Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog Sports podcast. And now here's your host, Matt Jones. It's basketball season, but baseball and softball practice have started at the U of A this week. So we're going to spend some time today talking about the diamond sports. Baseball preseason began yesterday. Softball preseason began last week. Now, softball, they've got an earlier first game than baseball does. Softball start a week before baseball. Baseball begins one month from today with the game against Oklahoma State down in Arlington, Texas. Ethan Westerman's with me. Ethan covers our softball team. I cover our baseball team.
And I guess, are we calling this the Diamond Sports?
[00:00:38] Speaker B: I guess.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Okay, so we had this thing, we, you and I had this conversation about a week back in all these Razorback football commitment social media posts. They say, welcome to the Diamond State. I. I've lived here for 40 years. I have never heard it called the. The Diamond State until I saw these posts. And, you know, everybody asks, oh, yeah, I've heard it called the Diamond State. I've heard it called the Diamond State.
That's. I don't know. It's kind of. I don't know what even prompted me to say this, but I feel like.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: I had heard it just not very common.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: But you grew up closer to Murfreesboro.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, and that's where.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: I think that's kind of where it originates.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that's obviously what it comes from, is that Arkansas has, you know, the diamond mine there. But it is funny that, you know, it is a, I think a very niche, like, not a ton of people just regularly call it that.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: See, I always, when I was a kid, it was the land of opportunity.
That was what was on all the license plates. And then at some point it changed to the natural state. And I've read like, some, you know, like the Bear State is what it was known as, like, really early in Arkansas statehood.
There's a term that I think was used for Arkansans a long, long time ago called Rackensack or rack and sackers or something like that. But the Diamond State, I had never heard this.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Well, since, like, I guess all these names just evolve over time and we come up with them. I think we should petition it's the Diamond Sports State.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Yeah, well, that's where I was going with this, is that they've got a couple of pretty good teams over here that play on the diamond. We'll start with some Razorback baseball talk. And, you know, there have been a couple of polls that have come out. If you followed our show or our website for very long. You know that we use the USA Today baseball Coaches poll as our, quote, unquote, poll of record. But it is interesting to look at these other polls. You look at the Perfect Game poll that came out last week. Arkansas is ranked number four in the PG poll. I've got the teams that are ranked behind here, they're behind lsu, Georgia Tech and Tennessee in that poll. And then yesterday, D1 baseball, which they do an outstanding job covering college baseball, they had Arkansas ranked number seven because behind ucla, who was their preseason number one. Lsu, Texas, Mississippi State. That's an interesting one to me. Georgia Tech and Coastal Carolina. And I say Mississippi State's really interesting to me because that's a first year coach. Now it's Brian o' Connor who has been at Virginia, won a national championship at Virginia, went to multiple college World Series at a national runner up team. He's a great coach.
And from all indications, Mississippi State went out and put together a really solid lineup, a really good roster of players, but still you got to do it, you know what I mean?
But going back to the start of the preseason yesterday, what they're doing right now is next few days they're going to go through what I would call like a lot of skill work.
I think it's kind of trying to play baseball without the pitchers throwing, you know, using some machines that are out there to, you know, get hits and obviously get infield and outfield work. And you'll just try to have as close to a game as you can without actually playing a full fledged scrimmage. Those will come here in a few days.
And this is the first year that college baseball is able to have an expanded preseason. It's only 32 days this year, which is up from 21 a year ago. In future years, it's going to be 35 days. What prohibited it from being 35 days this year is that last weekend in Columbus, Ohio was the American Baseball Coaches association convention, which was scheduled before the NCAA voted last spring to expand the preseason. So there was an overlap between the convention and the 35 day window for the baseball preseason to begin.
There will not be that overlap in future years, but there was that overlap for this one year.
Coaches love this expanded preseason because it gives in particular, it gives the pitchers a longer Runway to get ready for the season. There's a lot of thought that maybe some of these early season pitcher injuries that we see are the result of kind of having to rush them along on a three week plan. I mean, you think about Major League Baseball Those pitchers have close to two months to get ready for the season. They show up. Pitchers and catchers report usually somewhere around Valentine's Day. And you know, spring training gets going and then the start of the season is late March, early April.
It's not like that in college baseball. Up until this year, it's been a three week window to get ready for the season. Now, there's some stuff that you do, you know, there's a throwing progression that you're on even before you get into, you know, scrimmages and live work.
But there's the thought that this is going to help pitchers get better prepared. But I think everybody gets better prepared whenever you have a longer Runway to the season like this.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah, and I'm, I think that, you know, it's really from we had the Hogs Illustrated Sports Club luncheon where we had the assistant coach there and you.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Wasn't that fun?
[00:05:33] Speaker B: I know you.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: I loved it.
Lunch and we've ever done.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Yeah, well, they like, it's one of those things. Whenever you hear every single coach just like glowing about how much they like a rule change, like that's how, you know, like it was needed. I don't know if like everybody's on board with this just makes sense. And that's the vibe that I got just from hearing them, is that it just made sense. Like, why aren't we doing this?
[00:05:54] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I think the thought, and Matt Hobbs was really the most vocal about this and I think Matt did a lot of work in terms of, you know, helping write proposals and get this to the conference level, get it to the national level.
You know, the thought is that if you are really trying to take care of your athletes and you're really trying to give them the best care that you possibly can, then why would you give them such a short time to work more with the coaches? And what the difference is is that in the past, at this point in the run up to the preseason, is that the coaches would get four hours a week to work with their athletes, and then there would be four hours a week that the athletes could work with the strength and conditioning staff.
Now, because they have officially designated this as practice time, the coaches get 20 hours a week to work with the athletes. That's a significant change. I mean, that's five times as much time that you're getting to spend with them for two more weeks than you were in the past.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Yeah, and I think that, yeah, it's the health and safety is the. Honestly, to me, the most important part.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Of this, you're throwing a baseball 100 miles an hour or 95 miles an hour? Just 90. I mean, like, like there's a lot of stuff where you really.
I mean, as a coach, I think it helps you sleep better at night when you've got better supervision over that process.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: And I just remember last year how big of a bummer it was, you know, early in the season down in Arlington, whenever it was Gage, it was Gagewood. Yeah.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Against Michigan the second weekend of the season.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: It's just like you wonder, I mean, obviously, like injuries will still happen, but like, would some of these have happened had you had a long run?
[00:07:27] Speaker A: And that's always the question. It's like you can't, you can't say for sure that it would have totally eliminated the risk of that injury.
But I, and I'm kind of paraphrasing what Matt Hobbs has told me in the past. He said it would have mitigated the risk of early season injury. Maybe not for Gage Wood, but just across the board for pitchers if you have more time to look at them early in the season.
So I asked people on our message board yesterday to ask me some questions. I have spent a lot of time over at baseball here recently, you know, talking to coaches, talking to players, kind of trying to get a lay of the land.
And so I asked him to ask me some questions. And we're going to use some of those questions here today on our show. Ethan's going to read them to me and then here in a little bit we'll flip rolls. I'll ask Ethan some questions about the softball team because I know you talked to Courtney Deifill here in the last day or so and you've got some thoughts on that team, too. So go ahead and hit me with the first question.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Yeah, Hog and fay. I'm assuming this hog is in Fayetteville.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Doesn't specify. Arkansas might be like Fayetteville Georgia or.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Fayette Alabama could be, you know, but this hog is in Fay, so we know that much. What freshman can you see contributing?
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Yeah, so, I mean, Carson Brumbaugh is the number one name that I would use here. He's a shortstop. I'd say he's a shortstop. He could play third base, too. But the prevailing thought right now is that he's going to be their opening day shortstop. He's a freshman, obviously from the Oklahoma City area. Edmond is where he's from. He's got an older brother who's at OU right now. He's got a younger brother who they think is going to be and I say they, I'm talking about scouts, they is going to be a big time prospect down the road. I think he's a class of 20, 29 guy. His dad played professional baseball, so this is a baseball bloodline family. And he got here to Fayetteville a little early last year. He's kind of an interesting situation because he is a two way prospect. And I still think he's a two way prospect though. I don't think he's going to pitch very much, if at all his freshman year. And so a lot of times the freshman pitchers will beat the freshman position players to campus in the summertime and just kind of get a little bit of a head start with strength and conditioning.
And so whereas the hitters, a lot of times they're out getting, you know, reps playing summer ball.
And Brumball came to campus early, but it just has kind of turned out that he's going to be more of a position player than a pitcher his freshman year. And that time that he got to spend here before a lot of the other hitters arrived made a huge difference for him physically. He's like 25, 30 pounds heavier now than he was when he got to campus. And it's like a good 25, 30 pounds, you know, really attacked the weight room and got a lot stronger. And I thought this, that whenever you watched him in the fall, he just looked physically advanced over the other freshmen who were on campus. And that's not to say anything negative about them. It's just especially like in his lower half, you could see like in his legs, you know, which is where he gonna generate a lot of that power. But both throwing the ball and hitting it, you just see it just looked different than a lot of freshmen. And the fact that they're talking about him potentially starting it short, that pretty much tells you all you need to know about the potential that's right there. The last time that Dave Van Horn had a starting true freshman shortstop at Arkansas and I'm talking about an Everyday starter was 2007 when Tim Smalling started at the possession. In 2009, Tim Carver was a redshirt freshman and he was part of that college World Series team that got to the third place finish against lsu. But Brumball, I think he's got a chance to be really good. And you're always hesitant to talk too much about a freshman before they've done anything in a game.
But where this kind of comes from is just in seeing him number one, he was a Big prospect. In fact, I think there were some people who thought maybe he wouldn't even make it to campus.
And he, he just, he played really well in fall ball against some pretty good players. So that is number one. I think Carson Brumbaugh is going to be a really, really good player for this team this season. And my thought is that he's going to be their starting shortstop on opening day. There are some things that could maybe change that, but that's kind of how I feel.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Great name too. Brumbaugh.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Brumbaugh. Yeah, I like it.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good baseball name.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: Christian Turner is one. That's kind of an interesting one to me. He's an outfielder. I would say he's probably a little bit more of a Cor.
But I think he can play center field too. In fact, I know he can play center field. He's very fast. I think he's their fastest down the line runner that they have on this team. You know, both of the corner outfield spots are a little iffy. I don't think. You know, you wouldn't go into this and say he's the leading candidate in either of those, but I think he's one that if he continues to progress and if he's able to have some good scrimmages, he'll put himself in a position to potentially, you know, have some playing time. I don't know that he'll be an everyday starter. In fact, I probably would be kind of surprised if he was an everyday starter based on who the other players are in left, in center and in right.
But I think he could play. And then, you know, one name that I keep hearing a lot is Luke Cornelison who went to Springdale Harbor. And he is a two way guy just like Brumbaugh. Whereas Brumbaugh, I think is going to play more as a position player than a pitcher his freshman year.
I think Cornelison is going to be more of a pitcher than a position player. But I think Cornelison is going to play more both ways than Brumbaugh. Wheel.
He's, he's got pretty good defense and I think they like the ceiling for his arm.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Sweet. We'll move to the next question.
This is from Crazerback Hog.
Are these labrum injuries common in baseball? So the Hogs have had their share the past few years. Before we do that, I'll say softball has two players coming back from a labrum injury.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: It's common.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: So let's say I know of two in softball.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Let me go back real quick on freshman. I should have mentioned, I think Mark Brissey, Joey Lorenzini, Peyton Lee also are potential pitchers who could get some, some time on the mound this year in addition to Luke Cornelison. Now to your question about the shoulder injuries. Yeah, I think that's something that's, that's common. And you know, when Nolan Sousa got hurt last year, Dave Van Horn said something to the extent of it seems like we get one of these every year and they do. I mean like Matt Goodhart had one, Jalen Battles, Peyton Stovall, Kendall Diggs, Nolan Sousa. Now Brenton Clark is, is dealing with this.
Some of them been base running injuries, some of them, I think it's been a matter of these players have had maybe a tear in there that, you know, they've just played through and they didn't realize that they had it.
But yeah, this seems like it's an injury that is a common injury. Whenever I posted something last week about Brenton Clark getting hurt, beat reporter at Vanderbilt quoted it and said something along the lines of this is something that needs to be looked at in college baseball. So it's obviously something that is a problem here more than just at Arkansas. And you know, people talk about elbow injuries in baseball. I feel like the shoulder injury is the one that can really set you back. Like that's the one where you never know if the player's going to come back quite as good as they were before they had the injury.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that that's, you know, you see some cases where they do, but then other cases, I feel like it's like I don't want to name names, but players who just haven't been the same.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Well, think about Jalen Battles. When Battles had his shoulder injury, it was to his non throwing shoulder. And so that's a totally different thing. Whenever you're playing shortstop. What usually happens though is it, it is to your throwing shoulder. And that makes a big difference. And that's where I think that there's the real concern.
Maybe not even concern, but that's where the question is whether or not that player is ever going to come back and be able to, you know, make that throw quite like they did in the, in the past.
And that's the question with Nolan Sousa right now. I talked to Nolan, he said he's throwing pull downs at 100%.
But I think there is that question about whether or not are you going to be able to have that arm at shortstop that the other players who Are, you know, potentially playing that position? Have.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's, I mean that's the real like shortstop is such a position where it's like, you know how you throw.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: You got to be able to make that throw.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: And it's not about just how fast you throw, it's about how hard you can make that throw because it's just such a longer throw. And talking about Brumbaugh, he's got that pitcher background. He's got a real arm there at short.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: We'll move on to a friend of mine, Whole hog sports. Udeman. Yes, Udeman is the best. Do you, do you think we have enough left handers in the bullpen?
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Well, I think they got a lot of left handers in the bullpen.
It's always to be determined, you know, do you have enough and what is enough. I mean you never know and there's injuries and you know, like I thought they had enough in the bullpen left handed wise last year.
But then Hunter Dietz didn't make it back quite like we thought he would and Parker Coyle was out for several weeks with his injury. So, you know, you have to keep that in mind too. But you look at what they have from the left side right now. I think that right now there are four primary candidates to be starters on the weekend. Gabe Gackel is going to be a starter. I think Hunter Dietz is going to be a starter, but I don't know. And then the others are Colin Fisher and Cole Gibler. Well, Dietz, Fisher and Gibler are all left handed. So whoever the odd man out is there is going to go into the bullpen and is going to suddenly be one of their top left handed bullpen harms.
Along with Parker Coyle They've got Ethan McElveen in from Vanderbilt who this guy can light it up from the left side. He can throw 97, 98, maybe even able to run it up to 99.
He's also got some command issues. He like his era was real bad at Vanderbilt last season and sometimes you just benefit from a change in scenery. You, you know, and I think that's probably what he was looking for, came here. I think Cam Kozel gave Arkansas a glowing recommendation to him.
So, you know, I think his role is kind of to be determined by, you know, if he can find the strike zone here in the, in the preseason.
I mentioned Lorenzini earlier. He's a left hander, a freshman who I think has got a chance to pitch this year.
They went and they Signed this Jacob Emoto from Palomar College in California over the summer. He was their closer, but I didn't think he pitched real well during the fall. And sometimes that happens with these transfers. It's, there's. There's a lot that goes into it, and sometimes they just don't perform well in the fall. So I think they've got arms from the left side. I think they've got enough arms from the left side, but it's a matter of, you know, how do they pitch and then, you know, I mean, do you have to take one of those and put them in the starting rotation at some point? That's something that's worth watching, too.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: This one will probably be a little bit more straightforward, but Sui squad wants to know if we have any open practice in our squad times yet.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Yeah, so, I mean, they're going to practice. I know they're going to have scrimmages on Friday and Saturday this week, and Van Horn said last week that they were going to have.
Or that they were probably going to the first two weekends have two scrimmages per weekend. And then I think they want to transition to three scrimmages per weekend.
But I think these first. First two weeks, I think the plan, as long as the weather is okay, and based on what I saw yesterday from a forecast perspective, it looked like it was going to be okay for. For this week. But, you know, it. It looks like it's going to be Friday and Saturday afternoon. But as far as a start time for them on Friday and Saturday afternoon, we don't have that yet. But I think that there's going to be something Friday and Saturday afternoon over at Baum Walker Stadium. So I would. Would advise you to be out there.
I have talked to people about Arkansas having open scrimmages, and I don't know that it's.
It's certainly not unique to Arkansas. There are other baseball programs that have their practices open. I mean, Arkansas is wide open, and they've been this way for the entirety of Van Horn's tenure. I did not cover Norm De Bryan, but I kind of figured they probably were that way when Norm was a coach, too.
And, you know, they. They like that. I think they like having people in the stands. And, you know, when Petrino was the football coach here the first time around, he always liked to have open scrimmages during the spring and even in August.
And he would say that it was because he thought the players performed better whenever there were eyes on him in the stands. And I think there's probably something to that with the baseball team too. And I'll tell you this, it I don't think it's lost on anybody the uniqueness of if you had like this real pretty day in January or February, it might be 50, 60 degrees, kind of an unseasonably warm day most years, I don't know that'd be unseasonably warm with what we've had here lately. But you know, and you're out there on a Saturday afternoon, there'd be 400 people in the stands and there's just something kind of neat and unique about that.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: I this wasn't on the questions that were asked, but I do want to reference you had a story yesterday kind of doing position analysis with the team. I guess maybe we can end on the baseball, you know, talk with this is positions there there were a few that it seemed like, you know, are still, I mean quite a few that you have your clear like up in the air. But there's a few that are up in the air. It seems like a right field and maybe second base.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Those are probably the two big ones.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: I guess just thoughts on those.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: I would say left field potentially too because Brenton Clark was going to probably be the starting left fielder. I thought I felt coming out of the fall that he was in the best position to start in left and now it looks like Damian Ruiz will be their starting left fielder. But I think, you know, like I said earlier, I think Christian Turner could play left. I think Zach Stewart, who is in, who's going to be battling with Kahila Loy for the right field job and maybe Christian Turner too.
I think Stewart can play both corner outfield positions. So that's kind of what I see right there. And then second base is Nolan Susan, Cam Koshal, I mean Nolan Sousa was Arkansas starter at second for the first or their everyday starter for 32 of 34 games before he got hurt last season. The only times that he was out was, you know, like for a day off in the midweek or something. And then Kozil, he was their starting second baseman down the down the stretch and helped get him to the College World Series. So that one's really interesting.
Again, Sousa thinks he's got the arm strength.
We'll have to see how it goes in the scrimmages. And you know, I think there's a component to this that's a premium defensive position at second base. Like that's one of those, I would say catcher, second, short center up the middle. That's where you want to have your best defenders and where defense. I'm not going to say it dictates who plays there, but it has a big, you know, it has a big say so and who plays those positions.
But both of those guys have got hit too, you know what I mean? And so maybe you can sacrifice a little bit defensively if somebody's bad is way ahead of the other one. But like that's a, that's a really fascinating one there because again, Sousa's coming off the injury and Camcosel didn't have a very good fall at the plate.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to ask if there's out of these people that are maybe competing for a spot, anybody who's bat as far as like designated hitter would be really hard to keep out of the lineup. Or is there somebody in the DH role who isn't battling for his spot?
[00:22:56] Speaker A: So my first thought on that is number one, what happens at second and does that have any bearing on what happens at first? I think Robinette's probably their first baseman. But if, you know, Kozal also played first last year too. So there's, I guess there's a potential that he could move over there right field. Like who doesn't win between Cahill and Lloyd and Zach Stewart, if either or both of those are hitting up to their potential, it's going to be hard to keep both of them out of the lineup. Those are two big time bat speeds. A lot of power in there. Everybody saw what Cajillo did. Zach Stewart's coming here from Missouri state. He's got 44 career home runs. How many people do you know have 44 career home runs in college baseball right now? It's not a very big number.
So I think that, you know, whoever doesn't win right there in right field potentially could slide their way into the dh. But I'm not going to say that's necessarily going to be it. And then, you know, I mean, there might be some matchups that decide who's going to be the dh. Maybe you don't have an everyday DH at least starting out.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: I was about to ask if you think the, the second base who doesn't start there could also factor into dh?
[00:23:58] Speaker A: Possibly, possibly, possibly. If they hit. Yeah, like they both, they got to hit. I think that's the, that's the biggest thing because I mean, you don't want to put somebody at dh. That's not getting on base.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Obviously that is their designated hit.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: That's what they're, that's what they're there to do. Hey, we want to tell you about Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. They're committed, professional and versatile. You can find them at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonville glass.com they made the highest quality products for all your glass market needs. All right, turning the page to softball, almost soccer to softball, not quite there yet. Courtney Diefel spoke to the media earlier this week. What were the takeaways that you had from that?
[00:24:39] Speaker B: Well, it's. I mean, she's always one to like her team. I don't think she's. I've gone into a season covering her yet where she didn't like her team. Probably can say the same with baseball most of the time where they truly do think that they put together a roster that's full of enough talent, they should be able to compete. But you can just tell like this year that there's a little bit extra sense of maybe feeling like it's just a more deep, complete roster. I think last year, especially, like, you knew on paper that it could be good, but you really were counting on several people just like, I mean, I don't think we were counting on Briella's to have the year that she had, but you were counting on people like her to have good years this year. They have enough players that are really good, in my opinion, that it's more like more, I guess, battles right now than I'm used to with this team covering them.
And I just feel like it's. You can tell from her perspective how confident she is. They also like a very, very rare team in college sports that they did not lose a single player who could come back to the transfer portal. And they did not have any senior pitchers. So they return every bit of their pitching from last year. And they brought in two freshmen who are really good pitchers. So you can tell that she's in Courtney Dyfles. I mean, she's a pitching coach. That's what she loves doing. She was a star catcher at Stanford. Her sister was an All American pitcher at Fresno State. Like, pitching's her thing.
You can tell she really likes their pitching this year. And that's kind of if you're boiling it down to what does a really good Courtney Diefel team look like? It always starts with pitching, and you can tell she thinks she has good ones. And then their lineup, I think, is going to be really good, too. They're just a very, it seems like complete team as far as that they could you know, turn to other players if somebody's not performing. And they could, you know, withstand injuries, which is always important.
[00:26:30] Speaker A: So softball America had them number seven, is that right, this morning?
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: And then I think they had some players on the preseason All American team.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: Yeah, they had three named the second team by softball in America. There was Ella McDowell, she's third baseman, Robin Heron, senior pitcher. And then Dakota Kennedy, the transfer that they got from Arizona. Who will be more likely than not left field? Like, actually definitely left field. I think right field's where they're going to be maybe battling for somebody out there. But Dakota Kennedy, I'll just mention her real quick because the other two people who followed Arkansas are more familiar with Dakota Kennedy came in from Arizona, where she was a Gold Glover.
And so they're adding a Gold Glover to what was already the best defense in NCAA last year. And they lost, like, really. Briellis was really good defensively at first base. They brought in Tiana Bell, who's also really good defensively at first base. So they have a chance to be really good defensively again this year. They just have the same pieces that have another year of playing together under their belt, and they added a Gold Glover. So.
But yeah, they. They had those three that were ranked in the softball America or on their all American teams. There's all these lists coming out right now. Bas softball, it's hard to keep up with. There's like top 100 list, all America list. But they're ranked seventh behind in the SEC. Tennessee, Oklahoma and Texas. So they were fourth among SEC teams. There were 12 SEC teams in there, which just goes to show it's by far in softball, the best conference.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Well, that just kind of drives home to what Oklahoma and Texas adding to the. Or being added to the SEC has done in softball because, you know, two years ago, they, you know, if you have the same collection of teams, Arkansas is the number two team in the league.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Yeah, they would have been. And it's. And I would be interested to see if those two teams weren't in the SEC now, whenever the coaches poll comes out, probably very soon, I would be willing to bet that it would have been like a split vote of Arkansas projected to win it with Tennessee if that wasn't the case. But number one on this poll was Texas Tech. It's going to have a big target on their back all year long because, I mean, anybody who followed the sport last year knows that Nijerie Kennedy, the pitcher, they got reportedly a million dollars. We don't. This is all Reportedly always. But they basically went out in the portal and just picked and choose, like the best players on a lot of teams. Like Tennessee lost its best hitter from its lineup last year. Just out of nowhere wants to go to Lubbock. You know, same happened with the player.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: Who doesn't wake up and say, I want to go to Lubbock today.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: It was like, it was one of those things that you cannot look at what happened in the portal for them and not have any red flags. I mean, there's. There's no way, like, I mean, it's just all these really good players just all of a sudden ended up in Lubbock and you're like, wow, why'd you want to leave Florida where you were a star there?
So Texas, this is a pitcher. Well, they had the pitcher last year. Now they filled it. Okay, they filled their whole lineup now.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: With really good hitters because, you know, like, if it's anything. And I don't know how the. And some of this probably is due to how the stadiums are configured and I don't know how their base or how their softball stadium is configured relative to their baseball stadium. Like the win there. You don't want to be a pitcher in Lubbock. I mean, it jacks your ERA way up, makes your stats not look very good.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: Nyjah was really good last year even after that happened, but maybe she's playing.
[00:29:43] Speaker A: With the wind at her back, too.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it's. It's one of those deals where they signed enough really good players that like, I mean, Tennessee's head coach Karen Weekley posted this after one of her, like, her All America infielder all of a sudden transferred to Texas Tech. She said, I think we can all agree on two things. First, women making money in sports is awesome and long over.2 to contacting players directly or indirectly before their season ends and signing them to nil deals before they enter the portal is wrong. Money isn't the issue. Tampering is. And so, I mean, you had sitting head coaches calling out, like, didn't say Texas Tech, but it was clear that's who they were talking about. So they're going to have a target on their back all year long. Everybody's going to hate them. I mean, they're going to be the most hated team in softball, which Oklahoma will probably be really, you know, happy to hear that because they're so used to being the one that everybody's just anti. But now they've like evolved.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: Like, it's weird how fast you can become the villain like in football right now, Indiana is the, like they're the team, they're the darling.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: They win the national championship, they're going to be the most like one of the most hated teams in America next year.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's Oklahoma's totally changed where it's like, I really don't think people are viewing them like that in softball that much anymore. I mean in the Oklahoma City Thunder, very likable NBA team, they're getting so good that I mean like give it a year. Yeah, yeah. So. But that's, I mean, so that's who leads the poll and is probably going to be the number one team of most polls because they just put together a lineup that is like clearly money driven.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: So speaking of OU and Texas, one of the things I noticed about Arkansas's roster is that. Or about their schedule is that they have to go to both and it's like over a three week span. @ the end of the season. They don't, they don't get the sweetheart SEC conference.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Schedule. No. And. But they never do is the funny thing. Like I mean it. Last year's was the hardest schedule I think I've seen.
Like it wasn't that they were just playing all the good teams that went to the Women's College World Series the year before it said they were doing it in their.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: Ballpark. And they go to Alabama too. Like how soon we forget that Alabama is a great softball.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: Program. Like they. Yeah, they're away series in the SEC are Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas and Mississippi State. It's four ranked teams and three of those top 15, two of them top three. So it's like, you know, it doesn't get easy and that's. I think last year was really good for them to kind of get slap punched in the face early. And they hosted OU and like their SEC, their SEC home opener and they went into their third weekend of conference play at like 1 and 5 and it just made them I think real quick, like it just established like hey, this is just life playing in this conference. Because it got so much harder with Texas and ou. I think they'll be more prepared for it this go around just knowing like hey, you really have to bring it every single one of these games. But it's, it's not easy for them. They also have Florida on their schedule.
So it's, it's a really tough schedule but it always is for them. And they scheduled A in the non conference too. They opened their season with a ranked team, Virginia at 9am Central and they're playing in the Kickin Chicken Classic in Conway, South Carolina. That's where Coastal is.
So they're playing at Coastals Field. And then they'll play Clemson twice, which Clemson's a top 10 team, the next weekend at the state's UP invitational and at Texas State. So they have a lot of good teams on their.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Schedule. I thought you were going to try to say the city.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: Name.
No, I. I wasn't going to do it because I know I say it wrong every time I want to say San.
[00:33:05] Speaker A: Marcos. San.
[00:33:06] Speaker B: Marcos. Okay. But then occasionally I'll say San.
[00:33:08] Speaker A: Marcos. San Marcos. So San Marcos, Texas. That's the same weekend that the baseball team is going to be down in Arlington. I've heard from some people who are like, I wonder if I could make the softball for a day and then.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: Come. That's what you're going to do, right? You're just going to go cover one.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: Game? No, I will be. I will be parking myself in the Metroplex. I'm just going back and forth to the.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: Stadium.
Not, not back and forth to San.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: Marcos. No, that's. That's a.
[00:33:29] Speaker B: Haul. I know, I.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: Know.
Not doing that.
You know, the softball teams are so. They've been so close to getting to Oklahoma City. Was it three times in five years that they've lost a home super.
[00:33:41] Speaker B: Regional? Yeah. And they've not.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: Been. They've been a win.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: Away. Yeah. And they have not been eliminated off the. Like, they host regionals every year, too. To where the last time they were eliminated off of their home field was.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: Like. Like 2018 at OU.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Right. Something like that. Maybe 2019 at. I think 2019, Oklahoma State hosted a regional.
But like, they only get eliminated on their home field these days because they're seated in a position to. To make a run at their own ballpark. They've been so close. And I just think.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: That. How sick do you think they are of hearing about, you know, when are you going to bust.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Through? They.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: Were. I mean, because they're right there.
They remind me of baseball, like, in a different way where baseball. You're like, they're. They are routinely getting to Omaha, getting to that third, you know, to the semifinals a lot of times. And then, you know, they just haven't won the championship. If it's like softball's right there where they're knocking on the door. And I feel like if you just keep putting yourself in position to do that, eventually you're going to catch the breaks and, you know, and get through and have that breakthrough that you're looking.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: For. Yeah. And I will still die on this hill that I think last year's team, if their two pitchers, their two best pitchers who dominated their innings pitched had not gotten food poisoned literally the night before playing game one of supers.
I think that's a different super regional there against Ole Miss. It's going to be a what if forever. But Robin Heron and Peyton Burnham, who they have both back, they both should be really good this year. I mean, they both were like apparently up at like 3am just throwing up and like had to turn around and play the most important game of their season.
And so it was just a really unfortunate thing for them. It's like they, they haven't necessarily had a fortune on their side and they also haven't created their own breaks, you know, a lot of times in these situations. But they have a team that, you know, like, I do think like it's going to happen at some point. It's just a matter of when. But it has been the same story for, you know, how many years in a row. And it's. They're consistently really like, like consistently so caliber of a team that could be playing there. Like, you literally, I mean, any of these past four years could take that team and throw them in the Oklahoma City bracket and they probably win a game or so there. You know, it's just a matter of getting.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: There. You got any softball stories on our.
[00:35:50] Speaker B: Site? Do you have any softball stories? We're going to have one later today.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: Okay. You need to get on that. While you're waiting on Ethan's softball stories, you can read my baseball coverage on our website. We've got some stories there on our baseball tab that wholehogsports.com including, like Ethan said, that preseason position analysis where I look a little bit more into.
We didn't talk about all the positions today.
I do touch on those in this story on our website right now. Appreciate you being with us. Hope that we see you again tomorrow. We will have Anthony back in here previewing Arkansas, South Carolina basketball tomorrow night at Bud Walton Arena. Have a good day.
