SPEAKER_00 0:39

Welcome to the Lucky Finn Inning. This is a five arms and Lucky Finn podcast show for college baseball. We'll try to make it quick today. We know a lot of college basketball is going on. And speaking of college basketball, make sure y'all check out our episode coming out, I'm pretty sure tomorrow. The boys are recording tomorrow for the uh well, they were in the second, third round of college basketball.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Second round, round of 32.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Round of 32. Uh and uh our first college baseball episode. Um, and I think we are definitely in the about the second week of conference play, some good games this weekend. Uh we'll hit up about Paul Maneri getting fired already and players of the week. Uh so let's start off. We'll start off with our um we'll start off with the games of the week. Uh going through um the midweeks. So we got a lot of we talk about do midweek games matter? I mean, there's a lot of a lot of upsets over the weekend. I really don't want to call them upsets because I mean these midweek games you kind of start throwing your random guys out there, and and uh I think it's really good to see. Um so we've got uh Southeastern over Oklahoma. Uh our guy Blaze Blaze that y'all interviewed. You want to talk about Blaze for a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Yeah, Blaze Priester. We saw I saw the highlight the other day, hit a big home run in this game. Uh, it's great to see them beat uh beat Oklahoma 3-0, even though uh the Tigers uh didn't fare too well against Oklahoma during the weekend. But it's cool to see Blaze get a go three for three. Uh it's he's a catcher, so it's good to see him get a triple and a home run. So he was only a double shy of the cycle, so that's really cool to see.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yeah, we got Tarleton State over Texas. Texas got a big uh uh sweep over, well, not a sweep, excuse me. Uh took the series over we'll get into that. Yeah, we'll get into that. That was a really good series. Um and Campbell, man. Campbell seems to be on the run right now. Did they run rule duke? You got run rule duke, eight innings. They did run rule, yeah. They had the they get into the ninth. Yep. Ace that is the ACC's gonna be really good at this year in baseball. They've and it's kind of uh there's a there's a nice split between I'm seeing the top maybe top ten and that the end of the top 25. They're kind of uh uh ull and and um oh and got a win this week over Georgia. I think they won the series over Georgia.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

So uh no, no, Georgia won. 2-1, I believe. Okay, well, I think AM AM won today. A M won tonight. Yes, and they put they put a lick on them. I think it was 17 to 6 when I stopped watching or stopped to see in the score. But also, you were talking about the ACC. I mean, uh it was only a few years ago, right? Where we saw four ACC four SEC teams in the in the college world series, and we wondered is this the end for the for the smaller conferences, and is the ACC and SEC gonna pull away. And it's cool to see a midweek game of two SEC of an SEC versus ACC team. We got Auburn versus Georgia Tech, and Auburn took them down nine to two. So that's uh it's a good one to see.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

That's a really good that I love those the little ranked midweek games. I those those are more of those are needed. Uh Oklahoma played at Southeastern this week, which I thought was I think I hope more teams do that. Uh, I don't think LSU they went to Southeastern, yeah. They went to Southeastern, which makes sense. I mean, they okay, yeah. Yeah, I'll hop over to LSU on Thursday, so it's a good schedule.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Um, you know, you know, you were talking about the do midweek games matter, right? If we get into that a little bit, uh you were talking about it's great to see a good ranked matchup. That's a three versus five game in the midweek. So here's my thing I didn't see the box score, I don't know who played, right? There's games, there's so many games to catch up on. Yeah, I'm assuming starters played for for both teams in this week, in this game. For that Auburn versus Georgia Tech. I'm assuming. Yeah, and you were talking about do they matter? Well, typically we're gonna see a lot of guys that don't really don't really typically start on the weekends get into these games. You're gonna see a lot of pitching by committee. This is where you get a lot of those guys in that you're not gonna throw much until you get to postseason play, where they have to get innings because you need you need to eat innings, so that's where a lot of these guys are getting their reps because during the weekends you're focused solely on winning. When you get to the postseason, you're solely you a lot of times you're trying to eat up innings for guys that you know normally haven't been pitching much.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

So I mean, and yeah, Jay, Jay, Jay did the same thing this this weekend against Gramblin'. Uh this week against Gramblin. I mean, he threw he was just testing out his arms and who's gonna pitch, and yeah, that's that's gonna be a long process, but and sometimes you're still trying.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

I mean, at this point in the season, you're still trying to figure out who who's even gonna be who is your reliable relievers to come in on the weekends. Yeah, sometimes you figure that out during the week. I mean, it was only a year ago Kasen Evans was the man during the week, uh the midweek games for LSU. Ended up starting a big game in the uh in the college in the either in the college world series or the uh it wasn't the college world series against yeah that early game, that early start game, uh that that was a delayed game. So, you know, it's and now he's the Friday night starter. So it's like it shows how fast that can change for a team and a coach's trust in a in a guy who's pitching really well during the midweek.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

I I let me tell you, I think that's a good segue because uh he is he's on my honorable mention for player of the week, and and he had 15 strikeouts this week uh on on Thursday night, and uh the way LSU's been playing, and I thought, and I helped them get the win over Oklahoma. I mean, the bats came through too, and the bats for LSU right now have just almost been non-existent, and then we're talking about pitching. You get LSU, and I had this issue last year, and that was my worry last year, is after that starting pitcher, it's kind of Jay Johnson's getting his steps in. Uh, he's that man's that man is walking out on the mound so many times. But Kasen came came in through, and he's he is my honorable mention of the week for player of the week. But my player of the week is our boy former LSU Tiger Brady Neal for Alabama. He had a weekend, we'll talk about Florida too in that in that series. Uh Brady went two for three on Friday night. He had RBI two walks. Saturday, three for five, three RBIs, and then today, I mean, absolutely put the slamming the door on Florida. Two for four at batten. He had a huge grand slam, started a whole fiasco, and I think Florida was 23 top, but I don't think Florida's very more than five. Yeah, Florida's got pitching issues, same thing. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Two of the guys I want to I want to highlight this week, a little smaller schools, right? Uh, one of them is the leading nation's leading batting average person, Tanner Malley, uh, for Western Michigan. He went 10 for 19 this week with four walks, seven runs, and an RBI. Uh, he's their leadoff guy, so I don't expect him to get a lot of RBIs, but I expect him to get on base, and that's what he's doing. Contact hitters. Can you uh tell me do you prefer a contact guy who's getting on base or do you want a guy that's hitting just trying to swing for the fences the whole time?

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Uh watching LSU right now, I do not care if the chicks dig a long ball. I mean, I've watched floor I watched the highlights of Florida State and watched the game today and NC State. I I was just enjoying baseball because they were just it was just clean hits. In between the the the shortstop and in third base, a nice ripper into the gap. I mean, it's just clean bite, clean baseball. And yeah, I yeah. I I really don't care about your long ball.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

I mean, and and I think to also add on to that in college baseball, and especially high school into college, I think one of the biggest things is to put pressure on the pitcher. You have to get guys on base, make them look around, make them pitch from the from from the mound. Like, don't let them just go through their wind up, don't let them feel comfortable because we see it all the time. That's where you see a lot of pass balls, that's where you see a lot of wild pitches. Guys get steals. You you're putting pressure on the pitcher at that point, and then they make a mistake, and you can you can get that long ball. But if you're just trying to swing for the fences every time and you're just letting him swing uh pitch out there with nobody on base, they're gonna go through the motions and it's gonna be a lot easier.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Yeah, that's what I saw a lot of that this weekend, and uh tech Texas pretty almost gotten that issue a lot, you know. They they get two outs, and then the next thing you know, the guy's walking two batters, yeah, and it's it's downfill hill from that, and that's and I mean it's easy, it's easy to say because you don't want to, it's like, oh, that's blatantly off. It's I mean, you got you got to pitch right, and and you and I've talked about it, the the the way pitching is, and I don't want to go into that either, and just so inconsistent. So when a pitcher comes in and he's really doing well, I mean, that's like like Alabama, unique Alabama, don't a no-hitter, so and then uh the other player I wanted to highlight, another mid-major from Campbell.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

We were talking about Campbell a little bit during for the midweeks. We'll we'll get into him a little later as well. Joey Morton, first baseman, six for 17, might not look that great, but when I talk about five walks, one double, and two home runs with six RBIs during the week, and your team's going undefeated during the week. That's a that's a huge output from a guy who's uh who you're expecting to get on base and uh bring guys home.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Didn't Campbell make a run a couple I swear they were in the World Series, so they had a good little super regional run a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Ah, they were uh let me let me go look that history.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Go look that up because ah man, I I I love the I really hope. Having Campbell in there is fun, they're in North Carolina, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Oh, I didn't even realize they're the they're not just the yeah, they are in North Carolina, but the fighting cambels.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Oh, the fighting camels.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

They're uh yes, they're in they're in North Carolina, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah, god, that's some good baseball up there. Oh man, that'd be nice to live up in North Carolina. There's a basic college ball everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Oh yeah, you know, and they just switched conferences a couple years ago, too. Yeah, did they they were in the big south for the longest time now? They're in the uh colonial. So I'm trying to find recent records.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

God, I swear they were why I think they're in they were in it. Look, no, they weren't in it.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

You know what? Is it this year? Is it the 2023 season? They were 22 and 5 in conference. I wonder if that was the year. Let me go look.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Yeah, but what you know, while he looks that up, um I wonder what we got some good mid-majors coming up. Uh top 25. Southern Mist is still up there at 12. Um I feel like they lost this week. Coastal Carolina's getting there.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

There you go, Kenny. You were right. It was 2020. They they made uh they made regionals three years in a row, 21, and really four years in a row if you ex uh because COVID year. Yeah, five, five, five years in a row if you exclude the COVID year, 2018, 2019, 2021, 22, 23. And uh that 23 year um, they went two and two and were eliminated by South Carolina. A couple years before that, they were two and two in Starkville and lost to Mississippi State. So I mean, you're getting put in regionals with some tough SEC players, yeah. And you're going two and two. That's not nothing bad to complain about because most likely they're getting put in as a four seed.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

One one of those years, I think it might have got had to be 2023. I mean, they they were the team to look out for. So hopefully they they keep on growing. I mean, I'd love to do that. Looking at that top 25, I I feel like they'll be in it anytime soon because of that after the rank 20, it's kind of a it's gonna be flipping and flopping.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah, and you beat you run rule, Duke, and then you go and beat Coastal Carolina the next day. And we're talking about needing pitching and guys who can pitch for multiple days when you have multiple games in a row and you need to bring in guys who can eat up innings. That tells you that that tells me a lot about your team. If you're able to throw Tuesday, Wednesday, take off Thursday, and then play three more games over the weekend, and you get five, you go five and oh, that's that's that's a great. I don't care if they're a mid-major, that's a great performance.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Yeah. They got they got oh, whoo. Okay, so on Tuesday, they got North Carolina State. They got then they played Carl's Charles College of Charleston, excuse me. Then they got North Carolina midweek, so a tough midweek game. And then they go into country. So that's another ACC opponent the next game. Another ACC opponent, and then they and then they play. Then they got all their conference games. I don't know about all their conference games, but they got tough midweek games.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

That's gonna tell us a lot. That's gonna be a lot of what we're gonna see.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

I mean, they they played, they're playing East, they're they played East Carolina early in the year, and they play them again. That's a good school. Troy, I think, is a good yeah, Troy's a good school. They took uh one out of one out of two on them, but it's not bad.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

I mean, it um I believe to see a lot of those in state in-state schools playing the mid-majors.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Oh, that's what I'm telling you. I bet you the Carolinas are real fun.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Anyway, all right, let's jump into our teams of the week. Do you have a team of the week, Jason?

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Yeah, outside of Campbell, I want to highlight Tarleton State 4-0 on the weekend after a sweep with S SFA. And during the week they took on uh Texas, beat them six to one. So again, do midweek games matter? Probably to Texas, they don't really care. That's a huge win for the Tarleton State program when you're you're going 4-0 and you're sitting at a good record right now and good heading into conference play.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

So yeah, Texas. Uh, that was gonna be my uh game of the week this week. Um, but uh Texas kind of really took care of business. Good little pitchers duel. Uh the first night. The the only reason why they lost is just a little mistake under the glove.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Yeah, yeah, go ahead. You talk about putting pressure on the pitcher that ninth inning for Auburn. Yeah, those fans out in the outfield threw some cans out there, they were going nuts.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

They were they broke a they broke your attendance record this weekend for Auburn.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Man, that that game was so fun to watch. And then we talk about it, right? Your base is loaded, you're down two. There's yeah, I believe there was there was only one out. Was there two outs? I I believe it was either one or two outs. And yeah, regardless, you get a base hit up the middle, and your center fielder is trying to play hero to keep that tying run from scoring. You know that's what he's thinking. He's thinking, I'm gunning this home.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

And if the first baseman cuts it off at the mound, he cuts it off at the mound, but I'm gunning this home, and he tried so hard, and it went right under the glove all the way to the outfield, all the way to the people were people were joking that he's not used to playing on grass, and you know, he's used to playing on dirt over at Texas. Yeah, that they um and it almost happened. Oh, it almost happened again yesterday. Oh, did it? Uh yeah, they they had a I think it was seven to seven to two or something like that. Seven, two. I had it in my notes. I took it off. Seven to two, and they got to the eighth inning, seventh inning, and Auburn put up three more, and it got to six, it got to six, seven, and the I think it was bases loaded again, and the dude struck him out and just and I I believe he struck out looking. I mean, it was it was one of those it's just like dude, what are you looking at?

SPEAKER_01 17:31

But yeah, what do you what are you waiting on?

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Yeah. Uh but no, my my games of the week was uh was uh Alabama and Florida State. Uh Alabama uh they they got swept by Kentucky, and then they lost a midweek game to uh South Alabama, and they they pretty much put the hammer on Florida this weekend. Uh no hitter on Friday night. Um and man, uh Coach Sully looked stressed out. I don't know if you saw the we'll talk about Paul later, but you remember when Paul used to get stressed out and how he would look out, look at look like in the dugout? I mean just defeated like you almost felt bad for the poor man. Yeah, that Sully was on the sideline like hat on, taking a bit deep, deep breath, and and and he and he was out of the season at the uh early on.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Remember, he had taken his leave of absence before the season started during the yeah, I was in the winter.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

I actually like yeah, I was actually surprised. I thought he like left, I thought he left. And yeah, no, he just he just took a leave of absence.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

But okay, I thought he was done after that. That that man, I hope he's all right. Like, you know, I hope he's good physically. I hope he's feeling okay. I mean, if you're coming back, you're you're you gotta be in a in a right mindset, and yeah, that's gotta be that's gotta be stressful to see. But uh, shout out that no hitter, right? Tyler Faye. Oh, yeah. That's that's 13 strikeouts. He he pitched the whole game. 100 plus pitches. Yeah, 13 strikeouts, 132 pitches. That is in that is insane.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

What what are you what are your opinions on the the the pitch count? Because I I'm starting to believe that I think the sport science and stuff and how they're pitching, and I think they're capable of doing long going long innings now. I mean, I I don't I think it's I think it's much easier on the body than it used to be because I you see it more and more often.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

And and I think a lot of the you don't really trust the guys behind you to come in, but yeah, I I think I think the other thing about it is teams are so analytics focused, and analytics will tell you hey, this guy when he gets about seven innings, he starts getting tired and starts to not pitch as well. But that doesn't tell the whole story. That's not always, first of all. Second of all, you don't know who's good who's able to come in behind them. The game situation matters. There's and not saying that analytics doesn't pick that up, but the analytics necessarily doesn't pick up every variable. There are human, there's still a human element to everything we do. And I'm with you. I I think guys used to throw so many more pitches than they do now, but I think the difference is guys are trying to throw as hard as they can, or like it feels like every pitch some of these guys are throwing as hard as they can rather than trying to find a placement, which I think wears you down a lot faster, and I think that's why we see some guys not get in, uh not stay in as long as they used to. But hey, 132 pitches, 13 strikeouts. That's no hitter. I mean, I'm I'm leaving the guy in. I mean, I we've seen guys, uh, this was in the major leagues, but there was a guy a few years ago, he had a no-hitter going into the ninth inning and got the first out, gave it and then gave up a hit, and then gave up a home run or something something like that. He blew he blew his he blew the no-hitter in the ninth inning. Yeah, so I mean, it can happen, and then you could blow the game. I believe it was like you know, it could be a 1-0 game. You're putting yourself in a tough position.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah. And the uh we're talking talking about we'll we'll hit on pitching on that game alone. So this uh I'm talking about like throwing as hard as you can. The the trash talking of pitchers, too. I understand it sometimes, sometimes I freaking love it, but sometimes they as a pitcher, I feel like and this is coming from a perspective of a pitcher, and I wasn't that great, but you need a sense of calm up there, and sometimes they get out of. A jam. I mean, yeah, they they're pumping, but I feel like you got you need to have some kind of calmness of your heart rate. And I saw Florida just collapse today because of that, where you're like staring down and almost walking him to the dugout on your own, and then a few batters later, you give up this monster grand slam, and you've kind of just completely lost your game there.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

So what and at that point, your your defense is looking at you, right? You're the you're the you're the guy with the ball. Yeah, so you're gonna run into that issue too. A couple other teams I want to highlight. Notre Dame sweeping Clemson this weekend. Yeah, it's a big one. We'll get into a pitching performance from that later. Uh Texas State sweeping UL Fiet, a ranked UL Fiet team. I mean, this is a UL Lafayette team that beat LSU earlier in the year. Uh you know, they're flying high. Sunbelt's gonna be a good conference, I think. Uh, but Texas State getting that sweep is huge. And uh, who else do you have, Kenny?

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Uh I'll do we'll do the segue. Uh Arkansas taking putting a beat down on South Carolina, but not today. Not today. After Paul left, I guess there's a little well, they lost yesterday, but South Carolina took the dub. Jason, I I I don't want to go deep into Paul. I we're kind of running out of time here, but uh I think from the perspective of as an LSU fan, and honestly, even when they hired him, even all the LSU fans were really did knew it was a bad hire. And I feel bad for the man. Uh I don't know what South Carolina was doing. And I love South Carolina, I want them to be good at baseball. I enjoyed them winning in in 2010 and stuff. To see them hire Paul was a little questionable.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Yeah, for a program like you were mentioning, when one back-to-back national championship, and I believe they're the last team to win back-to-back national championships in baseball. Uh it's very interesting to grab a guy who's been who was out of coaching for a couple years. I mean, that you're almost you're almost feeling a little blindsided, like as a as a fan of of college baseball in general. You're you're you're a little blindsided. It's an interesting hire to bring a guy back who you felt like was off into the sunsets in retirement, you know, he won a national title at his last job, uh, kind of struggled down the stretch uh his last couple seasons at LSU. And then to make that hire at South Carolina, I don't know if it was meant to be like a hey, you know, we're gonna bring this guy in. He has a he has a good track record, maybe he can get our program back on track. He has the he has the ability to build the brands, but but but even then it looked weird.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Yeah, it it looked weird, but at the same time, he Paul was pretty much past the level of baseball, like way before he retired at LSU. And like that Tennessee game, I I can't watch the Tennessee game, and I that Tennessee fans saying they retired him, and just the look on his face, like it's it's like feeling bad for an old man. And the game was way past Paul, and reading comments in South Carolina. I guess that was I guess the AD or somebody there had close ties with Paul. That's why he brought in. So it and this was you know, South Carolina's coming to LSU this year, so that was kind of a bummer not to have him there for that.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

So yeah, it's also tough to see his last game there. I mean, be like a 22 to what four, 22 to 6 down. I mean, that's a it's a sour taste, you know.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Yeah, yeah, I feel bad for him, but um yeah, I hope he finds something else to do. So well, Jason, you got anything else? Um, yeah, we weren't long, but yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Yeah, just I want to highlight a couple pitching performances from the week because you know, definitely some guys that maybe don't get a lot of recognition, and I do want to give it to him. Uh, first off, we got Ethan Lay, South Sacramento State, threw eight innings, one hit, no runs on 83 pitches. That is efficiency. That's great. 83 pitches. That's a great game. Uh, I also want to highlight uh Caden Hildeberger. Uh, he's from Bryant. He threw six innings, gave up a home run in the first, and talk about bouncing back 5.1 no hit innings post-that. And that's that's a guy who gave up a gave up a home run early, and you come back and bounce back with five five plus no-hit innings. We'll take that. Um, couple other guys, Aiden Donovan from Michigan State threw seven innings, one walk, five hits, and a hundred pitches. That's uh pretty efficient. Uh, and a bit another big one outside of we already mentioned Alabama's no-hitter. So the last one I want to mention is Jack Radell. Uh, Notre Dame threw a complete game shutout, four hits, no walks against Clemson, and part of that sweep against Clemson, who are 117 pitches. I mean, this is another great performance. Uh, this guy is a guy who earlier in the season uh put retired 38 straight across a couple games. So, you know, he's gonna be a guy to watch as we go down the stretch for Notre Dame if they can make it into the postseason. I I think he could he could make some marks.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Uh speaking of pitching, we gotta watch. We we have totally ignored the West Coast, but USC has got a great pitching staff this year, and they look good. Yeah, it I think they need to be bumped up. I think they're a little too low. They are yeah, they're 13. Yeah, I don't think they need to be 13, and I think with and and they went, uh, didn't they go undefeated this week? Five and a week, yeah, and they switched Washington this week. Yeah, they they put a good beating on up on Washington. They got some good pitching, so watch out for them. I think it's kind of cool to have uh USC back, you know. That's kind of a I don't want them winning nothing, but I'll give you a it's good to see the West Coast ball.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

I mean, remember the days where Cal State Vullerton and Pepperdine were like making the postseason, uh Cal Poly, like those those teams, man. It's it's it's good to see UCLA and USC starting that trend back up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Well, I think that's pretty much it from us. Uh, I know we were gonna try to keep it short and cool short and sweet, um, just so we can get into college baseball. And and again, make sure y'all like, share, subscribe, give us a review, comment, and also check out our college baseball and college basketball reviews. Um, and that's it. Peace out, guys. See ya.