Efrain Morales is our player guest this week after a four hit game on Sunday. CB, Gary and Coach Finny chat through the Troy series and look ahead to Norfolk State and Georgia Southern. We've also got a new way for you to track Monarchs playing pro ball later in the episode.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hello Monarch fans.

Like we,

we got the, the shot of Brock Gallardi there, uh, enjoying

a, a, a a, a cold beverage and some ODU fandom at Arbor Park.

And we saw some that this weekend.

That was nice.

Saw Brock and then a Tell me about night out there this weekend.

Sorry.

Oh, yeah.

Now, now we can intro.

Hello?

Hello.

Monarch fans.

I, you always do.

Me.

I should.

Welcome to another episode of Hudson Homers.

Uh, I'm CB and I'm here with Gary.

Gary, how are you doing?

You know what I'm doing Great.

I have one more day at work before vacation.

I got to go see some college baseball in person.

Things are, things are, uh, okay.

I mean, you know, aside from some things, but other things

are, are doing great, man.

How are you?

The, the okay things are okay and the not okay.

Things we're, we're gonna worry about the Okay.

Things.

We'll worry about those later.

Yes.

I'm great man.

Yeah, we got so some college baseball like I saw, I mean, we could have

fielded a whole team full of law.

Our alumni that are out there watching this weekend, that was fun to see.

Um, and then, you know, we'll talk about the other stuff, but then

tomorrow get more college baseball right here in Norfolk against

Norfolk State, so That's great.

Got the afternoon off so I can go out and watch it.

Yeah, we actually had, we actually had baseball weather this weekend too.

Almost a little hot man.

At some points I am sunburn.

If it wasn't for the, the breeze, it'd have been awful out there.

Uh, I was at the lacrosse game Saturday before going to the

baseball and on that turf it was hot.

Yeah.

Uh, I was over with Mike and Aaron at SB Ballard watching football practice.

And the same thing, I had my back to the sun and I not put on sunblock

yet, so the back of my neck is.

Is roasted and ready, uh, to be in some more sun later this week.

I've got the, the nice strips on top of my knees, like the, like, yeah, yeah.

I got those.

Those are, those are solid right now.

Yes.

Yeah.

And I had a haircut earlier this week, so, you know, the, the nice areas to get

protected got, got toasted up pretty good.

Uh, but yeah, but it was good to see some baseball, uh, not the week

we wanted in terms of, of record.

We lose the series to Troy, but we do salvage Sunday, uh, lost earlier in

the week up in Charlottesville to UVA.

Uh, so the, the win totals did not kick up this week, but I

feel like we're a broken record.

It was good to at least win one in the series and keep things alive for us.

Yeah.

You know, and it, it's funny how, again, your whole attitude

about the team changes.

Like, I sitting here and again, probably just 'cause I, I

like sitting and doing this.

This is a, a fun part of my week.

Uh, so you feel good anyway, but yeah, they, and they went on

Sunday, so you could like, oh yeah.

And they, and they look great doing it, um, had, you know,

one rough ending pitching.

But that's the team that you're like, man, why aren't they

doing this every single game?

You know, I'm sitting there during the game, I'm like, you

know, where is this all the time?

Yeah.

And Friday was a tough one to watch.

Yeah.

Uh, losing seven, nothing.

Just watching the struggles at the plate, just not, not having good at

bats and, and credit to Troy's pitching.

They were throwing the ball very well.

Uh, but I, I don't think that a four hitter was what

I had in mind on that Friday.

Uh, especially when you see the guys at about the sixth inning on Saturday.

Suddenly turn it on and they look like the lineup.

We've expected it's a little, little too little, too late on Saturday,

but the bat stayed alive Sunday.

We were able to get runs early, get ahead and go and win that ball game.

Some good pitching down the stretch there from Bailey Mattel to seal that one up.

Yeah, Bailey is man, and, and that's, uh, what I liked about that is, you know,

we've seen him, like in Southern Miss, he came in back to back days, right?

And he got a, you know, a few outs.

Um, I think he had like two thirds of inning on the Saturday game and like

inning a third for the save on the Sunday.

Uh, and then now we see him here getting a save with two and a third innings.

You know, obviously I think they really were hoping Frankie Wright

would get him into the eighth inning and then, you know, if it's with one

out or, or if it just need two innings outta Bailey, then you could do it.

But they, I, I guarantee they did not intend to bring Bailey

out in the seventh inning.

Uh, but knowing he can do it, you know, knowing he's got that ability, he can

stretch it out and he, he can dominate.

Um, he's, he's one of those guys that, you know, when you sit by the other

team's dugouts, you hear him, they're just like, this guy's disgusting.

Uh, so yeah, Bailey is always, and, and, and Blake with another, you

know, just a, just a stud senior.

I mean, he's just what you want of a senior.

The guy brings the attitude and the energy every single time and, and he

brings the, the pitching to match.

I

ran into Blake on Saturday morning over at the Chick-fil-A at the village

as I was trying to figure out how to go through that ordering system.

Talk to him for a few minutes.

Uh, yeah, great.

Doubting from him.

C yeah, he came in clutch from my chicken minis, that's for sure.

Uh, but another, along the same line with Bailey being able to go two and a

third to close out that game on Sunday.

The reason he was able to do that was actually because of Kellen being able to

go two scoreless innings the day before on Saturday, and we didn't have to go

to Bailey on that on that Saturday game.

Uh, I thought Kellen looked great, he looked great.

Coming back out for a second inning of work on Saturday, kept us in that game.

It was a one run game down, down to the final outs there.

Uh, just didn't have enough offense early in that game

to, to stay at.

And while we're breaking up relievers, hunter Baynes had a

great outing on, uh, on Friday.

Um, and, and honestly, I, you know, I know they took him out after an out in the, um.

And what was it, the seventh inning?

I'll be honest, I'm not real sure why.

I'd be curious to ask if there was a reason, if, you know, 'cause it looked

like he was kind of rolling right then.

I mean, obviously we were, you know, we were down pretty big.

It really didn't have any effect on the game 'cause it didn't hit no matter what.

Um, but, and then Marco, he had, he had a little bit of trouble, but he

got outta the inning with no runs.

But, so Hunter Baynes had another great one.

So that, that was really fun to see.

Yes.

Well, you've got a question and I'm gonna bring on the man

with the answers, coach Finwood

but before you answer

that Coach, how's it going?

Hey.

Hey, I got to hear that question too.

That was awesome.

Oh, did you?

Okay.

I like that.

Yeah.

CB always has the best questions.

Yeah.

Real.

So I don't forget, in regards to Baynes, he's, he's been throwing

the ball a lot better for us.

And, um, he was a little tender.

Mike said nothing bad.

He, he wanted to go back out there.

And you know, I, at that point, you know, we're down.

Pretty good.

And I said, I didn't really, we, we didn't really find it out and

I, I didn't find it out anywhere.

I wouldn't have sent him back out there at all.

Um, but he said no, he wanted to go try it.

And I said, all right, well let's just get somebody going.

Let's get LaVar going.

And he got that.

He threw, I don't know if he threw one pitch or whatever it was, and he

got an album Better safe than sorry.

'cause he's, he's trending in the right direction.

That's gonna be, you know, helpful down the, down the stretch.

And like you said, we were, you know, we weren't hitting that night

and we, we didn't play with the hoop Friday night, uh, on top of that.

So, um, but it is nice to see him getting.

In those games, getting more experience talking about Hunter,

um, and throwing the ball.

Well that's, you know, two or three outings in a row that

he's been pretty good for.

So hopefully down the stretch he could, you know, we just been behind on Fridays.

Mm-hmm.

So much.

Um, and, but he's a guy that you can bring in right as he develops and that's okay.

Um, I'd like to see him come into there, you know, come in in the fifth or sixth

inning when we're up and see what we got.

Yeah.

So that's the next step.

Well, I, I appreciate that answer because you know that, and that's the thing that

I, I try to tell people when they're sitting there in the stands and they

ask me so later, it's like, you know, you don't really know what's going on.

Like I, my assumption was like, okay, there's something going on.

There's some kind of plan.

There's some reason they didn't just take 'em out 'cause their idiots

that dunno what they're doing.

Like that's not what's happening.

That's right.

That's true.

And yeah, we're always

gonna.

Trend towards guy's health.

I mean, it's just not, you know, none of this is worth getting a kid hurt.

And he, he wasn't hurting.

He had just, he had a couple, you know, and he was throwing the

ball well, but he hasn't thrown a ton of pitches in a row yet.

No.

And so we're trying to build that up a little bit.

And, um, I don't know what his pitch count, you know,

was that day, but it might.

42. It might have been.

Yeah, 42 in the forties is about as long as he's, he's gone, so.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, speaking of knowing what you're doing, we are gonna, gonna

put you on the spot here and wish you a congratulations on 400 career

coaching wins at Old Dominion.

So, congratulations

coach.

Thank you guys.

I appreciate that.

And, uh.

It's, um, I did not, not know that until I heard Jack Ankerson say

it when we were shaking hands.

Yeah.

I don't tend to pay that much attention to those things, but it, it, it's

humbling and a nice honor to be mentioned.

You know, like on the graphic you, you guys put up, um, in

the, in the same sentences.

There's been some great co bud Metheny to finish that thought.

And there's been so, so many great baseball coaches at Old Dominion and,

um, you know, just to be thought of, um, I'm sure there's plenty of people that

don't think I'm being that way, but for those that do, uh, you know, to be thought

of in those same, um, conversations, uh, mark Newman's, pat McMahons, Tony

Guzzo, bud Metheny's, um, guys that, you know, I grew up learning the game from.

And so, uh, that's, that's a nice, nice honor to, you know,

get to 400 here and, um, you know, hopefully keep on, keep on rolling.

Absolutely only, only 23 behind Bud too.

So you're uh,

yeah.

Hopeful on

24 game winning streak.

That's, Hey, that's what I've been saying.

I said we can make it happen.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it's gotta be when once you start getting close to the guy whose name is on

the stadium, that's, that's pretty good.

Things are, good things are happening.

Yeah.

Well it's, um, like I said, you know, numbers are all, um, records

are gonna get broken, um, sooner or later, and numbers are there to create

interest and it's a lot of wins.

It means you were around for good enough time and people thought you did a good

enough job to keep you around there.

So, uh, I guess that's the good, good part of it.

Now let's get back to talking about the games.

There we go.

Yes.

Well, we, we hadn't talked too much about, uh, the game in Charlottesville this week.

I dunno if there's anything you want to touch on there.

I know you ran through some, some bullpen arms there too, and

maybe saw some improvement from a couple guys in that department.

Well, gosh, it seems like four, four months ago now.

It does, it does, it

does.

Last

Tuesday, you know, a four hour game again, another long Tuesday game.

We just walk too many guys and give up too many free bases in those midweek games.

And I, I told the guys, you know, these midweek games are supposed to be for

some of you guys, like trying out to throw more on the weekends, like you,

and you're not doing it like you, you're not giving us anything to, to, to go on.

Like these are, these are opportunities for you guys to earn,

you know, innings on the weekends.

And right now all we do is walk a bunch of guys and get behind and

we actually swung the bats fine.

I mean, they only, I think they all hit us nine to eight and we lost by six.

So, uh, that's disappointing.

Um.

But you know, it's, we need some guys to throw a little bit

better, obviously, in there.

And, um, hopefully tomorrow, you know, a couple guys will get a

chance, uh, and, and, and perform better against Norfolk State.

I, I'm, I'm pretty, you know, I think overall our top.

10, eight to 10 guys are throwing the ball pretty well right now.

Overall, um, competitive with whoever we're playing and it's the guys down

the line after that that aren't.

And so, you know, it's real simple guys.

Like if you're not gonna throw the ball better, you're gonna stop getting chances.

That's how it works.

And we're gonna have to throw some of these other guys more.

And guys like Jayce Park are gonna have to go out there on Tuesday

and you know, you're gonna give us three or four innings, man.

And if you want to give up one or none, or if you want to

give up 10, you figure it out.

Um, and, uh, we're gonna need to stop rescuing him.

He is gotta grow up and it is time, you know, we got four or five

more midweek games and that's it.

And he needs to, he needs to start on his keep.

He is, he is.

He was very good in the fall.

He cut his finger open in January that put him behind.

He just hasn't been himself a, been a shell of the pitcher

he was for us in the fall.

And that's, that's been disappointing.

'cause we, we expected a lot outta him and he, he still can do it.

He just has it yet, you know, so his time, you never know when the

worm can turn and, and hopefully it'll start to turn off for him.

Yeah.

I love Jason.

Like I said, he, I, every time I think he pitched every single time

I was out there in the fall and it was like, man, this kid's awesome.

And we've seen some flashes of it.

So, so you're right.

I, and I, I, you know, frankly, I know it doesn't always feel good for

them when you leave him out there and say, Hey, it's your inning.

I don't care.

I mean, he runs, you give up.

But I think sometimes that helps the guy if you get the guy with

the right mentality, that's a great learning experience.

Yeah.

I think sometimes we, we, you know, and, and a lot of years for us anyway,

you're in the RPI conversations where you gotta try to win those

midweek games and we're, we're not gonna be in that boat this year, so.

We need to, we need to lean towards development.

And I think a guy like Kim, a guy like Will Orberson, um, I mean they're the only

two freshmen left, you know, that freshman class, uh, through injuries and, and crazy

things has just basically all redshirted.

Um, but they, uh, they need to go out there and just do it.

Like you said, this is your inning, this is your two innings,

this is your three innings.

You go figure it out.

If you give up a few, then you know, if you give up two, try not to give up three.

Um, and learn from it and grow.

And I think that's where we need to be at with those guys

at this point in the season.

Yeah.

Don't want them looking to the bullpen to see all who's getting

up to come get me outta this.

Yeah, I think you had a pretty good example of that on Saturday with Kellen.

Uh, you know, he came back in for a second inning of work.

I kept looking out in the bullpen and like, this is Kellen's inning.

We're, we're not going anywhere else.

Kellen's got it.

And he stepped up and did a great job and lets you say Bailey for Sunday.

And uh, it's going close out the win against Troy.

Yeah, yeah.

Hunter and him both really, you know?

Mm-hmm.

Um, it, it's a, people don't think about the, like CBU were saying.

I, it's, and it's hard to, as a fan, like a series is you're trying to

win the series and if you can't win the series, you're trying to win

a game in the series and mm-hmm.

You know, so it becomes the next best thing.

On Friday, you're trying to win all three.

You get down early on Friday, alright, you have to start

thinking about the next two games.

And so who can I throw in this?

That might give us a chance, but you know, we're down, we're down one there.

We're down two and then we scratch back to make it one.

And we just said, we have to save two guys in the pen for tomorrow.

Um, and let's, let's kellen's already thrown, so he is gotta go back in.

He is gotta throw another one.

And whether we give up none or one or five, five, it's, it's, it's the, the

dilemma of being down as opposed to up and not having a ton of depth down there.

Um, yeah, I was just

gonna say, and that's the problem of those guys that you're giving chances

to on Tuesday, not seizing their opportunities because then you are,

you're like, well, I only got two guy, I only have two guys instead of

like three, four guys I can pick from.

Yeah,

you're, you're limited.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're limited, uh, somewhat, you know, right now on the weekends

with guys that you really.

Trust, trust.

I mean, baes has turned into one of those guys, uh, Kellen Bailey and, and Frank

is, uh, you know, so, you know, it's, it's kind of those guys minus the starters.

And so we need to get good starts, obviously.

And then you gotta pick your spots, um, for those guys.

And, and a couple of 'em have shown the ability to throw more than once.

Um, you don't wanna go that well too often, but, you know, it's just like

Marco, Marco threw a really good inning, uh, in, at, at Virginia, um, clean.

But then you bring 'em in with one out and nobody on, and next thing

you know, there's bases loaded and it's just like, come on man.

Like, and two of them were freebies, you know, it's like one hit.

He just wanted to show you.

And if he can just stay away from the freebies, his stuff is good enough

to be successful at this level.

He hasn't done it yet.

There's plenty of guys that end up as college juniors throwing the ball real

well that, uh, were Marco Lari, you know, and so we just got, he's a great kid.

He's got to learn how to compete better and, and trust his stuff

better and throw it in there, man.

If they hit it, then they hit it, we'll figure the rest out.

But when you walk guys and hit guys and you're just all over the

place, that's, it's hard to, you know, manage the game that way.

It's hard to call that game that way for pitching coach.

Um, it's hard for guys to play behind you and that's been

his, his snake bite, right?

Like, it's just the free basis.

So, and

may, maybe this is just a dumb fan theory, but I, I feel like the

pitcher's pitched differently when the offense is putting up some runs,

whether you're in the lead or not.

Just kind of having that thought of.

If I give a run up here because I am gonna throw fastballs in the zone,

I feel like my, my lineup behind me can, can go get that run back.

I don't Yeah.

Think that was necessarily true Friday for sure.

No, you're a hundred percent right.

Um, and that's the, you know, the issue when you're not hitting, hitting and

pitching certainly compliment each other, just like pitching and defense.

Do you know, uh, it's a lot easier to throw when you're,

when you're up five to one.

Um, than when you're down five to one, uh, you feel like you gotta

be perfect, you know, when you're down and we've been down a lot.

Um, and so that puts a lot of pressure on those pitchers.

Um, it was nice to get the lead for Blake on, on on Sunday.

We kind of did that last, the following Sunday.

And, you know, Blake's just been lights out for us on Sundays, man.

I mean, you know, he, he's been so consistently good, even when he

doesn't have his best stuff, he is just battled his tail off and kept

us in the game and given us a chance.

Um, and we've won, you know, a, a bunch of his starts on, on Sundays, you know, and,

and since league play started, certainly.

So,

yeah.

And it's, you know, kind of on that offensive side, it seemed like the

guys didn't really wake up until about that sixth inning on Saturday.

And then when they did, I mean, you have.

Pretty good series after that, kind of, once the bats get going,

you get right back into the game.

Saturday they fought down to the final out.

I think you, uh, I won't make you say it, say it, but the, uh, umpire was, uh,

a little all over the place on Saturday.

Yeah.

Trying to figure that out.

I

don't think any, any of the three guys were any good.

Uh, I was just gonna say the same thing.

CB, I'm not gonna say it, but you said it.

Uh, that was, that was as inconsistent.

Uh, yeah.

Three days as I can remember, man.

And, um, you're right.

They were all over.

When you got both dugouts yelling at you, then, you know, it's just not a good day.

That's, that's what I said at some point yesterday.

Yeah.

That's the way it was.

And you know, we, we just didn't play, you know, we were awful Friday,

let's just call it what it is.

And we told the guys, you know, we challenged them like, come on.

And then Saturday we played a good ball game.

We got beat, their starter Saturday was fantastic.

On ball.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

I mean, it was low to mid nineties with a real breaking ball.

We could not figure him out until he just got tired and, and they

probably, you know, left him out there maybe anything too long.

But that can happen.

Right?

And, and then the kid they brought in deal was up to 98.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and so we, we had, you know, we had a couple guys that were gonna

be tough for anybody to deal with.

We had to face Saturday, so that had something to do with, with why we

didn't score more than three runs.

Um, and Sunday we came out and swing of bats and had some big hits.

Kyle Edwards, you know, hits two home runs and, uh, we needed 'em.

And er, Morales goes four for four.

I thought F gave gave us great energy behind the plate.

You know, he's gonna be a really catcher, he's a talker back there.

He's just, yeah, he's a winner.

That's what he is.

Yeah, he's a winner.

He is competitive.

He is a tough little.

SOBI love that kid.

And, um, he is just gotta keep working on the arm, which he will, you know,

he is just had some arm issues.

Nothing major, but.

Uh, it just kind of gets underwater on him sometimes.

And, um, but he caught good, he blocks good.

He just gives you tremendous, you know, desire back there.

And I think it bleeds into everything we do.

And Blake, I, I mean, I think it helps Blake.

I mean, not that Blake hadn't been throwing good to whoever's showing

too, but he, he's, you know, he seems to work, work well with him as well.

He kind of matches Blake's energy.

'cause Blake's a very high energy.

Yes.

He's, I mean, he's a talker even when he's pitching.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a good point.

I think, I think that's a good way to put it.

And, you know, um,

as we get farther down the road, hopefully we can catch stuff a little bit more.

He is just not quite ready for it yet arm wise.

So, um, but we're moving in that direction.

I think he's gonna be our, you know, our future catcher.

So, um, and then, and then, you know, we had some big hits.

Scott thought, Scotty Young.

Obviously his first at bat to double down the line, you know, gets us going.

Uh, uh, he had a, he had a really good day in game three, uh, last week

at, at Appalachian State, and should have had a home run last night too.

I mean, he murdered that ball, dead end 30 mile an hour wind.

And having said that, my gosh, man, it's just like you start to feel

like you snake bit a little bit, you know, Friday we probably hit

three, uh, tj, Luke, you know, maybe three home runs that didn't go.

And, and TJ had another one Saturday.

Um, and then, you know, uh, I mean, Kyle got his, uh, hit his to the right b part

of the ballpark, fortunately, but Scotty, that's as hard as you can hit a ball, man.

And it didn't go out.

So, uh, it's too bad.

Were they telling you,

um, it looked like there were a few.

Hit the center where Scotty like, it seemed like, I think the wind

kind of carried him away from him.

'cause I noticed, like when I was sitting they did.

Yeah.

Yeah, they did.

We should had him more and left center, I think.

Um mm-hmm.

That's on us.

I, I think we should have played the wind a little bit more, um, than we did.

'cause, you know, a couple of those balls I think he'd had a better

chance of if he was just over, you know, four or five more steps.

And, um, so that's on us.

But yeah, he, he had a little bit of trouble reading some of those,

but man, it wasn't an easy day.

I mean, not easy.

No.

Every ball in the air was gonna be an adventure.

And I thought we did a pretty good job on a bunch of popups, man.

The one guy, I don't remember who hit it, but I thought it was going

to Elite and it ended up, Kyle had to catch it in front of the third base.

Yeah.

And I was like, wow.

That's, you know, 50 feet.

That ball moved.

Yeah.

There was an, there was another, another one on.

Blake and Zach ran into each other on the one, fortunately we call it.

Yeah.

Oh, hold on.

I think we got that here.

There you go.

There it is.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

That's, that's, that's a good shot right there.

Yeah.

And, and fortunately Blake.

Yeah.

And Blake is Blake, he is just, he's sitting there laughing

on the ground afterwards.

You know, he's just got that great attitude no matter what,

you know?

Yeah, yeah.

And he's probably our best fielding pitcher.

Yeah.

Um, so, you know, you feel good about him catching a popup, which not all

left-handed pitchers, if that the case.

Yeah,

it, it was definitely an adventure.

Looked like some points in the outfield.

There was a line drive screamer hit to dead center on Saturday.

I watched it go over the second base bag and then it curled into left.

And I think TJ took like three steps to his left and caught it in left field.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you can see just that jet stream cutting across right center

towards that left field foul pole.

Yeah.

Pushing everything that way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I really think the stadium was kind of blocking and then once it got

past that and like, you know, mid outfield, it was just pushing hard.

Yeah,

yeah.

Took

off.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, it was great weather temperature wise and yeah.

Um, it was nice to play some baseball and short sleeves and sweat a little bit.

That was fun.

And you know, um, uh, you know, we'll be back tomorrow in the, in

the mid fifties and cold, windy.

Gotta love it.

Close it in.

We're heading down the Georgia, it's gonna be in the seventies all weekend,

so, uh, maybe spring is finally here.

We got pollen

everywhere again, so, oh, yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm glad to see

the, glad to see the rain wash and some of that pollen away.

Uh, but I, I want to go back a little bit on the umpire discussion here.

'cause we actually have two voicemails today and one of 'em is

about, and a very interesting play that occurred over the weekend.

But, uh, it's from Aaron who was sitting with me most of the game,

and he had this question for you.

What's up fellas?

This is Aaron here.

First and foremost, congrats.

Vinny.

400 wins at ODU.

What an awesome accomplishment.

Uh, I've got a question for coach.

On Friday night, there was a bang, bang play at first where from the

stance, it looked like the ball bounced off the first baseman's glove.

The umpire called the runner out, and many of us in the stands were really confused.

Um, after a few moments of us,

so to to, to paraphrase and thank you Aaron.

Uh, 'cause I have this question too.

The, the play at first base on Friday, uh, where the first baseman for Troy

caught the ball and it looked like the ball pops out immediately and he's

called out and we're all confused.

And I guess it turned out they had a ball in his pocket.

No, no, that, that's great.

No, uh, it's, that's like the, uh, you know, the, the circle game where

you go around and you start saying one thing and then by the time you

get back to the end of the circle, it's something completely different.

So I thought it was a ball too.

And I went, went out.

Was was, now I saw balls laying on the ground, like what's going on?

Yeah.

He said, was it a guard, his finger

guy,

the guy has a thumb guard.

Yeah.

That he keeps, 'cause he, he busted his hand up on his glove hand.

And it, it's at a point where, you know, where your gloves open on your wrist.

Mm-hmm.

And sometimes the ball hits and it flies.

And from a distance, it looks like, 'cause it happened again yesterday.

Yeah, it did.

I dunno if you guys saw that.

And I, I went, there it is again.

Then I saw him go pick it up.

Uh, and so that, that's what, that's what went flying off.

It wasn't his, it wasn't a ball.

Okay.

That's the, i I did see

it, uh, yesterday.

I was, I was on that side when it happened and it was his, it was his finger guard.

'cause he had his finger out, I'm assuming.

Yeah.

And so it was like outside the glove and it just shot right off.

That's what it was.

And that was the same thing the, the other time.

'cause I, I asked the same question.

I was like, yeah, it looked crazy.

You know, uh, how's, how's, how's he out?

He's gotta catch the ball because that wasn't the ball as his finger guard.

Okay.

Alright.

That

we had the exact same call, though, two different days that

they called two different ways.

Mm-hmm.

Stallings got hit on the, yeah.

On the wrist on Friday, I guess.

And, uh, you know, they said, hit the bat first.

Mm-hmm.

It, it's, it's almost impossible to get hit on the hand and have it hit the bat.

First.

You, you're supposed to call and hit the bat and if they wanna review that.

You go back in and you say it, they, they actually got it right the second time.

Unfortunately it was for them.

'cause I went out and he said, no, I got it hitting his hand and in the back.

And that's almost all, unless it hits the bottom of that knob.

Mm-hmm.

Somehow it, it's, it's impossible to hit the bat and not your hand.

And so that's what I said.

I said, you gotta be kidding me, that at no point did that ball hit his

hand and they review it and say no.

And I was like, I don't, I don't believe it.

I I, I told the guy the next day, I said, I, I watched it.

Like, I don't know how you can say that ball didn't hit some part of his hand.

Um, I'm, I'm convinced

Replay just exists that I can say they're right.

I don't think they even look at 'em

anymore.

I mean, think about what, what call, when's the last time

you saw a call overturned?

I've had 'em walk by me and say, let's go, let's go see them.

Right.

Like they don't.

Yeah.

I remember

that last year when we first, when we first, you know, had it, you were

seeing a lot of calls overturned and now, and now they're going, oh yeah,

well, we're getting them all right.

Well, that's garbage.

You guys are just colluding.

You're colluding in there.

Uh, I

don't like either that the guy that makes the call goes in the room.

It's like, that's crazy.

One of the other guy should go, that's not supposed cakes.

Yeah.

I, I think it happens every

game.

I think it's supposed to be the crew chief and the guy that didn't make the call.

Yeah.

Unless.

It's got something to do with the home plate umpire.

Like they don't want the guy having to run in there with all

his gear on and stuff like that.

Oh, suck those buttercup.

Yeah, I know, I know.

Um,

but I mean, they were in there long enough.

Yeah, they're in there long enough and I can't even tell you the

last time I saw a call overturned.

Nah, it's been a while.

I can't remember.

I don't know if there's been one this year.

Like if we do, I

guarantee it was against us.

Yeah,

yeah.

Spoken

like a true Monarch fan.

Yeah.

Yes.

It's never, never in our favor there, honestly.

No.

Uh, yeah.

Well, um, Norfolk State, uh, tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on when

you're, you're listening to this.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, then head down to Georgia Southern.

Uh, it, it's obviously, it's still tight race in the Sunbelt.

I mean, I feel like everyone is still very much bunched together.

'cause uh, Troy actually moved into a, a first place tie this week,

eight and four with Coastal and Southern Miss and Georgia State.

Uh, so it's, it's all still pretty jammed up, but.

What have you seen from, uh, from Georgia Southern so far, if you've

had a chance to take a look at 'em?

Well, they're good and they really play well at home.

You know, they lost two outta three to south on the road this weekend.

Um, so again, after we played Georgia, Southern Louisiana.

You know, outside of the last weekend against Coastal Wolf

played six of the top seven teams.

Um, so the schedule makers didn't do us any favors this, this year either.

Of course, right?

When, when they started out with Troy and Southern Miss, it was like, oh, thanks.

Yeah.

And, uh, Louisiana's getting healthy.

They're, they're playing back, playing good now.

So, but it is what it is.

You know, I, I'm, I am, we're, you know, there's been a lot

of teams that have been swept.

Um, you know, I'm proud of our guys for hanging in there and not, you

know, when we haven't, you know, won on Friday, Saturday, we haven't

allowed our subs to be swept.

And that gives you a chance, man, that's a, such a big two

game swing in those weekends.

Um, when you, when you just keep from being swept, you still got a, a shot.

So, um, you know, we were five and seven last year at this point, and uh,

difference was we had JMU coming in this year we're going to Georgia Southern, so.

But I mean, if we can keep pitching, you know, overall the way we're

pitching, find a way to get some more timely hits and, you know, we've

gotta, we've gotta play better defense.

I mean, we're costing our pitchers too many pitches by not making routine plays.

And, um, those guys have to play like, uh, I don't know what

we're gonna do at third base.

So it is just been a mm-hmm.

Disappointing, terrible black hole for us right now, this year.

And I can't put it any simpler than that.

Those guys need to step up and somebody's gotta play better over there.

So, um.

Plain and simple.

And if we can do that, then, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm proud of some guys trending

in the right direction offensively and, you know, some other things, you

know, bullpen wise are, are better.

And so, we'll, we'll give ourselves a chance.

'cause our starting pitching's good.

You know, I mean, and you know, most, most of these weekends you're seeing,

you know, somebody's just crappy, uh, in one of those three games on the mound.

And we really haven't been, um, for the most part.

So, um, that's good.

And, you know, Ben's feeling better.

He got some new medicine for his migraines and I think he's been, you

know, a week now without, you know, feeling dizzy or any of that stuff.

He looked better.

Yeah.

Like he looked better walking around, like physically.

And I think that, I think too, you know, every weekend, here's something

else maybe you don't think about.

Every weekend is a, is a different.

Um, approach from a hitting standpoint, like what their hitters

do and what they're good at.

I, I really believe.

Appalachian state and Troy, um, how they hit makes it as difficult

on your pitchers as, as just about every other team in the league.

I mean, they don't give that way at bats.

They don't strike out much.

They grind out bats, they put pitches in you.

You know, you play a Georgia State, like they're gonna be more free

swingers, they're gonna strike out a little more, that kind of stuff.

And, uh, Georgia Southern has been that way.

Um, so having to fight through those six games in a row maybe can help you, uh,

down the road, you know, as, as you work.

'cause maybe you get a little bit easier outs, you know, in some of these places.

So I think that's the case.

You know, Louisiana's, uh, usually a very left-handed heavy lineup and,

you know, that's, um, uh, a strength of ours is left-handed pitching.

So you like that matchup, I think.

And, uh, we just gotta show up and, and play better behind those guys.

Now, like when you have teams like App State and Troy, which

I absolutely agree with you.

The way they bat is just wonderful.

Is that something you point out to your guys and say, Hey,

oh, always.

Yeah.

Look at this.

Yeah, because that's not, we're not good at that.

Mm-hmm.

No.

You know, I, I mean part of that's personnel.

Um, and part of it's coaching, like we gotta do a better job with 'em.

Like it's, it's, you know, Tylers Zedalis was oh, for four, four

strikeouts yesterday and didn't have one competitive at bat.

Like, and he's just bailing out, you know, heads facing the third

base coaches box on every swing.

And I was like, go back and look man.

Like, how can you hit that way?

Like, nobody any good hits like that.

And I hate to be, I'm not picking on him because he is a great

kid, but you can't hit like that.

It doesn't work.

Well, the one at bat,

he actually did have the RBI ground out was great.

He did stayed in there the ground out.

He, he got, yeah, but you're right.

The other four was like, what are you doing?

Like, why even go up?

Yeah.

Which it is.

He is a great kid.

It's, you're right.

It's not to stick on him, it's just to point it out.

Yep.

Yep.

And so it's something that guys gotta take pride in and um, unfortunately, you know,

not enough of 'em in today's game do, but we gotta make it a point, we gotta make

'em, I guess is a better way to say it.

Uh, and

that, and that's what's frustrating is because, uh, there are enough guys

who do, you got a whole, you just saw two whole teams of them that do.

Yeah.

And I, I've even noticed Troy starting to crowd the plate a little

bit more when they got two strikes.

So it was even more than just the choking up, like at least the top

half of that lineup was moving in about an inch closer to the plate

anytime they got in two strike count.

And I think that's, yeah, Ben was stay,

if you come inside, they'll, they'll wear it.

And again, you know, that's part of the approach.

And um, you know, we hit a number of guys, you know, unfortunately this

weekend and we got hit a few times too.

But I think, uh, Ron, did Ron get hit twice yesterday trying to bunt?

Yeah, he did.

Trying to bunt both times.

Competing, yeah.

You know, it's funny, sometimes you just show bunt and the pitcher just freaks

out and throws the ball over the place.

Like it happens all the time.

We've had a

few instances this year when we're pitching and a guy shows bunt.

Oh, oh.

We somehow get two called strikes and then end up winning the at bat.

We even had someone foul out this weekend against us.

Yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah.

They went to bump with two strikes and they fouled it off.

Yeah,

yeah.

Right back into the cage.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's, uh, yeah, that's, there's different, different thought processes

on bunting with two strikes, I guess.

Um,

I was always told no.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of it.

You fail that twice.

Why do a third

one?

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

They're probably not gonna get it done on that.

So sometimes slashing in that, in that instance is better 'cause you still show

the bunt and get the people moving for the bunt and then you pull back and swing and

if you foul that off, it's a foul ball.

Um, so yeah.

So

Finney uh, national championship for basketball tonight.

You got Florida and Houston.

Yeah, Florida.

I mean obviously by Florida by time to

say airs tomorrow.

We'll know if you're right or not.

Florida

is so good.

That's Pick Jr. Is unbelievable.

Having said that, uhoh, I loved the analogy of Houston.

Uh, somebody called him the cockroaches, like, you can't kill 'em.

Fair.

And they are so tough, uh, and so resilient on, on the, the rebounding

side of things and defense.

Yeah, there's defense.

I think they're gonna be in the game, man.

I mean, I really do.

Um, and I, I think Florida's more talented.

It wouldn't surprise.

I think it's gonna be a great game.

It would not surprise me in the least if Houston beats them though.

Okay.

Yeah.

Kelvin s Samson's tough man.

He's always a tough out from the tournament.

Yeah.

They play that defense first.

Basketball man.

That's, yeah.

You talk about a

guy that kinda reinvented himself.

Uh, yeah.

He was, uh, in the Bruce, him and Bruce Pearl, they were in the, uh, cheaters

anonymous, uh, uh, meetings there back in the, uh, back in the early two thousands.

You know, they, hi, my name is Bruce.

I'm, I'm fan by the ncaa, hi, my name is Calvin.

That's funny.

Uh, and, and they've reinvented themselves and done a great job and, you know,

take second chances, third chances, and they're, they're taking advantage of

'em and obviously great coaches and got great teams and, you know, so, um, I

saw something on, I don't know if it was Instagram or something where they wouldn't

let hakeem olajuwon, on the court to celebrate with Houston after the thing.

Like who in the world?

Crazy.

Yeah.

What Dummy wouldn't let hakeem olajuwon on the court?

I would let him do anything.

If he just showed up and walked to my house, I'd let him hang out.

Like, I'm not gonna, like Elijah could do anything else.

Come on

man.

Like that deserves to come on, man.

Like, yeah.

Do you not know who that is?

He is right.

Seven, seven feet tall and yeah, that was, that was a bad move.

I hope that guy's happy with himself for that.

Yeah,

he's probably, he's probably having a fun day yesterday until, oh

yeah, he was getting smashed everywhere.

Like, uh, and, and deservedly so have some feel.

Yeah.

Some guys think take their jobs real seriously and, you know, lack feel, but

Yes.

Alright, so you guys got F coming on.

What a wonderful kid.

And

Yes.

Remind

him that, uh, when we got to the ballpark yesterday.

They had, uh, some Latin music going and, um, whenever that's happened, I'll, uh,

I'll ask eff, you know, what's the, you know, what are, what are they saying?

What are, he always translates it for me.

So it's great.

He's

he's smiling backstage right now.

I can seen there.

Yeah.

Well, he's a great kid.

We're, we're really happy.

He is a monarch.

He's ultra competitive.

Uh, he's a winner and he is gonna be a big part of, of this program

for, for the next few years.

And, you know, we're, we're really proud of him.

Absolutely.

We're, we're excited to have him join us today.

We did get one more voicemail and hopefully you can hear this one.

They actually called him Wednesday, so it was before the game this weekend.

Yeah.

But it kind of goes back to some defensive positioning in the question they had.

So we'll see if you can hear it here.

Okay.

Hi.

I was wondering if, uh, coach Finwood consider playing Luke Waters.

I can hear in the infield.

Possibly at second base or third base.

I know in his freshman year, Luke played a little second base and

certainly played that in high school.

So no, in the volatility we seem to have in the infield, just

wondered if he paraphrase any

thought.

Yeah, yeah.

Yep.

See, it was tough to hear, but, uh, they're, they were asking if you

considered, uh, moving Luke back into the infield because of some recent volatility

with fielding within the infield, if that was an option that was on the table.

I really haven't, I mean, Luke's, Luke's been, you know,

going through it offensively.

And last thing I wanna do is add, you know, having to worry about.

All the things you gotta worry about in the infield with him.

And he's, you know, he had, he had some better at bats yesterday.

He had a big single force, he walked, um, and he hit some balls Hard.

I mean, right now what Luke's going through is part of the thing that,

you know, classifies the S-L-U-M-P.

Uh, when you hit it hard, it set somebody and you know, you, he's

gotta get more balls in play.

Certainly he knows that.

But he'll, you know, maybe I said maybe they're just saving 'em all up

for second half of the season, man.

Like, yeah, think about it that way.

That's possible.

So when he gets hot, he can carry you.

And so hopefully we, we got that coming up.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, we, we appreciate the calls that came in, uh, both from Aaron and, uh,

didn't leave the name on that second call, but appreciate the, the call in.

We'll definitely be getting to 'em.

Uh, coach, we appreciate as always you coming on here.

Uh, it's been a blast having you on this season.

Got a lot of compliments from parents and fans.

About the show and mainly because we have you on and we have players

on it, so we, we appreciate you.

Yeah.

Well, and, and I tell our players the, these same things, so I don't think

any of them are surprises and I don't ever wanna come across as trying to,

um, you know, blame or deflect or complain about anyone's performance.

These guys are college kids.

They're trying their butts off.

Um, it's our job to help 'em and support 'em.

And sometimes that's being honest and, you know, being honest and, uh,

being able to handle honest feedback from people that care about how you're

doing, um, and are invested in it.

You know, like we work our tails off of these guys.

So, um, I think we're entitled to be honest with 'em and give them honest

feedback and, um, we want them to be better and we're gonna keep on working on

trying to find ways to help 'em be better.

You know, as long as they're playing in our program, that's our job.

And, um, so I, I just think it's important that, you know, when, when

a guy does well, you, you tell 'em.

And when he is not doing well, you tell him that too.

And it's equal opportunity.

Um, we're not, we're not just trying to candy coat everything,

but we want guys to, you know.

We want guys to be honest about their own performance.

'cause I don't think a lot of kids are, I think they can, you know, live

in this candy shell of a, of a, you know, a barrier where they're just not

gonna admit what's really going on.

And some guys got competition anxiety, like they're afraid of failure.

Mm-hmm.

And so what does that cause guess what?

Failure, uh, that's how it works.

Yeah.

And, you know, and that's the beauty of guys and some of

this comes down to recruiting.

All right.

Uh, I've heard it said, Hey, if you don't want, uh, problems with

your team, don't recruit kids with a bunch of attitude problems.

Right.

If you want a competitive team.

You need the crew to recruit a bunch of dudes like Effer Morales.

'cause that sucker likes to play.

Yes.

And he hates to lose and he'll bite your knees off to get a win.

So, uh, we need more guys.

Is that the right level for it?

Quite honest.

And, um, that's a, that's just the, you know, that's the, on us to find

that type of attitude, that type of desire, that type of competitive spirit.

Um, because it, it is contagious.

And when you don't have enough of it, it's contagious as well.

Yep.

Absolutely.

Well said.

All right.

Appreciate, we'll see you out tomorrow.

Looking forward to it.

Yep.

See you.

Good luck.

Thank you.

All right, go Monarch.

Let's take a go Monarchs.

Go Monarchs.

All right, we're gonna take a quick break.

When we come back, we will have Efrain Morales joining us.

Yay.

This episode of the Monarchist Podcast is brought to you by

the pride of ODU Collective.

Their mission is to elevate the experience of student athletes through

name, image, and likeness, while also elevating the fan experience.

If you or your business are interested in getting involved,

you can reach out to us directly or go over to the pride of odu.com.

That is the pride of odu.com.

Thank you for listening and go Monarchs.

Welcome back, Monarch fans.

We are joined by Morales, uh, catcher dh.

I'm heard, I've been told that you can play pretty much anywhere

in the field, but Efrain, thanks so much for joining us today.

A hundred percent.

Love to be here.

Yeah.

Well, uh, I think that was your first time playing in Harbor Park, at least for ODU.

What was that experience like over the weekend?

It was awesome.

Um, really playing in a big stadium like that is like an honor.

It's like a really, like a blessing, especially at like such a high level.

And competing against a really good team too, was also like a

very, very good experience for me, especially as a freshman.

Well, I know you got to play at the AA park down there in Biloxi.

Mm-hmm.

Um,

I wanna hear about how that was, but have you played in any other pro parks?

Um, so at P 27, um, uh, there's this team that we played against us called PDG.

Uh, they played in the national Sing a, um, stadium.

It's a pretty nice stadium.

I think it's here in Virginia actually.

Is that the one in in Fredericksburg?

Fredericksburg, yes.

It's a really nice park.

Nice.

Very nice park.

Nice.

Okay.

How'd you like?

And so Biloxi, I dunno know about you.

For me, Biloxi, that was, that was pretty wild that they had that place packed.

Like, I couldn't leave the dog out to take pictures.

There's nowhere to go.

Oh yeah.

That place was, there were so many fans, like all around the ballpark.

It was, it was insane.

Yeah.

Those Mississippi State fans showed up.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

So a hundred

percent.

You mentioned P 27.

Now, uh, now a lot of folks maybe don't know about this.

So you, you went to, it's called P 27 Academy.

It's like a baseball high school basically.

Right.

Yes, sir. It's uh, just the academy for baseball and that's it.

Just baseball.

And then we have school online.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

So you were there

for what, one year?

Two year?

How many years were you there?

I was there for two years, my junior year and, and senior year of high school.

Nice.

And how far away is that?

'cause that that's in South Carolina, correct?

In, yeah.

South Carolina.

In

Lexington?

Yep.

Okay.

And you, but you live uh, with Raleigh?

I'm trying to, I'm trying to, yeah.

Raleigh, North Carolina.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So about was about like

four hours.

How far is that?

About four, because depending on traffic too.

'cause you have to go through Charlotte and Charlotte's never fun to go through.

Always traffic.

I used to

live in Charlotte, so Charlotte's more fun to stay in than to go through.

Oh yeah, a hundred percent.

Yeah.

So much

traffic around there.

But yeah, it's about four hours.

So you, so you're

living away from home all throughout, you know, the school year, right?

Is that, that's what's happening?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Junior and senior year away from home.

Yeah.

How is that?

I mean, that's, that's, that's different, man.

You don't see that, I mean, I guess you're seeing it more now with these academies,

but like, what's that like for you?

So like that first year was, was a little tough 'cause like I was

definitely homesick, especially as a junior in high school.

Mm-hmm.

Um, but it is definitely built a lot of maturity in me.

Like not much high schoolers get to go, um, out of state and be with a

bunch of guys that love to compete and it just matured me a lot.

Especially matured me and uh, preparing me for college for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean we're definitely seeing that a lot more.

Sorry, Gary.

'cause but we're, 'cause I know what Cole Lanford, he was at the P five we got Yeah.

Pro five.

Yeah.

Oron and Baes both were IMG, uh, SIO was, was P five to, uh, pro five.

Yeah.

I think somebody else was PI mean we, it's starting to become a thing now,

especially as you see the D one level.

Oh yeah.

What I mean, so as someone, you know, you don't have to sell it if

you thought it sucked, but it sounds like you probably had a good time.

What, for people who might be thinking about maybe sending their

kid to one of these academies, what would you tell 'em about it?

Um, I would tell 'em for sure.

It definitely gets you ready for the next level.

Um, uh, the difference between, um, college and, uh, the academy baseball?

Um, playing wise, it's gonna be like, uh, the fastball, uh, velos would be the same.

The only difference is that like D one, you're definitely coached a lot better.

Um, and the pitchers know how to locate a lot more and they're not

throwing 97 to your head 24 7.

So, uh, but yeah, it's, uh, that's the only difference and

the competition is really good.

Um, yeah, the competition all around, I mean, um, our whole lineup,

um, this last year we're all, uh, division, uh, one, um, players in

the lineup, so it was very cool.

I.

Oh, that must have been just a stud lineup there.

Oh yeah.

It was, it was insane.

Uh, our first five were, and it was insane.

It was, uh, a great experience for sure.

Yeah.

I mean, I see you share stuff on social media.

You got guys like all over, like Florida and some different places.

Oh

yeah.

We had, we had some studs, like our first five were like all going

to like the SEC and like Arkansas.

Florida, yeah.

Um, wake Forest, like bunch of dudes, like they're bunch

of dudes that are really good.

Yeah.

The few times I've seen like IMG or seen Pro five, it's like, this is really good.

This isn't high school baseball.

This is really, really good.

I, I've seen 'em like beat JUCO teams who were pretty solid JUCO teams.

Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.

We've played, uh, we've played a couple really good jucos too.

As a matter of fact, we, uh, we played, uh, north, north Greenville University.

They're a very solid D two school down in South Carolina.

Yeah.

And they're, lemme tell you, they're pretty good.

And we put a good fight against them last year.

Nice.

Yeah.

Well, I imagine with that much D one talent, there's, there's probably not

a huge difference in rosters, even, even with the age differences there.

Oh, no.

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

Well, I know you've, you've gotten the chance to start catching, uh,

a couple times for us this year.

I know you're still kind of rehabbing off of an arm injury,

but have you always been a catcher?

Is that something you've moved to recently, or what was, what was

your positional journey there?

Um, so it was, uh, so starting off with like the young days, uh,

like literal league, uh, I was always a second basement because I

was never the tallest, like what?

I, yeah.

Like I was cb you know, I'm short, I'm short.

Um, and I, I admit no.

And so how tall

are you for people who aren't aware?

How tall?

How tall do you tell people you are, I guess the reality,

so I tell 'em I'm five nine.

In reality, like, I'm like five, seven, and like three fours.

Okay.

All right.

I'll let you see.

I

was gonna let you go with what you said.

I, I was gonna let you go with what you tell 'em.

You didn't have to, you didn't have to give yourself out like that.

But that's, I, I appreciate the honesty.

Yeah, a hundred percent.

Uh, but with cleats on, I'm definitely five nine.

Oh, I was gonna say.

And spikes.

And spikes.

You're good.

That was always my out too.

Five, nine.

You put like thick socks on.

You're like six one.

I see you.

Yep, yep, yep.

You play it like you're seven feet tall, that's what's what matters.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, but going to like the positional like, um, topic.

Um, I started off as a second basement.

Um, I was a second baseman, outfielder, and then one of my

coaches, uh, from middle league was like, you have a really good arm,

uh, that's probably behind the plate.

And this was like maybe sixth grade.

And my dad was a catcher too, and uh, back in his day.

So he was all for it.

And ever since then, um.

Just became a catcher and I enjoyed it, but I also miss like, being

in the outfield, like it's always fun to like go in the outfield

and, and catch 'em fly balls.

I haven't played second for a while though.

Yeah.

You, you probably would not miss, you know, taking a foul ball to the

inside of your knee, which I think is what happened on Sunday, right?

Like, you're just

getting beaten up back there.

Oh yeah.

I, hmm.

I have a big bruise right now in that, in that, uh, inner

thigh, it's not the best feeling.

Was that one of the biggest things, because I know you, you've been

playing a lot, you've been ding

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I

know you've been catching a ton of bullpens, but then when you actually

getting in the game is that reminder of like, oh yeah, this is what it's really

like when you're getting those foul balls.

Yep.

Yep.

It's gotta be a kind of a shock to your body.

Yeah.

Uh, and then the first, the first game I caught, I got a bat to the knee.

Oof.

That one did not feel good either.

That was Georgia State, right?

Georgia State?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know how you stayed in that game.

'cause I, I heard the bat hit your knee and I was hoping it just hit the pad,

but obviously it didn't and I think you got on base the next half inning

and I saw you trying to run the second.

I was like, oh no, that's, that looks painful.

Yeah.

There's, there's one thing about me and it's like, I never want

to get out of the game ever.

It's, uh, it's more of like a, it's just like the competitive in me.

It's like, even if I'm limping, like I never want to get outta the game.

It's just the way I was taught by my father and mom's just being tough.

For sure.

Definitely.

Yeah.

You, you're a competitive guy that's, I know yesterday you had

a, you had a really, you swung it really well and I think it just

got caught like at the last second.

And, uh, you, you let anybody in, in hearing distance knew

you were not happy about that?

No.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was not happy for sure.

I was not happy.

Well still, you know, going four for five, uh, against the 23 team in

the country is not, not a bad day.

So,

no, uh, no, not a bad day at all.

So first four hit game at college.

I gotta imagine you've had some four hit games in the past.

Oh yeah.

I mean, I really don't, I mean, I've definitely have, but like,

don't really like, focus on that.

Like yesterday all I was focused on was winning that game.

Yeah,

that's great.

For sure.

Hey,

you were part of it for sure, man.

Oh yeah.

That was awesome.

That's too, so I, I have to imagine probably you probably haven't dhd a

ton in the past before the season.

How has that been kind of transitioning and figuring that out?

Um,

honestly, it definitely saves the legs a bunch.

Like, and my legs feel fresh, but it was definitely like hard 'cause like

DH and like, if you have a bad day at dh, like you can't say, oh, I did

really good on the field, you know.

Like if you have a bad day hitting and then you do good on the field, it's like,

all right, now tomorrow let's do better.

But like, ding, it's just like if you do bad ding, you can't

say you did good on the field.

Yeah.

Well, speaking of that, you know, you, you get off a really great

start, you know, you're killing it.

We're like, Hey, this guy's amazing, right?

Uh, we got on to Auburn first at bat of the whole series to smoke one over

the wall, and it's like, holy crap, RAI is the best player we ever had.

This guy, I love this kid,

which I still,

you're still, you're still awesome.

I still love you.

Um, but then like you hit that home run.

And then I think, I think I was looking at minute.

I was like, oh, for 25 until, yeah, like the rest of that trip.

What was, so what was that like, you know, after all that success, I

mean, like you said, you're, you're clearly the guy you like to compete.

I mean, how did you, how did you deal with it?

How'd you get through it?

And I mean, clearly you're, we're on the other side, now you're back kind

of, you know, being yourself again.

Um, so talking about that, like, I have such a great roommate,

my roommate's, Kyle Edwards.

Oh yeah.

Um, so like every day he's always like boosting up my energy and making sure

to tell me like that I'm that guy.

Um, and every, every good baseball player, um, everybody goes through slumps.

I mean, it's just part of the baseball.

Like baseball's not just skyrocket going up.

It's a more of like a wave, you know?

And I, you was gonna get, uh, out of it soon.

Uh, it was just about time that I was gonna get out of it, so.

Well, you've definitely been hitting the ball well of late and of course going

four for five on, on Sunday against Troy.

Uh, you've also had some pretty epic photos taken.

I don't know if you've noticed it.

I think that the Georgia State series, you had, I think, I think our social

media outlets, the teams, everyone else had you celebrating in second base.

And then, uh, CB grabs this one yesterday.

Oh, that was

a great one.

I saw that one yesterday.

Yeah, he have F's, uh, he's a handsome man, so he, he's, he's

a big fan of photos of himself.

Thank you.

So he, he's definitely a guy that I, I know appreciates him, that's for sure.

Yep.

Love the photos, especially the one that I'm hyped up in.

I love seeing.

Yeah.

Hyped up during the game for sure.

Oh yeah.

You had, I think the Georgia State one, I, I don't have it up at the, the

moment, but you had slid into second.

It popped up and I think you're giving like a double

thumbs up back to the dugout.

Yeah, that's a good one too.

Amazing, uh, series win picture that we used for sure.

Yes.

And then, uh, course CB got another good one yesterday.

One of your, one of your four hits on Sunday there.

One of the many hits.

Yes.

Yes.

And this is what I love too, is this like, you always have this like textbook swing.

I mean, this is like exa like, if you were gonna like draw what a baseball

swing looks like, like, I mean I, the, I have so many pictures because you

have so many hits, but I have so many pictures of like, just like this where

it's like just head down, hands to bat.

I mean, uh, hands to barrel, like bald at bat.

Like it's just the best, what you wanna do every time.

Yep.

That's

great man.

Yeah.

Well what

that's go every time.

What is kind of your mindset when you go to the play?

'cause you know, obviously we're, we're seeing some guys that are, they're

scuffling a little bit right now.

They're, they're trying to have more competitive at bats.

Uh, facing good pitching.

I'll definitely caveat with that.

They face good pitching, but what's going through your mind from on

deck circle, getting some warmup swings and then going into the box,

uh, on deck circle.

I don't know if you guys see me, but I get close to the fence.

Um, and I just from trying to have a short swing, try to hug myself.

'cause if I try to hug myself, the shortest I can be, the more

barrel I'm gonna get to the bowl.

Um, and I try to have an approach before I get into the box because once you

start thinking so much, like my dad will make me watch like Tony Gwin growing up.

Mm-hmm.

And he always said like, if you start thinking in the

box, your abs already over.

Um, so I have an approach before the box, um, and I talked to h uh, about

the approach, what the guy has, and I mostly just try to sit on the fastball.

Um, I try to really hit that fastball and then if he pops a slider and I

can see the slider of his hand and he hangs it, um, definitely swing at it.

And I like to drive those pitchers a lot, but mostly, uh, getting in

there and swinging at a fastball anywhere near the strike zone.

Really try to be aggressive.

And that's just a game plan that I have always.

You, you talk about that kind of shorter compact swing, get

more barrel over the plate.

I also noticed that you do crowd the plate a little bit more than

maybe some other footers do.

Yes.

And that shows up with, I think you've been hit by a pitch

nine times so far this season.

Nine times.

Nine times.

Yeah.

But that I, I think you have the right idea of that short compact swing.

And, uh, I, CB actually pointed out to me in some photos of Kyle yesterday

on his, the home runs he hit, you can see his hands are tucked in tight.

He's got that shorter compact swing.

Mm-hmm.

And he hits two bombs to the left center.

So maybe he's been watching you a little bit on those avs.

No, I've been watching him.

I look up to Kyle a lot for sure.

Well, that's, that definitely a good one to, uh, to look out for.

He is, he's been on with us a couple times, uh, and we, we certainly

enjoy chatting to him as well.

No, I've been watching, I dunno if I've ever told you, I've been

watching Kyle play since he was like 14, and kid's just phenomenal.

I'm, I'm always been such a fan.

Um, so, so f how did you end up at ODU, right?

I, you said you're, you're from North Carolina, playing down in South Carolina.

How do you end up here at ODU?

Uh, so, um,

recruiting process.

Talking about the recruiting process, um,

I didn't really talk to a lot of schools, like, not really like it would be

talking to like schools close to home.

And they all wanted me as like a utility outfielder.

Um, the only school that wanted me as a catcher was Old Dominion.

Um, and so I took the opportunity, uh, Logan Robbins was the one

that was recruiting me at the time, and so did Marin, um, and.

Funny story is when I committed, um, I think it was he's first

day or something like that.

Oh wow.

And I think it was, he's like, first zoom call and I committed,

uh, that day with, uh, hey, on Zoom call and Marin on Zoom call.

That's a hell of a first day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Pretty

good.

Yeah.

Well, how, how have you adjusted coming to ODU being in college?

I mean, it sounds like where you're at prepped you a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

Um, what have been some adjustments you've had to make coming into the college world?

Um, so coming into like the college world, I mean, definitely like school part of it.

Uh, like I said, like I had online school, so it was just online, so

it was kind of weird like going into the first day of, uh, school and.

Going into class and I actually had to like pay attention to a teacher.

That was definitely like a big, a big adjustment to Yeah, the school.

As a former

teacher who taught during Covid, I I absolutely understand