Hi, I'm Luke Waters and you're listening to the Hudson Homers Podcast.
Hello, Monarch fans, and welcome to the Hudson Homer's podcast. I am Gary, and I'm joined, as always, by By cb cb rough week one and three against some good competition. But how are you feeling here?
You know, I'm great. I have a very healthy relationship to baseball games that I'm not directly a part of. I would never let, you know, losing baseball games that I didn't actively play in make me sad and depressed. That's not a thing I would do because I'm a very healthy person.
Well, that's good I I try to be that way as well But I gotta say it was a little bit of a roller coaster this weekend at coastal We went very little offense to a whole lot of offense to then no offense again in the final game Kind of a roller coaster. And I'm going back to a statement. I had a couple of podcasts episodes ago. I hope this isn't a bad offense that occasionally scores a lot of runs. I hope it's a good offense. It's just not hitting well, right?
It's hard to tell. I mean, I've gotten after today, The game like a Saturday where you know, break out, score all the runs, hit all the home runs, have just a lot of good heart, active at bats. It, it's gotten to where it's not like, oh man, this is what this team can really do, it's so exciting, it's like, boy, it really is, it just makes you even more frustrated for the games they did.
It's like, I can't enjoy it because in the back of my head, I'm sitting there like, why aren't we doing this most games?
Yeah. With the Louisiana series, it was pretty clear. We were not going to hit the ball that weekend. We had no glimpses of an offense this weekend throws you off a little bit. Cause you put up that, you know, huge number on Saturday, you hit six home runs. You said all your season highs, and then you come out Sunday and. Really just lay an egg in the rubber match that series.
Yeah, I mean, when you've got a chance to take a series against number 20, I mean, that's huge. And the offense just did not show up. And, you know, the pitching wasn't that great in the Sunday game, but at a certain point it's like, well, you know, does it even matter if you give up 10 runs, if you, you only got three hits, you couldn't come close. We didn't come close to scoring a run. I don't know if we've, I don't think we've had a runner on third base in the game.
It was not pretty there were not many opportunities there But want to update everyone on dollars for dingers because we did hit some dingers there on saturday six of them In fact bringing our season total to 28 on the dollars for dinger side and then on bucks for bags I think cbu said we have one
We had one, Stephen Meyer had a stolen base on Tuesday against UVA and that was the only stolen base. Uh, partly because the only game we actually scored some runs, the guys didn't need to steal bases. They were hitting the ball out of the park. So, but Bucks for bags up to 58, still a very respectable total, but you can see, I think we, I kind of believed as conference play went on and we get a little harder to steal bases against some better teams and that's kind of playing out that way.
it certainly has and steven meyer who you talked about 18 for 18 on the season luke water still at 15 For 16, so those are the two guys carrying a good bit You Of that, Bucks for Bags load for us, but man started the week off with a trip up to Charlottesville. We weren't sure if that game was going to get played because there had been weather throughout the day. We had a rain delay during it. Uh, but just once again another trip to Charlottesville coming up empty only two hits.
Only two hits both by steven meyer who had the stolen base Um, but I mean you really you got to give it to the pitching like I said that there was uh, if you remember there actually they started the game a half hour early started what at 5 30 instead of six Uh, and then there was a delay in the middle of the game. So it was it was an odd game with the weather Uh, but nick salpizio started the game. I think it was his first college start two scoreless innings two strikeouts No walks.
I mean he looked very good that day You Hudson Trobaugh came on after him, ending in the third. Got a strikeout. He looked good. Kellen Davis finished off the inning for him. You know, doing his, bringing in the Raptor. Uh, Brandon Pond, two and two thirds. He looked really good. He, I mean, he gave up a run. Uh, but he, he did look good. Uh, and Marco Lovari got another good opportunity, came in and, uh, kind of shut the door. So, through, seven innings, things were looking great.
It was one to nothing against one of the top offenses in all of college baseball. I mean, you really can't fault the guys. You know, anytime you're playing number 15 in the country and you lose, it's like, okay, that happens. Uh, but they really are pitching staff really came in as well and Beshara had probably his worst outing of the season. He gave up three runs at the end. But again, if the offense didn't score, that kind of becomes irrelevant.
It was a very similar game to what we saw earlier this season in Charlottesville. The pitching held their own for quite a long time and then the dam kind of broke there at the end, but You Talk about one of the best offenses in the country. UVA played North Carolina, who's ranked 10th right now on Thursday and put up a 14 spot on them. They scored seven against them on Friday.
Then the final game on Saturday, uh, they lost that game, but they put up seven runs, so we were able to contain a really potent offense. But I don't know who those midweek guys were that they were trotting out there I know it's a staff day for them, but they looked uh, pretty good shutting us down We we made them look great, uh up there in charlottesville.
Well, I know the one guy just because he was the quarterback on the uh, the football, Jay Wolfork. He was a quarterback for the UVA football. I saw him pitching high school. I remember him thinking, uh, it's pretty neat. He was gonna go do both for UVA.
It was definitely a tough one I I don't know necessarily if it was unexpected just based on our previous performance there and kind of being a midweek I did think that we'd be able to score a few more runs off of those guys But just really couldn't put any string of it bats together And a trend that you will hear throughout the rest of this episode, we struck out 14 times, only drew four walks, uh, for a team that wants to play the small ball and a lot of contact, putting the ball in play 14
strikeouts in a nine inning game is not going to going to help you very much in accomplishing those goals of getting guys on and getting guys over
Yeah, we are, uh, we're striking out way too much as a team. Uh, I'm looking here actually, As a team, we've struck out 297 times in 256 innings. So that's a ton. I mean, that would be, I don't know what, I don't have a calculator to do any math on the, that K per nine, but that's, that's pretty phenomenal, uh, from a pitching perspective for the opposing team.
So like I said, for a team that needs to put the ball in play, needs to get guys on base and I don't know about the rest of the week, but certainly today there were a lot of strikeouts looking. So right there, that's showing that just as you're not protecting with two strikes, you're not coming up with a good approach. And again, that's just not how you're going to be successful.
that strikeout rate is more indicative of a team that's going to hit a hundred home runs this year where they're taking in those big cuts. Uh, not really what you would expect. And I know that this is a transition still for this team and it takes some time to break those old habits and truly buy into the small ball. I think at this point, this many games in the season, you're kind of on board with that plan to play small ball or you're not.
And like you said, just some really non competitive at bats throughout the four games over this week.
Yeah. Like you said, the, the, the theme of too many strikeouts, not enough hits, not enough walks. It's becoming a repetitive theme for the season, unfortunately.
We'll jump ahead and look at the game on Friday down in Conway, South Carolina. I think, uh, I remember FAU. on their football sideline, had like 1. 2 miles to the beach and an arrow pointing to it. Coastal has something similar to that, except without talking about the miles, like play at the beach, that kind of thing. Like we have play at the bay. They're about 11 miles from the beach.
So if you're wondering why the episode is titled, as 11 miles to the beach, that is why, but Friday was really just not a great performance. I mean, it was eight to nothing with that big, big fifth inning that opened up, held everything strong until then, but the wheels really came off there.
Yeah. You know, Jay Cassidy came out, um, he had another good opening performance, uh, didn't quite make it through the third, but I think that's okay. I mean, they're kind of expecting, you know, if you, if you can get through three, cool, if not, we'll bring a reliever and make it happen. Um, John Halibut's got him out of the third, you know, Pitched a good fourth and then it just fell apart for him in that fifth inning. Um, Honestly, I think they left him out there too long.
He kind of had to wear it. That was, I think his fourth appearance now out of the bullpen. The first three were, I think he went 12 and a third scoreless. So, you see how, how easy it is to erase all that good work. It's, it's unfortunate. Uh, he's a, he's a very talented pitcher. He just had a really bad day.
And the strategy there is a little bit different from what we've seen the three previous times he's come out of the pen. He's usually come out of the pen and started an inning where you have Kellen Davis come in to kind of close the door on an inning. Uh, he's done that for Jay a couple times on Friday. Didn't see that on Friday. Brought him in straight out of the pen onto the mound to get the last out of the inning.
And I'm wondering if maybe mentally that put him in a different spot than what they had seen before. But that was the only real change to that setup that had really worked so well on a Friday for us the past few weeks.
Yeah, I, I thought of that too, because I was definitely looking for Kellen Davis to come out of the bullpen there, but you know, There might be something to that. But also he pitched a third scoreless before that fifth inning. So who knows what, yeah, who knows? Maybe they saw him too many times. I, I, I'm not really sure it was just a, the reality is coastal Carolina is extremely good hitting team and they just kept getting hits on, uh, and he walked some guys on top of that.
So it just, Um, also you gotta mention, Vincent Becerra, he had probably his worst appearance on Tuesday of the season, probably his best appearance of the season here Friday night, two and a third scoreless, two strikeouts. He looked great at a time when they needed somebody to look great at the end of the game.
If you could just erase that fifth inning, we'd actually be in pretty good shape, uh, because we were able to put a couple runs on the board late with Luke Waters getting, uh, an RBI double, in the sixth, and then Maverick Sollings with an RBI single in the seventh, but that was really it, and we, we dropped that one. Nine to two, not the way you want to start a series, but again, Coastal's a really good baseball team. They hit, they hit, they hit.
We talked about it last week and they just managed to get most of their hits right there in that one inning.
Yeah, again, only four hits on the day for him, like I said, a couple of RBI hits, but, and only two walks, you know, you're just not getting enough base runners in that game. So yeah, the pitching wasn't great, but also, you know, if you only score two runs, you weren't gonna be in the game anyway.
First four hitters in the lineup for us only had a combined one hit there. Luke had one, Alex Boucher had one, Carter Sunderman went one for two and then Maverick who came in for him later in the game had a hit. Um, but really just not a whole lot going on. And there were definitely some opportunities where we threw in some pinch hitters and a row of Massey got him at bat. Jack Spites got in a bat.
Not your day on that Friday down there in Conway, but we bounced back in a big, big way on Saturday, putting up a season high in runs, hits, and home runs, uh, had to watch that one on a replay cause I was busy on Saturday, but it was very happy to see all those crooked numbers going up on the scoreboard.
That was an extremely fun game to watch. Uh, I'd say we technically run ruled them because we got the fifth up to the 11 run lead there in the ninth, you know, it just, uh, it happened to me, the game was ended by the run rule, but whatever. Uh, but you know, just a really outstanding, I think Finney said, it's probably their best all around game this season. The pitching was great. The hitting was great. I mean, it was just everything you want. Out of your baseball team to do in a day.
I mean that's just you couldn't have done much better
Absolutely. And had a lot of guys that had some great, stats at the plate. You know, Alex Boucher, three for six, four RBIs. He also struck out three times in that game, which is, uh, really interesting that you go three for six driving four and have, have those strikeouts. But of course he hit, uh, one of the home runs. Stephen Meyer had a three hit game. I mean, really just up and down that lineup.
I think everyone who had more than one at bat had a hit in that game for us, which was just great to see.
Yeah, nick miller coming in as the dh that day, which is you know Kind of surprise insert in the lineup had a couple of hits had a homer. Had a nice hit early in the game. And so he's he's one of those guys, you know, he's um When he takes his swings, he really looks like he has an all or nothing swing But he's he's surprisingly with two strikes been very good at kind of You Shortening up and putting the ball in play.
So I, Nick's an interesting hitter who hasn't had a lot of chances So far yet, but it was so it's good to see him. Have a nice day at the plate
I'm always a fan of a guy who hasn't gotten a ton of opportunities. And then when he does in a big spot, he comes up in a big way, kind of rewards the team for taking a chance on him. He certainly fit that bill. This game is, is really interesting though. If you go back and rewatch it, or even just go through the play by play, We kind of started out with the small ball approach, right? RBI single RBI single. And then we've got like an RBI double.
Uh, and then later in the game, it is home run, home run, home run, home run. That's all you see in the stat sheet of how we scored those runs. So we kind of combined the, the bud bombers with the small ball approach and it paid off big time with those 15 runs. We're able to rack up there.
Yeah, and both the eighth and ninth we had back to back home runs, which is pretty cool uh, and and from guys you wouldn't expect, you know stallings and and kyle edwards and um, Uh, and again lavarie and muller, you know Miller. They haven't had a lot of chances. Miller hadn't had a lot of chances and Kenny's just not really a home run hitter. So right there was, you know, guys who aren't, you know, the big boppers doing at the end too, which is neat.
And then pitching, I thought pitching was fantastic. I mean, limiting, uh, coastal, just four runs. Only two of those were earned. Blake Morgan gets to start, goes two and two thirds, uh, gives up just one earned run on four hits. Has a walk in a strikeout. Kellen Davis coming in, doing what he does there in that, clean up kind of role to get out of an inning. Face one batter, got that batter out. Trip Buchanan only went an ending in the third, uh, but was very effective.
Only giving up one run on three hits. And then Jacob Gomez with his longest save of the season, four and two thirds inning with nine strikeouts.
Yeah. When they brought him in the sixth though, I was kind of like, well, are they going to let him finish it off? And, uh, the way he was pitching, I don't see any reason why he'd let anybody else do it. that big lead. So, well, he's going to be burned for the weekend. Anyway, you might as well save that another arm and if he can go out and do it and he, he only got better as it went on.
Um, and of course, you know, I would, I told you, I talked to him last week about, um, they were, uh, telling him he couldn't have so much fun and do as much chirping. They were, you see the umpires, they were giving him a hard time about, I don't know what he was doing, Again, umpires hate fun. They hate any kind of enjoyment in the game. How dare you?
Uh, play well and be excited about it So, I don't know why they they hate having a good time It's gonna be the kind of stuff you you put on Social media and and pictures and videos the guys celebrate and having a good time and they really just hate it So I I guess that you know, how dare you want to grow the game and enjoy yourselves?
Well, they may have not liked him celebrating, but I know that he is smiling after that performance. I mean, 71 pitches in four and two thirds, the nine strikeouts. I mean, I think the only thing he did wrong. Three hits that he scattered in one hit by a pitch. I'll take that from Jacob Gomez, whether it's at the front end of the game, back into the game, whenever, I mean, that is a great performance. He continues to just be a rock for us out of the bullpen and getting out.
Yeah, I mean jacob is a weapon. He is i'm looking at his stats for the season. He's got a 1. 32 era Uh, he's a guy he's one in one with five saves 33 strikeouts and 27 third innings So he's actually what third of the team in innings and second on the team in strikeouts as a reliever I mean, that's that's pretty healthy.
Yeah, that is absolutely healthy. And hopefully we're seeing him close out wins on Fridays, but you know what? I will, I will take wherever you can come in and secure a win for us. We'll gladly take it in this. Increasingly difficult sunbelt and also with just kind of what we're doing offensively. It's a little helter skelter and there's no better example of that if you put up 15 runs on Saturday. You come back and you can only get three hits and no runs on Sunday.
And we're recording this on Sunday, a couple hours after the game. So pretty fresh in our minds, but that was just a tough game to watch overall. I
I'm not gonna lie.
I I changed it to watching the women's, national, champ the basketball final, uh, About when that came on because I was tired of Me and y'all know i'm as big a odu baseball fan as anybody I flipped back a few times But you know, I was like i am i'm sick of watching us watch pitches right down the middle for strike three they had the kid who started for Uh coastal carolina had eight strikeouts and I bet seven of them were looking Uh, it just, it was not a, it was not a good performance.
Um, the pitching was not great, but again, that kind of becomes irrelevant. If you can't score a run, it really doesn't. You can't say, Oh, the pitching was bad. Well, all right. You didn't score any runs. You didn't get any hits. So who really cares what the pitching did today?
Cameron Flukie for Coastal Carolina was their starter, probably one of the best. Pitching performances they've had, uh, in a weekend. Some belt series this season, uh, you have five innings pitch, no runs, three hits, one walk, eight strikeouts. He hit one batter, looks really good. And then everyone, they brought it out of the bullpen. Uh, look great as well with Henry, Wiker and Trevor Hinkle. Got three hit list innings, had a three combined strikeouts.
Uh, so I don't know if that's the best pitching that Coastal has to offer, but they definitely look like it today. So you have to tip your cap to them. Uh, but offensively for us, it looked like Kossil's approach from the abats I watched. Was they were throwing fast balls up in the zone and we were chasing them and swinging, but not able to make contact.
And if they were able to get ahead in the count, it would come back with breaking balls that dove down out of the zone and, or stayed right in the bottom of the zone in a lot of cases. And that's what we were kind of caught looking at. So changing that eye level, changing that approach. And they seem perfectly fine to throw as many strikes as possible because they knew that their offense was going to put up runs.
They just wanted to limit the number of pitches they were going to throw and get guys out. They did a good job. I mean, 115 pitches total thrown for coastal, only one walk, one hit by a pitch, 11 total strikeouts, uh, that's just, that's mowing dudes down
Yeah, the kid Flukie, he's a freshman. So, I mean, he was out there throwing 95, 96, that's going to be a problem for the Sunbelt for several years. And, uh, you know, Coastal, they, it's their, I guess their second year with their pitching coach, Jason Beverland, who, um, had a very, very short major league career, but had a nice pro career has been coaching for a while.
Um, I think he was, uh, like a pitching coordinator for somebody might have been for the guardians the last four, like four years. So he's very experienced, very good. Yeah. He was a good pitcher in his own right. He's been a good coach for a while And you can see like you said you see the results here Um on on a good day for him when they're pitching looks really good and they're really following the scouting plan I'm sure he he grew up for him.
You're right He was I mean, that's that's what you want to do as a pitcher Do you want to change that eye level and make guys not be sure about where it's going to be?
and then throw in mid nineties. That also helps, especially as a freshman. That is. He's going to be a problem. He's going to be selling. We're going to see a lot of, uh, unless he jumps in the transfer for,
I'm looking forward to when they visit next spring, honestly
Yeah. Coach Gilmore who's there, you know, he's run a really great program. He's been there, I think at coastal for 28 years, something like that. Um, when I lived in Myrtle beach. I played baseball with his son, Chance, who actually went to UVA and played for a little bit, had an injury, ended up transferring to Coastal, so the Gilmore name definitely still rings in my ears quite a bit, and, uh, they, they gave it to us on Sunday.
Oh, and speaking of Myrtle Beach, since you brought it up, the, uh, the minor leagues have started going last week, and this past Friday, all the A ball AA teams started. Uh, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, we, they have some, some ODU alumni. We have, uh, Andy Gariola is playing for them. They actually had, uh, the 3, 4, and 5 in their lineup the other day. It was Gariola, Jacob Wetzel, who we may or may not remember, he was at ODU actually for a fall before moving on, uh, back to a junior college.
And then Carter Trice, who was with us for a couple years before transferring to NC State. So that was their 3 4 5, the lineup was three guys that were, at one point, all on the same team at ODU. Thought that was pretty interesting.
That is pretty wild to think about. I know we've got a lot of guys in the minor league system that are working their way up,
We've got, uh, we've got like 15 guys playing pro ball right now. It's pretty crazy.
Yeah, I mean, that's it's a good reputation to have and I'm hopeful that we're able to keep that going. I definitely think there's some guys on our team now that have a lot of good pro potential, but, got to focus on this season and try to eke out some wins here because, we go go one in three this week, you know, at least we got the one against coastal and didn't get swept. I think I talked about it last week. I look at any of these road series. You have to get one.
It's great if you can get two, even better if you can sweep, but you got to get one on the road. And we did, if you go and look at the Sunbelt standings, you're starting to get a little bit of separation at the top because, uh, breaking news, Louisiana has still not lost. They have won 15 straight. They're 11 and one now in the Sunbelt, 24 and eight overall. If they're not ranked this week, Something is criminally wrong. Like they should a hundred percent be ranked at this point.
Going through a conference is this tough being 11 and one as hot as they are. You got to at least throw a 25 in front of their name or something. So, uh, hopefully, uh, hopefully that pops in there, uh, because that would. Make that sweep from earlier this season feel a little bit better knowing they're doing it to everybody else, but you got eight and four and eight and four, you got Southern Miss and Georgia Southern seven and five got coastal Troy and Georgia state JMU is six and six.
And we'll talk about them in a little bit. Then you got a four way tie at five and seven with us app state, Texas state and Marshall. So there's a whole lot of room to move around there. Everyone else is still bunched up. I mean, I don't even think Arkansas state and ULM at three and nine are necessarily, Out of the equation because you just have a couple of good weekends and boom, you're right back at it.
To further your point even just being three and nine doesn't mean you're like, oh, they're a non contender Like no they could you you see how I mean We're od is five and seven a couple games here and there that we probably gave away Um, you know We could easily be right there at six and six, right there at seven and five. I guarantee the same thing is probably true for Arkansas State and ULM there at three and nine.
And, and by the end of the year, they say when it's time for tournament time, I wouldn't say if I'm starting out the, the tournament and they got ULM at three and nine facing Louisiana at 11 and one, I'm not saying, Oh, ULM has no shot. Like, no, that's not the way the Sunbelt tournament or the Sunbelt, baseball works. Everybody's got a shot.
I mean, it's a battle every weekend. We've talked about it on every episode. I mean, you're not going to sweep teams very easily. You're going to have to work for it. You have to catch them when they're down. Uh, you're going to play your best baseball. And, but I think my point of that is. Even though we have not had the best start, right? We're five and seven in conference play. That's probably not where we want to be. We definitely want to have a winning record.
We still have everything to play for moving forward. We are not out of this mix. We still have time to get more consistent on the offensive side of the ball and put ourselves in a great position for the conference tournament. Because what I don't want to happen is us to end up in a seating where we have to play a. Three and nine Arkansas state with nothing to lose and they go balls out and just destroy us in the first round and give us that first loss.
I mean, you're right. And, it is upsetting when you go one in three on a week, but you also have to tell yourself, well, we play two top 25 teams and realistically, honestly, you know, we've watched this game now, ODU has played 29 games a season. They are not a top 25 team. They realistically should not be having winning record against top 25 teams. So going one in three is probably what it should be. At the same time, they were very much in. Some of those games and they could have competed.
Um So you're right. I think this is kind of like I said, so we're 29 games in the season I'm, sorry, we're 31 games in the season. I can't do math 31 games of the season Uh 16 and 15, right? So you are one game above 500. You're five and seven in conference So you're a couple games under 500 Uh, and like you said there you're you're over halfway through the year. You got to ask yourself. Well, are we who we are?
Are we just a middling team that, it's a coin flip one day of another, what we could do, or are we better than we played? And we can really make a run the last, you know, 40 percent of the season. I think the team that we have is the team that we saw on Saturday. I really do. I think that that's, uh, we're showing too many other days like Tuesday and Friday and Sunday, uh, where we're not competing and we're not going out and.
Being as aggressive and being the team we can be so that's something I think these guys really got to dig down deep They're really going to ask themselves, you know, who are we? Are we the guys that go out and fight? Are we the guys sit there and watch? Uh strikes
And I think we get the answer to that over the next two weekend series. Cause we've got JMU that's going to come to town, uh, this next weekend. And then we go on the road to Marshall and JMU appears to be neck and neck with us should be similar to the Charlotte series earlier this year of. They're a pretty good team, we're a pretty good team, we're gonna find out who's the better team when we play head to head.
And then Marshall, who, it's hard to get a read on them, cause they're kind of up and down as well. But I mean, if we come out of those six games in conference there, and we go one and five, I'm I think the alarm bell needs to be sounded at that point because we're in a lot of trouble.
But if we're, four and two, five and one, heck, maybe even six and Oh, coming out of there, I'll feel a lot better, but we just have to have some consistent at bats because that has just been, that has been frustrating. It's almost like watching every other sport at ODU. Some nights they look like they could take on the world and the other nights it wouldn't be directly team.
man, that's that's uh upsetting how true that is that's not a that's not a great thing to have going for all your sports where you you're just like Tantalized by potential or disappointed by potential at all times that is fair
Yeah. We're almost to the top of the mountain. And sometimes we just decided to fall backwards off of it and have to make the long climb back up. Oh, well let's put this one in three week. Right in the trash can. We'll, we'll think about that 15 run game and set that as kind of a new goal of that's how you can go out and easily win a game on Saturday against the top 25 team, but we've got to make a trip down to Greenville and play East Carolina.
Who's probably itching for the opportunity for a little payback from their walk off loss to us at the bud a couple of weeks ago.
Another top 25 team and uh, you know an ecu is always an interesting atmosphere to play and you know They have their whole all their their crazies down there that go and yell and they think they're really Making a deal a big deal impacting the game and and frankly, I don't think the players really care that much They kind of laugh at anything. So but they they like it. They think it's cute.
So, all right I I i'm a fan of just rooting for your team, but that's you know, that's not how people want to be coastal is an extremely good team where they 22 and seven, they're, they're a top 25 team. They're 13 and one at home. They got some dudes. We saw them earlier this year. We did a really great job of pitching that night. And then, uh, Stephen Meyer had a phenomenal, uh, hit that, that walked it off for us. So hopefully we can have some of that magic again.
And East Carolina just wrapped up their final game of Florida Atlantic in one eight to six. So they are now sitting at 23 and seven. Six and three in the American. Uh, you know, early in the season, the kind of quote unquote knock on them, if you want, is that they were not able to win those midweeks on the road. They lost to Campbell, who we now know is actually pretty good. They lost to ODU.
Uh, they dropped a head scratcher to Southeastern Louisiana as part of like a weekend classic kind of thing, but Let me tell you, since then, they have been just beating the brakes off everybody. Swept Liberty, uh, took a couple games from UNC Wilmington, who's good. Uh, swept Columbia. They had a little bit of a hiccup when they went to UTSA. They dropped, uh, two out of three there, but their loss is lost by one run, lost by, by two runs. Uh, swept UAB, who's good.
And then more recently this past week, they rolled into number 19, NC state beating 12, four, uh, and then take two out of three for Ford Atlantic. So they are a very, very good ball club. It's interesting that before they come to us, they're going to play Elon at home on Tuesday, and then we roll down there Wednesday. So they've got a full slate of games this week. Then Charlotte is going to be coming into town for the weekend. But. And they're, they're good.
They can hit, they can pitch, they can do everything. And I imagine they're going to be a little pissed off that I think we beat him down there last year. And then they lost us at home this year.
I'd also imagine with that Tuesday game and then a big, conference, series coming up in state that, uh, come that Wednesday game, they're going to be checking that weather report and looking for any, uh, any ounce of rain they could find.
Yes. And I can't say I would blame him for that. And honestly, wouldn't totally hate it for our guys either. Other than I think the East Carolina games are pretty fun. Uh, they're also probably trying to get on a plane coming back, uh, from Boca to Greenville. I don't know if they drove or not. That'd be a very long drive. Uh, but with some weather coming across the middle of the country, That could, uh, make things interesting for them from a travel perspective.
It's funny ECU's conference as we're looking through their schedule here. It's it's a bunch of the old cast offs from the Our old cusa foes. We got uab and utsa and florida atlantic charlotte I see rice later on in the season like they they really uh, they got the remnants of the cusa over there
Let's be honest. The American is Conference USA version, like 6. 0 or 7. 0. That's basically what it's become. I mean, it's all people that were within the past decade in Conference USA or in another mid major. Uh, yeah, but it is interesting. They've basically played all their old Conference USA rivals to start the season.
I love that trip out to Tulane and Wichita State. That's gotta be, God, what a conference. Oh
Yeah. We think our travel is bad having to go out to Louisiana. We've, uh, we we've been down that Conference USA road before and making those trips out to UTSA. Yeah. for football and basketball back in the day. Um, no, no thanks from me, but that's going to be a really tough one on Wednesday. Um, it looks like it's going to be on ESPN so you should be able to catch that provided there's no weather implications or anything.
Uh, and then we look ahead to another dreaded purple team coming to town to the Bud, James Madison.
I tell you what, I think it's going to be an awesome weekend. I think it's looking like the weather is going to be good for us. The bud should be packed. You know, there's always a lot of uh, jmu fans here in the area I don't know why they hate themselves like that. They need to be jmu fans, but whatever Uh, but you know jmu has several, uh local kids on the team So i'm sure their families and friends are gonna come out and so and you know Like I said, they're six and six.
We're uh, five and seven pretty evenly matched teams It's going to be a good test for both of them to kind of separate themselves and try to like I said Kind of define the second half of your season to who you are. So i'm i'm very excited for the weekend
Yeah, and you can do the transitive property. I, I try not to because it'll drive you insane in the Sunbelt, but they also lost two out of three at Coastal, uh, earlier this year. They dropped two out of three at home against Texas State. Dropped two out of three to Georgia state. What's really pumped them back up is this weekend app state rolled into Harrisonburg and got absolutely steamrolled by the Dukes, uh, clean sweep, 13 to nine, eight to five, 11 to five.
Uh, so you want to talk about a team that might be heating up a little bit. It could be James Madison. Uh, they've got a midweek on Wednesday as well. They have, uh, the Richmond spiders going out to Harrisonburg. And then of course, they'll come down to Norfolk for the weekend, but there's one thing you want to point to for JMU. They're 14 and three at home. They have been dominant on their home field, but they're only five and nine away from Harrisonburg.
So. This is probably a, they're looking at this probably the same way we are. This is a good test. We need to go and we need to get some conference road wins. We need to figure out what our team is going to look like. Uh, a lot of feeling out is going to happen from this three game series over the weekend.
Yeah It's going to be a good game. I I for some reason my stats aren't coming back up, but I know fendrick tremble Uh, from Cox is, I think he's been their best hitter. Um, they got Mason Dunaway who seems like he's not playing every single day, but I'm sure he'll get some games and he's from Hickory. He's a good, good ball player. Uh, Nick Pool is a really good freshman. That's from Western Branch. He looks, he's not playing much at all.
So, I mean, that's might be a guy that maybe like him at bat or two, here at home. We have Max Kuhl, uh, who his brother Aiden is, of course, on ODU as a pitcher. Max has been, been their Saturday guy. I'm not sure if he's still their Saturday starter, but I'd imagine he's going to pitch over the weekend. So there's just some. A few local guys that we're going to see. And again, just as an extra dimension, an extra flair to the weekend. So it's, uh, it's going to be exciting.
You know, there's always that, the JMU, uh, real robbery that we're getting killed in, unfortunately. Uh, so hopefully we can come out and, uh, get ourselves some more respectability
shout out to our tennis program for kicking the absolute shit out of them, uh, this weekend. At least get us some more points in the right direction. We'll take you in tennis. wick Trimble definitely one of their best hitters hitting three 50, four bombs, 27 runs, driven in, uh, started, played in all their games. Wyatt Pifer, I believe is s you say his name. Uh, he's hitting three 40 over a thousand OPS, three home runs, 25 Ribbies. He's pretty good.
They've, they definitely have some guys that can hit. They got four guys hitting over 300. Uh, their big home run hitter though is Brendan O'Donnell. He has. 10 bombs driven in 25 runs. So I guess a lot of those home runs are solo shots, but. Uh, 10 bombs in 31 games is a pretty damn good clip, uh, to be hitting the ball. So, probably want to avoid lobbing him anything close down the middle.
Yeah. They've got some, they got some good pitching too. I remember this guy, Joe Vygotsky. He's been pitching pretty well, looks like out of the bullpen for him. He's got five saves, um, 26 strikeouts, 22 innings. They've got some skill. I mean, it's very clear that, JMU invests in their sports. Um, and this move to the Sun Belt has been great for them. And I hope we just, bring them. into Norfolk and, uh, make them feel really sad about their lives when they leave.
That would be ideal. Yeah, I think, uh, Donovan Burke probably is going to be their Friday starter. They definitely mixed up, uh, who they put on the mound for Fridays. But, he started, six games for him. He's got a 398 ERA, 32 strikeouts, 14 walks. So if he doesn't start Friday, he's probably going to throw a good number of innings at some point over the weekend. And they've got a couple of really strong, uh, bullpen arms, talk about Joe.
Uh, there's a couple of other guys in there that can absolutely throw it. So, I mean, I, I don't know if we're any better than JMU. I don't necessarily think that we are. I don't have any information that says that we are better than them. Uh, but one really easy way to go and prove it is to go kick their ass this weekend. Got to win the series. It's at home. Got to take at least two. Uh, be nice if we were able to take the first two and finish that series off and take the third one as
And it'd be great to do that because then coming up, uh, again, we don't get too far ahead of ourselves, but, you know, it's always good to throw the ad out here on, uh, Tuesday the 16th, so the Tuesday right after this coming weekend, we got, uh, UVA at Harbor Park. Which is going to be the first time we've gotten to play at Harbor Park since 2019, uh, due to various circumstances. So I'm extremely excited about that game. I hope we pack the place out.
I'd love to see more people there than for any, uh, Norfolk Ties game that I have this whole season.
I believe, don't we still hold the state record for highest attended college baseball game at Harbor park when we played them,
It was, it was against UVA. We beat them that game, which makes them sad. I think that that might've been the one nothing game or it might've been, it was, might've been a four to two game, but we, we beat them. There was about 7, something at that game. It was, it was great. I'd love it if we could top that.
Yeah, I mean, obviously there's a good number of baseball fans in the 757. I think that's pretty clear. I know many years ago, the Nationals almost landed here. They ended up going to D. C. Uh, there's a lot of interest. So, having games like that where they have a little more visibility to the community is important because, We roll out this new bud.
Uh, we're going to need the community to come out and support and help fill those seats and supplement the diehard ODU fans that are out there all the time. Despite the weather, no matter what they're there. I know that you're definitely one of them CB. I do my best to get down there from Richmond, but. Uh, really hoping we just get a super nice weather day and no excuses to cancel that one.
Yeah. That's the last thing we want to give us any, any opportunity did not play the game. Hopefully we were there. I'm looking forward to it. Um, it's exciting. So, and, and hopefully at that point, we, we won a few games this week and Getting things on the right path and, we can meet UVA. You saw me, we, we, that, you know, for nothing loss, that was not a bad loss. Like, frankly, we, we played very well. We just got, I got a hit. We need our guys.
I've got to go up and, and show that same approach and that same drive that they had on Saturday. If they could do that, just part of that, every game, we're going to be, have a lot better season going.
We know it's there. We know they can they can bring it out. Um, but definitely if you're around, uh campuses weekend it's going to be a good one. ODU football is having their spring game on saturday as well And
Uh, Ross has a game. I think it, well, I want to say, I think, uh, tennis, uh, might be playing also.
it should be a great time on campus on Saturday. Uh, for baseball, you're playing 6:00 PM on Friday, uh, 4:00 PM on Saturday. So that's gonna be probably about 30 to 45 minutes after the spring game festivities have completed. And then we close out the final game at 1:00 PM on Sunday. If you can't make it to campus for some reason, they will be on ESPN Plus.
But, um, highly recommend if you're looking for a weekend to go pick out and go catch some ODU games, this would be a great weekend to do it because I'll remind everyone again. Doesn't look like we're going to have any games at the bud next season. It will be under construction.
So enjoy all these home games that we have now, because you might be relegated to either driving to the peninsula pilot stadium, or maybe over to Harbor park for a couple, who knows where, uh, no, we'll have a lot of road games too. So come and enjoy it this weekend. Uh, hopefully get some good weather, that good spring weather, catch a little bit of football, some lacrosse, some tennis, whatever else is going on. I know the soccer teams are in their, their spring seasons as well.
Uh, getting some work in, so good time to be on campus and enjoy it a little bit.
Yeah, it's a great point because I was actually looking at there's only 10 home games left. There's only three home weekends There's only one, uh home game on a tuesday, I think against uh, vcu and then also the game against harvard park the game of hard park against uva. So Uh, not not to start pointing out how little there is left to enjoy But like I said get out there and enjoy it. There's only um a little bit left here at the old bud So this weekend should be a fantastic one
I was going through my personal calendar, working on some work travel things. And I realized that May 21st is the official start of the Sunbelt baseball tournament. So we are six weeks from that basically. It's slipping by very quickly. I mean, I never thought we'd get to 10 episodes of this thing. And here we are recording episode 10.
there we go. Well, hopefully episode 11. We have a lot more fun things to talk about
And it definitely would be, would be great. Well, I think that's going to do it for us this week. Uh, we appreciate all of you who do tune in and listen, everyone who is subscribed on Spotify, iTunes, wherever you listen to your podcast. Uh, spread the word with our ODU fan base, because we definitely want to keep this thing going and just share the good work and the good people that are there within this ODU baseball program. Hope to see you out at the Bud over the weekend.
I'm Gary, Go Monarchs!
and i'm cb go monarchs