[00:00:01] Speaker A: Arkansas baseball and softball seasons are over. Ethan Westerman here. He was in Oklahoma City last week for the Women's College World Series.
I'm back from Lawrence, where Arkansas's baseball season ended at the Lawrence Regional against Kansas. Want to tell you that our show is brought to you by Eglins Best in Arkansas greatness starts early, before the pads go on, before the crowd roars, the day begins at the breakfast table. Eglins Best delivers superior nutrition with more vitamin D and less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. You can strong with Eglin's Best. Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. Eglins Best also brought to you by Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. Committed, professional and versatile. 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 can come by and see them now at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at Bentonville Glass.
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Just search Whole Hog Sports. Bubba Carpenter will be in here next week. He had a conflict. What am I trying to say? A scheduling conflict. Almost had a conflict of interest.
No conflicts of interest for Bubba, just a scheduling conflict. Couldn't be in here.
He had some stuff going on with the camps that he runs in the summer and couldn't get in here until later in the week. I wanted to go ahead and, you know, talk about baseball while it was still kind of fresh on everybody's minds. Also about softball after they were eliminated over the weekend in Oklahoma City. Just a quick note on our programming because we're going to summertime now. All the sports are basically over at Arkansas. You still got outdoor track and field. They're going to have their championships next week and then we're going to go into an extended downtime. We're going to move this show to a weekly format for the summer. We'll pick back up daily in August, closer to football season, but it'll be weekly during the summertime to give us a little bit of time where we can take our vacation days because I know all of us have got those kind of stacked up right now.
We'll get to softball here in a minute. Looking at baseball in Lawrence, you know, my initial thoughts on the series is that Arkansas just ran into something that was really big at Kansas. Like it was bigger than just the regional. And I was on Matt Zimmerman and Quinn Grovey's podcast earlier and, you know, we talked about this and I said this was Brady Tubes. It's a grand slam home run for Kansas. Like, this is what that weekend was for them.
How that Weekend at Arkansas 22 years ago Totally transformed baseball and built an appetite for, you know, like baseball at a higher level than it had ever been before.
I think that's what last weekend did for ku and now they're going to. To super regional after Oklahoma beat Georgia Tech.
You kind of had to be there to feel it, Ethan, but, you know, if you were there, I think you felt it. It was, it was a great atmosphere. I know some of the people from Arkansas had a tough time with the way they had the students sitting next to the parents, and that was unfortunate. And the, you know, the KU people got that fixed, I think, by the second game that they played in. But it was great atmosphere. And Kansas is a really good team. I mean, they can really hit. They're not real deep on the mound, but I think that, you know, they've got enough durability in some of those relief arms. Like a Bodhi Ray who came in and pitched six innings over three days.
Ryan Ritter had a really good weekend for him. Like, like they're able to piece it together enough and you know, to supplement the, the offense they have, you know, they got a good home field advantage and you know, it's.
We'd said all along for Arkansas, you can't fall into the losers bracket. Like that was the one thing that I've said for a long time, this team, if they fall into the losers bracket, I just don't know that they've got the pitching to get out. They almost had the hitting to get out. I mean, they slugged their way past Northeastern. It wasn't a pretty ending, but they got past them 110 to nine. And then, you know, they get up on KU, that's five to nothing. They scored 10 runs in that game, but, you know, they just kind of ran out of bullets down the stretch. And KU is a better team. Ku, no doubt about it. KU is a better team than Arkansas and they deserve to move on. They will. They'll play OU this week. Arkansas season ends at 41 and 22.
And the word that I just kind of keep coming up, I keep coming back to with this Arkansas team is it just was a substandard season ERA, not at the standard that Arkansas has, it was a 4, 74 ERA. This is a program that, you know, usually is in the threes and a top 1015 national ERA.
Fielding percentage 972. This is a program that for five years in a row is fielded 980 or better and is typically one of the best in the SEC and nationally.
Offensively, they actually had some decent offensive numbers at the end of the year with. But it was, it was streaky offense.
You know, they had a great day on Sunday. On Saturday they had one of their worst games of the year offensively, just three hits in a very pivotal game. So it's tough, but that's how the season ended.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And watching, you know, the game that their final game, it was just kind of a combination of the things that you said just were substandard this year that got them. I mean the defense, the pitching.
Yeah, it's tough whenever you put up a 10 spot and you don't win, it is.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: But you know, I mean again like that Sunday elimination day, like sometimes to win those. Look what Troy did. Troy was in the same boat. I think were they in Saint Borkinson was in. I think they were.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: I'll check this for you.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: But, but they beat Florida. They had to have been because they beat Florida on, on Sunday night and forced a winner take all Monday game. Troy's in the same boat. They had to score 16 runs to do it. Florida scored 11. Like you, you got a really, really slug your way to those wins. Sometimes 10 runs isn't enough. And you know that that was the case. And you look back at that KU game, there were, you know, there's a handful of, of what if moments. Like what if you don't commit that error? Like what if C.J. pompey turns the double play ball and it's only six to five going to the bottom of the fifth inning. You know, what if Arkansas doesn't leave runners in scoring positions in whatever inning that was?
You know, there's just a lot of, you know, what ifs in that game that could have turned it and maybe forced a Monday night winner take all game. And I tell you, I think you saw this last night.
When you get the home team in that Monday game, it can get real tense.
You saw it with Florida State and they were in a different situation, but you saw it with Georgia Tech. You saw it with A and M last night. You know, there were, there were some other teams I think that the Florida. Yeah. That just, you know, if you're a road team and you get that home team in that Monday game a lot of times, road team, you know, like, like, like they're the ones that are playing free in that environment. It's just Arkansas couldn't force that one.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah, And I feel like the first two days of a regional are very pivotal to win, because getting two and, oh, there's nothing like it at a regional. And there's nothing quite like being. If you're 01, that really stinks. But, I mean, Troy was a team that went oh and one and they had to win, I guess, four in a row.
But it's. You just go from being so firmly in a driver's seat to the moment you lose. You have no margin for error. You just have to, like, be laser focused on this certain game and get out of that game and then be laser focused on the next game till maybe you find your way out of the regional. But I feel like if you don't make it to that, like, it's really, really hard to make it to that Monday.
Like, if you, if you're able to make it to that Monday, you might just be catching enough lightning in a bottle that you're. You're feeling really good going into it. But that's the hard part is just even making it that far, because it takes a lot out of you when you lose your first or second game, just kind of knowing what's in front of you. You think about Arkansas's weekend. Did they have a single game that wasn't stressful to an extent? You know, it's like they were just under constant stress. I felt like, yeah, it's hard to
[00:08:00] Speaker A: play baseball that way. And the teams that, that did fight their way back from 01. Troy is its own.
Its own circumstance. But USC and Auburn, those are two of the best pitching setups in the country.
Like when Auburn lost to Milwaukee in game one, I said, if there's a team that can come back from 01 and fight its way back through the regional, I think Auburn's one of them because they've got exceptional pitching depth. I think I heard somebody say when they, when they played Arkansas down in Hoover, it was like their 33rd game this year where they had allowed three or fewer runs. I mean, think about that for a minute. That's like 60% of their games at that point in the season where they had allowed three or fewer runs. That's incredible. Then you think about when they beat Arkansas down there in April. They started their midweek guy on Thursday opposite Gabe Gackel, who was Arkansas's number one at that time and he outpitched him. He pitched really well. Their midweek guy, first SEC start, pitches really well. And so, you know, you just kind of saw that, you know, from them throughout the season, like they've just got good pitching depth and, and I think that was able to sustain them. I'd say the same thing about usc as far as Troy goes, Florida, boy, what a roller coaster of a season for that team. I mean the, like the highs and the highs were high and the lows were really low for that team.
And I don't think there's a more talented team in the country when you just look at it from draft prospects. Like there's a ton of big time draft prospects at Florida, but they didn't play very well as a team and you know, losing to Troy, and Troy fighting its way out of the losers bracket to do it and then just getting absolutely punked 10 to 2 on Monday.
I mean, just what a, what a clunker of a finish for Florida.
That was really bad.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: What stood out to me in that regional was the scores.
There was a whole lot of hitting and not a whole lot of pitching.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: It was that way. There were a lot of regionals that were like that. Somebody remarked to me about that in Lawrence, by the way, in Lawrence there are a lot of people who are just not real familiar with college baseball.
And I'm not, not trying to talk bad about anybody. It's just like, you know, when, when the game ended Sunday, there were a lot of media members who were okay. Now if, if Oklahoma beats Georgia Tech, does that mean that Kansas hosts a super regional? Yes, that's what that means. Are you sure, are you 100% sure that that's what that means? Yes. You're a national seed. If Oklahoma beats Georgia Tech, you're going to host a super regional. And so, you know, one of the things, I was talking to somebody on Sunday, like, man, the scores of these college games, I'm like, well, that's just how it's been all year. I mean, scoring is up in college baseball. I think the ball is harder.
It keeps getting harder.
It just, it's a, I don't know, it's, it feels like it's a high scoring, high scoring sport right now. You know, teams, they don't have the pitching depth quite like they used to have because of the house settlement. And you know, the number of players that you can have on a roster is different.
It's just players are older, hitters are older. It's Just a matter. It's just a lot of things are playing into this, but it's a really high scoring sport. I got home and I had to mow my yard. Like, I felt like I was gonna get kicked out of the neighborhood if I didn't get the yard mowed, because I've been gone a lot. Hoover, Lawrence. And so as I was mowing, I was listening to the end of the Troy Florida game and their play by play guy, Barry McKnight is his name. I mean, he got emotional and he choked up as he was going to break.
It was just, it was kind of neat to listen to how big of a deal that was to them. I, maybe they go to Omaha. I mean, they're going to host Little Rock, who had Little Rock and Troy in a super regional. But, you know, maybe they go to Omaha. But that went over Florida. That felt like they had clinched their ticket to the World Series in that moment. The way that they reacted to it. It was kind of neat to listen to that.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: There are some funky super regional matchups. I just got to looking at it and I was like, I feel like I'm looking at, you know, SEC football in some instances on like SOCA on Saturday.
And then I'm looking at, like the, like the, whatever it's called in Las Vegas, the basketball tournament they played where there's Alabama, St. John's oh, yeah. And then there's, you know, this weird, weird, weird matchup of West Virginia, Cal Poly. I'm like, where these matchups, you can't make them up this year.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Did you watch the end of the West Virginia game?
[00:12:32] Speaker B: I saw the clip.
So I actually watched the end of West Virginia's the game against Kentucky that kept the regional going.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: And then I saw a clip of the country roads after they won it.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: We've had Tom Hart sitting right here before at this desk. And I think Tom Hart is the voice of college baseball. I think it is, it's, it's a shame that he doesn't get a chance to go to Omaha and call games. I think it's a shame that, you know, Carl Ravich. I don't have anything against Carl Ravich, but the fact that he is the voice of college baseball when he probably only does, like a handful of college games during the regular season. You got these guys like, you know, Tom Hart and Clay Matvick and like, like, these are the guys who are the voice of college baseball throughout the season. And then they don't get a chance to go do games in Omaha. I Think that's, that's a real shame. It'd be kind of like ESPN telling, you know, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstream, hey, you guys did a really good job during the season. But now that we've gotten to the national championship game, we're going to ask you guys to move over so Joe Buck and Troy Eggman can come call the game. I don't understand why ESPN does this, but I wanted to give Tom kudos because he first off, he nailed the call.
West Virginia scores the walk off run and you know, he yells, cue Country Roads. It's awesome. West Virginia wins in 10. Something like that. And then they go to that, you know, they get to that moment. I'm sure everybody has seen it. If you're, if you're a college baseball fan and you haven't seen this clip of West Virginia singing Country Roads last night, this was really neat.
But the play by play guy, shut up. You know, like it'd be really easy to be sitting there and, you know, just talking about it. They knew to lay out and let the cameras and the audio, like let the picture tell the story. And that was an awesome job, I thought by Tom last night.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Yeah, the Troy play by play guy is over here choking up at his team advancing. You're over here choking up at Country Roads after West Virginia.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: It was neat.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: It was a nice, it seems like a really good environment there. Whenever I tuned in for some of the games this weekend there, the one that Kentucky like, I guess this was Saturday. My days are running together. I think it was Saturday night. Maybe it was Sunday night. It would have been Sunday night. Kentucky just absolutely blew it. Blew it.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: That's a five run ninth for West
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Virginia and there was like a go ahead balk.
It was, it was tough to.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: Everybody likes to see that.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, West Virginia and Kansas both are going to host super regionals for the first time.
Troy is hosting a super regional, obviously for the first time.
These are the super matchups. You got Cal Poly at West Virginia. Little Rock goes to Troy.
USC goes to North Carolina. That ought to be a really good one. Really good pitching in that. Ole Miss goes to Auburn. Ought to be pretty good. OU at Kansas.
Boy, there's some history there, Tony.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: We have like, these matchups are like, they're weird, but good.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Yeah, Alabama, St. John's maybe Nate Oates and Rick Patino can show up. That's gonna be in Tuscaloosa. Alabama's coach got really upset at the fans for not showing up at one of the Regional games and kind of like called them out. And then they. Somebody tweeted a video about 10 minutes before the first pitch of the next game. Might have been like one third full. The stands were now. I think they probably filled up a little bit more. But it's weird how the sport is supported in some SEC places and. And not as much in others. Oregon goes to Texas in a super
[00:16:00] Speaker B: regional that feels like a Nike showcase.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Here's. Here's the super regional of all super regionals. Georgia hosts Mississippi State. Mississippi State underperformed all season long. I thought Mississippi State and Georgia were the two most talented teams in the sec. And Georgia went into Starkville. They swept them. I think they beat them up pretty good. And one or two of those games. And so now you got Mississippi State. They got a chance to go back. Georgia's not going to have Trey Phelps because he decided to dance around the bases for about 20 minutes after he had a home run.
Interesting to see how that one goes. But that. I think that's the super regional really to watch this weekend. Is Mississippi State going to Georgia, Because Mississippi State, we can all sit here and talk about that. They hope that they deserve to host over Arkansas, but when you just look at the talent of the rosters, Mississippi State, Georgia, it doesn't feel like the 14th best team playing against the third best team. It feels more like Georgia. They're the best team left in the tournament with UCLA and Georgia Tech being out now Mississippi State, I think that they're. They're better than the 14th best team in the country, at least from a talent standpoint. Don't always mean anything. Florida maybe the most talented team in the country. You saw what happened with them, but that looks like a good matchup.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it always stands out to me when you get to this point, how many SEC on sec, because you can be like, all right, there's at least two SEC teams in Omaha. And then you wonder how the other.
The others do. But, hey, you said that's the super regional watch. The super regional to watch for me is the Trojans. Little Rock Trojans on Trojans.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: I mean, that is.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: That's a lot of Razorback connections in there. I mean, Chris Curry was an assistant coach here. Evan Lee is his pitching coach. Obviously, he played here for a couple of years. Tag Andrews and Kate Smith are both on that team. They both began their careers at Arkansas as redshirt players. So I think there's a natural rooting interest there for Razorback fans to try to get Little Rock over the Hump and into Omaha, which just is absolutely crazy when you say it out loud. But Chris has done such a great job with that program, and I think moving to the OVC was such a really big deal for them because it allowed them to win more in the regular season.
I think the OVC is a little bit easier to win in than the Sun Belt is, so they win more in the regular season, but when you win, that's what attracts recruits. They look at that record, and they've won a lot of games in the ovc, and I think they've done a good job recruiting off of that success.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Just imagine, like, a half decade or so ago, like in a random Sunbelt series between Troy and Little Rock, telling them, like, hey, just a few years down the road, y' all are going to be battling out for a spot in Omaha and a super regional at Troy. It's just. It's fun. I think it's. It's also just fun that they're both Trojans.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Have you seen this video that's going around social media where there's two girls talking and, you know, one of them is telling this story and the other one just looks so shocked, and they've got superimposed over the top of it. 2019 and 2026. And it's like, 2020. It's like 2019. Hearing the stories that 2026 can tell. Like. Like that applies to what you're saying.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: You know, seven years ago, imagine you got this Little Rock Troy Sunbelt Conference matchup, and, oh, how many fans are
[00:19:05] Speaker B: in the stands, you know, and you beat who? But I'll tell you who was there. What, this Troy. What's his name? The playable play guy.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Oh, Barry McKnight.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: I guarantee. Actually, I can't guarantee it. I don't know how long he's been doing it.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: 24 years. He said it on the podcast.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Well, he was.
He saw the vision back then.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: I think it was talking about he had been there for 24 years that caused him to choke up. Yeah, because it's something like. I can't remember exactly 24 years.
These are the moments. And he pitches to break.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: Well, yeah. No, 2019 would have also loved to see the Indiana football story.
There's been a lot of crazy things, I feel like, that have happened just with how the ways that college sports have changed. It's allowed so many random things that would have never happened to unfold. It's just crazy. But I. I like these. I. I actually look at these super regional matchups and I kind of am intrigued on every single one of them to an extent.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: A lot of SEC teams left. I looked this up. I've got a breakdown by conference here.
So regional winners.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: I think I saw something. It was like 7 sec, then two was the next closest.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: Yeah, seven sec teams. Two from the Big Ten, two from the Big 12, one from every other conference, including the Big East. Well, I say one.
One from several other conferences. Not every conference is in here. SEC teams left. Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Bama, Oklahoma and Auburn. Big Ten, Oregon and Southern Cal. That feels weird to say Big 12, Kansas and West Virginia. ACC's got North Carolina. Big east has got St. John's Big west has got Cal Poly. The Ohio Valley's got Little Rock, and the Sunbelt has Troy.
How about we go back eight days to when Mike Alford, the chair of the Division 1 Baseball Committee, is defending their picks for regional hosts, teams that got in and everything. And one of the things that he said, Ethan, was, quote, the ACC is the most deep conference in the country, and the ACC only has one team going on through to the super regionals.
Kind of. I mean, like. Like, if you weren't questioning the selection committee's decisions, when you hear their committee chair say that and then you see the ACC have the type of performance that it did on the first weekend.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: And he's the AD of an ACC school.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: Oh, yes. He is a Florida State.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: Same thing happened in softball. They were bad in softball. I'm like, maybe.
And they had a lot of teams in it as well, and they just absolutely flopped. I'm like, maybe the ACC baseball. Softball isn't like.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: I think ACC baseball is good. I think it's good. I just don't think it was the deepest conference in the country this year.
And it makes you wonder, you know, hey, did an SEC team not get to host because an ACC team was overvalued? I don't know, but that really stood out to me as I saw the ACC really floundering around in the region.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: What stands out to me is whenever you're. You look at the top teams, like. And it. Oklahoma was not viewed as a top SEC team.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: No. They'd lost four. They'd lost four series in a row.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: And they go take down your big dog.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: They went 01 and Hoover lost to
[00:22:04] Speaker B: LSU, and they go take down your number two overall national seed. That's the type of stuff that stands out to me. I don't even know if there was there any other SEC who eliminated acc.
[00:22:16] Speaker A: Well, Auburn eliminated North Carolina State on a walk off pitch Violet, like, pitch clock violation. Did you see this? That's how Elliott Avent's career ended, by the way. Auburn, in the last two weeks, they have won games. Get this, Ethan. Like literally the first team in college baseball that's ever done this. They won on a walk off pitch clock violation against NC State in Hoover. They won on a walk off ABS challenge that they won.
Talk about electric. Waiting for the ABS thing to pop up on the video board to tell you whether or not the game's over.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: That's, that's. I don't know. I actually wasn't tuned in for that. But the celebration I would have loved to see because it's just got to be like for the other one side. You're just like, what the heck?
[00:22:58] Speaker A: Yeah, Well, I think they were down by a lot of runs. I think it was A and M. I think it was a seven to nothing game.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: Okay. Then maybe they were like, all right. Thank goodness.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah. A walk, walk off ABS challenge and a walk off pitch clock violation for Auburn thus far in the postseason. When Bubba's in here next week, we'll talk a lot more about Arkansas's roster moving forward. David Horn made some comments the other day that certainly made it sound like they didn't have the finances that they wanted at this time last year. I don't think that's any surprise anybody who's kind of listened or read between the lines this year with baseball.
They got, they got more time to build a roster this offseason than they did last year when they went to Omaha and they had coaches taking calls on the side of the practice field as they were trying to get ready for the College World Series games. But, you know, I think we'll have a little bit more clarification about some things this time next week. Obviously, the draft is still a month or more away, a little over a month away.
And that's going to, you know, that's going to determine some things also. You know, I wrote about this yesterday. One thing that's really interesting is this 5 and 5 rule change that's going to be voted on or it's expected to be voted on later this month by the NCAA Division 1 cabinet. Now, they may not vote on it, they may table it, and this may not get, you know, fleshed out for a while, but if they were to approve 5 and 5 in June at their, their cabinet meeting in Indianapolis, the way that, you know, is a possibility, then all of a sudden, if you're a true junior you get an extra year of bargaining leverage next season. And I'm going to use Ryder Helferk here as an example, because Ryder Helferk is not coming back to Arkansas. Ryder Helfer is going to be a first round pick. First, first, first round catcher Arkansas has ever had.
If, but let's say Ryder Helferich, what he could do by being a true junior is if this passes In June, this 5 and 5 legislation, which is to give a fifth year of eligibility to all athletes, not just baseball players, he could come back next year and he would still have his bargaining year left. Whereas right now, he has to take the money this year in order to have that bargaining leverage. That's going to give him millions of dollars in signing bonus. Very interesting to see how that might change baseball. It's going to make baseball an older sport. No doubt about it. You got the, you know, the CBA that's coming up with Major League Baseball. The draft is part of the cba. Maybe there's some changes that are coming there. It just feels, you know, where there are some people who think that the draft may even get like shortened from where it already is at 20 rounds.
It just feels like the sport is going to continue to get older and older and older.
But that's a really interesting little piece as we move forward here over the next few weeks to see what happens with that Division one cabinet vote. Because there are some players who right now, maybe they go pro to get the money, but if they've got that extra year, maybe they come back, I don't know.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: At the Women's World Series, the chatter all around because everybody's talking about this 5 and 5 thing. They were like, what happens to the current seniors? Do they get grandfathered in?
[00:26:14] Speaker A: They do not. And so, so the now I'm sure they could take it to court and
[00:26:18] Speaker B: yeah, that's what, that's where I was going to go with it. Everybody's like, no, but what happens when
[00:26:22] Speaker A: they go to court as of right now, you know, like, if you've got a going back to baseball, Zach Stewart, Parker Coyle, these guys who, their eligibility ends this year, they do not get grandfathered into that 5 and 5 deal. But anybody, let's say it passes in June, anybody who would be on next year's roster, then they would get five and five. So very interesting.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I just, every time I'm like, what happens the first time it gets taken to court?
Like, it just feels like it always, you know, oh, it always. The goal post keeps on moving. And it just. You just wonder what happens if one of these that want that think they should get grandfathered into this.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Is there a more lucrative profession right now than to be like a Tom Mars, who is, you know, just somebody who deals with college sports, legal cases?
I mean, like, like, like you're having to turn people away. There's so many opportunities, I would think.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: Yeah. And it feels like there's just gotta be a lot more.
Everything gets challenged to the extent that there's gotta be just some legislation at some point that fix it, but we
[00:27:30] Speaker A: never know that's what they want. I don't know that they'll ever get it. Yeah, but that's. That's a whole different story.
So. Softball, boy, losing in Nebraska, what a heartbreaker for them, the way they lose.
You know, they had it. It felt like they had the game. I tell you, I was watching it. I was. Where was I? I was in Topeka because I was having to stay in Topeka for a few nights because I couldn't get anything in Lawrence. So in Topeka, I'm watching this game and it's three to two and they hit. I think it's Jordy Fromm, was it not.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: It was Hannah Core.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: No, no. But Fromm lined out in front of her. She lines out to third base. McDowell makes a great catch. And I'm like, okay, maybe they got it here.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: And then it's like a pitch or two pitches later, home run to center, and you know, then it's chaos.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: And of course, it had to be Hannah Corr, who's an Oklahoma transfer. And Oklahoma is notorious for hitting home runs like that at the World Series. They call it sooner magic there because they just like, it's the moment you count them out, somebody unexpected. I think Hannah Core had like definitely single digit home runs this year. She was on a tear in the postseason, but single digit home runs, and she's the one. Courtney Defold said that her pitch call is going to haunt her dreams because she told Peyton Burnham to throw a change up there. And I guess and she said Burnham executed it exactly how it should be. It just was a bad pitch call. And so, yeah, that, that took a whole lot out of them. I think it's hard to get beat. I mean, they serve even after that home run. They survived a couple innings and kept it going before they got walked off. But I mean, it was like a knockout drag out fight just in the late night hours. And then you're supposed to turn around and play the next day and Flush it. That's just a hard thing to do. I think.
I think whenever, especially whenever the team that you're supposed to like survive against the next day is, oh, by the way, ucla, who has the single season home runs record in Division 1 history. And they have two girls in the lineup who are like, I think 135 home runs. One came in with 42.
Like that's just a tough ask.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: And they lose to UCLA, they get run ruled. Was it 11 to nothing?
[00:29:42] Speaker B: Yeah, it was.
Courtney literally walked into her press conference. It was like opening statement. She was like, well, that sucked. And then went on to. She was like.
I think she knew like after a game like that we weren't gonna ask a whole lot of questions about the game. The game kind of told itself, just went to ask about her seniors and stuff like that. But it was, yeah, it was lopsided. And what's crazy about it, I kind of like Peyton Burnham threw a seven pitch first inning, really quick work. And you're like, okay, this one's about to maybe be close. Or you know, Arkansas's. Arkansas is ready. And then UCLA puts up a nine spot in the second inning. That just felt like that. It just felt like that inning was never going to end. It was just. They just kept it going and then it got ugly really fast. But you know, I think that number one, just the experience being there for Arkansas was big. I mean, they got that monkey off their back of being a program that never makes it there.
Obviously not the way you want to go out getting beat like that. But they showed in that first game that they deserved to be on that stage. I think, I think that was the big concern. It would be a concern if you got beat. Like honestly, how Mississippi State did there where they didn't score a single run at the World Series. I think they were beat by a combined 12 nothing in their two losses. Arkansas showed it deserved to be there and that it belonged with its first game. That really could have gone either way. I thought when McDowell hit the go ahead RBI single in the top of the eighth, that I was like, they've got this. And then, you know, you just get that gut punch, home run, that changes it. And next thing you know, you're fighting for your life the next day. I just think that. And it's the same situation as a regional. Like we were just talking about, you lose your first game and that's really hard to recover from.
[00:31:28] Speaker A: It's weird. I talked about 2004 Arkansas baseball with Kansas earlier and how this felt like that Brady Tubes moment for them, like this kind of felt like the 04 Arkansas baseball season they, or the way that the season ended, you know, where they win the super regional, they sweep a team from the ACC and they played really well doing it Duke and then they go to the World series and they go 02 kind of.
I can't remember exactly how it went for baseball, but I think it was similar where it was like one game was somewhat close and the other game was real lopsided. It feels like this is what happens a lot of times though for teams and that are in the World Series. Like when it's their first time, it's a learning experience and for some teams it's. They're not ready to meet the moment. I thought Arkansas was ready to meet the moment when they played Nebraska, but you know, then, then it just, it felt like Nebraska had some players who had been there before, like you mentioned, and Arkansas didn't. And I felt like the experience playing in that, in that environment, whether it be the girl hits the home run, whether it be Jordy Fromm and the phenomenal game that she had for them, it just felt like, like Nebraska, their players had been there and now for Arkansas, you know, if they get back next year or in two years and they've got some players who have been there before, it will benefit them down the road.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. And I like the two players who have been there for Nebraska.
Hannah Corr who hit the game tying home run and Jordi Fromme who has been the most outstanding player at the World Series when she pitched at Oklahoma. It's like two Sooners who have been there and really tasted some, some wins there. It's, it just, yeah, the later that game got, it was one that you're like, you just want to be batting second right now. It just felt like it was going to be who has the final word. And of course like they hit the walk off home run but yeah, they, they showed that they belonged there for sure. And I, you just never know how things will go if you win that first game. That's what I always come back to. Like it's such a, you know, a fragile thing. I think just how your time at a, you know, the World Series or regional goes because one game, one play honestly can really just change everything because if Arkansas wins that first game, they don't play ucla. They advance the next day to play Alabama, who they beat once this season and they lost two, three times as well. But you know, that makes me wonder, are they due to beat them again?
It. It's just you lose one game and it can really alter just the matchups, how you're feeling. I mean, for Arkansas's sake. I don't know what time they got out of the ballpark that night, but it had to be well past midnight. And then it's like, okay, go to the hotel and sleep and recover, and when you wake up, let's get ready to go and try and not get eliminated.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: It's hard when you have your heart ripped out one day. It is really hard to win the next day.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: I do think that I heard Patrick Murphy and I think Karen Weekley, the Tennessee coach, Patrick Murphy's Alabama's coach. They've both said it this week, and they're coaches who have been there quite a bit. They said there's no such thing as a bad day at the World Series. And I think that's for Arkansas. It was a. That's true. I mean, just being there, they, like.
I feel like this was a season that really elevated the program. And you could tell from the fan turnout. There I was. I thought that fans would travel for it, but I didn't understand just how much Arkansas would kind of take over that ballpark, at least for the games that Arkansas played. It was. I mean, there was an attendance record the first night there for a set.
[00:34:55] Speaker A: Well, it was a big deal for Nebraska, too. So you got two teams that, you know, it's. Had Nebraska ever been to the World Series?
[00:35:01] Speaker B: They have. They had. They hadn't been in a long time. And honestly, I think one of the. I think their first time before that was 2013, and they were also, I think before that, maybe 2002, whenever Courtney Diefel played for Cal and won it.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: But the point being that you got two teams. You got one that hadn't been there in a long time. Then you got one who had never been there, and it was, you know, like. Like, if you're a fan, you want to go experience that. And for Nebraska, that's a short trip. For Arkansas, that's a short trip. It seemed like it was kind of destined to have a big turnout.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: And there's three, from my count, college programs that don't have a professional team. And there is one team of the state in Arkansas and Nebraska are two of them. I think the third is West Virginia.
And so it's like two passionate fan bases that, like, it had a very.
Out of all the matchups I watched there, Arkansas, Nebraska had the feel of just like these programs deserve to be here because they're doing it the right way type of feel and like their fan bases really care. It was honestly one of those. I was like, whoever wins, I think most OU fans are going to get behind to win at all because they're just too easy programs, I think, to root for.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: And then you end up with a rematch in the championship of Texas and Texas, which I know that the coaches are not happy about how that played out yesterday and how the teams that lost had to turn around and play again. And that goes back into when you have your heart ripped out and momentum is a big deal.
It felt tough for those teams.
[00:36:24] Speaker B: If it was up to me yesterday, Alabama would have lost to Texas Tech and Tennessee would have lost to Texas and they would have gone and slept on it tonight and they'd be playing a winner take all game today. I just think that why just delay everything by one day for the whole rest of the series? I get it. TV probably dominates all these decisions with game times and schedule.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: But like expenses too. I mean, that's an extra day of hotel for all these teams that the NCAA would have to foot.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: Well, I think it's worth it whenever if you want to.
[00:36:55] Speaker A: I don't disagree. I don't disagree.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: I think it's worth it if you want to make the biggest games of the year get how it deserves to be.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: Seem big.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it's to make them play a double header right after you got beat. I don't know.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: And on the middle of a Monday,
[00:37:10] Speaker B: Alabama and Tennessee had not lost all week there and they'd won some big games. And then all of a sudden it's like you go from waking up one morning with no losses to your seasons over that day. Whenever every other team that was there was afforded a day, at least one day later you were going to play. If you got beat. In some cases, like had Arkansas beaten ucla, they would have gotten an entire day off before playing their next game. It just seems like Alabama and Tennessee weren't afforded the same schedule as other teams. I get it. You walk into it, you know, that's the schedule.
I just don't think it's the most.
[00:37:41] Speaker A: It feels very rushed and it shouldn't feel rushed whenever you.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: For all the ways that they're improving the world, like improving the tournament this year, that seems like one that's going to get brought up. Like, hey, let's maybe think about if you force a winner take all game, actually not stacking it on top of 30 minutes after the first game got over. Let's do it another day.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: How about this news that Jordi Fromm pitched most of the season pregnant? I mean, that's, that's unbelievable.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: No, just pitching. I mean, she hit 20 home runs. Right. I mean, she was, she was national player of the year. Not just because she was a great pitcher, but she was a heck of a two way player. I mean, I told my wife this last night whenever I saw the news and you know, her first thought was, you know, like, like concern for, you know, the child, which, which I think is, is that. I think that's where most people's minds probably went. But then number two, it's like, you know, just from a perspective of someone who's had three children, it's like, how did she do that? You know, I mean, it's, it's, it's unbelievable really, when you think about what an accomplishment that is to have the type of season she had dealing with all of that.
[00:38:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, she's a warrior, I'll tell you that. I, I have a lot of respect for her. I will say. The broadcast, apparently they didn't know this until after the World Series, that she didn't announce it till after the season. But I heard that the broadcast was just a jordy from.
[00:38:59] Speaker A: Well, they fawned over from, that's for sure. Like, but I was actually, I had the same thought whenever I saw it. Like, can you imagine if they would have known?
[00:39:06] Speaker B: Oh my gosh, they would have.
I mean, it was like there should have been a. From count.
[00:39:10] Speaker A: There might have been like a 45 minute special report before the game's played.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: Yeah, but it kind of stinks. You know, it's Arkansas's first game and I think that just a whole lot of the spotlight went on her. Like, and I get it, she's a phenomenal player.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: She's the best player in the country. She's the, like, she's, she is the household name, I think, in college softball,
[00:39:28] Speaker B: which is funny because, I mean, it was, it's like we've already learned from. Because that's how good she is. It was Jordy ball for the longest time.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: It's kind of like Montana Fouts was whenever she was pitching at Alabama. Like, she is the face of the sport right now.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, there's. This year there were a lot of just really good players.
I would have hated to vote for national player of the year. Like, how are you going to choose between Jordy Fromm, who's a phenomenal two way player, and Megan Grant, who has literally hit 42 bombs to set a single season record.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: Like you got the OU freshman who
[00:40:00] Speaker B: had a great year, Kendall Wells, that was right behind her. Yeah. And she's a freshman. That's like you just sit here and you laugh thinking about what her career home run tally will be by the end of it.
There's going to be a lot of exciting softball ahead. Arkansas, I think will be. I think this was huge for them going forward with.
They've always been able to sell recruits with I think want to be part of being the first team to go the World Series. We can get there now you can be like, we are a World Series team. Come help build this. Like it's no longer selling a vision of making it to the World Series. Now it's probably a vision of let's win a championship. And I just think that changes a lot of recruiting. Whenever you've gotten that spotlight, especially whenever it's the most watched game of the whole first day, it's a lot of players got eyes on your program and got to see how you operate.
[00:40:43] Speaker A: Who are the primary players who come back?
[00:40:46] Speaker B: Ella McDowell.
I mean I kind of feel like it's her team now.
Third base, Atalia Riho could come back. She has a red shirt year. If she does, I think you'll still have her at shortstop. McDowell at third base. If she doesn't, I think McDowell would go to shortstop. She's a heck of a third baseman. But I, I think shortstops her natural position that she played growing up. So those. There's McDowell, Brinley Bain, who was really freaking good this year.
Peyton Burnham, Sailor Timmerman. I mean they've got a nice little core of younger players. They're going to have to get in the portal 100%. I mean probably a heavy portal dip, but they have some freshmen coming in. And then I think there's some players on the roster that didn't get to play as much this year who I would like. Ramsey Walker in the outfield. Her dad played baseball at Arkansas, Ramsay Walker. But she. I could see her taking on a bigger role in maybe becoming an everyday outfielder. I just think they're going to have to go heavy in the portal, though. But you have a nice strong nucleus of younger players who will be back.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: Well, Ethan does a great job covering Razorback softball. You can read his
[email protected] we know that he'll be on top of it throughout the off season as all these moves are made. You know, transactions, players go into the portal, come out of the portal commit. It's going to be a busy summer like for baseball and softball, both of these teams. We think it's going to be a busy summer in terms of portal activity for both of them. So hope that you'll check our website, wholehogsports.com for baseball news, softball news, you name it, we got it at our website, WholeHogsports.com and again, Bubba Carpenter will be in here next week. Just a quick reminder in case maybe you fast forwarded or maybe you tuned in late here. We're going to go on a weekly format for the summertime. We'll go back to daily when we get closer to football season in August, but it'll allow us to have some more.
It'll allow us to have some meat to these shows as opposed to, you know, kind of just grasping at straws, talking about, you know, should the football team wear black uniforms, play at War Memorial Stadium, that type of summertime talk. We don't want to get into that. So I hope that you'll join us again next week when we got bub in here to give his perspective on the Razorback baseball season. We'll see you then or at our website, wholehogsports. Com. Have a great week.
