CB, Gary and Coach Finny recap the Georgia State series, including the gut wrenching loss on Sunday. The guys look ahead to the final 9 SBC games of the year and what ODU needs to do to make the tournament.

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Yeah.

Yes.

Hello Monarch fans and welcome to the Hudson Homers podcast.

Got Coach Finny here.

We've got CB here.

We got a lot to talk about, but cb, how's it going?

I'm, I'm good.

Uh, you know, better than I felt by this time yesterday afternoon,

but, uh, that's all right.

We're all in that boat, I think.

And your and your Bravos are running away with the NL

East.

They're doing great.

And, and I was gonna say, hey, how about, um, ODU, uh, women's tennis

when they're six straight six feet?

Yeah.

That's crazy.

I think may, maybe they've said now where they're gonna play,

but that's, uh, that's amazing.

Yeah,

absolutely.

Unreal for them.

Men's, men's and women's.

Yeah.

The women are on four, the men are on fourth Street.

Yeah.

I mean, that's, that's nuts.

Amazing.

Talking about entire classes.

Come and play a full college career and, and don't not win the tournament.

I mean, that's,

yeah, that's

something else.

Yeah.

Pretty cool.

Congrats to both Doms, Dom and Dominic and Yes, all the

Doms.

All

the

doms, they're great guys and they've done a amazing job.

They're, you know, and it, it shows what you can do when you have a

good coaching staff and you got the best facility in the league.

So,

yeah,

that's helpful.

It's

a great facility.

Um, it's a great facility and they take advantage of it.

I, I hadn't been to an outdoor one until, uh, last weekend and,

uh, that's really great outdoors.

It's a nice

indoors, I think is better for the fans, but for photography,

the outdoors was awesome.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

That's cool.

But so

good to, good to see them keep on winning.

I know, uh, I saw a note that Arkansas cut both their men's and women's

tennis programs last week, and you wanna talk about nice facilities.

What they had was, was pretty impressive.

So

isn't that amazing?

Yeah.

I think what a lot of those, the teams that are doing these sorts of things are.

Turning them into, I, I don't think they're cutting, like, cutting 'em,

like they're not gonna have it at all.

I think they're turning 'em into basically non scholarship sports.

Like they're mm-hmm.

They're, no, no scholarships and, and you know, uh, reduced level

obviously, or something like that.

Mm-hmm.

It seems to be what is going through the, the wire around

what's happening in some places.

Kind of wrestling has done that in some places.

Yeah.

That's why I continue to tell our fans that if there's a program you like at ODU,

go to the games attend, show up, donate to them because it's, the landscape continues

to change in college athletics and there could be some tough decisions ahead.

And we're not exempt from that by any means.

Nope.

Nope.

Without a doubt.

It is the situation we are currently in and, um, you know, people are spending

more money and they're not bringing in any more money and so something

Yeah.

Yeah.

We gotta get it from somewhere.

Um, it's, it's unfortunate for sure, and I, I, I, baseball is

certainly not immune to that.

I, I unfortunately think that in the northeast that's gonna be a decision

that some people are gonna come to, especially if you're a school.

Uh, Mike and I are talking about this on our thousand thousand mile ride home.

You're a school that's good at hockey, for instance, and you're getting a couple,

two, 3000 plus for hockey, you know, and then you're getting three and five

people for baseball game where it's,

because it's 20 degrees outside most of your season.

And it's just like, where do you want to allocate your resources, you know?

Yeah.

On the, on the men's side.

Um mm-hmm.

So that, that could, it's, it is gonna be interesting.

I mean, I think, um, you know that the five for five thing

that's gonna get voted on mm-hmm.

Here in May, uh, gonna change the landscape.

I was talking to a.

High school coach, friend of mine this today, not this morning, this afternoon.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and we were talking about high school kids and he's got a pretty good rise.

He's a pretty good junior.

Um, and it's just like, now this five for five's gonna hit again.

Mm-hmm.

And everybody's gonna get another year.

And then what are the, what are the high school kids?

This is like the fifth year in a row.

Something like that happen.

Yeah.

So you got like a whole

class.

I think the thing with this one is it, it may not affect the current seniors.

That's the thing I keep seeing is that it might be, doesn't seem

fair at all to me

it, it seems weird.

Yeah.

Doesn't randomly pick one class

of

people and exclude them.

It would make more sense to almost say if you're in college

right now, it doesn't affect you.

Just take everybody and then say all the incoming freshmen is where

it starts would make more sense.

Right.

But

Right.

But I guess they're saying, you know, the seniors are

graduating, you know, potentially.

Moving on.

I mean, if you think about like a football, any of the fall sports, they've

already gone through their portal.

They've already gone through, they've given away all their,

their scholarship money.

You know,

all their NILI think that's another reason.

I think that's another reason.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that definitely is another reason.

So that could very well be, um, and then, you know, your juniors

are gonna have two more years.

Your sophomores are gonna have three more years.

Your freshman are gonna have four more years.

You know, you think about kids like Nick Felton who's just starting to

figure it out and play really well.

Yeah.

Um, you know, I think he had his best weekend, um, of the season, obviously

with the two homers yesterday.

He's got four more years.

Yeah.

It's not

true.

Well I think part of it too is they're talking about doing like

a, it's a onetime transfer portal.

You, you can't

one, one time

do every single year

screw up without sitting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So with that, and that would, I think at that point, I

dunno what your feelings are.

I, I, I haven't, you know, obviously sat and thought long about it, but

it seems to me like five years.

In five years.

And so that's no more extending, you know, nothing within their seventh

year and that one time transfer that, that kind of makes it to where

you actually could bring kids in.

Develop 'em.

You, you don't worry about if you wanna play a freshman sum early on,

you play 'em, you know, here and there.

You're not worried about killing their year of eligibility 'cause it's,

it's gonna go away no matter what.

Yep.

I mean, it seems to me like it could have, has, it seems like it has.

It's, it almost makes a lot of sense.

So it feels like they're not gonna do it or they'll mess up somehow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because I hate the current rule.

If you play a kid at all

Right.

He lose the year.

If he's not hurt in baseball.

I mean, it's like football now they're trying to get Yeah.

Football, you get half the season.

Yeah.

Which I mean, come on.

But it gives you an opportunity to get that kid in there and get

some experience and not lose it.

And so I like the thought of that, you know, um, and, and you know, as the kids

develop at different rates, certainly.

Yeah.

And the idea of a one-time portal is good because I mean you, you know, all

the time there are guys who after a year or two it's like, Hey man, we like you.

You're a great kid.

This just isn't the spot for you.

Yep.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

And it's not necessarily about all the kids that are going and chasing money.

It's about the kids that's like, Hey, we want you to be able to go somewhere

and find your level and find your place.

Yep, yep.

Yeah.

The other side of the equation would be interesting too, because you don't

have that option to hop in the portal.

You may be mm-hmm.

Stuck with some guys on your roster for longer if maybe they're

not the caliber to come and play or there's some other issues.

Mm-hmm.

I'm curious to see if there's gonna be some carve outs for that for coaching

changes and things like that too.

But I wouldn't mind some guardrails 'cause it went from you can't

move at all to go to a different school every year for 20 years.

Yeah.

And I think like somewhere in the middle is actually where

the right answer is there.

And this at least get us towards that.

Well, yeah, there's no doubt.

And, and you know, it went from, you're stuck with a portal kid

forever till he graduates to.

Don't about it now worry you, you're gonna be stuck with a portal kit again,

so you better evaluate it the right way.

Um, yeah.

Count against you until he graduates, no matter where he goes.

And so, yeah, it's, um, I'm hopeful.

We had a long recruiting meeting today.

I'm hopeful that we're not going to be in the portal a ton this summer.

Mm-hmm.

Um, we have, we've done pretty well.

You know, our high school guys have been signed for a while, but we've done pretty

well with, um, some pretty good junior college kids we've gotten recently.

Mm-hmm.

And, and I'm excited about that.

And it may be like one hitter and one or two pitchers maybe.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so I like the thought of that because you could really zero in it.

It's an inexact science, no matter.

Yeah.

You know how you scramble.

Well, yeah.

You currently have a lot of, especially pitching wise, a lot of good young

guys and like, they're freshman, redshirt, freshman, sophomores,

there's, there's a, a certain amount of depth there already, so that's

kind of a nice position to be in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And uh, you know, van Olsteen will be back next year.

Mm-hmm.

Red shirt this year with the Tommy John surgery.

Um, and you know, Kuski and Gati will be back.

I mean, they, they're getting better.

Like Ga wasn't, Kuski was really good on, on,

he was

Friday, the guy strike zone was so Dagg on small man, it cost

him a ton of pitches, you know?

Mm-hmm.

Um, but.

He threw the, he's thrown, you know, he is had four quality starts in a row.

Mm-hmm.

And Gati up until then had had four in a row.

He, he'd been throwing the ball better.

Those guys are getting better.

I think next year.

You know, a lot of times transfers is that second year where you really see, I mean,

you think about guys like Sam Armstrong.

Sam was just okay his first year, like very pedestrian and then he was

absolutely dominant his second year.

John Hobe was kind of the same way.

Um, so

I think you said it one time with a, with a transfer or juco, you

basically get one year out of him.

It's a question that's the first year and they're great and get drafted or

they're the first year they're okay.

Then the second year, they're great.

Yeah.

And now you might get, so

that was pretty accurate.

If they got three instead of two, you might get two.

So that, that's yous a good thing, you know?

Um, like Will, will Johnson, I think is another good

example, you know, will mm-hmm.

Struggled a little bit, um, you know, the first part of the season.

Um, and he has just really played well the, the last three or four weeks, um,

both off offensively and, and defensively.

He's really picked it up a notch, I think.

Um, so that's a good thing.

So, and, and no, you know, will just needs strength.

Like a lot of them, he was a product of being at a place where he red shirted

his freshman year and they didn't care.

Um, and then he went to junior college and didn't lift and probably didn't eat right.

He's probably 15 pounds lighter than he would be if he had

been here the whole time.

Um, so he can work on that this summer though.

And, uh, some, I think 15 pounds would make a big, big difference for a guy.

He can

hang out with me.

I'll put 15 pounds on it.

Yeah,

me too.

Just

follow my diet.

We got it.

Me

too.

I was gonna say steak, potato and iron.

That's about the, the recipe this summer for him.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick Felton another example.

Like he,

yeah, for

sure.

He needs to work hard put on weight this summer and

mm-hmm.

Um, I'm really proud of Nick.

He's, he's coming along, you know, with better at bats and, um, playing

fantastic in center field as well.

Now is Nick or I, I may might be a later conversation, but is Nick the

kind of guy you're gonna have to play summer ball somewhere, or he is gonna

focus on maybe him just working out and getting stronger in the summer?

Yeah, that's a good question.

I, I think.

If it is, it might be just part of the summer.

Mm-hmm.

Um, we may send him out to get, we'll see how many at bats he ends up with.

Yeah.

You know, these freshmen, a lot of times if they get, you know, I don't

know how many he's got right now.

Mm-hmm.

But if they get, you know, over a hundred at bats per se, um, they go out and

play in the summer and, and all summer and they come back just dog tired and

Yeah.

It, it doesn't help 'em develop like Nick.

Yeah.

He does need to keep working on his swing and his approach and some of those things,

but he needs strength more than anything.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and so I think that'll be something we'll address that we

don't have in place right now.

Um, because we weren't just Sure.

Every, every kid's a little bit different, you know?

Mm-hmm.

Um, Tyler Zedalis is a good example.

Like he's just, he likes to play, he's gonna go play.

He's strong enough, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's fine.

Yeah, fine.

Um, guy guys like that.

So, uh, we kind of take each of those a little bit differently, um,

when we look at each guy towards the end of the end of the year.

Yeah.

Well, on the topic of eligibility, I think we all saw the post

from Luke before the weekend.

It sounds like that that potential extra year is not going to happen.

At least it seems that way.

No, he got that denied and, um, you know, I hated that they kept the

kid in limbo and us for so long.

That was, that was kinda weak in my opinion.

It was very weak actually.

Um, they should be ashamed of themselves for that.

Mm-hmm.

Um, it should have been cut more, much more cut and dry.

And um, you know, you live and you learn.

It's just, you see these guys thinking they're gonna get, you

know, talking about getting their.

But the one quarterback from, uh,

yeah,

Ole Miss is like,

yeah,

got an injunction by the Mississippi Supreme Court for his

seventh year or whatever it is.

It's like, come on.

All different rules for football.

But that's where the, the five for five thing will clean up a lot of as well.

You know, you don't have to, you don't.

Go down that street.

Yeah, he did for Luke.

I'm sure he would've liked one more season just to kinda bounce back from last year.

But obviously appreciate everything he did for the program.

His dad, Roger is awesome.

Awesome.

You know, I saw him at, at several games.

Great.

This year.

Yeah.

I mean, whole family is awesome.

His sister's a, a pretty accomplished athlete too.

So sad to see that that journey come to an end.

But, uh, yeah, I think he's, he's made some connections for life food.

Yeah.

Beneficial for him.

He's working in compliance, helping them out.

Mm-hmm.

Working

on his masters.

He wants to be a coach, I think, and

mm-hmm.

You know, great kid and had a good career here, so,

yeah.

You know, that was, that was good.

Um, you know, unfortunately, you know, didn't get that last year.

We, we could have used him in lineup this year too.

Yeah.

Adding that, adding that one more bat sometimes can make

a big difference, you know?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Well talk a little bit about last week.

I know we're all still kinda a little green in the gills

from the way Sunday ended.

I know you all had a late night, early morning getting back in, but, uh, it, it,

I mean, honestly, I think you outplayed 'em for pretty much the entire series.

Just a little bit of a, a headache We ran into there in

the ninth inning on game three.

Yeah.

You know, and, and it overshadows.

I thought we did play well.

We didn't play poorly on Saturday.

We just mm-hmm.

You know, some, they took advantage of, uh, you know.

Some dirt balls, pass balls.

It was sloppy on the mound.

I thought GA was just, you know, it was a mess out there actually.

And then, you know, you're the way series go when you're pitching is

limited, which both our staffs were

mm-hmm.

Uh, are, um, numbers wise of quality guys.

You know, if you win on Friday and you get behind, you know,

by six or whatever mm-hmm.

On Saturday, like you're gonna punt.

I mean, unless,

yeah,

you're gonna throw guys, you know, the down bullpen guys and they

just gotta go out there and do the best they can unless you get back

in it and then it could change.

I mean, you can see they did that on Friday.

They did that on,

yeah.

And so, you know, so tale of two completely

mm-hmm.

Different but the same games on opposite side.

Right.

Right.

And then when that happens, when you don't play a close one either Friday

or Saturday, both teams end up with their better bullpen guys mm-hmm.

For Sunday.

So then Sunday ends up being the close one.

And you know, it's just how it works, man.

Um, so, and it was, and it was, it was, we did, we outplayed it for

25 outs and you got up out playing for 27 out, especially on the road.

Um, and that's, that's unfortunate.

So, um, you know, give your, give them credit.

Uh, I like their club.

I thought their, um.

I, I think there are limited on the mount and the number of pitchers they have.

And, um, but they got, you know, they catch the ball.

Even their third baseman is a phenomenal player.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, McGinnis, uh, wills

well then, and then Beverly, the center fielder is really good too.

Yeah.

And Beverly can, can play.

He, he, uh, yeah, he can be pitched to, he can really run.

Yeah.

He knows you give him some credit.

He knows what he is.

He tries to chop the ball and run and, and he covers a lot of ground in the center,

but their lead off guy, I mean, a third baseman, he must have made 15, or he must

have 15 or 16 assists on the weekend.

Like, and he made every one of 'em look easy.

Uh, and he's got a good arm, good body.

I was very impressed with him.

And you know, when you're coaching third, you spend a little bit

of time talking sometimes.

Yeah.

To third if you like him.

And, uh, and he's a very, he's a very likable kid, very respectful,

good kid, good competitor.

And of course he hit the walk off to beat us too, you know.

Yeah.

Um, so, but that's how it goes.

I mean, we've walked a couple people off this year.

It, it sucks on both sides of it.

When you win, it's great and you lose, it's, it stinks.

And, um, I've been through a bunch of them, unfortunately.

Well, the ones we've lost, unfortunately, the ones we won were great.

Yeah.

There's stoic saying that says, no man is crushed by the, uh, fortunes

of defeat unless he's puffed up by the fortunes of victory.

So we try to stay somewhere in the middle and, uh, we just gotta get back to work.

We, we did play good baseball for the most part.

You know, we caught the ball in defense, um, and, you know, through,

through strikes and I thought, um, you know, yesterday Okonkwo

again, uh, you know, three quality innings, um, gets us into the game.

He had a good week, you know, he threw,

yeah, he did, threw

quality innings against East Carolina and then three against Georgia State.

We, we thought we were gonna need to get Kellen into that game earlier,

being fresh to keep us in it, uh, knowing what we had in their lineup.

And, uh, it worked.

He did a good job.

I mean, gave up the one home run, but, um, you know, then three, and Bailey came

in and did good job, and yeah, certainly, you know, um, if you had a crystal ball

and you knew what was gonna happen, we'd run Bailey back out there for the ninth.

But that's not how it works.

So, uh,

yeah.

I mean, I think that's, that's one that, you know, it's easy to second

guess because it didn't work, you know?

Yeah.

If Nick goes out and it's 1, 2, 3, you don't think anything about it.

Yeah.

Um, but it's, I guess that's,

that's baseball.

Yeah.

That's baseball.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, was there, was there even a thought in the moment of like,

we should throw Bailey out, or are you just like, no, Nick's got this?

Uh, I think we just said, Hey, we need Bailey for if we, if we wouldn't have

had to bring him in in the seventh.

Mm-hmm.

I thought.

I thought Kellen was outta gas after the six.

Yeah, I think

you were.

We talked about it.

We let him go out and try to get, you know, see how we could he, you know, he,

when he is outta gas, everything's up the breaking ball's up and he walks the first

guy and then we got Bailey in, I think.

Not a good, you well

up either.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, and Bailey came in and did a good job.

He got us out.

Mm-hmm.

Both of those innings.

But yeah, it just is what it is, man.

I, it's, uh, I'll, I'll take, I'll take full responsibility for it because

it, I would've made the same move.

Shoulda said.

Maybe we should, and maybe next time we will, you know, no one's going, but

yeah.

Maybe we should have said, Hey, let's let him go out and start it and see

how he does, and then we can get Nick in behind him if he doesn't have it.

We, we, I tend to like guys coming in to clean innings

Yeah.

Outta the bullpen.

Me too, if possible.

Unless they have strikeout stuff.

If they've got strikeout stuff, you don't worry about it as much, but

some guys, you know, you can help 'em if you're gonna bring 'em in anyway.

It's just easier on them mentally, I think, to, to start any clean than

come in with a bunch of traffic.

And so that's usually my, what I'm in favor of if we can, if

we can work it out that way.

It just didn't work out, you know?

And, and the guys, I tell 'em all the time, like, you know, somebody

says, oh, that was a good move.

And I go, it's not a good, it's only a good move if you guys make it good.

You are the ones that make it good or bad.

It's not.

The move is the move.

If you guys go up, you know, you pinch hit and a guy gets a hit, and then

it's a great move way to go, coach.

You know, and if

you

out, you big dummy whatcha hitting that guy for, you know?

Yeah.

See, and, and that's always my, my problem is that people,

people wanna judge the result.

And to me it's like you judge what the logical choice was in the moment

and logical choice in that moment.

It's like, yeah, you could have let Bailey go back out, but how many times

does he throw more than two innings in his whole career At Old Dominion,

especially this year, KY has it all.

And so Nick was just coming off a week where he was great.

You know, it's like I even said like, we're going through the game.

I'm like, who's still out in the bullpen?

Like, okay, so Pio all right, throw him in the knife, boom.

It's like, it's, the moves in the moment are logical.

That's the thing.

When, when it's a bad move, when it doesn't make any sense.

Right.

Right.

Yeah, for sure.

So we just gotta get past it, man.

And, and I think this group will, um, they, they know what they gotta

play for and, you know, we talked, I said, man, there ain't nothing I

can say to you guys right now that's gonna make you feel any better.

No,

nobody here's gonna feel good on this bus ride home.

We just gotta move past it, move, get to the next most important thing.

That's the definition of metal toughness.

And we still got what we need to do in front of us.

You're coming home for the next five games and you know, you gotta find a way to

definitely win that series this weekend.

And if you play like you've been playing, you can.

You can.

And so that's, that's just how we gotta look at it.

You gotta put the past behind you as, uh, Rafiki said in Lion King

and the way that everything else played out this weekend, you're

still, you're, you're one game out of being in potentially a six

seed, like in a big tie for six.

You're two games out from being the five seat.

So like, yes, you lost the game, you lost the series, but it's not like you

got swept or, and you're out of it.

Like, you know, you saw Georgia Southern, the wheels kind of fell

off for them this past weekend.

Say jmu, I think they, they won a game in that series, but you still have, you know,

even a top six seat is still right there.

You could focus on that for your remaining nine conference games.

Yeah.

Without a doubt.

And, and, and, and in particular the team we're playing this weekend,

our state game ahead of you.

Mm-hmm.

So if you beat 'em the series, you'll, your records will be the same but.

You'll be ahead of, because you have the tiebreaker over them.

And so those tiebreakers are definitely gonna come into play.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, you can see it coming.

Oh,

it's gonna be wild, because they're gonna have to go 3,

4, 5 16 tiebreakers going on.

I mean, it's, it's jam packed.

I know.

And that's where we could get screwed.

'cause we only got a tiebreaker over George Southern right now.

Yeah.

Um, so, but, but look, Georgia State ain't got an easy, I mean, they,

they gotta go to Louisiana this week who's fighting for their lives.

Yeah.

Um, and that ain't ever an easy place to play, you know?

Mm-hmm.

And then, um, I, I forget who they, they, they get, they do have

Georgia Southern in there, but I forget who they finished with.

Somebody else pretty good.

Mm-hmm.

So, um, yeah.

And, and everybody has to still play each other, right?

Yeah.

Like, so kinda like everybody's sitting there idle and you're winning or losing,

like they're playing each other and they're moving themselves up and down the.

The, you know, the standings as, as well.

So you just gotta take care of yourself and try to play good baseball.

And, you know, we, we, um, we did this weekend and so I was, I was proud of that.

And I'm also happy that I never have to go play on that field again ever forever.

And

that's an interesting looking place.

Yeah.

It's a, it's a bad junior college feel at best, but yeah, they, well, you

know, we went by and, and hit their indoor cages Saturday because it was

raining for the game and saw the, the, the, the lot, the basically mm-hmm.

Spot, you know, it's cleared and they're moving dirt around.

They got some poles.

Yeah.

Old

Turner field.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They got a ways to go.

Um, and, and old, old, uh, you know, Fulton

County?

Fulton County Stadium right there.

But it's gonna be a cool venue, I think, you know, I think it's gonna be

way better than what they're doing and

mm-hmm.

Um, you know, it's probably, I don't know, a quarter mile away from where

their locker room and everything is.

And, and, and they're, they're gonna have a hitting place to hit there, but

their locker room's gonna still be in the old Turner Field where it is now.

Mm-hmm.

And it's the old Braves locker room.

It's awesome.

That's cool now.

Yeah.

I've, I've been down there.

That's, that's nice.

That was 25

years ago.

You're gonna have to get in your car and drive over to the field, um,

from the locker room to the field.

'cause it's, you can't walk.

It's not like walking right across the street.

Yeah, they're gonna be kind of set up there.

'cause they have the new basketball facility on one side of that parking lot.

You walk across, there'll be new baseball.

Yeah.

In the old Turner Field, which is now center park where they play football.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

So they're, they've got it set up and they built up around it.

So, I mean, they're,

yeah, they got, they're

trying to give the campus

field.

They got, they got, uh, public.

Yeah, I saw the dorms.

Yeah,

they've got dorm, they've got, it is a, it is gonna be a pretty

good setup without a doubt.

So we'll see how it ends up.

If you play football and nobody comes to watch, are you playing football?

That's,

uh, that, that play that's, that was

sad to see.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's, it's, uh, it's kind of a mess.

They've tried to make it look smaller.

Um, but I get it for them.

I mean, it made sense to do it and I'm sure they're getting kickbacks

from the city to keep it up and stuff like that and all of that.

So it makes sense to me.

What a wildlife for that stadium.

You went from the Olympics to the Brave Stadiums and now a, a football stadium.

It was

great.

It was only, it was only the Braves home field for 20 years.

Right.

It's like 20 years positive.

I saw the first game ever there as an exhibition against the Yankees.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean that's like, gotta be one of the shortest lifespans

of a baseball stadium ever.

If not the shortest it has to be.

It's that and the Rangers, the, those are the only two, uh, that I can think of.

Yeah,

because

that was about the global life.

It was about the same time, wasn't it?

Or

the

one before

Arlington,

they needed to put a roof and air conditioning on that thing.

Yeah, because you'd be bacon a hundred degree afternoon games in July and August.

Yeah.

Well, hey, how about Nick Felton?

Uh.

Man, a little power surge yesterday.

He, it's a good thing he did it there because, uh, I dunno if you

saw the distances they weren't gonna make it at, at, at ODU?

No.

What?

I didn't see them.

What

were they?

It was like 3, 3 85 and like three nine.

Like they were the one to center field wasn't gonna cover and the one

to, to the right center wasn't gonna cover, but he hit it in the right

got, he did it in the right place.

Got

it.

Yep.

So

that's great.

Uh, well, when he starts feeling himself, we will Absolutely.

Yeah.

That, oh, they, we, they got the little graphics they put

out now with all the, uh, info.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They look great.

So that is cool.

Yeah.

And both of 'em, you know, scraped some paint off the back of the fence.

Yes.

Yeah.

They were, they were long

flyouts

over year five rbis worth, and we needed them, so that was huge for us.

And, uh, I thought Nick had had good at bats this weekend.

He's, he's getting better.

And man, I tell you what, uh, it's like having a good shortstop, you know?

Mm-hmm.

When you got a center field that just, when it's hit you just,

it's, he catches everything.

Like, I guess

them,

you know, it's like the, what was the old saying?

The two, you know, a third of the, two thirds of the earth,

thirds of the plants covered our

water.

Yeah.

And the other third, the rest is covered by

Nick Felton.

Felton.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

That's how you probably didn't see.

But, uh, last week on the podcast, at the very end before, uh, he

and uh, TJ left, Nick made sure to mention how much he loves mom's

cookies and, uh Oh, that's awesome.

We were, I was watching the game yesterday with my parents and my

mom after the first, like, he's getting cookies next weekend.

Oh

yeah.

Yeah.

Smart

to look forward.

He's

smart too.

He knows how to get

cookies.

He does.

That was, that was good.

Oh, we, we were ready to come in hot and heavy today with the podcast Boost

because TJ hits one out on Friday.

Then Nick hits two out.

Yeah.

Oh man.

I was, I was glad to see TJ finally get into one.

'cause I think he's been, yeah, he's been in his head at the plate.

He is, he's been struggling, but hopefully he can keep working through it.

Come back out on the other side of it.

We can Sure.

Use it.

And, um, you know, I think it's probably time to start thinking about

moving Nick up in the, in the lineup and seeing how he can do his last few

weeks at, at the top of the lineup.

Um,

he can always move guys over with bunting, which is great.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, and you know, FF is such a good hitter.

I, I feel like we're, he gets on base, but he can't run.

Not a runner.

Uh, you know, he's running hard.

He is just those little,

yeah.

He's, he's, he looks like Mario when he is like, like tiny Mario before he gets the

mushroom spray at bats.

Yeah, he is.

I feel like if we can stick him in the middle somewhere, we need some

more RBI production in the middle.

Yeah.

Um, and so I think we're gonna play around with that tomorrow.

I think, you know, these, these next two midweek games, you're gonna,

certainly, you're always trying to win, but they're relevant in the big

scheme of things for us right now.

So it's, it's nice to beat the Virginia

teams.

That's about it.

It is, it is.

Um, you just, you know, these games, this time, everybody's in the same boat.

Like you gotta

Yeah.

Save all your bullets for the weekend.

'cause everybody's trying to make their tournament and Absolutely.

You know, all those things.

And, and so, you know, you end up throwing some other guys and, and

we got some guys that need to throw, like, Lanford needs to get out there,

SIA needs to get back out there.

Jack, Jack and Calvin Ante need to keep pitching.

Mm-hmm.

Another good thing, you know, that came back, uh, getting Pat Johnson

out there for an inning on Saturday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For a month.

And he threw, well, he looked good.

Felt good after.

So that's a, that's a nice arm to get back in the mix.

And then, um, I think Nick's next Tuesday, not this Tuesday,

um, we'll have Bain's, uh, yes.

The deal.

So

yeah, I was talking to him last weekend about that.

So that be, that'd be a big addition at the end.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think we're gonna, we'll probably just open him next Tuesday so he

didn't have to come in to anything.

He can go through his whole routine.

Throw an inning or two and, and get out there and then we'll see where he is

at for the, for the weekend at Coastal.

So, lots four and exciting time.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Well your note on Nick felt will make Bo happy because within four seconds of the

second home run going, oh, I got a text.

Hey, can you ask Finn if you thought about moving Nick up in the lineup?

And I was like, I don't know, but we'll find out

all, all, all on you Bo I'm gonna tell him.

Bo that's a great idea.

I would've never thought of it.

So yeah,

yeah, yeah.

But we got the Rams, uh, Rams tomorrow night and uh, hopefully people come

out and they're having a good year.

I saw Richmond just beat 'em two out three this weekend.

Yeah.

Uh, eight, 10 play.

So, um, I don't know where that puts them in their league, but Richmond's

having a pretty good year in a 10, I think they're, yeah, 13 and nine

maybe, or something like that.

Uh, 12 and nine.

Yeah, VC had gone through a little bit of a rut.

They had lost I think six in

a row.

Yeah.

Six in a row.

Yeah.

Going into that.

Gotcha.

Going into that game.

Um, like they beat Virginia and they, they didn't win again

until they, they beat Richmond.

Okay.

So, uh, but they're still very much in the mix there at the top.

I think there's, there's a couple decent teams actually fighting

at the top of the eight, 10 year,

I think the eight 10 only.

I think the eight 10 only takes like six teams their tournament

though, if I'm not mistaken.

So

it's a small group for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

All right guys, well I appreciate you.

Thanks for moving this up today.

And

yeah,

go Monarchs.

Go Monarchs.

See ya.

Letter.

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There you

go.

Thanks, Blaine.

Yeah, thanks Blaine.

Uh, welcome back to Hudson Homers, everybody.

Uh, little slight schedule change for us this week.

Yeah, Finny had to go a little bit earlier, guys didn't get back home

until about 3, 3 30 in the morning.

So since players have a game on Tuesday, we're not gonna, you know, make them more

tired than they probably already are.

After

a

really tough

and finals this week too, so,

oh, yeah.

That, that little Yeah, too with, with that.

Um, but with here, we will just start out with our players of the week this week.

Hey, look at those guys.

Couple of freshmen.

Not too bad.

When your freshmen are, uh, are leading things this late in the year means

they're stopping to be a freshman, huh?

Yeah.

Um, so Jackson Okonkwo, he was our fig. He had a good week.

If you remember, he started the game on Tuesday against East Carolina.

He was about the only guy that pitched well that night.

Well, Yarussi came in late and pitched well, I, I will say that.

Um, but at Conquest.

So he had two games through six innings total, one and run, six

hits a walk, two strikeouts.

So he just came in and just threw some good innings.

Um, other guys that pitched well, Ben Tanton and the game on Friday, the win.

Um, down there, four scoreless, two hits, two walks, six strikeouts.

That was probably his best performance of the year, to be honest.

He's, and he is, has some good, we'll talk in a minute.

He's had some good ones.

Um, Ky had another very nice start.

Uh, as Finny pointed out, uh, four innings, two runs.

Three hits, three walks, five Ks, and, and Bailey Nutella came

in, was great there at the end.

Two innings, uh, no hits.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, no hits, no runs, no walks do strike outs.

I mean, that was just, you know, when Bailey is on, that's when they start.

I, I if people might not be able to hear, but the thing that our guys do,

um, is sometimes when Bailey's coming out, they call out B Bley because

that was down in Southern miss.

He came into a game, it was tight one, I think it was, I

think it was the Saturday game.

And they threw, I think, I think he threw like three

straight balls to the first guy.

And then you hear the fans all bley instead of Bailey.

And then I think he struck that guy out and then he do, that's where that picture

you actually keep sharing on Twitter, um, of, of Bailey shouting after getting

the, the third strike of that inning.

Um, so that's one that when he's on, that's when our guys really started

yelling Bali and cheering him on.

It's my favorite picture of Bailey ever.

Yeah.

He's just so gassed up coming off the mound.

Yeah, he, Bailey's not a very, um, emotive guy in his day-to-day life

and really not much on the mound.

That was definitely one of the few times where you really got him like,

man, he was, he was, he was hype.

So that was cool.

One.

Yeah, that's, that's why I keep using that one.

If it's JJ Gatti, I got that one covered.

I've got a

JA dozen.

But yeah, it was,

yeah, when you do the, taking the pictures that there's some guys, I think, I think

I had, I was trying to get Tanin last week and I was like, watch, I think

I was saying to whoever's standing next to me, I was like, watch, he's

gonna turn and just walk right back.

He's gonna strike the out.

He struck him out and just walk him back.

Like, it's like, okay.

It's like, hey, you know what?

I don't, I don't mind you if that's what you need, but.

For photography's sake.

It's really cool when they shout and scream and look like they're having fun.

Yeah.

Tanton just a stone cold assassin when he is up there

he

is.

This is all business.

Just gonna blow

stuff

by you,

man.

He is the baby faced assassin, that's for sure.

He's a, he's in, he's in the crib with a little gun just poking out of the crib.

Yeah, that's, that is, that has been tan.

That's, um, so then for our hitters, uh, I think we all know now, my

mom again was watching the game.

My parents yesterday.

My mom was like, Nick Felton better be player of the week.

And I was like, well mom, we gotta see.

I mean, I don't know.

He had two home runs, but I far all I know he was like two for 16 for the week.

Well, he wasn't, he was five for 13.

He did have the two homers.

Um, had seven rbis on the week.

I think five in that game.

Couple of walks, four runs, got hit by pitch.

Another a sacrifice fly.

So just a great honor week.

And just Finny pointed out, just playing phenomenal defense.

So, I mean, he's, he is really.

Killing it.

Um, shocker.

Efrain Morales had another great week.

Uh, five for 16, had a double hit a homer.

That's always fun when f fits a double and a Homer.

Uh, four Ribbies scored.

Some runs got hit by a pitch a couple times.

Um, Maverick Stallings had a nice solid week five for 15

double a Homer, four R bis.

Scotty Young was kind of in and outta the lineup.

Uh, just mostly 'cause you know, lefties pitching, but he was

three for 10 with a double in RBI.

Uh, and Brody Connors, Brody Connors only had two chances, but he was two

for two with a double and two rbis.

So that's, you know, you wanna make sure he gets some love for a guy

who's, it's not easy to sit on the bench and, and, and not play, but

like once every four, five games and come out there and take your at bats.

I got to watch some good hitting performances.

I got to watch him take some batting practice last weekend when they were at

home and Duke can piece up some baseballs.

I mean, he's got good exit velo, he is got good launch angle.

All those things just probably just needs reps. But I mean, it's a

little tough to get into that infield right now with the way that Will

Mav and Tyler are playing right now.

Yeah, Brody's a dog, man.

He's, it's one of those things that, you know, sometimes you

look at it and, you know, maybe is he gonna get a shot next year?

You know, might have some, you know, differences in the lineup.

You know, maybe he, maybe he goes and play some outfield too, I don't know.

But, uh, he can play third, he can play second.

Um, I think he's obviously better at third and you can see him playing first and play

in the outfield and, yeah, I mean, it's, he, he, he can play, that's for sure.

One thing I know about Brody that that dude can hit, he's, he is a ball player.

Um, but I did say I was, I was telling you, I, so I pulled together

some stats and some guys from, they, they've recently been hot.

Um, so Nick Felton talking about his last nine games, so before his last

nine games, he was, uh, hitting for the season 1 71 with a 4 47 OPS.

So, you know, freshman struggling, right?

Last nine games.

Um, he is hitting 3 79 with a 1041 OPS.

So 4 55 on base, 5 85 slugging, right?

11 for 29, 2 homers, 11 rbis, um, four sacrifices and a sac fly.

I kind of picked since he, that was about the, the Sunday game of

Marshall, which I think was the weekend where he started bunting.

So much

Uhhuh

and that's when he picked up the couple of hits in that game.

So that's, again, just to let you know it, if it feels like he's

been doing really well, it's 'cause he is been doing really well.

Um,

yeah, and I mean, he's having the two home runs on Sunday obviously

helps that, but it probably would've helped him more if he would've gotten

the double on this walk off too, so,

yeah.

Yeah,

that would've helped.

But yeah, I mean, he's just, the way he's turned it on and yes, the curtain fell.

What does that, A 40 minute mark here.

So

there

we go.

Curtains down.

For those of you betting at home,

that curtain's down.

Um, Efrain Morales, again, another guy we know he's been hot lately.

Um, and you, you know, to say he, he started out slowly, right?

So this is, we're, I'm looking back to, it was his last 15 games.

This is basically all of April.

So pretty much before April hitting 2 97, which isn't bad

had but had a 7 33 OPS, right?

Because he has a high on base 4 0 9, um, and a, but a 3 24.

'cause you know, he had to get like one double before that.

So his last 15 games, which again, pretty much since from April on, um, he's

hitting 3 75 with a nine 50 OPS, right?

So 4 81 on base, which again, it doesn't walk a ton.

I mean his, his difference between his on base and his, his batting

average is less than a hundred.

Um, but a 4 69 uh, slugging, which again, you know, Efrain not a big

time doubles home run guy yet.

I think he's going to become one.

I think you see it here.

He is getting better.

Um, but yeah, so over that stretch, 24 for 64 3 doubles of Homer, 11 rbis,

10 walks, three hit by pitch, right?

I mean, so he is 12 runs make pretty much all hitting to the top of the order.

You know, Efrain been now that once he got healthy, he's been killing it.

Yeah, it'll be curious to see what happens, you know?

Where does Nick Felton fit in, in the top five, six spots in the

lineup that Finny was talking about?

Yeah, I mean, he kind indicated that, you know, he would like to get

f into more RBI situations, right?

'cause he is a little bit slower on the base base paths.

Yeah.

Uh, he's also had, I don't know how many balls that are hit, 3

93 95 to dead center at the Budd.

That would be, would've been home runs at Georgia State and some other places.

Uh, so that'll be curious to see how that fits in.

But man, you've got some young guys that are just doing some serious damage

on the offensive side of the ball.

Well, and speaking of a young guy doing some serious damage on the,

uh, pitching side of the ball, I was gonna say defensive, it's

pitching side, uh, Ben Tanton.

Again, another guy I think, you know, we rightfully, he probably could

have won the award again this week.

Could have won the award last week.

I think we didn't give it to him either week, but he, he really

could have had a stretch of like,

yeah.

Was that like five or six straight weeks?

I mean, he is, he's, he's angling towards being the best pitcher, the

pitcher of the year, to be honest.

Um, so Ben, I was looking at his last six appearances.

The last six appearances.

Um, he is pitched 14 and a third scoreless innings.

Um, he had a game against app state.

He gave up five runs.

That's the last time he gave up any runs.

And so since then, six 14 and a third scoreless, um, 15 strikeouts

in the time had a 1.13 whip.

I mean, so he is been done great.

Um, what's funny is if you look before that, so even if you include

the app state game before that, before this six, six game stretch, he

had 10 point 10 in a third innings, had a six 10 ERA, and a 0.97 whip.

So he still wasn't giving up a lot of hits and walks.

He just kind of, when they were hitting them, they were scoring, um.

And this is what I was, I think it's interesting 'cause it's like,

well take out the guy's worst game.

What would he, what, what was the season look like?

Right?

Which again, you can't do that.

He had to pitch that one game.

But, so if you take out that one appearance against, uh, app State where

he gave up five runs in an inning and a third, his season would be 23 innings,

only two earned runs, 22 strikeouts.

So we have a 0.78 ERA and a 0.91 whip.

I mean, that's to tell you that, that Ben, I mean that's, that's, you know,

because he gave up two runs and another appearance, which again, it just happens.

The five run game was just a bad one.

I mean, this kid has been Yeah, phenomenal as a freshman.

And that just tells you, really illustrates again, if you take out

the one bad game, like he has been dominant, man, that's impressive for a

kid who's, I mean, having the guy, he's the first guy with the bullpen on Fridays

when you're trying to win the series.

That's, that says a lot about a kid.

Yeah, I mean, he's been impressive and like we were talking about earlier,

he's just cool, calm, and collected.

He's up there, it's a business trip to the mound for him, and

it, it's paid off in a big way.

I mean, 1.07 WIP for the season is, is pretty nuts.

The fact that five of his seven are runs, were just in one outing

against App State, which by the way, app State is, uh, tied for second

right now in the Sunbelt standing.

Yeah.

And they miss

Yeah.

Yeah, they're kind of sneaky.

I think their RPI is somewhere around 37.

So you wanna talk about a potential at large team, uh, app State.

So it makes losing that series feel a little bit better and still

not great, but at least, you know.

Yeah.

If we would've lost a series of Georgia Southern who's now five and 16 and

only has 12 wins on the season, be a little bit more, uh, upsetting.

But I mean, Ben, like, there's very few guys that think of that bullpen.

When I see them come into the game, I'm like, all right, we're good.

Yeah.

And Ben is, is one of them.

Ben's that guy right now.

Yeah.

And he's a freshman and it's, it's wild that he's doing this.

So we're early in his career.

He's leading the team in ERA right now at 2 55.

He is got, he's got six wins.

No one else has more than two.

Um, I think he's, he's like fourth or fifth on the team

in innings right now, I think.

But I mean, that might just keep going up and up as the season goes on.

You know, it just comes from being a freshman to start out and going kind

of slow as now he is eating up three and four innings every time out.

Yeah.

It's, it's, it's, it's really fun to see these guys who are young.

I mean, that's the upside of having, uh, uh, inconsist season

is that lots of opportunities for guys to prove themselves.

Lots of opportunities for guys to prove themselves in a bad way, unfortunately.

Uh, but lots of opportunities for guys to prove themselves.

And that's what we're seeing.

I think with Felton.

Conco and Tan and, and Morales, we already knew, he proved himself last year.

We knew that he's had to get healthy.

Yeah.

Just needed him to be healthy for an extended period of time.

And I. I could be wrong on this.

I'm trying to look it up before I say something dumb, but I'm pretty sure

that the runs that Ben gave up to App State were also the first time and

only time he has started this year.

So

Oh.

Wasn't a start.

I didn't realize that.

Okay.

I believe, yeah, because pretty sure it was my idea when I asked Vinny the

question of like, Hey, have you thought about moving Ben 10 into a starter role?

Pretty sure it's one of our YouTube shorts that's out there.

Yeah.

Well that did not work very well.

Just for the record.

Well, and again, I think it will, I think Ben has gotta be, you know, right up

there Oh, with, uh, O Conwell and, and Ga and Ky, when you talk about next year

guys who have options to be a starter.

But again, when you're that good of a reliever, um, let's see.

Yeah.

Or is

it, he threw

four innings

game started

pitches.

Yep.

That was his one start of the season.

You're correct.

So that was, uh, I think I was right there with you chant that too.

So it's not like, you know.

And Finn's gonna do whatever he is gonna do.

Us talking to the podcast is he probably, he walks up to us on Mondays

already know what, what's gonna happen.

Uh, yeah.

I, we didn't actually, the decision was already made.

Just made it easier for him to answer the question 'cause he already made it.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah.

But b Ben's been fantastic and I think like if you wanna look for

some, someone who's gonna do some damage for a couple years to come at

ODU, he's the one for sure right now.

Yeah.

That I'll be like, yep.

Keep an eye on him.

Um, Ocon I thought was, was great too.

I mean mm-hmm.

The wheels fell off when he came out of the game, but people forget it

was one nothing through three against East Carolina on Tuesday and then East

Carolina.

Yeah.

He'd give up eight run ending and a seven run inning after that.

It was, it was pretty tough.

Yeah, I mean the, all I can say about that night, it was, it was cool to see

Boucher talked to him for a minute.

Um, and it was cool to see Austin Irby from, um, from Cox, uh, back home.

He had, he had a big day and he had three hits.

He was complaining at first base at the end of the game.

He was warming up.

So like, I just, I missed that perfect game by that one, that one out.

So, yeah.

But, uh,

yeah, we had some guys put up some good offensive numbers in that East Carolina

game and we put up a nine spot on 'em.

Just, I mean, the, the, the pitching just was not there after O Conco

until we got all the way to Yi at the end, ending in a third, uh,

didn't, didn't give up anything.

Uh, well

Cash Jay coming off the bench, getting a home run the first time

he batted in like three weeks.

I mean, that was great.

Yeah.

Happy to see that for cash too.

'cause I mean, I, you know, there's a couple different ways

the kids deal with this stuff now.

Like, one, they just shut down, they go in the tank.

And you don't see 'em in the dugout anymore.

And then there's cash who's in there hyping guys up, moving equipment around

and just waiting for an opportunity.

He got it and cranked it outta the ballpark.

So happy, happy for cash, getting at least that moment.

He, he is a great example of how they focused on character and it's, it helps

because like I said, that, I mean, you really could, yeah, it's very easy

to crumble and, and pout and, and not care, and you don't see that in cash.

He looks, he is the exact, if you weren't.

Looking at the field and just watching the dugout, you'd think it was the exact same.

He is just there starting every day because he is exactly who he is.

He is just a good kid.

He cares about his teammates and he's gonna root everybody on.

And yeah, you need that because right there, there's a chance.

You guys, you guys opportunity, he scored the, the pinch run in, um, the,

the game a week before when, uh, Slater drove in, drove him in, he pinched, ran.

I mean, it's so, you know, he's, the, the idea that he could come in games and

be useful is not outta question like we, we know he is got, he is got some skills

and ability, so it's gonna come up.

Yeah.

And you never know what's gonna happen and the game's going ahead.

Yeah.

And especially, you know, if you, you look at some of our games, we've

unloaded the bench a few times and

Yeah.

And all of a sudden the game gets close again and you need those guys just subbed

in to actually go produce up at the plate.

We've seen that a few times too.

Yeah.

Um, but, you know, wanna talk a little bit about Friday.

I, the way I typically listen to our way games is I've got Ted or Andy in my

ear, and then I'm watching the ESPN Plus broadcast for a while there on Friday.

I couldn't, so I was listening to Georgia State's.

ESPN plus broadcast.

I think their announcer said the umpire had a strike zone, like a checkerboard,

I believe was the terminology he used, which I thought was great.

Uh, but that really kind of held us down a little bit.

I mean, ske ended up with two walk or three walks.

Tanton and Park both had two walks.

Uh, but they were on the other side too.

I mean, we, we drew 13 walks in that game.

Yeah.

So clearly something going on there, but, um, our pitching was able to

overcome it, get through, get a big win.

Uh, TJ Aiken had the home run, but just kind of dominated

him, I feel like on Friday.

Yeah, that was good.

Why want you to move this thing off if we can?

Oh,

yeah.

Sorry.

Let let the people see our beautiful face.

That's okay.

Uh, no, I was

forgot.

I was up there.

Um, yeah.

No, it's, yeah, I know.

Um, Gary, you're awesome.

I would never, uh, your curtain by the way, is

completely

gone

now.

Yeah.

Curtain is really, it's, well, it's, it's still hanging by.

It's, it's just like my life.

It's hanging by a thread.

It's, uh, yeah, no, Kuski came in, um, like I said, another good start, I think.

Yeah.

Again, because of the.

Bad umpire zone, which has happened a lot.

He, he's, that's kind of been what's his problem's been all year.

He throws a lot of pitches.

Um, finding a way to be more economical is gonna help him go late because I mean,

it's, it was still only 82, but then at a certain point it's like, well, 82,

when you're having to fight and every single 82 over the course of four is

almost worse than 84 over the course of five or six, because it's like every

at bad is like seven, eight pitches.

Yeah, we had some longer offensive innings too during that stretch.

Right.

We, you know, wet think we only put up six runs, but we left quite

a few on base and there was some longer innings there for him.

Um, and

then Ben came out and was phenomenal.

I mean, that was again, probably his best outing of the year.

And Jayce Park after not pitching very well on Tuesday, I mean, I

don't remember what he, I remember he came in and just did not look good.

Yeah.

Which is a shame because Ja has been pretty phenomenal

for a big part of the year.

Uh, but coming back and, and throwing, well to finish that game

was nice because, you know, Jace is an important part of the bull.

He is been a guy kind of right there when, when Tanton comes out and then park comes

out, you know, depending on the score.

Um, so it's, he's a guy.

You need to again, have that belief in himself because he is a very good pitcher.

Yeah, he is.

He's also a guy that can come back on like a day rest too.

So like, there's potential that he could have come back on Sunday if we needed it.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, we didn't until like.

The very, very end on Sunday, but, uh, he has, he has that flexibility.

Yeah.

Um, and think Saturday, the weird thing about the game, obviously we

lose 10 to four and we score three of those four runs in the ninth inning.

We weren't, weren't necessarily in it, but the ground balls we were hitting

in that game, I, it, it was insane.

I think we ended up with 16 ground outs to four flyouts in the game.

So we were making contact, we only struck out five times in the entire game.

Meanwhile, you know, Friday we struck out 10 times and Sunday was, I forgot what

we had on Sunday, but it was, it was 9 0

9.

Yeah.

So we weren't striking out a lot.

We were making a lot of good contact.

Mm-hmm.

And I guess you could make the argument, was it because they were up big and they

were just throwing a lot of strikes?

Right.

Or were we just able to make good contact?

I don't know, but man, I mean, we hit some seed ground balls that

were just right at their really good third baseman mc Guinness.

Um, I mean, they, they defensively played, played pretty well over the weekend.

And, and this is the game that I didn't really get to watch.

I was off watching, um, green Bar Christian and Hickory.

Um, mm. You know, green Bar.

Christian, of course has our, our good buddy Pat Nichols, former ODU

catcher, um, and Hickory has a, has a kid, uh, that's coming to play for us.

Jake Cozaar, um, who's, he's injured right now.

He's a left-handed pitcher.

He's gonna be for us, but right now he's ding.

So it was my first time get to see him.

I think I might've seen him a long time ago when he like, and he was

like 14 U or something like that.

But it was my first time seeing him at least get to see him play a little bit.

Um, and so I was just kind of keeping up with the course.

Like, you know, that was a weird game.

They ended up.

Green bar Christian scored nine runs in the first inning.

So that was just an odd one.

Wow.

Um, and then, and they're all, it's high school ball, so you got

all the guys talking about like both teams have, uh, different

players who are fighting over girls.

And so it's like the first, the first batter of the game gets hit because the,

he maybe stole the pitcher's girlfriend.

It's,

oh boy.

Just a bunch of, bunch of high school nonsense in a weird, like

four and a half, 11 to nothing game.

Um, but yeah, so I was as between all that, I'm looking down at my phone just

to kinda like in disgust of course.

'cause the score is not going the way we want it to.

Uh, but yeah, I mean it's, you know, I've, one of the better moments,

this one, I guess to see Maddox Jack coming back strong after again,

had had a, had a bad adding on Tuesday and he's been really good.

So that have actually had a couple of bad addings in a row.

Um, so seeing him come back and have a good one and ante the same thing.

Having a nice scoreless inning after having, uh, a bad appearance on Tuesday.

And then Patrick Johnson coming in, um, after being, I wasn't real sure

what his injury, I was talking to him on, uh, I think Sunday last week.

And he said he sounded, he sounded like he felt really good.

Um, so him coming back, which again, that's, that we kind of forget.

That's a guy who was out there throwing, you know, two, three innings for us.

Yeah, every Friday or Saturday

he's good.

He's also a really good leader on this team.

Yeah.

Like we've witnessed a couple things kind of outside the dugout and

around there where it just shows that

mm-hmm.

He's a good leader.

He, the guys respect him and listen to him and he's ultimately

leading him in the right way.

So we love getting arms back.

And I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited to get Hunter Bains back in the mix.

Yeah.

Not often.

You can add a, you know, low to mid nineties fastball guy,

uh, this late in the season.

Uh, it might be more like a mid to high nineties 'cause that he

kind of was hitting that anyway.

And, uh, everything I've seen and heard is, is, sounds

like now that it's pain free.

Um, 'cause he had, he had thoracic outlet syndrome, which I guess

is what is like a nerve in your.

Kind of around your clavicle, I think

something to do with blood flow into your arm.

Yeah.

Some with blood flow, it's

not wide enough.

Yeah.

It's one of those things that, like he was talking about, you know, the

future of maybe playing pro ball and he is like, pro teams don't care about

it because it's not an arm injury.

It's a thing that guys have it all the time and get it fixed.

And so that he, he was telling me that he is like, you know, as a, as a

player, you, you never really expect to be a hundred percent, you know,

you're always kind of feel like, yeah.

You know, it's like somebody, how do you feel?

It's like, I feel good.

You know what good is is like, you know, you're thinking like 85%, you know, 80%.

Um, he's like, I didn't realize that.

My, like, normal was very, very bad.

He's like, he said, now he is like, I feel amazed.

Like I, I haven't felt this since I was like a little kid.

Um, and so, and I've seen him out there through, I know like one of our, um,

one of our, uh, student managers was, was, had to help warm him up while

somebody else was, was doing something.

Oh

no.

And he came, I think he said it broke the glove.

He's like, it broke my glove.

He is like, I almost broke my thumb.

He's like, I don't wanna ever do that again.

I'm so scared.

It's like,

of

all the guys on the

team

and that's just Hunter, just throwing, you know, off the, I I mean, I'm

back there taking pictures sometimes.

I'm like, I know he is gonna throw it straight, but, oh boy.

Um, so yeah, so he's a, he is, and, and Hunter is one, but we gotta

get, we gotta get Hunter on here 'cause he's one of my favorite guys.

He's, I think last year I was, I actually, I sat and talked to him

about 10 50 minutes, uh, last weekend.

'cause I was like, man, we we're not hanging out, out in the

outfield like we were every day last year on the, on the road.

He's like, yeah, I know.

So, so he, he is just a good kid and, uh, yeah, having him back and