeout and I'm like hoping for the same thing.
He's just kinda like walking off.
I'm like, is he, I be like, is he get emotional?
I hope he gets emotional with you.
'cause he's not happening on the baseball field.
Yeah,
no.
Sometimes you would wonder if Ben knew what the score was.
That be that can be a good thing.
That can be great.
Yeah.
But he, he was just a very stoic personality kinda guy.
And, and maybe that helped him through this year with all the
difficulties he had to go through.
Um, with the, with the stuff in his, in his head and the
headaches and all of that.
So, um, I'm, I'm really proud of him.
And then Blake was the, the more outgoing, you know, rambunctious guy
and always in the best ways, like always pumping his teammates up and,
you know, getting the guys fired up, uh, for us when he was pitching, you
never tried to show the other team up.
He did it the right way, always.
And I was always appreciative of that.
Um, and, and how he went about his business.
And I think all those guys like deserve to keep on playing and I'm very, um,
bullish that they will get a chance.
Um, and I know everybody's gonna be paying a lot of attention, you
know, in another month, five weeks or whenever the draft is in July.
Um, it's like a hundred years
from now.
It used to be like, yeah, beginning
of June used to be like next week and now it's, yeah.
Yeah.
Now it's like a lull before the storm.
But I hope those guys all get a chance.
Yeah,
and I think about on the position player side too, you know, with like Kyle
Edwards, I think he had a really strong defensive game in the Sunbelt tournament.
He hit the ball hard.
He just, I feel like he was hitting it right at everybody.
Uh, you know, Tahraun, I know, you know, he had the one year of eligibility,
but they made a pretty good duo up the middle 40 once that settled in.
And you know, Luke and Wright is another one I think of.
Yeah.
And Luke, Luke, Luke ended up his last month.
He kind of got back to being himself, but he had a tough year overall,
and you just never know if those guys press a little bit too much
trying to play professional baseball.
We warn 'em all against it.
Um, always in some listening and some don't, you know, the guy
that had the best year for us
offensively was Leite
Zach Leite
Yeah.
I mean, you look at all his numbers, like, and the thing with him is
his, his walks to hit by pitches.
Uh, were even with the strikeouts for the year.
And that's, that's a really telltale sign of a good hitter.
Um, yeah, he used freebies with just as much as his.
Strikeouts and, you know, he started the second half season.
We, we do the first half, second half splits.
Um, just to get a feel for what guys are kind of what direction they're moving in.
And his second half was marketly better than his first half.
Um, which is what you wanna see in the new player.
Like he's figuring it out.
Um, I'd like to see the power numbers go up, uh, next year.
And I think they will.
He's gonna stay here this summer and really hit the weight room
hard and get himself, uh, stronger.
And I think, you know, and back playing at the bud, the power
numbers will go out anyway.
Go up 'cause the ball, you know, jumps out there a little bit more these days.
So, and who knows how much that.
Heard our home run numbers, you know, playing the six games at
Arbor Park definitely didn't help.
No.
Yeah.
And, and
memorial's not an easy place to hit out of, especially when No, it's hot.
Yeah.
So I, I think, um, you know, getting back to your home field and be much more
comfortable and understand what the wind does there and all, that'll be helpful.
And Zach, but Zach had a good year, Jorge, I think Kainen gonna have a much
better senior year than junior year.
You know, he hit two 80, but he struck out 84 times and walked 30 some five,
and I is over half of his at bats.
Uh, the ball wasn't put in play.
Yeah.
So I'm looking at, you know, that, that number batting average on balls
in play, it's usually a pitcher's number, but his batting average when he
put the ball in play was really high.
Um, he just gotta put in playmore and so I think he started becoming
a little bit too pole happy.
Um, Maverick Stallings, Matt and I are laughing about it today
'cause I didn't, I, his first half, the second half were like
completely different human.
Did, did you guys figure out the stat?
I figured that was April 15th.
Both the last two years was his day.
Was it April 15th?
April 15th.
On April 15th.
Last year it was April 16th.
We have a game on the 15th.
That's his day when all of a sudden he turns it on.
And I, I, I think Gary and I have said if he, if he stayed in Florida
and played somewhere, he'd be an All American for the last two years.
He just, I don't know what it is.
We gotta,
he's got like, he's got like 20 home runs Yeah.
In April and May over two years.
Yeah.
Uh, and, and that's, that's incredible.
Like what?
It's crazy what he does there.
So I, I told Mav this.
I said, look, we gotta figure out the beginning of the year.
Obviously we need to figure out we're gonna do something different next year.
I said, but this year.
Like, you know, we had some other guys that could play there.
I said, you're coming back as a fifth year senior next year
you're gonna play second base.
I don't want anybody else to play there.
So if you're gonna strike out a hundred times, you're gonna do it all before April
and then you'll be fine.
So, uh, you know, it's like, it's a, it's a crazy thing.
'cause I mean, he, he can, you know, win a game for you by himself
when he gets going like that.
Um, and to think about, he, he had nine home runs this year.
And what did he hit last year?
12, 14? Yeah.
12 last year.
Yeah,
it was 12 last year.
We've got 2100 runs in two years, but not even really two years.
It's more like, uh, you know, three months.
Yeah.
It's like three or four.
Yeah,
maybe one of those last minute add-ons to the new stadium is you can build
a sauna right next to the OnDeck circle and go in there, feel like he
is, you know, at 85, 80% humidity.
Yeah.
Go in the box and just hammer away.
Keep his bats in there too.
We
gotta get him to wear like a, a heated vest when he plays like anything
to make, make him take his hot.
Or we could do the old school way.
Just put icy hot in his jock.
There you go.
Yeah.
Oh.
But he's gonna, m's gonna stay here this summer and, and work
hard, lift and get stronger.
Um, we got a number of guys that are gonna do that.
Um, rightfully so.
And, uh, much needed.
So I think we got a good core group of guys coming back.
That'll be better in another year.
Um, I think they're excited about it.
We still have some pieces to add, you know, we'll probably add
two or three more hitters and.
Three or four more arms, um, before we're done here, here this summer.
So that's, that's kind of the, the work Now I'm really excited
about the freshman class.
Yeah.
And, and everybody always says that I know, but our last two freshman
classes haven't been that exciting.
Um, and, and they haven't really done this, this year's freshman
class kind of got decimated by injuries from the mound perspective.
Mm-hmm.
Um, you know, Maddox and, and then Lanford ended up, you know, they all redshirt.
So, uh, it's gonna be eight freshmen or red shirt, freshman
pitchers on next year's team.
Um, wow.
They're all good.
Like they're all good.
Yeah.
The, the true freshman class of pitchers, there's some really good arms in there.
And now most of those guys are going to typically help you outta
the bullpen more than starting.
It's just how it usually works.
Um, so we've gotta figure out who's gonna be able to start,
you know, amongst returning candidates and, and incoming guys.
Yeah, and I think last time I checked D one baseball, there
were already 650 division one guys that had gone into the portal.
I think Louisiana and Rose's entire roster is in there right
now with the coaching change.
Like are, are you looking for those pieces in the portal or they're still,
you know, incoming freshmen that you'll be looking to throw in, get
enrolled real quick over the summer?
Yeah, it won't be any, it won't be any freshmen.
It'll be the portal guys or junior college guys.
So transfers are JUCO guys.
Yeah.
It won't be any more freshmen.
Um, and, and so, we'll we're, we're working hard on that.
That thing is six 40 now.
Next Monday there might be 6,040.
Yeah, absolutely explode.
So we're trying to get a jump on the early group that's in there,
which is mostly grad transfers.
Indoor coaching changes so they could jump in right away.
But it's, it's just crazy.
The world we live in.
Like, um, it wasn't me, one of our assistants was talking to a
guy advisor, you know, a guy that ambulance chasers, I call him.
And, and he calls us about one of his clients who was at a school
that had a coaching change.
And the kid put up pretty good numbers.
Um, we played him like, we know who he is, we're aware.
And then Guy says, I said, well, you know, we said, well, is he interested in ODU?
You know, got some interest in coming here, we might be interested.
And the first thing the guy says is, well, what do you got?
Like, what do you got?
Like, what are you gonna give him?
Like he's got this from Kansas State or this and this, and yeah.
And I tell our guys when that's the first thing that comes outta
their mouth, tell 'em goodbye.
Like, we got enough.
Yeah.
We're not interested in that.
Yeah, we're not trying to buy anybody.
We'll talk about the financial offers as a part of this, and that may
be an antiquated way of doing it, but character still matters to us.
And we want kids that want to be here for all of the reasons,
not just one of the reasons.
Um, so that's going on a lot right now.
You know, these guys are, are just shopping guys around and
trying to get the best offer.
They don't even care what the culture of the program is, uh, which is great.
Still believe
at the level we are at here at ODU 'cause we're not like a, you
know, the big power five and SECI think what you're saying is right.
I, I still think you're dead on.
Get the guys who want to be here.
They're gonna work their butts off and care about things and play hard.
And that's gonna work out and, you know, yeah, maybe five years
down the line, 10 years down the line, that's not gonna be the case.
But for right now, for sure.
I, I agree with you.
So I, I like hearing that.
Yeah.
It's just the way I'm wired to do it.
Like when we gotta get to the point where we just gotta buy 'em, then I'll take the
Tony Bennett route and say, somebody else is gonna be better at this job than me.
Yeah.
Um, 'cause I, I want to have an effect on, you know, their
lives and as much as we can.
And I want to help 'em and I want them to get something out of playing in
this program outside of the baseball stuff, um, that, that matters.
And kids come here for that, I believe.
And kids transfer here for that.
They hear about it.
They hear about how we treat guys and all those things.
And, and I think the, the kids that come here want that.
Tyler Zedalis is a good example.
We're talking today and he didn't have a good year.
Like he knows he is much more capable than.
200 batting average with eight extra basis or whatever it was.
And we were talking through that and he said, this is why I wanna be here 'cause
you guys are willing to be honest with me.
You're willing to help me work through stuff.
Um, and I'm still hopeful because it's in there.
I just think if a guy can do something, once he can figure
out how to keep doing, it's hard.
I know, but you can do it.
Yeah.
And you know, he was just very inconsistent this year, but it was
just also his first full year playing.
He didn't play at all last year in South Carolina, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so there's still a learning curve there.
And so, you know, we expect them to come back and be better and we're
gonna move 'em around a little bit.
I mean, these are all the things I think in the summer it's fun to
talk to, like we talked today about you're come back and you're gonna play
first and you're gonna play corner outfield, we're done with third.
And this will take some of the pressure off of you defensively and
you get, just think about hitting more.
Not that first base is easy.
Yeah, but it's easier than third, uh, and corner outfield.
That's all you gotta think about is hitting and just catching
what hits you, you know?
And, and, and so those are the things that I think we can do as coaches.
You know, everybody thinks it's just about mechanics.
Um, it's not, you know, you have to be mechanically solid to have, uh, you know,
con con, you know, have continued success.
But for him, it's a lot about what's happening above the years.
You know, uh, two feet above your heart, man, are you saying the right,
telling yourself the right stories.
Um, and for him, a lot of times it hasn't been like he's trying to live up to a
bunch of other people's expectations.
And I'm supposed to do this and I'm supposed to do that.
And you gotta get rid of that stuff, man.
It's just noise and garbage, you know?
All it does is just cloud up your mind, and it's still, and what it does is it
steals your joy of playing baseball.
And this is supposed to be something that you love to do.
Not for any other reason than you think.
It's awesome to get a chance to do it.
And so those are like, some of the conversations with him was about that.
And he's a fantastic kid.
Like he really is, really is uh, he's way too hard on himself.
Um, and those are things that, you know, you hope you can
help help a young person with?
Well, I mean, you hope, you hear that from a lot of your guys of like, we
want the feedback, we want the coaching.
'cause there's plenty of guys that are probably asking for money other places
that they don't want to hear that.
Like, yeah, sure you could go pay and go get a, a great power hitter to come
in and then in 10 games and he's not doing well and just shuts down on you.
He just doesn't have that mental toughness.
Like the guys that survived this season throw ODU baseball like will always be
in the toughest bracket for me, like some of the toughest dudes that come through
here because it was not an easy road in any stretch of imagination this year.
No.
Yeah, it was me.
It was metal hops Scotts,
I mean, I went on for like, you know, the Junction boys are, it should be
like the I 95 boys or the, the, I, I
like the construction kids or something like that.
Construction kids.
Yeah.
Mean we
get 'em all, we get 'em all a t-shirt this summer.
Um, and, and you know, 'cause they, they did something that's
unprecedentedly hard man.
I don't think anybody can, could understand that.
Um, and, and the next, you know, next year's team's gonna
reap, reap and the future teams will reap the benefits of that.
And, um, so we made it, you know, that's what I, I woke up, I woke up the other
morning and went, I'm always a little sad when the season's over and I, yeah, sleep.
I sleep a lot for about two weeks.
Uh, my wife Annette used to say, hi, hibernate.
It is like a bear you.
You know, in thinking about it, you know, it was much more difficult than I, than I
anticipated, um, physically for all of us.
I'm sure family-wise, it was really difficult for, you know, the assistant
coaches, uh, their wives and kids and, you know, I've told 'em all,
y'all need to take your wives on two vacations this summer and walk out.
Uh, and another, another part of the summer, you know, the things
we do is you never know if you're gonna have any coaching changes.
I mean, that's a, something that's a possibility every summer, uh, especially
when you got a good, well-respected staff.
So, you know, we had one last year with Ryan Feynman going to Troy.
Um, you just never know when that's gonna happen, so you always, you
know, have your ear to the ground trying to help help guys out.
And I've always been of the mind of if it, if, if it feels like a good
move, then I'm always encouraging.
Our guys into it because you get into this business to keep moving up,
to try to be a head coach someday.
I'm not in the business of trying to hold you back from that.
Um, we wanna support that and make sure you're ready and moving in
the right direction towards that.
Carl, not a maker and I were talking about that today, like he's
still ready to be a head coach.
His problem is a place where it's too good of an assistant job.
Yeah.
He makes more money than all the head coaches that would try to hire him.
So he's,
yeah, I remember he, because he is been there, what, like seven, eight years now?
Since 17, yeah, eight years.
Yeah.
So I remember at a certain point I was like, oh, I think Carl's
just gonna be at Auburn because like you just said, it's too good.
Yeah.
You know, Butch probably got four or five more years left,
I think, before he retired.
And um, maybe Carl stays down there and can take that over or something like that.
So they keep doing well.
He deserves it.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
So he's excited about it, but yeah.
Yeah.
Well, that's great.
Funny, I think CB was gonna, was gonna ask you about how long does
that hibernation last for you?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
That was, yeah, that was my, because that
was just a question I, I was thinking, I was like, how fast does the switch go?
Because I know you guys are recruiting all the time, you know?
Yeah.
I mean, you have and all, but, but how fast does the switch go from like,
okay, season's over now I gotta really get after it, you got here and make
sure we got this team for next year.
Is it like the second you hit the bus?
Or like I said, you a couple days back home?
Well,
no, I think it, I think it even starts before that cb like,
we start talking about it.
I, I think you're thinking about it constantly and some part of you.
Yeah.
All right, what's this gonna look like next year?
This kid, where's this kid gonna play next year?
He is playing here this year, blah, blah, blah.
But I think in, during this, this time period where we're trying to
recharge the, we're finishing up our exit meetings with our current guys.
You're, you know, I got, I got a couple calls when we get off here with.
Some potential portal kids, um, to fill 'em out.
And so things like that, um, it never really stops, you know,
I just don't do much else other than sleep and drink tequila and,
uh, think about next year's team.
About two weeks about
baseball.
Yeah.
Say, yeah, you just, you just wanna bring those prospects right here on the show.
I mean, I think we could probably pressure into commitment right here on the spot.
Yeah.
We might have to do that.
Yeah.
A couple of these guys, we might need to pull their, pull their toes a
little bit, get 'em, get 'em locked in.
So, hey, they forward
man.
We, we'll make it happen
as we move into this farther.
I do think that'd be a good, you know, potentially June.
July, you know, topic to cover is, you know, this year's recruiting
class and who's signed and, you know, those kind of guys,
we love it.
'cause you know, I mean, I keep, I was just looking at my little list
I have on my phone of all the, the guys that I know of, you know, and
so it's always, I'm, you know, you know me, I'm all, I'm all about it.
So I'm, I'm, I'm all for it.
Yep.
It doesn't take long for me to go from the switch.
I'm like, yeah.
Like you said, it's, it's sad.
It is.
You know, these, you'll never have this group of guys together again.
But it's also like, okay, but now we get to look at, know, go forward.
Yeah.
It always is, man, that, that team Yeah.
Number whatever number team it was that year, um, it's over, you know?
Yeah.
And all the good, the bad, the ugly, whatever it was, it's done.
When it's done, it's done.
That's maybe the hardest thing about sports and certainly
baseball such a long year.
You know, we play from the fall and practice and then.
Go all the way through almost June.
And then when that last game hits, you know, you're in some sort of
double elimination tournament usually.
Yeah.
You lose and it's just done.
Like
Yeah.
Donezo, it just happens abruptly.
That last outs may I, when Luke grounded out there to, to end the season,
you know, I walked over and shook hands and I said, well, that's it.
Um, yeah.
And it, and it, it's, it is a, that sudden realization is I think what
gets guys in the, you see the tears at the end of the season Yeah.
And all that, but that, that's good.
That just means they're not psychopaths.
They care about something.
They're humans.
Right.
Yeah.
And they have some empathy and it meant something.
Yeah.
Um, and so I, I, I actually think the tears are, are always a good thing,
even though they're hard to see.
They, they mean the right stuff, you know?
Yeah.
The kid who's agent is asking for money in the portal probably, isn't he?
He probably wasn't shedding any tears when the season was over.
Right?
No, exactly.
Yeah.
And if you, if you've invested in it, there probably should
be some tears at the end of it.
Yeah.
If you're really into it and you put yourself into it and everything you had,
and so did all your teammates, well, you don't get to play with 'em anymore.
And that can be a, a little bit of a harsh reality.
Um, and so I, I think, uh, you know, I had a little moment like that
just talking to, to Kyle Edwards.
I mean, I've known Kyle since he was 15.
Yeah.
And yeah.
You know, we've got a long way back man.
And I just told him I'm proud of him.
He did a great job of being a leader and I think he's gonna be a fantastic coach
whenever he decides he's done playing.
Um, I was just saying,
when we get him on the coaching staff That's, I was gonna ask a few minutes ago.
We kind
forgot.
Yeah.
I. Well, if he doesn't get a chance, like guess the deal or something like
that, I think he will want to get right into it and we'll, we'll certainly
find room for, for him on our staff.
I
love it.
Yeah, I love it.
That's what it's all about, man.
I, I, which I'm a huge fan.
I, I love, you know, you guys bring back guys like, uh, like Keane and, and um,
and Ryne Moore and, and Pond and have those guys that in Trujillo last year.
And I think it's so great to have those guys that, you know, and, and some of them
decide Tommy Bell and some of 'em decide, you know, they do wanna do and they don't.
I think Trujillo is a fireman now, which is great.
You know, it's, and so, and some of them, you know, decide they do wanna do it.
So I think it's, it's, it's great to give 'em the opportunity Man's.
I think it's really cool.
Yeah.
I, I like having our former players as young assistants 'cause you get
to help them grow, keep growing up and then they, they can keep giving
the message 'cause they've lived it, you know, you bring in a new guy.
There's a little bit more of a learning curve there.
I think so, yeah.
Um,
yeah.
Yeah.
So, we'll, we'll, um, we'll, we'll get to work on the staff and who's
gonna stay, who's going, I know, you know, some of these young guys,
you know, are hopefully gonna get opportunities in some other places,
and we want to help encourage that.
All right.
Well, we appreciate it.
I know, uh, like I said, we're gonna, we'll do this about
once a month, but yeah, I know.
It's been such a, such a blessing.
This, I mean, really it is been such a blessing having you on everybody.
It's, this is, yeah, I, Gary and I have said, this is like the highlight of
our weeks, a lot of weeks hanging out, talking to the podcast, and it's, I
know, I know the fans who've listened to it have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Um, you know, 'cause number one, just the, the, the information and the access and
the, and just the knowledge of things, but just, and also you're a fantastic guy and
I always just enjoyed talking to you, man.
So I, I, I appreciate everything you've done for us this season.
Well, I feel the same way, man.
I feel I'm very grateful that you guys have allowed me to come on this and.
Kind of, we switched gears on the Extra Finnings podcast and I had so much
more fun doing this with you guys.
Um, I think the first year, I forget, Tim Wentz, I think was
the host for the extra fitting.
We had a blast, but I never had that much fun with it until again, and
you guys are both baseball guys and ODU baseball guys and it's been fun
to get y'all's perspective and I appreciate y'all's honesty and candor.
'cause I like to hear it.
You know, I, I, I, I do.
And I, I like to hear, um, a fan's perspective, somebody that
knows the program's perspective.
You guys wanted the guys on here as part of it.
I thought that was cool.
Supporting that and all of it is, has helped, especially in the year
where we weren't here, you know?
Yes.
And I think it helped people.
Stay, feel like they could stay a little bit more connected to the program,
even though they couldn't come over to our stadium and watch us play.
Um, and so hopefully it'll get 'em back next year.
We'll keep getting 'em fired up
and Yeah.
Um, be back playing at the, we're not gonna be able to call the bud anymore.
It's call the LI guess.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, um, but we're so grateful to Dennis Elmer and his family for
that, and it's still coming along slow right now, but that's the way
it is when they're underground.
So, um, yeah, I saw a giant elevator shaft.
It looks like they're digging down to China.
I. Down there.
Uh, interesting.
But, but once it starts going up, man, it's gonna be super exciting.
So can't wait for that.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
The, uh, the elevator actually goes to where the thermals come up for
Mav Sauna that we've just gotten.
So that's where it is.
There we go.
Multi, multi center of, yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
And when we get, when we get closer to that too, like we could
have an episode where we live.
Do it from, from, yeah.
From the new stadium.
Uh, or different rooms.
Different places in the new ballpark, the press box.
The heck.
Yeah.
The lounge, the coaches place.
I, I think giving people access to that can't do anything.
The, the stands, you know, the chair backs, uh, yeah.
You give people access to that.
Can't do anything but help.
Maybe peak their interest and them out there.
And we got a fantastic, there you go.
I'm all
for it.
Like we're, we're playing a bear of a early season home
schedule next year, so, yeah.
Um, it's gonna be, can you remind us of that again?
Just Yeah.
So early it's, um, I know three of the first four weekends are Charlotte
comes back, uh, we ended up finished second in the, in the a, a C.
Yeah.
Uh, this year, uh, we've got UConn and Northeastern.
Northeastern's got what?
29 game winning streak this year.
Longest in the country.
And they're like, what, 47 and nine?
Um, yeah.
And then I, I forget who the third one is.
I, I, I can't recall.
It's open A weekend is, um, not those three.
Those are the next three.
Was it Penn State?
I think that's 27.
Yeah.
Okay.
Next year I'll have to, yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll have it.
Hold on one second.
I can get it right here.
Y'all fill some,
oh, so you'll, you'll know by the Tampa season rolls around.
We know that.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Uh, it is,
uh, let's see, 26.
Uh,
the suspense is killing us.
We've all, we've turned in, we've turned up our volume.
I was a
little bit wrong, so, so it's, um, Northeastern's in 27.
So Kent State, Niagara of Charlotte UConn.
All right.
And then we, and we go, go to open up conference play at Troy.
So first four weekends at home, uh, go to Troy, then App State at home, go to
South Al, then Southern miss at home.
That's Easter weekend.
Go to Marshall, Georgia at home.
Go to Georgia State, Arkansas State at home, and then finish at Coastal.
Oh, the coastal bookend here.
Yeah.
So we miss, we miss, uh, we miss Louisiana and Texas State.
And who else on that side?
Um, Monroe.
Did we ever play Texas Monroe?
We missed Monroe too.
Yeah.
Played Texas State last year.
Oh, we did?
Okay.
Yeah, you're right, you're right.
Yeah.
Down there.
So couple new to Arc State back on.
Um, yeah.
South th and Troy, miss South th this year.
Um, so yeah.
So good schedule.
There you go.
There we go.
Good.
I'm gonna go, I'm gonna watch this back and run it all down for myself.
There you go.
Yeah.
Write it down.
So, uh, all right guys.
Well thank you so much.
Thanks for everything this year and we'll see you this summer.
Alright so much, Finn.
We appreciate it.
Come on.
Go.
Monarchs.
Bye.
Yeah
man.
Alright, we will be, uh, right back break.
Yeah.
Look at you.
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episode of the Monarchist podcast is brought to you by
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Their mission is to elevate the experience of student athletes through name, image,
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You can reach out to us directly or go over to the pride of odu.com.
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And go Monarchs.
All righty.
Well, that was awesome to have Coach Finwood on here
to put a nice bow on season.
What a joy.
Every, I mean, I'm not, not even a hint of exaggeration, like what a absolute, uh, I
never say this word, but what a blessing.
Just, just phenomenal.
Just great to have him on every week That does it.
And I'm looking forward to he, you see, right there, he's giving us ideas.
I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have thought of like taking a live
tour walking around the stadium.
Like, that's awesome.
We're we're definitely doing that.
The second we're able to.
That's so cool.
Yes.
As soon as ODAF lets us in that facility, we will be, uh, we will
be in there getting That's awesome.
Getting pictures.
Live stream, whatever.
Yeah.
We've got some fun ideas.
We're kicking around for fall ball.
Um, 'cause I'm gonna get something off of my plate that'll free me up a good bit at
the end of the summer, end of the fall.
Sure.
Um, so yeah, so we're, we're pumped for what's ahead.
Obviously looking back on this season, you know, record wise, we knew it wasn't,
wasn't gonna be pretty, but we did check off a lot of things we wanted to do.
Right.
We, we wanted to be 500 better in the conference.
Got it.
15 and 15.
We were a top seed.
And let me tell you, watching those two playing games on Tuesday, I'm so
glad we were not in either one of them.
Uh, 'cause it was, yeah.
You had two teams that were, are in a knife fight in a phone booth for
those games, is what it felt like.
And, and you saw what happened.
I mean, Finney nailed it where we, we had said it too, that if you didn't
win the first two, your chances were really gonna go downhill.
And we saw that.
So if we had to play a play in Game man, it was gonna be rough.
Yeah.
I mean, none of the play in teams survived.
I. They, they both went oh and two after that.
Yeah.
Uh, the teams that played in the championship were both the
teams from the winner's bracket with coastal and southern Mist.
Yeah, they had that one.
It, it really went chalk.
Really did.
I mean, it came down to like, was it 1, 2, 3, and four were
the top, uh, final ones, right?
Yeah.
We were one of the few upsets, like to go six feet and three.
And, and you know, that was really behind a lot of good
pitching and some timely hitting.
Like Luke getting that bases loaded, two out single and the left was, was huge.
I somehow got the best video of that, even though it was being broadcast.
I don't know how that worked.
Yeah,
the broadcast missed a few.
There were, there were a couple.
I mean, I always say I, I don't expect to see it situation like this, but
during the year I always say like, look, they just got some student intern that
has never seen a baseball game before.
It's like, that's why they're missing plays.
But I didn't expect a few of those.
There were, there were a couple plays, there was like a play at the plate,
I think where, um, where Evan got the guy at the plate against Troy.
Yeah.
And like they had no good angle on it.
Like they didn't even have it on the screen at all.
It was just like, come on guys, this is your conference tournament.
Like, get somebody out there.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm sure there was some fatigue building in there too
and it wasn't exactly cool.
Yeah, but it was not as hard.
Well shout out
to their announcers too, man.
Those guys did every single game.
Like, I love baseball, but like, I was like, I was counting, I'm like,
by a certain day I'm like, they've done like 15 baseball games and like.
Five days.
Like this is a crazy amount.
And they were right on.
I mean, they, yeah, you have the occasional kind of announcer,
like baseball, like, ah, we're talking about wacky stuff.
It's not baseball.
But for the most part, they were pretty locked in.
It was, it was impressive.
Yeah.
I mean, uh, if I could have found them there, I would've given
them a nice handshake, but I'm pretty sure they weren't in my
You couldn't, but they were in
the booth.
You couldn't find them.
Uh, they probably slept in the booth overnight.
Well, booth.
But I don't think they were geo-located with the tournament.
So there's Oh, really?
Is that what it was?
It, that's what it
appeared to be.
Um, that's weird.
Okay.
I don't think they were there.
Uh, that's fairly common.
That's fairly common these days.
They don't travel.
Play by play, guys.
Why?
I don't know why, why a lot of the teams brought their own radio.
Um, I know Ted had a good location.
He called all of our games on the radio side.
It was good to see Ted out there.
Really pumped to have him back.
Um, but like Southern miss, literally there's a media
perch down the left field line.
It's up on a second level, which is a pretty cool part of the ballpark.
Good views, good picnic spot.
I, the radio guy for Southern Miss for the first game, literally just
sat in the first booth up there.
I was just watching it calling the game and I'm sitting right
behind him the whole time.
So it was curious because there's not that many spots actually
in the press box there, right?
Yeah.
When they taking the scoreboard operator, official score home
visiting sids, all that, like all the media was down on that perch.
And then we had two suites where we could kind of do post game.
Um, so it was, it was an interesting setup.
But the ballpark itself is actually pretty cool.
Like if you saw any shots of it, they incorporated a lot of the old
warehouses in receiving houses to make it look like those were the suites and
the upper levels, which I thought was pretty cool and kind of fit in with.
Kinda right there in Montgomery where the stadium is.
But um, yeah, it was, it was an experience.
I will say it was sad when we lost second time to Troy.
Yeah.
And not, I think I, I think I told someone from Troy this, it
was like, it's not, I'm not sad.
'cause they lost like you lose in baseball.
Yeah.
It happens.
But it's like, I'm going back and thinking I've just watched a lot
of these really awesome dudes put on the uniform for the last time.
And that's, that's what gets you, that's what gets you in the fields, man.
Like, going back to like, oh, was that Luke's last bat?
Was that Kyle's last bat?
Yeah.
When Ben gets pulled outta the game there at the end, it's like right.
The last time you see Ben, it's just when, and like for Blake,
you know, having probably one of the worst games of his career in his last game.
It's like, and it is such, and I, and I had shared, you know, that
that graphic about his, um, breaking the, breaking the record that day.
And he sent me a message, like he was like, Hey, thanks cb.
And I told him, I like, I'm proud of you.
I was like, I'm just proud of the guy.
Like yeah.
And so you're right.
It's, it's, uh, it is tough when you just know that's the last time.
And, and, and some of the guys, you don't know, some of the guys, you know, that
you, you liked and you enjoyed and you just, you don't know that it was the
last time you'll see 'em, but yeah, so that's, college sports are like that, man.
It's, it's crazy.
It's, you, you know, it's the one thing, you know, we professional sports, you
know, you'd never really know a guy could play for 20 years for his team,
but you, with, with the college sports, you, you have an idea, you know, like
this guy only has this much time.
He can play.
And even though they do all these weird things where suddenly they have
more time, some of 'em, but, you know, for the most part you have an idea.
Like, this is it.
So even with that, it's still like, it's a bummer.
Like, it's like, like he was saying, like I've, I've known
kinda Edward since he was like 14.
Like it is, yeah.
It's wild to think like this, you know, I mean, hope, I really hope he
is gonna get a chance to play pro.
He, he's earned it, uh, whether it's, you know, getting affiliated
ball, indie ball if he wants to, but he, he's definitely good enough.
But you know, if it is the last time we gotta see him play a ball game and that's,
you know, that's, that's crazy, man.
That's, that's, that's, that's a bummer.
That's kind of sad.
Yeah.
And it's, I know it's, it is a little bit different now 'cause the age of
the transfer portal, you don't have as many guys that stay for that full four
years or five years as you used to.
Yeah.
But it almost makes you treasure the guys that have stayed here
for three plus years, even more, you get more attached to 'em.
So definitely think about that with Kyle and obviously Luke, Blake,
Dylan, really a lot of those guys.
Um, kind of, kind of the dying breed in, in college these days.
But, uh, sad but excited for the future.
I mean, we're going into an off season.
We're gonna have a new ballpark.
Uh, sounds like from Coach Finwood said we got a good core guys
that are gonna be returning, uh, at least on the office of side.
Some guys come back from injury that I think we could have desperately
used in the bullpen this year.
Yes.
Yeah.
Um,
so a lot, lot to look forward to.
But one way fans can help with that is dollars for dingers.
I can't remember if this is, this has gotta be the fourth year.
'cause the first year we did it was after the 21 regional that we
hosted in Columbia, south Carolina's, where that, that came from, I think.
Right.
I think it's 4, 2
3 each or four, five.
Yeah,
it's four.
Yeah.
So know we've, we've done anywhere from like five to 10,000 was dollars
was, that wasn't me judging you.
That was me showing everyone how I can't count.
I you'd use my fingers,
I just guessed.
'cause I just 25 minus 21 Hope.
That's right.
Um, see, that's,
that's way, I don't have that many toes.
I can't do that much math.
Those too many high numbers for me.
Yes.
Well we, we ended up with 46 dingers on the year.
So if you wanna stick to the true dollars for dingers 46 bucks, uh, we're
gonna get that all set up with OD DAFs.
If you wanna be a cheap
coward, you could do it that way.
Yes.
But there are plenty of other stats.
Even if you're maybe a more negative fan, maybe you donate a
dollar for every person that we walked or hit by a pitch this year.
Yes.
Uh, if you really wanna see some improvement, uh, but there'll be a
couple different options on there.
Obviously you can donate whatever you want.
Yeah.
But we're gonna do it through OD DAP at Finney's request, I
think donate for, uh, strikeouts for how many guys we struck out this
year, which I don't know why my, my stats aren't even showing it.
Uh,
you can make it easy with Dylan Brown's numbers alone.
Yeah, I mean, you could, you could just do, Dylan, you'll strike
102 strikeouts for Dylan Brown.
That's a great one.
Yeah, we, there's all, there are kinds of numbers, so, we'll, we'll get you
some options, but I mean, at the end of the day, it's going to the team,
it's going to help the program, it's going to help these guys and, and, and
make it a place where, again, we want those, those guys that want to be here.
You know, I I, I love hearing that from Finn that like, look,
we don't have any for you man.
We don't have, this is not the football team.
It's not the basketball team.
You come here right now 'cause you wanna be here and you want a chance to play
ball and be in a, be in a great place with some great people and do some good stuff.
And if that's not what you're into, cool man.
Plenty of spots for you, go somewhere else.
No problem.
No, no hard feelings.
That's where you wanna be, you know, again, you're not really like that.
I mean, that was the thing we, we talked about there.
There's a guy, um.
I'll say that was Canon Peoples.
He's a guy.
He, you know, a few years ago, he, he's with Tennessee now.
He went to, he, he flipped on us without really telling anybody
and decided to go to NC State.
And, you know, I love Finney's opinion about that.
It was just like, Hey, I always want guys who wanna be here.
It's like, I wish you made nothing, nothing bad against, he is a good kid.
I, I know the guy, he, I was still root for him, but it's one of those like,
you know, he wanted to go places for money and hey, he was on a national
championship team last year, so, you know, things worked out for him.
Um, but at the end of the day, it's like, we want guys who wanna be here,
you know, so I'm all for it, you know?
So now, now people might, you know, complain or whatever, but I, I think
at the end of the day, I think if you build with a bunch of guys who
wanna be here, it's gonna be better.
The team definitely comes together more.
You feel it more like I, baseball guys just spend way too much time together.
For someone to be that like outlier, that's only there for money.
Yeah.
Like, you're gonna get out so fast.
It's to be the guy where you
like, Hey man, you know, we need to work harder.
It's like, what?
You must like what I do, you gave me X amount of money.
And it's like, bro, shut up.
Like nobody, you're,
you're hitting a buck 10.
Go have a seat.
Yeah.
Like, exactly.
Like, and that, and that's the other part too is then you end up, you know,
if you're a team who doesn't spend all that money, you know, if you're, if
you're LSU, you can bench some guy, you're paying a bunch of money too.
'cause you're paying, the guy you're bringing up is paying,
you're paying a bunch of money too.
And you know, if, if DU baseball was paying some guy, he might
be the only guy ever paying.
Um, yeah.
So you're not mentioning that guy.
So you don't want that.
You want the meritocracy, you want the guys to earn it
and fight for it and have it.
So I, again, I. I'm all for, I've always said, I'm all for the NIL in
the sense of guys getting their money.
I'm not really for like the paying for play.
That's not what NL was supposed to be.
I, I think the transfer portal's great.
You should be able to move wherever you want, whenever you want.
I think you should be able to go and like, do commercials and do, do uh,
you know, do camps and things and get paid off your name and likeness.
But then when it became like paying players to pay, paying players to play,
uh, that was, that was a bad thing.
And, and you can see with all the mess that goes on every year.
So, but we are there, we're not going back.
It's not, it's not, you know, genie's not going back in the bottle.
So we're gonna enjoy a few more years before we, as we can avoid that in
our, in our nice smaller school here.
Yeah.
'cause it's what I
like.
It's more like real sports.
It is, and I think the majority of our league is in the same
boat as us when it comes to NL.
Yeah.
Like there's a huge gap in NIL between like the power four in the group of
five in football and, and basketball.
Right.
We know that's big.
Yeah.
It's an incalculable gap between the power conferences in baseball and
like the group of five in baseball.
Crazy.
Like it is, it's a difference between, yeah, here's a bag
of peanuts and a Coke and like here's a hundred thousand dollars.
Like the, there's, yeah, I think we were
down in Auburn, I think we were here and it was like 2 million for their NIL.
Yeah.
And then we were at, um, Southern Miss, I think it was like
250,000, which, you know, again.
Peanuts compared to to diamonds.
But then 250,000 compared to our zero is is a lot.
Yeah.
And you know, that's, that's likely gonna change for us.
We're not gonna be at that zero marker.
I don't, I don't actually, we may not even be at that zero marker right now.
Uh, but no, it's not gonna be a, we're never gonna have a $2 million
in IL budget, like hyperinflation.
Sure.
I'll bring in a wagon
to
go buy milk.
Right.
Um,
and again, I, and I think, you know, I think that paying guys.
Paying tuitions and things is different than paying players.
And just again, let's get some guys who wanna be here.
So I, I like hearing that affinity.
I like the idea that if that's the first thing a guy says,
like, all right, we're done.
Have fun, good luck.
You know, again, no hard feelings that what you're draft or drafter, that's fine.
It's just not, we wanna find guys who are right for us.
And, and that's one of the things I think we've done a lot.
I think, you know, we, that was a joke a lot in the fall about like, well, we
just have a lot of nice guys who happy to be happy to be good at baseball.
And I think a few times with the joke I'm like, maybe we're too, too nice of guys.
We're not as good enough at baseball.
But, you know, I think it's, that's not true, obviously.
But, um, you know, it's, that's, that's a good place to start from,
to me is let's get some good folks and we're gonna play some baseball.
That's the part's gonna work itself out.
We have some good kids in our program, really great people.
You hang out with them for four or five days In Montgomery, I, I
didn't even realize this, like my hotel room was in the middle of Odus
Block, and if you would've told me that beforehand, I'd be like, oh,
well, shit, I'm not gonna sleep ever.
But instead, like just everyone was saying hi, it was quiet.
I was right next to Dylan Brown.
So I'm glad that the first night I was there when the AC went out in the hotel.
Uh, I wasn't too loud 'cause I would've, you know, probably
ruined his night's sleep and his day was more important than mine.
Uh, but no, just good kids, good parents, a lot of good people in the program.
So when the dollars for Dingers comes out here towards the end of the week,
uh, od DAF will promote it, put it out, pick a stat that meets your budget.
How about that?
There's plenty of 'em out there in baseball.
Pick one that your budget, show your support and just start getting ramped up.
'cause
Yeah, and share, share it when you, when you do it, you know, share.
Like, Hey, here's what I donated, here's why.
Here's the stat.
It was, you know, it was Dylan Brown strikeouts.
It was team home runs, it was home runs plus stolen bases.
It was, uh, team Strikeouts.
That'd be, I mean, that'd be up over 400 and some dollars.
I mean, go, you know, whatever it is, let us know.
'cause that's cool.
That's fine.
We wanna see like why you chose that.
Um, but yeah, like I think it's a great one.
Pick, pick your budget.
Yep.
Make hundred
And, and even if you're, you're not a spot to donate.
Retweet it Like it.
Share it.
Yeah.
Share it.
Get, get more eyeballs on it.
That helps.
Same thing with this, with this podcast.
The more people that know about it, the easier it's for us.
But we have some, some fun things to wrap up.
And I think we gotta start with our usual players of the week.
Yes.
From the Sun Dollar
Players of the week.
Look at those studs.
Uh, so Dylan Brown, I mean, come on.
I mean, we know.
He was the dude, uh, six and two thirds innings, two earn
runs on a really weak blue pit.
Uh, only gave up four hits, walked one and struck out nine to give
him 102 strikeouts for the season.
I mean, what a, what a year for Dylan Brown.
Uh, and what a way to finish it off with a huge win over a top 25 team.
Um, some other pitchers who did really well this week.
I mean, uh, Ben Moore came in in relief and that actually, I, I
didn't account for Ben's other games.
I'm not gonna read his stats.
His other game wasn't as good.
That was my bad.
I got oversell.
But how about Kellen Davis?
Kellen Davis had three scoreless innings.
They probably, I think it was first three inning appearance of his, of
his, uh, ODU career, I was saying.
I don't think he think he threw more pitches than he has, and he
gained price since high school.
Uh, so three innings, no runs, one hit, three walks, four strikeouts.
So great appearance for, for, uh, Kellen who had kind of an up and down year.
I mean, so it was nice to see him finish out really strong.
Uh, and then Hunter Baes, who, you know, we all know his hamstring has kind of
had some issues all year, and he, he's.
Guy throws like 99, a hundred miles an hour, but has, has had some issues.
But he looked nasty.
I mean, you were there.
I mean, he, to me, he looked about as good as he looked all year.
He is had a couple of other appearances where it's like,
man, this guy is something else.
Also, one of my favorite guy.
I love to, I you got a chance to talk to Hunter at all.
One of my favorite human beings on the team.
Um, anything in two thirds, uh, no runs, uh, I think right having, I guess one
hit, uh, one walk and three strikeouts.
I mean, just, and looked filthy doing it.
So a lot of good stuff in the pitch.
I mean, again, you know, it's hard when you, you get run rule into the
game and you lose the other game.
But I mean, there were some still some really good pitching outings in this week.
Our only hope to come back and beat Troy in that elimination game was if
Kellen shut it down for those innings.
Yeah.
And that's a big load to put on the kid's back when he hasn't thrown that much.
Uh, but he did it.
He, he did it really well.
His stuff was working.
Troy looked very confused at the plate.
Uh, yes, hunter.
It is hard not to be excited about that kid coming back next year.
Yeah.
Because he was popping 98 on the scoreboard, so I know the track band
was closer to 99, 9, 9 and a half.
Uh, and that's on not a fully functional hamstring.
So yeah, pump for that.
And of course Dylan, uh, I will go on record and say he was
snub from the tournament team.
Dylan Brown Absolutely.
Should have been on the Alterna team.
They just did that 'cause we were gone.
That's why.
Yeah.
We're, you know, ODU is, we, until we start doing some big stuff in the Sunbelt,
we're not gonna get a lot of respect.
And even then we won't get a lot of respect because they, they have
their three or four teams they love and we're not one of 'em.
Um, so.
Hit of the week.
Uh, again, not much a surprise, right?
Really our best hitter all year.
Zach late, uh, he was five for nine, had a double a triple.
Gotta love the big guy.
Triple, uh, had the triple, uh, RBI and two walks on the week.
So another just solid all around week.
You know, again, he didn't necessarily all year do anything like amazing flashy.
He just, he gets out there, he gets on base.
Remember right there was at seven out of 11 on base.
Uh, so man, that's pretty phenomenal.
Um, Maverick Stallings, another great week for Maverick.
Four out 11, uh, had another Homer and two rbis, so we ended
up leaving the team in home runs.
I, I, I forgot to get a chance to look before we started this, but
I, it's the first time in, in a few years since we haven't had a
guy with double digit home runs.
It's been, uh, might have been like, I don't know, 13 or 14, something like that.
It's been, it's been a while, been a. Been a minute because that was,
that was the thing for a while.
That was kind of happening all the time.
Uh, but then we kind of hit a new range.
So, and again, I think, I think we've talked about, you know, the playing
the different parks factored into that.
Um, FRA Morales, uh, after coming back, after missing a few weeks, he
finally got cleared to play again.
He was three for nine for the week.
So very nice, solid week for, for a guy.
Had a great year.
Uh, Scotty Young was three for 10 with a double and RBI and two in a walk.
Um, so, and Scotty had a nice, Scotty was getting better.
His ear went on.
As he played more, he got better as I see that confidence come up.
And then, uh, Evan Holman was two for seven with two rbis and three walks.
Uh, so he had that big two run double there in the game, uh, against Troy.
I.
Zach late should have had an inside the park home run on that triple,
just, just throwing it out there.
I think he could, I think he could have had it, probably
the safe bet to stay a third.
Um, got,
gotta carry that piano on your back.
It makes it a little harder.
Yes, yes it is.
But he, he put it in the gap.
He got the third, he did his job.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, he and and Scotty are obviously close.
We know they live together.
Cali guys, all that, uh, they were.
Absolutely hilarious pre-game on the field, especially Scotty, he
had to come find me with the camera in my hand and make sure I get like
multiple fist bumps, all of that.
He was clowning me with my phone, overheated on the field
and live stream, cut out.
Uh, that's crazy.
I I know he is, got a year of eligibility left and I'm gonna be really
sad if he's not on this roster next
year.
Yeah.
I'm hoping he is back.
He like, like Finney just pointed out, he's playing for the pilot, so I'm,
I'm hoping those are all indicators.
Yeah.
We, I, I mean, again, I obviously Finney isn't gonna give us, he doesn't
know everything yet and, and guys make their own decisions, but I, I really
Scotty's a no to you type of guy and so I really, I hope and wanna believe
that he's gonna be back with us.
Yes, absolutely.
Awesome.
All right.
Which, uh, we got some, some of the year
awards to hand out.
I mean, whatever.
You can go, you know, whatever order, man.
They're, they're all, we got about four of 'em.
All right, so here we go.
That guys, what a shocker.
What a shocker.
Dylan Brown, right?
I mean, this guy, uh, I wish, I wish the lighting hadn't been so bad.
I had to do so much to make that and still don't look great.
But that's, that's the picture thing.
Uh, 'cause that was awesome that you see Dylan was just
getting after it in that game.
That was the, the last one there against Coastal.
Uh, so Dylan, he ended up the year, what was, he was five and two, which
on this, this team with our, with our win-loss record is kind of amazing, right?
Uh, he had 82 innings pitched.
Um, I need a different staffing because this isn't, gimme one second.
I'm sorry.
This thing is not showing me all the numbers I wanna see, and I don't
know why it's annoying me, but.
I was gonna say, there's two Dylan Browns, there's the Dylan Brown inside
the lines, and then there's the nicest human being ever meet outside the lines.
Yes.
It's really funny.
Then there's like
the nicest guy who was like at like a 4.0 GPA and like an engineering, and he,
he's, uh, as, as kind and humble, as nice.
He could be.
I think we were talking about one time the dugout, and I was like, man, I, I, I
bet he has like ugly feet or something.
He has like a weird gross, and then I think Hunter, our trainer was
like, he doesn't, no, he doesn't.
He's just, of course, he's just perfect all around.
He's, he's just an excellent, perfect, perfect kid all around.
Uh, yeah.
So he was five and two.
Um, had, uh, 15 games, 15 starts, uh, 82 innings, had a 4.06 CRA,
which was the best on the team.
So it was, you know, a little high.
But, you know, in college that's kind of how, just how it goes.
Um, had 102 strikeouts in 82 innings, only 26 walks.
So you're talking about, uh, 3.92 strikeouts per walk.
So almost four strikeouts for every walk.
11.2 strikeouts per nine innings.
I mean, these are just stupid numbers.
Um.
Yeah.
Uh, Dylan was, he had a 1.24 whip.
I mean, the guy was just outstanding.
He was a, he was a dog.
Like he, every time he him step up and do something big, he stepped up.
He was tough.
Um, I mean, yeah, he's, he's likely gonna be our highest
drafted guy of the season, I think.
I think there are a lot of teams looking at him under the Yankee.
Very interested in what he brings to the table.
Uh, so I imagine it's, it's gonna get scrappy there on that fourth round and
there're gonna be people fighting at the bat rack to go and draft Dylan Brown.
Uh, we had a couple other great pictures.
I mean, obviously we've been Moore.
Yeah.
Blake, we've talked about quite a good bit.
Uh, one I don't wanna leave out is Alex Hunt and what he was able to do out of
the bullpen the second half of the year.
And that he's gonna have a shot in the pros too, just with his velo.
Uh, he's got
some stuff.
Yeah.
He, he could be filthy, you know, get with the Right, right.
Pitching coach, right pitching plan.
He's gonna be in good shape.
Also, uh, spend time with his parents over the week in Montgomery.
Awesome.
As well.
So I know he is only here for a year, but, uh, definitely a memorable
guy and helped us win some games down the stretch in a big way.
Yeah.
And Ethan Hubble, where we're talking about Yes.
ERs you do.
Well, I mean, Ethan ended up, he started off, had a little bit of rough, but man,
he was, and, and, and I, I, you said, I think he got hit on the elbow in that,
that last game, that line grind back.
Yeah, he looked, he looked bad.
It was kind of the forearm, right, right before his elbow.
And Finney said that in the Postgame press conference, he came out there,
it was already the size of a baseball.
Uh, yeah.
You could see he couldn't his arm.
Yeah.
It felt terrible on the replay.
It looked like it got him right in the ribs.
And I, I hate to say the forearm might be better than the ribs, but it, you know,
he kind of collapsed along that guy hit that thing hard, but, but anyway, not, not
talking about one of his worst moments.
But, but yeah, Ethan, he really looked good, especially at the end of the year.
I mean, he was, he was really dominating and his number, he ended
up with a 4 35 era RA and 31 innings.
And he, he actually, his strikeouts per nine, he was at 13.1 strikeouts
per nine and four strikeouts per walk.
So Ethan had some of those numbers that are like really good indicators
of a dude doing some stuff.
Uh, so it's, it's exciting that he, um, you know, now I'm not gonna
say at the end of the day a guy throws like that, you know, he could
get a chance to get drafted too.
He is, he is eligible, but, you know, hopefully he's coming back to us and he
could be a, a big anchor for us next year.
I would love to pencil him in on either Friday or Saturday for next year.
Yeah.
Depending on what else.
Cool.
That's, that's him.
And, and Hunter and some other guys I think are, are gonna be fighting.
Yeah.
Be a lot of good competition for those starting spots.
'cause Yeah.
Be wide open.
They're wide open.
Go.
There's nobody returning.
It was like a, uh, yep.
We can, we can definitely have this guy in, in there for sure.
And if you're in the portal somehow bored and listening to this podcast,
if you're a starting pitcher and you're pretty good, you got a
chance to compete for a spot here.
Yeah.
And
if
you're
a good dude too, if you're, if
you're a real turd, uh, stay away.
Yeah.
Listen.
You have to stay a week with us in Montgomery,
meet the bar.
Uh, well, we talked about this guy a good bit, uh, for player of the week,
but we did exactly hit, or the year we
did.
Yeah, Zach, I mean, again, just, just outstanding.
Uh, led the team with a 3 43 batting average.
Uh, led the team with a 9 58 OPS, uh, led the team with a 4 61 OnBase percentage.
His slugging, uh, 4, 9 7 was second to Maverick Stallings, uh, let's see.
Yeah, his, he only struck out 37 times at two six plate appearances.
So, I mean, just a a, a great strikeout ratio.
Um, yeah, 33 walks and what we say, four hit by, yeah.
Three, three walks and four hit by pitches.
So his, his on bases matched his, uh, strikeouts.
Um, had 34 rbis tied for the team lead with Canon Jorge and Luke Waters.
Uh, only had three home runs, which is surprising me.
Think about like he, 'cause at one point I think he probably got
all three of those in like March.
Uh, but you know, again, he did leave the team with 15 doubles.
So it wasn't like he wasn't hitting for power.
He just, I think again, was the guy was being smart, focusing on
putting that ball in play hard.
And if it goes to the fence, cool, but if not, like, I'm
gonna hit 3 43 and do some stuff.
Um, let's see, runs, he didn't have as many runs 'cause he was driving 'em in.
Uh, but yeah, so he, he was, he was up there pretty much everything.
Yeah.
Led the team, led the team hits with 58 hits.
Um, total bases.
He was second to Jorge, so he, he was pretty much first or second
in everything and, and was just, once he, it took a couple of games.
Once he got got in there and was the first baseman you could pencil in
three, the three, four spot every game.
It was like, all right, this is, this part of the lineup is set.
We can figure out there.
I mean, you saw a lot of things kinda maneuver around it, but he was
pretty much three, four every day.
Yeah.
He, he was the anchor for the lineup all year.
I know I, I said this to you before we started recording, but
I don't remember him having in a bat that wasn't competitive.
Yeah.
Like I, I think one of the biggest bats he had all year was
actually against Georgia State.
He had like an 11 pitch walk and he fouled off a ton of
pitches in that, in that at bat.
Um, yeah.
But, um, it, he's gonna be staying in Norfolk this summer, working out, hitting
the weight room, all of those things.
We expect to have Zach back in that lineup next year, which
is gonna be a big, big boost.
Yeah.
Which is huge.
I mean, being able to say that you got him and, and we can, and Jorge
and Maverick stalls coming back.
I mean, other guys too, but just off the, the top of your head, three kind
of middle order bats who could be doing some damage, you know, obviously if, if
Maverick could figure out how to, uh, be warm the first half of the year and if,
uh, Canaan can cut down the strikeouts a lot, man, you've gotta start there.
Yeah.
That's a, that's a good core.
Three hitters in the middle of line that coming back.
One guy who unfortunately will not be back next year in a playing capacity,
potentially coaching, I don't even wanna put it up 'cause it's over, but
Kyle Edwards Defender of the year.
Yes.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, he did lead the team in errors.
Right.
But you think about he's the shortstop, you know, he, he also, the only guy who
had more chances of the first baseman was catching everything thrown over there.
So yeah, he led the team in areas, but I think he also had the highest
fielding percentage of any of the fielders, uh, on the infield.
Um, so he, you know, and, and, and nevermind the stats,
just the eye test, right?
The old, like, just watching a ball game, like who's a guy?
Pretty much any ball game you watch this year of ODU, you're gonna be
pretty impressed by what, what, uh, Kyle was doing in the field.
Like he was athletic when he didn't make plays was surprising.
Um, there are all kinds of plays where he, sometimes he'd get to
a ball and maybe he didn't get an out, but he might have saved a run.
You know, it's just, just him getting the ball is impressive.
So he, he's just one of those guys that.
And, and I remember his, like I said, I I've seen been watching him since he was
about 14 years old and he probably, when he was just entering high school, and I
remember even back then it was like, this kid could play defense at ODU U right now.
Uh, and he never, you, he, it took him a while.
I mean, we, we kind of forget he was, he didn't really start playing shortstop
until last season, uh, here at OD Yeah, he was playing some second base.
He was playing some outfield.
Uh, he just kind of, just a gritty guy doing whatever he had to do for the team.
And, and once he finally got settled in and playing shortstop,
you know, it's, it's been pretty phenomenal a couple of years for him.
He gets to a lot of balls, hit up the middle that most guys don't and
like that, and maybe sometimes that hurts him 'cause he is, you know,
actually making you play on the ball and he can't get an out or something.
Right.
But that's keeping that runner from going to second to home
from third, whatever it may be.
Yeah.
Uh, and some of the, just the throws that he has made across the infield opposite
direction of his body, going towards third base and getting guys out huge.
He saved us several runs in the tournament.
Um, like I think there's a, a couple plays in that first Troy game where.
If we have just an average shortstop there, Troy might win that game.
We go lose two and go home.
Yes.
Uh, Scotty Young, I'll say that for him too, in, in Lefty with some big catches.
Uh, yeah.
I I'm gonna miss the way Kyle glides around that shortstop position.
Man, that's, it's fun to watch him play.
We, we've had, uh, we've been very blessed for about the last decade.
'cause you can draw a pretty straight line between Kyle Edwards
and Tommy Bell and Zach Rutherford.
You, there was kind of that overlap for, so this is the first time in a
while where there hasn't been a very obvious, like, okay, next guy up.
Um, you know, so that, that feels weird to me as an OD fan.
I, I, we not real sure who's gonna be the shortstop mixer.
I know we have a, a JUCO kid coming in from Oklahoma who played
shortstop and played really well.
Will Johnson played really well out there in, in, um, Oklahoma.
I'm I gonna, I butcher the name of the school, right?
So we'll talk about him later when we know, when I have it
written down in front of me.
Um, but Will, I can remember, will Johnson's a very easy name?
Yeah.
He had a phenomenal year.
But we, we've been very blessed.
So it is, it is a odd not to have the immediate, um, uh, successor right here,
but it, so hopefully, hopefully whoever it is that comes in, if it's, if it's Will
Johnson or if it's somebody else, whoever our shortstop is, uh, keeps it going
because we, we've had some real impressive shortstops in the last 10 years.
Some
shoes to fill
there, going back a couple of generations at, at shortstop to you.
Yeah.
All right.
Our, our final end of the season award goes to F Morales for freshmen.
Yes.
Over the
year.
Yeah.
This one, you know, obviously not a ton of, um, competition, really.
We only, I think we only had six freshmen that actually played in games.
Um, it was him and then Tanner Shale and, uh, Brody.
Connor was the other hitters.
And, and they were both, they both, neither way, if you look
at their numbers, they were ugly.
Right.
I mean, both of hit.
Under 200.
Um, they, they didn't have very impress number, but I think we were talking
about this thing before we started.
I said, you, it's, it's crazy.
You look at bro's numbers and Tanner's numbers, you're like, no,
I'm still excited about those guys.
Like they, they hit under 200, like both 50 60 at bats, but they,
they look good a lot of times.
Um, and then the pitching staff, you know, uh, Jace Park.
Was the pitcher, the freshman who got the most innings.
And you know, he had, again, up and down, and he ended up
with like a, what, 7 91 ERA.
Um, but he had some really great games, had some really good big moments.
And I, I feel like, I think, you know, Finney pointed out he cut his
finger before the year, so maybe if that heals, he is further away
from that to get back to himself.
Uh, and then Cole Lanford another guy, you know, we know we talked
about he had brain surgery.
Um, so he, yeah, which is, you know, so we have to imagine he was dealing with
some stuff before, but he, he, same thing, had some really nice moments, had
some not great ones, but then, you know, well, maybe he has other stuff going on.
Um, guy, I, I love him.
I think he was a great, great kid.
I, I gotta see him pitch in high school.
Big, huge, talented guy.
So I'm, I'm excited for him.
And Will Orson only got into one game.
Um, and you know, again, he, he's been a very talented ball player.
So, uh, you know, again, not a ton of freshmen that were really
hugely impactful this year.
So it's not like, again, not huge competition, but at the same time, we
wanna point out Efrain Morales Morales because what a dog, like, what a dude?
Yeah.
This guy hit, uh, 3 0 8.
So second on the team in average had a seven 60 OPS, um, seven doubles, had
that home run there at Auburn, uh, which to lead off the game, which was huge.
Um, 16 rbis, which I, I just thought he had more rbis, but you know, he
was just, had a lot, a lot of singles, ton of singles getting on base.
Um.
He had, I mean, the number of like two and three hit games, he had must've been,
I, I didn't count it up again 'cause I'm not good at this, but the number of
multi Hitt games he had was crazy Rin, um, you know, and, and got the catch a
little bit, you know, obviously the arm was hurting him and then had, you know,
getting some concussions off the catching.
So, uh, some, some unfortunate things happened this year, but I mean, the guy
was just like, and we, we had, you know, we had him on the show here and he's
just everything you want in a monarch.
I mean, this is a guy that I wanna see in our uniform,
ideally for the next two years.
Then he is like a first round draft pick because he's so freaking, um, I don't
know if it'll be catching next year.
He's gonna play outfield, play second base, wherever he's gonna be.
I know where he's gonna be.
He's gonna be the man doing it.
He's gonna be just a complete animal out there, all about fighting for his team.
I, I could not be more excited that we have this guy, we get
to have him on our roster.
Like, what a guy.
We have not seen Efrain Morales at full strength.
'Cause he had an arm injury coming into the ear.
He got two concussions in like a three week span at the back end of the season.
And he is still the, the southern Miss game.
I, I know he had at least one hit, if not two.
And also he's was fighting a pretty crowded position.
Right.
'cause you've got Slater and you have Holman.
And Holman is just so strong back there behind the plate.
Yeah.
And he's able to bring to the game.
Uh, so I'm just excited.
Like a, a fully healthy Efram Morales is like a two hole hitter.
Like you, you throw him in the two spot, you throw him in the five
spot, like you have him hit lead off wherever, uh, and he's just gonna
work his ass off and get it done.
So, uh,
yeah.
We forget.
We had, he was a freshman batting leadoff the first like Yeah.
Three, four weeks of the season.
A freshman DH batting leadoff.
Like that's cr The amount of confidence that you have to have the amount of,
like this guy is special that says for, you know, Finney's not new to this.
Right.
Finney's been coaching for a long time.
So he puts a guy who's a freshman batting vh leadoff to start your season
against some really, like, remember, remember our non-conference schedule?
We started with like the crazy amount of teams we were playing against, playing
there at Georgia Tech and doing this down at Auburn and all these places.
You know, I mean it's, that's, that says a lot about who he
is and what we think of him.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm, I'm, I'm pumped to see his development.
I just hope he gets healthy.
I think he's slated to play for the Charlottesville Tom socks
this summer in the second half.
Yeah, I, I think the
second half.
Yeah.
Better not be behind the plate, but anywhere else on the field than
get his swings, all that stuff.
I'm sure fitting the coaching staffs all over that.
But yeah, a lot, lot to look forward to, but also I think a lot of work to
do like, well the guys giving these summer assignments, they gotta get
tuned up for the fall and get ready.
Coaching staff has work to do in the portal and I obviously they're looking
at the 27th class now for freshmen.
Um, you know, yeah, I think I wanna say starting Monday is when you could
start talking to rising juniors.
Um, so I think that's, that's the day you can start.
So that's the first chance to talk to some of the 20, 27 graduates.
Um, I know we already have some 20, 20 sixes that are, uh, high
school kids that are committed.
So this will be the chance.
So if you, there's some guys out there that you, you know, and you like, and
you might wanna get out there and say, Hey, we're interested, come, come to us.
So you may, you may see a few names, but you probably see, I mean, you know,
we'll have, we'll have a camp later in the summer, uh, so I'm sure you'll see
some names that usually you get two or three guys commit right after that.
Um, so yeah, they'll, it's not just gonna be this year.
That's all.
That building always keeps happening.
Like Finney said, you don't really ever turn it off, as I'm sure
they're always thinking about it.
Yeah, and the baseball transfer portal and everything is crazy.
You just, you don't hear about it as much because portal opens on June
2nd, which is Monday, and it runs through July 1st, and then usually
that coincides somewhere around like.
4th of July, all star game draft.
It kind of gets overshadowed.
Uh, but Monday is the first official day of the portal.
Anyone in there right now is a grad student or they had a coaching change.
Uh, we will, uh, start getting our roster turn, uh, tracker back up on the website.
We'll get that going so as we learn things, we'll pass those on to you all.
Obviously we'll be allowed on social media too.
Similar thing with any guy that commits out of the portal.
And then, uh, we're gonna do our best to get the Summer League tracker again.
Let me tell you.
That thing was insane last year, so I don't know if, anyway, if the juice
is worth the squeeze on that, but, uh, we'll, we'll try to highlight
that.
Um, yeah, a couple of those leagues like, like good luck getting stats
out of the, uh, tower Summer League.
Like I love it 'cause they're right here.
But it's like, I don't know what those guys are doing.
Some of our guys that played there last year didn't even end up on a roster.
I didn't know except for the fact that you went to the game and text
me, said, right, so and so's here.
Mm-hmm.
Hey, I'm watching Tyler Stott pitch right now.
Oh, cool.
Yeah,
yeah,
yeah.
So, but yeah, we'll, we'll see how things develop.
I mean, just talking with Finney, it sounds like he's pretty confident
and a lot of the guys that he talked about are gonna come back.
But who knows?
It's, it's, and I, I'm excited
for summer ball.
Yeah.
I, the pilot start on Thursday.
Uh, so I'll be, you know, as I'm think the weather's supposed to be
fine, so I'll be there out there Thursday and I think Saturday both.
Um, hopefully, uh, when we say Scotty is, is gonna play there.
And I think Blake and Kyle, Kyle, Edward.
Yeah.
I think a few guys are gonna play there.
Um, so hopefully they'll be there again.
Sometimes our guys take like a week or two and, and, and rest to
recover and then start, but you know, if not, I'll, the pilots are fun
either way, but it's a lot more fun.
We have some to you guys, so if you're, if you're locally area, get over to Hampton.
I know it's kind of a pain.
I can't always go during the week.
I'm only going Thursday because it's, it's open night.
But, uh, get over there if you're not, if you're wherever
you are, find some summer ball.
There's, there's a lot of really good college summer
baseball that you can watch.
Yeah, I'll get Tahraun hooked up with the Deltaville Deltas
if nothing else happens there.
So, yeah.
There you go.
Awesome.
Well, I think that's gonna do it for us.
Uh, we'll probably be back in about a month or so.
Um, you'll be sick.
We see we said the, we said the second Monday of every month.
That's like the ninth.
That's not that long.
So we might, might come back in a few weeks.
That's true.
And then obviously, we'll, we'll work, look at the
draft as well.
And then of course when, when guys commit and sign, 'cause the good thing
with baseball is, you know, they're gonna be there for the season long
before, 'cause they have to enroll, uh, by a certain time in August to be at
ODU u. So we usually know that, that little earlier than we do for say.
And I know a few of
our alumni they're playing pro right now have had some interest in coming on.
So we'll, we'll try to work out.
Uh, and Mondays are perfect because that's their off day at minor league baseball.
So we had a few guys we'll try to, try to bring on and talk to 'em how their minor
league seasons and careers are going.
Yeah.
And uh, if you go to the pride of ODU website, we do have that
tracker of all the guys that are playing pro ball, Indy Ball.
It's on there.
I think we update with Geo Rivera the other day for Indy Ball.
And,
and we, we actually did update congrats to Jared Young.
He just got called up to the Mets.
Uh, this weekend he, he dd from the Mets of day.
I don't know what he did last night, but, um, so that's, he
hasn't been to the big leagues.
Uh, he didn't get there last year, but he's been to big
leagues in parts of 22 and 23.
Uh, so this is the first time up with the Mets this year.
So congrats to JYI mean, what an awesome guy.
I went to, uh, Korea the second half of last year and got himself the big
league contract, uh, which is great because he, he said he loved it.
He's like, they met me at the airport.
It was crazy.
It was very weird.
But, uh, he, he enjoyed it.
Yeah.
And I know, uh, uh, Craig Brown and Connie Brown met up with Jacob and Trent
in Augusta on their drive to Montgomery.
Uh, took them out to dinner.
So we got a lot of monarchs out there.
Uh, maybe closer to you than you think.
So keep an eye on that tracker.
Of course.
We'll be glad to update it here in about a month and a half when, uh,
yes, a
bunch more monarchs go, go into the draft.
We'll see if they end up, uh, Florida, Arizona, fall or something like that.
So,
yeah,
that's it.
Well, we appreciate all of you who've made it through 19 episodes
of Hudson Homers this year.
Congratulations.
I'll give you a badge next time I see you for your commitment.
Um, but no, this has been a lot of fun.
It's been great having Finney great.
Having the players appreciate Yeah, like Pierce Yarberry, Eric Bohannon,
all of that crew that gives us a lot of, everybody owe you sports
every time they Yeah.
I, I go to a lot of the games and I'm, I'm, you know, they, they make
sure they, they, they hook me up with a media pass all year so I can go to
any game and I take pictures and I, and I share 'em, and they, they ask
me like, can we do anything for you?
I'm like, guys, let me hang out and take pictures.
I'm just some dude like, yeah, you're, trust me, I'm good.
Like, we're, we're great.
Yeah.
They're, they're, they're awesome over there.
I, I have, I don't know that I've ever had a bad interaction with anybody involved.
No.
Use sports and they're just phenomenal people.
They always take good care of us, seem like take good care of the teams as well.
So always happy to work with them.
And you know, we did basically take over the coaches show for baseball
this year and it just worked.
It, it just happens.
So just happens.
Yeah, sometimes.
Awesome.
Well make sure you stay subscribed.
YouTube, Spotify, apple Music, all that stuff.
So that way, you know, when we drop an episode, hopefully it'll
be a similar timing, but we'll see.
Um, and if you have ideas for shows that aren't crazy, yes,
feel free to let me know.
Like, yes, I'd love to go to Justin Lander's house and interview
him, but yeah, it'd be cool.
He doesn't, I'm not gonna skydive for an episode.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He doesn't respond to my text anymore, so, uh,
be now Ben, maybe get Ben.
We'll see.
I might get Ben perhaps to go on his show, but that, that'd be okay.
Yeah, that's fine man.
Yeah.
Awesome.
CB It's also been a lot of fun doing this with you and talking ball.
It's a great time, man.
I, I'm, I'm sorry I talk so much and talk over you and interrupt.
Uh, and, and, uh, and, and as my mom would say right now, we we're
talking too long on this show.
All we do is talk.
So I guess we need to, uh, get off of here and we'll, we'll see y'all soon.
'cause I, we, there's always plenty.
We need baseball.
Talk about.
Yes, absolutely.
Well, enjoy your summer and uh, be on the lookout for more stuff soon.
Go Monarchs.