Yeah.
Yes.
It's Tourney time everybody.
It is.
That's crazy.
It's wild how fast that happens.
We're finally here.
We're starting to record the 18th episode of Hudson Homers for the year,
which far to pass what we did last year.
If anyone listened last year, remembered that.
Um, we don't wanna talk, I don't think too much about the games of the weekend,
but I'm pumped for the Sunbelt tournament.
We're gonna have Coach Finwood on here in a few minutes.
Live from the bus leaving Auburn.
But CB how was your weekend over at Good Old War Memorial?
You know, our starting pitching was outstanding, uh, and we had some
really great defense and, and yep, I, I had a good time yesterday.
I went and saw Brock Gagliardi
He is his coach in the 13 u uh, travel ball team for the, the drillers.
So that, that was fun.
Go to see him, uh, take some pictures of his teams.
That was cool.
Nice.
Uh.
Yeah, the results were not ideal.
Yeah, it was, uh, results weren't great, but also other people helped us out
and we ended up in sixth place anyway and have to get to avoid the playing
tournament, which I think is huge.
I think that was the only, the only shot we have at doing
anything, uh, is not having to, uh.
Drain ourselves on
Tuesday.
It's the goal we talked about all season long.
Just get to the top six and then go see what happens in the tournament.
'cause weird stuff happens in the tournament.
And speaking of, I see Coach Finwood is back with us.
He is on the bus.
Let's go ahead and bring him on.
Coach Finwood, how's it going?
Hey
guys, how you doing?
Hey,
I tried to get you on the earbuds, but that did not work, so I got you on the.
Speaker phone, so we are doing this live.
Nice, nice.
Let's go.
Let the guys in the back know.
I'm sure we'll get some interesting chirps from 'em there.
Yeah.
We're downstairs, so it's just the coaches and staff here, so.
Oh, nice.
Um, whatever you do, don't rag on any coaches.
Well, Paul, that Ryan Moore,
I'm used to it, that Ryan Moore.
He's too nice.
He's too handsome.
He is too nice.
Can't stand him.
Uh, well, coach Finwood, obviously we didn't have you on last week.
We went live on Sunday.
Really the last couple innings of the JMU game 'cause of my dumb work, travel.
But, uh, we're, we're pretty pumped going into this weekend.
We get the top six seed.
Kinda had some good things happen for us, but, you know, were you all kind of on
pins and needles sweating out the other results there after the coastal game?
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
We were all, you know, fans and.
Watching the other games, um, we saw JMU, you know, beat Texas State first,
so that was what we needed to happen.
And then, uh, simultaneously, you know, Marshall was getting ready to win in an
extra innings and, um, then, uh, Louisiana hung seven runs on Arkansas State to
erase a three zero deficit, you know, and, and jumped up in control of that game.
So.
At that point, that was the one we needed to happen to stay outta any tiebreakers.
And, um, when they won, it was, it was good 'cause we knew we
were gonna be, um, a six seat.
And um, like you said, staying outta that playing round, which we've
been in the last two years is big.
Yeah, I, I was, I know at one point there was a scenario where I think
there could have been four or five teams tied with a 15 and 15 record.
I didn't even start going to look at Tiebreakers.
I was like, there's no way it's gonna gonna land like this.
Um, but I, I don't know how those would've shaken out, but I'm glad
that we end up with the six seed.
We've got Troy Brighton, early Wednesday, 9:00 AM Central time.
Well, coffee game.
Yeah.
Yeah, the early morning game, which if you win it is awesome.
Um, if you lose it, you gotta do it all over again.
Um, but if you win it, it's really nice.
So, you know, that's the plan is go ahead and win it and get the guys ready.
We had a good workout, um, just finished up a good workout
and got some dinner in Auburn.
Uh, they're so gracious to us and allow us workout there when we're
heading down to the tournament.
It's just a neat time and they're of course all excited 'cause you know, they,
they finished sixth in SEC and um, get.
Get a first round buy in their tournament as well.
And they're up to a, you know, number two RPI in the country right now.
So they're having a F year.
Wow.
That, that is wild.
And we've gotta win over 'em.
So that, uh, that helps us a little bit.
I know that our, our real path here though is, is winning that Sunbelt
tournament and getting through there.
Um, yep.
Face the tough team over the weekend with Coastal.
I mean, there, there's a reason why they're the top seed,
whether we like them or not.
I know CB is not a big fan, um, but tell us a little bit about the, the
weekend and then we can, uh, end it.
We've got some awesome graduation photos from the field too.
Yeah, the graduation, the senior day was really nice.
I, I think it's a little misleading, you know, especially the last,
how the weekend played out.
I mean, we had to bump some guys up and throw 'em on shorter rest
and then also limit their pitches.
Is, um, you know, our top three or four guys pitched really well against them.
Um, you know, Dylan and, and, and Ben in particular on, on Friday, um, carved
him up pretty good and so did Blake.
Uh, so, but just where we were, you know, we weren't, were, it wasn't a normal
scenario, um, or I think we win one of those, at least one of those games.
And, uh, so it is what it is.
We had to short the guys a little bit so we could be ready for, for
next week, this week coming up.
And sometimes that's how it goes.
Um, just with how we ran our pitching all year, you know,
maybe not throwing our better of the three on Saturday and Sunday.
Uh, just had to change last weekend to get ready for the tournament.
And, you know, it's just the difference between what you do in
the whole season and tournament play.
So.
It is what it is.
They have a very good team, their pitching's outstanding.
Um, and, uh, you know, we made a few too many mistakes, I think, uh, just
with free bases and, and things of that nature to, and, and we didn't, we
didn't, you know, hit enough either.
So, um, we gotta pick that up.
Um, and hopefully we will this week.
Yeah, it was really encouraging that, uh, when it came down to our best
pitchers in the game, I. We were beating him pretty much every time.
Yeah.
So
that was great.
And then, and they had some good honor.
That kid fluke on Friday, he's about as good as I've seen in a few years.
He's really good.
Yeah, he is.
And you know, Morrison ended up being the pitcher of the year in the league.
They sat there, became two guy I was tend to know this year.
And you know, so they, and, and IOP's good.
They're, they're game three starters.
So, and then their bullpen's really good.
I mean, they're second in the country.
Yep.
For a reason.
So, um, yeah, they're, they're a good team and they play baseball
well and they take advantage of your mistakes and, you know, you have to
limit those to beat a team like that.
Yeah, absolutely.
Now, it, it seems like from the way you pitch the previous weekend,
seems like Dylan is gonna be that Wednesday morning starter.
Yes.
Yeah.
He'll be, yeah.
He'll go Wednesday and, uh, Blake will, Blake will start Thursday.
So I'm not sure what we'll do.
The rest of the way, that'll just depend what we need to do.
You know, you, you very much with, with, especially with our pitch in depth, um,
we gotta stay in that winner's bracket really to have a shot, um, to do it.
So gotta put all your eggs in the game one back and put the rest of
'em in the game two basket because you get a day off after that.
So that would probably mean that then Ben Moore and Ethan Hubble are
both available in those two games.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, they will be.
Yep.
Okay.
I love it.
Let's, yeah, I mean, throw your best, like you said, you that winning two
or getting a day off would be huge.
That, that seems like one of our, our really, uh, path to victory,
that that would work for us.
Yeah, that's usually how it works.
I mean, it's hard to, you know, go through that loses bracket, um, and, and find
your way into that final, it's tough.
You just gotta end up having to.
I played too many games in a row and you know, it can, it can catch up to
you and especially in the bullpen.
Yeah.
It'd be ideal if we, uh, you know, hung up some crooked numbers in the
first couple innings and you got to, uh, cruise a little bit there
through the end of that first game.
But, you know, I know Troy's gonna be, they're gonna be tough.
They were tough when they came to Harbor Park.
Uh, but we did, we were right there with them.
I, I don't feel like that was a mismatch series at all.
No, we didn't play well enough on, on Friday, and then we played a
pretty good ball game on Saturday.
Just got beat and then we beat him up pretty good on Sunday.
Um, so yeah, two to three games, you know, we played well enough to win.
And, um, you know, they're a very left-handed team, so that's a strength of
our, our guys we're gonna throw at 'em.
Uh, so hopefully that'll work out in our favorite.
Absolutely.
Well, I know, uh, Saturday was a, was a big day for a lot of the
guys that were graduating CB as usual, get some awesome shots here.
This might be one of my favorite pictures of the season, honestly,
here with, uh, all the guys lining up down the, the third base line
there with their jerseys and frames and parents and all that good stuff.
Uh, talk us a little bit through that, that senior day ceremony, because
you had quite a few of 'em walking.
Well, it's always, you know, cathartic I think is a good word.
Um, senior days, you know, guys, you, you've known these guys a lot of times
for, you know, 5, 6, 7 years even going back to when you recruited them, uh,
and they're walking across as graduates, most of them, uh, from the day before.
And guys, you've been through a lot with good.
I thought the couple things that we did this year, even though it wasn't
on our campus, uh, which made it seem a little strange to me, um, the marketing
department I think did a really good job with one, the, the video on, on Friday
of this graduates with their parents.
Tell 'em how proud they were.
And then the, uh, the, the senior day, the guy's kind of signing off.
Uh, they're writing their signatures, uh, on that, on that, you know, see
through board where you could see 'em.
That was really neat.
Yeah.
Uh, Ryan Parncutt, who's a former ODU soccer player, uh, who's become
the, uh, you know, the marketing and social media, uh, person.
She's done a phenomenal job with a lot of the sports and yeah, that was really cool.
I, I was telling them, uh, it's, it's, they, they made it look like there
were signing their name, but it was the right direction for us to view, and I
said, it was upsetting to me how long it took me to realize they just had to
flip the video to make it look that way.
I like kind of dumb.
Yeah, that was a neat touch.
I had never seen that done anywhere before.
Um, I'm sure it was, but for, for all of us, we, we didn't know it
was coming, uh, either one of those.
So it was neat to be surprised like that.
I, I thought it was really cool and really neat for the families.
Um, it was a, it was a good touch for sure.
Yeah.
It's definitely one of the best things that we've done.
Adding the, the graduation walk was just, I, I can't remember how many years
it's been since you've done, it's been a while since you started doing that.
And it's just so great because we are almost always off on the road
when that happens, so it's, it's really good for the players and their
families to get to experience that.
Yeah, we've been doing this since we got here, I think, and the first
time I ever saw that was when I was at Western Kentucky and we were
downplaying Louisiana Lafayette.
And they had their seniors come out and they explained, you know, how they
missed graduation 'cause they're off, you know, representing the university.
And um, so they had them graduate, uh, on the field like that.
And I was like, that's a really neat thing to honor the honor that hard work.
Um, and let them have that experience, uh, on the baseball field in their
caps and gowns over their uniform.
Uh, and those pictures are lifetime memories, I think.
Certainly for kids, but maybe even more so for their, their parents and
grandparents and I mean, a lot of money, a lot of effort goes into that degree.
Um, you know, besides just the, the student athletes and the, the people
that are, are paying the bills, they certainly like to see that.
Yeah.
I really love the, uh, the robe over the uniform.
Like, uh, there was a picture of, uh, Jack Slater where he is walking.
You see his.
His catcher, shin guards coming.
I don't think I, I didn't think I sent it to you, Gary, but, uh,
it's, yeah, like, there's one with, with Raun with the cleats.
I mean, it's, it's, it's like, it's what it is.
I mean, they're student athletes and so, so you get the, the
mix of 'em both together.
It's really neat.
Yeah, it is.
It's, it's a neat day and I'm glad that we're able to do that.
Appreciate, uh, Ron Moses coming out and con, you know, con
confirm the guy's degrees to him.
Um, a lot of times we'll have another professor as well come out when
it's on campus, but everything's a little different this year.
And that was no exception, but it was still a very nice event.
Yeah, it, it looked awesome.
I, I know I got a bunch of videos and pictures and stuff from
parents and, and different people.
I, I couldn't be there.
It was sad to miss that one, especially with, you know, Eddie and Luke and
all those guys that I've, I've become close to in the last couple years.
Um, but glad I get to see 'em here in Montgomery.
Um, I don't know, out outside of the baseball, what are you most looking
forward to being back down in Montgomery?
Well, the area we're in, you know, with the hotel being right across the street
from the ballpark is just fantastic.
Like the logistics, I think for the players, the coaches, the
families couldn't be any better.
Um, there's a lot of really good restaurants close by.
The hotel's fantastic.
The Renaissance that we stay in, um.
And there's a, one of our favorite coffee shops right around the corner,
uh, which is always big for our staff.
And, um, just a neat historic area.
You can walk down to the Alabama River and see they got a memorial
down there where the, the, you know, the, the slave trade ships used to be.
Um, they've got a Rosa Parks, um, memorial, um, you know, uh, in there.
A lot of the, you know, the, that
see some of
to the park and watch games, uh, when your team's not playing, and
we'll have the luxury of doing that.
You know, tomorrow after practice, watch some other people sweat it
out, playing day instead of up.
Yeah, I'll, I'll definitely be taking it in.
I think we're, I'm staying in the same hotel so I'll, uh, I'll be
on fire alarm duty making sure no one goes and pulls that fire alarm
like four o'clock in the morning.
Messes up your 9:00 AM start time.
Yeah.
They might be the ones that are okay at 4:00 AM be like, all
right, let's just get up and be up.
Yeah.
So be, there'll be a line out the door from your coffee shop.
We'll be getting up not too, not too long after that on Wednesday.
So
get up and get it going.
Awesome.
Well, we're, we're excited for it.
I, it'll be an early morning, it'll be probably a lot of people using two
screens at work to, uh, keep an on us.
It'll be 10:00 AM Central, uh, 10:00 AM eastern, nine central, uh, taking on Troy.
All the games to determine are on ESPN Plus.
But, uh, I imagine there's gonna be a good number of people, ODU fans,
at least parents coming down for this one, especially since we're
bypassing that single elimination.
Well, we appreciate everybody's support.
Yeah.
The more people.
Can get down the better and it's a neat ballpark for a conference tournament.
And, um, we're hoping to play, play some good baseball down here and get
that first win on Wednesday morning.
Good.
Sounds good.
Coach Finney, uh, drive safe the rest of the way there to Montgomery.
Get settled in and, uh, we'll be seeing you tomorrow.
Alright guys.
And when you guys,
uh, go, when you guys go two and oh we'll, we'll do a little special, uh,
quick podcast and talk about what's, uh, coming up the, on the, on the off day.
Perfect.
I love it.
Let's do it.
Let's go.
Let's do it.
All right.
Good luck, Finn.
Be safe.
Uh, tell John Keen stop being so ruggedly.
Good looking and so cool.
He just, he makes me upset how need he is.
It's alright.
I'll him.
Thanks coach.
Thanks.
There we go.
Good.
Yeah, there he was just, he was just telling us, they just finished
working out at Auburn, um, and had dinner with, uh, with um, Carl Maker
and his family, which is great.
Again, it's just, it's outstanding that, that they have, you know, he
just such a good relationship and, and such an amazing place to go work out.
I mean, again, lemme tell you, having been there like that, it's crazy.
Then for them to tell me like, oh, this is like middle of the pack in the SEC.
It's like, that's not, that's not real.
That can't be a thing.
They're playing major league stadiums then.
That can't be true.
Yeah.
That's, that is insane.
But it's nice to kind of get to break up a little bit of that
drive so that way when they get to Montgomery, they can just go relax.
Uh,
so yeah, I think they, Charlotte, yeah, I think they were in Charlotte
last night and then went to, went to Auburn today and Yeah, I, I don't,
I, I, I'll be honest, I did not look, but I know it's, it's pretty short.
Yeah, it's fairly quick, but it sounds like the guy's got some, got some food
and then, uh, you know, they'll be settled into Montgomery here pretty soon.
I wonder if they're gonna have the, uh, the early morning wake up call tomorrow
just as a drill to get that body ready.
Because if he's talking a 5:00 AM wake up call, that's, I mean, that's about what
you need though for 9:00 AM start time.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm betting not, you know, that that's, uh, that's where the guys
would be like, you know, coach, we, we, you tell us all the time, sleep
is important, so let us sleep the.
I, I still think it's funny finding out that, um, I think it was, uh, Kyle Edwards
and Eff Morales, they roomed together on the road and it was a perfect match
because they both, all they like doing when they're not at the field of sleeping.
Apparently they go, they, they go to the field, they do whatever they gotta
do and they go back to them and they both take naps and just sleep all day.
That's, that's adorable.
You couldn't be better.
Yeah.
So they're, they're definitely gonna have time for that.
Um, 'cause looking just how things lay out, I mean, obviously 9:00 AM
Wednesday to start off the double elimination portion of the tournament.
If they lose, they would turn around and play at 9:00 AM Central the next day.
Uh, but if they win, they don't go until 4:00 PM Central.
So they would have a pretty good bit of downtime if they're able to win game one.
So it kind of sets up where if you're playing the first game,
you're gonna have more rest than your opponent no matter what.
You're just hopeful that that is not an elimination game that you
are resting up for on Thursday.
Yeah.
Um, oh, excuse me.
Uh, and you know, the good, the good side is they played Troy, um, you know, if
they, they win, you know, the possibility of playing Southern Miss, they played them
and they, they've beaten both of 'em now.
They're both top 25 teams.
Uh, weirdly enough, I don't know if we, we mentioned this Southern Miss
and Troy played this past weekend and Southern Miss swept them and run ruled
them in the middle game, uh, which is surprising 'cause they were both, I
mean, they're both like around like.
18 to 22 or so in the, in the rankings.
Um, so that I, I think a sweep was very unexpected.
I think so.
I think Troy was, was hoping to show a little bit more signs of life there.
But that's probably not what you want to have going into it.
Especially when you're in one of the top seated positions.
Yeah.
At least.
At least Wanna go one, two, wanna
get swept, go the tournament.
No.
Well I mean, we lost to the one seed and we had to rearrange our
pitching in a way to set, set ourselves up for the tournament.
Yeah.
You know, coastal kinda had the luxury to not have to worry
about those things necessarily.
'cause they're getting into the NCAA tournament.
Regardless.
They're probably, are they gonna be a top eight or are they gonna
be a top 16 seat is probably.
Really?
Yeah.
That's their, they're hoping they
could do something here and, and end up being the, the, the super regional host.
Yeah.
It is, it is interesting.
You know, all season long we did not sweep anyone.
We did not get swept and we ended the last two weeks back.
Back, yeah.
Sweep JU But that sweep of JMU is so incredibly important.
Oh man.
Or we would be playing on Tuesday.
So getting those three wins in Harrisonburg.
I mean that, that's the reason we have hope and we are, uh, more positive
on today's episode rather than, yeah.
Oh boy, we gotta go gut it, gut one out as like an eight or a nine c, that that
would not be an ideal scenario for us.
Yeah,
no, you're right.
The difference between, uh, playing tomorrow and playing on, or, or today
if you're listening to it on Tuesday and playing on Wednesday morning is, is huge.
And that's, um, and again, it's, it's crazy because a, a month ago we were like,
are we even gonna be in the tournaments?
And then we went into this weekend with a chance to be fourth,
uh, whi, which is, is wild.
Uh, so the, these guys have done some stuff, um, some other teams,
I mean, Marshall has done, a, Marshall went from kind of dead
in the water too to, to moving up.
And they ended up being what, fifth I. They're, they're the four seed.
They're the four seed.
Oh, yeah.
'cause Louisiana was, was going backwards.
Yeah, you're right.
Okay.
Here, we're here.
Yeah.
I mean, we, we still had an opportunity on Sunday, even after, or I'm sorry,
on Saturday after dropping the first two games where if we would've
won and Louisiana would've lost, we would've been the four seat.
Despite all of that, that's just how tight the middle of those standings got.
I mean, your, your four C to 16 and four.
We're the lone 500 team, and then you got two teams at 14 and six.
Like that is a log jam there for those last spots.
And we just, we got all the outcomes.
Like that's, that's, yeah, we, we got all the outcomes for two
consecutive weekends and we're rewarded by it by now being the succeed.
Yeah, there was a lot in the middle, but it's funny, like I said, nobody else,
that was 15 and 15, but a lot of, I mean, you know, ULM being eight and 22
and James Madison 10 and 20, and then.
You got coastal at 26 and four and Southern miss at 24 and six at the top.
So there was a little bit of a, you know, it always happens.
There's a little bit of a spread, but there, there's a little extreme
this year with the 26 and four in conferences where, where they have
seven straight conference sweeps.
I mean, that's pretty extreme.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's, I don't, I mean, having watched them all weekend,
they're pitching is great.
I don't think their hitting is anything special.
I think we've definitely seen better hitting teams.
Um, I'll be honest, I thought Marshall was a better hitting team.
Than, than Coastal, uh, by a lot.
I love their approach a lot more.
Um, but I, I don't know if you're gonna find a better pitching staff than Coastal.
Um, you will find better fans.
I did not care.
Um, they're, uh, on between live and social media.
They're just not great people.
Um, they're, they're people broke our press box up there at War Memorial.
They broke a window in the press box.
Uh.
So that's cool.
Um, just, yeah, very, uh, I don't, I don't know why they wanna embrace
the fact that their team is really good at getting hit by a pitch.
Like, it's super weird how like they get upset like that.
We're trying to hit, like, our guys can't throw strikes like your team coastal.
I didn't check today to see if they did finish, but they were going
into the, the last game leading the country and hit by pitches.
They're averaging like 2.7 hit by pitches per game.
Basically three hit.
And then they're upset when their guys are getting hit by pitches.
Like this is what they do.
They cra I mean, if you watch the games, they're up on top of the plate.
The one guy got hit in the head, I think twice, but it's like he
leans his head out of the plate.
Like it's, you know, the umpires let 'em get away with it.
And I, I don't know why as a fan you can't be like, yeah, that's what they do.
They approach it.
They're, they're like, our guys are dogs.
They eat that.
Like, this is what we do.
I don't know why it's so weird.
It gets so weepy and whiny about it.
Yes.
And they did finish the season with 151 hit by a pitch that
is number one in the country.
Three ahead of Winthrop.
Uh, yeah.
I mean, if, if you crowd the plate and that's your approach, that's the risk.
You assume that you're gonna get hit by a pitch.
It doesn't seem like it's been a concern for them all season long.
This has been their approach.
They get even tighter on the plate when you bring relievers into the game.
So if you notice like those numbers for hit by pitch, spiked a little bit
with one Oh, like crazy, our, our, our bullpen does not have the best control.
That is not a secret.
If you've watched one outing of ODU baseball bullpen, we, we
don't always say the best throw.
We have good stuff.
We got some guys that could throw some heat, but perfect location,
pinpoint location of your crowd on the plate is just not gonna be there.
So it's, it's gonna happen.
You know, if you're worried about it back off the plate, but clearly the players
and the coaches are not concerned about
that.
Like I said, they're, I'm sure they're,
I'm sure their attitude is like, yeah, we're dogs, is what we do.
We eat those.
Like I, they had one guy, I think he had 28 hit by a pitch, and the next
highest in the league was like 14 or 17.
So it's, it's what they do.
They've got a bunch of Steven Meier on their roster.
Yeah.
Pitch by the way, was Steve Meier.
Was, was, uh, yeah, there you go.
Sorry.
He set
the record for the Troy single season hit by pitch.
I think it was like 21 or 22, something like that.
So it was a little bit of a down year for Steven with hit by pitches, but Right.
Which by
the way, uh.
Our buddy Steven Meier which love the kid.
I, I'm, I'm excited for him.
I'm, I'm really hoping that this season leads to him getting to play pro ball.
Um, you know, Troy's a team.
They're, I mean, we, I wanna be him tomorrow.
Uh, but they're a team that has a chance, so they're gonna
go to, to regional anyway.
Uh, but you know, Steven, he, if you look at his numbers, that's the difference
between what he did this year and last year is the difference between what a
not healthy Steven Meyer looks like and what a healthy Steven Meyer looks like.
He added about 50 points on his batting average.
He added like almost 200 points on his OPS.
His home runs, I think were pretty similar, but his rbis were way up.
His double, I think he had almost twice as many doubles as last year.
Um, actually had less steals, but I mean, it's probably again,
because he was hitting doubles and getting on, uh, so I mean, congrats
to him on a, on a great season.
And you know, like I said, I'd like to look around sometimes, like look at
Alex Boucher with, um, east Carolina.
He had, I, it was, it was shocking how close he had almost an identical
season from last year to this year.
So again, that's, Alex just kind of was who he was, which
just found nothing wrong.
He's a good ball player.
Uh, but Steven clearly was hurt last year.
We did not get the best version of him, uh, the second half of the year, and
we got, we did get the first half, but once he hurt himself, we didn't anymore.
Um, so good to him.
I'm glad you know, he's, he's in a place where he is.
He's, uh, been enjoying it and doing well.
Yeah,
excited
to get him, get to see him play on Wednesday.
Um, and just someone I'm always gonna root for just based on my interactions
with them and all that still reaches out to me on social media occasionally.
Um, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, over the weekend with Coastal was kind of all the things that
snakebit us earlier in the year.
A lot of free passes, a lot of hit by a pitch errors, uh, kind of underrated
that Coastal did some things to draw catchers interference, which again.
Totally legal and fine for them to do philosophy.
That's their thing.
Yeah.
But that was where that, that's where you saw those blow up
innings really just melt down.
Um, when you, when you putting up six runs, seven runs in inning, they're
getting free base runners and they're making you pay for those free base
runners with big, and they would, they
would score those six run innings with like one hit.
That was the thing that that was, and that was the thing.
I came away, so I said, I'm not very impressed.
They're hitting because they, you know, it's, it, you know, they're, I'm impressed
with their approach and their grit.
I. You can't question it.
They're, they're tough dudes.
They're out there, um, playing grimy baseball, right?
They're, they're making sure they get hit, they're doing catch interference.
It's like that's, there's some baseball players.
Um, but I didn't get a chance to see their hitting much.
I mean, the kid Bodine is, is, um, everyone says, I know I've seen him play
plenty, uh, watching on their games on tv.
The kid, I didn't get a chance to see him hit.
He had like one hit all weekend.
Uh, which is a shame.
Um, 'cause I, I'd like to see good ball players play good baseball,
and as you said, our, our.
Bullpen especially, uh, did not allow that to happen.
Um, it was, it was a tough week for our pitching, which is weird because
our starting pitching was, so you wanna bring up the players of the week?
That's that.
Since we're kind of talking about our, our pitching, because it's worth pitching,
our, our starters were phenomenal.
Um, so this was a, this was a fun week because I, I typically send the stats.
I kind of get compile 'em and I send to Gary and I'm like, you know, uh, I'm
probably this guy and this guy, and, and this week, uh, Gary's like, no,
the pitch of the week is Ethan Hubbell.
I was like, all right, that's cool by me, like very rare time where, where you
like put your like, no, this is the guy.
Because I was kinda like, well, we put up, we could put all three of the guys.
You are like, Nope, it's hub.
I was like, all right.
So, so Hubble uh, had two games this week.
He pitched on Thursday and started on Sunday.
Uh, combined for three and two thirds innings, no earned runs, uh, only gave
up one hit and one walk, and seven strikeouts, which is outstanding.
He had, he had two in the, I think he struck out the two batteries
he faced on Friday and struck out five and three innings on Sunday.
So he was, he was just lights out and actually, I looked at his last three
weeks, uh, last three weeks, four games, seven, uh, two-thirds innings, no runs,
five hits, two walks, 12 strikeouts.
Seven, two third.
So he's on a nice little stretch here the last few weeks.
Um, Dylan Brown was phenomenal starting on the game on Thursday.
Uh, four innings, only one earn, run, no hits, two walks, six strikeouts.
Again, as Benny pointed out, they were doing some maneuvering to
make sure he'd be rested and ready to go for the game on Wednesday.
So, I mean, he, he could have thrown nine easy I think that day.
Um, and then Blake Morgan, uh, was, was just doing Blake Morgan
stuff on, on Saturday's game, uh, I'm sorry, on Friday's game.
Uh, five innings no runs, four hits, no walks, five strikeouts again,
probably now I will say Blake, I think they took him out because it
was, it was again, keep him ready.
Uh, it was hot and Blake might have been done at five actually,
despite how well he was pitching.
Because he just, you know, he was, you know, he's an emotional
guy and it, it was, it was really hot this weekend that turf makes.
It was, it was 15 degrees higher down on the field than it was
if you go up in the stands.
Uh, so it was a rough week.
Um.
Go
for it, Gary.
We'll talk about, I was gonna
say, and Blake is kind of going on one day, shorter rest than he is used
to, and then he is gonna go on one day shorter rest than he is used to again.
So he is kind of sliding up a little bit.
There's no sense in having something happen there or just him come back out
for the sixth inning and have a bad inning and that's what's bring in his mind.
So, I, I, whether, whether it's whether related or not, like.
I know that we could have won one of those games and locked up top six, but our odds
to stay the top six are still pretty good.
And what's the point of getting top six?
If you blow your top arms the weekend before, hey, it's not gonna
get you, he didn't have to come out for the sixth thinning for
us to have a bad sixth thinning.
That's, that's also very true.
Um, unfortunate.
Yeah.
But with, with Ethan, I think the big thing is his approach when he
got on the mound this weekend with those guys crowding the plate was he
was pitching like they weren't there.
Yeah, like seven of his 11 ounces that he recorded over the weekend
were strikeouts and that's big 'cause we're thinking, okay, yes, that's
gonna be really important in the tournament, but we're also thinking
next year we know we're gonna lose.
Yeah.
Pretty much this entire starting rotation next year.
And I think that's foregone conclusion.
Who's gonna be the one that steps up and carries over?
And Ethan Hubble the last couple weeks, including against the best competition
we have faced in a while he lit coast, he shut Coastal Carolina down.
And that was really important and I just wanna shout him
out for that, his approach.
And seven of your 11 outs come best strikeouts.
Pretty nasty.
Yeah.
Yeah, it, it, it's pretty great to see.
He definitely, he, you know, he was the guy in the fall, uh, in the early spring.
They were having him throw some starter innings.
He was, he was definitely an option and just decided he'd probably be a little
bit better in the bullpen, given some, some length as a swing man kind of guy.
Uh, and, but he is, you're right, he has definitely been looking like a
guy, like, okay, this is a dude we can build with, is somebody we can probably
pencil in rotation for next year.
Which is, which is great.
Like I said, we we're gonna need it.
Um, it's gonna be, somebody's gonna step up or we're gonna have to get some.
Some solid transfers.
Um, you know who, who knows?
We will, like I said, we'll probably have an episode later in the summer.
We'll probably have Marin on and maybe talk about some of those things.
Oh, yeah.
Um, yeah.
Also wanna point out, uh, and this is cool, I, I've been kind of saving this
info 'cause I wanted it to happen first.
Uh, Blake Morgan tied the school record with his 52nd career start.
So that was Steve Lyon from 1990 to 1992, who ended up being a
fourth round pick by the Mets.
Uh, played about, I think four or five years, minor league ball.
Uh, but he over, over those three seasons had 52 starts.
Uh, and so Blake took him four years, which nothing wrong with that.
They just, they started way more games back then that you gotta think about.
That was, that was.
Uh, 35 years ago, it was just a whole different time.
College baseball.
Yeah, I know.
Trust me, I, I did the math.
It hurt my soul.
'cause I was like, is it 40?
It's not quite 40, but it might as well be.
Um, but Blake, so Blake is, uh, and so he, when it comes around to Wednesday,
because we know we're gonna play two games, uh, 'cause that's the first thing.
When I told math the game, that's the first thing he said.
So I was like, I'm gonna break it.
It's like, there you go.
Like I said, that's why, that's why he's a dog.
Right?
That's why Blake's a dude because his first thought was,
wasn't like, oh, that's cool.
First thought was like, all right, so I'll be the champ.
Got so, so I'll, I got, I'll get a nice little graphic ready for, uh, for Blake
when he sets that record on Wednesday.
Um, so then to look at our hitters, uh, slim Pickens for our hitters.
I'm gonna be honest, we did not have a lot of hits, so I think
we had 19 hits in three games.
Like we, we really didn't do a ton offensively.
Uh, but again, Maverick Stallings continues to be phenomenal.
Uh, he went three for 11 for the week.
So again, not the best average, but all three hits were extra bases.
Had a double two homers and four rbis.
And the only other player who really did a lot of the plate was
Zach late, uh, who was three for 10 with a double and three rbis.
Um, but to, to pick up on Maverick, I know we talked before about Maverick and
his, his hot stretch since April 15th.
That seemed to be his day.
Uh, so to reiterate, his first 23 games of the year prior to April 15th, Maverick
had one double, one Homer, and two rbis.
In 23 games, he was hitting 1 93 with a 5 25 OPS.
His last 16 games, he has six doubles, seven homers, 20 rbis.
In that stretch, he's hit 3 38 with 1164 OPS.
Good, nasty, nasty.
It is.
So we, we need to like, we need to get him like some kind of
heated vest to wear in games or.
Hotter.
Um, I, I, I said I'm glad he is here.
I'm, I, I love Maverick.
I'm, I'm a big fan of watching him play.
I think if he'd have stayed in Florida and played, he'd be an All American
for the last couple years, or, or been drafted and be in a, a now.
Yeah.
Um, there like Arizona, Arizona State, somewhere where it's
gonna be hot early in the season.
I mean, the temperature goes up, Maverick Sellings goes off.
It's two years in a row and it's.
Yeah, it's kind of unbelievable just to watch that transformation.
Just boop, click right over
and start it.
It was really wild when, you know, a lot of times when you dig into stats,
you kind of have like a hypothesis and the idea you're like, I think this,
so let me look in the stats and see.
And sometimes look, the stats are like, that's not what happened at all.
And so you just kind of junk it.
Uh, but for him it was like, oh no, there is a very specific time.
Like it was like literally, I think last year was April
15th, this year was the 16th.
'cause we didn't have a day on the, a game of the 15th.
It was like from that exact time.
Boom.
So that it's, it is wild when something, is that statistically accurate?
I think he, he had one week in the stretch that wasn't like, amazing.
It was just like, just okay.
The rest of the weeks has been like, what are you doing?
This kid's out of his mind and, and you see, yeah.
You see that picture we had up there?
He, he's hitting them so far.
He can just watch him like, it's crazy.
Yeah.
Just, uh, sitting back and enjoying them.
But in case anyone's wondering, it's gonna be a 79 at first pitch.
In Montgomery on Wednesday, and it's gonna heat up to a nice,
you know, comfortable 87 degrees.
Uh, so another perk of playing in the morning.
You're not playing in the heat of the day, and that'll come in handy if we do win a
couple games and get moving in this thing.
That's one less day in the heat, one less, less couple hours on your feet.
You have to go relax.
Uh, but man, Mav just coming through in, in the clutch.
I mean, he hit a big home run for us last year in the playing
game to make sure we won that.
Um, I just hope that continues going and get these other
guys just back on the track.
They had really been on the last three or four weeks, but a coastal
pitching will, uh, will shut you down.
That is for sure.
Yeah, well, but unfortunately we we're not playing coastal.
If we, if we play coastal, it'll be in the championship.
Right.
Um, so that'll be, worry about that problem.
We get to it.
They'll, at that point, you know, maybe be as depleted as we would be.
Um, we get to start out with Troy, who again, we, we played and we beat.
Um, we might get to play Southern Miss if we win.
We played and we beat, um, I, I already forget who the bro, we don't even
know who the other ones would be.
Uh, but you know.
We've seen that and, and right this, this weekend was kind of proof of
concept that when we have our best pitching, we can run with anybody.
Um, this is, you know, coastal is the number eight team
in the country right now.
I think that might be a little bit, uh, a little bit.
Paper tiger.
Uh, I looked at, I was actually looking at the RPI just stuff because I was a
little, I was a little interested because again, coastal fans were so annoying.
I wanted to knock him down any way I could.
Um, but I, I noticed there they call it the quadrant one wins, which are
the wins against the best teams.
They were four and six in as quadrant one.
Well, OU was four and 14.
So we had just as many wins.
We just happened to play a lot more because we were playing weekend series
and all, you know, so we, and unlike them, we didn't, we didn't get to duck,
um, Southern Miss and, and Louisiana, you know, we, we were playing real teams.
So I, I thought it was interesting that never 18 in the country had just
many wins against the best teams.
Um, so it's gonna be, it's gonna be interesting to see what happens when,
and Southern Miss again got lucky.
They were, they're on the side that, uh, I'm sorry.
Uh, coastal got lucky.
They're on the side that doesn't have Southern miss and doesn't have Troy.
Um, so they may even have a, a less difficult path to the,
to the championship game,
which again,
that's what you won all the games, you deserve it.
That's, that's how it should work.
Yeah.
You 26 and four in the Sunbelt, which I believe we are the
fourth highest rated conference.
Uh, in all of college baseball.
So yeah, we finished six, but finished six in the fourth best conference.
So it's not, you know, conference USA is still, I think on the come
up for baseball, but some of the other conferences and things we
could have been in, you look at the A 10, the ca a, they're, they're
not even on the graph trash.
No.
It's what it really shows is if a few things had gone our way, if
we'd have been a little bit more focused in a few moments, if we,
'cause there were, there were plenty.
I mean, you could probably pull out 10 games this year that.
If we do a couple of different things, we win and then all of a sudden we're
talking about having like 31 wins.
With this schedule we had, we'd be up there at the top, you know, three
or four in this conference and we'd be talking about going to regional.
Um, regardless what happened this week,
at a very minimum, we'd be Troy, who's top 25.
They're gonna go to regional no matter what.
Um, I think it's really can someone outside the top three go
and win the Sunbelt tournament and make us a four bid league.
Like that's the only deciding factor.
Like is somehow gonna get, three teams are gonna get four teams.
Yeah.
And then when we are definitely one of those teams that, you know, you don't
particularly want to face us because we're in that desperation mode that we
have to go win the tournament and do it.
Coastal's not in that boats.
So their miss isn't in that boat.
Troy's on the boat.
I don't think they can really do much to change their status step.
Maybe coastal can get in that top eight and be a national seed
if they win the whole thing.
Um, but you may see teams take different strategies than what
we are taking in this tournament because they are already thinking
ahead to the next weekend of hosting the regional or whatever it may be.
When we're like, we're gonna scratch and claw, we're gonna be
the four seed in Spokane, Washington or somewhere far, far away.
But we don't care.
Like, yeah.
Get us in there and let us, let us take our, our hacks and see what happens.
So it'll be interesting.
It'll be a fun vibe down there, man.
I'm, I'm kind of pumped to get down there and just absorb it
and go to the games on Tuesday.
Yeah.
I'm excited for you.
And I think it's cool.
I, hopefully, I, the only thing that would prevent me from going to like
every single game of something that would just be the heat I was looking at, this
gonna be like about 90 every day, and.
But if you're taking care of yourself, if you, I, I don't know
the ballpark, maybe you take care of yourself, find some shade.
Um, you, you could probably, I mean, you're gonna, if you're able to go to
all the games you can in which again, you think you are, you have nothing else
to do, um, you're down there for that.
Uh, so yeah, you could have, I know I, I typically watch
as many games I possibly can.
Uh, and so, 'cause it's, you know, playoff baseball, it doesn't matter if
it's college, big leagues, whatever, play off baseball is super fun and
college baseball is ridiculously great.
And so when it actually matters for guys, man, it's, it's something else.
And you're guaranteed that some hitter is gonna come outta nowhere on
some team and have go on just like a crazy eight for 11 run or something
and some pitcher, Scotty Young.
Yeah, it'd be great if it was Scotty Young then I would love to see Ethan
Hubble come in for potentially like a, a game three and just go no hit somebody.
Like stuff like that happens in the Sunbelt tournament.
'cause yeah, a talent just really rises to the top in those big, big moments.
And it could be people you don't even think about.
I mean, it.
You look at some of the, the playing games that are going on with at App
State as the 10 playing Texas State, Georgia Southern playing Arkansas State.
I mean, we know App State and Georgia Southern are good teams in Texas State.
They were basically tied with us until disaster struck this last weekend.
Yeah, I was gonna say App State was really, really good.
Georgia Southern was really, really good.
You're talking about the nine and 10 teams.
Like it's, we, we didn't need to see Arkansas State and Texas State, but I
guarantee you I'd be with eight here.
But like, they're really, really good.
I mean, we, the whole conference, I, I didn't see, I mean.
JMU didn't put up much of a fight.
I think that's about the only one I could look at and be like, these guys
just, they're just, they were having a tough year and probably they, we
probably feel about them how like coastal feels about us after the weekend.
Um, even though, because Coastal will just ignore, you know, how well our service.
Yeah.
Um, but, so if there's one weekend outta 10 where you're like, yeah, it
wasn't, they weren't as competitive.
That's pretty darn.
It's a. Conference play is wild there.
It is so competitive.
It's so, and that's what makes the conference, that goes the whole thing.
That sounds,
uh, but there, yes, the conference play is, is just, so that's what makes
the tournament so fun is because the teams are, I mean, you saw the records.
I mean, there's a couple outliers at the top, couple outliers at the bottom.
The rest is just a big jumble.
Like you said, any given day, if, if one game had gone different,
it'd be all flipped around.
And so going down there and seeing that where the talent level is all pretty even,
and depending on what day it is and who's facing who, anybody can beat anybody.
And so yeah.
Good.
Good for you, man.
It's gonna be fun.
Georgia State was in the top two in the conference standings for
the first four weeks of the season.
I. They did not make the tournament.
Yeah.
Like that's how tough it is.
And we saw they've got one of the best players in the league on their team.
So yeah.
It's, it's wild.
Um, but yeah, I, I just wanna see the guys go down there and compete hard.
Like it, the, they're gonna play tough teams, but we're a tough team too.
We're battle tested, we're road tested, going down.
There is nothing for them.
Maybe it's a little bit more of a factor for some of the other teams.
Uh, but, you know, living in and outta hotels, being on sleeper buses.
That's, that's old news for us.
I'm just hoping it's not their last, uh, bus trip of the year.
Hopefully.
Give, gimme one more.
Yeah.
Go win this day.
I mean, yeah,
there's,
you know, we have the talent all year.
We just have had very few times where all the talent has
been being talented at once.
Now's the time, now's the time.
And sometimes it's how, and that, and that's what happens
when a team goes on a run.
I mean, that's, you know.
The coastal fans, again, they all love talking about when they won in 2016,
which I can't blame, remember if we won national championship, I'd still
be talking about it nine years later.
Uh, but that wasn't the most talented team that that was just, they were
a, a veteran team full of good ball players that played well together and
they got hot at the right time and, and won the championship because that's
what happens at the play playoff.
You get hot and you're just playing well and feeling good.
So, I mean unfortunately we are, we're not coming off of a play.
We were playing hot, then we ran into a buzz saw and now we're coming off a three
game, but we're also playing a game, uh, a team that just got swept also and
coming off a four game losing streak.
So, yeah, it's gonna be interesting morning there Wednesday.
Just hit the field
and see what happens.
It, I mean, this is what we've talked about trying to do all year.
Like the goal was just get in the top six, see what happens in the tournament.
Well, we got the top six part down.
Now it's.
See what happens.
Roll the dice.
I mean, who knows?
Dylan Brown maybe goes cg, no hitter to open the tournament.
Hey, Dylan Brown is seven strikeouts away from being the first monarch to get
a hundred strikeouts in like 14 years.
So I'd like to see him, I'd like to see Frank that like if he gets 1 0
8, he's ends up being fifth all time, uh, for a single season for the team.
So I, I'd like to see that.
I don't know.
How was that 15 strikeouts?
Just, yeah.
Throw out, throw 15 strikeouts.
Dylan, you can do it.
I mean, if he gets into two games,
that's not outside the realm of possibility.
I, I'm one for two games, one game.
You can do that.
Seven innings, 15 Ks, let's go.
I like, I like that pitch count might be a problem, but that's okay.
Dylan's just gonna sit back there and chuck it.
You did just throw strikes.
1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. You got this?
Yes.
Alright.
By the way, I saw a guy throw an immaculate inning.
They, they say immaculate inning is if you're, uh, nine
pitches, three strikeouts.
That's not an immaculate inning.
Immaculate inning is three pitches, three outs.
Think so.
That's the best.
That the best.
What is the best?
The best perfect game you could possibly do would be 27 pitches.
There were like little easy ground balls to the first baseman.
That would be, that would be a perfect, perfect game would be 27 pitches.
Why would I waste?
Why?
Why throw all the, I mean, how much more perfect can you
be than one pitch, one out?
How excited do you get every time somebody like you started
anything, one pitch, one out, you're like, oh man, we're rolling now.
Pitch pitch counts would be crazy.
Come on.
You tell me.
You tell me somebody, the perfect game with 27 pitches, that's not the
best game ever thrown in history.
That's, that's a better game than the guy that strikes out 27.
It would be impressive because this never happened.
Yes.
So it would be the first time in 150 plus years of baseball.
Yes.
Uh, but I think there's something in a pitcher's mind, in competitiveness of, I
don't want you touching the baseball and I'm gonna throw you three pitch pitches.
You're not gonna touch them and you're gonna strike out.
That's why most pitchers are stupid, because, well, that's true.
They're dumb because most hitters are stupid.
And then pitchers try to outthink them instead of just throwing strikes and
getting 'em out because they're like, I wanna make him chase like, bro, he's dumb.
He's, you're throwing a ball a hundred miles an hour at him.
It's really hard to hit it anyway.
And then you're trying to make him like just.
Throw the cheddar down the middle, make this guy like, I dunno if you've ever seen
the in, in the ma. Now again, this, you have to have really good fastball, but
they show you in the major leagues the batting average on a hundred mile an hour.
Fastballs dead center.
So dead center, you're talking now you're talking about major league hitters who
can hit a hundred mile an hour fastballs.
Right?
They can't, the batting average on dead center fastballs is like, oh, 21.
The big leagues.
So big league hitters can't hit heat down the middle.
I guarantee you.
Some dude in the Sunbelt can't.
That is the Tampa Bay Ray's entire approach to pitching it has been
for 10 years and that's why they've been in the postseason with one
of the lowest payrolls constantly.
They will throw you first pitch, middle, middle, fast or middle down,
whatever it is, and then they're gonna go and they're gonna do it
again with the one strike count.
And then you got a mode two batting average plummet to throw whatever.
But that's why you see so many of their guys pitch so well and you're
like, how are the hell are we in the seventh inning, this guy throwing
six, six pitches and we got two hits?
That, that's why
is, why is Pete Fairbanks dicing you up every night?
Well, because Pete Fairbanks is following the plan.
Well, I think of Yarborough when he was down
there.
I mean that kind of changed, right?
Trajectory is his, of his career.
He started throwing more pitches, more strikes early.
Um, it's funny you mentioned that 'cause I almost saw a immaculate
inning by the standard you don't like on Friday in the Astro.
It was just pretty wild.
I'm telling everyone around me and they could not have given lessons.
They did not care.
It's not the best kind.
They were like, look, he already threw like four pitches.
This inning sucks.
Yes.
Well we were just tired of watching Lance McCullers work full counts on everybody.
So we were excited to get quick action.
I think I've talked about Lance McCullers is one of the nicest human
beings you could ever meet in your life.
It's such a shame that he's had those arm injuries and hadn't been
what he, what he could have been.
That's such a bum.
Him, his dad's awesome too.
Like it's such a shame.
Yeah,
he, he actually did pretty well, but we were just ragging him
'cause it's the same old lance.
Sure.
Um, awesome.
Well, we're gonna try to do a couple things, uh, while I'm down in Montgomery.
Uh, if we go two and oh, we win those first two, we will be doing.
Yes.
Some sort of live thing.
We're gonna harass players.
Go maybe wake up, call Eddie and Efrin.
I don't know, something like that.
We'll, we'll have some things going on for you.
Um, and then we will, we'll get you some, some early morning content on Wednesday.
I think we're just gonna go down to the field and, and do some Instagram live.
So be on the lookout for all that.
If you're going down there.
Excited to see you.
Come find me.
Won't give you my hotel room, but you'll probably find me at the lobby
bar
or an adjacent bar, most evenings slash mornings.
Sure.
Morning.
Wow.
All right.
Well, I mean, if we,
if we win and it's early, it's 11, we can be, there you go.
I've been, I've been awake.
Yeah, exactly.
I've been awake since six and someone pulled the fire alarm there.
Awesome.
All right.
Sounds good.
Well, well, Gary, you have a great time.
I'm excited for, I'm looking forward to watching from afar.
Um, have fun watching the early games and, and just have a blast,
man.
Make 'em win.
Absolutely.
Hope we get some wins.
Thank you all for listening and sharing our content all over the place.
Yes.
Uh, but yes, go Monarchs.
Go Monarchs.
Well then I guess there's only one
thing
left to do.
What's that?
Win the whole fucking thing.