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Welcome to the Five Bombs and the Light Man podcast. I am your only host today, Kenneth Hillier. Jason is on his honeymoon, and we will let him do honeymoon. We will let him talk any college baseball. I'll try to tell him not to, especially during this week. So I'm solo. Honestly, the worst time to be solo because it is conference tournament week where the Feral Children of Hoover, Alabama come out of nowhere, and some random team shows up and takes a spot from somebody who's probably been the conference favorite all week. I don't know who that was going to be. Jason and I have already picked our conference winners, and we'll talk about that towards the end of the show, but we want to kind of recap week 14 really quick. And then the uh we really wanted to see how Georgia Tech played. Georgia Tech played really well, of course. Uh gosh, trying to do this solo. They played Boston College this week. Weekend, uh we'll look at TCU and West Virginia. USC Oregon, that was probably one of the biggest hype games over the week. Um, and just the way that kind of played out pitching-wise. Um, I mean, the game spoke for itself about how honestly evenly matched both of the teams are. Excuse me, there'll be a lot of skews of me. Uh a little bit disappointed in Auburn this weekend. Uh, I mean, that's a really tough game against Georgia. Auburn's got a lot to figure out, and then we'll jump into Coastal Carolina. Who are they right now? I mean, there's uh there's some rumors in the air. Again, USL is a pretty good team, but today coastals dropped in the last couple series and haven't looked great. But uh let's jump into our review of our just mainly our predictions. Uh I had Georgia Tech sweep, but I'll take that as a big dub. Uh Boston College really didn't have a chance to speak. That Georgia Tech team is so good. I mean, they are so dominant. Uh take take McKee. I mean, one hit across seven scoreless innings of work. I mean, the guys absolutely insane. I think Georgia Tech's probably one of the most solid teams out there right now. Um, but you know, the pitching staff dominated, of course. Um, Georgia Tech's pitching, they they're I guess after their after their first three, they they're they're all different. They're all kind of different guys, but they've got a plan that works. So I think that's what helps. Um now, Boston College needs to find different ways to get back in the dugout. I mean, that's another issue. But the the good thing about both teams, they have a double buy. Um, Georgia Tech is the number one seed, Boston College is the fourth seed. We'll we'll see how this plays out for them. Um Georgia Tech, I think, is pretty set. Uh that winning this thing, not winning the thing, I don't think. I mean, let's say let's say that not winning the thing won't hurt them as much. Um I think Georgia Tech is set. We'll see what Boston College is. I mean, they're we're look they're probably looking at a two-seed uh in the tournament. Uh moving on, TCU, West Virginia. Um, I think this was a game for Jason and I keep an eye on how TCU is. Um TCU just they definitely have a lot of issues. They struck out a lot this weekend, left a ton of guys on base. I mean, if you look at the scores, scores here 2-0, 4-0, 4-6, uh Jason and I both had West Virginia. So um what was great about this week, looking at Jason and I's scores, we were very I mean, some of them, like let's say Coastal Carolina and uh Louisiana Lafayette. I mean, I I kind of feel dumb for picking coastal sweeping. I mean, US uh excuse me, ULL is an up-and-coming team. And but other than that, uh moving on, I want to talk too big because I really want to get into the conference tournament plays. Um let's talk to USC and Oregon. That was probably the that was an incredible game to watch. Uh wife and I watched the that was the third game, so that was a Sunday night. I think USC and Oregon were the only schools that played, I think Sunday night. Everyone pretty much started on started on a Thursday night. Um so USC's gonna drop two of these three to Oregon, and they were both wild series. Um both of them, they've got I mean, they're both even matched. We I talked about the even match. Uh they're number two and three in ERA. So you're gonna see the low-scoring game like they did. I mean, two one, three, four, and that five-six game was we'll get talked to that. Um, that's towards the end. That was their last game. And you'll see this throughout all of the games and throughout the season. And I think you're I think tournament time, you'll really see it. The first couple innings for like almost majority of these series this weekend. And I think the writing was on the wall too, because L Shu had this problem, and kind of they still have, even when they won in 2023 and last year. Dude, people just give up a ton of runs of the first inning. Like, that's the if you get out of that first inning, your pitcher kind of shows up and does what he needs to do, or he settles in after the second inning, you're talking of great performance probably coming out of your pitching staff. So same thing happened over the weekend with both teams. I mean, pitchers get settled in after the second or third inning. Um, and that's kind of what happens here. Now, I think a good thing, and you'll see, and I will I'm gonna hit on this, and Jason and I will definitely hit on it when he ends up coming back. This tournament, the tournament time, you're gonna be seeing like who is the dominant force on besides the starting three. You're gonna need to rely on the guys who are don't pitch that much, or you know, you're just you're the middle relief, you're gonna probably have some closures coming in. Um, I'm sure a few teams, and I'm bringing this up because in game three, uh, excuse me, Oregon and both USC, they just had to let their bullpen kind of go deeper into the innings. Uh, closer for Oregon, Devin Bell, he's pushed into extra innings. See, that's a season, that was a season high for him. Seven strikeouts in four innings. That's his longest outing. Um now, I noticed it got to the point where USC and Oregon were not playing their game. They weren't playing their game for the last couple of innings, and that and that is that small ball mentality. Now, Oregon ended up switching to it. Like I think Oregon was getting to the point where they're done. Yeah, I mean, like four or five, six innings, there was nothing. It was just pitch and duel, pitch and duel, pitch and duel. So uh Oregon ends up a nice little sackbunt to win it. But and and I you don't want to blame the umpire, you really don't. And I think USC really needed to. There was a cool, questionable zone at the end of the game. It was it was questionably low. Now I'm saying questionably, and the announcers hit it off well too. You have to protect the plate. At some point, you are you really need your IP RPI to go up, and you need a little bit better seating into the tournament. Now, USC's four, and I'm that might have been standard coming in. I don't think how much that would have played out. But they they needed to attack the zone, and they did, and I think it it cost them a lot, but who knows? Uh, look, they got a tough tournament, this single elimination, kind of, I guess, how the SEC did it a couple years ago. But um, we'll jump into Georgia and Auburn. Um, Georgia kind of just they kind of took this this whole series away, except for that final game. Now, uh, the final game, you you could really do a toss-up because Wes Johnson um he he said he was just really just putting in guys to haven't it played in a while, hit in a while. Because again, you you're coming up, like I said, you're coming up on conference play, you're coming on like conference tournament. You got to get guys in there who uh the the these conference game series tournaments are hard. I mean, you got a long, long day. So um yeah, uh what the 14-4 was the final for game three. Um Kate uh Kate Naloki did he it was his first loss of the season, not a great start. Um but I again I think Wes Johnson just he he put in guys and he haven't played in a while. Um now to Auburn's thing. Um Auburn, I've been high on Auburn all year, and they I think they just have a they're you know their own base percentage doesn't help. So that's probably not why you're getting some of these runs in. Uh your pitching staff is great. Um, I think a little bit deeper into their kind of running that issue, but your starting pitchers are great enough. Your hitting is just not in the timely manner to get into it. And when you are not, I mean, you're looking at the the uh I believe when you're looking at the hitting uh numbers in the SEC, I believe they're up there. It might be just Georgia. Let me look really quick, man. This is hard when you don't have a side uh almost said side piece. That is not a way you want to say this. But um let me go look team batting here. I believe no, they are not. But that see, that's the thing, and I think that's the only thing that's really stopping Georgia from I mean Auburn from really taking it is just that you know their hitting is isn't that great. But um, I'm almost kind of midway. We're gonna speed this up. Uh how about Ole Miss. Well, who is Ole Miss? Ole Miss is it's so confusing to me. They got they got three quality starters, but like how long can they go for? Um Hunter Elliott, Kate Townsend, um they're they're all capable of going long, giving them competitive outings, but it's who's coming after who's in that that after relief. And if I'm on this, look, I'm I'm I'm playing for to figure that out. You gotta play to figure that out this weekend, this entire week. Um and like I've I've hit before, Death Euthorse is just a big part of the college game right now. There's just not a lot of death. And um who knows? Um, Ole Miss is that's gonna be one of their things to figure out over the weekend. Alabama's great. Uh I think Alabama's just a standard team that's also finding their stride. Great city, and because of this, they earned the fourth seed in the SEC tournament. So the only other game, and I think this was honestly a surprise at Jason. Both Jason and I now I should have known better to at least get Lafayette a um a win this series, but to for Colston to lose the series, uh USL, it's not helping. But I mean they dropped to 24 um after the the the this loss. Um's gonna move up eight RPI spots, and they're looking really well. We'll we'll see how this how the conference tournament plays out for them. Um now we got rumors circulating around, and and I'm wondering if this is maybe this might be affecting the players because honestly, even what even watching them, they just they kind of remind me of the way they looked when LSU played them in the in the in the finals last year. They don't look confident, they really don't look confident. They they they kind of look like they something is a hundred percent missing. And Kevin Chenal is rumored to be the probably the next uh head coach of South Carolina. Um, which sucks is I'm gonna end up having to like South. I hate sorry, I like South Carolina other way around. I'm gonna have to hate them. I don't I really don't like Kevin's and all that whole little blowout in the first inning. Okay. I don't care if the that's off topic. We're not gonna go there, but um yeah. Coastal Carolina has just turned sour. I mean, I think that's the only way we can really put it there. But uh we'll we'll we'll we'll check in some other games. Um take a little pause really quick. All right, let's talk about some other games. UTSA and UAB. Honestly, what the hell is the American Conference? I mean, for real. Who do we even trust at this point? UTSA. I mean East Carolina is the regular season champions. Actually, no, no, they they they shared it. So that tells you everything you need to probably know about the American, and when we get into that, uh that thing is still up in the air. Um no one has really taken dominance of that. Uh Miami uh loses a series to Florida State, but um Miami's got a great record. Uh Miami's got a great record, but uh they've got a bullpen issue too. Uh they just can't seem to close out games. Um they keep the game tight, but it's not really helping them. And honestly, not very confident thing to be having going into tournament time. I think they're having the same issue as old miss. I think um depending how you go into this, I think you kind of just want to test some waters. Um you're in the tournament, uh uh you're a two-seed, so it may I don't think a bad weekend would hurt. Um if you have a bad weekend, you're still you're still looking at a uh being in a regional. Um Miami's a fifth seed in the ACC tournament, and they're gonna wait the winner of Cal and Stanford. I think that's a single elimination tournament. So, you know, have fun. Cal and Stanford for losing one game and having to go all the way back to the other side of the country. Um Mercer in uh East Tennessee. Um, I have no idea why I did not have Mercer sweeping. I think this was probably one of my dumbest picks this entire week. Um Mercer's so here's here's what Jason and I were kind of hitting at this week. Let's say Mercer does not win the SoCon. Does Mercer get into the into this into the tournament? I say yes. And I say yes because I don't believe now Kentucky's uh I think Kentucky's one of our bubble teams. There's a couple bubble teams. I think Mercer is a little bit way more deserving to than Kentucky. I've got beef with Kentucky. Now you see they they lost their series, but I mean two close ones. But still, I mean I think Mercer just has a better I don't think their strength of schedule is as equal as Mercer. I think I think Kentucky might be a little bit higher in RPI. I'm not gonna bother to look that up right now, but I think for Kentucky's conference schedule, I mean record. I don't know, it's hard to say that off the top of my head. But I I do believe Mercer is should be in no matter what. But they still need to put up a good fight in this in this in this conference tournament. If they don't, you're really on the bubble. But um, they easily sweep the series. Um uh Braden Kersey, I guess that's how you say it, earned player of the week. He's batting 350, 25, 21 home runs, 66 RBIs. And he he's their closer too. He's got five saves, 24 strikeouts, and 19 innings of work. So look, that's that's a look, if you got guys who could do two-way, I mean, that's good for your bullpen. And their bullpen looked really good against Georgia Tech. I mean, I'll I'll take that as as a as a team that is well put together, well structured, and well focused. Um now I forgot to say this in my notes. Actually, it's right here. Starting about the uh UTSA game. Um shout out to uh Greg Luca, uh Greg Luca at Yahoo Sports. Um UTSA's got a little bit of an emotion problem. He said they they are emotionless assassins, or they got the junkyard uh junkyard dog mentality. Jason and I have hit multiple times like this, and that's the state of college baseball, and we've seen a lot of talk about chirping. Like, what what is my issue with the chirping, and it looks like this seems to be the situation. I mean, they got an altercation. The UTSA coaches got an altercation last week or this week. Um is like you gotta back it up. Like it it and it's it's just it's to me it's stupid in in some regard because now in the first inning, I think in the first couple innings, like oh yeah, you you know, like in hockey. They say set the tone. You gotta set the tone. So if you don't set the tone early, then you know you you get down. But and I've seen it in this, I think Texas was playing Florida last year and had this incident. Well, you're down 6-0. And you're choking on a ball four, dude. You are down 6-0. Now, I don't know if that's UTSA's issue, but 19 to 9, and then you go and lose 23 to 11. Like you got focus issues, and that's even what this NRC energy interview said, he's they got focus issues. You know, they they're they're fielding as bottom third in in fielding position uh percentage. So you know, the uh if you don't have focus, you got focus issues, straight up. I I take that as you do not belong in the tournament. Yeah, you know, well, I mean, I think American conference there, that conference where you gotta win, you're you're winning. I think they're a one-bid conference, so I think they're set in stone. Um, but if you see Jason and Jason takes one game out of me. Um I think the I don't believe I updated. Okay. I did have a I put myself as a zero for the ULL game earlier, so Jason corrected me on that. But let's move on to some more notable games. All right, let's talk about some other notable games. Um I I want to hit on the um let's hit on these conference tournament games already. So um there are already three conference tournaments going on. Um, that would be the Southland Conference. Let me move this to the side so I can read it a little bit easier. So I'll be looking up though. Um Southland Conference is on uh Ivy, Ivy League is done. Yale is gonna take the Ivy League. Um seven to five. Uh Patriot League is still going on. They just finished it. They were the one game today. Um, Holy Cross 11 to 2. Army and Navy. I don't I that's two teams Jason and I were rooting for. That did not pan out, but I think Bucknell was even the favorite at the beginning of the year. And so I think that worked out as it was. Uh man, disappointed at Southeastern. Uh and honestly, that's a tough road of that that Southland conference. That's that's a tough tournament. I mean, it's just long. I think that's what it is. I mean, that that does I think the finals are best two out of three, too. So I mean, they they started early, um, which makes a ton of sense of how um But I don't know. I'm disappointed. We were both high on Southeastern to make a decent run and uh to make for McNeese to come out of nowhere and kind of steal that away from us. Uh kind of sucks. I'll I'll be honest with that. Um, Michigan, I think Michigan's done. I think Michigan needs to be out. Uh, I don't think they're even on the fence, more or less a bubble. Um, they lost a series to Ohio State. I got Ohio State. Let's watch for Ohio State. Um, I've been wanting to say this earlier. You got to take all these series with uh uh a grain of salt. Again, baseball, baseball, anybody can beat anybody. This is, and you'll see my philosophy later on when kind of break in when I go into our tournament brackets um and who we got. Um Pit's tumbling down. They lost this. Um, I don't think I updated that correctly. Yep, I did not update that. Uh Pitt lost, I think they lost, they definitely lost a series to uh Notre Dame. Mayo Mihalio is gonna clinch the uh the Mac. Um Southern Miss is the regular uh season Sunbelt champs. Um, I think they're an under-the-radar team, uh just because um I think they've kind of handled the Sunbelt pretty well. So no one's really talking about them yet. I think they're everybody's kind of waiting until we get to this, these regionals. Um, they're above Oregon State. Um, we project them being an eight seed, eight number uh number eight host. Um seven and five quad wins. I think I drank too much water. Uh seven seven and five in quad one wins. Uh great road and away record. Um, I think I think Southern Miss is pretty good. Uh Oregon State got uh series against uh Air Force. Um we're we're still we're still trying to figure out. We're still trying to figure out that Oregon. I don't trust them at seven. We have them as like a I think a 13 seed um uh hosting. Um, but uh I have uh let's talk about the swack really quick. I don't have them on here. Uh Southern's getting hot. Southern's getting really hot, and we're you know, we're both from Baton Rouge, so so I say Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, I don't have that accent. I can't believe I even bothered to say that. Uh Southern's getting hot. They're on a six-game win streak. They did they did sweep like second to last place Alabama AM, but um but that is about it. Um, let's I think um other than that, uh besides uh Tennessee's getting hot. I think Tennessee's up in rankings now. Tennessee is where are they at? Where are they at? Um I mean, of course, top 20, they're 23. So out of that, um so it's USC 25, Colton Carolina 24, Tennessee 23. Um, yeah, Tennessee is the team that moves up in the rankings. Uh a lot of questions around Oklahoma. I think this SEC tournament is they gotta, they gotta show out big time. If I I don't I wouldn't have them in the tournament, I really wouldn't, because I'm gonna be really strong on the SEC. I think if you're gonna be a team, a conference that's gonna talk a lot about your RPI, your certain schedule, um, and you can't do well in the SEC play. I'm sorry. You just I don't think you deserve to be in. Um I I think Jason would argue against that, but um I I don't find Oklahoma being a very good team to to uh to be in a in a in a regional, maybe a three-seed at best. People will argue a two-seed. I think a three-seed's good. I think a three-seed's good for him, but um anyway. Uh let's get into the nitty-gritty. We'll try to hit this quick because I mean it it is a lot. Um we'll get into the uh conference championship games. Uh Jason and I are completely different. Um, anything in blue is what we're different on. I think um, of course, um Georgia Tech, um, we have them both winning the ACC. Um, I think Georgia Tech's got a lot to play around with in that conference game uh tournament. And that's how this I'm gonna say it just right off the bat. I think this is where I'm going into my philosophy for these conference champions. Um for some of the like I guess higher, I guess mid-majors, that's a mid-major point you really want to say. And um I think my main thing was is uh like who who one of the there's always a small school that kind of just pops out. Um I got Oklahoma State taking the Big 12, and I that that's only because I I think West Virginia has they're set. I think if you're you know set for a tournament and you um I mean you're excuse me, you're set to host in a regional. I think you got I think you got some wiggle room. You got some wiggle room to kind of just figure out some kinks here and there in your tournament and kind of get some arms warmed up and kind of let the other guys um use some arms if you if you have to. Um I'm wondering if also UCLA is one of those teams. Um now I think conference used, I think that's kind of interesting for Jason and I. I got Jackson's Jacksonville State winning. He's got Louisiana Tech. I don't disagree with Louisiana Tech winning. I think Louisiana Tech's a great team. Um I think Jacksonville State's kind of taken on further and beyond than they have. I mean, they're an absolutely monster hitting team. Um, great pitching staff. Um Big West, I think that's a toss-up. I have Santa Barbara. I mean, is Santa Barbara now ranked? Is Santa Barbara up here? Why do I keep on thinking? I thought I saw them up in this top 25. Maybe that was last week. Or does Diamond have them? Somebody has them up anyway, off topic. Um Jason's got Cal Poly. Um God, we're so different. Mac, Miami, he's got Kent State. I think that'd be a good toss-up. I wouldn't be surprised in either one of these. Um I'm taking Indiana State. I think um not too familiar with Murray, but you know, Jason and I have talked about Indiana State a bunch. Um now, I think what's interesting here, and I think a lot of people point that out, I have Southern coming out with the SWAC championship. Uh, I'm sorry, Bethune Cookman. Um, Southern softball team was unbelievable, unbelievable run. It just unfortunately lost. And don't get to go to the conference and uh into the uh regionals. So I'm gonna take that as Southern is gonna do the same thing to Bethune. I think Southern, because they're on a 16 winning streak. No, again, they lost, they they won a series against Alabama. And him, I have Southern coming up and showing out for the SWAC tournament and making an upside and getting into a regional. So Southern, don't let me down. Okay, don't let me down. Um, SEC. I think I'll hit on the SEC more because I think I've come I'm a little bit more familiar with the SEC play. Um, this is probably one of everyone's favorite tournaments. I mean, this this is I think this is gonna be a lot to show. Jason has AM. I have Texas, and I think it's funny about that because both pitching staffs are questionable. And AM's got some injuries. Uh Texas also has some injuries. Rio Haas is uh, I think he only faced one batter this week. Um, so he's got some issues. So uh man, it's it's it's and be I don't think there's a true expert on the SEC tournament because every year like a team like Vanderbilt shows up and just wins the conference championship. So and I I think the reason why is you're really a lot of the other teams, you're kind of just testing your pitching. Uh I mean, I'm wondering if Georgia might pull the same thing this week. Um just kind of test more of your waters. Um, get your get your open guys, get your weekday starters to start some games. Um, different, different format this year. Thank God. I mean, it was stupid that you're a number one seed and you're automatically in single elimination. But um, excuse me. Um, oh, I forgot Jason left me some notes. So I'll kind of go over his notes. Uh, so I will be reading. Um Jason says, Big West, uh, anyone uh but Santa Barbara winning uh kind of just steals a bill uh uh a bubble. Um I think that's that's a given. Um in the fun belt, he said uh both ULL and Texas State. I think that's a bubble seats possible. I don't know about Texas State. I'll be on the fence with Texas State. Um I think they're kind of that they're unpredictable too. Um we um I think ULL is probably that I think they're the second bid in the in the in the fund belt. Um Ohio Valley, uh SEMO, um, Eastern Illinois, um, all those teams. I mean, I think it I think that's up for grabs, but at least like four teams. Um we we talked about Mercer in the SoCon. Uh again, we both kind of believe that I we believe if Mercer does not win this conference tournament, it it might just be Wafford. Wafford will get the bid or or or Western Carolina or Western Carolina, but we think Mercer probably deserves a bid. Now, again, like I said later, earlier, it depends on how they do. Um Jason's good point here in the American. Did UTSA put themselves on the bubble with the loss and how they lost? Um and how well do we need to see them? And and does ECU just keep their spot? So after American, uh, he says conference USA's got three in regardless. I agree. Um, he says Dallas Baptists or Louisiana Tech. Dallas Baptist had a good showing this week. I'll take Louisiana Tech. Um, and then we both kind of agree on Kentucky. They got to do something or um they should be a little nervous. But I think that's it for this week. Um, it's kind of hard to do this when you're alone, but um I hope I hit the spot. Uh anyway, uh look, the the first game this week. I mean, it's early in the morning. Maybe you are watching it as you are listening. Um, I believe, yep, North Carolina State and Duke will kick it off at 8 a.m. I believe that's my time, which is central. Um, followed by Michigan State and Purdue. Uh Missouri and Ole Miss. Let's put it here. Put it, put it down on the notes. I say Missouri upsets Ole Miss. I'm just I that tournament's weird. The feral children are out. Um, who freaking knows? But yeah, it it's a it's a great time of year. Besides Christmas, this is this is my favorite. Because it's a perfect time because at work, we get to our summer hours, and sometimes they're not so busy days, and I'm just sitting there working and enjoying college basil. So, best time of year. Let us know your thoughts. Uh, like, share, subscribe. Um, let me know how I did solo. Hashtag Jason Carulo. That's it. Uh, this is the Five Arms of the Lucky Ben podcast. Uh, thank you for tuning in, and I'm looking across the screen so I can find my outfit. Peace out.