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A Podcast Dedicated Entirely to NC State Baseball #Pack9
Cal (00:11)
To episode 15 of the Pack Homer podcast brought to you by Waters and Mathis CPAs. If you wanna... Hey. We got some burnouts back here behind me.
I'm on the road tonight. I'm literally sitting by the road, too, but if you want to I lost my spot if you want to run really our s visit WM CPAs calm. It's nice. We got the band back together We got everybody here tonight, and we got a our guest from IPS Alex G. Appreciate you joining us Alex
Alex Gee (00:45)
Always. Especially if we're going to get burnouts in the intro. That was, that was, that's hard to beat. That's tough. That's good.
Wes Wilson (00:48)
Hehehehehe
Cal (00:48)
Gosh, we've been trying to get some background music. We've been trying to get some background music and I guess this guy tried to help us out. They're telling what you might hear. Looks like Wesley's on the road tonight too, but not. Glad to have everybody back together. Packed 29 and 19 after a three in one week where they just beat the bejesus.
Adam Lytch (00:50)
and what it was.
Cal (01:13)
Out of Norfolk State, 18 to nothing in the midweek. You know, I know not a quality opponent, but good to finally win a midweek game. And then last week, I actually made mention that I would take a 2 -1 series win over UVA. And you know, I didn't want to be sitting on pins and needles, but I'd like to see us win a Sunday game. And we did that today. So that was pretty exciting. I'm going to just skip over the midweek game. I feel like we got a lot of things we can talk about tonight.
The midway game was just an 18 -0, it was a beat down versus an inferior opponent, but good to get a win. Actually hurt our RPI, we were hoping it would rain out. What did we fall, guys? Anybody know, did we fall like six spots in the RPI?
Wes Wilson (01:56)
Five or six.
Alex Gee (01:56)
Yeah.
Cal (01:58)
Yeah, 118 to nothing in fell five or six spots. Before we talk about our games, Wesley, or anyone who wants to volunteer and step in, has anybody got to run down on the ACC scores this weekend? Because it's kind of getting real now. We probably can figure it out together. Florida State lost a series to Pitt.
Wes Wilson (02:16)
Georgia Tech overdue.
Alex Gee (02:18)
Also bad.
Cal (02:20)
Miami over Virginia Tech, Wake Swep Clemson, right? Yep. Wake Over Clemson, Miami over Virginia Tech, State of course, over UVA, Carolina Swep Louisville. So we're good.
Adam Lytch (02:21)
Wake over Clemson.
Alex Gee (02:22)
For them, for them.
Wes Wilson (02:38)
Carolina, Carolina over Louisville.
Alex Gee (02:44)
crowded at the top, man. It's crowded.
Cal (02:47)
We got a little madness happening. So in our game, we'll start with game one real quick. We'll run through it. Game one against UVA, you know, really wasn't a pretty start to the game. It was kinda, I mean, Highfield kinda got hit around a little bit early, but then he settled in. He ended up throwing about 102 or four pitches, is that right? He came out in the seventh to start the seventh. I guess the big blow in that game was,
a Butterworth bomb and Me and Adam were talking about that yesterday in the office my man I don't know how much he weighs all 165 pounds of him though. He knew he got every bit of it he could get And a three run blast put us up Got all 365 feet of it
Adam Lytch (03:30)
We got all 365 feet of it.
Wes Wilson (03:35)
I think I tell you what I like the most about the Butterworth home run though is he turned to the dugout and said let's freaking go. It's hitting the ball, you know, I mean that he he was a catalyst for that whole game. Maybe the whole weekend, you know, that's what I liked about that the energy that Butterworth had.
Alex Gee (03:43)
some juice.
Cal (03:48)
Yeah.
And then a big thing in that game and it was kind of funny because we didn't end up needing him. But Jacob Duden came in and I guess I don't know if it goes as counts as a save or not. But anyway, he came in and threw three in as to close out that ballgame. My God, I know we were texting each other. How many freaking sliders did he throw in a row? God, I just get so mad.
Adam Lytch (04:16)
Man. Yeah.
Wes Wilson (04:17)
You
Alex Gee (04:18)
It's definitely his primary pitch.
Cal (04:21)
Yeah, threw a bunch of sliders, but he did go to the fastball in the ninth and it worked. But I mean, I think you do 20 sliders in a row. I really do. And anyway, end up winning that one nine to five got a little insurance late from Pennington. Talk about Pennington a little more guys. Pennington was nine of 13 on the weekend with three home runs and seven RBI's. He hit a home run in every game of the series. Go ahead Adam.
Adam Lytch (04:50)
another one had another one pulled back in.
Cal (04:54)
Yeah. So the guy, you talk about a bat getting hot for you.
Adam Lytch (04:56)
He hit a fourth and he pulled back in.
Cal (05:02)
Talk about a bat getting hot for you and being able to carry you. And then, man, Pennington was really good. Go through the Saturday game, not gonna talk about it a whole lot. Dom came out through the ball well early. It kinda has been a storyline with him. Second time to the lineup, they began to get to him. He honestly, we all agreed when we were watching it, he pitched good enough to give us a chance to win the game. We get it to a, I think it was a 3 -3 game at one point in that game. And then they had -
They busted open, got up nine to three and I mean quite honestly we kind of threw in the towel. We didn't devote any more resources to that one.
Alex Gee (05:39)
know if it ever did ever get to three, three, I thought six to one. when we had the, the top of the eight that the umpires kind of took over, with the longer view, but yeah, put two up and cause we had kind of, I hate to use the term punting because I don't think state really does that. but you know, like you mentioned Frinton, he didn't walk anybody. Like he kept state in a barrel contest with UVA and it just happened to be a night where.
Cal (05:49)
I think you're right. Yeah.
Alex Gee (06:08)
They were finding every gap in the defense. They had 11 hits off of them, but he didn't, he didn't put anybody on base intentionally or, or, or with a walk. It was all swings. And then Carson Kelly was actually pretty good. I thought John Morale looked pretty good. And then Lucas and Andrews kind of came in and gave up, they gave up three there in the eighth. And that the conversation that would be had around Saturday is Derek Smith didn't pitch this weekend. Ron Morrone didn't pitch this weekend. What if one of those guys had been in there?
And it was six to three going into the night instead of nine to three.
Cal (06:39)
Yeah, and the crazy thing about the eighth, if we can replay that. So we had the, if I'm remembering correctly, we had the bases loaded, right? And we hit a ground ball. I can't remember who hit the ground ball, but anyway, they go to, it was Butterworth that hit it, because he did not get doubled up. He got down in the line. But they go to turn a double play in the middle and.
Alex Gee (06:48)
Yep.
It was better worth.
Cal (07:04)
Still have not seen any I guess you can't overturn it if you can't see it But I have not seen any evidence that he touched the bag on the double play
Alex Gee (07:11)
We were a victim of a bad broadcast. If there was, if there was a normal broadcast and normal camera crews, they had an NCAA lacrosse game going on across the street. And I'm convinced it split their ability to broadcast both games. If there was one more camera angle shooting down the center from center field to second base, we would have bases loaded with no outs. Instead it's runners on the corners and they got the audit second, which is just is what it is. And the review took darn near 25 minutes, man.
Cal (07:13)
Yes.
And then after they review that, then UBX coach comes out and asks for a review on whether Butterworth was safe or not. Luckily, that one only took about 30 seconds and he was called safe. And then later in that inning, Luke Nixon comes to the plate and he gets ball four, but it couldn't have been within four inches of the zone.
Alex Gee (08:02)
I don't think home plate umpires in college baseball like to allow guys to walk on four straight pitches. I can't tell you how many times I don't know if you guys agree or not, but I've seen so many three strike calls that are just not strikes, but it's almost like if you throw a quote, get me over fast ball, that's not over. They just call it a strike. It's happening. Our guys get it too. Winter got a couple today, but I don't know. It's, it's a fascinating, I'd be interested if somebody could go find numbers on three strike calls. I bet it's more often than.
Cal (08:22)
Yep.
And all right, so we don't need to talk about that one anymore today though. We came out guys and we finally hit on a Sunday Anybody want to kind of go through that one kind of give us I mean Pennington He hit one was it it was the one today. He hit over the batters. All right Does anybody know how far it went like did they ever see it like a number?
Wes Wilson (08:50)
no.
Cal (08:57)
It was four or five to the center field wall, I believe, and he ended up over the batter's eye.
Alex Gee (09:00)
Then it was frustrating because I know they had the stats because that darn ball that their fifth run was a solo home run to right field. That was a 99 mile an hour exit velocity looked like a pot fly and it somehow got over the fence. So they had the numbers. I'd love to see them because that thing did it cleared the batter's eye and center field. It was smoked.
Cal (09:21)
And then Nixon had a triple and a three run home run in the back to back endings as Luke Nixon and Butterworth hit another home run today early in the game that put us up three nothing which they stormed right back and scored four and took the lead back from us. But man, today we actually got in a barrel contest. We've talked about that and we came out on the other side. But.
I thought the storyline of the day, and I really think, offensively, the storyline of the weekend was Butterworth and Pennington, and then just the bottom of our lineup in general, and then being able to scrap and manufacture. But Logan Whitaker being back to me is just such a big deal. It just makes Sunday so much more steady. And then on top of that, the other big storyline is Cooper Consiglio is pretty dang good, boys.
Adam Lytch (10:14)
Thank you.
Yeah, no doubt about it. I forgot what was that stat you threw a balance. He's what 14 and a third and he's allowed.
What was it? Three unruns and 14 another.
Alex Gee (10:26)
Yeah, 14. So against Clemson, UVA, yeah, Clemson, UVA and FSU all on the road, all top 10 opponents, 14 and two thirds, three year under runs.
Cal (10:37)
strong.
Alex Gee (10:38)
Really damn good.
Adam Lytch (10:39)
8 hits, I think it was 8 hits and no extra bass hits.
Cal (10:40)
Really good.
Alex Gee (10:43)
I think that's right, Ethan threw that one out there as well. I think eight, I know eight hits is right, which is, I mean, so his whips right around one or just under one. If you factor in, I think it's five walks.
Adam Lytch (10:46)
Yeah.
Cal (10:57)
So now where we're sitting at, what did they put us at? 15 and 11 in the ACC? And puts us ahead of Virginia in the seating because they're actually 15 and 12 now. So what I wanted to talk about was our regional outlook. Now that the dust has settled after another big series win in Charlottesville, we're gonna be top 20 in the RPI.
Going into our series of wait for us. Honestly a series that if we win one out of three we still might advance in the RFP. What do you guys are you beginning to kind of maybe feel a little magic there like we might can host I'll start with you Wesley.
Wes Wilson (11:44)
Yeah, I think we go through this every year and my frustration comes from while we know ECU is a good team, their best series win is against Carolina the first three weeks of the season. Not only have we beaten Carolina in the series, we've beaten Clemson, we've beaten Duke, we've beaten Virginia. So we've had, and Clemson, I missed one, but anyway.
I don't understand it. And then you start looking at Indiana State, you start looking at Santa Barbara and some of these other schools that are within the top 16 regional hosts. And you're like, how in the heck is it possible that a committee can look at all these, they can look at a whole body of work and then say, this team doesn't deserve it with a top five shrink the schedule. I don't see that happening if we don't get swept by weight.
I don't know, maybe if we get swept by weight, maybe that's a whole other story. But I don't envision that happening either. So I think we're in a good spot. ECU got swept by Tulsa this weekend. They lost to Lane, they lost the midweek game to Duke. They actually have a midweek game this week with Campbell. Good luck with that. And I think then they have Rice for their series. So.
Cal (12:54)
Cheering!
Adam Lytch (12:55)
life.
Wes Wilson (13:12)
I feel like we're in a really good spot to host and call me crazy and I think Alex has been saying this all along, we win the series against weight, why would we not be a top 18?
Alex Gee (13:24)
I mean, I'm just sitting here counting a little bit. when you, when you start counting quad one games, like we know state strength, the schedule is going to end up being a top five schedule in the country after playing weight force three times next weekend. But there, the state's going to have a top 10 number of quad one wins on the season in terms of RPI. And we've only played nine games in the quad four, which is the.
Third lowest, I think of the top 20 and you know, some of these examples you mentioned West UC Santa Barbara's 19 and one against teams in quad four. If state played 20 games against quad four teams, we would not be 29 and 19. NC state would be, would have won 45 games. Like no doubt about it. Like I threw a tweet out like the NC state right now with the health that we have, whatever the circumstances are, however unfortunate it is playing the what if game kind of sucks, but with the roster that state can throw on the field.
this week and the weeks going forward, if no injuries happen, it's a top 10 team. And it's a top 10 team resume wise, and I really don't think it's arguable.
Cal (14:29)
Adam?
Adam Lytch (14:31)
Yeah. And I agree with that. I think it all, you know, we control our own destiny, right? There's everything's still in front of us. I mean, I think we win the series versus wake, you know, maybe we got to win, you know, our pool, in the tournament, you know, which, you know, the nice thing, obviously about beating wake, we'd be a number four seed week. We could,
We'd have to win a game basically and still advance and still be able to advance out of the pool as the higher seed. So if we do those two things, I think there's no question that we're hosting.
And the real disservice we've done ourselves is obviously, you know, just absolutely laying the egg in the midweek games. You know, I think the old, you know, we referenced it a few times, you know, they don't hurt you, but they only help you. We have not done anything in those games except for the coastal game, which Coastals kind of played their way all the way out of the tournament, maybe now. But, you know, we just haven't done anything to help ourselves.
And those midweek games, unfortunately, and some of it's just quite honestly, just a few bad breaks. You know, a couple of those games could have gone our way, but you know, you know, hindsight being what it is, you know, if we, if we wouldn't have just, you know, lost all those games in the midweek, I think there would be none of these conversations about whether we might be hosting or not. I think the question would be, you know, being, being a national seed, no question about it.
Cal (16:16)
Yeah, I'll look at like if you take ECU and you split, that's another win. You take UNCW and you split, that's another win. If you take the UNCG and Campbell and lump them together and you get one of those two, that's another win. And then if you get one out of three at Georgia Tech, one out of three at Louisville, then all of a sudden, you know, you're 34 and 15 and it just kind of looks better on paper. That's before you even play weight for us. But.
I still think, I mean, you got a road series win over Clemson, you got a road series win over UVA, you got a split with Florida State that, gosh, you kind of feel like, man, would love to play the third one. And then you got wins over Duke and UNC who are projected as national seeds. If we wake on the table, I guess, to say it in pool, you got ball in hand coming to Raleigh this weekend. You kind of control your own.
Your own destiny, of course I was looking at just the teams that our listeners are probably you know somewhat familiar with and their strength the schedule and their current RPI is today on Warren Nolan, which says it's a you know, a live RPI but Wake who we have coming into town this week is ninth in RPI fifth and strength to schedule NC State is 20th in RPI
16 strength of schedule. I actually think we might jump wake even though Because we're considered the lesser opponent of the two. Yeah ECU is 12th in RPI now and 53rd in strength of schedule UVA is 13th in RPI and 28th in strength of schedule so You know when I look at the teams that are projected to host I really think I think wakes probably
Alex Gee (17:46)
It will. It will. We're worse. Yeah.
Cal (18:09)
They've probably already done enough now that they're going to host, but if you look at ECU and UVA as two teams that we might kind of fight for a host spot. I mean, I know ECU's got us twice, but gosh. You feel like if you win a series against Wake, there's no way we don't host, right?
Wes Wilson (18:32)
Yeah, yeah. But how?
Alex Gee (18:32)
If you take two or three from a wake, I think you're talking way more of like position yourself for the, can you get eight to 12? Yeah.
Cal (18:39)
Top eight. Yeah.
Alex Gee (18:43)
Go ahead, Wes, I kind of jumped right there, I'm sorry.
Wes Wilson (18:46)
Yeah, but I mean, going back to 2022, does the committee even care? I mean, is it just the fans that care about the New Week games or is it the committee that cares about the New Week games?
Alex Gee (19:00)
I really think it's just, I think they stand out just because of who they were. And I don't, I don't think that I, I really don't think they'll matter. I kind of, Adam, you keep saying it. I think it's just the truest thing you could say that they don't hurt you, but they only help you. And the, like, I mean, you mentioned like the UNCW, the most recent one at home that dropped the RPI about six or seven spots. If you had that one, are we sitting around 16 or 18 right now?
I don't know, but I think, I think the, the, the thing that state has to do, I really think I see stuff on Twitter. I've seen people on Twitter recently posting like this, this weekend finally got stayed off the bubble. I'm like, have you been watching? This is not a bubble team. Like this is a team that like bubble for top eight and open, like going to Omaha at the end of the year. Yeah, maybe like the state's really darn good. It's just, if you get caught up in some of the Tuesday, Wednesday stuff, which is easy to do because nobody wants to lose to ECU. Nobody wants to lose to Campbell. I get.
But that's really where the, the pitching injuries showed up. and it's unfortunate, but I really do think I RPI is the only thing on state's resume that's holding it back. And I don't think that the committee necessarily feels the need to be completely true to like top 16 RPI or the 16 host teams. I think if you can work your way into that top 20, top 22 or so.
And then you can start doing some team comparisons. And if, you know, I'm sitting here looking at, I don't know, call it Oklahoma state, it was 34 and 16 and, you know, they're nine and 11. They're similar to state. Like that'd be a tough one to jump if they're a little bit in front of you in RPI, but we keep throwing out poor UC Santa Barbara. Like if they're 16 and state's 20, it could be a lot easier, I think, for the committee to slide a game to Raleigh than it would be in California.
Cal (20:56)
And I saw a lot of people fussing today. I don't know if you guys have seen this, but Duke was the ACC softball champion and number four in the RPI and they got a 10 seed in the softball tournament. And I think there's a lot of folks upset about that.
Alex Gee (21:11)
Hey, there was a question. I wonder if you guys know the answer to this. Is Duke baseball? I assume the answer is yes, but I wonder the logistics. Are they able to host if they can't do it at the Bulls facility? They got a small ballpark.
Cal (21:26)
Yeah, I know. I do.
Alex Gee (21:29)
It might not matter. They've kind of played themselves out of it a little bit here, but...
Wes Wilson (21:33)
They play, they play, they play Carolina this weekend.
Cal (21:33)
See you soon.
Alex Gee (21:37)
I think that's right.
Yep, they finished with UNC. Yeah. Yeah, finished with UNC.
Cal (21:41)
so they could play themselves right back into it.
So one of the things that I think is interesting because I mean almost every one of these projections that have come out the last few weeks from D1 baseball has us with ECU. I will say that I think there is a lot of value if you're gonna have ECU in your pool to be the one seed. I think I might have mentioned it to you guys earlier today but I think you know whoever the one seed is is probably gonna save their best arm and not throw them against the four seed where whoever the three seed is I kind of feel like
The two seat has to throw their best arm and ECU does have one of the best arms in the country. The, how do you say his last name? Is it you Savage? He's, he's legit. so I would definitely rather be on the one line than the two line in Greenville. Plus I don't think we really want to go to Greenville anyway. We want to host of course, but yeah. so that's something I've kind of been paying attention to. so talking about.
Alex Gee (22:21)
Savage lost Friday, but yeah, he's good. He's a first rounder.
Wes Wilson (22:22)
You savage.
Cal (22:42)
You know, our, our team that we're, we're going to battle with Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week against Wake Forest. we've, what, before I do that, I wanted to answer a question. Adam got a question from one of our listeners, emailed to him that we kind of, we kind of overlooked. so I'm going to let Adam answer it too. And then we can kind of go around Robin. but basically it ties in what we've been talking about, with, with RPI and strength of schedule and midweek games.
and the question basically was with the, the non -conference opponents that we ended up playing in the middle weeks being, you know, pretty quality opponents in North Carolina. Should we look at maybe scheduling those guys in a three game series and, you know, maybe disrupting our current scheduling or is the ACC so tough that you don't want to play, you know, a UNCW and a three game set or ECU and a three game set.
What are your guys thoughts on that? I'll start with Adam.
Adam Lytch (23:49)
I would rather play the in -state quality opponents, you know, then, you know, the Towson's VCUs. I won't throw Hawaii in there because that was obviously an awesome trip for the, for the guys to get to go. But I would, you know, that there was so much excitement around the, the ECU, UNC series, the way they did it, you know, with the home home and neutral, site.
I thought that was pretty cool. Now, you know, obviously there's, you know, ECU is probably the only team that you could justify a series structure that that way with, but I would rather play them in a, a three game series just because of the, you know, the, they are rivalry games, you know, and they mean a hell of a lot to those guys that are playing us. Right. And, you know, they have to go out there and.
you know, pitch by committee and, and that sort of thing. And, I just feel like for, you know, does it make a difference in recruiting? Probably not. maybe, you know, one guy or something every once in a while, but I would rather play them in the, in a three game series for sure. I mean, because just because they are quality opponents.
And if we play them early in the year before the conference schedule, you know, starts, then, you know, if we were to get swept or something by one of them is at the end of the day, it's really not going to hurt us that much. You know, the conference games, the conference series or what's going to matter. But, you know, you would just have those, those bragging rights and feel good about a rivalry win. Right. So I would rather play them.
Especially the quality ones, you know, the Campbell's, the ECU's, the UNCW's of the world. It would be nice, you know, early on to have some, a three game set with them in my opinion, for me anyway.
Alex Gee (25:58)
honestly don't really feel one way or the other about it. mainly because the ACC so darn good that it's, it's kind of nice to kind of ease into it's the wrong word. No offense to VCU and Hawaii who both took a game from state. But if you're not, you know, especially this season is tough given the amount of young guys that state's trying to work into the roster and trying to get used to college baseball. the, the complaint I have more.
is
That's not really a complaint either, but the, the, the avoid it's it. You guys remember how well Mark Galford used to schedule for basketball and he'd always seemed to schedule like teams that were in the 100 to 150s in RPI that you were always going to beat, but he always avoided the, the 300 plus that we seemed to play here recently in basketball. Well, that's kind of, that's what I.
Would love to see us find a way to do in baseball. So like, I feel like Charlotte is omitted from our schedule and there, I don't know where they're sitting around 100, 120 and the RPI, but we played, you know, we played Queens, which is a North Carolina team, but their RPI is 270 or 269. You know, Norfolk state, we talked about not, we don't want to talk about the mid that midweek game ever again. There were 300 in RPI and dropped to six spots. You know, like if we play Charlotte, the RPI probably didn't change. I mean, heck Clemson played Charlotte that night and darn near lost to him. so I got.
Wes Wilson (27:14)
Ha ha.
Alex Gee (27:23)
I don't know. Would I be upset if that opening series next year was UNCW for a three -game stretch? Heck no. I think that's a cool thing. But do I think it's absolutely necessary? No. I'm just, I guess, kind of indifferent. I can talk in circles around that all night.
Cal (27:39)
Wesley?
Wes Wilson (27:42)
Yeah, I mean for me we're gonna put a basketball in.
When I get my season ticket schedule, I'm like, what? I'm like, I'm like, what in the hell have I just bought?
Alex Gee (27:53)
Hehehehehe
Wes Wilson (27:59)
You know, now, you know, you know, with Coach Avent, Coach Avent has a top five schedule in the United States of America. So I'm going to give him a little bit of a break that he didn't want to schedule East Carolina for three games. Now, would I personally, Wesley Wilson, like to see East Carolina NC State play? Absolutely. Would I like to see, would I like to see NC State, UNCW and Wilmington at the beach? Absolutely. But, but before I give Coach Avent a hard time on
Alex Gee (28:16)
to be fun.
Wes Wilson (28:29)
why aren't we scheduling more in -state guys? I'm going to point the finger at basketball.
Cal (28:35)
Hahaha!
Alex Gee (28:36)
That's great.
Cal (28:39)
Yeah, I think, yeah, me personally, I'd like this.
Adam Lytch (28:39)
That's not fair for me.
Cal (28:44)
I like that. I wouldn't mind seeing, you know, I don't know, some combination of it. I think it would be, I think you could, you could do a four game set and it'd be pretty neat where you had, you know, maybe ECU, NC State, UNCW playing at the same venue. Campbell, maybe invite all three of them, make them feel welcome, bring them all to the doke.
Wes Wilson (28:44)
Hehehe
Alex Gee (28:59)
little invitational type thing.
So I don't know, you guys might remember this last year, early in the season, Texas and LSU played like a Wednesday night ball game and it looked like a darn super regional atmosphere. And it just kind of hit me here. Like if state had played ECU on February 28th when the night they played Queens. So on that Wednesday night, but it's sandwiched between the road trip to Hawaii and Towson and maybe, you know, the Hawaii trip.
Logistics aside, call it, say, say they had played VCU and then towels in the following week. Like I would be really into that because you can pitch your Friday guy that Wednesday night and not matter for the, for your upcoming weekend. So like that, you know, the way state got stuck with these midweek opponents this year, there's a reason that they didn't play well since they played coastal in the middle of March, which with the, with the arm injuries that state was dealing with. If you, if you can run, I mean,
Cal (29:43)
Yeah.
Alex Gee (29:59)
When ECU came to Raleigh last year and we ran out Sam Highfield is a different story than when we ran out Jackson Lucas, no offense to our guy in Greenville this year.
Wes Wilson (30:07)
Yeah. Yeah. But for me, but for me, why again, it's coming back to the football standpoint of why, if you look at ECU's resume, the two wins against state or they're, they're, that's going to be their marquee wins other than North Carolina looking at their resume to, to be a, to host a super or, you know, be a top 16 seed. So.
I think for those G5 schools it comes back to why do we give ECU that opportunity? I mean their strength of schedule is 60th and we're hoping we get a regional ahead of them.
Cal (30:45)
Yeah, why give them the platform?
Alex Gee (30:47)
Given the points, yep.
Wes Wilson (30:48)
Yeah.
Alex Gee (30:52)
Not a bad thought there, Wes.
Cal (30:53)
Not a bad point there Wes. I like you being you being mean man. I love it
Wes Wilson (31:00)
Other than that, I love to play a three game series against CCU, but I don't know how that benefits us a whole lot, I guess. I mean, from our coaches standpoint or our program standpoint, from our standpoint, yeah, absolutely. I love drinking beer. Let's do it.
Cal (31:15)
But back to gosh, I gotta say this right now. It's a lot of pressure back to Towson Towson is how I'm supposed to say that I I got reached out to and I come I got a complaint from a listener about how I pronounced it Towson But it's Towson Towson Anyway, I told him it I said guys I am a redneck and I maybe I had a letter here and then here and there and take some away and
Alex Gee (31:25)
But.
Friday Baltimore.
Wes Wilson (31:36)
bottom.
Cal (31:44)
And the response I got back was is that Wesley and Adam are just as big a rednecks as you. So no excuse. So apologies to the folks at Towson University.
Wes Wilson (31:49)
You
I think Wesley and Adam just didn't get a chance to say the school's name.
Cal (32:03)
Took all the air. All right, so before we talk about Wake Forest a little bit, let's talk about our team. What we saw this weekend.
I tell you what, instead of bringing up anything in particular, we're gonna go around, we'll go one at a time. I'm gonna start with Adam again. I'll go Adam, Wesley, Alex this time. We'll start with the lineup. If you could change one thing about our lineup, whether it's batting order, personnel, whatever Adam, what would be something you would like, a change you would like us to make as we prepare for the postseason?
Adam Lytch (32:39)
I would like chase Nixon in the lineup every game somewhere and I would like Luke Nixon leading off.
Cal (32:50)
two changes. Wesley!
Wes Wilson (32:53)
Yeah, give me Luke or give me Butterworth leading off. I mean, I think today in the latter part of that game when Luke hit that triple, it's like, wow, look what this guy can do. That would have been a double for 95, maybe 99 % of other players. He turned into a triple. They make a lot of things happen. That's not a dig at Eli. I'm just not sure that lead -offs the spot. But then again, look at how the bottom of the half of the lineup is performing.
When you're winning, I'm not sure you change a whole lot. So, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't. If Eli is the lead off guy against Wake on Thursday night, then I'm not going to be disappointed. I guess you would say.
Adam Lytch (33:38)
I agree with that.
Alex Gee (33:39)
Yeah. So since the, it's actually kind of funny since the Florida state series started, Eli's actually raised his average six points. I think he's kind of fallen victim a little bit to coming up to the plate in some really big spots with runners and scoring position and his, his strikeout numbers are not as good as anybody. It's not the best on the team in terms of K rate. So when you strike out in big spots, it gets, it gets pretty frustrating.
I don't think I touch a thing right now. I don't think I changed the mojo. Just keep, keep it pushing to what the bottom of the lineup has done. I'm going to go back and count it and try to find something to put on IPS here this week. But the amount of runners in scoring position that six through nine has turned over to Serrano, Pennington and Makarevich the past three weeks has been, I mean, remarkable. Just truly it's been phenomenal.
Cal (34:34)
And so, good.
Wes Wilson (34:34)
Shout out Hevner too. Hevner's played really well.
Alex Gee (34:37)
Guys, Matt Hevner has been on base 11 of his last 17 at bats.
Cal (34:43)
That is impressive. Yeah, Hevner has been a revelation. Yeah, we heard from someone, me, Adam and Wesley, we had a guy, Texas, that was real close with the program. And he said that Hevner is a guy that always plays better, or always hits better when he plays in the field. And honestly, it seems like there's something to that. And there's a lot of guys I played with even growing up that are like that, that it, DH and ain't for everybody. Some guys, they need to be more involved in the game.
Alex Gee (35:10)
It's hard.
Cal (35:13)
to get going offensively but man, Hevner has been, he's been very, he's been a critical piece lately.
Alex Gee (35:18)
He's, I don't know how the heck you calculate war, which is what wins above replacement. I think it might be a made up stat sometimes, but if it's real and somebody knows how to calculate it, I'd be shocked if heaven is not near the top of the team. When you factor in what he gives you defensively with what he gives you small balls. I mean, if sack fly today, for an RBI and he's just getting on base, he's working counts and he's been, he's been really freaking good. And we heard, Andrew Sanders last year. I don't know if you guys caught it.
at some point in the season, it might've been earlier on when Hevner, got a little bit of run, but he said that Chris Hart told him that if it wasn't for Gino Groover, Hevner would be there every day, third baseman and probably be the best, the best defensive third baseman in the conference. So they've liked him for a while. He's just been stuck behind. I mean, you couldn't, you're never taking Groover out of the lineup last year and the way Luke Nixon was playing early in the year, you weren't going to take him out either. And you weren't going to, you know, you weren't going to mess with the DH spot the way it was. And then he, he got, he got an opportunity at DH kind of.
scrap some stuff out and then it's taking extreme advantage of the next man up.
Cal (36:22)
So yeah, I guess the one thing for me, I would say is kind of piggybacking off Adam. And we didn't do it all three games this weekend. I don't care if he's not the fastest guy, most athletic guy. To me, Chase Nixon just has to play every day. He just, to me, I know he's not gonna hit 10 home runs. I know he's not gonna go four for five or four doubles. But the at bats, I feel like that he gives you.
I mean, he's just he's got a little game or any man like he gets in the box you feel like if he gets up there in a big spot and I saw this stat today this might surprise you guys he's hitting 355 with runners in scoring position and And and Butterworth who's been really good actually surprised me butter or sitting 195 I think with runners in scoring position definitely not saying we should take butters at Atlanta love that guy, but Chase Chase is just one of those guys that like You know for one
in high lever situations pitchers are just as tense as the batter is. The batter is trying to come through and get a hit. The pitcher is also when he's dealing with traffic on the bases he's got a lot going on and the guy he just doesn't strike out. You're not going to strike him out very often.
Alex Gee (37:38)
I don't have plate appearances to calculate it perfectly because the state's website only shows at bats be struck out nine times in 95 at bats. So you can imagine the plate appearances are probably closer to, you know, 100, 100, 500 or 10 so that you're talking to K rate sub sub 8%, which is special. I mean, that's really damn good. And eventually, eventually those balls are going to be hit like that 250 average can't stay that way. If you're not striking out, it's impossible.
Cal (37:58)
Yes.
So I wanna see him in line up every day. I mean, I like Alex so says about the bench, he's a guy that can hit one in the trees. But to me, the guy will run out there every day and I understand what coach Avery was probably doing. I mean, he's obviously an elite talent, a guy that was offered a million dollars out of high school to go in the draft. And he came to us and I'm glad to have him in Raleigh and excited what his career can be. But right now this team, I wanna watch Trace Nixon play every day and.
Every time he's not in the lineup, I get frustrated. I'm a big Jace Nixon guy.
So, onto the staff a little bit. Does everybody, are we kind of all on the same page that we kind of have figured out how we want to manage our rotation in bullpen? I mean, I think we'd all like to see Dom be a little better, or his numbers to be a little better. I mean, he can go out and dominate for long stretches of game, but I mean, I think we are, is everybody on the same page that Sam Dom with is? Well, let me give you this question then.
So we all say Sam Don with it if we get a regional and we're a two seed so we're a two seed in Greenville and the first game we throw Sam he beats the three seed now we got ECU the one seed in game two who you guys doing Sam or not are Dom or wit.
Alex Gee (39:31)
I'm Thurman Loganwick.
Wes Wilson (39:32)
Wittaker 1000 %
Adam Lytch (39:34)
Absolutely, yeah.
Alex Gee (39:36)
And that's not a knock on Dom either. I jumped it because I believe in Logan Whitaker that much. I don't even know. Being on IPS, we see some stuff. Some folks get angry sometimes and they dislike things. I think people kind of jump to conclusions way too quickly on guys. And that happened to Whitaker last year. I think he was 13 straight scoreless innings to end his season last year.
against some really darn good teams in postseason play. And I mean, the dude just competes and he's, I mean, he threw, what did he throw? 95 pitches today, guys, his first start off. I mean, I mean, come on, give me that guy. Give me dude bleeds for it. Like let put him on the map. Yeah.
Wes Wilson (40:14)
Get 90 plus, 90 plus bits of -
Cal (40:14)
I think that's right.
Wes Wilson (40:22)
Tough.
Cal (40:23)
It doesn't matter what he's got that day, whether he's got his best stuff or his worst stuff, he just eats innings and grinds and competes in kitchen games. I love Logan Whitaker.
Alex Gee (40:31)
How many dudes would fall apart? So I thought just keeping kind of mental track of their second inning. First off, we kind of talked about it. I'm still not sure that ball hit that guy and that was up with two outs to, to, to kind of start that track. I think he gave up two hard hit balls and there's a couple of blokes. Yeah. Obviously the kind of fluke he hit by pitch. And then the next thing, you know, you just,
four runs crossed and how many times have we seen it happen for a state pitcher? Have we seen state do it to a pitcher where that guy just crumbles and now your game's dead because you got to go to your bullpen for 20 plus outs. Instead Whitaker said, screw it. I'm going to keep pounding the zone. I'm going to make you hit my change up and I'm going to give you five and a third on 95 pitches in my first real action back from losing 25 freaking pounds.
Cal (41:24)
Yeah.
Alex Gee (41:24)
I mean, like not, you know, it's not like he hurt his ankle when he's been like able to lift up her body and get on the stationary bike and keep his wind like he, he couldn't do anything and he's back and I mean, geez, that's encouraging.
Cal (41:39)
All right, so out of the bullpen, do you think, so you know the other night after Sam went six, do you think that it's, who is our first option to close the game? Do you think it is determined by the length of the save opportunity? Is that where we're kind of all at? I mean, I think for one inning, I feel like Derek Smith's our guy, but I think that Duden is the guy that,
we can extend, is that how you guys feel?
Wes Wilson (42:11)
Yes.
Alex Gee (42:13)
Yeah, for sure. And I think that there's a pretty darn good chance that Friday night, Derek Smith was ready to go and then stayed out of those two insurance runs to make, because it was going into the eighth and it was, was it seven to three? And I think at that point, it's just dude in his game. If it was seven to six, I think there's a pretty darn good chance you see kind of that Vilem into Evan justice bridge that we got used to seeing.
Adam Lytch (42:15)
Yeah.
Alex Gee (42:41)
It's a, it's a luxury man. What the bullpen's doing right now. You rewinded when Shane Van Dam popped his UCL and how we were feeling all of a sudden, Cooper consiglio has decided he wants to be Shane Van Dam and some from the left -hand side. And I don't know, man. I'm excited about it.
Cal (43:01)
And Marone's had a couple of pretty good starts in a row too.
Adam Lytch (43:02)
I was just getting ready to say Marrone. I'm so excited about it. I think it's shaping up well for you know for the postseason. I mean that's you gotta have all those guys. You gotta have pitching, you know, pitching wins in the postseason and to have those guys to have that stable of guys now that we do, you know, to be able to bring him the role in a consignal.
Alex Gee (43:04)
Yeah.
Adam Lytch (43:30)
You know, behind those those three stars that we talked about is just absolutely tremendous. You know, especially if we, you know, can get. Pass a regional, then you start to get real excited about the potential that those guys have, because I think, you know, we we know offensively that we're capable of scoring a bunch. And if we can, you know, today was a good sign. We finally hit the ball, scored a bunch of runs on a Sunday and you know if we can keep that momentum going and build off of that.
man what we got, the potential we've got in the bullpen is just very, very exciting. That was the word I was getting ready to use Alex, I'm just absolutely pumped about it.
Alex Gee (44:12)
Today was an awesome example of it. I mean, you could see in real time UVA run out of guys and we jumped it. And if for whatever reason, Concegall had started to run out of gas, we're just going to hand the ball to Derrick Smith and it was going to be lather, rinse, repeat. Yep. It's going to be over. Yep.
Cal (44:28)
That was going to be it. We can go home. And I've heard James talk about before on the IPS podcast that you got to have four starters. Guys, we got five guys I ain't scared to start.
Alex Gee (44:42)
I'm going to even go as far to say we got six. I think you give Jacob dude in the ball for four innings. He could start a game if it had to happen. If it can't, if it got weird, like, like to me, that's like the ACC championship scenario where we've run out of Johnny Piedmont before, you know, no offense to Johnny Piedmont, but that's the game I remember him. I think it was against Florida state. and the year he didn't pitch much, he came back the following year and was actually pretty good starter for us. But,
Cal (44:48)
If you got deep in a post season series.
Alex Gee (45:12)
I don't know like that. You could give him the rock and he could go get it for you.
Cal (45:16)
I'll give you a crazy number from Doody. He threw his 61st pitch the other night, 97 miles per hour. That was a damn fast ball, Chrysler.
Alex Gee (45:23)
Pretty good. Pretty good.
Wes Wilson (45:26)
Hehehehehe
Adam Lytch (45:30)
I tell you what though, that... that... that...
Cal (45:30)
Sorry, sorry coach. Sorry.
Alex Gee (45:32)
Pretty good.
Adam Lytch (45:37)
89 90 mile I think he even threw 190 mile an hour slider though. I mean goodness gracious You know, they just absolutely be absolutely beats Cozart up back there with it
Cal (45:37)
Okay.
Alex Gee (45:44)
It's tough. I'm not, I still don't think there's a left.
my God. Hey guys, I still don't think there's a left -handed, there might be three left -handed bats in the country that could hit John Morales curve ball coming from the dugout. I mean, things like we got some stuff and I, I don't think, I don't want to get critical, but I don't think Schaffner pitch or shot Schaffner, excuse me, pitched Saturday. I thought he was in a spot to maybe come in there when it was six to three, but we put them in on defense because we pitch it a friend of the podcast.
Cal (45:54)
Nightline.
Adam Lytch (45:55)
It's.
Alex Gee (46:21)
Bechtel and needed to run out of defensive sub so There's got there's names there's potential there's talent I mean if we're talking about Schaffner who can just you know jog in as your ninth tenth guy with a 95 on our fastball thumbs up
Cal (46:35)
Yeah. So tell me this, like I heard this stat when I was watching the game the other night, I don't know who does these analytics. If there's somewhere I could subscribe, y 'all email us and tell me. I like analytics. But they said, I heard some stat that like against dude and they hit like three something against this fast ball. Like I think I heard that number, making things up. But how do you even measure that? The ball's gotta be in play for it to even be measurable. I mean, how do you measure that?
Adam Lytch (46:55)
Yeah. Yeah. Not even near that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I said the same thing. Like, I think...
Cal (47:09)
So if I throw two fastballs in a row at 98 and then I throw a slider and you strike out, you're hitting zero against my.
Alex Gee (47:15)
Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. That don't make a lot of sense, does it?
Adam Lytch (47:19)
Yeah, I asked the same thing. Yeah, I don't get it either. I mean, I think it was like 313 or 326.
Wes Wilson (47:23)
Hehe.
Alex Gee (47:25)
I didn't think about the zero part.
Cal (47:27)
Yeah.
I'm like, of course they hit 313 against his fastball. He spiked three sliders in a row, and then we got to throw it down the middle. Jesus Christ, they're only hitting 300 against it when they know it's coming. That ain't bad.
Wes Wilson (47:35)
Hehehehehe.
Hehehehe.
Alex Gee (47:41)
That's pretty good. I will say Ethan and I talked about this on our podcast last week. His strikeout ratio is K -rate, however you want to call it, is a little baffling for the stuff he has. In conference, he's 19 strikeouts and 18 in the third inning pitch. Like his stuff is too good to only strike out one guy in any. Like, you know, you see some of these other, I mean, like it's not, not comparable to like what Chase Burns can throw for Wake Forest.
Cal (47:55)
It is.
Yeah.
Alex Gee (48:09)
I mean, Burns adds the curve ball that Duden doesn't have. And Duden, that'll be his job this off season to add a third pitch, be it a change up or a curve ball. But this guy's just striking out, you know, one and a half, two plus guys in the inning.
Cal (48:09)
Yeah.
Yeah, I think I mentioned you guys yesterday, his body type reminds me so much of Skeen's. He's just tall, loose, but I could have that little earpiece that Cozart wears in the batter's box and there ain't no chance I'm hitting that. I ain't got a chance. I mean, I'm still just baffled about like, are we just sitting over there in the dugout with our clipboard and we're like, man, this guy right here, he's really good against 99.
98 -99 we better throw him the slider. I don't get it I don't get it like at least like mix it in a little bit like maybe throw it out of the zone I don't know those 98 But anyway, I'm sure that every time that our listeners see him throw a 98 mile an hour fastball against hitting the stands They're gonna think I'm an idiot, but I've never any level of baseball seeing someone that throws 98 and they're like his fastball is
He throws fastballs 17 .2 % of the time. Guys that throw 98 throw fastballs 75 % of the time. But anyway, yeah, like you said, Alex, if he does figure out a third pitch, I mean, his career at State is, he's going to put up some numbers because, I mean, that stuff is just electric. All right, let's talk about Wake a little bit this weekend. Have some numbers for the Deacons. Deacons are going to be coming in at,
36 and 16. They have now hit 100 home runs. They have, I guess they got what, is it two projected top 10 picks in their lineup? I think Kurtz is a, Kurtz, they got Kurtz.
Alex Gee (50:00)
Yeah, Kurtz and Burns. Well, I think Keen, Seaver King's a first -round type talent, but those two are definitely, pitch or third base.
Adam Lytch (50:02)
Yeah.
Cal (50:11)
Only hitting 288 as a team. I say only 288. That's not, you know, like it's absolutely terrible. I think we're hitting 283 now after today, but they're hitting 288 as a team. They've struck out 439 times compared to our 306 times. I am glad we're playing them in the Dote. Did you guys?
Alex Gee (50:31)
Clown, 302 feet home run.
Cal (50:35)
Yeah, did y 'all see that one?
Alex Gee (50:37)
clown.
Adam Lytch (50:37)
did not.
Cal (50:38)
Yeah, my man straight up thought he popped one up against Clemson. They beat Clemson. In that game, it was a 4 -2 final, right? Yeah, he hit a two -run home run that went 302 feet.
Alex Gee (50:45)
That was the difference. It was a two run home run.
Wes Wilson (50:51)
She - Shebabs. Shebabs.
Cal (50:55)
You
Alex Gee (50:55)
They are 10 and 9 away from home. There's a reason. Just saying.
Cal (51:04)
I mean, they got, they definitely recruit to the ballpark that they play in. cause they, they got a lot of guys that hit it at a ballpark, a hundred, they've hit 110 doubles. I mean in doubles, that ain't, that ain't cause of the park, you know, hell is probably even harder to hit a double when you probably hitting seeds off the wall and right. It's only 300 foot away, but they've hit 110 doubles, 10 triples, a hundred home runs, slugging five 31. So.
Adam Lytch (51:23)
Yeah.
Cal (51:34)
I mean, really, really good offensive team. And then even as good as they are offensively, probably the headliner is Chase Burns who is how hard does he, I mean, he's what? 98, 99, is that right? ooh. So he's triple digits as a starter. yeah. So he's a 285 ERA, 10 in one overall, 82 innings pitched, 156 strikeouts.
Alex Gee (51:47)
Nice, it feels like 101, 102 this weekend. ECC's humming.
Cal (52:04)
So we will get a good, we will actually get to see if all that talking we do about being the team that strikes out the least in the ACC, we'll get a good measuring stick when we go up against Chase Burns. After Burns, they have Josh Hardall who, Josh Hardall was unbelievable last year. He struggled a little bit this year. He's got a 532 ERA, but he's thrown 64 innings for him. You know, it's.
All his numbers are down year over year, but still he's a guy that they project long term to probably be a high draft pick. And then, you know, a team ERA of 506. So what do you guys think? Make a wake for us? I think we both know they're a really good team. I've told a lot of people that friends that have asked me, who do you still, I still think Wake Forest is the most probably talented team in the league, especially on paper. What do you guys think about this weekend and their chances on a -
senior day weekend at the Doke to get a series from the Deacons.
I'm supposed to ask someone don't go all at once Alex
Alex Gee (53:16)
So it's funny, Josh Hartle and Dom Fritton kind of had a similar kind of trajectory, right? Where they were really, really good last year, getting some all -American buzz. Hartle wasn't all -American, I think, pre -season and struggled. You know, he's a Peyton Greenroll. He's a seven plus ERA in conference. Fritton's at, geez, where is he? So far 8 .55. But the batting average against for Fritton's at 2 .69 and Hartle's batting average against is 3 .37. So he's given up a lot more.
that's tough. I mean, that's a, that's a, that's a big number. and Burns is the antithesis of that, right? He's a hunt, you know, 161 batting average against in conference, 292 ERA. They got some, they got some good guys they can run out of the bullpen too. that are thrown, you know, 15 plus and he's hovering around 20 with, with some good ERAs, but they're, their starting staff does suffer after chase burns. And, and he's, he's every bit as advertised. Like he, he is very, very good. He's a three pitch guy.
Call it a four -pitch guy, but he's really going to be a three -pitch guy. And it's, it's tough. I will say, and I think we've actually talked about it before. Left -handed lineup, the state runs out there is favorable here. Like this is, this is the week that it's going to be a plus for us after having seen, you know, I think, but the guy that will stand out to me for the rest of the season is the state was able to push runs across on Santucci for Duke without getting a hit. You got to get hits, it gets burns.
But if you can beat that guy, you can beat Chase Burns. Who's better than Santucci? But I think you got to run the count up. My camera's going nuts.
Cal (55:00)
I agree. Wesley, what do you think about the series?
Wes Wilson (55:06)
I agree with Alex. First of all, I want to say the Hill will wait for us. I don't like wait for us. Never have. But like Alex said, you know, for whatever reason on Friday nights, we seem to have figured well against the Friday starters. And guess what? It's senior night at the Dope. So, you know, I think there's going to be a little added juice, a little added momentum to go for our guys. So why not us?
Cal (55:37)
Why not us? Adam?
Adam Lytch (55:43)
I agree with West. I say the hell with Wake Forest. They have had our number at so many daggone things as of late it seems. And I really just feel like we're due against them. Like we're we're we're due to win something that matters against them. And and this really really matters.
Wes Wilson (55:49)
Hehehe
Adam Lytch (56:13)
I do think if we can find a way to win on Friday, then the series is ours and I'm going to be looking for the sweep. I really feel strongly about our chances on Saturday and Sunday for sure. I'm glad. Do they have a midweek game this week?
Cal (56:37)
Friday and Saturday. No, I think we're all, we're just Thursday, Friday, Saturday, both of us.
Wes Wilson (56:42)
Yeah, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Adam Lytch (56:44)
But does Wake have a midweek? They don't.
Cal (56:48)
I don't think, I don't think they do.
Adam Lytch (56:51)
Okay. I'm excited. I'm, I'm
Cal (56:53)
They might though. I want to check now. I don't want to lie to our listeners. they play Liberty, the flames. Tuesday night.
Alex Gee (56:57)
They play Liberty.
Adam Lytch (56:59)
ooooh, okay.
So, yeah.
Alex Gee (57:03)
Go Liberty.
Wes Wilson (57:05)
Hehehehe
Adam Lytch (57:08)
So I'm excited for how much rest our staff got. You know, we didn't even throw D rock this weekend. and, you know, Morrone and others. So I think that that sets up favorably for coming into this week. I'm glad that we don't have a midweek. So, I mean, I would be, I would be really happy about winning two out of three.
Obviously against a team like Wake preseason number one. But if we do win, if we find a way to win Friday night, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be anxious and looking for the sweep for sure.
Wes Wilson (57:51)
Yeah, if we win Friday night, we should be top eight seed.
Cal (57:57)
I just don't know how if you can win this series against Wake with all the series that we've won. Like, come on, come on. I think at home we're going to be a tough out. I like what Alex said too about the left -handed bats. That this is somebody I think that we can line up against. I think that we're going to put the ball in play probably a little bit more. You know, when you got guys like Wake has had that is, that they're running out there that are, you know, just putting up these insane strikeout numbers. If we can.
you know resemble ourselves this weekend and put the ball in play a lot more than maybe they're used to. You know, put a little game pressure on them. I like our chances earlier in the year. I would not have picked us to win a series against Wake Forest, but now that we you know, be Clemson UNC, Duke, UVA split with Florida State, you know, I feel like we can go toe to toe with anybody and we got him at home so.
Wes Wilson (58:50)
Hey, hey burns through 17 strikeouts this weekend. It ain't happening again in no way Hey, he's do he's do He's do
Cal (58:56)
Yeah, he's due to get barreled up.
So no, I like our chances. Before we get off of here, one, we got a lot of the, y 'all probably noticed by now, we have made up a lot of nicknames for the players. So if any of the players don't like the nickname we give them, we call Derek D Rock, we call Butter Worth Butters, we call Whitaker Witt. Let us know, we'll call you by whatever name you want us to call you by.
Alex Gee (59:31)
Is there beef with baby Nixon? That's the one. That's the one you gotta be careful. That's the one.
Cal (59:33)
yeah, baby Nixon. Baby Nixon might, you know, we're not trying.
Wes Wilson (59:38)
I don't know, after that home run today, I think maybe Nixon might've graduated up to something. He might be close to senior Nixon after today.
Alex Gee (59:41)
Thank you so much.
Cal (59:47)
Yeah, so whatever whatever you want us to go whatever you want us to call you and then the other thing We need we need some more followers Adam's doing pretty good on our X and Twitter page But we you know, we still haven't eclipsed a million yet. That was our goal when we started this thing I think we're somewhere around 184 right now and half of those are like random like only fans bots I think that they're following us because of Wesley and
Wes Wilson (1:00:04)
Hehehe.
Cal (1:00:16)
I don't know, I have no evidence of that, but we do get some random followers that I do know for a fact. They're not fans of Pac Baseball, but no, we'd love to have you follow us on at Pac Homer Pod on Twitter X, also on Instagram. If you're listening to us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, we appreciate your five star rating and we've had a lot of fun doing this. I think I speak for all of us when I say that.
Wes Wilson (1:00:17)
Hehehehe
Cal (1:00:46)
I hope we got about five or six more left up in us this year and not just two or three. I hope we have a long extended postseason. Also, if you want to send us some questions for next week, I think next week should be an interesting podcast. We'll get to talk about the ACC tournament and that coming up. If there's anything that kind of gets delayed with the tournament,
Brackets getting set or whatnot. I don't anticipate that, but we might wait and do it Monday night. But I'd imagine we'll have it out next Sunday night for your Monday morning commute to work. But appreciate you guys joining us. Anything you guys want to add for our shutdown?
Wes Wilson (1:01:30)
Okay.
Cal (1:01:32)
All good. All good, Adam. Alex.
Adam Lytch (1:01:35)
All good. Yeah, thanks for joining us again out. Go Pat.
Alex Gee (1:01:35)
All good. Thanks for having me.
Cal (1:01:37)
Yes sir. Alright, we're gonna try the music boys. Go Pat. Go Pat.
Wes Wilson (1:01:43)
Thank you, Adam.