CB, Gary and Coach Finny recap a 4-0 week with a sweep of Georgia Southern. Monarch outfielders TJ Aiken and Nick Felton hop on to talk about the weekend, Nick's walk off win and what's considered the south.

This episode is brought to you by the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation.

Because of you, we create winners in the classroom, in athletic

competition, and in life.

Become a member today.

Yeah.

Yes.

Welcome Monarch fans to the Hudson Homers podcast.

Coming to you after a four in O week.

A sweep of Georgia.

Let's Southern.

Let's Amazing.

Amazing week for the boys.

Got CB here.

Here.

Baseball.

Yeah.

Cb.

How's it going?

Man, let me tell you.

I think I was telling you, uh, on Saturday, I was like, man, it's

so much better, uh, feeling to win a series than to lose a series.

It's a, it's a great, a little while.

Yeah, it's been a minute.

So that was what a, what a week.

I mean, it was just a lot of good baseball playing play this week.

It was, that was cool.

Well, and, and

when we, you know, got down, got behind whatever it was, we were, we, we were able

to play from ahead a lot, which is nice.

But yeah, when we were down, they responded and, you know,

won a couple, couple close games.

You know, three out of those four games are pretty close.

So

yeah.

Nice to be able to win some of those.

And that usually come means that guys, you know, coming outta the bullpen did a

good job and you got a couple timely hits.

And we did, we did both of those this week.

You know, just couldn't be a. Prouder of the, the pitching

over the weekend in particular.

Yeah.

Um, I thought was, you know, that was by far our best weekend pitching of

the year, uh, as a staff, you know,

for sure.

Kuskie gave us a good start on Friday.

Um, GA gave us a good start on Saturday and we, you know, and Lanny

gave us a good start on Sunday.

I mean, we only needed what we got from 'em to get us into the game.

And, you know, you, you're thinking both teams are gonna, you know, give up

some runs on Sunday, uh, after the first two games I spend the history anyway.

And, uh, we, we, those guys did the job, man, and it was a day that you needed to

pitch 'cause it wasn't a great day to hit.

Um, you couldn't walk a bunch of guys and, you know, give a bunch of free bases.

And, uh, we didn't, we did, we did a good job with that.

So.

Um, and, you know, sw the bats just enough, a little better than,

than the week before, I think.

Um, but you know, it's just, and sometimes the other team's pitch has something

to say about it, but we gotta be, get better with, with the timely hits because

mm-hmm.

You know, Friday for example, man, I kept coming into dugout going,

we're just wasting too many chances.

And I mean, yeah.

Game should be, we should have 10 runs right now, I think.

And

I know Sunday in the eighth inning, I know you were, had to

be pretty furious about that.

One base is loaded.

No out, said nothing.

Yeah.

And, and if I had to do that over hindsight, I, I try to never do this,

but we had some righties available.

Mm-hmm.

I probably should have hit for Jack there.

Um, of course we get to hit, I'm not sitting here saying this.

I know.

Or hit stack fly, right?

Yeah.

Which he's been good at here.

Yeah.

Um, and.

You know, then we try to squeeze and that didn't work.

And then it was just, you know, just didn't work out.

But we had, we had put all our lefties in the game at that point.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, whether it was 'cause of defense or, or pinch hitting earlier in the game.

And, you know, they're just so happened they had a lefty come in and

Yeah.

And

we did a good job getting the bases loaded, but then you just gotta,

you know, I thought Jack's won, get two breaker balls that were clearly

balls, and then he took one right down the middle for strike three.

So that was unfortunate.

But, um, yeah.

O other than that, on, on, on, you know, yesterday, you know, we put together some

good at bats when we needed to and took advantage of them making some mistakes.

I mean, the, the bottom line to the, the Saturday win.

Where we, we walk it off was, you know, they made two big errors and

gave us, gave us a couple runs.

So that's not our fault.

Uh, you gotta play clean baseball.

And that was the difference in the game.

We played really good defense turned a couple double plays.

I thought Will Johnson had another good weekend defensively?

Mm-hmm.

Um, shortstop and you know, so that was the difference in

that ball game, um, for sure.

And, and the Friday game, I mean, will, you know, has five rbis, it's

the grand slam, but turn a four one game into an eight one game.

Yeah.

Um, and you know, that game, you know, we kind of, you know, after

that it was, it was kind of over.

So, um, so at disappointed part of that game, and I think it hurt

us on, on Saturday, um, was having to bring Davis into that game.

Mm-hmm.

Up eight to one.

And I just, Matt, you know, Ben Tanton did a good job and we still.

I treat him a little bit with kid gloves 'cause you know, coming off

the arm injury and all of that.

So, you know, he had three up downs.

He threw two and a third.

Um, and Maddox came in and struggled.

I mean, he got out of the bases load gym, his first game inning, but then,

you know, went out and walked a couple guys and I was just like, you can't

in, in college athletics in general, and certainly in college baseball,

you guys have seen it, man, when that ball starts rolling down that hill,

it's avalanche.

Yeah.

Into a boulder in a hurry.

Yeah.

And then it becomes hard to stop.

And I just didn't want to get to that point.

Um, which is why we, we brought Davis in and he did a good job, you know, um,

you know, you, you'd love to not have to throw him, but I've also seen people

wait and then all of a sudden it's double, double and it's a one run game.

Well,

it's like you told us last week, you said the plan is we're gonna

do everything we can do to win on Friday and win on Saturday and

then let's Sunday sort itself out.

And that's, you saw that in how you were managing, particularly

on Friday and Saturday.

Yeah.

Um, and, and I thought Kuskie did a really good job.

Mm-hmm.

That was his third good start in a row and GA's fourth, good start in a row.

And

yeah,

those guys are, you know, they're getting better and, but you're still

building them up because they just, you know, you were getting one inning

and, you know, that kind of stuff.

And so it's not like they've been used to throwing seven.

We, we'd love 'em to get more.

Um, and maybe they will, you know.

We'll, we'll see.

You know, I guess the one good note, they, you know, since they both

struggled early in the season, they, they don't have a, a ton of miles

and they're fresh

50 innings.

Yeah.

On the, on the tread, you know, right now.

So the tires are, are pretty fresh and maybe, maybe that'll

help us down the stretch.

Uh, one thing that I know Gary and I were talking about watching this weekend, uh,

for Georgia Southern, and, and I don't mean this in a complimentary way, but

watching them seemed a lot like watching ODU for large chunks of the season.

It felt very similar.

A lot of like shooting yourself in the foot, you know, making errors,

walking guys, not necessarily playing with energy, not necessarily

having competitive at bats.

I mean, it was, it was a little eerie.

I mean it, and, and it makes sense coming into the, into the series

we have two, five, and 10 teams.

It kind of made sense that it was a similar kind of style of play.

So it was nice to see us not do that and be the team we all know we can be.

I would completely agree.

You know, and that's just what, and, and you know, we won all three

games and that's great, but we, we still have to be a lot better.

Yeah.

Um, absolutely.

You know, especially our guys in the middle of the line of

like cash and runs in and.

Having better at bats.

I mean, you know, it's, it's time for, for, yeah.

I told Zedalis before the weekend, you know, I said, man, it's, it's warming up.

The wind starts to turn around.

It's time for you to like start trying to drive balls.

You know, he, he is very conscientious of, you know, ha

having a good stroke and all this.

And I said, that's great, but let's, let's turn that thing loose

a few times this weekend, you know, especially in advantage counts.

And to his credit, I mean, you know, got his hands back a little bit.

Um, and, and he did drive the ball.

So I, I thought that was, that was really good.

We need that,

that that first home run you hit on Saturday landed on top

of the Jim Jarrett building.

Yeah, I know.

I haven't seen that one yet.

Yeah, that was a bomb.

And you know, the one yesterday when he hit it, it had the makings,

I thought of maybe hook and foul.

And because the wind was blowing so hard, the right field, I think

the wind kept that fair and it went off the fair pole right there.

So,

well, I love, I love a fair pole dong.

Like it's just dawn.

It's such a great sound.

That's right.

The best sound ever when you're on.

Yeah.

Worst sound ever when you're on defense.

Absolutely.

When he hit it, I was like, come on, come on, come on.

And then it looked, it was straightening out and then, yeah, I was like, hit

the ball, hit the ball, hit the ball.

And then Mav, you know, he hit a moonshot man and

yeah.

And so the update on him, you know, he had to come outta the game.

Maverick Stallings had to come outta the game yesterday.

Craziest thing, you know, he's adjusting his, putting his elbow

guard on and the Velcro on it broke.

And it hit him in the eye.

Oh

man.

In the eye.

That may because Hana wouldn't tell me what happened.

I just heard that he got scratched his eye.

It sounds like it must have been something silly

he couldn't see and it was just a freaking thing.

Yeah.

I mean, who expects that to happen?

You know?

But so he, we had to take, he tried to hit one more time and struck out

just probably 'cause he couldn't see,

can't see.

No, he, he was not having a good time.

He was sitting there with it covered and he looked, he looked unhappy and in pain.

Yeah.

He

wrapped up like a mummy.

He, he went to the eye doctor today.

Everything checked out.

He's gonna be fine.

He is just got some discomfort from the, you know, the trauma that hitting.

So I, I don't know if he'll play tomorrow, but he should be fine

by the weekend at, at the worst.

So That's good.

Alright.

That was a little Cole.

You know, Cole came in and made an error and then he made a

couple nice plays and got a hit.

Mm-hmm.

There go.

Um, so that was good to see, you know, him, him be able to do that for us.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Made nice double play.

Yep, yep.

Yep.

He did a good job right there and got a two strikes, single to, you know.

Mm-hmm.

Start a rally.

We, we didn't end up scoring on, but.

Um,

yeah, Saturday it kind of got lost in the shuffle of the excitement of the

walk off, but the double play there in the top of the 10th, you know?

Mm-hmm.

First batter of the inning gets on base, then you roll up.

I mean, just a sick globe flip ball.

Yeah.

Turning two, I mean that, I think that kind of just put out Georgia

Southern's fire it felt like

at that point.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

We had a couple big double plays this weekend, man.

That was good to see.

Um, you know, just one making a pitch to get it and two, executing it.

Uh, for sure.

So we, uh,

it's fun that our dugout realize that, uh, if we have a double play that goes,

uh, Maverick number six to will number seven, that it's, it's a six seven.

So that's, that's, that's a good one.

Did not, did not get that.

Of course,

course,

of course they would know that, right?

Of

course they would.

Yes.

It only took 'em like half a season to figure it out, but that's okay.

Yeah.

Hey, update on schedule.

Um, the ri the Richmond game in a couple weeks is being moved

from Wednesday to Tuesday here.

Okay.

Um, exams, it's probably, it's probably my fault.

We, we, I'm sure it's my fault.

We, we, you know, that was a, you know, an added game since both of us had a

rain out and I for some reason thought we could play Wednesday, but we actually

start exams Wednesday, so we need to play that Tuesday, which they're fine with.

So, um, that's good.

That game will be Tuesday evening at six, uh, whatever.

What's the date?

May May 5th.

May the fifth.

May 5th.

Yeah.

So, so the ends of the fifth

after May.

The fourth.

Yeah.

P people updating their schedule on that.

We'll, we'll get it updated on our.

Website and all that, but I wanted to make sure everybody knew that.

Excellent.

Um, and, you know, we'll get back to talking about the baseball and, um, some

things that I think are pretty cool.

You get to this part of the season and sometimes some freshmen have started to,

you know, come along and I think Nick Felton is certainly in that, in that boat.

You know, he, he is the premium defender from the get go.

Um, the bat's certainly been a work in progress, but I think, you know, over

the last couple weeks he's had much more consistent at bats making mm-hmm.

Harder contact even on his outs.

Yeah.

Staying in the middle of the field, not rolling over and chopping balls

and hitting a bunch of popups.

The other way is his, you know, contact and swing has, has gotten better.

He is really working hard at that party.

He is, you know, bunting the ball well.

Um.

And I mean, gosh, they don't, they don't score that first run.

He, he runs that ball down in the gap on Friday when, you know, caught it

and then it, it, you know, ground, knocked it out of his glove and then

mm-hmm.

You know, I told him, I said the thing about, you know, diving for

balls, you gotta make sure that when you catch it, you keep your

hands out like you're mm-hmm.

Like a headfirst slide.

'cause what guys do is they let their body and their elbows hit,

and then it jars the ball loose.

And so yesterday he made a, a, you know Right.

Dive play kind of coming in and over and he came in the dugout

and said, I did it that time.

Yeah, you did.

That's

great.

I mean, he's, he is fun to watch play defense man, because

Yeah.

He catches most all.

If he can't catch it, then I don't know who can.

So he gets a lot of them.

Yeah.

He goes and gets them.

He really does.

Do you think that

look easy?

Do you think that the bunting has helped the hitting?

I mean, you have to imagine that staying in there and kind of getting

your face down in it and seeing the pitches has had to have had an effect.

It helps you be like, okay, kind of slowed the game down.

You're making contact, you're doing some running, you know, playing some

baseball instead of like just going up and striking out, walking back to the plate.

I think so, and I've had some freshmen, you know, that for whatever reason they

had to play or they, you know, needed to play and we're playing that just

were really good defenders, um, and weren't just quite there with the bat.

And we needed production from offensively.

So the, the way to get it is to buckle the ball, you know, move guys up.

And we've bonded Nick before with one out, just to move a guy in scoring position

and hope the next guy can get him in.

I, I'm never afraid to do that.

If we don't like the, the matchup, I mean, it's better for.

You know, f to hit with a go second and then a go first and two outs.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, so if you don't like the way it's going, then just move the guy up.

And, um, but I do think it does help.

Um, CB I, I think it, you know, it keeps your head still.

You, you see the pitches don't usually bun at balls.

Like you might swing at balls.

Yeah.

Music, take those.

And, um, it seems to have, have helped him.

And I remember I had a kid and he was one of my favorite players

when I was at Western Kentucky.

And our first year was a big recruiting class.

And the second year we played all these young guys and,

uh, Matt Peyton was his name.

He was a football baseball kid from Louisville, Mayo High

School and played second base.

He was left-handed hitter, could really run, um, fantastic defensive player.

The swing was just.

You know, like a broken lawn chair as a freshman, kinda like Nick's was.

Um, and I made him bun all the time and his dad would get so mad killing me.

And I probably one day I said, Hey Matt, can you tell your dad to just stop,

man, like you're playing every day?

Would you rather be sitting on the bench?

He'd rather me playing and bunting.

He grabbed me playing a button.

He goes, I'd rather be playing a button.

So he ended up, that kid ended up being an all-conference player and

got drafted by the Phillies and played a few years, and now he's a fire,

fire chief, uh, in, in Louisville.

So that's a, that's a neat story.

But yeah, I mean, it's just something that you have to do sometimes, you know, it

makes you realize guys like Andy Garla.

Mm-hmm.

Um, Kenny, LaVar.

Mm-hmm.

Carter Trice.

Nick

Walker.

Yeah.

It gives you an appreciation.

Nick Walker, uh, Vinny Patino, Kyle Battle.

How good those guys were as fresh.

Yeah, because you didn't have to do that with them.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

They could just play, uh, Bryce Windham was a little bit like that as a freshman.

We, he didn't play a lot, but we bunted him a lot and he was a good defender.

Mm-hmm.

But he became a good veteran.

So, but yeah, it gives you an appreciation for how talented those kids

were, even as true freshmen for sure.

Um, so

yeah.

Well, one change to the lineup you made this weekend.

Putting Ef in that lead off spot, I thought that paid off really well.

I mean, he had, I know he went oh, for four on Sunday, but man, he was scrappy.

He got a couple hits in the other games.

I feel like he just sets the tone for that lineup of mm-hmm.

You're gonna have a problem with us tonight.

Yeah.

And Ef's done about, you know, we talked about that.

I mean, it's, Hey, just had many conversations with him, man.

Like, you can't hit a league off if you try to hit everything.

Like I know you think you can, but you have to like get more patient.

Hitting lead off, especially the first at bat.

And so we'll talk about it, you know, uh, leading off the game.

I'll tell him, Hey, the first one's yours, but make sure it's in one spot, or you

gotta take the first one just to see it.

Um, and you know, TJ's going through a little bit of a lull,

uh, since conference place started.

He, he struggled a little bit.

We had him in today and we're showing him some things.

Um, just on his spray chart and where his heart contacts are and he got

off to such a good start this year, you know, and I said, man, everybody

goes through little dips like this.

I mean, Max's going through it right now.

You just gotta keep going, keep going, keep working.

Yeah.

Keep trying.

It'll, it'll come back around, you know?

And maybe,

I always think for TJ is just be an athlete.

I think he is the most successful.

You just go up, play, stop thinking too much.

Don't do the thing all hitters do where you think too much

and you screw yourself up.

Just go up, be athletic, see ball, hit ball.

And I think he'll, he'll be fine.

Have fun.

I, I tell, I tell him about 15 times a game.

Have fun.

You having fun.

Like, I just keep asking.

That's, that's how he's gonna be successful,

no doubt.

Something we did notice with tj, even though he is a guy that hits the ball the

other way, his heat maps, his hot zones in the, in the strike zone of the balls.

He hits hard, are not away from.

Um, because he bails a little bit, they're on the inner half of the plate.

And so we said, you know, probably for you then you need to get on the plate more.

And that's something, you know, we're gonna work, we worked on

today and we'll work on tomorrow.

I think, uh, showing him that.

So yeah, hopefully he'll get it back figured out.

You know, same thing with Mac.

I think some of the other guys are, are, you know, starting to, to look pretty

good late, had a few more, you know, late should had a home run Saturday.

I thought that he, he whacked that ball and the wind knocked it down.

He'll double yesterday.

You know, he is just gotta get more balls in the air, especially on the pulse side.

So hopefully as it warms up, you know, I mean, uh, Georgia, Georgia

State's a, a great example like.

Mm, it's a hitter's park.

I mean, it's a small park and you gotta hit some home runs to win there.

Um, and we have, the last few times we've gone down there, we won the series.

Uh, and usually because of Homers.

So, you know, two years ago Stallings was the Sunbelt player of the week that week.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We had a bunch of, I

remember that.

He was

dynamite.

He was hitting to the track every bet I felt like.

Yeah.

Hopefully we can get, get some of that going on.

And it's a, it's an interesting place to play 'cause it's, you

know, an old junior college field.

Not much atmosphere, which we're kind of used to.

Um, it's long ways away from any, anything.

Um, yeah.

So you just gotta go down there and play and you're, again, you're playing

a team, you're tied with, so, yeah.

You know, uh, and then the following week, Arkansas state's

a game up on us right now.

I mean mm-hmm.

You're gonna be around them, so you gotta just keep winning these series and.

Getting ahead of people, especially with the tiebreakers

as they start to come into play.

Yeah.

I mean, two games outta third place like that tells you how bunched up it is.

I mean, which is again, that's what why this weekend was so huge.

Come out and do what you just take, like I I, I think we talked about last week.

Just take it one pitch at a time and just win the pitch in front of you.

And it seems like that's what everybody focused on this week.

And just keep doing that.

Don't, don't think about the bigger stuff.

Just get back to just playing good baseball.

Get 'em on, get 'em over, get 'em in.

Throw your pitches.

Yep.

Like play some good defense.

Like it was, this was a really fun weekend to watch and not

just because we won the games.

I think the winning the games is kind of incidental to the way we played.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We played a better, better brand of baseball for sure.

Mm-hmm.

And um, you know, we got East Carolina coming in tomorrow and Yeah.

Um, they, they just lost a couple of Wichita State, so.

Mm-hmm.

They've had, you know, some, some stuff with, you know, they, they

really beat us up bad down there, you know, a month or so ago we did not

play well and Mm. You know, they did.

And so, you know, it's, again, it's gonna be, you know, guys that haven't

pitched a ton, we, we will have some guys that need to throw an inning,

you know, that have been in our up, up quote unquote bullpen, so.

Mm-hmm.

Um, but Ocon is gonna start, he was not good over the weekend.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, but we'll get him back out there and hopefully we can get

some stuff worked out kind of one time through the order type deal.

You know, his whole thing is he has to, he's gotta figure out a consistent

off speed pitch, like mm-hmm.

He should have a change up by now.

Disappointing that he doesn't because he's, you know, he's more

of a pronator than a supinator.

Supinator guys are your cutters and your, your sliders and usually can

figure a breaking ball out pretty easy.

Um, Jackson's a big time pronator, like he's got so much life on that

fastball 'cause of that, but it makes it a little more difficult to get

your hand on this side of the ball.

Mm-hmm.

But he should, but those guys should have good changeups and he

hasn't done it yet, and he needs to.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and it's something like, it's been the difference for Nick Opio.

He started throwing the change up more and breaking guys down with it.

Um, and he, he broke up some pretty good hitters in their lineup, uh,

with, so, uh, instead of forcing the breaking ball, which has been, you

know, inconsistent for him, he just started throwing fastball change up

and it made a big difference, man.

I still say, you know.

It's the best pitch in baseball.

Yeah.

Because you throw it with the same intent and arm speed as your fastball

and then it, it could really mess up hitter's timing because of that.

So, um, and

he throws, he throws his fastball so hard.

I mean, if he gets that changeup pitch, he's deadly.

And I think the times he's been most effective this year is when he is been

able to mix those speeds up a little bit.

Yeah.

Like, we watched JJ do it on Saturday.

Yeah.

I mean, he threw that slow curve a couple times.

First pitch, he threw it for strikeout pitch.

I mean, he had those batters dancing in the box.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

JJ's been pitching, you know, like

Yeah.

Not a hard, super hard thrower.

He is his other, his off speed pitches really have been protecting

his fastball, so to speak.

And then he mixes that in.

That's like his change up.

The fastball just goes up instead of down.

Um, but the other off speed pitch is kind of, you know, it can muddle,

muddle the rest of it up for the hitter.

So, and if you can upset hitter's timing, that's what pitching's about.

You know, hitting's about being on time and pitching's about upsetting the timing.

And the better you know you are at that, then the more successful you gotta.

Chance to be as a, as a pitcher.

I was giving JJ a hard time, uh, 'cause he had that ball, that

guy smoked off his backside.

Yeah.

And, uh, he, everyone in the ballpark, I mean, we, we, we give him a hard time

about having the loudest voice possible.

I think people at like down in, uh, you know, downtown probably heard

that, uh, very loud expletive.

He, he said he was picking them all up and because then he came, he told

me he came back to the dugout and then he was like, yeah, I just thought,

and they're all like, yeah, we know.

We heard it.

Yeah.

He, uh, well, pain, pain instructs, right?

Like, so I was like, maybe he won't hang those, hang that breaking ball anymore.

Got hit a hundred miles an hour off his butt.

Uh

oh.

But man, he, he gets drilled with that.

It was, I guess it was in the butt or the hip or something.

It was not in a fun spot.

Yeah.

It's

like a Yeah.

Not a great spot.

Yeah.

But he comes back and strikes out the next two

guys, you hit the butt.

That's better than a lot of other places you hit.

And the coolest part is we still got an out, out of it.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's just like, um, will hit the ball the other day.

Was that against Richmond and it hit the guy in the, it

knocked, it was against Richmond.

Hit the guy in the elbow and went right to the first basement.

Yeah,

that was, that was crazy.

I was like, what?

No, I was

so upset.

Yeah.

He knocked, he knocked the kid outta the game, but he went right to the

first base, third out, um, I thought, will, again, that's two weeks in a row.

Mm-hmm.

He's, he's played, you know, much, much better defense and it feels

like he's getting his, his legs kind of second wind a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

Offensively, you know, started to drive some balls, had to double in

the home, run on, uh, Friday and, and had some big hits on Wednesday.

Got got a hit in the other two games, you know, but, but I thought he

looked better in the box and yeah.

That's the main reason we bumped him back up in the top of the lineup.

Mm. You know, especially against the lefty, uh, is

get him maybe another at bat,

he looks much more comfortable out on the field too.

I think when he had some of those errors he was pressing.

Yeah.

And now he's much more relaxed.

I mean, he got to a ball that was, I mean, normally it's when Tyler normally plays,

he was up and, and in front of the bag.

He didn't throw the guy out at first, but just the fact that

he ranged that far to his right.

To get that and like it saved a run.

Yeah.

'cause that, that seemed a

run almost, I almost thought maybe that he should have tried

to get the guy third on that.

So it was first and second and Tyler went to the bag.

Because he was kind of playing over that way.

And we talked about that.

I was like, I mean, it might be your best shot.

You might not have anybody, but you're never gonna get that guy

having to make 140 foot throw.

And it was too, you weren't gonna get the guy second on that either.

You might have a shot at third, but or not throw it.

'cause sometimes you see that ball get thrown mm-hmm.

And they throw it away and the run does score.

Weird

stuff happens when you throw a third.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, and they gave us a couple run, like they just gave

us a run on, um, yesterday.

I mean, it's two outs and chopper short.

We usually just keep the guys going.

Mm-hmm.

On routine plays.

'cause why not?

Yeah.

Yeah.

If it's not a routine play, sometimes you gotta be careful.

'cause the guy may not have a play and he'll hold it and.

You wheel the guy and then you look like an idiot.

But when they're making routine plays, you know, we've got

a sign for just keep going.

And Spart did a good job.

He is not the fastest guy in the world.

Mm-hmm.

But he was running hard and, you know, got, threw it up the line and

then he beat throw to the plate.

So we scored a run on that and we scored a run on that sack fly.

That was a close play to the mm-hmm.

The plate.

Mm-hmm.

That we'll we'll be.

And he beat that because he made a great slide.

Uh, yes.

He slid and extended his front foot.

So many college players today slide and the front foot is up.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yeah.

And they're out and if he is front, and we got guys and we

practice sliding at a wall.

We got those old slider things and yeah, you see it all the time.

They lean too far back and will got his foot into the plate and just barely

beat, you know, a good throw And, um.

Yeah, I was shocked that they said he was safe because for my angle I was behind

them and like taking the picture all, all I could kind of see was his back.

And I'm like, how in the world was he safe?

The guy had the ball and beat him by a mile and yeah.

So yeah, that's, that's what said

good baseball.

Really good slide.

And I mean, those were, you know, the wind killed that ball too.

That should have been a mm-hmm.

Easy sack fly.

Yeah.

I mean the guy ended up having to catch it like a basket catch because Yeah.

Weird.

Knocked it down.

Yeah.

Um, and I thought because he had to catch it like that, he might have trouble

making a good throw, but he didn't.

But it's still like, you know what, with the wind blowing in and doing all

that, I was just like, take your chance.

I mean,

I mean, you gotta make a good throw

if it's

50 50. I mean, you make a good, a good catch, a good throw,

another good catch and a good tag.

Like the amount of things

you a lot have to

go, right?

Yeah.

And, and this is what people don't realize, you know, a lot of times.

You know, when you're, when you're coaching third, you're, you're

making all these decisions beforehand based on who's coming up after

that guy, how he's doing mm-hmm.

And all these things.

And I, I think about it this way, like, like sending guys with two

outs, you know, on base hits.

It's like even if the worst, it's

40% chance he's gonna score.

Mm-hmm.

Or 35, well, the next guy coming up probably ain't hitting 400.

The chance of sending in, getting another hit.

Right.

Um, in a lot of cases, now, if you're down by five, then that's dumb.

You don't wanna do that.

But if the run matters, you know, then those are the kind of playing

the percentages is, you know, probably a smart thing to do.

So.

Yeah.

And that was Trammel, I think, and left.

And I mean, he put a great throw on it.

I mean, he wasn't far from where I was standing.

I, I told him a good throw afterwards.

Yeah,

yeah.

But man, I, I knew there had to been an incredible slide down there

at home plate to get around that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That

had some good ball players.

I, uh, I really love the, um, was it McCoy?

Was that his name?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Second bass, but no.

Oh, I'm sorry.

The, uh, yeah, no, the first base, first base center field.

The, the real huge switch hitter.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Second bat.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Third batter.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I, I'm, I'm a, I'm a big fan.

That kid, that kid can play some baseball.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He should not move that fast at that height.

That's like's like Scotty 2.0 there.

Yeah.

Him and Tramel, I think are, were grad students, I believe.

Mm. I think both of those guys were grad students.

Um, they've been there a little while.

They had some good young players.

Number five freshman.

True Freshman guys built like a fullback.

Had the home run on on Friday, but.

He is a big, strong kid.

Their catcher that caught two, the three game was a freshman.

Yeah.

Um, you know, freshman shortstop, he struggled this weekend, but looks

like a pretty good ball player.

So they had some young kids in the lineup too.

And, and especially on the mound, you know, it was similar to us.

Like they've got some guys that they probably don't want to be pitching

as much as they're having to, um, at this point, but it is what it's,

yeah.

Well you had a lot of veteran guys step up this week, whether it's Slater, I know

he entered the game, I think as a pinch runner was in the game, and then his

first at bat, he hits the, the walk off single there and then Tyler Stot, I mean,

woo.

What, what a stud to come through in the, probably the biggest week of

the season for us and get two wins.

Yeah.

That was cool.

You know,

first two of his career too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

And uhto, I, I said this about stat.

I mean, there's been plenty of days where it just isn't good enough.

But it's not because he's ever afraid of the moment.

Mm-hmm.

Like, he approaches pitching like a guy that's played football his whole life.

He ain't scared out there.

He has taken the time to just stick with it and try to reinvent himself.

You know, he knows he, he's not a guy that throws super hard, so he is

trying to figure out a stick, you know?

And kinda like Kellen Davis, I, I love guys like that.

Like, they just haven't just defaulted.

Uh, I don't throw hard enough, so I'm not gonna be any good.

They've got tried to, you know, go back to the lab and, you know, mm-hmm.

Cook up another concoction and see if this one will work, you know,

and to see, you know him yesterday.

On a day where we were thin and needed it.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and it was, it was really fun to watch.

I mean, him and him and Nick Gio both last week.

Yeah.

Like, they really picked us up.

Both those kids.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

So proud of them.

And Nick's been the same man.

He is.

Been a guy that's, you know, you know, does, does at times so hard,

but gets hit and he, I think he.

I decided this week I'm gonna try to pitch a little bit.

And he did.

And he did.

He, he, you know, seven innings and, you know, two runs.

I mean, that's pretty darn good in college baseball.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's, that is hard to do.

Uh, but yeah, it was, I was joking with Aaron Zelensky stand down

on the wall, uh, when Cole was coming outta the game in the third.

And I said, well, I mean, if we can get through three innings, we've given

up one run and we've gone through, Cole and Tyler we're in good shape.

And then I see Tyler come back out and he comes back out and

he just keeps mowing guys down.

And I'm like, just keep it going.

Just until he is done, keep it rolling.

And that, that worked.

Well,

Mike, Mike sometimes will, of course, you know, you're not thinking, you

have no idea what you're gonna get.

And Mike sometimes, you know, he comes in, he, he gets us outta that

one and said, let's send him back out there, you know, see what we got.

And then after that next inning, you know, I look over and.

Mike kind goes,

well send him back out there and then see, I said, alright, well look, he's had

some arm stuff, so let's see how it feels.

And so I think he did.

And then he didn't talk to him anymore after that.

He just, and he was, he was running off fumes at last inning.

You could tell

he was.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But he gutted it.

He did.

And, and that was just awesome, man.

So really cool.

I mean, to put, to put that in perspective, so he had four and

two thirds innings this week?

Yeah, four and two thirds innings in two games this week.

The whole season.

This, he, he'd been in six games, only had four innings.

But nevermind that he's a senior.

He is in his fourth year.

Hi.

In his career before this week 19 appearances, 14.1 innings.

Yeah.

Eight.

Threw four and two thirds and two games and got two wins this week.

I mean, that's, that's big time, man.

That that's, that's a dude coming up.

Like I said, that's, that's not being afraid of the moment.

That's a guy that's just like, has the mentality.

Yeah.

And, and you know, I mean, it is the way, it's why sports is great, right?

It's just way things happen and when good things happen, it's usually

because somebody unexpected or a couple guys unexpected, decided to

step up and, and help the ball club.

And, and that's exactly what happened on the mound this week.

You know, Nick had really struggled starting the last few Sundays,

and we took him out of the.

You know, the starting thing and, um, he started against

Richmond and threw the ball well.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And then he was, but he was ready, he wasn't down there moping around.

He was ready

mm-hmm.

When we called on him and he got, gets to save on, on Sunday.

So, you know, pretty cool.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Just a lot of, a lot of great stuff, a lot of little things.

I think we've all been kind of waiting, waiting to kind of click into play,

but really, I, I think you all play pretty well the last three weekends.

I know the results didn't show it from like the Southern Miss series forward.

Mm-hmm.

But you've been playing much better baseball, and I feel like you just

took like another big step forward.

Uh, and I, I know I talked to you, uh, behind the batting cage on Saturday

and we were talking about, you know, position players pitching and all this

stuff because PJ Higgins got an inning for the reds and had to strike out.

Yeah.

And we were just talking about like, hey, I mean, you never know who's gonna step

up and do what, and then sure enough, all this unfolds the rest of the weekend.

Yeah.

And you know, we got four weekends to go and you gotta

mm-hmm.

You know, we don't, we don't have a big margin for error

mm-hmm.

Now, so you just gotta win the, the moment in front of you and

not worry about the rest of it.

Right.

Yeah.

Um, yeah.

You know, get some work in tomorrow and try to win that game

and then head down to Atlanta.

Try to beat those guys.

So, um, and then you get to come home and play again.

I do think it's been

nice.

I, I feel like maybe we're getting our, you know, second wind a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

Physically just having these home midweeks and

mm-hmm.

Not having to travel and get on a bus and all that.

It's been a little easier on the guys.

We went through that stretch where we were on the road a bunch and um, you know, I

think it has been a little easier on them and, you know, you got classes wrapping

up here in a couple weeks and then exams and it's just baseball, so that'd be nice.

I'm hoping Sunday was our last cold game because I did not

pack for cold weather on Sunday.

Uh, I was lucky I had like one Jacksonville Jags hoodie in the trunk

of my car, so that's why I was wearing that for the second half of the game.

I got a pair of sweatpants from someone on the football team the

day before, gave those to Aaron.

'cause he is wearing short sleeve shirt, shorts, a Patagonia vest

with no sleeves on and a beanie.

I'm like, here, here's some sweatpants.

You're gonna freeze the death over there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know how these grown men couldn't read their weather report.

I mean, I'm out there with my layers on.

I don't know what these guys are doing.

I made me a, a little embarrassed to be associated with them, to be honest.

I think it's gonna be chilly tomorrow night.

Yeah, it can be chilly too.

I don't think it's gonna be terrible, but it is gonna be chilly.

And um, you know, to your point, CB on the.

The standings.

You know, you got JMU and last at six and 12.

Yep.

Uh, Louisiana seven and 11.

Georgia State, old Dominion, uh, eight 10.

Marshall Monroe.

Arc State and Texas State.

Nine to nine.

Yeah.

Game ahead of us.

Then you got Troy Appalachian, south Alabama, 10 and eight,

two games ahead of us.

Then you got Southern Miss 11 and seven, three games ahead of us,

and then Coastal's 15 and three.

So

yeah, coast is running away.

It was really gonna be bunched if Southern Miss had lost yesterday afternoon.

I mean, they, 'cause that would've made a bunch of 10 and eight teams

and I mean, that would've been crazy.

They would've been 10 and eight.

They,

yeah.

Southern Miss Swep, Texas State, right?

They

did.

Mm-hmm.

They did.

So there were three sweeps.

It was us, us, uh, Appalachian, SWEP, U. And then Southern Miss Swap.

Yeah, I think that was it.

Because, uh, George,

I think I,

George

I think I, I looked this up

last

game

and we, this is the first time we've had a four game winning streak since the second

weekend against Niagara and then beat, uh, Norfolk State in the midweek right after.

But it's also the first time we've won, uh, two in a row

since middle of, uh, March.

I mean, it's been a lot of like, yeah, that's,

yeah,

it, so just that really illustrates like it was a tough stretch.

Things were not, I mean, you know, we know

you were limited in that.

You know what else is interesting in that?

I looked up there and JM u's lost seven or eight in a row.

Mm-hmm.

Like, we haven't had any of that.

Like, I

think we've never lost more than two in a row.

That's, that's kind of an interesting thing 'cause

Yeah,

it hadn't been an extended loser streak, we just haven't won enough.

Well it was that, it was the inconsistency.

I mean, it's what we've been talking, kind of talking about all year is

just that, and that's what you Yeah.

You come out one game, you look amazing and come another game, you look terrible.

And, and so Yeah.

It

wasn't like when

that, that, that really shows up too.

And we have been pitching better lately, so hopefully we can keep that up.

Yep.

And um, yeah, so the Pirates Tomorrow, people come on out

at six o'clock and um, then

I saw a guy Boucher, who's been pitching for them.

Yeah.

I was surprised.

I didn't realize that's

drone.

He, he's throwing like nine innings and like Yeah.

Give him like seven round.

They've got a pitching

injury, so I, I need

him Yeah.

On that board.

Thought that was interesting.

I think they were playing Tulane.

He still,

he's still playing in the infield too.

Yeah, they were playing Tulane a couple weeks ago and I caught the end of one

of the games and they had an inning just start to get away from him, and they

brought him in from the field to pitch.

I think he threw one pitch into the inning and then he was back in the field.

I guess they dropped the dh, but Oh,

yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, they love that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

They got, and they got a few local kids.

They got Austin Iby from, um, Cox and, um, Braden, Bachman from Hickory.

So I'm sure there'll be some, some local folks.

Yeah.

Come watch 'em and, and hopefully see their sons.

But other than that, watch 'em lose.

There you go.

Well, you got, uh, you got TJ and, and Nick, um, coming on.

I know and

mm-hmm.

Just

so proud of both those guys.

They're, they're fantastic young men.

Um, they're a lot of fun to be around every day and.

They're, they're just good people.

Um, yes.

So we're really proud of both of them.

And, you know, it's, it's fun to watch, watch.

It's been fun to watch TJ grow up and become a leader and a mentor to Nick.

Yeah.

Um, those two are usually, you know, around each other

most of the time and Cool.

And, um, just, just good, good young men.

Yeah.

We're excited to have 'em on.

Yeah.

Good.

Alright.

And I'm sure they'll give you some good stories, so.

Oh, we're, we're gonna, we're gonna try to for

sure.

That out.

Well, thank you guys as always.

And, uh, we gotta get the, uh, grateful Dead, sideways, Sasquatch,

uh, hats and t-shirts and stuff.

I love that logo there.

Oh, you're gonna make Mike's day.

You're gonna make

his day.

For sure.

Yeah.

Well, before I go, I'm gonna, I'm gonna flash it up there one more

time just because I can, and, uh.

So there we are.

Yeah, that was Oh, wrong way.

There you go.

There you go.

Yeah.

Little Grateful Dead, uh, Monarch.

We gotta come up with a nickname for that guy right there, you know, like, uh,

Jerry.

Yeah.

He looks like he needs a nickname.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, I can, I could see, uh, that on some apparel.

Yeah.

We'll shirt.

Yeah.

We'll have him out there behind center field so when we hit a

home run, he runs across the right field or something like that.

That would be good to go.

Pretty good.

It's not bad.

That would be great.

You could, I dunno how much, I dunno how much room there is in that front row.

I maybe there isn't room, but you have, you got some kid that could run

across and hold something That'd neat.

Yeah.

Or that, or we'll get, get input on a flag and fly with our W flag after.

There

you go.

There we go.

Alright guys, thank you as always.

Alright,

thank you.

Appreciate you man.

The Old Dominion Athletic Foundation are commonly referred to as the

ODAF was established in 1964 as a nonprofit organization.

The mission of the ODAF is to raise financial support for ODU Athletics

to ensure that our coaches and student athletes have the resources

necessary to compete for championships.

The ODAF is integral to the success of ODU Athletics and is the channel through

which our fans and alumni can partner with our coaches and student athletes for

the advancement of the athletics program.

Through the generous efforts of our donors loyal fan base and community,

the ODU alumni from around the globe, the ODAF raises money for student

athletic scholarship support and endowments, capital projects, program

specific support and athletic department operations Funds are raised through

annual giving, multi-year pledges, events, premium seating, and plan giving.

With questions about how to get involved in one or more of these initiatives,

reach out to an ODAF representative Give to the ODAF are investments in

the lives of our student athletes.

ODAF members receive exclusive benefits such as priority points for post-season

and away games, seating, parking, VIP, and hospitality experiences and more.

Because of you, we create winners in the classroom, in

athletic competition and in life.

Contact the ODAF and become a member today.

Yeah.

All right.

Thanks Blaine, and appreciate Finny hopping on.

Um, obviously he looked pretty excited after a four in oh week, but knows

there's still some work to do there.

Uh, it's amazing what just winning three games in a row can do, especially as tight

as the Sunbelt standings are right now.

Yeah.

And and that's, that's what the team needed.

I mean, you know, we knew, and again, we're gonna say the, the players

themselves, the coaches, everybody just focus on that, the pitch in front of you.

But for us just talking, yeah.

Like that's, that's what had to happen this weekend.

They really needed to win the series and sweep if all possible.

And I mean, you saw, like I said, we saw a team that is not playing that well.

Um, and.

ODU U was able to take advantage of it and that's exactly what had to happen.

And now they're right back in it, right back in the conversation.

And you know, you and I can start looking at getting the hotel room

down in, uh, uh, Montgomery and I can figure out, uh, my, my seat on the

bus and we we're gonna make it great.

Yeah.

So you're taking the smart route there.

If you hop on the bus and go down with them, I think I'm gonna

have to do the flight to land.

I think get a rental car.

'cause I think it was a miracle that I got out of there last time I got

the last seat on a plane that my tiny self could touch both sides of the

plane while standing in the aisle.

I'm gonna try to avoid that this time.

Yikes.

But we got a couple player guests today.

Two guys made some big impacts this week.

TJ Aiken and Nick Felton.

Fellas, welcome to the show.

How's it going?

How's up y'all?

I do notice Nick put his name first, so he made sure he got first.

It was my

computer, my room

first.

Fair.

That is fair.

Well, big weekend.

A big week Really for you all.

You know, Nick, you get the walk off.

We get a four and oh week.

TJ doing some awesome stuff out there other than throwing baseballs

at me over there on the sideline.

But, uh, how are y'all feeling after the weekend?

Feeling great.

I mean, good off day today.

It was great to get a sweep, you know, we really needed it, but, uh, it's

great to see the morale back up and starting to get hot here, so it's good.

Good baseball.

We're playing, so it's actually fun.

Yeah, I agree.

Uh, playing great ball right now and the morale is really, really hot,

so it's, we're going really good.

That's good.

Nick, have you had a walk off before?

Is this, uh,

never.

I was actually talking about that with my family.

Uh, I've never like walked it off myself and I've been a part of a couple walk

offs, but like, never have I done the, been the final guy, so that was amazing.

I,

wow.

Something I remember forever.

That's a pretty cool moment then.

Yeah.

Well I'm glad, I'm glad I was able to get some pictures of it.

I know that because that's a cool moment.

They do the, you guys did the thing both, uh, Tuesday and uh, that game where y'all

just chase the guy off into the end.

Oh

yeah.

I'm amazed they caught, I didn't even realized I was looking.

The pictures later, they got you on the ground at one point.

Yeah, I think like I went up there to chest bump Cole and then like, I think

TJ got a clip of me and I just hit the ground and then I come back up and I think

I got every ounce of that water in that.

That Gatorade cleared, so

Oh, that's perfect.

Did you, I think you, you kept your jersey though.

I think Jack, they got him immediately.

They like, they stripped him almost instantly.

Yeah.

I kept it for a little bit and everyone's like, you gotta take it off.

You gotta take it off.

And then it came off eventually.

So that was all fun.

Yeah.

You hammered that baseball too.

I mean it one hopped to the wall.

I could see at one point trying to go and touch second, hopefully

before Scotty was there.

Were you thinking about that?

Like, I want this to be a double in Scorebook.

Yeah, I was thinking about it.

I mean, when I hit it, I looked up and I was like, oh, that's came over.

And then like, I'm starting around the bag and I realized how far it was.

I was like, uhoh and then like I get second base and

Slater's right there for me.

I was like, oh cool.

Yeah.

No touching second base here.

Yeah, I was gonna say, so somehow that would've worked out that,

that I, you were passed Slater.

I dunno, I forget what the rule is.

One of y'all is out on that one, but clearly it didn't matter.

Yeah.

Clearly didn't matter.

Yeah.

Because I was shocked when I, I had the camera and I panned over and I

saw the ball drop and I turned back.

Scotty still has a foot on third base.

I'm like, go.

We're good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, awesome.

So, tj, you know, it was funny, we were talking, um, back at the banquet about,

you know, you've been around a while.

I mean, you've been around so long.

You're UNC now.

Yeah, I am lucky.

Like you are.

We got, we got, that's, that's been, um, Nick's nickname pretty much from day one.

Right?

His ne nephew.

Yep.

Day one.

Since day one.

Somehow it brewed.

Yeah, it stuck.

It's a wild transition.

Facts.

It is crazy.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Time, time is flying by there.

Uh, you all said that, uh, morale is, is it kind of at an all time high?

Have you just kind of been feeling that build over the last couple weeks?

And this is just kind of the showing up in the results a little bit

more of you all coming together.

Yeah, I would say in the past couple weeks, I think it, it really started

against Southern Miss, even though we dropped that last game, six or seven.

I feel like still that showed us a lot of what we can do if

we, you know, there it's there.

It's second time that's

happened on this episode.

That is funny.

But yeah.

No, but, uh, that weekend really, I feel like that, that weekend brought us

together closer and just going forward, just rolling with it, rolling with

each other and just fighting for each other and then paid off this weekend.

Yeah, I think

with that you can see out there, you guys felt, uh, you guys could tell you

were feeling yourselves after winning that the game against So the miss it was,

it's, it's the proof of concept, right?

It's the show that like, Hey, if we play the way we can

play, this is what we can do.

Yeah.

We, uh, I think it built a lot of confidence, like seeing we could meet a

team like Southern Miss and like pretty convincingly and almost taking a series

like, like he was saying, I mean, we realize we can do it if we just play

how we should be playing from the jump.

And I think that's been really good, especially these past couple

weeks, like bring it together and just having fun playing again.

Trying to do our best out there.

And it's been working out so far, so it's fun to see, see what we're capable of.

That's fantastic.

Yeah.

And, uh, Saturday I got to see some batting practice before

the game of standing behind the cage harassing both of you and

probably some other people as well.

Uh, but just kind of take me through like how your swing and how your approach

has adjusted throughout this year.

'cause I know Nick, you've, you've done a ton of different things, tj, you've,

you've gone through the up and downs, you've gone through a lot of things too.

But kind of take us through that like process of how you all

continue to develop as hitters.

Um, well I feel like this season, I mean, I was going really good in the first half

and like the past three weekends I've been getting pitched a little differently.

Everything's pushed on the outer half rather than just spraying

across the zone and I'm just hitting it where they're missing.

And uh, but now everybody's just trying to guide the outer half,

like from the five to seven range.

And I feel like my adjustment to that was just to get on the plate and.

Still try, try my best to stay inside the baseball, but just get on a plate.

So just take that away from them and take away those changeups that are down.

Yeah.

And for me, I'd say, uh, I mean from the start I got off to a kind of a slow start.

I think I was getting a little jumpy at the plate, kind of just excited

being out there and everything.

And then I realized the game's a lot different from high school.

Just, I mean, better pitching, everyone's a dude just gotta adjust.

And like we've been working with finna and all the hitting guys and we just

feel like I work best the other way.

And just trying to focus the other way keeps everything else in, in check.

So, and then also realizing like the mental side that like.

I'm here for a reason and that I could also play just

like all these other guys can.

So there's no reason to like doubt myself or anything.

It's just more trusting yourself and getting comfortable and getting in there.

Now, to be fair, in high school you did play at a pretty good school.

Like at, you played at St. John's.

I mean, you guys were what, like top 25 in the country last year at one point?

Isn't that correct?

Yeah, maybe We got up to number four.

We only lost one game last year to number one ranked IMG, so we were pretty good.

Yeah, there you go.

And you, and you were a third team All American, so I mean it, yeah.

So it is funny to think about like the high level you were playing

at in high school to say, oh, it's still another level like that.

That's pretty interesting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean I, I realized in the fall, like it was a little wake up call

and then I started easing and then the spring hit around, it was like

another gear like spring and fall.

I felt just like competitiveness of going out there almost every day.

But I think I'm getting used to it now, getting a lot more

comfortable and just seeing how.

I can adjust every day to like be the best version of myself.

And now you go from high school where you're coached by Kevin Gibbs, who,

you know, ODU Hall of Famer still has, I think he sells records for

like triple stolen base of a tummy, one of our all time best players.

Oh, I

hear about

all

the time.

And well, it could be because you're currently being coached by his son

Casey also, so you can't, you can't escape the Gibbs family apparently.

Nope.

I, I can't, I cannot.

The brother, older brother, younger brother.

Yeah, that's right.

Casey son, I guess you played

with, uh, Casey, right?

Or I'm

sorry.

Well, Casey was the year before me, I played with

Casey's younger brother, Colin.

He's a Colin sophomore in Maryland now.

And then I also play with Casey's cousin, the youngest Matthew.

So I mean Oh wow.

Gibbs all over the family.

And then, uh.

Kevin Gibbs's dad was my third base coach.

So I mean, just Gibbs all over the place.

You were, you were just at the family reunion every, every

game.

Yeah.

Literally.

I know the whole family at this point.

That's crazy.

Well, speaking of family, your brother's a pretty good ball player, right?

Matthew?

Yeah, he is getting there.

Big lengthy guy, I'll

say

that.

Yeah, he is.

He is.

He looked well, he looks like you did a few years ago, frankly.

Oh

yeah, he's, if he puts a,

now we making sure he's got plenty of ODU gear.

Like every time he, he's cold, he's got ODU sweatshirts stacked out wears

already.

Yep.

Okay.

I'm just making sure, like, I would, like we we're doing

this with Bailey's brother too.

Like same thing, like, you know, if you got, you make sure the little bros

always got that he is never, never wanting for some gear, that's for sure.

Oh

yeah.

Oh yeah.

He is.

I mean, anything I grew out of, he's got, and he's starting to outgrow,

so it might be a bigger size than me.

Sooner or later.

There we go.

Uh, well, y you all, you, you both have kind of rotated through some different

spots in the outfield this year.

All right.

Tj, are you more comfortable in left, Nick, you more comfortable and center?

'cause I, I can never tell.

And you both play well in both positions.

You wanna start though?

I mean, to me, I mean I, I love center field.

Center field, you see everything.

But actually I played less center field than left field.

Like high school.

I played all, I played a bunch of left field 'cause we had a bunch of,

we had two other good outfitters in my class and then years before that

we had a bunch of great outfitters.

So I've been in left field a lot, a little bit of center field.

But I mean, me personally, I love center field, just running around,

just feel like you're free reign.

Like you're like a little kid again.

Just running around.

You're flying out there.

That is for sure.

You had a couple of pretty incredible catches over the weekend.

Yeah, it's fun.

And that can piggyback off that I do like, same thing, like it's so

free playing in center field, it's just so much grass to cover and

you just like a free man running.

But um, I feel like I'm pretty good at both.

Like I don't mind playing either or, um mm-hmm.

But if I had to pick one, I would definitely pick center, just because

it's, it is a easier position to play.

I think it's way easier than left.

Mm-hmm.

Honestly, just because the way the ball moves and, uh, but no, I'd

definitely say center because it's just more, it's just a true read.

Honestly.

Center field is great.

Like, I as big and slow as I am.

There were a few teams I was on where I, I I was the best outfielder, so

I would play center field and yeah, man, it's, it's so much better.

It really is.

I don't know why.

There's just something great about it.

Uh, well, I was in the corner outfield as well.

Uh, I imagine that the wind, especially on Sunday, was not super fun to deal with

because it looked like it was blowing in two different directions at the same time.

Yeah.

Almost like it was just circling.

Yeah.

Before the game started, the flag got wrapped around the pole and like,

you can see the flag wrapped around the pole, so I was like, dang, he's

just spinning a circle out here.

Yeah, it's

a constant battle.

I mean, I feel like every time I look around, it's changing directions.

I'm like, oh, it's blowing out.

It's pulling in, blowing left.

Right.

So we're always told to check it, but I feel like even when

it's hit, it's swirling sometimes up there, you're like, oh.

Yeah, you need

to let checking it before the pitch changed already.

Uhhuh.

Oh.

So, uh, Nick, and, and correct me if I'm wrong, is your mom

was from Belgium, is that right?

Or was it

Croatia?

Right across the board.

Croat.

Okay.

Croatia.

I was wrong.

All right, so Croatia and you, so, so you're part Croatian and you spent a

bunch of summers there as a kid, right?

Oh yeah.

Probably every, we tried like when I was little, every other summer to go

down, but we went this past summer and I was amazing to go over there.

It's another world, a whole nother world.

Yeah.

And are you fluent in, I guess, I don't even know.

Do they speak, is it Croatian?

I'm not even

positive.

Yeah.

Croatian.

I wish I was fluent.

Like I'm, I'm at the point where like, I can tell what they're saying, but

it's so hard to reciprocate sometimes.

But like, like talking about Spanish, I

get it.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

That's why lot better with their English.

So I can actually like communicate with 'em and like, but before when I

was younger it was, it was a struggle.

I love going over there.

Do

you, uh, like corrupt them with like, terrible American stuff?

Like do you bring like

nonsense?

Like seven.

Oh yeah.

But you'd be surprised.

Like there's some terrible stuff over there too.

Like the

They got it.

Yeah.

They, they got it too.

Sometimes they're corrupting me, which is funny.

Well, they probably take, I mean, you probably at y'all's age, you're

probably going out to the club, but y'all are like 15 or something right?

Over Croatia.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.