Hello, Monarch fans and welcome to the Hudson homers podcast. I'm your host Gary joined as always by CB coming to you after a one and three week for the Monarchs. CB tough weekend, but how you feeling?
I mean, I feel better today. I've gotten over my, my mid afternoon depression from Sunday. That was, uh, you know, not a, not a fun weekend, uh, watching baseball, unfortunately.
No, it was not, um, to have that low of an offensive output when you're pitching is really going was very difficult to watch and to see especially some of the abats we had. I know the guys were frustrated, but that's a tough one to come back home after a sweep.
Yeah, I'm sure that was a pretty quiet, uh, bus ride and plane flight and all the, all the different ways they had to travel. I'm, I'm sure there was not a lot of, uh, not a lot of fun happening. That's, that's tough for a road trip. I only ever drove through Louisiana one time on the way to Texas and I thought it looked terrible. Um, so I can't imagine going to Louisiana. I mean, just, it looked like a boring, ugly place.
The one place we stopped to use the restroom, it was like, it didn't even fit to use the restroom in, um, which is terrible. Uh, so I don't have any positive things to say about Louisiana.
You've got to pick your spots in Louisiana because there's definitely some areas you probably don't want to go to. I
I think your spots in Louisiana are like Texas or Arkansas or somewhere, somewhere other than Louisiana. That's the spots to pick.
I've had some fun in new Orleans, went down there for the national championship for football once. Uh, and Lake Charles is a pretty good spot. You know, if you're into gambling and casinos and river or Gulf front activities, that's not too bad. But the rest of it. Yeah, not a, not a lot going on there. It enticed me to travel for 1 of those road trips.
Well, let's talk about the good day of the week. Let's talk about Tuesday. Cause that was actually a positive day that things went well on.
It was, leading off the week with a win over Richmond, a good close 3, 2 victory for you. Had two home runs in the game, uh, to add to that dinger total,
it is 16. 60 dollars for dingers were up to 16. Uh, and uh, bucks for bags were up to 48. So we're getting there. We're making some some Uh dollar amounts we can donate and take care of the the monarch program here
think that gives us six for the four games last week, but still stealing them at a really high rate going 48 for 57, so we're getting on. We are, are definitely. Getting over to second Luke Waters leading the way, 14 for 15 on his stolen base attempts. He leads the team now with four home runs as well. Steven Meyers still can't throw that guy out. 12 for 12. Pretty, uh, solid performance there from the, the master in center
Yeah, luke was the uh, he was the star of the show on the game on tuesday He had a perfect day at the plate two for two had Two walks had a stolen base and of course in the eighth inning He came up with a big go ahead home run.
Um, huge I was I was able to get to that game by about the fifth inning so it was Pretty amazing to see that it was kind of one of those like we needed a big hit in a big moment And luke is just more like he's that dude Um, he can come up in those big spots and when he's locked in like he was man He it was it was great and to see him. He's he's not a very expressive guy So when luke is getting hyped up, that's it's a it's big time. It's pretty fun
He's been fantastic. All this season was certainly, uh, key for us there on Tuesday to get that big home run in a clutch situation. Uh, earlier in the game though, Richmond jumps out to a two, nothing lead there in the first.
They're on the board and I don't know about UCB, but I was not getting the warm and fuzzies on that game coming off the poor offensive showing we had Sunday in the finale against Georgia Southern, but Maverick Stallings coming to the plate in the bottom of the second smokes a two run home run ties the game and we're right back in it.
Yeah, that one Maverick hit was a bomb. Um, it was like not quite dead center, but just uh, just I mean he's He's he's not a huge guy. He's not a small guy, but he's just just really tightly compacted He's one of those like just a a strong looking ball player when he hits that ball hard, man He really could move it. Um the home run that harker gave up in the first Again, I wasn't there.
I was I was just kind of watching it on the screen before I got there Uh, but everyone as soon as I got there, they were like look this ball was 40 feet foul You And the wind just pushed it fair. It just happened. Garrett gave up a foul ball and the wind just pushed it into the zone. So, you know, whatever
The wind giveth and the wind taketh away because I feel like Luke's got a little help from the wind there to go ahead three to two in the eight.
Just I think it got it got a foot or two. It was gonna be a double off the wall that turned into a home run
Yeah, but hey, I'll, I'll take it. We come out of there with a win. I definitely want to talk about Vincent Becerra because I feel like his performance on the mound in the top half of the eighth kind of fired the guys up for the bottom half. He comes into the game with two on and nobody out.
Uh, there were two walks right before he came into pitch bash comes in, gets a strikeout, gets a ground out to shortstop, which is a great play by Kyle Edwards at short to keep that ball in the infield and then to throw the runner out at first. And then we can finally get a ground at the 2nd Maverick stalling throws a guy out off of a full count to get them out of that ending with the tie still intact. Uh, and then Luke waters leads off the bottom half. So we'll shout the left.
Yeah, bash. Uh, he got his he got the win in his own save. I mean, that's you know, he's he's big time He's been pitching great this year. I mean his numbers. I don't know if this will actually pull up for me I know he's got like a 0. 98 era or something like that and then 11 innings. He's really been throwing the ball. Oh, actually i'm sorry Excuse me bash my bad a 0. 77 era in 11. 2 innings over over eight appearances So he's been one of our most effective pitchers out of the bullpen.
Um, uh got himself, uh, Saved there. Well got himself a win didn't go save. He he did protect his own lead. He pitched great blake morgan in that same game, four scoreless innings You Five strikeouts, only three hits allowed. He looked outstanding. That looked like vintage Blake. I mean, he was really just slinging that ball well. So that was really cool to see. Good to see him getting back and feeling good.
Without the Tuesday game this week, I would have to imagine you'll see him on the weekend at some point. Steven Trone, again, Steven Trone keeps coming up in these big spots. He came in, um, in the bottom of the second, got two strikeouts. So it looked great.
Really just great job from the pitching staff. Really through all four games except the back end of one. Uh, but Bash has been so clutch. I imagine we would get to see him a little bit more on the weekends if we were in games where we had a short lead, like a save situation. You'd probably see him in the mix, along with a number of other arms. But Bash has been so clutch coming in, getting guys out in tough situations.
We just have to get in a position where we've got some of these leads going late. I feel like we've either blown teams out or we haven't been able to score. That was the first time we've gone into the ninth inning with a one run all season. So it's kind of the first one run. Just quote unquote, save opportunity. Obviously he gets the wind cause he was in there in the eighth.
But that's the first time this entire season we've been in that situation, which I think is pretty unique as we've, we've played quite a few games at this point.
Yeah, it's kind of crazy. Cause we, we played a solid amount. I mean, over 20 some games, you played some really good teams. It's just a, one of those weird coincidences of baseball.
It is. And we're kind of getting to that point in the season too, where we've got several guys that are approaching a hundred at bats. Several of them are pretty well over a hundred plate appearances, but you kind of start to see from the hitting side of things, where guys are going to be this year. I know that that a hundred plate appearances or 200 plate appearances is kind of a litmus test. In the pros, I think it's more around one 25, one 50 in college.
And you kind of really figure out who are going to be your guys for the rest of the season. Some have, have separated, some have gone the other direction, uh, but it seemed like no one could really get it going Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Yeah. I mean, over the weekend, you know, we just, we got to focus on the pitching. So Friday. Jay Cassidy and John Hollibets. If they gave me that performance every Friday, all season, I'd have to bet we're not going to come out of them with many losses. I mean, Jay threw, what was it? I, it's not pulling up for me here. We threw, uh, three scoreless innings to start the game. You could not ask for more out of your opener.
Um, and then John threw five innings to finish off the game, gave up three runs, but they were unearned. Um, even if he gave up three earned runs to me, if you, if you told me those two guys would give me eight innings, three runs every Friday, man, I'm gonna take that at the heartbeat.
And none of those runs were earned. So they actually gave up no earned runs over eight innings of work for that. The three runs that came in were all kind of part of, of one inning that keyed off of an error. Uh, and it just, from there in the fifth inning, it was, you know, sacrifice fly brings in a run. Triple brings in a run and then a single brings in a run, but they were all unarmed, so yeah, I would gladly take that.
And I think Jay is really perfect for this opener role because he can give you that three plus. And clearly coming in out of relief for hollow bets is the answer because he has been fantastic both times. He has come out of the pen in those opener situations. I mean, he looks like the hollow bets of old, a completely different picture than what he was in the beginning of the year. He's fired up. He's hitting his spots. His pitches have just ridiculous movement and late break on him.
Um, and he's, if he can keep that amped up this season, we're going to be in a great spot to win most Fridays, but we got a score and we really couldn't do that at all this weekend.
was it three hits in that game on Friday? I mean, that's just, that's not enough hits. Like, you know, unless they're all three home runs, then that might have been something else, but that's not enough hits. Yeah, that was tough. Um, and it just all weekend it was a problem and some of the guys I can see some things in their swing and their approach a little bit.
I see a few guys kind of Coiling down to try to create power and as they're doing that they're kind of changing the eye level You can see their their head kind of going down and you don't ever want to Really hurt your eye level that much when you're in a swing. Um, some guys approaches again, swinging upward, trying to get out. I'm sure they, it was nice and sunny down there, especially on Saturday. I think if you guys might've been thinking we're down here in the heat, the ball fly.
Some of it's just, again, you see sometimes guys are. Taking strikes and swinging at balls, um, chasing. So they get themselves in bad counts. And then there was a, at the end of the day yesterday, I don't remember who was batting. Um, it was a lefty. Uh, I really can't remember who it was, but it was like the eighth inning and the guy called the pitch. There was a foot outside. Cause at that point it was just like, well, this is how the weekend's going at that point.
The umpires was like, let's get out of here so that, you know, you put yourself in those situations. So it's, it just, It's steamrolls. Unfortunately hitting is contagious and not hitting is also contagious.
And there were a lot of factors working against us. I felt like we were guessing a little bit at the plate too, especially on Sunday. It seemed like we were going to tee up and swing like it was a fastball, whether it was a breaking ball or not. And we got behind in the counts and continued guessing with two strikes. And that just resulted in some, some really. Really bad plate appearances, really bad at bats, uh, not getting it done.
But another factor I want to throw in there is Louisiana has got some arms. Partially on us for hitting, but they had some great pitchers, especially on that Friday, Andrew Herman, four and two thirds, no runs, just three hits struck out three and then LP, uh, Langevin, I think is how you say his last
canadian. Yeah
he was on fire Friday. I mean, four and a third innings pitched. 10 strikeouts, two walks, no hits, no runs.
Yeah, he was gross. He was just disgusting both those guys friday I mean they pitched well all weekend those those two guys friday were just gross
Yeah. Tough sledding. And that sets up, you know you get the win on Friday and you got, two chances to win one more and take the series or go for the sweep. But I, I don't care what lineup you were putting out there Friday against Langevin, he was going to strike out most of the people he was facing. You could get an all star team. He'd probably strike out most of them.
He was, he's a good pitcher who was having a great night and we were on the wrong end of that with how we've been with our back.
And then um to give them some more credit kyle to bars their shortstop who was I think ranked I think they said seventh overall in college shortstops at the year, he earned that ranking. That kid is good. He is, uh, he is really good in the field. He was a very good looking hitter. Uh, you're going to see him playing pro ball at the end of the summer.
He was also a stud. They've got a good program down there, so never happy with a sweep, not going to make excuses for it, but they're a good ball team. Uh, they're tied for first in the conference right now at five and one. There's 16 and eight overall, and they've played a fairly tough schedule. Also on a hot streak. They've now won seven games in a row. They're going to be a problem for the Sunbelt coming down the road.
I mean, I saw a lot of people putting out notes on social media of the standings and how it's just such a grind. Like you're looking at, you know, ODU is down there at two and four tie with some other teams that are really good and are going to be a problem. It's going to be a fight to make the conference tournament this year. You're going to have to. To really fight and scratch and claw to get any kind of win just to be eligible to go to the conference tournament this year.
Never mind when the damn thing
Yeah, it's, it's no joke. I mean, we say it every year. I don't, I don't really care what sport you're in. Once you get to conference play, man, it is, it's a fight. Everybody wants it. Um, they mean a lot in every single game. Everybody's bringing their best. Um, Hey, shout out to Marco Lovari for Saturday. We're talking about what we're talking about. Saturday's game. Marco came in, got a second appearance of the season. Uh, two thirds of inning didn't go up any runs.
He looked, he looked really good again. So he'd be probably on his way to getting some more appearances.
saturday started out as a pretty good ball game, Louisiana jumped out to the early lead with two runs there in the 1st, they got another 1 in the 4th, or really that 5th inning is where things just. The wheels kind of fell off for everybody at that point and unfortunately ended with 13 to 1 loss. Uh, it was shortened with the run rule, hoping we could avoid the run rule after, you know, putting it on Georgia Southern last weekend.
Uh, once the wheel started coming off there in the fifth, that was pretty much it for that one
Yeah. You never want to have that. And Brandon pond, he just had a bad day. I mean, he is, we've seen him pitch this year. He's a very good pitcher. He's pitched very well for us. And then several spots.
Um, and he just had a he had a really awful day and I think anybody who's pitched it happened to you I don't care the best pitch you've ever seen, you know has had has had a bad day Um, hopefully that's just a blip and he'll continue pitching for us because we need him We need random pond to continue being who he is and so he's got to get right back on that horse and just Throw strikes again and be himself.
He can't worry about this game because that like that sucked Uh, no one's going to pretend like that was fun at all. I'm sure he doesn't feel great about it, but he is a very good pitcher. He had for years at Lynchburg, he was, and here he is with us. He's been with us. He's been a good pitcher. So. Uh, you know, i'm excited to see his next outing because I think he's gonna come out and do well
going to be ups and downs for relief pitchers throughout the year. Uh, but honestly, it really didn't matter how the pitching staff did on that day. Cause we only managed one run on one hit. Uh, that's not going to win you very many games in the Sunbelt, regardless of your pitching, unless you somehow get that magical shutout. Shout out to Stephen Meyer for breaking up the no hitter in the six with the double, And then ended up scoring on a wild pitch to break the shutout.
So Stephen Meyer single handedly kept the goose eggs off there. And, uh, I'm sure all the flack we would have caught on social media for being on the wrong side of it, or so at least we ran
and run rule in the same game would be pretty terrible Um, so I guess we're glad we got the one.
Yes. I'll take it. It's the one bright spot there offensively. Uh, but just gotta flush it. Turn the page on that game and look to Sunday, which I thought Sunday was a really great ball game. And it was similar to Sunday last week against Georgia Southern. We got guys on base, we put the ball in play a little bit, just could not get that next hit to bring those guys home.
Yeah, you know, when you're not going well offensively and it's hard to get hits I mean we got five hits so that's more than we had in the first two games but it just again they weren't happening at the right times just couldn't Put anything together. And they really weren't walking anybody either. So it weren't like we were getting free bases. Sunday was a good game. You know, Friday was a good game. Sunday was a good game. Saturday was not, uh, but Sunday we, we competed, pitched well.
We just, just couldn't quite make it happen.
And Ben Moore got the star for us on the mound, he threw really well, a three and a third, no runs, two hits, three strikeouts. Uh, no walks the entire pitching staff really the whole weekend didn't issue many free passes We had seven walks total over the three games only two on sunday Uh trip buchanan gave a inning where he just gave up one walk.
That was it Uh, bailey mattello was strong out of the pen as well for any he did give up one earned run And jacob gomez gave up one earned run over two and two thirds So again, the pitching was there the pitching did their job put us in a position to win and we had chances to it Get on the board to tie the game, even going down into the final innings.
You hate to say it but this is the difference between winning teams and teams that don't win You know the winning teams figure out a way to get guys on get them over get them in Um, and the teams that don't win are the ones that just kind of see those chances and they can never really compile things and so Again, you know, I these guys i'm, you know, i'm sure there was a long trip back to louisiana. I hope today Was just a lot of rest for the guys.
Um, I hope there was just a lot of just, rest, relax, be a person that's not a baseball player. Remember you're a human being and you have value and you're winning and losing a ball game. Doesn't really change who you are. I think that's kind of good to reset sometimes and you have these tough weeks. And then hopefully, you know, tomorrow and Wednesday before the games this weekend, there, I think. Especially our hitters. I like to see them spend a lot of time watching video.
Um, I think they should go back and, and find a lot of video when things were going well for them. And, try to compare that to what they're doing now and try to just get back to that feeling good, go in and have some good batting cage work and, and just try to get back. And remember, we have a really good group of hitters. I wasn't expecting this team to go out and hit a bunch of home runs.
Um, but I thought we had a really good group of hitters and I thought we actually had a better team of hitters than we've had in recent years. Um, so it's very surprising to me, honestly, to see them having this stretch of games where they're not getting any hits
It's unfortunate when you have that many strong hitters and they all are slumping in the same time period. They'll eventually break out of it because they're good hitters, but how long that takes is kind of the key question. I mean, if you look at our last few games here, we've got five runs over our last four games. Um, that's, that's not, not ideal. Um, you know, we have 19 hits total over our last five games. Just the offense is in a funk
after scoring 22 in the two games before that.
yeah, it's wild that we're two and four in Sunbelt play and our two wins are 11 to one run rule victories over a good team. Because by the way, Georgia Southern took two out of three against Southern Miss over the weekend. So it kind of validates they are a legit team. Um, and when our bats get going, we can do that and put up those 11. But we've just got to find some consistency. In those bats in our offensive approach.
So hopefully they're using today, which we're recording on a Monday to flush the weekend. Get all that, that Cajun food and butter and spice and etouffee and everything else, just get that on out of the system and start looking forward to Thursday against South Alabama to go in that series,
Budan, that's another one. I had some of them from louisiana recently telling me about budan I don't know what that is, but that's apparently something they like who knows I think they just make up words because they know we'll believe them
they're going to put salt in it, butter, and occasionally it's going to be spicy and they're going to call it something different. But. Uh, the Cajun country was not kind to the, uh, the monarchs over the weekend on the field. It sounds like off the field, they, they got treated really well. I had some great meals and a good experience, but, uh, gotta just flush that all out of the system.
Detox Monday and, get back to work Tuesday and Wednesday, because we've talked about the stretch that's upcoming. We've got South Alabama and we're going to preview them shortly, but after South Alabama, you're in the gauntlet and winds are going to be really tough to
Yeah, this is for to remind people about the the absolute buzzsaw of a schedule coming up here Um, so we play South Alabama, which, you know, again, it's a Sunbelt conference. Uh, there I fully expect it'll be a tough weekend. I do believe we should beat South Alabama. I do not think they're as good of a baseball team as Old Dominion. Now they have every ability to come in this weekend and prove me very wrong. Uh, but I think we should win this series.
But then coming up we have, we're going on the road to UVA next Tuesday. Then we are going on the road to coastal carolina. So both those teams were Uh, I believe still top no coastal is not top 25 anymore. They were though.
They're still a very good team Uh, and then after the weekend against coastal we have a wednesday game, at ecu So again another top 25 team and then we have JMU come here for weekend, which again, JMU, they're not top 25, but my guess is they're probably on that edge there again, a very, very good team. And then we have the Tuesday after that is the, Harper park game against UVA. So that's a stretch with three.
I guess two current top 25 three teams who have been top 25 and all four teams were very very good That is a tough stretch. We I know I highlighted that before the season even started I think I highlighted this back in the fall or something whenever we talked about podcasts even before this podcast existed Uh, this is a stretch that you know, if you don't play at least I think even in this stretch You're kind of like, that's kind of your season.
Um, so we, very quickly need to get the bats going. We don't want to put pressure on the guys. I, you want them to succeed, uh, because they're doing the right stuff. But the reality is like, if the bats don't start matching the pitching, it's not going to go very well. I mean, you, cause you can't count on only giving up two runs every game. We saw that on Saturday, right? You only give up three on Friday. You only give up two on Sunday. Well, occasionally you're going to give up a few.
It's college baseball. Stuff happens.
Definitely need to get the bats going for one this weekend for South Alabama, but definitely that gauntlet. And, you're talking about Coastal Carolina, they've fallen out of the rankings. They dropped two out of three, to Appalachian State over the weekend. Actually, I really had to fight to win that Sunday game to salvage it. I had to go to 12 innings. They're not playing their best ball right now, but we know that team is loaded with talent.
if you have watched them, a game of them playing, every guy on that team hits. They just hit, hit, hit. They're scary. I'm more scared of Coastal than East Carolina or UVA, and maybe that's just because they're actually in the conference, but they are, they are a menacing baseball team.
their games over the weekend were all really high scoring. I mean, it's just like a track meet out there in a baseball sense. They're probably in line to perfectly start hitting their stride with their pitching about the time that we play them. So, you know, it's, it's just, it's not going to be easy, but you can't look at it in a big sense like that. You have to take it game by game. And the most important one is The next one on Thursday against South Alabama.
You got to kick that series off with the wind. So you're not feeling that additional pressure on Saturday and Sunday.
I'm excited to see Alabama cause they have a, one of our ODU guys. We got a former ODU outfielder, DH. Robbie Petrosi is coming back into town with the, with the Jaguars. So I love Robbie. He's literally one of my favorite guys I think I've ever met in baseball. So I'm very excited to see him. Last season wasn't as great for him. I think he got hurt a lot last year. Uh, this year, the bat hasn't really gotten going yet, even though he's had a few homers.
Uh, but I, I hope that continues through this weekend. Then he can get healthy after that and have a good season after that. We already saw Joey DiCiero come in and shut us down. We don't need to see Robbie come back and hit like four homers or anything.
If he can avoid, showing off like Joey D did, that would be, that would be fantastic, but they're 14 and 10 overall. They are also two and four in the conference. So they are feeling similar pressure, to us. They were swept by, uh, Georgia state at home in their first Sunbelt series. Then they went to Troy and took two out of three this past weekend. Early it was high scoring. They won 12 to eight and 10 to eight. Then they lost the, series finale on Sunday, uh, four to three.
So the one that they lost was pretty close. They're pretty close to being three and three, I think similar to, we're fairly close to being three and three. If you look at Georgia Southern or even the game this past Sunday. They've played a tough schedule as well, so don't be fooled by that 14 and 10 overall. Uh, they had a one run loss at Auburn, who's a pretty good program.
Then they actually took two out of three from UNC Wilmington, who's probably the best team in the CAA, uh, traditionally a very good baseball program as well. They, unlike us though, are playing a midweek game on Tuesday against Alabama State. Uh, so we'll have the extra day of rest on them. Not sure what arms that they would plan to use for that midweek, if that would even impact their plans for the weekend. Uh, but they'll at least have played one game more recently than us.
And we get that extra day of rest and work to, to get over our sweep over the weekend.
Yeah. And like anything else you would say it's, it's a conference game. It's going to be tough. I don't care what team it is. They got arms. They got dudes who can hit. It's gonna be tough. A little weird schedule this week. We got Thursday at 6, Friday at 3, and Saturday at 11 a. m. So that's a very unique schedule, um, I guess to avoid playing on Easter.
I don't they this is only a recent thing the last three or four years We used to play an easter all the time I don't know when they decided to start caring about that. But whatever people get to enjoy their easter. I'd rather watch baseball. That's me Um, that's just how I went.
I just i'd rather any day we have baseball Uh right now the weather is not looking great for thursday, but hopefully that'll change Um, but unfortunately they have two days they could if we need to play a doubleheader We got two days or both both friday and saturday looking pretty great for weather. I think saturday is supposed to be like 70 degrees You Um, so hopefully the weather works itself out. That's always a thing here, unfortunately.
And I would imagine we're playing earlier on Saturday because that is the quote unquote getaway day for South Alabama. So that probably helps them catch their flight to get back to Mobile. I'm actually going to be down there Thursday and Friday for those games, not able to make the Saturday game. Uh, but I will have the long awaited Hudson Homer's koozies available over at Rally Alley. Those will get dropped off.
I think with some stroke of luck and I think a printing error, I'm going to end up with 500 of those before, it's all said and done. So, uh, definitely feel free to take one for you, your family, your friends, everyone else that you see them out there. Uh, cause there's going to be quite a few of them, but,
If the, uh, if the baths don't start working, you're going to need a lot of koozies for all the, all the drinking we're going to have to do, frankly.
I was going to say there may be a boom in business for rally alley over there if, uh, if the bats don't get going. But one other thing from these games, because there weren't a lot of runs, there weren't a lot of walks. Those games were lightning quick. Like you can tell the impact of that pitch clock, uh, on games like that. When guys are not working late counts and getting a lot of walks.
I'm such a huge fan of the pitch clock. And I think the people who complain about the pitch clock either don't go to games or don't watch games. Because I love baseball. I really, really do. Nothing's better to me than when I can kind of go see a game pretty much every day. If I'm able to make it happen that last week, that's pretty much what went down a week before last. Anyway, I love baseball. I don't need to be there for four hours watching it.
You know, even the best game doesn't need to be four hours long and college games have gotten to where they were about four hours no matter what.
So the pitch clock is it's been wonderful last year They kind of had their proto pitch clock where the umpire was keeping it and nobody really knew What the pitch clock was the umpire would kind of choose to arbitrarily sometimes say it was happening sometimes not Uh, but yeah having the actual pitch clock and the guys having to keep up with it You've seen after the first week. I really haven't seen A lot of times where anybody's, you know, had a violation. So it's been great.
There've been a lot of two and a half hour games. I mean, even like the long game, we have a long game. It's three hours. It's like, man, that's amazing.
So I, I like it at the college level, especially on days where I'm doing some post game media and I can't drink in Rally Alley anyway. I will tell you at the major league level, I actually don't like it as much because the games go by so fast. You lose a little bit of that game day experience. I mean, you're booking it up those stairs to get that last beer before last call, because it snuck up on you so quickly. And maybe that's just me. Uh, it definitely makes it more watchable on TV.
Uh, when watching the West coast games later in the night and they end at 1230 instead of 2 AM, that is always A pleasant surprise, but I think, uh, at the major league level, that's where I kind of noticed like, ah, this stinks. I don't really have time to go do anything because they're going to come back so quickly and things are moving. But for college, it's great because college had gotten out of hand with pitching changes and delays and slowing things down.
I wish they had that in place back when I Was working security for baseball because that would have made my days much, much faster.
Yeah. I mean, I remember a few years ago, and it might even been the last time that UVA played a Harbor park, which I guess it'd been like 19 before. And I remember like my dad really did not like UVA because their catcher would basically do like a full, Like 90 degree turn and just be staring at the dugout for a good 20 seconds, getting the signs and then have to turn and give the science to the pitcher. And then the pitcher sits there and thinks about it.
And now, you know, they were, I think as bad as anybody, but that wasn't, they weren't the only ones. I think most teams were doing that. So yeah, you're right. It was, It was very out of hand in college because they're treating every single pitch. Like it's the most important thing because it is.
And the Pitchcom has also helped that a good bit as well, because it eliminates what you're talking about of having to look in the dugout and relay signs and make sure the signs are right. Not having to recycle through them. It's you punch it in real quick. You got it and you go. It's definitely going to be interesting to see that play out at the Sunbelt Tournament when you have a lot of games in one day and being able to turn those around a little bit faster.
There was, there was one year I think you had like the late game. It was like, this must be like the 10 PM game for our time. And they ended up not even starting to like 1230 in the morning. I don't know what time it was there. It must've been like 1130, I guess, but that was, that's the kind of thing you think they could hopefully avoid now between probably playing on somewhere with a turf field and then having the games go faster. Anyway, the tournament can actually.
Move and have something in that way. If you do have some weather, which seems like the weather is always terrible come conference, tournament time and baseball, that hopefully will, will make things a little better.
Well, you have a spring baseball tournament in Tornado Alley. You're probably going to have some bad weather problems there. Looking back to the series this weekend, a couple other names other than Robbie Petrosi to keep an eye out for, uh, Ethan Melton. He's typically their right fielder. He's listed as utility, but usually plays in right. He's hit 313 with a 915 OPS, three home runs, 11 RBIs. He's just a good solid all around hitter. Uh, can hit for power and for contact.
Definitely someone we want to get out as he's kind of their leading average and on base guy. And then Lucas, Ishmael, he's got a 909 OPS, five home runs, 19 ribbies. And they have two other guys with at least four home runs in Joseph Sullivan and Will Turner. They can absolutely hit the ball, no doubt about that.
I don't know these guys well at all. This isn't like one of those teams. It's, it's local. I know Robbie, they have, an outfielder, uh, Tyler Kehoe that played for the pilots a couple of summers ago, but he doesn't seem to play much for him. Who knows if he'd be here this weekend. I guarantee that they got guys that can hit, I guarantee they got guys that can pitch. Um, so it's going to be a fun weekend.
And hopefully it'll come out a little more, uh, happy and have a nice, happy Sunday for everybody.
I hope so. They're normal Friday starter, which I don't know if they're going to mix up their rotation because it's Thursday through Saturday. If they're going to keep that person on a Friday schedule or moving to Thursday. But Carson Swilling, uh, he's the ace of that staff. 3. 48 ERA, 37 strikeouts, 16 walks and 31 innings pitched. He's kind of a stocky right hander, pretty good velo can throw a couple pitches for a strike.
He's going to be a challenge for us on the mound just because he doesn't walk a lot of guys, doesn't give you a lot of balls to put in play. Uh, so it'd be a challenge right off the bat if he is that Thursday starter. Cam Hill, is one of their other starters. I, again, I don't know what day he's going to pitch. It looks like Carson and Cam have kind of been there to main weekend starting guys. And they've kind of rotated a few other ones through the third game.
Grant Starling and Zach Willingham are two names to watch out for coming out of the pen. They've got a couple of pretty good arms out there. I think. Some of their better relievers probably haven't had a great season to start. Sitting around like a four and a half, five, six ERA. Uh, but certainly they can change that pretty quickly over the course of a weekend. If they're needed for high leverage,
Yeah. And that's the tough thing about being a reliever, especially during the years you have a bad inning, you give up two or three runs, your ERA can be shot for a month. You know, it takes a lot of, especially with, with college where maybe you're only getting to pitch one or two innings on a weekend, so sometimes that can be deceiving.
it can feel like it can take forever to get your ERA back down after a bad ending. I mean, you look, you are relievers and you know, we've got some that are hovering around that 10, 11, 12 innings pitch mark, and then you've got a couple other that around like six or seven, and I'm sure some of your guys who are sporting some pretty heavy ERAs right now, if you got them out there three or four times a week, that number would go down, but you just don't get those opportunities in college.
Just looking at a list of, uh, Hudson Trobaugh, 7'11 Lincoln Ransom, 8'22 Nick Salpizio, 9'95 I mean, those guys are not, if you ask me if those guys are pitching well, I'd be like, yeah, they're pitching great. But then you show their ERA to me, it's like, ooh, they must have, they all had, uh, a bad game or two here or there. That's how ERA works when you have a, a small amount of innings.
Yeah, even John Hollibets, who has thrown really well in his last 2 outings and racked up some innings, he's still just above a 4
Yeah, he had to have found in a third scoreless to get down to a four year.
Yeah, exactly, and it wasn't like he was terrible to start the season either, just kind of runs piling up there, but I imagine we'll continue to see that approach, whether it's Thursday or it's Friday with Jay Cassaday as the opener, followed by Hollibets, I That is a winning combination. It has been great for us the last two weekends. So hopefully that just becomes set and that's what our pitching plan is Friday. We don't have to worry about it.
And then we've got a lot of arms at our disposal for the rest of the weekend.
You know dylan brown. I think that was probably one of his worst appearances this past weekend, but he still looked good he started out a little rough, but I you know, dylan's been doing great saturday and then been more Has looked excellent last two Sundays. And clearly whatever groin injury he had is, is healed and he's looking great. He honestly could have gone more than he went the three and a third. Um, I think that was just a pitch count thing.
Who knows if they'll decide to continue letting them stretch out or not. That might not be going with what they want to do. Uh, but he's, he's been looking fantastic. So, you know, again, the pitching has been excellent. One bad inning this weekend, you know, one bad inning really for the last week. Really if you if you pile up last weekend against Georgia Southern What we we lost what two to one on Sunday and then three?
I mean we aside from one inning On Saturday this past weekend the last two weekends and it's the last what six seven games our pitching has been dominant so that's kind of been the story of the season. So we got to get the the hitters got to get turned around Um, they got to start reminding themselves of who they are Remind themselves of who they're not Uh and start, you know, just having some good approaches.
I put out on Sunday morning before the game that we need to go find a live chicken and see if that can, uh, can shake things up for us. And then, after the game, I obviously put the. Bucket of KFC of saying we should've got a live chicken. Gotta do something just to get the minds back, right? Cause the worst thing about this is all of these guys in the lineup are super competitive. They're good baseball players. They know that they're better than what they're performing.
And now you can feel the pressure starting to compound a little bit, right? The guy in front of you strikes out, so you're up there a little bit tighter and you're at bat. We just need that top of the lineup to do what they've done for most games this season is start getting on base, start getting around, and that can kind of fire up the rest of the lineup. We just have not been able to, to do that or get that next big hit to bring somebody in if they're on.
But I'm hoping that this is a good hitting team going through a slump and I'm hoping this is not a bad hitting team that happened to have two good games against Georgia Southern last week.
No, I think they are a good hitting team I think what you're they really got to focus on is You you gotta flush and get rid of everything that isn't this at bat that i'm currently in Um this at bat that i'm in right now needs to be all i'm thinking about I can't even I can't be thinking about the Guy in front of me struck out that that doesn't matter unless I can use that information about what the other way that guy's going to pitch me, that doesn't matter to me.
Um, you really got to focus on, you know, this is the event, this is the approach. This guy's going to pitch me this way. This is where I got to attack. This is where I got to be patient. If a guy's on base, I got to move him over, whatever it is. They really, you really got to narrow the game down to this pitch, it's like, you know, we talked about what's football had the thing right go want to know this week, right?
Uh, that's that's always I love that approach and to me it's go want to know this pitch You know win this pitch win this next move and that was the thing the last couple years when guys like you foul a ball off or you get it's be like hey one more because you know We're looking let's win the next pitch. Whatever this is happening right now you can't I I feel like The problem may be guys getting bogged down thinking of all the things and you gotta let it go, man.
You're never going to be successful in baseball if you're not thinking about this exact pitch right now.
And hopefully that leads to, to better looking at bats, maybe drawing some more walks, getting on base. I think you nailed it. The most important thing to do is flush the Cajun right out of you from the weekend, get all that stuff out of your system, go get a good run and a workout in, and eat some Virginia barbecue or something like that, just to make sure it's, it's all out of there.
Go, go spend some time with your parents, your girlfriend, your whatever, you know, whoever your boys, whatever you got to do, uh, live some life, enjoy yourself and focus on, just focus on what matters.
yeah, absolutely. And you know, we're going to approach this series with South Alabama, knowing that we need to get at least two out of three, it'd be amazing if we somehow found a way to swap them, because I think that, That erases the sweep at Louisiana for the longterm there. And it would be a nice momentum builder going into some really, really difficult games.
So, uh, if you're down in the area Thursday at six Friday at three Saturday at 11, do the anti rain dance if you can, to get that out of there. So we can have an evening game on Thursday. I think those are always a little bit more fun. Feel like our guys are a little more fired up for those later start times. So head on over there to the ballpark if you can, and swing by Rally Alley, get yourself a couple of koozies, please. I can't have 500.
Oh, and I forgot, speaking of things people can get, the ODU Baseball Cards. They are available to order. You can get a set of the team. You just hit me up, let me know. Um, and we will, you gotta get the order in. By April 1st. I really didn't give people enough time, but Hey, all you need is a week. I've already had some parents, uh, tell me this week, but anybody order them, I prefer not to ship them, but if you ask me very nicely, I might, I'm just bad at it.
So, uh, be, be understanding of me. Um, so yeah, the ODU baseball card, they look awesome. If you look on the CB sports photography, I think it's also on the, the monarchist. Um, you can see a preview of what something looked like the loop waters one where he's diving the third looks amazing, uh, and I'm saying that cause I took it and made it, it looks nice.
You have some awesome shots. Uh, so I will definitely be getting my order in for baseball cards, but. CB Sports Photography on Instagram, at CB Wilkins ODU on Twitter. If you're hearing this, make sure to reach out and get your order in before that April 1st deadline. Uh, we'll also help promote that on Monarchist social media, so it'll be out there for you as well. We're gonna have an announcement next week. On the episode of the podcast, we're going to have a special guest.
We're going to have an announcement. It's a pretty big deal. If you follow us regularly, you probably already know what this is. Uh, especially if you go to odumonarchist. com and look around at some of the links to our store where our merch is at. Uh, we're going to have an official announcement for that in next week's episode. So make sure that you are tuning in for that. CB, anything else that I'm missing?
Nah, just let's, uh, let's have a great week, man. Looking forward to seeing you down at the ballpark this weekend.
I'm going to flush my toilets a couple more times and make sure all the cajun is out of me as well. Before I head down there, wash off any of the Louisiana Uh, voodoo that may be upon us. That way we can get a nice three game sweep this weekend, but that will do it for us on the Hudson homers podcast this week. Thank you all so much for tuning in. I'm Gary go Monarchs.
Hey, I'm CB. Go Monarchs!