CB, Gary and Coach Finny recap a 2-2 week and a series loss to App State. The guys dive into the pitching staff and how they can get back on the right track. Patrick Johnson joins to talk about earning the win on Friday out of the pen and much more!

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Yeah.

Hello Monarch fans and welcome to the Hudson Homers podcast.

CB is here with us, as always, coach Finwood joining us

as well as he usually does.

And again, Finn, we were just talking about before you hopped on here,

just we're super grateful to have you join us and, and be on here.

Give us some legitimacy instead of, you know, just two nerds talking

about baseball all the time.

Well, I appreciate you guys having me.

Y'all make it fun, you know, um, try, you know, any, any information

we can get people out there about the program, uh, you know, and,

and anything as it pertains to ODU baseball, this is a great way to do it.

Uh, it's a, it's a grassroots way to do it, which I love.

Yeah.

And, you know, it's not, um, I, I think it's, for me, you know, it has

been a fun way to kind of replace the, the Extra Phoenix podcast.

'cause we, I really enjoy, uh, getting the opportunity to do this with you guys.

So Thank you.

Yeah.

Well.

Speaking of recognition and all that fun stuff, we gotta start off

with the biggest news of the week.

Ohoh Ohoh,

coach Finwood congratulations on setting the all time wins record for ODU Baseball.

Well, thank you very much.

Um, I appreciate that.

I wish we'd have played a little better on the next day, but we played pretty well.

The, we played pretty well the day that we got it.

I was, I was proud of that effort.

Um, and, you know, I told Harry Min a story on it and

I said, it's just humbling.

'cause you look out there on the wall and, and you see Bud and you see Pat, you see

Nudie, and you see Guz and just a, a guy.

I, I didn't know Coach Metheny, um, other than by reputation.

You know, I, I was coming to camp here as a high schooler in, in

83, which was when Mark was here, uh, Newman as the head coach.

And I learned a lot of baseball from Martin Newman, both as a, as a. High

school player as a college player, working camps here, and then as a college, young

college assistant, working camps here.

Same thing from Pat McMahon after he took over for Nudie.

And obviously same thing for from Gus.

So, um, you know, to have, to be able to have more wins than, than all those

guys is, uh, gratifying, humbling.

And, you know, it means we've had a lot of good players and a lot

of good assistant coaches that have put a lot of time into this.

And, um, you know, it makes it doubly frustrating when you're, when you're not

playing that great, I can tell you that.

Um, I, you know, it's like sometimes you're not that far away, but your

miles away at the same time and you know when it's, when you're pitching

well, um, and just not scoring enough runs or maybe playing enough

defense, you can usually feel like.

You can get that figured out.

Um, when you're, when you're not pitching well, it, it just grinds on you, man.

It causes sleepless nights 'cause

mm-hmm.

When you don't, if you don't pitch, you're just not gonna have a chance and

Yeah.

You know, the issue for us right now is just, uh, I mean we played

six conference games and, uh, giving up 57 runs, uh, almost 10 a game.

And, and you know, we've, uh, our average start has been under two innings.

Um, so we're actually probably pretty fortunate to be two and four.

Uh,

yeah, I'll say it's hard to win two that way.

Ha,

having said that, uh oh.

Oh,

uh oh.

We lost Finn temporarily, but

he was, he, he gots talking about that pitching, so he just, he said, forget it.

I'm, I'm not doing,

he, he, he made it, uh, he did not make it outta the second either, so that

Oh, all but

to pick up a little

difficulties.

We got him back.

We're back.

I hit, I hit the wrong button.

Um, but like we were saying, you know, uh, we've, we've swung the bats enough

and, you know, mix and matched enough on the la you know, the two Fridays to come

back from, you know, win those games and, but you just can't be down by five or six

runs right off the bat, every, every game.

That, that's hard on that.

I

was gonna ask, do you think it, it makes it a lot harder as a hitter

when you're down that much every time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, and the thing is on Saturday, you know, the last two series.

Troy and App State have thrown their best guys on Saturday.

Mm-hmm.

Um, we've actually done a good job against their Friday guy.

Yeah.

You know, uh, both, both times.

But, um, when you get down by five or six on Saturday and they got

their best guy on the mound, I mean, that makes it doubly tough.

Right.

Um, I I actually thought we did a decent job against their guy this Saturday.

We got his pitch count up, and if we could've been in that game, it

might've been a little, little bit.

Yeah.

I mean, you got him out in the fifth inning.

Yeah.

So I mean, we, we've, we've, we've been through every iteration of this.

I, I, I promise you, I've never had a weekend where we, not that they

were guys you thought were gonna go five or six cities, but started, you

know, three true freshmen, um, three freshmen, uh, on a conference weekend.

Uh, and, and it was just the way we wanted to work it out.

Having said that, I thought that, um.

I thought that JJ Gatti came in and threw the ball Well for Saturday.

Yeah.

Was what we needed to see him do, get out there when we

were behind and just go work.

Uh, he gave us four good innings.

I thought that was bests he's thrown this year against, you

know, uh, quality opponents.

Um, still gotta get KY back on track.

He's had a little bit of a hip flexor thing and I think

that's affected him some.

Um, you know, on the positive note of the pitching, uh, I, I thought Friday, uh,

pat Johnson, who I know is coming on the show later, you know, a second Friday in

a row, throwing him in there early down.

And he is given up a couple runs, but he's kind of settled things down

for us and allowed us to get back and then take the lead in those games.

Um, and, and we were able to expand that one, you know, on Friday,

so we didn't have to use Kellen.

Um, and man, I thought Kellen was just.

You know, so tough yesterday he just gave us everything he had.

I mean, probably doubled the amount of pitches he's ever thrown here in

Yeah.

And we knew he was on Femes going in the ninth.

We were trying to get one more out of him and you know, it just didn't work out.

But, um, that's, that's kinda was the gist of that game.

They kept one more on us to death after we made it seven, six.

And you just have to get some shutdowns after those innings.

You know, you get six runs, you back in it, you got the momentum and the lead

off gots a double and they would've scored that except they made a base run

there at third, you know, got in tag on.

Yeah, on a fly ball.

Yeah, we got kind of looked out there.

Um,

yeah, Kellen

gets his guts out.

I thought.

Like, I think Kellen was fantastic.

He's just got, you know, humongous character and big

balls and he really cares.

Um, you know, I was

thinking during the game how amazing it is.

You know, a couple years ago he was like the rookie, the righty one out guy.

Yep.

And now he's the guy.

You're like, Hey, we're gonna go get him to every single second,

every single pitch we can get him.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, the thing is we'd love to have a guy like him somewhere else

on the staff that we could do that.

And I mean, if we could've, you know, they scored six runs with two outs.

Yeah,

yeah.

Uh, in the third inning yesterday we're like one pitch away from

getting outta that so many times.

But you gotta make pitches, you know, you gotta, and you can say what you want.

Well, there's single all singles, it doesn't matter.

Well, that was a great example of you gotta put the ball in

play if you put the ball in play.

Good stuff happens.

I mean, that was like, I was, I was as, uh, annoyed as anybody

'cause they were just getting a lot of lucky nonsense all weekend.

But you know, when you put the ball in play, that's gonna happen.

Yeah.

And, and

they, and look man, this is how it's going when it ain't going great too.

Like they made a number of diving plays.

Like, oh, same field of Rob Cup, extra base hits third base

made diving play second baseman.

So you gotta give them credit.

They made the plays.

Yeah.

But you know, when it's going good for you, those balls seem to drop in.

And um, you know, they, their coach was saying, man, that that happened to them

the week before at home Against Coastal.

Like they, nothing dropped and everything Coastal had dropped.

So it's baseball, it happens.

You gotta fight your way through it.

Um, I think this weekend we're gonna start this, this week.

Um, and we can recap any of the games a as we go if you want from last week.

But, um, we got William and Mary home tomorrow.

We move that game up to three o'clock, uh, 'cause of cold attempt.

So we're gonna start ezio again.

He's gonna be on the pitch count though because he is gonna

come back on Sunday and start.

Um,

and he was phenomenal on Wednesday against nor State.

I mean, that's the guy you've been wanting to see.

Yeah, I didn't realize he only threw 44 pitches in that game.

Four innings

standing.

Yeah, he would see three strikes and you know, the breaking ball is best.

I've seen it.

So hopefully he can build off that and do it again tomorrow.

You know, it'll probably another 45 pitch type limit thing.

Um, and we're gonna, we're gonna start KY on Friday and Gati on Saturday

and those guys just gotta do it.

I mean, they're our best option to get into a game.

Um.

And have some other bullets to fire as the game moves along.

So, uh, you know, it was good See Ef get back out there.

Morales?

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

He hit the ball hard.

Didn't have a ton.

You know, he had two hits on on Saturday off the bench and then.

You know, his first, first couple at bats, he hammer a couple balls and a

couple diving catches, you know, and, um, that, that can get frustrating.

But it's good to see him make, make good contact for sure.

Mm-hmm.

Um, in, on, on those games.

So we need to get that bat back in the lineup.

It gives us another guy that, you know, can, can be a threat offensively.

So, um, yeah, we uh, we gotta figure something out, you know, at third

base too, because we're just not getting any production there and

we're making too many routine errors.

So, um, you know, we'll see.

Is

there any thought of, I know Evan Holman has, you know,

he worked out some at third.

Is there any thought of, I mean, obviously

yeah, I think the next guy's experience.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think the next guy's Cole McKenna.

Yeah, sure.

The thing is, Evan can catch the balls right at me.

He doesn't have much range, you know, third base is hard in college baseball.

It is

hard.

Yeah.

Screamers.

You got the choppers, you got, you know, it, it, it's a,

it's a challenging position.

I think it's a very, uh, people take it for granted how hard it is.

You get the throw of the bunts, um, those kind of things, you know.

And, um, so we, uh, you know, I think we're going to give

Cole Cole a shot over there.

I mean, he, he's a different type of player.

Like he's another runner, you know, he can steal bases and blunt and, you

know, you just gotta get the ball play.

He is a freshman, so, but he's played, you know, sparingly.

But he's, he's shown some good things and

mm-hmm.

Um, I think we'll give him a chance prior these weekday games and see how he does.

Um, you know, TJ's, TJ's continuing to have good at bats.

I think I let Scotty swung a bat a little better this weekend.

Um, you know, Zedalis had big home run for us yesterday, and it guy dove

and robbed him of a hit in the first St inning, which, you know, probably

would've got, gotten us going right there.

Um, well,

TJ injured one of the monarchists, uh, or no, I'm sorry, Tyler.

Tyler injured one of the monarchists with his, uh, his laser beam home run.

Uh, Aaron Aaron's right there I think.

Trying

that, huh?

Yeah.

Bounce.

Oh no, it was, it was straight line drive.

You know, I always worry when I'm standing at the hitting facility that

I'm gonna catch a foul ball on the side of the head or something like that.

So I, I sat out the Sunday game.

I was in the stands the whole time Aaron Zielinski is sitting to my

left, and I mean, he, he crushed it.

And I could see it just coming right at us.

I could hear it as I was seeing it come towards me.

And it was mainly at Aaron.

I made the business decision, just sidestep a little bit.

Aaron stuck his arm out, it hit his forearm, hit the seat behind,

popped up and right into somebody's hands who immediately just.

Put it in a bag.

So we, we were cheering exciting, but

that ball.

Yeah.

But Aaron's got this big stitch mark on his forearm from, uh, Zedalis there.

Tell that.

Yeah, Steph told me that she saw somebody try to catch it or, or attempt

to catch it and um, I mean that ball was like one 12 off the bat, I think.

Yeah.

Like that.

So

I understand exit velocities, that ball doesn't really slow

down a whole lot before it

gets into the

stands.

No, not until it hits something.

Yeah.

And it slowed down a little more then,

and, and Mac hit his over the stands, right?

Yeah, that was right over the top of my head.

Um, it probably landed just short of where the catering truck is back there.

Wow.

I mean, it was a bomb porta

potty maybe.

Yeah.

Uh, yeah.

I guarantee a one hop to porta potty, but that thing was

still climbing over the seats.

Yeah, that's an interesting view that you don't get a ton at the

mid-major college level, you know?

Yeah.

The ball's going over the stands, it's kind of cool to, from the field

side, it's kind of cool to see.

You can usually tell when guys get one for sure.

You know?

Uh, but I

think right before Mack wasn't that when somebody had the outfield

had robbed, uh, what was it, Tyler hitting right before him.

And then when Mac hit that one, I was like, you're not

not catching that one buddy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's right.

Tyler actually got two hits robbed yesterday.

Yeah.

The, the third basement dove and got one a ground ball, and then.

Uh, the right, you know, the center fielder got him on that.

So, man, he's missed having a good day.

Yeah.

I'll give,

didn't they,

I'll give their centerfielder credit.

Charlie Evans, he had just one inning.

He had two amazing catches, one in the right center gap that I

thought he had no chance to get to.

And the other navigating the wall in the wind, uh, maybe the first

visiting player that's gotten like a little bit of a golf clap from the

Yeah.

The home fans.

But I mean, it was, it was deserved after those two.

We'll give him that credit.

Yeah, he's a good player man.

You know, he also hits lead off for him and, and he had a good

weekend swinging the bat for him.

So he is a, he is a good player for sure.

Older guy.

He is.

Been there a while and, um, you know, they, um, you know, you

gotta give them their credit.

They battled at the plate and got enough ball in play to,

you know, make stuff happen.

Guys, it seemed like every time we looked up yesterday it was

brothers on first and third.

You know, we're calling it First, third Defense and, um, you know,

it's just, it just, it, it, we need, our guys need to like pitching wise.

Visualize better things happening for 'em.

I feel like we're walking on, on ice a little bit out there at times

instead of just stomping on pavement.

Like, you know, they gotta get out there and make it happen instead of hope,

uh, you know, is old, that old saying, wishing hope done left the building right.

Like, work, you know, you gotta make it happen.

And, you know, sometimes it's being more aggressive early

in counts and forcing contact.

I thought that's what JJ Gaddy did a better job of.

He threw more fastballs, he attacked with his fastball and got ahead of the hitters

and put them on their heels a little bit.

And I thought that was a, a good step in the right direction for him.

So, um, you know, these, these weeks when you got double, mid weeks,

man, they're, they're interesting.

I think you gotta,

yeah.

Be careful about spacing your pitching out too much, uh, because you can not

have enough guys to win either game.

Yeah.

Um, so, you know, I feel like we're gonna, we're gonna try to, and, and

Tuesday you can throw more relievers on Tuesday because they got another day

off if you wanted to use them Friday.

So we're gonna throw more of our guys tomorrow and then, you know,

just whoever's left on, on Wednesday at Richmond will have to get out

there and, uh, do do their job.

So, um, you know, we got a colder, colder day tomorrow with the Northeast wind.

That's not gonna be a great day to hit.

Um, so hopefully we can fill up strike zone, you know,

gotta stay away from the walks.

On those days you need to be able to play offense and, um, you know,

get your bunts down footballs and play hit and run, things like that.

I was gonna ask you too 'cause it's kind of this weird dynamic, right?

Like JJ needs to throw more pitches into the zone, throw to more soft contact.

Don't be too fine with the off speed.

I feel like a lot of the other guys in the bullpen don't have as much of a swing and

miss pitch as we've seen in years past.

So I don't have access to that data analytics, but I know you all do.

Are you seeing that with rate go down compared to last year?

Yeah, absolutely.

And some of that is we've got, you know, some young guys throwing that

haven't really developed necessarily, they're breaking stuff to the

extent it needs to be at this level.

Um, and so it either is getting them in bad counts 'cause it's such a wasted

pitch guys don't even offer at it.

Or they're hanging it and throwing it down the middle and it's getting clobbered

and you know, I think when that's the case, you know, the best two pitchers

in baseball or fastball down in a way.

And the fast ball end.

If you can move both of those around, then you can put a hitter,

a little bit guessing what's coming.

And I think for some of those guys, we need to, you know, throw more fast

balls on both sides of the plate.

Um, some of our guys are, you know, only on one side of the plate,

and I think the scout reports get out and, and some of those things.

And, um, so it's, uh, it's definitely a challenge right

now, you know, without a doubt.

And, and like I said, I it, somebody's gotta make it happen.

Um, yeah.

You know, this is, this is who we have.

Uh, ain't nobody coming up from aaa,

midseason trades.

Yeah.

Not

calling anybody up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, and so these are the guys, they gotta get better.

Um, they gotta keep working and, and we need some guys to like, you know,

visualize good things happening to 'em, uh, because they can, you know,

and, uh, most all of them have had.

You know, spurts of success.

They just have to find a way to do it more consistently.

So, you know, the two midweeks and then we leave, uh, fortunately

they're two early games, and then we leave Thursday for mobile play.

South th down there.

Um, who we haven't, I haven't been to Mobile in a long time, man,

since my early days at Western.

Um, you know, and, and they got a beautiful ballpark now.

I know.

And, and, uh, it'll be a fun place to play.

The weather's gonna be good and, um, they're off to a pretty good start.

So it's, uh, you know, every series is.

It's tough.

You look at the, the Sunbelt, you know, rankings right now, I mean Coastal six

and oh, picker Prize, and I saw they 10 run Rule JMU every game this weekend.

So, oof.

Yeah, they're obviously getting it going and, um, I think Marshall's

five and one, they, they got beat one yesterday maybe at, at Georgia State.

And, um, you know, uh, everybody else is, you know, 4, 2, 3, 3, 2,

and four, right in that mm-hmm.

That early season jumble of where you're at.

Yeah, I, I didn't realize it until, uh, after a game.

I've driven back home to Richmond.

Yesterday I pulled up the Sunbelt standings.

If we win one more game this weekend, we're in fourth, but

because we lost, we're tied for 10th.

So like the margin there is is small.

I mean, coastal doing what they're doing at six and oh, down two

of their top arms is insane.

Three

three,

oh yeah, they're down.

Basically.

They're three guys being three guys.

Yep.

Yeah, they're, they've got a plethora of riches on the mound, that's for sure.

Yeah.

They're, uh, they're starting to swing the bats, uh, a

little bit, especially at home.

So, um, they're, they're, they're tough to deal with, uh, right now, obviously.

Um, so, uh, you know, let them keep beating everybody up.

That's the way I look at it.

So,

you know, till we play.

I

wanted to talk to you about.

Um, I, I don't think it's an excuse, but I do think it's a factor.

Um, I thought this weekend is some of the worst umpiring we've maybe

ever seen, uh, for a weekend.

Uh, that, that, I mean, it was all three guys were awful.

Um, you've got both sides arguing, getting warnings in pretty much every game.

Uh, the strike zone, I mean, it's one of those, you can't even say

like, oh, the strike zone's wide.

The strike zone.

The strike zone is just a moving target.

And it was pitch to pitch.

Yeah.

And I always think, you know, too, you see, I like, I was bringing up

that, you know, the, the pitch comes and there's like a, a clear pause.

I'm like, that's 'cause the guy sit there, remember, well, I screwed him on the last

pitch, so have to make up this pitch.

Or I screwed 'em two pitches ago enough that I can't make up the,

it's like they don't, they're not calling balls on strikes.

So it's, I know how much you wanna say about it.

I'm, I'm very happy to say it was, it was brutal.

Awful, awful.

Yeah.

Well it's, you know, whenever you see that, that pause you were talking about

mm-hmm.

I mean, after like, the first strike call and, and, and you

see it and you go, oh God.

Because that's exactly what you said.

Yeah.

It's like, it's like, then it's a guessing game and it's just like,

yeah,

it's not, you know, the good ones, there's

no conviction, there's no, no sureness in what they're doing.

They don't know the strike zone.

Yeah.

I, I, we, I looked at the Friday zone.

It wasn't good the game we won.

I didn't see the.

The Saturday or Sundays.

I mean, the Friday one seemed terrible until Saturday and Sunday happened.

Now looking back like, oh, that Friday wasn't that bad.

Yeah.

Put him back there.

Yeah.

I think in addition to that, I, I don't know how much I'm

allowed to say about that.

I think the big thing,

yeah.

I don't wanna get you in

trouble, but We'll,

we'll save,

run the games the right way.

Like, you know, man, oh man, the pitch

clock

was a mess.

Uh, when, when you got everybody just screaming at you, yelling at you, 'cause

you know, then that's not good, man.

It's like the, the pitch clock that was more ridiculous than

the strike zone this weekend.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I've never seen pitch clocks go off that, that fast.

Yeah.

I mean, no one had enough time to do anything and I finally asked the guy

yesterday, what is the rush there?

Why are we rushing?

You know, and, and it's just like, what is going on here, man?

Like this, this is not what this is about.

A guy hit a foul ball and our guy didn't even have the ball back yet,

and the hitter's like run walking back to the batter's box and the

pitch clock's already going on.

And that's not the way it's supposed to be.

And for the Sunbelt games, I don't know if this is true for the whole season,

but the umpire that's got third base has what looks like a remote control

for a TV from like 1992 with some tape on it, resetting that thing.

So it's not anyone in the press box.

It's not anyone on the ODU side.

It is run by the umpires.

No.

And that, and it does, it needs to be somebody in the press box in my opinion.

Um, but right now with our setup the way it is, we just can't do it that way.

So we, we use that controller.

For scrimmages, you know?

Right.

So we can have a pitch stock and, and it works, but it, it's sometimes it glitches.

And

is it from 1992 is easy.

Yeah.

It might be.

Got an old eco system

controller.

Yeah.

It's a, it's an old, uh, Nintendo controller.

Nari.

That's

awesome.

Atari.

Yeah.

Play

some,

um, play

some Frogger with it after the game.

Yeah.

I'm qualified for that job.

Then.

It still shouldn't make you turn it on before you're supposed to,

right?

No,

I mean, we've had a couple situations.

I mean, it is just like.

The, the things that happen, you know, every day out there now, like, y'all don't

know half of 'em, but they're comical.

Like, I, you know, hey, replays down.

Like, okay, well that's just, yeah, that's just, that's just a Saturday right now.

Like Yeah.

Right.

You know, and it is what it's, we're doing the best we can.

It's, it's not a great production unfortunately.

But yeah.

It's, it's where we're at.

So we, we try to work with it

for, for what we have they're

doing.

Every time I'm out there, I'm just like, it's gonna be beautiful next year.

'cause you look at it and you're like, man, this thing is gonna be a palace.

Yeah.

I'd like to see 'em start making a little more.

I mean, if that roof taking forever, it looks like a nice roof, man.

Golly day.

Get the, let's get to the, it's a roof.

Like let's get to the next.

Yeah.

I guess you want your roof to be well built.

Certainly.

So it doesn't fall on you.

It's

fair.

It.

I, I can't wait to, I walk, I snuck in there or not snuck.

I walked in there, uh, yesterday morning.

Mm-hmm.

There's nobody in there yet, you know, and, um, walked, walked around

and through, and it's coming along.

You know, I'm looking forward to seeing drywall get put up and stuff like that.

Everything's under roof and I think they were pumping all the, you know,

water out from the rain with all that rain we had and everything, getting

all, you know, uh, weatherproofed.

Um, so it's, it's coming along.

It's, you know, we had a recruit in and we got another one in tomorrow.

Um, we're able take 'em through and show 'em where things are.

That's fun.

They can see that, but it's not nearly done.

Um, when they're saying it's gonna be done July one.

I mean, they got a lot of work to do.

Yeah.

July one's getting a lot closer

and I, yeah, and I think you, um.

When you look at the, the seating bowl proper now and the, the roof

and you see the, where the press box and the suites up top are gonna be,

you can, you know, when that's full of Navy seats and everything done.

It's gonna be a pretty impressive Yeah.

Structure from Oh yeah.

From both sides of it, you know, from the road side, the outside and the inside.

Yeah.

I drove by on Saturday 'cause I went to the cross and, you know, 'cause I don't

go that by that side now that often.

Yeah.

And it's like, man, it really is.

It's not dumb, but it looks impressive from the, uh, the 43rd

street side when you drive by.

Yeah.

And, and that's cool.

I mean, that, that's gonna be something that'll be neat for everybody

to walk by every day, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think we're all, we're all ready for it to, to be there.

But I will say, you know, for what we have and what's been

set up, it's still awesome.

Like.

Had the live music again on Saturday out there.

We had great crowds.

Like, we're good.

I've seen a couple

of urs.

They were really good.

Yeah.

Nice.

Yeah,

I heard it got warm up in the stands that sun beating down, you know,

that's, that's better and cold though.

Yeah.

You got a nice, yeah.

So my, yeah, my mom and dad said, oh, it was hot out there.

I was like, well, yeah,

yeah,

yeah.

It was, the breeze was nice though, 'cause the breeze was kind of blowing

a little bit, so it was like naturally.

See, uh, yeah, it, you get, you get it, uh, on the bottom of your chin too.

'cause if it reflects off the seat in front of you, it's like you, you free

tanning service at OD u baseball games.

We have people out there sunbathing here, uh, in May.

Uh, whatever brings you to the ballpark, both sides just turn over.

We'll, we'll set a timer up for you to turn over.

Yeah.

So we'll get, we'll use the pitch clock for that.

That'll work.

Yeah.

10 pitch clocks and turn.

Yeah.

Um, you know, so I mean, we're, what, 20 we're 11 and 11 We're 22 games.

Into this thing.

You know, we got another week and we'll be halfway at the midway point.

Um

mm-hmm.

And so it's, uh, you know, hopefully, we'll we can, we can turn the

corner on this pitching thing, and I know Mike and the guys are,

are certainly working hard on it.

And it, it also becomes something you have to be careful that doesn't just become,

uh, contagious to all of 'em, you know?

Mm-hmm.

'cause success is like that.

Success and failure are are like that a lot.

Yeah.

I think, you know, it's like, you know, couple guys start hitting and everybody's

hitting, a couple guys start pitching failure and everybody, a couple guys

start not stop hitting and no one hits and it's like you have to pass it down and

hopefully we can, you know, it's so many new guys throwing, um, for the most part.

So they've just gotta.

Keep learning and keep, keep trying to get better.

Friday's a perfect time for Kuski to just go out there and give you six innings and

set the tone for the rest of the season.

Yeah, I, I think you're, you're looking for that one guy to do that.

Set the tone and then it, it follows, I mean, we saw it last year with, you know,

the many guys who are now in the minor league system now that when you needed

that start, give you five strong innings, you, Dylan Brown could deliver that for

you, or Blake could deliver that for you.

Yep, yep.

Um, and I think if you get one, it can be contagious the other

way too, in a positive way.

Well, no doubt.

And I mean, obviously, you know, when you're not going to the bullpen in the

second, or first or second or third inning on Friday, the rest of the weekend becomes

a little easier to manage from a mm-hmm.

A pitching standpoint as well.

Um, so.

You know, when you have to go there, that early man, by the time you get

to Sunday, you're running on fumes.

Mm-hmm.

Back there.

I mean, we're throwing a couple guys that are, you know, been walkon

to, uh, yesterday in that game.

And, and so, um, that's, that's kind of where, where we need to

be better at from the start in.

You know, there's sometimes in the old school days, you know, I, they'd

have some days where, you know, pro ball managers say, Hey, look,

yeah,

don't look, don't look in here for about seven innings

because ain't nobody up there.

I'm not even coming out to visit.

Well, I just gotta eat 'em.

Occasionally

it decided,

well, there was, there was one point this week, I can't remember who it was,

it might have been ga but there was somebody who I thought you guys did that.

It was kind of like, Hey, you're gonna figure this out.

Yeah.

I feel like that's what he did.

He did with GA at point, what we

did with him.

Yeah.

And, and he needed to do that.

And he did.

But it's like, sometimes you gotta go, you, you decide, 'cause

we're not saving you anymore.

Like you can give up two or 15.

But you gotta go figure it out.

Yeah.

And I think sometimes we're guilty as coaches and is, and, and I

haven't really been wired that way.

I'm always, I always want to be aware of their arm health.

Certainly you don't wanna run, leave somebody out there for 50

pitches and then get it hurt.

But I, I, I think guys lose the ability to work out a jam 'cause

we're always going and saving them.

Yeah.

And that is a big time ability and a big time bullet to have in your gun.

You know, can I work out of a jam?

Yeah.

I heard Roger Clemon say this once.

He said, but to do that you gotta know what you can go to to do it.

Mm-hmm.

He goes, I knew I could go early in my career.

I knew I could go to my breaking ball to get outta the jam if I had had to.

I always had the fast ball, but maybe that day they were hitting the fast fastball.

Later in my career, it was the split.

You know, and Roger Clemon is one of those rare guys that

threw no hitters a decade apart.

Right.

And he was a completely different guy in each of those.

Mm-hmm.

You know, the first one it was just fuzz and the big, big breaking ball.

And the second one it was, you know, more location and the split.

And so, like, I asked the question then what's, what's the bullet you're

gonna fire to get outta the jam?

Mm-hmm.

You know, can you break off five bangers in a row, uh, breaking

balls and get us in the dugout?

Uh, you have to know that as a pitcher.

And, and I think some of our guys don't know that because

we're always saving them.

Um, and I, I think that they need to figure that part out and you're

saving them partially 'cause you're trying to win the game, you know?

But I think there's some things training wise, you know, in the fall and things

like fall's, the time to train it.

Um, you know, if you're scheduled for three, and we've been talking

about all this, we're, we're always trying to make sure guys are healthy.

And you have to always have an eye on that in the practices, the scrimmages.

But if you're supposed to have three innings a day and you can't get outta

the first, then we're gonna leave you out there to get your brains beat out

and you'll throw one inning today.

Yeah.

Yep.

But I think you gotta, there, there is a learning curve there for sure.

Uh, especially with young pitchers.

Um,

you can see it very inning to inning too.

I mean, Sunday, Jackson o Conco, I mean, they couldn't touch 'em

in the first two innings and then come back out for three and

I think, and he started messing with the fastball out over the plate.

He was throwing it in.

He's got that good sinker, you know, his problem is the second time through

the lineup, guys adjust to you.

Mm-hmm.

And so you gotta adjust to them.

And he stopped throwing the sinker in.

He was throwing it out over the plate and get on.

And he got probably a little fatigue.

Um, and it all happened so fast with two outs, like

yeah,

it blew up fast, man.

But he showed you what kind of potential he does have.

Yeah,

and I think really maybe, I don't know, more so right now he's probably a one

time through lineup type of guy 'cause he, the breaking pictures are still working.

The off speed stuff's still a work in progress.

I think the change up the head is breaking ball right now for him.

Yeah.

But that sink is a real pitch man.

I mean, it's, guys are missing that thing by, you know, feet.

Uh, and so, you know, maybe he can come in with some smoke coming out of his ears

and help us out the bullpen that way.

Well, he is got some nobody on.

He is got that super high leg kick, which I, I swear I think some

guys do get mesmerized by that.

I know.

It's amazing.

A kid that tall can get his beat out.

Yeah,

no,

the first time I went and saw him, I, I'd seen him play before, but I

hadn't seen him pitch until last year.

And I was like, oh, Jackson, you're like six five.

What are we doing here buddy?

Getting all the leverage.

All

the leverage.

Same.

Hey, know something else.

He's a pretty good hitter.

He is a good hitter.

He had a really good, every time

I saw a, a golfer, if you remember that.

He all, he's got tremendous hand eye coordination.

He's

yeah,

very athletic and I haven't forgotten that.

We'd try not, you know, we didn't wanna overload him too much, but

he is gonna pick up a bat again at some point this year to start.

Okay.

I love that.

Alright.

Um, and I think he'll be excited about that.

And I was

gonna say, I'm sure he'll love that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's about it too because I, I think he's, I think he's

got some hitting potential.

Um, for sure.

Right.

Nothing gets that, that pitching staff more fired up and seeing one

of their guys go out there and get an a I, I'll never, like the loudest I

think I've ever heard the ODU U dugout is when Dylan Brown got in at bat

against App State a couple years ago.

That's right.

I mean, it was wild.

Yeah.

We had, we had to put the d in the game and Yeah.

So the pitcher had to hit and he and he hit a line drive on

the first pitch smoked drive,

man.

Smoked that ball.

Yeah.

I thought we were gonna see a Dylan Brown walk off there.

Yeah.

That is all his fun.

I could see that.

Uh, you know who would be a blast to have that happen to would be Kellen Davis.

Oh, man.

Kellen was a good hitter in high school.

I saw a game.

He, he had four hits in a game.

I saw

he would be so fired up.

He

pitched five and had four hits, stole

three base games over the place.

It's all, they're, they're asking whose helmet they can borrow.

They're trying to find some batting gloves.

Uhhuh, they're trying to find a bat.

And

it all, it's all is a lot of fun to do that.

I remember, uh, this years ago now, but, um.

Is it Morgan McGuire?

Mo Mo Morgan McGuire.

Yeah.

Mick Mo.

Yeah.

Mo swung and fall fell down three times.

He took his hacks, man.

He took his hacks, that's for sure.

I think I put that in the back of his baseball card and then batting.

Yeah.

He said, coach, I, I'm not, I was not gonna get cheated.

Yeah.

But, well, you guys, I know you got PJ coming on and, um, I'm proud of him.

He's, he's done a good job for us.

He's kind of been that guy that steadied the ship.

Um, you know, his first inning, he is been a little shaky, and then he

is, and then he settled down and, and been, been good after that.

So hopefully we can get that, that first inning be better.

But he gives us a, a, an older veteran, kind of steady, he's pitched

a lot of college baseball and you can kind of tell when he is out there.

He's, he's, he's not un or unnerved, um, by any means.

So, um, hopefully he'll keep doing that for us.

Well, Finny, we appreciate you as always, all the insight.

We'll be, uh, following along Tuesday, Wednesday with William, Mary and Richmond,

and of course down in Mobile against South Alabama for the third weekend series.

But thank you Finny

Alright guys, go.

Monarchs,

go Monarch.

Thanks, Finn.

All right.

Before we, uh, go to commercial here and then bring on Patrick, uh, I

wanna talk about a couple other things that were going on around the ODU

world over the past couple of weeks.

Um, obviously Sunday had the memorial service for Lieutenant

Colonel Brandon Shah Uh, about 3000 people were over there for that.

Uh, so, you know, obviously a, a sad moment for ODU with everything that

was going on, but, uh, you know, glad to see the, the full pomp and

circumstance for him and a lot of people in the community coming out.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, then unfortunately we had another loss in the ODU family.

Uh, Justin Parker, um, probably Selma on social media, sporting news.

7, 5, 7. Huge ODU fan.

He is alum, I think he was oh seven or oh six, I can't remember what year.

Uh, but if you've been to an ODU sporting event, you've probably seen him.

Skinny guy, ODU tattoos all over his arms.

So he is got, I think every logo was tattooed on him.

Uh, unfortunately passed away about a week and a half ago.

We got that news.

Uh, I, I don't know if anyone uses the, the ODU mobile app where

you can go and check in in games.

He was the leader by far for all of those things.

So.

Certainly sad to see him go.

He was, I just talked to him at the UConn series just a few weeks ago, so

definitely sad to see him go, uh, we're gonna figure something out for him.

We're trying to get in contact with family and all that stuff

and understand what's going on.

But ODU meant a lot to him.

He showed up and, uh, we're certainly gonna miss him at baseball

games the rest of this year and everything else going forward.

And the stuff he was dealing with, the 7, 5, 7, uh, sports,

um, sporting news, that was great.

I would, I honestly kind of met him after that 'cause I was just, you

know, I take pictures of a high school game and I just saw this account

that always had high school stuff, so I was like, well, I'll just see

if he wants to coat tag and share it.

And so he, you know, was always picking it up.

And so anytime I just had some pictures of the local teams and, and I was

talking to him one day after a game.

He is introduced himself.

Yeah, it was awesome.

Really an awesome guy.

And yeah, so, so shame we, we've lost both those guys.

Um, yeah, it's just, uh.

Yeah, tough couple weeks for, for ODU and everyone around it.

So hopefully, you know, coming outta spring break, we can kind

of see some brighter things going forward, but we will certainly miss

Justin.

That's one nice thing about sports.

You know, sports, you, you have this thing that you can bring people together and we

can root for a common thing, and, and you can, and, and again, remember those, those

good times you had the people, I mean, I'm sure the same way with the, with the

ROTC and, and, and that, you know, you can remember the way these people chose

to live their lives and chose to, to find their joy and to, to focus on those things

and the good stuff, which would, you know, what I'm sure both of 'em would've wanted.

Yeah.

A lot of that messaging and the, uh, service yesterday for Lieutenant

Colonel Shah of, you know, don't necessarily remember the bad time.

Remember all the good times and everything that set you up going forward, so

Sure.

All right.

We're gonna take a quick break.

We get back, we will have Patrick Johnson

have some good times with Pat Johnson.

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Welcome back, Monarch fans to Hudson Homers.

Uh, good talking with Finny.

I mean, again, straight shooter, like he's not gonna sugar coat anything for you.

He knows it's not going well right now, but

yeah,

it could always be much worse.

And we're what, one game out of being in the top four.

So it's, I

mean, you play two out of 10 weekends in the, in the conference, right?

You got, I mean, what is that?

Um, math is hard for me right now.

24 more games.

Yep.

There you go.

I I really, I was not gonna get it.

I was at like 18.

I was nowhere because I was, I was expecting from 20 instead of 30 for some.

Yeah, you got 24 more games.

You can make a difference.

You could, they could go out and win this conference.

I mean, you know, and, and they have the talent to do it.

The guys just have to, like I said, some of 'em, we gonna need some gut checks

and we need some, some, uh, consistency and we only have to win the conference.

We can go out and, and play really well and then win the

conference in the tournament.

I mean, the, the team has the ability, so it's, it's a long season.

Anybody who's, you know, pouting and getting down and, and it's

all over, it's like, all right, we don't need you Go away.

Yeah.

They'll co they'll come back in May when the weather's nice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They'll come back in May when they're, when they're playing great.

And the weather's nice, but, I mean, whatever.

Get outta here.

Yeah.

But it, it's a long season.

There's lots to go.

Crazy stuff happens.

Mainly Texas state, SWEP, Louisiana.

You had weird games going all Southern

State.

Five.

That's weird to start with.

Yeah.

I'm Southern.

Miss is one game ahead of us in the standings.

Who would've called that,

right?

They're three and three.

Like, it's, it's weird.

It's gonna be a weird year.

It's a wood chipper.

Yeah.

You, you're gonna be tested every week.

Uh, well, someone who had a test on Friday and kind of brought us back to

get us the first game of this series.

Wanna bring on Senior Patrick Johnson?

Patrick, welcome to the show.

How are y'all doing?

Patty J What's up man?

How are you?

Good, good.

How you been enjoying RDU This is your first year with us.

How, how do you like it?

It is, uh, I've really enjoyed it.

You know, being around Coach Marin and Pond and Rhino, they've really,

um, they've really helped me kind of figure out this new arm slot

that I've been going through.

Helping me work, uh, through some mental things that have kind of

slowed me back earlier in college.

And, you know, working through some of those, um, during the fall and

throughout the year really helped.

Well, I didn't realize your, your arm slots, so, so were you like

a little higher, a little more three quarter or where were you

before?

I was, I dropped about a foot this summer.

Oh, wow.

Um, I got hurt last year and then went to tread and dropped about

a foot, um, in my arm slot and

Okay.

Kind of two weeks before Polly ended up seeing me at the showcase at Tread.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so they've helped kind of refine some things in my, um, pathway

down the mound and working through some pitches throughout the fall.

You never know watching 'cause you know, like, like I'm, I'm taking

pictures and I know what a side armor is supposed to look like, and you

look just like all the guys who do it.

So that, that's pretty great that it's, it looks like it's working out.

Yeah.

I've, I've really enjoyed it.

I've gotten a lot more movement on pitches and it's a lot more fun.

I mean.

You just kind of, I'm not throwing as hard, but I mean

yeah, just strikes, I guess, with the sinker and make 'em hit it.

Uh, I meant to ask, uh, Shu and, and Cole, uh, Lambert about this too.

Like how long did it take you to figure out your release point and your release

timing when you changed that arm slot?

Mine didn't take too long because I would always kind of mess around sidearm,

like in the outfield and you know, like everyone, you just kind of throw

a few sidearm and you're like, well, maybe one day, and I guess my day came.

So

yeah, well Friday you come on in relief of Ben Tanton, you get three and a third,

no earned runs, four hits, no walks, two strikeouts, really kind of steadied

the ship there when it looked like it was heading into a, a pretty bad spot.

But take us through Friday and, and coming in and holding things up so we

can end up Yeah, actually getting a win and obviously getting you a win too.

Yeah.

Well, funny story actually.

Um.

Pond thought they said Jackson and not Johnson.

So a Conco was warming up originally.

And so I went back because I need to go to the bathroom and pond was

like, Hey, like you need to get hot.

So I just got straight on the mound and started throwing.

And you know, that has been a struggle of mine is the first inning.

So,

mm-hmm.

Kind of trying to figure out how to change my sights earlier instead of

it, you know, being a hit or hit a batter or, you know, give up a home

run like I did at Troy last week.

You know, just kind of figuring all that out in the bullpen pre-game.

And that's something that I've talked to Marin about this week.

Like almost thinking like instead of putting in the little plastic hitter,

like getting an actual human to stand in or do something to get me a little

bit more, um, ready to go early.

And then from the first standing on it was just kind of.

Win every inning and

mm-hmm.

I didn't know how long I was gonna throw, but just kind of try to give the

offensive a shot to get back into it.

And you, you created that opportunity for 'em and they did.

They got back in it and come back and win and it ended up being really

important to avoid getting swept.

You obviously didn't know what was gonna happen Saturday, Sunday, but uh, you know,

what was it like in dugout coming off the mound after that last inning you had?

I mean, it seemed like the guys were kind of mobbing you a little

bit as you were coming out.

Yeah, it was fun.

I mean, definitely the five, back to back five run innings is a good thing

and, you know, I was really hoping to put up a zero to keep the momentum up.

And it, it's always fun to walk in and the guys just going crazy and

seeing the offense get back to work.

I really like what Marin does where like, when you guys are done,

he kind of lets you get settled, have your, have your relax for a

second, and then it'll be like, Hey, you know, all right, Pat's done.

Everybody give him, give him, give him, you know, the whole, all the

pictures and everybody comes over.

Uh, that seems like it's pretty cool experience that feel like it's good when

it's happening, as it looks like it feels,

yeah.

It's fun and it's fun to pick up.

The guys always like,

yeah, yeah.

After a good outing or, I mean, even if you struggle, it's like, it's always

a good thing to like have the sense of the guys behind you and like, rally

around you and then y'all be able to carry that in to whoever's next.

Yeah.

I was gonna say one thing.

You really seem like you enjoy being a teammate.

Like, I always see like, you're, you're always in the middle of

like two or three guys and you're always engaged in some way.

Like, uh, who, who have you really like jelled with since you've been here?

Um, I live with Runyon, so me and Runyon are pretty close.

Okay.

And then, um, like me, Marcus, Darren.

Um, I've gotten close with Ben.

We have a bunch of guys over at our house every now and then and we'll

yeah,

sit and play cards and watch whatever sporting events on.

Um, so it's usually a lot of the, a lot of the pitchers come over and

we just kinda hang out and then, I mean, all of us really get along

and that was one thing that kind of,

yeah,

getting on campus was very welcoming, um, with everyone just helping

out, helping me feel welcome.

So

That's

awesome.

And then, you know, obviously you're, you're down Saturday,

Sunday 'cause you, you threw 50 or so pitches there on Friday.

It was getting a little testy in the dugouts, like, I think that's like

the loudest I think this season.

I've heard at home, you obviously don't have to to get into anything that would

get you in any kind of trouble, but could you just kind of feel like the momentum

building with those guys when they just start jaw back and forth a little bit?

Yeah.

You definitely get a sense of just urgency whenever, like, especially like.

Darren throws that slider to the backstop, like our entire dugout.

Cheers.

Like it's just, and it, it's a good thing when you're on the mound, like

when you feel that out there and feel the energy from the guys, and I mean,

I'm sure it's the same way hitting, just like being behind whoever's going and

like wanting to go to war with them.

Like definitely it's fun.

Especially when their dugout starts to get into it too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was a really funny moment because I was thinking it was

the first pitch of the inning.

I mean, he just sailed that thing.

I mean, Mac had no chance and it went.

And I was like, all right, that's kind of weird.

But then the whole dugout erupts and is clapping and laughing.

That was, that was, I think, a cool way to pick your guy up there.

Yeah.

I think he ended up going back and I don't know if he struck

him out, but I don't He did.

Yeah.

I think you went

and got right.

For

sure.

That was, that was a cool, that was a cool moment.

Yeah.

What, um, what made you pick ODU, I mean, when you were, well, I

guess, what made you leave Tennessee Tech and what made you pick ODU?

So I ended up getting hurt last year about, mm-hmm.

A week ago today.

So I'm still in the process Oh wow.

Right now of getting my med red from last year.

Okay.

And hopefully having another year, um,

that'd be awesome.

But kind of just our pitching coach ended up leaving Tennessee Tech, um, pretty

early, I think it was in the winter.

And so we just didn't have a pitching coach and I felt like I needed, I mean,

I had a year left, I was thinking at the time, so I was like, I want to like

go out and enjoy like my last year.

And I mean, the portal's not fun for anyone.

So, you know, going in the portal and, you know, talking to Coach Marin and a few

of the, uh, the other guys, it was just like he, coach Marin really seems to care

about every single person on our staff.

And like, it's a lot deeper than baseball.

It's like,

yeah,

he wants to know you on a personal level, like what makes you tick.

And it's just, it's completely different than anything I've had.

'cause I mean, this is my third school.

So

yeah,

just kinda having that kind of one-on-one connection with a pitching

coach is special and you know, you can really tell that he cares about

each and every person on the staff.

Yeah, I was gonna say you had some ODU connections that you might

not even known about at the time.

I, because did you were at Middle Tennessee?

Yeah.

Okay.

Where you had with, with Wiz Jerry Myers.

Yeah.

Wiz Zuki Wiz.

Mm-hmm.

Which is one of my, one of my favorite human beings on the planet.

I, I cannot tell, I mean, I've known Wiz since he was playing at ODU U and

obviously Coach in all these years.

Wiz is, I, I love the guy to death.

I'm, I was happy for him to see he got the job there.

Uh, but yeah.

So that, tell us about, about working with, with Jerry and Wiz.

Uh, it was funny because going into MTSU, there were a bunch of things

that happened before the year.

'cause our head coach ended up having to leave for some off the field things, so,

right.

Yeah.

Coach Myers, uh, ended up taking over and being the head coach and then, um,

it was, it was fun playing under Coach Myers and then Wiz came in sophomore,

my sophomore year, and a lot of the things that he brought into the program

there are kind of what we used here, so,

right.

The transition from the low, medium, hybrid high days.

He brought all those in and I remember there were a bunch of guys who went

and moved him whiz into the house.

So I remember moving Whiz into the house and his wife made

his cookies and everything.

That's great.

But's Wiz ended up, Wiz did call me this summer and kind of was, talked

to him a little bit about ODU, um, 'cause I remembered he went here.

So

Yeah.

Get your background, background check on ODU there from the Good Source.

And I remember ODU because especially joining conference USA.

Mm-hmm.

I remember hearing about from the older guys, like the

odu, the Southern miss, like

mm-hmm.

Whenever they were in conference, USA.

So

yeah, we were hitting tanks those last couple years and

Oh yeah.

That's all I, that's all I heard.

I heard,

I remember we, they were hitting some in the football field

there at, uh, middle Tennessee.

I, I actually.

Heard a story about that.

It like hit the camera up on top and

Yeah, I think it, I think Andy Gara probably did that.

Mm-hmm.

That was funny.

Yeah.

There were some bombs hit that day that, that park, if I remember correctly,

it like, it was like a magnet to the football stadium for Oh, it

flies.

It flies,

flies outta there.

Uh, well, tell us a little bit about what you throw.

I don't think I've ever asked this question on the podcast.

This is probably because I'm an amateur and this is, you

know, I'm not great at this.

But, but tell us about like your, your pitches that you throw and kind of what

you feel like you've developed, you know, the most since coming over to ODU.

Um, so I'm pretty dominant on sinker.

Um, I don't throw it too much, but I think my main pitch is kind of my

slider and that's kind of been my bread and butter throughout college.

Um, just being able to throw that.

I feel like that's one of the pitches I'm more confident than even my

fastball, like behind an account.

I love going to the slider.

Um.

And I think the pitch that kind of has been the unicorn is the changeup.

I haven't really thrown it much, but this summer I figured out a kick change.

I've never really had a good changeup.

I used to call my changeup the home run pitch, because like every

time I threw it, it went out.

Um, that's crazy.

But, um, kind of found the kick change and it's, it's, it's weird.

Sometimes it'll cut, sometimes it'll go straight down.

Sometimes it'll run.

Coach Marion just calls it the death ball.

So

yeah.

Um, I think that's that.

And then really dominating, like, I think the main issue for me right now

is just moving my sites over and trying to work in on hitters more with the

sinker and have that be more effective.

So everyone has like a weird pitch now, right?

Because I know Kellen has whatever that gyro slider

weird thing is.

Oh yeah.

And then you have the death ball, so we just gotta keep creating and

naming new pitches, it sounds like.

Yeah.

And Marcus and Darren also had, they have the same similar kick change.

I remember Marcus, uh, me and him would talk all the, that was my

throwing partner before he got hurt.

Mm-hmm.

So we'd, we'd throw all the time and just mess with the changeups

and it was always fun just messing with him as he was getting mad.

He'd be like.

Yours dropped more than mine today.

And then he'd throw it and it was just,

you never think about this.

That's gotta be real.

I mean, number one, it's just sad.

'cause you know, Marcus is such a great guy, and Oh yeah, it sucks, but it's

like you never think about like your throwing partner is kind of a big deal.

That's like usually that's like your guy, that's your routine.

And so when that all of a sudden shifted up, and so did you have to like convince

somebody else to be your throwing partner?

Did you like steal from somebody else or what did you, how did that,

who's your new throwing partner?

How'd you work that out?

Well, it's been interesting because I've thrown, I threw with Darren all winter,

and then Darren ended up starting.

So then I started throwing with Marcus, and then Marcus went out early.

And then now I've been thrown with Runion a lot.

And then, okay.

It just really depends on the day.

Now, like I threw with Lambford some last week because our, our

throwing lines, it, it is just kind of like I threw a chuck today.

It's just kind of okay,

you're just playing, you're just a young guy playing the field.

You'll throw with anybody.

I got it.

Okay.

Alright.

You're not gonna get, you're not gonna get stuck with one throwing partner.

I see how it is.

Okay.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

Let's keep your options open.

All right.

I hear you.

That's gotta be weird with you and Cole throwing because that's like, no,

nothing is, no ball is above the head.

It feels like it's all out here.

Oh yeah.

It's a fun catch play.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you're from, uh, Chattanooga, Tennessee, right?

Is that correct?

I

am.

I'm, yeah.

Okay.

Did you ever get to play at the lookouts field?

We did.

I'm excited for the new one, uh, the new field.

Oh, nice.

They make a new one.

Good.

That's cool.

They did, they, it was about time.

Okay.

I mean, that field.

Yeah.

Because I was thinking, I went there and it was like Brian McCann

and Jeff Rancor and Charlie Mor were in like double A at the time.

Oh yeah.

You're talking like, like over 20 years ago.

That's a long time.

The last time, I mean, I remember like Yawe, uh, yeah.

Byron Buxton.

Mm-hmm.

I know Kershaw because they, I mean, they bounced around.

They were the Reds.

Yeah, they were the twins.

They were the Dodgers.

Mm-hmm.

So, uh, I remember Kershaw came in for like a rehab assignment, and that's the,

that's awesome.

That stadium was packed, but they moved it and it was about time,

but it was always fun playing.

Like we'd play a few high school games there every now and then against,

um, McCauley, who was our rival.

Mm-hmm.

So that was, uh, that was always fun.

Now, were you a hitter too in high school?

Yeah, but I was terrible.

I

you could tell the bro no one was gonna look it up.

You could just tell the story.

No, I, I tell them all the, that's what I tell the hitters all the time.

Like, I was like, I'm just gonna stay outta y'all's business.

Like I can't hit.

That's

funny.

Like I was, I was a lefty bunt.

I had to hit it the other way and I'd play outfield.

I was, I was decent at outfield, but I could not hit save my life.

So did you, did you were, did you hit and play anyway?

Like were even though you were bad at it?

Or did you just like get

I did,

I did.

I mean, our lineup was kind of stacked in high school.

So

yeah,

we, uh, every now and then I'd go in and defensive replacement and

Sure.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's funny.

I think he's just sandbagging.

That's what he is.

He's gonna get in his, usually how

great they were.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're gonna get the one AB and just like crank one into the gap

and be like, Hey, just kidding guys.

That was awesome.

My last ever game, I went four for four.

I think if you've lined them all up, up, they might make it to the fence.

But I went four for four.

That's fair.

That's

all blind drives of the box score, right?

That's what I

always say.

Yep.

Exactly.

All of 'em are singles.

About, say when you were at Tennessee Tech, you didn't happen to run into Bobby

Wilder or the football coach, did you?

He would be around every now and then, because the training room was,

um, our training room was connected to the football field, so I'd see

him around every now and then.

All right.

Yeah.

That's our, another ODU, uh, legendary football coach.

Phenomenal guy.

I, we used to work at a golf ball shop and he came in one time like nobody

else was there, and he sat and hung out and talked to him for like 45 minutes

after he stopped coaching for us.

Oh.

But yeah, just a, just a great guy.

Yeah.

So I'm glad he is having success out there.

Yeah.

ODU u everywhere.

I guess I just keep running

into it.

Yeah, we do it, man.

You never know.

It's weird where you start seeing the logos and all over the place.

You got, you got OD fans everywhere.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Patrick, well, I know you've got a big week ahead and you got, uh, two Midweeks

and then you're heading down to mobile.

That's probably like the closest travel schedule we've had to last year.

You got four row games this week.

Uh, so we'll, we'll let you go, let you rest up all that fun stuff.

Unless CB you got anything else?

No, man, we, we appreciate you.

I hope hopefully you get that, uh, medical richer and we can

have you back here next year, man.

That'd be, that'd be a nice surprise.

Yes, sir.

Awesome.

Patrick, thanks so much for, uh, hopping on here and

chatting with us is a good time.

And, uh, we will see you at some point this week.

Not sure which game, but we'll see you at some point.

Yes, sir. Hopefully it, hopefully the radar's lying and it warms

up a little bit for tomorrow, but

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No more 40 degree games, man.

That's ridiculous.

Yeah,

crazy.

I mean, it's 80 degrees and then all of a sudden it's 20 and then it's gonna snow

the next day, and then it's gonna be 80.

No, no.

That's why I, that's why I've been sick for a month.

I was talking before we started about and sick.

I've been coughing for a month.

It's 'cause of that.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Well, thanks so much Patrick.

Uh, good luck this week and we'll be cheering you on.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Good talking to y'all.

All right, thanks.

Thanks, man.

Appreciate it man.

Alrighty.

CB man, I'll be honest, I've not talked to, to Patrick a lot.

He is a, he is a really great kid.

That was awesome.

Yeah.

He hit me cracking up there.

That was was, I still think he's sandbagging.

I,

yeah, I think he's lying.

It's like, bro, our lineup was stacked, but they let you play.

I don't know.

Okay.

So yeah, four for four in the last game.

That was an anomaly.

Yeah.

But we'll see.

I mean, Finny sounds like he's open to getting Jackson a con

and ab if he can hit, I mean.

John could hit.

Yeah, he was hitting like clean up third for, uh, for Grand

Christian who is, you know, no joke.