Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Hog Sports Network daily podcast.
Now here's your host, Matt Jones.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: On today's show, Clay Henry stops by studio. We'll talk Razorback baseball's nine to nothing victory over top ranked Texas last night at Bomb Walker Stadium. KB Sides, the Arkansas softball great will also be on the show. She'll talk to us about The Razorback softball's 129 win over LSU last night at Bogle Park. Two top 10 matchups going on this weekend in Fayetteville. But first, a word from Kendall King.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King Soapbox and Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are design.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Arkansas baseball off to a great start with a nine to nothing victory over Texas last night at Baum Walker Stadium. And it was really one of those. I mean, it was a big punch early in this game. Arkansas scored two in the second, three in the third, four in the fourth, and it's nine to nothing. You know, halfway through the game and seemed like both teams were just kind of on cruise control at that point. The win felt very big for Arkansas. I don't know if it feels as big for the Razorbacks if they don't win the series, but if they end up winning this series or even sweeping Texas, we're going to look back, I think at this game, one victory with a lot of fondness and just the total dominance that they played this game with. Clay Henry, the. What do I call you? The founder of Hogs Illustrated. I was gonna call you the publisher of Hogs Illustrated. You're not that anymore. But he's here in studio with me. He was at the game last night. What did you think about what you saw from the Razorbacks former works mate Matt?
[00:02:06] Speaker C: Just call me the former. Yeah, yeah, it was a fun night. You know, of course my feelings of playing University of Texas in anything, it's tiddlywinks you want to win. If the other team's got burnt orange, then they're the bad guys. The Villains lost.
I think everybody in the SEC was cheering for Arkansas last night. You know, this like, stop this run that Texas is on, I mean, they're running away with the race and no divisions anymore. So you just have an overall champion in Texas they came to Fayetteville with hopes of clinching the SEC championship with two weekends left. So that puts that on hold at least. I think that the crowd got what they wanted, which was a dominant victory. I think you used dominant in your headlines at Whole Hog Sports. And I think that's, that's right on target.
It could have been 15 to nothing, real easy. I mean there, there's what, three warning track shots? Four. Four.
And the air got heavy. The wind was blowing out at the start, blowing out straight from, from home plate to left field to start the game.
And that helped those early inning home runs, I'm sure. But it's. There wasn't anything from Texas that suggested that they're a good team. I mean, they, you know, they couldn't hit and they couldn't pitch. At least their starter gave up what, nine runs.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Yeah, nine runs. And he had never.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: His ERA changed last night.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: It did. You know, he'd never given up more than four runs in a game. He was, he's a transfer from utsa and I think a lot of schools wanted him. Texas got him.
He was dominant there. He's been dominant for the Longhorns this year. He'd never been hit around like, like Arkansas hit him around last night, that's for sure. And it was, you know, they scored nine runs against him. To your point, it could have been a lot more, but he's hit him hard. But he. Oloy had a shot right up against the fence in the first inning. Kahila Loy had one in the third inning. You know, they had a chance to maybe jump on him a little bit more than they did, but it's hard to really fault the effort of nine runs in three and two third innings.
[00:04:16] Speaker C: You thought it was going to be a run rule victory after about the fifth inning, but Arkansas just never got that 10th run in. I kept thinking even in the eighth they were going to, they were going to get a run and not play the ninth. But it's.
The electricity was there. You could feel it. And it was everything that, if you're a Razorback fan, it's everything that you could hope for is that you could drown those dreaded Longhorns.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: Zach Root had a phenomenal game for Arkansas last night. Easily the best performance we've seen from him. Eight innings, 11 strikeouts, two hits, two walks, obviously scoreless innings. I looked up last night the times that Arkansas's had pitchers go at least eight innings against number one ranked teams in the coaches poll. It only happened two other times. Duke Welker did it in a loss in 2007 to Vanderbilt. He went eight innings and then in 09 in a game three down in Athens, Brett Eibner threw a 126 pitch complete game with 12 strikeouts to beat Georgia. That was the game that I felt like I was watching last night from Root and it was for Root. You know, he hadn't gone past the fifth inning since the Georgia series and I just felt like that was a huge, maybe just boost of confidence for him, but also of everybody else in him that he has this, you know, capability going forward. I don't expect him to throw eight innings of scoreless baseball again. But, but I think that what we have seen is that whether it be South Carolina and Vanderbilt early in the season or what we saw last night is that he's got the capability to be that dominant Friday night guy. If he can keep himself out of that 25, 30 pitch inning, that that wrecks his pitch count.
[00:06:03] Speaker C: He got an extra day of rest last week because they, they it's, it's going to be like this the rest of the way for him. He's going to get Thursday, Thursday, Thursday. Right.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Thursdays they'll play Friday against lsu, but then it'll most likely be. He'll be pitching Thursday against Tennessee and then.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Right.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Depending on what happens.
[00:06:23] Speaker C: I wasn't aware that the LSU series was on Thursday.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah, basically all the road series now are Friday through Sunday and all the home are Thursday through Saturday.
[00:06:31] Speaker C: Yeah, it really helped for them to punch in some runs early for him. I think that he relaxed after that and I think his first pitch strike ratio you've got those numbers seemed to improve as the game went along.
The most important pitch, the toughest pitch to hit is the first pitch strike. Because everybody's trying to gauge the velocity and try to get into it at bat. If you throw first pitch strike, you got a huge advantage.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: That's what Dave Van Horn had to say last night about Zach Root's performance and also about what his offense was able to do in this nine to nothing victory over Texas.
[00:07:11] Speaker D: Yeah, really, really, really good job by Zach Root tonight.
Obviously, you know, eight innings shut out a very, very good baseball team. And you know, once I felt like once we got the lead, he continued to get better. He didn't, you know, start nibbling and working for strikeouts. He was just trying to get outs and seemed like his breaking ball got a little better.
Maybe the second half of the game got a little tighter and he kind of had them all going really good. Change up Keep it away. Running a lot of run and sink and you know, just did a really good job of getting the leadoff man out and throwing strike one and got a, got a double play ball. You know, that was, that was big there after we had just scored. I don't know what, we had maybe five runs there. And then they get the leadoff man on it, gets, gets a double play ball. Might have been a little later than that, but just a great job. And then offensively, you know, we, we got some runners on. We got, we got, I think four big, big two out hits. Aloya had a big two out double to right center. Cajillo followed him with a base hit up the middle with two outs.
Kojo with a, I think the count was 12022 on, fought back to a full count and then caught it looked like a hanging breaking ball and hit it either over the scoreboard or off the top of it with a lot of backspin. Just a great at bat and, you know, just a great job of, you know, punching in some runs late in the inning and, you know, gave us an opportunity to separate a little bit.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: So Arkansas's up 1 to nothing in this series. I was not surprised at all that Texas came out real flat last night that, you know, that they have put so much energy into that series last week against Texas A and M to win three one run games. And we've seen this from Arkansas in the past where they'll have some of these runs where, you know, they'll reel off however many wins in a row and there'll be a bunch of close losses in there and it just, it takes it out of it. You can't win every close game. You can have a lot of breaks and win most of them or a lot of them. But I just felt like Texas was due for a letdown at least in that game last night and maybe in the entire series, Clay, because not only have they had an emotional, you know, couple of weeks here with, with everything going on around A and M, you know, everybody's telling you can't lose this series, you can't lose that one. Those guys want to come over here and they want to, they want to burn Schlossnagal at the stake and then they're also going into an environment where not only is it hostile, but it's a good team and they haven't faced that combination this year.
[00:09:57] Speaker C: I think you're right. And they haven't faced a team like Arkansas on the road. Right. Their home series have been where They've faced what you would say preseason were the must win series for their schedule.
And I'm sure that it's. There's two ways to look at momentum. One is what your starting pitching does in the first three innings. Momentum is from one. And just like tonight's game, the momentum will be what the starting pitcher brings to the table. And I think that what you saw with Arkansas was a fresh team, didn't play a midweek game.
They talked after the game about having team practice Monday and Tuesday, which they haven't been able to do. They've been playing midweek games and your team is divided because of preparation and meeting time.
They look like they were on point. The sharpest they have been all year. No mistakes. They played perfect in the field. I thought they were perfect at the plate in that they didn't swing at pitches out of the zone. I mean. I mean, Texas doesn't walk guys, so that's not what you're doing. But you're trying to get to hitters count and you're trying to build up pitches for the starting pitcher. And they did that early in that. They made it tough in the second and third inning for Texas ace.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Arkansas, of course, got to practice on Tuesday because there was no game against Missouri State up in Springfield. This is what Dave Van Horn had to say last night about the ability to practice this week.
[00:11:36] Speaker D: Yeah, that didn't hurt us at all because we got to practice as a full team. I mean, we stretched as a full team with pitchers, position players together with our strength coach and the coaches all around. We did it in the indoor because it was raining, weather was a little rough, and, you know, we worked on team defense and team things.
The team got to be a team because a lot of times you're separated, you know, and then you're just playing all these games and have to give him a day off on Monday. And it was good. It was good to have a team practice. Then we had a little conversation with coaches and, you know, some things we need to do or we sat around and talked for 15, 20 minutes. As a matter of fact, I had him sit down and I talked to him and I sat in a chair. So it was different. You know, it was just good having everybody there, being able to talk to them a little bit.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: I think it's a big deal. And I say this every year. I probably sound like a broken record. When the midweek games end and they're able to get some of this practice time because you're not able necessarily to really Go all in and correct things that you're seeing that might be going wrong in games when you're playing four or five times a week and you have that mandatory off day. And so I feel like that this time of year you really see a lot of growth from Van Horn's teams, because I think that they take as much advantage of the practice time that they get than probably anybody else does.
[00:13:03] Speaker C: I think he's as good mentally as any coach that I've been around. And I'm talking about any sport. Understanding the mental makeup of players and knowing how to talk to them and get them focused in the right direction and have them all pulling together. The team chemistry on this group is really solid. I mean, they do a lot of things together.
They go fishing together. I mean, it's really interesting to see how the culture from one year to the next seems so good with Dave Van Horn teams. These guys, they're pulling in the same direction. And I think that I would bet you that that talk when he sat down in a chair and talked to those guys, that's what he was working on, is the mental aptitude of this team for the stretch rod.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: You talk about the togetherness. I mean, they played two guys in the field and at the plate last night. Reese Robinette, he hadn't started a conference game since 2023. And then you've got Carson Bowles, who he had only started three other conference games. They're playing because Logan Maxwell's dealing with the hamstring. Does not sound like he's going to play this weekend.
Gabe Frazier will see if he plays at second base. I would think after the way things went last night, maybe there does not feel like there's as much of a rush to get him back into the lineup. He's dealing with some back injuries. Thought Cam Kozal played well at second base last night. I mean, he turned a double play. I thought Reese Robinette played well at first base. He had that catch and foul ground. And then, you know, the thing about Bowles and Robinette was that they both had production at the plate. I mean, Bowles hits a home run. He gets hit by a pitch. Robinette follows up the home run with a single. Now the next batter hits into a double play, but he also drew a walk in his lasted bat. So, I mean, this is production here from the bottom of the order from two guys who haven't gotten into the game a lot. It just speaks to that overall the team, and I think it speaks to the team chemistry. They play well together, and it doesn't really matter who's in the lineup. You.
[00:15:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that whether Cam plays first or second is kind of irrelevant with this team. I don't think it matters. He's probably better at second base than he is first base. I mean, I think as a 510 first baseman, you're missing a little something there.
So Robinette, that combination probably helps them defensively because of Robinette's familiarity with first base. I mean, He's. What's he, 6, 2, 6 3? Yeah, I think, you know, you've increased your reach at least a foot on high. You know, half throws, wide throws, ability to defend the position. Not that he's any better as far as picking a ground bar ball than Cam, but it's. He does give you a little more bigger target at first base, I guess, is the way I'd put it. But, yeah, I don't think it matters whether Cam plays anywhere else in the infield. He can play all those positions well.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: I mean, and it's, it's this way, it. All over the field, you give up something to get something somewhere else. With Kozal, he doesn't have the reins of Frazier at second base. But I mean, at least last night that. That didn't come into play at all. Just, just. I was really impressed with the overall effort that Arkansas gave last night. And, you know, I've talked about this a lot of times this year. I don't know what the updated stats are, but for a good part of the year, they were top 10 in ERA, they were top 10 in scoring, and they were top 10 in fielding. And I think they're probably still top 10 in at least two of those, if not all three. And it just, it speaks to the completeness of this team when they really get it going.
Like last night, like game two at Florida, like game one at Vanderbilt.
[00:16:59] Speaker C: I mean, the whole Vanderbilt series, to be real honest.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's just I don't if they are. If they're on and they haven't been on the last three weeks all the time, but when they're on, I don't know that there's another team in the country that's going to be able to beat them consistently.
[00:17:14] Speaker C: So what I've seen of this team when. And they're not owned completely right now, they're not getting the production at the leadoff spot that they did the first half of the season.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: They went 0 for 5 last night.
[00:17:27] Speaker C: Yeah, Davilon is.
It looks like he's having good at bats, but it's just. Just a little fraction off.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: I will say this power a little bit in the over five. That can get a little tricky because he did have one where he advanced the baserunners to second and third base. So that goes as an out, but I think everybody would look at that as a quality at bat.
[00:17:48] Speaker C: Yeah, he did his job. He hit it to the right side and the runners moved up.
He had a line drive in. That sequence too, of it bats early in the game that, you know, that is just right at somebody. That's all you can say.
But it looks like Iredale is starting to kind of pick it up a little bit. And, you know, Kozal's power was obvious in the last four sec games. Three home runs and a double off the wall. Four straight games with extra base hits. So.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Well, that home run he hit last night was as impressive of a home run, I think, as we've seen all year. He golfed that thing up to the top of the video scoreboard.
[00:18:24] Speaker C: It did hit the Ian Walker top corner. I thought for sure that it had landed and bounced into Lake Norm, which is his goal, to have one swim with the fishies. That's what he keeps saying, but his really goal was just to hit it hard. He's not trying to hit a home run.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: That's a huge point in the game too, because that's a 3, 2 pitch with two outs. And if he strikes out there or grounds out or whatever, all of a sudden it's a two to nothing game. And I don't know that they are able to keep the pressure on Riojas the way they were.
[00:18:54] Speaker C: So I looked over in the Texas dugout and, you know, there's 30 guys, you know, with all the, you know, they're in the field, but there's still 30 guys up on the rail between, you know, support staff and everything. All their heads went down. I mean, it's just. I mean, they just look straight down like. I mean, they're looking at the scoreboard. That's where their dugout faces. And they saw that thing almost go over the top of the scoreboard and that. What did they say?
[00:19:21] Speaker B: 444, 11 for 11 with a. Let's see here, 103 mile an hour exit Velo.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: Yeah, so it was a mistake. It was a breaking ball up and he hit it as far as you can hit it. And the wind's blowing out to left, but I'm sure it helped keep that ball up with backspin, you know, just kind of sliced through it.
I'VE seen a couple that I thought were further than that.
Spanberger hit a few that were. That I thought went to foghorns. That one.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Kirstad hit the one before the Hunt center was built in the game three against Ole Miss Super Regional. And it cleared the trees.
[00:20:01] Speaker C: Yeah, there's one that went over the batter's eye a few years ago. I can't remember who hit that one, but it was. Seemed like it was a Florida guy. It might have been Alonso. And then the Florida slugger last year, he hit one that's still going. I don't know where it.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: Caglion.
[00:20:19] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it made it to Drake Field.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: There was a.
We'll quit reminiscing here in a second. But no, we.
There was a series against Tennessee. I think it was in like, oh, seven. And it might have been. Danny Hamblin hit one. The wind was blowing at like 35, 40 miles an hour and he got one up and it went over the top of the batter's eye. And I mean, it.
[00:20:43] Speaker C: It's still going.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: It might still.
[00:20:44] Speaker C: It's out there by. It's bouncing. I think that's 16 by Elkins.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: That's the series where I've heard this story that Arkansas had a groundskeeper and he had a dog that he would bring out, you know, with him getting the field prepared. And I guess the Tennessee players were kind of.
They were messing with the dog, you know, aggravating it. And it pissed the Arkansas players off. And they said that was one of the reasons they played so well that day was because they'd been messing with the change their groundskeepers dog.
[00:21:13] Speaker C: Don't mess with the do.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: Going back to Zach Root just, again, phenomenal performance last night. Jim saw us and I go, we don't have any sound bites from him, but we do have some quotes. And this one that he said was. Was really good. He said Zach Root just wasn't going to allow us to be in the game. And I mean, that's it. It's got to feel good when you're a baseball team and you got one guy who can just totally own a game. And that's what Zach Root did last night.
[00:21:40] Speaker C: So his. His curveball in the last 70, the first two, it was. It was okay. He got it over for strikes, but the last seven innings he could throw that curveball on any account. He was shaking off fastball calls, I'm pretty sure from what I was watching. And he was putting it on either side of the plate hard straight down, break. And they were Strikes I thought early he barely missed with that pitch and then it got a little tighter, a little sharper and it was starting from the top of the zone and landing in the bottom of the zone and you know those are swing and miss type pitches. But it's.
There was also he got some called strikes and you don't see Texas players called out on strikes. That's their strength this year is they put it in play on two strike counts. Not a lot of strikeouts. But they weren't going to hit him. And the Slossnage quote's good. I would prefer that he said he.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: Handed us our head pitching into the strike zone by Derek Mollica. By the way, he's. This is the second time this year Arkansas's had a left hander who's pitched really well into his strike zone. Biosee's did it too against Vanderbilt. But Root last night I was, I was a little interested to see if his pitch count was going to get up because it took him and these aren't bad numbers but took him 17 pitches to get to the first, 33 to get to the second. And you look at Riojas on the other side, it was 10 pitches and 11 pitches the first two innings. But then Root settled in once he got the lead. The third inning was a 10 pitch inning. The fourth inning was an 11 pitch inning. The fifth inning was a 12 pitch inning. The sixth inning was 11, the seventh inning was 10, the eighth inning was 12. I mean so basically he did not throw more than 12 pitches in an inning from the third inning on. And it wasn't like he was getting a lot of contact either. I mean you look at the fifth inning, that's a 12 pitch inning and he struck out the side.
[00:23:38] Speaker C: So the big, the big one to me as far as in confidence and he gets double play. Was that the third inning?
[00:23:46] Speaker B: Yeah, fourth.
[00:23:47] Speaker C: Fourth. I think that was a part of the game.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Their three hole hitter hit into a six four three.
[00:23:53] Speaker C: Yeah. And that was as smooth a double play as you'll ever see. It wasn't a perfect tailor made but they turned it so well. I mean Alloy had it and it was to Cam and Cam turned it with, with. I don't even know if the ball hit his glove. I mean it was like in his hand into first base.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: You hit it at Vel Aloy and you might as well just start walking back to the dugout if it's anywhere within, you know, a certain radius of him. Like there was a, there was a ball last night where he chased it down deep in the hole and he didn't have a chance to throw, you know, make that jump, throw back to first. But it's got to be something like that because if it's hit on the ground anywhere in his direction, for the most part, he's automatic.
[00:24:33] Speaker C: He is so aggressive on anything in front of him. I mean, he's gonna, anything that's hit softly, he's gonna catch it in the grass and throw it in one motion. He, he's as you know, just take his hitting out of it. He's as good a shortstop as Arkansas's had in a long time.
Now they've had some guys that could hit it. I mean, Scott Hody was really good offensively. He doesn't have near the defensive game that Alloy has.
[00:25:01] Speaker B: Battles is the only shortstop that comes close to, I think what Viva can do.
[00:25:05] Speaker C: Yeah, he, he, and I thought he made errors his first year. The second year he didn't make errors.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: Yeah, he's been phenomenal.
[00:25:12] Speaker C: I'm talking about Battles. Yeah.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right about that. He had the shoulder.
[00:25:16] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Too. I think that might have been as well. Anyway, behavior last night, about 10ft away from hitting two home runs. It's one, like I said, to the fence. The double that he hits off the base of the wall in right center field.
[00:25:31] Speaker C: They were loud outs.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: I was reading D1 baseball yesterday and they took a straw poll and we talked to Joe Healey about this on the podcast earlier this week about Golden Spikes and SEC Player of the Year and he got one vote in the D1 baseball poll for the Golden Spikes award. And Kendall Rogers said it was him who voted for him.
So I think if he can finish the season strong, he's going to be in conversation for National League and if the team finishes strong and if the team finishes strong. But I think he's going to be in that conversation for national player of the year. And I mean, there's nobody that just jumps off the page to me right now more than he does because of what he's doing on both ends as the SEC player of the year. Somebody else may win it, but, you know, I mean, there's no, there's no clear cut winner of SEC player of the year. And here you've got ve with a chance and he started out really well last night against three really high profile teams to end the season that might put him over the top if he plays well.
[00:26:33] Speaker C: I got another question for you. Where, where would you put in all SEC ballot? Cam Kozel.
He's Going to finish the year playing second, likely.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:43] Speaker C: I mean, defensively, you don't. You know, he's not what you're looking for at first base, but his SEC season is off the charts.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: I think he'll get votes. I don't know that he'll be the first team or anywhere. And it may just be the fact that, like you said, what position do you put about. Yeah, is he a first baseman? Is he a second baseman?
[00:27:02] Speaker C: But he's in your line.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: He's been good. I mean, he's been really good. And I think there's. There's at least two, maybe three teams that the coaches vote on at the end of the year. I want to play this clip real quick, before I forget, this is Zach Root. Last night, I thought this was pretty funny recalling a conversation that he had with Matt Hobbs earlier in the week.
[00:27:22] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. And Hobbs came up to me yesterday and said that the. The fans don't buy tickets to come watch me go four innings. So kind of took that to heart and went out there and doubled that.
[00:27:32] Speaker C: A little sharp jab out there. From the pitching coach, that's.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Sometimes that's all it takes, right? I mean, sometimes it's just that little, hey, let's piss you off and get you motivated.
[00:27:43] Speaker C: So I. I've heard some of those little talks that Dave Jordan would have. Same type wit. Little. Little jab here, a little jab there. I mean, subtle. Yeah. I think he. He got Ryan Stanick going just before the College World Series a few years ago. Is like, hey, you don't try to win the teddy bear, you know, with the gun, you know, looking around to see if you hit it. You threw it 100 miles an hour.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: That's more than a few.
[00:28:07] Speaker C: Don't win the county fair.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: That's more than a few years.
[00:28:09] Speaker C: That was last week.
Ryan Stanick, stenix. That was 12 years ago.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: It was 2012. Yeah, 13 years ago. So it all kind of runs together, right?
[00:28:19] Speaker C: Well, that was just yesterday for me.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: So Gage Wood gets on the mound today. We think that he's probably going to be on a pitch count of somewhere around 50 to 60.
He's. I'm very, very. Like, I am as intrigued about his outing today as I am anything about this series, because I want to see.
I don't expect him to pitch as well as he did against Florida, because that was phenomenal. But can he pitch closer to that level than he did in that first rehab start against A and M?
[00:28:49] Speaker C: It's really simple. And it's. It's like this every single time you see a pitcher go the mound. You can he land his breaking stuff? If you can land your breaking stuff and he throws at 97, maybe 98.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: At 98 at Florida actually hit 99 once.
[00:29:04] Speaker C: It flows but consistently 97. I mean it's one gun is different from another.
But when his.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Everything in Florida is hot.
[00:29:13] Speaker C: It is hot. Humid too. Yeah. If. If he can land his breaking pitch, then you cannot time up his fastball and then he's a different pitcher. That's a strikeout pitch. But if, if you can just sit on his fastball like you did the first game.
But it's like that for every pitcher. So root he landed his breaking pitch unhittable. Same thing with these guys all have fastballs.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Well and woods fastball is different because it's almost like a rise ball. And softball, it's more of carry up.
[00:29:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: And it's just you don't see that type of pitch a whole lot.
[00:29:46] Speaker C: You don't barrel it up. Yeah. If. Especially if you're having to look for off speed. And so I think that's it.
Yeah, I think that that's the. That's the key thing for this season is can they get more than one starting pitcher going down the stretch?
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:04] Speaker C: Because they're a different team.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: Then they got to develop wood into a consistent starter because I don't see it from vital seas and I don't know that he's going to make it. And I say all this, he may end up starting game three, but I just. I see him as more of a relief pitcher, I think than I do as a starter. I think about Gackel. I see Gackle more as a reliever. I almost see game three as. Do you have somebody that can be an opener for you?
Somebody can go out there and give you three, maybe four innings, maybe five if they're really, really on well. And then you just turn it over to your bullpen and hope that they can finish it.
[00:30:39] Speaker C: The other aspect is that you really need another left hander in the bullpen. And Battle, she's can be that guy for. You know, you need two or three outs. You know that you've got a three sequence at bat coming up with two left handers that you're having to get out. Well, that's. You save that for him.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: You remember when he pitched him relief against tcu Outstanding. And he came in and I think the thing with him is that when he knows that he's only going to throw 30 pitches or 40 pitches or something. He's able to let it loose a little bit more. And I think that him letting it loosen looks different than maybe when he's trying to pace himself in a starting role. So we'll see. But I would, I would suspect we see him in a reliever role this weekend. And for both teams, neither of them had to use their top bullpen guys last night. Texas, you know, they knew it was over. They saved their guys for the last two games. Arkansas obviously only had to throw Will McIntyre for that one inning. And I said this the other day, you know, like Aiden Jimenez, what if he's not needed the first two games? Maybe he's your game three starter in the. On one of these TBA weekends.
[00:31:47] Speaker C: Yeah, we've seen Dave Van Horn do that before.
You know, Jay Sawatski was, was like, that got him to Omaha. He'd close the game on, on Friday, you know, with maybe two outs, three outs. And then he would start on Sunday and, you know, and give them four innings.
[00:32:02] Speaker B: They're going to go all in to win this game tonight. I mean, and it's not say they don't go all in on it, on, on every game when they get the chance, but I really feel they don't want to go into another rubber.
Rubber match against the team with the way the last three have gone. Doesn't mean they won't win game three. It's just, I don't think they want to get to that point. I think they are going to do everything they can. They're going to push all the buttons they can tonight to try to end this series and get the series victory tonight and then see what happens tomorrow.
[00:32:32] Speaker C: So would you. Would you think it's three innings, four innings with Wood and then gackle and then him and S to close it out?
[00:32:39] Speaker B: I mean, it just depends on how. How efficient Wood is.
[00:32:44] Speaker C: They got the lead, just put it that way.
[00:32:45] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, 42 pitchers got him three innings last week. So let's say he goes 50, 55. Maybe he gets him three again.
[00:32:52] Speaker C: So how that breaks down, I think if there's a long inning, yeah, you know, you can get 50 pitches, but if 30 of them are in one inning, you. You don't last well.
[00:33:01] Speaker B: And then you start talking about stressful outings and maybe not wanting to put somebody through that when they're coming off an injury. I thought what they did two weeks ago against A and M was the best way to use Wood and Gackle, to have a bridge between them. So I don't Know who that bridge is. Maybe it's vital She's. I don't know. But to have a bridge between Wood and whatever he's able to give them today, you know, bring somebody in maybe for an inning, two innings, something like that, and then try to give it to Gackel and see if he can go the rest of the way.
[00:33:35] Speaker C: Important, I think, for Arkansas to get the lead. And I think that the way they put down Texas last night, I think if they jump on him early, I think it starts to put some doubt that this is a bad weekend. I'm talking about if you're. If you're in the Texas dugout and.
[00:33:51] Speaker B: If Arkansas is down 9 to nothing. I don't think they're going to go to Gabe Gackel today.
Just. I think they'll save their guys for tomorrow and obviously pivot and try to go all in tomorrow.
[00:34:01] Speaker C: I think it'll be you out there.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it might be. You think I could throw 52? Like that one pitcher last night on your best one? I don't think I could throw 52. I really don't. Well, that was kind of like. I was not expecting that. And to see that the first, I was like, whoa. What did you see?
[00:34:17] Speaker C: I think Cam's embarrassed that he swung at that one pitch. Yeah, he fouled it into the dugout, right?
[00:34:21] Speaker D: He.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: He did, yeah. The other two, he was a little early. Yeah. So, Clay, we appreciate you being here. When we come back, KB sides, Razorback softball. Great. The 2022 SEC Player of the year is going to join us. He's on the call this weekend for the Arkansas LSU series over at Bogle Park. But first, a word from Kendall King.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King Soapbox and Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design.
[00:35:13] Speaker E: Oh, gosh. I just.
[00:35:14] Speaker F: I mean, it just showed a ton of fight. I mean, it was one of the craziest, wildest, ugliest softball games I've ever been a part of. And, you know, at the end of an ugly game, it. You just want to walk away with the win. They count the same.
You know, you get to keep it. We'll keep it. Even though it was ugly. We're not going to give it back, but just showed a ton of fight. You know, more than anything, I see the, the most recognizable traits that I saw in our team tonight was our fight.
[00:35:51] Speaker B: That was Arkansas softball coach Courtney Diefel. After The Razorbacks defeated LSU last night 12 to 9 at Bogle Park. Arkansas comes into the series ranked number six. LSU is number 10. Arkansas improved a nine and eight this season against teams ranked in the top 10 at the time they played. They'll play again tonight at Bogle Park. KB sides, the Razorback softball great is on the call this weekend on SEC Network plus, and she joins us now. KB Just this game last night, you had a big baseball game going on down the road. And I think the softball game, which was two innings shorter, lasted like 20 minutes longer.
[00:36:27] Speaker E: I know that's what Brett and I kept talking about. We were like, what. What inning is a baseball game? But inning is a baseball game, because after the first inning, it was already 7 to 0. So I was, you know, thinking, okay, they're probably going to run roll here, so we'll be out of here pretty quick. And lo and behold, that is not what happened.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: Just tell us about how this game went. I guess. Was there a tight strike zone? Is that what. What kind of led to the, to the length of the game?
[00:36:52] Speaker E: Yeah, and I mean, the first inning when the razorbacks went up 7 to 0, it was pretty quick. Even though they hit, you know, three home runs, they batted around through their lineup, and each inning it just, it started getting slower and slower. And I think, you know, we both were like, wow, the strike zone is. It's really, really tight. And, you know, you can kind of tell from on camera, obviously not in the box from the angle, but we're watching on the monitor. I was like, wow, a lot of those pictures are strikes and, you know, strikes that absolutely were going to be called when I was playing. So we were like, what. What is going on down there? And it's like the strike zone was the size of a penny. And I know it's frustrating on both sides of the game. There are so many walks between LSU and Arkansas both. I mean, I'm glad I wasn't playing because I would have been frustrated. It lasted over three hours and, you know, Arkansas came out on top. LSU did a great job chipping away, but a lot of that was because of walks and mistakes that were happening in the game.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: You heard Courtney Deifel say there in that clip that we played off the top, that the fight in the team was really what stood out to her. I Wonder maybe more big picture, because I know you keep up with this team a lot.
After the Ole Miss series, when things didn't go well for them at the beginning of the season, they played Oklahoma and they lost three competitive games, and that's ou. Since then, what have you seen with this team that's. That's led to this type of turnaround? Because right now it looks like this is probably going to be a top eight national seed.
[00:38:15] Speaker E: Absolutely. And, you know, watching at the beginning of when they played Ole Miss, they played Oklahoma like you said it was, I was a little nervous for the end of season because, of course, they had Florida, they had Tennessee, they had lsu, had all these teams that were not going to be, you know, an easy schedule, especially with A M, too, with how well they're doing this year. And I think it's, you know, it's the longevity of the season. Same thing with baseball. It's not necessarily how you start. You always want to peak at the right time. And that's, you know, been the theme of the game. Any, you know, any season I've been into, whether it was at Alabama or Arkansas, you want to peak at the right time. Now, hey, if you start off hot, game one and you're hot at the end of the season, that's great. But it's a very long season, and Arkansas has done a great job of peaking at the right time. They've gotten better each and every weekend. I'm not saying last night was, you know, better, but they still won. So you could say that's better because they did still win.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: I want to ask you about Briellis because you're the only player that's one SEC player of the year at Arkansas, and she's going to be number two here within the next few days.
What's made her so good this year? And I wonder how hard it is to stay locked in as a hitter when it's so obvious that teams are pitching around her when they can.
[00:39:33] Speaker E: So I think for Bri, I've gotten to talk to her a lot, and I've gotten to talk to Bri's parents.
Bri, from last year to this year, I feel like, you know, she's made, like, minor changes in her swing, and you can tell based on her stance and her confidence level when she's in the box.
Most of that's confidence for her, I really believe, but she's just a fearless competitor, and I think this year she's finally playing just kind of with that, you know, no weight on her shoulders. She's just having fun. And you can see that in each of her bats. But her taking the focus from getting walked, I mean, one weekend I think she was walked six or seven times. And that's got to be very difficult when you're seeing only balls, you know, at bat, after at bat, and it's like, oh my gosh, how does your. How do you not get messed up with the strike zone? So it takes a lot of focus from Bri, but from talking to the coaches, you know, they practice every week and every day they see live pitching. So it's not like she's not getting to see that, but she's just. She's the best hitter in the country, in my opinion. I'm sure in a lot of, if not every Razorback fan's opinion, and a lot of people across the country. But the season that she's putting up, I don't know if we've ever seen a season like that from any softball player before.
[00:40:46] Speaker B: Well, I mean, you look at the numbers, like last night, she's one for one. Gets walked four times, and she made it count as a home run. Tied the school record with Braxton Burnside, her 25th of the season. Do you think she's the national player of the year?
[00:41:00] Speaker E: I do. I really do. And it, I don't know who. I know a couple of who it would go to, but I don't know how you don't give it to Bri. I mean, you have great, you know, two way players, like a jordy ball, you know, she's hitting phenomenal for a pitcher. She's pitching great. But at the same time, I wish there was an award that you could give two way players to which it stinks. But Bri is phenomenal and she is hitting, putting up numbers no one has ever put up. And she's doing it in the best conference in the country. And I think that, you know, that says something about Brie Ellis.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: Okay, I want to ask you about this play last night. You know what I'm going to ask about it. Not even a play. It's a moment in the game.
Lsu, I guess they had had a player reenter the game and both coaching staffs, they noticed this kind of simultaneously. And Matt Michael, who's Arkansas's assistant Coach, basically outruns LSU's coach from the third base box to the home plate umpire to challenge this. And this is an out with the bases loaded. Take it from there.
[00:42:09] Speaker E: So from there, I think I can't even remember what Brett and I were Talking about, because, you know, we can meet our mics up in the box. But I was looking down at the field, and I saw him step out of the dugout. So I was like, okay.
When I played for Coach Michael, he's very good about keeping up with stuff like that, right? He's keeping stats throughout the entire game. He knows what's going on every single pitch. And it's like they both. Him and Coach Trina both, like, you could. They kind of started walking at the same time. I don't know if she saw him first or he saw her, but he liked the last little juke step to get in front of her. You'll see that one big step, and you can. He almost kind of puts his elbow up like he's gonna block her from doing that. And if. You know, Coach Matt Michael, he is so funny. He has the best sense of humor ever. I loved playing for him, but his little grin that he gave and, you know, after the game, I went down there to talk to them, and he was just giggling. And Courtney, Coach Deifel and Daniel Gibson, they both were saying as soon as they saw Coach Terina step and start running, they were yelling at him to go, go, go.
It was so funny. I thought it was hilarious. They may not have thought it was funny, but we were up there cackling away, and I think everyone thought it was pretty funny. Especially if, you know Coach Michael, he is just. He is so funny.
[00:43:28] Speaker B: So, I mean, I think the question with softball right now, and there's still some games left before the NCAA postseason begins, a couple of games against LSU tonight, they got the SEC tournament next week. But the question that I think a lot of people ask with this program is, are they good enough to make it to Oklahoma City? They've been so close a couple of times here in the last four or five years.
Is there something different about this team, maybe that Those teams in 21 and 22 didn't have?
[00:43:55] Speaker E: I'm not exactly sure, because I go back to 22 and, you know, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, I knew. I was like, we are going to Oklahoma City. There's no way, you know, we're not going. So I think it's, you know, anything can happen in postseason. It's mayhem. Like, you know, everything. You might pick a team that's going to go, and they may not go. So it's really. It's hard to say.
This team, they're playing great, though. You can tell they absolutely love each other. Pitching is, you know, going the right way. Besides tonight, last night, that was just. I don't even know what to say about that game. That was just a crazy strike zone. But this team reminds me a lot of our team in 2022. So it's just a matter of can they stay hot and can they keep winning? Because that's the thing with the team I was on in 22. You know, we came out, we won the first game, we were one game away from going to Oklahoma City, and then for whatever reason, the wheels fell off. So that's what's important. And that's what's, you know, important about leadership, is being able to keep the team where they need to be and taking it, you know, one game at a time. Because the last two seasons for Arkansas, if I'm not mistaking, they lost in regionals. And I know that's got to be a gut punch, but that's something you can't, you can't keep in the back of your head, you know, it's not something like, hey, we got to go. We got to, you know, make it to supers this year. I think, you know, Courtney Duffel does a great, great job of preparing the girls. She did a great job of preparing the team that I was on. But one great thing that she does that I love the most, and she keeps every single player level. We're never too high, never too low. You know, she's the same person she is every single day. So I think the Razorbacks are in a really good position and, you know, they want to get the top eight seed hosts. So I think if they get a series win this weekend, I think no doubt they should be a top eight host.
[00:45:47] Speaker B: Arkansas. LSU resumes at 6:00 tonight, 1:00 on Saturday afternoon. KB will be on the call with Brett Dolan tonight and with Josh Haley tomorrow. What do you expect to see out of the rest of this series?
[00:45:59] Speaker E: Well, after, after last night, I hope you see a pitcher's duel, honestly. But lsu, they did a great job by chipping away each inning. And I kept talking about that each inning. They were chipping away each inning, each inning, which, you know, Arkansas comes back and they get that Courtney Day home run. That really helps put them up by three, three more runs. But LSU was not giving up. And I think that's something that the Razorbacks are not going to take lightly. LSU is a great team. They're a proven team. We've known that for years. Veterina's done a great job at lsu.
So I don't know, I mean, I think it could go, it could go even either way. I think both teams are similarly matched in different ways. You know, both have speed, both have proven pitchers, both have great defense. So it could be a pitcher's goal today, it could be another high scoring run. But I don't, you know, I'm biased towards Arkansas, of course, which I told Coach Duff. I was like, I think you guys should be able to win this series. But it's the SEC and there's been a lot of crazy things happen in this season, especially this season, so you really never know. I'm expecting LSU to put up a big fight the rest of the weekend.
[00:47:11] Speaker B: And the SEC standings are so tight that seatings for next week's conference tournament down in Athens are. I mean, it's, it's. All these games really matter in terms of the SEC tournament next week. KB we appreciate your time.
[00:47:23] Speaker E: Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it.
[00:47:26] Speaker B: Thank you. And we appreciate you being with us today on our podcast. We'll be back here in studio on Monday with Bubba Carpenter to talk about the rest of the Arkansas Texas series. We hope that we'll see you at our website, WholeHogsports.com throughout the weekend for all of our coverage from Razorback baseball and Razorback softball. Have a great weekend, everybody.
