S2E15 - ULM Recap w/ Alex Hunt

Yeah. Hello Monarch fans. Welcome to the Hudson Homer podcast after a series win for the Monarchs over Louisiana Monroe. It was a sweaty series win, but a series win nonetheless. And, uh, we are joined, um, joined by CB as always. But our special player guest today is Alex Hunt. We figured since they won the series afterwards, we had to put the player first again. But Alex, thanks for joining us, man. Awesome. Nice to be with you guys. Thanks for having me. Definitely.

How was your experience down in Monroe this weekend? Getting to throw in three different games. Uh, I think my face just said it. Hot, sweaty a lot. I bet that turf doesn't help. Oh, no, no. Uh, it's funny, it's like you get a pregame warm, like you ev all the pitchers warm up. Pregame. It's like throw everything, but you have to shag BP for the hitters before that. Mm-hmm. You're done shagging. Oh, you're ready to throw, you're you're full sweat, dude. You don't need to do anything else.

Just pick up a ball and throw lathered up and ready to go. It's bad. Yeah. But little bit different role for you this weekend. I, I don't think that anyone anticipated seeing you make three appearances over the three games, but you got the job done each time. Uh, what was that like for you getting the call to kind of be that stopper to, to bridge to the later innings? I find it so fun, uh, to be like completely honest. Like I, that's like a, you're coming to a game where like, it's like.

It's kinda like do or die, like you gotta perform or you're going to, you are, the team is basically the team's on your back. And that type of situation is like awesome to pitch in. No matter if it's the fifth inning or the ninth inning or whenever it is, one out two outs. I just am happy to be in a situation where I get to pitch for the team, like do hopefully do well. Yeah. Well the team definitely got it done this weekend.

Uh, imagine was a little anxious in the, in the dugout through some of those later innings. 'cause I mean, we had three really kind of tight games coming down to the final out there. I. Oh, oh, yeah. Uh, it was funny. I was sitting, I was standing next to DB in the ninth inning of the, of the, uh, um, I'm sorry, I lied. I was standing next to Kellen. I was standing next to Kellen in the ninth inning of the last game.

And I go right before Bailey comes out, I'm like, I can't do another heart attack here. Well, we got one, but it was, it all ended up being just fine. I still think there's a missed opportunity for ODU to not have some sort of cardio center as the official sponsor because it doesn't matter what sport, like football does it to us. Basketball, field hockey, everybody, even tennis, made it somewhat sweaty for their, uh, their, their championship they got the other day.

But man, yeah, that was, uh, sweaty is a good way to put it. We were sweating along with you certainly. So, Alex, you, it, it essentially your first year at ODU u uh, it's your, your fifth year of college. Fourth year playing. Uh, I, I, it was really interesting to me 'cause you have these kind of connections to ODU before you ever got here. Uh oh. Yeah. Yeah. So you, I I'll tell you what you, you want, you want to tell us about 'em a little bit? Yeah. So funny.

So my freshman year, I'm not gonna go through the whole thing, but it was a long, long-winded story. Here's it short. Basically I got hurt my freshman year, uh, so I didn't play. So however I was recruited that to like be a freshman. I, I at Iona by Paul Panik, that's the, that's where we start, right? So he was my head coach at Iona for my first year at Iona. Uh, and then he ended up leaving. So fast forward to my sophomore year, my first year eligibility, like first year actually playing.

The first outing I had out back after Tommy John was at ODU right in, in a game. There was also the first appearance in college for Blake Morgan. I dunno if you knew that. Did not know that. And it was also my, uh, high school teammate was also playing third base for you guys. Yeah. Kenny LaVar. Kenny was your high school. You guys won a state championship right at uh, correct. At St. Augustine. And who was your pitching coach at St. Augustine? Mike Nay, who also was an alum. ODU alum.

Mike Nay. Yeah. And you did, you just missed, uh, because of Covid getting to play with, uh, your current teammate came, uh, Marco Levari, who had been a freshman your senior year, correct? Yes. We lost that senior year. That team would've been so good. I'm not gonna, would've. Yeah. People who don't know, like saying Alex, because we got, I mean now that's up to three I can think of recently. And then there's another kid coming in a couple years.

Yeah, we're, we're definitely taking that jersey pipeline straight from it. You guys produce some talent outta that school? Certainly. I mean, there's just a culture of winning there that's like unlike anywhere else in I've ever been a part of. Yeah, that's, that is pretty awesome. Um, I, I think that was the same weekend as a couple other guys on the team, right? Like they, they played the Friday, what was it? Kyle Edwards and Yeah. Kyle Edwards and Luke Waters.

Because I was, I was looking back 'cause I knew that Alex had made his debut and I wasn't sure which day And, uh, and Alex, Alex, you gave up one run and one inning in your, in your college debut. Uh, but in respective that whole game wasn't that bad of an appearance. 'cause you guys, uh, that was a rough one. I think it was a, it was, it was a rough weekend, honestly, for Iona. It was, that was a 19 to one loss. And I think we, we beat y'all pretty good and all three of those.

Yeah. Uh, actually. First game, you GII heard Finney ripped into the fellas. 'cause we almost took game game one. I I about to go back. Check that out. I think, I feel like you might be right. Yeah. I think it was like a four, three or four two ball game or something like that. And I heard, I went out to dinner with Kenny after and he was said they got, they got ripped game one after it, and then they came out the next two days and Right.

Did what they were supposed to, but oh yeah, that was a rough start to a, uh, rough year. That was a, yeah. Historical run that we made not to talk bad about. I loved it there, but, um, it was a historical run we made and we all got closer for it. Owen 29 isn't necessarily the greatest start to a baseball season. Yeah, I've been, uh, you know, right here in Norfolk, we got Norfolk State who, you know, always root for those guys. They're like, they're good people.

And, uh, especially the pitching coach. Brett Mays just an awesome guy and they're having a rough year. They're, I think they just won their second game this weekend. They're like two and 31. So yeah, it's, it happens sometimes, man. It's, it's, it's not like, Hey odu, we're not having the most amazing year either, right? Correct.

Yeah. Definitely took a good step forward over the weekend, kind of gutting out those two wins because if you looked at what else happened around the Sunbelt, it actually played into our favor pretty well. Uh, you, I don't know if you've looked at it or not Alex, but coastal swept. JMU not, not a huge shocker there. Southern Miss goes to App State sweeps them, but Marshall sweeps South Alabama, Arkansas State sweeps, Georgia State, uh, kind of, kind of topsy-turvy a little bit.

And we've got a, a pathway now to that top six seat, which is pretty crazy. I know, I'm, I follow just as much as you guys do. I, my goal, like literally like when I was re getting recruited going to my fifth year, I just wanted to make the conference playoffs. I have never been to a conference, play conference playoffs, so I've been following it every single day and I am, couldn't be happier with how we are sitting right now. Yeah, that's great.

Um, well of course you have now Red Hot Marshall team that's won five straight and just got a, a series sweep coming, coming into town to War Memorial. But at least that one is quote unquote at home for us. I'll take that. We play well at War Memorial. That's all I have to say. Yeah, I I, I was, I was saying last week, I feel like it's, it's more our vibe, you know, the Harbor Park is really nice, but more memorials. It feels like us. Absolutely.

I mean, the keg in the bullpen does it for me, so I dunno if you've seen that yet. I hadn't seen that. I'll gotta check that out this weekend. That's funny. They have a painted gold keg out there. That's great. That's really good. Um, so Alex, so you graduated from my own right. So what, what was your degree in? So I had a, uh, undergrad in finance. So I have mm-hmm. A Bachelor's of Finance and I am currently, uh, doing like halfway through my MBA here. Okay. NBA.

So you're gonna make like a ton, a ton of money and never talk to like simple folks like me ever again. I hope I'm paying a whole lot of money for it. I know that Well, as, as any business person knows, you gotta spend money to make money. I, I so far, I mean, the first half of that, I've just spent money and then eventually, apparently it all comes around. That's what I've heard. That's what, that's what they say for you. Probably not me. We'll see. I I'm still waiting. There you go.

Yeah. So what, I mean, I'm sure you're getting asked this a thousand times, but, uh, what are your plans for after the season? Are you coming back for another semester to finish the MBA? How is that all working? I still ask myself those questions as well. Um, I will say this, I will definitely not be back in Virginia for finishing my MBA, uh, if I am plan. The plan is to finish it. So says my parents, but I was just say mom.

Yeah. Say I, I know that they listen because I met them uh, before I think the Troy series down in Norfolk. So that, just ignore what you heard. Don't worry. They are big fans and this is going to be a surprise to them that I'm on here. I have not told them intentionally. Oh, that's fun. Yes. That'd be nice. Yeah. So we will see to answer, to finish that question, but I am planning on finishing it back home in New Jersey. Sure. Gotcha. That, that the motherland. We gotcha.

Yeah, and I'm probably gonna, and, and to be completely honest, I'm probably gonna like slow it down a little bit and just 'cause cost will go up obviously, uh, without any baseball scholarship. And I obviously am not from Virginia, so it's very expensive to go here. So I'll probably stagger it over two years. Very good. While getting a job, hopefully hire him now. Oh yeah. There we go. Oh, that's awesome. Well, so, oh, go ahead, CB. Oh, you go ahead Gary. You got it. I'm sure you have.

Well, I was, I was gonna ask a really hard hitting question of like, yeah. Is it just univer universally known throughout the team that you have the best mustache or was there like some fight to get to that? So there, so I, it depends who you ask. I think people, I think at this rate, people are thinking that it's a little overgrown. So I, I get some comments on being overgrown. Connor Schumann also has a great mustache. His is well kept. So there's a tight battle.

I don't know, I can get the curls when I have the wax. So that's kind, I was, I was just gonna say, I feel like yours gets a little more, you got a little more, um, you know, vibrant, lower fingers a little more. Yeah, yeah. You know, also a little more like rolly fingers action, you know? Yeah, yeah. You also, you, you make like a face when you pitch that like, almost like accentuates the mustache.

Uh, you have like, it's like a, it's like the, the like the emoji with like the straight line face and it just, the mustache go like dead. So it, the way you throw for me through the camera, I'm like, oh, the mustache is, is rocking tonight. We're rolling. Yeah. I mean, it's taken on it mind of its own. I really wanna shave it, but I guess I can at this rate. So you gotta let it keep going so you can get like the full circle all the way. Yeah, you gotta get the full circle.

So that way it's like the distraction up there. It was funny. I was like, I should've just kept this part too. Yeah. Just had to go all the way down. That wouldn't pretty dope. But. Anyway, that's something we can do as we get ready for the, uh, the tournament. You can just let it all go. 'cause I know for a while all the guys were growing mustaches and they shaved them after, I think Georgia State. Yeah. Yeah. But, and their heads too. I don't know why people do that.

It's kind of strange to me. But they, like baseball players are just extremely weird. I think that's the one thing you probably know that from still being one and around them, that they're just, y'all are deeply odd and you get around each other and someone has a bad idea and it just keeps going. Ex exactly. Like my last, uh, when my last school, same thing. Kids were like, oh, we're all gonna shave our heads. We, why?

I, I worked at Randolph Macon College when I first graduated from ODU and I was working in the athletic department and doing a lot with like the baseball team and sports information. And the baseball team went to their conference tournament. They didn't tell anybody, but they actually shaved a full horseshoe receding hairline into their heads. So when, so when you wear your hat, it looks normal, right? Like the sides look normal, the back and all of that.

Then they go out there for the national anthem, and then after the national anthem, they all tip their cap and you see nothing but domes staring back at the, in the stands. It was one of the greatest things I've ever seen from a baseball team. That is commitment. I'll put it that way. Yes. Yeah, because they had to go home with that at some point a couple days later. Yeah. That's crazy. Um, there's something severely wrong with them, but that's, I hope they had fun. They, they had a blast.

I'll say that. I was hoping they'd win the whole thing, so that way that is the championship photo. That's like in the trophy case, but, uh, didn't, didn't make it that year. Got it. The next year though. That's funny. Uh, so Alex who are you living with this year? So I'm with Hunter Baines and Dylan Tostrup. Okay. That's a pretty solid house. That's a, that's a nice group of people right there. Yeah. Not too bad at all.

Yeah, we're, I would, I would, I think we are, uh, one of the cleanest houses. Of them all. Hmm. So I'm very happy with that, especially being, I believe that I'm a little over the grimy. Yeah. Because, yeah, because Dylan's the one, his like fourth year and then Hunter's, Hunter's second year, but he's a pretty mature kid, so, so yeah. That makes sense. Yeah, he's, it's, he's like ridiculous. It was funny. I was like, did not think he was a sophomore when I first met him. I was like, yeah.

I, he, he's one of those guys I talk to pretty regularly. I, yes, hunter's. Hunter's a good kid. Um, so, so three of you guys, y'all all came from different places. You're all brand new to the team this year, so you had to like, I'm sure, just kind of get to know each other. How's that been? Have you had, like, does you feel like, are you guys besties now? Are you braiding each other's hairs or, or mustache? Yeah. I think, uh, Dylan gets this side. Hunter gets this side. Yeah. Um, yeah.

But yeah, no, it's cool. We, we get along very well and it's, it ended up being a great fit, so I couldn't be happier. Awesome. That's, that is great to hear. Well, one question we've been asking everyone that comes on and we haven't had a picture on in a little while, so it's a little bit different question, but, uh, come on. You know, MLB the show has, yeah, yeah.

We, I was mentioning it last week, but uh, you know, had to, had to pivot there at the last second with, I think Bailey had classes or something like that. Um, but with, with, uh, you know, the college baseball limit being an MLB, the show, we had the college football game back, we're asking all the guys, like, what would your video game rating be overall, and like, what category would you have the highest rating in? So like, control break, velocity, something like that.

And then what was your overall mustache? 99 Mustache. 99 mustache. No doubt. Uh, nine, nine walk. Geez. No, I'm kidding. I don't know. Uh, I see this funny. I don't even play any of these games, which is a, so this is a terrible question for me, but I'm gonna go with, if I, if it's a college baseball game, I'm gonna say, uh, relief pitcher at 81. All right. Guess fair. See, he's right. That range of like, yeah, there's, we get that from the guys who have like, that, like internal humility.

We get a lot of like that 82 to 85 range of guys who are like, Hey, an 81 reliever can be a really good, good for you in a game. Sure, why not? Yeah. Oh yeah. I love this though, that like, you, you have embodied the mustache 'cause you, there's a very much like an old man get off my couch vibe. Like, you're like, I don't want a dirty house. I'm not playing these video games. You can't stay, stop throwing water on my laptop.

Well, sometimes I do feel like an old man, and they do call me an old man sometimes. So, uh, I feel like that's a necessary part of the team though. You've gotta have the, the grizzled vet that'll tell you to shut up occasionally. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, sometimes they deserve it, I guess Sometimes they don't, but it happens. Yeah. Most, I would say most of the time they deserve it, but yeah.

Yeah. Awesome. Well, I, I know we talked about your hat a little bit beforehand, but would love to hear more about, about that and, and kind of what they've done for you throughout your, uh, your pitching career. Yeah. Uh, so the hat is Baseball Performance Center. Uh, they're in new, a little, like a little small place in New Jersey. Uh, they train a bunch of athletes now, but I, when I first went there, it was probably a handful.

Um, they've actually done everything for me in my baseball career, so I've been training with them since I was probably a sophomore in high school. Uh, we have a couple kids on the team that go there now and. I just, if whoever's listening to this and you are younger and you don't really, if you need to like improve your baseball career, go there. I'm telling you right now. Go there. They set me up perfectly.

The, the reason I'm here, uh, the, the reason I'm the pitch I am today, granted, I put in the work, you have to put in the work, but they give you the guidance you need. And I'm like doing an advertisement for them. I feel like even though I don't need to, but I mean, uh, I couldn't be happier and I couldn't be more thankful for the guys there, especially Mike. Great dude.

I mean, I think we just need to like endow a membership there for our New Jersey pipeline just to make sure they're all going through that on their way down to eventually getting to ODU. It seemed like yours was like destiny that did land here. Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it felt like that when I committed here too. It was so funny. Yeah, that's awesome. I don't, I don't know much about Ionas campus, but is like a huge difference.

I mean, obviously climate's a little bit different, but is there a huge difference between like the way their campus is laid out and like ODU being somewhat in the city for Norfolk? Can I be honest with you? Um, a hundred percent. I think I've walked through the campus here once, not a great endorsement here. I, all my classes are online.

I'm in the MBA program, so I don't really go to class classes on campus, but I'll put it this way, uh, Iona had about, I don't know, 5,000, 6,000 students, something like that. This is probably double, triple, I don't even know. Uh, the campus we had there was in New York, so everything's more condensed and you could probably walk through it within 10 minutes. Not even maybe eight. Definitely half the size. I would probably say.

Yeah. Wow. And I think OD kind of is a smaller, but you also have no concept 'cause you haven't walked around. Yeah, could exactly. Yes. I'll put it this way. We didn't have a football stadium, we also didn't have a baseball field. Oh wow. No. What'd y'all play? A city park. It was pretty cool though. So you just go, you just liked going from school to school that doesn't have a field. Yeah. No, no. I'm used to this. Yeah. This is, this is, this is nothing for you.

This is, they just like, yeah, we don't have a, yeah, fine. But we get here and like in the fall and like Finney's like saying how hard of a season's gonna be. Like, we're only gonna have, I think what, six home games? Yeah. It's like. I've only ever had six home series. What do you mean? And you can even, I don't even know if they're home. They're like, just like 15 minutes down the road. Yeah. It's not like they're on campus. Yeah. That's hilarious.

I think, I can't remember if it was George Washington or Georgetown had the same setup until a couple years ago. They were literally playing at a city park, uh, for their home baseball game. Wow. It was wild. Ours was great though. We had a, our batter's eye, sorry it was terrible for the hitters, but our batter's eye was a huge white public storage building. It was awesome. That's great.

Oh, guys, in your lineup must, must've been just brutal on like a bright, sunny day when the sun's reflecting off that thing. Oh, I don't even know how they did it. I, I, I don't know how hitters do what they do to begin with and then add that in there and beyond me. Hmm. Well that is, that is wild. That's crazy. Oh, well. Awesome, Alex. Well, we appreciate you joining us. I dunno, CB do you have any other, uh, questions for Alex? No, I was just say Alex, man, you're you're awesome, dude.

I'm glad we could have you come on. I, I really enjoyed you, uh, being around the team this year. I, I, I love having an old man on the team. It's, it's, it's fun. It's good to have, uh, it's, it's necessary. It, and, uh, you're great man. We appreciate you being a monarch this last year. Awesome. I couldn't, I couldn't be happier to be here and thank you guys for having me on. Um, and mom and dad. Hi. I know you're gonna see this, so gotta give the parents a shout out.

Awesome Alex. We'll, we'll let you go. Uh, but yeah, great, great work this weekend and good luck. Yeah. Uh, at War Memorial this weekend against Marshall. Yep. Thank you guys. Hope to you guys there too. We'll be there, man. We'll be there. Awesome Alex. Cool. Appreciate you man. Alright. See you guys all. We're gonna take a quick break and when we get back Love it. We will have Coach Finwood. All this episode of the Monarchist podcast is brought to you by the pride of ODU Collective.

Their mission is to elevate the experience of student athletes through name, image, and likeness, while also elevating the fan experience. If you or your business are interested in getting involved, you can reach out to us directly or go over to the pride of odu.com. That is the pride of odu.com. Thank you for listening, and go Monarchs. All right. Well, we're actually running a few minutes early, so Coach Finny will be hopping on here probably about five, six minutes or so, but Sure.

Alex is cracking me up, man. It's funny, I, I know they called him old man a lot and dad and grandpa some, I didn't really realize how it permeated his entirely personality. That was, that's pretty great. Yes. Well, for an old man slash grandpa, I believe he is the first pitcher this year to throw in all three games of a weekend series. I, hopefully the last, to be honest, but he did great.

He, uh, he, yeah, all three, I think I counted he had five inherited runners and, uh, four of 'em left stranded. Uh, so that's pretty great. I, that's one of those stats that I think I've said this on here before, I really wish we would normalize and. And have a lot more data about what's a good number, you know, is like, to me, allowing one of five inherited runners to score sounds pretty good, but I have no idea if, like, honestly, allowing three outta five might be good. I don't know.

I, I really don't know what the numbers are. I, I, I wish that we could find some more data on that. I, it's, it's out there. Maybe somebody has it. I gotta dig deeper. Um, 'cause that's an important thing. I mean, that's as important as anything with believers is can you come in? How many times this year have we had like, where guys come up with guys on base and it just trickles away? Trickles away, trickles away. It's like, ah, man.

That's, that's the difference between being good and not being a good reliever. Yeah. And I, I don't know what our numbers would be like. I'm sure we could probably go back and manually calculate it if we had all the free time in the world. I know it's probably not been good for us so far this year. Yeah. Uh, so see, but I also don't know if it's any worse than anybody else. That's, I really don't know.

It fee, it's one of those things like, it feels like it's so bad because it's you, but then it's like, well, how many other times have we had guys on the base reliever comes in and we hit like a three run double or something? You know? It's, it's, yeah. You, you, you really, you always wanna believe it's bad, but it's like, is it that? Who knows? Yeah. Maybe someone who out there who's listening that, uh, is better with that stuff than us can let us know. Leave us a voicemail.

Uh, we definitely still have the voicemail line set up, so feel free. Um, yeah. One of you nerd with time. Yes. Yes. I wish, I wish I did. I don't think if I use my data analyst at work for that, that I don't think I'd last very long, but I can try. If I see the writing on the wall, we'll get that. There we go. That's fun. Well, we talked about it a little bit with Alex, but it was kind of a crazy weekend for the Sunbelt.

Yeah. Four sweeps, which on its own is weird, but then you look at the teams that were doing it, it's a little even more surprising. Yeah, it's very odd. And, and it's just, it goes to show, I mean, what do we say? We're, we're tied for eighth right now? Is that where we're at? I think. Was it 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 aside for seventh, actually. Yes. Um, which still puts us in that, you know, single elimination play in. Uh, but it just shows, you know, we kind of gave away the game on Friday.

And so if we had that, we'd definitely be in seventh place. And then we had a game last week. We kinda get, so these, these games here or there that we, you kind of blow and give away. I mean, if we just won two more games, we're sitting there at, uh, 12 and nine And you're solidly in fourth place. Yeah. Yeah. And we, we, it wouldn't be tied. We'd be beating them. Yeah. Because we'd have the tiebreaker over Louisiana.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so it's just one of those things where, you know, the, these couple of games here or there that we just can't quite finish off. It's like, ah, man, it's the difference between, it's, it's so, the league is so compact.

Once you get past coastal and to a lesser extent Southern Miss and Troy, it's just like a bunch of teams who a week, like I said, a weekend sweep all of a sudden shoots people up to, up to the, I mean, Marshall went from being at the bottom at six and 12 to now they're nine and 12 and they're right there, right behind us. And Georgia State, who's been really in the top four or five all season, they now find themselves a game behind us in the standings. Right. Uh, so it's, it is wild.

But I see, uh, coach Finwood has hopped on here. He's getting the camera set up all squared away. So we'll bring him on now to talk more. Love it. What's up guys? What's going on? What's up? How we doing? Good, man. How you doing? Good, man. I'm here. We made it. We're back. Yeah. How was that travel from Louisiana? Ah, well not great, but then it was all of a sudden we were here. So last flight of the, of the year. So yeah, I say last long one, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So, and y'all came back today, right? You didn't try to do the late night last night? No, we couldn't get out, uh, ' cause we flew outta Jackson, Mississippi, which is a couple hours from Monroe. Um, and we just, we'd had to play at like nine in the morning. Um, so we just decided with today in the mar being kind of reading days, um, for exams. We just come back today and um, a lot of guys are online classes anyway, so Yeah.

Cost is another night a hotel, but, you know, we didn't have to play so early, which is just terrible on Sundays having to play that already. Yeah. You don't, don't risk, uh, getting stuck in it like Atlanta or Charlotte or something for the night either. Yeah. Which we, which we have done before as well, right? Yeah. Um, but also, you know, you don't run into any of the time constraints. Um, we ended up playing an extra, any game yesterday, you know?

Yeah. Um, you could run into travel curfews and things that you just don't want to get into. So, uh, worked out. Worked out good from that standpoint for sure. Yeah. Well we had, uh, I heard you guys talking about the, the race man, it's crazy, isn't it? Like it's, yeah.

Um, you know, uh, Marshall, you know, went from getting swept to sweeping and, you know, kept themselves in it and, um, I'd like to know how many teams haven't been swept this year, and I'm sure coastal, Southern, miss Troy probably haven't maybe, but, um, I think a lot of teams, you know, maybe have at some point. Yeah. Maybe Louisiana hasn't as well. Yeah. Us scratching and clawing for that, you know, salvaging a game or whatever on the road has, has paid off.

I. Uh, to keep us right in the race. I think we're, we're tied for seventh. Now we have a pretty clear pathway to get into the top six. We just gotta, gotta go out and do it. But I think we took a good step in the right direction this weekend of not letting the Friday game drag us down, coming back and gutting out two wins on Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, I mean, we knew, you know, um, we needed to win these next three series, um, you know, after, after the Louisiana series.

I mean, those were the, the only three series of the, of the year where we're playing teams actually below us. Um, you know, Marshall's just a game below us now, but still not above us. And, uh, you know, the, the schedule maker didn't do us any, any favors this year for sure, but they were winnable series if we played well and, and we did play pretty well. You know, um, guys, were ready to play Friday, man, I, I, I'll say this about the whole weekend.

I don't, we had seven or eight hits Friday, but. Um, and then a bunch Saturday and Sunday we hit, starting on Friday. We must have lined out. I know we lined out 10 times yesterday on top of 16 hits. I kept track of them. I mean, we hit 26 balls on screws yesterday and I was like, at some point this has gotta come work in our favor, man. Come on. Um, and of course Saturday they lined out, you know, quite a bit, you know, it balanced out from that standpoint. But we hit the ball hard Friday too.

Didn't have a lot to show for, but still had to lead. And just we Friday was we, and you gotta give them credit for this too 'cause they got it done. But we, we just could not make enough good pitches with two strikes. We, we hung a bunch of breaking balls with two strikes and gave up pits and ended up costing us the game, you know, as with one strike. But. Uh, kid did a double down the line on the hanging, breaking ball in the bottom of the eighth of basically loading two outs.

And, you know, that was the, that was the ball game. So, um, and I think, I think that six inning was the same thing. You got two quick outs in the inning and then they were able to kind of get some walks, get some timely hitting and put a three up on the, on the board. And that, I know you look at the eighth, but the sixth inning was kind of similar. Yep. It was so close there.

Yeah. Yeah. And, um, you know, uh, we were, we were just, you know, they, they were getting the big hits, you know, that day. We got a few early, um, not, we knocked their starters out, you know, and I don't think that start or go won three innings, um, all three games. So we did a good job on that. Um, but again, you know, not long enough starts four, two thirds, four, two thirds. Blake gave us a good one. Um, you know, getting into the seventh on Sunday.

Um, which is helpful, but we gotta get better. Starts on, on Friday and Saturday. Certainly. And Dylan's was, is as, is aspirated a little bit by getting hit. You know, he got hit with that line drive that hit him in the hand and then in the side of the head. And I thought it hit him in the glove because it knocked his glove off. G heck went straight up. He made a heck of a play, um, to get the out. But then, um, it, it, he said it didn't bother him.

I don't know how, I couldn't, there's no way didn't Yeah, that's, that's tough guy. Baseball player stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, so, you know, after a tough lost Friday, we just said, look guys, this is the simple fact Tomorrow, you could say at every game, but tomorrow is, uh, huge game. You know, we, we, we need to come out and play. Well, I hate ever saying we have to win tomorrow, because I don't think you wanna put that on college athletes.

So they just tight, they just tighten right up when you say that. Yeah. But I said, that is the biggest game of the year. And you gotta decide. Some of you guys, you know, are default to getting frustrated, angry, mad, rather than finding out ways to win. Play better, help your team do something, show up here tomorrow, do something to help us win. And, and the guys did you know it, it wasn't pretty, I mean, I. By any means. I think we walked nine and hit three.

Um, and we had a couple crazy innings. You know, the, I don't know if it was the sixth and the seventh maybe. Um, yeah. And we had, um, out of the six outs, we had three strikeouts and three absolute missiles to the wall that we, you know, Luke made a heck of a catch on the one out right hill. Yeah. Um, and we gave him six free base runners and they didn't score a run. Yeah. That was, it was crazy. They were talking about it at one point.

They like, they've had bases loaded like three straight innings that didn't have a hit since the fifth. Yeah. It was like, what is happening in this ball? And that's living, that's living on the edge. Um, big time. Right. And, um, but I, you know, the guys came in at the end. I thought Bailey threw the ball well. You know, on Saturday and you know, we got a couple big hits late to expand that, expand that lead just enough, right?

Yeah. Um, tie the series up and Sunday, man, it was kind of the same thing, you know, we jumped up and, um, we were hitting a bunch of balls hard. They just weren't finding enough holes to, to put that game away. We knew they were gonna go to their, their closer as early as they needed to. Um, and, and, and he came in and did a good job. He kept us kind of that bay for three or four innings there in the middle of the game. And again, they scratched and kind of got back in it.

Um, after Blake came out, I'll give our bullpen credit for this though, you know, and a couple guys, you know, running on fumes. We asked them to go back to back to back days, get a hiter out or so when they on, on Sunday, they bent, but they didn't break. Yes. And I was proud of that. Sometimes it's not about being perfect, it's just about being brave and tough. And, and you know, Marco Levari has had a rotten ear, um, but he is had a couple moments where he is come in and saved our butts.

And I just keep telling you, you're capable of doing that, you know, a hit there and the game's over, he comes in, you know, second and third one out, we're up one, you can't play the infield in there and try to win because you know, the, the, you, you just can lose the game too easily on. Yeah. And the ball the got hit, if our infield end would've got through, uh, yeah. Would've been a walk. Been a walk off. Yeah. And so you gotta just, at that point, you're trying to just extend the game.

If you can get a strikeout, great, but you're trying to only give up one and keep playing. Um, which is what we did. And Marco did a good job. He got two ground balls. Yep. Um, and, you know, we keep, we keep playing and then, uh, you know, Brody finally gets a, you know, kind of a, a, a duck fart hit over there in the right field, which we hadn't gotten the whole day, which he'd been hitting laser beams all weekend, huh?

Yeah, he'd been laser beams all weekend and yeah, like I said, get, yeah, get far. You're right. Perfect. Uh, old school baseball. I love it. Yep. And, uh. Then Zach who, um, had hit the ball really hard. You know, it's funny, like his Zach's first, Zach been grounding out to the infield a lot. Mm-hmm. His first at bat, he gets a two oh pitch for, you know, first and third or base load, whatever it was. And we, luckily they don't, can't turn two on it and I just had enough.

So I lit his butt up and um, you know, and his next four at bats, I think he, he averaged probably 105 x exit velocity. So I said, alright, I, I'll just start yelling at you during bating practice for now long, but a huge hit, right? He drives one in the gap on a three-two pitch Brody's running so we can score him and then Mav comes up and, and hits one, you know, second home run of the day to give us a three run lead.

So, you know, I told Mav it's, you know, it's the temperature's in the eighties now you can start playing good like last year. So, uh, we rested you, he doubled his his for part season. He doubled his home run at RBI totals for the season in that game. Yeah. I dunno. You know that right? That's, that's a crazy stat. Yeah. Well, we, you've seen what he's capable of. I mean, he can take over a game. Um, he just got off to such a rotten start, but he's swinging the bat a lot better now.

A lot of our guy, our guys are, I think, yeah. And, um, you know, I think Kaden, Jorge's had a bunch of really good at bats since we stuck them in the lead off spot. I mean, competitive, I like it there. Striking our less and what gets lost a little bit. So, so we get the three run lead, you know, in the, in the top of the 10th. And we had had to, we, we had put Saturday and Sunday we put our DH into the game in the ninth.

Mm-hmm. Um, late, late was DH and Saturday we put 'em in the game for defense in the ninth. So you burn your dh. So the pitcher, whoever's in the game pitching ends up going into whoever came outta the game spot. Um, which, uh. Uh, Saturday was the Dallas, um mm-hmm. And then Sunday was aching, right? Yeah. So we, we, we, we spun it around to where that spot was gonna get up again. 'cause we scored, you know, some runs in the 10th. Um, Marco wasn't gonna go back out there anyway.

You know, sometimes I think especially in college athletics, when you get out of a big jam, there's so much emotion and just mental stuff that goes into that. You see it all the time. And that pitcher goes in the dugout and then he comes back out and he just stinks. He walks guys. He's awful. Yeah. And so I, I said, look, stat's down there, they don't know anything about him. I guarantee they don't have a scout report on him. Um, and let's just, let's pinch it.

Let's hit Ron and, and let's, let's just give it a whirl. And, uh, you know, he gets a hard hit ground ball to Kyle to get the first out. Kainen had made a heck of a play center field on the second out. I mean, that ball is almost at the wall. That ball was hitting really hard. Um, and he, he, he's a good outfielder. He went back there and made a really nice catch straight over his head for a second out.

And we give up a hit and then he strikes out the pinch hitter on a, on a good breaking ball down. Um, and we get the series on the road. So second road series, um, win of the year in the league and in a row as well. So, um, happy about that. And I thought the guys fought hard. You know, by no means has any of this year been cosmetically beautiful, but the kids haven't stopped fighting and I'm really proud of them. And they're tired as heck, man. They got back today.

We said nothing today, nothing tomorrow. Like, let's, you got exams starting up. Let's sleep a lot, eat a lot, drink a lot of water, and try to get the. Batteries back to green as much as we can for, for this weekend. And another big big series against, against Marshall. So yeah, no, no Midweeks this week, so I'm sure that'll help, uh, get 'em off their feet for another day as well.

Uh, but Alex Hunt was our, our guest this week, and I think that's the first time you've had a pitcher throw in all three games of a weekend series. Is that, is that correct? Has to be. I would imagine. Yeah. And, and Alex was really good his first two and he just didn't have it yesterday. And, you know, Alex's stuff is fantastic. His issue is just command. Um, and when he is commanding the ball, it's, he's hard to hit.

You know, he got a big strikeout or a big ground out jam the guy on Friday, and then big strikeout on Saturday to, to help us win that ball game. So he is an awesome kid. He is. Got a great personality. He, yeah, he's a lot of fun. You know, he is got the. Seventies, uh, you know, uh, uh, village people mustache. I'm trying to think of a politically correct way to say that. Porn stash. Is that what you meant? Yeah, there you go. You said that. Um, exactly. Um, and he is a lot of fun.

I, I got, I got a chance to talk with his parents in the Atlanta airport early in the, in the season. And they're just wonderful people as well. So I think they're, um, and he's had some, you know, uh, the Charlotte Save, he got, he come in, comes in and gets a win. He's had some big colleagues for us this year, so.

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a good step forward for the bullpen too, just to put guys in that situation that you haven't really been leaning on as much all this year, like Bailey or Kellen and let them have some success. 'cause that'll pay those dividends for you in a couple weeks when we're down in Montgomery. Well, you hope so, you know, we're gonna need them all for sure. And, uh.

You know, even a guy like Stott and Levari I mean, those guys are gonna have to be able to throw, you know, an inning or two a weekend. Um, it's just the way it's gonna have to be. I'd prefer that over having to recycle a guy three times. You just, you, you gotta feel like you could depend on somebody though. That's, that's what it is. I mean, when I know I can depend on you, you could fail. I'm okay with it. I get it. Baseball's full of, of that.

But I'll run you back out there when you throw the ball over the place all the time, then I'm gonna be less, less apt. We are gonna be less apt. Want to depend on you. Um, yeah, I was thinking of that a minute ago when you were saying it's like, oh, just as long as you throw strikes, it's like, boy, it's funny how many guys you could say that, like, when they're throwing strikes, they're great when they're not. Boy, we got some problems and yeah. You know, know Mike today.

Most of them, you're right. Cb, I mean that, but that's college baseball. Yeah. Um, it's full of guys like that and mm-hmm. My contention is, it's the same thing in a different way with hitters. Um, this generation of kids is all about training and metrics and numbers and spin rate. And that's not what it is though. It's about getting guys out. That's what pitching is. It's called pitching and hitting, not throwing and swinging. But, but they don't think about it that way.

It's our job as coaches. And sometimes I think this generation of coaches, I mean, I'm not gonna get on soapbox here about this, but they coach 'em that way. Everything's about the, the TrackMan numbers and the, you know, the, the, all of that. It is not though, can you throw this pitch right there, knowing that if you do, it's probably gonna get that guy out.

You got, you do have all the, we got more information on hitters and pitchers than we've ever had, you know, and I tell our hitters this all the time. Yeah. You know, where he is throwing and what he is throwing. You know, tendencies and what counts, but if your swing sucks, it doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah. All the data in the world doesn't help.

Let's get our swings better and get in the zone and stop spinning off the ball and, and we can hit stop worrying about maybe what it is as opposed so much as opposed to where it is. Because if it's out over plate and you got a good swing, you can hit it. It doesn't matter what it is. Breaker ball, basketball change up, you know? But you guys wanna know exactly what it is and all this cutter slide or change, and meanwhile your head's in our dugout every time you swing that dug works.

Yeah, I, I've definitely had that thought a little bit, you know, and off and on, of course with all the guys where it's like, man, I wish you would just go up and compete and stop worrying about you. See, like, I, I always say hitters are dumb, frankly. That's why I always think pitchers have it easier because it's already harder to hit and the hitters think too much and they're not that bright.

And the guys who just go up and accept they're dumb and go up and just compete and react, tend to be better. And it's, you're a hundred percent right and college hitters are way better when it's two and oh than when it's oh and two. Yeah. I can remember Wayne Graham yelling at one of his pitchers our first year down at Rice. This kid, his name was Lanier. He catching the big leagues. He might big here.

Yeah. Yeah. And he's carving us up and Graham is yelling at him and he is going, why is it always one and oh every time you pitch to every hitter, when it gonna be, oh, and one and, and some choice words thrown in there. And I'm thinking, boy, you right. I can say that about a handful of dudes, you know. Um, so, and, and I will say this, I told the guys yesterday, the hitters, we, we competed better this weekend for a whole weekend than maybe we have the entire year. Yeah, we did. I agree.

You, you can see the difference, right? Guys were in there, they were fighting with two strikes, you know, they were getting the ball. And, and so I was really proud of that. And they, they played like they wanted to win, you know, it feels like observing about halfway through the year, like they're finally starting to listen. That's what it seems like from the outside. Yeah. Well, I hope so.

You know, we're, we're, we're staying on approach and, and guys getting off their backside and not spinning so much. Uh, that's a mechanical thing through some different drills, but it is, it, it is some of that, but a lot of it, at this point in the season, you're not gonna try to reinvent guy's swing. Certainly that would be dumb, but it's just about competing more man. Like, you know, just be ready for the moment when it comes. And, and I really think this, I know he made some errors, um.

He is a young kid, he is a work in progress over a third certainly. But I think Brody has given us a good spark in our lineup. He is competitive at backs, he's hitting the ball hard, his energy's good. Um, I think Scotty Young has given us a good spark in our lineup. Same exact thing. Um, and so those two guys in particular I think have given us a little bit of a shot in the arm here, you know, most recently.

And, um, I texted Gary and the guys the other day and I said, not playing Brody until now was smart because I don't think you'd be getting the same results and not, again, not to say bro, you know, Brody loved the kid. Hard worker. Yeah. It's just when you come in as a freshman, that adjustment period, you kind of allowed him to have that adjustment period, and then now you're putting it on him and he looks like he looks ready for the moment.

Yeah. Yeah. I think he, I, I think we didn't play him 'cause he just, he wasn't ready to play. But, but you're right, right. Those guys need some room. We, we played Tanner a little bit earlier, maybe before he should have been ready to be in there. I think f was kinda ready to do it from the get go. But again, F's catching a little bit more and, you know, f and, and, uh, Jack and I thought Jack had a good day yesterday. We didn't talk about him.

Uh, he's a lot of good days and, and, and hit a third one hard, you know, the kid made a good play on, um, and he caught good back there, so, you know, he had a, he had a big, big day force. Um, Jack and F are probably gonna have to catch, you know, for a while. 'cause I think, uh, Holman pulled no o bleak, uh, on Friday. Mm. And so you never know how those are gonna heal up in baseball, man. 'cause it's such a rotational sport. And, um, so, we'll, we'll see.

But I would say this weekend, those two guys will have to be our guys that, that we go to and. You know, I'd like to say we could play Lefty righty with 'em, but I don't think Jeff's ready to catch two days in a row. And so we'll probably catch, you know, one Friday and Sunday and then, and, and we may do a combination, you know, of, of, uh, of guys coming in and that kind of thing too and in the game.

So, um, we're, we're down to two catchers and I think Evan can catch in an emergency, he just can't hit. So if he was in there, he'd have to, you know, probably bump something like that. Yeah. Well, at least both Jack and F have experience back there catching, it's not gonna be their, their first start. You've been able to rotate them throughout the year pretty well.

Yeah. Yeah. The, maybe the, one of the advantages of not having a, you know, everyday catcher is if you lose one, you know, the other guys have caught plenty and you know, you're not necessarily having to drop off 'em. And against righties, I think Slater has swung to bat really well for us. I mean, he's, he's, he's hitting the ball hard. He is having good competitive at bats. He's a good thrower. You know, he is gotta be better at blocking at times, certainly.

But he, he competes in there for, so I'm proud of, I'm proud of him yesterday for sure. Yeah. Well one group maybe I'm not proud of from the weekend is the umpiring crew. Now I will not, I will not get you in trouble. I don't know what exactly happened, but I know that both dugouts were going at him. The zone was all over the place, but there was some sort of incident with Kyle Edwards coming off of first base at the end of like the half inning.

And it looked like the umpire at first was barking at him the whole way back to the dugout. I never heard anything, so I dunno if you had any insight there. I think something got sent out of their dugout. And Kyle can have rabbit ears. So, you know, we talk about his care, but he was frustrated 'cause he grounded out, you know, with the lead run on third or whatever. He can get, he can get the antennas up pretty easy at times, I think.

And you know, then he barked back at them and it's just much to do about nothing. Sometimes these guys are, was like, what are y'all gonna do? Go fight each other. Like, right, let's play, you know, if y'all wanna fight, go out behind the dugout and fight. Most of y'all ain't never been in a fight in your whole life. That's, that's my favorite. Anytime I go. To like a D two, D three JUCO game. And it's like all they wanna do is talk trash and act like they're gonna fight.

It's like, bro, just 'cause none. Waste the energy you have to say. Exactly. Yeah. We're in a tie game and going into the 10th inning. How about if we just focused on that? It's probably some backup pitcher that never pitches anyway, trying to get under your skin and you're letting them. Mm-hmm.

So, you know, let's, we talk about those kind of things and Kyle normally does a good job, but like I said, sometimes, you know, he was frustrated with, you know, having, not getting a big hit and probably heard it, uh, a little too easily. But he made a couple big plays for us down the stretch there. I, I thought, you know, Brody threw a couple balls away, but I thought Mav and, uh, Kyle played really well, uh, in the middle defensively for us. Mm-hmm. All weekend.

Turned some double plays and, um, you know, overall defensively, we, we played pretty well. Yeah, I think that that fire comes, I think from that want to compete now too, so. Yeah. I know, I think earlier Alex hit somebody to load the bases and the dude stared him down the whole way to first. Oh, did he? So that probably might have sparked it, but I'm like, dude, if, if you think that's the situation to throw at somebody, you need to baseball. I, I'm pretty sure it was a breaking ball too.

I'm, I'm pretty sure it was a breaking ball you hit him with Did look like a, like during the game, if we're gonna hit you, it ain't gonna be on purpose. It ain't gonna be with a breaking ball. No. And some of our guys, if they tried to hit you, it might get thrown right down the middle. It's like, what game have you been watching this weekend? The best pitch he's thrown all year. Yeah. I mean, it just doesn't happen in college baseball anymore, like. In the old days it did.

I mean, you never threw at somebody's head, but if, you know, if your best player got hit, you're gonna get their guy. That was just kind of how it worked. But nowadays, it's just, you know, you, you just, nobody, nobody really tries to hit guys anymore. They just do it by proxy because they going Yeah, I, and I don't, I I, I do like old school stuff. I don't think it's a bad thing. I don't think throwing, you know, tiny projectiles at people at 90 miles an hour is a great idea.

So that's, that's definitely, yeah, you're right. It's, there's, there's probably more guys getting hit now, but it's all accidental. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt we hit enough. Not on purpose now. You don't, we don't need to add to it by hitting guys on, on purpose. And you never wanna see a kid get hit in the head. I mean, yeah. I don't like kids seeing kids get hit and get hurt, period. Especially the older I get. Um, but you, you never wanna see a kid get hit in the head, man, that's scary.

And we've had a few, you know, through the years, I remember last year at Georgia State, you know. Uh, Alex, uh, got hit, got hit in the nose, broke his nose, you know, and that, that can happen. So you just wanna stay away from that if, if possible. But again, I mean, you know, that's one series we needed to win and we did. Um, this, this weekend against Marshall, same thing. Um, it's a series we need to win. If we play well, we got a chance to win it.

And then, uh, you know, that's the next, the next one that's up. So that's the one we gotta focus on. And, you know, they've had good pitching most of the year and, uh, haven't been a great offensive team, but, um, you know, war Memorial, if the wind's blowing out, it can, it can flex the defense. Yeah. Um, which doesn't bother me actually. 'cause we're starting to drive the ball a little bit better. So, um, that wouldn't bother me that much. And, uh, it just, we don't make any of 'em easy, man.

I mean, that's, no, you know, I, I haven't, it was hot and those games were all. You know, as the old school says, nut cutters and man, uh, yesterday after the game, I was like, holy crap, I'm tired. Uh, yeah. You know, and I would laugh because this morning at the airport we get to TSA and the guy says, Hey, they got your date of birth here. Long, uh, wrong. It says you're 10 years older than you are. And I go, oh, I feel way more older than that money. That's funny.

I said, I feel like a hundred years older than I. Um, uh, so I got a good chuckle from our team out of that one. Yeah. Gotta gotta have you flare for the dramatics this year. I feel like it's, you need to get the, whatever cardiologist is in Norfolk needs a sponsor though to your baseball team. That's missed opportunity there. I think, I think we were 10 and 11 at this point last year. Were we, not you, I, I wanna say that sounds right.

Yeah. And maybe even the year before, I think, I don't know. But um, I think we, if you know, you, you never know how things can happen, but if you play well, you know, you have a chance to win these next two series and that probably puts you in the tournament. Yeah. We'd love to get in that top six, which is possible. Um, certainly with we're we got, you know, tiebreakers over Georgia State and Georgia Southern, um, you know, and so those are two teams right in there.

They're gonna be somewhere in there next to you. You just gotta, you know, you stay ahead of the ones that are below you by beating them, and then other people beat up on each other. So, you know, um, that's how that works. And then you kind of root for those teams in the top three or four, just keep winning at this point. Right. Yeah. This is definitely a time of year you start watching the schedule like, all right, I need you to win. Need you to win.

Like, you know, it's, it's for sure you start rooting for other teams. Yeah. Yeah. You start, start rooting for the top three and the bottom three. And then when you're Yeah, if, if you get that, then you're gonna be in good shape. 'cause there's like legit pathway to get even as high as four. But I think five and six is realistic, but Yep. Gotta gotta go play Marshall on Friday, six o'clock at War Memorial, win that one, then worry about the rest later.

Yeah. No, that's the biggest game of the year and you know, they got that tough little lefty blevins. He is tough man. Mm-hmm. You just hope kind of late in the year, he is maybe running outta gas a little bit, which can happen with those smaller guys. Um, they had a, uh. They had a freshman lefty that started Saturday that, whose numbers were really good. Uh, a change up guy. And you could see it like that was his ninth or 10th start of the year and he was gassed, gassed.

Like it wasn't, it's funny, it's just so hard on those guys. I think the last Blake Morgan started freshman, but he didn't, we didn't dump him into the rotation until probably the sixth or seventh week. And so he, I think he had eight starts and he was outta gas by first starting a tournament that year. He gutted out five innings.

I remember, but you know, if you started freshman from the get go, man, usually by this time of the year, I think the last one we did from the opener was Johnny Wilson and he got hurt in like week nine. You know? Yeah. Yeah. And so it's really hard on those kids. I mean, just the grind of a college season and having to do that over and over and over again. You gotta be somebody pretty special physically, anybody what, no matter what year you are.

Um, but to be able to do that as a freshman is, is pretty impressive. Yeah, it is. And they, they've just kind of been a pest all season, I feel like with Marshall. Like they had three one run games with Troy, I think it was. Yep. So they've been able to stay in games, they compete and then they got killed all three times against Coastal two weeks ago. Yeah. And then they came out, who'd they beat this weekend does? Uh, Georgia State. South Alabama. South Alabama.

Yep. Yeah. Who's gone on a jar it feels like. So, yeah. Um, yeah. Well they had a thir 32 to 15 midweek game also. Did they really? Wow. Well, yeah, they played Morehead State. It was 32 to 15 on, uh, Wednesday after beating them 10. Nothing in seven innings on Tuesday. Ooh, that sucks. That's a heck of a week. Yeah, that's a heck of a week. Hey, if we end up in that situation, I don't have much left in this lefthanded, uh, arm, but I can probably give you a couple pitches anyway.

Go. Well, we just gotta come out and, you know, Ben's gotta go out there and do what he does and, and try to get us five or six innings and we gotta get some big hits, man. Hopefully we'll have, you know, the weather looks like it's pretty good this week. Hopefully we'll have some people come out and watch us. I mean, uh, but we're, we're all disappointed with the overall record, but I, I will say I'm proud of our guys. They are, they're through all, everything.

The disaster area that is our baseball facility right now. It's the, we call it the Big dig. All it is a bunch of holes in the ground. Um. Some days we have electricity for our pitcher machines and some days we don't. And, um, the guys have come out and they've kept showing up and playing hard, and I think we're playing better right now than we, than we have ear, than we were earlier in the season. And that's should just a tribute to those kids.

Like they, they want to, they wanna keep fighting and, and try to get in that tournament and see what can happen. That's fair. Well, that's, that's, I saw a couple of your, uh, alumni yesterday up in, uh, I was in Salisbury, Maryland, saw the Augusta Green jacket, so I got to see, uh, Jacob Gomez and Trent Buchanan. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. That's a picture my dad took, actually took this. He was up there on Tuesday.

And then also Seth Keller, who almost was a, a, a monarch, he got drafted before he, uh, gotta play here. Yep. Uh, so all three of them are together. Yeah, I follow that. I didn't get to see him pitch, uh, but they, I think Jacob pitched the night before did really well how to score the inning, and Trent's back was hurting 'em a little bit, so he wasn't able to pitch, uh, yesterday. But yeah, they're, they're doing great. They're, they're loving it. Um, they're, they're keeping up with the team.

They're still, you know, of course they're, they're big old monarchs and, and yeah, still, uh, still keeping track and proud and keeping up with all the guys. That's so cool. And I know you, I saw your, uh, post about you went down and, and saw Betsy throw, uh, Hal bet the week before and he threw the ball real well. Oh, sho. Yeah. Gary and I were both there. Yeah. That's cool.

Well, it's always fun to watch those guys, you know, move through our program into the professional ranks and especially when they have this success and, you know, make us all proud of them. Yeah. At that, especially with such good people. I mean, those are those three guys through the last few weeks. Those are, those are three of the best human beings you'd ever meet. And they're, they're really good representatives of ODU baseball. Yeah. We got good kids.

You know, um, Mike Federico is Louisiana Monroe head coach, and he was a long time pitching coach at Southern Miss before he took that job. And he is just a real gem of a. Human being. I mean, just a, you know, a real competitor, but a real gentleman, good person. And, uh, after the game yesterday, you know, that's a tough loss for them, obviously. Yeah. They, they're fighting to get determined and now, you know, they got a long row.

You're looking up a six wins right now, and you're like, we gotta go, you know, eight one or something like that. Yeah. But he, he always said, he goes, man, I just wish we could play people like you guys every weekend. 'cause it's just fun. It's baseball, it's competitive. They're good kids and there's not a lot of yapping and, you know, bullshit going on other than the game. And um, you know, you were talking about the umpires though, and I know I'm running over here, but, oh, you're good.

There's no top of, I forget Scott, the, the Saturday guy we have on the plate. He's been around a long time. Um, and probably past his prime, but he's a great guy. Uh, the, the whole crew were good, good people, good dudes. Like they, they were, yeah. Question. You know, college strike zones are like the twilight zone to me. Yeah. Um, sky came out there in about the sixth inning about a lineup thing, and I said. I said something, I screwed up a number or something.

I gave to him, I fixed it, and he goes, man, that's the first mistake that's been made all day today, isn't it? And I said, Hey, you're doing great, man. Hang in there. This is gonna be about a five hour game. He goes, I know. I got plantar fasciitis and it's already been killing me for four innings. And I said, well get some ibuprofen and some water from our trainer, man. And uh, and call some damn strikes. Yeah, yeah. Call some more strikes and saying go faster.

About three innings later I walked out and he said, he was like kind of limping a little bit and I said, look, can you just toughen up a little bit please? And he gave, he gave me a couple expletives that you can definitely can't. I said, we're trying the best we can. I know we walked nine guys or whatever. But he said, God, I said, you know, he goes, I'm trying to call strikes. I want to get out and get off my feet.

Um, so I think, you know, sometimes when you got umpires that are good people and run the game the right way, I. They're, yeah, they're gonna make mistakes. Um, the Friday guy was one of the best plates we've had all year though, Jordan. Yes. Yep. He was fantastic. And he's been good. Uh, he's an S-E-C-A-C-C, maybe Big 12 guys were, I think he was really good and had enough guts to call that check swing to end the series on yesterday too. Mm-hmm. Which I appreciated.

Which the guy did swing, he definitely swung. Um, but a lot of guys don't, 'cause they're standing next to their dugout. They don't wanna get barked at the end of the game. And Jordan doesn't care. Like he don't, he ain't taking it from anybody. Um, so you know that about him and you gotta handle him the right way. Um, so, but yeah, that was my umpire story for the, for the weekend. That's a, that's great. That's a good one. Well, awesome. Well, fans are listening.

Get over to War Memorial this weekend. I'm gonna be there for at least the first two days. I'm working on the third one. I gotta get the permission. I'll be good to go. Uh, six o'clock Friday, three o'clock Saturday, one o'clock Sunday. If you're a bum and you stay at home or you live far away, ESPN Plus has the streaming, but at least get to one game at war more like it's a fun place to watch a baseball game. It's great.

It's, and, and you get two teams that are gonna be fighting like Marshall's not laying down for anybody. Oh. They fight just as hard. So Marshall hasn't been in the tournament. Marsha hadn't been in the Sunbelt conference tournament yet since they joined the league, so, oh wow. They're, they're trying to get in it and um, obviously they got a good coach and he is a good guy. And they're, they're building that thing. They're with that new stadium.

They're gonna continue to improve, um, without a doubt. So, yeah, it'll be a good competitive series. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I, I booked my hotel and my flight to Montgomery. I'm not gonna tell you what days, but I, I'll be there. Alright, I'll be there. What hotel you staying at? Uh, the, the Renaissance, I think that's right there by the ballpark. So yeah, you can walk to the park. All those are great down there, man. That's the best thing they got going. The ballpark's cool too.

I like the ballpark, but the best thing they got going is that all the teams stay within walking distance of the, of the ballpark. And so the guys can just walk over and watch games when they're not playing. And the coaches, uh, there's a lot of cool restaurants around. It's just a neat area. You know, Montgomery, Alabama isn't, uh, you know, the, the tourist hub of the world, but there is some cool history there.

I enjoy walking through town, seeing the, the Rosa Parks Monument and you know, some of the, some of the, the Civil War things and, you know, the, um, you know, the, the, the, the Martin Luther King Memorial and some of those things are really, really, really neat to, to look at from a history perspective as well. Hopefully we'll be there. They got a couple good coffee shops in town.

I like Alright, I'll get your, I'll get your coffee recommendations when we get a little bit closer to it, but, uh, looking, looking forward to the games this weekend. I know CB you'll be there as well. We'll be, can't wait. I'll be there. Baseball cards for everybody. It's gonna be great. Oh, baseball cards are out this weekend. Nice. Yeah. Sweet. And I, I think it's, um, graduation weekend as well. I think we're doing senior weekend. I could be wrong on that. Maybe graduation, I think.

I think that's gonna be the Friday of the next week is the graduation coastal. Alright. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. We them both that week. Yeah, they moved. So yeah, check that. All right. Well, I'm getting ready to throw some burgers on the grill. How you guys liking. All right. Medium. Medium. Medium. Rare. Medium. Got it. Alright. Thanks so much Finn. Appreciate you man. Alright. Mon. All right, there we go. Appreciate it. Getting some burgers on the grill.

I'm gonna be getting some dinner here myself pretty soon. And Okay. If I remember to take out what I was supposed to take out of the freezer. So, well, before you do that, let's talk about our, our, uh, hitter and pitcher of the week. Yes. Gimme one second. Bring those bad boys out. That's, I mean, I, you can take all the seconds you need. I, you're the one knows all the buttons. There we go there. Go look at that. Uh, and so Alex Hunt, look at that. We talked to that guy, right?

That was, uh, and as you were getting that, I could have been getting the stats out instead of Maverick played ball. Good. Alex throw Maverick Dub. All good. Alex Dub dub ball. So we talked about Alex. He was in all three games. He ended up, he got one out in all three games. Uh, so that's one inning total. He did give up, um, an earned run. Uh, he struck a guy out. He did hit a guy, but like I said, he, he left, he inherited five runners for them. Were left on base.

So that's, that's a big deal. It's, it's not a small thing. Um. It was kind of a weird week for pitching 'cause as we know, we had a lot of guy, a ton of guys pitched, weren't a lot of like really great appearances. Tyler Stotts, the guy I think we should mention too, he got the save in that game one inning, um, note runs, gave up a hit a walk, but he did get a strikeout, you know, and for a guy who doesn't get in a ton of games to come in, in a big spot where we need you, he, he showed up.

Um, so that was great. Uh, Ben Moore had a, you know, again, we, it felt like a step back after throwing five and six inning, his last couple, but four and two thirds, only one run, three hits, three walks, two strikeouts. So not his best start, uh, by far, but, but a, a good solid start for him. Um, and then Frank Wright had a nice scoreless inning. He, uh, he, he pitched one inning, uh, no hits, no runs, two walks in a strikeout.

So not a ton of great stuff on the pitching side, but, but a few guys here and there. Uh, the hitters were a little better. We had some guys had some really nice, so Maverick, uh, you know, you have a two Homer, five RBI game. I think you gotta get Player of the week. And he had a good solid week overall. He was, he was a six for 14 in the week. Uh, double two Homers five rbis. Had a walk and had a stolen base. So that was fun.

It's fun, it's fun to see the guys do the kind of room, vroom, uh, celebration when they steal. So it was, it was good seeing Maverick enjoying that, uh, Zach late, which again, you might even argue, had a better week. But you know what? Maverick, Maverick had a two Armor game, had not one point a week where gave it to him, uh, but Zach late, he was five for 10 on the week, two doubles, four rbis, three walks to hit by a pitch, so that, that equates out to a 6 43 on base for the week.

Um, so he's, he's, I mean, he's certainly been our best offensive player all year and continues to be. So it's, it's nice to see him keep that going. Uh, Kainen George, uh, as, as Finney pointed out, another really good week, five for 14, a double two rbis, two walks a sack fly and get this. Did you know this one, four stolen bases this weekend? Uh, yeah. He, he, Kainen went from being like having a couple, he's up over, I think he's got like 11 now.

So, uh, Kyles tops in the league with 20, I think 21. Uh, and Kainen's. Pretty solidly. Second place now on the team. Uh, Luke Waters another good week for him. He's moving in the right direction. He's, uh, four for 14, a double a Homer, three rbis and a walk. Uh, and Brody Connors, again, another nice weekend for a guy who's really just getting his first chance to play a lot. Four for 14, a double, two rbis, a walk and a stolen base. So another good week for Brody.

And he said, you know, had had a couple not great plays, but had some good plays. And he is, he's playing like a freshman. Yeah. And it, it, it, it's really hard to pick, I think the offensive player of the week this week. Like, it was, it was difficult, but we set the precedent with Evan having the big day and he got it because of that. Right. And that was, that was the separator for Maverick too. Now I will say, if Maverick was like.

Had two homers and five rbis that day, but was like over, over nine with eight strikeouts. The previous few days, I'd had a hard time giving it to 'em, but fortunately it came on on in the midst of a, a good weekend. Yes. And one other note I'll put out there. You're talking about stolen bases. Kyle Edwards currently leads the Sunbelt with 20 stolen bases in Sunbelt. Right? There you go. Uh oh. And play. Okay. I think he has more than that overall. Um, but he is interesting.

Current conference leader. Uh, I will tell you that because I didn't even think to look at it until I was listening to Louisiana and Rose play by play guy this weekend, which by the way, one of the better broadcasts in the Sunbelt period. Yeah, that dude was awesome. He had access to either TrackMan data or Statcast because mm-hmm. He was talking about all of the crazy exit velocities off of ODU bats that were getting caught.

I know one specifically Luke Waters was like 1 0 9 0.5 a line out the center, uh, that that's, that's hitting the crap out of the baseball and I'm glad to see more guys in lineup starting to do that. Yeah. And I was gonna say, and that's why those stats are always interesting because it tells a lot. It's a, Hey look. Yeah, you're out. You know? Right in the box score, you're out. Well, it was, that's a bad result, right? Well, not really.

If you, you, you rope a ball at 1 0 9, like, okay, you happen to be out this time. But if you do that, you know, if you come up 10 times, do that, you're probably getting 3, 4, 5 hits outta that. Yeah. And over the course of a series, you see that come through with even Brody hitting maybe his softest contact of the weekend falls in for a single, uh, baseball is is funny like that. Oh man. But glad, just glad to get a series win.

Uh, but I'm hopeful that we can parlay that into a home series win this weekend, because I feel like we've, we've had two road series wins. We get high like, all right, we're over it. And then there's kind of that let down the following weekend. Yeah. We gotta avoid that. We gotta get two from Marshall. At least three would be amazing that, that keeps that four seed, five seed and contention. Uh. We gotta gotta go and do it. Start Friday, just blow 'em out.

Don't have to worry about your bullpen on Friday. Yeah. I mean that's, you keep wanting to say blow 'em out. Yeah. 'cause that's, the hitters are going good. But I, and I think Finney pointed out, it comes back to that starting pitching. You know, if, if our starters can go deeper into the game, that's less innings we have to cover. That's less chances to have the guys who have not been as successful, uh, not be successful. Right.

I mean, you know, you, you keep wanting the guys to step up and prove that the guy, which like, like Alex Hunt has, has, has done here. Um, but it's just, you know, you're just getting to a certain point of the year where the guys you at c sometimes you gotta say, well, they are who they are. And sometimes you gotta, we can grind it out. You can't necessarily count on the guys every time. So the moorings you can get out of your really top three starters, which are really outstanding.

They're as good as probably any three you're gonna find on a team. Uh, the better your off you're gonna be, the better chance you're gonna have. Yeah. And that's something that we'll definitely have to carry on into tournament play. And yeah, I think fighting hard right now to get outta that playing game is really important for us, given our pitching situation. Like we're, yeah, we gotta stay off that Tuesday and start things off on Saturday.

I don't care where we go, four or five or six, just stay out of seven through 10 and we're gonna be in good shape. Be, because the reality is we don't have the pitching depth. And when you have to pitch every single play every single day, by the time you get to that like fourth day it, our team's gonna be toast. And so hopefully that fourth day for us is like trying to win the game. The final one, right?

Yes. I mean, that'd be, that'd be ideal if the ideal would be to go out and win your first two. 'cause we have really good starting pitching and then you get a buy into that third and all you need is three wins to win the thing. I mean, that'd be, that'd be the absolute best. Yes, it would. Well, we've gotta get there first. And it starts with get, it starts with, with winning the series against Marshall.

Like, uh, you know, I'll, I'll never say like, something is a must win until it can eliminate your season. So like, you know mm-hmm. Playing games, things like that are important. But the math gets really hard if you don't win this series. And now you're having to rely on a sweep of JMU and taking two outta three from a coastal team that is on fire right now. They're number 11 in the country today. I saw they might be higher on some of, I think I saw Baseball America had 'em 11.

Yeah, they're, they're really good. They're, they're on fire. Southern Miss has begun to separate and kind of show their talent and get up there to the top. Troy also, right up there. We, we saw them in person in Norfolk. I know that a couple weeks ago. We know they're really good. So you focus on those 4, 5, 6. You root for the top three. You root for the bottom three, unless they're playing you, which happens to be the case this weekend. So there you go. Um, all right. That's it for me.

What do you else? You got ccb. Oh, your baseball cards will be available. We're ba we have some, so yeah, if you ordered some baseball cards, uh, get at me, find me and we'll, we'll have some. If you didn't order 'em, maybe I'll have extra. We'll find out. I usually have a couple, but who knows? That's, you know, you, you had your opportunity. Uh, but, but yeah. So hopefully hope I have 'em. They look great. Hopefully we'll see. Especially let come tomorrow. We'll check 'em out. Yeah, yeah.

Come, come pick 'em up over the weekend. Uh, hang out. You probably get some guys to sign some of those. Yeah. 'cause they can come in valuable for you later on when they're, you know, in the pros and if we follow through the minors and all that. Uh, if you wanna track the guys that are already gone, I'll plug it again. The pride of odu Yeah. N i.com. Uh, the pride of odu.com. I guess I should probably get that right. Yeah. Since they sponsor it.

I go look at that page, even though I'm the one that helped set it up, because that helps me instead of having to like look at every single box we're find. 'cause sometimes I'm just like, oh, lemme just go see what he did because you know, we have, especially, we have some of our pitchers, you know, it's like when in the week this guy pitch, I don't know. So if sometimes I'm on track, like John Holts had another great start yesterday.

So we got, our guys are doing some stuff and we got Connor Overton. I even, I didn't even realize until I looked him up. He's back, uh, he got cut by the Mets right outta spring training, but now he's back with the Blue Jays again in aaa. So hopefully he can get himself back up to Toronto again. Yeah, well they, I think they're still in Buffalo, right? Yeah, he is back in Buffalo, which he had, he had some really good times in Buffalo.

Um, so, so hopefully he is back in the organization that, that had him for a while and, and liked him. So that's always, that's always a plus when you've been a, when you've been in the big leagues, it's easier to get back to the big leagues. Anybody will tell you that? Yes, absolutely. Well definitely root for Connor and all the rest of the guys. Uh, jealous. You got to go see Jacob and, and Trent. Uh, they were awesome dudes.

I think we're still trying to replace the Jacob Gomez role in our bullpen. I. I said that to him, we were, because you know, I said he's keeping up with things. I said, yeah, there's no Jacob Gomez in that bull thing. He is like, yeah, no Trent Buchanan, no John Holobetz. I was like, yeah, it's not, it's not quite the same. We got, we got some dudes, but they gotta, if I, I would, and I've said that I would gimme a team full of 25, 30 guys with the heart of Jacob Gomez.

Man, I'd, I'd, we'd make it work. Oh yeah. We'd, I don't know if anyone would, would ever beat us. Uh, yeah, he's, he's just, just built differently and I'm glad to see him get the opportunity with Augusta and hopefully just shoots right on rank. Lemme, and lemme tell you, I, I didn't mention this so. Savvy vet. 'cause he was talking about being a little older.

'cause they were joking about, um, Hobe, you know, said he's young 'cause he is, you know, he was only like a, a a junior, retro junior coming out and they were both like 50 or seniors and uh, they were talking about, yeah, he's got time. And he was an early draft pick. Like those are the guys, they were seniors, undrafted. They like, they know we don't have time, we gotta make moves, make stuff happen. But he showed that Wiley vet move.

Jacob was the first guy out of the clubhouse after the game. Uh, they're leaving, uh, leaving the, uh, Salisbury, Maryland to go down to Annapolis, uh, North Carolina for, for a series. So it's gonna be a little bit of a drive. They have two buses. One he told me one's a sleeper bus, one's just like a regular bus. So he, he is first guy out. He's like, Hey, I'll see you guys.

Like, I knew exactly what he was doing, put all his stuff on the bus so he could, he could mark his spot on the sleeper bus so he could have to like wildly vet. This is a guy, this is a guy here. He is first year pro ball. He knows the drill. He knows what's going on. Jake, you can't mess with Jacob Gomez. No, he is on it. He, he knows he's a, he likes those creature comforts and I don't, I don't blame 'em. That's a. That's a hall down there.

All right, well, we'll be with you at the ballpark at War Memorial this weekend. Come out and see us get your baseball cards. Uh, come talk to Gary. Yes, actually CB will give you the baseball cards for free. If you could talk to him about baseball for 30 straight minutes. If you could, if you could be near me for, I would go up on the roof. That's, that's how you can't follow me up there. So that's, yeah. Good luck. Good luck with that endeavor. Yes. I'll be in the dugout so fast.

You try to talk to for 30 straight minutes, just follow you right on in there. Like a couple minutes is cool, but let's, let's Alright. Right. You can talk to me. It's not for too long. But Gary will talk to you though. Yes, yes, yes. Alright, well thank you all so much for listening. This is the 15th episode this season, which I love. It is crazy that we've been on doing it for 15 and hey, keep listening, keep telling your friends the, the, the numbers keep going up.

So that's a positive sign for us. We love, it's 'cause we're having a good time. People like when you have a good time, even though my we talk too much. Yeah. And we have the coaching player that usually helps. That's, you know, whatever. That's okay. That's it. Semantics. Okay. Whatever. I mean yeah, we don't see the, do we see the drop off numbers? Like when the coach and player leave, how would people just stop watching this last bit? Yeah, I don't look at that. I don't wanna look at that.

Don't, don't blame you. Alright. Thanks everyone listening. We appreciate you and go Monarchs. That's great. Go Monarchs.