Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Hog Sports Network daily podcast.
Now here's your host, Matt Jones.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Arkansas is headed to the super regional. They're going to host either Tennessee or Wake Forest later this week. Bubba Carpenter's in studio with me will break down the Razorbacks regional win over Creighton. But first, a word from Kendall King.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design.
We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King, Soapbox and Shopcart Together. These brand a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are design.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: 20 strikeouts and no walks. I was thinking to myself, I've never seen this.
I wonder if it's happened. Well, I did the, I did the research this morning, Bubba. In Razorback history, they have had 14 games where they struck out at least 18 batters. And in none of the other 13 games had they ever gone 18 strikeouts or more without a walk. So this is history that you saw last night what Gage Wood and Gabe Gackel did to Creighton. Arkansas beats Creighton 8 to 3. They are headed to the super regional. It's either going to be Tennessee or Wake Forest. They play tonight.
We know it'll be here in Fayettevill.
I thought, and I've said this a couple of times this year, that when Arkansas is at its best, I think it's probably one of the two best teams in the country. LSU is the only other one that I would say is in that category. And I thought you saw it this weekend. It was they played their best baseball. They fielded well, they pitched well. I thought they hit pretty well after Friday's game and even, you know, at some points during Friday's game. And they just showed like the all around completeness that I think makes them one of the favorites to win a national championship. I don't know that Vanderbilt or Texas was a favorite to win a national championship because they've got offensive limitations, but now they're out of the picture. Arkansas is the highest seated team remaining and they're going to be a lot of eyeballs on them as they move forward.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I said last night at the end of the game on the post game, I thought it was the most complete weekend of baseball we've played in a long time. We did everything and we didn't make an error all weekend. Pitchers were dominant. I loved how the hitters, I love the approach of the hitters.
You know, when they got balls over the plate, they did damage.
When they didn't get anything, they took their walks. I just, I thought it was just a complete weekend of baseball.
To your point about the, the strikeouts, you know, we, we, we were talking last night in the ninth inning. The first three ball count of the night came in the ninth inning. There was only one three ball count the whole game. And then Gackle ended up getting a strikeout. But that's, that's incredible. You go a whole game and you don' three ball count on anybody and you got 20 strikeouts and you know.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Sometimes you get a lot of strikeouts and the other team's not showing good plate discipline. Like I was looking at some of these teams that they've gotten 18 strikeouts against in the past.
UAPB, for instance, one year on the day when Arkansas beat them, like 26 to 1, you know that those players weren't taking good at bats throughout the course of the game. I didn't think Creighton was taking terrible at bats. I just thought that Wood stuff and Gackel was so good that it was like, here it is and you know, we're going to challenge you and see if you can hit it. And they, they really didn't. With the exception of maybe a couple of times.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean they were just overpowered. And, and so look, they've seen Velo, but I don't think they've seen Gage Wood, Gabe Gackel type Velo. Their ball's different, it plays different. Let's talk about that.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Like, like the velocity with movement. Because there's a, there's a difference, right? There's, there's straight velocity and then there's velocity with movement. Like what you see with Wood.
[00:04:03] Speaker C: I mean, you look so Gage, he's his release point. He's releasing the ball about 5, 5 anywhere? 5, 4 to 5, 5 range. That's feet high. So he's releasing from a low angle, the ball staying flat. So let's say it gets to the zone and it's at a. You're three feet, three and a half feet top of the zone. That ball's almost straight. It has the appearance of a fastball that rises. So as a hitter, you anticipate the ball is going to come down into the zone. You anticipate it so your whole life, everything these guys have faced, their whole life has come down into the zone. You're taught to swing where the ball is going to be. You don't See it the last 15ft anyway, you're hitting it based off of what your, your body or your brain tells you that ball supposed to do. Gauges ball doesn't come down, Gackles doesn't come down, it stays up. So you think you're on it and you're three inches under it. It's crazy.
I knew they would struggle with gauges fastball if he had it on and he was located on top of the zone. Now if he throws it down and catch up to it, but you know when you're at the top of the zone, it adds a couple miles an hour perceived velocity. And I just thought he was phenomenal last night. And when, just when they started to cheat, like going to catch up to it, he'd drop a breaking ball on them and just, you know, it was, it was impressive. Now one more thing. The home run that north hit, he jumped the first pitch fastball and it was the slowest fastball he threw all night. It was only 95. And you say okay, 95, 97. There's a difference in 95 versus 97, 98. There's a huge difference in two miles an hour.
The guy just cheated on the fastball which, the pitch before that, the guy almost struck out. I mean it could have been, you know, it was a close pitch. It's just a 50, 50 pitch, just probably not a strike. But it was close.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Yeah, David Horn said that he likes that umpire told him it was about half a half a ball off the plate.
Wood and Gackle, this is not the first time that we've seen this year where they pitched in the same game and they've really held the other team down. Remember a couple of years ago when Brady Tigert was coming back from his and they would pair him with Will McIntyre and it seemed like they found something that, you know, something about the way one pitch the other one could work off of that. Do you think they found something like that with, with these two?
[00:06:22] Speaker C: I mean apparently, you know, a lot of times you don't want to pitch two guys that have the same similar stuff. But if it's working, stay with it. I mean if a team's having a hard time catching up to that or adjusting to whatever shape of pitch it is, stay with it until they figure it out.
You know, typically you'd like to go, you know, high spin, high carry fastball high velo to something a little different, a different look, come in and bring like, you know, whether it be Jimenez or someone that throws a two seam fastball down at the bottom of the zone and kind of change their whole attack angle. But, you know, if it's working, stay with it.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: So Arkansas is moving on their final scores this weekend, 6 to 2, 12 to 1 and 8 to 3.
Well, I'll get to this here in a minute. Dave Van Horn talked after the game last night about playing Creighton and the challenge they presented. And this is what he had to say.
[00:07:19] Speaker D: You know, he's going to retire, but got everything that I thought we were going to get from Creighton. And that was a big time effort. And guys that compete. I think we just played extremely well the last two days and today we just came out and, you know, we were. We got to sit around while they played and to me, our pitchers were amazing. And I think, you know, obviously Creighton was a little tired and, you know, we didn't walk anybody. I think we struck out 20 and we had three or four home runs. It was just, it was a great game to watch if you're a Razorback fan, I would think, and just really proud of the team.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: It felt like Arkansas couldn't have asked for a better game to precede the championship last night because Creighton got up 10 to 3 on North Dakota State. And then North Dakota State ends up battling back, tying it in the 8th, 10, 10, and Creighton walks him off 11 to 10. But they made him use some pitching. And yesterday it wasn't like excessively hot, but it was really humid. And I felt like it probably took a lot out of those Creighton players being out there in the sun, no shade, middle of the day, and then they've got to turn around and they got to play a couple of hours later.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: I was just glad. I was glad North Dakota State came back, made it close that way. They had to use a couple of their dudes, you know, Langham, they could have saved him. Had he been fresh, he might have been a little bit better. He didn't have his best stuff against us. I mean, the guy looks like he could be really good, really tough on righties.
So I thought the fact that they battled back was huge.
But I don't know, Matt. I don't know if the, the heat. When you get on a stage like that and you're at. You're in a. A regional, I don't know if the heat. I don't know if that affects them or not. I mean, because I didn't get tired. If I'm playing a game like that. You don't tired is the last thing you think about. But I think the fact that, you know, they had to use pitching, I think that was definitely a factor.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: They look tired to me. And Ed Service even said after the game, he said they were exhausted.
[00:09:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, when you're seeing 98 at the top of the zone, you're going to look tired.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Creighton, Ed Service. It was a nice moment after the game last night, him and Dave Van Horn talking Service.
Before he was the head coach at Creighton, he was an assistant there. And so I think they.
I know they knew each other from whenever Van Horn was at Nebraska. There was a nice clip that was posted, I think, by the Razorbacks baseball social media.
They got the camera capturing what they were telling each other there. Yeah, that was a neat little moment.
But you could tell throughout the weekend there was a lot of respect between those two coaches.
[00:10:02] Speaker C: So you hate it when you lose a guy like Ed Service because he does things the right way, he coaches baseball the right way, his teams play the right way.
And I'm sorry, there's not a lot of teams. You know, I'm so thankful that we have Dave Van Horn as a coach, because you know what we're going to get out of our players. We're going to. We're going to play the game a certain way every day. We're not going to show up to a poem in it. We're going to have fun, you know, we're going to celebrate. We're going to do it right. That's how Ed Service coaches his team. Creighton's always been a team that's done everything right. I've always kind of admired him from afar and. And I just. I like the way that, you know, I watch him take. You can tell a lot about a team. You watch them take infield, you can tell a lot about a team, and they do the little things right. And honestly, I was impressed with North Dakota State, watching them take infield, just fielding ground balls, their shortstop. Really impressed with their shortstop.
The way he moves, the way he feels the ball. Just little things like that mean a lot to me. But. But a coach like Ed Service, you hate losing guys like that to the game, because if we lose too many of those good guys, I don't want college baseball to go to direction that Major League Baseball is going in some instances. And so hopefully, hopefully, they'll find a good guy to replace.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Well, they got Mark Kings.
[00:11:19] Speaker C: Yeah, they're going to have.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: And I always liked Mark Kingston. I did South Carolina.
[00:11:23] Speaker C: Yeah. So I think that would be a good. That's a, That's a good replacement for. So he'll. Hopefully he'll keep what they're going. They have going on.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I think he probably will. Kingston was a good coach. South Carolina, that's just, That's a, That's a different place to kind of to try to win, especially whenever you've got the legend sitting in the AD chair hovering over everything that you're doing.
[00:11:46] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a little different.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: I think. So we'll leave that there. Going back to Gackle, he.
I thought this was probably the best that he's looked this year.
I think, about the A and M performance. He looked pretty good. I thought he looked really good at Vanderbilt. Ended up going, I think into the sixth inning over there.
But there was something. And it probably may have been the fact that he hadn't, you know, he hadn't pitched a whole lot in. Pitched a little bit against Ole Miss at the tournament in Hoover, but he's hadn't pitched a whole lot lately and his arm looked really fresh.
[00:12:18] Speaker C: Well, I made a comment around the 8th inning. His body language and his demeanor, his whole mound presence. I loved it.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: I mean, it looked like Gabe Gackel from his freshman year.
[00:12:30] Speaker C: Absolutely. Like, he was just. You look at his face, he was so calm, but it was tense and just. I mean, he just went out and attacked the zone and it was, it was good to see. And so did sort of Gage. Gage always has that look, though. Yeah, but to see Gackle, I mean, he. That's the Gackle that we've. That, that we've, we've been wanting to see. And so it was good, it was good to see and, and you can see on the opposing pitchers the opposite. You could see they were frustrated. They were visibly frustrated, you know, Creighton's pitchers, because, you know, I don't want to say we scared them out of the zone, but, you know, they're nibbling around the corner of the plate. They're not getting calls off the edges, which, you know, I thought, I thought the guy. Who was it Jason Bradley. I can't remember who. Last night's home. Yes, I was. Yeah, I thought he did a good job. I mean, he had a great zone, consistent.
They didn't like some of the calls and they thought they were getting strikes and they. And they weren't strikes. But you could see them, like, if you really zoom in on them, you can see the frustration on their face and you can see just a little bit of, you Know, I don't know. Not nervous, but just frustration.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: I like Jason Bradley when he was punching out batters. Do you notice how different that was than a lot of. A lot of umpires? You get the real quick twitch. His was just.
[00:13:46] Speaker C: Yeah, just calm.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: Look like he was pulling a bow back almost.
[00:13:50] Speaker C: I thought he did a good job, though. He. He had a good zone.
I think Friday night's zone really played to, To. To us a lot. I thought. I thought it really did, you know, to the kind of pictures that we had versus what they were throwing.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: You talk about Saturday night against Creighton.
[00:14:09] Speaker C: Yeah, both. Both nights. I thought it played really well to our streets.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Friday it felt like they were thrown into a jelly bean for about the first three to four innings of the game.
[00:14:17] Speaker C: Yeah, it was a little. It was a little. It was a little bit tight.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: It expanded as the game went on, but.
[00:14:22] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, I thought that.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: I thought that Saturday night.
[00:14:25] Speaker C: My days are still back.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: I understand. I thought that Saturday night, too, because Root got some calls the first innings. Like, okay, this is. This is the type of zone that he's going to want to be pitching into.
[00:14:35] Speaker C: Yeah, well, Zoo Root was getting those calls at the top of the zone.
Their guy, Wilson Mayers were throwing. He was trying to throw at the bottom of the zone, and he just wasn't getting those borderline pitches at the bottom.
And. But the strike zone was more open at the top of the zone. So that played better to Zach throwing his fastball at the top of the zone. So I thought.
But, you know, that's. That's something that your catcher can control, Matt. And I thought, you know, Ryder Helfrich, smart. He. If he sees that they're not getting pitches at the top of the zone, he'll. He'll adjust. And I thought he did a great job.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: I thought the weekend could not have gone any better for Arkansas in terms of, like, if you go into a regional and they do. They go into a regional and they kind of have it scripted out. You know, it's like this is best case scenario.
Yeah, it's best case scenario for them. I mean, they got to throw their, their ace in game two and they won the game. And then they win in such a manner because their offense performs so well that they're not having to use their, their top. I mean, think about who would have thought that this team could go through a regional and they didn't have to throw Cole Gibler, they didn't have to throw Christian Fouch.
There were some other guys in the bullpen they didn't have to throw. I mean, it was like, it looked a lot easier than I'm sure it really was.
[00:15:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, I think that's the only negative, though. We didn't throw Fouch, we didn't throw Dylan Carter, we didn't throw Will McIntyre and we didn't throw Gibler.
That's almost, I mean, it's, it's good that we didn't have to, but it's, you know, it's almost a negative because those guys didn't get that experience.
You know, a guy like, you know, Dylan Carter's been there, so he's not going to be phased, but a guy like Cole Gibler hasn't thrown in that environment. So it would have been good to get him an inning, but, you know, you can't. I mean, we weren't going to make a change. Obviously.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: They had Fouts and Gibbler up at the end. I don't, I don't think they were going to make a change. I think you're right, but it's just amazing. It's like, hey, you've struck out 20 times and you got Cole Gibler, who may be the best swing and miss guy on the team, who still hasn't pitched in this game. Fouch can obviously blow it past you again. I just thought it just, it was with the way the last two regionals have gone here, and even in 22 over at Stillwater, 21 here against Nebraska, there just has not been a whole lot of low stress regionals like I think they faced this week. And a point I was going to make earlier is there's such a difference between, say, what happened with Arkansas where it felt like they were in control the whole time. They got down one time in the first, top of the first inning of the very first game and they never trailed again.
And then you maybe compare that with what happened at Vanderbilt where Wright states, no hitting them in game one and they have to come back and they win it. And then, you know, they're never in control against Louisville and they're never in control in the elimination game against Vanderbilt. And all of those innings where it's stressful like that, they really start to. And we've seen that with Arkansas here the last couple of years.
It takes a toll on a team and you start to press and I don't know, it's just, I thought it was very interesting kind of tracking what was going on in Nashville this weekend versus what was going on in this one.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: So to your point there, I mean, it's. I thought, I thought the way they structured the pitching rotation was, was great. I thought Hobbs, dvh. When they put together the pitching, I wasn't sure. I thought, I thought Vital Cheese would have been the guy that we're going to start on Friday night.
Just because they had a lot of lefties, North Dakota State, a lot of lefties in the lineup, you know, but worked out great. I, I just think the way they structured the pitching all weekend.
People don't, they don't. I don't think the, the staff gets enough credit sometimes for, for making the right decision.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: For the foresight.
[00:18:33] Speaker C: Yeah, for the foresight to look ahead and say, okay, this is how we want to structure this. And I think we, you know, starting Jimenez, you know, he did have his best stuff. He got us through three and two thirds.
I don't know. I just think the way they set the whole thing up, I think they're just. I don't know, I don't think they get enough credit for that because to me, that makes a huge difference how you structure your staff. You make one wrong decision on Friday night of who's out there on the mound, it could affect you the rest of the weekend.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: I don't think baseball coaches in general get enough credit for. Or maybe credit's not the right word. I don't know that people understand the amount of planning and contingency planning that goes into these weekends from, especially from pitching coaches. But, you know, I mean, there's more than that that's involved in this, but I think people probably see it as you're in the game and it's just, okay, you know, knee jerk reaction. We're going to go get this guy. There's a lot of planning that goes in throughout the week of how you're going to approach this game and, and how you're going to approach things if you're up by two in this inning or if you're down by one in this inning or. I mean, it's kind of amazing how many different, you know, scenarios they play out in their head before this thing gets going.
[00:19:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree. And back to your point about the high stress. I'm sorry, this is what I meant to say a minute ago.
30 game, SEC schedule. There's a lot of high stress. So I think all those high stress innings prepared the team for this weekend and they were able to go out and just play Razorback baseball.
You know, the, the thing that really struck me was the pitching and the defense, the Hitting, I. I expected us to score.
I didn't know that we would score that much against Creighton. They've got a good staff. They got a really good staff. You go look at their numbers. They haven't given up a lot. They haven't given up. You look at some of these guys. Langham had given up, I think two home runs all year. I don't know. We hit two or three off of him.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: Three.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: I don't know. I just. I was really impressed and, and that. One of my favorite things about the weekend, Matt, was Saturday and, And Sunday. You know, the team hit inside the Fowler center, you know, and I walked over there and I'm watching them hit and they're relaxed.
They got the music blaring. You know, some guys are working in the cage and then they. They do their rotation.
They were relaxed, but, like, hyper focused. I mean, it was crazy. Like the, you know, when they step in the.
They step in the box in the Fowler center and they're hitting. I mean, they got a plan. I mean, some of the swings were phenomenal in there, but they were relaxed. And I just thought it was. I think it's neat watching them in that setting when they're not out on the field with everyone watching them. They're inside the Fowler center and they're just getting their work in, taking their swings some. I mean, it's impressive. It's really impressive. Some of the guys. We talk about Vijay Valoi all the time.
I mean, the way he hits the ball, it just makes a different sound. I mean, I was. I was around back in the day when a rod was playing and when he took bp, the ball made a different sound off his bat. It makes a different sound. A few of these guys, when they hit it, it makes a different sound. And versus one of them, they were.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: So they were. We are set up for regional super regionals is that they've got a media center on one of the edges of the indoor track. And so the, the Valor center connects to that. And I thought it was striking on Saturday.
They're out there doing their warmups on the like. Like in the. The infield of the track.
They're getting ready with Hunter Bell and, you know, they'd come off and you could just kind of tell there was a looseness to them. And then yesterday they come. They had been hitting and they come walking through and it was like one by one, it was. It was not like a couple of guys were walking through. It's like, here comes Viva Aloy by himself. Here comes Kahiwa Loy by himself. And I don't know, it just in my mind at that point, I was thinking, God, these guys look really locked in.
[00:22:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: Right now. I mean, there's. There's no wasted, you know, whatever with them.
[00:22:32] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think. I think they went out on a mission. Not just this weekend, but you could really see it yesterday.
And I thought, you know, watching. Watching the way Nate interacted with him, I thought was really, really cool. During batting practice, you know, he does a couple little things with them that helps get their swing path right. I thought it was. It was really neat watching them in an indoor setting get their work in. They're not just up there hacking. I mean, every swing, they're swinging with intent. And I thought, to me, that's awesome. That's that. I love doing the games. I love seeing the crowd. But seeing them behind the scenes, like, that's one of my favorite things still.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: All right, we got a lot more to go. We'll talk about the all regional team. We'll talk about what's going on across the SEC this week. Also, there's still some SEC games remaining tonight to see just how many the conference is going to get into the super regional. It's not a great postseason so far for the conference as a whole, but first, a word from Kendall King.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design.
We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kindle King, Soapbox and Shop Cart.
Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are design.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: Hey, welcome back. I want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They're committed, professional, and versatile, and they've been serving their community since. Since 1971. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or looking for skilled craftsmanship, look no further than Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products. You come by and see them now at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonvilleglass.com the season's winding down, but you can still get the latest breaking news on all Razorback sports@whole hogsports.com Lots of baseball coverage at our website right now. Also, track and field, they're getting ready to go to Eugene. They just had their regional last week in College Station.
Most in depth source for all Arkansas sports analysis, latest and recruiting unique stories on all your favorite teams. Subscribe today atwholehog sports.com Arkansas is the highest remaining seed left in the NCAA tournament. Vanderbilt lost to Wright State yesterday. They are the first number one overall seed that did not make it to their regional championship game. Three other number one seeds, including Vanderbilt, when they had David Price, had lost in a regional. But they're the first ones that didn't make it to their regional title game.
[00:25:10] Speaker C: It's crazy, isn't it? That just goes show you there's good baseball players everywhere.
I mean, it doesn't matter who you're playing. I was watching Texas play and I mean it was the team that beat them, the Roadrunners. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead and say it.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: That's the bb.
Sorry, I didn't know I was gonna throw you off.
[00:25:33] Speaker C: No, they had to do. They had a dude that closed out the game a night before last. I mean, I don't know how many. He was a reliever. He threw 50, 60 pitches and the dude was really good. I mean, just working, you know, fastballs in the top of the zone. Hey, you know, I've. I said I didn't think Texas would get out of that, out of that regional. I don't think now they've got good pitching, but you take Volantis out of there and they got a starter that's pretty good. I mean, they're okay on the mound, but they just don't hit well.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: That's the same thing with Vanderbilt. I mean, Vandy had gotten better offensively as the season went on, but there's a columnist in Nashville and his name escapes me right now, but he said something after their loss to Louisville. He said, the first two days of this regional have reminded us that that team is still in there.
[00:26:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:24] Speaker B: You know, and unfortunately it came out at the worst time of the year for him.
[00:26:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, look at you get to a regional mat. Yeah.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: You.
[00:26:31] Speaker C: You know, everyone talks pitching, defense. Yeah. It's important. But you. Sometimes you got to hit your way through a regional and that's why I.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Especially when you fall in the losers bracket.
[00:26:40] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. You got to. I mean, you got to score like.
[00:26:43] Speaker B: What Ole Miss did yesterday.
[00:26:44] Speaker C: Yeah, you got to score.
And I think that's why I love this team so much. And I think the pitchers realize they don't have to be perfect. Last year, Hagen Smith, every time he took the mound, he felt like he had to be perfect. These guys don't feel that way. They know that their offense at Some point it might be the first inning, it might be the fifth, might be the eighth. They're, they're going to, they're going to get you. It's just a matter of time, but at some point this offense is going to get you.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: Five regional host, excuse me, five regional hosts have been eliminated so far. Texas and Vanderbilt obviously. Oregon is gone. They went 02. Clemson is gone. Georgia is gone. Boy, did you see how the Georgia Oklahoma State game went yesterday?
[00:27:28] Speaker C: I was watching the scores.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: It was. Oklahoma State hit two home runs against them. It was interesting, the Georgia and the Vanderbilt games, you just think about how one play leads to another. Vanderbilt, it looks like they've tied the game on a double into the right center field gap, but it hops the wall and so the runner at first has to go back to third base and they, you know, they pop out in the next at bat and they lose.
Georgia, it looks like they've turned a game ending double play, but they can't, they can't turn it. And next at bat, guy goes oppo over that 350 foot wall in left field and Oklahoma State walks him off and beats him.
It's just, boy, both of those.
It was amazing to me how both of those little things in the moment made such a huge difference to the outcome of the game.
[00:28:24] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll look at our game yesterday. Look at, you know, when the game kind of changed.
Look at the line drive Robinette hit to the second baseman off the glove, Iredale stealing. That's an easy double play.
I honestly think that he hit that ball so hard, knocked the second baseman's glove back. It was hit 108 off the bat and I mean that's really not a hard play for a second basement. If he catches that, he flips it. The first double play. Well, what happened next? Boom. A three run homer.
So I mean little things make a big difference is one play. And so yeah, it's, it's crazy. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what level of baseball you're talking about. I mean it's so crucial, the importance of every pitch.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: I mentioned those teams that had lost. You got Ole Miss, Oregon State and Southern Miss. They're all playing in regional title games today. Trying to work their way back from losing game one to the fourth seed at their regional. Tennessee lost to Wake last night, obviously Little Rock. How about Chris Curry's team beating lsu? And not only beating them, I mean they thoroughly beat them last night. They were emptying the box in like the eighth Inning.
[00:29:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:32] Speaker B: Really impressive. So they'll play LSU for a regional championship tonight. I don't care what happens in that game.
That has been an awesome weekend for Little Rock and Chris's team. They beat every team at that regional. They beat Dallas Baptist, they beat Rhode island, and they beat lsu.
You got a thought on this?
[00:29:50] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I'm super happy for him. You know, I've loved Chris Curry from the start. I love his interviews, I love his post game interviews. You can tell he's kind of a student of dvh. There's a lot of similarities in the way he always gives credit to the other team.
He doesn't take any of the credit, gives it all to the team and his staff and man, I love that guy and I love the team. I love the way they're tough. They're. And look, North Dakota State was a, a tough team. I thought they battled, they were scrappy. And I see the same thing in, in, in Little Rock and I think, I think Curry's done a great job.
You know, I've got one of my former players that pitches for him, Jackson.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: Wells, you know, get recycled tonight.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: I know. I don't know how many pitches I need to. I'd like to go back. I need to look and see how many pitches he threw on Friday. I know he did well, five innings, I think three runs.
And I promise you Jackson has already gone to. He's probably wearing Chris Curry out right now wanting the ball because that's just the kind of guy he is.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: So 103.
[00:30:54] Speaker C: Oh, boy. I don't know. He's going to want the ball, though.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: He would have probably pitched about that. North Dakota State pitcher. What do you throw? 119. And then he turned around and threw 57. Then three days later.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Yeah, Jackson Wells is different. He's a high. He's a high intensity Jackson. Well, pitches a lot. Like if you watch Gage Wood, the intensity of Gage Wood. That's what you get out of Jackson Wells. I mean, he's intent, he is locked in and he's a bulldog and he will come get you.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: I don't think it's going to work out this way. But how interesting would it be if all the talk is about the Van Horn coaching tree this year? Wes Johnson and Tony Vito and Chris Curry was the coach who made it through to a super regional. Wouldn't that be something?
[00:31:34] Speaker C: I'd love it. And do you care? I mean, I know we haven't talked about that yet. Do you care who we play? I mean, do you Have a preference?
[00:31:42] Speaker B: I don't. I mean, I don't have a preference. I look at it through the lens of what would, like, what would it look like for the team? I guess a lot easier to play a team the first time than it is to play them a second time.
And I don't know how much motivation plays into it, but. But, you know, you know, Tennessee's players would be motivated, you know, whether it be the Will McIntyre clip that's gotten, you know, replayed a million times, or, you know, Jimmy Sanchez, Blair and Rocky top as they're huddling in the outfield, or, you know, just the fact that they lost the series in the first place. A real competitive series.
So I, you know, also, I will say this. I like the. I like the novelty of the NCAA tournament where you see matchups that you don't see a whole lot. And Arkansas has never played Wake Forest, and there's a lot of neat storylines there, too, with Matt Hobbs, you know, and their head coach. And so, you know, I mean, hey, Bob Holt always said we root for a good story, so I think you could find a couple of good stories with either of those teams that come in.
[00:32:45] Speaker C: Yeah, you're right. Either way, I like good baseball. You know, I'm not an Ole Miss fan. I hate Ole Miss. But when we play them, it's good baseball. It's, it's. You see good players.
They do a lot of stuff.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: You softened on Ole Miss.
You become a big teddy bear when it comes to Bianco's team.
[00:33:03] Speaker C: I think Teddy bears pushing it. But, yeah, I have softened a little bit. And I think the reason I've softened is because of Vandy has. Vandy's kind of taking the crown of bush league.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Okay, let's talk about coaches and their actions this weekend. Did you see Tim Corbin's press conference after the game two loss against Louisville?
[00:33:21] Speaker C: No, I didn't see it.
[00:33:22] Speaker B: Oh, it was. I mean, he dropped about three naughty words. And what did he say? Well, he said, and this is a quote, so we can say it, he said, I don't give a rat's ass about game two. Whenever he was asked about how their pitching plans would work out if they had to play a game two, he said, you know, we've only got to get through game one. And he was, he was feisty after they lost to Louisville. Was not. And he always is. I mean, that he. He might be the. The worst loser in America. And that's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing in terms of that's what you want from your coach.
[00:33:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: You want them to hate losing so much that they don't ever want to do it. But at the same time, there's also, there's a decorum. I think that that is lack or that lacks sometimes in his dealings with, with media.
[00:34:13] Speaker C: Well, if, if you don't want to lose, don't do all that crap between innings. And you think if they wouldn't have.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: Done the calisthenics between innings, they might have won?
[00:34:20] Speaker C: No, I just think it's a distraction. I think it's an absolute distraction. It's a show of me, me, me. Watch me go do my stuff between innings. And it has nothing to do with the game. It's all about me. And I hate that. And look, I, I'm a Tony Vitello fan. I love talking to him about baseball, but they do stuff that just drives me crazy. I think if you let it, it can affect you as an opponent. I don't think it affects us. I think they know what they're going to get out of it.
GCO Sullivan go off.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: That's the other one I was going to ask you.
[00:34:52] Speaker C: Yeah, you sent me the clip and then someone else sent me the clip of the coach of the other team getting in and pretty good saying hey, you know, because he was looking out for his AD and.
Or associate AD and grounds crew guy. I thought it was cool how he defended down. But yeah, o' Sullivan went off. Now, I don't know the whole story there. I think he was frustrated that they pushed a game time back.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: You can be frustrated. And still, I mean, and we both been. I mean, you cussed me out all the time backstage.
But you know, I mean, like, like we're all guilty. Everybody is guilty of letting their emotions go and saying something they regret later on and. And I always remind myself of this whenever I'm the. The guilty party is that you can handle things a lot better than whatever he had. The way he handled it. Like I said, I don't know what went on, but I know what I heard, I know what I saw. And it didn't look or sound good at all.
[00:35:49] Speaker C: So. Look, I've. I've mellowed out a ton and as.
[00:35:53] Speaker B: Evidenced by your old Miss Softness.
[00:35:55] Speaker C: Yeah, well, still. It's not softness, Matt. It's. It's more understanding.
They do play hard, I'll give them that. I love teams that play hard. They play hard, but there's certain things that trigger you. And I'll tell you, as a coach, like if there's certain things another coach can say to me or maybe a fan sitting in the stands, that triggers me and I'm going to take care of it. I'm either going to go, I'm not going to yell across the field. I'm going to go over to him and talk really quietly until quiet doesn't work and then I'm going to fix the problem.
So I don't know what was said back to o' Sullivan, but something triggered him, something he didn't like. One of the answers, apparently it was.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: About their game time getting pushed back an hour.
[00:36:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
So. But it started out very cordial, it looked like. And then all of a sudden cordial went out the door and it was, it was all out.
So. But you know, I do appreciate the fact that he's fighting for his team.
He's, you know, he, he felt like he was done wrong. And I'm in a Sullivan fan. I've always been. I, I like the guy. You know, maybe he was wrong there. I don't know. I don't know. The whole. I don't know what was said on the other end of the conversation. I could only hear his end.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: Finishing our look around the SEC here real quick. Ole Miss plays Murray State today for the regional championship. Obviously, we know Tennessee and Wake are playing for a regional title. Auburn Advanced, they went 3 and O with their regional. And Oklahoma, they're gonna play North Carolina for a regional title. They, they took them to the decisive game, fighting their way onto the losers bracket.
So the sec, two teams in, they've got the potential for. What did I just say? Four more teams. So that would be.
They've got the potential for at least six teams in the super regional. Sat here last week and said it wouldn't surprise me if half of the super regional was the sec.
You know, I don't suspect. I don't think all four of these teams are going to win tonight. I think Oklahoma doesn't set up real great for them. Wouldn't be surprised if Ole Miss, LSU and Tennessee won. So if they get five of the 16 teams in the super regional. You think that's a success when you've got 13 teams in the field?
[00:38:04] Speaker C: No, I don't think it is. I'm surprised that a few of the teams that lost.
So I don't think it is a success. I think everyone around the country is excited about it because, you know, they feel like SEC gets all the attention. It is the best baseball in the country by, by far. What do you Think about the west coast teams. You think they feel a little bit slighted? I asked Phil this last night on the broadcast. No one talks about west coast baseball on at least this side of the country. I don't know what they say out there, but, I mean, you don't hear anyone talk. No one talks about them.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: I think it's why a lot of their players end up here in the South, I think. So that's why you got Rider Helford catching Gabe Gackel in a regional championship.
[00:38:44] Speaker C: You're absolutely right. Which. Which is awesome, by the way, that, you know, I mean, what's. What's the odds? I think.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: Haven't those two been playing together since they were, like, in eighth grade?
[00:38:51] Speaker C: Yeah, eighth grade. I think you caught him in eighth grade. He said he was. He was wild back then. But, you know, I got a chance last night to talk to a few of the Hawaii kids that came over, and who knows, we might be looking at the next Hawaiian shortstop right there. A couple of kids look pretty athletic.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: If there's every good player that comes out of Hawaii in the next 10 years, there's a good chance they're going to come to Arkansas. I feel like the way that this. This fan base and program has embraced. I said this the other day. It's like island time has come to Central time.
You know, it's like you're at the game and they're playing Hawaiian music in between innings. And, you know, half the people are wearing the floral, you know, Hawaiian shirts. Like, a third of them are wearing leis. You got people holding up inflatable palm trees and the. I don't know, it's just.
I think it's really cool how the Aloy brothers and Nolan Souza, and you gotta give Rick Nomura a little bit of credit for this, too, but especially this group of three who's in here right now, how they've just.
They've. They've brought a unique something to the ballpark.
[00:39:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I think I've never seen so many Hawaiian shirts in my life. And, you know, it's funny, everybody was.
[00:40:01] Speaker B: Wearing them last night. My old boss was wearing one.
[00:40:04] Speaker C: Was he?
[00:40:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw him in the.
I saw him and he had on like, a little, nice little floral razorback shirt.
[00:40:11] Speaker C: So last night, I get to the ballpark, came straight. We had two games. My. My son's team was playing. Came straight from the ballpark here. So I'm kind of rushing around. I get there, I open up my bag and I'm pulling my stuff out, and I'VE got lays all in my bag, so every. Everything I pulled out my score books got lays attached to it, so. But it's funny when you look out there and you see all these Hawaiian shirts. I did get to meet the Mr. Aloy last night. He owned Viva's dad. First time I got to meet him, my wife was. Was talking to him and, And. And brought me over. And it was cool talking to him. And he looks like he could still play.
[00:40:45] Speaker B: Yeah, he does.
[00:40:46] Speaker C: He looks like he could get out there and hit some freaking bombs right now.
[00:40:49] Speaker B: You know, he's got to be a pretty good coach, too, to have two kids that are, you know, at the level that. That his are.
[00:40:54] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, I said something to him last night about, you know, having kids that are that good, but also that humble. I mean, I love those two guys. I mean, I. I do. They're. They're just great.
They're great people. You know, I talked to a few of the parents last night, and I told them, I said, hey, you know what? I'd love to talk to all the parents and just say thank you for having such good kids, because good baseball players are everywhere. But baseball players that are good people on top. I see the baseball side's easy, Matt. I think being a good teammate and a good person, that's harder sometimes, especially when you're at this level with all the attention you get. But these guys say stupid, super humble. And I think it's a testament to.
[00:41:38] Speaker B: The parents on Arkansas side of the bracket. And this would be the forward, the quad, that would play each other at the World Series.
You've got one matchup that's set up in the super regionals. Texas. San Antonio is going to go to UCLA to play a super regional. You could have Murray State at Duke or you could have Duke at Ole Miss, depending on how things go tonight. I told you Duke was going to beat Georgia, by the way, West Virginia, they will either be hosting Little Rock or going to Baton Rouge. And then obviously, we're waiting on what happens in Knoxville with Wake Forest in Tennessee. Whoever wins that is going to come here to bomb Arkansas when their 35th home game last night. That is a school record, and they could potentially get two more.
[00:42:20] Speaker C: Love it. So I think we've had teams in the past that didn't play well at home. This team plays well at home. They. They feed off the crowd.
[00:42:29] Speaker B: And it's not just that they win. It's. It's.
[00:42:30] Speaker A: They.
[00:42:31] Speaker B: They play their best baseball. They hit better here, they pitch better here. They really field well here on this field. And we're talking about this a couple, three days ago. You look at their win margins here, and I mean, they. They've been beating really good teams by a lot of runs, you know, here this year.
Think about what they did to Texas. 19, you know, plus 19 margin. I think Tennessee was like, what was that? Plus three, plus six, I can't remember, you know, but they, they lost by three, they won by four, they won by two. So I guess that's plus three. The, you know, Little Rock, you know, it was. That was a real, you know, wide open weekend.
Missouri, I mean, Missouri didn't get beat by 42. Everywhere they went this year, not even close. I mean, they actually had a couple of series where they played teams competitively on the road, and that's not even counting, you know, what happened at A and M.
So, I don't know, there's something about this ballpark that just brings the best out of Arkansas. That's why I said at the outset of the tournament that I'm not going to bet against them getting to Omaha whenever they get to play all their games here.
[00:43:36] Speaker C: Well, I think. I think a lot of things go into that. The pitchers love the mound. Like, if you talk to pitchers, there's certain mounds they like pitching. Even major league guys, there's certain mounds they love to throwing off of just the way the mound feels, the backstop.
You know, I think the guys love pitching off of this mound. I think the hitters love our batter's box. I think the fielders love the dirt. I did a special with Steve Sullivan the other night, and Sully had the. The ground screw guy on at. One of the segments was the. The ground screw guy. And he talked about, you know, the dirt. It's all about the dirt or something. I can't remember his quote, but it was awesome.
And it's about having consistency in the dirt. If your infielders know, like, you know, I came up with Jeter and, and, you know, I've listened to Cal Ripken talk, watch him take ground balls. They want their dirt a certain way. Some guys like it a little softer, some like a little harder.
But if you're super consistent with the dirt and the way the ball plays, it makes it really easy on your defense. I think it goes back to Hoover.
That ball came up on him. He makes that play at ball marker because it doesn't come up on him like that. I just think. I think that's talking about things that go underappreciated. I mean, that's. To me, that's huge right there. Knowing what your dirt's going to feel like every day.
[00:44:57] Speaker B: Hey, on the other side of the bracket, Louisville's through. They won in Nashville. They're waiting the winner of Southern Miss and Miami today. Florida State's through, waiting the winner of Oregon State and Southern Cal. Arizona is awaiting the winner of UNC and ou. And then another super regional matchup that has been set. Coastal Carolina is going to go to Auburn. Auburn's the second highest seeded team remaining in this tournament. I think if you would have asked me a month ago, like, would Auburn be the second best team? You know, on paper, and I don't know that they are the second best team, but on paper they're the. They're the second best team left in the tournament. I.
I thought they were playing well, but I don't think I thought that that would have happened. But then. Bubba, it just goes back to.
This season has been so unpredictable in college baseball, and it's been so hard to find a front runner that I don't know that I'm really surprised by what happened over the weekend. Yeah.
[00:45:48] Speaker C: I can't remember which coach it was. I want to say it was. DVH said something to me early on about Auburn. Maybe it wasn't. I'm sorry if I'm wrong. It may not have been dvh. One of the. One of the coaches, you know, we were talking about teams and they liked Auburn a lot. And then you see they've just quietly won games throughout the year.
[00:46:08] Speaker B: They saw something that nobody else saw because Auburn was picked to go 14 out of 16 SEC teams.
[00:46:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:13] Speaker B: I think Ole Miss was 15th out of 16. Isn't that amazing?
[00:46:16] Speaker C: That is crazy.
[00:46:17] Speaker B: I mean, Missouri was 16 out of 16.
[00:46:18] Speaker C: I mean, look how wrong.
That's why I look at. I just laugh at preseason polls.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:24] Speaker C: I mean, look at who is preseason number one, number two. I mean, think about the teams that.
[00:46:27] Speaker B: A and M. Was number one.
Virginia was not number two. But I think they were. They were like top three or four.
[00:46:32] Speaker C: Oh, I thought they were number two. And Florida was. Where was Florida?
[00:46:36] Speaker B: I think they were top 10. They might have been number 10 in the preseason poll.
[00:46:39] Speaker C: Okay. I thought they were higher than that. But anyway, I mean, you just look at the preseason polls. Don't mean.
I don't know if there should even be a preseason poll.
[00:46:48] Speaker B: I'm right there with you. Yeah, I'm there with you. Preseason polls are for ratings.
[00:46:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: Really are.
[00:46:53] Speaker C: You're right.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: It's Well, I mean, they're ratings and clicks is to get people to, you know, and, And. And just to, like, generate conversation.
[00:47:01] Speaker C: You're right. Yeah, I think you're right.
[00:47:03] Speaker B: Like. Like preseason football polls, it's all about getting people to turn because, you know, I don't know that anybody's gonna tune in if this, you know, this ACC Big 12 matchup doesn't have a couple of numbers in front of them. But you put a 12 and a 22, it's like, oh, I gotta watch this.
[00:47:19] Speaker C: You know what? You're. You're so right.
When I'm. When I'm scrolling, dude. Looking for something to watch.
Football game.
If I see numbers in front, I'll watch it. If not, I'll be in mind.
Let's go to. Let's find another game.
[00:47:35] Speaker B: There's something psychological about it. What it does. I've been meaning to get to the sound bite. This is what Dave Van Horn had to say last night. I asked him, when you see what's happened around the rest of the country, how fortunate do you feel that you got through in three games? And this is what he had to say.
[00:47:50] Speaker D: I feel great about it. I feel very fortunate. You know, it's not easy. I mean, we've sat here two years in a row and we didn't get out of here. We went and won somebody else's regional in 22.
In 21, we won a regional and got beat in the last game by a run to go to Omaha. I mean, I've kind of been on all sides of it, and it's, It's. You never take it for granted at all.
[00:48:15] Speaker C: You.
[00:48:15] Speaker D: You just. It's like I told the guys, you know, when we left Hoover, you. You have got to go earn it. Nobody's going to give you anything. You look at who's winning around the country, you know, you start thinking you're. You're. That you're all that. You'll get it handed to you. And, you know, these guys, they stayed humble and they got after it. And, you know, we get to. We get to hang out again together for at least another week.
[00:48:39] Speaker B: The lineup is a lot different than certainly what was here in 23, but even, you know, for the most part, what was here last year. But I think for the players who experienced one or both of those outcomes, it makes this weekend a lot sweeter.
[00:48:53] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, you go back to. Even if you go back to Friday's game, I mean, a couple of swings here and there could have. Could have really changed that game. I mean, you know, Kojo comes up huge for us. Three for four with four RBIs. You know, you take those four RBIs away and, you know, we're looking at a different game. I mean, there's just the. I still say the margin for error is so slight, but I think our pitching was so dominant that, I mean, that. That carried us through the weekend and our bats went to work.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: Did you get an all regional team ballot?
[00:49:33] Speaker C: You know, I did and I didn't fill it out. And the reason I didn't fill it out is because we had a tournament this weekend. So it wasn't fair for me to vote on people that I didn't see. Now I did see some guys. I love the shortstop.
North Dakota State. I love.
Yeah, Koenig, the guy they brought in the pitch, three innings against us, one hit. I thought that dude had really good stuff. Mid 90s, good change up, good slider, cutter, thingy, threw.
I saw some good players, but it wasn't fair for me to vote. Not seeing them enough. So I did not vote.
[00:50:07] Speaker B: My ballot looked like an Arkansas lineup card. It was like catcher, writer, second.
I mean, even actually. And here's one thing I didn't like is that they passed out. And I understand why they did it, but they passed out the ballots like middle of the game last night, and then they took them up, I think, in the seventh inning upstairs. And I sit out. I choose to sit outside during the regionals because I love the view from being down low on the concourse and being out in the middle of everybody. And quite frankly, there's just really good circulation out there that you don't always get in a press box. And so they took us up, or they took ours up after the eighth inning and right before they took mine out, I scratched out a reliever and I put Gabe Gackel. But I think a lot of people didn't get a chance to put him on there because of whenever they took up the ballots. And so that was the omission because they had two spots for relief pitchers, they had two spots for starting pitchers. Here's what the all region team looked like. Ryder Helfrich was the catcher. He was also the MVP of the tournament. No.
No thought or like, no. No complaints there, right?
[00:51:10] Speaker C: Oh, no, absolutely. That would have been.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: I felt like it was either him or Kozel. And I felt like Helfrich. The thing that set Helfrick apart to me was not only what he did offensively, but you got a pitching staff that only Gave up six runs and he's calling the pitches. Yeah, yeah, he was really good. First base, Will McLean of Creighton. I put Robinette on there. Robinette. I don't know how many hits he had, but he had six walks. And sometimes I feel like the walks just get overlooked. Yeah, like there's a.
It's not just the pitcher missing the strike zone. There's a lot of skill and patience from the hitter that has a tendency to get undervalued whenever he's taking a lot of walks. So I had Robinette there. Second base camp. Kozil, shortstop, Vijeva Aloy.
Third base, Davis Hamilton of North Dakota State. He was mine, too. Nolan Sailors, who robbed Kozil of a home run last night. He got on there as an outfielder. Logan Maxwell got on there as an outfielder, had a great play defensively in game two. Sam Canton from North Dakota State on there as an outfielder. I didn't have Sailors. I put. I put Charles Davlin. I liked what he did during the series. Dakota Duffalo, the D8s from Creighton. He had my pick.
Root and Wood were the starting pitchers. Coyle was one of the relievers. All that dovetails with what I put on there. And then reliever Ian Kuzman from Creighton.
I actually had a different reliever on there, and I scratched that out and put Gabe Gackel right before I handed it off.
[00:52:33] Speaker C: I like the Parker Coil. I was glad to see Parker Coyle because he's worked so hard to come back from injury and. And he's been so huge for us when he's been healthy. So I was glad to see him, you know, Kozil, obviously, ve. I mean, you know, Davilon. I would love to have seen Davilon make it. Look, if I would.
I'm. I'm a homer. I love these guys. I would have. I didn't want to just ride a Razorback in every column. It's not fair to the.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: I didn't want to, but the. The results were telling me, you got to go with this guy. You got to go with this guy.
[00:53:07] Speaker C: Well, what. I think you're. I think you were spot on.
[00:53:09] Speaker B: I think I had three non Razorbacks.
[00:53:11] Speaker C: Well, I think you're spot on. And, you know, maybe the other people voting voted, you know, all Creighton players, who knows? But, I mean, I don't know. I don't want to cheat a good player on another team. I really don't, because I love good baseball. Now. At the same time, I'm a Razorback fan. I would have loved to have written every guy's name down in there, but I'm not going to do that.
[00:53:32] Speaker B: We don't know when the super regionals will begin yet. It's either going to be Friday or Saturday. The way that this works is that Friday, there's eight Supers, four start on Friday, four start on Saturday.
We should know either really late tonight or really early tomorrow morning.
If Arkansas, Tennessee is going to start on Friday or if it's going to start on Saturday, do you think there's a preference?
[00:53:56] Speaker C: I mean, I'd rather, I'd rather start on Friday and not have to sit and wait. Let's, let's play.
I mean, especially in case you run into weather and you got all kinds of issues.
Let's, let's play it Friday.
[00:54:09] Speaker B: Does it help that you get whenever there's so many days in between, does it help that, you know, you might be playing a Tennessee or a Wake Forest team or you will be playing one of them that's playing on Monday and you don't have to play that day? Does that extra day even come into factor if it starts on Friday?
[00:54:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I think so. I think for these guys that are playing tonight at 5:00, you know, especially if they, if they have to use.
[00:54:33] Speaker B: A lot of pitching, they have to.
[00:54:34] Speaker C: Travel, they have to travel.
I mean, so you think about it.
[00:54:37] Speaker B: They'Re wake may have to travel twice because they'd have to go home and then come back over here.
[00:54:41] Speaker C: I mean, that's a, that's a big difference.
The, the travel, the baseball didn't make me tired. The travel made me tired back in the day. And I don't know. I know travel's changed. These guys are. They travel a little better than we did back in the day. But the travel is what always got me tired of baseball. I play baseball all day and I don't get tired. But the travel part of it. Yeah, it can drain you.
[00:55:05] Speaker B: And the way this works is that if you start on Friday, everybody on your side of the bracket starts on Friday. That way everybody is on similar rest on a similar schedule for whenever they get to Omaha the following week.
[00:55:17] Speaker C: Who, who makes that decision?
[00:55:19] Speaker B: I have no clue. Let me find out today. You may get his number.
[00:55:23] Speaker C: And like, I'm just curious.
[00:55:25] Speaker B: Somebody at the NCAA office.
[00:55:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm just, I'm just curious who makes that decision and does Tennessee have a voice in it? Can they say, oh, well, we're playing.
[00:55:34] Speaker B: I don't think Monday, I don't think they do. I think that if there was a situation where today it lined up like maybe three of the super regionals were already set on one side and maybe there was only one on the other side, then that might help make that decision. Yeah, because you'd have more teams that have gotten more rest. But I mean, like I said earlier, there's only two super regionals that are set and it's one on each side of the bracket. It. So I don't know what goes into to making this decision. I really do not.
It's. It's one of the mysteries of the universe.
[00:56:05] Speaker C: You know, I think that's the first time. What's the date today? June 2nd. That's the first time you haven't known a question.
[00:56:13] Speaker B: Give me till the end of the day.
[00:56:14] Speaker C: Oh, it's too late now.
[00:56:15] Speaker B: Give me till the end.
[00:56:16] Speaker C: I needed to know right now.
[00:56:17] Speaker B: But give me a 12. Give me a 12 hour extension. I may be able to get to the answer.
[00:56:22] Speaker C: Okay, I appreciate it.
[00:56:23] Speaker B: I will, I will, will. I will contact the NCAA office and find out. Bubba, appreciate you being here. We appreciate all of you being here, too. Hope that you'll come to our website, whole hog sports.com throughout the week. We're gonna have a ton of baseball coverage, obviously leading up to the super regional against either Tennessee or Wake Forest. We'll be back with a podcast tomorrow, but then we will know what day the super regional begins. We'll know who the Razorbacks are playing too. So we hope to see you there. Have a great day, everybody.
