S2E16 - Marshall Recap w/ Tahraun Hammond

Yeah. Hello Monarch fans. Welcome to the Hudson Homer podcast for the second week in a row. This is a celebratory podcast because we won the series with Marshall. Yes, we did. How was your weekend? Yes, we did. Uh, my weekend was great. We won the series of Marshall. I got to see Thunderbolts twice. It was fantastic. I'm, I'm having a great weekend. I'm having, I'm having a sad Monday 'cause I get back to reality and just, and live. I can't do all the fun stuff.

Yeah, it was a harsh wake up call when we had to like go to work and do all that boring stuff This weekend or this week after really a fun weekend. I made it down there Friday and Saturday was happy to finally break my curse on Saturday. Um, I didn't realize that until you said it. How many games had you seen this year before they won a game when you were there? Uh, well, so I was one in seven going into Saturday. I had seen them beat Georgia State on the Saturday game. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Uh, I had not seen them win since then. And then if I would like not go to the Sunday game in Harbor Park, they would somehow win that. They would win. Yeah. I couldn't go to the Saturday game against Louisiana. They won that one. Right. So starting to think it was me, I was already to just cancel my, my plane ticket in my hotel down in Montgomery just so the guys had some kind of chance. Uh, but they proved me wrong. They won on Saturday and Sunday was Blake Day. Complete game.

First time since 2018 for a Monarch pitcher to go CG and man, talk about stepping up in a key moment. Yeah, I looked, uh, I, I, I put that out there that it was, 'cause I, I had to think about it and, and my first off, top of my head was Morgan McGuire. 2018 was the last guy to complete game. He actually had two that year, uh, both Complete Games Shutouts, which is outstanding. Um, he, those are the last nine incomplete games. We actually had some, some seven incomplete games since then.

Um, in 2021, uh, Ryan Moore, one of our current coaches, he had a seven inning. It was a, uh, run rule game against, um, Charlotte, and then Hunter Gregory was one of our Saturday starters that year. You might remember during conference we were playing. Scheduled seven inning games as part of Doubleheaders on Saturdays. Ah, yes. Yep. And so, uh, he had, uh, hunter Gregory had three seven inning complete games that season. So, yeah, I, I still say it does hold up.

It was the first complete game, uh, full, complete game for a Monarch pitcher since 2018. So, which is awesome. I mean, that, you know, that's just the kind of veteran gutsy leadership you expect from Blake. And, I mean, it was, he, he earned it 112 pitches. He went all nine, two earn runs, seven hits, two walks, seven strikeouts. Both of those runs came in the first inning. He walked the first batter, and I'm sure everyone was kind of groaned a little bit and then get a home run.

But then after that, I mean, eight shutout innings to follow that up, slam the door on Marshall and Clin, a series that we desperately needed to win. Yeah, that was the most impressive part I think, you know, starting out it's like, all right, we're down. And then just kept the, the Saturday and Sunday games this week.

I was talking to, to Hadra at the end of the game yesterday and I said, you know, this is like the first time we've really played some real baseball where it's like, you know, it wasn't this nonsense of like, it's a 12 to 11 game and we had to come back from nine runs down. And it wasn't like we, we got up by eight and then we gave up seven and just happened to win. It's like, no, we, both games got behind, but then got ahead and kept grinding and grinding and holding.

I mean, the game Saturday where, uh, you know, Dylan does great. Six innings, what? Seven Ks, four runs and then the bullpen comes out Hubble with a scoreless inning killing with two scoreless innings and just holds on to the wind the way we need to. And then Blake, same thing, just grinding it out. We, we came from behind and just kept on piling runs. It was like, this is some real baseball. That's what we've been waiting all year to see some, some actual, like good baseball wins.

And I think that was Kellen Davis's best performance of the season. Uh, one run game held the lead was able to get a two inning save, which set us up to potentially save Bailey for Sunday. Turns out, didn't need Bailey at all this weekend, so he actually gets a rest weekend, which I think is a really good thing for him at this point in the season. Uh, but Kellen Davis, he was filthy on Saturday. He was great.

Uh, it, it's been a while since we've been able to just hold a one run lead over the three innings after the starter comes out. And the bullpen did a great job with, with Hubble and Kellen. Yeah, we, when we get Finny on here in a little bit, we need to talk to him. 'cause I, the pitching management this weekend was spectacular. Um, you know, Friday, Ben had frankly just a terrible game. I think there's no real other way to say it.

I think aside from the game, uh, where he came in relief down in Southern Miss, where he gave up, I think six or seven runs, this is probably his, his, if not his worst, his next worst game. Um, but they still, they kind of kept told him like, kind of, I dunno if they told him, but I'm assuming it was just like, Hey, you gotta eat it. Uh, so he still pitched into what, the fourth, fifth inning.

Um, and then, you know, it was very clear, like I'm, I was kind of standing behind the dugout and uh, Jayce Park was there. Um, he was, he was acting as like the ball boy, you know, you know, they, they need somebody to do that there at that park. 'cause they, we don't have a lot of student managers. Um, and at one point Finney kind of went over his ear and it was very clear. It was like, okay, hey, get on down the bullpen. Um, and you know. It was obvious at that point, they're down by so much.

It was like, all right, we're not gonna use our studs, right? This is gonna be a game. We're not gonna see Bailey and, and Alex Hunt and Kellen and, and Hubble and those guys pitch. So they brought out Nick Sulpizio and Jace Park and Dylan Toro. Guys who have not pitched great this year. All three of 'em were outstanding. I mean, Ezio threw two scoreless innings Park. He did give up a two run Homer, which was, which is not great.

But otherwise he did get, he got up a jam at Ezio, put himself in, and then Tora, who's only, he only had like five innings all year, threw two scoreless in that game. Um, so that sets you up, okay. Now you have all your bullets in the bullpen for the games on Saturday and Sunday. And like you pointed out, you got Hubble out there. Good score this inning, Kellen too. So you saved, you saved Bailey. So you still had Bailey, uh, Matt available.

You had, uh, Alex Hunt, you had, um, Frank Wright, you had Hunter Baes. Those four pretty solid arms. The bullpen, they were all available for Sunday, and you didn't, you didn't have to use them. So they got a weak of rest. I mean, that, that, this was a phenomenal, it was weird to say in a game where you lost 11 to four, there was a phenomenal pitching, uh, management. But there was, and that part of that was the guys have to pitch well enough to, to make it work.

Yeah. I mean, the guys come outta the bullpen did a great job. I think this is probably one of the best weekends that the bullpens had end to end, even in that game. I mean, you know, Ben kind of had to eat the nine earned runs. Uh, the, the home runs that were getting out, by the way, at War Memorial, if you were there, you know what I'm talking about. They're not these moonshot, just rocket home runs. A lot of 'em were just scraping the fence.

I mean, both the ones that Dylan gave up on Saturday were nothing special there in out, probably in most ballparks, but. That's where we were playing. Marshall took advantage of it. They took the right approach and tried to get stuff down the line and it worked for him. Uh, really liked that. But I, on Friday, I think our offense had a lot of opportunities to go make that a slugfest shootout. But Marshall defensively made every play, I mean, every single play.

And I've gotta give credit to Eddie Leon at the, the starting third baseman for Marshall, uh, made an outstanding play. Maverick Stallings rips a ball down the third base line with the runner wrong first. He somehow backhands that thing and turns two, uh, he had another good play up the middle between third and second, their outfielders had some crazy plays to Rob hits and doubles. So it is 11 to four, I think.

You know, I think we'd still lose that game, but it's much more competitive if we get a couple shots to, to fall in here. There. But Marshall was great defensively and, uh, Eddie Leon, who, who plays for Marshall, the third baseman, uh, got to meet his dad because he actually played high school ball with Cane and George. Uh, they're good friends. Their dads are good friends.

And while we were getting, you know, kind of stomped a little bit there on Friday, he was nice enough to buy Aaron and I some beverages and also can's, dad some beverages. And if you, you take a close look at the beer that's in his hand over my shoulder, he does have a Hudson Homer's podcast CZI on. So he made sure he did not go home empty handed. Uh, and then you got this great shot of the two of them. Uh, I believe it's after Sunday, right?

Yeah. And it's funny, it, it canan with his, his jersey untucked is, is funny 'cause as they were going to do the review, you know, the game's over Canan immediately is ripping his jersey out and they're gonna, the review and Finn's like telling him like, you gotta put it back in. We're still technically in the game. Like, we don't wanna get into kind of trouble for that. So it's just funny how, how committed he was to having that jersey untucked. He was done with that thing.

It had been raining all day. Yeah, he was, he was done with it. Uh, I'm sure it was wet out in the outfield too. Yeah, no, you're, you're right man. I mean, at, at that Friday game I said a few times, like, this is kind of a microcosm of our season. It's like every, every time somebody can make the best play of their life, it's happening against us. It's these plays. The, if you gave these guys a hundred chances, they probably wouldn't make it again, but they're, they're doing it.

I mean, there was one play to, to, I think it was the shortstop. It was like a line drive that hit off his glove and bounced out and he still managed to catch it and then throw the guy out. It's like, this is ridiculous. Like, how does this happen to us? Um, so yeah, I mean, props to them for, for having the game their lives. The Friday starter for Marshall Bryce Blevins, he was a pain for us last year. He's a really good crafty pitcher. He ended up going seven innings.

He gave up four earn at three walks, three strikeouts. He had a comebacker come hit him in the foot fairly early in that game. Of course, it hits his cleat, it just deadens right in front of it, and he picks it up for one of the easiest outs of the game. But it was probably, you know, 95 plus off the bat, which should have been just a, a rocket into center field.

Right. So I had a feeling that our offense was gonna come around there, and I also knew that we probably weren't gonna have that pitching performance again the rest of the weekend. So I wasn't necessarily nervous, but obviously you, you lose Friday in a series that you really need to win and you're, you're a little bit tighter on Saturday and Sunday.

But the guys did a great job of just stepping up, fighting back in every game, and then man, just Blake on Sunday, like, I'm sad I wasn't there in person. But it was great to be able to just watch that from afar. I know I'm too invested in not, uh, managing my emotions about things. Well, because the difference between how I feel leaving the ballpark Friday compared to how I feel leaving Saturday and Sunday. It's like, I, you, you gotta be better than this man.

This is not a good place to mo let this, this thing I have no control over and I'm just hanging out at, uh, control my emotions that much. I, I gotta do a better job. Yes. Yeah. I hung out in the parking lot for about an hour after the game talking with, uh, Aaron Zielinski and kind of thinking of some longer term things and stuff like that, but mainly just to blow off steam so I wouldn't be thinking about the game, the whole ride up. Right? Yeah. Uh, but hey, it was, it was worth it.

I'm glad I went down there Saturday. Got to see, uh, a great performance there. Hung out with, uh, the Brown family. Uh, Alex Hunt's parents were around, obviously Kainen George. A few other ones I got to meet and chat with. Good to just be around good people all weekend too. And, uh, sitting with the family of the starting pitcher. I think they were probably the more relaxed of a, of a crew that I've sat with. A little different than, uh, you know, with the hols last year and things like that.

Hey, speaking of Holobetz. Yes, yes. We had some, there was some breaking news today with our, our good buddy John Holobetz. He got traded to the Red Sox today. Uh, he, there was a trade, we were looking up a, a, a picture I'd never heard of, but he was with the Red Sox last year. And, uh, right there around the start of the year, he got traded to the, uh, brewers and it was for one player and the player be named later. Uh, and that player to be LA named later ended up being John Holobetz.

So now he is moving from the brewers to the Red Sox and he's going to be with the Greenville Drive, where he'll be teammates with fellow ODU alum, uh, Noah Dean. So that is some absolute gas coming out, uh, for the Greenville Drive. That's fantastic. Steal for the socks to get him as a player to be named later. 'cause he's got right around a three ERA right now. He's been eating in low a ball. So John gets a promotion outta this. He's gonna go up to high a ball, uh, friendly face.

And Noah ine really, really excited for him to see, see how he goes. Yeah, they didn't, they didn't play together, but Noah's been back around enough, uh, you know, with the, with his girlfriend playing the tennis team. And he's, he is worked out at the ballpark a ton. I'm, I'm sure he and Noah probably know each other pretty well, or he, and, uh, he and John probably know each other pretty well. Um, and, and the people don't know you, the player would be named later.

A lot of times what happens is they give the other team a list of guys, uh, and, and kind of say, Hey, you know, you could pick one of these guys. You have to buy a certain date. And my guess would be that with John, with his his excellent start, it was like, yeah, it's pretty easy. We're taking that guy. Yeah. Yeah. And he is, he's looked great. Well, coach Finwood, I see him backstage. I'm gonna bring him on now. The man of the hour. Coach Finwood how's it going? What's up guys?

That was, how you doing man? Great news for, uh, Holbeck. Yeah, I heard you guys talking about that. That's really cool that him and Noah are gonna be teammates. They weren't ever teammates here, but they're, and teammates by proxy, uh, as, as Monarch alums and, um, both really good relievers for us, uh, in their careers here. Yeah, we're excited to see what John can do. I know he was eating pretty good there with the low a ball.

I mean, we got to see him in person and just clearly a, a step up I think from the rest of the competition. So now, you know, the Red Sox, they do tend to fast track some guys to get up pretty quickly from the draft classes. So hopefully that maybe clears a quicker path for him since they've already moved him up to high a ball. Yeah. I wonder a little bit if Nick Murray didn't have a little input in that one of their pitching coordinators.

Um, and you know, Nick was here for two years with us and um, got to work with Holts and. Um, got to get to know Noah Dean, you know, uh, when he'd come back for some side work and, um, you know, I wonder if he maybe had some input into helping that him become that guy to be named later. Yeah. So hope so. We love it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that'd be cool. That'd be cool. Big series win for you this weekend. I thought the guys gutted out a pretty good performance.

Saturday dominated, I think on Sunday behind behind Blake. Uh, what, what are your thoughts on this weekend? Are you sweating bullets after Friday, like we were, uh, you know, that's the second Friday in a row. We've lost in, in different fashions of course, but, um, you know, Ben is just having a a, i, I really feel bad for Ben Moore. He is having a rotten time with these.

Migraines and he's gotten some different diagnosis on what's going on with him, and he just hasn't been able to be himself because he is, I think he and rightfully so, you know, you're worried about, um, you know, what's going on in my head, I, I don't feel right. And he clearly wasn't himself on, on Friday. So he is got, he is got an appointment, uh, with a specialist today and, you know, we'll hopefully hear some, have a little more clarity on that.

But, um, he, he's pitching, you know, with a big, big weight on his shoulder because of all this. And, you know, he just, he's had, he's had flashes of his old self at times this year, but very inconsistent. And, and Friday just was a bad day. Um, they hit the ball, you know, they, they got a bunch of hits, too many walks and you know, it was one of those, you get behind too early, do a tough. I, I just, I think Blevins is tough.

You know, we beat him up there last year on, uh, on, in a real low scoring close game on Saturday, and he's just that college lefty that is hard to get to. You know, we had a couple home runs off him and a couple other balls hard. They made some nice plays. Um, I, I thought you had to tip your hat to them. They played really well Friday and they've been playing well. So yeah, we had our work cut out for us, without a doubt.

Um, but these guys, you know, every, so far, every time their, their back's been kind of to the wall. They've, they've come out fighting and, uh, we haven't always won, but they've come out, you know, punching and, uh, we did that again Saturday, you know, uh, got behind a little bit early and, you know, kind of, kind of got a rally going. And I thought, Dylan, you know, out outside of the, you know, he gave up what, four runs on two homers.

Um, and, you know, and the wind's blowing out at, or memorial play small, especially the left. Uh, but he battled through some adversity, got out of a couple jams, you know, gave us six solid innings. And we, uh, you know, I, I, I thought, um, Hubble. Hubble came in through a really good seventh and then he came in and said his shoulders bothering her. Told Mike, and I was like, oh God. Okay. Um, well, Davis had been up once or maybe once, just in case of jam row.

So he was, he was the guy there mostly right-handed. So, you know, we said, let's just, let's just give, uh, give Kellen a shot to go out there and do it. And he had a pretty clean eighth and, you know, went out there and got it, got it done for us in the ninth. So, you know, I was proud of him. Um. And, you know, we got some couple big hits in that game that kind of helped us, you know, expand it.

I, I think, um, you know, Maverick Stallings got a, a three oh pitch with a runner on first and, and, and hit a double, and that's go ahead, run. As it turned out, um, Mavs been probably in his career, probably hitting 800 on 3.0 pitches. And we, we usually let him swing it, especially in the smaller parks.

You know, if you remember in the, the tournament, the playing game, he had a two run homer, um, on a three oh pitch against South Alabama to give us the lead and, you know, so that, that was big. Um, and then, you know, the, the catching issues were probably the, uh, the lead story this weekend. Same guy knocked two catchers of our, of the series on a backswing. And so Evan Holman, who's been out because of no bleak strain, Ken hit left-handed. So I told him.

Saturday morning, then you're just gonna have to right handed When's the last time you get right handed off of righty. He goes, I couldn't even tell you. I go, well, it's gonna be today. Um, and you'll be fine. You're actually a way better Right handed hitter than left handed hitter. Anyway, I was, I, I was gonna say, I said that to you this weekend. I, this might be your, uh, your, your fuel for getting them to switch to. Just righty.

Yep. And sure enough, you know, he gets up and hits the bases loaded, bases clearing double, um, on a slide hanging, slider down the left field line. Gets us going and, you know, caught, I, I thought Evan was a, a warrior back there. He's, you know, obliques are, no, they're, they're one of those things where everything you do, you feel it. Especially in baseball, it's such a rotational sport, just throwing the ball back to the pitcher, which, oh by the way, a catcher has to do 180 times a game.

Uh, in case you're wondering, you know, uh, not to mention when they gotta throw down or call third strikes and you gotta block it and throw the first, and then you got, I think they hit him in a knee. You got knee capped a couple times behind the plate. So. I'm sure he spent most of the day today in the, uh, in the cold tub. Uh, just icing it down, you know. Well, we were all anticipating, 'cause we knew the situation with Evan, like, best case scenario doesn't play over the weekend.

Right. You get F and you get slate and you split it up. Then we know he is starting Saturday and I don't see him take any practice swings in the OnDeck circle and he goes to the plate and we're like, all right, what's gonna happen? First pitch hits him right on the elbow and we're like, all right. He ends up scoring and then yeah. Really the, I think the first swing he had of the day was that double down the line, uh, right at me. I was standing on the wall down there. But I mean, that's huge.

That ties the game for you. It gets the, the bullpen or the, the dugouts all fired up. I mean, that's a, that's a big moment for Evan to step up in knowing he's held together with Popsicle sticks and duct tape at this point. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, being that it was a Morales second concussion and basically two and a half weeks, um, he probably won't catch anymore this year. We'll, hope to get him back.

You know, I don't think it'll be this weekend, but maybe, maybe by the, you know, Tuesday of Richmond, he will be able to swing the bat for us again. But I think his catching days are, are done for this season. Um, and so Jack and Evan gotta be the guys that go and, you know, that's the way it is and they'll be fine. And Jack's feeling better, you know, I'm anticipating him catching Wednesday night at, at VCU. He's from Richmond. It's a home, you know, essence home town game for him.

So that'll be neat, uh, for, for him to be able to do that, I think. Um, so yeah. And then, you know, yesterday was the Blake Morgan show, right? Like what a fantastic ging, our first complete game in seven years, I think. Um, and you know, he, and he, and he actually threw 27 outs without giving a run because the first battery walked in the second guy, you know. Tapped one out of the ballpark and down two, nothing with no outs. And then they didn't score again.

And you know, they had some traffic out there, but he, he just really battled. He, he gets in those grooves like that sometimes where he's got that change up going in the innings, just go fast, you know? Yeah. Um, and through strikes and you know what, he walked, walked two guys and struck out seven and we played very good defense behind him. Um, so that also is, was helpful. I thought we played good defense most of the weekend.

Um, and you know, Tahraun had a big RBI hit for us out nine or two rbis actually, you know, and um, Evan got the, a hit and rundown that moves some guys up and. We just were letting him off the hook, though we weren't scoring the guy from third with less than two outs, which as we've talked about in the past, this team's had its issues with, um, and so we're letting him hang around three to two going in the seventh.

And then we finally got some big hits in the seventh, you know, and, and got that thing going. And then we did it again in the eighth. Um, and busted open a, a close game, you know, and made it look like it wasn't that close a game. So that was good to give Blake some breathing room. Yeah, I was just gonna, so if, if they had not scored those runs, extra runs there in the bottom of the eighth, was Blake gonna go back out for the ninth? He was, yeah.

Okay. Yeah, he was going, you know, I just, he had that look in his eye, man. Yeah. And in today's world of analytics and numbers, what, what, what they miss in that I. Is the human element of it. And when you see that look in a kid's eye, like I don't need to talk to him. Like his pitch account was fine. I think he was at 98 going into the ninth. Mm-hmm. Finished at one 12 maybe. Um, that's not a lot of pitches for a complete game.

And you know, he, he just had that look man, he is like, I got you guys. Like, just let me have it. And, um, he is a senior and he deserved a, a chance to, to, you know, to do something special like that. And um, you know, Mike, Mike kind of came down and says, who, who you want up? And I said, well get these guys up. But it's his game. You know, we got a six run lead. Like he can give up a couple and still finish this thing. We're not gonna let him throw 130 pitches.

But, um, he's got a little bit of wiggle room there. Great. Yeah, we threw, yeah, that was great. We threw a couple extra there while the referee or the umpires had to go, you know, review the double play at the end and slow walk all the way back to the field and then slow call everything. But just if they would've turned, if they would've re reversed that one out. I told the guys already, I said, I tell you what, if they changed this call on this.

You are gonna see a Earl Weaver type going on out here. Y'all can get one more out without me, and, uh, unfortunately they didn't so well. You did win another challenge this weekend. Uh, it's on Saturday, the, I think it was canan sliding into third that, yeah, that one really shouldn't count though. Everybody in the ballpark saw that he was safe except for the one guy making the call. It was a quick, quick review through the net. Um, he was a problem on Friday, I think, behind the dish.

And he heard plenty. Yeah, he was terrible. He was terrible all weekend. I, he's, uh, it's not, it's not good. I mean, that was one of the quickest reviews I think I've ever seen too. Yeah, that was crazy. Hey, we gotta walk back here, but we all know so well one of the home runs that Dylan gave up, it was the shot that was down the left field line. And I saw who was making the fair foul call and I didn't care what he said. I was gonna say it was probably wrong.

Yeah, it was close to the foul poll. I couldn't tell from my seat, but I was like, uh, maybe we should take a look at that. Yeah, it was pretty, yeah, that one was pretty fair. Uh, I think, um, yeah, that guy was bad. He was terrible on Friday. That, that wasn't helpful either. Like his TrackMan report was just awful. Um, so one of those things unfortunately, but that, that didn't, he didn't cost us a game Friday. I mean, those guys, ball. We weren't good enough.

But you know, it's another, you know, we said we had to, you know, we needed to win these three series and, and we've won two of them, so now we gotta go up in JMU and do it again. And, you know, two or three are on the road. And, um, the other one's kind of on the road. So, uh, but I think with the way things are shaping up, I mean, what are we tied with Texas State for fifth? For fifth. Yeah. I mean, that just tells you how punched together it was that, you know, yeah.

You're up there at fifth. That's pretty impressive. Yeah. And you got some teams moving in the wrong direction. I mean, a appalachia's lost like eight in a row or. Um, Georgia State's lost a bunch in the road. Georgia Southern's been scuffling, uh, Marshall plays at Georgia State this weekend, so one of those, whoever loses that one's gonna probably be out of it, I think. Um, and they got nine and 10 wins, and then there's some other people playing each other too. So, but two more wins.

I think you're gonna be in a tournament. Three. I think you got a good shot at being, you know, in that top six. I mean, you're not, no one's gonna catch the top four at this point, but you could definitely finish fifth. Um. And, you know, um, fifth or sixth, you know, does the same thing for you. It keeps you out of the, it is just what bracket you're gonna be in, right? Like fifth, you're in the one seed, one seeds bracket, uh, the 1 8, 4, 5, and, and sixth you're in the two seeds bracket.

So, um, you know, coast or southern miss, I mean, pick your poison. Yeah. Either one would be tough. Yeah, they're all tough. Yeah. I, I think it's really down, like the five and six spot. There's, there's five teams I think that can get there because I don't think anyone's gonna catch one through four. Like Right. Us trying to catch four games on Louisiana with six to go, probably. Probably, yeah. And they got the five record.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's us, Texas State, Georgia, Southern Arkansas State and app. Yeah. And then you've got, I think Texas State and Georgia Southern play each other this week. So you kind of need like a Georgia Southern to win that series, like two games to one something. That's the, the way that helps you. But a lot of things you can just root for for teams to lose. Like app and Arc State, you know, just. Just reform to lose.

But yeah, I mean, I think three and three, you're right in the thick of it. Maybe you come down with some tiebreakers to that five, six seed, but you know, I think you, you handle it, handle well. We got the tiebreaker over Georgia Southern. Mm-hmm. But that's the only one of the Georgia State I don't think is gonna be get in, get up there. So that's not gonna matter. Um, you know, six and oh solves a lot of problems. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be good.

Especially since Coastal's 20 and four Uhhuh, uh, they're, uh, their, their pitching numbers have been just out of this world, man. But you never know what can happen. So we gotta take care of, we got a Wednesday night BCU game in front of that too. Yes. So, um, go have some fun with that and get, you know, probably throw everybody an inning, you know, get some guys didn't pitch this weekend. Need to get out there and try to stay sharp. So one of those type deals and play at the Diamond and, um.

We've played pretty well at the Diamond through the years. You know, I, I couldn't even tell about that. Okay. Last time ever. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. It might be the last time ever. Um, so, you know, get, uh, if we gotta arrest somebody in that game, then we will. 'cause at the end of the day, it means nothing, uh, other than it's a game you're playing and you'd like to play well, and I, I thought, um, you know, all, all in all the guys did a good job this weekend.

And anytime you get, you know, a couple really good starts, like, like we did on Saturday and Sunday, it's certainly helpful and had some big hits to go, to go along with it. Uh, so I, I mentioned this before we were talking before you came on, and I wanted to bring it up. Uh, you guys did a fantastic job with your pitching management this weekend, um, which is, it's weird to say like in with losing Friday, 11 to four, but it was pretty clear after that.

It was like, well, I'm not gonna use the guys, I'm not gonna use like the best pictures and. It was a great scenario where some guys who had not really done great all year came out and had some of the best games of the season. And then with Hubble and Davis, you were set up. I mean, you, you went into Sunday, you had Bailey and Hunt and baes, and uh, I've lost the fourth one I had a minute ago.

Um, all ready to go and if you needed him on Sunday and you didn't end up needing him, so those guys got rest. I mean, that was just a, a great, and, and it, it had to happen. Had to get the good pitching to have it happen, but a great job of coaching.

You guys did. Well, I I think that sometimes on Friday, CB back in the old days, if you got behind early on Friday by five or six and the other team's ACE was out there and you're like, all right man, we're not gonna score seven more runs off this guy. You would use that to get your young guys their experience. Like you'd throw a bunch of your better freshmen that weren't quite ready to be in the moments, the leverage moments yet.

Um. And I thought that Friday, you know, I thought Park threw the ball pretty well. I thought Ezio threw the ball pretty well. And, uh, who was the other one we threw Friday? Dylan, Jimmy Tora, pitch grade and Dylan threw the ball pretty well. And that was each, I don't know, each threw, you know, one or two plus. But, um, I thought it, it, it, it was good. They, they did a good job. They kept the game right there. Um, you know, and we, we had a couple shots at it.

We just couldn't get a big hit, but they didn't let it just fall to crap, you know? Right. Um, and so they killed a little bit of their offensive momentum. I mean, you think about they didn't score a lot, they didn't do a lot of offense. They had three home runs. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, after about the fifth inning on Friday. Yeah. I was, if you go after the fourth inning Friday, we pretty much dominated 'em the rest of the weekend.

Yeah. Yeah. And they had, they're all, all, they scored six more runs and they were on three swings. Yeah, so I thought we really pitched well after that and um, I was proud of our guys, you know, for bouncing back that way. And it's such a funny dynamic. I mean, people put so much importance on the Friday game. Mm-hmm. Uh, I've always been of the mind that they over important overemphasize it. Um, everybody would love to be one and oh rather than oh and one. I get that.

But it doesn't necessarily. And baseball's one of those sports where the momentum is the guy on the mound the next day. That's where your momentum is. And our, our two guys on the mound the next two days were better than their two. And so we were able to get that momentum back. Their guy was better than ours on Friday. Um. But sometimes, you know, you go out and you, you lose a, a close one on Friday.

Both teams pitch well, and you know, that happens, that happens oftentimes as well, but you just gotta bounce back and win the next one. And then I think the momentum then switches like, all right, they won Friday, we won Saturday. You know, we got the win going in the Sunday. We're feeling a little better about ourselves now. And you know, we've all won on Friday and lost on Saturday too. And you are like, man, we had a chance to win the series. We didn't get it done.

Now we kind of gotta win tomorrow. And the, the other team that lost Friday and one Saturday's like, all right, we get to play for the series now we, we get to try to win. And so the mindset of it is, you know, is always so important. Um, and you know, it's, we haven't won a lot on Fridays. I mean, I was looking, we were looking back at. Our record on the three days. You know, if you wanna talk about what pictures are, you know, what's your record when this guy pitches, you know, that stat.

I was think it's cool. What mm-hmm. Not necessarily his record. Absolutely. Right. What's your team's record and Friday's in the league? Um, I think we are two and six. Um, we've played eight. Right. Um, and then Saturdays, I believe, uh, we're four and four, um, which means we're six and two on Sundays. Right. Yeah. About as balanced as you can be. Yeah. And so it's like, yeah, we're winning on Sunday, we're not winning on Friday, and we're, you know, 500 on Saturday. Mm-hmm.

So it's, uh, and we're also, you know, one of those, one of the few teams that haven't swept somebody or been swept. Mm-hmm. Um, so we've just kind of been standing right in the middle. Um, and Marshall Marshall came in Friday riding a, a great hot streak. I think they won seven in a row. They beat a ranked West Virginia team. That was three games. Clear of everyone else in the Big 12. Yeah. I think at least offensively with the bats, they were seeing the ball like it was a beach ball.

And sometimes when you get those teams that maybe are overachieving a little bit and kind of on that hot streak, once they hit that loss and they kind of deplete that energy, man, they, they fall. And I feel like the way that we pitched on Saturday kind of extinguished that Flint. That's what it felt like. They didn't really, I don't feel like they had a whole lot together Sunday outside of that top of the first.

Yeah. And obviously Blake had a lot to do with that because he was, you know, he kept them that way. And it's always interesting to see, 'cause it's always just different, you know, they gotta go down and play Georgia State, who they're a game ahead of, we were a game ahead of them coming into this. And um, you know, so they, they gotta go on the road and anything can happen down in that park down there too, man, that's an offensive park.

So, and Georgia State can hit, uh, they just haven't been playing well. So, um, but they, they're, they're fighting for their lives now. You know, they got, they gotta win that series this weekend. So, um, and then if they beat Marshall in the series, then that, that may put, you know, Marshall pretty much out of it. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, a lot of, uh, grits and chaos going on in the next couple weeks here. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Yeah, a lot of people.

Um, did you see, did you see, uh, somebody sent it to me on Twitter, there was a, some sort of bench clear or something in the end of the JMU Georgia Southern game yesterday? No, I don't think I saw that one. You have to look that up. I don't know what happened, but, um, but you know, baseball bench clears are much a do about nothing. Bunch of guys. Yeah. It, it looks cool because there's so many guys, but it's nothing. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of chaos. Bo was telling me a little bit about it.

He was texting me on Sunday. Uh, I never got a chance to see the video, but there's, I think there's been a couple of things up in, uh, uh, with involving JMU this year. There's been a couple of, uh, bench clearing situations. I will say. It does make me think of, you know, the, uh, the big internet thing going around right now, the a hundred men versus a gorilla.

The only thing I've seen that was, the only thing I've seen from that that was funny was like, what about a hundred Don Zimmers versus. Was Pedro Mars who would win baseball bra. Maybe think of that one. But I got, uh, Gary, you got that picture. I got, I got a picture, uh, at the end of the game yesterday. I really enjoyed. Yeah. So this was, I thought it was great. You know, they're in the line.

Uh, you know, I think it's just, it's just cool to have those moments with the guys, you know, Blake Blake's been here with y'all for four years. I mean, you knew 'em I'm sure for years before that. Yeah. You know, it's just a, it's gotta be fun to watch these guys grow up and have these big moments. Yeah. Without a doubt, man. It's, you know, and especially your seniors. 'cause they, you don't get to be a senior in a baseball program without going through ups and downs and tough times.

You're talking about a kid, you're talking about resilient. You know, that kid had the world by the balls his freshman year, um, came out of nowhere. Conference, first team all conference. Mm-hmm. Which is unheard of for a freshman in a conference like conference, USA. Uh, first female all conference pitcher and freshman of the year. Um, and you know, everybody's, I mean, I don't even, what was ZRA, like something? It was like once I to looked at it yesterday. Yeah, yeah.

It was just crazy, crazy. And, and then, you know, sophomore year the injury bug got him. He, uh mm-hmm. Um, you know, he, he, he was banged up a little bit. He ended up, you know, missing the end of the year with, uh, ACL surgery. And then he had the meniscus thing and coming back the next year just wasn't ever quite himself. Um, and this year he was finally healthy again and started to show good bits and pieces of, of, of even a better version of the old Blake Morgan.

'cause he had a breaking ball now and he didn't even have that as a freshman. It was pretty much fast change, um, fast ball. And he was still throwing a fast ball in 91 in the nineties. Yeah. It was, it was like, good. Mm-hmm. So he's carried his velocity. A couple pro guys were in there to see him yesterday. Mm-hmm. I was so happy about that. Um, 'cause sometimes it's when they see you, right? Yeah. And a couple of the guys called me today and said, man, that was awesome performance.

You know, we were so impressed. So I like that for him, certainly. And he's a wonderful kid. He is a great teammate. You know, when he is not pitching, he's on the front rail, the dugout. He's encouraging all his, sometimes even when he is pitching. Yeah, sometimes. Yeah. We got, I saw you actually yesterday. He was, he was there shouting while they were batting. I saw you kind of look over. I don't know if that was, it was at that, but it in my mind when you're like, is he really doing that?

Ladies in the middle of this. All right. Uh, I think Mike came up to me after the seventh and. We were talking about pitching, and I said, well, he looks pretty good, man. How's he feel? He goes, I don't know. I'm not talking to him. That's, that's baseball in a nutshell right there, right? Yeah. Right. Leave, leave alone. I might say something else, screw him up. I leave him alone. He's doing great.

And that was, I remember talking to Mike about, I think he had everything was Mike Tano that he had, uh, coach, yeah, ano, yeah. Made the big leagues. Yeah. And I remember talking to him about it. He was like, all I was trying to do was just not mess him up. That was my entire plan with him, is to do everything I could to stay outta his way and let him succeed. Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of last night what it was, man, he just, yeah. Let him, let him roll like that.

And what, like I said, he, I mean, I would imagine it'd be the Sunbelt pitcher of the week. I don't know if somebody could, I would hope so. Better be. Yeah. There'll be, there'll be some guy for Southern Miss Louisiana that threw, uh, seven innings. That gave up four runs. So he would the best, I mean, complete games are so rare now in any level of baseball. Um, you know, college baseball in particular, so probate any level, they're rare.

I mean, and so they should be celebrated, especially when it wasn't like we threw him 160 pitches to get 'em that, uh, we would never do that, first of all. But he, he did it on schedule, you know, I mean, 112 over nine. Uh, I'm an English major, so you can do math mean, it's probably about, you know, it's probably about, you know, 13, 14 pitches in inning, which is nothing. Yeah. Yeah. And that's really what you shoot for, right? Like about 15 pitches in inning.

And I feel like you're on track in what, two hours? One, 12.4, which is perfect. 12.4. Yeah. Yeah. You want about 13 inning? I mean, it's, it's pretty much what you need to do to pitch a, a complete game. Yeah. Yeah. One 20 they say. Right. That's, uh, something like that. So, but he was fantastic and you know, he only had a couple innings where he had to mm-hmm.

You know, battle out of something and, um, we, we've got the one break where they had the steal in there with one out and we got the battered interference on the strikeout and yeah, that saved a run. But other than that, man, it was all, it was all him and the guys picking him up behind him. So, um, hopefully we can keep that up. And, you know, I'm glad this isn't a short week for him coming off that.

'cause the following week will be, and we gotta get through this week and then we gotta figure out, you know. You guys tell me, gimme some of your thoughts on what we need to do to set up the picture for the how do, that's always a, how do you get Rick, you have a Thursday, Friday, Saturday series, the last one, and then you've got, you know, you're, if you're not in the playing game, you play Wednesday. If you're in the playing game, you play Tuesday.

The whole playing dynamic changes everything, right? Because it's one you gotta win, must win. But if you're in the regular tournament, then you know, it's, it's a little different than if you're in play it. So we'll see what's up and, uh, let's, let's get there. First I say, I imagine this weekend we'll have a lot, 'cause how you do this weekend will probably give you a better idea of where you might be standing, regardless of what happens against Coastal. Yeah, I think so.

I, I think if, if you can win the series this weekend mm-hmm. With 14. Depending on what, you know, Texas State does. Um, obviously, and then a couple other, I don't see anybody below us sweeping some of their plan, um, at this point. So, uh, it'll probably tell you, Hey, we're in, but we gotta, um, we gotta win one to, you know, maybe be in the, in the top six. Mm-hmm. I, I think, I really do think fifteen's gonna get you in the top six this year.

Feels like Yeah. It's looking like it here a couple weeks away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Make 'em down to some tiebreakers if you're at 15 and 15, but you'll be in the conversation. I think 16 and 14. You're pretty much at this, I would think guaranteed a five or succeed. Um, yeah, just based on, and like I said, 18 and 12 will really get you somewhere. Yes. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Started nipping in Louisiana there for that, that five seat.

Yeah, it that, that's, that's a lot to figure out, manage too. 'cause you also have a midweek next week before we play coastal at War Memorial and that may be you just the whole kitchen sink out there. Just see what happens. Yeah. That'll be one of those games, um, that you're just gonna go think about it like a practice.

It's a, it's a good day to just get some guys some work and you may play a few guys and get 'em outta there and rest 'em, and depending on what we need to do against, against Coastal and that kind of thing, um, and then, you know, you gotta figure out what you want to do on with your pitching.

Um, I, I've been in situations before where you really only needed, um, well you remember Covid, we, we didn't play, uh, have they had a open weekend that last weekend before the conference state tournament? And we ended up going down and playing Louisiana Tech and we played them Friday, Saturday. And we threw our, our our, um, we threw, uh, uh, Moore and, and Gregory both in the Friday game. Mm-hmm. Um, just to give 'em an extra couple days for the tournament if you need one win.

And we ended up winning both of those games, but we didn't need to. But, um, 'cause it was already set for the conference, if you need one win, it could be a scenario where, you know, you would just throw Blake at the end of one of the first two games, a couple innings to close and try to win it and that, and then he's done for the week and you could throw him first in the tournament, um, if you had to, something like that.

So, but gotta go beat JMU and then all those things would be fun to talk about. Yeah. And they're, and that's not gonna be easy. They, no, they, you know, they, they obviously, they're one of the better pitching. Staff's in the league, top to bottom. Um, they got some guys that can throw the ball and a couple lefties that are pretty good. Um, yeah, Aiden, uh, Aiden Kools brother is doing really well. Yep, yep.

They haven't hit a ton this year, um, but it's an offensive ballpark, so, and I, I did look at the extended weather forecast. It's gonna be cool up there on, uh, on, on Friday night. Um, so shocker in Harrisonburg, but, uh, and then Saturday and Sunday look nice, so, all right, well, let's do it. Let's go. I'm, I'm all for six and Oh, let's do it. Let's go out and get some wins.

Hey, we were supposed to have the groundbreaking ceremony today for the Elmer Family Stadium and the, uh, I guess whatever meteorologist they were talking to told 'em that it was gonna be, uh, some pretty bad weather around. So they postponed it to June 5th. Instead of May 5th. So we got that giant tent at our, our home plate right now looks like a, a Star Wars spaceship. I mean, it's huge. And I was like, how are we gonna practice tomorrow with this thing there?

So yeah, we're gonna have to be creative. I think they're trying to get it down, but I haven't been given any guarantees. So just one more thing to around, it's like turtle, right? Yeah. It's, it's huge. Yeah. Um, so yeah, we may, maybe I'll take BP inside it. Maybe. We'll see. That's what I was thinking. Just you have to hit everything on a line or on the ground. If you pop it up, we gonna, you, you owe money for the tent.

Yeah. Don't come pick without, but have a bunch of holes in it from all the popups. And that's a good lesson for the hitters. We're not trying to get popups. Hit it out. There's Right, exactly. There you go. Exactly. Uh, any questions? Anybody chime in on anything? No, you've an, you answered a couple questions that I had picked up just in person about, you know, approach to pitching and, and all of that good stuff. I will float you one because Chiron Hammond is gonna be our player guest today.

Yeah. Uh, watching him be the bullpen catcher and then having to run out and warm up the pitchers. Uh, I I guess, is he the emergency backup catcher now given the situation? He is, yeah. He is the, um, he's the guy that, he's been in the bullpen this year times when we've had to get two guys going and he does fine. And, um, you know, his biggest issue was he said, I don't have a cup, A cup, but yeah, we probably need to do that, Ron. Um, he is, he is an amazingly wonderful kid, great kid.

His energy, you know, is infectious. He loves being a part of a team. Um, he plays hard. He is, he is just great and he gave us a big spark yesterday, man. And, um, you know, he hadn't played for a couple weeks much at all. A couple pitch hit, appearances, but he never mopes. He's always in the game. He, um, he is just a really, really fun guy to have on your team in your program and we all appreciate him so much.

Yeah. We're excited to talk to him and, and talk all about the weekend and his whole journey. And he's from Essex County. I went to Middlesex County, so we got a little, there you go. Little something, something there too. Yeah. Uh, but no, I think, I think that's all we had and as always coach, we appreciate having you on here, man. It's an awesome boost for us and get to hear it. The information directly from you is always a big win. Trying my best to get to the diamond this week.

I think CB's coming up, I'll be there. Yeah. So we'll do that. And then, uh, of course we watching this weekend on ESPN plus for the JMU series. Hey, one of the things we are gonna try to do with, um, Tahraun, and you usually only wanna do it as a, in a, in a home game. Um, but I thought it would be cool to, to try and, and we're not gonna do it Wednesday night, uh, but we may try it at Richmond the following Tuesday. Um, never had a guy try to play all nine positions in the game. Oh, yeah.

And so we're gonna give that award. Of course. We need to have the lead Yeah. In the, or at least be tied in the ninth grade to work, or else you're like, wasted a bunch of time. So, um, I don't know. Well, you know, he actually has a ton of pitching experience. I'm like, I know we were he gonna do this with, with, uh, Bryce Windham. We were gonna, which he had not ever pitched in college, so he pitched some bull, but, but, uh, Ron has a decent amount of, uh, pitching experience. He does.

Yeah. And he is actually been throwing bullpens, you know, um, he looked pretty good last week. He threw the hitters. So we may, we may still use him in that capacity, so we're gonna think about it. I'd love to be able to do it. I wish we had one more midweek home game. Yeah. Um, to do it in. 'cause like I said, if you go through all that and then you don't get to, you know, play the night, that's when he is got a pitch. Yeah. Um, it kind of defeats the purpose of it a little bit.

So, uh, but, but it's something we'd like to do, so we'll see. That would be pretty awesome. You know, it's always that mid, uh, switch of the eighth, you know, if the situation we're gonna, we're gonna be winning the game, we're not gonna worry about it, but just in case. Yeah. You can always throw in here. That's true. We could, we could, we could just bring 'em in. Bring 'em in the eighth top. Yeah. Off the field to pitch two outs in eighth. I mean, ECU does it right. Why not us?

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good, that's a good call. We might, we might need to try that. So. Alright guys, we'll your time to Ron and thank you Goman. Appreciate you man. Thank you, coach. Go Monarch. All right, we're gonna take a quick break and we will be right back. This episode of the Monarchist podcast, it's 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 Welcome back, Monarch fans to the Hudson Homer podcast. We are excited to bring on infielder slash bullpen catcher. Little bit of everything.

Senior Tahraun Hammond has joined the podcast. Tahraun. How is it going, man? Uh, going really well. How you guys doing? We are great man. We are great. We know you are, uh, kind of in the middle of your journey back to campus from Essex. Uh, back in my home county of Middlesex where we apparently just still don't have cell towers there. They haven't upgrade since I graduated. Middlesex always gonna be like that. Always.

Yes. We'll be flying cars and they'll still be like, man, this, this wife out here is terrible. You definitely hop in a little time machine. I actually didn't know you was from Middlesex. Yes. Yeah. Graduated from Middlesex, played down in Deltaville, ballpark. Uh, it was obviously well before you were there. This is 2005 when I graduated high school. I think the, uh, the big name for Essex then was Harold Muzingo. I don't know if you heard that. Oh yeah. Harold heard that.

I actually trained with Harold a few times. Okay. Yeah, he was a beast. He was throwing like low nineties to me and I was like 15 years old and it did not go well for me. Yeah. Well, Tahraun you had a, a great weekend. I know you spent a lot of time running back and forth from the dugouts of the bullpen to catch the guys when we were down two catchers, but huge hit on Sunday to kind of break the offense open. What'd you think about the weekend?

Um, I thought the weekend started off a little shaky, but uh, in the end it went well. We, we rallied together. We stayed together as a team to keep fighting. To overcome the obstacles that got in our way of winning. So I think it went really, it went, it started off bad, but ended. Ended. Ended up ended up really good.

Yeah. You're one of those guys that you're just such an important part of any team, like you show up every day, you've got a great attitude, you're always smiling, you can see you're out there, just always uplifting the guys man. Like it. Do you, is that a thing you think about doing or just something that just comes naturally to you? Uh, I would say it's a little bit of both. Uh, of course I'm human so sometimes I don't have a good day.

But I just feel like if energy's a really important thing to, like in baseball to me, because like if you don't have good energy, then like how are you gonna perform well or how are you gonna do anything good? So I just feel like being the person I am to bring the energy to the team and to the dugout or on the field, like it just helps out a lot more than what anybody would think. Yeah. Yeah. And you've moved around a couple positions this year.

I think you've, you've played third, you've played second, you've done a couple other things. Um, but how is that for you just kind of always having to be at the ready to go? Is that part of that just positive energy you're bringing to the dugout? Uh, I'm just somebody that, that's just wants to play and win. Like, uh, when I was younger, like we just always wanted to compete. Like, especially like in Essex, like it's not many good baseball players.

So like, of course, like I had to be that guy to play every position like that was needed whenever we needed it. So I just feel like the competitive nature is something that helps me bring, uh, like a winning mentality to the team. Yeah. And, and to that end, you know, you. This is your first year playing division one. You, you've, you've got as much college experience as pretty much anybody on the team, you know, playing at D two at Virginia State and, and Bluefield State.

But this first year at D one, but also the first time, you've really haven't been in the lineup every single day. I mean, other, other years. You know, you're playing shortstop every day. You're even pitching every day. What's that adjustment been like for you to have, to learn how to, like I said, be ready anytime. I, uh, most of the time, of course, thanks.

Not like, I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna be the best for the team, but as in like, if he sees something that like we don't see, then we have to just trust what he sees because he's been in here. 20 plus years. So it's just the adjustment has been just, just being myself and just being there to help. Like, you know, like, like you said, like I've been, I've been at the college level for three years, so like I've seen the ups, I've seen the down, I've seen it all.

So I just wanna be here to help my team win and succeeded in, Just asking a little bit about, you know, how you got recruited to ODU. Obviously you're at Virginia State for, for coup for two years. You're at Bluefield State for a year, you know, what's that journey like going get eventually coming from Bluefield to old Dominion? Uh, I would say that was a good, it was a, at first it was, it was a little rough.

Uh, like when I first had entered the portal, I ended up entering the portal because my coach for Bluetooth state ended up leaving and going to a different school. So the recruiting, like I remember I just, one day, like I had, I honestly, I'm not gonna say I committed to another school, but like, I had told a school that was coming, but I just wanted to like battle myself. And, uh, one day, I just remember I text Hayes my sophomore year at college when I first entered the portal.

And we had a little conversation and whatnot, and then I just was like, I just wanna, I'm gonna text him this year just to see, see what the odds are that I get the opportunity to be able to play at division one. Glad it worked out. Yeah. Yeah. It worked out really well for us. So we're, we're glad you landed here.

I, I literally, like, when h first got to ODU, the first thing I told him is, you know, the guys you recruited at VMI were always some of my favorite human beings because I'd see 'em, you know, playing here local in high school. And so it makes perfect sense that you were the guy that you texted Hayes. 'cause I was like, yep. There you go. Just another top notch, fantastic human being. Yeah. That's what I try to be. You go. Awesome man.

Well, we've, uh, we, we've talked to several other guys on the team. I think you're living in a house with Scotty and who's the, the third with you? Zach. Zach, yeah. Zach. Zach Leite. Okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about living in that house. Uh, it's a great household to live in, honestly. Uh. All of, like, me and Scotty, like we're we'd loud ones.

We the talkative ones, uh, Zach don't really talk as much, but we get Zach out of his, like, out of his comfort zone when we're in the house together. So the household is just a fun household to live in. Like, we always laughing, joking, uh, we, we cook for each other. We do everything. Like it's a really good household to live in. Does Scotty ever get you do pterodactyl sounds with him? That's not something do, that's, that's more of him exact thing. Like, I'm more than one.

Like I'm just gonna sit here and just laugh at them doing it. Because like what? Like, just like a competition heard, we heard about in the left field on like Saturday. He was out there at the end of the game. He was just out. You could hear him yelling, nobody else out there. He was like, let's go. Just being Scotty. Just saying. Yeah. Yeah. That's Scott. Definitely. Scotty right there.

That's awesome. Well, I mean, I, I noticed you down in the bullpen catching, I think early in the day on Saturday and 'cause I kind of knew the situation with, with f and then with Slate as well. Uh, but I assume you have caught at some point before 'cause you looked a little too natural out there, even in the bullpen. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've caught throughout my whole life. Uh, I probably started, my catching was actually the first position I played. Like I played in baseball.

I didn't start playing shortstop until about my seventh grade year, middle school. But like, catching is something that like I started doing, like that was one of the first things that, and pitching, pitching as long as you have the proper equipment to catch, right. Yeah. That's, that's the big issue. Yeah, I was about to say, you can go ask Evan if you can go without one. 'cause I'm pretty sure he caught one right off the plate into him, uh, on Sunday. Yeah, definitely. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Sunday, yes. I think Evan got hit twice on Sunday. I believe he's gotta be just living in an ice bath this, uh, next couple days. Yeah, definitely. And yeah, you were talking about pitching and I, I, I brought that up a little. We talked about Finney. You, you pitched a ton between Virginia State and Bluefield State. What, what was that like? I think, I think you told me one time that it just kind of happened.

Um, I pitched in high school and, uh, I think my freshman year of my freshman year of Virginia State, I believe one of our starters had got hurt. And uh, we just was looking for somebody like to just do it. And I just remember, like, I was like, man, I could do it. Like it's, you know, I, I'm not gonna say I was the hardest store my freshman year, but I can definitely say from my freshman year to now, like I've picked up a lot more vlo than what I started with.

Well, I, I wanna tell the fans out there just actually how good you were pitching. So at Virginia State, 30 appearances, 3.81 ERA two 16 batting average against conference player of the year while you're there too. Then at Bluefield, was it 12 appearances, 2.53 ERA with three saves, uh, player of the Year award again. So I would say you were more than just like, getting filled into a spot. Like it seems like you may have upgraded the position by throwing you up there.

Yeah, I was, like I said, I just, when I'm a, I'm a competitor, so I always, when I'm up on the mound, like it's just, it's you versus me, and I'm gonna bet on myself 10 times outta 10, no matter who it is or who step into the box. Like, I'm gonna bet on myself no matter what. Uh, I had a picture, uh, Gary, if you got the one of, uh, him and Mav. Uh, and this is, and I probably got a, a ton of these, but, uh, I noticed you guys take a take a minute before every game. Uh, whoop it went away.

Is that, uh, take a minute before every game to to pray with each other. I tell, tell me why that's important for you guys and how did y'all start doing that? Um, I forgot what series started it. I believe it was, um, the series after Charlotte, when we were, when we were going to Auburn, like our Auburn series. Uh, it just was a thing, like we just came to each other like, uh, before the game. 'cause we usually, we usually pray as a team.

So like we would present, we would break off and throw and stuff. So like one day, like me and Mav just like, 'cause me and Mav are really close and like we both like, believe, like God is like the number one like thing person in our lives. So like, we do everything through him. So like, I. Me and him just one day, like disagree, like let's just pray before the game. And we just been praying in every game and it hasn't stopped since. Yeah, I know. It's always a ni it's a nice moment.

Anytime another photographer is at a game, that's where, oh, you see, you can see it kind, see that photographer like click form to get it. But yeah. Yeah. I remember the first time I met you was at a volleyball game. It was You were hanging out with Mav. Yeah, that was, and I was immediately like, well, I love this guy. I can't wait to see him get to play all here.

Yeah. Mav was like, Mav was the first, like one of the first teammates that I had here that like, we actually clicked like as soon as we met each other. So like, that's, that's my boy, like, so yeah. So he, now that's interesting 'cause you know, it, I see him when he gets kind of hyped up on the field, especially when things start happening. He's a little louder, but in general, like, I've known Matt like two years and he maybe hadn't said 12 words to me.

So it's funny 'cause you're, you're much more talkative. Is he, is he like that when y'all hang out or is it just like, you gotta open him up a little bit? Uh, I'm gonna say like, I remember 'cause everybody tells me like Mav, like ma, even Mav will tell me like he didn't talk to nobody last.

His, uh, the first came here and I just remember like when I first came, I, it was like August and like we just, like all of us went to, um, our teammates house and we was just sitting there and talking and vi vibing with each other. And I just remember like him coming up just like introducing himself and showing me around the different things. Like we just had like a talk, like he, I found out he was from Florida. Uh, just different things. Like, it just was like a, a instant bond.

Like as soon as we started talking, just soulmates, I get it. All right. CB got a couple other great shots from this weekend too. So, uh, if you ever need evidence that you caught at OD, if you sent out, don't up behind the plate. Uh, CB has got you covered. I mean Oh, of course. The smile, right? Of course. Yeah. Yes. That is awesome. And by the way, no one is gonna be, uh, trying to railroad the catcher. 'cause that's a, it's gonna be a tough one to get through. I can tell you that.

Yeah. Did you play football? I have to assume you played like every sport there. Uh, yeah. In high school I played football and I also played basketball in high school. Right. Yeah, just, I just assuming, like you said, in a small town anyway, and you're a pretty phenomenal athlete. I had to imagine you were just like top of the world. So what, what'd you play in? I'm mis, I'm, I don't wanna put any disparagement on your height, but I'm assuming point guard and basketball and uh, yeah.

And what were you football like running back, linebacker, running back, and safety. Actually. Safety, yeah. There you go. Okay. All right. Yeah, I see it. Some of those, uh, smaller county high schools out there, if you can run 50 yards without falling over, they're gonna be like, oh, you're a three sport athlete. Then there's Tahraun who ends up being like the best player in every sport that he plays. So I That's awesome. Right. That's exactly how it is at the small schools.

Everybody plays out. Yeah. Oh yeah. I have a year of cross country for some reason because they just didn't have enough guys to run, so that's funny. Uh, awesome. Well, Tahraun, we ask everyone who comes on, uh, you know, we've got a college elements to MLB, the show, you got the college football game back. So if they were to make a college baseball game, what would be your overall rating? And then what within the ratings would you spike?

Could be like contact versus righties, power versus lefties, fielding. So overall and then your best attribute. Uh, I probably would be like a 85 overall. 85 I think. Uh, and my best attribute would be my contact versus rights and lefties. Yeah. Just contact all around, like putting the ball in clay, hitting line drives. That's, that would probably be my best attributes. This is, so you joined the, the growing list again, you see kind of who the people we have at odu.

'cause most of our guys give that like 81 to 85 range. It's like, yeah, I'm, I'm good. You know, I'm not a mid, so, Hey, you can, you can, you can do something with this ball player. Yeah. Except for Was Zach. Wasn't Zach the only like No, I'm 99. 99. Yeah, he's nine. Nine, yeah. Yeah, that sound like too, Zach definitely would say 99. Yeah. I think Scotty said he is somewhere in the low eighties or something like that. So, uh, yeah.

Yeah. We, yeah, a lot of, lot of 80, 81 to 85 range, which is it. Which is fine. Another, I mean, especially the game. I mean, you guys are young, you know, put you in, put you in a ball game. That's pretty good. Yeah. Well, I know you had finals this week. We won't make you say how you felt you did on those, but what is, uh, what's next for you once the season wraps and the semester's over? Um, I'll ask you the harder question. Yeah, I would definitely try. I'm a, I'm play travel ball.

I mean, uh, fall ball, I'm sorry, spring summer ball somewhere. I'm gonna play summer ball somewhere just to, uh, keep, keep everything good and, uh, hopefully like either at the draft or during the draft, like, you know, I'm just trying to do my best to get a shot at the next level. Honestly. There's lots of indie ball opportunities too. If it doesn't, you know, affiliate there.

There's, and it's not, you know, Indy ball a few years back, you know, 10, 20 years ago was like, oh man, this is not that good. But now it's, it's, it's pretty solid. You can actually, I was talking to, um, Kyle Battle's mom, Kyle is one of our alums. He played, he got, uh, picked up by the Yankees for a few years and he's playing indie ball right now in, uh, Nebraska. And we're talking about, so, you know, now they actually pay enough.

You can actually live and like, pay your bills and do Okay on. So it's, yeah. Even if it doesn't, uh, work out with, uh, with affiliate team, that's an option for you to, to try that out too. Yeah, definitely. Just somewhere, just somewhere at the next level just to keep playing. Yeah, for sure. Doing what I love. That's great, man. Position flexibility should help you out quite a bit with that. Yeah. 'cause All right. We need a catcher. We need a right fielder. We need a second baseman.

I've got it all. Come get me. Yeah. I'm. And you played a few games for the, uh, chilia peppers for a couple, couple years, right? Yeah, I did. Yeah. I think, I think I looked, and there was a game I was at taking pictures where y'all were playing at the pilots. Mm-hmm. And you came in at the end of the game, but I just didn't happen to get a picture of you. So I was, I was, I was sad about that one. And I, yeah, I did that. That was my freshman year actually.

Yeah, because you had to like, wait out like it was raining or something. That's probably why I didn't get a picture. I might have not been there anymore. The game ended up starting really late. I definitely remember. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Let, all right, man. Well, Ron, we, uh, I, I thoroughly enjoyed you being on the team this year, man. I, I'm really glad that that's how it turned out for you. Um, you know, you're, you're the man.

Uh, you're, you're awesome and you're, it's, you're just wonderful having your energy around the field. Uh, and so hopefully we can bring it here. And, uh, I was telling Finney earlier, we were talking about all the different variations about things we're, I'm like, six oh, in conference, let's, let's finish it out that way, right? Yeah. Um. Yeah, so, uh, so just appreciate you coming on, man. We appreciate you being a monarch and, and just thanks for everything, man. Yeah, of course, man.

Thank, thank y'all for just accepting me and giving me a shot. I, I love it here. I love Norfolk. I never really came down here, but I definitely feel like it's a home down here for me. That's awesome, man. Good. That's awesome. We're ha, definitely happy to hear that. So, well Tron, thank you so much. Uh, drive back to Norfolk safely. Watch out for the deer in Middlesex and Gloucester on your way back.

Um, but yeah, but take care and, uh, good luck this week against VCU, then heading on up to Harrisonburg to beat the Dukes. Yeah, definitely. Yes. Alright, thanks Ron. Take care. All right, Ron. Thank y'all. Thank y'all for having me. Thanks Ron. Appreciate it man. Good kid. Good kid. That's awesome. We say that every time. Every time we finish with these. Good, good. Just a good kid. Yeah. Ron, Ron's a great guy.

Yet to find someone on the team I don't like, so that's, I'm sure there, there's probably one of 'em when we hide 'em. Well, yeah. All right, so let's get to our players of the week. What did we say? Hey, you had that ready? Look at you. Oh, I'm learning, man. We, episode 16, I got this finally. So, uh, pitch of the week was really hard. It was really hard to pick who was gonna pitch for the week this week. Um, no, it was not obviously the plague. Morgan, uh, complete game, nine innings.

Finney's Point was great. They got 27 outs actually in a row, or 27 outs, uh, without giving a run after the first two. Yeah, two runs, seven hits, two walks, seven Ks, and just absolute just senior leader. Um, you know, Kellen Davis, as you pointed out, probably one of his best performers of the year. Two innings no hits, two walks, three strikeouts. Um, Ethan Hubble, a scoreless inning with a couple of strikeouts, hopefully his shoulder's.

Okay. Dylan Brown, you know, you, it wasn't the greatest start of his, of his season, but a very nice start, right? Six innings, four runs, seven strikeouts. He's up over, what, 82 strikeouts this year. So he, he is getting up there, I think, I think I looked up in, in the most recent. Highest strikeout total within the last, like, since Fenwood has been here. Uh, hunter Gregory had 85 1 year, 86 another year. So I mean, Dylan is gonna blow right by that.

Um, Nick Sulpizio with two scoreless innings, which he has not done all year. It was fantastic. Dylan. Toss strip, same thing. Two scoreless innings. So the pitching we had, we had some set, you wouldn't think in a, a week where we lost a game, 11 to four. We had some really great pitching, but we did. Um, and then Maverick Maverick, second week in a row. Maverick Stallings. It is, it is now, uh, past April 15th. So, so Maverick and I'll go through that here in a minute.

I did some, I did some deep dive on the stats here. Uh, but Maverick for the week, he was five for 10. Uh, had two doubles, a Homer, four rbis, pick up three walks. Uh, some other guys who did really well. Uh, Canon George, another great week. He's, he's been really consistently good lately. Four for 11, a double a homer, three walks, uh, stolen base. Three, uh, three rbis. Uh, Evan Holman, two for four. Had that basis clearing. Double had four rbis. A couple hit by pitches of sacrifice.

Kyle Edwards, another good week. Four for 10, two doubles, three rbis, a walk, a sacrifice, a stolen base. Just fill up that box score. And, and Zach late, not his best performance, but still three for 10, two walks and hit by a pitch. I mean, again, he, he's sta statistically Zach has been our best hitter all season, uh, and he just kept on proving it. Um, you, and I'll give you an opportunity here, Gary, 'cause I talk, we know I talked too much to add anything.

And then I'd like to, I'd like to break down a little more on the, on the Maverick's kind of numbers over the last couple years. Yeah. I mean, obviously Blake with the cg, that's an easy pick for the picture of the week. Uh, very close second with Kellen, I think. The biggest takeaway for me this weekend was the pitching. We know, you know, it didn't go well early on Friday, but to see Nick Ezio get two scoreless innings, Kellen Davis with potentially the best stuff he's had all year.

Yeah, these guys potentially rounding into form or stepping up into big spots two weeks before we go to the conference. Tournament is really, really important. Like even someone like Dylan to like, these guys are gonna have to eat innings and have good innings for us if we actually want a chance to win the conference tournament because it's, you know, the top six of the Sunbelt is gonna be brutal and we gotta have guys that can have some quality innings for us.

And we see, seen a couple guys emerge over the last couple weeks. I think it came to a head later in the day, Friday and Saturday of Guy Arms in the bullpen stepping up in a big, big way. And that makes me feel a little bit more positive heading into the conference tournament. Um, and then, yeah, it's Mav season. I gotta hear that. This is crazy. This, these stats. So a again, I know, uh, hopefully when I just throw all these numbers, it's not too much for focus.

I think it's at some point I'll get, we'll get good and actually put graphics up. But that, you know, again, you know, hey, if that's the kind of stuff you want, figure out a way to make this be my, our full-time job where we just take care of OU sports and stuff. That'd be amazing. Uh, give, give enough to the collective that, that we can just make it be a job and still also give money to players. I don't, but until then, you just have to listen to it.

Sorry. Um, so Maverick is currently on a nine game hitting streak. Um, during that streak, he is, uh, 16 for 36. Four doubles. Four homers. 12 rbis. So nine game hitting streak. He's hitting 4 44 with a 1423 OPS. Okay. Whew. Phenomenal, right? I mean, 1423 ops is ridiculous. That's like Mike Trout and, and uh, Barry Bonds and their prime, yeah. Steroid era Barry Bonds. Right. Um, so in the 23 Games Maverick played, before that, he had one double.

One Homer and two rbis, and he hit 1 93 with a 5 25 OPS. Some you could not talk about, more of a switch around. Um, this continues to trend. We, people may remember last year, Maverick was kind of, you know, he was, he was there and then end of the year he just blew up and went crazy and ended up leaving the team at home runs. So I looked at it and pretty much on the exact same date I looked at April 15th. So this from April 15th on is when these nine games are this year.

It was April 16th last year starting with the game of UVA. So last year, um, before April 15th, Maverick hit 2 36 with a 7 0 9 OPS. Right. It's, it's not terrible, but it's not great, obviously. Yeah. Uh, you know, it's, it's like all right, you know, uh, after that date, hit 3 46 with an 1117 OPS hit eight of his 12 home runs. That is. Absolutely nuts. So he, I mean, he's from Florida. It makes sense as the weather heats up, so does he. Um, and it's great to see that he, he's on this stretch.

Um, it, it, he also, he also weirdly has more home runs than doubles for his career. He has the same amount this year, but last year he had 12 doubles. 12. 12 homers, only five rbis. Or 12, I'm sorry, I'm gonna stop. He had, last year he had 12 home runs and only five doubles. This year he, he is got five and five, so he, he weirdly, a lot of guys, you know, you tend to hit more doubles and then you get some home runs. He just tends to knock him over to the fence when he hits them.

Yeah. And uh, Finney mentioned it earlier, the big home run he hit in the playing game against South Alabama, the two run shot to help us go and win that. So, I mean, if you, if you're gonna get on a hot streak, this is the perfect time of year to do it. It seems like that's kind of Maverick's warming up point is April into May, so I'll take it. It will not hurt my feelings if every single week we're putting his, his picture on the board. I'll find a new picture of him every week.

He does seem like he's having better at bats, even in some of the at bats where he is gotten out. His approach has been good. He is working counts, he's getting in very favorable accounts where I feel like he will just reach back and, and try to hit the ball back across the river. So love to see him coming on late. I think there's a couple other guys that probably need to. And maybe plateaued a little bit.

They need to start kicking into gear, but we're getting contributions all throughout the lineup. And even Evan Holman, I know it's, it's not an award we have, but if I, we just had to say the toughest dude of the weekend. It's Evan Holman. Yeah. Uh, having to get plugged into the catcher spot, already injured. When, when f and it Slater go down and then he comes up with the biggest hit of the game on Saturday to tie it.

Um, got the dugout, juiced, Dylan comes out and his, his lights out from there on. So just some big guys stepping up in big moments for us in the most critical point of the season. 'cause I actually think we are ahead in the standings as compared to where we were this time last year. And that's hard to believe with what we saying, which Crazy. Yeah. Absolutely. Nuts. Yeah. So I know. I, I've gotten a couple of messages. Who do I need to root for this weekend?

Who do I need to root for this weekend? So not a lot has changed, but there are more teams for us to go and root for. So we've already said no one's gonna catch the top four. So Coastal Southern, miss Troy, Louisiana, feel free to root for them and anyone that they are gonna play. And then I really think your bottom three are done. South Alabama, J-M-U-U-L-M, Georgia State's, teetering Marshall. They could get back in it, probably not super likely.

So Texas State, who we're currently tied with, they go to Georgia Southern and then they finish at home against JMU, Georgia. Southern has said Texas State, and then they go to Marshall, Arkansas State has Troy, and then at the Cajuns. Then App State has South Alabama and Georgia State, so a lot of good opportunities for teams to go and root for that can help us out.

I think the tough ones are gonna be Texas State ho we're tied with, because Georgia Southern's been in the slump, and JMU is down at the bottom of the standings. Now with ULM, uh, they could in theory go four and two, five and one and those last six games, and that will push us to six. But I'm okay with six. Six didn't feel possible. Not that long ago. No. Uh, you know, 10 was like, seemed like a stretch.

So it's, it's pretty great that we're in a situation where right now we can control some things by winning some games. I mean, that's just crazy. Yeah. Three and three and we're definitely in the tournament and we're in some tiebreakers, most likely for five or six. Yeah. Uh, if we go four and two, I think it's five or six for us. I don't think anyone's gonna come up and tie us and push us to seven, but we just gotta go win. I, if we were to somehow go to Harrisonburg and sweep them.

Then it's like, okay, how do we just get one game from coastal? And it goes into also just going up and sweeping, going up and sweeping. JMU just feels really good. Oh yeah. Because, you know, uh, unfortunately in our other sports, it's not really a rivalry. Uh, or at least in football and basketball, it's not really a rivalry Right now. We're just a little brother. They just whip up on, uh, in baseball. It has been a rivalry, but maybe, actually, maybe it might not, might not be.

'cause we tend to handle 'em pretty darn well. Uh, and so maybe from their end, it's not a rivalry, but the fact that we, we beat 'em pretty consistently. Uh, but yeah, so we gotta, if, if we're gonna, if we're gonna make the royal rivalry actually a thing and 'cause we handle 'em pretty okay in some of the other sports that are, they're not basketball and football. Uh, but we gotta, you know, hopefully we can start setting that tone for, for everyone else.

Since Jamie MU has joined the Sunbelt, we have not beaten them in football, men's basketball or women's basketball. Yeah. And that's problematic and that's a problem for those sports to go and figure out and deal with. Uh, baseball's beating 'em, soccer's have beaten 'em. Field hockey, tennis has beaten 'em. All the things. Um, but man, it would feel really good for ODU U fans to go and sweep JMU.

There'd be some football fans that maybe haven't watched a single ODU baseball game that are maybe, uh, beating their chest over that I know basketball. Um, but we just gotta go win the series period. If we go one and two at JMU, things start getting real ugly and that play in game and it, it, it's just not gonna set up well for us. So gotta go win that series and then do everything you can to get a game, maybe two from Coastal, which we've been able to do that all year.

So I feel pretty confident. Yeah. JMU if you look at their offensive stats, they're pretty gross. They're pretty much at the bottom of everything in the league. Um, and they've got some good hitters. I mean, like Ryan Dooley, I've gotten to watch him the last couple years with the pilots, and he is a phenomenal hitter and he's having a terrible season. Um, and our, our buddy, uh, Jackson to, from Old Dominion who, uh, transferred to JMU, um, he, he is, uh, he's not having a, a great year.

He is, uh, he's, I think he's five for 40 Outlook. He got his first college home run. Uh, but I mean, it just, it's not just him, you know, he, we know he's a good hitter. It's just, uh, the team in general. So we gotta, we gotta pitch. Well, we gotta go out, we gotta, we gotta beat him because they're beatable. Uh, they do have their, their top starter has been really good. Um, and then a, uh, Aiden KO's brother Max Kool is, uh, has pitched really well.

Um, and after that, you know, so we just, we gotta go out and they're a beatable team. Let's go out and beat em. Yeah, last couple weeks the team has done everything they've needed to do to put themselves in this position where last two weeks are here and we've got a shot at the five or the six seed to get into that. They just have to continue that trend.

I don't think they have to go crazy and reach outside themselves, grind out some baseball games, have good at bats, do everything you can on the mountain to just keep the ball in play, trust your defense, which was much better over the weekend, I think, for us. Uh, so it, it, it gets the feeling that the team has finally started truly gelling and coming together and you, if you just gotta keep that momentum going into the tournament.

'cause ODU is a team that if they are the five seed or the six seed, if you're coastal, if you're southern, miss, if you're Troy, probably not super excited to see a matchup with us because of how good our starting pitching is. And if you stay in these tournament games, even as an underdog, you just open the door for weird shit to happen and then all of a sudden, well we did it. Yeah, we did it last year to, to Southern. Yeah. Yeah. Last year was we, it was weird stuff.

We made weird stuff happen. We were not going to that tournament thinking we were gonna get very deep when we almost won the thing. Yeah. We, we fought like hell down the end. We literally just had no arms left. But our starting pitching gives us a chance and just about every game. So does just get there. Give the tie game in the seventh against the higher seed. I'll bet on ODU every time. All right. One more thing that we wanted to cover before we headed out of here.

We got an update on Cole Lanford. And cb I think you have the details. Sorry. No, I, I, trust me. 'cause I did it for like a whole year before he showed up to ODUI was, I was saying it wrong in my head, so I Yeah, yeah. Cole Lanford. Yeah. He, and so he was a freshman, he's a freshman pitcher for us. Um, pitched some games, has some good appearances, you know, pitched like a freshman. Uh, and you may have noticed he has a, in a while. Well, there was a reason for that.

He, um, he had told me about this a while back and, you know, obviously I don't want, don't wanna share his business, but because he, he mentioned this publicly, uh, we thought it was okay to mention, um, yeah, we were at the Norfolk State game and hadn't, you know, hadn't seen a week or two 'cause they've been on the road. And I was like, oh, hey man, how's it going? He's again, I'm have surgery. I was like, oh man, it's a shame we get arm surgeries, no brain surgery.

He is like, and I'm like, no, but for real. And he is like, no, like for real. Um, and so that was, you know, that was, I dunno, when that Norfolk State game was over a month ago. Um, and so I'm, I'm looking to make sure I get it right. So he said he had a cavernous malformation. Uh, in his brain. Um, and it was having, making him have, was it focal aware seizures? He was telling me, he said, it's been happening for a few years. Uh, but he said it was really getting progressively worse.

And, and, you know, and I, I'm not a doctor, I don't know what that is, but I'm, I'm sure part of the stress of, you know, going away from home, going to college, you know, trying to compete. And at this level, I ha I, I don't know this specifically, but you know, our health is affected by those things, so I'm sure that had an effect. Um, and so he had the surgery and they said it was successful. Um, he's recovering.

He had actually, along with this same tweet, he had a little video of him just on, like, on his knees, kind of just throwing. Um, he said in about three, four weeks he can start throwing again. Then he can start lifting weights. And so he, he's on the path to recovery. He told me, um, when I was talking to him, he said, this surgery has about a 95% chance that he will not have seizures anymore. Uh, it still be, you know, it's still along with medication.

And I told him, I was like, well, you don't get a 95% chance of pretty much anything alive, especially, you know, you're a baseball player. There's nothing that's 95% sure. Uh, so he, you know, that's why he, he, I think I said they had about 10 days to decide to, there was an opening for the operation. He was like, yeah, let's do it. Um, so Cole, Cole's an awesome kid. I know. Uh, we haven't had a chance to talk to him on here.

We haven't had a chance to really see him much with ODU, but he, I got a chance to meet him. Uh, last year. Uh, he was playing high school there, pro five. He came here, actually pitched a game here in Virginia Beach. Um, and he's just a, he's a phenomenal kid. His family are just wonderful people. Uh, and you know, it, it's, I'm, I'm, I really hope he comes back. I, I know he's gonna work his butt off.

You know, it's all kinds of things, but I, I, I. Would not bet on anybody harder than I would bet on Cole to come back and be strong and, you know, hopefully we see him on the mound next year for ODU and come back out and, and pitching the way he can pitch because he's, he's a great kid. He's a really, really good pitcher and it's a tough thing to have deal with any age, but I mean, he's always 19 years old doing this. I mean, that, that's, that's hard.

Yeah. It, what's amazing to me is that you can have brain surgery and sometime in like a three week window you can start throwing a baseball again. Yeah. That's pretty, pretty impressive. So certainly send in all the good thoughts and vibes over Cole's way. Yeah. Uh, as he recovers from this. And we would love to see him back on the mountain in the fall or, or in the spring when he is ready, but.

Uh, I mean, that's, I, I can't imagine trying to do all the things he's doing with school and baseball while having seizures going on. Uh, so glad to hear the surgery was an option. I love the 95% Yeah. Success rate on it. I mean, that's not just a baseball thing. That's a quality of life thing. So, yeah, glad he was, uh, brave enough to kind of take the shot on this. And I hope the results all turn out the way that, uh, him and his family are hoping for. Yeah, we hope.

See you back out there, 2 -2 . Absolutely. All right, well, I think that's gonna do it for us today. Uh, appreciate you all listening and sharing the good word. Uh, we may have our episode drop a day earlier next week, because unfortunately, I'm gonna be stuck in Texas for work all next week.

So you may record on Sunday and drop us on Monday, but we'll keep you tuning in through the market, social media, and also through my social media and CBS and all the other fun ways that we, uh, try to get information out to you. But anything else, cb Hey, man. Uh, you be safe traveling. We're gonna go. Uh, I'm, I'm telling you. Six. Oh, we're doing it. It's, it's happening. Let's go. I would love it. It all starts with a winning on Friday.

I don't know when your, uh, curtain fell, but it has fallen into spectacular fashion. I know. It's fallen aggressively. Yeah, it's, I I noticed it when we were talking to Ron. Yeah. It really went down. Usually it's the other side, isn't it? The fall? I don't know. It's, it is. That's normally where I can see it. I think you were actually in the way. It's why I missed it. But don't worry. We'll get the timestamp on that.

For those of you betting at home, we appreciate your bets and we will honor them all here, so. All right. Well that'll do it for us. Uh, thank you so much. And go Monarchs. Go Monarchs.