S1E3 – Sweeping Revolution

Hello, Monarch fans and welcome to the Hudson Homer's podcast. Part of the Monarchist Podcast Network. We are coming to you today after a sweet weekend of George Washington. I'm Gary. I know I am feeling great after this weekend of watching ODU baseball. I'm joined as always by CB. CB, how was your weekend out at the

Hey, you know, that was a great weekend. I always say, it's always fun to go out. It's a lot more fun when you win. So taking three wins, that was pretty great.

Yeah. It was chilly, but it wasn't too terrible. I know you had, some layers on to make sure you were fine down there on the field level.

Yeah. It was, it, fortunately the sun stayed out, which is great, for us, for the weather, uh, for me taking pictures, it was obviously, it was great. Um, and I, I'm, I'm extremely good at, layering up these days, so I really wasn't that bad. Not gonna pretend like it wasn't cold. I mean, it was, it was in the forties every single day.

And the crowd was fantastic. Really all three days. It was a big crowd on Saturday. There was a really nice crowd on Sunday, for the final game of the series. And considering, it really didn't get out of the forties to have that kind of support for opening weekend was great to see. So tip of the cap to all the Monarch fans, the families. Even some George Washington families were down there to watch the game and were there all weekend.

Yeah. And they were great folks. I mean, a lot of times, the opposing fans come in and sometimes you get some folks that are not great folks, but the George Washington folks, I didn't really talk to a ton of them, but they were all seeming very nice. And then just, they were just there to watch baseball and root for their kids. And I think that's always great to see.

our beat writer for ODU baseball, Matt O'Brien, he interacted with quite a few of those fans and actually got some thanks for talking about their kids. I know a Friday starter talked to talk to his parents a little bit and a few others, pretty calm fan base. Not too much chirping going on a little bit, but not too much that'll get really nice when we get into conference play and the weather's a little bit

I think when Charlotte comes in a couple weeks, that'll, that'll ramp Actually, when he comes in a week from tomorrow, on Tuesday, that'll ramp up. They're, they're good for chirping.

Yeah. And the beers will be flowing in Raleigh alley. I have no doubt. But great weekend. It was a busy day on Saturday. I was at the ballpark prior to the game on Saturday talking with Rick French and Eric Bohannon and a few others behind home plate. We were kind of in that little. Cave underneath the stands and it was, uh, quite windy and quite cold down there, but glad to see such an awesome turnout for Monarch fans.

Well, I'm not going to say instead of I want to, I want them to coincide. I think we still, I love the dollars for dingers. We've got some, some pop on the team. I don't know that we're going to hit that a hundred home run mark. I don't think that's a problem. I think we have a different kind of team. We got some good hitters. But I think in addition to our dollars for dingers, which we have two of those, Luke waters and Jake Tizer, both hit us a dinger this weekend.

It was unbelievable on the base paths. It was something that coach Finwood talked about when he sat down with Matt O'Brien and it's in the preview article talking about this team's going to look a little different. I know you've talked about it. I've talked about it. It's contact, it's speed, it's getting guys over. Getting guys in, not as much on the power front, but we still did have two dingers.

I would be shocked if we kept up that pace, but I think we can definitely steal a lot of bases. Kyle Edwards had three on the weekend. You saw, if you were at the game, you saw he's doing a celebration. Looked like him, like, revving up the engine. I was talking to him before the game yesterday. And it's, I just love how much energy he's bringing. he's he's playing like a little kid and just having a blast. And It's really. Infectious for the whole team. It's fun to

It's Stephen Meyer, also three for three. Luke Waters, two for two. Carter Sunderman didn't even play that much this weekend and went two for two, stealing bags. And LaVarie had another one. Just to put it in perspective, last season, the entire season, including the conference tournament, we only stole 77 bases. We already have 12 through our first three games. That is an unbelievable change in philosophy from a stolen base standpoint.

I, I don't have it in front of me, but if you look back at, uh, 22 or 21, that was probably a huge uptick. We had a lot more speed last year.

Yeah, absolutely. That was, that was a high, I think over the last five years. And then I think we're going to easily crush that number of 77, very early in the season. If we keep up this pace of running,

It's great. It's exciting baseball. I mean, you saw that in major league baseball this past year, where they made the bases larger and it led to just a lot of steals. And it's, it's more, it's more fun baseball. They had to compete with the fact that they're. Catchers and pitchers are so good that it was hard to steal bases. And so it's a fun style of baseball. It's, it's enjoyable to come out to a game and, and see things. I mean, home runs are exciting. Don't get me wrong.

they talk about in football, defense travels, small ball, stealing speed and good pitching. They travel in baseball. So if you're not as reliant on home runs to win games. You're going to be much more consistent and likely win more games. I think you pointed out, you know, end of last season, we kind of fell off a little bit with that home run pace and it costs us some games. I feel a lot better about the consistency of this team where home runs are just a nice added thing

yeah, I mean, hustle never slumps and stolen bases and extra bases. That's hustle stuff. You know, you have some, some intelligence and some smarts about when to do it and who to do it on. But if you're, if you're really hustling that it's hard to slump. Our first hit of the season was the infield hit. We can just put the ball in play and run hard. Good stuff happens.

Yeah, and I feel like a lot of these guys, when they get on the base pass, they just have that instinct of how to read the pitcher and when to go and when not to go and being able to time that up to get some really great jumps to where the catcher just has no chance to throw you out going down to second or in some cases, third base, as we saw over the weekend.

Yeah. We took third a few times.

You actually got a really great shot of Stephen Meyer. That's in the recap that is posted up on odmonarchist. com of him sliding into third after a steal, which was just an awesome shot.

Yeah, it's exciting. It's exciting when I can react fast enough to get cool things.

One other change I think Monarch fans might have noticed too was the pitch clock boards are up so you can actually see the countdown and how that impacts and. We'll talk to our pitchers throughout the season here to kind of see how they game plan with the pitch clock and knowing when the batter has to be in the box and when they have to start throwing and how they use that to their advantage.

Yeah, I mean, I love it. I'm looking here at the game times. Um, Fridays was 2 hours 11 minutes. Saturday, 2 hours 44. And Sunday, 2 hours and 50. So that was the longest one. There were a lot of minute and pitching changes in that one. I mean, that's That's pretty great. I love baseball. I don't necessarily think it needs to be a four hour game, which college had definitely gotten to.

Yeah, I had gone over to women's basketball. They tipped off the same time as baseball did on Saturday and I had the live stats on my phone paying attention to that when we were sitting courtside in the media seats. And we got to the fourth quarter there and baseball was already in the six. And I was like, I don't know if I'm going to make it back over to see the end of the game. We did.

Yeah, it's gonna be a little challenging some of these, weekday games where I don't quite get out of work when they start at three o'clock, so, that'll, that'll be interesting, but, again, I think it, it Just that's the kind of thing that brings more people to the game too, if I can, if I can watch a game in a reasonable amount of time, there's a lot of action, the base paths are moving, it's Just stuff is happening, it's only gonna be a good thing.

Just going to have to increase your pace a little bit down in the beers and rally alley, if that's where you hang out. Cause, the game's going to be over by last call pretty quickly. So let, let's jump into the weekend and start with, with the game on Friday, 4 1 victory to start off the season.

Yeah, it was very much an opening weekend kind of game. You know, everyone that first day, I think, I don't know how many, I don't care how many years you've been doing it. If you're a freshman or if you're, you're a 50 year senior, uh, I think guys are a little antsy, everyone's a little. Too amped up. Everybody wants to hit that nine run home run.

I feel like Bailey almost set the tone for guys coming out of the bullpen all weekend. He comes in, strikes out the side, faced three batters, three strikeouts. Doesn't get a whole lot better than that. He only threw 11 pitches to get three strikeouts, which is really impressive. Lincoln hopping on the mound. He had a strikeout as well. And then of course, Jacob Gomez slamming the door. I think the only, only thing he missed out on was he, he hit one batter and that was it.

Well, You know, Jacob can't be a guy that's out there talking and intimidating people. He's not going to hit somebody, You know. He's got a. you gotta plunk somebody and let them

You gotta get the word back out that You can't stand close to that plate or otherwise Jacob's gonna come flying inside on you.

Don't get comfortable in the box.

Don't box. you, you could also see that velo bump that he talked about when he came on the podcast in episode two, where he was able to gas it up a little bit when he needed to, and then just blow your mind with something off speed.

Friday was a very impressive day for pitching. That was the one thing you could walk away. Uh, again, the offense, you know, cold, it's hard to hit. The ball's not going anywhere. Everyone's a little too over anxious, but, uh, the pitching was just phenomenal. And their guys pitched very

Yeah, yeah, I thought that they threw really well on friday, especially considering that they're starting pitcher Michael folds. That was his first collegiate start ever. And it's only give up one run And four innings pitched, uh, four strikeouts, two walks. You know, he had a couple wild pitches. He hit a couple guys. He had an air fielding, but I think overall that's a pretty good sign for George Washington going forward.

they should be very excited. The kid after seven strikeouts and four innings, Braden Kurtz, yeah, they should feel really good about this Friday, guys.

And we're not going to try to make it seem like George Washington is a ranked ball club. That's going to be in the college world series or anything like that. But I think the A 10 preseason poll had them finishing ninth. The team I saw this weekend is going to finish better than ninth and A 10. I think they're solidly going to be in the middle of the pack there, be competitive down the stretch. So. Maybe a little bit better than they have been historically. There were a lot of good things.

Yeah, it's tough to walk away 0 3 feeling good about things, but like I said, I think they should. They had some good pitching. They had some competitive hitters. I know their head coach, Greg Ritchie, is an outstanding hitting coach, so they, I hope they have a great year and compete. They were fun to watch. They had some nice fans.

and a Monarch fans will definitely be rooting for them so that they will sweep VCU this season because we just want VCU to take as many losses as humanly possible just for fun. It doesn't even really matter, but it's fun.

Yes. Even though I was, One of their coaches who I'm friends with, I was telling him a good job on beating NC State the other day.

Yeah, I think that's a hard part about baseball is you've got those coaches that you really like that end up at a place like VCU and you're like, well, I want them to lose, but I want my friend to do well. I've definitely been through that with VCU over the years.

NC State's also kept us out of the tournament a couple of times, and they shouldn't have, so I'm all for beating them

Hey, I'll, I'll take all the wins that we can get and anything that helps pump us up for That That regional bid is good in my book.

Absolutely. But yeah, Friday was a good day. It was interesting to me. You know, I had pretty much predicted the starting lineup. I think I had a couple of positions switched. Um, it was interesting seeing, TJ Aiken, Carter Sunderman getting the game late, and they got it all three games. So it was neat to see that's Finwood's, plan, I guess, is to bring them in, let them play some defense at the end.

wasn't waiting around. He saw that first one and drove it into the outfield. And when he did get brought into the game as a pinch runner, immediately stole second. So you're definitely seeing that speed impact there too, with guys coming off the bench and just being ready to go and getting into position to help us put runs on the board.

Yeah, they were joking around calling him Mr. Perfect, uh, which he was, yeah.

Saturday, we talked about that day a little bit, uh, much more competitive game. I mean, this thing was, was tight really until the fifth inning. We pulled away to get up, five to three in the fifth, on a Stephen Meyer RBI single. And then it stretched out a little bit in the sixth inning, just more of the same of, of a lot of contact. I mean, Tyser had the home run, but that was. That was really the only big pop in that game, aside from, uh, Kenny LaVarie's double.

Yeah, we had, what, four doubles in that game, so that was where, I think the All the anxiety and all the, um, pressure of opening day kind of lifted off its shoulders a little bit. I think you're getting a little deeper into the George Washington pitching and seeing their depth isn't quite as strong. So you got to see a little more pop that day. Dylan Brown, who started the game, did a great job, you know, eight strikeouts, five innings, uh, three runs, two earned.

He got to work through it while also keeping his pitch count relatively low, threw 73 pitches over 5 innings, pretty efficient work there. Uh, the 8 strikeouts, he was just blowing people away up there on the mound.

It's funny. He blows them away without throwing really hard. He's just got really good stuff. He's really good at spotting the ball. Um, Dylan's a very talented pitcher. He's a, he's such a good kid. He's one. We need to bring him on the podcast at some point. He's just a really, uh, really always smiling, having a good time. Great kid.

Yeah, we'll definitely work on lining up some more, Guys to come join us. They've got the quick turnaround to Charlottesville on Tuesday, but we will definitely be bringing you, additional ODU players and coaches to give you their, their take on things. But. Following Dylan Brown on Saturday was Ben Moore, two innings pitch. There's one run that scored, but it was unearned two strikeouts. Uh, it was a little wild though, ended up hitting, three batters in that two innings of work.

Yeah, a little while, he kind of made some of his own, problems, then an error behind him too. Uh, but again, you know, Ben's a very good pitcher and, you come out of that one run unearned, it's okay. And then, and then, uh, Vincent Becerra came in after a couple of hits in the inning, but a strikeout, inning. And then Jay Cassidy looked phenomenal, at the end, the Christopher Newport, graduate student, uh, he, he looked outstanding at the end of the game.

It was impressive to see, and Jay looked great on the mound. Didn't show an, an ounce of, of nerves, really. He fielded his position pretty well there at the end of the game too. Uh, so just another electric performance from the bullpen after innings. Fantastic start from Dylan Brown.

Yeah. And again, just pitching was really good all weekend. The offense picked up that game, you know, what Kyle Edwards had a couple of hits. Kyle Edwards had a rough weekend, man. George Washington made about six really outstanding catches in the outfield over the weekend. And I think at least three of them were on Kyle. So, I mean, he, he was, he's still leading the team and hitting, but he, he should have had about three more hits.

Yeah, George Washington's outfield played great all weekend and they were battling some wind out there that, that changed directions on them on Sunday too. And they were still tracking balls down in the gap, going back to the wall, having to deal with that. We probably could have added another six, seven, eight runs over the weekend if they don't have that really strong fielding in the outfield.

the revs. I do, I do enjoy the nickname. It's very fun. Also, let's play a solid uniform game for the revs all weekend. They're Friday and Saturday, especially at some really nice uniforms. And we owe to you, we got to show off the full uniform game, but we had the, uh, there are pinstripe, our white pinstripes on Friday, Saturday, we had the all Navy, you know Navy tops and Navy pants. And then Sunday we had the all Hudson blues, both tops and pants.

you know, I'm partial to the all Hudson blues, no matter what the sport is, football, baseball, basketball, that, that's definitely my favorite combo and looks, looks amazing when, you put it out there print and photo and all of that, it was nice to see us, looking sharp on the way to the sweep.

Yeah, I've been an advocate of, ODU as a school kind of going back to the Hudson blue being our color. I think, you know, the Navy is great. We should use that as the highlights and support, but I, I think, you know, we, at one point the Hudson blue was our color and I think we should kind of transition back into that personally.

You can see, uh, my influence on it. If you go to odmonarchist. com, the whole site is pretty much in Hudson blue with Navy and white writing. So I'm, I'm definitely on board with that Uh, but 1, 1 of the note from Saturday, I do want to talk to you a little bit about Kenny LaVarie. He had a tough weekend overall. They had 3 strikeouts on Friday, but Saturday bounce back, had a couple, couple of hits, drove in 3 runs. Look pretty good.

Yeah. And played first base on Friday and Sunday too, which he's not done in a game at ODU before. So it's, it's, uh, it's great seeing him show that positional flexibility and, uh, and continues to be a leader. He's just, he's just a leader on the field. He's a leader in the lineup. Uh, Kenny's just a, he's a just such a value to ODU baseball.

Yeah. He, He, brought a lot to the table and was just glad to see him power through after a rough opening game to come back and play really well on Saturday. And I think that's, that might be the trend this year where you may see a guy that's. Only has one really strong game over a weekend series, but the runs that they're driving in are critical to winning that one. And I think you get that more when you play more contact and speed than swinging for, for home runs.

Well, unfortunately for Kenny, he's always been that guy. He's even in, you know, last year with all the pop and power. I think whether you have seven, eight, and they kind of ended up at the end of the year when he was just kind of, he got a swing really going good. He's not, he's one of the guys he's going to stay within himself. He's always going to be a, hit the ball, the opposite field, take what's given to you. He's just a really, a really solid

Yeah, and where he's hitting at in the order with that, all that speed in front of him too, he, he's gonna earn some dividends on that with those, those guys on the base pass, if he's able to go the other way, get singles and doubles, there's, there's going to be ducks on the pond for him in scoring position.

Yeah, you might be hard pressed to find anybody in the team who's taken as big a jump as Trent has taken it. He was a very good, solid reliever for, the Monarchs last year, and now he's looking, I mean, he, let's say he was up to 96 there. Again, he did the kind of the same thing that, Halibutz did where he kind of backed off a little bit, decided to sit more around 92, 93, and, yeah, just pitched really well. I think we're all kind of hoping to get the five innings.

yeah, Kellen Davis came on in relief for the fifth and

the gyro

yeah, yeah. The phase three batter struck them all out and I will just say batters look confused to put it nicely.

Yeah, he's got I don't even know. I don't know how you describe it. The ball just drops off the table. He's one of those guys you look at him. He's Probably the most might be the most physically fit kid on the team. Um, he's one he could do like a Standing leap of about 40 some inches. He Just has this weird ball that just drops and is is goofy and when he controls it. Well, it's it's something else

Yeah, I think that was a little bit of shock and awe for George Washington at the plate when he came in to see that thing just drop off the table on them, challenge for Evan Holman behind the dish to wrangle that in. But I thought he did a great job. That's players I want to talk about here a little bit later in the podcast behind the edition.

Yeah, we need to talk about, Evan was doing work behind the plate. We need, we'll talk about him later in a little

yeah. yeah. So, Kellen gets a clean fifth. Uh, Nick Sulpizio,, comes in, throws an inning in two thirds. It does allow one earn run, but for the most part, really handled himself pretty well.

I actually had not had a chance to see Nick Pitt, Nick or Brandon Pond. I hadn't had a chance to see them pitch. Uh, it just worked out. And so it was, it was good to see, uh, Nick as a freshman. I know Finney is very high on him. You can see why the talent was obvious. There's always a little bit of jitters and he pitched through it and he looked good. And then, um, Hudson Trobaugh came out and kind of, he came into a bit of a situation there and, uh, got himself a fly out.

Yeah, coming right in into a high leverage situation and getting the out. I mean, can't ask for much more than that coming in that situation and having that for your first appearance of the year, you know, no pressure kid. Good luck. And, he did well.

yeah, yeah, I know his whole, his whole family was down from Maryland to see him and they, they were having a blast, and then Brandon Pond, our graduate student from Lynchburg, who's got himself a, division three, world series victory last year with Lynchburg. He came in last two innings, just look great, look like another, uh, strong veteran presence out of the bullpen. you know, again, you, you throw him and Jay Cassidy and Jacob Gomez, you got, you got a lot of experience.

Yeah. And we, we definitely saw that on display all weekend. On the offensive side, it was, it was a little bit of the Luke Waters show on Sunday, going four for four, driving in four runs, hit the solo shot, but really just an amazing day at the dish for Mr. Waters.

I didn't even realize until I saw the box where they had four hits. I knew he was having a great day, but that's who he is as a ballplayer. He's just a quiet, consistent, I mean, he's the same way he's as a kid. He just, he's real quiet. He's a good kid. He's having fun with everybody, but he's just, he's not the like guy you're going to notice.

He looked great at the plate on Sunday and kind of helped spark a lot of things. I did notice something interesting with Jake Tyser. Uh, they did not want to pitch to him on Sunday. Uh, he if they were runners on base, he was getting Four. pitches way out of the zone, see if they get into chase. But he, he did his job and got two walks. He got on base and, and set some other guys up down the lineup.

Yeah, I, every time they, they, they had two, you have two four pitch walks and I was sitting over there. I wouldn't pitch to him either. He's so imposing. He's imposing as a hitter. And then he gives you that mentally imposing because you, you look at him. He's like, he's larger than a human being should be like, he's just so big. I see him all the time and I still, like I had a, I had some pictures of the day and he's walking there. It's like, he's head and shoulders above everyone.

Yeah. I want to see him taking a bat off of the kid from St. Mary's Jason Reitz, who is six foot nine as a pitcher. That, that's a matchup that I think, college baseball fans need to see at some point this year.

I'm sure some team out here has some, uh, some huge pitcher that we can, we can get a matchup. We get a null height matchup.

Yeah, for for long term O. D. U. Fans. Uh, Jason reached a place for ST Mary's. He looks like Sam Harris when he's pitching like it's almost like he's moving in slow motion, but throwing really hard at the same time. I think you threw five scoreless yesterday. So we need the, uh, The tall guys club, a little home run derby or something.

Yes, a few years back, I might be like 10 years now, but I saw a guy, uh, Loke Van Mill was a, uh, a seven foot one pitcher for the Minnesota Twins and the Miners. And I saw him pitch in the spring training game. And that was, that was pretty nuts. It's all arms and legs.

Yeah. I mean, that thing is just dotting right on top of your head as it comes in. It just looks like it's being thrown off a tower. Spacing Maverick Stallings also had a great day on Sunday with a couple of hits.

Maverick had a great weekend. I mean, he had a couple of errors in the field,, but he also he made three or four, five outstanding great plays in the field. So he just had a lot of balls, hit at him. Um, but he, yeah, he had a great weekend. He was, well, he's four for 10. Um, just really, he's just a very consistent, good hitter. Hits line drives and he's a really good ball player.

And Stephen Meyer had a couple of hits in that game. A couple stolen bases over the weekend. He ended up with four hits, uh, with a double, drove in two runs. It was three for three on steal attempts. He makes pitchers and catchers nervous when he's on base. That's the best way I can describe it.

Yeah, Steve's I'm I'm going to take some credit with Steve because he was telling me, uh, last weekend that he was scuffling. He was a little worried about, he was coming into the season, not doing well. And I told him, I said, well, hey man, with your speed, you just got to like, you know, do a bunt. And, uh, and he's like, and we were talking because we were at, at the, the practice. He's like, yeah, but every time I do that, Kenny's just going to field it.

Yeah. And he did that same push button. I think it was supposed to be a suicide squeeze. But the run ended up scoring and he was safe at first on Sunday. Uh, and it's just again, that speed causes people to rush. They don't set their feet. They don't make the right throw, the right reads. Just that added pressure that he brings to the table when he's on the base pass is such a weapon for us.

well, and now, since you said weapon, that's the phrase I've been using about Evan Holman, behind the plate, Evan Holman is a weapon. He is just gunning guys down. I mean, it's not even close. Like he's, he's throwing the ball and they're having to wait on him. Uh, on the guy sliding in. I mean, he, he is. he had a heck of a weekend, made a bunch of diving and stops a lot of, in the dirt stops and the Evan just looked phenomenal behind the plate.

He was incredible. I don't know what his actual pop time is. Like, I need someone with a stopwatch to time it. But it's one of the fastest ones that I've ever seen in college baseball. He has that ball up and out. So fast that runners really don't have a chance. And some of the guys he was throwing out were out by eight, nine feet. Like it was just looks so simple.

And Jack Slater, caught on Saturday, did a great job too, but, he didn't get to show off as much as Evan did. I mean, Evan, really, he looked outstanding. And this is a guy, a lot of people I don't know last year when he was Juko, he ended up playing third base a lot of the season, just because of some injuries. Um, so this guy, he didn't really get a chance to, to catch as much as he would have liked last year.

Yeah. I mean, he threw out three of five base dealers this weekend. And in one of those, he didn't throw out on Sunday. He was so fast with his pop time that when He came up with the ball in his hand, he actually hit the underside of the lid of his helmet that was backwards. And that's the only reason he didn't throw that guy out because he had him by a mile. He just accidentally hit his own helmet and it would have been a throw into center field if he would have kept going.

The weapon is so dangerous, it might hurt himself. It's great to see and I would argue probably George Washington based runners aren't as, uh, fast or effective as some other teams we're going to see. I don't guess that's anything, uh, you know, mean to say about them. So I, I'm very excited to see how Evan does against some teams like UVA ECU coming up, some of these, bigger schools, some of the, have some, you know, some top 25, uh, players.

And I do want to point out that I think our pitching staff helped them out by being pretty quick to the plate too, to put them in a good position. We didn't have those situations where somebody clearly got a steal off of a pitcher. So. That tandem working together to keep guys from stealing is, is nice to see.

Yeah, I think that's a great point. Once you get to conference play, other teams kind of know about you and what you're doing. So, uh, hopefully by the end of the year, people are trying and trying it and that that's as good as anything. If you can keep guys, keep people being station to station baseball, it makes a lot harder to score.

especially with the arms we're trotting out of the pen and in our rotation right now. I mean, it's, uh, it's, really nice to see. And we did see Blake Morgan on the field pregame on Saturday. I know that there's some debate if he's coming back this season, we could have him in a month. I know there's a lot of. A lot of things going on out there, but he was, pulling up some mats and stuff from BP moving pretty well.

He was, uh, he was out there throwing a bullpen Saturday, um, and it was throwing some before the game Sunday, and I was talking to him, he said it's all, it's all going good, we're just gonna, it's still just a keep waiting and seeing, still a few weeks out, but he said so far, there aren't many setbacks, so far he's feeling good, so that would, that would be a huge addition if Blake could come out and feel strong and feel good.

mean, you think about the second weekend of conference second, a month of conference play, being able to add Blake Morgan to this pitching staff, uh, that that's gotta be pretty terrifying for everyone. Who's on the back half of our schedule. If they see him start making that come back to the field.

Yeah, it'd be great. I, I, my guess would be that probably work him in on some midweeks. I was looking ahead that midweek we have against Princeton where we have a Tuesday and Wednesday, that would be a really perfect scenario to try to bring Blake in, if he's able, so we'll, we'll see. Like I said, he's, he's feeling good about it. like I talked to him, he's like, Yeah, a little sore, but he's like, you know, that's normal. He's like, so it wasn't anything that out of the ordinary for him.

Yeah, well, obviously both of us are rooting for Blake Morgan. I think all Monarch fans are getting that lefty back out there to do some damage.

We got a little look ahead to do here. Uh, after the sweep, we've got number 14 UVA on Tuesday and then a weekend series with Rutgers coming to town. This episode is going to release on Tuesday. So, great thing to listen to if you're driving up to Charlottesville or driving back after the game. Uh, but UVA. They swept Hofstra over the weekend, they won 10 to 8 on Friday, 21 to 3 on Saturday, and then 11 to 9 on Sunday.

It's a lot of runs to give up the Hofstra. I gotta be honest. I mean, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna knock Hofstra as every team's a team, but that's, uh, when I first hear UBA versus Hofstra, I think the 21 to three should have been the whole weekend. So it's, it's interesting.

that, that's kind of what I was thinking too, and especially it was, it was colder in Charlottesville than it was in Norfolk. And that's a boatload of runs that are coming through there and a lot of arms that you're using out of your bullpen. Uh, so it's, going to be interesting to see the pitching matchups that develop from that after probably blowing through. All of your arms on the weekend while, we were able to use our guys pretty sparingly with some good starting pitching performances.

Yeah, I mean, but, but again, let's operate. I mean, UBA is a fantastic team. Um, they have a few local kids, Harrison Dinnewick from, uh, Western branches. I think he's a sophomore now and he's an outstanding player. Ethan Anderson, catch from Cox play with Kyle Edwards. They want to stay championship together. Uh, as seniors and Ethan is, is he's getting the catch this year. Um, and he's a phenomenal player. So, I mean, UVA is UVA is no joke.

Well, it really, since brian O'Connor got there, they've, they've become a power for sure. But even when they've had those great seasons and they've won national championships and been in the, college world series, we've fared pretty well against them. I remember from working ODU coming to town and. Getting some wins on those midweeks after hearing from all the UVA fans about how we're going to blow ODU out. And then all of a sudden, it's four to one in the ninth inning and they're done.

Yeah, it was great to see. I know Ryan Zimmerman, uh, from right here in Virginia Beach, he, he donated a lot of money. Uh, so it's nice to have those, uh, those major league alumni who really, invest in and care about the program. That's a great thing that UVA

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. They've got, got a good fan base there too, even though it's a Tuesday midweek, probably be a, little bit chilly there. They're still going to show up and there'll be plenty of people out in that right field porch where they have kind of an elevated version of rally alley out there where you can see right down the right field line. Um, I wish I wish I was able to get out there. I'm unfortunately not able to Tuesday, but. Uh, we'll absolutely be following along.

Yeah, I'll be doing the same thing, watching and running ESPN Plus with everybody else. And then, Rutgers this weekend, they, I know they swept their weekend, What were they? Wofford? Is that who

Uh, Winthrop from down in Rock Hill, South Carolina,

It was somewhere down in Carolina. Yeah, so good for them. I saw Joey DiChiaro, former ODU Monarch. He had a scoreless inning at the end of the game Saturday. I think he got a save, which is great. Looking forward to seeing him. Hopefully his team will go 0 3 this weekend.

I hope so. And I'm Bobby D tweeted at us and said that we have to pay him 50, 000 or buy him some bourbon every time we mentioned his name. So add 1 more drink to the list there for Bobby, but the series down in, in Rock Hill. They took first game pretty convincingly 14 to 5 Saturday was a little bit closer. Three, one good, good pitchers game. And then, Sunday was actually 11 inning game, that they won seven to six.

Yeah, you know, Rutgers is always, it's always good to come in when we have what was like 24 years in a row. We had them coming in and then I think the last few they haven't. Uh, and so getting them back is it's nice. I mean, it's one of those to me. That's just early season. The ODU baseball is Rutgers coming in. So it's always enjoyable to see them.

Yeah, absolutely. Uh, game Friday at three, Saturday at two, Sunday at one. I think they kind of keep that trend going until it gets a little bit warmer, get a little more daylight.

Yeah. Right. Time change that that becomes, uh, even though the time change is still a little early to start going to the six o'clock games. You've asked me probably could have given a few more weeks, but that's how it goes. yeah,

We'll enjoy the sunshine while we can and, uh, love it When that, that time changes back, that usually coincides pretty closely with Major League Baseball too, and it's pretty nice.

Yeah, our folks are working hard. We got some really great operations people and really great people that put on our events and put on our games. Despite those things being the limitations we're, we're better off in a lot of places. So it's, it's great that they're here for us.

we we do more with less than I think anybody, uh, they, they do a great job, we've got, you know, some great camera angles and they got a very early test, I mean, the first pitch of the game on Friday went to review, so they, uh, they got stretched out pretty early there.

which was, there were a few, the ridiculous man, there was, uh, the umpires for overall did a very good job. I'm not, you know, while I point this out, I didn't, I didn't really have a ton of problem with the strike zones or, you know, pitches here or there that happens, but there was one toward the end of the game yesterday, it was a buyer actually that, um, they called him out. I mean, I had a picture of it and he, he was touching the bag and the ball wasn't even in the picture frame yet.

Well, there were a couple hundred people in Rally Alley that knew what the call was and let the umpire know about it. So tip of the cap to the crew that was there in Rally Alley for that play at first base. Good to keep those umpires on their toes. They probably don't particularly like covering first base when they've got a packed Rally Alley, especially later in the year.

Yeah, I imagine so

Yeah, well, we're, we're looking forward to four great games this week. I think a step up in competition. Absolutely. With Virginia on Tuesday, but I think even with Rutgers, I would love to see the sweep, but I think this is one where if you walk away winning two out of three, you're feeling pretty damn good that you beat a good team twice.

Yeah, and I mean, I think this is what you want.

Yeah. Some, some early tests. I mean, you have the Rutgers series, then you've got East Carolina coming to town and Charlotte, uh, you got William and Mary and then Northeastern, which Northeastern was ranked in the preseason, watched a little bit of their games over the weekend. So that, that's going to be a fun one coming to the bud there that March 8th, 9th and 10th.

Yeah. I mean, it's exciting. We had, it was a great weekend. Uh, we saw a lot of positive things. I hope if you were able to get off the ballpark, I hope you had a great time. I hope you, you come back. We, again, we had, we did have great crowds. Um, if you haven't had a chance. Come out this weekend. I think, uh, the weather is looking good Saturday and Sunday. Anyway, I'm not real sure about Friday right now, but Saturday and Sunday, the weather's looking good.

Yeah. And a good way to support the team too, is to, to order those voucher booklets from why not ticks. Uh, if you log in there, you actually get some pretty good, uh, ODAP points, uh, with that as well. They're good for all the spring sports this season.

Yeah. And we're going to be ranked in the top 25 by then, you know, it's good, it's going to be a great

I love it. And speaking of merch in apparel, this week at odiomonarchist. com, we are officially launching our merch store. Uh, so you will see that out on social media. We have two items that are specifically for baseball, that will be on there. The way we're operating that is any money that we're making on that is either kicking back to the pride of ODU NIL collective for baseball or whichever specific sport that piece of apparel was for, or it's going to ODAF to directly support the program.

Well, fantastic. Go get, go get you some beer. Uh, get those hoodies and bring them out to the ballpark.

Yeah. We got to get the beanies. I think you got a beanie from Aaron on a, on Sunday.

Yeah, it looks nice. It's very very nice and it will be used little puffy beanie. I'll probably Uh deform it a little bit. I'm just personally not a big fan of the little puffy

Yeah. I got it. You got to cut the poof ball. That's it. My wife ended up with that one when we did the first run of them says I'm not a poof ball hat guy either.

Yeah, so i'm weird. I'll do that and then hoodies. I always take the uh, the drawstrings out So i'm i'm very a little particular about

Yeah. Usually my dogs do the drawstrings in my hoodies for me, so I don't really get a choice whether I want them or not. Well, I think that's it for us this week. We're looking forward to four awesome games coming off of the sweep of George Washington, CB, any final notes for our fans out there and

Again, just come out and support these guys. Come out and just enjoy it. Good entertainment. It's really good baseball. They're really good people. They play very hard. They're hustling. Uh, they, they really, they want To do well and they do well, come out and see him if you can't quite come out and see him, you're not, you know, where you can go watch my ESPN plus really just take advantage because we have a great team.

we thank all of you who listened to the first two episodes of the podcast, uh, hope you're enjoying this one as well. If you go to our social media channel, every Sunday, we're going to put out that phone number where you can call And leave a voicemail. So feel free to give us your thoughts on, on games over the week, over the weekend, the best calls will actually get played on the podcast. So feel free to use and abuse that, tell your friends about the show.