I'm going to go to sleep. Good night.
Hello, Monarch fans and welcome to the Hudson Homer's podcast. Thank you for joining us for our first five episodes. Kind of strange that we're already on episode six. I am Gary and I'm joined by my co host CB. CB, how are you doing today?
Hey, man, I'm great. Interesting day yesterday, but I am excited about the week coming up should have some amazing weather for the games. Uh, Tomorrow on Tuesday and Wednesday. That's that's i'm excited about this week
Yeah, it's weird how, you know, we had the Rutgers week and we went one and three, but I felt fairly positive because we won that last game on Sunday. Now we've had a two and two week and we dropped the last two of the week. And I somehow feel worse now than I did after that series.
It is funny how the the way the game goes on sunday can really I mean you could you could go three and one On the week, but if you lost sunday, you come in like, hey, you know, it just doesn't feel right So yeah, but that's not just losing but getting uh getting stomped. Uh, sunday afternoon was uh made for a Weird feeling in the mouth this morning for sure.
Yeah, it was definitely a weird one after I thought we got off to a pretty good start, but I want to kick things off here with our dollars for dingers count. We only got one this week It was against William and Mary with Kenny LaVarie coming through with a two run shot So the dollars for dinger total is now nine But bucks for bags
Thanks for bags. I'm telling you
We are up to 35 steals. We're 35 for 39. So the perfecto streak on that is over, but 35 stolen bases at this point in the season. Pretty, pretty good.
I think kyle was the first one that got caught unfortunately, uh, you know, but it happens
Yeah, eventually you're going to run into someone who can throw you out. And then we, we had another caught stealing over the weekend that was a result of a double steal where we kind of intentionally got caught between first and second so that a run could score. So we're not perfect, but 35 for 39. I will gladly take that at this point in the season.
Yeah, 35 bags and 15 games is pretty great. I mean, you extrapolate that out. You're, you're, you're taking a lot of extra bases out of people.
Absolutely. Well, let's jump into to recap the week here. We're going to start with the fun stuff. We're going to start with the game against William and Mary. Unfortunately, only got one of those in because of weather that was in the area on Wednesday, just a pretty nasty washout day. But Tuesday, I felt like we just took a businesslike approach to that game, did what we were supposed to do and came out with a win.
Yeah, it was a real solid win. I mean, that was one I, uh, I wasn't able to get there, but I was able to kind of keep up with the stats and, uh, yeah, just the guys, you know, they did what they needed to do. Uh, Blake got off to a pretty solid opening and all the pitching behind him, you know, really was, was very solid, you know, Bishara, Nick Sulpizio, another good outing. Kellen Davis bring out the Raptor with a full inning. Um, you know, cool.
Gotta got in there toward the end and ponded another good closing. I mean, so again, the pitching really showed up well that day and the hitting did, you know, Kenny, uh, Kenny really turn things around this week and Kyle Edwards had a really great week. Uh, and they also got started up with that on Tuesday. So it was good to see William and Mary always plays tough again. They always, no matter what they got going on, they always show up and play tough against ODU.
And 13 total strikeouts for the Monarch pitching staff that day. Pretty good for a bullpen game. Blake gets the start. Blake gets credited with the win. Uh, thought he threw really well, but I think the, the key moment from a pitching perspective in this game was when Vincent Becerra came on with one out there in the third inning. Bases loaded, one out. He gets two strikeouts to get out of that inning unscathed. Really great performance to come out of the pen early for Bash.
Yeah, that's just tough, man. You know, he's, he's one of those guys when he's on, he's really, really good. He's, um, you know, I think that's the difference between him being, you know, a middle relief guy and him being a guy that could really go out and be successful. He just, he hasn't really always been as consistent, but man, when he's on and he's really doing it, that is a really good picture and very, and very tough.
And you talked about Kenny LaVarie. He definitely got things going early on with a two run home run in his first at bat. Fourth inning, we kind of pile on a couple extra runs there with Edwards getting an RBI hit, uh, Stephen Meyer getting an RBI hit and we're up six, nothing through six. And it just feels like we took the lunch pail, uh, to the bud that day and, and hammered out a win.
Yeah, and again, the pitching, yeah, a couple of runs late, uh, overall, everybody just kind of, like I said, showed up, uh, punched the clock, did what they had to do and get that win. That's what you want to do. Take care of the teams. You should be
Yeah, absolutely. And who knows what happens if we're able to get that game in on Wednesday, if it wears the pitching down more, gets us more tuned up, helps us keep that momentum. But either way, no game on Wednesday up in Williamsburg. I'm sure we'll get that tucked back into the schedule at some point here during the year. Flash forward now to Friday, another weather impacted weekend, end up going double dip on Friday with Saturday off, which was kind of unique.
And ODU comes out and gets a seven to five win to open up the series with the Huskies.
yeah another good one You know again kyle had a great day luke waters really good again. You gotta keep giving him props He's been about our most consistent hitter, even though I think kyle's probably been our best hitter Uh luke waters has been the most consistent Uh boucher another good game and then again the pitching, you know, uh, halibut's struggled a little bit But after him, you know, steven trone has been doing some great work and again kellen davis and jacob gomez Finishing things off.
I mean, so, so again, you know, just all around, they kind of, uh, I think they had to come from behind it again. Yeah, we had to come from behind.
And you're repeating a lot of the names that we've heard consistently throughout this season from the top of that order with Edwards, with Meyer, Waters, Boucher.
They've typically hit somewhere between one to four, one to five through the lineup, but they They'll help carry us through William Mary and carried us through this game as well with Luke going three for four driving in a run Boucher was two for four drove into Edwards two for four and credit to Rowan Massey first career collegiate hit and RBI in that game an infield single at a pretty critical moment when we did need to come back
yeah, Rowan's, uh, he's a good ball player. You know, his dad was a professional player with the Yankees. Uh, Made all the triple a didn't quite get the big leagues, but played triple a for a number of years and and Rowan's He's a great athlete. Um, I know him and his brother both played hockey in addition to baseball And he's really getting himself some more chances.
He's kind of he and um, Jack spites are trying to figure out who's going to be the the first guy called out really when they knew those kind of right handed pinch hitters and he's He's putting himself right in that conversation as a freshman.
Looking back on that game, you know, we We got on the board first. It was kind of a back and forth game there. We tied at three, three, and then it got to four, four. Uh, but really, it was in that, that seventh inning where we were able to separate there a little bit, starting with Rowan's, uh, RBI single that brought in Stephen Meyer, and then Alex Boucher with a two run double down the left field line, absolutely ripped that ball, uh, to put us up seven, four. We ended up winning seven, five.
Yeah. I thought early on, Hollabets had a good first inning. I gave up the three there in the second, but I, I felt like, and, I'm watching the stream, so I don't have the best view of home plate, but I felt like he was getting squeezed quite a bit there in that second inning from the home plate umpire.
Yeah, I was, for that first game, I was watching it, the same thing, and, uh, there was, I have not really seen a lot of umpires so far this year that I've been super excited about what they've been doing. Um, there seems to be a lot of inconsistency from inning to inning, even at bat to at, but sometimes pitch to pitch, and so that's hard. It's hard for a pitcher. It's hard for the hitters. It's, it's not really benefiting anybody.
Yeah. And I think because of that, hollow bets ran up that pitch count. I was at 78 pitches through three innings. They're only gave up the three earned runs, uh, five strikeouts, two walks, hit two batters. Uh, definitely not his, his best outing from a control standpoint, uh, but he was able to limit the damage despite getting squeezed. And then Steven Trone came in for the fourth, and pitched a pretty clean and he hit one guy, but for the most part, no hits, no runs, anything like that.
Just a good ball game. I thought back and forth, uh, we took advantage of them in the fifth inning to tie things back up, uh, with, just putting the ball in play, running some guys. That was the play where Luke got, you know, quote unquote, caught stealing going from first to second that allowed Meyer to score, uh, and kind of get us back into that ball game and have us take the lead. So interesting small ball game.
I mean, no, no home runs for us in that series against Northeastern, but they had a couple.
Yeah the kid lane had a apparently this is what he does. He's a giant Um, but you know, it's it's just again going to be an indication. I think of how odu is I think in our in our Our best version of this team. They're not home run hitters But they are this team that can go out and produce runs and create runs We got some guys who can run some guys can put the ball in play and Some of these guys are really starting to trend in the right direction.
So again, I think people who've been, you know, gotten used to it, loved to the home runs last few years, you might need to let that go and just start accepting just some good baseball.
It's a different team. We've been told that from the jump. I know we've, we've been preaching it on here and you're really starting to see it play out now with only nine home runs through 15 games this season. But, uh, on to close this one out again, and something we've seen quite a bit this season. Friday is the last three innings belong to Jacob Gomez and he was electric once again. Uh, three innings pitch, six strikeouts, uh, gets credited for the win in this one instead of the save.
That's about the only difference from his other, uh, Friday evening performances.
Yeah. I mean, when you've got a guy that is just as, as much of a, an absolute bulldog and just a competitor and a fighter, um, and you could put. The guy like Gomez out there on the mound at the end of the game. I mean you'd be crazy not to I don't know that his stuff is any better than anybody else's But he is just going to compete and fight better than anybody else
And you can feel that bulldog mentality. He's getting those strikeouts. He's chirping it up as he always does. And I really do feel like that rallies the team, even the guys that are hitting that, that is getting them pumped up and giving them some confidence.
So they come to the plate and we saw that with, uh, you know, the runs being scored and being able to hold on to take that game one, you mentioned his name earlier and I promise we won't mention it much today because I think we all want to erase the memory, but. Alex Lane, we warned you about him, in the, uh, previous Hudson Homer's podcast episode that he is a monster. I think he had a 1. 353 OPS, uh, coming into this weekend that did not go down.
He finished six for 13, two bombs, 10 ribbies and was walked three times. Uh, the other person we talked about, Tyler McGregor also had a great game. They've got some dudes at the top of that lineup and they made their presence known on Saturday and Sunday.
and the funny thing is the scouts Uh, we're really there to watch mike serota Uh, the center fielder who is kind of off to a slow start, but he had a, he had an outstanding sophomore season And you can see the tools there.
I mean, he's a big big athletic center fielder I think I saw he was apparently drafted in the 16th round out of high school and didn't sign Um, so it's it's funny that He's not even he might be considered the best player on his team, but he's not playing the best So it tells you the northeastern has got some stuff. They can definitely they can do go do some damage this year. That's for sure
They're definitely going to put up some home run totals. At least Alex Lane is, uh, and Sirota also had a great game. Really Sirota, McGregor and Alex Lane were, were tough guys to get out all weekend long, really broke through on, on Sunday and put that game out of reach. But, you know, looking at that second game on Friday.
Coming out of the gate, it looked like it was going to be a super high scoring kind of crazy game with the person we've been talking about, Alex Lane, you know, bleeding off there in the first, uh, is one of five Huskies to hit in their first five at bats, gets a three run double to go up three nothing. Uh, they tack on another one there in the first, but we answered there in the bottom half.
Yeah came right back, you know again luke waters with a double score and kenny Uh are scoring kyle edwards and then kenny singling and uh luke scoring, you know, so you're you're back to four to two But then a bunch of zeros for the next five innings.
I mean, it was like somebody just turned off the offense when it hit four to two. I don't know if the temperature dropped or what happened there at the bud. Uh, but we didn't see anything else until the seventh inning. Northeastern was able to take advantage of some errors, getting some, little singles through the infield, end up going up six to two, uh, and then tack on two more there in the eighth to go to eight to two. But I got to give credit to the lineup.
I mean, they were, they were not done yet in Kenny LaVarie breaking back out in a big way, gets a two run double there in the eighth to make it eight to four and a little more achievable. But, uh, unfortunately nothing, nothing could get going there in that ninth inning.
Yeah kenny that day three for three with three rbis and a walk I mean, this is a guy who was I think he came in at the week hitting under 200. So he really was turning things around. Even the outs he was making, you could see that kind of last weekend, leading in the outs he was making were line drive outs and right at guys. And so you could see the results. And for Kenny, It's got to be so much easier, but just better when you're when you're a senior.
So, you know, you've had success, you know, it's not like he's a guy who has not had success at this level. He's, he's had three years where he's been a starter pretty much every single game. So he's got to be able to look back and just say, look, I know what I'm doing. I know how to be successful. If I can just relax and find myself, it's going to work out. And you see clearly that's what happened here.
And yeah, you're right. He started having better at bats. I think last weekend started coming around, but this week ends up going six for 14, hits a home run, has a double drives in five runs, drew a walk, uh, really, really good down the stretch there in the northeastern series. So good to see him. Officially come off the Schneid to start the season and be fired up. I think we're looking for some other guys there to keep that up. I know it's tough going right now, uh, for Tyser.
Uh, he had no hits this week, had quite a few at bats, just. I know he is scuffling and trying to get better, every game, but it's tough going for him right now.
Yeah, he, he just looks a little in between. It looks like he's, he's not making, um, really good choices on what pitches to swing at. And then there's a little bit of, um, it kind of reminds me of late in Fred McGriff's career, you know, um, Tyser obviously at six, seven, he's a lot bigger than, I mean, Fred McGriff's a large human. He's six, four, six, five, but he's got that kind of, he had the same way Tyser had his, it's kind of that locked arms and not really covering the entire plate.
And, when you're. When you're six, seven, you're armed as long as that. You shouldn't have any problem covering the plate. The adjustments up and down sometimes a little harder. That's why you, you have not seen a lot of, a lot of huge hitters. And that's why Aaron judge is such a different thing in the major leagues. You know, there's the amount of guys you list off top of your head who were six, six or six, seven that played major league baseball as a hitter.
Very, I mean, I think like Frank Howard, you know, Richie Sexton, it's a small list. He's having those struggles right now. So, you know, it's, he's got a kind of, I think the focus for him just needs to be making contact and putting the ball in play. Um, I think we gotta, he's gotta get, I don't know in his head, I don't know his approach, but it's, it looks a little bit like trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark.
And I think he's just got to get back to put the ball in play because for him, if he puts the ball in play, if he just hits the ball, he's going to hit the ball really hard, really far. Uh, he can hit a single off the wall as well as anybody. It's also hard when you do put the ball in play and the second baseman's out in right field, you know, somebody be a single for a lot of guys, they're going to always going to do that pull on them. So you just got to focus on put the ball in play.
And I think, I hope Tyson's going to be fine. I'd like to believe it. He's too good of a ball player not to be.
He really is. And it's tough to see him get off to this slow start when some of the other guys around him in the lineup are hitting pretty well. We've seen him kind of back inserted into that number four spot in the lineup with some really good guys ahead of him. Uh, Boucher hitting behind him and LaVarie behind that. And if LaVarie has it going again, I almost wonder if you see a little bit of a lineup shakeup where.
You know, either Boucher or LaVarie goes into that four hole and you can move Tyser down to six, maybe take some pressure off of him with his at bats and let him just focus on his at bat and making good contact rather than, hitting behind those top three guys in the lineup where there may be a little more pressure to produce runs and hit the ball farther to drive them in.
Yeah. I mean, I still, we're still going to see some, some changes in the lineup. You know, they're still really looking for somebody to take over second base, somebody to take over left field. Carter Sunderman and TJ Aiken have been making some, some nice moves there. Uh, but you know, I, I don't think the lineup is what it, what it's going to be at the end.
I, you know, I, they obviously Kyle Average at shortstop, Meyer and center field, Luke Waters and right field, Boucher at first, um, Kenny at third, and, and probably Holman catching most games is going to be your lineup. And then the rest, you Then he told me, he's like, I'm going to go with my nine toughest guys. Now that the way he pointed out might not be the most talented guys.
He wants the tough guys, the guys who are really going to go out and really take that good, strong mental approach to things. So I think in the end, that's going to be, make the best results. So guys just got to show they're the toughest and they're, and they're going to have the best results.
Yeah, I thought carter had a pretty good week. I don't know if it's enough to establish himself as the full time second baseman, but he had a couple hits. I thought he had some good at bats. Uh, Maverick stallings. He also played pretty well, went one for three with a walk on sunday. But I think this is the week where those positions could be up for grabs. You know, you got the two against Princeton, you've got the first conference series against Georgia Southern coming up.
I've been impressed with TJ Aiken. If you want to talk about toughness, I mean, guy who's kind of, for the most part, coming off the bench and the pinch run situations, not afraid to bunt, lay one down, even though he was probably a monster power hitter when he was in high school, um, that I've liked what I've seen from him, uh, playing out there in left field.
And I feel like he's gotten a little bit more playing time recently compared to the Jackson Tone and Gavin Abrams, uh, who have been kind of rotating in and out of left as well.
TJ is definitely, uh, he's definitely got some work to do in the outfield, even though he's probably, you Uh, a better defensive choice than Tone or Abrams just because, Tone's a catcher who hasn't played much out there and Gavin was an infielder probably until about last year. TJ and Carter, they're both, you know, it's as a freshman, sometimes you're gonna have those mistakes and some things but they're both really good ball players and good hitters.
Like I said, they, they, TJ right there being, being willing to bunt. He's excited about bunting too. I mean, he got that bunt single and II, he was there. We're talking with Ryan five and he's like, I told you every time I got it and so, you know, he is. He's excited to do things to, to get himself in the lab to help the team. Um, so it's, it's exciting to see. So you're hoping you're, I think you're right with Princeton coming in, you know, nothing against Prince.
I love their pitching coach, Joe Homaker. He's a, uh, ODU alumni. Um, but they're not as talented a team as ODU. And so this is, it's a good opportunity to go out and really get some bats going. Uh and get the pitching kind of righted after the weekend and you believe they should go out and really dominate Princeton these two games. That's that's what you'd hope and then really get yourself get your head Right get everything feeling good going into the conference weekend.
And I would hope that they are pretty excited to get the opportunity to go play Princeton and go make a big game and run some, some scores up because they were on the wrong end of that Sunday in the series finale with Northeastern. Before you could really blink, it was 11 nothing Huskies in the fourth. Um, all the guys that we have talked about from Northeastern were absolutely crushing the ball. It was kind of tough, ended up being a bullpen day for us.
Finney, I think said this after the game, you can't give 13 free passes to a team with the top of an order, like Northeastern, they expect to win games. And we didn't, if we put people on base, they were driving them in.
Trent Buchanan who'd been the sunday guy. He jammed his thumb Uh, I again, I don't think he was doing anything unusual. It was just kind of normal baseball stuff and just jammed his thumb and so I don't know how long, what the timetable on that is, but so that kind of puts you in a position where you had to throw a pond in there as an emergency and they ended up using eight pitchers and it just kind of, it was hard for anybody to really define a lot of success.
I mean, it seems like everybody that came in, uh, gave up, if not their own run, somebody else's runs. I think Kyle Finn had the only scoreless ending of the day. I think the seventh inning is scoreless. Guys showed stuff, good things off and on, but overall, yeah. I mean, you give up 17 runs and like I said, if you walk, uh, that many guys, it's just tough.
You're correct. Finn had the only scoreless inning and it was the seventh. Uh, they put up at least one run in every other inning. It's the first clunker game from our pitching staff of the season, which 15 games in against a really tough schedule is not necessarily a bad thing. You're going to have days like that, especially when your pitching plan kind of gets disrupted a little bit by an injury with, with Trip Buchanan jamming his thumb.
I hope he is all right and able to come back here quickly. Cause I really liked the way that he's been progressing this season as that Sunday starter. Uh, so throws off your whole plan and really just, I think. Set the team back a good bit from the jump and Northeastern was, we thought that they'd be tired from this super long road trip they've had going all over the South, but, uh, they, they hit a different gear on Sunday at the plate. And it was, uh, it was pretty impressive to see.
Yeah, I mean, like I said, like we were saying, they're, they're very good hitters. And when you know the other guys have their, uh, Whole situation kind of upended, then you're licking your chops. I mean, you start coming out and you're seeing guys who've only thrown one game and you got, uh, you know, Ben Moisan coming out and making his season debut, you're thinking like, Hey, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get healthy off these guys.
And they did,, all dominion score nine runs themselves, but the same time when you've got. That big of a lead you start pitching some guys That don't pitch all the time either.
They did, uh, but I I'll give our lineup credit of trying to stay in it and still trying to have quality at bats. I mean, Evan Holman had a nice double down the right field line to score run. T. J. Aiken got an RBI single. And then even, later into the game. You've got Kyle Edwards doing some good work. Stephen Meyer, uh, Nick Miller got a, got a triple that cleared the bases and brought three runs home. So definitely no quit in the lineup.
They were still trying to have good at bats and build on it, but you get into an 11, nothing hole in baseball on a getaway day, and you're not very likely to come back from that.
I mean it's tough but it was good to see I mean when they were down 10 nothing You could just pack it in and say we're done, but they didn't our guys kept having good at bats And again, it's been a thing The hitting has not really been good enough this year. So it was good to see like, okay, look, we're still in this game. We still, you know, score nine runs is not a small deal. You got to go out and do your job and score some runs and get yourself right.
Because the games really start to matter this weekend.
You are correct. It gets serious. Like, shit gets real, starting this weekend with Georgia Southern coming to town. But wanna talk a little bit about Princeton first, give you all some background on what to expect there. And then kind of maybe jump into our pitching situation going into the weekend with Georgia Southern. But, Princeton, they're two and eight overall.
They just finished a game at the university of Richmond today, which is Monday, uh, I saw in the top of the ninth, it was 24 to eight Richmond. Uh, it was not a good looking score. I have not checked it again, but
Yeah. 24 days when they finished.
Yeah. Three touchdowns in the field goals. Not, not good on the baseball field. Um, but yeah, dropped two out of three to, to UNC Wilmington. They got swept by UNC. The games that they've won, they beat Wheat Wilmington once they, uh, beat Navy 22 to 12 as the second game of the double header. This game on Tuesday will be their fourth game in three days.
Uh, so they're playing us Tuesday, Wednesday, they have Thursday off and they have a four game set in Richmond against VCU with the double header there that Saturday. So they are taking the punishment tour right now through Virginia.
This is a thing they do every year. It's just kind of, it makes sense with the way they, you know, the weather up there in New Jersey and kind of what they can afford as far as going on trips. It's kind of easier to go on one big trip than a bunch of small trips. Um, so they kind of work this out for their spring break every year. They pick tough opponents and the hope is that when they get to the Ivy League, they'll be ready to go.
Like I said, Joe Homaker is a ODU alum, great, great guy, uh, pitched here in 2010 and 11. Uh, one of my favorite people I've ever met in baseball. Um, and so, you know, I know the pitching staffs, they're, they're wearing it right now. I think I'm looking right now, they have a 957 ERA through 10 games. Just know based on some of these guys, you know, seeing them here last year, a few of these guys are much better pitchers than that. You hope the same thing I would use.
Hoping that you play a really tough non conference schedule. So that when it's time to play your conference, you're ready to go.
One name to watch out on the offensive side. Jake Coonan. Hi, he's hitting 333 as four doubles driven in 11 runs. He's really one of their better hitters. Starting pitching, not, not much to talk about there, unfortunately. And part of that is because of how tough of a schedule they've played. Uh, but Jacob Faulkner and Andrew D'Alesso out of their bullpen, uh, they're both look pretty strong.
But then again, they probably haven't been in many high leverage situations are probably coming in when they're down by a good bit, not as much pressure. Uh, but a couple of names to watch out for there. Uh, one thing is it relates to Austin and bucks for bags. Opponents are 31 for 33 stealing bases off of Princeton this year.
So I would expect that if the game is close at all and we're not just being jerks, uh, we're going to take bases where we can take bases on Tuesday and Wednesday, uh, probably early on in those games. Maybe bump up those, uh, bucks for bags or bags for bucks numbers, uh, that we're looking to supplement the dingers.
You gotta believe you're a better team than them, but you also, you gotta go out and show it. You can't just, you can't just walk up and, you know, Oh yeah, we're better. We'll just phone this one in like, no, go out, grind out your at bats, put the ball in play and really just, I mean, just dominate these guys, frankly, if you can win 30 to nothing two days in a row, that's what you want to do.
I mean, our scorecards already look pretty crazy with all the substitutions we do wouldn't be a bad one to send a lot of different guys to the dish and get up. But you've got to show up and you've got to go do it. It's easy to talk about it, but you've got to go out there, perform, put up those runs and then put yourself in that situation where those guys down the end of the bench that may not get a ton of bats this season are able to get a few quality ones here on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Absolutely. It's what you hope for.
And I want to pose this question before we talk about Georgia Southern and going into our conference schedule.
But the starting pitching rotation, with what happened Sunday, you've got an injury, a jam thumb that, that kind of shakes some things up, but I have to think there's some consideration from coach Finwood right now about trying some of these really strong arms out of the bullpen that can give you three, four, five have been starters before, if it would make sense to plug and play one of them for one of these weekend spots based just on what we've seen so far this season.
Yeah, you know, I was talking to Finney and he, he definitely, I think I had mentioned it on a podcast before about, you know, I think some guys are just more suited for relieving. And I think, like, I think I pointed out John Hollibest is a guy that I think is just mentally. Likes being in the bullpen. I think that that pressure of late game does better for him. I think some guys just for whatever reason, you start me on the first inning.
It's like, yeah, the pressure's there, but it's, you have such a long game or they, they try to save some of their stuff for later. It's like, well, you're not going to be in the fifth inning if you don't pitch well in the first. Um, but some guys when you throw them out there in the sixth or seventh or eighth, all of a sudden the, the gas is burning. Um, so I think he's, I think he's going to make some switches this, this weekend. I don't know exactly.
I think one of them is going to be how that's coming out of the bullpen. Uh, possibly Jay Cassidy starting. Uh to give you a couple innings, I think he's gonna he's I think looking more to go to Having some guys kind of be openers and if you can get me A couple innings and I can have somebody else come out and throw three or four innings or two or three innings And we can kind of piece the game together that way uh We're gonna make it happen because the starting pitching.
I mean, I think we only had one guy throw five innings this year Um, and even then I think I think it was Trent after he gave up four in the first he pitched five innings So go out and just and use basically adapt, find, What are we actually good at? We have a lot of guys who are very talented and maybe nobody can really throw five six innings But we have a lot of guys who can throw two or three innings. So just start doing that. He did tell me that blake.
Morgan is going to start on tuesday And then probably come back and start the game on Sunday against Georgia Southern. Uh, so that'll be a little different. Um, and again, probably not expected to go really long in either one of them, but just go out and get us a good start. And we've seen between Jacob Gomez and Bailey Mattel and some of these other guys at the end of the bullpen, you know, we can, and, and Brandon Pond, Brandon Pond's been dominant and relief.
If some of those guys can come out and close things off, then that, that might be the, the, The key to success for this pitching staff.
So many of the runs that we've given up in a weekend series have come in the first or the second inning. It's like, we, we can't come out of the gate firing from a pitching standpoint. And I think that makes a lot of sense to go use a guy that you can just treat it as a relief appearance. Come in and get me one, get me two innings because you have. So many talented arms in that bullpen, and you have a talented starting rotation, too.
It's just figuring out where are they going to be the most effective to you. Exactly what you were saying. And I think there are guys like Jay Cassidy who could be stretched out to give you three, four, maybe even five innings. Or if he was able to come in as a lefty and, and shake up their lineup a little bit, and then you come on with the righty and relief thing, close with Jacob Gomez.
You almost have to look at it as, you know, piecing the game out into three, three inning components, and how do you get through those three phases of the game with your pitching, because we. We haven't been able to put together a good first three innings very often on these weekend series.
Finney was pointing back to, um, uh, I believe it was 2019 when we kind of had to do something similar where at that point having Jason Hartline come out to start a game and, uh, you know, with Jason, he was always, you know, breaking stuff and cutters and, throwing mid eighties. And then following that up, we'd have, uh, Hunter Gregory, throwing three or four innings out of the pen. So it.
I think he's going to be looking to do something similar, find someone out of the pen who has some funk to them, somebody who maybe throw a sidearm, you know, have those guys that they can come out and get a good solid inning, maybe one time through the lineup. And then moving on to, to some of the relievers to do more. You look at a team like Tampa Bay, uh, in the major leagues, you know, they've done this and it, some other teams have picked up on it.
It's the kind of thing where if you just, if you don't have the personnel to go out and throw five, six innings or seven innings or whatever, Then, you know, do what you got to do. Use your personnel the best way possible. Don't try to make guys something they're not.
I agree with everything that you're saying there. I'm excited to hear the prospect of Blake Morgan filling on Sunday after getting a couple innings in on Tuesday against Princeton. I imagine he's Probably needs a couple more starts before you could expect him to go five innings.
But if he's able to return to that form that he had two years ago, that's someone that you could plug and play as your Friday starter to get you those first five innings, you bridge it with one, then give Gomez the last three. I mean, that's a pretty good recipe for winning a ball game on a Friday, especially moving into these conference series where those are going to be hotly contested games to set the tone for the rest of the weekend. But, you almost have to treat.
Some of these weekend games now, like you would in the elimination game in the conference tournament, where, all right, you're going to, all arms are on deck. Anybody can throw, we'll figure out the next day, the next day, it's just fighting and clawing for every win, because that's what you're going to have to do in the Sunbelt. If you're looking at the teams in our league, there's no one that you can walk into and go like, I think we will get two out of three.
It's, we're gonna have to fight to get two out of three.
Yeah. The conference is so tough. And I mean, that's 30 games, you know, that's the majority of your schedule. But like you said, you every weekend got to say, we got to do whatever I got to do to win the game. And you, you got to really, you're going to hurt some guys egos because some guys are going to want to believe that they're the best option. And you're, you were not the one today. Everybody's got to. And together and say, we're doing this as a team and root for your teammates.
It'd be amazing if Blake was able to stretch out and become that guy, you know, but even if he just ends up being the guy who can get us three solid to start a game that right now, that's what we need is just someone to get off to a good start.
It'll be interesting to see how that plays out this weekend because you, you really don't get breathing room once you hit the conference series, and we really haven't had any to start because our non conference weekend series have been pretty tough, but there's not like a, all right, we're going to get the next 4 days to go figure this out. It's like, no, you've got East Carolina on Tuesday or Virginia on a Wednesday. There's no breather to try to reset what you're trying to do.
You've got to make some, some pretty quick changes and you've got to find out real quickly how that team mentality and team chemistry is going to stick together when maybe the three guys who have been your weekend starters are now three guys on the back end of your bullpen. And there's someone else getting that start. It's going to be.
A good test for the leadership of this team and the coaching staff to keep everyone in that mentality of, we need to win as a team and we need to find ways to win on the,
Yeah, I mean you're exactly right. It just it comes down to just the teamwork. Are you there for each other? Are we all here for the same mission and the same goal?
Which is to come out of every game with a victory and if we're doing that if we're all working together trying to make each other better Like I said, that that's, it really does come down to some team leadership because the coaches can try to, all they can try to do is put them in the best situations possible and the guys still have to be the ones to do it.
well, they'll get to test that out if there are some change ups to the starting rotation this weekend, because like I said, shit gets real Friday. The Georgia Southern Eagles are coming to town. Uh, they've got a seven and eight overall record, but don't let that throw you for a second. They have taken a similar approach that old dominion did, and they have had an incredibly difficult non conference schedule, uh, they lost two out of three.
To Maryland, they dropped two out of three on the road at Mississippi state. They lost two out of three to a ranked Campbell team at home. Uh, those are three very good clubs. I don't know how they were able to go down to Mississippi state and get a win on the road. And then Campbell has been red hot on the weekend. So stealing the game there, they are coming off of a sweep of Radford. So that's in my opinion, kind of their George Washington. Of their season so far, and they were dominant.
Uh, they, they swept that series. They did pretty well. They have a midweek on Tuesday against Kennesaw state at home. Uh, so they'll have a midweek just like we will. They did not play on Wednesday, but I'm telling you, this team is so much better than what the record indicates
Yeah. And they also lost midweeks to Georgia tech and Georgia. I mean, so again, like it's just, this, this was a tough schedule. I mean, frankly, old dominion is one of the less tough teams on their schedule, which just says a lot because all dominion, you know, this year and traditionally is a tough team. So they really had it going this year.
and looking through their stats, watching a couple of their games over the last couple of weeks, they are a team. That's very similar to old dominion. They are not going to hit a lot of home runs. They actually have seven on the year in their 15 games. So we actually have two more home runs than they do, but they are a team that will put the ball in play. They will draw walks. They will get hit by a pitch. Uh, they will do a lot of things on the base pass to, to get guys in motion.
So you're almost going to see kind of a mirror image of old dominion in this game. One name to look out for is Josh Tate. He's their starting second baseman can play anywhere in the infield. He's been their leadoff guy this season hitting 373. He's got four doubles. He's driven in seven runs, drawn 12 walks, only five strikeouts, and he's 12 for 15 stealing bases. So he is really their spark plug. If he's able to get on base, they're more, more often than not, they're able to get him home.
So getting that first out of the game, if he's leading off an inning, getting him out of the way is, is really, really important. Uh, Sam Blancato is their center fielder. I think he can play some other spots in the outfield. Typically hits third in their lineup. Average is not impressive. He's only hitting about 235. He's got two bombs. He's driven in 14 runs. He is basically the person that drives in Josh Tate, who's their leadoff hitter.
Uh, and also very similar to us, that scorecard is going to be a mess Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, because
Yeah, they play a lot of guys looking at these stats here,
Joe man, they, they plug and play just like we do for pinch runs, pinch hits, matchups, all of that. It's really look kind of like looking in the mirror a little bit.
Even more so. I mean, they got a lot of guys that have about this about 20 at bats I mean, they clearly are they're trying to find their lineup also, so it's interesting
Yeah. And I think similar to ODU in the sense that, they're starting pitching for their weekend series. They haven't been great. Uh, Thomas Higgins, who's going to be their Friday starter. He has definitely done the best. He's got a three, three, two ERA. Uh, 14 strikeouts, nine walks. So he's not a big strikeout guy. Doesn't walk a whole lot, gets a lot of ground ball outs, a lot of fly ball outs, those kinds of things, rest of their, their weekend rotations. Not great.
Uh, Mitchell gross is probably going to go Saturday. Uh, Ty Fisher is going to go on Sunday. Mitchell Gross has the worst ERA of the three at a 5. 68, but he somehow has the lowest opponent batting average against at 239.
So you know, he's one that you're going to be able to get some walks, I think hit by a pitch, those kinds of things, not so much putting the ball into play, but, uh, their bullpen has been, been pretty good for the most part, but, uh, I think they have struggled late in that seventh, eighth and ninth inning, giving up a lot of runs there.
well, I mean, it's like anything else you got to go out and If you if we can do what we can do I feel like this team can be anybody. So, you know, Georgia Southern is certainly by far not going to be the toughest opponent we have in the, in the Sunbelt, but they're going to be a tough opponent because like you said, every single team in the Sunbelt is going to be tough, the thing, it's a meat grinder, conference play is no joke.
Yeah, I mean, I think even just trying to get the 20 wins in our conference is going to be a challenge for just about everybody. Your conference winner is probably gonna be hovering around that 21, 22 win mark, and you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to catch people off their A game and play incredibly well to even get into that 21, 22 win marks from conference play.
Yeah, very few opportunities for a sweep. I mean, even the very best teams of the conference against the very worst teams You're still going to come out having to fight every single inning. So it's conference. It's fun. I mean i've thoroughly enjoyed Um conference play.
I mean since we've moved the sunbelt Uh last year every weekend was when we were in the cusa every single weekend was tough and i've i've always felt like, you know Just following odu sports in general the last few years whenever you're playing conference games. It's just it's just a lot more fun Um, you know Even when you come in, somebody comes into you and you're like, man, this team's a dog and they come in. You're like, they're fighting to their, they're a rabbit dog.
They're fighting tooth and nail. Um, so it's, it's exciting. Now we're, we're getting to the fun part of the season.
I feel like we're definitely in the right conference for pretty much all of our sports right now, because even the teams that are orphaned a little bit because the Sunbelt doesn't have them, you know, looking like field hockey. Being in the big East, that's a really, really tough conference to be in. Women's lacrosse is in the American, which is probably the second or third best women's lacrosse conference in the country. Uh, it's everywhere you turn. It's tough.
I mean, even rowing is going back to the big 12. So, you know, it's going to be tough going against power five schools. Uh, but it's, it's been impressive to see the Sunbelt rise from a baseball. Like where they sit in the face baseball viewpoint. Part of that's because we came over with Southern Miss and Marshall's got a new ballpark and they've got a lot of new buzz. Uh, but it's, I mean, it's tough.
Like the American, the Sunbelt, I mean, those are, those are not, in my opinion, like group of five type conferences anymore for baseball. Like those are, you know, The power conferences where you're seeing the dudes get drafted. You're seeing them make longer runs in the postseason, hosting regionals and supers it's tough, but I feel really good about where the Sunbelt is as a baseball conference right now, you know, potentially getting five, if not more teams in.
Yeah. I mean, the Sunbelt is is a top four baseball conference and there's a ton of talent in it. Um, I think it's even better because it's a place where they're having to build talent. I mean, when you're a power five school, it's very easy to just be like, here's an example. We lost a kid. We had committed. He went, he's going to Georgia. It's very easy when you're Georgia to say, Hey, we're Georgia. We're a power five school. And people just go, yay.
I'm going to UVA, all kinds of kids, right? Um, it's a lot harder when you're, you know, old dominion or you're, Georgia Southern who I'd never even heard of till we joined the Sunbelt.
But. These are places where guys can go and develop and they're going to find some guys who are not the ones who are the superstar, you know, best of the state in high school and you're going to get some guys who maybe had to go to Juco or maybe some guys that went to those big power fives and needed a little more time somewhere else. Everybody develops in different ways. It's amazing if you, I mean, Harrison did a week from, uh, from Western range is a great example.
He's there with UVA and that's a kid who was extremely talented and he was ready to go play in that big power five conference and be ready right then. And there was other guys who, I don't know their names off top of my head, but went to UVA and rode the pine or didn't even get a Jersey the first year and there's somewhere else, you know, and it's not because they weren't Good enough to play at UVA or wherever, but it's just because that didn't work out.
So The talent level is just as good in the cusa. I mean, i'm sorry in the sunbelt I mean here I am getting confused my comment in the say it wasn't you to say it wasn't this usa also But it's just it's just as good in the sundown. I think it's better in the sunbelt. Um, and The sooner the kind of, I think scouts realize that and start really taking advantage of it because the minor leagues are a mess. They need more ready made talents.
They need to start going and finding guys who can actually play ball instead of just guys who throw hard. The sooner that people realize how good the Sunbelt is, uh, the better, because it's, it's an excellent baseball.
It is. And I, it was fun watching it last year. It's I think even more fun this year, because I think we're, we're better positioned going into this conference play season, but it's, there's just so many dudes across this league and, you know, watching them play a lot of power five schools and traditional powerhouses. Going in and getting wins like that is, that's going to build for something really special, uh, for that, that Sunbelt tournament at the end of the year.
But I know I mentioned women's lacrosse earlier. I know that that team is a huge supporter of ODU baseball. Pretty much if they don't have a game, they are over there at the bud. Uh, so I want to give them some props. I had a rough start to the season, but they've beaten VCU, which I don't care what sport it is, club, uh, NCAA, whatever beating VCU is always a good.
Records. We don't
Yeah, exactly. Like if there was an underwater basket weaving club at ODU and they were ODU across Jessica's VCU, I'm rooting for him. Uh, they, they beat a Longwood. I came back home and beat George Washington the other day. That is definitely a program on the rise. So I want to give them a shout out cause I know that they are huge supporters of ODU baseball and I see them all the time. So I want to, I want to give them a shout out for sure.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to when my schedule allows me. They play some like Wednesday afternoon games. It's like I can't get to that but so I think they got one coming up here. It's like a Saturday but maybe either before baseball or a day when baseball is on the road. I can get back out there.
Yeah, I'm, I'm looking for another one as well. Cause you know, that, that American conference for them is different, like Cincinnati's in their Florida Vanderbilt. It's a kind of a unique, uh, conglomeration of teams in the American, but, they're a good crew that is, that is on the rise. So if you can get over there to LR Hill to catch one of their games before or after baseball, highly recommend it. Go cheer them on. They've got some good things coming. Coming in the future for them.
But, for ODU this weekend, I think what I'm looking for is got to take care of business to get against Princeton. You got to go to a no, and hopefully those are two convincing, easy, low pressure wins. And then over the weekend, I just want to see us get to the. Top of the fourth with one, maybe two runs against us on the board. Like something that is manageable. Uh, cause I feel like we've been in so many early holes this season.
Getting out of the first three innings without being down for nothing or five nothing or six nothing would be uh would be a huge. I mean again uh it sounds like the way Finney's gonna uh attack and approach the game just hopefully seeing if this opener Uh, can work. I like the plan. I think it's always made a lot of sense to me whenever I've heard it. So I'm with you. Go out, dominate Princeton. You know, you should. You're a better team than them. And then go out, take care of business.
Let's come out of it with a winning weekend.
Get to those great arms in the back end of your bullpen with the lead. Like I always look at that when I'm watching major league baseball. If my team can be up two to one going into the ninth, I feel good. Three to one, four to two, whatever it is, give that bullpen a chance to hold the lead for you. Saw some progression from the bats. We want to see that continue. We'll love to see Tyser have just an amazing week.
Like one of those two home runs, seven RBIs, like what we saw from Alex Lane from Northeastern, uh, be amazing to see that breakout from him, because now you're talking one through six in the lineup, they're back and you can figure out seven, eight, and nine with, with Holman down there as well.
I just really want to see guys just keep Keep having good aggressive at bats. Keep putting the ball in play. Um, Need a lot more with two strikes protecting the plate I think we have too many guys that are trying to play the strike zone I get sometimes the ball is just two feet off and he's calling they're calling a strike It's like okay, you can't do anything about that But sometimes it's right in the corner and you can't with two strikes take that pitch You know, you can't play umpire.
You gotta want to hit I always go back to thinking about, you talk about guys from the Dominican Republic, right? And then those are the kinds of guys that get the flatty Guerrero type where there's like, everything was in the strike zone for Guerrero. And, it used to be the, the, the phrase for the Dominican Republic say, you don't, you don't walk off the island, you hit your way off the island. And I want guys like that again.
I don't need you to go swing at everything Vladdy wants to win a ball that bounced Uh, but you know, you gotta protect the plate with two strikes We have too many times our guys are strike if you strike out you strike out big strikeout looking man That sucks. Like that's just that's just not a good way to go down. That's not a competitive at bat Um, so you got to protect the plate foul balls off until you get something you can handle Yeah,
I'm right there with you. I am looking forward to it. I've got a coin flip if I'm either going to be down there for the entire weekend series or no games at all. So root for heads on that coin flip because I would love to be down there all weekend.
that's that's quite a coin flip that that's either everything or nothing.
Yeah, that's a, it's a tough one. It's either sweep or swept. No, uh, no in between for me.
Well, well, here's good luck on the coin flip, I guess
Yes. Well, thank you so much. Well, that's going to do it for us with the Hudson homers podcast this week. We thank you so much for listening. Please remember to subscribe, leave us a review. I think we might have some merch giveaways in our future here if you leave us a review, but there is a new baseball shirt that's going to be dropping at odumonarchist. com. So take a look at that. We have some other ones up there for the Bud Bombers. Uh, definitely go check that out.
All of the money that we make on that gets donated back to the program. We keep none of it. Uh, so it's, it's pretty cool gear. I know the first batch got delivered last week and there were some out at the bud this weekend. Going to be more in the future and more for other teams as well, that you may support. We are just getting started into the merch game here and how we can get that back through ODAF and the pride of ODU and I'll collective. Uh, but. That's going to do it for us.
Thank you all so much. I am Gary. Go Monarchs!
AMCB Go Monarchs!
Okay.