The guys recap a 1-2 week against Norfolk State and Charlotte and look ahead to VCU midweek before UConn comes to town. Plus, Coach Finny becomes a grandfather!

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

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

competition, and in life.

Become a member today.

Yeah.

All right.

Yes, welcome Monarch fans to the Hudson Homers podcast.

Got CB and Coach Finny here with me as always, coming off of a one in

two week against a tough Charlotte team on Saturday and Sunday for sure.

Uh, cb I know you're a little under the weather, but how you feeling?

Uh, under the weather.

Yeah.

We're making it, we're getting, we're getting better than I probably

felt, uh, out there freezing on, uh, Saturday and Sunday.

Man, I, and I hope you get better.

See, this week it's warming up, so hopefully that'll help.

Yeah, we're looking pretty solid for this week.

Sunday was crazy because we got the ballpark.

I think I got out there about eight 30.

We stretched at 10 and had bp and I was sweating.

Yeah, it was beautiful out by the time I walked back out from.

Game time.

The wind had turned around and the temperature was dropping, you know,

and it ended up just being cold as heck, you know, for most of that

game with that north wind blowing.

So it was a strange, strange day for sure.

My

wife was getting

better weather coming.

Yeah.

My wife was getting ready to unload on me.

'cause I came home and my face was red and I was like, look, I, I was in no way

looking at the sun and then I realized I was looking straight into the wind behind

home blade from right center the whole time I looked like I been at the beach.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was, uh, it was a strange day.

The wind was definitely, you know, played a factor in the.

In the, in the game for sure on Sunday.

Mm-hmm.

Without a doubt.

Knocking some balls down.

I think it cost Maca home run for sure.

I mean, he, he got all of that ball, man.

It was just like a had a parachute on it.

Yeah.

Like had a drag shoot just slowing it down.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh,

but the, the fans showed up well on Saturday and Sunday.

Um, I think it was actually, it was much more pleasant to be in those outfield

stands than it was to be where we were standing at, at least on Sunday anyway.

Yeah, you got some of the, more of the sun for sure.

Yeah, because the sun was nice.

It was just the wind was cold, so,

yeah.

Well, we, we started off, uh,

with, uh, you know, with a, a midweek win on Wednesday, um, at Norfolk State.

I thought, you know, we took advantage of a bunch of walks and, you know,

uh, scored, scored a bunch of runs.

We were able to.

Pitched pretty well, and it was good to get some of those guys some work.

You know, I'm always leery about games like that, you know, before

you play good people, they just, they, they don't help a lot.

Um, in terms of the pitching, you're seeing, you know, from that standpoint.

And, and so it's a win, but I, I, you know, it doesn't prepare

you to play a good, good team.

If we were facing in Charlotte on the weekend.

Um, having said that, I thought, you know, we had some guys that needed to get out

there and get, get some innings in and

mm-hmm.

Uh, Shehe, uh, Hubble, you know, guys that hadn't had a ton of success yet this year.

Um, Chris cte, Maddox, Jack, they all threw the ball well, they threw strikes.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, we played pretty good defense on not a, you know, great surface to play.

Kind of wet and yucky out there, but we played a solid game.

And then, you know, we get ready to play on Friday and we were hoping

that the outfield would dry out.

We've had so much water, uh, so much.

It is the wettest February, I can remember 15 years here.

Just, you know, here it gets to the point where the water just has no

place to go 'cause we're so low.

Yeah.

And that's, that's kind of what happened.

And then we're, you know, putting the tarp on the infield to save

that and then dumping it in the outfield, just adding to it.

And so.

It just became a point where we walked out there and just felt

like it wasn't gonna be safe.

Um, so, you know, I did, I did not wanna play a doubleheader for the third week.

I think we, uh, you know, I think it cost us a couple players last

week being ready to play and, um, just, you know, it's, it's a lot.

And, uh, so we just decided to play single game Saturday and Sunday.

And, you know, the field was better.

Still wet in the outfield, but not as bad.

I don't think it.

It really affected a ton, um, of, of the game.

So that was better.

And, and look man, Saturday they just whipped us like we got, you know, we got

behind early and you know, sometimes when that happens and you got another game or

two to play, um, it's time to get some of them young guys, their, their innings.

Mm-hmm.

And the college baseball.

That's a lot of times when those young guys get 'em, uh, when the game's a

little bit out one way or the other.

And that's what, that's what happened.

And so some guys, you know, didn't throw as well.

Um, but we had, you know, if I would've taken one positive away from

Saturday, would've been Ben Tanton.

I thought he

Yeah.

Ball really well.

He was, you know, up in the low nineties and the breaking ball was good.

And that's the guy that we recruited.

You know, he's had this mm-hmm.

Underwater going through the fall.

He's an interesting kid.

'cause, you know, he broke his elbow in high school.

Um, which can't be good for a pitcher, I would think.

Yeah.

That's upon Daniel, right?

Uh, and you know, he is got a screw in there and, but he, you know, obviously

overcame it and had a really good high school career and has just been a

little, had it been a little bit tender in the fall, we had to shut him down.

Uh, and he, and, and he's kind of taken a little bit of time getting back, but.

Ball starting to come out of his hand the right way.

And I think our, our pitching, uh, coaches, staff have done a real

good job because since breaking ball, excuse me, has gotten

progressively better the shape of it.

I thought Saturday was the best that look since he's been here.

So that's the guy that I think as we move forward, we'll be able to add into that.

That bull end mix.

Um,

I like to give Ben a hard time because, uh, you know, when I share him my

pictures of the games, uh, he is like the most popular guy on the planet.

Like, it's like 50 different people sharing pictures of him.

So like, I'm like, who are you from King?

What, what's going on here?

I'm a guy,

he's a great kid and

he's a great kid.

He is.

I told him Yeah.

He kind of quiet around us.

Yeah.

You know, but has good energy and Yeah.

Goes, goes about his business the right way.

So.

We think, we think he's got a chance to have a bright future.

So that was good.

Um, and I thought Cole Lanford threw the ball pretty good for us too, out the pen.

So, you know, seven inning jobs.

I tell the guys, man, you, you know, you lose by one or you lose

by 10, you gotta learn from it.

We didn't compete enough.

We got behind too, too much.

And, um, we just, we just, you know, got beat up.

And so tomorrow you get the.

Practice being brave and let's see what we're made of.

And uh, so, you know, we come out Sunday, get behind seven.

Nothing again.

Huh uh, but I, I really, you know, thought the bullpen did a good job on,

on Sunday of, of holding them down.

You know, the inning they got the six.

Man, we just made too many mistakes.

We threw a double play ball low.

We should have still got, we get that double play outta that inning.

Yeah.

Um, with two runs and you know, Johnson gets the comebacker and he

throws it kind of at Mavs knees.

And we, we work on these things.

But obviously not enough because if they're making mistakes on it, then

I'm also the, a belief that we haven't, we haven't drilled it enough, so we're

gonna work on that some more tomorrow.

But, you know, you gotta just slow down there and get one

out when it's a bad thing.

Mm-hmm.

Get the out and not try to force the double play.

I think that's kind of what, what happened.

And then we, we threw a cutoff low and it bounced ricocheted off.

GaN and, and allowed them to score another run.

So that didnt, kind of blew up on us.

Um, the guys didn't quit, they fought back.

Mm-hmm.

You know, that couple, couple innings of twos, we had the time run, you know,

scoring position a bunch of times and just couldn't get that, that extra big knock.

You know, we had a chance to get a run and.

You know, sometimes when guys aren't going good, you, you're, you know, this

is kind of the game within the game.

You're, you're looking as a coach out there and, um, that, that ball that jack

hit was pretty shallow fly ball, but

mm-hmm.

That Jay hadn't had a hit or made hard contact in about two weeks

and might as well make a bad throw.

And he kind of did throw it up the line and the guy just barely got

back at the plate for close plug.

I thought it was a chance we needed to take right there, so

it just didn't work out for us.

Um, but overall, you know, TJ swung it back, good late, swung it back good.

Matt swinging it pretty good.

It was a pretty wide strike zone I thought.

Uh, yeah, on the outside corner of the right east, going back and

looking at the film today, um, he was consistent calling it out there, but.

You know, it's just not, those balls aren't on the plate and like they, um,

thought he got a little bit, you know, they were barking at him a little bit.

Um, thought he got a little bit intimidated maybe by their guys.

Shouldn't happen as well, so.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you know, so, uh, I mean, unfortunate, you know, we had a chance to get out

of that, that same meeting earlier, you know, um, and, and just didn't, couldn't

make them, you know, they got a couple.

Two strike hits.

Again, we gotta make better pitches with two strikes.

I thought on Saturday they had seven or eight hits with two strikes and

mm-hmm.

A lot.

So things we learned from, they were, you know, they were, we hadn't really

faced what I would say is a really good hitting team yet, and I think

they're pretty good offensive team and

mm-hmm.

Um, they made us pay for our mistakes on the mound.

Certainly.

Yeah.

You learn from it.

You grow from it and, and keep moving on.

Um, you know, it's hurt us a little bit, not having Scotty in a lineup.

I think we'll get him back.

We Wednesday, uh, at least, at least by Friday, he just busted

that bursa sac in his knee.

Mm-hmm.

If you ever done that, then's ever done it knows it hurts like heck.

It's not something that is debilitating for a long period of time.

You've gotta get the swelling down and the bruising down and.

Um,

yeah, he showed us, it's pretty gross.

He got a big puffy knee, those

things way up and they look awful.

Um, but his bp, it's not affect his swing.

Mm-hmm.

So, you know, I think, um.

You know, at worse we could get him in maybe the DH

Wednesday, but we need him back.

Yeah.

I saw you were looking to pinch hit him there toward the end if he got

to that spot.

Yeah.

He was gonna hit Yeah, hit, yeah, he was gonna hit for J next if Jack

mm-hmm.

You know, somehow got on.

So, um, and you know, we're, for the most part, we've got a, some guys

having good at baths, I think, um

mm-hmm.

We're, we're, we're gonna be okay there, obviously, you know, third

base right now, we're not getting any, any production outta that.

So.

We may have to try a few new things there.

Um, and then, you know, I, as I mentioned, we've got a, you know,

our two started, pitchers have been throwing the ball pretty well and

they just didn't have a good weekend.

So they're bounced back from it.

And, uh, we've got a really good UConn team coming in here this weekend.

You know, we go to VCU first on Wednesday.

That's all a hard fought game, last game, probably ever at the Diamond.

Probably

we can hope.

And we, and we gotta play at one 30.

Because they took all the lights and took 'em over to the right, to the new park.

So,

but now they might not let the, uh, squirrels play in the new park either.

So who knows what's going on in Richmond.

Yeah, so they got a brand new ballpark that no one's gonna play in.

It's

gonna empty, I guess.

I don't

know

what their plan is.

Par par for the course up here.

I feel like there's just that three-way battle constantly between whatever

private entity VCU in the city, and it's just, it, it always turns into a mess.

But

why does

wonderful

VC u's gonna do?

I mean 'cause the dining Yeah.

Getting torn down, isn't it, Gary?

Yes.

Yeah.

Into, into this spring.

It's gonna be torn down.

Uh, I know Henrico just approved.

Uh, Henrico County building a new ballpark that VCU might be

able to use if they put that up.

There's some other options, but I think it gets worked out.

I don't certainly know all the details, but it seems like the sale of Sports

backers Stadium is the real problem here.

Uh, so if they get that sold, I think everything settles then.

So hopefully they're there next year for their sake.

Why are they selling that?

Where

are they gonna play soccer?

They have like an athletics village now on campus that's gonna let them

host soccer and all the other things.

They're playing at sports backers.

Uh, that's part of like their, their master plan.

So it, it's a mess.

The ballpark looks amazing though.

You'll see it.

I mean, they, yeah.

I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Yeah, it's

beautiful.

It's beautiful.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well we were hoping to play it, but that's not gonna happen, so.

Yeah.

So we'll,

we'll, uh, we'll get up there for a early game and get home earlier.

That's not a terrible thing.

The weather's gonna be good.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I think

we're both gonna be there.

And, um, and then warming up into the seventies through the weekend, man.

So,

yeah.

You know, maybe we get a taste early spring.

We're certainly due for it.

Yeah.

After all these.

Yeah.

It'd be nice to have a sixties and seventies a week.

That'd be all right.

Yeah.

Stop making typos on my, uh, Hudson Homer tweets because my fingers are frozen.

Solid.

Yeah, that, that'd be fantastic.

Maybe look

at intelligence.

Yeah.

These first 10 games, you know, we talk about trying to be seven and

three and 10 game stretches and

mm-hmm.

We ended up six and four and.

You know, you, you probably, we deserve to be six and four, I think.

Uh,

yeah,

certainly the four, our six wins we played pretty well,

and the four losses we haven't.

So it's still the same rhetoric.

I mean, when you play well, you're gonna have a good chance

to win, and that's a good thing.

Um, and we got a, you know, again, we got, you know, a

little bit, little bit of time.

We're still working some things out.

I, I think some of the pitching roles are starting to come around.

You know, I thought.

Johnson Park and Davis all threw the ball well yesterday for us.

Um,

how cool to see Kellen go from the guy a couple years ago who is like the one

out guy to now you're throwing him out.

There are two, three innings and like, he's just nailing the door.

I mean, that's, that's awesome to see.

Yeah.

From where he's started where he,

we were, we were talking about cutting him after we registered him as a freshman.

Yeah, I'm sure.

Yeah.

He, he was such a great kid and then we decided to keep him around

'cause of that, and he developed.

That was the year he developed that gyro.

Yeah.

You know, alien pitch throws that no one seems to be able to hit and it, um,

so I tell guys all the time, you know, here's a right-handed guy throws 86 88,

you know, he might pop a 90 now and then, but he, he, he stopped worrying about

how hard I throw and he found a bullet to put in his gun that he can fire.

Jason Hardline was like that.

He chased velocity for two years, went to the base, Florida baseball ranch,

all the drive line, all this stuff.

And then he finally figured out that's, that's not it.

Uh, but he developed a cut fastball that he could throw all the time.

And you know, it's like you gotta have a thing.

And you know, Ellen certainly developed a thing.

And so, um, that's, that's been really fun to watch.

It's also a good lesson.

Just don't be a dick, be a good guy, honestly.

Yeah, it is.

Well, you know, the, the New Zealand, all Blacks have that sign in their

locker room, says no dickhead.

Yeah, he, he's such a cool kid.

You know, he is in grad school now and he is working on his teaching

degree and he, um, he's just tough.

He's just a tough Pennsylvania kid, man.

He is blue collar.

Um, and he really cares about ODU baseball.

Nice to have him out there.

He was just fired up

like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's fired up coming off the mound, but both innings that he finished there.

I mean, getting the guys jacked up and you saw it show up in the bats

box too, man, that's another void he's kind of filling from last year.

Like just stepping up in a leadership role.

Yep.

Without a doubt.

Without a doubt.

So it, um.

That's been good, you know, and, uh, I think, um, you know, the two guys that

continue, the three guys that continue to lead us right now offensively are,

uh, late and aching and Stallings.

You know, those guys seem to be kind of right in the middle

of everything we're doing.

Um, so I think Will, Will's been a little bit banged up.

He twists his ankle on one of them balls.

He's just been nicked a little bit, but I think we're.

Uh, Wednesday we're gonna play around with, with putting TJ

in the leadoff spot and putting will in two old, late in three.

Um, and, and Will does hit the ball the right side a lot,

and he's pretty good at it.

And so you can play some offense with him.

He's a pretty good buner and TJ's been doing a good job, you know, getting

some stone bases and things like that, um, you know, are, are lefthanded.

You know, Nick Felton hasn't gotten it going yet.

I still think there's a, there's a really good player in there.

Going through

seems like he's like just, just not quite right.

Like it's

not his bp If you come watch his BP now, it's really good.

Good.

Um, he just hasn't taken that batting practice swing into the game yet.

He gets a little jumpy and,

yeah.

Just gotta relax.

The more you play, that'll happen.

Yeah.

We're gonna probably get Cole McKenna in there, you know, uh, this week too,

because I, I think he's a, you know, he is another kid that can really run.

Uh, he is a tough kid.

He is a good athlete.

And he can move around the field a little bit.

So

he seems really calm too.

He seems like, like the moment's not too big for him when he gets in

there, you know?

No, I think you're right.

Yeah, I think he's, uh, Cole's an interesting cat.

He's very competitive now.

The moment's not gonna get him.

Um, you know, he'll forget a sign here and there, but

that's okay.

We'll take that right, if you're tough.

Yeah.

And I think he's a pretty tough kid, so, um.

Getting Scotty back will help, obviously.

Mm-hmm.

I thought the Dallas won the bat pretty well for us yesterday.

We gotta get him back in there and, and in particular against Lefty.

So, um, we got, you know, we got a ways to go certainly, but it's, it's early

and I think we're, you know, we're taking our licks some and we're learning from

it, and I think we'll be better for it.

I think playing those games against those teams always make it better if

you go about your business the right way and learn from your mistakes and.

You know, just are tough minded about it.

I wanted to ask you about, um, I'm sorry, Gary, I had this question for a while.

Go for it.

I wanna ask you about, you know, like you have the game, we had a few of those.

It's like the game on Sunday was a good example where the strike zone is, like

I said, it's, it's probably a lot wider than it should be's a lot of balls

that are, balls being called strikes.

Do you guys have conversations with your hitters that like, look, you're right,

it's a ball, but you're not right today.

And you sitting there.

Believing it's a ball and not swinging at it is not helping us do anything today.

You know, you gotta get out and compete.

Yeah.

There's no doubt.

And, and it's hard because what happens then is you start expanding the strike

zone like that and it becomes a habit.

And then you start, then the next guy's not calling you,

swinging a bunch of balls.

And you know, I, I think we looked at the TrackMan report, we called 11.

On that same side, 11 pitches, strikes that weren't in strike zone.

Yeah.

And that, and most of 'em were fastballs.

Mm-hmm.

That's tough.

Now it

shouldn't be hard to

track, right?

Not wrong.

No.

In any particular day, old school, we'd be like, all right, well I'm gonna get up

on the plate so I can cover that pitch.

Then I'll just wear it if it's inside.

Right.

And I don't think we did that a good enough job of that yesterday.

Definitely.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And so that's something else we're gonna talk about tomorrow.

There's a needle to thread there.

You gotta be careful.

Yeah.

Because you don't want guys to start swinging outta the zone.

Um, and we've talked about trying to be better.

I think we were taking the breaking balls outta the zone better.

Um, which you need to be able to do that.

And you're gonna take some, if you're good at that.

I read a really neat quote.

It said The best hitters.

And this is counterintuitive to what everybody preaches because

everybody's like, oh, be tough.

Cover, cover the plate.

Don't strike out looking.

The best hitter strike out looking just as much as they do swinging, if not more,

because they don't expand the strike zone.

And sometimes bad pitches get called strikes and they don't think their

strikes are not swinging at 'em.

And that's the game.

There is something to be said for, I gotta choke up and get

this ball in play as well.

So.

What's your philosophy on that?

You know, everybody's a little bit different, I think over

the course of the season.

If we can take those pitches, um, it'll, it'll bo well for us, you know,

and it's frustrating when it happens.

Uh, but we also took some call thirds right down the middle.

Yeah.

There were several,

several

of

those.

I mean, I was looking at it today with one of our guys in particular, man, I'm like.

That's all.

The catcher didn't move his mid, he set up down the middle, he

threw it down middle, you took it.

You're just playing defense up there.

Why even bring a back?

Um, so I think those are things that, you know, certainly, and

that, that's just the hitter man.

Like, hitters don't do that.

Like hitters don't take pitches down the middle for strikes.

No,

they just don't.

Um, and that, so that could be scary a little bit as a coach, when you see one

of your guys doing that, you're like.

What in the war was going on in his brain in that batter's box?

Like, uh, not a lot of good stuff, usually when that happens.

Yeah, unfortunately.

So

it felt like Charlotte was almost started pitching to that once they knew, at

least on righties, they were getting the outside strike, they would throw

that fastball away and then they would come inside with a slider or breaking

ball so that, you know, a pitch you typically want to take that's gonna

be in on your hands no matter what.

It seemed like they were doing that, and I think, I think Max struck out on

one of those, or a couple other guys.

I feel like Charlotte was, was definitely playing with the umpire zone back there.

Yeah, well, you know, and that's what you should do.

I mean, if he called, called it out there, keep throwing it out there.

Um, I don't think we got as nearly as many of those.

No, we did according to the two reports.

And so, you know, that's something that we gotta talk about.

Hey, when that guy's calling it out there, like we need to throw

it out there a little bit more.

And then if he ain't calling for us, then we can get, get all in.

You know, chop.

I just told him when he warned me, I said, just make the ball

be over some of the plays.

Some part of the, yeah.

Like those aren't strikes, so, you know.

Um.

And then I think he'd been getting yelled at by their dugout.

Well, he was getting yelled at by both dugouts.

Right.

So

yeah.

He's getting

yelled at by a few people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He, he probably couldn't hear the people in the stands, but I'm

assuming they were yelling at him too.

Yeah,

yeah,

yeah.

He didn't have a good dad, but it was a good college baseball game.

I hate that we lost it.

I, we had chances to win it.

You know, we had, we left a bunch of guys in the scoring position and.

You know, you gotta cash, cash some of those in, uh, to have a chance to win.

So those are things that we gotta, certainly, we've been pretty good

at it up till, up till yesterday.

We weren't good enough at it yesterday.

So

yeah, you definitely have to feel better about the way they came back on Sunday,

after Saturday, just getting your doors blown off and, you know, they didn't pack

it in, they, they said, Hey, let's fight.

Yeah, no doubt.

No doubt.

So that was a good sign and, and hopefully we'll carry that

into this week, uh, with us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And your, your six and four record, I mean, it could easily be nine and one

or seven and three because three of those losses you've had at least the

tying run on base in the ninth inning.

Yeah.

So it's like, you know, you're, the six and four, you know, could easily

be much, much better, or obviously could be, could be worse too, I guess.

But

yeah.

And

it

seems like y'all are in it except for Saturday

overall.

No doubt.

Um, we've been out of one game, out of our first 10.

Not bad chance to win all the others.

And the overall not to take anything away from anybody we

played, I would never do that.

But the overall competition level is gonna keep going up.

Mm-hmm.

It's

gotta keep improving, um, as, as we do so, you know, um, I mean, playing at BCU,

we, we've won a bunch at the Diamond man.

Yeah.

But we gotta play well to do it.

You know, they've been pitching pretty well.

Uh, it looks like.

And so, you know, we'll have to, we'll have to do a good job offensively.

And then UConn's always a tough opponent, you know?

Mm-hmm.

They played a heck of a schedule up till now.

Yeah.

And they dropped two outta, three out Wilmington, but they're, you

know, they're, they got a couple lefties starters that are really good.

Um, so our ready hitters are gonna have to, you know, be ready to

help us in that, in that game.

So, um, that'll be good.

But it's a, it's a, it's a long journey, man.

And you know, it's just so funny every year.

If you look out there and you go through all the fall practice and all the spring

scrimmages and a month into the season, it's nothing like what you thought it was.

Yeah.

It's crazy what, how, how some guys go this way when the competition

changes to other people and some guys go the other way.

Yeah.

Uh, and, and it's just part of it, man.

You can't, you can't learn it when it doesn't matter.

You can, you can get a feel for it, but I don't think you can actually

know, and you know, I think we're, we're starting to figure some of

that out now, you know, unless you got a bunch of guys back, you know?

Um, yeah.

But I think our veteran players are playing like veteran,

like you hope they would.

And, and that's good to see.

And I'm really proud of tj, man.

He is having super competitive at bass.

He's

hitting the ball all over the place.

And, you know, I thought the, uh.

The kid made a heck of a catch on him on Saturday on that ball he hit mm-hmm.

Far before the line.

That was a great catch.

And then he hit kind of the same ball yesterday and he tipped

off the guy's glove and mm-hmm.

Scoring people like you can think that might, if you call that an

error that you never played baseball.

Yeah.

Because there ain't nothing about that play.

He robbed him on Saturday, it was the same ball.

That wind's blowing, you know, 15, 20 miles an hour out there.

It's moving that ball 30 feet and knocking it down.

And you gotta, these guys aren't professional players.

Like you gotta give them the benefit of the doubt when it's not a routine play.

And that was, it's

also the home team.

You gotta give your home guy a hit come on,

and you say, oh, he should have caught it, whatever.

But I said, man, I, I, you know, I I, you go out there and let me shoot you

about 10 of those balls in that win.

If you catch three of 'em, we'll call it an error.

Uh, and, and so we got that changed today.

I thought that should have been a, he hit the ball really hard.

Um, you know, he got robbed on Saturday, like, give the kid a hit, you know,

so we, we, they, they changed it.

But I don't, I don't tend to.

Make a habit out of complaining about scoring things unless it's, I think

it's pretty clear and, um, you know, I, I thought that one was pretty clear.

Yeah.

It, that wind has been hell on, I think everyone in the stadium this year.

'cause I mean, you can go back to Quinnipiac.

There were some drop pop flies that they look like you're just, you know,

can of corn going up in the air and then you realize you had to run a

hundred feet to get back underneath it.

Yeah.

Um, and then, and especially those shallow pops.

You know, right field.

And I feel like just in the left field, man, those have been been brutal on

these middle infielders this season.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's part of it here, for sure.

You gotta learn how to play in the wind and we take a lot of

popups, you know, to work on that.

But that doesn't, that doesn't mean they're always gonna get caught.

You know, we try to spend a lot of time working on those balls.

Um, but that wind changes daily here, you know, it's say, Hey,

the wind's always bull like this.

I said.

The wind always blows.

Yes.

We dunno which way it's gonna blow.

If you don't like it, it'll change tomorrow.

Yeah.

So, but you know, it's like just part of baseball at the, at the, at our ballpark.

Yeah, you got four games left here.

Before we get into conference play, which is kind of crazy to think about

already you're at vc, you got three with UConn, then you go down to East Carolina.

You know what, if there's one or two things you're really looking to find

out or figure out, or is it five ccb?

I missed one.

That's five.

That's,

yeah, it's five.

Yeah,

five.

Gary.

You're not making an old opinion degree looking great right now.

No.

Between that and my misspelled tweets, I'm just, I'm the worst advertisement

for the, the university ever.

What, what's, I'm

an English major and I can count the five.

Well, what are one or two things you're kind of looking to figure

out over this next, like week and a half before we head down to Troy?

Well, I think it'll be, um.

So we're thinking that the Sunday deal, pitching wise is right now is looking

like a piggyback between she, he and Hubble kind of treating those guys.

You know, when you use the term piggyback, you're kind of treating

those two guys as one person.

And so I think what we're gonna try to do here is, at least this week, is same

thing we were gonna do this weekend if we'd have had three games is, is, um.

Use she, he and Hubble on Wednesday to get into the game.

They'll throw two or three innings each, and then they'll come back and do the

same thing on Sunday with three days rest.

So then they'll probably get a week, um, uh, going into, you know, because the next

game's Tuesday and that's clearly Yeah.

You know, not, not gonna work.

I

know.

So that, that would be the first, you know, through midweek where.

Uh, not necessarily a, that, that'd probably be that one of those

midweek staff type guys, but those guys, you know, seem to be our

best two guys to have that option.

And may hopefully we can get 'em both lengthened out and they give you,

you know, a chance to get six innings between the two of 'em, or seven

between two of 'em, something like that.

So that's kind of where.

Where we're sitting right now.

So they gotta go do it, you know, best life plan, because the kids still

gotta come, make it happen to, to make it, make it look like a good idea.

Um, and so we'll see.

We'll, you know, start, it'll start Wednesday.

Dream world.

You get four and four, right?

I mean, that's the, uh,

yeah, that would be perfect.

You know, and, and that's possible.

We'll get linked.

Neither, you know, I don't, I think Hub maybe three, I think is most,

he's gone since he's been here.

Mm-hmm.

But you know, he was a starter in junior college and he could do it.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and he, he just says it was good to see him throwing strikes last Wednesday.

Yeah.

Trouble early throwing strikes.

And so it was nice to see him get back to that.

Hopefully he will do that again.

I think we're not gonna have a con this week or weekend.

He's got a little bit of.

Soreness in there.

Nothing, nothing major, but he just probably needs a break.

Um, and so, you know, he'd be a guy that we wouldn't probably have

for any of these next four games, but it opens up some opportunities

for some other guys and mm-hmm.

You know, I'm excited, you know, Maddox, Jack, I mean, he, the kid's got a

Yeah.

Stick arm.

Um, you know, coming off Tommy John's surgery, you just

gotta keep getting out there.

Uh, so PGO can be a, be a big help for us, and obviously putting Bailey back in the

bullpen gives us another experienced guy.

Uh, he was gonna come in there for the, you know, 10th if we tied it.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, yesterday.

So, um, he didn't get any burn.

We'll get him out there probably for a meeting for sure on, on

Wednesday so he can get out there.

Awesome.

Well, fans, if you do come to the VCU game on Wednesday in Richmond,

bring your own food and drink, they will not have concessions open.

So I told CB I'm gonna get an old school picnic basket and just start handing

out food at the gate or something.

It is free

admission

though.

That's that's nice

for folks.

It's free to get in.

That is nice.

Go do, uh, what's the barbecue place there?

Is it Parker's?

What's the.

What's the, there used to be an old barbecue place down by the stadium.

Uh, I can't think of the name of it now.

I forget.

I think it was, was it Ray's Barbecue?

I think it's a Walmart one now.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

Walmart now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The dirty uh, uh, bus station across the street.

That was the,

oh, you all will not recognize it.

Like they've already started developing that.

There's a cane's over there, there Starbucks, there's all kind.

There's high rise condos.

Wow.

It's while the Greyhound station's closed.

I can't remember if it's been torn down or not, but

they'll make it condos.

It'll be somebody's house.

It'll be where a homeless guy used to urinate.

Yes, probably.

So they got, they got a condo down the street.

That was my middle school.

There are people that live in the same room where I used

to get, um, get picked on.

Uh, so that's, so this, which is to me gotta be weird energy for your home

to be where kids used to have their.

Horrible hormonal situations.

Uh, so that's me.

Well, there's the old

cookie

factory down

the

road that

people live in.

Well, hope fans will come out Wednesday, you know?

Yeah.

Good chance for for them to see us there.

And then we got great weather this weekend, so everybody come out.

Yeah, they are happy.

The first, uh, four or five of the, uh, concert series they're having

during batting practice out there.

Oh, really?

Back, um, yeah, they're calling it the, I don't know, the left

field concert series or something.

Probably cooler than that.

But they're, they're gonna have a band that plays out there for an hour, um,

an hour and 15 minutes before game time.

And then they get done 15 minutes before game time.

Uh, back there and I think it's free with a ticket.

So, you know, trying That's gonna be an awesome

day

for

it then.

Yeah.

Need, need for some of the people.

So we'll see how it goes.

It sounds kind of cool to me.

I, I don't know any, what, any of the band names.

It's probably local bands or something like that.

Really, people enjoy it on a nice day, man.

Why not come, come and get a beer and, uh, a burger and hang out

and then watch some baseball?

Yeah, there should be some good baseball going on this weekend

too with, with UConn in town.

They did a little bit of a rough start to their season, then they

went oh and four in a tournament out in Arizona, but took three out of

four from Arizona who was ranked.

Uh, they've been pretty, pretty solid since, so

well,

should do some great baseball.

They always play a great schedule early.

Um, they'll be, you know, certainly battle tested and

they've seen a bunch of good arms.

And I think they'll be, you know, up to this point, they'll

be the best team we've played.

Um, so the competition's going up and that's good.

Getting us ready for, you know, the Sunbelt conference play.

Uh, VC u's been good this season too.

They played a brutal schedule.

Um, yeah, they played

tough schedule.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They swept Holy Cross, but then they went and played, you know,

Illinois and they played coastal.

They actually got a win over Illinois, uh, UNC then, um, they took UVA to

extra innings on Saturday night.

They had a couple, they

shoulda have won that game.

Yes.

Saturday game.

They should've won the, the, the first baseman broke for a ball he

shouldn't have broke for, and then that trouble getting back to the bag.

And they threw it in the dirt.

And the, the tie run score from third and winning run scored from second.

Oh,

on that.

Oof.

They just, they just played it.

Yeah, they just misplayed it too.

Just played.

And then I think all three of those games were pretty low scoring.

Yeah.

Two runs, one run.

Two

runs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, and that'll be good.

We'll see some more good arms than, uh, it'll be fun to, fun to get to Richland,

you know, play the Diamond one last time.

Yeah, take your piece of cinder block with you on the way out.

'cause it'll be Ed here by the summer.

Yeah, for sure.

So, well thank you guys.

Appreciate

you.

Well hold, hold on.

Finny, we got, we got one.

One more announcement that might be the most important thing

that happened this entire week.

Sir, I'm gonna let you take it away here, but you send me a

picture, I gotta throw it out.

Yeah, please do.

So you became a grandfather this week, correct?

I did, yeah.

Sterling Royce Fenwood.

I was born at two 30 in the morning.

Um, I think it was Tuesday or what was the 25th?

That was

Wednesday.

Wednesday, yeah.

Yeah, that's right.

'cause we had a game.

Okay.

So it was early in the morning, so I thought it was still when I got the

text, I thought it was Tuesday night.

But, uh, so it was born Wednesday morning, two 30 in the morning, eight

pounds, 14 ounces, 22 inches long.

Um, and you know, just everybody's healthy Mama baby.

Everybody's doing good.

Just so.

Happy for Gray and Chrissy and um, beautiful boy, Chrissy got

that British name in there, huh?

Yeah.

Yeah, both of them.

He sounds like a James Bond character, you know.

Um, so it definitely got the British name and, um, just happier, man.

I got a great picture.

My son carrying, uh, his car seat with his son out of the hospital.

And that's a surreal kind of thing to see as a, as a father and now grandfather.

So I, I can't wait down.

Get down to meet the little guy and it's gonna be a little while with our

season, but, um, that'll be all right.

We will let them get through all the, get all kinks out.

They don't need me bothering 'em right now.

Um, but, you know, just, just so proud and happy for them.

Uh, certainly Thank you for mentioning that.

Yeah.

Two of the best people you could ever meet too, because congratulations

to, to Greg and Chrissy.

Congratulations to you Finny.

That's, that's all just awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Super happy about it.

Thanks.

Thanks y'all.

Yeah, well thank you so much Finny.

Uh, I'll definitely see you Wednesday in Richmond and, uh,

too weekend for the UConn, so,

yep.

Hope you have a great week and uh, see you soon, man.

Go Monarchs.

Thanks guys.

Go Monarchs.

Thanks man.

The Old Dominion Athletic Foundation are commonly referred

to as the ODA was established in 1964 as a nonprofit organization.

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

to ensure that our coaches and student athletes have the resources necessary.

To compete for championships.

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

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

the advancement of the athletics program.

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

ODU alumni from around the globe, the OD A F raises money for student athletic

scholarship support and endowments, capital projects program specific support.

And athletic department operations funds are raised through annual

giving, multi-year pledges, events, premium seating, and planned giving.

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

reach out to an OD DA representative Give to the OD DAF are investments

in the lives of our student athletes.

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

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

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

And in life.

Contact the OD DAF and become a member today.

All right.

Monarch fans.

Welcome back to Hudson Homers, uh, no player guest this week.

We're gonna give the guys a little bit of a break here, uh, but CB and

I have some, some items to tie up.

And one thing I wanted to talk about from Sunday was bark at the park.

Uh, there were at least a dozen dogs there and you could hear them the entire game.

It was actually pretty fun.

They, they were doing some sound effects, I do know that.

But there were not all sound, 'cause the cow was over there

by the booth a couple times.

They're like, was that us?

They're like, Nope.

That was just a, a very loud chihuahua.

Yeah.

A bunch of golden retrievers running around and know some of

the parents brought their dogs.

Uh, they, whenever they played the barking sound effect from the scoreboard,

that's when all the dogs went nuts.

That's, uh, and I've been, I've been some places they'll do the doorbell

ring or the ring camera ring Yeah.

To get 'em fired up.

Uh, but they were, they were getting loud there, at least towards the

end, trying to rally the guys back.

Yeah.

That's always a neat thing.

I think it's, it's cool that stadiums figured out.

I mean, I back, way back in the day of the bud, they just let dogs

in all the time, and so you would regularly see dogs at the games.

Constantly.

Um, for all kinds of reasons, it probably is better.

That's not a thing.

I'm sure there's all kinds of liability and stuff, you know,

most, you know, I love dogs.

Most dogs are fine, but things do happen with people.

Um, I in general, I would just like, why can't you, but whatever.

Uh, but yeah, it's, it's cool.

A lot of same, even the tides even had a cat day, which I thought was interesting.

No, that's, that's a little more dangerous.

You have cats all over the place there?

Yeah.

Uh,

I went to a minor league hockey game in Jacksonville and you

could bring your dogs to that.

So we brought our golden retriever.

They had like two sections in one of the corners there.

You could sit and my dog was just constantly watching where

the puck was going and trying to figure out what all the noise was.

Uh, but it, it got a little loud in there 'cause there were probably,

you know, a couple hundred dogs down there, Jacksonville at that game.

Yeah.

Well, you're

indoors too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you got a, a puck that all the dogs are watching through the glass going by.

Yeah, I, I brought our, um, our dog that passed away last year.

Maddie, uh, took her to, uh, ODU, I think at least twice to bark in the park games.

Took her to Tides games a couple times.

Um, and, and she, it was one of those where she got, you

know, pretty overstimulated.

And then by like the fourth inning, she's just like, laying

there with my legs asleep.

Yeah.

Felt worn out.

The current dog, my, that my parents had is Daisy.

She's only like four, I think about to be five, and she's

still too amped up to do it.

A couple more years.

She might be able to go, but she'd still be way too insane to take

out doing something like that.

Yeah, yell 'em, calm down a little bit.

Uh, sat Saturday night at the ballpark.

Uh, it's military appreciation night, first responders and

service members as well.

Uh, so I love that the, the promotions are coming back, the nice side of

being able to play games at home.

And seriously, if you haven't been out to an Odu u baseball game yet,

make plans to come this weekend.

Weather's gonna be nice.

It's great opponent coming in.

I mean, it's, it's gonna be a good time at the bud.

It, it should be packed.

There's no excuse not to pack the place this week.

I mean, Friday obviously two o'clock.

I mean, I gotta take off so I can, I can go in the afternoon, you know, so I

understand if you can't make that one.

But Saturday and Sunday there's no real excuse.

I don't think there's any other, the only other game happening at home is

Friday night, I think, or Saturday night.

One of those is lacrosse is playing.

So it's nice at seven, so they're not even like overlapping.

Um, and it's just gonna be amazing weather.

So this, this is a really good weekend to come out and see some mo to you.

Baseball, it's gonna be, it's not gonna be too super hot,

you know, it'll be really nice.

What it sounds like we're gonna have a, um.

Uh, band playing before the game.

I think he said Saturday.

Yeah.

And then having the military appreciation too.

I mean, it's, it's a good, good weekend to pack out the place.

Um, and we know it doesn't take a ton.

I mean, a thousand people are gonna pack, pack the joint out, so

Yeah.

It'll be, be fighting for seats if you get there after first

pitch.

Yeah.

I

think on Saturday, uh, I finally got smart, which I

know that's hard to believe.

Consider I couldn't count any games left until we played Troy.

Uh, but I'm actually gonna come down Thursday night and stay in

a hotel in Norfolk so that way I don't have to fight tunnel traffic.

Like I have the last, ah, several Fridays of trying to get down there and basically

walk in as first pitch is being thrown.

So, make plans, get out there.

It can be a beautiful weekend.

Plenty of stuff going on around Norfolk too.

So, uh, if you haven't been, you should.

And before we get to players of the league, there's one other

thing I wanted to talk about.

'cause you got some great shots of this.

I, I didn't see the collision at second base with Maverick.

And then I looked at your handy Dany Google Drive link that you sent me

and realized that the reason he went down is yeah, he got pretty much just

straight pleaded in the shin Yeah.

And into his knee as he's trying to make the turn there.

Uh,

there's actually one, I think between the two of those that where his, like you can

almost see his leg kind of going in and then he gets back for a second here is

kinda like, Hey, I gotta make the play.

Which tells you again how tough Maverick is.

That's one thing.

I don't think anybody's ever questioned that, that he's a tough dude and

he's about the, about the job.

Yeah.

Yeah, he was tough and loved that he stayed in the game.

I don't think this is intentional by any means.

It's not what I'm getting at here.

But

no,

little things like this are why will and Mav get dinged up throughout the year.

Yeah.

In addition to try and chase those weird fly balls in the wind.

Uh, so I think we've just been lucky to.

Have, you know, van Alstein, this is obviously an injury we're gonna miss.

You know, Scotty's a little banged up, but as he was showing us, it seems like he's

gonna be okay here in the next week or so.

There's, and there's a mil, if you're down there walking around, which as

you and I are walking around the dugout talking to Guy, there's all kinds of

little dings and things, and you, you're.

Guys come in the, in the dugout, you high five and they're like, oh, I didn't

realize he had his hand all wrapped up.

You know?

And there's, there's always a million little things and, and 'cause it

is, it's just, it's a sport and it's, and and they play a lot more.

I mean, we know like, football guys get banged up, right?

They play 12 games.

Um, ot, we're in our third week.

We're, we're gonna have more than 12 games.

Uh, here in the, the season, they haven't even got to conference yet.

Um, you know, basketball play where they play like 20, 30

games and we're gonna hit that.

Well, baseball just plays more games more often than other sports.

They get banged up.

It's a lot, it's a lot on the body.

I know these kids are all 18 to 2007 years.

How old they're now, depending on what team you're with now.

No, no.

Jim Wil.

We had Jim Wilkerson at one point.

He was like 27 when he played here.

Uh, former Marine.

Um, but we, uh, you know, it's.

You get ped up.

So yeah, it's one of those things that sometimes, you know,

why isn't a guy doing as well?

Well, he might be hurting in a way you don't realize and

he's really gutting it out.

Yeah.

That's certainly happened before where some guys have had their

seasons kind of derailed by things.

Um, Kyle battle's a great example of he, when he finally had that great

senior year, fifth year, senior years, because he finally felt healthy.

I mean, his body was just crushed for years.

Um, and he and he got better.

So it's, it's, it's not a, I mean, look at Tommy Bell.

Tommy Bell's last season was.

Pretty much derailed by a back injury.

Um, so yeah, those, those nicks and tear, it's not, it's not, you know.

Yeah.

Like I said, pointed out, Marcus having that, you know,

very obvious, very huge injury.

It takes him out for the whole year.

But there's lots of other little things you just don't see all the time.

Yeah.

And certainly wish him a speedy recovery.

I was Deming back and forth with his dad during the week, so

obviously want the best for him.

I think he's, he's trying to come back next year and play and we'd love to.

Yeah, love to see that for his last year.

Uh, end on a little better note than what it unfortunately was, uh, this season.

Um, I hope Zach, uh, late got a, an ice bath.

'cause not only was he, you know, hitting very well if played on Sunday, he,

that's probably the most offensive place he's made at first base in the game.

It was like a joke.

Every softball that was hit was going to Zach at first.

Some

a lot of ball.

Yeah, I, I, I didn't, I haven't gotten to go through those pictures yet, but

yeah, I got a lot of shots of him.

You know, usually get a lot of pictures of first baseman, fielding ground balls.

Usually when you, they get 'em, it's like real fast.

And he did, he had a lot of little soft ones.

A lot of cool little different angles of the glove.

So.

He getting his workout

man over there.

But speaking of Zach, you probably got the shot of the weekend with

him celebrating this two run shot there in the game on Sunday.

Uh, we have our players of the week with Kellen and Zach.

Yeah, these, and these are actually, if you recall, these were our

plays of week for, uh, week one.

Um, and, and the hitting wise, you know, we, we picked Zach.

I think you could have easily had, uh, TJ Aiken or, or Tyler Zedalis or

Maverick Stallings were all good options.

Um, but Zach, he was four for 10, had a double a homer, six rbis, two walks

scored six runs, got hit by a pitch.

So I think just the filling up the stat sheet with everything

is what kind of did it for us.

I said TJ four for 10, double three walks, five runs, two steals.

Um, Dallas was four for eight, had a double in RBI had a walk.

Maverick was, uh, five for 10.

So actually, you know, more hits, but five for 10, two doubles, five

rbis, three, three walks, two runs.

So Maverick's off to all, all those guys are after great starts.

Um, and mac dye was three for nine with two rbis, uh,

two runs that hit by a pitch.

So a lot of.

Despite not getting any hits hardly at all in the, uh, the Saturday game.

Uh, we, we did have a lot of good offense, uh, throughout the, I think all those

guys did have hits in that game anyway.

Um, and then Kellen, you know, came in again, again, it's, it's, it's so much

easier for a starting pitcher to be player of the week, pitcher of the week.

So it's, it's a big deal I think when relievers get it.

Uh, but Kellen had three scoreless innings, um, following up five

fits, no walks, four strikeouts.

So, so a great performance when they needed it.

I mean, that was the only.

One of the reasons they had a chance to win that game on Sunday is because of him.

Uh, Jace Park came in right before him, two innings, no runs, two

hits, no walks of strikeout.

So those guys throwing five scoreless at the end of that game

has really made it, uh, plausible.

They could come back.

Yeah.

Uh, Ben Tanton, I'm.

I was gonna say Patrick Johnson was key in that too.

Like

yeah, he was,

he got a ground ball, double play.

That should have ended the inning.

You may have thrown a little bit low a second, but you know, we probably

good chance we win that game 'cause we keep a couple runs off the board.

Uh, he is, he's thrown well.

But, uh, Jace Park.

0.0 ERA 0.71 WIP, and four and two thirds so far this year.

Kellen Davis.

Yeah, 1.13 WIP in seven and a third innings, no runs allowed.

It's pretty damn good production outta two guys from the bullpen just right there.

We've had some others throw the ball well this year.

Yeah.

Uh, and a couple of freshmen that had good appearances with, uh, Ben Tanton and Chris

Ante, uh, both had scoreless innings where they struck out all three they faced.

Um, I mean, that's pretty big deal when you're a young guy.

Yeah.

Trying to make an impression.

And all the guys that pitched on Wednesday were great.

She, he and Hubble, Sulpizio Jack, um, they, they combined for seven scoreless.

I mean, that was, that was one of the things.

I mean, you know, again, you don't ever wanna say anything

bad about Norfolk State.

I, I, I do root for Norfolk State.

I wanna see 'em do well.

I think it's.

We can all kind of be aware it's not the same level of Division one baseball.

Um, so, you know, old to me, when they play them, they should beat them.

But I think when we saw that game on Wednesday, what it showed to me was that

our pitching is better than last year.

Um, which, you know, obviously didn't show up on the game on Saturday, but

when we went to, if you remember, we went to Norfolk State last year.

We beat them, but it was 12 to eight.

We walked a ton of guys.

We gave a bunch of hits, though they have really good hitters.

Um, this year, this time, our guys went out and did their job and really threw

strikes, as we said, stacking zeros.

Um, and, you know, got the dominating win that we should have gotten.

Um, and we play them in a couple weeks again, yeah, on the 18th, um,

on a Wednesday here at, at, at ODU.

So hopefully you do the exact same thing again.

You know, you, you go out and you, you should do that to a team.

Um, but otherwise, I mean, I, I, Norfolk State, great guys,

great coaching staff now.

Um, a lot of good ball players.

I hope they, you know, they had had another rough weekend, but

I hope they get some wins here.

Start moving things in the right direction for 'em.

I've,

I've gotta go back through more schedules, so I'm trying to remember the last time

we shut someone out during a midweek.

I know it was not last year, potentially the year before.

Uh, but y you know, we played Norfolk State last year, played VCU last year.

We had a lot of high scoring midweek games and the few that we were able to win.

So the fact that we're able to go, you know, ninth, 10th, 11th guy in

the bullpen and complete a shutout on the road, that it's exactly what

you're saying with how much better the pitching Seth is this year.

I think we just kinda get the bats together.

I don't care how well you would've pitched on Saturday, we lost 13.

Nothing, uh Right.

Didn't, didn't get any runs on the board, so,

yeah.

Yeah.

No, you're, you're dead on.

I mean, it's, it's, last year that was certainly a problem.

We, we got to where at a certain point in the year midweek, it was

like, well, we're not gonna win this 'cause we're gonna give up 15 runs.

The, uh, it doesn't matter how many we score because

we're just not pitching well.

So, yeah, if you can have the entire staff throwing, well, I mean, you don't have

to, you don't have to shut anybody out.

But if you're, you're throwing out and, and having a good time.

I'm just saying words if you cold catching up to you, my man.

I was like, yeah, that was, that was, that was having a seizure right there.

No, but if you're, you know, if you're going out and really competing

well in the midweek, what it means is all your guys are competing well.

Um, and so, yeah, I, I do think it's a sign that we might have a better

pitching staff than last year, which if you can, as you said, start getting

hits in the right spots, you really have something because I, I always say every

year people ask how the team's gonna be.

It's like, well, how well are we gonna pitch?

Yep.

And that's the thing that typically carries you when

you get down to Montgomery for the conference championship.

Yeah.

Playing

all those games need, you

gotta have

arms depth.

Oh yeah.

It's, it's nuts.

That's usually what get, that's what got us last year, right.

I mean, we, we were down there and we just got to a certain point where

it's like, well, where's our arms?

Got us the year before too, a certain point.

The year, the last time we won in 2021, um, we were still in CUSA is because

we had an insanely deep pitching staff.

We just had arms on top of arms, on top of arms, and throughout the

whole tournament, it was like, all right, we got this next guy up.

He's gonna come in, throw some zeros too.

Um, so that's what you gotta do.

And we have, you have the potential.

I mean, you can see it here when some of these, some of these young

guys really have a lot of talent.

And the guys we have that have been around that have a lot of experience

and you see the potential for a very deep pitching staff here.

And we'll continue to see some adjustments in the lineup, in the positioning.

I mean, we've had several different guys play right field this year.

We've had a few subbing in and out and left.

I do like the Finny left TJ in center where he's super comfortable.

Mm-hmm.

And he's a real plus defender for us there.

And, uh, you know, you see Nick in, in left or f in, in left.

We've got, you know, as the Dallas has played, right, uh, I think Grace

Spar played right a little bit.

I, we've, we've had some dudes go into right field and just kind of figuring

out the offensive side of things.

Uh, that was the first good pitching test I think we've had this year.

Yeah.

And it, it, I think it unveiled some things and you're gonna see

even better pitching from UConn.

Uh, but the good news is like, we're not in conference play yet.

It is fine to still be figuring that stuff now.

Stuff out now.

Uh, but TikTok, I mean, a week from Friday, we, we play Troy and Troy's good.

If you're looking around the league at

Troy.

Yeah.

There's some good teams.

Uh, I know Coastal's down there, top two arms for at least a little while,

but Southern Miss is a buzz saw.

Uh, I

bet Coastal's three and four are pretty good though.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, that's a little different world there.

Uh, but yeah, I mean, you, you need that kind of stuff to, to get through

as everything you're doing now is to get ready for conference play.

Yeah.

And that's what you wanna do.

You wanna go out and, and compete and win.

And, and we've seen, I was saying this the other day, we were having a conversation

with one of our text threads that, you know, if you're number two or number

three in the Sunbelt, you probably are going to the NCAA tournament.

Mm-hmm.

So you wanna be one of those teams.

You know, you, they very clearly picked the start of the year.

They said the 1, 2, 3 was what, whatever order you wanna put 'em in,

Troy and Coastal and Southern Miss.

Well, you wanna elbow your way in there and say, no, it's us.

We're one of those three.

Um, and so then maybe we become a four bid league.

I don't know, but whatever it is, you wanna be one of those top

three, because the top three seem to be pretty cemented that they're

getting a, a invite to the tournament

and we play all three of 'em this year.

We got no, no relief across

the

Sunbelt for, for

us, but you got your opportunity.

That's, that's really, it's no relief, but it's also, it's your opportunity.

You go out and you show you're as good or better than them, and ideally better.

Yeah, I feel like the Sunbelt for baseball is backwards at the way we even think

of like college, college basketball, or even historically for ODU baseball where

you can't really earn the, a large bid in your non-conference play, you can

actually earn it through conference play by being second or third in the Sunbelt.

You know, uh, UConn got off their rot and start the season, otherwise

they'd probably be ranked right now.

So that'd be really great to go and get a series win over ranked team.

But we dropped two to Charlotte.

I'm not gonna be shocked if Charlotte goes and wins the American.

Yeah, I mean, if you watch, they had.

Dude, 6, 6, 6, 7, hitting the ball hard.

They got a ton of arms out there.

Yeah.

They're a loaded up team and gonna be a dangerous one to watch.

So I,

and we still got opportunities against UVA and ECU who are always good.

Yeah.

And always up there, if not ranked close to being ranked.

So there are, there are lot opportunities, like I said, inside the conference and

outside the conference to show you belong in those conversations at the end of

the year and you see the, the potential, you see the personnel to make it happen.

Uh, it's just up to these guys going out and taking advantage of their

abilities and, and taking advantage of the competition and, and rising to it.

And Finnie mentioned it earlier, the defensive side of things.

We've, we've made quite a few errors this year.

Mm-hmm.

We've gotta, gotta clean those up.

I mean, you can trace back the number of runs we gave up there on that Sunday game

where probably win if we just have some cleaner defense that'll come with time.

Hopefully a little bit drier field and nicer weather this weekend too,

so we don't have to worry about that.

Uh, but I, I'm excited to get over to, to the diamond on Wednesday.

I'm gonna bring my own food and drink.

I'm, I'm not kidding.

They're not selling concessions in there.

There's a Wawa across the street at Cane's.

There's some other stuff.

Uh, if you get down there early, go into Scott's edition, go to

Boulevard, uh, burgers and Brews.

That's a good spot.

Uh, but yeah, no, no concessions there.

However, this weekend.

Great concession set up out there in left center.

Um, plenty of good place to hang out, good food, all that fun stuff.

So just hope to see you at some point here this weekend.

Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm excited.

I'm looking for you 'cause you're gonna be all four games

this week, just like me, right?

That, that is the plan.

I'm even gonna get down there at night early.

So my commute is just a walk down 43rd, uh, potentially from that hotel or.

You know, a quick ride down from downtown

and, and a great day to walk, unlike some of these other ones.

Yeah.

That's usually the best day to be on campus.

Uh, when the first 70 degree day in March, it's a, it's a party out there normally.

Yeah, it's a good time.

All right, well hopefully it'll be a party.

Uh, 'cause you got a nice little four oh week, uh, in beautiful weather.

Oh, I'd be celebrating that just about as hard as it possibly could on Sunday.

I think if we get to 4.0, but we just, let's just go one oh against vcu.

Let's close the alpha dining there with a win there.

And, and we'll worry about UConn on Friday.

Yep.

All right.

All right.

Well, it sounds good here.

Yeah.

Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

We appreciate it.

Make sure you follow us on the Hudson Homer socials.

Uh, go Monarchs.

Go Monarchs.