Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome in. We've got Bubba Carpenter here with us. Razorbacks win on a walk off home run yesterday against Ole Miss in game three. Chris Burke, who was on the call for SEC network is with us too.
Razorbacks win the series two to one. Chris, just you've been to a lot of games here in Fayetteville. You called a lot of Razorback games. I wonder not necessarily where you would rank that one, but how was that experience yesterday?
[00:00:25] Speaker B: I just was blown away by the quality. I mean, you know, you say, well, no kidding, it's Ole Miss in Arkansas, but sometimes those Sunday games can get, you know, a little, a little ugly and disjointed. But you, I mean, heck, you got two guys that might pitch in the big leagues on the mound. I know Gacko hasn't been awesome this year, but the talent is undeniable. And really. And Bubba, you, you know, I don't know, Matt, if you were actually in the building, but the three run homer he gave up, first of all, there was a runner on base because of an error. And second of all, it was essentially just a routine fly ball to left in the wind. Took it out of there. And so really, Gabe Gackel was fantastic yesterday. Got you through the lineup twice and pinched plenty well enough to help you win the ball game. And then of course, Taylor Rabe is, wow. I mean, is that kid talented or what?
And so just, you know, just. It was really almost like a commercial for the talent of SEC baseball because here it is on a Sunday and you got Rabe's up to 98, gackles up to 95. You're like, what are we watching here on a Sunday?
But great baseball game. And pretty unbelievable that Christian Turner ends it with a walk off homer after being asked to bunt.
That started the bat and what a big boy ball to cut through that wind to center field.
Khilloy stayed hot and hit a ball into a food truck. And so that was pretty cool. And so, yeah, it was just a beautiful scene at Bomb and incredible Sunday afternoon in the sec.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: I'm almost offended Chris asking if I was in the building. Bubba, am I ever not in the building?
[00:02:02] Speaker C: Oh, he's always in the building.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: I've usually. Hey, Chris. Usually I'm the one shutting things down. It's usually me and the janitors left at the end, like, like they asked me to turn out the lights.
That was a great game. A lot of fun being there, you know, I want to ask you, and I want to get Bubba's perspective on this too, as A hitter, when you are able to, like Christian Turner was able to do, sit in the or stand in the on deck circle and see Nolan Souza before him work that at bat and foul off five pitches from the left side. And not only for him to do that, but, you know, this is the first at bat that Turner's had the entire game. He hadn't swung a bat since batting practice probably, you know, three and a half, four hours before that moment.
How much do you think that helps him there in that moment?
[00:02:51] Speaker B: You know, I don't know. Hitting so silly, guys, you know, how does anybody figure it out, right? I'm sure Dave Van Horn feels the same way. Like, you know, my guess is Nate Thompson's been working on the same things every day with these guys. Yeah. I'm not saying they don't make tweaks and adjustments, but it comes and it goes. And guy comes off the bench and hits two run homer and then you start him the next day and he goes over four more. Three strikeouts. Like, who can figure it out? You know what I mean?
And I'm just, I'm just being hypothetical. Right. But it's just like the, the reality is Sousa put together a fantastic at that. It did look like bub. I don't know what your thoughts were, but it did look like Hooks's stuff was lighter that inning than the inning before. And of course, he had thrown the day before and he couldn't put Suzo away.
And the inning before the breaking ball looks so good and he could not put Souza away. Susan hung in there and got a awesome two strike hit and then he couldn't put Turner away.
And so I, I said it live like, it just doesn't look like this stuff is that sharp because, you know, he just couldn't induce the swing and a miss. And next thing you know, he, he throws a cement mixer up there and, and that was a loud swing of the bat by Christian Turner to get that ball cut. Cut the wind straightaway center field. Very impressive swing of the bat.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I thought it was big that they were able to get Hooks in the game the day before and kind of a blowout game. You know, he only threw 23 pitches. But I, I said to Phil, every pitch he throws today is one less he's got in the tank tomorrow. And I think you could show he wasn't as sharp in yesterday's game, but. Well, I tell you what, Berkey, when I was watching, first of all, Susan's a bat was phenomenal, but you get a freshman up there. And he fouls one down the line. And we're thinking off the bat, it might blow. Blow over the fence, ends up going foul. And then when he fouled that fastball straight back, and you could see him kind of nodding his head. I told Phil in the booth, I said, hey. I said, he's got him. He's got him. He's confident right now. He's got nothing to get him out with.
You can kind of eliminate the fastball because he had fouled it straight back, was right on it. And then he fouled a change up off his foot, walked around the batter's box, and then that's when the crowd got into it. And once that crowd got into it, you could just see. You could see Christian's Turner neck just kind of bow up a little bit, and you just knew something big was getting ready to happen. And it was just. Man, it was a phenomenal moment. But I'm sure you've been in the box before, and when you fell off a couple pitches like that, you start to feel really good, don't you?
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I just. Again, I think, you know, back to Hooks. I think Hooks, I think his stuff was every bit as good as it's ever been in that first inning. But you get that shot of adrenaline, bases loaded, you know, the whole deal. Then you go sit, you know, sit in the dugout, you come back out for the second day in a row, and the stuff just. Just loses its bite, which is just kind of one of the profound mysteries of our sport.
But, yeah, I do. I think. I think the crowd rose to the moment, and that has to give Turner a shot of adrenaline. Love when. When these great SEC crowds insert themselves in the game and you could feel Bomb Walker, the electricity in the play start to rise. And, you know, Christian Turner answered the moment with a swing he'll never forget. Always cool when you can leave the yard and know that, man, the players involved just. Just had a moment they. They'll never forget because that's, you know, those are the moments that are. That make this job so fun.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Chris Burke joining us from SEC Network. He also does a podcast with Mike Rooney on D1 baseball. Chris, I know that you. You pay attention to the SEC very closely. You think about Arkansas. Their first four weeks, they went 5 and 7 in conference play. Now they're at 13 and 11. They've gone 8 and 4 over their last four weekends, and there have been some pretty good opponents they played in there.
What have you seen from Arkansas over the last month? Because it Seems to me like they're playing better. But I wonder, from your perspective, what have you seen change?
[00:07:01] Speaker B: You know, I don't know. I think. I think it's. Again, we talked about this in Week one, and it was pretty cool to come back and see him in Week eight. Like, the reality is the offense has always been better than it's played.
And, you know, I asked Dave yesterday on the air, like, what does this team need to do to make a run in the postseason? He's like, they. We just got to have better at bats. One through nine, we got to have better at bats. And I mean, you know, this. This is the lineup that spent most of conference play with Kahil Loy hitting, like, seventh, sixth, seventh sometimes not playing. Yesterday, Zach. Zach Stewart batted last like that. That's not the way that lineup was constructed. Right?
And so to see both of those guys have a big impact, and Cahill especially, and to know how good health Rick's been, and I know Kozil's taking some lumps in SEC play, but he's also had some big hits.
You know, Pompey's obviously capable.
Sousa's been pretty consistent. Like, I just feel like that offense has more in it. And, you know, nobody really cares that the. All that the offense has been just okay for most of the year. If you catch a heater for two weeks in June, you're in Omaha.
That's it, right?
And if Gabe Gackle can pitch to his ceiling, then, you know, there's still enough there. You've got a real ace and Deets, and, you know, Gibler's been good and Coyle's good and McElveen's good. Like, you've. You've got. There's, you know, there's. The pieces are there to still get to Omaha, but I think the offense playing to its ceiling is going to be the what makes or breaks this club.
[00:09:00] Speaker C: You know what, Berkey, When I watch this team play, I look up and down the lineup and I'm like, re stud. Helfrick stud. Koshal stud. And on. On down the line, Pompey, you know, like you said, you got Zach Stewart in the nine hole yesterday. And. And I just see so much potential. And I kind of compare it to that 22 Ole Miss team that kind of floundered throughout SEC play. You know, they came to Fayetteville, and I'm like, how are these guys not winning? Because, I mean, you got Elko, you got that. I mean, the whole team, they were veteran.
This team reminds me of that team where I could see us really taking off once this lineup starts to click. I think Alloy getting hot is really big for us. By the way, that ball he hit yesterday. Oh, my gosh. I think he got cheated on that. I think it went way farther than they said it went, but that was an absolute bomb. But, you know, once this lineup starts clicking, I could see us being like that 22 Ole miss team. They were the last team in and ended up winning it all. I mean, I don't know your thoughts on that, but what do you think?
[00:10:03] Speaker B: Well, you know, maybe it will be the team that nobody expects to be, the team that gets DVH over the hump. Who knows?
But it's certainly not out of the question that this team gets Omaha.
You know, I think that that Ole Miss team was riddled by injuries most of the year, and they got healthy, and they also had a freshman in, Hunter Elliott in a junior college pitcher that nobody really knew his name at this point in that season, and Dylan Delucia that ended up literally being unhittable for a month. So, you know, you never say never. I. I think, you know, I think this year's offense has given us too much of a track record to think they have that kind of a ceiling because it's. It's not like they've been hurt. It's the same pieces.
It just. They haven't played great. Now, I do think they. They can certainly play better than they've played, but it.
So to think they could win the whole thing, that would shock me. Do I think this team has enough to get the home. Oh, yeah.
It's five wins, guys. It's five wins. Nobody knows it better than y'. All. Y' all been plenty in the last 20 years.
Almost. Almost half the time in the last 20 years. But this team is. Is certainly capable.
And heck, they're still not out of the. Out of the mix to host now. They're going to have to probably go four and two here down the stretch, but it's. It's still in play.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Chris, before we get you out of here, I want to ask you about Oklahoma real quick. They come in this weekend. They're 30 and 16 overall. They're 12 and 12 in conference play. What do we need to know about the Sooners?
[00:11:39] Speaker B: Well, Cam Johnson left the mound after an inning on Saturday, which. Which isn't a good sign when. When their pitching's right, they. They can really throw some elite stuff at you.
That stuff has been very up and down this year as far as performance is concerned, the offense is pesky. They do a lot of inside things that, that doesn't mean they can't hit the ball at the ballpark, but it's, it's a, it's a very well rounded. They like to run, they like to bunt, they've got some real athleticism. Johnson and Willits and Brock, like, they got some guys that can really move.
So I think it'll be a fun brand of ball. I think it sets up to be a very competitive series. And you know, Oklahoma's like a lot of teams in the SEC that are right there, you know, at just a touch under, just a touch above 500. That grouping of teams that, you know, our sport is so crazy because the math is still in. Play for somebody goes five and one, they could host. If somebody goes one in five, they could be sweating it out on selection Monday.
So there's still so many things in play and Oklahoma's a perfect example of that kind of team. If, you know they've got Arkansas and Tennessee to finish. If they go 4 and 2, they're probably going to host.
If they go 2 and 4, they're going to be a 2 seed.
So it's what makes this sport so great, so fun, so entertaining is because you don't, you don't have to make up storylines and you don't have to make up reasons to watch.
Every game truly is super important. And that game yesterday was super important. We started the broadcast talking about it. It was a classic game in Arkansas. If they, if they don't come up, you know, if Christian Turner, it's into a double play right there and they lose that game, you pretty much could say they're not going to host.
Now. It's still alive. It's still alive. So that's what makes it so great.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it makes it fun when teams have hope. Chris, we appreciate your time. Great call yesterday with Tom Hart and we'll see you down in Hoover in a couple of weeks.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Okay, Great catching up, guys. Take care.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Chris Burke of ESPN and the SEC Network, also with Mike Rooney on D1 baseball, their podcast there well tell you that today's baseball podcast is brought to you by H and R tire. They're a third generation family owned business serving northwest Arkansas since 1976.
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Appreciate you being with us wherever you are today. Maybe you're listening to us on Apple Podcast or Spotify. You can find us by searching Whole Hog Sports. I think we're live today on our Twitter page. Wave Bubba to the Camera.
We on Twitter Whole Hog Sports. Facebook at Whole Hog Sports. We put all of our video podcasts on YouTube on our Whole Hog Sports YouTube channel. We can take our headphones off here now that we don't have Chris Burke on the line with us anymore. The, you know, just how do you put into words what that game, what that win meant to Arkansas yesterday? Because he really felt for a little bit like when they had the bases loaded in the seventh inning and they couldn't score. And then Ole Miss comes back and Judd Udemar gets a home run to lead off the eighth.
A bomb to center field, 416ft against Ethan McIlvaine. It felt at that point like, oh boy, this is going to be another one of those where Arkansas is close in a series at bomb and they're going to have their heart ripped out.
And, you know, we saw it happen, you know, earlier this year with Georgia. Obviously it was a little bit different game in game three. But you know, they just haven't, they haven't had a lot of success at home in SEC play this year other than Mississippi State before yesterday.
Something, I don't know, this one felt really big. It did not feel like your run of the mill series winning game. There's something, it just, it kind of felt like something clicked for them at the end yesterday. We'll see if it's A.
Like a, you know, kind of a spark that ignites something here down the stretch. But in the moment, that was. That's what it really felt like to me. I wonder what it felt from your perspective.
[00:16:35] Speaker C: Well, it was disappointing, the bases loaded thing. But if Phil and I had talked about it throughout the broadcast, we just felt like, you know, something big always happens when we play Ole Miss. At home, I mean, or in general. Yeah. And we just felt like. I don't know, me personally, I'm sitting there thinking something's going to happen.
And, you know, when Sousa got on base, I'm like, yes, that's it. You know, it's. I don't know. It just felt like we needed a break, and we didn't really get.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: We.
[00:17:05] Speaker C: We didn't really get that break throughout the game. You know, I felt like Gack will do really well. The. The. The home run he gave up was. Was. What was it, 90. It was 94 miles an hour, I believe.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: 323ft into the hog, into the visitor bullpen.
[00:17:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it was. It was 97 miles an hour, 45 degree launch angle. Any other day, it's not a whole run. Yeah. I mean, it's routine. So I just felt like things hadn't gone our way. But there was something about the energy when Sousa got on base that was really good at bat. And I still think I credit our team for battling on Saturday.
We battled back enough to where, you know, Mike Bianco felt like he had to bring Hooks in the game. Yeah. I think had he not brought Hooks back in, might have been different. You think about the two guys that he struck out with the bases loaded, struck out Camden, and he struck out Mike and New. Those were the two guys that didn't see him the day before. Everyone else in the lineup had seen him. They didn't see him the day before.
I think that a guy like that, once you see him, once you got him, because you kind of know he's not going to blow you away with this fastball. He's got a good slider. He's got a really good change up that he throws the right righties, sliders more to lefties. But I think once you see a guy like that, you feel really good about it. And I don't know, I think the crowd gets a. You know, they should. They should get a star for, you know, kind of pumping up Christian Turner right there, because I think that at bat. But he really did. When he fouled that pitch back, I just knew you could just See him puff up a little bit. Crowds started getting behind him, and I'm like, he's. He's got. Something good's getting ready to happen.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: You know, there's. There's often a criticism of the crowd at Bomb that they don't get loud until something happens. Like, you watch a game at lsu, they get loud and they make something happen. And, you know, I would say this for anybody who goes to the game at Baum, like, if you want to influence, you see it at A and M too. By the way, A and M does a great job of getting loud and influencing the play on the field.
Like, if you want to influence the play on the field, get loud. It doesn't mean it's going to happen every time, obviously, but I feel like that had a huge influence on how that at bat went when they got up. I mean, Hooks is sitting there. He's on the hot seat, man. And now all of a sudden you've got what's left of 9,800 people there. I guess there were probably still about 7,000 people in the ballpark. And they're on top of you, and you got this kid at the plate who's not giving up.
I don't know. I felt like that really influenced that last pitch or two.
[00:19:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I do, too. I think, and I think Christian could hear it. He could feel it when a hitter. He found that fastball back. I hate to keep going back down. He had a little head nod, and then he fought off the change up, which was his Hooks best pitch. Threw him a really good change up down and fouled off his foot. And you could just see Christian nod. When a hitter starts nodding like that, he's feeling really good. I just feel like the. The crowd and everything. Hooks had already thrown 38 pitches up to that point. I think it was the 39th pitch that he hit out.
And I go back to the day before where he threw 23.
I think he was 23 the day before.
That's huge right there. But it goes back to the team. I still credit part of yesterday to what happened on Saturday. The team didn't give up. They kept battling. They scratched, scratched enough, got in a couple of runs, made Bianco feel a little bit nervous about it enough to bring Hooks in. And. And we talked about on Saturday, this is huge. Let's make him throw as many pitches as we can on Saturday. We may not win the game, but let's make him throw as many pitches as we can. And I think it showed and it was fun. I mean, it was such a. The environment was unbelievable. When that ball went off the bat, I mean, I thought it was gone instantly. I just thought, well, it's pretty high. I don't know if that wind's going to knock it down or not.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Yeah, he crushed it, though. I don't think the wind had a chance. It went over the turtle out there in right center field. I mean, and you think about if the wind wasn't blowing in, how far that thing might have gone.
It was crushed off the bat.
I always talk about with baseball, there is the game and then there is the game within the game. And it's almost like in baseball. I don't know if this makes any sense, but it makes sense in my head. So I'm going to say it. It's like you're playing checkers and chess at the same time on a weekend. Checkers is the game you're playing right now, the nine innings today.
But you're also playing this bigger game that you know, again, the decisions you make on Friday, the decisions you make on Saturday, they can have an influence on the end of the series. And I thought the same thing that you did. The fact that they were able to get Walker Hooks in the game on Saturday. When I saw him come in, I said, whoa, this is big. Yeah, because I knew they weren't. I felt Arkansas was not going to win the game that day. They were down too much. Ole Miss was playing too well.
But I knew what kind of effect that might have or I thought I knew what kind of effect that might have on game two or game three. Now he came out on Sunday and he's pitching really well. I'm like, well, maybe I was wrong about this. And I actually started looking and this is the third week in a row where he's pitched on back to back days. He hadn't done it before. They played Tennessee a couple of weeks ago. And typically he's better statistically on the second day than he is on the first. And I thought, well, maybe this is a trend with him and this is going to continue today. But you go back to game two, Arkansas gets him in the game. And I thought that Arkansas, this is. And Ole Miss has got a veteran coaching staff too.
But I thought you could really see that, you know, that veteran nature of Arkansas's coaching staff in Game 2, that they didn't panic and pull Cole Gibler out of the game right away. They said, you know what, you're down 5 to nothing. You know, let's keep pitching. This guy he's still got after the first inning, I don't know, probably 70 more pitches in the tank. Let him go ahead and just keep pitching and just see how this game plays out. You get back into the game offensively, you probably take him out and you start going to Gabe Gackel and you start going to Parker Coyle and those types. But they let that game play out. They didn't panic when Gibbler had a bad first inning and that saved their pitching staff. I just, I felt like with Hooks pitching on Saturday at Arkansas, not throwing Gackel and not throwing Coil and not throwing McIlvaine, it set them up for a lot of success yesterday. And so again, that's that game within the game that's happening.
It sucks when you lose a game. You lose 11 to 4 on Saturday, but you're playing for the series. That's the biggest thing that you're playing for here.
You know, you got a nine inning game, but you've also kind of got a 27 inning game going on. And they won the bigger game I think because of the decisions they made in game two.
[00:23:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's, that's a great point. I mean, when you really think about it, I mean that's why DVH is the man. And Hobbs, they just do a great job.
I felt like, I felt like the game too though with Gibler out there. That first inning was so fluky. I mean, think about it. The first hitter hits a soft line drive, kind of glanced off his back and went to Sousa. Almost had the out at first.
Then the two old hitter, I think it was Pesetta walked on a pitch that I thought was strike.
I thought one of those was definitely a strike. But anyway he did and then, and then you get the strikeout and then the, the play of the game was the, the ground ball the third or ground ball the second or ground ball the first.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: We'll get there. We're just working our way around.
[00:24:39] Speaker C: Yeah, we. Eventually I was going to get it right. No, the grandma the first and Rutenbach fake kind of looked a second. It was a smart move not going to second base. And then, and then Cole wasn't covering first base. And I think that was, that was huge right there. If he's there, you know, you got two outs, then things probably play out a little bit different, you know, and then, then he ends up hitting. I thought the, the home run was wind blowing. It's hit 106, but it was hit 47 degrees.
That's pretty steep.
For a ball to go out where it, where it left that point of the yard, and that's just felt like it was fluke. He gave up five runs. But I thought, I thought Gibbler looked good. I thought he had good stuff. I thought he made a lot of really good pitches.
I was proud of him for staying. I'm glad they left him out there and let him work through that because I thought he got better as the game went on. And it's not that he was even bad in the first inning. You know, I think that's two weeks in a row, though, where a guy hasn't covered first base, a lefty hasn't covered first base. And it's tough because they're falling off the third base side. Soon as that ball gets hit to the right side, man, you got to bust it over there. But that's two weeks in a row you've seen it ends up in a home run and costly mistake.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, Gibler, he probably could have gotten out of that first inning. He wasn't getting out of it clean. I don't feel like the way the first two batters got on, but, you know, maybe a three run inning, maybe a two running, it feels a lot more manageable than being down 5 to nothing.
[00:26:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess the thing is, is even that, that first, the first pitch line drive that kind of glanced off his backs, hit 84 miles an hour, wouldn't hit hard.
If that doesn't hit him, it might be an easy play for, you know, I don't, I don't know exactly where Sousa was playing or Kojo if they hadn't played up the middle. But either way, that could have easily been a one pitch out to start the game. And then I think that whole inning plays out different. But that's, that's baseball. But I, I like your analogy right there. Checkers, chess. That's good stuff.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: You're going to use that on the broadcast this weekend?
[00:26:35] Speaker C: I might do that. I'll give you credit, though.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: I will be in the building. I promise I'll be there.
Hey, I love this quote from Mike Bianco, by the way. Yesterday, this is after, obviously after they lost, he said, quote, we went with our best guy.
Excuse me? He said, we went with our best guy and his best stuff. An array of pitches to both with two strikes and they just battled. This is the part that I love though, Bubba. He said, sometimes you just have to tip your hat. I mean, they won it, they beat us, it wasn't anything that we didn't do. It was more what they did.
[00:27:08] Speaker C: That's true.
You know, we're talking about Hooks not being as good. You know, after 38 pitches, he wasn't bad. I thought he was still good. I just think Souza fouled off some really tough pitches.
And, you know, Christian Turner is the hero, no doubt. But without Souza's at bat, I don't think we're talking about a win today. I really don't.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Burke didn't seem to think that it helped Turner a whole lot seeing those pitches from the on deck circle. But what do you think?
[00:27:38] Speaker C: I don't think it does, really. A lot of people say, well, it helps them to see it's different when you step in the box. And Christian had never seen him.
You know, it's. You can see the, you know, the pitch. Does it have a little more depth on it? Is it flatter? You can see. You can kind of see from the side and get a feel for the angle of the pitch into the zone. But until you step in the box, you really need to see that, you know, and you can look at all the scouting reports in the world. It's always different when you step in the box. But, you know, I just thought he just battled. And I think there's something about.
I'll say I didn't bunt very much in my career. One of the best at bats of my career was a situation where runners first and second. I was asked to bunt. I fouled two pitches off, and I. I was like hyper focused to the point where I was not going to make an out. And it's best at bat in my career, probably. So, yeah, I mean, there's something about it. And I even said. I said on the broadcast yesterday, I said, okay, fouled a bun off. Right now it's 02. Took a bad first swing, fouled a bun off. It was fastball up. And I said, he needs to really lock in right here and be hyper focused. I said, sometimes that's all it takes.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: There you are using hyper focused again.
[00:28:55] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a real thing. I didn't know it.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: You love that term, though.
[00:29:01] Speaker C: I do. I love it. There's. You need to hyper focus sometimes.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: Sometimes I am. I promise. It may not look like I am, but I am.
You know, for Turner, like, he'd never hit a home run in an SEC game. He hadn't had a hit since April 10th.
[00:29:14] Speaker C: Yeah, man.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: I mean, just. You can't. You can't script that any better for him.
[00:29:20] Speaker C: I love it. And Look, I've been a huge Christian Turner fan since early spring. When I saw him go backside a couple of times in scrimmage games, I'm like, I like this kid. He's. He's twitchy, you know, got some bad speed, a little power to left center. Anyone that's young like that, not a big guy, but he's got that backside power you can predict down the road he's going to, he's going to hit some home runs. Plus he can fly.
I like him. I like the way he approaches bp, you know, and he puts his work in. He's not playing, but he still goes out there and takes his fly balls during batting practice. Just does all the little things right. I like that. And I think, I think the game rewards you when you do things right. I think the, the game of baseball rewards you. And we saw it yesterday.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: I don't know if you were thinking about this and he even mentioned in his press conference, but the first thing that I thought about on that 02 pitch that he hooked down the left field line or sliced down the left field line was Florida. Remember when he wasn't nearly a game tying home run, I think against Florida, maybe it was going to be a game winning. I don't remember, but I know it was 9th inning. He's up at bat, it looks like he's hit a home run and the wind just pushes it foul.
And kind of a similar situation yesterday. I don't know that that was going to be a home run. Had it stayed fair, maybe it scrapes the wall, but you're probably talking about an extra base hit there. Maybe Sousa scores from first, but at minimum, you're looking at runners at second and third with nobody out. And you got a pretty good opportunity to, you know, to push home a run there. Now, would Ole Miss have saved with Walker Hooks? I don't know. They had Landon Waters up in the bullpen. He pitched really well on Friday night. I was surprised we didn't see him first out of the pin yesterday when they brought, when they brought Robertson in.
But did you hear what Turner said afterward? He said that he was thinking about that Florida at bat and he said, the guy from Florida got me. He said, I was telling myself, this guy's not going to get. Or I remember exactly how he said, ole Miss ain't going to get me or something like that.
[00:31:20] Speaker C: Beat me or get me something like that.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: Yeah, but it was, it was kind of cool how that moment four or five weeks ago really kind of set up the moment that he had against Ole Miss.
[00:31:31] Speaker C: Yeah, No, I agree. It's when he hit that ball. Trackman showed it at 323ft. The one he hit foul yesterday. Yeah, yesterday. So it would have probably hit the fence.
So.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: But was it 325 down the line?
[00:31:45] Speaker C: 320 down the line. But I think it takes more. More than that to get it over the fence. It takes like 3:30 to get it over the fence. I don't know. Something like that.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Okay, so.
[00:31:55] Speaker C: But yeah, I forget. How did. How did Dave describe it? A fearless at bat.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Fearless at bat. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
[00:32:01] Speaker C: And I think there's a lot to that. There's a. There's a lot to just like having a tough at bat. Fearless at bat. And you could see it in Christian yesterday. I mean, he was. He was fearless at the plate. And I think a win like that. Just think if we lose that game, though, this is a long week. If we lose that game, waiting for OU to come to town and finals. And finals.
[00:32:21] Speaker A: And they're in finals.
[00:32:22] Speaker C: Yeah, but you win that game and it's like, wow, we can't wait till Friday night to play ou. I just think it. It's just. It's crazy how one swing can change.
Change the. I don't want to say the course of the season, but it could definitely change the course of the season and how we finish.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: Well, one thing that could have a big impact on is the SEC tournament and whether or not you play on Wednesday or Thursday, Arkansas still got to win games to assure that it's going to play on Thursday. But, like, if. Well, I mean, Arkansas and Ole Miss were tied yesterday going into the. Into the game at 12:11 in the SEC, Arkansas by winning, is tied for sixth. Ole Miss by losing is tied for ninth. That's how narrow the margin is right now. You know, Arkansas's tied with Alabama and Florida, and then Ole Miss is tied with Oklahoma. So Oklahoma, you know, they could easily change that thing up this weekend, but as of right now, if the season ended today, Arkansas would not have to play until Thursday at Hoover. And to me, that feels like a big deal.
[00:33:24] Speaker C: Yeah, it does. And not only that, I mean, think about the. The crowd. So let's say we lose that game.
I don't think the crowd's quite as excited with, oh, you coming to town on Friday night. On Friday night. Now I think everyone's just foaming at the mouth.
I think it's going to be a tough ticket to get. I've already gotten some phone calls and texts, so but yeah, I think, I think just the excitement around the program just all of a sudden just went to a new level.
And I think it's going to be, it's going to be fun. And if you look at the. It's still kind of a log jam in there. A lot of it comes down to who plays who. And I know you've got it right there. I've got it on my phone. Who plays who this weekend. I mean, that's, that's going to have a lot to do with, you know, you got Alabama or Auburn playing Mississippi State, Alabama playing South Carolina. That's probably not going to help us a whole lot.
Texas, Tennessee, not a whole lot of help. Kentucky at Florida. Yeah. Could maybe benefit us.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: You said Texas is at Tennessee.
[00:34:23] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: See, I think Tennessee, they're playing kind of desperate right now.
[00:34:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:34:27] Speaker A: And it's in Knoxville.
That could be a little bit of a trap, I think, for, for, for Texas going in there. Yeah, you never know, but I could see that potentially being it.
[00:34:36] Speaker C: And you got A and M and Ole Miss and you know, Ole Miss, tough weekend. Yeah, both of them are. I mean, there's. We said. I think Phil, I forget how Phil described it going in. This is a move weekend, like a separating weekend, I think, is how he described it. And you really didn't see the separation like we thought we would see. I mean, a little bit, you know, a couple teams.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: But you have Florida and ou. They were tied with Arkansas and Ole Miss and that ended up being a two. One series of Florida. One.
[00:35:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
So we'll see. It's another, another big weekend. And I think, I think Berkey said it. He said it's like every weekend is, is big like you say. Okay, this is the weekend. Like every game. It just seems big.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: These are the SEC standings right now, by the way. Georgia, they're about to, they're about to wrap up the SEC. It feels like they're at 18 and 6.
Texas and A&M are in second at 15 and 8.
Georgia just played Missouri three times, so that certainly helped them. They still play LSU in Athens and lsu, obviously not the LSU of old this year. After them you've got Mississippi State and Auburn. They're both at 14 and 10. Then you got that three way tie between Arkansas, Bama and Florida at 13 and 11. You got a tie at ninth between Ole Miss and OU. They're both 12 and 12.
And then after that you got Tennessee and Kentucky at 11 and 13, Vanderbilt at 10 and 14. They may miss the tournament this year isn't this amazing that Vanderbilt and LSU both could potentially be on the outside looking in. LSU, they won all three of their games this weekend over South Carolina. They're 9 and 15, Carolina 7 and 17. Missouri got swept at Georgia. They are 4 and 20. You talk about that game Friday night. You know, graduation is Saturday on campus.
And that Friday, it's always kind of a. It's one of those sneaky games where people, I don't know that they realize that that Friday night before graduation is like a hot ticket. But you got a lot of people come into town. It's like, hey, let's go, let's go catch a baseball game.
[00:36:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: You know, and you know, it's not just a couple of people looking for a ticket. It's, hey, we got a group of eight, we got a group of five. Grandma and grandpa are coming in from, you know, wherever and like that. I think it's going to be a really cool atmosphere Friday night. We can talk about that more on Thursday's podcast when we preview ou. But it's got the potential to be a pretty neat series. Not to mention the fact you got a lot of OU fans in this area who. It's a chance for them to maybe go see the Sooners in person.
It should make for a neat, neat atmosphere this weekend.
[00:37:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I've got a couple friends that are OU alum, so they're wanting tickets.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: You're giving those seats that you got down in front of.
[00:37:10] Speaker C: Yeah, actually, I'm going to. You know, here's the only negative about the weekend and no one listening this podcast really cares, but my 14U teams in Oklahoma, it's Oklahoma Texas Shootout. It's one of our biggest tournaments of the year. A ton of teams come in from all over the country, so I'm gonna miss that.
So. Yeah, it's kind of a bummer. Yeah, it's kind of a little bit of a bummer. It's bad timing, but I'll be watching. I'll have the Razorback game here and I'll probably have our game on my, on my phone right here. So I'll be, I'll be doing both. But. But it's. Yeah, I hope we have a huge crowd. Looking ahead at the weather. Weather looks good for the weekend, so should be a lot of fun.
[00:37:49] Speaker A: Hey, a reminder that our baseball podcast is sponsored by H and R Tire and Auto. They're a local shop that's been family owned for three generations. They built their reputation on taking care of customers the right way. That Kind of longevity doesn't happen by accident. At H and R Tire and Auto. Chris was talking about Arkansas potentially hosting a regional. I still think, Bubba, that is a big long shot. Even after beating Ole Miss this weekend, Arkansas's rpi is number 30. It just feels like you got to have a higher RPI than that to host.
[00:38:19] Speaker C: So we just gained one?
[00:38:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. One, maybe one or two points this weekend.
But that's the difference from winning, beating a good team at home and beating a good team on the road.
It makes a difference.
[00:38:30] Speaker C: Where's Kentucky at? Because they're still pretty high.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: They're number 35 and Arkansas goes there and plays at the end. Kentucky, the thing that they've done this year, I don't think they have been swept. And so it's kept them just right there enough to make a difference, you know, Like, I think that most of the, if not all of the regional projections right now have them as being in a regional. Obviously not hosting, but being in a regional where, like, even just one series, if they get swept in one series, that might be the difference in them making the tournament. But they. They've. I think they've won a game, at least one game every weekend. They haven't won a ton of series, but they've won enough games that they are.
You know, they're. They're able to still be in the picture. And that could help Arkansas. From an RPI standpoint, it's not going to help them like beating Alabama did. And certainly, you know, they beat Alabama three times, which was huge, but I think that could give them a little bit of a bump at the end. But I just go back to whether it be Ole Miss, oh, you here in Fayetteville, Kentucky up there, SEC tournament. I just don't really see a path where there's going to be enough wins.
I don't really see a path where, from an RPI standpoint, it gives them enough of an RPI bump to get into that conversation. Even if they get really hot and went out.
[00:39:47] Speaker C: Dude, you're killing me.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: I am.
[00:39:48] Speaker C: You're really bringing me down.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: I'm bringing the cold water.
[00:39:51] Speaker C: I walked in here feeling really great today, and you're just killing.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: I just don't see it.
[00:39:56] Speaker C: Negativity.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: It's not.
[00:39:57] Speaker C: Glasses half full. Yours is empty.
So what RPI you think it's going to take?
[00:40:03] Speaker A: I think to be a host, you probably have to be, I would say, 20, 21 at minimum.
[00:40:13] Speaker C: So we win the next two series. We go to SEC tournament.
[00:40:17] Speaker A: We went to beat the right teams in Hoover, you might get a little bit of a bump.
It just. It seems like that's an awfully big hill to climb.
[00:40:27] Speaker C: You're. You're killing.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: I am.
[00:40:28] Speaker C: I'm starting something else.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: I'm a total bus.
You see, we've talked about Nebraska and Kansas potentially being regional sites where Arkansas could go to. Nebraska got swept by Ohio State this weekend. That my regional. I don't know that it killed their regional hopes, but, boy, it put a. It put them in danger of not hosting.
[00:40:50] Speaker C: So I'd been talking to Dalton, my son, about it, and said, that's a possibility. We may go there as a two seed. And he made sure to tell me last night that they got swept. I'm like, come on, let's go.
[00:41:01] Speaker A: You know, Ohio State had an RPI of 88, and they swept Nebraska. Now, it was in Columbus, so it's not as bad as, like, say, if Nebraska were to have gotten swept at Haymarket, but that. That's something worth watching right now. Ku, I still think they're in pretty good shape. They're 37 and 11.
They've got a number 14 RPI. I think that there's a pretty good chance that they're going to host, which has a small ballpark, by the way. Have you ever. Have you ever been to that ballpark in Lawrence?
[00:41:29] Speaker C: Yeah. Played a showcase event there.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: It's small. Yeah. Like, I'm sitting here wondering. I was talking to somebody the other day who's. Who's worked up there before. They're like, that's going to be interesting to see how they handle a regional, that ballpark. Because some ballparks are built where they can handle. The volume bomb is built that way. Mississippi State, Ole Miss, lsu, Texas.
But some ballparks, man, you get a regional in there and you're having to, like, put up more lights for it to, you know, look good on tv. And you're bringing in, you know, bleachers, and it's just, I think when KU hosts, that's going to be very interesting to see how that's run up there,
[00:42:06] Speaker C: especially if we're two seed in that. Oh, gosh, that regional. Think of all the racing fans. Yeah. I mean, there's. Will pack the house.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: Yeah, they will. That'll make a tough ticket up there.
I was talking with Joe Healy about this on the podcast Friday about the possibility of Arkansas going up there. He said it might be one of those weekends where the. The ticket office, like, they ban zip codes from buying tickets. Like, you've seen this.
It happened in the NFL a couple. There was a game in the NFL where the 49ers played at the Rams and Sofi looked like a San Francisco home game because so many 49er fans had bought tickets in there and gone down to LA to watch the game. And so I think the next time that they played, I think they played in the playoffs like two or three weeks later and they banned zip codes, San Francisco area, Bay Area zip codes from buying tickets to the game in Los Angeles.
Maybe you see teams do that when some of these number two seeds come to town.
[00:43:02] Speaker C: Yeah, might have to. Because it would be. Yeah, that would be a tough ticket.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: I wanted to ask you about Kuhio Aloy and how he's hitting the ball.
It just, it looks totally different. And when you talk to him, you know, you talked to him after, what was it, game one, when Arkansas won 12 to two. And then we had him in the media room yesterday.
He just.
Did you notice that there's. Does it look like there's just kind of a different look in his eye? Like maybe a more confident look that.
I don't know, something feels different about him and it's not just the swing.
[00:43:35] Speaker C: His, his body language to me looks different when he gets that.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: Maybe that's the.
[00:43:38] Speaker C: He's got a little bit more. Phil mentioned it yesterday. He's got a little bit more wiggle in his bat.
[00:43:43] Speaker A: He slows it down right before pitch
[00:43:45] Speaker C: and he just looks, I mean his, his whole posture, body language, everything looks different.
Swing looks better. You know, we had talked before about how he was. He was kind of getting outside the ball, going around it, hitting a lot of ground balls with the third. But he did something on Friday night's game. I've never seen he hit a ball 115 miles an hour at what was the launch? 15 degrees, 15 degree launch angle. And that ball on the grass, the ball went 413ft. I've never seen a ball hit at 15 degrees. Like that's like this.
I've got a spot in the back of my, my cage.
That's that.
That signals 15 degrees. And that's not very, it's not a very high launch angle. And to hit a ball that hard, that goes that low, that goes 413ft is incredible. I've never seen it before. It looks like a driver off the bat.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: So what was, what was the more impressive swing? That one or 470ft into T Boys?
[00:44:45] Speaker C: Well, I don't know. The one yesterday was impressive. That was a 98 mile an hour fastball.
And that would. That was two power guys.
[00:44:53] Speaker A: That's one of those deals where the pitch generates some of the power, right?
[00:44:57] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was. It was 98, and he got barreled to it. And that was fun to watch that ball. I swear it.
So when I left the ballpark yesterday, I stopped and actually, I took that back. I stopped right there and looked. And I took a right and went to look where that. That food truck is.
And my gosh, that's a long way from home plate when you see how far it is, because that's right back against the fence by the street.
I just feel like it went farther than what they said it went. But who knows?
[00:45:31] Speaker A: You one of those golf readers? You know those, like, you read the distance in golf?
[00:45:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: Take one of those out there and see if you can, like, point it at home plate. And I think I'm a distance.
[00:45:40] Speaker C: I know it.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: One hopped into the truck, but still,
[00:45:43] Speaker C: I'm gonna get on my Google Earth thing, because you can Google Earth it and go from home plate to the front edge of that food truck and tell exactly how many feet that was.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: We sent one of our reporters who was at the game. Whenever I saw it land in the food truck, I said, you need to go talk to them right now. And so he talked to a couple of people who were working inside the food truck.
I swear it was about to hit me.
Can you imagine? You're just sitting there, you're working, somebody orders some barbecue nachos, and the next thing you know, here comes a ball flying right into the potato salad.
[00:46:15] Speaker C: So did it really bounce in?
[00:46:17] Speaker A: It bounced in, yeah. No, it hit. It hit the berm, and then it took a one hop right into the window of the truck. There was actually. I think there was somebody standing there ordering food at the moment that it happened.
[00:46:29] Speaker C: Who would think they would get hit that far away with a ball?
[00:46:32] Speaker A: That's amazing.
[00:46:33] Speaker C: It's crazy, but I think they ought. To. They ought to get the ball signed by Kahi o and put it up in their.
Their food truck.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: I think they gave the ball away.
[00:46:40] Speaker C: Did they?
[00:46:41] Speaker A: From what I. Yeah, from what I read or heard, that they gave that ball to somebody. Somebody ran up, said, hey, can I have that ball? They just. They gave it to him. Huh?
[00:46:48] Speaker C: I bet it's got a big din in it.
[00:46:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I bet that person. They'll. They'll. They'll identify themselves.
[00:46:54] Speaker C: Okay, but you asked me what was more impressive.
I think what was more impressive to me was the three, two, change up. He hit the right field.
That allowed Stewart to come up, draw a walk. TJ Pompey came up, hit a three run homer on Friday night. That was a. That to me, that's more impressive. He stayed on that change up away that Elliot threw him really good pitch.
[00:47:19] Speaker A: Plus the RBI hit he had yesterday, that was 115 off the bat. Like, who would have thought that he hits 115. It's like, oh, that was the, the second best hit that you have today.
[00:47:27] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's just, I thought he had some really good two strike swings where he just, you know, was, you know, one was a change up away, one was a breaking ball off the plate. He stayed on it, hit it to the left side for a base hit with two strikes, two outs. I mean, those are the, those are the swings. Now, we love the home runs at 115, there's no doubt, but man, those are good.
Those, those get you RBIs. But those two out, RBI swings or just keeping the inning going.
Because you think about it, if he doesn't hit that with two outs to right field, Stewart doesn't walk, Pompey doesn't hit the home run. And that game might shake out different because we never really gave Elliot a chance to get in a groove. And I think we came back, the next innings were two more.
I mean, I just felt like that was a big point in the game.
[00:48:19] Speaker A: Both of our podcast listeners are very devoted, and one of them asked me to ask you a question today. They said the decision to bunt Damian Ruiz in the seventh and leave first base open when, when they knew that Helic was going to go to first, they wanted to know what your perspective was on that.
[00:48:35] Speaker C: Yeah, it's the right move. I mean, you, you, you've got to bun them over there. You know, Helic's going to get walked, but you got to trust Koshal's a stud.
The guy just made some good pitches to Koshal.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: Kozel just got out in front of one. Otherwise, that's a, that's a fly ball to right field and that scores the run.
[00:48:51] Speaker C: Well, that, that's a bomb.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: It could have been.
[00:48:52] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, he got his pitch. He was just a little bit early on. It hit it foul. If he waits, you know, and you think about like frame, frame, frame. If he waits, one frame of a swing of a camera. So it's one frame, that's a home run over the foul pole. That's how, that's how, that's how tight the distance is, but it's the right move. I mean, you gotta bunt them right there even though you know they're gonna walk. Helfrick, I think you bunt there. And I'm not a big fan of bunning. I'm really not like you look at the bun attempt of, of Christian Turner yesterday. You know, you're button a runner from first to second. That's a low percentage play.
Not. I never second, second guess. Dvh. I just know statistically bunting a runner from first seconds a low, low percentage.
Especially when you got righties coming up behind him and hooks. His change up is so good. I would rather have a lefty facing hooks than a righty. I don't even know the splits either. I think lefties do hit a little bit better against him.
[00:49:55] Speaker A: Nobody's hitting very well this year. That guy is one of the best relief pitchers in the conference. And again, that's why it was such a big deal to get him in the game on Saturday. I mean, it's like, it's weird to say it. Almost feel like they won the game Sunday because of the way they lost the game Saturday. Isn't that amazing?
[00:50:15] Speaker C: Yeah. Wait, did you say one of our two listeners?
[00:50:18] Speaker A: I did. You just caught that? I said both of our listeners.
[00:50:20] Speaker C: Both are.
[00:50:21] Speaker A: Yes, both of our listeners.
[00:50:24] Speaker C: Let's go. Listen.
[00:50:26] Speaker A: That took a while.
Hey, real quick. So I think that the starting pitching gave Arkansas was it 15 and a third, 16 and a third innings this weekend. So not a great number. But that number seems to keep getting a little bit better every week. Dietz didn't go maybe as long as I think they thought he would.
Ole Miss battled him pretty good, you know, a couple of innings.
You know, talk about Gibler and his start. But he did give him some length. Gackel gave him four. And I thought it was interesting yesterday to hear Dave Van Horn say that Gackel is going to be in the rotation when they play ou. They won him back in the rotation. And yesterday I almost felt like an audition show us that you can start again. And if it wasn't for the three run home run, you know, that wind dated home run. That's. That's a really good start for him. And I didn't think it was a bad start, even at that.
[00:51:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I thought it was a good start.
And then even, even Cole Gimbler, like we already talked about, I thought that was a good start. But if you go back to Hunter Dietz, think about the 02. So he threw. He threw Utermark two really good changeups. It's 02. He tries to sneak a fastball by him, and he hits it to right field, over the fence, hit it hard. It was up in the wind, but he hit it hard.
And I want to say I think he threw 18 pitches after that to
[00:51:39] Speaker A: get the third two guys walked.
[00:51:42] Speaker C: So if he gets you to Mark out there, you know, he's at 80 pitches, maybe 81 pitches.
He goes another inning. So instead of going six innings, go seven, you know, and so I thought that was a huge moment in the game. And you know what I think about the O2. You know, he was trying to sneak it by him. He was probably trying to elevate it, but he just left it over the plate. Utermark's a good hitter, but, yeah, you think about that could have been totally different. He could have gone another full inning. It might have been 15. I had 18 pitches, but I might be wrong.
[00:52:14] Speaker A: It was a significant number of pitches. Yeah, but, you know, the way things worked out and we'll see, you know, we'll see how this works.
They're going to need more than the three starters and top four relievers if they're going to make a run this year, whether that be a run in Hoover or running a regional something. After they got Cooper Dawson in the game, he got to see, you know, some, you know, some. Some good hitters there in the seventh inning. I don't know if Jackson Kersher, how he fits into their plans, but he got to, you know, pitch a little bit. I just. I think the way this worked out, it kind of worked out well for Arkansas from a lot of different angles. You know, the fact that, you know, some guys were able to get some work, and then obviously, you know, it didn't hurt them in the long run. They still won the series.
[00:52:54] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I thought it was good to get them in there. Um, you know, I think deets, if. If you look at deets so you. I say a lot, you could tell how good a guy stuff is. Like, we. We have all the analytics, but just if you use your eyes and you look at the swings at the other team, your swings will tell you how good a guy's stuff is, but so will your takes. And I think he had eight strikeouts,
[00:53:18] Speaker A: looking most ever for a Van Horn pitcher.
[00:53:20] Speaker C: That if. If you get eight strikes, strikeouts, looking. Your stuff's really good, that means you're fooling the hitters bad. And I thought that was really impressive, and that was kind of telling how good. Now Ole Miss is a high strikeout team, but I don't care. You strike out eight dudes looking. Your stuff's really good.
[00:53:38] Speaker A: That stat, by the way, came from Stu Hog.
Corey Stewart, who runs The Stu Hog YouTube account. He said that Nick Schmidt had seven strikeouts looking twice, you know, six against Tennessee and Florida. And then Gage had seven strikeouts looking during the no hitter last year against Murray State. So, Hunter Deets, you're getting mentioned with Gage Wood and Nick Smith. That's pretty good company.
[00:53:58] Speaker C: Pretty good company. And he just keeps getting better. Yeah, and I said, Cole Gibbler keeps getting better, but Deeds keeps getting better, Gibbler keeps getting better, and then you got Gackel. Now, I got a question for you about Gackel. What if. What if it's a tight game on Friday night?
Dietz comes out of the game in the seventh inning.
Do you bring Gackle in or do you go Coyle and McIlvain?
[00:54:23] Speaker A: I guess it depends on if they announce him. Because I think if you announce them, it gives you. I don't know how that works.
[00:54:29] Speaker C: I don't.
[00:54:30] Speaker A: Like, I think it gives you a little bit more leverage if you don't announce them before the Series. You know that you can.
You can make some decisions in game one or game two. I don't know how that works. Whenever you announce them. Like, I don't know if you can. Like, once you announce somebody, can you only scratch them if they get hurt, or can you just say, the heck with it, we got to pitch him right now? I don't know the answer to that.
[00:54:50] Speaker C: I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. You would think you'd just be able to scratch and say, hey, well, we changed our mind. He's not going to start.
Because things change in the game of baseball. Duke could get hurt on Saturday, and you might need this guy to jump in and pitch on Saturday.
[00:55:04] Speaker A: It'll be interesting to see how that works.
[00:55:05] Speaker C: Yeah, but I mean, that's just something to think about. Yeah, but. Yeah, we'll see. I just think Dave. I know how Dave is, and he takes it one game at a time. I know it's a cliche for most people, but for Dave, it's life. I mean, he takes it one. He's gonna do what it takes to win Friday night, and it will roll into Saturday.
[00:55:23] Speaker A: It's like that old Augie Garrido, inning by inning. I mean, you know, it's like, don't ever think more than just that moment that you're in.
It seems to work out well for those coaches who have that kind of
[00:55:33] Speaker C: mindset, you know, and I talk about winning pitches all the time. It's one pitch at a time. You want to win that pitch. And Christian back to Christian Turner or even Sousa. That's a perfect example of hitters going up there and just winning a pitch, trying to fight it off. Win a pitch. If you, if you can win enough pitches, that pitcher is going to make a mistake. And we saw that on, we saw that yesterday. It was awesome.
[00:55:57] Speaker A: That was a fun weekend at the ballpark. There's so many layers to that Onion weekend. We, we can peel back and I feel like we've kind of just sort of scratched the surface in this hour. Want to tell you one more time our baseball podcast brought to you by H and R Tire and Auto. They're proudly family owned since 1976. They're trusted across northwest Arkansas, committed to keeping you safe on the road all season long. You can learn more or schedule service at H and r tire and auto.com youm can read all of our coverage at whole hogsports.com we'll have plenty of baseball coverage this week at our website. Also softball coverage during the SEC tournament this week. Ethan Westerman will be covering them. Congratulations to the softball team. By the way, did you see this? They beat Texas in Austin. Won two of three over the reigning national champion. Big series win for Courtney Deifel in her program with the NCAA tournament coming up next week. Again, WholeHogsports.com hopefully subscribe to our podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, just subscribe to one of our Facebook, our Twitter, one of our social media channels. You'll see it there. Hope to see you again on our show. Bubba will be back in studio on Thursday. Have a great day.
