CB, Gary and Coach Finny recap a weekend sweep of Niagara. Cole Lanford joins after a key outing to complete the sweep. He also tells his comeback story from brain surgery a year ago.

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Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

Hello, Monarch fans.

Welcome to the Hudson Homers podcast.

Coming to you after a sweep of Niagara awesome.

Weekend out at the ballpark.

Coach Finny with us, CB's with us Coach Finny.

How you feeling today?

I.

Tired.

Yes.

That's a long, uh, second, you know, 12 hour Saturday in the,

yeah,

in a row.

You get to the ballpark about eight in the morning and leave about eight 30.

Um, but good, you know, good long day of baseball.

It's nice to, to finish it off with a, with a win in, in the Hudson Homers

and we were in the Hudson Blues, so,

yeah.

Very well.

Hey, I was thinking about this, uh, something to add to

the show and get feedback on.

So we used to always do, when it was the Extra Finish podcast, we

would have a song for that week.

I know you got the, maybe somehow we can incorporate it, but we based

it on, you know, just something pertaining to who we were playing the

week coming up or had just played.

Um, and so let's put our heads together, like, we gotta backtrack

'cause we're two weeks behind.

So we had Quinnipiac, which is in Rhode Island.

Uh, Rhode Island.

Yeah.

Um, so we gotta come up with something for Quinnipiac that we would've played.

And then all

the great songs about Rhode Island and Connecticut.

You know, Connecticut on my mind,

if you can make it

in, there's so many from, uh,

if you can make it to Hartford, you can make it anywhere.

And then, and then this weekend, of course we get Niagara, which is Buffalo.

Um, it's gotta be a song about Buffalo.

It's like

Buffalo Soldier a song, isn't

it?

There we go.

That there Bob, Bob Marley.

Buffalo.

Yeah.

That Bob.

There,

there we go.

Look at me

knowing things.

Alright.

Yeah.

That we could, we could play that one.

Yeah.

Work.

'cause 'cause we just played Niagara.

So Buffalo.

We could do a, uh, we don't, we good.

Charlotte was a band, but I don't know.

We want good, we want, we want Bad Charlotte this weekend.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We want bad Charlotte.

So I, I was thinking maybe Carolina on my mind.

Uh,

yeah, that's a great one.

Playing Carolina.

I was watching, speaking of Carolina, I was watching the, um, east Carolina,

North Carolina game and it was three, three in the fifth and they

had a rain delay, so I don't know if they picked that game up or not.

Ah.

Um, it was a good ball game though.

They were battling, I guess Carolina whacked them on Friday and then East

Carolina came back one yesterday.

Um, yeah, east

Carolina's had a tough time on Friday so far this season.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The, um, I was peeking at some of the, I watched a little bit

of Charlotte and Wright State.

Uh, I was watching Troy a little bit, and some of those, those two, I saw

Southern Miss beat Oregon State yesterday, I think, um, out there, which is good.

Good win for the league for sure.

So, but yeah, so we got, um, I mean, we could go through the games,

I guess if you guys want Sure.

Week and, uh,

yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, we get the, we get the sweep.

We gotta talk through 'em.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you know, Wednesday, uh, Manhattan came in and, um, I mean, it was a,

it was a pretty good day to play.

It was nice and warm and.

Um, I thought they had a solid club.

I really did.

They're older, they's physical kids, and, um, we just, we just, you know, it's

early in the year and it's not never an excuse, but we just didn't play well.

We didn't pitch, you know, give 'em 14 hits and I think

we only had seven or eight.

Um, we hit the grant slam to go up and then we just kind of blew up.

Um

mm-hmm.

You know, from, from there.

And still, you know, our, in our two losses, we've, we've had a chance.

We didn't play particularly well in either one of those, but we had

a chance to still win those games.

Um, you know, a hit here or there.

But we, um, you know, I told the guys, you just got beat to

those unacceptable performance.

Mm-hmm.

Like, we, we can't play like that.

And, um, we got some guys a little bit in between on their

swings right now, approach wise.

And, you know, when you get like that as a hitter, you're, you

know, you're late on the fast ball, you're early on the breaking ball,

you're not really on anything.

And we talk about like.

When you start going that way, you gotta sell out to something like, I'm

just gonna hit the first fastball I see and take the breaking balls, or

I'm gonna sit on a breaking ball here.

You have to be better at looking and being convicted and more

intentional in, in your approach.

So it, it swings that way.

I mean, I think we got a few guys that are in that category and

we'll keep working 'em through it.

It's a long season of ups and downs and ebbs and flows.

So, you know, that put us at, at two and two and.

Um, we had a Niagara team that, that, you know, had a bunch of guys back

from last year and went and played them, I don't think ever, maybe not

since I've been here anyway, but, um, you know, so, and Fridays are good.

We knew they had three good arms 'cause they played Texas to state last week

and we talked with their coaches and we knew their starters were good.

And they had one guy in the pen that was pretty good and we saw 'em

both on, uh, you know, on Friday.

So, yeah.

Uh, I thought those, those kids all pitched well and, and so did we, you

know, um, I thought Ske gave us a good solid start, you know, um, he

gave, he gave up the, you know, the couple and then the two run home or

to, to get them to, to four to two.

And then we had the, you know, Zach, I mean Zach had a big

day, uh, for us, obviously, and.

With the five rbis.

Yeah.

Um, two home runs and it's a, it's an odds right?

When, when all one guy gets all your rbis, um, unless it's like a two

to one game or something like that.

Right, right.

Yeah.

I have five.

Um, and I thought our bullpen came in and really pitched well, uh, part Yeah, it

is,

um, you know, through the seventh and then, and then Davis eight,

nine, and, uh, did a good job.

So we get a, you know, hard fought five four win and obviously the here that

day was, was Zach late with, with the two home runs and five rbis and mm-hmm.

Um, I don't know.

What'd you guys y'all's take away from that Friday game?

Yeah, I, I was happy to see Jayce Park come in in another tight spot and

get out of it without allowing a run.

I think that's really good for him to see him with, with back to back kind of clutch

performances in those high leverage spots.

Uh, and then Zach's two, two home runs, I think vertically.

They combined cleared the fence by about two feet, but they probably would've put

a hole in 'em if they had hit the fence.

Uh, but yeah, good.

We got the little bit of wind blowing out to right center on Friday.

Uh, and that was huge.

He hit him

in almost the

exact same.

Yeah.

Zach was definitely the hero from the offensive side.

Yeah, I, I knew the first one was gone because the wind was blowing pretty good.

And you can kind of see on the trajectory.

Yeah.

I, I couldn't tell on the second one.

I thought the, the, you know, the grand slam, the guy had, it looked

like he was gonna have a chance to catch it right at the wall and just

snuck over the fence right there.

Yeah.

So we were happy that it did.

Uh, for sure.

Yeah.

No, it, it's, uh, I mean, Zach's impressive.

I mean, he's, you know, we know he had a great year last year even with having

a, what broken hand and his, a broken bone in his hand and he's come out strong

and, and, you know, picking up right where he left off and playing great.

But yeah.

Yeah.

Kellen and Jason, I, I mean obviously had a great start, but

Kel and Jay is outta the bullpen.

That was, that was, that's what you want.

I mean, that's those guys stepping up and showing you like, okay, we're gonna be

your guys that you can count on this year.

Yeah.

We need some guys to step up with Mark being out for the year with the

UCLA or UCL Terror, which is, you know, unfortunate man, kid hadn't

had, I can't even remember the last one we had of a current picture.

Um, here.

It's been so long and he's never had an arm injury.

It's like it was really, you know, disheartening.

Now he is gonna have the, the repair, uh, the, the, the sleeve.

So, uh, we feel like we'll get him back for next year because of that,

you know, if he can, he's gonna get it done here really quick, quickly.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so we should have him and Bains back next year, which

will bolster the, the, the pit.

Yeah.

Hunter was, hunter Bains was telling me he had, um, like something his clavicle,

like a piece removed and he said that they told him because when you remove

the thing, it actually makes it all better and say he might even, he's

like, it might come back through harder.

I'm like, how you throw a high five?

Yeah.

Yeah.

He had that thoracic outlet syndrome thing, you know, and that's scary man.

'cause you know, yeah.

Blood flow matters and, uh, when you, when you get blood clots

or things stopped up like that.

So he's doing great.

He's starting to work out again.

He's, he's got, he is, you know, in a real positive mood, but that's

two big, you know, hits outta the bullpen for us for the year.

And so,

yeah,

some other guys are gonna have to step up and, you know, I think this

weekend, you know, some guys did, um

mm-hmm.

It was good to see, uh oh.

Yeah.

You know, JJ Gotti gave us a really good start in the first game

of the double header yesterday, much better than his first start.

I thought.

He, he commanded the, the strike zone.

He, he was in the strike zone with all, all of his pitches and, you

know, really looked sharp for us.

And, you know, unfortunately, I mean, the ending, they got the, the

lead on us then, um, you know, we, we, uh, TJ has that ball in center.

He just slips in the mud and we field, and yeah, it

was, it was pretty,

pretty rough out there in some spots.

It was rough out there.

Yeah.

I soggy.

And we were trying not to play too deep.

'cause the wind was blowing in yesterday.

It was colder and

mm-hmm.

He just, you know, he just lost it.

He's played great out there.

I told him, don't worry about it.

You know, shake it off.

And that led to a big inning for them.

Um, they, you know, bled a few through there and then the guy

hit the big double and, you know, we're kind of down, um, that game.

We told the guys when we got to the field, like, this is

the day we gotta play offense.

I mean, the ball's not going anywhere.

Keep it outta the air.

We're gonna have to get our bunts down.

We're gonna have to run a little bit and, and, you know, put some pressure on them.

And I, I think that's exactly what we were able to do.

You know, the one inning, uh, we had the big inning.

I think we, uh, you know, after we made it four, three with Will's home run,

and then did we get five in that inning?

Um, the next thing to go up 8, 8, 4, and, and we had three bumps in that inning.

I know.

Yeah, I know, but Bun said, well, because you had no, you kept

having no outs, so you, you kept bunting and they didn't get an out.

It's like, well keep the same strategies going.

Keep, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, we kept bunting,

which is great to see Nick Felton get one down.

I mean, that's not, when you're a freshman, that's not an easy thing to do.

I mean, sometimes I look at, you know, some of these guys like, you know, Felton

and like, uh, somebody else was, uh, had had trouble bunting one, but it's

like, yeah, they might be good at it, but how many times in games have, have

Nick Felton actually been asked to bunt?

Right.

Right.

I mean, guy, one of the better hitters on one of the better

high school teams in the country.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And Nick is a very good bunner.

Yeah.

He didn't get a couple down earlier.

Um, but he got that one down when we needed him to.

And so that was, that was great.

Um, you know, safety Squeeze scored a run and they, you know, screwed it up.

So we got on and that was a big ending for us, man.

Uh, it really was.

And then I thought, you know.

Mann came in and kind of settled things down for us.

Huey's really been effective so far this year.

And then Bailey Matela threw a, a solid, you know, ninth force.

Um, Bailey, Bailey all seems to find a way to keep it, you know, get

strikeout, popup or something like that.

And then it's two house.

Nobody on you.

Yeah.

It's got the foot.

Next thing you know, it's, you know, base loaded and run in.

It's like, come on.

But

Bailey doesn't want anyone to change the channel.

Don't ever assume.

No.

You know, he, yeah.

Stay involved.

Watch the game.

You know, his stuff was good and we said, look man, he is our most experienced guy.

He was getting hot the third, the ninth, no matter what.

Um, let's go for try to win the series and then we are gonna throw, you know, all the

young guys in the second game anyway, so,

yeah.

So was that, I was, I was kind of watching as you and Mike were having conversations.

Was that a thing that you had kind of said that, you know, if

we're in a situation where we can win the second to win the series?

Yep.

We'll, we'll put Bailey in, otherwise we'll have him start

like we did the week before.

Yeah, yeah, I think so.

I, we just, you know, as we try to, you know, we didn't have Johnson

um, because of the longer stint on Wednesday and he would've been able

to go if we were playing today, but we weren't gonna push him too much.

He threw, you know, it was his longest outing since he's been here.

Hubble, you know, we used for, you know, a hitter or two, we knew

that that was all we had outta him.

Um, also, so it was like, we got to Bailey, he's been in this

position before, nobody else has.

Let's just bring him in.

Let's use him.

Whether it's a one run game or three or four, whatever.

He is hot.

Let's, let's use him.

Yeah.

You know, I think the worst thing you can do sometimes in Doubleheaders

is get guys up and down a bunch.

Don't use 'em in the first game and think they're gonna be as effective

in the second game after they've been sitting out there for two more hours.

Right.

And having to get and look man, bringing guys back.

It takes a special kid.

I mean, their guy that threw great on Friday outta the pen for them, um, the

kid that kind of changed his arm angles

mm-hmm.

Wasn't effective at all yesterday.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and he came in, in that, in that inning that blew up on him and he

couldn't feel bumped at all either.

I hurt him, but, uh, it's just back to back days in college.

Pitchers, you gotta be a really special guy to be as effective that second time.

Um, so, uh, we got that one, you know, and then, um, you know, we got a five

15 or whatever start on the cold.

It's getting cold and uh, you know, it's just, uh, I thought Ocon will

looked good, man, for three innings.

His stuff was really good and, you know, we're trying to get

him one more and start throwing

hard.

What's going hard?

Yeah.

Um, he just made a few mistakes and, you know, walked a guy and, and you know,

do a wild pitch and, you know, then, uh, you know, I thought that we were a

little unlucky out of the, out of the pen.

I, I think, um, I think Yi made a good pitch and some, some, mm-hmm.

Something happened where Maverick and Will just got their wires

crossed on that ball up the middle.

I thought that was gonna be a double play ball, and they were kind of.

Looking at each other, you know, like, uh, I you take it, I got it.

Like that kind of thing.

I mean, that's literally, I I was close.

You could hear That's literally what was happening there was You take it.

I got it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, we took, we, we'll talk about it tomorrow.

I, I, it's one of those things they'll learn from.

I, I thought it was Matt's ball.

I think he thought it was more over the bag, but it was on

his side of the bag and mm-hmm.

That would've been a big double play to turn.

Um, instead of gave up two, two runs, uh, we go, we go down.

You know, that, that was tough.

But, um, the guys after that, like, everybody kind of combined

to keep us in it, you know?

Mm-hmm.

I mean, I think Dot, who's a senior and then

Yeah.

Yeah.

Freshman, uh,

we had Mad Jack making his college debut after being hurt last year.

That was cool.

And he had a, had a scoreless inning, and then, yeah, Cole Lanford came in and gave

everything he had, which is great to see.

Yeah, that was by far.

Cole's best performance.

Mm-hmm.

You know, since he's been here.

Um, and it was exactly what we needed.

And look, man, it wasn't easy to hit that then.

And we had some guys scuffling through it.

I didn't like the energy at all and the dugout and so we just took some

guys out and put some base guys in trying to get more energy in.

And I thought for the most part, those guys did a good job.

Brody Connors comes in and gets hit by a pitch and gets a single, uh, Cole

McKenna gets his first college hit.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, his first at bat scores a run.

Um, and, and so made a couple

nice plays in the field too.

Yeah.

Yeah, he did.

So that was good to see.

And you know, TJ Aiken had, uh, had a big hit in the first game, had a

couple big hits in, in that one, and

yeah,

we took advantage of a couple walks as well.

Um, I thought, you know, Tyler Zedalis had a big RBI, so mm-hmm.

You know, then we come back and, and, and take the lead, um, five four.

Jack Slater played great all day, man.

Yeah, he really got the shot in the arm.

You know, he had three hits I think in game one and, you know mm-hmm.

Caught good in game two, just good energy and runs some bases.

He is a really good bunner, as you can see.

Um, so that Jack had a big day.

I was really happy to see that.

But, uh, and then, you know, we try to get fr out there in, in the ninth, maybe

we got a little greedy, probably probably shouldn't have sent him back out there.

Um, and you know, he gets himself in a little, little bit of a, well, he

didn't get himself, he got, we got him in, I mean, ground ball, third road, he

throws in the dirt and we don't get the routine play there that can't happen.

Uh, unfortunately it did.

And then they get a, you know, we get a walk and single next we get an out.

I can't remember how we got, oh, they tried to bun and they they

popped it up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So yeah, they gave us an out, we end up with, um, the left dude.

We wanna get him through the left and he walks him.

And so we got basically loaded one aisle.

We're up, one, we're gonna

play.

There were a few too there where there were walks.

That should have been strikeouts.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There were a couple of

those this

weekend.

There were, there were, this weekend was not the, uh, a great example of umpiring.

That's for sun.

The second game, Sunday, Saturday was the worst.

When did this get so hard?

Golly.

Yeah.

That just baffles me.

We got the TrackMan when

both teams are arguing, you know, it's, it's not good.

Yeah.

I mean the, and look man, it went, it went in our favor.

But Paul, we got the TrackMan thing on the iPad in the dugout, like we can see,

I mean the, the ball that spar walked on.

Mm-hmm.

You know, he stayed box and I was like, what are you doing man?

It's the ball.

You know what?

And he ball the ball's like literally almost right down the middle.

Yeah.

And then I thought Yi threw some good pitches.

I thought Uhhuh Lanford threw some good pitches.

You know, the guys just strikes him, was just so inconsistent.

And game one, game one was worse.

Um, some of those pictures were not even close that he was ringing TJ up

on, so, uh, I mean, we'll talk to the signer and, you know, these are the

things we gotta go through and make sure that we don't, those guys aren't

back there in conference game for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But so bring in Charlie Pearce, you know, it's

Chuck

and he strikes the kid out, you know, I mean, he is got,

gets down what, three one?

Yeah.

Throws two, two really good fastballs.

Um, and strikes the kid out and then gets popup game over.

So great for him.

And those are the kinds of things that you have to, those young guys

just have to go through, I mean.

Mm-hmm.

And some of them don't work out like, uh, Calvin Ante's first outing.

Mm-hmm.

You know, a lot of picture and

he came out looking fantastic.

I mean, he looked, he started out so strong.

Yeah.

But it's the walks.

It's always the walks.

Yeah.

Like

it's always the walks.

I, Chris the, you gave up a solo home run, then you gave up a

single, and then you walked two guys and you gave up a grand slam.

Like it's always the walks.

Mm-hmm.

So stop walking guys.

You know, and we walked too many in that last thing, but like you guys said,

I don't think we walked those guys.

If the call strikes early, we strike some guys out.

So

Yeah.

But really, really proud of Charlie.

Those, that was a big time situation to put a freshman in, you know, with only his

second appearance or whatever, and Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, I think, uh, that says a lot for, for him.

Hopefully he can get some confident outta that.

Yeah.

It, it felt like Ky and Gotti when they were starting those games on Friday and

Saturday, like they were just filling up the zone, like making guys put the

ball in play and it paid off for 'em.

'cause yeah, look 'em in the fourth, fifth inning and they're in like

fifties, sixties pitch count.

Yep.

Was get an extension.

It was good to get KY through six.

He came out, you know, and wanted to go out for the sixth

and, uh, felt good about it.

And then, uh, GA was similar.

Um, you know, so I, I think he, he ran outta gas a little bit, you know.

Mm-hmm.

But he was, he was trying to get through that too.

Um, but those guys, you know, incrementally stretching

them out a little bit.

Um, which is good.

We'll, we'll need them to, to be able to do that.

So,

um, yeah.

And we, we talked about it a little bit earlier on, but, you know, I was talking

to Bo and he wanted me to ask the question 'cause he said it looked like a track

meet this weekend with the amount of.

Running we were doing on the bases and getting all those stolen bases.

And his question was, you know, is this kind of an overall

strategy for you this year?

Or is this more matchup and weather type dependent?

Yeah.

I'm just not of the mind that, you know, we're just gonna

try to steal a hundred bases.

Like we we're not, you know, we're not in that mode from a personnel standpoint.

For one.

I just believe that when it presents itself Yeah.

And the situation looks like you need to or you want to,

then you take a shot at it.

I think you gotta be careful running, running and running,

because you can wear some guys out.

I mean, it's a long season.

Mm-hmm.

You know, a guy gets his hand stepped on, or, I mean, Auburn lost

their best hitter for probably two or three weeks, uh, because his

ankle trying to steal second base.

And they're like, why did we do that?

You know?

So it needs to matter.

And we felt like we needed to yesterday because.

The wind was blowing in, the ball wasn't going.

You had to manufacture some things.

You're gonna have to bun, gonna have to hit and run, gonna have to steal

some bases, things of that nature.

And we were able to, to do it.

So, and, and put the, you know, TJ's running really well.

He is getting some skull bases.

Um, he's just having such good at bats.

I mean, even when he gets out, I think feel like it's, it's good swings.

He is on the ball, he is balanced, he's intentional about what he wants to hit.

Um, you know, that double down left field line in the first

game yesterday was awesome, man.

Huge.

So

whole mental shift from last yearMy.

I talked to him a few times about, I talked to him between the games yesterday.

I was like, man, this is a lot, a lot better than the other way.

Right?

And he is like, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Like

just having fun playing baseball.

I'm so proud of him.

And he, he is playing good, you know, good smart baseball in the outfield.

He, he made one throw, he probably should have just thrown

the ball second yesterday.

But he's, he's doing a good job and he is in the middle of most

of our, our run scoring rallies, you know, as is Zach late, so.

Mm-hmm.

You know, we gotta get a couple of these other guys back.

Will Morgan swung about really well this weekend too, man, he lined out three

or four times, said, you know, he drove the ball, just missed another home run.

Uh, hit a home run yesterday.

I think he's having very, really good at bats.

His hamstring tightened up on him a little bit in that

mm-hmm.

Second game yesterday.

So we took him out.

Uh, that's why he came out.

He's fine.

He just said, you know.

Yeah.

One of those things, which I, I,

again, I'm kind of there in the dugouts, seemed like you were kind of about

to make that move anyway, and that

just

made it easy for you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I got, you know, some of those guys, I was tired of watching our, uh,

give their infielders popup practice.

Yeah, there were, I was gonna ask, so that was some, there

was a lot of popups this week.

And do you think part of that is, like, I was wondering like on Wednesday,

you know, the wind's blowing out, was that popups tend to happen,

everybody's trying to hit the ball out.

Do you think it was?

I don't think so.

Case of, of guys, I, I think college hitters in general, and we certainly

fall into that category at times.

Um, just get long and uphill.

I mean, cash day's going through that right now, like his swing is so

long and uphill, man, he can't get to anything on the inner half and he is

around everything on the outer half.

And it's gotta change.

If he wants to keep playing and be productive, like you have to

flatten the swing out, you know?

I see.

These guys are a product of listening to all this launch angle bullshit.

And they're not good enough to hit like that.

Like you have to be an animal to hit like that.

Um, and so, you know, having a flat swing and being on top of the ball and trying

to create back spin and hit line drives is the way to have a good college offense.

And I think we're getting some of those guys back in, in that mode.

You know, it's just a daily harping on it.

Like, you know, if you're just gonna hit a bunch of popups,

it's just not competitive.

And,

and it's funny to be, because that's what the actual launch angle of conversation

is, is you hit line drives and if you do it correctly, it creates that launch.

You're the guys who go and try to artificially make the launch angle

are the ones who are doing it wrong.

Correct?

Yeah.

And, and the, the steeper your launch angle.

The harder it has to come off the bat to go anywhere.

Anywhere.

You know, if you, you're gonna hit the ball 80 miles an hour and

have a 35 degree launch angle, man, it's like a popup practice.

So yeah, we got, we had a few of those this weekend, but the, um, I think that

this team, we are doing a much better job.

Early, early, I don't think we faced terrible arms.

I don't think we faced great arms.

I think we've been, it's been solid, but we're doing a much better job of

our, our free bases, the strikeouts ratio, which is something we pointed to.

We wanted to fix that.

Um, you know, uh, our walks and hit by pitches are close to

even with our strikeouts on the season, I believe it's not far.

They're not far apart.

And we had a 15 strikeout game in there.

So, um, other than that, we've been pretty solid, um, on it.

So, and we're scoring guys, we're doing a good job of scoring guys for third,

we're less than two, two outs overall.

So I'm pleased with that.

Um, and most of the guys on base percentage outside of a

couple has been pretty solid.

So I think we've got the makings of being a, a tough minded offensive group and,

um, you know, the defense has been solid.

It could be much better, but we, we, we, we've been playing solid

defense, especially for early and it's cold and all of that.

We'll, we'll continue to get better at that, I believe.

Yeah, and I mean, you've had to gut out some wins this weekend to get to

three and Oh, I mean, you got five to four, eight to five and five to four.

I mean, and some of those were comebacks and I feel like as a team

you get more out of that than say just whacking somebody 15 to five.

Like, you know, you don't really test anything on that.

So I feel like you come outta this weekend if nothing else battle tested and three

and oh, which is not a bad spot to be.

Yeah,

there's, there's no doubt those games make you better, man.

And you know, I told the guys before, I said, you know, we're

not playing anybody crappy.

Like, uh, and the in the old days of.

I mean, when we were, had some really, really good teams, you know, you just,

you'd just beat some of those guys up.

But we also, in 21, lost two out of three to Rhode Island, it was just

like, yeah, these guys we've been playing, they're just scrappy and solid

and you gotta play well to beat 'em.

So yeah, those games help you.

They help create a little more comfort when you're in those tight

situations, which is what you want.

Um, all those things that present themselves from a player standpoint

and a coaching standpoint.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you know, I think all of that is, is really important.

And, you know, we, um, we gotta go through it too as we're learning more

about our guys and who can do what and, you know, who might be a good pinch

hitter or who might be a good pin, defensive replacement, all those things.

You know, it's a long season.

All the roles that you think you're so smart about, you know, when the season

starts, uh, it all changes pretty quickly within a few weeks typically.

So that's, that's kind of how it goes.

Yeah.

Well one thing I've been really impressed with you all, maybe just from

a strategic standpoint, is the number of Pickoffs you've had this year.

You had several against, Quinnipiac had at least two this weekend, and they seem like

they're just timing plays and like really just smart defensive minded moves from

either the, the dugout or catcher pitcher.

Yeah.

Um, you know, Ocon was really good at holding.

Yeah.

Such a good athlete.

His inside moves good.

That's something Ky he's gotta get better at.

I think J's pretty good at it.

Um, Darren's gotta get better with his, his pickoff stuff.

Um, but you need to just pay attention.

It's something kind of Mike and H are kind of co-opting that like, um, h can

call in to pick off, uh, and Mike can.

So it allows us to have a little more flexibility in that.

Um, whereas we may see something like too hard to communicate to the pitching

coaches thinking about what pitch to call.

Yeah.

Whereas we could call it in on the, on the wristbands.

The guys get it.

And we've worked harder on picks, um, this year just trying to be better at it.

And, uh, I think it's something we'll continue to do.

'cause you know, you, you just want guy, you want to have it in their

mind that you'll do a time and pick at second, do a glove drop pick at first.

Do an inside move.

When that's on the scouting report, they gotta talk about it.

It's in the hitter's minds, you know, in the base runner's minds.

And so it, it can change their aggressiveness a little bit.

Um, and so we didn't see

step can be a lot, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And we didn't see any of that really with them.

Like, I thought you could pretty much run, you know, when you

had a chance for the most part.

Um, because they weren't picking a lot or really, and did pick at all a second.

Yeah, they def definitely saved us a couple runs this year, definitely in the

Quinnipiac series, so happy to see that.

I wanna, I wanna go back to TJ for for just a minute.

He's our, our hitter of the week we're gonna talk about later in the episode.

But, uh, between games, definitely made a fan's day.

I bothered Bryce Jones for a ball before.

Uh, my, my wife's cousin's kid was there at the games.

First ODU event he's ever been to.

He loves baseball, soccer, all the things.

And he actually caught pretty much everybody, I think, in a uniform

between the games out there.

Uh, in the power alley patio.

TJ took a picture with him.

Uh, you can check it out on our social medias on the Hudson Homers account.

But, uh, TJ made his day by just taking a minute, talking to him, taking a

knee, getting a picture, and there was no white space left on the baseball.

By the time the guys got done, I think they were signing laces there at the end.

I,

I was sitting there, I was eating my cheeseburger between games.

I was, I was looking at, I think Ezio was sitting there.

I saw him like really having to work to find a spot on the ball to sign.

So just awesome fan experiences out there again this weekend.

Um, I've watched most of the games out there in the outfield

with them on Friday and Saturday.

Uh, really excited that OD fans have picked up the tradition of throwing

the other team's home Run balls back.

We have one for Manhattan, one on Friday, zero hesitation ball gets picked up, Chuck

back towards the, uh, the left field line.

Love it.

Love that you fans.

The Bleacher bums strike again.

I love it.

That's great.

That's great.

Well, hopefully I don't have to throw too many back, but, you know, and we

need talk about this week coming up.

I think guys with the, you know, midweek at Norfolk State on Wednesday.

Um, and then we have Charlotte come into town, you know, our

longtime conference, USA rivals.

We've had some great battles with them

Yeah.

Um, through the years and then even in the, in the few years here since

we left the league and, and they did.

Um, and so, you know, we've had some really good series and.

You know, they'll all, they'll be, you know, the competition

level will go up a notch.

You know, we beat 'em down there, two out of three and I'm sure

they're wanting to return the favor.

So they're always very talented.

Um, always have good arms and it'll be a, you know, hard fought, hard fought

series force, which gets you closer.

And then, you know, the next week we got VCU, midweek and then Yukon in here.

Yeah.

Who's, uh, I saw Beat Arizona at least once over the weekend.

I don't know what they did today, but uh, I watched a little bit

of their Friday, Friday game.

They look, look, they've got a good club as always.

They always do.

So,

yeah.

Yeah.

Wednesday you got that really long road trip coming up.

It's gonna be just like last year.

I mean, just the extensive travel.

I mean, you gotta use everything you learned in 2025.

Yeah, I know.

We'll, uh, we'll head, head up three miles down the road and, you

know, head over and, and play the Spartans and, I mean, it's a big game

obviously, 'cause it's a, you know, two division one schools in the same city.

Um, I tell the guys all the time, it's, it is another game.

You gotta go play and you can't get too up or down for it.

It's, it's easy to say all the people.

Oh, it means way more to them than us.

I, I just never believed in approaching, you know, any

competitive environment like that.

I think you show up, you respect your opponent and you better understand that

they might play the best game of, of the year right there and you better

be ready to play as well to beat 'em.

Um, and it's baseball.

You gotta throw strikes.

Um, we have to do a better job.

Some of the guys that pitched last, um, you know, Wednesday have to do a

better job of that, this, this time.

And, um, we gotta do a better job of showing up and being ready offensively.

I, I didn't think we were very good last Wednesday and that was our first

midweek game and whatever that means, I don't know, but we, we, we've gotta

just lock in and, and have some better focus and we're capable of that.

We've shown that so.

Yeah.

In, and they've got a new coach, um, ML Morgan who was one of your, a, a player

you had when you were coaching VCU, right?

I mean that's, yeah.

Ml and you've had that experience a lot.

You've had a lot of guys that you had, uh, uh, as players

that you've coached against.

That's, that's, that's I'm old.

That's,

I

appreciate you

not saying that.

Um, ML played for Coach Keys and I. Yeah, my first couple years

at, at VCU and, uh, was a really good left-hand hitting outfielder,

could run and had a good approach.

He's a good baseball guy, man.

Mm-hmm.

And I'm really happy that he's getting this opportunity.

He

signed, uh, Blake Morgan to the race too.

That's, that

was the best thing as a scout, right.

Left.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we, we like him for that.

Yeah.

He's a good person.

He is a good man.

And I'm, I'm glad that, uh, he's over there running, running things now.

So

we've also got, um, tag Mongu, uh, his former ou.

That's great.

Assistant coach with He's a great guy.

A lot of baseball experience.

Yeah.

I forgot about that.

Tag's.

Tag's back there.

So that'll be good to see him as well.

So,

yeah.

We'll, uh, we'll play over there, uh, I think three o'clock Wednesday.

Does that sound about right?

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

That's correct.

And then, um, get going and we've added a game to our schedule in May.

Mm-hmm.

We were talking about that early May 6th.

We're gonna play Richmond.

Uh, again at home.

So we'll have them three times this year.

Once up there and twice.

But, uh, yeah,

I I love adding another game in May too.

'cause you know, that weather's gonna be nice.

It's gonna be 6:00 PM start.

I mean, that's, yeah, I would recommend getting there early.

'cause I think those bleachers are gonna fill up pretty fast.

If, uh, this weekend was any vacation with

that's time of the year, you'd much rather play than practice too.

Yeah, we're coming exams, we leave the next day to go work out at Coastal, so

it'll be good to get that, get that, uh, get that game in, uh, Wednesday, may six.

So long way to go between here and there.

And, uh, yes, before our next podcast.

Um, I'll be a granddad, so that's another cool one.

Oh yeah, that's right.

Yep.

So any day now.

And

yeah,

if they don't have it by Tuesday, I think they're gonna induce.

And um,

and that's Gray.

Chrissy,

Greg, little, little boy Gray and Chrissy.

Yes.

Yeah.

A couple of former Old Dominion athletes.

Right.

I've got a baseball player in the field.

Hockey player.

I know.

A kid will be a stud man,

kid.

The kid's gonna just come out athletic, that's for sure.

Yeah, I got, I got the glove and everything already waiting for him.

Do we know

a boy or a girl?

Yeah, boy.

Little boy.

Boy.

There you go.

So they picked the name out, but they're not telling

anybody yet, so I, that's fine.

Okay.

I just keep calling him Tyrone.

So

Tyro and Phil Wood, we'll see if any,

yeah.

Yeah.

So lot of, lot of good stuff going on and um, that's fantastic.

You know, we really appreciate the people that came out, um, you know, enjoyed the

games out there and hopefully if this weekend we can play three singles, uh,

anyway, from those double headers, man.

'cause they're, uh.

They, they, they take me a little longer to recover from in the old days, so,

yeah,

me too.

Yeah.

But it was a, it was a great time out there.

It was good crowds, love seeing everybody.

Uh, again, the, the setup there is awesome.

If you haven't been out, get out there this weekend for Charlotte.

You're gonna see three great baseball games.

Uh, weather, long-term forecast looks good even though it's Florence into the snow

falling in my yard right now in Richmond.

Um, but it's gonna be, I think, good weather this weekend.

Get out there.

Uh, 'cause it's, it's a lot of fun in those outfield bleachers.

Awesome man.

Well guys, thank you.

Enjoy the time with, uh, Lanny and uh, really happy for him man.

He is been through a lot in the last year, you know, with the brain surgery

and, and having to shut down last season.

And his story's pretty cool.

I think you guys enjoy it.

Yeah.

Well, thank you as always, Finny.

We really appreciate the time and um, we will see you here in a couple days.

Alright guys, go Monarchs

all.

Go Monarch.

Thanks.

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All right.

Love the ODAF ads.

That's good.

Yes.

It, it's weird that like the basketball coach that I almost worshiped as a

student is doing the voiceover for an ad in the podcast that I'm on now.

It's a little surreal sometimes, but it's also to have ling.

Blaine's voice somewhere associated with mine for probably no reason to mind.

Right.

Anyway, um, yeah, it's great having Finny on chatting through.

Uh, I could tell he is definitely a little bit worn out from the double

header yesterday in the cold and all that.

I'm too.

You too.

Yeah, I, uh, I had to head out there about the, the fourth inning, but.

I was watching the live stats and thought maybe someone was going crazy with

all the subs I saw coming in and out.

But, uh, there's a reason behind the madness there, which is great.

Yeah.

And you can see, like I said, I'm kind of, you know, in and around the dugouts

and you can see 'em having a kind, you kind of watch Finny wheels spinning

here and there a little bit and it's like, yeah, I mean, pretty clear.

I, I was wondering if it was just like, look, we're in the second weekend, we got

some guys who haven't been in games yet.

Let's just, let's get 'em in games.

We win this, we win this.

We don't, we don't.

Um, but then also his, his point of the energy, you know, it really

did, it changed some things up.

So that was good moves.

Kinda surprising once you, once, you know, you say theoretically gave up on the game.

I don't think that's what happened at all.

But, you know, once you take your, your, your starting guys out, that's

when things kind of switched up.

Yeah.

It's kind of a good balance of like thinking long term for the healthier guys.

'cause it did get cold out there.

This is your second straight Saturday playing two, uh, and,

but then you had some guys come through in the clutch and you end up

coming back and winning that game.

I think you have guys that maybe a little bit more battle tested that you're

gonna be less nervous about putting in those high leverage situations.

Um, absolutely.

But speaking of high, one of those situations.

Yeah,

we've got Cole Lanford here with us.

Uh, there he is.

Two and a third.

Hey, what's going on Cole?

Hey, man.

Yeah.

Heck of a, not much this weekend.

Uh, two and a third, no runs, two hits, strikeout, uh, really

came through in the clutch.

Ended up getting the win in that third game.

But thanks for hopping on with us today, Cole.

Absolutely.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah.

Well take us through Saturday under, under the lights and, uh,

a little bit of chilly there.

Uh, take us through kind of your mindset going into that game on Saturday.

Uh, yeah.

You know, coming in, I think, uh, you know, we just wanted,

we wanted to win both.

We were looking for a sweep this weekend and, you know, I think,

I think we brought everything we needed to sweep, so that was awesome.

Um.

In terms of coming into the game, you know, we sent, uh, coach Marin sent a

lot of us in there and, you know, Ryan Moore and Pond told us, you know, uh,

stack Zeros and that's what, you know, we've been talking about in our meetings

and stuff, you know, for relievers to come in and put up zeros and, you

know, that's, that's what we did.

So that was awesome to see.

Yeah.

And that, and that's great for you.

I think.

I know, you know, I hate to always lead off everything with

this, but it's, it's a big deal.

You know, you are coming off a brain surgery last year.

Um, tell the folks who maybe haven't heard this before, a little bit about what

happened with you, you know, what's been happening with you for few years, and then

what happened last year with your surgery?

Uh, yeah.

So, uh, I was diagnosed at 15 with a cavernous malformation in the,

uh, temporal lobe of my brain.

And, uh, we found out after a few MRI scans and stuff like that, that I ended

up having a brain bleed and that's what was causing, uh, my seizures.

So they're not grandma mal seizures?

They were, they're called focal aware.

So, I mean, I was still aware of most of what was going on, but sometimes

I didn't have full control of it.

Yeah.

That's obviously a really, really difficult thing to go through, especially

pitching and you're going through strenuous activity and things like that.

But, uh, tell us a little bit about the procedure as much or

as little as you wanna share, and then just how you're feeling now.

Uh, yeah, so, I mean, last year I, I mean, I think the most vivid one I

remember was, uh, I mean, right before I went in against Auburn, I had a seizure

at the end of the dugout and then Wow.

You know, ran down to the bullpen, got ready and then went and pitched, um.

But I mean, yeah, those, those things were, they were something else last year.

They kind of came around.

I started having a lot, uh, towards like the middle of the season and,

you know, I Maren kind of sat down and chatted with me and stuff.

And I mean, I, we knew I was having surgery at the end of the year, but,

uh, I mean, we tried to see if we could push it up to maybe see how

early I could get in there to be fully recovered for the next upcoming fall.

So last fall.

Mm-hmm.

And, um, we got in kind of, my dad had a buddy in Virginia

Beach that could get us in with a children's neurologist at Sentara.

And we got in with there and, you know, the stack of papers

for my case is like this stick.

And, you know, he, he recommended us to Dr. Elias at Virginia.

Uh, Virginia University and we went on the same day that we played

Virginia in a midweek and, uh, got my consultation and there they scheduled

it for two weeks out from that day.

So I watched the guys play Virginia that day and then went home and shaved my head

and shaved all my beard and stuff, and then got ready for surgery in two weeks.

Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah, I remember seeing you at the Norfolk State game last year,

and I was asking how you're doing?

You're like, oh, not so good.

And I was like, oh, you, you, you, you're hurt.

And, uh, you're like, yeah, I'm a little hurt.

And I was like, oh, something wrong with your brain.

I was just, I was joking.

You're like, no.

Yeah, actually, it's like, well, I'm, I'm the asshole.

Okay.

No, I sounded understandable.

Yeah, no, that's, I mean, it's a great, you, I mean, it is impressive.

Like I was actually, I pulled up your, your stats from last year.

I mean, you got, you pitched at Georgia Tech, you pitched at ECU, pitched

at Auburn, pitched at Biloxi against Mississippi State, pitched Southern miss.

I mean, you got, you got into some games against some big time teams.

Um, while all this is going on, and, you know, I mean, the numbers

aren't like amazing, but again, you know, you had some good outings and

considering everything was happening and that's, that's a pretty big deal.

That's, that's impressive and strange.

Yeah.

That week in Mississippi was a rough week.

That was

it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, but yeah, I mean, after everything's went on, I mean, I've recovered pretty

well and I mean, I can't complain.

I came back pretty fairly quickly.

The surgeon thought I was gonna be out a little bit longer, but I was able

to start, like they started me off, I think I was lifting milk jugs and

water bottles and stuff like that.

And then, I mean, I got, I got bored doing that.

I mean, so I started like doing, you know, body weight squats, but I could

definitely tell, I mean, he told me after surgery, I mean I'd have like cranial

pressure, cranial pressure and stuff like that, um, which is like, you know, when

you bend over and you get lightheaded

mm-hmm.

Stuff like that.

I mean, I could, I could tell that, uh, when I got back to school and I was

lifting weights with Cade in the summer, I think that was like a month and a half

post my surgery and, you know, I could tell we had to take it slow in there.

I mean, 'cause I get dizzy at some points, but.

Yeah, that was all part of the recovery.

So how, now that, you know, you're, I mean, you're not, not a year,

but you're getting closer to a year, how is it all feeling now?

Uh, it's tremendous.

I mean, I don't have to, I don't have to worry about having

a seizure anymore, you know?

On the plane.

On the bus

Yeah.

Was where some of the spots last year.

Wow.

Um, yeah.

But it is, it's a good feeling to not have to, you know,

worry about having one anymore.

Yeah.

I know I ran into your parents after, uh, the game last Friday

that your, the first game of the season that you got in and great.

Um, and they were saying it's like it's the first time in six years having worried

about him having a seizure on the mound.

I mean, that's just gotta be such a wonderful feeling

for them and for everyone.

Yeah, it is.

I mean, and especially I think those first three, I mean, we didn't, we knew

what it was, but I wasn't like openly, you know, telling everyone I knew like,

yeah, it's epilepsy and stuff like that.

So

yeah.

I imagine that was even more of a scary thing last year given

that we were on the road so much.

Like you said, we're in Atlanta, we're in Mississippi, you're, you're far from home.

Yeah.

Um, so you're just really happy to see the outcome that's come Now, I

know ODU fans are happy, I'm sure teammates, coaches, all of that.

Just to see where you're now, where, I mean, you're, you're key arm

outta the bullpen with two great appearances so far in this early season.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

I mean, I absolutely shout out, uh, Charlie Pearce for coming

in and shutting that game down.

That was, that was tremendous.

It was fun to come in and watch him pitch in that, you know, high

leverage situation, especially to get the outcome we had.

So it was awesome.

Yeah, Chuck was, Chuck was nails, uh, coming in after you there.

But I mean, you, you got it to that point.

Kept it, you know, within reach where we could have that comeback.

Uh, do you feel any different when you're on the Mount now?

Is there like a boost of confidence there or just, Hey, I, I had a

little bit of time downtime with my arm and feeling great nowadays.

Uh, I mean, I don't really notice it when I go out there.

I mean, just 'cause I don't know, I feel like I'm in kind of like a world

of my own when I'm out on the mound.

I mean, I don't know, I just feel excited when I get out there.

Um, but yeah, I mean, not to have to worry about it all.

It's a good feel.

Well, to get to more normal baseball talk and not mm-hmm.

Have to make everything about that injury.

Uh, talk to us a little about, you know, how you ended up at ODU, you, so you

played at Pro Five Academy, was it just your senior year that you played there?

Yeah, I, I just played there, uh, my LA my last year of high school.

Senior

year?

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, well, I, I, I, I, maybe even before the od, but tell, tell us about that.

So that's, that's kind of the new thing now, is the baseball academies.

I think I, I think I was counting, we had about eight or nine guys

on, on our team that played at 'em.

Um, I think Sulpizio was at Pro Five the year before you were there.

Yep.

Um, so tell us a little about, I mean, and another question, you

know, that's down in Raleigh.

Were you close enough that you weren't able to like, still live

at home and go, or did you stay actually at the, at the place?

Uh, yeah, so I stayed at home and it was just like, uh, it was a 35

minute commute, like every morning.

Uh, practice started at 9:00 AM and then,

yeah,

we went and drove to school.

I think school was only like 20 minutes from the field.

So that was kind of our day.

We went to the field at nine, practiced until 1130, and then went

to school at 12 until, you know, whenever our class schedule was done.

Um, do

you feel like 12.

Uh, I mean, I'd say Pro five definitely got me ready for college.

Okay.

I mean, it's, it's pretty like copy and paste somewhat of the day that,

you know, you'd have, I mean, I, I know like in the spring we had a 12

hour bus ride to Orlando and, you know, we're having to do, we're having

to do school on the bus and stuff.

And I mean, that was absolutely what we had to do last year.

I mean, school in the airport.

Um, but I mean, yeah, I, I loved Pro Five a lot.

I think it got me better.

I mean, it's baseball every single day just like it is here.

So, I mean, I think that's only something a baseball player could dream of as well.

Going to a school is just pretty much just baseball.

Yeah.

You're definitely seeing a lot.

I was actually looking today, we have a few kids at a couple of 'em

that are, they're playing later.

I'm trying to figure out how I can go down.

We got about four of our commits, uh, that would be playing in those games, but, uh.

Yeah.

So I mean, I, I know like you said, you got to play baseball all the

time, and you played good competition.

I, I, I saw you pitch a game here in Virginia Beach against Bryant

Stratton, the local junior college.

I mean, do you feel like not in addition to just playing every day, was a level

of competition a step up from what you've been seeing in high school?

Absolutely.

I mean, it's a, it's a totally different, uh, it's a different

caliber of high school ball.

I mean, especially, I don't think, uh, pro Five is in the NAA conference anymore, but

I mean, we were playing against like TNXL who was like pretty much top to bottom.

They were committed to D one schools.

Um, I'm trying to think, uh, we played Efrain Morales too, you know, uh,

seven,

one of our guys,

yeah.

Yeah.

Efrain lives only like five minutes from me at home too, so.

Mm-hmm.

We're, we're pretty tight.

Um, I mean, their school was, their school was stacked.

Maddox went there.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, I mean, the level of con the hitters were extremely good.

The pitching was good.

I mean, it was, it was awesome.

Kinda that wave of the future, right?

I mean that's, that's the new, I think they, yeah, I think there was one

in Virginia Beach just started up.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

I mean that's

this, this week I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that wave of prep school, not e not just in baseball, but

I think people are looking to, you know, get ready for the next level earlier.

Yeah.

Well, tell us a little bit about, I guess the, the recruiting process that,

that got you here and you know, what you thought if you came on an official visit.

What'd you think when you got here?

Uh, yeah, I did an unofficial and an official, um, so I think Marin

saw me at the futures games for PBR.

Um, and we started talking and, you know, I started to really like it.

And, you know, I cut my, like four schools I wanted, I cut it down and, you know,

I came and toured here and, you know, I told my mom, like, as soon as I stepped

on the field, I got this feeling like, you know, this is where I want to be at.

And it was, it was a weird feeling.

And, you know, we went to lunch, I talked it over with, you know,

my mom and my dad and I ended up committing that day in Finny office.

So it was pretty cool.

Yeah, it was definitely a cool experience.

And then had to wait like a year to get to play a real game in that field.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's fun.

But I mean, I, I loved it as soon as I came here, so.

Yeah.

Well, what was that experience like last weekend when you got your first

appearance Actually at the Budd?

I mean, I, I think Jay's talked about this too.

It felt like we were in a scrimmage almost.

Yeah.

I mean, we've been scrimmaging there for so long and I mean, to actually see a

different opponent in the box and, you know, we're cheering against someone else.

I mean, and playing against someone else who's was nuts.

Yeah.

What, uh, what, what have been your favorite things about being,

because you know, you're from North Carolina, you know, it's, you're a

little smaller, but you're outside of Raleigh, so it's not, not so

small that Raleigh's a very big city.

So how do you, what do you liking about, uh, old, old Dominion and Norfolk?

What, what are some of your favorite things?

Um, well, I mean, obviously living in the townhouse across from the field.

Yeah.

That was, yeah.

This is amazing.

I mean, not being in the dorm is pretty cool.

Uh,

who are your roommates?

Uh, hunter, Chris and Brody.

Okay.

Okay.

That's pretty good.

That's pretty solid.

Yeah.

Good house.

Good house.

Solid house.

Solid.

Good group of guys.

Yeah.

All right.

Um, but I mean, I love, I don't know, I love being here.

I love the city and everything, you know, everything's close to campus and I love

fishing, so I go to, in the fall, I go to beach a lot and fish off the surf.

Um,

oh, nice.

That's one of, that's one of the fun things that I do.

So what's

been your best catch so far, being down

there at the beach?

Um, I've caught a few good blue fish this last fall.

I didn't catch any red fish running at all, so I struck out there,

but I think I probably caught like a five pound blue fish.

That was a pretty good catch.

So,

yeah.

Sure.

Yeah.

You're, you're a big hunter too, right?

Uh, yeah, when I can.

I mean, I just

mm-hmm.

Not

here, Rob.

Yeah.

Not nor There's no time up here now.

Yeah,

okay.

You gotta find you some spaces down in like Franklin or Sussex

a little farther out in the

middle

of nowhere.

We've in, uh, in Danville before, so that's a little fall from here.

But Danville and Blairs is where we hunted at when I was younger.

There's, yeah, Danville, um, used to have a, a Braves minor league team, so

I would go out there once or twice a year, watch 'em, and my, my directions

for going to Danville is just get on 58, drive East until you wanna kill

yourself, and then drop about an hour more than you're in Danville.

That's the way it's, it's, yeah.

Just so long going dead east.

Now for you, it's just going straight up.

It's actually pretty close.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we always ask the question, you know, what are the bullpen hijinks?

This year we've, we've gotten a number of different answers.

We've had, uh, we've had Jay Song, we've had Lenon, we've had

a bunch of different guys on.

But, uh, any, any new shenanigans develop over the weekend out there in the bullpen.

Uh.

I mean, not really that I can think of.

I mean, we play hacky sack every day.

I mean, that's kind of, that's the thing.

Um, but I mean, I don't think, I don't think anything really crazy

went on in the bullpen this weekend.

Still

during the season?

Yeah.

We were fired up when we took the lead though.

Or, or started, you know, clawing back at it.

Everyone in there was getting hyped.

So

Now are you a big, uh, yelling guy for the bench?

Sometimes I can't exactly tell 'cause it's, you know,

just a lot of guys yelling.

Are you a big, uh, shouting, yelling guy on the bench?

Uh, yeah.

I mean, I yell every now and then.

Uh, for sure.

I mean, I don't know.

I think every, I mean, the pitchers are the pitchers down the end of the dugout.

I mean, we get fired up.

Yeah.

You guys gotta bring the energy.

Yeah.

The hitter is all, you know, doing their hitter nerd thing.

Yeah, the gotta gotta bring the energy.

Yeah, but I mean, you know, I'm sure you saw us standing on the,

on the bleacher the whole time.

When it gets tight, we get up on the top step too, and it's

great.

That's little high there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's one thing that the, the, the new, the bench setup where like there's

like the, the second bench in front that's really making it interesting.

You feel a little more on top of the game, especially you guys are doing that.

Yeah.

I mean, and I think what we yell, uh, what we yell all the time, like when,

you know, a crazy play that not normally happens in a baseball game, you know, it's

welcome to the bud and stuff like that.

Yes, I

heard that several times yesterday.

Yeah, that's a good

one.

Yeah, it was funny.

It was before the first game on Saturday, you know, getting ready for

first pitch and I, I saw Niagara, a bunch of their guys pop up on that

second level and I heard our dog.

I was like, oh, okay.

Okay.

And I saw just a ton of heads pop up.

Is that like a competition to get the, the better head count

on the second level there?

I don't know.

I mean, I've just noticed in every tight game we've had, it is every

towards the end, everyone's up on the top, the, the top, top of the bench.

Yeah.

It's, it's funny,

I mean, it seemed like there was kind of a friendly back and forth

with Niagara at the benches.

It's like you guys were, were both, I actually, the umpires got upset

about it, but it, like, at the end of the day, y'all were all both

just having fun, getting rowdy.

Does it feel that way?

Yeah, no doubt.

I mean, we were, I mean, we were getting after it was a good competition.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

Well, how much are you all hearing in the dugout from those outfield bleachers?

Because I feel like I was kind of screaming into the void at some

points there on Friday and Saturday.

I mean, I can definitely hear, uh, I can definitely hear y'all out there for sure.

I mean, maybe not, maybe not all the yelling, but, uh, you know, when a big

hit happens, I mean, it's, it's awesome to see everyone go nuts out there.

I heard a Niagara fan very clearly at one point, 'cause the

umpire was doing such a bad job.

It was like, figure it out.

I was like, yeah, I'm, I'm with you man.

You're, you're correct.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Early in the first game on Saturday, I felt like Scotty Young was sitting next

to me when he turned and said something to TJ and center, like two outs or whatever.

Just the way the sound bounces off those bleachers is kind of funny.

You feel like you're in the outfield conversations there.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

I know my parents like it out there too.

They told me it's, yeah.

Pretty awesome.

Yeah.

Nice.

Well, cool.

Well, Cole, we appreciate you hopping on with us here.

Uh, especially on a Sunday after a double header.

Uh, you know, you were gonna get some rest, but really appreciate you coming on.

We're just really happy for you and to see you come back and be successful after

everything you've been through, man.

It's, it's inspiring for a lot of people out there.

Yeah.

I appreciate it.

Thank you guys for having me.

We appreciate it.

Thanks so much.

Excited

for you, man.

All right.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Cool.

It's a good kid, man.

Yeah, I, I, I had a chance to, to see him pitch there.

It was great.

He, pro five came and played the game at Bryan Stratton, so I got to see him

make a start, um, right here in Virginia Beach in our own backyard, and got to

talk to him a little bit, and he and his parent, they're just great people again.

You know, we, we talked about they were TJ and the whole team.

Yeah.

Taking care of your, what was it, cousins, wife's kids, whatever,

wife's cousins,

whatever.

I'm

sure there's a

shorter version for that.

I'm just not smart enough

to know it.

So sorry.

That's it.

Sounds like a nephew to me.

Yeah,

that's basically what I call, so that was, that's that's what I,

yeah, it's a nephew to me, but Yeah.

But I mean, it's just again, what it is, just really just wonderful

people and Yeah, it is, it, it's, you wanna tell the story, but at the same

time it's like, Hey man, like this.

He's, he's his own great guy and he is, he is got his own

talent and, you know, uh, yeah.

We don't wanna make him, he's not the o only the story about the brain injury,

but it is, it is important to talk about.

It's, it's a big deal.

Mean through that.

His, his performance in that second game Saturday is a key reason why we won.

Like, 'cause if that game gets a little more outta hand, you're, you're definitely

throwing in the towel at that point and just kind of going through the motions.

So kept the Senate, there

was a lot of stacking zeros for sure.

Yeah, I, I love that.

Um, that's, I love that, that comment.

Great.

That's, that's gonna, that may need to become a t-shirt at

some point here in the future.

Stack, stack od stack.

Yeah.

Well, let's, uh, let's stack some, not zeroes.

They were heroes.

Oh, look at that.

Uh, some of our, our, our players of the week, uh, so these are our

guys who have not won it this year because it's only the second week.

Nobody's hardly won it.

Um, so JJ Gatti, he had a really good start.

Came, I had a nice, good long conversation with him before the

game, uh, Friday, talking about just being too amped up the week before.

And, um, you know, talking about, you know, he had conversations all week with