Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Hog Sports network daily podcast.
Now here's your host, Matt Jones.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Countdown continues to Arkansas, Tennessee. On today's show, Bubba Carpenter's in studio with me. We'll look ahead to this super regional, but first, a word from Kendall King.
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[00:00:49] Speaker B: You know, yesterday on the show I said that I gave Velloy my vote for the dickhouser trophy, which is one of the national player of the year awards. And then, I don't know, a couple hours after we left the studio here, the Golden Spikes award puts out their list of three finalists and Viva is on there. He's one of three, along with Alex Lodis, the shortstop from Florida State and one of the pitchers who's coming in here this weekend for the super regional, Liam Doyle, the left hander from Tennessee, Alloy is Arkansas's fifth finalist for the Golden Spikes award. Can you name the other four? Bubba.
[00:01:23] Speaker C: Ben attendee, Phil Stidham.
No.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Look over my shoulder at the bobblehead.
Kevin Cops.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Oh, I forgot about cops. Dang it.
Forget that one.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: I don't know, I was looking all over. Hagen Smith is the other one. I thought you wouldn't get Phil Stidham. You guys played together, right? Yeah, yeah. He's the one that kind of gets forgotten a little bit because he was in the like the golden spice award. I think he'd been out for about 13 years or so whenever he was a finalist. But not a lot of people, you know, remember, remember that. Like they remember Ben and Tindy and cops and Hagen and obviously Behiva now.
[00:02:02] Speaker C: I mean, I knew Hagen. I can't believe I didn't say Hagen or Cops.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: I can't believe you didn't say cops.
[00:02:07] Speaker C: I know. Wow. It's early still.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Yeah, you get the sleepies.
[00:02:10] Speaker C: But yeah, Stid him back in the day was like unhittable. Like when he came in, he led the nation in er, I think like two years in a row. But yeah, no one remembers that. So it was a long time ago.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: You remember it?
[00:02:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: You do. The heaver. What do you think about his candidacy to win this?
[00:02:27] Speaker C: I think if you watch him play like we have, he. He's the guy that should get to vote. But, you know, Lodish, I mean, if you look at his numbers, I don't know much about him. I've watched some videos, watch some of his highlights. I don't know a lot about him.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: He's got better, like, I mean, he's got a better batting average. His power numbers are slightly lower than Vaheva's. And then, you know, the thing about defense, I think they both have five errors this year.
And you don't see, you know, all you really see defensively unless you watch their games, you know, inning by inning is the highlights. And I've seen a couple of. From him, you know, the Jeter type, you know, jump throws from shortstop that we've seen Beheva make too. So I don't know that you can go wrong with either of them. And then, you know, I mean, Liam Doyle, he's.
Statistically, he's the best pitcher in the country now. Whenever I turned in the Dick Hauser Trophy, I actually had Kate Anderson ahead of him.
And I think, and I said this yesterday, I was influenced a little bit by the two times that I saw Kate Anderson. He pitched really well. He pitched well against Arkansas, and he pitched well against A and M. Whenever I stuck around and watched that game in Hoover a couple of weeks back, you know, but, I mean, there's.
You can't go wrong, I think, with any of these three.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I lu. These numbers are really good.
I think he's got 17 home runs. VE's got 20, but I think it. You know, and of course, we're. We get to see Ve every day. And I just watch the plays that he makes, Matt, and what he brings to this team and where we would be without the team. I'm sure the other two guys, you can say the same thing about them for their team, but he's incredible. I mean, he really is. Just his ability to, like, defensively just make the first of all, make the routine plays. The great players make the routine plays. And we take it for granted with Ver. I mean, it's. It's pretty impressive. And then he makes the spectacular play as well, you know, not to mention the home runs, the RBI is all that. I mean, it's. For me, that's. He gets my vote.
I don't know about Liam Doyle because I haven't.
I've seen him get. I've seen him get hit a little bit against good teams, but his numbers are good. But it's not like Kevin Cops good or, or Hagen Smith Good.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: Kevin Cops is a high bar.
[00:04:51] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: I mean, it's amazing. You look at the numbers that he had in 21 and they're, they're phenomenal. But if you go back and you look at the numbers that he had before the post season, and it wasn't like he had a bad post season, but if you go back and look at the numbers he had before the postseason, it was just like you're almost looking at him and you're thinking, is this really real? Do they mean to put a zero here or is there supposed to be a one? You know what I mean?
[00:05:18] Speaker C: Yeah, it's crazy.
I mean, that year will never be.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Repeated, something like that, especially not. Well, and what made that one so special was that it was a relief pitcher and just the, like the volume that he was able to take on and, and pitch, you know, the two, three times a weekend. God, what do you throw in the postseason? Like 23 innings over two weekends? Yeah, it was incredible.
[00:05:40] Speaker C: But you know what's crazy is the year before he had the worst stats on the team. I mean, talk about a turnaround, you know, I mean, with smaller rosters, he might not have been on the, the roster that year.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: I think we talked about this on the podcast. I wrote something back in March on the five year anniversary of the, the COVID shutdown.
And you know, all of the coaches over there believe that Heston Kirstad was going to either be a finalist or if you ask Matt Hobbs, he was going to win the golden spikes in 2020.
So Arkansas may have had a Golden Spikes year taken away from them, but on the flip side, you probably don't get 2021 Kevin Copps without the 2020 season getting shut down.
[00:06:23] Speaker C: Yeah, you're right.
But, but I agree on, on Heston. I mean, I would have loved to have seen him play out that full season. I mean, he was, he was incredible. I mean, in the fall, watching him, I don't know if he made it out in the fall.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah, there weren't any, what they say, there weren't any easy outs, there weren't any quiet outs with him. Everything was loud, even, you know, even when he would make contact. All right, going to this weekend's series, what you got to do is you got to look back at what's going on previously between these teams earlier this year, really just a few weeks ago here in Fayetteville at Baum Walker Stadium. I know they have been breaking down the film of that, of that series in the week leading up to this game here at Arkansas, and I'm sure they're probably doing the same thing in Knoxville. What do you, what stands out to you about what you saw that weekend?
[00:07:15] Speaker C: Well, I, I think about our pitching staff. I mean, you look at our starters. Our starters went a combined nine innings and gave up 10 runs. Who would have ever thought, if you knew that going in that we would have won the series? I mean, the bullpen was huge for us. I think our offense did a really good job.
You know, day one against Phillips, I didn't think we were that good.
He had pretty good stuff. It took us a little bit to get, you know, to figure him out.
But the rest of the weekend I thought we were pretty good. I thought we hit the ball pretty good.
You know, we just got to get better starting pitching. But I tell you what, the bullpen was huge that weekend. The numbers that they put up, they came in and then, you know, know we know what Mac McIntyre did. So that's kind of what stands out with me. I loved our approach against Doyle. We, we made him. We laid off the pitch up in the zone after the first inning, we laid off the pitch up in the zone, got pitches down in his own and hammered them. I went back and looked and in Thursday's game we hit 13 hard hit balls. That's anything over 95 miles an hour.
Friday was 12 hard hit.
Saturday, 11 hard hit off of Liam Doyle. We hit seven balls over 100 miles an hour and four and two thirds inning. That's pretty good. No one else has hit him that hard. So I mean, I thought we did a pretty good job against him.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: I think then we looked up his numbers and he wasn't quite as good on the road as he had been at home this year.
[00:08:40] Speaker C: I don't know, I didn't look at it.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: I think we said that earlier this year. And of course, you know, he followed up the Arkansas outing with the game against Texas and Hoover that wasn't very good at all either. I don't know how much the blister was bothering him in those two, because obviously that was something that was discussed at that time.
He looked really good, I thought, in the two outings that he had the other day. I wonder how they use him though, this week, given that he did throw 135 pitches last weekend. I mean, can you throw him game one? It seems like it would be awfully risky to do that.
[00:09:12] Speaker C: I think it's risky, especially if you're expecting him to go 100 pitches for you. That's, that's A lot of pitches. That's a guy that's a max.
He's a max effort guy. You know, he's throwing upper 90s. It's not like he's, you know, just easy, you know, lefty, throwing upper 80s, low 90s, nice and smooth. I mean, he's a guy that works like he does. I don't know, Matt, that they could bring him back on that short of rest. And if they do, I don't know if he can be as good or if he is as good. If he can sustain that for that many pitches. I don't know. It's a. That's a lot of work in an arm because he's strong, kid. Maybe he can do it.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: I think one of the keys to this super regional is, you know, adjustments. Adjustments. Both. You know, both sides. And then how do you adjust to the other team's adjustments, if you know what I mean? You know, because, like, Tennessee, you talked about Doyle, and he didn't pitch well. I mean, Zach Root didn't have a good outing. Gage Wood didn't have a very good outing.
And. But then you look at all three of those. You throw Marcus Phillips, Tennessee's other, you know, primary starter in there last week, but everybody pitched really well in their regional, and so it's. It feels like, can one team get one good start? Because that. That may be the difference of this super.
[00:10:28] Speaker C: Unfortunately, you're right. Here's. I think we have the advantage because we've seen Marcus Phillips now, and he. He was good. He was. Marcus Phillips was better than I thought he was going to be. I mean, the guy's got good stuff.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: Was he, like, a converted infielder? I think he's a converted infielder.
[00:10:46] Speaker C: Is he? I didn't.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: I don't think so. I think he was at.
Maybe it was at Iowa Western.
I think he was at an Iowa community college. I think he played infield. And the coach there told one of Tennessee's coaches, like, hey, you might want to take a look at him on the mound. And then he's just obviously flourished.
[00:11:03] Speaker C: Yeah, it worked out pretty well for him. But, no, I thought he was really good. And Liam Doyle, we kind of knew going in what he was, how good he was, what he was going to do to us. So we had a pretty good idea. We know he's going to try to get us to chase that high fastball. It's got high carry. I want to say the scouting report, I can't remember, it might have on him. Might have been plus. Plus, Carry. I mean, it's. I mean, it, it rides up. It almost has the appearance of like, it rises. It doesn't, but it looks like it does.
But Marcus Phillips is the one that. If we could figure him out, I mean, I think we'll be in. I think we'll be in good shape. And see, they didn't see a good Zach Root, so they, they haven't seen Zach at his best or Gage at his best. So I think, I think the advantage for starting pitching goes back to us.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Gage is a wild card, I feel like, because what you just said, they haven't, like. And I don't know that until last weekend, Arkansas had seen Gage Wood at his best. You know what I mean? Like, not only at his best, but at his best and unshackled. Like, he was really good against Texas for the four innings, or I think it was four innings that he got to throw against Texas, really good at Florida for three innings. But obviously it was. Once you hit a certain pitch count, you can't go any further.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: And there's, you know, I mean, we all know that there's a. There's a limit, you know, for everybody. But he's now at the point that he can give you the, what you would call traditional starter innings.
And he got into a little bit of trouble against Creighton, a couple of innings with his pitch count. I think he had 2, 22 pitch innings. But then he also showed against Creighton, he's got the capability to get you out of there in like 8, 9, 10. And it's not all ground balls either. I mean, he can get you struck, he can get you a couple strikeouts and 10 pitches.
I don't know. I feel like he's a big wild card to this weekend just because last week I felt was a big eye opener for him.
[00:12:49] Speaker C: So I think his fastball plays against this lineup really well.
But there's their swing paths. If he, if he can locate that fastball upper 90s at the top of the zone, I think Tennessee will struggle with it just based off of what I've seen in their swings.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: So here's the thought. Because he may end up pitching against Doyle, both of them rely on that high fastball.
Who's behind the plate.
[00:13:15] Speaker C: I knew you were going to.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Who's behind the plate and how does that affect them if they're not getting that call?
[00:13:20] Speaker C: Yeah, we were talking about this last night, me and a couple of our coaches. I said, probably more so than any game of the year. If those two are matched up against each other or even, it doesn't even matter if they are whoever when Doyle pitches. And the, the zone is so important. I know when, when he pitched last time, he didn't get that ball at the top of the zone. Like they weren't calling it and he had to come down in the zone. You bring that thing down the zone, we're going to hammer it.
But I think it's real important who's behind home plate. You know, you look at some of the, the, the, the pitchers, the. Nolan Johnson wasn't getting a call at the top of the zone. And you know, last week in the.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: Regional and then Root got a very friendly strike zone that he was pitching into. Yeah, it's great.
[00:14:05] Speaker C: And I thought, yeah, and he was pitching at the bottom of the zone, getting calls at the bottom of the zone. Well, he was getting, he was getting a lot of calls, but he was locating all around the zone. And so I do think it's really important who's behind the dish.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: I think that this is a, this is an Omaha caliber matchup. And there's, there has been some talk this week. Not, I don't know if there's been a whole lot, but there's been some about should you reseed teams after the regionals in order to have better matchups? Maybe, I don't know about better matchups, but basically where you can get more quality teams to Omaha, you know, and there's, there's two ways of thinking about this. Number one, I think you want the good teams to be there playing for the cause. World Series. But everybody loves the underdog. Everybody loves the fact that you're going to have a Murray State Duke matchup where you've got two teams that I don't know if Duke has been to the World Series, but they've been. It's not very often that they go. And obviously Murray State's never been.
What are your thoughts on would you recede the teams before the super regionals? And then I guess if you do that, you've got to do it again before Omaha.
[00:15:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, I think it should be receded, but I think a lot of people like the way it is because of that reason. You get, you know, they want to see that underdog.
I just think it's a shame that us in Tennessee are playing in a super regional where we're two of the best teams in the country. Both these teams should be in Omaha, and that's probably going to make a lot of people mad. If anyone watches this, it's not from Tennessee or Arkansas. But it's a shame when two of the best teams in the country are, are knocking each other out in a super regional. I just don't, I don't know. I don't like it.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Like in the NFL, they recede.
[00:15:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: You know, when the first round is over, they set the matchups based on the teams that are left. I, I don't think it's the worst idea in the world, but, you know, it's, it's not going to happen. If they receded this week, by the way, Arkansas would play Murray State because Arkansas would be the 1 seed. Murray State being a 4, would be the lowest seated team left. Auburn would be the 2, North Carolina would be the 3, LSU the 4, Oregon State 5, Florida State 6, Coastal Carolina 7, and Tennessee would be the 8. And I haven't looked up who Tennessee would play. I assume, well, it would be ucla, actually. Tennessee would be playing UCLA and Knoxville for a super regional this weekend. If they receded the teams.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: Yeah, that'd be way better.
Sorry. I just think it, I think it would.
But, you know, there's no need talking about it, I guess, because it's, it's not going to happen. But who knows? I mean, the thing I've known, I've known all along is there's not a lot of common sense with some of the stuff that goes on, some of the rules. So I, I try not to question it. I just, I just go with it.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Who do you think would be Arkansas third starter?
[00:16:52] Speaker C: Do you?
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Because here's my opinion on this. I think it's going to be whoever's the best available. If they get to that third game. But I don't think if they got a chance, if they got a chance in game two to go get the win that day, they ain't going to be holding anybody back. They're going to go all in to try to win each game and then reassess and reevaluate who they have left after that.
[00:17:14] Speaker C: Yeah, our best number three starters, tba.
We're going to do just what you said. Whoever isn't used will be. If there's a game three will be game three. If Jimenez hasn't thrown. Whoever hasn't thrown a lot. I mean, for, for that matter, you could open with Parker Coyle and give him a few innings, I think. I have a feeling we'll use Parker Coil on a Friday or Saturday or Sunday.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: Do you think Gabe Gackle might make his way back into the starting rotation?
[00:17:43] Speaker C: No, because I think we're going to need him in one of those games.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:46] Speaker C: Now, if our starters are dominant and we can get deep enough into a game, maybe not. But I think Gabe is so valuable coming in after. I love the combination of. Well, he's good behind anybody. The problem with him following Gage is they're similar.
They're really similar.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: But it's been effective.
[00:18:05] Speaker C: It has been effective. But have, have we done it against the Tennessee yet?
[00:18:11] Speaker B: That's a good question.
[00:18:12] Speaker C: Would it be as effective?
[00:18:13] Speaker B: I'm trying to think what, what was the best game where they, they piggyback.
[00:18:17] Speaker C: This year last weekend?
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Well, okay, outside of that, that's Captain, obviously. Outside of that, maybe Florida.
Yeah, I mean, Gage went three innings. I think Gabe went three innings that day.
[00:18:33] Speaker C: Yeah, might be that Gabe.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: I think Gabe pitched after Gage on the Texas Week 2.
That was a pretty good night for pitching.
[00:18:43] Speaker C: Did he follow him or do you follow Zach? You know, I don't know. Maybe. You're, you're, you're probably right. You're. You're way better with that stuff.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Don't, don't, don't.
Never be too sure. All right, moving on. Moving on. Do you think Arkansas starting pitching is back on track? I mean, because there was, you know, there was some thought. I mean, obviously there was a lot of concern going into the latter weeks of the year that starting pitching wasn't giving Arkansas what they needed. Tennessee series contributed that. Like you said, they only got nine innings from their starters. Do you think it's back on track right now?
[00:19:15] Speaker C: Okay, so a lot of it. And here's what I mean, it's like if you dominate, like when against Texas, Texas doesn't hit very well, but our pitchers do really well.
Against Tennessee, they, they didn't do as well, but Tennessee is a really good lineup. It's hard to maneuver that lineup.
You know, I look at how good the stuff is, not necessarily the result. I mean, there's been times that we've had guys that have had good stuff that, that didn't do well. They, they got hit around, but I just think we were locked in last weekend. I think feeding off the Bomb Walker crowd.
I just think they're, I do, I think they're back on track right now. I think. I think Zach's going to throw a really good game and we'll see what happens.
I do know that, that he's, he's got to be able to locate against his team and change speeds. You can't fall into a rut against the Tennessee team. I mean, you look at 128 home runs. I haven't checked the weather yet. I'll check. I'll start checking the weather probably tomorrow just to see, just curious, see where the wind's going to be blowing, because that could have a huge effect, whether we got a south wind or a little north wind drifting out. So.
But I guess the, the short answer is yes. I think our starting pitch is back on track, and I think we're going to do well this weekend.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Do you want to know the wind right now? I got it right here.
[00:20:40] Speaker C: Is it good or bad?
[00:20:42] Speaker B: I would say, you know, both of both of these directions, you're going to have the wind blowing out in some fashion. So on Saturday, it's supposed to be more of a southwest wind, so that's going to be more blowing out toward left. And on Sunday, it's going to be more of a northwest wind, so that's going to be more blowing out towards center and right field.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, we're similar in power numbers.
I don't know that it matters if it's blowing out. I mean, it's going to help both teams if it's blowing in. I mean, we've got guys on both sides of the. The field that can hit it through the wind.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: I'll say this about the wind. Doesn't look like it's going to be very high winds either day. Like, you know, maybe five, ten miles an hour. If, you know, if, if ten miles an hour calm may be the right way to say that you're looking at the wind this week.
Does it matter that they don't have a third starter?
[00:21:30] Speaker C: I don't think so.
I don't think so at all. I mean, I really think.
I really think it's about getting, you know, we go back to the 81 outs.
Well, hopefully we don't have to get that many.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: But I said, like, with Gackel, they gotta get at least. Oh, I see what you're saying.
[00:21:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Okay, maybe 54. I see. Take me. I'm asleep, too. By the way, with Gackel, it's almost like he can reverse start for them.
Right. I mean, it's. So does it matter?
And you said no, that it doesn't matter. They had third starter. I guess what you're saying here is that it doesn't matter where the outs are coming from, just so long as you're getting the outs. No matter if it's. You bring a guy in in the third inning and takes you to the seventh or whatever the case might be.
[00:22:13] Speaker C: I Think the key when you're facing a lineup like Tennessee is to give them different looks. So, you know, if you had a situation where you did an opener, he goes one time through the lineup, bring someone else in, let him go.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Do you like the concept of the opener?
[00:22:29] Speaker C: I didn't.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: I've gotten to where I do. I'm kind of like you, I think.
[00:22:32] Speaker C: Yeah. In the beginning, I'm like, what, another term, can we just play baseball? But I do like it.
You know, it's. It's one of those things you, you just, you're, you're getting out, you're counting outs. And I do the same thing when I'm coaching. I do the same thing when I'm up in the booth. I start counting outs and I start looking at, okay, when is this lineup going to roll over?
And when I'm in the fifth inning, I start looking ahead and saying, okay, when is this lineup going to roll back over? When's. When's fish are going to come back to the plate? When is the top of that lineup?
And, you know, I don't know. I'm sure Dave, Dave probably does the same thing. I mean, I think most coaches do that, but you're trying to maneuver through that lineup and have the best matchups possible. If it's one dude mowing them down, great. If you've got to show different looks to them, show different looks. I look at you, look at how we got through, you know, when Zach Roots started.
Well, let's don't look at that one.
I mean, look at Cole Gibler, three innings, three hits, no runs. Parker Coyle, one in third, three. He gave up two runs, But Christian Fouch, two innings, one hit, no run. I mean, we were able to maneuver through there.
And then Will McIntyre, beitle cheese was okay. He wasn't that good. But, I mean, I think we're all better right now. I feel like our staff is feeling really good. You know, we talk about hitting, being confident. You know, there's a fight at the bat rack. Everyone wants to hit. I think right now the pitching staff is. Is really.
There's something about. They take the mound different now and, you know, even, I don't know, even Matt Hobbs seems different to me. He seems a little bit more, you know, like.
I don't know, I just. I love the way our guys take them out and we're attacking hitters right now, and I love it.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: You know, they take. They say that pitchers will tell you how long to throw them and vital sheets. You said he wasn't that wasn't as good against Tennessee. I actually thought he was really good for two innings and then he ran out of gas in the third. And then last week against Crater was it North Dakota State that he pitched. He pitched two innings and so maybe it's. Maybe he's a two inning guy for you. Maybe he's a four to five out guy for you.
[00:24:43] Speaker C: I think I like him out of the pin where he can come in and just, just let it go, you know, don't hold back. Just let it go for a couple innings and get however any out you can. Like I said, his stuff will tell you when he's done and then go to the next guy.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Tennessee is going to be without their starting catcher in game one. Cannon Peebles got thrown out in the eighth inning of the game against Wake the other night apparently for, for saying something to the Wake Forest catcher who had said something to him first.
So it'll be Stone Lawless. He is a red shirt freshman from Huntsville Alabama.
He'll be behind the plate. Tony Vitello I think said that he's like one of the best teammates on the team after the game the other night.
What do you think the significance if at all of Tennessee missing its catcher in game one will be and maybe to piggyback on that potentially having not Doyle out there, you know, in game one two?
[00:25:39] Speaker C: No, I think it's huge. I was looking at his numbers right there where you were talking.
Offensively he had five RBIs against us, had multiple. He had a few big hits against us.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Broken helmet.
[00:25:49] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And the helmet broke with an O2 count. They have a lot of issues with O2 counts. Their back gets slick. I notice the handle of the bat always gets slick when they get two strikes. It's crazy.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: Now this is not just Tennessee. I was watching a lot of college baseball this weekend. I saw more hitters lose their bats this weekend and have to go to the sticky stuff to hold onto their bats than I think I've ever seen before. Maybe it's the humidity.
[00:26:12] Speaker C: You mean like it slipped, actually slipped out of the bat?
[00:26:14] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I mean like I saw probably like three different instances of a guy. It happened in the Little Rock LSU game. Bat nearly hit Jay Johnson.
[00:26:21] Speaker C: Oh, I saw that.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: And it just like I saw more times this weekend where players lost their bats during their swing than I think I've ever seen in one weekend.
[00:26:31] Speaker C: Well, I've never seen a bat slip out of a Tennessee batters hands but it seems with two strikes they always need to go get the sticky stick.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: They're worried about it.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: Yeah, it's just safety, you know, safety first. Right.
But no, you look at peoples, back to your question you asked me. Offensively, I think that's a huge hit for him because dude swings it.
But I think catching wise, I mean, it's big too. I mean, think about, think about if. If hell missed the game, maybe the game that Zach Root throws, because him and Zach work really well together.
Ryder does a good job calling, calling a game in general. But I mean, just think if that were different.
It's a big hit. When you lose your catcher for one of the biggest games of the year, your starting catcher, I think it's a big deal.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: It kind of feels like the thought process for this super is kind of like what it was for the game or the series that they had appear earlier this year where, you know, it was Root pitching game one and Doyle pitching game two.
And we don't know if that's going to be the case, but I suspect it might be the case this week.
[00:27:34] Speaker C: Right.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: And we're like, Arkansas's got to win game one. They got to win game one. You know, don't, don't leave it in the hands of Liam Doyle. And then they beat him. But it does, I don't know, winning game one of the super, regardless of who's pitching, it's very important. I mentioned this yesterday and actually got one of the series wrong. Arkansas beat Clemson in 02, in 2002, in Game 1. But in 10 super regionals for Arkansas, previously the winner of Game 1, be it the Razorbacks or whoever they're playing, has gone on to win the Super 7 out of those 10 times. It just feels like, and we were talking last week about. Or earlier this week about how Vanderbilt, how they. It just felt like they had pressure on them the whole weekend when they were playing the regional. It feels like when you get into the super after you lose game one, there's just, there's an intense pressure on you. It feels like in game two.
[00:28:23] Speaker C: I agree.
And. But I think the thing that helps us is we're playing at home. And I want to say I saw 69.5%.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Yes. Right.
[00:28:32] Speaker C: At 70% at home win since 1999. Hey, one more thing on Peoples. I think, I think it would be. It's worse to lose him against Marcus Phillips because, you know, he's a fastball sl. He's got, you know, he, he pitches different. Liam, I think he could pitch to anybody because he's in control. He knows what he's going to throw. He knows what he wants to throw.
And it's pretty cut and dry what his best pitch is. I think, I think not having Peebles with with Marcus Phillips is worse than not having with Liam Doyle.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Maybe they need a better blocker.
[00:29:08] Speaker C: Yeah. Someone that can block the slider in the dirt.
And I'm sure they can call pitches from the dugout, you know, because he's not going to be calling that. I don't think they're going to trust him to call the game. I don't know.
But I just think, I think if that's the matchup with him behind the plate with Marcus Phillips, I think it hurts him a little bit more.
[00:29:27] Speaker B: It just my opinion, it's fascinating. I mean, the catcher is that one position. It's kind of like losing your center in football.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: You know, you don't, you don't really think about it until it happens. And it's like, oh, okay, now I, now I get it.
It'll be interesting to see how this goes. They're not going to have the Canon Peebles for game one. He will be able to play in game two of the super regional. When we come back, we're going to look around the SEC look, give you some numbers about Arkansas Super Regional. Kind of some interesting stuff that I dove into yesterday and much more. But first, another word from Kindle King.
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[00:30:29] Speaker B: Hey, welcome back. I want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. Committed, professional, 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 bentonvilleglass.com we'll tell you too. You can get the latest breaking news on all Razorback sports at whole hog sports.com most in depth source for all Arkansas sports analysis, latest in recruiting, unique stories on all your favorite teams. Subscribe today at whole hog sports.com Not a very busy week in the SEC. Not a real good regional for the. For the conference. Just three supers that will include SEC teams this week. Obviously, you have got the series here in Fayetteville between Arkansas and Tennessee and then, you know, on the same side of the bracket, if LSU gets through at its home super against West Virginia, LSU will play the winner here in Fayetteville. The other SEC super regional that's occurring this weekend, Auburn is going to be hosting Coastal Carolina. What do you think about these other two matchups in the sec?
[00:31:42] Speaker C: They're gonna be good. I mean, who do you pick in lsu? West Virginia?
[00:31:46] Speaker B: Lsu?
[00:31:47] Speaker C: Yeah, I just think they're starters, those two guys. Kate Anderson, what's his name? The other dude.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: Oh, Anthony Ironson.
[00:31:56] Speaker C: Ionson. Yeah, they're. They're good. They're. That's a really good one, two punch.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: The super. That's where you like having your. Those two really dominant starters.
[00:32:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it's tough to beat those guys now. If they can. If they can manage to beat one of those guys, they. They got a shot.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: I mean, obviously, West Virginia can score. Yeah, that. I mean, like, they're one of the best scoring teams in the country.
It's tough to beat LSU in Baton Rouge. I mean, they've been as good at home, basically this year as Arkansas has been at bomb.
[00:32:25] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, so that's good. That's tough. But, you know, I think LSU is going to get through that one, but I don't think it's going to be. I don't think it's going to be.
[00:32:34] Speaker B: Easy for them, Auburn and Coastal.
I would be surprised if Auburn doesn't get through. Here's maybe some good luck for Arkansas or maybe like a good omen is that in the years under Butch Thompson, when Auburn has gotten to the College World Series, Arkansas has also been there. So there's that.
[00:32:49] Speaker C: Well, there you go. We're set then, right?
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Well, I mean, do you look at.
[00:32:53] Speaker C: Stuff like that for real or do you just.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: I look at it. I mean, I notice it. I'm not. I'm not sitting there, like, placing bets like Brad Bohannon on, you know.
No, I just.
[00:33:05] Speaker C: Just checking.
[00:33:06] Speaker B: No, I mean, I. I'm not sitting there. Auburn one.
[00:33:09] Speaker C: Hey, but here we go.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: I'll tell you, don't even play the game today.
[00:33:11] Speaker C: I'm, like, super superstitious, like, I really am, and. But I don't look at stuff like that. Like, I look at other things that, you know, it's weird. But, yeah, I like that. We got that Going for us, you.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: Look at, like, the moon pattern or, I don't know, the stars.
What are you looking at?
Oh, man.
[00:33:32] Speaker C: Like, I'll eat the same thing.
And it has no bearing whatsoever on the game. But if I don't stop by Sonic on the way to the ballpark and get a Double Smasher, I feel like we're gonna have to play better to win. And so it's ridiculous that I'm that superstitious still to this day.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: I don't know. I would say I'm super. I'm just repetitive. Like, if I don't take the same direction to the ballpark every day, I feel like I've done something wrong in my life that day. I've got the same. The same route that I take.
I get off on the. You know, I mean, it's like, yeah, I'm not telling anybody where it is because I think it kind of gets me to the ballpark faster than if you try to take MLK or any of the other roads around here. But if I don't take that route, I'm like, something is going to go wrong in my life today because I've not taken the same route to the ballpark.
[00:34:17] Speaker C: We'll get on Google Maps and try to find which route.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: I'll tell you whenever we get off the air.
The way. I don't know if it worked coming from your.
From your. What would you call that? Compound?
[00:34:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, I don't know if I'd call it a compound. Maybe a house.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: Okay.
Hey, do you think. You know, there's a lot been talked about this week about the SEC not doing so well at the regionals. Do you think that how a conference performs in the postseason is reflective of the strength of that conference that year?
[00:34:49] Speaker C: No, I think, look, the SEC is the best conference, and I've heard a lot of people talk about that. Well, the SEC is not that good. You look at all the teams that got beat. You know, I don't. I don't think so, Matt. Now, I will say I. I'm not surprised Texas got beat. I'm really not. They. They just. Look, they can't hit. They. They don't score.
They've got some good pitching.
I was never in on Texas. You can go back. And the very first time I mentioned Texas. Not. It's not because I hate Texas either. It's because I. I was never in on them. And I look at all these other teams that are so. That, in my opinion, are better than Texas. You got to score to win. And I, I think when it comes to a regional and super regional, you know, pitching's good. We talked about the LSU starters, but you got to score if you're going to, if you're going to win in the sec.
I, I think you got to, you got to hit, you got to hit the ball in the gap. You got to hit doubles and home runs. I, I think you just have to. And they just didn't have that power in the lineup. They had a few guys that could pop, but you know what I'm saying.
But I'm getting sidetracked off your question. But no, I don't think it means anything. I look back, okay, 2017, on six out of the last 17 World Series winners are SEC teams. You know, one, one, one out away from, you know, seven out of seven.
I don't know, I just, we're, it's the best conference and I don't know how you could look at it any other way.
I think some of the, some teams won that weren't the better team. They just played better.
[00:36:25] Speaker B: I think the SEC had a lot of teams this year that were able to win one dimensionally or like predominantly one dimensional. Like, you know, you mentioned Texas, Georgia, they didn't pitch this year, which was crazy to me with Wes Johnson being their coach.
Vanderbilt, they hit a little bit toward the end of the year, but they had their limitations, especially, you know, from a power standpoint. I think what maybe the regional weekend drove home to me is that it's okay to be elite at something. I mean, obviously you want to be elite in every area of the game.
It's okay to be elite, but you can't be just average on the other side.
[00:37:03] Speaker C: Right?
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Like, you have to, you have to be able to be above average to compensate for the days that, you know, whatever you're elite at isn't necessarily, you know, you don't have it that day.
[00:37:14] Speaker C: Right.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: Like Texas, they didn't pitch great against Texas, San Antonio or Georgia. You know, they, they were okay offensively, but you know what I'm saying, It's just you got to be able to have a well roundedness to you. And I think that's what I've liked all year about Arkansas and LSU is that, you know, on the days that something's not working, it seems like the other one is. Or, you know, I mean, we talk about Arkansas, the third starter. Well, maybe it's not important that you have, or not as important that you have a third starter.
When you have the Heiva alloy in your lineup. You Know what I mean? Or a Kahiwa alloy or camcosel. All these guys are putting up these big power numbers.
You just got to be able to do something more than one thing really well.
[00:37:58] Speaker C: I think when you go to Arkansas and you look at them, I mean, offensively we're really good.
I don't get too stressed about the starting pitching because we've got so many weapons out of the bullpen. We've already mentioned them. Vital, Cheese, McIntyre, Gackle, Carter, Bybee, Deeds, Fouch, Coyle, Gibler, Jimenez. I mean, that's a lot of names. Like, we have never, I don't remember at the end of a year having that many go to guys in the bullpen. Dave's circle of trust has gotten small. It tends to get small towards the end of the year. Justifiably, you know, he goes with the, the guys that are getting out, but that's a lot of names that he could, he can go down there and say, okay, I want this lefty, I want this righty.
Do you know what I mean? So our starters don't have to be that good and you go back to being one dimensional.
We, we do it all. LSU does a really good job in Tennessee too. If you, if you compare our numbers, very comparable.
I think we're, we're, we're better one through nine.
They got some good hitters and they got some good pitchers, but I think once you get into the bullpen, if it's a battle of the bullpens, we win.
[00:39:03] Speaker B: You think you get to be a card carrying member of Dave's circle of trust?
[00:39:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: You're like, look, here's my red card.
[00:39:11] Speaker C: It's always nice to be in Dave's circle of trust. So. Yeah, that'd be nice.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: I don't know, like, I don't know if anybody ever uses that term, but I hear you use it so much that I almost feel like it's real. You know what I mean? It's like Dave's circle of trust, you.
[00:39:25] Speaker C: Know, I don't know where it started.
I remember back during COVID I used to talk about my, in my circle of trust, my germ circle of trust. Um, you know.
Yeah. I don't know. But you think about it though, in the past, it's gotten really small. The guys he'll go to. And this year, man, we got, we got dudes coming out that can get out. I feel so good about all, all these guys coming out of the bullpen. I, I really do. There's never a time where someone Walks out, comes out of the bullpen. I'm like, oh, here we go. Yeah, I feel so good about it now. With that being said, I love our starters, too, but we, we can bail out if we're. If, like you said, pitching wise. I mean, look at our offense. We're going to score runs. I mean, if you look at the stats in sec, look at all the categories we're first in, never seen it before. I've never seen this many dudes out of the bullpen in the circle of trust, and I've never seen offensive numbers in the SEC like we're putting up right now.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: Speaking of which, that's a good segue because I wrote something yesterday.
They've got three players with 60 RBI this season. It's the first time since 1998 that Arkansas has had three players with 60 or more RBI that year. I mean, think about these names. Ericinski, he's pretty good. Rodney Nye was really good at Arkansas. And ryan Lundquist, those 3 in 98 all had 60 or more RBI. Arkansas this year could end up with. Depending on how things go this weekend or obviously how deep they get into the postseason, they may end up with five players with 60 or more RBI this year because already surpassing it, you've got the Alloy Brothers and Cam Kozal, but then you've got Brent Iredell and Charles Davlin. They're both right there knocking on the door. They've got 56 RBI apiece. They've never had a season where they've had five players with 60 or more RBI. The most they've ever had in a season was 1997, during the Gorilla Ball years, because I had four players with 60 or more RBI. But that's pretty incredible.
[00:41:23] Speaker C: So pretty good stat work right there, Matt. Like, how do you. How do you find that?
[00:41:27] Speaker B: How do you.
I mean, I'm looking up stats while you're sitting in the revenue office. That's what happens.
[00:41:35] Speaker C: Hey, I would have had plenty of time. I could have. I could have looked up every statistic in the world in the amount of time I sat there.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: And next time you go pay your sales tax, just grab a handful of media guides and take them with you and write down notes.
[00:41:50] Speaker C: It was unbelievable. I was. Don't even. I don't want to revisit that. I wasted three and a half hours of my life that I'll never get back. And my fund meter was so low when I left that building.
[00:42:00] Speaker B: See, I still have to go get my real ID because my fake ID is not going to be able to get me on the plane anymore.
And I got to go somewhere at the end of the month. So we're at the point now in Fayetteville where I can't get an appointment until after my flight is supposed to take off. So I'm gonna have to go out somewhere else in Washington county where maybe the lines aren't quite so long and get that taken care of. I'm from West. That's what I figured.
[00:42:25] Speaker C: Go down to God's country in West Fork. I, I got a bunch of West.
[00:42:28] Speaker B: Fork or Lincoln, either one.
[00:42:31] Speaker C: Lincoln's probably closer for you a little bit.
But yeah, people out there are awesome on X. I got a whole bunch of recommendations on how to do it and then some of them are like, you know, meathead comments.
[00:42:43] Speaker B: I can get an appointment in Springdale before my flight takes off, but that's in the middle of the College World Series and I'm, I'm fully expecting or I'm having to plan at least. Like I'm going to be in omaha for about 13 or 14 nights or however long that is this year.
[00:42:58] Speaker C: So are they that booked up that they just can't get you until then?
[00:43:02] Speaker B: I suppose. I mean, you can sit there, you can sit there and, you know, take your number and wait for three hours like you did.
[00:43:08] Speaker C: I was number 29 when I walked in there on 84 and like 20 minutes later they were on number 86. And I'm thinking, this is going to be a bad day.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Oh man, I'm not looking forward to it. But hey, it'll be a beautiful drive out to Lincoln or to West Fork to, to get my real id. No, that's what I do though. I just, I'm. I see something and I'm like, hm, I wonder when the last time this happened was. And then I typically know enough people who can help me get the answers.
[00:43:36] Speaker C: It's good stuff.
[00:43:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I got more to get to here in just a minute. Some stats, by the way, the.
Well, actually, here we are. We're here. Arkansas super regional history.
This is the stats that I looked up.
This was kind of interesting to me yesterday because I looked this up and Arkansas during the super regional era. So the current format of the NCAA.
[00:43:58] Speaker C: Tournament.
[00:44:00] Speaker B: Started in 1999.
That's whenever you had super regionals before then they would do like your teams did. You'd go to a. What was it, a six team regional. And then the 18. It was an 18 regional.
[00:44:11] Speaker C: I think it was eight team.
[00:44:12] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, I think so. But anyway, the you would. Whoever advanced from the regional, larger regionals, which I guess they were tougher to win then, would get to go to the College World Series.
And then the 1999 comes along. They make the regional fields four teams, then they add the super regionals. And so in that era, since 1999, Arkansas, only nine teams have been to a super regional. Not nine programs have been to a super regional, more than Arkansas, and only eight programs have won more super regionals than Arkansas. And I think this kind of goes back to that consistency discussion that we have, that sometimes you can get your mind so focused on just winning the national championship that you don't see the forest for the trees, so to speak.
[00:45:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:45:07] Speaker B: And you don't maybe appreciate the consistency with which this program wins in the postseason. But these are the teams. Arkansas's won seven super regionals going into this weekend. The only teams that have won more, Texas is 111. Florida has won 10. Cal State Fullerton, LSU and Stanford have won nine apiece. And Florida State, Miami and North Carolina have won eight apiece. Fullerton, they've fallen off, you know, some over the last decade or so, but all those other teams are the teams that are right there with Arkansas at the top of each season.
And, you know, before you say the whole. Well, you know, they've got national championships and the Razorbacks don't during this era. I mean, I don't.
North Carolina, they've never won a national championship, you know, and it's. It's been a long time for some of these programs since they won one, you know, 20 plus years.
So I don't know, it's just kind of interesting to look at, you know, historically, where Arkansas fits into the better teams in terms of winning in the postseason, not winning national championships, but. But winning the regionals and the super regionals.
[00:46:15] Speaker C: Well, you know, it goes back. If you want to trigger me when, when you're talking about college baseball, some of these people on X that. That they always go back to, oh, well, Dave Van Horn's never won a national championship. Who cares? Still the best coach in baseball. I mean, look at, look at what we've done.
I mean, I go back to the secessi, SEC west titles. I go back to all that. Look at all the games we've won. I don't think anyone's won more games than us.
I don't know. It's just. I get so frustrated with the whole, well, you haven't won a national championship comment. I mean, we're a top program in the Nation, year in and year out. And that's hard to do, especially in today's game, to be able to. To reload like we do every year. And I don't know, I.
I don't know. You probably saw the Chipper Jones comment that he put out about college baseball. And I commented on that and never even mentioned Tennessee. You ought to see my inbox. All the trolls come out of the basement and talking about stuff that I. Not never even mentioned them. I just said, hey, come watch, you know, Fayetteville. Come to watch Dave Van Horn and the Razorbacks play if you want to see good baseball.
And wow, I awoke the morons out of the basement. I mean, it was unbelievable. Never said a word about Tennessee, but I've got hundreds of comments.
[00:47:41] Speaker B: He actually followed up on that. And here's the tweet, by the way, if you haven't seen it. This is Tipper Jones, Braves great Hall of Famer. He said, quote, spent quite a bit of time watching college baseball this weekend. I'll only watch a select few teams from here on out. The reason, they have coaches that respect the game and their opponents and demand the same of their players.
He went on to say, any team that doesn't wear the uniform correctly, taunts the other team, has a coach that condones his behavior, is a disgrace to the game. And then he went on to say he's a big fan of Coach Snall at Coastal Carolina. He's the one who called out Kevin o' Sullivan in the post game the other day. He said he and his team represent what college baseball should be like. Well done, sir. You stand for proper behavior. He never mentioned Tennessee, by the way. And there's a ton of people who are in his mentions from Tennessee. Why are you talking about us like this? And he actually came back and said, like, you weren't one of the teams that I was even thinking about.
I don't know. It's. It's.
I don't know. Maybe I don't even want to step into that.
[00:48:38] Speaker C: Yeah, we probably don't want to, but I, I know where you're going with it. You don't even have to say it. It's. It's. It's unsaid, but it's. It's there. I know what you're. I know where you're going, but you're right. We don't even want to open that can of worms right now. We would. Can we get off the air? But, yeah, it's, it's. I mean, he didn't even Mention them. I didn't mention them. And it's crazy, some of the stuff, some of the idiotic things that were, that were said. But a lot of it is about the uniforms. I mean, you've got guys wearing uniforms unbuttoned down to their belly button with no undershirt. I mean, come on, dude, wear your uniform the right way. I, I came up in the Yankee organization, it's called blousing your pants. We had to, we had to blouse our pants. We had to show 4 inches of blue, not 3, not 5, 4 inches of blue on our socks from a ball all the way up to aaa. They got a little laxed in aaa. But one of our coaches, Rob Thompson, who's the manager with the Phillies right now, had a fungo bat that had a measuring thing on it, like a yardstick.
So he would walk up to us now, it was a joke, but he'd walk up to us and say nope.
And it was just funny. But all those little things, you know, no facial hair, just, you know, you had to wear a collared shirt to the field. You couldn't wear shorts, you had to wear pants.
No, like ripped up jeans. I mean, it was a, it was a look that you had to have because you're representing that organization like the.
[00:50:08] Speaker B: Yankees, they've gotten a little bit more lax on this. Like they're allowing people to have facial hair now this year. And I think we've even seen Van Horn and I've heard him talk about this, that maybe he's not as particular as he used to be on some of this stuff, but I still feel like there's only so far you're going to be able to push that before you get pushed back, you know?
[00:50:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I think so. And I look one of the worst things I hate. Oh, let the boys play. Yeah, play. Play hard, play, play with passion, have fun, but do it right. Is that asking too much to respect the game, respect your opponent? If I strike you out, I'm not, I don't, I don't know. I mean, I'm going to do it a certain way. If I had a home run off of, you know, I'm not going to look at you and mouth at you all the way around the bases.
Yeah, I don't know. I had some stuff going back and forth with some former players, you know, big league players that played for a long time and their big thing was, it goes back to. And I hate sounding like I hate saying it over and over is the game was so much better when the Players policed it on the field. It took care of all that. All that weeded itself out and it was just baseball.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: And by policing it, you mean.
[00:51:22] Speaker C: Well, taking care of business when it needed to be. If a guy shows you up, then the guy hitting behind him pays the price.
And you don't want your teammate to wear it in the ribs. And so you acted, you played the game the right way. And that's not, that's. And we still played. You know, we still played. We had fun, we played hard.
It just eliminated all the, the, the, the extra baggage and some of the stuff that goes on now that takes away from the game of baseball. And you know, I made a comment about, you know, I. It's hard to take my son to a major league baseball game and watch players play because they don't hustle. I preach hustle, attitude and effort. You hustle everything you do. Well, you know, guys that, you know, they, there's. The hustle's gone now. I'm not talking about Bobby Witt Jr. There's guys that hustle out there, but predominantly there's a lot of guys that don't. They don't want to hustle because they don't want to get hurt.
Same with college baseball. Like, you see a lot of guys just doing stuff, Matt, that I disagree with. And I love Dave Van Horn because he, I mean, the guys have fun and we do stuff, we celebrate, but we do it in the dugout.
[00:52:32] Speaker B: I don't know, I was talking, I'm not going to use his name. This is like an all time program. Great phenomenal major league baseball player.
I was talking to him a few years ago and he said to me, you know what's fun? Winning. Winning is fun. I have to have all the other stuff. Yeah, winning is fun enough. You know, whenever you can break their crush their spirit on the other side, that's fun.
But it feels like we're kind of in this weird. And Arkansas and Tennessee are almost like the poster boys for the two different, you know, the two different sides. It's like we're in this weird time where you're, you're like fighting for the direction of baseball. Is it going to go this way or is it going to, you know, maybe revert back more towards the traditional way?
You know, I'm not.
It's just an interesting time, I guess maybe is the way to put it. And I think that's part of what makes Arkansas and Tennessee such a compelling matchup is not so much how good they have been over the years. They're the two winningest programs in the country over the last eight, nine years. But it's. It's how they go so differently about getting to, you know, that point where they are winning teams.
[00:53:41] Speaker C: Yeah. And. And the team takes on the. The head coach's personality, I think. I think. I think Tony Vital, I think he embraces that, and he uses that as a selling point. They like being the bad boys.
[00:53:54] Speaker B: He said. He said early on in his career, he said that's what I had to do to, like, give Tennessee a reputation to stand out from everybody else.
[00:54:03] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a shame. I mean, winning should make you stand out from everyone else playing the game the right way, in my opinion.
I just think we're so fortunate to have DVH here. And, you know, I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't trade a national championship for. For any of that other crap any day of the week.
[00:54:21] Speaker B: All right, two more things real quick before we get out of here.
I feel like in some ways, road teams have an advantage at the super regionals. And I feel like in some ways, home teams have the advantage of super regionals.
What say you?
[00:54:33] Speaker C: Depends on the makeup of your team. I think we've had teams before that have played tight at home.
I think we've had teams that played loose at home. I think this team plays loose at home. They feed off the crowd. And we are really, really hard to beat at Baum Walker when our fans show up and when they're in the game.
I thought the Friday 2 o' clock game, full house, kind of quiet, subdued. Maybe it's because it was a two o' clock game. The other two games, the real deal. I mean, we were. The crowd was electric.
[00:55:06] Speaker B: They find. I feel like Arkansas as a home. And look, it's a great environment. It's not lsu, it's not Texas A and M. Those two places have figured out. And I. And I.
I wonder when the day is going to come that Arkansas, you know, this gets figured out among the people who go to the games, that when you make noise when the other pitcher's on the mound, it makes a huge difference. You know what I mean? It's like.
And they did that. I can't remember what inning it was, but it was against Creighton. Davilin's at the plate, bases are loaded and they're on this guy. I mean, he is in the lion's den, and he hits Davilin in the elbow and forces home and run. And then, you know, he got out of the Jam. But then we didn't see that. I felt like a whole lot of other times where they get up on their feet and they're trying to influence when the pitcher is on the mound.
Like I said, it's a great, it's a great game going experience.
It doesn't have the level of intimidation though that I think an LSU or a Texas A and M have because there's not that constant noise whenever the opposing pitchers is on mound.
[00:56:12] Speaker C: Yeah, but I think a lot of it. Don't you think our fans are more educated and they know when to clap, when not to clap? I don't understand what you're saying. Maybe, I mean that's just a lot of yelling and screaming and.
[00:56:24] Speaker B: I know, I guess maybe here's where I'm going with this. I feel like when you go to an LSU baseball game, it's like going to an LSU football game. They are full throated and they are in the game and they're trying to influence it. And same thing with A and M. I don't feel like when you go to a Razorback baseball game, they're as full throated and into it at all times like they might be at a football game or even like Bud Walton Arena.
[00:56:44] Speaker C: Yeah, I think so. And you know, it's weird things that you remember. I remember playing at A and M back in the day and they were on me from the time I got off the bus.
[00:56:54] Speaker B: Like Arkansas got on the Creighton pitcher the other day.
[00:56:56] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I mean, they followed me out of the bus, into the stadium, all over me. Of course, when you got a name like Bubba, you know, it's a little different.
Everything I did on the field, you know, my warm up swings, one Bubba, two Bubba. My steps to the plate. And look, I'd be lying if I said it didn't get in my head. It made me mad and, and it made me want to just, just hammer the ball and I probably end up swinging and stuff I shouldn't have, but it can get to you, it really can. But yeah, the, the Creighton pitcher, they got on him pretty good about his little taps that he did. One, two, three.
[00:57:29] Speaker B: So I guess where I'm going with this is last weekend against Creighton. I saw a couple of more. I saw it a little bit more than I think I see it during the regular season. Does it continue again? We know the crowds are going to be insane. Yeah, I mean they're going to be hanging from. We might see good old boys putting their tree stands up across 15th Street. Trying to get a view of this game wouldn't surprise me.
But can they affect Tennessee? I feel like here's. Maybe here's where I'm going with this. There is an untapped potential to make this an even greater home field advantage than it is. And I think it really begins with constant noise whenever the other team is out in the field.
[00:58:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I wish we had later games. I think the later in the day.
[00:58:09] Speaker B: Have you seen the forecast? You might get a late game. You might get a late game.
[00:58:13] Speaker C: You know what, it's looking better, though, I think. But, you know, if we had a little bit later game, I think it gives us time, our crowd a chance to get its game face on, you know, do their tailgate and all that.
But either way, I think it's going to be crazy, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
[00:58:28] Speaker B: Last one, we're going to see the stat thrown out around quite a bit. Dave Van Horn's 13 and two against Tony Vitello.
Why do you think that is? Because there aren't. I would. I would venture to say there is not another team since he's taken over at Tennessee that's had the amount of success against them that Arkansas has had.
[00:58:48] Speaker C: Okay, so it's a tough one. I usually say that, you know, that's just a stat. It doesn't mean a whole lot. But I think. I think a lot of the stuff that Tennessee does can get under your skin as an opponent. I think Dave prepares the team for that. Say, look, they are going to do this with two strikes. They're. They're going to slow the game down. They're going to mouth. They're going to. I think Dave prepares his team for it before it happens. And we're. We're not phased by it. I mean, we're not. And I think that has a lot to do with it because stuff like that, I know it triggered me back in the day. Little things like that used to just drive me crazy.
I think. I think he. He teach. He has the team where they're just even keel. They're like, all right, yeah, go ahead and do your stuff. I'm going to take care of business my way.
[00:59:34] Speaker B: You think it helps talking to the team beforehand about, you know, being able to compose yourself whenever they do call an O2 timeout?
[00:59:42] Speaker C: I think so. And I think. I think Dave's probably addressed it in the first series. I don't think he needs to readdress it. I think they know. They've seen It. They're going to be ready for it. Pitcher's going to stand on the mound. When that dude steps back in the box, he's going to carve him up, hopefully.
[00:59:56] Speaker B: Can you think of a more anticipated series at bomb?
I can't.
[01:00:00] Speaker C: I can't. I. It's.
[01:00:02] Speaker B: I mean, have you seen the secondary ticket prices?
[01:00:05] Speaker C: No.
[01:00:05] Speaker B: I mean, it's.
It's amazing.
[01:00:07] Speaker C: Yeah. But, I mean, I'm getting worn out.
[01:00:09] Speaker B: You might be able to get season football tickets for less than a chair back seat, you know, between the dugouts, so.
[01:00:16] Speaker C: Okay, so one more question. I know we gotta go.
I heard you talking yesterday. Would it hurt more to lose to.
[01:00:23] Speaker B: Tennessee when I was playing devil's advocate with Christina?
[01:00:26] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I caught. I caught part of that. I get to listen to the whole thing.
And I think she said yes, didn't she?
[01:00:33] Speaker B: She did.
[01:00:34] Speaker C: I agree with her 100%.
I think I would lose.
[01:00:40] Speaker B: I get it. I get it.
[01:00:41] Speaker C: Okay. You were just. You were just playing the other side.
[01:00:44] Speaker B: Of it a little bit. But go ahead.
[01:00:45] Speaker C: I just think. I think if.
I think if LSU came in and beat us, not an LSU fan. They play the game the right way for the most part.
It would be different if Virginia came in, if Coastal Carolina and you lose to them, they go in the World Series. But I think losing to Tennessee at home in a super regional, first of all, it's going to be a long week and on X because of all the. The haters are going to come out, you know, and I hope they don't if that does happen. But it is what it is, I think losing to them, watching them go to the College World Series. I may not even watch the College World Series because it's just something about it, Matt. And that's. It's me. It's not. I doubt that other people feel that way. Some might, but.
[01:01:32] Speaker B: But I think a lot of people.
[01:01:32] Speaker C: Do feel like that is going to be tough to swallow because I know this team is better than that team. I know this coach is better than that coach. Tony's a good guy. I'll take DBH any day of the week. I'll take Hobbs. I'll take Nate. I'll take Bobby Werner. I'll take. I'll take Clay. Good. I'll take DJ Zach Barr. I'll take. I'll take our whole staff and our whole team over those guys any day of the week. So if we lose to them, it's going to be really hard to swallow.
[01:02:01] Speaker B: I get it. I think there are a lot of people that are like you.
I would say the majority are like you. But Christina's so composed that sometimes I just try to, like, get her uncomposed. It's kind of fun to do.
[01:02:12] Speaker C: Well, you did it yesterday. I did. I was proud of her for. For standing up and saying, you know.
[01:02:16] Speaker B: You'Re on, you knucklehead. All right. All right, bub. Appreciate you being here. We appreciate everybody being with us today. We'll be back with another show tomorrow as we continue to get ready for the super regional Arkansas and Tennessee. Hope that we see at our website, whole hog sports.com. have a great day, everybody.
