Outfielder Scotty Young joins the show to talk about his grand slam, hitting a homerun off Zach Leite and where he's playing this summer. Coach Finwood hops on to chat about the VCU and Louisiana games then a look ahead to ULM.

Yeah, yeah.

Hello Monarch fans and welcome to the Hudson Homers podcast.

I'm Gary CB here.

As always, I feel like we spent almost the whole weekend together

and we, we saw each other a lot.

Yeah, I was, saw you what?

Thursday and then, um, we, yesterday we both went down, saw John Holobetz

pitch for the Mudcats and then, we'll, we'll talk about that a little later.

'cause, uh, that, that was an awesome day yesterday.

Yeah, it was our, our Sunday pallet cleanser.

After a week, I think that the team would like to forget that

I think fans are gonna wipe.

Uh, fall into VCU and kind of a slug fest on Tuesday at War Memorial, 16 to 13,

uh, two really close games with Louisiana on Thursday and Friday we split that.

And then Sunday, we're just gonna watch that one from the memory bank

and start looking forward to the other team from Louisiana, from Monroe.

Yeah, it was, yeah.

But, uh, we're changing things up a little bit for this episode.

Uh, coach Finwood gonna join us later.

Uh, but we are actually going to have Scotty Young, uh, I guess

outfielder extraordinaire for the, yeah, for the Monarchs.

Join us here.

So we're gonna bring Scotty on.

Guys, how's it going?

Thanks for having me.

Hey, Scotty.

What's up man?

I'm excited.

Scotty's awesome.

I just, before he even starts talking, you guys find out, like the first

day I met him back in the fall, I was like, this dude's the best.

Like this guy is such a genuine good kid, man.

So I'm happy to here, man.

Appreciate you being a monarchy.

I'm excited.

I've been, I've been waiting to get on, so I'm, I'm fired up.

There we go.

We

love it, man.

Well, hopefully we bring you some, some good luck with it.

But we know that your schedule is packed this evening with the Golden Monarch

Awards going on here in a little bit.

So appreciate your time.

But, uh, you had a, had a pretty good week this week hitting a grand slam

against VCU, which made me a VCU hater.

Very, very happy.

Yes.

Nice.

Uh, take, take us through that at Batman.

That was a big one for us at the time.

No, man.

It, it was a ton of fun and um, obviously with, with runners in scoring

position, less than two outs, uh, looking to get, get the ball in the air.

And that starter wasn't bad for a midweek guy and he was like 92,

95 with decent slider and, um.

No, I, I, after, after my first at bat, he got me O2 and ended up walking me.

So I, I feel like I'd seen eight pitches from him and had a good idea

of what both pitches were gonna do.

Um, he, he got me good in a one one count with a good slider down, down in the dirt.

I was looking for be on time for the fastball.

So I just swung through it and I had a good idea.

One, two, he was gonna go back to it, so I was ready for it.

And that's my sweet spot loading in.

It probably wasn't even a strike.

It was, it was pretty much at my feet.

But I love golfing.

It was pretty low.

Yeah, I, it was funny 'cause I, I'm, you know, I'm looking through the

camera and, you know, something I could tell, I was like, that's a hit.

And then I'm kind of looking, I'm like, wait, that's out.

Like, like it was, I was, you know, 'cause I mean, you, you know, you're

not a guy I think of as somebody who's gonna hit whatever the fence.

I mean, you're, you're people don't know you're six six, yes, you're a giant human.

Uh, but the way you hit, it's more like, you know, you're like kind of

more like a slash gap kind of guy.

Yeah.

And like you're next at bat you had a bunt single, so you kind of saw like

the full range of what you can do athletically out there to that night.

No, it was a good time and obviously a good feeling to get that first one.

And, um, no, it was, it was good.

And I was telling everyone in the dugout the pitch before I looked

stupid on the slider, so I was just baiting him into throwing it again.

That's funny trick.

Yeah.

You, you say you looked dumb on the pitch before you hit a

grand slam next to bat single.

Oh, it's a, a rare line these days, I feel like.

There it is.

Yep.

Oh, well, awesome.

Well, we'd love to hear a little bit about your journey to ODU.

'cause I, I know you bounced around a couple places originally from California,

but how did, how did you pathway yourself here to, to Norfolk, to ODU?

No, obviously this is my, uh, fifth, fifth school in four years,

which you don't hear too often.

So I've been around town.

Um, I started in, um, Cal State Northridge, which is right outside of

Hollywood in the Big West over there.

Um, just didn't work out.

It was co backed up with Covid.

There was like nine, nine or 10 outfielders.

Um, so it was the best decision for me and my family at the time to move

home and, and enroll in junior college.

Um, so I, I, that spring, I played my freshman year at Santa Ana College.

Um, good competitive junior college team.

They, they actually won the California State title, uh, in 2023.

Um, but I was looking for a spot to play summer ball and one of

my buddies invited me out to play in the A CBL out in New Jersey.

Um, so it worked out for me there.

I was gonna go play summer ball after my freshman year in New

Jersey and I loved it out there.

It was just a great, great opportunity for me to get away from home and

really only focus on baseball.

Um, and I got to live with, got to live with my coach out

there and we had a great time.

He had like.

Seven or eight animals at the house.

And he just took me in, took me in as, as his own.

And it was really one of the best summers of my life.

Like just getting to go and, and play every day and, um, get along

with a bunch of new teammates.

And just the experience of knowing, really knowing who you are was pretty cool.

Um, obviously like there was a couple times I got to hit a, everyone saw me

as this big giant lefty and you just had a right routine ground ball to second

and I was so fast I could beat it out.

So it's cool to get a couple of those under your belt and, um, no, it was a

great time and there was a couple of my teammates that, um, played for Rowan

College of South Jersey, um, and they're like, Hey man, we we're really, really in

the running for a national championship next year and, and we need a piece.

So, um, I wanted to go, went to talk to Coach Val over there and,

um, somehow convinced my parents to let me move across the country

and the rest was history there.

Man.

We, we lost four games all year and.

Pretty much blew through the, um, junior College National National Championship

and, um, down in, in Johnson City, Tennessee, which was a great experience.

And from there, um, I got recruited to go to Rutgers.

Um, had a great time there.

I learned a lot, developed a lot as a player.

Um, obviously took, understood what it took to play at the D one level.

Um, I got to compete in, in the last three conference series, um,

at Rutgers, hitting at the DH spot.

And I feel like I, I proved I could play at that level.

I hit, hit over 300 and had like a over a two to one walk to strike out ratio.

Um, and had a good time.

And, and from there, this last summer I went up to compete in the

Northeast Collegiate Baseball League.

Um, great competitive league.

Had a good time there, made the All-Star team and, um, Ryan Feynman

actually came out for like a week, week straight and came to like six of my

games and we, we connected really well.

And that's where.

We hit it off and he recruited me down here.

And then he left you?

Yes.

Then he did leave me.

No, it's funny, all of all of the division one schools that I've been,

I've been to three division one schools, all of the recruiting coordinators

have left before I've gotten there.

Funny enough.

Wow.

That's

uh, that's rough, man.

No, it is crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I remember it was, it was, it was cool.

The first thing I saw when we got you from Rutgers, I was

like, oh man, we played Rutgers.

Like did.

Yep.

And I went and looked And you didn't play in that series.

Um, but I know, you know, you were there with our guy, Joey Dero.

He was there.

Um, he went to Rutgers for his last year.

Yep.

And he, I, so we were on the, the, the bad side of him having a great day.

He had to come out, get the save against us, you know, come back

to his all stomping grounds.

And what was that like being on his team in that moment?

Oh yeah.

That was the, one of, that was probably the most special moment I've

seen in person on a baseball field.

Um, it was.

Just that, that big homecoming feeling for him.

Like he, he'd been through a lot, man.

And um, I, I know that was like, you could see it in his eyes when he went out there.

Like he was just so determined.

And I love Joe and I'm sure you guys too, he is just such a great

kid and worked so hard and, um, that, that was a big moment for him.

And getting to celebrate that with him was, was definitely awesome.

He cooked us too.

Yeah.

He cooked us without half inning and it got to save.

Well it was, it was great.

'cause you know, again, I, I wish, obviously I wish we won 'cause it's

all dominion, but I great for him.

But it was, he almost like kind of did what he did a lot of the

times at ODU where he almost kind of walked too many guys.

Exactly.

And kind of blew it.

And so it was, it was pretty great to see him like, overcome it

and, and get to have that moment.

Yeah.

I mean it was, you can't ask for a better, better thing for a better guy.

No,

that was, that was really something special.

And he, he honestly was such a big part.

Of my recruiting process here.

Like, he kept telling me, like, I knew, I knew I was leaving Rutgers,

like early May, and he kept telling me, Scotty, you're not going

anywhere else but Old Dominion.

I'm telling you, you're, you're going there and you're not going anywhere else.

Um, so no, we, we had a good time over at Rutgers and we

definitely have a special bond.

We'll be friends for life and get to experience.

That moment for him was awesome.

Look at Joey d. Future recruiting coordinator for Old Dominion.

Sounds like.

Oh yeah.

Love

it.

Well, we had a, a pretty special moment on, on Friday.

I think I'm getting my days right.

I'm all thrown off this week.

With a Thursday.

Yes.

What's Friday?

Yeah.

Uh, but Evan Holman gets the walk off hit to win it for us.

A, a big win that, that, you know, we definitely needed to at least

get one game outta that series.

Uh, fun celebration on the field at Harbor Park.

Uh, what was that like for, for the guys, you know, in the moment

and, and shortly thereafter when you're heading back to campus?

For sure.

No E hole's, one of those guys.

You, you just can't help but root for man and seeing him go on a tear

and he works harder than anyone else.

Um, and he, he's never one, like, he's just such a humble kid.

Like he's never one to take the glory for himself.

So when, when guys like that do it, you're just so fired up and everyone can't

help but smile and, and be so excited and obviously a huge, huge win for us.

Um, so him stepping up in that moment was not only big for us, but big for

him too, and huge confidence booster, especially coming off the huge

Georgia Southern game he had for us.

And, um, you, you don't want, you can't root against guys like that man.

It's just so special and so exciting for him.

He was such a good guy.

It was such a big moment that you had to spear tackle him

in the outfield afterwards.

Oh, yeah.

Well, no, we were, we were running full speed tracing him out into the outfield,

and Luke had given him a couple shoulder checks and he didn't go down, so I

was like, all right, that's enough.

I'm running right through his chest.

I paid the price though.

That Gatorade dump, I don't know how they got it out there so fast.

It felt like, oh, yeah, since I hit the ground, the Gatorade, I was just soaked.

But no, it was good.

Yeah, they were

coordinated.

It was, I, I can't remember who it was.

It was LaVar and somebody and they, they were out there, were ready to go.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

I mean, you were 75 a hundred feet in the right field by, I think

that thing made it out there.

That was your cardio for the day.

That's awesome.

That's my favorite thing in baseball though, is the guy hits a walk

off and you guys are just trying to like literally murder him.

Yes, precisely.

Yes.

Yes.

After you just been beaten up behind the plate for most of the game.

Oh, I think he, I was thinking about, he was our guest last week we had him

on and we were talking about like kind of all the little bruises and cuts,

and he's got a little bit less wear and tear this year, but I'm pretty sure in

that game, maybe two innings before he took a foul ball right off the thigh.

And I was like, ah, yeah,

I know.

Oh

no.

He's a trooper and he is, we've gotten a lot, me and him have gotten a lot closer

over these last three weeks and, um, he's just a really special human being.

Um, great kid, great teammate, just great all around.

Um, and he, he is really good player and it's, it's showing this year he is won,

won some big games for us on his back.

And coming up in those big moments is, is special, um, for

him and, and for us as well.

Now, what's it been like for you now?

Like you talked about two years ago?

You're there at Rowan.

Um, and you know, you, I, I got the stats actually in front of me.

I mean, you were a dog that year, right?

Yeah.

Like you, you had, uh, you hit what, 4 41?

Yeah.

Uh, with 1,096 OPS, uh, where we got 10 doubles, eight homers, 16 steals.

Like, you, you were the dude, right?

And then, you know, you go to Rutgers, like I said, didn't play here.

You had 26 of the bats all year.

Yeah.

You've got more of bats already this season.

You got 38 at bats, you know.

So what's that like for you going from, you know, I'm sure in high

school you played every day.

Yeah.

And then you have the year there, Santa Ana, you were playing kinda about

half the time and then playing all the time at Rowan, and then last couple of

years kinda having to adjust to, you know, finding your spots here or there.

What, what's that been like for you?

No, it's been, it's been difficult for sure.

And, um, obviously I. I would say pinch hitting's one of the hardest

things to do in sports, man.

Like coming, coming off the bench and I was talking about it with someone,

someone the, this weekend, it's like, dude, we, we we're in a spot to pinch

hitting and we're like, dude, we have not swung a bat in five hours.

Like you're just, you're really like sitting there.

It's like, man, we took BP five hours ago.

And um, well 'cause it's not like an

ODU, which you, you haven't experience, you can just go over

to the cage during the game at odu.

Exactly.

A hundred percent right?

A hundred percent.

No, it's, it's, it's been tough, man.

Um, but I think a lot of it is more mental than it is physical.

Um, 'cause I've proven to myself, I, I can do it, man.

And um, just, just continuing to stay prepared throughout

the game and, um, when, when my name's called on is to be ready.

And I think that that's my role this year and I think I've

done a really good job of that.

Um, when, when my name's been called on, um, I've been prepared

and I think I've come, come through for the team when they need me.

Yeah.

Well, and, and I hate to cut you off, Gary, but I got one more follow up

question to, to go right with that.

'cause I know I always cut you off, Gary.

I'm sorry.

I'm the worst.

You're good.

You're good.

I'm a terrible teammate.

I don't unlike Scotty, but kind of what I was gonna say is kind of to go with that.

You are, you're a big like glue team guy.

Like you're really, you, you could really tell, like you're, you're a big

part of like keeping everybody light, keeping everybody happy for sure.

Like, is that, is that something you think about and focus on

or just kind of who you are?

I would say that's more of who I am as a person and how my parents have raised me.

Um, yeah, they've, they've always, um, pushed me to

always keep a smile on my face.

Um, always lift people up.

And I think that's just who I am as a person.

Um, just I see the best in people and I know I have it in me to

bring out the best in people.

Um, so I, I keep that as, as my role on the team is just to keep people

in the best mood that they can be.

Mom and dad talked to the pterodactyl sounds.

Oh yeah, they did.

Is that what those are?

I was wondering that

Oh yeah.

We've found, we, we have our fun too.

I, there's no, no shame in that.

Yeah.

Well you, you seem like you're very well traveled person going from

basically coast to coast and, and different schools going up to, to

Jersey and then down here to Norfolk.

And obviously unique season with no true home games.

And there was a stretch there where I felt like you all were on the road

for like a month straight and Yep.

You were like never, never coming back home, you know?

What's that experience been like for you and then also just how

you've been able to gel with the team being your first year here?

No, it's a good time.

Um, obviously the, the bus trips.

The plane trips, some of 'em were long.

Some of 'em, oh, we were just grinding 'em out for sure.

But no, it's been, it's been an awesome experience.

We got to play at some beautiful, awesome places and awesome environments.

Um, I wouldn't trade it for anything, man.

It, it was something really special and I think it, it strengthened us as a team.

Um, but we've also seen sort of the backside of it.

So, um, no, it was, it was a great.

Great pre-conference, uh, experience for us and, and for me as well because I

love traveling and, um, we made it fun.

We have some bus games we're planning in and out, so we made it work.

Gotta do something to, to knock off the hours on that long bus ride,

for sure.

Yep.

Um,

well, I know you're, you're listed as a senior on the website.

Like are you out of eligibility after this year or what, what's, what's things

look like for you beyond this season?

No.

Yeah, with the new, with the new junior college rule ruling thanks to

Pave over at Vanderbilt, um, I was granted an extra year of eligibility.

Um, due to, I think what the, what the ruling is now is any player in

their last year of eligibility that has played a season of junior college

will be granted the 2026 season.

Right.

Well, that's,

that is good.

Easy.

A small window.

Yeah.

It's like you and like Maverick and uh, Slater.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, there's a, there's a few of us that are effects and, um, but obviously

there's, there's the bounce with the, the roster cuts gotta get down to 34 as well.

Um, so it is, it does create some havoc, so, um, just gotta keep

grinding out and, um, proven I can do it on the field and, yeah.

See where, see where the wind blows.

Yeah.

As I was talking to Hobe there yesterday with the, you know, playing pro and

I said, Hey man, all you can ever control is what you do a hundred.

It doesn't matter where you are.

That's, that's the only thing you can, you can worry about.

Exactly.

Yeah.

We'll get to another thank you card I have to send to Diego over there at Vanderbilt.

Now he's, he's been a, he's been a good one for a number of reasons,

but, oh yeah, yeah, for sure.

Um, it'll be interesting to see with the roster cuts too, because I don't

think that is all fully settled out yet.

I think there's still an ongoing court case and.

A big, I think it's gonna end up landing where it's a phased in approach so that we

don't end up with that, that crazy shock.

But who knows?

You could have a different court case in a different state rule, something different

and dunno, but, uh, we'll, uh, we'll, we'll find it out, but, uh, good to hear.

At least you, you know, good, you got, got that extra year ability.

I know.

Yeah, I'm,

I'm excited for sure.

Yeah, that's

good,

man.

Awesome.

All right, go ahead, sbe.

Uh, I was probably gonna ask one question you always like to ask.

So who are you living with this year?

Oh,

so I'm with Tahraun and Zach.

We've had, we've had house we're, we're down a little bit down

the road on 48th Street, right.

On the water.

Um, but no, we have, we're having a real good time.

Zach and I definitely have gotten a lot closer and, um, we, Zach and I

actually grew up, I should have sent you the video, cb I always get him

with this one, but I grew up like 10 minutes down the road from Zach.

Um.

Senior year of high school, it was his junior year.

We're playing, we're playing his high school team in a big

conference game, and the poor coach decided to put Zach on the mound.

Man, I, I hit a ball like 455 feet off of him, so I'll send you a video.

It's a good one.

The best part, you would never recognize it, Zach, either.

He looks like he's 165 pounds.

Like a stick up there.

Yeah, it's awesome.

And you just took him yard?

Took

yard.

Yeah.

So we, we smoked them the first game of the series and then second game of the

series, we went to their place and it was a one, one game and his twin brother

comes in the last inning to close it.

I don't know if you guys knew Zach had a twin brother.

Great kid.

I, I met his brother.

I didn't realize they were twins.

That's, yeah.

No, yeah, they're,

it's, they're identical twins.

It's awesome.

Um, comes in to close the seventh inning.

Their starter went like six one run and one run game dog fight.

His twin brother throws seven innings of relief.

Into the thir into the 13th inning.

And it was, it was like the poor high school didn't have lights.

So it was bottom.

It was, yeah.

Bottom of the 14th inning.

And the umpire goes, all right, if you guys get out of this inning, it's a tie.

There's no light left.

Get down to two outs, two strikes and center fielder for Xavier are now

Aiden Anderson hits a walk-off bomb.

Oh,

we were so obsessed.

But, um, no, we came out, we came out the Friday and ended up

winning the series against them.

So I'll, I'll always have that over him, which is awesome.

Well, that a 450 foot bomb.

That's, that's hilarious.

Oh, don't know.

We

pull up, I pull up that video weekly.

No, that's awesome.

That's great.

Anytime you want.

Anytime he wants to talk crap.

I'm just like, oh, Zach, did you see his face?

No, it's good.

It's good

stuff.

Uh, just having

Loop.

I have a buddy that was a, he was a, like a, literally a bullpen catcher for

the Monarchs back and like, you know, ear early two thousands and he only got

like 10 at bats his whole college career.

But one of 'em, he, they were playing Norfolk State and this guy Eric

Crozier, who ended up playing the big leagues for the Blue Jays and a few

teams, he, he was the first baseman he came into pitch and my buddy

Kevin got a, got a single off of him.

Nice.

So that's always one.

He saw him a few years later.

He was playing against the Tides.

It was like, Hey man, I got a single off you in in college.

He's like, Hey man, you could never, never take it away from you.

A hundred percent.

No, that's, that's probably the biggest thing I'll take to the grave

is my first high school, my first varsity hit was off Paul Skeens.

Let's go.

Yes.

Some some I'm gonna take down.

That's probably the best thing I'll do on a baseball.

Yeah, that's, I, yeah.

I think you could pretty, you could frame that one.

That's a, that's a pretty good one.

He's, he's gonna be doing some big things in the league from here on.

That's awesome.

I saw him with Team USA when one of our guys, uh, Cardinal Crisis playing there.

He was still with the Air Force and he just came out.

I didn't even know who he was.

Came outta the bullpen.

Like, who the hell is this guy?

Just gas.

Disgusting.

Yeah, he was, it was junior year against us.

He was like, he would catch six innings and then he went

up there and was like 94, 95.

We're like, what the geez.

Freak of nature.

Ugh.

All right.

Well the, the other question we ask everyone that comes on is, uh,

you've got the college elements, MOB, the show, you got college,

football, game back, all that.

So what would be your overall rating if they were to make a college baseball game?

And then what attribute area would you have the highest rating

in, like contact versus lefties?

Righties.

What, what would your ratings be?

I, I would push my speed the furthest for sure.

Um, I like to like to flex myself as, as a good runner.

And, uh, that would, that would be my attribute and I

would have that 99 steel card.

Right now, the game's broken.

I don't know if you guys have seen it.

If someone has a 99 steal, they, and you even, you can throw a pitch

out and they'll still be safe.

It's disgusting.

Wow.

Wow.

They need to go in and and fix that.

But no, that's what I would give myself overall.

I'd probably give myself around an 85 right now.

Um Okay.

Not too good.

Not too bad.

But I'd make sure Zach, Zach plays that game religiously, so

I'd make sure I'd be on his team.

Oh, he, he was, uh, hard and quick.

99 overall, his, uh, self rating there.

I'm gonna go yell at him after this.

There's, there's, yeah, there's two schools we find.

There's the guys like you who are like, we get a lot of like 82 to 85.

You know, the guys who are like, I'm gonna be honest, I'm still high, you

know, but you know, you could, you could, especially like a lefty pitcher.

They good.

82 in a game's great, right?

Yeah.

And then you get the guys like Zach, who are like, oh, 99.

I'm awesome.

He's terrible.

Yeah.

It was him and, uh, Kenny Levari last year was like a quick 99 with

99 throwing strength ready to go.

Oh, that's too good.

Oh, that's awesome.

Well, I, I know you're, you're heading over to the, the Golden Monarch Awards.

Yes.

Uh, here, here shortly.

I wasn't even aware of really what they were, CB's Got 'em.

But sounds like we got some, uh, some guys from the team.

They're gonna be potentially getting some awards tonight.

Oh yeah.

We're, we're looking for Eddie to bring home that Mr. Monarch Award for us.

Um, then obviously our, our leader in ODU through it, through, it's

rare you get a guy that, um, has wrecked the school for all four years.

So, um, something special for him.

I hope he can take that home.

And then, uh, we have Zach running up for Newcomer of the Year Award.

Um, obviously.

Had had a great year for us and um, is doing a lot of special things out there.

And, um, Efrin with the best game face award, um, CB sponsored that big,

that big picture from a big double.

He hit screaming, screaming into our dugout, so hopefully

he can bring that one home.

Um, another pretty cool one would be EOLs performance over at Georgia Southern.

Um, double in a grand slam in the same inning, which is pretty sweet and rare.

So, um, no, it'll be, it'll be a fun night.

Everyone's dressing up, so yes, um, it'll be good for all of us to get

together and get some good food in us and enjoy the night for sure.

That's one of the things I really

like is that they have like, all the athletes get together and do different

things and yeah, I remember like there was a, a soccer match like really in

the year where like, I think y'all had some like the big athletic meeting,

the early season and like then I'm standing there like every athlete in the

entire school comes, comes walking by up in the stands and it a good, y'all

are just there for like, the amount of time they make you be there, but still,

like you say, yeah, have a good time.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah, I, I saw on Thursday at the game down at Harbor Park.

I know women's lacrosse was there.

I know swimming was there, there were a couple other teams there.

Women's

soccer was there.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

So it's always nice.

Yeah.

It's even better at the bud.

I know you haven't got the experience that this year, but you normally can

pick out pretty much someone from every team in the stands for just

about every baseball game for sure.

Cool.

And, uh,

also tb, I wanted to drop to you.

I, I just signed my contract for, um, the Peninsula Pilot, so

I'll be staying home this summer.

Let's go.

I know.

Excited.

I'm hype man.

That's, that's awesome.

That worked out.

So you're, you're about to have a blast, dude, like this.

I think most guys will tell you that's about the most

fun you could possibly have.

Like they, they really just set you up.

Well, you get to just relax, like you said.

Relax, just play ball for sure.

Dude, that's, I'm, my mom's gonna be very happy, so you're

gonna get a lot of cookies.

Oh, I can't wait.

Her cookies are the absolute best.

You're not gonna be as

skinny of the summer.

Even a couple years ago when I played in, in Moorhead, getting,

getting to experience that ballpark, they pack it out and, um.

It's, it's always a good time there.

So I'm, I'm really excited and get to play a lot of baseball,

which I'm looking forward to.

That's great, man.

I'm, I'm excited about

that.

It'll, it'll be very much used to that backdrop there and the

wind and all that fun stuff.

Yeah.

I'll tell you, I am not sad that the rest of our home games are at War

Memorial instead of, uh, Harbor Party.

That, that wind blowing in is brutal.

I know.

I got, I got bit by that wind on one of 'em.

Eho had E Hole, got bit by it this weekend, and man, it's just Wicked.

Yeah.

Brutal Harbor.

I mean, what that says, Harbor Park is beautiful.

It's, it's a, it's a wonderful park.

It's a great place to play.

The vibe at War Memorial is more us, it's more Odu U Lunch pail,

like where to go, you know?

Yeah.

Gritty.

Yeah.

So I, I, again, love Harper Park.

I would never say a bad word about it.

Been to a million games there.

A hundred percent Love war memorials.

Just, it's our vibe, man.

So I, I'm excited about it.

We got six more there.

Okay.

For sure.

Awesome, Scotty, well, we'll let you run and get all dressed up

fancy for the awards tonight.

Awesome.

Uh, but I appreciate you coming on with us.

It was great to chat with you man.

And, uh, we'll be rooting you guys on, uh, while you're down in Monroe this weekend.

Awesome.

I had a great time guys.

Thank you so much.

Thanks Scott.

Thanks Scott.

Appreciate you man.

Care.

Good kid, man.

Yeah, that was,

that was awesome.

We need to kick it off with players every time.

Maybe that, that's the momentum swing.

We need to change the vibe to get the players in.

Set the move.

Hey, it's whatever works, man.

So, yeah.

No, Scotty's awesome.

That, that's, that's glad we got a chance to talk to him.

That's, that's a guy, like from day one I was like, we get him on the podcast.

Yes.

Yeah.

Only it took us episode 14, but hey, we've, we've got quite a few guys.

Yeah.

Uh, also happy to hear he is got another year of eligibility left.

That's a, that's a good thing.

I played for the

pallets all summer.

It'd be great.

That's, that's really fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I will be getting down to some pilots games this year.

I just, I love that ballpark.

It reminds me a lot of the high school field that I played at where it's just

that old school ballpark field now.

Yeah.

War Memorial has that really cool kind of event space out there, off the mm-hmm.

The left field side and the kind of rooftop aspect.

And then, you know, they'll have the, uh, the draft beer

cart, uh, open there as well.

Yeah.

Always be.

Yeah.

They,

they put on a good time pilots game.

'cause you, you have, have you been down for pilots game?

You've just been down for the U Games, right?

I, I

think I've, I think the only pilots game I went to was many, many

years ago and I stumbled upon it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's, I mean, it's one of those, like, I, there was one year, I mean this was back

in like 2008 or something, I was talking to, I think it was Chris Boggs is one

of our guys, and he was like, yeah, I'm gonna play over the pilots for the summer.

I'm like, I don't know what that is.

And he, he said, then all of a sudden I'm like, oh, this

is what I do all summer now.

Go to the pilots games.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It, uh, it, it looks awesome, so we're, we're pumped about it.

Well, I, I see Coach Finwood has popped up backstage, so we're gonna take

a quick break and we'll come back.

We'll have Coach Finwood and a little update from the Carolina Mudcats as well.

Alright.

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.

All right.

I'll leave you in suspense.

No more welcome to the show coach, Chris Finwood.

How's it going, if any?

Hey,

hey guys.

Gary cb.

How you guys doing?

Good, man.

Good to see you.

Yep.

Good to be seen.

Yeah,

we had, uh, we had Scotty Young on here a little while ago.

He was great to know him a little bit more.

He is fun, isn't he?

Yeah.

That's a good kid, man.

He is a good kid.

Yeah, good kid.

And he's done a good job when he is gotten his opportunities this year.

That's for sure.

Definitely not, and I think he's gonna play for the pilots this summer

was talking about pilots and I know, uh, you know, he hit that Grand Slam

and then Hank called over and said he he wanted them for the summer.

So, hey, I always tell people it's a performance based industry.

Yeah.

So, no, I, I definitely love, you know, me, I, I like on the pilots games anyway,

but it's a lot more fun when we go up and see some ODU guys, so I'm, I love it.

Yeah.

It's exciting to hear.

Yeah.

And we'll have, uh, we'll have, you know, somebody else, I, I got a Hank

and I usually sit down and figure that out towards the end of the season.

Um, we'll have somebody else there, I'm sure.

So that'll be good.

Nice.

Yeah.

Do you, do you think he was more impressed by the Grand Slam or his next to back

coming up and getting a bunt single?

Yeah.

Yeah, the BUNT single was good.

He is gotten a few of those.

He, he runs good.

Um, it's interesting, you know, he, he uses his speed offensively.

Uh, much better than he does defensively, like running the bases.

And he is not a great base Steeler, um, and doesn't get great

jumps in the outfield, but man, he can really go home to first.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's six, six frame can move down that line.

Yeah.

So that's what I've seen.

Don't

expect it.

Yeah.

You don't expect to seeing him.

Uh, when you look at him in there, he is kinda long and lanky, but he

can, he can get rolling down there.

Yeah.

It's not even as fast.

He just takes three steps and he is there.

That's what it's Yeah.

I wish I knew that

feeling.

Yeah.

And you know, we, we weren't able to get him in on, you know, we've

definitely been playing him on Sundays because he's such good energy.

Um.

We couldn't this Sunday be just 'cause f wasn't cleared to catch,

uh, Morales yet coming back from that concussion, uh, he could just dh.

And so, you know, that opens up when, when he can catch it opens

up a spot to DH somebody else and play Scottie in the outfield.

And so we just, you know, weren't able to, to do that.

And hey, I talked to him about it and he understood, but he, um, you know,

we'll, we'll definitely, he is a guy, you know, and someday you need to

play guys with the most energy and, and he is one of those guys for sure.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

We're talking, talking through the games this week.

It was kind of a, a mix of many different types of games.

I feel like I saw a different team each, each game that I watch

or, or listened to on Tuesday.

Uh, but kind of bouncing back to the VCU game, a little bit of a slug fest.

A lot of, bit of a walk fest.

Ugly,

yeah, ugly bad baseball game.

I, I told the guys, I, those are the nights where I, I just can't take it.

Like I, I should have got thrown out in the fourth or fifth inning and outta safe.

I did

the, the guy, the guy wrote you up.

He's like, I'm writing you up.

You're like, good.

Yeah, I drove my truck terrible.

I can leave as soon as you throw me out.

Yeah.

He was, he was awful.

Uh, he was bad.

He was bad.

We were bad.

They were bad.

It was just a bad game.

And, you know, walks and, and just, you know, they, we gave up two grand slams

and it just, you know, the guys that, um, you know, a couple guys threw the ball.

Okay.

Marco actually pitched okay.

Stopped hunt, but too many walks, too many balls, you know, hung or thrown

down the middle with two strikes.

Just not good.

And, um, I. You know, we're not a team typically that's

built to come from behind much.

But we did a couple times that day and then we just kind of ran outta bullets.

But, um, Brody Connors came, you know, came in, hit a home run and

he's been working hard and it's just time to give him a shot.

And, you know, I was, I was really pleased overall with his play.

I thought he played a really solid third base.

He had a couple really hard plays that he didn't make, but he made all

the routine plays and, um, hit the ball hard on the barrel, you know,

didn't have a ton to show for it.

Um, but you know, I, I'm so happy we're never playing at Harbor Park again.

'cause man, we, it probably cost us 10 home runs in the

six games we played there.

Yeah, we,

we were talking about that with Scotty.

A little bit of just, it, it's a beautiful ballpark.

It's a fun place to play, but that wind coming in from right center cutting across

the field just kills anything in the air.

Yeah.

Yeah it is.

And um, you know, it's frustrating 'cause uh, the guys, you know, you

hit a ball hard in college, baseball, uh, you like to get rewarded for it.

And, um, you know, between TJ and Luke, I think in their six games they played

there, man, they probably could have four, easily, four home runs anywhere else.

Yes.

Um, and Brody's ball would've been way out, maybe both of his.

Yeah.

Uh, but that's the field we were playing on and that's how it goes.

So, and like you said, Gary, you know, the, the games were different.

I as, as, as you know, unhappy as it was about how Tuesday went.

I thought we played, I. Really good baseball on, uh, on, on

Friday and, and Saturday overall.

You know, we just came up a little bit short outta the bullpen, um, on

Friday, you know, and they beat us in, in the 10th and Bailey's been good for

us this year and that just wasn't his night, you know, and that, that happens

in the bullpen from time to time.

You gotta have a short memory and you gotta be brave and tough and bounce

back and, you know, we expect to have him out there with a lead late, you

know, the next time we have a chance.

And, um, that was

one, uh, I wanted to ask you about the thought process.

This, this is the Thursday game, actually.

I think you're like me Thursday?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm

off.

So.

You had, you know, Ben best game probably of his, of his career pitched six innings.

Yeah.

Um, and like I would, you know, I, again, I, I've said this before, I

try to think along of what I would do and, you know, me having no experience

of any games and you having thousands of thousands of games experience.

So I, it's, uh, so, you know, I'm thinking along, I'm like, okay, Ben's looking like

he can get through probably six innings.

And then it was like, you know, most of the time we've been putting

Hubble after him and I'm, yeah.

I was thinking Hubble might just go three to finish the game and Yeah.

And he threw too strong.

And then he did put, well,

you, you say that, but he hit two guys.

Yeah, no, I know.

The first inning.

Yeah.

Right.

With a two lefties in the foot with a breaking ball.

But he got out it, right.

Yeah.

His second.

His second inning.

Second inning, he was very good.

Yeah.

And you know, it's just been, they had, they had pinch hit all the lefties.

Mm-hmm.

Bailey has been really good against lefthanded hitters.

Yeah.

And he gets the lead off guy one, two and then he hangs the breaking ball and you

know, it kind of went downhill from there.

So it just didn't work out.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, hub, hub could have thrown Snickers in there, maybe,

you know, gotten through the night.

Certainly.

And, uh, when, you know, when stuff like that happens.

Uh, you know, you always thinking back to what did they do last time?

What did they do last time?

And Hub threw two really good innings at Georgia Southern, and then the

third just ran completely outta gas.

Right.

Um, and we had to get Bailey in that game early, earlier than we wanted to.

Um, so yeah, I mean, it's just, uh, the way this year's going, you know?

Yeah.

Uh, and most of the decisions I make this year are wrong.

No.

And, and see that's the thing is I, I, I, you know, I'm looking

at it and I, you know, yeah.

I thought, well, Hubble will probably go back out, but then you can't fault, okay.

Bailey's your best reliever.

You got him in the game to close it out.

Like there's no, just 'cause thing.

And that's always been one of my major arguments when it comes to things is

just because something didn't work doesn't mean it was a bad choice.

Right?

Like one, one game.

I always go back to the, the Blake Snell of the World Series of the Rays

where he's throwing great, but they take him out because all year they're

playing had been, we won't face the, the lineup third time through the order.

Yeah.

But then the relievers have been amazing all year below the game they lose.

Yeah.

It's like, well, this is a terrible decision.

But if they didn't do that, then it'd be like, well, why are they going

against what they've done all year?

And then they That's right.

Yeah, that's right.

You know, you, something gets wrong just because it didn't

work, because, so I, the Yeah.

The only

talk through, you're a hundred percent right.

And the, you know, the players.

Make the decisions good or bad by how they do, you know?

Um, 'cause you can cut 'em up any way you want, I think in most cases.

Uh, so it, you know, they, um, they chopped that one over a third

basement's head in the top of the 10th with two outs, and it just

didn't kind of work out for us.

Um, and, and Kellen's been a little bit off kilter too

the last few weeks, you know?

Mm-hmm.

He said the breaking ball hadn't been as sharp.

And you know, pitchers go through that, you know, ups

and downs like hitters do too.

So hopefully those guys can work their way through this and come out of it.

Um, and I told the guys they were down.

I said, man, if you play like that, you have a chance to win.

Sometimes you get beat.

I, I can live with that because it was a good college baseball game.

You play a good opponent.

Um, you, you played, you played well.

We just didn't get it done.

You know, they beat us.

That happens.

I'm okay with it.

It was clean.

Ben pitched, like you said, Ben pitched really well.

Um, and then Saturday was the exact same game except we won.

Right.

You know?

Yes.

Uh, and, and we, you know, we got the, we got the big hit in the ninth and, you

know, we had, we'd put Evan in the game.

Um, you know, I thought Dylan again, six innings just cruising.

And then he went out in the seventh and just lost it.

And that's what I think sometimes that the up and down right back to your,

to your point, like college pitchers, uh, they usually don't die slowly.

They, they, they freaking jump off the cliff, you know?

Yeah.

Um, I mean, he gave up a single and then he threw like eight outta

the next nine pitchers were balls.

And all of a sudden the bases are loaded before you can look up.

And, uh, you know, we got baes in the game and I thought he did a good job for us.

Um, his hamstring's still barking at him.

Yeah.

Um, and, you know, and ended up, you know, getting through and, and then,

uh, you know, Schumann comes in and, and we get to hunt in a big moment and

he comes in and strikes, you know, the same kid that got the game wouldn't

hit out in the top of the ninth.

And, um, you know, we, we hit a two oh check swing.

It's just baseball two Oh check, swing back to the mound that, uh, I'm getting

ready to scream at Edwards 'cause he ain't running as hard as he should be.

Yeah.

At all.

Yeah.

Um, the guy, the guy, you know, kind of shop, puts it over there,

hand grenade and he sees it just enough to pick up the pace and.

Um, you know, he gets on on that error and you know, we bun him up.

Brody got a couple good sack buns down in that game.

Yeah.

Great bun.

And um, you know, and then Tanner hit the crap outta that

ball, like that is a home run.

And, and their coach was like, mm-hmm man, I, when he hit

that ball, I said, game over.

And then I looked up flags again and that ball's a home run in

every other park you play in.

Um, and it gets caught.

But then, um, Tanner's had a lot of that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, a lot of our guys have this year just how it's going, but um, and

we had, we had brought Evan in, in the, you know, top of the inning to,

to catch, um, why did you do that?

'cause I was wondering about

that.

I was just curious.

He's just a little bit better receiver blocker, you know, than Jack is.

Um, and I actually meant to put, I actually should have

put him in in the eighth 'cause they had the lefty in the game.

Right.

And.

And Evan's a way better hitter right-handed.

Mm-hmm.

Um, than Jack hitting left on left.

So, uh, anytime we get a chance to get him in there right-handed, we, we try to.

Um, and so, yeah, and then he, he got a big hit for us, you know, second

time in a week he come up with a, a really big hit for us, so we win.

And then Sunday just was not our day, man.

It was like every time they swung the bat, it was a hit.

And we couldn't do nothing about it.

I mean, they, they were very aggressive and Blake was just missing

over the middle of play too much.

And, you know, it was just that day.

Um, it's just one of those games you have to,

to flush.

Yeah.

You right.

Yeah.

You gotta just regroup, forget about it.

Whatever.

Um, you know, we're a an out away from, you know, winning the

series and, um, you know, probably an out away from getting swept.

And so that's, that's how baseball goes.

It balances out and, you know, as I, as I look at it, um, you know, the positive

outta the weekend, I think one of the positives I thought can, and George did

a good job in the lead off spot for us.

I thought he got on base, uh, he cut down with strikeouts, you know, he

hadn't been a great RBI guy anyway.

And so we're like, let's get him in, get him in there earlier and

maybe he can get something going.

So, not that we scored a ton of runs with him doing it, but.

I kind of potentially like the thought of maybe Brody hitting second behind

them because both those guys are, you know, swinging the bat pretty well.

They can both drive the ball as well.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so, you know, I I, TJ had tough luck, you know, weekend, he probably

lined out four or five times I think.

Oh yeah.

Did the outfield and he wasn't very good yesterday or Sunday.

But, you know, so we're, we'll continue to play around with the lineup.

I mean, it's just college baseball, you know, they had three completely

different lineups, all three games.

And I laugh because it's like they're going through it too, trying to figure

out what, what kinda works offensively.

And I was just happy that finally,

uh, a little number one.

I was gonna say finally seeing, uh, Luke have a good weekend.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And Luke, um, Luke's, Luke swung bat better.

He swung bat a better.

He is still, you know, lining out and he finally got a couple numbers

in there to help out some of those.

Um, so, you know that, that little number one for them, man, Mandino.

Yeah.

Uh, he, he led off on Saturday, the game three, and I don't think we got

him out the whole dag on weekend.

I mean, he was, he was a thorn in our side, boy, I tell you.

And he didn't even play much the first two games.

They pinch hit him, you know, uh, later.

But I, I like him.

I think he's a good player.

So, I mean, o overall, pitching wise and everything else,

they had a really good team.

It's interesting, we have not,

we haven't played a team with a losing record yet.

Um, in league play.

Um, at all.

And there aren't many I know, but, um, everybody we've played

is at least 500 or better.

We got, you got three in a row coming up.

We got three in a row coming up and I told the guys, I said,

you gotta win those series.

It's just that simple.

Yeah.

You know, you win those series and you get one from Coastal that's

seven and you know, that's okay.

Um, so that's, that's the goal.

And uh, none, none of it's gonna be easy, but we can do it.

You know, it's up to them, how bad do you want to want to do it?

And, you know, 14, 15 wins gets you in the tournament and that's kind

what we're, what we're looking for.

So,

yeah.

No, I think one thing that was kind of a continuing trend, like, you know,

you won the Friday game against Georgia Southern, it was Thursday this week,

but e even though you lost the game, you got into their starter who had been

really just electric all year long.

I think Chase Morgan is his name.

Yeah.

I mean, he never looked comfortable on the mound.

I don't know if that was a specific approach, but I was encouraged

to see the lineup get into that ace starter for them early.

Yeah, he doesn't look the same.

You know, he was out early in the year with, uh, some shoulder stuff

and, uh, he's been really good since he's been back, but talking to their

coach, you know, uh, before game two, he said, yeah, he just never

looked comfortable out there, man.

He doesn't spray the ball like that.

Hardly, hardly ever.

And he was just a little bit off and we took advantage of, you know,

some of the walks and we were able to catch him some runs and, you

know, get the lead in that game.

So that was good.

Yeah.

Then oddly enough that, you know, Tate Hess coming outta the bullpen though,

and like five and two thirds, I, I was just constantly watching that ERA go

down like, you gotta be kidding me.

This is wild.

I don't think the were the stats right on.

I I think they were putting conference stats up there.

Maybe that's what Yeah, they were

weird stats.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because they, they were all, their relievers came in or their main guys,

and there's no way that, uh, the one kid.

We had only thrown five innings all year.

Yeah.

Um, but, 'cause we had their name in the scouting report, but I, I don't think the,

I didn't look back the stats, but I had somebody else said that, man, they threw

that kid they hadn't pitched all year.

And I go, no, he's one of their three main bullpen guys pitched the lock.

So I think they may have, uh, had just, I don't, I don't know what they had up

there actually, that, that would explain

why it was moving so rapidly with each outer run score.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

Yeah.

He was

pretty

good.

Yeah.

Um, I think I remember saying that to you.

I was like, how is somebody's era a dropping that much this late in the year?

Yeah.

Yeah.

But, you know, um.

Just, uh, continuing with the, with the, with the year.

I mean, the guys, I, I'll say this, we weren't good.

We weren't good Tuesday.

We weren't, well, we didn't pitch good Tuesday.

We sw the bats fine.

Um, you know, you get 13 runs, you should win.

But, uh, Sunday was just, you know, it was just one of those, a handful of days

you're gonna have in a college baseball season where it didn't go our way.

So you gotta wash that, you know, scrub that one off in the shower.

And, um, but the guys are showing up.

They're working hard.

They came out ready to work today and, you know, um, we're trying to

pay particular attention this week on trying to get some extra rest.

Um, because we're able to, we had the Easter off and today was a very light day.

Um, tomorrow, Wednesday we'll practice and then go down and work out in Monroe.

Um.

And just get the batteries back charged up a little bit, hopefully, you know,

and, and see where we can, what we can do.

So,

um, is this, um, did you, when you made the schedule, was it kind of

intentional having a week here where you're not playing a midweek game?

Yeah, I mean, we didn't play 56 because I was like, we tried

to play 56 all in the road.

Like, we'll all be dead.

So, uh, and this was, I tried to take a couple of the weeks where we

were maybe flying or had a longer trip and not played during, you know,

the week and, you know, we just got the, the two midweek left coming up

and they're just a rich and back.

So, not hard trips, but, um, so yeah, hopefully as we get going and, you know,

after this flight, you know, we got home.

Uh, and then JMU is a pretty easy trip, uh, and then home, so, you

know, hopefully we'll, we'll be able to get our batteries charged up

with, and then school gets out too.

You know, and everybody always helps.

Everybody plays better usually when school's out.

So, um, uh, you know, and there there's things that a lot of people

don't think about that, that come up towards the end of the season.

You know, after, after exams and after school's out.

One, are all your guys eligible because if they didn't pass six hours,

they're not eligible to keep playing.

And you hope that doesn't affect anybody.

And it hasn't ever for us.

Um, fortunately we got pretty good students and they, they do their work.

Um, you know, you never know on a year like this where

the guys have missed so much.

Um, yeah.

And then two, you know, are some guys that maybe aren't in the mix, not

traveling, dressing, things like that.

Maybe you gotta, you know, sit down and have conversations with them for.

When school's out, if they're not going to stay, you know, how to help them

kind of in their journey through this.

So it's all, it's all part of it.

There's always something going on and, um, uh, it's, it's, um, it's all a part of

the, part of the, you know, the, the job.

It's, some of it's, most of it's awesome and some of it's, you know, not as much

fun, but it's all necessary and you just try to do the best you can for

the, for the players and their futures.

And, you know, I've had plenty of kids through the years that, uh,

the best thing for them was not to stay where they were, you know, at

our school and play somewhere else.

And I've seen 'em years later.

They went somewhere to a, maybe a lower level and they played every day

and had a great career and graduated.

And you see 'em and you talk to 'em and they're, they're happy as they could be.

Yeah.

Because they want to play.

And it was the right thing for them at that time.

And all of that's okay.

You know?

Um, and then that's, that's the way it is.

And, you know, and, and this crazy, I see all the stuff that's on, um, you

know, Instagram, Facebook, and social media, all that, uh, excuse me, with

the, uh, you know, the football and basketball transfers, the, the number

of athletes, uh, that are in the portal and, and all of those things.

It's gonna be the same way with baseball.

I mean, with having to pair the roster down to, to 34 guys, we still don't

know what it's gonna be for the fall, but they're gonna allow, um, we're

hoping it's 38, uh, and then you gotta cut it to 34 by December 1st, is

what we're thinking is gonna happen.

But that's every single division one school.

Having to knock that number down.

And there's gonna be a lot of good players, uh, that get told.

They just don't have room and not just guys on your roster.

There's gonna be incoming players that are signed that are gonna get told that.

And, you know, it's gonna be a, it's gonna be a crazy, you know, summer man.

Um, a very transitional summer, I think.

And so we're, we're all still trying to wrap our, our heads around how to make

it work for us the best, because I still prefer to, to try to get as many kids as

we can outta high school and bring 'em in and develop 'em and get, you know,

create an affinity for the school and the program someplace that feels like home.

Now.

You're gonna lose some guys when you do that because, you

know, I was thinking back like.

You know, Andy Ola probably gets bought out in this new system before

he gets to be a junior or senior.

Noah Dean probably gets bought out and we can't compete with those guys.

You know, it's nice to say, oh, they love it here.

Um, but when somebody's flashing a couple hundred thousand dollars, yeah, okay.

Uh, you're gonna think about it.

And that's just something we're gonna have to be prepared to, to deal with.

It's unfortunate it doesn't feel right.

Um, but it, it's where we're at right now, but I still think that's our best

model, um, to create some consistency in the program and have some guys

come up through that you can develop.

And that's the fun of it for me anyways, is watching the kids get better.

Um, you know, coaching.

I think that's the bottom line is, is you're a good coach if your kids improve

and, you know, it's, it bothers me when our guys don't, uh, it doesn't always

mean you coach them any different.

Sometimes they just.

Don't want to get better, bad enough, but mm-hmm.

A lot of times that's a, that's a collaborative thing both on

the success and the failure side.

I think everybody's gotta take, you know, uh, ownership of it.

Well, speaking of a guy who got better while he was with you, uh, Gary and

I had the chance to go down and see John Ho's throw yesterday, uh, for

the Carolina Mudcats down in, uh, low a hall down there in Zebulon.

Yeah, man.

Yeah.

And he, uh, that's a cool, that's a

cool, cool ballpark.

I've been there.

It's a great little spot.

Yeah.

I mean, I've been there a ton of times.

Uh, and he shoved, did he?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like from the, for the first go it was like, okay, this

is gonna be a day for John.

He, I think he would've ended up with five and two thirds, uh, eight strikeouts.

I think one hit one walk.

Uh, he was dominant and, and he probably would've, he would've finished six.

They just had a little bit of a, you know, a. Uh, a bad play there,

which, uh, apparently the last time out he, uh, he had a few things,

but yeah, so, so John was, he's, he is now had three games as a pro.

Yeah.

He's got, uh, and one of the games was not great.

His last one, he had two and two thirds.

He gave up five runs.

Uh, but overall, 13 and a third innings, 21 strikeouts, three walks.

That's great.

He's, he's, yeah.

So, so, uh, it was, it was pretty awesome to get the chance to go out

and see him and he was sitting tough.

Good for

him.

Yeah.

But we all also like seeing those guys do well, you know, Sam

Armstrong's doing really well.

Yeah.

Um, and I think, I think Sam, you, he just needs a break, but I think

he's got a chance to, to make it.

I mean, you know, he played in a couple of those big, big league

spring training games at the end of spring training and did well.

So, and just stay healthy and keep throwing.

Might see him get a call up this year.

Yeah.

When when you're in aa, you're all of a sudden, you know,

you're, you're not too far.

While we were sitting there, doc was there in the game with us and he was

watching the, um, MLB app and Hunter Gregory came in the game double A for

the Blue Jays and had a 1 2, 3 inning.

It's like, Hey, same thing, you're a double A, you're, yep.

You're a phone call away.

Yeah, yeah.

Hunter as well.

Yep.

No doubt.

Andy was the, uh, Midwest League player of the week this week had three straight,

uh, games where he had a home run.

Yeah.

Had a great week.

Well, that's a big year for Andy.

He's gotta do well this year.

Yeah.

So I'm, I'm glad to see that.

Yeah.

All those guys, man doing us proud and in the minor leagues and, you know, we

wish 'em all the success in the world.

Certainly.

So I tell him, all, get in the big leagues, you can give us some money.

Yeah.

Honestly, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I saw Morgan McGuire was up there and, uh, he had a picture of himself on the

field in Yankee Stadium talking with, uh, with Vinny and, and Quiara there.

And I sent a mess.

I was like, that's gotta, as, as a, as a Yankee fan, that's

gotta be the coolest thing ever.

He is like, it's unreal being on the field there.

Wow, that's so cool.

So we go to Monroe, Louisiana.

Yeah, Monroe.

It's some good, uh, you know, that's an interesting part of the world.

Uh, you feel, I think in Monroe you feel a little more like you're in

Mississippi than Louisiana to me anyway.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, you know, north northern part of the state, uh, is, is a little bit

different, but they got a nice ballpark.

It's um mm-hmm.

Turf field, you know, nice stadium.

I think their facility's really nice.

Uh, it's, it's a good, yeah.

They're,

uh, their center fielder, uh, Henry Garcia Jr. Has played for

the pilots the last couple years.

They were really good ball player, great kids.

Okay.

Yeah.

I didn't know that.

Alright.

Mm-hmm.

Cool.

Um, but so we'll, uh, we'll go down there and play well and see if we

can't, you know, get another road series and, uh, get ourselves back in

the, in, in the mix for that thing.

Yeah.

And do, are there locker room facilities for baseball?

A little bit better than the football ones.

'cause from what I understand with football, you can only have half your

team in the locker room at one time down

there.

Oh really?

Yeah.

They actually are one of the few teams, I don't know if they

still have it, I can't recall.

They actually had a visitor's locker room in that old stadium and

they've renovated and revamped it a few different times of the year.

So I, I can't remember.

But it's right next to your, your visitor's dugout and you actually, the

guys can go in there and, and shower and change right after the game.

So that's kind of cool.

I mean, nobody does that anymore 'cause it's such a waste of space.

Yes.

Yeah.

You just don't use it enough to warrant having it, you know?

Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm, I, I didn't know that about football.

That football stadium looks rough.

It's, yeah, I've, I've heard it's, it's a, it's a challenge.

It's like a, it's how they build their home field advantage, I feel

like is, you only have half the team in the locker room at one time.

So, yeah, that was back when they had, they didn't have the, uh, quite, have the

number of players they have now, right?

Yeah, yeah.

That was, yeah, back in the day.

But they, they've been kind of a, a stubborn team this year.

Like they, they haven't been swept that often and they, they managed to

take a game from Troy over the weekend.

Yeah.

I mean, they're, they're gonna come battling, I'm sure.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

No, they'll be well coached.

They'll play hard.

There's never, um, you know, never any of that.

You know, we should have swept them at home.

Last year we, we had baseload nobody out and bottom the ninth and didn't

score and lost that Saturday game.

I'll never forget that.

But, um, you, we've done well against them.

You know, we swept them down there our first year, um, opened

up Sunbelt play with that.

So, uh, it's an interesting field because if I remember correctly,

the prevailing wind blows out to left field more so than a cross, but

it doesn't help anything to write.

But the ball will carry the left for sure.

Um, now just depends, you know, what it's doing, but that, that's usually

late in the, later in the year.

It's blowing out the left there.

So maybe, maybe some of these righties can get, get some up in the air.

Yeah.

Right.

You're rewarded for it.

You're righties are probably happy to hear that news and the lefties are like,

please just let me go the other way.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, and, and Zach and TJ both, you know, have opposite

field home runs a couple.

They both can hit it that way.

So, um, we'll see when we get down there, what it, what it looks like.

Yeah.

And I've, I, I noticed that when both Zach and TJ were batting, they were

almost being shifted at Harbor Park.

Like they were a dead pull right-handed hitter.

Like, I mean, that right fielder was in right center the whole time.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, most of their balls in the air are driven that way.

So, um, they, they've, they've, that's just kind of how they hit.

Um, which I'm okay with actually, but, you know, I, I, I don't know how many it

would be if we were playing at the bud.

I, I guarantee we'd have 20 more home runs.

I know that for a fact.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, um, but it's just the way it's been this year and, um, we

gotta work our way through it.

Like, like other things.

And, um, update on the stadium.

There's a bunch of big holes in the ground and hey, some pipe's,

pipes popping up out of them.

There you go.

Uh, so that's progress.

And I think they have the, uh, the groundbreaking ceremony, the, not,

not, uh, two weeks from today.

So I think it's May 2nd.

And, um, you know, they, I think they were saying, well, you know, they

wanted people to face the construction, but there's, there's nothing to see.

It's just mouth of dirt.

So I think they're gonna shift them around and move them toward,

you know, facing the field.

Um, so, uh, yeah, and you know, I'm, I'm just.

Impatiently waiting for things to start going up, you know, it's been Yeah.

Start looking like

something, yeah.

Four months now I know that all that underneath work has to be done.

I get that.

But the um, the kid in me wants to see the stuff, the stuff starting to look cool.

Gimme the big truck and the dirt.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Put that big pile in there.

Yeah, let's go.

Yeah, there you go.

That'll be alright, Finn.

Thank you guys.

I appreciate y'all.

Yeah, we appreciate you, man.

Look forward to, uh, talking again next Monday.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Travel series win.

Alright, we'll see you.

See you.

Alright man.

Appreciate

you.

Alright.

What a, what a blessing do we get to, to have him on every week to talk to us.

I mean, it, it is really great.

I that 'cause I, you know, again, like I brought up there about Hubble and,

and, and Matt, that, that's one of those ones I think is very easy to look at.

And second guess it.

And it's like, but at the same time, it's very easy to look at and say,

well, why wouldn't you want your best reliever in there to close up the game?