Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Welcome to this week's edition of the Dugout Dish podcast. I'm Andy. Kerry Kitties. I am not joined by my co host Keith Glasser today. Keith is not with us, but we have a high quality fill in. The man, the Myth, the legend, Mr. Jonathan Grass. And we are here to talk a little bit about what happened this weekend and what we think might happen this coming weekend in the NCAA Division 1 baseball tournament.
How are we doing?
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Great. How are you?
[00:00:41] Speaker B: We got a lot to unpack.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, we do have a lot to unpack, but if there's anything to say about our picks from last week, I probably would turn. Turn this pot off, because we were.
We were way off. But we will give you some good insight, I promise you that.
And we won't have SEC bias, which I believe Mike Rooney tweeted this weekend, which I think is the best tweet of the weekend, was that there's never been more SEC is overrated tweets than there was this weekend. So.
And roll. We're gonna have some fun.
Call it a night.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah. I mean, the SEC thing's kind of top of mind to a certain extent, I think.
I think there's some legitimacy behind some of the tweets, but I also think that people might want to pump the brakes.
There's still four really, really good SEC teams in this tournament that could very well win it, and I think until somebody knocks one of them off, I think it still stands true.
I personally think it's a little bit more of a reflection of how crazy regionals are and how quickly stuff can go sideways. But, yeah, I mean, there's no doubt there was some. There's some SEC teams. I mean, there were some ACC teams that.
There's some coaches going back home right now going, what the hell happened?
You know, Alabama lost two down at Southern Miss. I thought that regional was kind of ripe for them to get out of.
You know, they had a good year in the SEC. 40 + wins. And, you know, they ran into a Miami team that looks like the good Miami team.
And, you know, Southern Miss took care of business at home and was able to get back to the. The final there. They couldn't, couldn't win it in the second game down there, you know, and then obviously you got probably the.
The highlight at all is that Vanderbilt's the first national seat to not make it to a regional final ever.
And then you got Texas, the number two seed who couldn't get out of their regional, which is the first time in, first time since 99, when they went to the seating that they have now that the National 1 and 2 did not reach a super regional. So, yeah, it's, it was pretty wild. I mean, I think the other side of it is there's some really good baseball out there and programs that a lot of people aren't all that familiar with. Like, I think people who followed college baseball had a pretty good understanding that, that the, the team, Mr. Hallmark ran out there this weekend, that's a really, really good ball club.
And UCLA is going to have their hands full there.
And we talked about it a little last week. I don't think we ended up picking them to win the regional. But, you know, they beaten Texas earlier in the year. They weren't scared. And I mean, they just flat out outplayed them for the weekend. Like they were the best team in that regional.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah, and I've worked on this, you know, over the last few years. We've talked about it. But like just getting to seeding one just. Even if we just make a concession just to be seed to 132.
UTSA did not belong in that bracket. They did it from a convenience standpoint. Texas was the 2 overall seed. There's no way that UTSA should have been that like technically lowly ranked as a two seed to go into that bracket.
Everyone knew they were legit.
They should have went somewhere else. They didn't. They just made it a convenience thing.
You know, we hit on this last week about, you know, some of the west, you know, regions which didn't end up, Matt, really mattering for the most part. But we, if we're really going to go to another level and, and I said this to you, Andy. I know we talked about this yesterday.
You could turn on five networks on Sunday and watch college baseball.
We're past, we're past the point of this is a mediocre sport. This is what, this is a big boy business now.
Five networks on TV and then have to turn the ESPN plus, outside of me wanting to watch squeeze play, I could watch any game I wanted to for the most part.
We can't just see them 1 through 16 anymore because they're, they're continuing to make regional concessions. UTSA into Texas bracket. UTSA had no business being in that bracket.
There's no way that you can justify that.
Some of the west coast stuff, same thing.
Did we get most of it right? Yeah, probably. Did the SEC not look great?
Maybe.
I don't know. Ask me next week. I'll, I'll let you Know, on Monday. But we already got one to Omaha because there's two and one, you know, super. We'll talk about here in a second, but we already got one.
I think most of the others will move through.
So, like, four to Omaha's pretty good. Like, yes, man.
The ACC, I think, looked good in certain instances.
North Carolina or North Carolina, Florida State, you know, obviously Miami and Louisville look, you know, great. They're going to play for, you know, a super here. But until we can get to a point where we can see 1 through 32 and they can't hide behind this, some of this regional bias of seating, we're not going to get what we need at this sport moving forward. It's, that's just the reality of it. We have to seed one through 32, and I would love if they was, you know, obviously see 1 through 64, but let's just start with 1, you know, we got to 1 to 16. Great. Now let's see 1 to 32.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it diminishes what you accomplish in the regular season.
Right? It's the same idea. It's, it's why I, I, I do think that these single elimination tournaments in the conference tournaments, I do think they have some value because it puts the teams that played well in the regular season in an advantageous position. And, you know, ultimately, that's what, you know, the seating is there for, is that, you know, and hey, Vanderbilt, they were terrible this weekend. I don't know. There's no other way to put it. Sorry, Coach Corbs, but like, your guys, the guys just didn't play well. They did. They played the worst baseball. They played all year on the wrong weekend of the year. Right. They weren't the national number one seed.
That's not a fluky thing. That's a really good ball club. Who played the worst baseball? They played all year at the wrong time. Right. It happens. These regionals are also freaking funky.
They're hard.
It's really hard to win a regional, regardless of what your seating is, just because the nature of how it plays out and have one bad game and all of a sudden, like, you got to beat somebody twice in a day, right? You got to win two games on a Sunday just to get to a Monday.
Your pitching gets thrown out of whack. Nobody has enough pitching. Some of these teams have more than other teams, but nobody has enough pitching. You think, you think Tony was going to run Doyle out there? Or do you think Jay Johnson was going to run the out there? If they had Other guys, they didn't have other guys.
Those were their best guys to win that spot. And I think it speaks to just how difficult it is to get out of these. Some of these teams made it look easier, you know, I mean, UCLA kind of ran through theirs. You know, Florida State was pretty darn dominant. You know, Duke was pretty dominant, Auburn was pretty dominant. But yeah, there it's hard. Like, there's a lot of good baseball teams. These two seeds and these three seeds are all really good ball clubs. And it's not what people think. And I was talking to one of our friends about it the other day, and the thing about the regional, and I think you look at like a team like Little Rock. Super cool story, right? They're 8 and 16 in a not great Ohio Valley Conference.
Right.
But every team who's playing in this tournament is either one.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: They lost 13 of their last 14 before the tournament. Yeah, think about that.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: It's wild. And they played their asses off. And kudos to that coach. Kudos that coach staff. Kudos to the kids.
Like, no intimidation factor. They took advantage of an opportunity that they earned by winning that conference tournament.
But everybody who plays in the NCAA tournament, you either were really good during the regular season and that's how you got there, or you were playing well enough to get into the tournament, period. Right? And you saw that with Little Rock. Like, they played their best baseball that they played all year in the games that mattered most for them.
Right. Vanderbilt was the exact opposite. They played their butts off during the regular season.
They earned that national number one seed and they played the worst baseball they played all year in that regional. You know, Texas, same thing like. But Texas for me is a little bit different because I think that to your point, UTSA, it's a top 20 team in the country.
They had as good a chance as anybody in any regional, no matter where you put them. Like they were capable of getting out of it.
But I mean, it's. It's funky. Like, look at Miami. What a roller coaster of a season for those guys. I mean, they're four weeks into the ACC season.
Miami was looking like, holy crap, they might be on the hot seat if they can't turn this around. Then they go on, what, 11 out of 12 and then they stumble kind of going into the tournament, didn't play great.
And they, the good version of that Miami team showed up in that regional and you know they're going to play Louisville, who is another one of those teams that were up and down and they've got some flaws, but they played well and they're trying to go to the College World Series.
So, yeah, it's. The tournament's awesome. It always is.
Always going to see some upsets. That's why I think it's, I think it's what makes it so cool. Like, you see some four seeds beat some teams. You know, what do we have? 5 games on Monday?
We had 5 winner take all games on Monday night. I think that tells you how competitive all of this was and just how thin the margins are across college baseball.
Despite all the transfer stuff and despite this notion that the power fives power fours are going to take all the young, really good players. Well, those really good players have to exist on another team before they can transfer to one of the, you know, the bigger programs. So they're still there and those kids are playing their butts off in these tournaments. And it was a freaking blast to watch. Like, absolute blast.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I thought it was a phenomenal weekend. Like, top to bottom, got a lot of just really good baseball.
You know, more than anything, just, just a lot of really good baseball. Like, in my opinion, UTSA should have been in that bracket. Whatever the west coast brackets, you know, Arizona and, you know, UCLA kind of ran through them.
But, you know, we got, you know, I think it was, what is it, six? Was it six winning your end games or five? One Winning your end game? Six or five, Five or six?
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Yeah, we had five of them yesterday.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Yeah, like, phenomenal. Like, am I shocked that Ole Miss lost to Murray State? No doubt. But, you know, it's just part of it. Like, and when you get into that scenario where it's like, like you said, like, nobody has enough pitching, everybody's on the bottom, see what happens, Play nine innings. And you know, I mean, I mean, I sat, you know, I got some family in town and I sat watching my dad and I said to my dad, the seventh day says there's no way Murray State wins this game. Like, there's no shot. Like, you could just watch the, the way that it was kind of trending and, you know, Ole Miss wins that game, you know, a hundred, you know, 99 times out of 100. But wasn't last night.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: No. And I saw this.
This is the third time in four years that a Missouri Valley team's been in a super regional.
Captainsville didn't get there last year, but the prior previous two years. So 22 and 23 Missouri ballot team minutes is super.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: And then did he made it there last year? What's that Evansville did get.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Sorry, they did. Yeah. And then Indiana State was the other.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Indiana State then in two years ago. So.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah, three out of the last four, Indiana State. Remember, they were. They were actually slated to host because of how it played out, but.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Yeah, because of the whole.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yeah, there was some. I believe it was. I believe it was a Special Olympics.
Yeah.
But, I mean, that's what makes this tournament great. Like, you have all these powers in college baseball and Murray State pops out on the other side of it.
UTSA won their first ever NTA tournament game this weekend, and they're in a super.
And UCLA better strap it on because that team's coming for you.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: That's all I'll say.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Maybe they'll be fooled by the. The calm atmosphere in ucla. Maybe that'll throw them off. But, yeah, we got some good battles coming up, so let's. Let's break a couple of these down. So we got the ACC battle.
I believe it's at Miami, right?
[00:15:25] Speaker A: I think you're right. Yeah.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: No, it's not. It's at Louisville. Sorry, Louisville. Miami.
Just a coin flip for me. Like, I don't know. These teams are kind of. Jaclyn Hyde.
Miami is probably the more talented team, top to bottom. But that. That Louisville offense is pretty dynamic, and it'll be interesting to see what happens there. Like. Like I said, I don't know who to pick.
I guess I'll.
Louisville.
I guess I have zero conviction on this one at all because I'm gonna go Louisville.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Maybe.
I don't know. If you ask me why, I'm not sure. Like, I don't know. They're at home, they're gonna play, they're gonna hit. Last twice of the three games they can run.
Miami's gonna roll a couple younger arms. One kid from Philly who I love.
Lefty, throws rockets. But, yeah, Louisville, I don't know.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Yeah, this. This is an interesting part of this. There's. There's two regionals that I think are really cool from a travel perspective. You got Arizona flying all the way to Chapel Hill to play in one of the cooler places in college baseball.
You got an Arizona team who won game one against Cal Poly with two hits, giving up 10 hits. The box score is funky, but they can pitch.
I think this is North Carolina. I got North Carolina playing in the. In the finals, period.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: But.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: But I also have a soft spot for Arizona because of how much I love Kevin Vance.
But for me, this is North Carolina. I'd love to see it go three games. I'd Love to have a, you know, a winner take all on Sunday.
You know, North Carolina and Arizona facing off. But this, I think this guy. Chance to be a pretty good one.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I think.
I think we're right. We've agreed way too much so far here because I.
I also have North Carolina playing the last weekend of June or week of June.
That atmosphere has been really good.
That rotation is just. I don't know, it's just.
It's a unit, to be honest with you. Like, and so you tell me, all right, like, if Arizona can split the first two and you try to get this, you know, Sunday, because I think this is a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you get to Sunday, like, I still don't know. I love Arizona as much as I like Arizona a lot.
So I'm going to go to North Carolina here, too, because I just think they're going to play the last weekend of the last week of June.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: We were talking about another program earlier, and I think that this stuff does matter.
There's a lot of kids on that North Carolina roster that have played in these games and key players. Right. You're not talking about guys who are on the bench last year.
Right. There's, you know, Gallagher, Madera, you know, DeCarlo, like Stevenson. Like, I mean, they've got guys who have been in this exact position before. And I do think that some of this stuff is learned and you get comfortable playing in these types of games because it is different.
It is very different. Every pitch matters a little bit more.
Every decision you make matters a little bit more. And I think North Carolina is the better team. So they may not need that experience to kind of get over the hump. But I definitely think that that's something that gives them an advantage. Like, they've been here. Those kids know what it takes. They've been in that atmosphere. They've won big games there.
So, yeah, for me, it's North Carolina. And like I said, we both got them going to the final playing somebody from the other side of the bracket.
Here's the interesting one for a couple reasons. Obviously, we got Murray State, but they're playing at Duke, and Duke is actually going to host this on campus, is my understanding correct.
Which is interesting because those of you who follow college baseball, Duke's facility typically wouldn't allow them to host a regional.
They would have to usually host this in the pro park, which is beautiful.
So this is kind of unique and I think it's kind of cool for Duke that.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: So, yeah, but they're on the Road this weekend too. Which makes it even more unique in my opinion, because it would seem like an obvious fit to just host it there where they play most of their ACC games.
But for whatever reason, and I don't know why I haven't, you know, and I've done some research on this, on why it's going, you know, to be played at home. But for whatever reason, the NCAA is going to let them play a super in their building, which is. I think it's really cool.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: This Murray State team, they're Tom. They're tough to pin down. Like what they did at Ole Miss. I don't think people understand how difficult what they accomplished in that building was like Ole Miss a good ball club. It's a really good ball club. Like you don't host a regional if you're not.
That place is wildly hard to go into and win. Anybody who watched that regional, I mean, it's chaos on Sunday when they. When Ole Miss kind of punch Murray State in the face to get it to Monday and they hit it back to back to back Jacks.
That place might have registered on a Richter scale. I mean you got fans that have been drinking there since noon. I mean that place is wild.
And they found a way to get out of that regional on Monday.
I think it's Duke.
But that Murray, they got something. They got. They got something to be able to do that that can't get overlooked. How difficult what they accomplished was and they've earned the right to be in this super.
I think Duke's playing really well now. I actually had them on my list to go to Omaha at the beginning of the year and I regret backing off of it because I think some of that experience that they have and some of their stars, which you probably could talk about the Gracia thing, which I think is just freaking ridiculous. And I hope the NCAA figures that out.
I'm gonna go Duke.
But I wouldn't hate it if Murray State ended up getting out of this regional because I think it'd be a really cool story.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, I think you brought up a couple of really good points. And I did also have Duke. We both did on our pre season pod to. For Duke to get to Tomahawk.
But I felt like this was the year with the experience, the way the SEC was just them just knocking on the door. I felt like this was the year they were gonna do it.
But to go into Ole Miss and go into Oxford and win on Monday, these people have been partying they started selling tickets, I believe, at 6am on Thursday, or they started allowing people into the building, I believe 6am on Thursday.
They didn't play a game until I think it was 7pm local time Friday.
These people have been partying since then.
Like you said, Andy, like that, that scene when they hit, when they went go back to back to back, like it's wild and it's only going to be wilder on Monday.
And Murray State just goes in there and just like kicks them straight in the teeth.
And then you get to the seventh inning and I'm like, I'm sitting there watching it and I said this to you earlier on our pre show, dude, they don't win this game. Like, this game's over. Like this thing's over. It's not this.
I've been in that dugout a ton of times, just like you've been in that dugout a ton of times. Like Ole Miss wins this game and for them to do it and then get to a super and get over the hump, like, I don't know.
I'm going to pick Duke here because again, it's my preseason pick.
But, like, I just can't say enough about what Murray State did in that regional, in that opportunity. Like, it's just so cool.
The best part about the sport continues to do it with all these, you know, Oral Roberts and Evansville last year. Like, there's nothing better. Like, there's literally nothing better. Just.
It's awesome. But yeah, Coach Paul Ginnigan and Omaha for the first time, I think ever. And me and you will look really good, Andy, because I don't know if we have any other picks that worked.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: Out, so got a couple still alive. One of them in the here.
Lsu. Yeah, West Virginia traveling down to Baton Rouge.
West Virginia was impressive this weekend.
It's a really good ball club.
Coach Sabins is awesome.
I don't know him personally, but his interviews, like, if you're a kid out there in West Virginia college, it's tough to not want to play for that guy.
And I know you got some connections, some good friends on that staff and they, you know, we had Jimmy on the podcast a while back, and it's a really good ball club.
I think this past weekend might have been. Might have been the best thing possible for lsu.
Like, kind of shook them up a little bit. Like they had to dial in, you know, they had to call on some of their stars to come through, which they did.
That might be exactly what LSU needs to kind of kick him in the ass a little bit. And I, I think that LSU gets out of this. I.
You've got him. I think you have him winning it or at least making it to the, to the final. I think that one two punch with Anderson and Ionson is. That's a really tough one to get by.
And it looks like LSU's got a couple bullpen arms that are really throwing the ball well right now.
But I wouldn't be surprised if.
If West Virginia somehow scratches out a win against one of those two studs and takes this to Monday. But I, for me, I'm gonna just show my SEC bias here and I'm gonna, I'm gonna say LSU gets through.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I got two points. I got number one. I.
What Chris Curry did with that Arkansas Little Rock team to, to push LSU to the limit, I think was really cool and I know it then that you hit on a little bit, but I think it's, it's really, really, really cool. And again, it's the best part about our sport.
So I'm going to give a shout out to them.
Losing 13 or 14 in the year, 18 and 8 and 16 in the regular season.
8th ranked team in the league and you make LSU play, win and go home game.
It's pretty cool.
And yes, I think LSU will win this whole thing when it's all said and done.
But I would be hard to get on this pod and not give a shout out to one of my very close friends and the job he's done and taking this West Virginia team to two supers in two consecutive years.
Jimmy and Student works the best. He would do anything for anybody. And you know, I'm proud that I can call him one of my very, very, very close friends. So shout out to Coach Ross in your West Virginia shows up there, has a number one overall pick, you know, that, you know, that ends up transferring out of Air Force, goes to lsu, goes to West Virginia, two supers back to back.
But like you said, that, that one two punch of lsu and they've been my pick for a long time at this point, I'm going to take the Bayou Tires and I think they're.
They'll take care of business.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: All right, we got the Chanticleers heading to Auburn.
Coastal should probably be hosting this one. And we brought this up when they put the seeds out that we thought that Coastal had done enough to be a national seed.
Challenging schedule, kind of took the Sunbelt by the balls. You know, they were the best team in that conference. I know Southern Miss is a good Ball club. But, you know, Coastal kind of came out on top on that one.
This is tough.
This is a tough one for me because this might be.
I'm gonna pick Coastal, and I don't have a good reason to do it.
I thought them winning a game one nothing in that place against ECU and also being able to put up big runs. I speak. I think it speaks to kind of the versatility of that team and their ability to win games in a couple different ways. You know, they've been thrown it at a clip that is, you know, at the top or near the top or at the top across college baseball pretty much all year long.
I think they got a little bit of a chip on their shoulder knowing that they probably deep down know that they should be hosting this thing.
They got a tough task. Like Auburn's kind of quietly.
They kind of quietly got here. Right. Like, not a lot of people are talking about Auburn, but, like, Butch has got him in another super. They're two games away from going to the World Series.
I'm gonna take. I'm gonna take Coastal. I'm gonna. I'm gonna step away from my SEC bias here, and I'm going to say Coastal finds a way to get this one done.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I like, love that pick. I'm just like, I.
I don't know why I'm just going to take Auburn because they're going to hit last twice, and I think that's an advantage.
And I doubted Auburn all year. Kind of been kind of like on the anti Auburn train. Although I felt they were really good, you know, for a lot of it. I just.
I don't know why they just.
The. The.
The ability for them to just not really have any hiccups this weekend.
I felt like they looked like a team that's getting ready to go to Omaha.
Coastal has to go there, which I think is total BS because I think in my opinion, Coastal should be playing at home in Conway this weekend. But it's not my choice.
I'm gonna take Auburn.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: All right. Moving on to the all SEC regional, which has some serious storylines. And we got Tennessee traveling up to Arkansas.
Got to go into Fayetteville.
Really, really tough place to play.
Park definitely favors Arkansas. Right. Very different.
Very different setup than Tennessee. I believe Tennessee took two out of three in Knoxville earlier this year and.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Then play this year.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: Didn't they think they did.
I'll double check that while we're look.
[00:32:21] Speaker A: I'll. I'll look.
[00:32:26] Speaker B: Tony obviously is, you know, kind of made a name for himself at Arkansas, you know, as one of the best assistants in the country.
Actually, Tennessee came into pay bill and W2, my bad.
So heading back up there, you know, Tennessee's, they got a buzz about him again.
Like, I'd be really curious to see how Arkansas tries to handle the Fisher kid because it just seems like if that kid goes, that team is really, really hard to beat.
That kid's got a, he got a knack for the moment, big hits.
He's kind of the heartbeat of that offense. And then you got the Doyle kid and I think it's, it's hard to quantify how cool it was for him to do what he did, come out of the bullpen. Like you're talking about a kid who's a multi million dollar arm, right? Probably he's going to go in the top five picks, bare minimum, he's going to go in the top 10.
And that kid's begging Tony Vitello to come in and close that game out.
And I just think it's freaking electric that he did so. And I missed this on the Ironson kid. He did the same thing for lsu and I think it speaks to how competitive some of these guys are and how much it matters to them. Right. They're not thinking. That kid's not thinking about the draft. He's thinking about trying to win that regional and those kids love playing for that dude.
With that being said, I think Arkansas is the better team.
I think they're a little bit more complete.
Once again, they're going to bat, as you said, they're going to bat last.
They got the home field advantage.
I'm going to take Arkansas. They're my pick to win it all. So I'm going to stick with it. But this has got a chance to be an electric in electric factory of a super regional.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: So Arkansas took two of three from Tennessee in Fayetteville.
So just so we're clear on that.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: I got that wrong twice. My bad.
[00:34:38] Speaker A: No worries. Last weekend of the year. That's right.
I love, I love Tony. I love everything that Tennessee stands for.
I know I'm probably in the minority. There's people that will get mad that listen to this pod that don't like the way his act is.
But what all I could say is, is that if you are a head coach and your players are willing to do anything that they can, including fight for you as a head coach, then you've done your job.
And Tony, I think has instilled that in Tennessee and has do I agree with all of his antics. Absolutely not. You know, and me and Andy and Keith have talked about this. Like, I do not agree with all of the things that he has done. But what I will say is, is that if you can get your kids to buy in like he has, then that's why you win a national championship like you did last year.
I also think.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: But.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: I also think going into Baum is a very, very, very tall task. I think Arkansas the best pitching staff in the country.
I think their offense plays in their building a little bit better than it does in Tennessee.
And again, and this is, you know, this is something to be talked about too. And not a lot of people want to bring this up, but this is why the regular season is so important. If this three game set, this super is in Knoxville and not in Fayetteville, this is a different conversation in my opinion, because Tennessee's pitching staff, that offense, Fisher, the whole deal with the offense, with their offense plays a little bit different. And if you get some wind blowing in and Fayetteville with that pitching staff, it's different. This is a different conversation. So the regular season is super important. Don't ever forget that. Everybody, this is a big deal.
The fact that this is being played in Arkansas and not in Tennessee is a big deal.
I'm gonna take them all, though.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: Okay.
All right, moving on. Got.
We'll close it out with our two West Coast Supers.
UTSA freaking Savage Ball Club.
Mr. Hallmark's got them just playing their asses off. So freaking really good offense, really good team.
Going to go out and try to beat the Bruins who are back on the college baseball map after a little bit of a hiatus. I think some would say for you young bucks listening, there was a time when UCLA was the.
Was the program to emulate in college baseball.
Looks like they got a little bit of that swagger back the. I'm probably going to pronounce his name wrong, but the. The shortstop they got there, the Tulski kid. Holy moly ball. Claire.
I'm. I'm taking. I'm taking utsa. I thought what UCLA did this region in their regional was really impressive, kind of dominated it.
But I'm gonna, I'm gonna stick with a little bit of the underdog story here in this particular one. And I think, I think utsa, they're. They're certainly not scared.
I think they go out west and I think they find a way to win this regional.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that'll be interesting to see, like them go out west. You know, they didn't have any hiccups. Going to Texas, you know, and again it's quasi down the street for them. So go on the road.
Not a super hostile atmosphere. But to go on the road and just know have no issue at all.
I think it's super impressive.
Not like UCLA is going to have any. You have a better atmosphere. It'll probably a worse atmosphere be more like a neutral site to be honest with you.
So I'm going to take UTSA as well. I think it'll be interesting to see like though if they can just go on the road and just not have any hiccups two weekends in a row and have to win two games both. You know, they won three games obviously last weekend but have to win two games at ucla. I think will be.
I think it'll be just a question mark for me but I. Yeah, I will also take you to tsa.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: All right.
We got the Seminoles flying all the way to Corvallis.
This would be a good one.
Two really good shortstops like if you're a fan of really high level shortstop play and there's a couple other room in the tournament like we just talked about. Chawalski, Arkansas's got the alloy kid who's amazing. Just a super fun kid to watch play. But you got the Arcad kid and you got the LOI. Mr. Lodi set at Florida State.
There's some star power in this.
I think this weekend losing game one we talked about it is Oregon State can have a little bit of a hangover. They hadn't played in a couple weeks.
I think they knocked off the rust.
They lost game one. Looked like it pissed them off and they kind of just buried people the rest of the regional.
I like this Florida State team but I, I think, I think the Beavers are going to be a little bit too much for them. I think Oregon State gets back to the College World Series.
They've been there quite a few times, got a couple national championships in that building.
So I'm going to, I'm going to take the Beavers here. I think.
I think Florida State had a tough draw flying across the country, which I do think is a little bit of a factor.
Although I do believe they had to do it in the ACC this year. I think they can't remember if they had to play Cal or Stanford, but they've done a trip similar.
But I'm gonna take the Beavers.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's a good point. I think it's, you know, I think flying across the country is a huge, you know, disadvantage and again they you know, you make your bed, you got to sleep in it. So they weren't a national seed. So this is who you got paired up with, and that's what you got to go with.
Link's been there.
Link's been Omaha.
I think that the schedule in the accident prepared them for this.
I think they're playing really well. I know they didn't play great the ACC tournament, but I think they're playing really well right now through that regional.
I'm gonna take the Seminoles here on the road to get back to Omaha. I, I think this is a really good regional, though. I think when you look at, like, Tennessee and Arkansas and you look at this one like you want, you want to really lock in and you want to hope for Monday, like, I think these could be two really, really, really good ones.
I'm just going to take Florida State because I think that might be a little bit tougher.
Maybe not fair enough.
[00:42:35] Speaker B: Actually, that's an interesting point about Link.
He took Notre Dame and Florida State. But the other thing is I'm pretty sure he played in a World Series when he, when he was at, when he played at Florida State.
He's got to be one of the few guys that is both played and coached, never mind played and then coached two different programs as the head coach to the World series. I think Mr. O' Connor, who's now the head coach at Mississippi State, I believe he played in a World Series at Creighton.
[00:43:08] Speaker A: Might be right. I'm not sure about that back in.
[00:43:10] Speaker B: The day, which I don't know if we have enough time to talk about that coaching change. It seems to have turned the, the college baseball world upside down. But Mississippi State spared no penny and they went after as good of a, as good of a college baseball coach as there's ever been.
And they, they pulled them away from Charlottesville and they got him down to Starkville and strap in, baby.
They're probably going to get, they're probably going to be in the conversation to win a national title pretty quick if, if they're able to do what I think we're all, all know that, that that staff is capable of doing down there. So that'll be, that'll be interesting.
[00:43:58] Speaker A: Know when we tell. It's like this is, this is exactly what we want, right? Like anyone who coached, anyone who, you know, did this for a living, this is what we wanted. And is it, is there going to be some ramifications for that? And you know, Coach Lamone is getting, you know, let go mid year yes. Like, there are going to be certain things that are going to not look the same as it did when, you know, we all started and. But I, you know, I turn on my TV the other night on Sunday, and there's five networks that are hosting regional games.
Watch it, guys. Watch it to there. It's here.
It's phenomenal. But this is what we wanted, you know, and Brian o' Connor is going to have a huge number in front of his salary, and, you know, Max going with him and Coach Kirby's going with him. And it's a great thing to see that, that we can sit and talk about this stuff, you know, on a. On a Tuesday about the regionals and talk about, you know, having five networks host games and et cetera, et cetera. Like, it's a good thing, man. Like, enjoy it. Like, this sport's phenomenal. Like, it's the best. Like, just. Just enjoy it.
[00:45:28] Speaker B: Well said.
Anything else you want to add? Any closing thoughts outside of the ones you just provided.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: On my soapbox there? So I think I'm good.
[00:45:40] Speaker B: Yeah. A lot of good baseball this weekend.
Tune in.
It's fun.
It's really good baseball.
Be a fun weekend. We're gonna find out how many we got wrong. I think we're gonna get 100%.
One of us got it. Get 100%.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: Combined, we might get 100.
[00:46:02] Speaker B: We'll. We'll rehash this after the weekend with Coach Glass will join us. We'll get his thoughts, and we'll.
We'll see who's gonna match up in Omaha. Should be a good weekend.
All right, well, thank you for listening, everybody. Tune in next week.
Talk to you then.
Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts as well, well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MD Baseball. If you want to find out what me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.
