CB, Gary and Coach Finwood recap a series win at Georgia Southern. Evan Holman joins later in the show to talk about his huge day on Sunday, Pitch Com and more. Plus a look ahead to games with VCU and Louisiana.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hello Monarch fans.

Welcome to the Hudson Homer podcast.

We're we went three and one this week.

We won a road series.

No,

I'm feeling good Soon.

We won.

How are you?

It's pretty good.

It could have been four now, easily.

Yes, it was very close on Saturday of making that a nice, clean

sweep of Georgia's Southern.

But, uh, three in one week, the, uh, first winning week we've had since we

just had the Charlotte series earlier this year, won four of the last five.

Something, something's starting to click, I think, at least

with the offense for sure.

I think

things are moving in the right direction.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, pitching's still up and down sometimes, but there was some, and,

and some of the offense was really just taking advantage of the other team making

mistakes, which we've had some games where other teams have not made mistakes

at all for like an entire weekend.

We had some other ones where they made some mistakes and

we just don't take advantage.

So it was nice to see us, you know, like the, the Tuesday game, Norfolk

State, just walking everybody in the world and throwing the ball around.

And then this weekend Georgia State was just kick, or Georgia Southern

just kicking the ball around and we actually were taking extra base.

We had complete disrespect for their arms in the outfield.

It was, it was hilarious to watch our guys like the second this in the outfields,

like I'm taking two bases on this guy.

I mean, running on him when the ball's in the outfield stealing basses.

Taking good pitches, working walks, like we look like a very

competent and professional lineup.

And we did, we punished them when they made errors.

Yeah.

I think it, what I think what was a little bit surprising for me is I think Saturday,

Georgia Southern ended up with four errors and that was the game we lost by one run.

Um, right.

It's nice to be on the other side of taking advantage of people's opportunities

because I know we've been snake bitten quite a bit with errors and walking.

Too many guys, hitting too many guys.

Uh, nice to see them be in the, uh, uh, wearing the other shoe for a change.

I.

I mean, we still did that a little bit this whole week.

I mean, like the Norfolk State win was a very ugly win.

Um, you know, we score a bunch of runs just off of them walking people and,

you know, we didn't, couldn't quite, we still had some moments this weekend

we couldn't quite get runs through, but man, that game yesterday, uh, on, on

Sunday, you know, Finney said a few times we're not built to come from behind.

So when you get down, you're down five, nothing after three.

And it's just like you're feeling like, okay, well this

is probably gonna be what it is.

This is, you know, the, because realistically the team has

not shown that kind of fight.

So when they come back, score five runs.

So we're tied five to five, bottom six.

Then we give up a run.

Okay, that happens.

All right, we're just 6, 7, 6, 5, we're fine.

But then we got four more in the seventh and it's like, okay, now

we're down by five runs again.

And, uh, just crazy 10 run eighth inning.

I mean, we haven't scored 10 runs in like we've had two or three games in a row

where we haven't combined that many runs.

Yeah, to put up that many in one ending.

I, we do, we even have 10 in the series before Troy.

Like

I don't, I don't know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We definitely had a few, like two, three game stretches

where we didn't score 10 runs.

Yeah.

And they started off the series right.

By winning on Friday.

Mm-hmm.

Because that has been the biggest problem.

We've been non-competitive on Friday games for most of the season,

except for Georgia State when they came down, we won that game.

Uh, but to see this team put up runs like that on Friday and,

and get that win after how we saw them play on Friday against Troy.

I mean, that's a massive night and day difference and it just seems like guys

that kind of ratchet up that compete factor a little bit, especially to

overcome two five run deficits in one game and it had to kind of mentally

mess with them a little bit because we'll say it's the worst performance

for Blake so far this season.

It really wasn't that terrible of a performance.

You're probably expecting him to make it through five, if not six.

Yeah.

So it, it, the game kind of got turned on its head in terms of scripting and

the way we've seen those Sundays play out and they rose the occasion, put up a 15

burger on Georgia Southern to get away

Crazy.

Even had Robin AKs kid in there getting touched up.

That was, that was a fun little moment for any of all my early

two thousands, uh, pirates fans.

Yes.

Um, there were, I tell you what, uh, Finney emptied the

bench pretty good on Sunday.

Yeah.

I, I was one point and, uh, Bo reached out to me on Twitter and

was asking me like, how many other guys did we have left on the bench?

And I think a couple, because I don't know who traveled.

Shadell and Jones typically, yeah.

Again, we're not always sure who travels, but I typically, I mean, 'cause

we know Shadell played in the other game, so, you know, he was there and

I'm assuming Bryce Jones was there.

He didn't get in yet, just unfortunately hadn't gotten in a ton this year.

Um, I don't know that there was anybody else left out in the bullpen to call

on by the end of the day, someday day.

'cause he had Bailey, uh, and Kelly had both come back for

the second time that weekend.

Yeah.

And Bailey, I mean, putting the bow on two

pitched twice this weekend.

Yeah, I mean, we, we emptied the tank.

I, I think this is the first at least conference series that

we have not had a starter get through more than five innings.

Uh, Ben was five, Dylan was five, and Blake was four and a third.

And I believe that's the, yeah, ironically,

ironically only the second time all year Ben is gone five.

So there was actually a, a huge plus for him that he pitched.

Uh, one of his better starts of the whole season.

Yeah.

And weirdly in a weekend where then Dylan only got five when he's been, you

know, good for six and sometimes seven.

And then Blake, who's been good for six and sometimes

seven, both got five and less.

Yeah.

So a little extra test for the bullpen.

I, I think some guys pass, maybe some guys still have some work to do.

Uh, I don't know if we're in a situation where we give up 10 runs and I feel

super confident about the pitching staff, but they got outs when it mattered.

They avoided too many big meltdown innings, and they responded really

well after we put up the 10 spot.

I mean, Bailey Mattel, like, eh.

That dude was, was nails force this weekend.

Yeah.

He struggled a bit in the game on, um, on Friday.

Uh, but he still got the safe.

He did just enough to keep them.

I, I, I talked to Kellen about that.

We were coming back from the, um, the series down there in Southern Miss.

I said, Hey, sometimes all you gotta do is get, get the, the, you know, if you need

three outs, get three outs before we give up, you know, whatever number of runs.

And that's kind of what Bailey did on Friday and then yesterday.

And he just looked like primetime Bailey, when he is dominant and nasty.

The other teams just going back to dugout, like, well, I got no hope.

Um, so that was, and, and Kellen had a huge inning, uh, in that game too.

He, which he had a couple of, he he pitched on what, Saturday and Tuesday and

neither one of 'em very well, honestly.

And then he came out in that, in the, um, what was it, the sixth inning,

seventh inning in, um, on Sunday.

And was outstanding.

Yeah, I mean that, that was kind of almost back to his role that he had last year.

He was kind of the stopper a lot of times to come in, in that fifth,

sixth inning and, and bridge to the rest of the arms in the bullpen.

Uh, I was gonna say, talking too much about the ending on Friday until Coach

Finwood joins us, he should be hopping on here in the next couple of minutes.

Uh, that was a wild ending.

I didn't see it live, but I was getting the text live and I went back and watched

it and woo, we, we got outta there.

We, we got it done the way we needed to get it done.

Error tag out a second ball game.

Yeah.

Uh.

Interesting weekend to say the least, in some of those games.

Yeah.

And again, that's sometimes what you gotta do is sometimes

you gotta get lucky sometimes.

And that's, realistically, that's one of the things I think you could probably

go back and look at our season and say, the luck has just not been on our side.

Like, we really have not, you know, I don't think you obviously,

you know, say luck isn't a scale.

That's one of things.

Like the saber metric guys will say you can't account for it.

But it exists.

It's a thing.

And we have not had it.

We, it seems like every play that could go against us has gone against us.

Every call that could go against us, go against us, goes against us.

And this weekend that just kind of wasn't the case this weekend.

It was like the things that we're gonna go wrong we're going

wrong for us in the right way.

So it was, it was interesting.

Hey, if we can save all of our quote unquote luck for late regular season into

the tournament, I will will take that.

Uh, but we were already in a hole to begin with, with schedule.

I mean, we know the non-conference schedule is was, was crazy.

We knew that going in.

But if you go look at the Sunbelt sanding right now, you've got Coastal

in first, we've got them coming up.

Troy Southern, miss App, state Georgia State, Louisiana, Georgia Southern.

That's the top half of the league right now.

Yeah.

And uh, we're either, we've either played them or we'll be playing them very soon.

Uh, we get, I guess, a little bit of reprieve with Marshall, ULM and JMU, but

I, I don't think you're gonna expect to just be like, oh, those are easy sweeps.

Right.

It just

doesn't, doesn't work that way.

It's, it's a

plus that we get to play three of the bottom four teams coming up here after,

like, after we pay, uh, ul was it ULL?

I don't know what they we're supposed to call Louisiana, but

they're, yeah, Don, I don't wanna, I don't wanna upset them on Twitter.

Uh, but when, lemme tell you, when you try to Google Louisiana

baseball, they don't come up.

So I have to go ULL.

Um, but it's nice, you know?

Yeah.

Like I said, they're not gonna be pushovers.

It's still conference games, but you hope that okay.

Maybe you have a little better shot, uh, especially on some of those road

when you go to the road to James Madison, you, you're hoping you

know, which again, going the road.

James Madison, man, that's in state, that's gonna be instate in conference.

That's a tough one.

And they're, they're struggling this year.

Uh, 12 and 24.

Overall, they're five in 10 in the conference.

But you know, they're gonna be up for the series against us, just like we would be

up for the series against them and ULM.

Yes, they did.

Uh, upset the Cajun fan base there by, yeah.

With the social media message of sending 'em home with another L. So

I guess it's kind of a thing 'cause ULM is ULM no matter what, and.

Louisiana is formerly Louisiana, Lafayette, whatever.

I don't care.

I

guess

I'm gonna call 'em the Cajuns.

Hope we get two outta three from 'em, uh, coming up here

soon.

Even Rag Cajun, I gotta be honest, everything about them

is, is not very original.

Uh, it's the rag Cajuns.

It's like, isn't that everything in Louisiana?

Like I'm, I'm sorry they're not, you know.

Yeah, they're, but I, and they're, and they're having a tough,

they're having a tough year.

They're typically a really good team.

Um, I think it was Chase Morgan is, is still having a really phenomenal

year, and then the rest of the team just seems like they're struggling.

I mean, when you lose that kid, Kyle DeBarge, uh, he was a first

round pick and he was phenomenal.

I saw he is playing really well for the twins Minor League team.

So they, they're, they're coming in this weekend here at Harper Park and, uh, you

know, again, conference game, I'm sure.

And they're, they're right there.

Records.

You know, only one game better than we are.

Uh, but they're not quite the same team you thought they were

gonna be at the start of the year.

They've had some injuries and I think they're getting, starting

to get some guys back from injury.

But I mean, at this point in the season, it's, it's kind of tough to

get guys ramped up and back into game speed with any kind of regularity.

Uh, but yeah, I mean, de barge, they had a couple other guys that are really good

that, that aren't with the team anymore.

Like they're, they're gonna be a challenge and, you know, it's, it's

the sunbelt weird stuff will happen.

Uh, but you know, we kind of go back to like, how do you just

get to 500 in the conference?

Because if you get to 500, you're gonna make the tournament.

You're good.

So if you lose a series at home, you gotta go win one on the road.

And they did that this week against Georgia Southern.

Uh, so they're kind of evened out the ledger a little bit.

They're seven and eight halfway through conference play.

I'll take seven and eight in conference play with the way

we've looked this season.

Like that.

We're not in the worst position going down the stretch.

Yeah, I'll take seven and eight today.

I mean, it's not where it felt like it was gonna be probably a few weeks ago even

so, it, it's, yeah, but I, I'm greedy.

I don't wanna just be 500.

I wanna be in the top six.

So being those, uh, those bottom four, we gotta play the single

game elimination that first night.

That's, I know we, we won it last year, but that's tough.

That's a, that's a rough, rough bid to go all the way down there and, and get

one game and maybe have to go home.

Yeah.

It's very tough for travel planning purposes.

So, uh, I'm, I'm keeping an eye on like this series and the next

series and looking at the hotels and flights and all that fun stuff.

'cause if I couldn't go on the Fun Southern tour like you did,

I at least wanna get down there.

Yeah.

For some of these conference tournaments games

I spent, I spent all my money earlier in the year.

So you can do that one for me.

And I'll left a chunk of change in Florida too at the, uh, Steinbrenner field.

So,

well, I'm, uh, I'm looking down here and I see that Coach Fin Wood has joined us.

We'll bring 'em on in a second.

Let's go.

Uh, but fans, we wanna let you know, Evan Holman is our player guest who'll

be coming on later in the episode.

So we've got a pretty fun one.

But let's bring on the man himself, Mr. Chris Finwood.

Hey, bang, bang, bang, bang.

This, this edition of Hudson Homers is brought to you by Bang Energy Drink.

Um, they're, they just got me an NIL deal at the Wawa.

I buy

one, get one working on about three hours of sleep today.

So there we needed.

Well, hey, maybe you can hold out for 4 million cans of them, like

the quarterback in Tennessee.

There you go.

And a Bugatti.

Yeah.

Yes, it's good.

Yeah.

Right.

So how, how you guys doing?

Great, man.

How you feeling?

Nice little, uh, series wind down there.

Yeah.

Well, 10 in the eighth.

Use the cures, whatever's ailing you.

Right.

Makes a, covers up a lot of problems, doesn't it?

As soon as you think you've seen it all in college baseball, you know,

you have, you realize you haven't.

And, uh, to be, be down five, twice in that game and you know the guys be

able to keep fighting back and, uh.

I don't know if we got maybe five straight hits or two outs or

something like that in that inning.

Uh, something crazy, um, including the Grand Slam.

So, uh, you know, and then tj, you know, I think made the last out on the ball.

A guy had his butt against the fence, um, and the ball, it wasn't, the field wasn't

playing particularly small yesterday.

It wasn't much wind to speak, speak of.

So, um, it was, uh, you know, our best, obviously our best.

Performance of the year.

You know, the, the ending kind of reminded me of the one we

had at Auburn early in the year.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you know, and that comeback win, so, which was more than five, but to

be able to go up by five, knowing we were running thin on pitching and,

um, you know, really not pitching very well at all up to that point.

And we had, you know, one more bullet to fire in Bailey and we were hoping

to not have to use him till the ninth, but when we got the lead, we were

like, all right man, he is, he's just gonna be running off fumes in the

ninth if he can get through the eighth.

And of course it wasn't super clean.

I think he walked three and hit two in two innings, but he didn't give up a hit.

Uh, and uh, that's life in the closer world, right?

Yeah.

Like, it doesn't matter.

You don't get any style points, like you just get it done.

It's all about the bottom line.

So.

I was sitting there in my house and I said, Bailey, just get six

outs before you give up five runs.

That's all we gotta do.

That's all that matters.

Yeah.

I don't, I don't care if we win by one, that's fine.

Just, yeah, do the job.

Just

like, uh, you know, Friday we're, we're up by three and then, you

know, he gives up two, but we won by one, so that's all it matters.

There you go.

Exactly.

And, um, yeah, so, you know, the, um, our first, gosh winning week of the

season, you know, to go three in one and, um, all on the road of course,

but, um, so proud of the guys and, you know, the game we lost was a five four.

Good ball game.

And, uh, we won a close one on Friday.

Didn't play particularly well, but we had a bunch of big hits.

And then Saturday we didn't get any big hits really.

Um, and Sunday started out that way.

You know, we got first and third no outs and the first and don't score.

And, you know, that's been kind of the broken record of, of this team

this year is just not taking advantage of those types of opportunities.

And, um, then they, you know, they did a good job.

They, they got to Blake a little bit.

That was probably, as, you know, as hard as Blake's been hit, you

know, that I can remember this year.

Um, they did a good job staying on, you know, change up with two

strikes and things like that.

So, um, you know, got up, got up five to, to nothing, and then we tied it

up and then came, you know, then they, then they made it, you know, 10 to five.

And then, um, we, we, you know, played everybody but uh.

Wood Wood Celick text me and said, were you guys playing the catcher in

left field at the end of that game?

I go, yep, we sure are.

It was one of those games, and we had to, because we only had one more player

left on the bench that was Tanner Shale.

And, uh, if something would've happened to Hallman, you know,

we'd already put him in for Slater.

If we took, uh, you know, Morales outta the game, we wouldn't

have had a catcher available.

And so he's played some left field and some practices and scrimmages.

He takes fly balls out there just in case.

So we, uh, we put 'em out there and, um, you know, I, I told him after

he pitched it, you're gonna have to play left for at least at anything.

And, um, you know, he ended up playing for two, so he didn't have any plays, but.

He's fine.

He can catch the ball, you know, the routine plays.

And, uh, he's a baseball player, so, uh, but Ev Evan Holman, you know, who you got

as a guest was obviously the, the hero, I mean, comes off the bench and hits

a, a double right-handed down the line.

Um, then it hits a double left-handed off the wall, and then

a Grand Slam right handed and.

You know, we all think Evan's a better right-handed hitter

than left and certainly mm-hmm.

Got more power right-handed.

Um, obviously they didn't have that because, you know, they brought in

the lefty to face him his second time and, um, he, he was able to hit the

home run and, and boy we needed it.

That was big.

'cause you know, five's way better than one being up on the road

when you're running low on, you know, when the tank's running low.

Uh, that's an expert,

uh, coaching that's from all your many years of doing it.

You know, the five is better than one.

That's right.

Five's better than one.

So we dialed up that, that grand slam right there.

And ebs, um, you know, ha like a lot of our guys hasn't gotten off to a

great start swinging the bat, but starting swinging a little bit better.

And, um, you know, the warm weather certainly helps.

And some guys came off the bench in addition to him.

You know, Tylers of Dallas had a big home.

To tie the game up earlier in the game.

Um, so yeah, it was definitely the epitome of a, of a total team effort

because just about everybody played and, um, that's sometimes what it takes.

It was, yeah, Evan came into the week.

He had I think a, a homer and a double, and then he hit

the double at Norfolk State.

So he ended up with three doubles and a homer on the week.

Yeah, after only a double and a homer before that.

So great week for him.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's baseball, right?

Mm-hmm.

Um, and right guy in the right spot, and Ed's a great kid.

He works hard and you know, we, it's nice to see him get

rewarded with a, a day like that.

And we, and we needed it, you know, I mean, there's a big difference

between seven and eight and six and nine, that's for sure.

Um, and even though it's one game, it feels like a lot more, and, uh, you

know, in the standings it actually is, you know, instead of one game

below 500, you'd have been three.

And you know, I think, you know, with everything jumbled up, there's so many

teams at eight and seven and seven and eight, um, and even nine and six.

So, um, you know, we're, uh, halfway through and we've got three of the.

Last five series at home, uh, quote unquote.

And, you know, we won't be traveling as, as much this, this

last, you know, five, five weeks.

And that'll be nice for the guys.

I think they've certainly earned that.

Um, so hopefully we can get rested up a little bit and get ready to go.

Yeah, I mean, you're seven and eight, but you're two games out of the four

spot and three games out a third.

Like, that's just how tight it is.

And, and you're right, that seven eight's big.

'cause if you're six to nine, you're actually in 11th and

not in this four way tie.

Yeah.

So it's,

you, you talked about, I think last week of, you know, there've been a lot of

sweeps in the Sunbelt this year, but we haven't been on the wrong end of one yet.

So like, getting that one extra game here, one extra game

there has, has been been huge.

And then the schedule difficulty, man, I mean, I. Coastal Troy,

Southern App, Georgia State, Louisiana, Georgia Southern.

That's the top seven.

You've got 'em this year.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We didn't get any breaks on the, on the schedule makers, that's for sure.

No.

Um, no.

But after this weekend, we'll have played all of them except coastal.

And, and so we will, you know, we'll, we'll have, not that any of 'em are

easy by any stretch, but, you know, we'll have, um, you know, some teams

maybe that have potential to be below us in the standings coming up.

And, um, you never know how that can work out.

So, uh, you just gotta go play and play better.

It's funny, you know, we've played pretty well down at Georgia Southern.

That's, you know, we've been down there, well, we've played well against them.

We, we've won all three of our regular season series against them,

uh, and two of them down there.

So, um, you know, I don't, I don't know what the dynamics of how you play

better against some teams than others.

Are, but they seem to be one of the teams that we play, you know,

fairly well against overall.

Which that's fascinating because, you know, at after three years it's

not at all the same players and

Yeah.

Coaches

are different.

Styles are different.

It's, it is interesting how, yeah, just sometimes throughout the years

you just have certain programs that you play better against.

Yeah.

It's, it's, it's a crazy phenomenon.

I was telling Mike Marron and I were talking about it, uh, back in

the old Sunbelt days when I was at Western Kentucky, we never lost to

FIU Florida International Home away.

We could've played 'em on Mars.

We always beat 'em and we swept them a lot.

We couldn't beat FAU Florida Atlantic.

Same thing in reverse until we got here.

And actually, you know, had some of our better teams.

And then 19 21, 22, we beat, we beat FAU and FIU.

But it was just, it was just strange.

I mean, how that, how that works out like that, you know, um, so I, I can't

explain it, but some, some guys you, you know, play some teams you just

seem to play better against some, maybe, maybe it's a style of play thing

sometimes, but like you said, there's different players over the years as well.

So, um, they're, they're doing a, it's such a great place to play, like college.

Baseball wise, the weather's always good for one.

Um, the, uh, the facility's phenomenal.

They, they have the best surface.

But it's all natural.

Their grounds guy's are credible.

They have the best surface in the league bar, bar none.

There's not even a close second, I don't think.

Guy, a guy does an amazing job.

It plays great.

It looks great.

Um, and they're doing that $10 million, you know, renovation down

the, down the left field line.

It's gonna be really, really cool when they, when they get that done.

So they're going through a little bit, much smaller version of what we

are, you know, they had to move outta their locker room, um, and switch

dugouts and do some things like that.

They're still able to play and practice there, certainly,

obviously, and have games.

But, um, yeah, that made that, um.

That made that nine and a half hour bus ride home a little bit more bearable.

You know, I

figured you guys were flying on that one.

Nah, it's so, it's so hard to get there by the time you fly Yeah.

And drive to the airport and do all that, you're really not

saving that much, that much time.

Yeah.

Because of course that was a four and a half hour game, uh,

you know, to, to top it off.

So we didn't get done with it.

We didn't get outta there until six 30.

It was a one o'clock game.

We thought we were gonna be on the road by five.

Um, so

yeah.

A lot of long games this whole week.

Yeah, I know.

I, I, I, I'm not a big fan of those.

Gotta get that pitch clock going a little faster.

Yeah, I would like that.

You know, throw more strikes and get the ball and play and let's go.

So yeah, when you walk everybody and change pictures.

The week started with, uh, you know, with a win at Norfolk State and mm-hmm um,

kind of a little bit of a sloppy game.

They walked a bunch of guys and, you know, we had a couple big hits, but,

uh, we were able to kind of, you know, play some, play some guys that hadn't

played a ton and throw some guys that haven't thrown, thrown a bunch and,

you know, come away with a win there.

And, um, yeah,

Jayce did a good job starting that game.

Jayce did a good job.

He's gonna get started again tomorrow against VCU and we need him to

step up, you know, we need another guy or two to, to step up for us.

Um, you know, especially showing they can help us on the, on the weekend.

And, uh, so, you know, I tell 'em all the time, you know, those Tuesday,

those midweek games are some of you guys opportunities to, to do that?

How you throw there?

Let's just have a feel for what you might be able to do on the weekend.

And we saw that you gave Connor Schumann some chances on the weekend after.

He hadn't pitched much at all, but he got the Tuesday looked real.

I was behind the plate when he was pitching Tuesday.

It looked phenomenal.

Um, did a good job for you Saturday and then, you know,

had some struggles on Sunday.

Well, he did, and you know, we don't, you don't know what you don't know.

Can he bounce back a day after?

Mm-hmm.

And to be fair to him though, he got a ground routine, ground

ball a second that we made an error on to open up that inning.

And then he threw a pick off.

That was, wasn't even the same area code as first base, like it, it must

have missed first base by 25 feet.

I, I don't know what, what was going on with

that,

but, uh, some, some of the things we do, uh, baffle, baffle me.

Um, but you, he gets, you know, we, you never know.

He, we make that play and wasn't a hard play.

And, you know, he, he feels, he, he's kind of cruising.

Um, so, but Chewy did a good job at Norfolk State.

He did a really good job on Saturday, like you said.

And so, you know, um, it's, it's another lefty that maybe we can use to flush

him lefties out, you know, in the course of a game when we don't want to

use Bailey yet or something like that.

And, and to Bailey's credit, I, I'll give him that man.

He was, he was gassed yesterday and the breaking ball was kind of

backing up on him and he flipped gears to fastball change up.

Mm-hmm.

After that first inning, he just pretty much eliminated the breaking ball, uh,

and just flipped gears and fast change.

And the last two pitches game he started to kid out were really good changeups.

And so, you know, credit to him, he is becoming much more of a, a pitcher

and being able to kind of process his way through some of these things.

'cause the fact is you, you know, he's thrown twice for us a couple

times on the weekend and done just as good a job the second time.

That's not easy.

You don't see that a lot in college baseball anymore.

You used to, your closer through, man, he might throw in all three games.

Yeah.

But you don't see it much anymore.

And Bailey's been able to do it, or if you do see it that

second time, they're crappy.

Like they get the crap knocked out of them.

Um, and so Bailey's been able to do it in different ways.

Um, so that's been, that's been good to see.

Yeah.

And I, I like him moving to fastball changeup too, because sometimes the reason

they look crappy in that second outing is the guy's got a feel for what he's gonna

throw and if they time to breaking ball.

So almost, almost basically bring in a different pitcher.

Throwing different stuff can be a nice little change there too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he was huffing and puffing out there, and I'm really proud of him

because yeah, he, he wasn't a guy that could fight his way through not

feeling good his first two years here.

He would just start throwing the ball all over the place and, you know, we're

down the middle and now he's, and, and, and some of this is just what

experience does, you know, you gotta learn the lessons the hard way, uh, and

then you get better at it, hopefully.

And that's, that's what's happening with Bailey.

He's, he's, um, had some good outings.

He's gotten his butt whooped and he's taken all of that and

chalked it up and learned from it.

And he is becoming a really, really valuable pitcher for

us on this year's staff.

Certainly, I'm really proud of them.

Saw that compete factor, I think show up a good bit on Sunday too.

Yeah.

Like you get punched in the, you get punched in the mouth early

and you get kicked in the teeth later and you still come back

and, and put up 10 in the eighth.

I still can't get over.

That's one of the craziest games I've seen.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We had a game CB probably remember, I think it was 17, we

were down 11 to two in the eighth.

Mm-hmm.

Against FIU on senior day.

Yeah.

And we came back and took the lead maybe scored 10 runs in the eighth.

I think that was the last time that's happened.

Um, and, and ended up hanging on winning by one.

And that one, I think that was at home, you know, on senior

day a little bit different.

And we had two seniors at home runs in that inning.

Uh, Nick Walker and Turner Bishop.

I think Nick hit a grand slam actually.

But yeah, to do it on the road.

Um, you know, when it didn't looking good, and I was trying to remember

even how that inning got going.

Do you?

I can't, I couldn't even, I couldn't even tell you right now.

Uh, it's a blur what happened, but you know, I, I know, I know the

first time when we tied it up, Jorge and, uh, and Zedalis hit home runs.

Um, but that next time we just seemed to get a bun.

You know, there's some walks in there, obviously, which

they're always are, right.

But, um, we seemed to get a bunch of singles in there, you

know, uh, four or five, and then we hit the big, big home run.

So see

Walks by waters in Zedalis, double by Holman, uh, loads of bases.

Uh, wild Pitch, brought in waters, uh, Aiken and Morales walked.

So that's ten seven.

Uh, lake.

It's a two run single at the left.

That's when, uh, Kainen hits the homer to tie the game at 10.

Uh, let's see.

With the RBI single, it's the Edwards, uh, RBI single, uh,

Edwards stole second Luke walks.

Uh, that's when then Holman hits the grand slam.

Yeah.

So yeah, I mean it's, it was just walks.

Yeah.

Like Gary and I were kind of talking before you came in.

This is one of the first weekends where it feels like we were really

able to, it's not just we were able to capitalize in the team making mistakes.

The other team actually made mistakes.

It feels like a lot of the year, the other team has, has not made mistakes.

Even when they do, we don't get much out of it.

Yeah.

And that was the disappointing thing about Saturday.

Man.

They made four errors.

Yeah.

They played awful defensively.

Like their second baseman got hit in the foot more than his glove.

Uh,

and

yeah.

And they took him outta the game finally.

But, but we couldn't get a big hit.

We had so many chances in the first five innings and you only get so many.

Right.

And we just weren't, we just couldn't catch 'em in.

And then, you know, they got a couple and that's the game.

Um, and I was telling the guys like, the, the chances aren't unlimited

sometimes we got some guys that I think put a little bit too much pressure

on themselves in those situations.

You know, you can't make yourself get a hit, you just have to zero in

and try to hit the ball hard and, and make sure there're strikes can.

And Jorge, you know, issue is he, he's swinging at balls in those situations.

Mm-hmm.

Um, that happened in the first inning.

He swung a three run, three, one slider in the other batter's box.

And I said, if you just take a walk there, Kyle's hit a, a

deep fly ball, there's a run.

You know, it's that, that's where you gotta be willing to let the guy walk

you and let your teammate pick you up.

Um, these are all things I think that are experience, you know,

oriented to, to some extent.

And it's just things that we gotta keep.

You know, just keep playing.

And as these guys, some of these guys are good players and they gotta,

we gotta keep working with 'em and helping 'em get better and, you

know, um, but it's a lot of new guys that haven't played at this level.

Even if they played in junior college and they haven't played at

this level that much, or if at all.

And there's a learning curve there.

You know, a lot of junior college Co. Paul Keys used to always say, you get

one good year out of a JUCO hitter, man.

It's either that first year and they sign, uh, 'cause they're awesome.

Or they're learning that first year and they're okay up and down and then

their senior year, they're awesome.

And so, you know, we got some guys going through a little bit of that.

I, I think, you know, Kainen Jorge has got.

Tremendous ability.

Mm-hmm.

Um, he, he just has a bad approach some days and he tries to, you

know, swing, swing at everything between the dugouts and, uh, once

he is, but he's an awesome kid.

He cares about it.

He worries a little bit too much, you know, but he, he is a great kid.

And, and you're gonna work with those guys and keep working with 'em.

And keep working with 'em.

'cause I mean, he can hit it out there in the road when he

gets it on the barrel, you know?

I thought it was funny.

Uh, I think all three days you had, they had a different sideline

reporter ask you questions.

Yeah.

And I, I think all three asked you about pitching and all three times

you're like, well, if we got a hit.

Yeah.

Uh, I couldn't even hear two of them, so I just decided I talk about the, uh,

the, the, yeah, the, you know, they, they wanted to, uh, the girl yesterday,

I couldn't hear one word she said.

I heard, yeah.

I can tell I heard her say Blake Morgan, and then, but that was it.

And Blake wasn't Pi very good.

So I didn't wanna talk about him.

Uh, but the, uh, I, I thought, I thought, you know, going back to pitching

though, I thought Ben Moore had one of his better outings of the season.

Um, reminded me a lot of the Georgia State.

Outing at home a few weeks ago.

He threw strikes, he was held his velocity.

He was still throwing 91 in the fifth.

We really debated whether to send him out there for the sixth because he

was doing well, but he was over 90 pitches, which has been a lot for him.

Um, we got a long way to go and we're just like, you know, uh,

we've, some of these guys outta the bullpen have to be able to do that.

I don't remember what the score was at the time, but we were up and he was pitching.

Well,

the, the, the difference for him was he was getting his change up in play.

You know, he, he, he hadn't had that for probably the last three weeks,

but he threw a number of changeups that were really good, kept 'em

all balanced, um, and had the good fastball and he was throwing strikes.

Um, so, and then I thought Hubble came in behind him and

threw the ball real well and.

Probably should have left him out there for one more out, as

you know, hindsight I guess.

But he was, he, he's gotta be able to give us, get us through that third and he,

he is, he's been throwing the ball much better outta the bullpen force last month.

So that's good to see.

Um, and and Dylan was, Dylan was good on Saturday.

I mean, he left up three to one after five.

His pitch count was unusually high for him.

Mm-hmm.

He spray the ball a little bit lately.

He is missing more on his arm side high than he, than he has the last two outings.

So that's something he is gotta work on this week to try to fix.

'cause he is just wasting pitches.

You know, they're just non-competitive fastballs that

are kind of up and outta the zone.

They don't really do anything for you, you know?

Yeah.

Didn't seem as efficient as he was early in the season with his pitch.

Yeah.

Which I agree.

It, it kind of put you in an interesting position 'cause this is the first

time, at least within conference play, that you haven't had a starter

or more than five all weekend.

Yeah.

So you add that with the taxing bullpen.

I mean, you, you had to, to pull some interesting levers to get

out there with that series win.

Yeah, and we couldn't throw Baines on Friday.

His hamstring was a little sore, and of course he goes after the

buck and works it on Saturday.

That's been a, a nemesis for him this year.

But, so we, you know, um, he, you know, he gave up a couple

right there, but hopefully we'll get him back for this weekend.

I told him, just don't try to field any more bunts.

We'll just play the third baseman in.

You just let him go because it's always decelerating.

That's the third time this year that's happened on the same play.

Uh, and it's just hamstrings are crazy.

Like sometimes, I mean, you, they'll, they'll be feeling

better and you do one thing and.

They, they snatch up on you and that's what's happening with him.

So unfortunately, trust

me, fan, I'm old.

I know that to be true.

Yeah.

Yeah,

me too.

Um, Frankie Wright hasn't been good the last two weeks.

He's gotta get back going.

I, I think he's gotta move faster.

He, he is back kind of moving slow and he's gotta get himself back going.

And, and Davis has had a couple outings where the, the breaking ball's

staying up, it's not quite as sharp.

So some of those guys, and that's part of a season, right?

Your bullpen guys are just like anybody else, you know,

starters have some bad starts.

Bullpen guys go through the ups and downs of it.

As well.

Um, and you know, they've, they've gotta keep working through that.

And, um, you know, I, I kinda wonder sometimes if some of those guys don't

just need to get out there, you know, for an inning during the week just to

try to stay sharp on those weekday games.

Um, it's, and it's different strokes, right?

Like hubble's not wired that way.

Um, and we need some length outta him out of the bullpen,

so he's probably not a guy.

You would do that.

And, and this week's gonna be a different journey anyway 'cause we're

playing on Thursday instead of Friday.

Yeah.

So your day short with all the pitching and, you know, maybe it could be

a blessing that none of those guys went, you know, more than five.

Um, because if you had a guy go nine and then all of a sudden he is coming back

on a day shorter, that's a little bit even tougher than, you know, than normal.

So.

Yeah.

And really you almost lose two days because, well, you said you all

left around 6:00 PM nine hour drive.

I wasn't a math major, but that's three, four in the morning.

Yeah.

Imagine a summer rehab, but that's

about it.

Yeah.

I got to bed at like four 15 shoot, um, this morning.

So by the time we got home and got in bed and all of that, so we switched buses in,

in beautiful Emporia, Virginia at the, at the truck stop at, uh, one in the morning.

So is that why you were

getting one of the, their famous speed trap speed tickets on the bus too?

Yeah,

I don't think they, I don't think they messed with the buses o on there,

but, so we watched a little bit of the masters, you know, to get the

trip started and I was really happy to see McIlroy win that thing, man.

That's cool for him.

Yeah.

That's nice for him.

Um, seems he just seems like a good person.

And

when he missed that punt on 18 the first time, boy, I fell for him because, you

know, he, he pulled that thing, you could tell that was a little bit of,

little bit of nerves, but then when he stuck that one in there about three feet

in the playoff, I was like, all right, he ain't gonna miss this thing again.

Um, they had, they had to keep it interesting.

They had a little bit of daylight left and you know, the masters, they

like to do that trophy ceremony when it's basically dark there at Augusta.

So

yeah,

hit the buffalo wild.

What happens if

it gets dark?

I, I, has it ever happened where, 'cause I know if they tied again,

they were going to 10 and then they go back again 18, that kind of thing.

Have they ever had a situation they have to have had where they

had to go into the next day?

I,

I don't know if it's happened at the Masters.

I know it's happened for all the other majors.

It probably happened, but it was a while ago.

I know they started, they started using earlier t times for the guys.

One, they hit a better TV window, but.

It'd be kind of anti-climactic to come back at like 9:00 AM on Monday

morning to finish out the question.

Yeah, that's true.

That's true.

That's a good point.

Um, well, I heard you guys talking about the tournament and some of those

things, and certainly that's, you know, just, just making the tournament.

But the last, you know, two years, um, we've been in that playing and the,

uh, you know, last year you could see how that catches up to you, right?

Like we won our first two games, but we were, we were pitching on game with game

three pitchers where Georgia Southern was pitching game two pitchers, and, and it

caught up to us right there a little bit,

and especially last year when we didn't have guys that went

with any kind of depth, when we didn't really have starters.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then, and so, you know, and, and, but in fact, Dylan threw the ball good.

He, he gave us, I don't know, five SI think against Georgia Southern.

He was, but it, we were, we were just out of bullets in the bullpen

at that point, you know, just from those having that extra game.

And they were close, you know, well the, the south out game was close,

but, um, so yeah, you want to try to finish in that top six if you can.

Certainly.

And man, that ain't easy.

So, no, no, we, um, you know, you got three of the last five at home and.

Obviously they're all big and you can point to any of 'em, say

this is a big weekend for us, but Louisiana's always one of the better

teams in the league, and they got off to a little bit of a slow start.

Looks like they're playing, you know, pretty good now and they

have one of their better pitchers out earlier who's back now.

And so it's all a, you know, it's all a good challenge.

And after VCU tomorrow night, we're back at Harbor Park.

Looks like the weather's gonna be great this week.

And, you know, good week for, uh, some, some good college baseball.

We hope people come out and watch us.

Yeah.

And I think I wanted to ask you something about the, um, the dugouts

you're, you've chosen at both Harbor Park and, uh, and War Memorial.

Now I know that the last few times we played at Harbor Park, you've

chosen the third base dugout, which is traditionally the visitors dugout.

And I know, I think part of that was just easier to get in

and out of outta the stadium.

I, I was curious, was there a reason why you chose the

visitors dugout at War Memorial?

Uh, we're, it's our home dugout when what we're used to, you know, at

home, at, at when we play at home.

So I think the game's always easier to manage in the third base dugout.

Um, you're not across the field from your team or your third base coach and, um,

you know, you're just closer to everything that needs to go on right there.

So, um, I, I'd prefer the, the third base dugout.

If ever given a choice, I'd always prefer third base.

So that's, I figured it's a simple, easy answer.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Well,

coach, we got one call from Paula coming in and it's talking about, uh.

Hitting an error scoring and official stats.

So hopefully you're able to hear this one.

If you're not, we will recap it for you.

Okay.

Uh, when it's over.

But this is Paula.

Hi you guys.

It's Paula Ambrose.

I was calling to say one, congratulations to the coach for his 400th win.

Very exciting, and I think I've been here for most of them,

or at them, for most of them.

Anyhow, I had a question about official score keeping.

I noticed sometimes as a fan, you can't tell on the scoreboard.

It looks like it was a hit.

When was probably an error.

And if the official score is kept by the team or by the home team,

or does anyone ever check it?

And of course I'm sure you realize that I'm always taking this from

a pitcher's perspective, so I'm usually pretty stingy on scoring a.

SI can follow first.

Uh, no, I was, so it sounded like her, her, and you can

tell me if I'm incorrect, Gary.

Uh, it sounded like her question was, uh, basically who is doing

the score keeping, uh, the home team or is anybody checking on it?

Um, that, was that more or less what was, what was I was saying there, Gary?

Yeah.

And then do you ever go back and review hits and errors that are scored because

as she said, she is looking at the game from a pitcher's perspective and looking

at those unearned and, and earned runs.

Yes.

Since her, since her husband was a pitcher at ODU, um, and, and a darn good one.

Um, yes.

Yes and no.

Uh, we do, I, I'll look up there sometimes and go, man, they gave

the guy error on that, you know, and I'll make a little note on my.

They gave the guy a hit on that.

I'll make a little note on my, my sheet and then sometimes we'll go back and ask

our sports info people if it's egregious.

Um, typically the scores are somebody in the sports information department.

You know, I know c Hud when he was here forever, uh, was always

our official score, um, for baseball games and did a great job.

Um, and you know, but sometimes, you know, I'll just say, Hey

man, I think that was a hit.

Like, come on, it's college.

This a college baseball game.

Like if a big leaguer, maybe you say should make that play.

Okay.

Guy hits a ball 105 miles an hour off a bat in a college

game, he probably deserves a hit.

Uh, you know, that's

fair.

Um, so yeah, and, and I always, sometimes I'll have some questions on, um, fielder's

choices because that, that rule can get a little bit, you know, conflicted

about, uh, with, with some things being arbitrary in terms of scoring.

Um, was the guy safe?

Uh, would he have been safe, the, was he out?

Those kinds of things like that.

When a guy safe on a fielder's choice, it actually can be

dealer's choice on the score.

Whether he wants to give the guy an error or wants to give the guy a hit, you know?

And my, my, my contention, it happened, um.

Morales was on second, and Luke Waters hit a bullet up the middle.

That was, ended up being the shortstop caught like in between hops kind of going

up the middle and Morales ran the third.

And the guy, instead of throwing the first, tried to get Morales out at third.

Mm-hmm.

He made a good throw, he made a perfect throw.

Morales just beat it.

And so I'm looking up there and I think we had one hit at the time,

and I don't see anything like, I don't see a error, I don't see a hit.

There's gotta be something.

Uh, and you know, my, my, through the years in scoring, I always thought if

it was a fielder's choice, like let's say the shortstop catch the ball on

a hole and tries to go to second for the force out and the runner beats

it, you can give the guy a hit on that because that was his only play.

Wasn't gonna get the guy first.

Mm-hmm.

His only play was the second and the runner beat it.

You can also call the fielder's choice to not give him a hit.

Um, but I always think if he didn't have another play and that was his

only play and it was a good throw and we just beat it, the hitter deserves

a hit because he was gonna get a hit.

Yeah.

If he didn't have another play.

And so I think, you know, you, you usually want to look at it that way.

Um, so that, that's, that's my, you know.

Yeah.

Sometimes the, sometimes the reason he made that throw is that's the

only throw he had because Exactly.

It would've been easy.

Yeah.

When I, I think you're right on that play, that, that the only

real chance he had was going after Efrin who made an amazing slide.

Yeah.

Yeah, he did.

He did.

And, and so sometimes that's just baseball and it's just like, to give a guy fielders

choice on that, uh, I always thought a fielders choice needed to be an out.

Yeah.

Uh, and, and if it was, if a guy was safe, it needed to be a hit or an error.

Not a fielder's choice.

That, that's the way I always look at it,

because typically the fielder is gonna choose to make the easier play.

And if they can't make the easy play, then they probably couldn't

have made the other play either.

Yeah.

And if they can't make the easy play,

usually they screwed something up.

Um, if they screwed it up, it's an error.

If they didn't screw it up, then it should be a hit.

So I, I don't think a fielder's choice from a guy's safe makes much sense

to me from a scoring standpoint.

I know that, uh, the error helps the pitcher.

I don't, I'm not even sure what, in terms of scoring what a

fielder's choice does to, in terms of earned runs or unearned runs.

They still count as earned runs.

They do.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Then you would like them to call.

Why not give them hit?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Then you'd, you'd rather, so an error is the only thing that doesn't

count as an earn on the earned run.

Then.

So a hit or a field of choice, then it's irrelevant.

Yeah.

Uh, Beau Cowan and I were going back and forth earlier in a, a direct

message because he was asking about an earned run when the pitcher

is the person that has the error.

And I said, that's still an unearned run.

Like, yeah, the leader back to the pitcher, he throws up

the first basement's head.

It's an unearned run, even though it's an E one.

Uh, so, you know, if you're ever having problems on the mount, I guess you just

chucked the ball over the first base.

Oh, darn.

Sorry.

All your unearned runs.

Yeah.

Don't, Hey, don't put that out there, Gary.

That's, man, we, we don't need anybody thinking that.

Uh, yes, pitchers have, pitchers have, uh, interesting fielding escapades

anyway, um, typically as much as we work on it, but they, uh, do it so well.

Uh, any other questions?

No, that was it.

Bo had another question about who was left to play, uh, in

the, in the field on Sunday.

And you answered that with just one, with Tanner being there

because that was one of two, Taylor

was the only one, and we debated putting him in there and I was like, man, if

we put him out there and Evan takes one off the, the hand or something,

I, I couldn't even tell you who, who we'd put back there to catch, you know,

maybe Edwards probably put Edwards.

I was gonna

say Kyle, that was my first, my first choice.

He'd

probably be the, you know, typically your shortstops.

Maybe the only one that's got a chance would be, Hey, has anybody caught before?

Yeah, right.

So maybe Brody, but he

was outta the game.

Yeah, yeah.

Brody's outta the game.

Yeah.

And uh, yeah, so, um, tomorrow night, hopefully uh, people

over on the peninsula come out.

I think it's supposed to be a good day tomorrow and this weekend and, uh, it's be

nice to be back in our own beds this week.

Big game against VCU on Tuesday at War Memorial.

That's, that's still always the biggest rival for me.

Just from being in school, oh five to oh nine, we had some crazy games with VCU.

We were looking at, Bo actually reminded me to go back and look through some

of those old crazy games in oh nine.

My senior year.

We beat VCU at the diamond, like 28 to nine or something.

Wow.

And it was just, and I think we only scored in four innings of the game.

Uh, so it, it's a big rivalry for a lot of that, that crowd.

I think even the, the classes before me in a little ways afterwards.

Always wanna have some fun at vcu U'S expense.

Sure.

And of course, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at, uh, Harbor Park.

Those will be good.

I think tho I think everything's ESPN plus this week.

Correct.

Uh, this weekend.

Yeah.

The game I, I was informed today actually, our games tomorrow will, our

game tomorrow will not be streamed.

Okay.

Better get out there people.

I don't know why, but it will not.

So if you hear this and you wanna see us get out, get out to Warm Memorial and,

um, I'm, I'm not sure what's going on with that, but we, it won't be streamed

and um, we won't have replay tomorrow.

So it'll be old school.

Old school.

Old school.

Hey.

But you get to argue for a change 'cause no replay.

There you go.

Might get some venting on, Hey, speaking of replay, before I go, we

won our first challenge of the year.

Yeah.

Yesterday.

You

said that in the living room when it happened, we're like finna got one.

We're not gonna get.

We can't lose them all now.

And, uh, I, I asked that 'cause I, I thought for sure he was

safe and he got called out.

Oh, easy.

Yeah.

We're gonna challenge this.

And I asked, uh, John Ke, you know, he goes by beans and I said, beans if we

wanna challenge this year, he goes, Nope.

And uh, so then, then the guy, they overturned it and I was like,

well, now we have, there you go.

So,

all right.

Got, got one in the wind column for the challenges.

I'll, I'll take it.

Yeah,

I'll take it.

Yeah.

One in, one in one in all the rest of them.

Yeah.

Haven't been a lot overturned this year either way.

Like even on the other teams, I think they're going in there and colluding

with each other like Yep, a hundred percent for the most part, unfortunately.

But absolutely they're

deleting footage.

Yeah,

we didn't get a good look at it.

You know, the camera angle

back.

I've had 'em walk by me before and say, all right, let's go

in here and see that I'm right.

Yeah.

There you go.

Cool, man.

Yeah.

Old silver fox.

You gotta love that.

All right guys, go Monarchs.

Thank you for all y'all.

Alright.

Yeah.

Thank you Coach.

Go Monarchs.

Alright, go Monarchs.

All right, we're gonna take a quick break and when we get back, we will

have Evan Holman and a normal sized CB.

This episode of the Monarchist Podcast is brought to you by

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Their mission is to elevate the experience of student athletes through

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Thank you for listening, and go Monarchs.

Welcome back, Monarch fans.

Uh, thank you for tuning in, uh, for Coach Finwood there.

Obviously we're, uh, all pumped coming off the three in one week, but we are

definitely excited to bring on Evan Holman, starting catcher for the Monarchs.

Evan, thanks so much for joining.

For sure, guys.

Thanks for having me on.

Well, you had a big day on Sunday, I think to put it, uh, put it nicely.

We had three for three, two doubles and a grand slam.

Not a bad day for a, for someone who didn't start the game too.

No, no, certainly.

No.

Yeah, it was pretty great.

Like I mentioned, you had, I think coming into the week a double and a homer and for

the week he had three doubles and a homer.

Not, not too bad.

Yeah, no, that was a good week.

Yeah.

Turned out to be.

Yep.

Yeah.

Well, were you doing anything different at the play?

Did the ball just look like a beach ball to you?

Like what, what was going through your mind there to, to rack up stats like that?

I mean, that's one thing I was seeing it well all week, but I've been

consistently throughout the whole year.

Like trying to make adjustments and keep working on my swing

and my mental approach.

So it was good to kind of have some of that workout on

Sunday and this whole week.

So, yeah.

Has that been different for you this year?

'cause I know last year, I mean, I like that you played 48 games last.

I started 48 games.

I think you played 51.

I mean, you were playing basically every game.

And then this year it's, you know, it's gone from Friday, Saturday to

then maybe Tuesday and Friday, and then getting in, possibly in late in games.

So has there been a big adjustment between playing, you know, basically

every single game and then kind of having to pick your spots this year?

I mean, it's definitely an adjustment.

It's not a big adjustment.

It's the way I look at it.

It's anytime I can make an impact on the game, like I'm ready to go.

So like I'm, I'm locked in, even when I'm down the bullpen, if I'm, I'm ready

to go and yeah, I'm just always waiting.

Always waiting to get in.

I know it's been a unique year with so many games on the road and that kind

of has its own version of wear and tear on guys, but are you feeling a little

bit fresher in your legs not having to do that, even though I know there's a

lot of other duties you're responsible for there, even if you're not playing?

I, I have

noticed that there's been, these last couple Mondays last year I was pretty,

usually pretty banged up on Mondays and usually I would just go sit in the ice

bath for, that was my work for the day.

But these last couple of Mondays I've been able to, to really hammer the weights and

get in the cages and just keep working.

So that's been good.

That's been a, that's been a solid, yeah.

Because there was some points.

That's be a big plus.

Yeah.

'cause you, I mean, you're seeing that you can go and put that work in.

And that was one thing I talked to Ryan more about when he was talking

about his last year playing pro.

Mm-hmm.

He was so injured that it was taking all his energy and time recovering

that it couldn't get better.

So you're saying that you could take time now to actually, like you said,

hit the gym, hit the weights, hit, hit the cage, and improve yourself.

That's gotta be a, a nice thing for

sure.

Yeah,

for

sure.

Because there were some games last year, man.

I mean, you get hit by a pitch two or three times in a weekend,

take like a half dozen foul balls a bat to the back of the head.

Um, so imagine just like you, you're maybe not getting as many of those things now

as you were, even though you're catching some bull pins and stuff during For sure.

Yeah, definitely not as many.

There's still all, there still is some days though.

The next day I'm pretty banged up.

You got

one in the thigh the other day, didn't you?

Uh, yeah.

Uh, that's a, yeah, that pretty

much happens every game.

You just need a photo book of all the crazy, gigantic purple bruises you have.

Yeah.

Seriously.

Yeah.

Uh, one thing I noticed, and I, I'm not even sure when you did it,

was sometime during the year here, but you switched from the kind of

old style two piece catcher's mask

mm-hmm.

To

now the hockey style catcher's mask.

Yeah.

When exactly did you do that and why?

Well, you guys know I was wearing the, the two piece traditional mask all last year.

Mm-hmm.

And then, uh, I switched over to the hockey mask pretty much

the whole fall and preseason.

I don't know if you noticed that, but I was wearing a, I think I

didn't, I might have missed.

Yeah.

I

was, I was wearing a hockey mask most of the fall.

And then, uh, the last couple inner squads in the spring, I went

back to the two piece and then I started the U with the two piece.

And then I, it is just kind of like a, a feel thing and the

hockey mask is definitely safer.

Mm-hmm.

Um, just like from what I've seen and what I've read about

it and it just covers more and.

Like, the more protection you have from getting hit on back swings or

weird foul tips and stuff is good.

So, and uh, I know Slate Slater will agree with me on this.

You can, I think you can see better out of the hockey mask too.

You got that?

The side vents.

Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah.

I remember when Charlie O'Brien in the nineties, he basically created those,

and I remember it being a big deal.

It was like, it was so unique.

He was the only guy in the big leagues wearing We did with the Braves.

Yeah.

And I think it was the Blue Jays might have when we started wearing them.

Yeah.

And uh, and then, you know, here we are, what, 25, almost 30 years

later, and it's like, I, you don't see a youth game anymore where

somebody's even using the other style.

No, I think where I think they really got popular was probably Yadi or Molina.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Because he just, his whole career, he wore a hockey mask.

Yeah.

And a lot of guys were still wearing the two piece masks and

everybody wanted to be yadi.

Of course, of course.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Who was he, was he your catcher?

Like who was your like catcher idol growing up?

Um.

I'm a, I'm a Seattle Mariners guy.

Mm-hmm.

So growing up, I mean, big Scott Servais guy, they didn't, when I was growing

up, it was like Mike Zunino but Oh yeah, Mariners, the Mariners didn't

really have, like, they didn't have the, the Cal Raleigh they have now.

So it was, it was Mike Zunino and then, uh, obviously Adley and yeah.

But now it's, now I, I love watching Cal Raleigh catch.

Yeah.

Nice

big, the big dumper.

Oh yeah.

Whenever I get a chance, I turn on Mariners games.

Yeah.

What do you think of that?

I see.

He's like, he's like doing dumping for people at the game.

If people don't know that's Cal Rally, that's his nickname is the big dumper.

Yeah.

And I guess now they have like promotions where he is like

dumping people at ball games.

Like if someone was to break up with their, their significant

other, I think it's hilarious.

Yeah.

That's real.

That's,

that's awesome.

I mean, if, if you could do.

If you can do the engagement photos and you can do the, will you marry me?

Like you should be able to do the other side of that too.

Like, Hey, thanks for coming to the game.

It's the sixth inning.

Uh, we're not going home together.

Sorry.

Yeah, that's that's awesome.

I, I hate the wedding proposal of the game.

I'd be so hyped to see the big dumper take somebody out.

That'd be awesome.

That, yeah.

Oh,

well you, you've got a number of different pitchers this year.

Um, I know you're typically kind of in there on, on Fridays with Ben and

whoever's coming in behind him, but what have you seen kind of evolve from our

pitching staff from the beginning of the season, maybe even in the fall to now?

Like is there anyone that's standing out to you as kind really

upping their game a little bit?

I mean, it's hard to not talk about Ben Dylan and Blake 'cause they've

been so good and the three of them, like, they're so fun to catch and.

Every time you go out there, it's a privilege to like get to work with them.

Um, but I think just the staff as a whole, we've seen improvement from all

the guys, bullpen guys kind of finding their roles and guys kind of developing

conviction behind their pitches and uh, getting in the right head space.

So it's been, it's been awesome to see the bullpen on the weekends

develop and turn into something good.

And I've, I wanted to ask you this or, or someone catching in college about

the pitch comm and how that works.

'cause you've got Yeah, the piece, you've got the risk, you've got all that.

Like, take us through the process of how that actually works when pitches

are getting called and how you and the pitcher are working to relay those.

So we, how we do it, we have Marron, uh, in the dugout calling

pitches, and then everyone on the field is wearing the, they're

like, they honestly look like this.

They just look like an Apple watch.

Um, and everyone on the field has them.

And they're relaying the pitch, uh, to everyone.

And then it's really quick.

Like that's basically all it is, is um, as soon as I throw the ball back, they call

in the pitch and then we're ready to go.

That's, that's pretty much all it is.

And then I have the earpiece in too, and if there's like a pitch that they

thought was a strike and the ump call it a ball, and they can talk to me through

the earpiece and ask me where it was, and then I can communicate back with them.

Or if they want me to go, I. Take a mound visit, something like that.

They can talk to me through the ear piece too.

But all the pitch calling comes through our, our, uh, wristwatches.

Yeah.

Does the Umpire ever overhear that in your ear?

Is he ever like I hope not.

I hope not.

No.

Marron's like, where was this guy sucks.

And you're like, Hey man, I'm just here.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, no, no.

Uh, they're gonna send you out there with like actual speaker on the back

of your belt that you don't know about and just maren barking at the umpires.

Yeah, that'd be awesome.

Yeah.

Is it, is it just me or does the, the, the wrist thing run outta battery

like every single game during the game at some point it seems like.

Yeah,

they do.

They, they'll run outta battery or me and slate multiple times.

We've either blocked a ball and it's hit the screen and shattered it,

or

I've had it happen a couple times.

Uh, plays at the plate.

Where I get cleats or knees or guys sliding into me and

that, that's broken it too.

So I, I'll have to go in there and get a new one.

Um, but yeah, we definitely go through those.

I did not know about the breaking, I hadn't even thought about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Here you go.

There's some, there's some work.

Look at this guy, man.

I gotta get the glove down.

Look at that.

No, it was coming up.

You did good.

It was coming up.

You got, you got on.

Record your chest.

I think the next, the next picture was just going off your, your chest protector.

Yeah, that was good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, so, so you've been catching your entire life.

I mean, did, have you ever, did you ever play other positions or how, when

did you, how'd you start catching?

I started catching, uh, eighth grade is when I really started catching.

I played shortstop, uh, up until then.

And, and then I got into high school and all I did was catch.

Yeah.

Pitched a little in, in coming up in middle school and stuff.

And, but yeah, really once I, I, once I got into high school, um, I caught.

For all of my high school career.

And then I think I played 20 something games at third base my

freshman year of junior college.

Um, but yeah, here just catching.

Yep.

Oh, when you were pitching, man, what was the pitch selection like?

You got like a nasty breaking ball sinker, like what were you working on?

Well,

yeah,

um,

if you ask again, if you ask Slate, he'll tell you because we're playing catch

every day and he knows my pitch arsenal.

But, uh, I had the, I was a big Sports illustrated guy growing up and there

was a Sports Illustrated article on Taiwan Walker when he was with the

Mariners and his knuckle curve where you, like, he spiked this finger.

And so I started throwing that in like seventh, eighth grade and

that was like my bread and butter.

That was awesome.

Yeah.

Oh, if there's ever a situation where we need a position player on the mound,

I've gotta see the knuckle curve.

I wanna see what that does on track, man.

Yeah, I think, uh, I don't know if I would be first, I think

probably Eddie would be first.

Yeah.

The first position player to get an opportunity.

I've heard he's pretty good up there.

Yeah, Shaneel was a pretty good pitcher in, uh, in high school.

Oh, I bet.

Yeah, he, yeah, I bet Zedalis could probably run it up there too.

Yeah, he's got a good arm.

We got a, we got a few guys who I think

would be okay at it.

Oh yeah.

Interesting.

Yeah, because the white whale was, was Kenny Levari

and we, we didn't get to see him pitching.

He was throwing like 96, 97 last year.

I know catching him in the fall was interesting 'cause

you just, you don't expect it.

'cause you see him throw from third and, I mean, he looks like

an infielder with a good arm and then he gets on the mound and it's.

It was firm

pop.

The mit Yeah.

Yeah.

We got the dry hump on that for four straight years.

Yeah.

So, uh, so Evan, how, I mean, you're from, and I, I I, can you say the

name of the state you're from?

'cause I feel like I always mispronounce it,

Oregon.

Oh, you actually said that way as Oregon.

That's how I would say I, I always hear like Oregon.

This the Oregon, no, Oregon.

Yeah, Oregon.

All

right.

So you're, you're an Oregonian telling me the right way to say it.

I love it.

All right.

So how do you, how do you end up at ODU from Oregon?

How does, how does that happen?

Well, outta high school, I, uh, I mean, just going back, I didn't play travel

ball in high school and I played, I played soccer and basketball all four

years of high school and baseball.

So I wasn't like super focused.

I mean, I was very focused on baseball, obviously I knew that

was my sport, but like I wasn't really traveling around or getting

recruited or anything big like that.

So I, I went to junior college outta high school up in Bellevue, Washington, in the

NAC in that conference, and that's where the ODU coaching staff saw me out there.