RHP JJ Gatti joins this week, fresh off this third consecutive strong start. CB, Gary and Coach Finny recap a 2-2 week and look ahead to a big weekend series with Georgia Southern

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Yeah, yeah.

Hello, Monarch fans, and welcome to the Hudson Homers podcast.

We got CB here and Coach Finny as usual cb.

How's it going?

I'm great.

I I, I saw some different sports at the Boys on the Road this

week, and I went and saw the, uh, volleyball and women's soccer.

Had some spring games, went and saw those on Saturday.

That was a nice full day.

And I saw the, uh, the men's tennis, uh, yesterday.

I had their, had their last one.

So it was, it was, uh, and, and made sure I still caught the games, most

of the games, uh, keeping up with the guys, you know, sitting there.

My parents at the volleyball had the game on the phone sitting

there in their lap watching.

Uh, so yeah, so it's good.

Nice to do a little different.

That's awesome.

I'm, I always see Coach Chao out at the baseball games.

I see women's lacrosse there a ton.

I see tennis.

So glad we could return the favor a little bit.

Coach Finn Ricky

was out there watching the,

uh, tennis,

so, yeah.

Oh

yeah.

Ricky's always around, but yeah.

When, when did you get back?

Uh, on Sunday or Sunday night?

Monday morning.

We got back about two, a little before two o'clock, so, mm-hmm.

That, that's why the bag's under the eyes.

Uh, you know, they, um, the, I'll tell you what I, I'll say this, Marshall,

they built a really nice ballpark.

Perfect size for them.

Um, they, they do, uh, I mentioned this on the broadcast yesterday.

They, from an administrative standpoint, they put on a good production, you

know, with their PA and their music and the ushers and the, and the, the

things they do in between innings.

They, they, they really run a, a good product out there.

So, you know, those are things, you know, hopefully, I told Ted, I said, you know,

when you, every time you're on the road and you see something, you like, write

it down and make sure we to our people.

'cause there's always things you can learn.

And I think, um, Georgia Southern, you know, we've got some teams in our league

at Georgia Southern's very much that way.

It's a, you know, it's an event and, um, it makes a difference.

You know, people come enjoy it and, uh, they, they really do a good job.

They have a, uh, uh, a police officer, um, and he's.

Not on duty.

He is, he is just in there and is Marshall Green and he's a bigger guy and he sits

right next to our dugout and great fan.

I mean, great fan, very friendly.

Um, not abusive at all.

Real, really Cheers heart for, for Marshall, but had all the, the

best lingo, man, because I mean, and their, his seat is, you know,

three feet from where I'm standing.

They hit a, they'd hit a fly ball and he'd say, oh boy.

He goes, did he get it?

He goes, Nope.

It's a lieutenant.

Dan didn't have

ball, ain't got no legs.

He would say that every time, man.

And uh, he had some great sayings, but we just got to talking to him

like, you know, before the games.

Yeah, yeah.

While standing around and super nice guy.

Lot of fun.

Um.

And, you know, been coming to Marshall Games ever since they built the stadium.

He goes, I never came to games till they built this and now Oh

wow.

Miss a game.

Uh, and so those are the kind of things that a, a real nice ballpark can, can

gain you in, in terms of fans, you know?

For sure.

Yeah.

As long as we don't play that little DJ sound effect after every single out that

we get, that, that would be my only thing.

'cause you could hear that coming through Ted's broadcast quite a bit

on, uh, yeah, on Friday for sure.

I, I end up not hearing half of that stuff miraculously, like somebody will

say, did you hear that guy's walkup song?

I'll be like, huh.

Yeah, no.

Um,

thinking about baseball,

yeah.

I, I just don't, I don't, I don't hear half the stuff that goes on out there.

Um, so, but, so good, you know.

We had, we had a chance again yesterday, you know, fifth straight series.

We've gone into Sunday with a chance to win the series

and you haven't won one yet.

And it's super disappointing.

Um, and you know, again, we get got behind, but we fought back, took the

lead, and we had lots of chances.

We left, we left playing.

I, I think it wasn't, 'cause they played great yesterday, by any

means, they made four errors.

They were, they were doing their best to let us have a chance

to win too, it seemed like.

Um, but we, we had, you know, the first inning, I mean, we, we

don't score in that first inning.

We got first and third one out and we got basically loaded one out and don't score.

And then we left some out there.

Um, for sure.

You know, so that's disappointing.

And, you know, the middle of the lineup just didn't do much this weekend at all.

Mm-hmm.

Um, uh, you know, I some match three hits on, on Friday, but, um, you know, they,

they pitched just pretty tough and um.

You know, we, we manufactured some runs on, on Saturday to

win and again on yesterday.

But we've gotta be better with guys in scoring positions.

Certainly better with guys in, in third base in less than two outs.

And those, that's the game, you know, when you get the hits.

Yeah.

And I feel like there were a lot of hard hit balls deep in the center, got caught

at the track or right in front of it too.

I know f almost got one out of there I thought the ball would be carrying.

'cause I could see the flags blowing straight out the

center, at least, uh, on Sunday.

It's a big park.

Uh, and it plays bigger, I think, than the, the minute

Friday the wind was blowing out.

Um, and I think, you know, Mav had two balls on Saturday.

That would've been out of there on Friday for sure.

Mm-hmm.

We had a couple yesterday.

I think TJ's Ball is center and maybe Will Johnson's ball or right

center, um, get out if it's Friday.

But they're, you know, they're right field made a real nice catch on one of Mavs

balls on, on Saturday to, um, rob 'em.

But yeah, it's a big park.

You gotta, you gotta be able to, you know.

Put hits together to win there.

'cause what was there?

Two, two home runs hit on the weekend, I think.

Yeah.

That, that was it.

And the one on Friday that Marshall hit off of Kuski, I mean, that was the most

wind assisted home run I think I've seen.

Yeah, so far this year.

Yeah.

That one got up in the wind and got out of there for sure.

Yeah.

And the wind was blowing.

Did

they make it a little bigger because of the, like the Colorado Rockies thing where

they're up in the mountains a little bit.

So you made it a little bigger to account for that,

or I don't think, that's a great question.

I, I don't think the ball care, that's the second time we've played there and

the ball has carried much, you know, and they say it doesn't, you know,

now Thursday the one was blowing out, the ball's flying out of there and the

bat practice goes out down the lines.

The, the middle of the field plays big.

Um, so, you know, you know, the, uh, I mean, going through the games last

week, you know, I guess starting with William and Mary, um, on,

on Tuesday, we go there Tuesday.

Yep.

Yeah.

And, um, you know, we played, played pretty good baseball, I think, you

know, 10 run, rolled him and got a bunch of big hits and, um, just

jumped up on him kind of chilly night.

And, you know, it was a good night for us to get the bats going.

Uh, you know, we had a bunch of guys get an FF swung the

bat real well for us morale.

Yeah.

Four hits

he's gotten, you know, he's, he's swung the bat good since

we got him back in the lineup.

Mm-hmm.

So that's been a plus for sure.

Um, you know, and we pitched, pitched pretty good, you know, uh, Friday,

man, that, that little lefty blevins, we, we just hadn't done anything.

Of course, nobody really does.

Yeah.

Uh,

I bet his three starts against us.

He's averaged seven innings and one or two runs, you know,

giving up maybe at the most, so.

He's pretty, he

looks so frustrated he couldn't finish off the ninth.

Yeah, I know.

Um, but they, and they throw him a lot, so he hangs in.

He's pretty impressive.

I mean, he keeps the ball, you know, if the knees are lower and

he just floods the strike zone and kind of suffocates hitters, man.

It's, it's kind of a little bit of a throwback kind of guy.

'cause he, there was 85, 86, um, three pitches for strikes and they're

all at the bottom of the zone.

Um,

craft, crafty vet. He

is that.

He is that.

So, um, I'm glad we never got a face him again.

I, at least they passed his five for five.

He is got another year.

Yes.

Yeah.

That'll kill.

But anyway, so, and we, you know, ske actually didn't pitch poorly, gave

up the home run the first, um, and they got one more on a, you know,

they got a, they got a single and then a pass ball, wild pitch thing.

The guy band.

And scored on a double play.

That was the three runs he gave up.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you know, and, and, and then in the, we sent him back out for the sixth.

That may have been a mistake, but when you're down, you know, by four or five

you're, you're, you on Friday, you think about the game differently than you would

Saturday or Sunday, um, because you've got two more games to play and you just,

you know, unless you have a, a, a very deep pitch of staff, you know, with plenty

of arms, which we don't, um, you gotta kind of just manage innings and save your

best bullets for, you know, if you get back in the game or for the next step.

And our guys that came in just quite simply did a poor job.

They didn't do a good job.

They, you know, let them expand the lead and you end up getting beat eight to one.

So.

Oh, it is what it is.

Yeah.

Well, I think bringing Kuskie back out for the six was actually pretty smart, because

I mean, he had been super efficient.

I mean, e even with that, you know, the, the plus inning he got

there in the six, he was only at 55 pitches when you pulled him.

So, you know, you think guy like that who's, you know, being super efficient and

give seven, seven hits, but really ain't giving up anything big since the first.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He, um, sometimes it's not just the pitches though, it's the up downs.

And, you know, he didn't, you're, you're right though, Gary, he didn't have a

lot of stressful innings, you know?

Mm-hmm.

And so his last two outings have been better.

I mean, I think that's, uh, if you're looking for positives,

his last two outings have been better, um, than certainly his

first three in conference play.

Yeah.

So,

no, it does feel like some of the pitching is starting to trend better for sure.

I mean, you're right.

Obviously some guys came out and didn't do their job, but they've done it before.

Uh, but yeah, I mean between, uh, Kuskie and Gatti, you, you're

seeing some, some progress in the last few weeks, which is nice.

Yeah.

Gatti, that was his third pretty good start.

Mm-hmm.

I would say it's a quality start in a row.

Yeah.

The hot day, he, uh, he kind of ran outta gas there in the fifth, but,

you know, we had our best bullpen guys lined up to come into that game, and I

thought they all did a really good job.

I mean, yeah.

Uh, Ben Tanton came in, did a good job.

Um, Bailey came in, did a good job, and, uh, Davis came in, did a good job, so.

Mm-hmm.

Um, those guys, you know, they did exactly what we a asked them to do and Yeah.

Offensively, I mean, I told the guys that we bunted the ball well

and they kept screwing up the bunts, so, um, you know, we'll take it.

I mean, and, and, and.

Uh, will Johnson had a, had a big, uh, two RBI single in that

game to kind of get us going.

Um, so, and then we scored two on, on, you know, safety

squeezes with, with Nick Felton.

So we get a four to one win and even the series up and, you know,

going to Sunday, beautiful weekend to play all, all three days.

Yeah, it was nice.

Sunday was no exception.

It was a little warmer on Sunday.

Uh, I mean, I've been to Huntington before in April when

it snowed, so I was real happy.

Yeah.

Uh, and, and you know, again, we just get, get down.

You know, we had our, the first inning, I think the momentum just shifted, man.

And we get, you know, we get first and third, uh, and then we get bases loaded.

Uh, don't score one out and don't score, and then they come in and

get three and you're like, golly, they, and it's hard, you know, for

the guys, you know, they gotta fight through the, here we go again thing.

'cause it's human nature.

Um, and they did a good job of it.

Um, they helped us some, you know, they, they made a couple errors

and we, you know, we, we, getting the two back I thought was big

to make it a three to two game.

Yeah.

We were trying just to, you know, that one inning, um, you know, we had, we had

the guys on and we, it again to make it three to one and first third we moved

up and TJ got a big two, RBI single up the middle to make it three to two.

And so you, you're back in, it's a one run game.

Um, and then we, we hang three on him and so now we're up five to three.

Um, and, you know, uh, I mean, having to go to your bullpen with

whatever one out in the one out first inning, and it just, yeah.

You, you can end up running out of bullets on Sunday.

Mm-hmm.

Which, kind of what happened, I mean, I thought Maddox Jack came

in and did a good job, like.

Stem at the momentum.

And

he made some guys look dumb at the plate too.

Like he had that one dude down on one knee after a swing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you know, again, we, we handled Maddox a little bit differently just because

he's coming off Tommy John's surgery.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Hasn't been, you know, really more than two up downs in an outing.

And we thought, you know, JO threw the ball really good last weekend and

it was time to get him in the game.

And, you know, he gets out of the first one, gets a double play ball,

uh, which was a rocket off the bat that will, you know, knocks down and we end

up turning double play ball on that.

Um, but he just made too many mistakes over the, you know, middle of plate.

So he hung the breaking ball to the catcher again, and he

hit it for the double and then

mm-hmm.

It kind of nickel and dined him.

You know, we, we, we didn't make a couple.

We didn't, and we didn't help him.

You know, we threw a bun away.

Uh, we didn't make a play on a infield kind of chopper, so.

You gotta make those plays and you gotta be better if you want to win.

And that, that allowed them to take the lead back.

And we didn't do much.

You know, they, again, you know, you get a complete game basically on Friday.

You're saving some arms.

Yeah.

And they didn't throw a lot of guys, only threw a couple guys Saturday there.

They're better bullpen guys still to go on, on Sunday.

And we didn't do much off Krebs or reliever that came in.

No, he looked, he looked good.

His stuff

looked

pretty filthy.

Yeah.

And we were chasing too much.

We have to get back to being more disciplined at the plate.

I, I think the thing that's, that, that went on this weekend is like you passive

on fastballs in the zone and chasing too many breaking balls outta the zone.

It's a terrible way to hit.

It's

the opposite of what you wanna do.

Talk

about that exact opposite.

What are you doing?

We talk about being ready for the fastball.

I mean, we got guys sitting in the middle of order taking fastball strikes

like we runners in scoring position.

It's just.

We gotta be better.

And so we'll get back to work on that tomorrow and challenge 'em on that.

And, you know, the second half of the season, I mean, is usually when

you need to be more offensive because the wind starts blowing out in a

lot of parks, certainly in ours,

heats up, the mall flies

more.

Well, balls flying, the fields get harder.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you just gotta hit and that's the thing.

But hitting is not just about mechanics and what you're

doing, hitting is a mentality.

And if you don't climb into that box Yeah.

As a confident competitor, you're already beat.

And I think what happens sometimes on below average hitters is they

default to struggle too easily.

Mm-hmm.

Instead of just get it done, I gotta run around third, I need to hit a fly ball.

I, I'm gonna go, I can just go up there and stand on my head and do it.

I'm gonna do it right.

I gotta get a bunk down.

I'm gonna do it.

It's not, everything in the game isn't about the aesthetics of it, it's

about the, you know, finishing the job

that's, you know, Gary and I are watching the games and, you know,

talking about like, just the way Efrin Morales approaches batting.

And it's, it's very much exactly what you just said.

Like, this is a guy, he's, he's not gonna get beat.

It's like, yeah, he, it might, it's gonna happen here or there.

Obviously that's just the sport, but he goes up and you can see the mentality

that he is going to do what he needs to do, and in a bat to get on base.

And, and yeah.

It's, it really is.

It's, you see the guys where that's not the case where it's

like, all right, well, all right.

I struck out.

I mean, it, it, it, it doesn't like whisper at you, it screams at you.

Yeah.

Right.

I mean, the guys that are dudes, it screams and the guys that don't

look like dudes, that also screams,

yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And so.

We need some guys to, you know, step up at the end of the day.

Look, we gotta at least go eight and seven to get into,

probably get in the tournament.

13, 14 wins gonna get you in there usually.

Um, and you need some tiebreakers.

We don't have any tiebreakers right now and we pretty much got, you know,

we gotta win, you know, certainly four of the five series and you

definitely gotta win your home series.

Um,

yeah,

so to have a chance and that's just the reality of it.

And so just let's do it.

We got Richmond here on Wednesday and, and get into, you know, Georgia Southern's,

a team that's right around you, you know, so you're playing some teams that.

You could end up in front of if you, if you just play better.

So,

yeah.

Now a thing that to me, you know, I think like Gary and I here as fans,

we can sit here and talk about, and like you were just kind of mentioning,

you know, 'cause you're looking at the bigger picture, what, you know, yeah.

We gotta win this mini series to make, you know what we wanna be in the season.

I would you, I would think that if you are in there and you're playing,

especially for you guys coaching, you gotta be just in the moment

like, we gotta win this at bat.

We're winning today.

Like, you really can't think bigger about

No,

no, it's not.

Absolutely

can.

There's no past, there's no future.

There is this exact moment we gotta win right now.

'cause nothing else matters.

Yeah.

And, and that's the way you should approach every game and every

piece of competition, frankly.

And life.

Yes.

Yeah.

True.

You know, I got a little.

Thing on my wrist that says, be here now.

And when I catch myself thinking too much about future, I snap it.

Um, because life solved just a bunch of nows, right?

And yes, they don't really matter.

Uh, if you take the lessons and you know, that's, that is the big picture.

That's the reality of it.

But you can't win, you know, eight games on Friday, you, you got a chance to win.

Winning.

I can't win eight games with this at bat.

I can't win any

game games.

You gotta win with this pitch.

That's right.

You gotta win a pitch.

You gotta win in that bat.

You gotta win winning.

Uh, and then you gotta stack 'em.

Um, so it, it is just a choice though.

I've seen teams do it.

I tell the guys a story all the time.

Um, my first year at Auburn Man, 2001, we started off the year 16 and oh, and

we're, I don't know, ranked second.

We started off SEC play.

Oh and nine.

Whew.

We lost our first Got swept our first three series.

At Mississippi State at home against Ole Miss and at Georgia.

And we had Tennessee coming in who was ranked second in the

country the fourth weekend.

And the guys got it together man.

And we swept Tennessee.

We ended up five and 10 in the first half 'cause we got swept the first three.

So we ended up five and 10 and we went 10 to five in the second half

and finished 15 to 15 and like ended up in six place or something.

And we're in a regional.

Yeah,

so it can be done.

Yeah.

But it takes some guys, you know, playing and playing with a special kind of want

to and feel and all those things because the other guys aren't gonna let you

do it like they're trying to win too.

Yeah.

You have the same mindset you do.

Yeah.

They the same lines, you know.

Um, and so, you know, you see, uh, you know, even last year, I mean we got to,

in a couple of those, I remember we had, uh, at Monroe and then Marshall at home.

Uh, and then JMU and we're like, we need to win these three series to, to

get, you know, get in a tournament.

And we did.

We, we, we beat, uh, Monroe.

We, we beat Marshall and we swept JMU.

And so you can do it, you just gotta have some guys like step

up, um, on the mound on the thing.

Right now we're just pitching and playing good enough to win one game a weekend.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and you gotta, you know, we gotta have some better starts so we can like, you

know, not use as many guys maybe in a win and have some more guys for the next one.

And, but they gotta do it, you know, like if you're not pitching good, we're

not gonna keep running back out there,

you know, and, and I mean it's, it's one of those things like, I don't think we've

had over a six inning start this year.

Maybe we've had one six inning start.

Um, but there's some guys tr you know, I do think some of the young arms are.

Are, you know, exciting for the future.

I think Jackson Ocon was going through a lot of same things.

Guy like Hunter Gregory, Ryan Moore.

Mm-hmm.

They all went through his freshman.

Um, I think Ben Tanton has been really good and very consistent.

Yeah.

I think Chris Cavalcante has got a chance is in that same boat.

And Maddox Jack, who's a retro freshman, is definitely

trending in the right direction.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and then Cole Lanford, who's also a retro freshman, um, is, is showing

us signs of, of what he's capable of.

He's been very rollercoaster ish this year, but when he is been

good, he is been really good.

Yeah.

He has,

um, and nasty and he was that way in the eighth, yesterday again.

Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah.

Those, those five guys, you know, certainly for the

future, um, look pretty good.

So we're, we're, we're happy about that.

And we just gotta get some, you know, it's gonna take some special performances,

you know, somebody to have a, a three for four with four rbis and mm-hmm.

You know, somebody to have a, you know, a six inning, you know,

eight or nine strikeout, one walk, three hit type of performance

like, and those kind of things.

Um, interesting.

I thought about this yesterday.

We don't play on turf anymore.

We play on grass and dirt every game the rest of the year.

Wow.

And,

and no road midweeks either

and no.

Yeah.

Three home series.

All our road, our midweeks are home and then we play at Coastal and

that Georgia State we have grass.

Yeah.

So no more turf.

It's kind of crazy.

That's

interesting.

Uh,

yeah,

that

our first three road series in the conference were all turf.

I'm gonna be honest, I thought Coastal had turf.

Maybe I'm just thinking of the football field.

Yeah, no, they, they got a beautiful surface, but it's natural.

They got a beautiful everything.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well that's one of their, their biggest majors, I think is like golf course

and landscape management down there.

That makes sense.

Myrtle Beach.

Yeah, that makes

sense.

They got a lot of interns, very willing.

9,000 golf courses to work on

down there.

Yeah.

I I also thought that Will Johnson played really well this weekend across the board.

Mm-hmm.

Um, he had some com really good competitive at bats.

Mm-hmm.

He, his clock was good.

It is almost like he got a second win.

I, I've been thinking he's been running on fumes for a little while now and

been kinda on him about, you know, his energy and, and those kind of things.

And just wondering if, if it's gonna come back.

And I thought this week, um, I thought this weekend, I mean he

made a bunch of good plays, man.

Like, yeah.

And

threw out some guys that can run pretty well and, and was moving around and,

you know, so that was good to see.

That was,

yeah.

I also think Tyler Zedalis at third has been a fantastic move

both offensively and defensively.

I mean, he threw two guys out at the plate on Sunday and that was big in the,

those clutch moments, but he just looks smooth and polished over there at third.

He's been very consistent, right?

Like he's making the routine plays look routine.

Mm-hmm.

Which

we infielders do.

And he, um, he definitely has, has shorted us up over there.

Like we're not giving away outs over there at third, like

we were earlier in the year.

Um, so that's been good.

He didn't have a great weekend, but I tell you what, man,

sometimes it's just how it goes.

They, they pitched him really tough.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, they, they were dotting balls on the outside corner and he had the

one double on on Friday, but, and then now he also swung at too many balls

that weren't strikes, but he, um.

They, they pitch some fruits up.

That can happen sometimes

is Do you think that there's a carryover from game to game?

Like Friday you face blevins fills the zone.

Saturday you, you face a different pitcher that's trying to go out of the zone.

Do you think there's that carryover of like, I looked at too many pitches.

Yes.

Too many strikes yesterday.

Now I'm gonna be aggressive.

Could be, yeah.

Could be.

Um, a guy like Blevins, like you need to swing more 'cause

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Pitches.

They, even the misses are gonna be hittable, like they're close.

Um, and a guy like Harlow Saturday was kind of spraying it.

You need to be more selective.

And, um, I thought we did a decent job on Harlow, like you said, we hit some balls.

Hard that Yeah.

Would've some runs the night before and, you know, we didn't have a ton to shuffle,

but we took our walks, um, and we took advantage of their, their mistakes and,

you know, uh, and Sunday just, we just, we weren't ready to get that big hit.

The moment got us man, and.

That was too bad.

'cause that game was there for the taking.

Yeah, I think we were all waiting for that one more hit with guys

on like, I mean, one single and it's a completely different game.

Mm-hmm.

And I mean, to, to the guy's credit, I mean, they made some hard contact.

I didn't see Exit Velos or anything, but yeah, I don't think you hit it to the

track in that ballpark in dead center without putting some ass behind it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The one, the one that's gonna on that is the first inning

because we, you know mm-hmm.

You got that.

And we don't hit a ball outta the infield.

Yeah.

It's

just that that can't happen.

That's, we gotta be better.

Mm-hmm.

You know, but we, we overcame it.

We came back and still took the lead

mm-hmm.

And couldn't hang on to it.

So, um, you know, um, positives, we, we are playing overall better defense.

Um, you know, Zach's gotta catch those two cutoff balls just plain and simple.

Mm-hmm.

Like they're throwing to you, catch 'em, they're not going anywhere with it.

You just gotta catch it.

Um, and that's just a focus thing for sure.

Uh, and then we gotta get him back going again.

Like he's

mm-hmm.

He's, um, you know, we gotta get him out of the jar.

Uh, so get back to work tomorrow and try to get him back going

because, you know, early in the year he was carrying us some games.

We gotta get that guy back.

Are they, are teams pitching him differently now?

Like I feel like they're pitching

backwards.

Yeah.

Going in more.

Okay.

Uh, we talked about getting off the plate a little bit 'cause he, he's

the guy that handles the ball out over the plate and hits it in the middle

of the field better than he pulls it.

Um, you know, usually we pull the off speed pitches.

What good hitters do they hit the, you know, the fast balls to the opposite

gap and pull the off speed pitches.

And he's been that way.

Guys are really throwing him hard in.

Um, and he and today's hitters, for whatever reason have this aversion

to moving around in the batter's box.

Yeah, it's

interesting and for ever, when I was growing up, I heard Pete Rose say this.

Guy's sewing hard.

You move back guy's.

So soft, you move up guy's on you end, you move off, guy's,

sew on your way, you move on.

That batter's box is four feet by six feet.

Yeah.

And all you guys stand in the exact same spot every time.

I, I swear I watch games and like, especially I go to high school

games sometimes and like sometimes I'm, you know, right there either

in the dugout or by the dugout.

I'm sometimes tell them, Hey, move up in the plate.

Like the way this guy is throwing, like move up and a couple of guys actually

listen and get hits, you know, because it's, it's not rocket science, man.

No, it's not.

It's angles.

Well, I think Zach's gotta get off the plate.

Um, give himself a little more space.

I, I think Nick Felton's one of those guys we're trying to get

him to hit the ball the other way.

Um mm-hmm.

And he's gotta get off the plate a little bit and let him, so some things

like that and, you know, it's, it's good we're, we gotta practice day tomorrow.

It's gonna be a nice day.

We're gonna be able to get out there and some shorts and take plenty of swings

and get some of this stuff works out.

Hopefully.

Yeah.

Um, one other person I wanted to talk with you about Kellen Davis.

I, I thought, I mean, we know he's a dog.

He is a gutsy dude.

He is gonna go out there and pitch his ass off.

But for him to, you know, go back to back days, get a save all scoreless, I

mean, we wanna give him his flowers even, you know, even though we usually do.

Anyway,

Kellen Davis is one of the best stories.

You know, I, I'll be telling Kellen Davis stories long after I'm done, because

those are the wins, man, I think, and not, not because of anything we've done.

I mean, I, I'm, we've worked hard with him collaboratively.

Mm-hmm.

Collaboratively.

But that kid has just found a way to, in, in reinvent himself in a way.

I, I, I liken it to what Jason Hartline did.

Mm-hmm.

He is a guy that spent the first couple years trying to throw hard and then

realized it wasn't gonna be hard enough.

And then I gotta find a trick because.

If I do, then I can pitch more.

And for Heartline it was the cutter and for Kel, and it's

been that spike breaking ball.

And

you're telling me that if you adjust to the situation, you

might have success instead of just

banging

your head doing the same thing.

It's crazy

what

concept.

Yeah, it's incredible.

Crazy

how that might work.

Yeah, yeah.

What a concept that is.

You know, people that are recording this could actually,

you know, learn something here.

I mean for more than just baseball too, I feel like.

Yeah.

Adapt or die.

And you're talking about a guy that you know was a red shirt.

Um, and then we were like, this guy's no good.

He is a great kid.

He is never gonna pitch.

Yeah.

And then he figured the next year and then he, and then he figured that, you know,

that spike breaking ball out and he was a guy we could bring in to get out of a

gym early in games and all this stuff.

And then last year the role was a little better than that.

And you know, this year he is been one of our best, you

know, late played in guys so.

Incredible kid, incredible story.

Um, just the nicest kid in the world, you know, and, and, um, you know,

just, he's, he's been on so much fun.

I had, um, my phone came up the other day, it was five years ago, this past week.

I went on a trip and I saw, um, all 'em playing their senior of high school,

Kellen and Blake Morgan and, um, Luke Waters all playing in that same week.

So that was, that was pretty, those are three guys who had some

pretty solid monarch careers.

Got to see em.

Yes, they

did.

Yes.

Blake Morgan all time.

Appearance leader, uh, starts

all time.

Uh, yeah, game started.

Starts game started.

Yeah.

And, uh, obviously Luke, Luke was up there for

mm-hmm.

You know, career at bats and all that, so, yeah.

Um, yeah.

And, and so yeah, Kellen, he went out, he was back to, you know, he kind of was

back to himself I thought this weekend.

Mm-hmm.

Um, it's funny that his breaking ball, it's like when it's breaking this,

this sounds strange to say, but when it's breaking too much, it gets hit.

When it's breaking more, when it breaks less than you think it's gonna break, it's

the opposite of what most guys, it stayed.

And I'll be in the dugout, I'll be like, hung it just enough, and

it'll stay on plane and the guy will pop it up, or, or, you know, and

then when he, when he is throwing it, I think it, I think it's when

he throws it, uh, maybe too soft.

It breaks more than guy's head.

It's weird.

It's a weird dynamic.

I don't, and I don't even know strange what all the numbers say.

That's just what I see.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But he had it going back again and, you know, that was good to see.

Yeah, he, he looked good.

Obviously Bailey threw back to back days as well.

He looked good.

Um, you, a lot of young arms coming up, but I think some of

your more veteran guys have evened out it seems like a little bit.

Especially in the starting rotation for sure.

Yeah.

We need those guys to, to figure it out.

And we're gonna do something different on Sunday, um, this week.

So, we'll, we gotta, you know, I don't know what that is yet.

We're, we're still mm-hmm.

Talking through that, um, to see who's the best option

winning.

We're gonna try that.

That'd be a different thing

that first, that

get a Sunday win.

It may be, I mean, there's plenty of, you know, baseball, college,

baseball programs this way the last five weeks of the season.

It's like, we're gonna, we're gonna use everybody.

We got to try to win those first two games and then Sunday, whoever's left,

you know, we'll figure out the best guy to start Sunday, whoever's left.

So that could be that type of situation.

And, um, if it is okay.

And, you know, we'll do the best we can.

That's, that's where we're at.

Yeah.

One other shout out from this week, from the game on Tuesday, Jack Slater

gets a start is catching, ends up going two for three, two ribbies, two walks.

Thought he did a good job, just kind of seizing the opportunity.

Got there, gave m and break and paid off for you driving in some runs.

Yeah, we, and we started Jack because he's probably our best

thrower, um, of our catchers.

Uhhuh, even Mary, you know, was running like crazy up till then.

I don't think they had a stolen base that night, but that's what happens.

Get up.

Uh, the and, but Jack Cock goody had a, you know, got us going with

a big two out two RBI single to right center in, in that game.

And um, you know, got another hit and he was good man.

So that was good to see.

And he'll probably.

He'll probably catch, um, he'll probably catch against Richmond, I would imagine.

Yeah.

A good, good pinch hit option if you're facing a righty too.

I think getting him up there, you

Yeah.

And he, he came in and whacked the ball, lined out the center.

Mm-hmm.

Hit it well.

Yeah.

And you know, neat story about Jack.

I mean, Jack got back from his, so Jack's going into Secret Service.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And he had his physical fitness test Monday in Richmond.

Um, and you know, we, we were off last Sunday 'cause of

Easter, so we practice Monday.

So he, he drives to Richmond for Easter, takes his physical fitness

test, which was, I think, uh, as many pushups as you can do in a minute.

As many situps as you can do in a minute, and then a mile and a half you had to

make under 12 minutes and all in a row.

So, um.

I can do a mile and a half and 12 minutes on the car.

I don't know.

I've seen your car, Stevie.

You sure?

Yeah,

man.

Well, might be my just barely.

Well, he gets back to do some catching work.

'cause we said, Hey, you're gonna catch Tuesday's, get you little extra work.

And, and then he came out and played really well and I was like, man, we

need to take your physical fitness test for, we may run so tomorrow

you guys are

practicing.

Tell him start running

later.

You got running pushups and sit ups, let's go.

Yeah.

Um, but that's such a cool thing.

I mean that he's gonna do that.

His, uh, that's

great.

His mom's brother, JT Tanny is, uh, has been a career.

He is retired now I think, but he's been a career long secret service member so.

Um, it kind of runs in the family a little bit, so that's kind of neat.

That's great.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, elsewhere around the Sunbelt, I don't think we saw any near altercations

with any dugouts or anything like that.

Like previous weekend, uh, we did have some weird stuff.

If you want to talk about JMU, they go to Charlottesville.

They beat UVA in extras, then they go to Georgia State and get swept.

Yeah, yeah.

Like I can't wrap my brain around that completely.

Well, Georgia State playing at Georgia State is like going

to another dimension of 12.

I mean, it's a disaster there.

Uh, it's a, it's a, it's a bad junior college field set up.

You'll be there next week.

We'll be there.

Yeah.

We'll be there soon enough.

Um,

and they're good.

Like they're, they're fine.

Yeah.

They can be good.

They got plenty of good players.

They get 'em from all over the place and you know, you usually like to

play them later in the year because they're just wore out from all of it.

Um, 'cause they gotta drive like 45 minutes from campus.

Yeah.

And, you know, they're getting a new ballpark, so that'll be better

for them and happy for them.

Their, their coach does a good job.

Um, and you can, and it's a small park.

I mean, you know, you gotta hit some home runs to win there.

So

this, that one that's got, like, you can almost see like people walking.

It looks, it looks like a city park, basically.

It's,

it's just like people walking the side.

Junior college, there's a football.

Yeah, there's a city football stadium right next to it.

Um, it's, it is not good, man.

It's not good.

Yeah.

Um, you know, uh, so yeah, this will be the last hurrah for us there, but

yeah, we'll be there soon enough.

But you can get swept there for sure.

Yeah, I can.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then, uh, Louisiana, the Cajuns, uh, get the series from

Southern Miss, uh, as well.

So I mean, the, the Sunbelt standings are just a, are are

just a beat down of everybody.

I mean, you got us and Georgia Southern at the bottom at five and 10, but in

the three spot you got Southern Miss Southern a, uh, south Alabama, ULM,

bunch of teams at eight and seven.

So, I mean, it's, it's still fairly wide open to get any of

the city other than Coastal.

Yeah.

Other than coastal 13 and two

and ULM lost to the, at Appalachian, right?

I believe so.

Yeah.

I know they lost Sunday.

I think they.

Lost one loss

there.

Yeah.

So, um, yeah, and you gotta, uh, and then Troy, Troy lost their

first one then won a double header at Texas State, I think, right?

Yeah.

They played a double dip on on the second day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, I mean, it is all gotta start Friday.

Like, you know, the, you know, you hate to say it that way, but the team that loses

that, that series gonna have uphill climb.

Yeah.

For,

it's just the reality of it.

You might as well just get it outta the way.

Yeah.

And it's not like they're terrible.

So, you know, that's the thing about the league.

I mean, the margin for error between winning and losing

is usually pretty small.

And it's, you know, giving that battle away here and not catching a popup there,

not, you know, keeping the golf second, like the, all the little things that.

Don't even show up in the box score oftentimes are the difference

between winning and or losing.

So

yeah.

And, uh, I guarantee that they're gonna be, uh, be pretty fired up 'cause they're

gonna, they're gonna feel the same pressure that we're feeling like, Hey,

gotta gotta win this series coming in.

Yep.

Yep.

Without a doubt.

And, um, so just gotta come out and match it and play good and decide,

you know, it's deciding time.

Um, yeah.

Play, play to play to live, not play to die.

Uh, that's, that's kinda what we're trying to do.

But it's a great weekend to get out to the ballpark, uh, weather

and the weather's great Weather.

Weather looks great all week.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Richmond, uh, we, uh, Wednesday looks good and mm-hmm.

The weekend looks awesome.

It's gonna be upper eighties, um, so it should be really nice.

Yep.

Yeah.

Wednesday, six o'clock.

Friday, six o'clock.

Saturday is gonna be at three.

So you can go to the spring game of football then hum on over to the ballpark.

They'll have live music, plenty of fun stuff to do and hang out there.

And then the finale on Sunday is at one.

So, I mean, perfect weather, you're gonna see some good

competitive baseball going on.

Other things going around campus.

No excuse not to pop over, say hello and catch out some baseball games.

Awesome, man.

That's my pitch.

You guys got, uh, who you got JJ coming on.

Got jj?

Yeah, JJ Gatti.

He'll be on here in a

minute.

The deepest voice in town,

man.

It is crazy.

I told him he could just like talk, he, he could do the PA

just by speaking regularly.

He does.

It's like now bating number 10.

It's like, turn your echo off.

I'm proud of JJ though, man.

He, he had, yeah, he's

been fighting,

you know, he's, he, he had some rough ones early.

And he, he had, he didn't fold up his tent.

He owned it and got back to work with our pitching coaches.

And, um, he's, he's pitched much better the last three weeks.

And, you know, that's, that's the reason we've, we've won almost Saturdays.

So, yeah.

Um, hopefully we'll keep that up.

And, you know, uh, I think that's, um, that says a lot about young man's

character and his want to, and you know, we always talk about, um, if

it's endurable, endure it, like, and figure out how to, you know, Winston

Churchill said when you're going through, hell just make sure you keep going.

Yeah, yeah.

Het stop.

He was going through hell and he kept going and he is

fought and he is gotten better.

And the main thing is he's not giving a bunch of free bases.

You know, these, these last few starts, he's making guys hit the

ball and, um, he wasn't getting hit, he was just walking everybody.

Mm-hmm.

And, and, you know, giving up a, a bad inning 'cause of that.

So he's been much more efficient and.

You know, giving us three what I would consider quality starts in a row.

So need him to keep it up.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

We're excited to have him on.

And Finny, as always, thank you so much for your time, especially after another

late night coming back on the road.

Uh, but we will definitely catch you at the ballpark this week.

All right guys.

Thank you.

Go Monarchs Oh

my A Monarchs.

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Yeah.

All right.

Welcome back, Monarch fans.

Thanks Blaine as always for the ad read there.

Uh, again, shocker, uh, pretty realistic view from Finny.

And yeah, this series is gonna be a big one this weekend with

Georgia Southern for sure.

Yeah, they're all gonna be big ones.

Um, and you know, I, I was just thinking of that yesterday, the, what I brought

up there that you, if you're one of the players, one of the coaches,

you really can't think about that.

For us, just being here as fans talking, we can think about it

'cause we're not affecting anything.

But for them it's gotta be like, we're just going out.

We, I mean, what's the, the football team are like, go one and Oh, right.

It's just one, oh, let's, let's go one.

And oh every single pitch, every bat.

Like, it's all we can do.

We can only focus on the right now.

We can't control everything before, can't control everything going forward.

All you can control is this exact moment and you just gotta, and, and

like I said, it's what you wanna do all the time, but now you're really

gonna lock in and make it happen.

Now's the time to work on that and make that be what it really is,

is just focus on win this moment.

And there's definitely been some times this year where I feel like, you know,

especially when we get down early and we're down 3, 4, 5, and like the

first, second, third innings, like, I feel like every guy's swing is, I'm

gonna get all eight runs back now.

Yeah, all six runs back now.

And it's just not the way it works.

You gotta, you gotta chip away at it and try to get yourself back in the

game by having smart at bats, not trying to, you know, hit everything

out of the ballpark each time.

10, 10, 7 already a few times.

That's the whole, like, how do you eat the elephant?

You know, it's like, well they're, they're all trying to eat the elephant

in one bite, so you're gonna choke or you're gonna break your jaw, like

you're not gonna eat the elephant.

But if you take a little bite here, a little bite there, just keep

going at it, going at it, going at it eventually, maybe only the

whole thing, but you'll eat enough.

Yeah, I'll give everyone who works in corporate America, the

chills here, don't boil the ocean.

It's ironic considering that's what we're actually doing to the world.

But that's fine.

Yeah, no, it's a completely different story on that one,

considering corporate America is doing that, but that's fine.

Well, we're gonna have JJ Gatty on here in just a second waiting for

him to pop up backstage, but I figure since we got a, got a minute here.

Well, no, JJs popping on now.

I was say kick him out.

What?

No.

Yeah.

No, I think he was, he was running somewhere.

We're gonna get him here in just one second.

But, uh, another really strong performance from JJ Gaddi this weekend.

Yeah.

Uh, I think third straight quality start, I don't know what the official MLB metrics

are, but their quality starts and it's,

the quality start in the major leagues is six innings and three runs or less.

Uh, but I would, again, I would argue in college, yeah, you throw a four,

you throw a four and a third one run.

I, I'm calling that quality, especially when you consider we

have not been getting four and a third one run most, most starts.

So yeah.

I'm with you.

Yes.

Well, let's, uh, let's not tease it anymore.

Jj, welcome to the show, man.

Jj,

thank you guys for having me.

What's up, man?

Appreciate you being here.

Yeah, appreciate it.

I heard y'all had a late night.

Always, always a guy.

I love talking to, uh, by the way, one of, one of my favorite dudes.

Oh, yeah, I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Same here.

I think we got some time to chat, uh, before the third game

of the series, last weekend.

Just kind of what all was going on.

But how are you feeling today?

Uh, coming off the weekend?

I'm feeling good.

Um, yeah, like you just said, we had a little bit of a late arrival

last night, so, um, didn't get to bed till pretty late, but ended

up getting into the field today.

We, we just had an open field, um, kind of getting in there

and doing whatever we need.

After a long travel day, so it was good.

How does that kind of travel affect the classes?

I know we, we talk all about the baseball, but occasionally we

remember you guys are students.

Um, and, and I have to imagine with online work and maybe online classes,

maybe it's not as bad as it used to be.

I mean, you didn't have to show up for like an 8:00 AM class today, did you?

No, no.

In my case, I'm lucky enough that most of my classes are online.

Nice.

So I haven't had an early morning like that after a

travel day, but that is tough.

I know, I hear guys talking about it having to go to 9:00 AM or.

Something like that right after we get back.

'cause they do stuff, they go, unfortunately.

Yeah, that's me.

That was me last year.

We did the southern miss trip and I came back at, we got back at like 3:00 AM

and I went to work at, you know, eight.

Yeah, it's brutal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But how was the, uh, the double decker bus ride up there other than trying to find

a tunnel that you could get underneath?

Um, yeah, that was good.

I love traveling in that thing.

It's got plenty of room up top.

That's where all the players sit and uh,

it's not bad having your own kind of setup like that.

Anytime we need to go on the road.

Yeah.

I saw Ted's video kind of giving a tour and it was funny when he popped it to the

player side, you saw a bunch of eyes come up and then heads go down below the seats.

Yeah, that was, that caught me a little bit off guard.

I'm not gonna lie.

Yeah, I, I can't say I blame you at all on that.

Well, uh, one definitely wanna talk about the game on Saturday.

You have four and a third.

You give up just one run, three hits, you get four strikeouts.

Uh, how were you feeling going into that game and was there any kind of

pressure that you felt that was maybe a little extra after, you know, we dropped

the game on Friday to open the series?

Yeah, I felt good going into the game.

I feel like I wanted to keep the momentum that I've kind of created a little

bit in these last few weeks going.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and as far as like the added pressure, I, I can't really afford to, um, kind

of give any, any attention to that.

I can, I can really only control as much as I can and I feel like times, um, times

where I'm maybe trying to do too much outside of what I can control, which

is, you know, the start of the game, um, and putting us in a position to win.

It kind of just adds another element that doesn't make it as simple

just going out and performing.

It's hard enough to, to pitch without needing all that extra stuff.

Right,

right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

As simple as it can be, it's as, uh, it's as easy, easier, easier that it gets.

So that was kind of my mindset going into the game.

I knew that it was a lot hanging on that game.

I, I'm, I'm, I'm glad that we won.

The big thing about it had Ben coming in behind me too, like he's such a stud.

Yeah,

yeah.

And having him come in, you know, with, with guys on like that

too, I, I kind of put him in that position and he did a great job.

Yeah.

We had him on a couple weeks ago and he was cool, calm, confident.

I was like, are you sure?

Like, how old are you again?

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's a New York kid too.

Yeah,

there you go.

Funny enough.

But, um, yeah, like I said, he, he is a.

Do you guys have beef about which the better part of you?

'cause you're, you're Long Island, right?

Yeah.

So you, I'm sure you're like, we're better.

You're up there in Binghamton.

People don't even know where that is.

Yeah.

He knows.

There's not really a debate there, honestly.

Okay.

That's fair.

That's fair.

Uh,

well just, you know, thinking, uh, about your season journey this year,

you know, started out strong, kind of went through it some tough times

there for a couple of weeks, but the last three weeks you've bounced back.

Tell us a little bit about that journey and just the work you've put

in to get back to where you are now.

Yeah, that was definitely frustrating those few weeks.

Um, kind of not feeling like I am putting us in that position to win.

Mm-hmm.

But, um, it just kind of reaffirmed why I am, I'm glad that I am here, that

I, that I ended up here because just everything about this kind of situation

that I'm in, that I found myself in was, um, like the, the coaching stuff.

Wavered there at all with me.

Um, and I feel like everything kind of stuck with me through that time and

it made it easier to kind of make it simple, make it more simple going out and

continuing to try to work through that.

And that's why I feel like you've kind of seen these last few weeks.

It's been a lot easier for me to go out there and, um, I've been able

to put us in a better position.

Well, I know we, we talked to you at the banquet, uh, but it's been

a while and the audio was, was much better this year than last year

with many people forgot or couldn't.

You talk to us a little about how you ended up voting here.

People don't know you started outta Dayton.

Um, you pitched in 2023 as a freshman.

Uh, I'm not sure.

Did you get hurt that year or you hurt the next, I know you missed 2024.

Yes, I got hurt that before my sophomore

season.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, so you got hurt.

Yeah.

So then missed, missed the 2024 year pitched 2025 for Dayton.

Had a, had a pretty solid year then.

So how, how did you end up at du coming outta the portal?

Yeah.

I first heard from Coach Panic actually, who he's the man.

Like, um, I love talking to him and he's great to have around for sure.

Yeah.

But he told me that on that call that I gotta speak with Coach

Marin, our pitching coach, and me and him connected really well.

Like he is just, I could go on and on about him.

He is, he is been awesome.

With all of us.

And we had a few conversations.

I hadn't, I wasn't really familiar with ODU, um, at all really

before I had been in the portal.

And, and they reached out just because I didn't really know anybody

that had, that had gone here before.

Um, but when I came down here for a visit, I absolutely loved it.

And every single person that I came across was just awesome.

Me and my mom.

They made sure that my mom had come down to see it with me.

And, um, like on the ride back, we were pretty much like, there's

no way that, that we can't, um, that we can't come here now.

I loved it.

Great.

And like I said, like we've had, we've had a few, um, you know,

rough stretches at times, but

mm-hmm.

I'm, I'm super glad that I did make the decision.

I've loved it and I still have a ton of confidence in this group.

Yeah.

Um, you know, just thinking back to the, the past couple weekends, and I've

seen your family up in the stands, I've interacted and talked to 'em quite a bit.

They're always loud and cheering from you, but I think that you might be

the loudest person I've heard cheering in our dugout in du baseball history.

Uh, yeah.

Like there's a, there was a guy a couple years ago, Jason Hartline,

and he was loud and consistent.

Uh, and, and, yeah, I gotta be honest.

Sorry, Jason.

Love you buddy.

But JJ is, he's thrown the, the booming voice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A lot of 'em say that my voice echoes.

Um, yeah.

When we play, when we play in the, uh, in the stadiums, it kind of,

it kind of carries pretty well.

So that's, that's funny you say that.

It's kind of been my thing for a while.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, I, I had heard it at home games, but it wasn't until we were at the

diamond of VCU where you've got, you know, 13,000 empty seats in that bowl thing.

Uhhuh and CB and I are sitting only two rows behind the dugout, and it sounds

like we are sitting in front of you.

Yeah,

that's exactly what I was thinking of actually, with the stadiums.

It was really banging off the walls in there.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, it was constant and you could hear the delayed echo all, all over the place.

But

yeah, that game was exciting too.

That was a good one.

Oh, that, that was a great game.

I mean, I think we were down early in that one and I told CB, I said, Hey,

it's a midweek early in the season, we could hit, we're gonna be okay.

Yeah.

Ping, ping, ping.

Everything starts going out.

But

yeah,

the entire time.

Heard you going nuts.

I mean, uh, just tell us a little bit of kind of, I guess, like

the bonding with the teammates.

Like you, you're always getting the guys fired up.

I mean, just, just tell us a little bit about that and how that

plays out in the dugout there.

Like I said, all the people who I've interacted I love, I've been, I've been so

lucky to come into the group that we have.

Because it's really like a collection of really good guys and it makes it

really easy to pull for each other.

Um, I remember that day, like we ne we never thought at any point that we were

gonna lose that game, even though that ton of runs getting dropped on the board.

The ball was flying.

Yeah.

Um, but it's awesome to be in there.

And that's something, like I said, that I, that's always kind of been there for me.

I'm super passionate and, you know, not pitching every single game.

It kind of, when I was younger, that's like, I, I used to think that

that's how I would impact the game.

Um, I don't know how ent that is necessarily, but now I still love to kind

of get everybody going and if, if I can, if I do have that effect, I, I hope that

I do have that effect on other people.

But I, I can really feel it in myself that, um, when I'm pulling forest,

it is, that's how I express it.

You just mentioned when you were younger.

So now that had me wondering, uh, high school, were you a hitter also?

Honestly, I stopped hitting before, um, my varsity, my junior year,

varsity season started because we had a absolutely loaded team.

Yeah.

You guys, you guys won a state championship year last

year, right?

Yeah, we did.

We had, we had, um, double digit division one commits on that team.

Wow.

There you go.

Uh, I think we went 25 and two, if I remember correctly, that year.

Woo.

That's pretty good in

baseball.

But yeah, coming from the northeast, like we were, we were pretty, uh, like

that doesn't really come about as often.

Like we didn't really get as much like recognition.

That's how, that's how we felt.

Honestly.

It's a little bit bitter, but, um, it was good.

It's

true though.

I mean, it's, it's a real thing.

It's,

yeah.

I mean, we've had some guys on the squad drafted too.

Um, boy Joe Ola just went to the Diamondbacks in the

seventh round last year.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so it, it was a talented group.

Yeah,

I didn't get to, I believe that I could swing it though a little

bit when I did play travel ball.

I wanna see it.

I

wanna see it.

Yeah.

I was, I was gonna say you had to go further back in the yearbook

to tell everyone how great you were hitting, that's all.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I definitely had my glory days at the plate.

Yeah.

For, uh, for, for travel ball, summer ball teams.

What, uh, what positions did you play other than, uh, the pitcher?

I was the primary first baseman.

Okay.

I played at corner and Field.

Yeah.

I would, I would slide from third to first, but honestly in my, like, that

was my most comfortable position.

I would imagine you, uh, you're a bit of a talker, so I'd imagine on first

you were a talker, but it wasn't like a, it's that that's one where everybody

can hear the entire conversation.

Yeah.

You know, usually it's like, what are they, what are they

talking about first base?

Now we just, we know exactly what you're talking about at first base.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's funny.

Do you ever, and that's one of those, you know, obviously you're a guy, you

got all kinds of future ahead of you.

Do you ever think about like someday, like trying to do like

radio broadcast, that kind of thing?

Like I've, yeah.

I honestly.

I don't, I don't know.

I feel like I'd be, I'd be suited pretty well for that kind of thing, but

Yeah.

Um, I, I can't really, I can't really say, I can't really see

past baseball as of right now.

Yeah.

That's all right.

We'll, we'll figure it out.

That's, yeah.

I'm all for it.

Yeah.

Play the baseball.

We'll, there's plenty of life, man.

It's, it goes long after, even, even if you have a long 20 year career,

there's pl like plenty of time, actress.

Mm-hmm.

We'll, we'll figure it out.

We we're gonna make it happen.

Especially if that is the case, a long career like that, I would love

to like hop into a broadcast booth

Yeah.

Or something.

' cause a better smolt in the booth, I think.

Yeah.

He

just, just don't hate, uh, don't hate baseball like he does now.

Yeah.

It's, it's so unfortunate.

It's one of my all time favorite players growing up, and he just

really, I get people who like baseball, like, I'm sorry, it's

uhhuh.

It's

a, it

evolves, the game progresses.

Like, yeah.

And, and every generation is the same thing.

And, and there's more guys that you hear that are more loud about it

than others, but it, it happens.

Every single generation in the game is always gonna evolve.

Yeah, if you don't like it, just wait a couple years.

'cause it will change again.

I mean, you Right.

I've seen the, I mean I'm, I'm not quite 40 yet, but I've seen the

evolution change, I think three times in mine, just in my life.

So,

and it's been going well for the sport, I would say.

Yeah.

It's

great.

I mean, our, our guy Ben Verlander is always sharing numbers and he

talking about, you know, record numbers, open a weekend, record

numbers in the minor leagues, and it's just like, people like it.

Mm-hmm.

And college baseball has grown a ton too, because I'm catching some

ESPN two games now and I think it's because people are making so much

noise about, there's nothing on ES ESPN right now, but you got 4,000 college

baseball games on s espn plus like, let's put some of this stuff on there.

So I think the exposure's just growing and growing.

Yeah,

for sure.

Um, yeah.

Well, um, well, speaking

of

that, the brand of college baseball too is just such a, it's so much fun

and like there's so much passion that goes around with, with every team

and every kind of, you know, like, especially when we get into conference.

Like, you can feel that for, for they're so much fun to watch.

And they can,

yeah.

You're a big celebrator too.

You're, you're good for that.

Sorry.

You're a big celebrator too.

You're good for getting that, that great reaction shot.

You know, that was like, that was like the first weekend.

I was like, we got a guy, let's, let's get him, you know?

Yeah.

That's, some guys, like, no matter what they do, they just walk off the mound.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

That kind of, that kind of flows through me, you know, like I said, I think I said

at the, at the dinner, um, like that's not something that I ever plan out.

That's not something that I ever like, try to do or think about.

It just kind of boils to the top moment.

Yeah.

Well, take us through the pitches that you throw.

We're trying to get a good repertoire for everyone who's, uh, coming through here.

So tell us a little about your pitches.

So I throw five pitches.

I throw a four scene fastball, um, and then a cutter, which is more of like a,

more of a fastball than a breaking ball.

I'd say it's in like the fastball family.

And, um, then I throw a slider.

Which is a, which is a more of a sweeper, side to side kind of profile.

And then my change up is really my go-to pitch.

I've been throw on that for a while, since I was, since I was younger, as

the first off speed pitch I learned.

And then I throw a big curve ball, like a slow curve ball.

Mm-hmm.

Usually it's like 69 miles, 69, 70 miles an hour.

Um,

six, seven.

Right.

Yeah.

That's my, that's my thing.

That's what I kind of try to do with all those offerings, ski hitters off

balance and try not to let them get, you know, comfortable swings off.

I think that sometimes I don't even know what I wanna throw in certain