Hello, Monarch fans and welcome to the Hudson homers podcast. I'm Gary, joined as always by CB. We go one and two this weekend down in San Marcos, Texas. CB, how are you feeling after this weekend?
Well, you know, personally, I went and saw some really good high school baseball. Uh, got to see some really great programs like Cox and Greenbar Christian and K. Penry and even got to see the Miller School with a future Hall of Famer, Billy Wagner as a head coach. So the baseball I experienced in person was great. The baseball that I had to, uh, Keep up with through live stats and some radio, uh, could have been better. it wasn't a great weekend for ODU. Unfortunately.
Yeah, I had the house to myself on Friday. I was really excited to try out the radio broadcast once I got back from being out to have the live stats, watch the end of the game. But by the time I got home, I That thing was basically over. And I think we were in the third or the fourth inning. So, uh, that one was tough. I was a good ball game on Saturday the final, the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday, they come back and win it.
But man, that Friday one that's one of the ugliest baseball games I've seen from ODU in a long, long time.
Yeah, things just got away from, you know, Jay Cassidy has been extremely solid for ODU all year and he just did not have a very good start. I mean, we, he gave up six runs and ending in two thirds. Uh, Kellen Davis came on a relief. I think Kellen that honestly this point in the season, I'm sure he's probably just getting tired. You know, he didn't pitch last year, but like a couple of games, he was a red shirt the year before. So it's been a few years.
And who knows how much he pitched in the high school. Honestly, uh, I think he's just getting to a point where he's tired. So he's kind of losing that magic. I'm sure that that, uh, amazing breaking ball isn't breaking as much as it used to. Uh, Stephen Trone, who I was kind of hoping would maybe fill in some of that slack for, for Kellan, is having the same thing. He's come into games and, and hasn't quite, uh, he's had some struggles, uh, even after having some good times.
Um, and just pretty much anybody who went to the mound for ODU on, uh, on Friday just struggled.
It was a tough go of it for the pitchers. Uh, but we did have a great way to start the game off. TJ Aiken. Recent guests of the podcast leads off the game with the solo home run. And you see that and you're like, all right, these boys are here to play on a road series on the weekend. We've really struggled on those Friday away games to get going early. But he hit one and that'll kind of lead me here to the dollars for dingers update.
Uh, we are now at 43 home runs on the seasons, 43 for dollars for dingers. And on the bucks for bag side, we are at 72 stolen bases, 72 for 91 on the season. So we stole some bags this weekend. We hit some home runs. We did not get the three wins, but TJ Aiken starting us off with that solo shot got my hopes up. But then, it was some tough sledding from there on. I mean, the second inning kind of melt down there where Texas state put up seven on the board. We just could not get an out.
It didn't matter if they hit the ball hard, soft, it was, it was landing in somewhere, just a really tough go of it. So you're, you're going into the top of the third at seven to one. And that changed some pitching plans for ODU.
Typically they've used John Hollibets on, in the Friday games. I, I like Not using him in a game. You're down seven to one.
Let's be real I'm, uh using my best arm in that kind of game doesn't make a lot of sense So, you know throughout the guys who are who are not, you know The guys you go to in in the the midst of the the high pressure situations every time Uh letting some of the younger guys like hudson trobaugh marco lavari and nick salpizio get in there um And unfortunately, they all got rubbed down at all at times throughout the season. Sapizia have all thrown great.
They just unfortunately didn't, didn't have, they all had a bad day on the same day, and that just is going to happen sometimes, but the good news is they were able to save, uh, some of the arms that were, are the more established arms. And sometimes you got to wear it and that's your job.
I will say there was one point there in the fourth when I thought we had a good chance to come back because we knew that Texas state would give up some runs. Maverick Stallings hits a two run shot to left center to make it eight to four in the fourth. But just Texas state is what they did the whole game. They just kept coming back and they kept putting more runs on the board.
They answered with two of their own in the bottom of the fourth, three in the fifth, five in the six, and then this one ended, uh, early, uh, 18 to four, just. Just a brutal game that I think I put it out there on Twitter. They just have to flush that and go to the next day. Because also at the end of the game Friday, we found out that Saturday was going to be a double header because of all the crazy weather that has been going through Texas. It was forecasted for Sunday.
And some of that has been up in North Texas around my parents are. Uh, there have been some tornadoes and all kinds of crazy things, so I'm glad the guys are able to get out of there a little bit early, make sure they got back, so that way they are good to go this week, but rough, rough way to start.
Yeah, and like you said Maverick Stallings. He had a nice, we had a couple of home runs the weekend. Um, we'll get some deeper, some stats, but Kyle Edwards and Ken LaVarra continue to stay hot. They both had two hits in the Friday game. And tj, you know, he kept him he kept himself going. Well, so, you know a hitting side Obviously four runs.
I think it's never going to be enough in a college game But when you give up 18, I think it bats change whether they should or shouldn't but so Yep, so let's flush it also and let's move forward to saturday
Well, there is one other thing I want to mention from the game on Friday because it had an impact.
said flush it move on. How dare you?
Well, this one's a one you can't just flush. Uh, Evan Holman was removed from the game on Friday in the fourth. Uh, appeared to be some sort of injury. I don't know what it is. Certainly not a doctor. I think it's a shoulder situation. Uh, but he was pulled from the game Friday and we did not see him at all on Saturday. Uh, Jack Slater, Jackson Tone, uh, kind of stepped in there and did a pretty good job.
Tone had a good day in the second game on Saturday, but Evan has just been so strong for us behind the plate. His bat has been great in the lineup. His on base percentage is actually pretty high, especially for a catcher, seeing a lot of good pitches. Uh, he is someone that we are, are hoping gets well very soon. I doubt we'll see him Tuesday against VCU, no matter how he's feeling, but he's someone that we could desperately use to be back in the lineup this next weekend. All
You were right. We need to mention that. Yeah. No evan. Yeah, I I hope he I hope it's okay I hope it was just a little a little something. He's played a lot of games. Um, and, and hopefully, they said, definitely, I'd be sure it won't be out there Tuesday but hopefully, it'll be Friday night. We play App State at the Bud. Evan will be back in there because he has definitely been by far our best defensive player and just an absolute shutdown catcher been outstanding for us.
right. We can officially flush Friday now and go on to Saturday and kind of in a similar fashion here, we get on the board early with the solo home run, from Luke waters. So Waters gets a solo shot. We're up one to nothing. I'm like, all right, we're in good shape. Kept it one nothing until the fourth. We get another run on the board at the top of the fourth. But then the bottom of the fourth, things kind of fell apart a little bit defensively.
Yeah, we had, you know, had some errors, kicked the ball around a little bit. And, you know, Ben Moore, he's been very good this year. I think he was just probably out there a little bit longer. And then part of that is probably having used so many pitches the day before. Um, so maybe the guys like Kellen Davis and Steven Trone that you might've brought in and that when runners on base, he didn't have to bring in. Uh, I know, uh, Bailey Mattel has still been a little banged up.
He hasn't pitched in a while. So you kind of found yourself, which I do like. Still having some of your young guys figure it out and try to work through things.
But just didn't uh, he kind of gave up some runs and then Jacob Gomez had probably his worst game of the season Honestly four runs and three innings we got six runs got a couple there in the ninth Uh, but you know again if you give up eight this this was one of the few weekends where the pitching Did not lead the way and you really can't blame the hitting You
And I was a little surprised with the pitching approach because typically on the Saturday game or the second game of a weekend series, we've seen Blake Morgan start and then Ben Moore come on in relief. And then either Jacob Gomez or someone else coming in the back end, if we need to, to go into a save situation. So I thought it was interesting that Ben got the start, uh, obviously starting was not a problem for him.
Cause he looked great through the first three innings, uh, but he started getting in that 40 plus pitch count. And that's when they started hitting them a little bit there in the fourth. And then Jacob, I mean, I thought he actually pitched pretty well. He just made a couple of mistake pitches and Texas state was absolutely hammered him on it. Uh, so it was. It was tough to see those 2 guys go out there and we were not able to get the win.
Uh, we did not lay down though, which I think was really important that we didn't just lose that game 8 2. Like we got another run in the 8th, we had the tying run on 1st base in the 9th. Uh, Luke Waters was batting and he absolutely smoked one to the left side. Uh, it just happened to one hop directly to the third baseman. He stepped on third for the force out to end the game.
Uh, but we put pressure on them there in the later innings, they had to go to another arm and their bullpen, which is obviously great when you have a second game of double header coming up. So they, they fought back. Uh, it was eight to six, both teams had 10 hits. I thought the pitching was improved from the standpoint of they did not have nearly as many walks and hit by pitches as we saw on Friday, because that was a huge problem on Friday.
Uh, but the pitching staff, you know, through eight innings only had one walk, didn't hit anybody, just give up the 10 hits. So not a terrible pitching performance. It's just, they weren't that normal elite high level that we're used to, where they're only given up, you know, three, four, maybe five runs a game. We're just not built offensively to score double digits with any kind of consistency.
Yeah. I mean, as you break it down, Saturday is a day where sometimes, sometimes they beat you and you know, we, it seemed like, uh, the Bobcats were a pretty good hitting team and, and could pitch a little bit. Um, I wonder if Ben Moore pitching that game and then Blake pitching the second game, if part of this is maybe trying to move Ben into rotation. Cause you notice we didn't see Dylan Brown pitch this weekend. Um, he's had some struggles.
He's had, he's hadn't really gotten out of, uh, the second or third inning a few times here. Uh, so maybe that was the, the thought process was they were just believing Ben gave him a better chance to, to win and it didn't matter necessarily. Maybe they assumed Blake was the guy they really wanted if we really needed to win a third game. Um, whether it was to salvage a game like we had to or to try to win the series.
Yeah, and Ben has been great. Even with giving up those runs, he still had a 2. 61 ERA over 31 innings. He's got 32 strikeouts in just nine walks. So he's been fantastic. Maybe got stretched a little long or just, you know, second time through the order, Texas state had him squared up a little bit more. Uh, we also did not see Trent Buchanan this weekend. Uh, John Holabat's kind of. Slotted into his role in game three coming on in relief.
Uh, so there should be some fresh arms, which is good because we, we do have a midweek this week and we have a huge series against app state. But you dropped the first two, you were at least competitive and close there in game one on Saturday. Uh, but I felt really good going into that final double header game because I knew the arms that we had left. We knew that Blake was going to start. We knew hollow bets was available. We knew Dylan Brown was available.
Trent Buchanan, Vincent Bechera, Brandon Pond. We had some amazing arms going into the third game of that double header, which is a blessing and a curse from getting blown out on Friday.
Yeah, and, the pitching was able to hold them. Texas state got a couple of garbage runs there in the last inning. Uh, but you know, Blake did a good job starting off hollow bets. I mean, he two runs in five and two thirds innings, four walks and one strikeout. That's actually one of his worst performances in a while. Uh, hollow bets has been on a roll. Um, he's been, that's actually, I pulled up his stats. If you look at him since he's gone in relief, Yeah.
Um, he's thrown 34 and two thirds innings, 11 walks, 29 strikeouts, 11 earned runs. So that's a 286 ERA. If you take out the coastal game where he threw only two innings, gave up eight runs. So we just say that did never happened. He would have 32 and two thirds innings, only three runs. That's a 0. 83 ERA since he's been in relief. So even with that one terrible game his numbers look pretty great. Um, but his his era would be a full run lower Uh as a reliever than as a starter
He's had some nasty stuff lately. And both the runs that scored, uh, on his stat line were actually, uh, inherited runners when he came out of the game there late. Uh, so when he left the game, it was nowhere in runs, but he had some, some ducks left on the pond. There didn't strike out. A lot of guys only have one strikeout and in four walks. Uh, but he was pitching a contact and they weren't able to get solid contact on. I think is.
Is great, especially when you're trying to keep your, your pitch count low. I mean, he ended up at 86 pitches in just under six innings. I'll take that from a starter reliever from anybody. Bash came in, uh, he did hit one batter, but he was able to get two outs and then Brandon Pond finished it off.
Uh, it says he only got the, the one out there, but in reality, he actually got two because he struck out the first batter, uh, but it was a wild pitch and the runner reached, and then he got a fly out to center to end the game. Uh, but I thought he did a good job coming into a true high leverage situation. We haven't had a lot of those this year where a reliever comes in directly into high leverage in the ninth inning.
I think we've maybe only had two or three this whole season, which is really kind of weird considering how many games we played.
Yeah pond has been doing really well lately. He had that one game. I don't remember who we were facing He gave up like seven runs in like an inning Um, and just was terrible and since then he's been outstanding. I think I said at the time on our podcast here I said, you know, he's gonna be a guy we're gonna need to step up and play well And I fully believe he would and he's proved me right. Um, he's A big army.
The guy pitched a huge game last year and helping his team win the division three, uh, world series championship. He's a big arm with a lot of experience and he's coming up big and he's a good situation. So it's really nice to see that.
Yeah, absolutely. And I also liked the way that our offense came to life late in that game. Uh, cause we scored one in the second and then we were kind of down two to one for a good portion of that game, tied it in the sixth, but in the seventh and the eighth, we had three runs in the seventh, two in the eighth. Uh, none bigger, I think, than Alex Boucher's two run home run.
Nice to see him break out finally after coming back from injury and providing that big pop in the lineup that we'd been missing a little bit. Jackson Tone. He went one for two in the game with a double and a walk subbing in there for Evan Holman. That's great production at the plate. I will take that all day long.
Uh, but just the offense pieced it together, the pitching staff, in my opinion, just kind of returned to form of the great high level pitching they've had, uh, this year, and they were able to come out of there with a, a seven to four victory. It got a little sweaty there in the night. That I'm not going to lie.
At this point in the year, nobody is fresh, nobody's healthy. And you really do get a little more into like, who knows what's going to happen in any given pitch. The guys who you've counted on all year, it could not be their day. You know, we, we saw that, uh, this weekend. It was nice to see Boucher get back. Uh, TJ Aitken had a really nice weekend with a three hit game in the first game of that double header. Uh, Kyle Edwards stayed hot.
Lavarie, he finally had his hitting streak snapped, in that final game. What I say 16 game hitting streak he hit 381 with seven doubles five homers and 17 rbis over that stretch So that's and that's why uh, kenny finds himself. I think he's now the second highest batter on the team I mean going from where he was to theirs is kind of crazy.
His turnaround this season is, is fantastic. And even though he didn't get a hit, he still drove in a run in that final game. So if you still have productive at bats, uh, which. I think for him and after talking to him and getting to know him a little bit, if he goes over four, but he's able to do some things that helps the team win. That's all he truly cares about. Sorry to see the streak in, but Hey, good, good time to start your next hitting streak.
As we go into these last couple of conference weekends, then into the Sunbelt tournament.
Yeah, we're gonna need it Um, and so another so while i'm throwing out stats, uh, kyle edwards had another good weekend Just kind of two weeks in a row. He's done great. So the last two weeks Kyle is 13 for 33. That's a 394 average, five doubles, a triple and four steals. Um, and again, TJ, TJ Aikins continued to play well. So in about the last 14 games since he's been a starter. 17 for 54, 3 15 average, a double triple, two homers, and nine rbis.
So there's a, freshmen kind of, we, we need it all season for somebody to take over left field and, and TJ here has done it,
I think the coach family would still agree. He needs to get a little bit better defensively out in left field. I think there were a couple of balls that may have dropped in on him over the weekend. Uh, not enough that would have swung the results of any of these games. But I know that he's going to continue working at that, but happy to see him hit, you know, worst case scenario. If you want to get a better defensive substitute in left, you can have him.
D. H. Cause I don't think we've had a ton of production from that DH spot this year, uh, aside from, you know, when Boucher has been there because of injury. So it just gives you another bat that can be in that lineup that can produce for you, and he has taken that leadoff role quite well. You start off a weekend series with a solo home run, typically good things will follow that.
It wasn't in this case, but if he keeps, uh, keeps hitting leadoff bombs, that is going to be a huge bonus for this team going into the final stretch here.
you know, and I was actually talking to my dad about this, uh oh, it was other day or yesterday about What I like so much about TJ is I don't think he's trying to hit a lead off bomb. I think he's just trying to put a good swing on the ball. He's had a really good approach. Um, he, he has no problem bunting. He just wants to go up and be productive. Like you just said about LaVarie, right? You know, he, if I do something productive, it doesn't really matter if I hit the big home run or not.
And so that's, I think it's, it's been good with TJ because I'm sure he, when he hit those home runs, just a case of, he was trying to put a good swing on the ball, um, and that kind of approach is exactly what we need every guy to do.
Absolutely, and definitely shout out to Maverick Stallings. He has really come on at the plate lately, uh, adding a lot of power and pop to the lineup, uh, which is, if you're getting that from your second baseman, that is fantastic, because that's typically not a spot that's going to produce a ton of runs for you, uh, but he's got his average up to 266, uh, 777 OPS, he's got six home runs driven and 16 runs, so it's been nice to see him develop a little bit more of a power game.
Uh, to fill in where maybe some other guys are not hitting for the power that they have, uh, in previous seasons.
Yeah, Maverick's an excellent hitter. Um, I think he was four for 11 of the weekend with two homers, uh, and his defense has been really good. I think the start of the year he was kind of coming out of games and that's not a thing that's been happening lately. I think he's, he's worked his butt off to make sure he's even better at second base than he was. So it's, yeah, Maverick's a very good player and, uh, and if he could keep peaking here at the end of the year, that'd be great.
Unfortunately this weekend there was no video stream. Uh, I'm not sure what Texas State was broadcasting instead. I'm sure they had some other sports going on. Uh, so we were stuck with a, a student run radio broadcast in the live stats, but for as much as we bagged on Marshall and they're pretty terrible student radio, uh, Texas state did a fantastic job with their radio broadcast. It was great to listen to you can tell that they care. They know the game. They know the sport.
They know the teams. They were even getting our pronunciations. Right? Uh, so if I'm going to bag on Marshall for being bad, I'm going to give Texas State credit for having a really great radio broadcast.
absolutely. I think I said this on friday. I said there's nothing wrong with the broadcast other than how it's going Uh, they're they were doing great. I think and what we say was cameron was a uh wheel I think that's how they said it wasn't that it the their
Yeah, it was, it was actually wild. So I went, so, I mean, even my unintentional pun was, was incorrect, but you know, I'm one, one on one on guessing the pronunciations. I guess I could just go to the roster and find the pronunciation guide,
Where's the fun in that we're not we're not on this on the broadcast. We don't got to do that
Exactly. I know, uh, Pierce was a little nervous to put out the radio, uh, link on all the social media and I don't blame him after Marshall, but we're both like, ah, these guys are pretty good. They're good. Listen. So that couple with the live stats was, was at least the best substitute you can have for not having video. But at some point, the Sunbelt's got to figure this out.
Yeah, they might have been graduate students. I didn't sound like uh sophomores to me
No, they had some radio voice too, which was nice to hear, but the Sunbelt's got to kind of step up a little bit. I think on the enforcement piece, like, I know, you know, we're kind of in the same boat where there's 2 sports going on at the same time. We can only broadcast 1, uh, but we have broadcasted every single home Sunbelt baseball game that we've had.
Maybe some non conferences we don't put on there, but every Sunbelt games on there and I would love to see the rest of the conference jump on board with that because we've essentially missed 6. ODU games, being able to see them when, that's kind of one of the key perks of being in the Sunbelt, is that ESPN deal. So hopefully those schools are able to figure that out.
I thought that was the whole selling point of the sunbelt was you'd be able to watch all the games. Uh, so when you can't, it's extremely frustrating and not to say, you know, something like yesterday, I didn't really get to watch or listen to much because I was out doing things, you know, it's, it's fair that sometimes we got to go live our lives, but I also, if I knew I could sit there and watch, I might've made different choices and be sitting at home watching.
So it's, it's frustrating not to be able to, to, to watch your team.
Luckily the radio broadcast was good and they were able to provide some color to what was actually going on in the field and kind of have a better understanding. But you just miss so much of baseball when you can't see it. It's the little things that are happening away from the play, the positioning.
What does a pitcher look like when he's throwing like is he getting shelled because his fastball is flat his sliders is a cement mixer It's really hard to tell that without seeing it unless you have some good Good radio, people describing it, but even then you can only do so much on the radio without spending 500 words to describe one single pitch.
And it's not like most of the broadcasts, uh, the streaming is that good anyway. They got like three or four cameras. These aren't big league broadcasts. So it's, you know, we're not, I'm not even asking for you to go out and, add in some more cameras, absent production value and do so, you know, just give me one over the center field and one to show the feed. Give me, just a couple of angles. Uh, I'm really not, I'm not sitting here like. Yeah, I do.
I think everybody needs to step it up a little bit, but it's like I get it. All right, that's that's a lot. So just just put some on give me something.
I agree with you on that. Give me something. So I know if that single to left was just a bloop or if it was actually, a hard hit ball. So, we'll put the weekend in the books. We went one and two would have loved to have won that series. It would have helped us out considerably because I want to talk a little bit about the Sunbelt standings. Where we're at what's attainable and what we really need to be looking to going forward. So, uh, we're recording this on Sunday instead of Monday.
All of the Sunbelt games have finished. Uh, Louisiana was able to salvage the final game against Troy, so they remain in 1st at 18 and 6. Troy is 16 and 8. They're the number two team right now, uh, Southern Miss and Georgia Southern are both 15 and nine. So they're tied for third. So really, I think you're top four there are, it's going to finish somehow with those top four there on top.
And then you jump to five, you've got App State at 13, 10, and one JMU at 13 and 11, and then ODU at 12 and 12. So that's kind of the top half of the league. Still pretty close. Anything can happen, but with ODU being at 12 and 12 and Georgia Southern and Southern Miss being at 15 and nine, I don't think we have any real chance of getting into the top four of this league, trying to make up three games with six to go.
That's If that's how that goes, that's how that goes What they really need to be focused on at this point is staying out of seven through ten Because as we know, seven through ten in the tournament have to play a single elimination game to get to play in the double elimination part of it. So, you really want to finish, if they can't be in the top four, you want to be five or six. Right now, they're only a game behind JMU, who they have a tiebreaker against.
And they're, uh, what, I guess it's a game and a half behind App State because of this weird tie they have. Um, And that they're going to play upstate this weekend. So they very much could leapfrog those teams. ODU's future in the, in the tournament is in their hands. They got to go out and win games. They got six conference games left. I really think you'd probably need to win five of them to be sure yourself. You're not going to be down in that seven spot.
Like you said, App State's still on our schedule. We've got the tiebreaker over JMU. But it wasn't all bad news for us this weekend, uh, because coastal Carolina is in absolute free fall and they are actually a game behind us now. So if we can stay ahead of them, we don't have to worry about not having the tiebreaker against them. They've lost eight straight games. They got swept by Southern Miss over the weekend.
They're 11 and 13 now in conference or 27 and 20 overall did not anticipate coastal falling off a cliff. And they are tied with South Alabama and Georgia state at that 11 and 13 mark. And then Texas state is kept themselves alive at 10 and 14. So the bottom three, pretty much out this point, Marshall, Arkansas state, ULM. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for playing. Uh, wish we would have gotten two more wins off of a Marshall and ULM, but kind of is what it is.
But coastal Carolina losing eight straight South Alabama lost the last two of their series. Uh, Georgia state, uh, I think they took one of two, uh, this weekend against James Madison. So not all bad news for us. If we were going to have a weekend to kind of stink it up and go one and two, we got some help from our other friends in the Sunbelt.
Yeah, Coastal, uh, their record in the Sun Belt being 11 13 tells you how tough it is to win games in the Sun Belt. Coastal, I mean, we saw them, they are an extremely good baseball team. They were a top 25 team for the first half of the year, uh, and they are in a free fall and like I said, they're currently, what, 10th? Uh eighth in the conference, uh, so that's that's crazy. That just tells you like you said, it's it's a meat grinder. It's hard to win.
And I misspoke earlier, Georgia state was at Marshall and they went one and two against Marshall. So they dropped two games against a team. That's pretty much out of contention at this point. Uh, JMU took two out of three from Arkansas state at home. I know one thing though. If I'm the 7th seed, if ODU ends up with that, and Coastal is somehow the 10th, that's probably the most dangerous 10th seed in any conference tournament ever.
So, uh, really important, I think, for ODU to focus on, try to get to 5, get to 6. We got 6 games left, 3 at home, 3 on the road, and the 3 on the road are against a team that's been struggling a lot here in the back half of the season. Five in one will get you the five seed.
The goal doesn't change the goal is still every single pitch every single at bat win And if you win every single at bat you win every single pitch you'll win the games So the goal remains the same for us sitting here on the outside looking out about, you know, prognosticating what needs to happen. Yeah, they're really, they need to win both series. They, I think winning, if you win five out of the six would be really put you in a good position. Like I said, at least get those five or six spot.
Stay at that single elimination. The single elimination is just too tough. Baseball is not a sport to be played in one game series. Um, you see that with midweek games. Anybody can win a midweek. You see a team to be tough. Top 10 in the country and they'll go play some random school and lose because you know, it's I mean that happened with uva, right? I mean technically we're the odu to as far as most people in the nation are concerned.
We're just some random school Uh, and we beat uva So that's why a single game is never good. So anything you do to avoid those those last four slots
Absolutely. But I would even set the first goal a little bit lower. Uh, ODU is only two games up on not being in the tournament with Texas state is currently out if it ended today and they're at 10 and 14, we're at 12 and 12. And we no longer have a tiebreaker over Texas State. So, uh, winning at least three or four of these games is going to be really important.
Winning five is almost a luxury to get out of that, that single elimination, but it's still very tight in that like seven through 11 range. Like one, one of those teams I just talked about is not going to make the Sun Belt tournament. You're going to get one hell of a fight from all of them to make sure that that does not happen, including ODU. I think we got a good chance to go fight. We've got a midweek this week, but then app state rolls in. And that is a critical, critical series for us.
AD READ
So our midweek, we got VCU again, we are going up to the diamond to play VCU. Uh, you may remember a few weeks back we, uh, beat them seven to one and it wasn't that close. Uh, but we always know, VCU is a very or competitive team, uh, think that I saw they lost this weekend to George Washington. Um, who you remember ODU swept to start the season. We said when we played George Washington, they were pretty good hidden team. They've got Greg Ritchie as their coach.
They're, they're very well coached. Uh, so it was interesting to see that, um, VCU, at the diamond lost two out of three this weekend
Yeah, really? Since they played us, they took a two out of three from George Mason, who I don't think is very good, but a lot of good close games, uh, losses by one run. Their final win was by a one run. They lost at home to UVA. Eight to four, then lost two out of three to G Dub. I think I said, after we played GW in that series, that they did not look like a team that was going to finish in the bottom half of the eight, 10. Uh, well, they are like smack dab in the middle at nine and nine.
I think they're, they would be the tied for the six seed. Right now in the A 10. So, maybe that GW game, uh, wasn't as much of a cupcake as we thought because they, they've, uh, played out pretty well within the A 10 there.
I mean, it'll always make me happy if they go and win the tournament and then this looks good for you
Well, we would need every bit of it. I think, uh, it's a pretty foregone conclusion that our large hopes are, are gone out the window. We left them somewhere on a smoker in Texas.
Yeah, I we I think they might have been left before that But they definitely uh, they they may have finally gotten killed in texas But I think they were critically wounded well before that
yeah, there's no, no doubt now it's when the tournament or, or bust, but, want to beat our rivals with VCU, we should still have some, some arms available. I don't know what the pitching plan is. I imagine it'll be like what we've seen for a lot of our recent midweeks with guys getting 1, maybe 2 innings. I wouldn't be totally shocked if Trent Buchanan or Dylan Brown got an ending since they did not throw this weekend, but it's going to be a good time of the diamond.
I know there are a lot of fans coming out. I'm going to be over there. Uh, just realized on the VCU schedule that it's dollar hot dog night. So. Uh, going to be getting after that pretty, pretty good there. They sell alcohol all throughout the ballpark too. So that's another perk. Uh, but if you're coming to reach out to me on social media, the, uh, first base side is typically where ODU is at. It's where the visitors are for VCU games there.
So, uh, if you do come in head over that first base side, I'm sure you'll see a big crowd of ODU fans. Uh, the idea is to do what we did last year, where we actually have more fans there than VCU does. That is always a lot of fun, uh, to be able to kind of take over the diamond. And hopefully deliver another loss to the Rams.
Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate that they don't really get you know, they don't really have An atmosphere for their baseball team, they play in the diamond, which is cool. You know, you play in a pro park Um, I mean the place is kind of a dump but it's still better than a lot of college Experiences, especially the seating wise for fans, but it's not on campus. It's not really near campus You just don't really have any kind of, college fanfare about it.
So it is very easy to, you're right to go up there and, and take over the place, especially if you're a, another Virginia team. So it's, it's kind of a shame. They always have a good program. They always have good guys playing for them and coaching with them. And so it's, it's hopefully, I know they're talking about maybe building a new place, maybe when they build, if they, if they build a new place, they can. You know get that to be a little more Juiced up for their fans.
a lot of stuff going on about the future of the diamond. I think the public was led to believe that there was a deal done for a private group to come in and basically redo that whole area and call it the diamond district, which is going to include a new ballpark. Um, I don't think there's been a whole lot of movement on that. I don't know where it currently stands.
But I believe at the start of the 2026 minor league season, you have to meet a certain set of standards for your minor league ballparks. I can't remember if it's 26, it might be 27, but right now the diamond does not meet many of those standards, including locker rooms and in different kinds of practice areas. So I don't know what's going to happen with that. If they don't meet those qualifications and the squirrels are relocated. I don't know what that does to the diamond.
I don't know what that does to VCU baseball. So they're kind of at the opposite end of the spectrum from ODU where we know we're getting a new ballpark. We know that it's going to start being built as soon as this season is over. And we're going to have it on campus where VCU is kind of stuck in this middle ground of, okay. do we play in a potentially new minor league stadium? We have to try to find some space somewhere in the city of Richmond to play baseball.
Are we going to have to call in a favor with the spiders down the road and Henrico, they're in a really difficult spot right now. So I feel for the people that I know support that program, like that sucks as a fan and there's not really anything you can do about it, but hopefully that there's a positive outcome for them and something crazy doesn't happen there for VCU.
Yeah, when they redid the minor leagues a couple years ago, I remember it was kind of crazy, but they kept it the the squirrels there in Richmond because I mean they've been you know I used to go to up there to Richmond Braves games all the time and that's been 15 years since they they left because the place was a dump Um, and so when they were redoing the minor league saying, you know, there's a standard we're only going to keep teams and And on top of that we're going to keep them all
geographically kind of you know moving teams So they're closer to their major league affiliate Well, so you kept the team in richmond playing in a dump that doesn't meet any qualifications And there's still a giants affiliate which is on the other side of the country like none of it made any sense Uh, so yeah, I mean I do i'm with you. I feel for that. I hope they I hope they figure something out. I hope they get themselves a new stadium and in some way, shape or form.
And again, hopefully it's something that can help get a lot more atmosphere going because I, I maybe I need to go up to a weekend game of the games. I've been to at the diamond for VCU. It is very easy to go in and take over as a visiting team.
It, and it's wild because the squirrels have some of the highest attendance in all of AA, like Parney and that crew that run the squirrels. They do such an amazing job with
They still have those nuts that are so good.
Oh
Oh my God. Anybody who's at the diamond on Tuesday, go to the nut stand. It's like right there behind home plate on the upper deck. It's they're amazing. They're so good.
Oh yeah, I can, uh, I, can try and track those down for you, the Bavarian nut guy that's there Um, yeah, we'll be there Tuesday, hope, uh, anyone who's in the 804 will, will swing by there as well, the game's at 6 o'clock, if you're not, I wanna say it's actually on ESPN Plus.
Says ESPN Plus. right here on the schedule.
So if you can't make it up, definitely check it out on, ESPN plus and watch it, but we got to talk about the big one, the weekend series against. Appalachian state. And let me tell you, they are playing some damn good baseball right now. And their last nine conference games, they are seven, one, and one, six of those games were on the road. They're playing some good. ball right now. CB.
Yeah. it's, uh, I mean, this is a team like a cupcake early in the year. And, uh, as we said, the Sun belts of meat grinder and every team will go in and compete. And so, Yeah. App State is, I was watching, uh, some of one of their games today and they were absolutely killing. uh, South Alabama, which, you know, we saw South Alabama. They're not the best team. Uh, and that's why they got beat, uh, 10 to two, uh, and 13 to one and the double header today.
Uh, but yeah, the app states go in the right direction. So ODU is going to have a fight in their hands. Yeah.
And just going through some of their stats to give you an idea. They are a prolific hitting team and they're pretty awful.
On the mound pitching, uh, but these are all based on stats from the end of the day, Thursday on the 2nd, the conference has for, like, the conference leaderboard app state is 2nd and team batting average hitting 302 2nd and slugging at 519 2nd, and on base percentage with 426 3rd and run score with 387, uh, they're, they were 3rd with 70 home runs, Uh according to this, and I don't know if this is just going Counting like conference home runs or what?
Uh, but they have a few more than Uh 70 home runs. They are at 83 home runs on the season They are doing their best impersonation of the bud bombers So far this year
Banks Tolley, uh, has, he's hitting 385. He's got 10 doubles, 21 homers and 62 RBIs. So a 775 slugging, you got Austin St. Laurent, which is a fantastic name, all name team, uh, 372. He's got eight doubles, 12 homers, 51 RBIs. And then they got another kid, CJ Boyd. That's got 16 homers and also drew Holderbach hitting 351. So, I mean, they got some guys that are really. Uh, really. hitting the ball and hit the ball hard. Uh, but as you said, their ERA as a team for the pitching is 713.
So their pitching has not been great. I mean, what it comes down to, if you're playing a lot of your games there in the mountains, um, you got that high altitude, the ball flies, and I, like I said, I was watching some of the games that I saw that happening, so I'm sure, you know, they're getting some home runs out, obviously not just because of the ball flying, I'm sure they're good hitters anyway, but. They'll happen. You're pitching staff too.
They've got, they've got some guys that are giving up some runs. You know, their best, best era for the whole team is Uh, Jackson Steensma. It looks like he's one of the weekend starters. He's got a 417 innings Um they also have another kid with 52 innings as 872 era. So, ODU's had a weak offense at certain times this year. this would be the weekend to bring the bats out. These are guys who you can hit against.
This could be an action packed weekend series Uh, The bud bombers could very much be back in full effect and you could see some going out the other way, too Uh, you talked about the starters. They've been pretty consistent with their three weekend guys. the Jackson, steins Ma, Dante Ko, and Bradley Wilson have really been their three weekend guys. All of 'em are over 50 innings pitched. Uh, and I think they, they constitute like 33 of the teams. 45 starts this season.
Uh, so clearly there they're top three arms there. not an E. R. A. Under four in sight. And if you scroll down to some of the guys have only pitched a few innings, you're getting some 12 27 59. 4. Uh, we've got to bring the bats this weekend because we're gonna be served up some pitches I think we'll be able to put in play.
Yeah, for comparison, ODU only has one pitcher with 50 innings, and that's John Halibetz, who, he's only started four of 12 games, even though he's been logging starter innings. Um, and then we, we actually have two guys over 40 innings. Jacob Gomez has 41 in two thirds innings. He's only started one, one game. Uh, we've got one, two, three, four, five other guys with 30 or more innings. So, our inning's a little more spread around, um, as you, as you pointed out here. All right.
But it is going to be interesting. One way that I think, especially in college ball, where you win is getting in the bullpen. That's probably especially true with this team. Uh, not one of their relievers has the ERA. I mean, 524 is the lowest one than 590 and the rest of them all above six. So you, you got a group of guys who you can score some runs off of.
The key matchup this weekend is definitely our pitching versus their hitting. Our pitching has only allowed 24 home runs this entire season, which is pretty crazy considering that we have played a boatload of games at this point. I think we're at 46 or 47 games So only giving up 24 home runs is huge. Going up against the team that's hit 83 home runs this season. Uh, and they've given up a boatload, uh, from their pitching staff as well. I believe that their pitchers have given up 76 home runs.
So 76 versus 24 from the pitching staffs there. So. There's going to be some pitches to hit. I think it's important that we don't get too over our skis, trying to think about that stat and hit a whole bunch of home runs, just play our game, get guys on, get pressure. Uh, but if you get served up something that's, that's pretty, especially like two Oh one Oh, Uh, crush it because you're going to be able to hit it a long way.
If the wind is blowing out at the bud this weekend, we could have a bunch of home runs going out of. that ballpark.
Yeah, this could be a very interesting weekend And so this is, uh, this is also gonna be the last weekend of the current iteration of the bud. So it's gonna be, I'm sure we'll have a graduation ceremony. I would imagine on Saturday, I'm sure we'll have the senior day along with Mother's Day on Sunday. So I mean, there's a lot of, a lot of excitement, a lot of, last moments, a lot of emotion about this weekend anyway.
And on top of that, you've got the potential for a very interesting offensive weekend.
It's going to be a huge one at the bud, uh, all weekend long. I know, I'm going to get down there Friday, be there for all three games. Our good friend, Liz. Is on vacation, so she will not be down at rally alley, but the rest of that, crew hasn't covered. I'll be dumping the remainder of the koozies we have. So make sure to swing by, uh, and at least pick up a koozie and put something cold in it to go cheer on the Monarchs. Because this is a huge series.
If we can somehow find a way to get our 1st sweep of the season, we're going to be set up very, very well for that 5th seed And that 6th seed, uh, with the road trip, uh, ending there at Georgia State. But got the guys got to do it. They got to go out and play. They hoping the pitching returns to the form and we're looking really sharp there. The bats get going. Uh, let the crowd get into a little bit, but, uh, these guys have had a good season. They solve a lot on the line.
And like you said, this is it for this iteration of the bud. We don't get to watch games there next season.
Yeah, next season is going to be weird. I assume we'll have an end of the season podcast and we'll probably spend some time talking about, uh, how weird next year is going to be. Uh, but this is, this is winning time. You know, you got two weeks left in the regular season. You got your conference tournament and that's kind of all you're, you know. Guaranteed with quotations around because you're really not guaranteed the tournament. You got to win your way into it.
So, uh, You know going all the way down to alabama and playing one game last year I'm sure it wasn't very fun so hopefully they're gonna do everything they can to avoid that and get to play at least a couple and And win a game or two and play three or four or five six games
get down there early enough that they can watch the seven, eight, nine and 10 seed struggle in their single elimination games, and then go back to the hotel instead of being the ones going back to the hotel And getting on the bus.
Yep. So, uh, as always, I'm excited. I think this week's going to be fun. I think we're gonna pick up a nice win of our rival VCU and hopefully come to the bud and take all three and win a series and be looking good going to the last week of the season
Definitely. Well, thank you so much for listening. Hope to see you either at the diamond on Tuesday or down at the bud Friday through Sunday, but that'll do it for us today. I'm Gary go Monarchs.
I'm CB go Monarchs.