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3 Guys Before The Game - WVU Baseball Omaha Edition (Episode 721) · 3 Guys Before The Game

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And welcome to Omaha and a special edition of three
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: guys before the game. We are at Let It Fly
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Sports Bar in downtown Omaha. That I ever said this before,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: We got a good one for.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: You you've never seen. But we do in fact have a
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: special show.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: For you, Yes we do. We've gotten that one. Not two,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: but three guests. First, for those of you that are watching,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a recognizable face. That's Scott Jerko's brother, Jed Jerco, the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: former Mountaineer great, former Major leaguer, and now a special
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: consultant to assist a special assistant the He is the
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: emperor of WVU Baseball and special assistant to WVU head
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: coach Practice Steve does everything. So Jed is with us
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: in our green room here in this studio, and this
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: thing is nice. We are going to also chat with
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Mountaineer Sports Network color analyst Jake Wegg, who actually is
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the brains behind the entire broadcast operation, and by people's requests,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the play by play announcer for the Mountaineer baseball team,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: none other than Junior Andrew Coridi, will also join us
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: on the show. All right, boys, what a day it's
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: been here in Omaha. We get here yesterday you go
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: to the stadium today, it's practice time, it's media availability,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: and you get for the first time the true feeling
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: in the essence of what it's like to be here. Yeah.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, we got here yesterday and things are kind of quiet,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: and the team got here yesterday. Then this morning we
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: all go out for the batting practice and the media
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: gets all their credentials. They show up and you go
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: on the field there at Charles rob Field and you
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: start to get a sense of how big this really is. Bradon,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: You've been here a couple of times, but then you see, oh, okay,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: this is the World Series, and it takes on a
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: whole different era.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this this felt really real this morning when you're
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: over there and you see the mountain, your logos up
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: there and they're taking in field and Jed's throwing batting practice.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: I think the special nature of this trip started to
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: come home this morning and it'll just grow from here.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: But I thought today is when it started that you
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: have arrived at the College World Series.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: All right, Jed, so jump in because we're the guys
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: that haven't played at this obviously, this type of a level,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: playing at the highest level in college, playing at the
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: highest level that baseball knows in the major leagues. You
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: even said at the on the field today, you go like,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: this is pretty nice.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: It's cool. It is really cool.
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: I couldn't be more excited for the guys to get
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: to play in this situation because for the majority of them,
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: they'll never play in another situation like this. To be honest,
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: there's a couple guys that we'll get to the big
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: leagues and get to experience that, but for the majority
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: of this team, this is the most the top is
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: it's going to get the coolest thing that they've ever done.
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: So I'm excited to watch them play.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: You've been a lot around a lot of teams, a
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: lot of teams that have had six says. If you
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: were to kind of start to put into some some
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: thoughts why this team has had the success that it has,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: what would it be? What's that special magic dust that
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: they have?
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: H I mean, the first thing is we've got talented players.
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: Helps no team's going to get here on just culture
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: alone or because they play for each other. We have
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: really good players. That's that sets the tone, but that's
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: also not going to get you here either. That's where
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: the culture part comes in where guys really buy in
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: to performing for each other. And when you get really
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: talented guys that buy into a culture of we're going
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: to put each other first, that's when special things happen.
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: And that's that is the assessment. That's the main thing why,
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: that's why we're here.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Je Here's here's the biggest question, one of the biggest
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: questions I have going into this, and that is that,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Gavin Kelly said to the press conference. He said, I
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: ask about the whole thing. He said, I've tried to
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: take in everything that we've had, just be present, be
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: in the moment, and be where our feet are. So
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: it's been special. This is unique opportunity. You've played in
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: the you've played in the big time. What is the
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: attitude of this team on the biggest stage of all?
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, are they cool? Common collected? Are they like
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: looking around like this?
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: Uh? Both? Okay.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: I think I think you'd be dumb to not open
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: your eyes and see what's what's in front of you,
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: which is which is cool And and I've shared that
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: with a team that when I would go into a
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: new city, I would walk out on the field on
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: the first day and just look around and be like, man,
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: this is pretty cool what I'm doing.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: I'm very blessed. So that's been the message to them.
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: But also the same message has been and it's cliche
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: that we didn't come this far just to get this far,
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: you know what I mean, And a lot of teams
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: settle for that first time ever getting here. It's easy,
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: like we made it to Omaha. We did it. We
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: didn't start this seaton. You don't talk at the beginning
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: of the year of just getting to Omah. You talk
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: about winning championships and that that's been the main message
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: and just to keep these guys ground and make sure
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: they understand that, you know, we're not just coming out
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: here to play two games.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: We're out here win something.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about Steve Sabans for a second. We continue
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: to be blown away by how well he handles the
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: role of head coach outside of the field. Just the
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: press conferences are elite. His management of the day to
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: day is elite. Tell us a little bit about Steve
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: Sabans from your perspective. You've been around a lot of
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: coaches and managers in your day. What makes him so successful?
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he is unbelievably organized.
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: He builds a culture unlike anyone I've ever seen, and
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: I've seen some of the best people in the world
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: at it, and he knows how to bring a group
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: of and it's really tough when you're thinking about eighteen
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: to twenty one year old it's trying to get them
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: to buy into something anything, let alone just going out
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: and performing well. And he does an unbelievable job of that.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: And it's a lot of fun to work with him
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: day to day and just to see kind of how
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: he works, because that's where all the administrative stuff comes in.
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: And the nil in the world that we live in
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: now and college sports is pretty wild, and the way
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: he can handle all that is it's pretty It's something.
• 5:57
  Speaker 6: Let me ask you this.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of press conferences through the years,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: different coaches in any sport. The way he handled himself
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: today in that press conference, and I told these guys
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: when we got done, you couldn't have taken time and
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: scripted the answers and then held a piece of paper
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: in front of you and read the answers better than
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: he did. I mean absolutely at a different level of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: what he said on that podium today. You can't It's
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: invaluable for the program, for the university, for the.
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: State magical in that Yep, I actually haven't heard it,
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: so maybe I'll have to go and check that out.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: But you hear him in front of the team, right,
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: So he delivers those what's what's that? What's he like
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: in front of the team there? How do guys respond
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: to him in those settings?
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Like him. He built this entire culture.
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: And you can tell when when West Virginia comes and
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: you play against West Virginia team, they're freaking getting after you.
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: And that's something that he has set the tone from
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: the start, and the guys buy into it. And whatever
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: he does and tells them that he doesn't share with us,
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: he gets those boys to go out there and play.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: There was a direct that we talked about this after
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: the press conference. There was a recruiting pitch in the
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: press conference today, a very sophisticated direct recruiting pitch by
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Sabans because this is this is a unique opportunity, it's
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: a grand stage, and he said, he repeated things we've
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: heard before, but he said, we don't always do the
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: best with the guy that is entitled or thinks that
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: we owe him something. So we've been able to get
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: these kids that are going up a level. It's almost
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: like hiring internally someone that's like, I'm their gud I'm
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: going to go maximize everything for them. And Brad, you've
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: talked a lot about this, about so many D two
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: athletes who can go up to the next level. And
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: this is one of the things, by the way, Troy's
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: done that, and this is one thing that West Virginia's done.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: One thing Steve Stabans does is.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: That you're looking for, yes, talent, but also guys that
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: fit in character, guys and guys that when they get
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: to West Virginia, it's like they are thrilled.
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: They're not entire they're thrilled to be a part of something. True. Yeah, absolutely, And.
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: At any level of baseball, you get to the guy
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: that's complacent or think that he's made it, he's probably
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: not going to make it very much further right, That's
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: that's where that's usually where it ends, when you find
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: the guy that thinks he's.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: Done it or made it.
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: And we've had the track record stands for itself as
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: to how we've been able to elevate players and you
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: get those players that come in here that are hungry,
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: that are determined to show that they belong on this stage.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: Those are the players we're looking for.
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: And then when you get that and then get a
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: little bit of talent added to it, they take off.
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: You got me Ian Korn or you know the Derrick Clark's,
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: the Griffin Currents, all those all those guys that constantly
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: keep showing up here like how are these.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: Guys doing it? And it's I mean, there's there's an
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: art to one.
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: You got to see the talents they have and the
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: abilities that they can continue to grow. But then when
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: you get those guys on those recruiting visits, do they
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: have that bulldoug mentality that they want to be the
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: best And when you find that rare combination, those are
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: the guys that were really going after.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: He talked about Ben McDougall and Ben McDougall was in
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: junior college and came to camp and Saban says, what
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: are you doing here? He had to pay three hundred
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: dollars to come to my camp. But that's the kind
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: of guy. Look what McDougall has done and even though
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: he was injured, he was injured this year, but he
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: wanted to play.
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: You know at the latter part of the.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Season, and again it's about the character that they've built
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: up this team.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: And I think you you define that just the way
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: that you were raised, like you're the walking definition of
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: what West Virginia sports are about. Your brother was the
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: same thing, Scottie, Right. It wasn't the most athletically gifted player,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: but my gosh, you knew every single time he put
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: it on he was playing. And the same thing with you, like,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and we talked about it before we started recording today,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I've always felt him whatever it is in life, you
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: have to be almost obsessive, compulsive about being elite at
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: whatever it is that you're doing to have the highest
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: level of success. You had that and you see that
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: that has that permeates a lot of the guys on
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: this roster.
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it was when when you get so close for
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: so many years in a row, it's like you just
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: become obsessed with it. And we talked about it, and
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: the word I kept saying is need it, Like we
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: needed to get here. There was no we want to
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: get here, We hope we get here. West Virginia Baseball
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: needed to get here. And we just went out and
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: with that mentality and you keep playing and you know it.
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: Just because we need to get here doesn't mean we
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: were going to get here. Then it took freaquent work
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: and from the I mean summer bridge and to fall
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: into the winter. Just guys really buying into needing to
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: get here is the reason why we're here.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: What has this role meant to you personally? To be
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: back in part of the program and around this so
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: much and in the dug out, what's it meant to
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: you a lot?
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: You know, I take pride and I was thinking about
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: it when a lot of people say, what's the special
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: assistant do? I'm not fully sure. I consider myself the
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: baseball coach of the team. Like I'm over there to
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: make whoever shows up, whether Save sends me a recruit
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: or or whoever shows up with that doorstep, I'm gonna
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: do whatever I can to make them a better baseball player. Now,
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: my meeting with Matt Well is going over you know,
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: budgeting and administrative stuff. Probably not that's that's not something
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: that I'm super interested in. But if a kid walks
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: in there and wants to go to the cage and
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: get better, or go out on the field and make
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: himself better in the field. I feel like that's where
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: I make the biggest impact of this program.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: Want to real quick along those lines, because it's interesting
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: that where your major league career and you've ended up
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: playing a lot of different positions, and this team is
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: so unique. It seems like everybody's a shortstop and they've
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: just moved to different positions. How much of you talked
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: to Brody Kresser and Armani about playing first and Gavin
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: at second? And I'm blown away that tyrs Hall's played
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: two games at third before he got here as smooth
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: as he is. But that kind of mirrors what your
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: career did. How much has that goed out?
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: I worked with four different first basements in four different weeks,
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: getting them trying to throw it all together at one point.
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: But yeah, it's the same thing like everything else. If
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: the kid can buy into wanting to get better, that's
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: where my job gets a lot easier. If I have
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: to force a kid to come to the cage or
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: I have to force him to get ground balls, the
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: kid's probably not on the.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: Field, and that's that's the nature of it.
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: If a kid is dying to get on the field
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: and dying to ask for reps and to get ground balls.
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: I'll work with that kid all day long, and that
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: kid will get better at some point.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, digging into be a diamond rat absolutely, Yep. You
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: made a good point just a moment ago, and that
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: was we needed to get here as a program. And
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I thought Steve did a wonderful job and what he
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: said today that it's it is very unusual that West
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Virginia's advancement to the College World Series actually has taken
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: place in almost linear or chronological order. Like you go,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: you go super super super College World Series.
• 12:48
  Speaker 7: Sometimes as you well know to get here, you will
• 12:51
  Speaker 7: you go super regional, and then there's like two years
• 12:53
  Speaker 7: you get to a regional, you don't get out, one
• 12:55
  Speaker 7: year you might not get to the tournament, and then
• 12:56
  Speaker 7: you come to another super like it was compacted.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: That's that's why I think this.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Or even back it up, when you got to the regional,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: then you hosted but didn't get out of there, Right,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: I had to go through those trials and tribulations before
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: you got to these last three years.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: And so West Virginia and North Carolina the only three
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: teams right have been to Super regionals and and like
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: that this, so this is even more Wow.
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's pretty awesome, right like this this is
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: cool overdone? And I had a younger player actually today
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: and he came up to me. He's like, man, how
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: are we going to top this? And I was like, man,
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: I was like, you freaking come back. Next year, We're
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: going do this again. Like it's just like it's NonStop,
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: and it's like, that's that's what a baseball career is,
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: Like it's easy, it's not easy. But I was like,
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: I try to explain to him. I was like, it's
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: easy to get there, but how hard is it to
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: stay there? I was like, well, it's really freaking hard
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: to get here, yes, but I don't ever forget how
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: much work we put in just to get here. And
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: hopefully we went it all and that would be awesome.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: But I was like, next year, that thing starts all
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: over again, like all that work we didn't it's it's
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: you're starting that clock over all that all that time
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: we put into, all the way back in the summer Bridge, Like,
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: we have to do that all over again. And if
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: you don't put that work in, you're gonna be that
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: team that you know the wins at all and doesn't
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: get back here again at all.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Well, that's certainly true this year in this sport, right,
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: LSU wins it last year, don't even make it into
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: the tournament. No teams are returning from the College World
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: Series this year. It's remarkable. So yeah, it is really
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: hard to get here. It is super hard.
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: Absolutely nothing guaranteed, especially in the game of baseball. I
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: mean the game of life, period, but the game of baseball. There,
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: nothing is gonna be guaranteed, nothing is gonna be given
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: to you.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Well his wife, Oh.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Wait a minute, So I want to talk about I
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: want to talk about Troy in this game tomorrow because
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: West Virginia actually is a little bit of a favorite
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: in this game. And Troy can hit the long ball.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: They've hit twice as many home runs as West Virginia.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: They have a good starting pitcher tomorrow, it's gonna be Benjamin Stubbs. However,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: this is a team that gives up nine hits a game,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: and this is a team that maybe their bullpen is
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: not as strong is West Virginia's pitching staff. So, without
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: reviewing any secrets, what's the strategy going into tomorrow?
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: It's not a secret We're going to be aggressive at
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: the plate, get a good pitch and drive something, hopefully
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: get into that bullpen early. And we're going to do
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: that by knocking the starter out of the game, not
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: letting him get a high pitch count.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: We plan on getting him.
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: Out of the game early, and then with our pitching
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: staff and the way we defend, I feel like we
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: have a good chance at any ballpark, especially this one.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: When you come to this level of baseball. In your opinion,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: after seeing literally thousands of games, what determines baseball games?
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: What's the true essence to you? Is the fatal stat
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I always look at it as the mistake more so
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: than the big play. What do you see games being
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: decided by.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: That's a great question.
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: Every game's a little different, right, but it's kind of
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: the flow of the game, what that game kind of
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: looks like. It might just be, you know, a guy
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: getting a guy over from second with nobody out that
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: could determine a game. Or it could be who can
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: make the big blow early in the game, which pitcher
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: can keep the ball down in a big ball park,
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: or who makes the play when they get the double playball.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: So I mean, we could go.
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: Into thousands of scenarios for us, I think it's just
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: gonna be playing good, clean baseball.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: It could be the third baseman not making the play.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was just gonna say, isn't baseball a little
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: it's different from those other sports. There are so many
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: different things that can happen. Brodie Crusher hits the ball
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: wasn't hit hard down the third base line, you don't
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: feel it cleanly. That starts the rally. Now the crowd
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: starts to go. Then Paul Schoenfeld goes deep ultimately to
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: get you over the edge. So yeah, there's a thousand
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: different things within a baseball game that can come up.
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, that's why we try to play good, clean baseball
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: at all times. And if you can pitch the ball
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: and you can take care of it and you have
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: good quality at bats, why can't you win every single
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: game you play right? And and that's why we're here,
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: and that's why we've gotten here. We've taken care of
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: the baseball. We have a couple of really good starters,
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: we've got experience in the bullpen, and then we've got
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: guys that will step up that maybe haven't even played
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: all year, and then they'll show up in the postseason
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: between the bat really well and lead you to a championship.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: I think that's probably one of the biggest takeaways I'll
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: take from this is there have been so many guys
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: that have been propelled into massively important situations late in
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the season, that have gone out there and they haven't blinked.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: I mean Disney movie type stuff.
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Uh. You know, ARMANI doesn't get a home run the
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: entire season, all of a sudden boom, you know, Tyris
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: goes out there and he goes you know, back.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: To back and.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: Finding the regional and super well.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: And that's just three guys among a bunch of guys
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: where you just go like, but those are the kind
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: of things that have to happen to get to this level.
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: Right Absolutely, it takes everybody. That's That's what we've built
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: this entire thing on. That's what saves the priest from that.
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: It doesn't matter if you're the top guy at the
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: bottom guy. It takes everybody to get here. And that
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: proves it. I mean, and Lumson is the guy that
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: you can look back on, Like you said, it's like
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: a movie, but just a senior that didn't play Probably
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: he started the season and was terrible. And he'll He'll
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: be the first one to tell you, I've probably worked
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: with Lums more than any player in the.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: Last two years.
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: And he could have just packed it in a senior
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: that probably knows he's not getting drafted that that's probably
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: a pipe dream at this point. But it's just like,
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: could he have shut it down and enjoyed and you know,
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: partied his time at w and as he went on, No,
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: he put his head down and he freaking worked, and
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: what do you know that the situation shows up and
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: he's ready for it.
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: He's not surprised by it. And it's really cool.
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: The thing with Gooz hitting one to eighty probably you know,
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: three quarters away through the season, just kept freaking going
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: to the cage, kept putting the work in, and things
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: started to change. And it's just that, like I said,
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: that bulldog mentality where guys, guys are never gonna give up,
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: We're never gonna give in, We're gonna keep battling until
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: the end.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: And then we named five different guys here and didn't
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: talk about the first round pick and Gavin Kelly, So
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: what do you see from Gavin Kelly and project on
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: to the next level. We know Baseball America has n't
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: as the number one prospect next year, but that's that's
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: your world. You've played with those guys. How does Gavin
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: fit into that world?
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: He fits right in there.
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: And I have no doubt in my mind that Gavin's
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: gonna play for a really, really long time. And he's
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: as talented as they get. He's got a great head
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: on his shoulders. He loves the game of baseball. He
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: works everything that you could ever ask for. He does that,
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: and he catches, which definitely helps as well. So not
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: a not a bad uh skill set for him to
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: keep going. And we've leaned on him and he's he's
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: really picked it up in the last you know, I
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: think he only had what five or six home runs
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: halfway through the season. As the season kind of wound down,
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: when the situations got big, he was the guy that
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: stood up and became really the guy in the middle
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: of the order. And you need those guys as well.
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: I mean, not everybody can step up and hit the
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: ball out of the ballpark, especially on this team. So
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: for him to step into that situation, he's he's only
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: going to keep getting better as his body kind of
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: fills out.
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: That's uh.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: You know his power took off once he was on
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: this problems.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: It was because he appeared on this Caro c was
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: on and he was you know, so we make stars.
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: You might have a.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Day.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: Who knows when I'll ever be invited.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: But no, you never caught, did you. Was that one
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: of the few positions you never played?
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: You never caught center field, right field and catcher.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: One last thing for you, No, I didn't think.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: So I can't walk now.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: No, to go back to the point where sports kind
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: of imitates life, so like I think the lesson that
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: this baseball team has shown is in whatever situation you're in,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: whatever work situation you're in, if you're not being advanced
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: quickly enough, or if you're not getting right, the lesson
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: is just keep going to work and keep getting better
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: at whatever it is you do, and eventually you will
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: go to the top.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: That's the life lesson, no doubt.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: Put your head down, go to work, try to get
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: better whenever you can lean on people that have been there,
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: that know how to get you there, and usually good
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: things will happen.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: If you've got that.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: What is what a lot of the players say for
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: West Virginia when they're behind Advantage West Virginia.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: Ye, adversity, little adversity happens advantage West Virginia.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah all right, brother, we're gonna let you go. Thank
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you, guys.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: He's our guy. Jed Jerco such a dude. They named
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: a street after him. That's hard to do, it is,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, Hoppy runs around. Hoppy runs around like promoting,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: like he's got these honorary degrees. He didn't have a
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: street named after him. He's got a dead end street
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: after all. Right, this is gonna this is uh no, no, yeah,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: it turned yeah yeah, Jed's off, Jed's off.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: Mike.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Now, we were not in our regular studios, so this
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: is gonna look really raw, but that's who we are.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Three guys before the game is brought to you by
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Lou Jake. You can come in. Three guys before the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: game is brought to us by Lou Wendell Marine Sales
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: in St. Albans day Sell Family Fund. I talked to
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: a bunch of people earlier today who took Lou Wendell
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: pontoons out of West Virginia and voted here and had
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: to go through some docks, some various things, some ponds,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: made it across three swimming pools. They made it here.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Lou Wendle, the only Honda Marine Premium dealership in the
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: state of West Virginia. Need to check him out, the
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: number one pontoon boat dealer in the state. Three Guys
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: is also brought to us by the good folks at Gomart.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Gomart this month Folks, Monster Energy and Gomart keeping your
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: summer fully fueled. Enter every week for a chance to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: win a thousand dollars Gomart gift card, plenty of Phillips
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Fountain drinks, slim Gyms for the road. Winners are announced
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: on Fridays on Gomart's social platforms. Enter now on the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: gomart app. Please welcome to the program the color analyst
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: of the Mountaineer Sports Network. This could be like a
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: lot of people have heard his voice, haven't seen his face.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Please welcome. Yeah, give him big studio plause for Jake
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Wegghorst on the program. Thanks for joining us.
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: Buddy, Glad to be here, Glad to be here in Omaha.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, for sure, if there ever was a baseball guy,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: it would be Jake. So a little bit of a
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: backstory from the state of Texas, two years of junior college,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: two years at Bayley University, got into the coaching business,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: and then got to West Virginia as a result of that.
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: That's what got you here.
• 23:06
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I was just a you know, grew up in
• 23:08
  Speaker 8: Texas and wanted always to play at Baylor. Got to
• 23:11
  Speaker 8: do that, got to play in the Big twelve in
• 23:13
  Speaker 8: front of my family and my friends. And then I
• 23:16
  Speaker 8: always wanted to coach, and you know, I made a
• 23:19
  Speaker 8: phone call, you know, I coached a small school in Tennessee,
• 23:22
  Speaker 8: and then WU had an opening and just you know,
• 23:24
  Speaker 8: made a phone call and then ended up meeting a
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: girl and been married fifteen years, a couple of kids,
• 23:30
  Speaker 8: and still here and and love everything about West Virginia
• 23:33
  Speaker 8: and WU.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, your wife's from where.
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: She is from, Farmington, Farmington.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, So so we go lone Star state to the
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Mountain State. The thing that I love about you, I
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: love former coaches and players obviously that are now broadcasters,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: because you look and understand the game completely different. So
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: with that being said, when you watch this West Virginia team,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: what was it that most impressed.
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: You about this squad?
• 23:59
  Speaker 8: You know, We've seen it over especially Andrew and I
• 24:02
  Speaker 8: are doing it the past couple of years, completely different teams,
• 24:06
  Speaker 8: you know, for the past four years, but this one
• 24:08
  Speaker 8: in particular. They can beach in so many different ways.
• 24:11
  Speaker 8: I mean, that's the thing. I mean, especially lately. We
• 24:14
  Speaker 8: can beat you at the long ball. We got it
• 24:16
  Speaker 8: starting pitching, and then you get into some games and
• 24:20
  Speaker 8: you know, Paul Schollenfal lays down a bunch a sacrifice
• 24:24
  Speaker 8: bunt Rmani Guzman gets on first base. You know, you blink,
• 24:27
  Speaker 8: blink and I and he's scoring.
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: You know. So there's just so many ways to.
• 24:32
  Speaker 8: Attack you that you know, when Jed was talking about
• 24:35
  Speaker 8: the flow of the game and how it goes, that's
• 24:38
  Speaker 8: why this team is here, is because they can just
• 24:41
  Speaker 8: come at you from a thousand different directions.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about that a little bit as it relates
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: to tomorrow's game. And this field in Park is different.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: It's a massive park and it looks like when you're
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: looking down in that outfield, you can't even see the outfitters.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: There's a ton of grass. How do you think that's
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: advantage West Virginia Given the dimensions of this park and
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: how the Mountaineers play.
• 24:59
  Speaker 8: You know, I think the team's speed is really going
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: to come out in this part. And I think you
• 25:03
  Speaker 8: go back to when Armani guzmand led off the Super
• 25:05
  Speaker 8: Regional with a hustle double. I mean that that type
• 25:09
  Speaker 8: of you know plays from the guys. But you know,
• 25:13
  Speaker 8: we have a lot of doubles. We can run the bases,
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: so I think that alone, it's still like the home
• 25:19
  Speaker 8: runs were hitting. They're not like huge home runs. I
• 25:22
  Speaker 8: think a lot of those will still be gap shots.
• 25:24
  Speaker 8: So I think this park plays extremely well. It's the
• 25:28
  Speaker 8: way this offense works.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: And you have a Troy offense that doesn't strike out
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: a lot, one of the best in the country and
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: strikeout rate, but that's all right going against the West
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: rg any defense, it's one of the best in the country.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: When we talk fielding percentage.
• 25:38
  Speaker 8: You know, that's the same with cal Paly. They didn't
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: strike out a whole lot. But when you have a
• 25:42
  Speaker 8: really solid defensive team, you don't worry about it too much.
• 25:46
  Speaker 8: You still got to make the plays. You still got
• 25:48
  Speaker 8: to work at it. But you know, when you have
• 25:50
  Speaker 8: an infield full of shortstops and tyras alt third base man,
• 25:55
  Speaker 8: I can't get enough that guy at third base. Agree,
• 25:57
  Speaker 8: it's just been incredible. But Kelly Kresser, you know, you
• 26:01
  Speaker 8: bring Guzman in, it's one of the fastest guys on
• 26:04
  Speaker 8: the team at first base. It's just really incredible.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: But they but also they have a guy. We talk
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: about the size of the s field, but they have
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: a guy that's on a streak, Jay Boroff, Jabe the
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Babe or yeah, that's right, Jay Bruth And he's hitting
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: like six home runs in the NCAA tournament. I mean,
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: and as a former baseball player, you know when a
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: guy gets hot, he's seeing it.
• 26:26
  Speaker 8: You know it happened. It happens all the time. But
• 26:28
  Speaker 8: then you go back to way this coaching staff evaluates players,
• 26:33
  Speaker 8: you know, other opposing teams, and the scatting reports that
• 26:36
  Speaker 8: go into it. If you went back to all the series,
• 26:39
  Speaker 8: the best players that we've played, it's incredible how we like,
• 26:44
  Speaker 8: this guy can't beat you this series. And Coach One
• 26:48
  Speaker 8: and Coach Riley, they've done such a good job with
• 26:51
  Speaker 8: the pitch sequences against these guys. And I go back
• 26:54
  Speaker 8: way back to the Kansas State Series when d Kennedy
• 26:57
  Speaker 8: came into town and just completely shut him out and
• 27:00
  Speaker 8: He's one of the hottest hitters in the country at
• 27:01
  Speaker 8: the time, and it was just incredible. But those two
• 27:04
  Speaker 8: guys on the pitching side of it, whereas you know,
• 27:06
  Speaker 8: about three years ago, towards the end, the pitching kind
• 27:10
  Speaker 8: of wore down. We were wearing thin. Now it's one
• 27:13
  Speaker 8: of the strengths of the program matched with the offense.
• 27:17
  Speaker 8: That's why you're in home.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: It's a great point go deeper on pitch sequence for
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: everybody listens, so exactly what he's talking about.
• 27:22
  Speaker 8: There, well, I mean it's you know, it's so different
• 27:25
  Speaker 8: than one I pitched. It was like, hey, you know, attack,
• 27:27
  Speaker 8: this guy's a first pitch hitter. You know, throw some
• 27:29
  Speaker 8: off speed, but you know, these guys are so pinpoint
• 27:32
  Speaker 8: accurate going inside, not just inside, but low and end
• 27:36
  Speaker 8: or up and end or low and away, you know,
• 27:38
  Speaker 8: sliders away, the pitch shape. You know, it's it's you
• 27:42
  Speaker 8: go back to the Biomechanics center at what you you know,
• 27:45
  Speaker 8: the videos you get to see and the returnal investment
• 27:49
  Speaker 8: on that thing has just been awesome.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: And so going back Chance and Cole's change up specifically
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: was so valuable and different, and that was such an
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: advantage the last time he came out, kept everything down,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: nothing in the upper third of the zone. So that's
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: kind that's the stuff that's just remarkable. So it's it's
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: game planning, but it's an execution on the other side.
• 28:08
  Speaker 8: Chance and Cole might be my favorite pitcher to watch,
• 28:11
  Speaker 8: just because he's not gonna throw it over ninety miles
• 28:13
  Speaker 8: an hour, but all his movement, you know, the sinker, slider,
• 28:16
  Speaker 8: change up, the break is so late when it gets
• 28:21
  Speaker 8: on you, no matter which pitch it is, it gets
• 28:23
  Speaker 8: on you and it's either going right, left, or down.
• 28:26
  Speaker 8: And he does such a good job it throwing below
• 28:29
  Speaker 8: the barrel and when he pitches, you wouldn't know if
• 28:32
  Speaker 8: you're up ten or down ten. You know, he is
• 28:35
  Speaker 8: such the perfect guy for a big situation. And there's
• 28:39
  Speaker 8: I'm not surprised he's ten in one. Yeah, it's really
• 28:42
  Speaker 8: it's like Greg Maddox, you know, young Greg Maddox out
• 28:45
  Speaker 8: there throwing with the run and the sink.
• 28:47
  Speaker 6: It's incredible.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: And then he's I'm sorry, one last thing on Chance
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: And and what he's given you the ability to do, especially late,
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: is he served as the ace and it's allowed you
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: and now in two games where you had the opportunity
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: to advance, that you roll out the big twelve pitcher
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: of the year in a game when you're ready to advance.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, think about the advantage that creates, and guys,
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: that's something that usually happens against us, not in West
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: Virginia's favor, that you're in that moment and then you
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: roll out the ace. They're so close together.
• 29:13
  Speaker 8: You can't go wrong with either one of Chanson or
• 29:15
  Speaker 8: Max Schiel And you know, at the beginning of the year,
• 29:18
  Speaker 8: Chance and Cole was the Friday night guy, you know,
• 29:21
  Speaker 8: and so they've all kind of rotated depending on you know,
• 29:24
  Speaker 8: how many pitches they've thrown the rest they've needed. So
• 29:27
  Speaker 8: either one of them is incredible. But it's nice when
• 29:30
  Speaker 8: Chance and can go out there and get you a
• 29:31
  Speaker 8: win and then you come back with a six to
• 29:33
  Speaker 8: six left hander and just I mean, it's it's unbelievable,
• 29:38
  Speaker 8: especially what Max Shale's done this year as well.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Well, you're broadcasting the games, you have a piece of
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: software up there called track Man, and I think folks
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: would find it really interesting. It gives you some incredible
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: analytics instantaneously, so walk us through like for example, if
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: it's Chance or if it's Max or whomever. What are
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: opposing hitters seen as far as drop? What do they like?
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: What makes you go? Like when you're looking at your
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: track man during the game, going like, whoa, how are
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: you supposed to hit that? What are they doing?
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: Well?
• 30:07
  Speaker 8: The thing with Chance and is you know, you get
• 30:09
  Speaker 8: the the run horizontally. And then when chance and throws
• 30:13
  Speaker 8: his fastball and that's like fifteen to twenty inches of
• 30:16
  Speaker 8: horizontal break, you know what. I'm sitting there thinking when
• 30:19
  Speaker 8: I used to hit a long time ago. I'm like,
• 30:21
  Speaker 8: I'd have had no chance, no chance, and then he drops,
• 30:24
  Speaker 8: you know, seventy six change up in there. It's just
• 30:28
  Speaker 8: it's really truly incredible because you don't see that nowadays.
• 30:32
  Speaker 8: Guys chase velocity. You want to throw ninety five and above,
• 30:36
  Speaker 8: and then you see Chance and you looking at velocity,
• 30:38
  Speaker 8: He's like, this guy didn't throw ninety miles an hour,
• 30:40
  Speaker 8: but he just carves you up left and roll school.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: He's like, that's the old school stuffer. Guys just just
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: make the ball dance.
• 30:46
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I love it. I love watching him pitch now.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: Sometimes the ninety seven is pretty good too. Dawson Montesa
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: comes in, just throw an absolute gas. That's that's still
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: an amazing performance to me. One hundred and twenty pitches
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: and you call on him again, he throws a rubber
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: arm out there, steps right in. He's throwing ninety six
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: ninety seven.
• 31:02
  Speaker 8: Again, how about that performance bringing him after throwing one
• 31:05
  Speaker 8: hundred and twenty six pitches. But it's guys like that,
• 31:08
  Speaker 8: you know, as coach Savans built the culture. These guys
• 31:11
  Speaker 8: want the ball. They want the ball no matter what
• 31:15
  Speaker 8: the cost is. They want to win. And Dawson was
• 31:18
  Speaker 8: the right guy to bring in there. I mean, he
• 31:19
  Speaker 8: came in humming, you're thin there. I mean, me and
• 31:22
  Speaker 8: Andrew are talking about this. What's the velocity going to be?
• 31:25
  Speaker 8: Like when we saw him warming up first pitch ninety
• 31:27
  Speaker 8: seven or like he's fine, he's all right arms Okay?
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: What guys? Mentality wise? I mean he you know, he
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: was a starter, right, he was a guy that was
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: in the in the weekend rotation and then he got
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: you know, stepped aside a little bit. But guess what,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: he never stopped. He could have bagged it. There's so
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: many guys on this team that because said I'm out,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I'm done, they don't love me anymore. I'm done, and
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: instead they got just keep going.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: Saves talked about the today. I thought his description of
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: what players are like the pitchers are out getters, not
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: they're not not starters, they're not long relievers, they're not closers.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: They're out getters. I thought that was a great way
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: to say it and really exemplify what this team has
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: been about. When you're called upon coming, just get outs.
• 32:07
  Speaker 8: You know they don't have you know, he doesn't like
• 32:09
  Speaker 8: using This is my closer, this is my setup guy.
• 32:14
  Speaker 8: It's just going there and get outs. And I love
• 32:16
  Speaker 8: that he talked about it because it becomes an identity
• 32:20
  Speaker 8: of the pitching staff.
• 32:21
  Speaker 6: It's like, I don't care who pitches right. We're here
• 32:24
  Speaker 6: to win. We're here to get out.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: The He also talked about today, which was again part
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: of this, I think recruiting pitch. But it's it's it's
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: a become a big story that they're pushing out there,
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: and that is the the bio biomechanist, biomechanist that they've hired,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: Courtney Simquits. Courtney Simquits, and the fact that you have
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: this center and you have somebody who's devoted to the
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: technical aspect of the game, and how she's devoted and
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: there she's at practice and those kinds of things. Because
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: the margin is so close. The margins so close, and
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: if you can do a couple little things, a couple
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: of things, they give you just a little bit of
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: an advantage. I mean, how much of an advantage has
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: that center in her given this team.
• 33:13
  Speaker 8: I mean, I think when you look at the numbers,
• 33:15
  Speaker 8: and especially over the past couple of years, when you've
• 33:17
  Speaker 8: been knocking on the door to them all you've been
• 33:19
  Speaker 8: really close and now you have this entire facility. But
• 33:24
  Speaker 8: not only I love that Savans talked about her wanting
• 33:26
  Speaker 8: to be a part of a team, yes, and be
• 33:29
  Speaker 8: on the field, be in the dugout. When you have
• 33:32
  Speaker 8: in a program, when you have not just the players
• 33:34
  Speaker 8: and the coaches, but everybody else bought in to the
• 33:38
  Speaker 8: staff and to winning and developing a team and excelling,
• 33:43
  Speaker 8: I mean, that's it. That's the name of the game.
• 33:46
  Speaker 8: I mean, what West Virginia Baseball is doing, you know,
• 33:49
  Speaker 8: not just over the past fifteen years, but just the
• 33:51
  Speaker 8: accelerated growth, I mean, this is just phenomenal. I still
• 33:54
  Speaker 8: don't truly like understand the whole bit of it. But
• 33:58
  Speaker 8: when you go in there and see these cameras and
• 34:01
  Speaker 8: these weight plates, and the guys over there really like
• 34:04
  Speaker 8: sitting there learning and listening and then going out there
• 34:07
  Speaker 8: and actually doing it on the field.
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: And then the bulls and seeing results because we've.
• 34:12
  Speaker 8: Seen guys, you know, like I think Reese Passenger has
• 34:15
  Speaker 8: got extremely better. You know, in one year, he's another
• 34:19
  Speaker 8: guy that could have probably packed it in and go,
• 34:21
  Speaker 8: I've done something else, but he came back for that
• 34:23
  Speaker 8: that additional year. I think his stuff is way better
• 34:26
  Speaker 8: this year than it was last year. Has to be
• 34:29
  Speaker 8: one hundred percent part of that, you know.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Center One thing about this, and I don't think this
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: has been talked about nearly enough. You know what we're
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: forgetting in all this. This is Steve Saban's second year
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: as a head coach. Like most times, as you well know,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: he transitions from a coach that had done incredible things
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: and then great respect. Like most of the times, it
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: does not go like that. It goes down. Even maybe
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: it'll come up again, but most of the time when
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: you make that there's a change. This dude, it's like
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, right he's out there and this
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: has been what he's doing for fifty years. He handles
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: it with such coolness, and I don't think it's just
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: a West Virginia story. I think it's a national story.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: I truly think it's a national story. Like and then
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: when he goes on in game interviews, people go like,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: wait a second, this dude's a little bit different, and
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: they will only enhance that brand.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: It goes to what I think is, this is not
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: a program that's on the rise. This is a program
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: that has arrived. This is a national program that exists
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: now and Steve Saban's being recognized in the staff for
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: what they're doing in this biometric center. So you're not
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: like on the common. This is not a fluke, this
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: is not a one off. This is you have arrived
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: at an elite level.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: Well, here, I'll give you a story from today. Earlier today,
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: after we walked out of that press conference, we ran
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: into Gene Stevenson, the legendary coach at Wichita State that
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: went to seven College World Series in a period of
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: fourteen years and was really one of the first cold weather,
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: bad weather schools to be dominant in baseball. And he
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: was in that press conference. He's in his eighties now,
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: and he was in that press conference watching Steve Sabans,
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: and he told us afterwards, he said he got teary
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: eyed about that after watching Sabans and the West Virginia players,
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: and said, those guys have a chance to win this
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: whole thing because of that coach and those players and
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: the way they speak and the way they've bought in
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: that is different up there from Geene Stevenson. So that's
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: not us saying it, right, that's one of the legends
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: in college baseball that was in that room today and
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: watched that for the first time. He'd never talked to Steve.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: He'd never met Steve. He still hasn't met Steve. He
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: just watched that press conference and that was his takeaway.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Made him emotional, how good it was and how great
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: all of those guys chanting and Gavin and Steve.
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: Did up there.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: That's that's pretty high praise right there, from a guy
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: that's a lifer in this business.
• 36:46
  Speaker 8: He's a complete professional, and I'd see him on a
• 36:49
  Speaker 8: higher level, you know. So I'm not down there in practice,
• 36:52
  Speaker 8: so I see how he reacts, not just to the players,
• 36:55
  Speaker 8: but you know, the fans and people are part of
• 36:58
  Speaker 8: the program. Have seen Steve play when he was playing
• 37:02
  Speaker 8: third base in the Valley League, in the Summer League.
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: He was he was.
• 37:05
  Speaker 8: Big, he was bulky, he was the third baseman and
• 37:08
  Speaker 8: and he was legit. And so I think that mentality
• 37:12
  Speaker 8: when he's a player, and with his calmness, because he
• 37:17
  Speaker 8: you look at him in games and he's yeah, down
• 37:21
  Speaker 8: there in the dugout and making you know, incredible calls
• 37:25
  Speaker 8: that I'm sitting there. We try to, you know, figure
• 37:27
  Speaker 8: out what he's doing. I've stopped trying to do that
• 37:29
  Speaker 8: because he is on a whole different level. I mean,
• 37:31
  Speaker 8: he has steps ahead in game, but just the recruiting,
• 37:35
  Speaker 8: how he handles the media, how he talks. Just eighty
• 37:40
  Speaker 8: nine was eighty nine wins.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: The style of baseball that they play because they're not
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: just trying to crush it out of the park every
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: time it runs runs a run, right, So can you bunt?
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: I mean guys just bunting, and then Guzman gets on
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: base and he's just a terrorist like stealing bases. I
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: mean it is it is embracing all and Brad you played,
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: it's embracing everything you can do in the game.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: And Jakey you mentioned it was it back in the
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: regional when you're when you're watching that and Tyris Hall
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: comes up in the nine hole, swings away and hits
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: a home run. And then you mentioned earlier, Schoenfeld comes
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: up in a three hole who's just won a regional
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: with a home run, and he drops down a sacrifice.
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: But talk about interchangeable parts there, one through nine.
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: It's interchangeable.
• 38:22
  Speaker 8: Well, that's that's having the team speed and really guys
• 38:25
  Speaker 8: that will do whatever it takes to win. I mean,
• 38:29
  Speaker 8: that's that's the part of it. And you see the
• 38:31
  Speaker 8: good teams over the years, and you've been around baseball
• 38:33
  Speaker 8: a long time. The best teams do those kinds of things.
• 38:37
  Speaker 8: They're not selfish baseball players. They do it for each other.
• 38:42
  Speaker 8: And it's just been incredible to watch in the booth
• 38:45
  Speaker 8: and I'm so happy to be a part of it.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Before we let you go here, one quick little thing.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Our next guest will be uh Andrew Cried, who you've
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: worked with here for a couple of years now doing
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: these basebaly what's the biggest challenge in working with him?
• 39:00
  Speaker 8: There's no challenge at all. He's awesome. Thank you for
• 39:04
  Speaker 8: four years in a row. That we've done it together.
• 39:07
  Speaker 8: And and to me, I've learned a lot from him
• 39:09
  Speaker 8: because I didn't I've never done broadcasting before I got
• 39:12
  Speaker 8: got with him and and I remind him the first
• 39:15
  Speaker 8: game I think we did together was a four to
• 39:17
  Speaker 8: two loss to Hostra.
• 39:19
  Speaker 6: I was like, I was like, what is this? What
• 39:21
  Speaker 6: are we doing? And then then we've been the four regionals,
• 39:23
  Speaker 6: two Big twelve.
• 39:24
  Speaker 8: Titles, three supers an hour in Omaha. So I said,
• 39:27
  Speaker 8: we got it pretty good, buddy. So it's uh, we
• 39:30
  Speaker 8: have a lot of fun and uh, it's awesome out there.
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: With Don't try to diss your son.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Oh he'll have his he'll have an opportunity.
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: Listen to him. He does a good job. He'll about
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: your back.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Well, hell have Jake, thanks so much.
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: I appreciate you.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: There is Jake wegghorse Color, analyst of the Mountaineer Sports Network.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Three Guys before the Game is brought to us by
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  Speaker 3: We got a tweet. We got a tweet earlier today
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  Speaker 3: directed at us that Kyle was starting his journey from
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: Morgantown to Omaha. Guess what his first stop was to
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  Speaker 3: fuel up in Morgantown before he headed this way. Biscuit World. Yeah,
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: now he had to go March get the gas. But yeah,
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  Speaker 3: you got his food there Tutors on his way out.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: By the way you met, you might if you're watching
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: the video stream, you just saw homeless cross.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he did. Homeless is with us. He provides the
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• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Ladies and jentlemen, please welcome to the program. The baseball
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: play by play announcer of your West Virginia Mountaineers, Andrew Coredi.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: I do refer to him as junior and your son,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: my sons, my son. This is one of the one
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: umber three, one of three. He's the middle child. He's
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: a twin so he was the first of the twins
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: that were born, and so it goes, Michael Andrew Matthew,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: thanks for really spending some time with us. We appreciate
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: you being here with us.
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: I appreciate it.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 42:21
  Speaker 9: It's good to be here after a while there, I
• 42:23
  Speaker 9: guess there was a long time coming getting on here
• 42:25
  Speaker 9: a couple of years ago. And then when President Benson
• 42:27
  Speaker 9: got to me after the Big twelve tournament championship game,
• 42:29
  Speaker 9: he asked me here.
• 42:29
  Speaker 10: That may have been before, but he's like, what are
• 42:31
  Speaker 10: you going on?
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: Three? Guys?
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: You know what?
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 42:32
  Speaker 10: When am I getting on three?
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: You go to Omaha, you get your omahas.
• 42:35
  Speaker 10: And then we got y'all sure your hair is convenient?
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: It only took seven hundred and twenty one episode. I
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: mean right, it's seven twenty one.
• 42:41
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: So, like a lot of people write in about you.
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, lot, I hear it, and uh.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: They they they say, hey, you know you're doing a
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: great job. Da da da da da da da. Have
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: you do you realize how lucky you are?
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: Yes?
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: I do?
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: Okay, thousand you don't, Yes, I do? He does doesn't know?
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: You do?
• 42:59
  Speaker 9: Not?
• 43:00
  Speaker 10: I mean as much as I can. Yeah, that's a
• 43:03
  Speaker 10: better answer, like as much as I can.
• 43:04
  Speaker 9: Like I remember the first first two years that I,
• 43:07
  Speaker 9: you know, started doing this job and got to do
• 43:08
  Speaker 9: this shobby like every other day, I'd have to like
• 43:10
  Speaker 9: kind of like rub my head and be like, this
• 43:12
  Speaker 9: is really fortunate the way that this has worked out.
• 43:15
  Speaker 9: Like I'm not kidding, like this is like every other
• 43:17
  Speaker 9: day type of thing. So yeah, I think about.
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: That a lot.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: So my brother, it's not these don't grow on.
• 43:23
  Speaker 10: Trees, right, and everybody to do winning teams.
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: You're sitting in Omaha, you're about to call college.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: That's only half of it, my brother says. My brother
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: says that Andrew was born with a horseshoe up his
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: butt because everything he touches, everything he touches turns the gold.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: So he also is the women's basketball announcer. So this
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: year you've called a Big twelve championship right on.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: A glass floor.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, on a glass on the glass floor in Kansas City.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: And then you the all time the all time attendance
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: record at NC double in the Mountaineer women's basketball in
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: history with those games, and then you did obviously the
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Super Region was all in our own College World Series.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: And I say you get to do that. I got
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: a four to win football season. That's what I say. Thanks,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: that's what I say. Give it four win football? So fair?
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: Have you known adversity?
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: So what's just been like for you watching this team?
• 44:14
  Speaker 10: Yeah, unbelievable.
• 44:15
  Speaker 9: I mean I have the exact opposite perspective of probably
• 44:19
  Speaker 9: Jed and Jake because like they were here when they
• 44:21
  Speaker 9: were the ones taking Carol Haldy field. And so it's
• 44:24
  Speaker 9: been four years for me, and so the very first
• 44:26
  Speaker 9: year he won a Big twelve. So I've only known
• 44:27
  Speaker 9: success with a baseball program, which is actually hilarious when
• 44:30
  Speaker 9: you compare it to everybody else. And so it doesn't
• 44:32
  Speaker 9: shock me that we're here. And maybe that's why it's
• 44:35
  Speaker 9: weird for me to like fully appreciate what it is
• 44:37
  Speaker 9: because I've just only known winning since I started doing this.
• 44:40
  Speaker 9: Twenty twenty three is my first baseball season. So it's
• 44:43
  Speaker 9: been a lot of fun. And you know, Saved has
• 44:44
  Speaker 9: been with it. I think a thing that gets maybe
• 44:47
  Speaker 9: swept under the rud or not thought about it enough,
• 44:48
  Speaker 9: but like he was here ten years before he was
• 44:50
  Speaker 9: the head coach, so it's not like we were bringing
• 44:51
  Speaker 9: another guy in from a different place, he didn't know
• 44:53
  Speaker 9: how it operated. He was there, he got it and
• 44:56
  Speaker 9: obviously he'd hit the ground running.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: So you know, that's truly remarkable too. About say, the
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: baton pass from Randy Maze to Steve Sabans is not
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: only seamless, it's kicked it into a whole new level.
• 45:05
  Speaker 10: There, Yeah, for sure, and I think it's good. I
• 45:08
  Speaker 10: mean like it.
• 45:08
  Speaker 9: It was beneficial the time that it worked out too,
• 45:11
  Speaker 9: just with nil and transfer portal and change and stuff
• 45:13
  Speaker 9: like that.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Mays will tell you.
• 45:15
  Speaker 10: That he's old school.
• 45:16
  Speaker 9: He likes the four year growth patterns for the kids,
• 45:19
  Speaker 9: you know, the one and done's the you know way
• 45:21
  Speaker 9: that things change all the time. And building a program
• 45:24
  Speaker 9: is what he liked the most, and that obviously goes away.
• 45:26
  Speaker 9: It's building a program still, but it's completely different than
• 45:29
  Speaker 9: what it used to be. So that's why Saves works now,
• 45:31
  Speaker 9: and it's a good you know handoff of the of
• 45:33
  Speaker 9: the responsibilities.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: You know, one thing we probably should have asked Jed
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: and Jake about is now fully funding the scholarships. I mean,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: this roster, Yeah, will have the opportunity now to have
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: just never seen before amount of like legitimate dudes that
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: you can get. I mean back in the day, they
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: would take a scholarship and it would.
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: Be divided like six ways, right, Yet.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: More than that eleven point seven guys, I mean it's amazing.
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: It was eleven point seven scholarships over the entire roster.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Now it goes over thirty they got they got, we
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: got digits.
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thirty five right, it was eight.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Eight scholarships. Okay, Yeah, So jen Jak are still.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: Here, which was which was a really smart move by
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: the Athletic Department to say we can't We're gonna have
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: limited Niow money and limited revenue Starry money. We can't
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: give everybody all the money they want, but we can
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: fully fund the scholarships for those teams.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: But it is part of why you've heard me say
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: this on the last couple of shows. Now, I don't
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: think this window is closing. I think, in fact, it's
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: just opening, given that you're in a different position there
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: with all those scholarships and that biomechanical center that's not
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: only helping current guys, but how that attracts transfers the
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: financial stream that it's created. I think this is a
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: window here for West Virginia that you're positioned in baseball
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: really well, financially, you're you're not. You always need more, right,
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: you never have enough. But this is an interesting and
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: unique time for West Virginia baseball that it is sitting
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: in a great spot. And I'm talking nationally, not just
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: within this league.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: You're calling these games. It's a long season. At what
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: point did you if you did say to yourself, ooh,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: they got a chance.
• 47:08
  Speaker 9: You see it in spurts right in the earlier part
• 47:10
  Speaker 9: of the year. But I think the Kansas series when
• 47:12
  Speaker 9: you swept them at their place when they hadn't lost
• 47:14
  Speaker 9: a big twelve game all year long, and then you
• 47:16
  Speaker 9: went there and just like absolutely put it to him
• 47:17
  Speaker 9: for three games and ten run them. And that was
• 47:19
  Speaker 9: after you had lost a midweek game to pit and
• 47:22
  Speaker 9: lost the series of Cincinnati in a series that you
• 47:24
  Speaker 9: probably should have even swept, and Max did and pitched
• 47:26
  Speaker 9: that weekend, which is probably a part of why.
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: You lost two or three.
• 47:29
  Speaker 9: But you went there and did that coming off like
• 47:31
  Speaker 9: your downswing, right, And so that showed to me like
• 47:34
  Speaker 9: a mental toughness and a will to compete, and like
• 47:37
  Speaker 9: an edge and talent that showed up at the right
• 47:40
  Speaker 9: time at the perfect time.
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: Actually, as a.
• 47:41
  Speaker 9: Matter of fact, it still gave the regular season championship
• 47:45
  Speaker 9: a shot to be got, you know, heading into the
• 47:47
  Speaker 9: final weekend, and so you were kind of like, ah,
• 47:49
  Speaker 9: this could go one of two ways, and it just
• 47:51
  Speaker 9: ended up, you know, winning seventeen of your next twenty
• 47:53
  Speaker 9: after that, which is phenomenal. And then of course I'm
• 47:56
  Speaker 9: looking at the Kentucky Series like that's the hardest way
• 47:58
  Speaker 9: to do it is coming out of the losers racket
• 48:00
  Speaker 9: with the pressure of being at home and then you
• 48:02
  Speaker 9: know you're down three runs of the ninth, win that game,
• 48:04
  Speaker 9: then walk them off after giving up a four run lead,
• 48:06
  Speaker 9: and it's like, well, what what's gonna shock us here?
• 48:09
  Speaker 9: In terms of like our psyche if you go through that,
• 48:11
  Speaker 9: I'm not sure what's left outside of Omaha, which has
• 48:14
  Speaker 9: its own challenges. But that's that's how I'm looking at.
• 48:16
  Speaker 9: So a mentally tough team can beat you one through nine,
• 48:18
  Speaker 9: and the starting pitching too just phenomenal. I mean, that's
• 48:21
  Speaker 9: the difference this year I think more than anything else,
• 48:22
  Speaker 9: is like Chanson and Max And by the way, you're
• 48:24
  Speaker 9: talking about like players of mill you know, have a
• 48:27
  Speaker 9: D two transfer All American three years in a Row
• 48:29
  Speaker 9: and Clark Kern and Chance and Cole, so like, you
• 48:32
  Speaker 9: don't even have to get like the big name transfer guys.
• 48:34
  Speaker 9: You could go in the weeds like these guys have
• 48:36
  Speaker 9: find like the diamonds and the rough and tournament just as.
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: See, that's what blows me away. If you had found
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: D two guys that could plug in and start, that
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: would be great and we'd be saying how great the
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: evaluation is you get them at that level year after
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: year after year. That to me, of all the remarkable
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: things about the program, that's been the biggest is.
• 48:53
  Speaker 10: The just not missing on.
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: Some of these guys just have not missed for sure.
• 48:57
  Speaker 9: And like Schoenfeld two is another D two guy who's phenomenal,
• 49:00
  Speaker 9: and and Tyers Hall to fit that same bill. But yeah,
• 49:03
  Speaker 9: they're they're just phenomenal. And the culture I think they
• 49:07
  Speaker 9: talked about a little bit when they were on with
• 49:08
  Speaker 9: the culture. It's like I was trying to think. I
• 49:09
  Speaker 9: was like, who's the guy that like, you don't get
• 49:11
  Speaker 9: along with on these trips or who's just like a little.
• 49:13
  Speaker 10: Like prickly when you're around. I can't. I can't think,
• 49:15
  Speaker 10: I truly can't.
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: That's a good question.
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: Because you've been around you guys have been around this
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: team all year. Yeah, and so we see it and
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: we know what they say. So you're saying this is real.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: Look like the basketball team.
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: Was you guys, we said that about basketball.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Team I've ever seen. There was one day of drama.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: So I'm saying that's who these guys are.
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, they're like each other.
• 49:38
  Speaker 9: And I'm not around them every single day at practice,
• 49:40
  Speaker 9: and so I see them really just game days, travel days.
• 49:42
  Speaker 9: But it's been probably long enough for sample sized to
• 49:44
  Speaker 9: understand what it is. But yeah, yeah, I think so
• 49:47
  Speaker 9: they get along pretty well. You got to play for
• 49:49
  Speaker 9: each other. I mean when when you're this deep end
• 49:50
  Speaker 9: of the season, when you're in a team sport like baseball, right,
• 49:53
  Speaker 9: it's not an individual thing. Going back to the D
• 49:55
  Speaker 9: two stuff, like you know, you what other sport can
• 49:57
  Speaker 9: you take a D two like good D two play
• 50:00
  Speaker 9: and turn them into all American positions.
• 50:02
  Speaker 10: I've said it many times.
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: Baseball is obviously the most transferable of that for sure,
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: football or basketball or anything. It's yeah, yeah, still not easy,
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: but it's the most transferable and saves his fan The
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: staff have found the secret.
• 50:13
  Speaker 10: Yeah, and I thought it was cool when we were
• 50:14
  Speaker 10: coming back from Baylor.
• 50:15
  Speaker 9: That was during the World Baseball Classic and they were
• 50:18
  Speaker 9: all watching US and Dominican Republic. I think it was
• 50:20
  Speaker 9: the semi final game, and like our flights were super delayed.
• 50:23
  Speaker 9: We knew we were going to get back like four
• 50:25
  Speaker 9: and five in the morning, which we did, but we
• 50:27
  Speaker 9: all like stood outside of a like a Dirkin whisky
• 50:30
  Speaker 9: bar in Dallas, trying to fly back, and we were
• 50:31
  Speaker 9: all watching like the last couple of innings. It's like
• 50:33
  Speaker 9: teams that don't truly get along. You'll have a couple
• 50:35
  Speaker 9: guys there, but it was like thirty dudes all standing there.
• 50:38
  Speaker 9: That's what it is, and so engage And I was
• 50:40
  Speaker 9: like that that doesn't have to happen, and it still did.
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: And I know we say that stuff a lot when
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: you're around them, and sometimes you get the okay guy
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: like because it's very cliche and coach speaking, right, But
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: when you win, you have that right. That's I don't
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: know which of those comes first. Winning does help, but
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: you would argue you can't get to the winning unless
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: you've got that already in your locker.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: I would also submit to you, guys that baseball players
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: just by their very nature, are more apt to be
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: selfless and less caring. Let's face it, the reality of
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: it is this, hockey players, baseball players like they're not
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: given a whole lot basketball players and football players. You're
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: identified in basketball, you got your Nike bag, your five AAU,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: teams that you're playing for, you got all the stuff
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: that goes with it. And these guys, by the time
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: they come in, they're completely entitled. I think baseball players
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: are less entitled just by their very nature. And then
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: when you get in the right atmosphere, then it can
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: stay that one.
• 51:38
  Speaker 9: It's a humbling game too, right, So like you can
• 51:41
  Speaker 9: fail most of the tieah exactly, and so like how
• 51:43
  Speaker 9: good can you think you you know?
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: Are you actually? No?
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: Really no, go back to what Saban said the press
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: conference today, This is a when you say this kind
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: of thing, we don't always do the best with a
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: guy that is entitled or thinks we owe him something.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: That's an everyday life in any workplace, right, anyone that
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: comes in that think you that think that they think
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: they're owed something, it's never gonna be a great It's
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: never gonna be a great situation.
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: Okay, But who gets more privileged than sports stars. So
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: in so many instances, it is the star that is
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: entitled and gets all the benefits, right, yeah, and you
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: and you you pay a price for that. Sometimes say
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: well this guy is it, but he's got it so
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: and they haven't done that.
• 52:24
  Speaker 10: Yeah, no, not at all.
• 52:25
  Speaker 9: I mean like that's just a culture thing where like
• 52:27
  Speaker 9: the standard is the standard and you got to meet
• 52:29
  Speaker 9: that because one bad apple.
• 52:31
  Speaker 10: That remains to be true.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: So did you ever think that you'd be calling a
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: college World Series when you were laying on the floor
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: in the bus with the West Virginia black Bears? You
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: did the Black Bears when you were a what junior
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: in college?
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah you would.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: So how would you travel in the Black Bears.
• 52:48
  Speaker 9: Season a half just long bus ride six seven hours
• 52:50
  Speaker 9: when you lay on the floor. No, I mean like
• 52:52
  Speaker 9: sometimes you'd have seats, but I was like the one
• 52:53
  Speaker 9: time and you do what you had to do. But
• 52:55
  Speaker 9: that was that was the one done.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I got it out of the way. So okay,
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: personal question. Your dad is a respected, an award winning
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: play by play announcer sports announcer. At what point did
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: you cause you have two brothers, Yeah, they're not in
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: broadcasting But at what point did you say I want
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: to do what dad does?
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 53:17
  Speaker 9: No, I mean like, so it wasn't I want to
• 53:19
  Speaker 9: do what dad does. Actually it was like I was
• 53:21
  Speaker 9: watching sports in high school. Uh, you know the broadcasts,
• 53:25
  Speaker 9: and I go back to the twenty ten Stanley Cup final.
• 53:27
  Speaker 9: I was into hockey at the time and not an
• 53:29
  Speaker 9: ath science guy. But I can always do vocab, could
• 53:33
  Speaker 9: do spelling, wasn't too hard. I could do the school
• 53:35
  Speaker 9: announcements from the pen right, and so they have me
• 53:38
  Speaker 9: do that a couple of times.
• 53:38
  Speaker 10: I was like, you know what sports are exciting? You
• 53:40
  Speaker 10: can speak all right?
• 53:41
  Speaker 6: Uh?
• 53:42
  Speaker 9: And so I just started watching games, watching Doc Emerck
• 53:44
  Speaker 9: and like the way that he made it fun. I
• 53:46
  Speaker 9: was just like, I think I can put two and
• 53:47
  Speaker 9: two together here. That seems pretty fun. Beats working. So
• 53:49
  Speaker 9: it wasn't your It wasn't your dad's influence.
• 53:51
  Speaker 10: No, he told me not to. We were at all
• 53:53
  Speaker 10: of varios.
• 53:54
  Speaker 9: Actually, I think it was like for Michael's and Morgan
• 53:57
  Speaker 9: had like they have recently got engaged or something like that.
• 53:59
  Speaker 9: But I brought it up then because I was coming up.
• 54:01
  Speaker 9: He'd always asked, you know, what do you want to
• 54:03
  Speaker 9: do when you grew up, you're wasting your life playing
• 54:04
  Speaker 9: video games.
• 54:04
  Speaker 10: And all that stuff, and so, like, I definitely thought.
• 54:07
  Speaker 9: About it more than than the than the typical adult,
• 54:09
  Speaker 9: you know, our parent parent would ask you. But like,
• 54:12
  Speaker 9: you know, got me thinking a little bit, and then
• 54:13
  Speaker 9: I brought it up to him and you were like, eh,
• 54:15
  Speaker 9: maybe not because the reality is, like you know, there
• 54:18
  Speaker 9: are only so many like yeah, living wage jobs to
• 54:21
  Speaker 9: be paid for being sports announcers.
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: Why would.
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: It's a ridiculous business. He's not a ridiculous business.
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: No it is. It's a stupid business.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: But what I told him was and what he's not saying,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: I've got the three boys. Among the three, he would
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: be the absolute dead last one that I ever thought
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: that could do it or would do it, because now
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: I always tell people this, on a good week, you
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: would say one hundred words, that would be a good week.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: He was incredibly quiet, to the point where my dad
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: used to go, like, see, all right, true story. I go, yeah,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: I'd go to my dad to go I would go, yeah, yeah,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: he's all right, I mean that's and but but but
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: what we found out so when he started to announce
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: Joan and I would like listen to the early days
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: of doing W hockey on the internet or whatever it was,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: and we literally we would go like who is And
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: what we've learned is that he was taking everything in
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: and just like process storing up his work, he was
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: listening and then all of a sudden he went like boom,
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: And you're still a quiet you had met You're a
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: quiet person, not so.
• 55:31
  Speaker 9: Much anymore, just because like I kind of figured it out,
• 55:33
  Speaker 9: like you know, downloading the play by play stuff and
• 55:35
  Speaker 9: also just trying to get a feel of just everything.
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: Well, hold on, right, growing up on a house with you,
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: how would he have ever got Yeah, like he's over
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: here going I Andrew didn't talk.
• 55:48
  Speaker 10: When would he have talked?
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll say this. You might not have known he
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: was going to be good, but you were on his
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: butt for playing video games. Video games created one of
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: the all time great memories of him when he was
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: teeny tiny and it's perfect that were in Nebraska when.
• 56:01
  Speaker 10: This is happening. He didn't even know this happened.
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: How old was he in?
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Four years old? In Matthew came in, He in Matthew,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: the twins came in, and they had already started playing
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: NBA video games. And he would get them and he
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: would say, hey, who's on.
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: I know, So they'd come in like little we were
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: ving Collins Ferry when the building was closed out for asbestos,
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: and I'd say to him, Hey, what who are those
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: guys for the Clippers? And I was blown away because
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: it wasn't Joe Smith playing for the Clippers. It was
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: Michael Olawa Candy. I'll never forget this. It was Michael
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: Olawa Candy and an all time great Nebraska legend, Eric
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: Payakowski and they and he would rip that off at
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: four and be like, you just said, Eric, how do
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: you do that?
• 56:41
  Speaker 9: True story jokes aside, though, you know, growing up and
• 56:44
  Speaker 9: playing those games when there was value in production before
• 56:48
  Speaker 9: it became like a micro transaction thing, Like the announcers
• 56:51
  Speaker 9: you'd have on the game though Gary Thorn's running the
• 56:53
  Speaker 9: NHL games, Martin Tyler were on the FIFA games and
• 56:56
  Speaker 9: like all like big name announcers, and when you were
• 56:57
  Speaker 9: playing that, like if you didn't have that, you know,
• 57:00
  Speaker 9: it was way less exciting. But you had those like
• 57:02
  Speaker 9: actual announcer voices which added like a depth church made
• 57:05
  Speaker 9: it like a cool thing. And that definitely played a
• 57:06
  Speaker 9: part of me yeah, this is actually something that.
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: And he's screaming at you about playing video games.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well the funny things on the video games. I
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: I always scream at him all the time and say,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: get a life. You're not gonna do anything with these
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: video games. You think you're gonna make any money doing
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: video games. And then when COVID happened, he actually used
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: to do games for video games and he'd get paid
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: and he'd come back to me and go, what's up, dude,
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: money playing video games? What do you think of that?
• 57:33
  Speaker 4: So you did that's a good ball.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: Well your dad may not say it, but you're broadcast
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: team you guys.
• 57:38
  Speaker 4: I was listening guys a lot. You guys do good jobs.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: Tell them at all the time.
• 57:41
  Speaker 9: It's not that I don't tell him, no, it's it's
• 57:42
  Speaker 9: a good job, but which is how it should be.
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: Tell them all the time, not to What did.
• 57:47
  Speaker 9: Shock me though, is that said the nice job on
• 57:49
  Speaker 9: when we did win the Super Regional, He's like, nail it.
• 57:51
  Speaker 9: And I was like, oh, well, you did something that
• 57:56
  Speaker 9: a lot of announcers don't do, and that in the
• 57:59
  Speaker 9: moment you were he laid out, You laid out what
• 58:03
  Speaker 9: they say in the industry.
• 58:04
  Speaker 4: You laid out and just let it.
• 58:05
  Speaker 9: Part of that is the incredible crowd, but also I
• 58:08
  Speaker 9: had to get my bearing straight because I am a
• 58:09
  Speaker 9: Mountaineer fan. Along with being right like you're there to
• 58:12
  Speaker 9: do the job and so you're in the you're in
• 58:13
  Speaker 9: the mental mode to do it. But after the show
• 58:15
  Speaker 9: and felled home run two, definitely sat out a little
• 58:18
  Speaker 9: bit because I was just sitting there and like Jake
• 58:19
  Speaker 9: and I both just hands on our head. They had
• 58:21
  Speaker 9: to wait a second, right for twenty seconds, and then
• 58:23
  Speaker 9: the Guzman walk off too, same type of deal. That
• 58:26
  Speaker 9: was a big one. And so yeah, just being in
• 58:29
  Speaker 9: the moment is probably the most fun to.
• 58:31
  Speaker 10: R prediction for Omaha.
• 58:33
  Speaker 4: Yes we can.
• 58:34
  Speaker 9: Do it all. I mean, seriously, you got the pieces
• 58:36
  Speaker 9: you have to pitching, you got the hitting, you have
• 58:38
  Speaker 9: the team, you got the coach. Like anything could happened
• 58:41
  Speaker 9: in Omaha. And that's the tough part about it. Caroline
• 58:43
  Speaker 9: has been here twelve times. Still don't have a.
• 58:44
  Speaker 4: College World Series.
• 58:46
  Speaker 9: It's been a while for Texas and they've been thirty
• 58:48
  Speaker 9: nine times like East Carolina. I think you were telling
• 58:50
  Speaker 9: me like they're almost coming up on ten Supers. Never
• 58:52
  Speaker 9: been to Omaha. Hard to get here, harder to win it.
• 58:55
  Speaker 9: Like that's what I've learned about baseball. As anybody can
• 58:58
  Speaker 9: beat anybody across the weekend. You have some weird, weird
• 59:01
  Speaker 9: results every season every year, seemingly like on a weekly basis,
• 59:04
  Speaker 9: But not a single week weakness on this baseball team
• 59:09
  Speaker 9: from what I can tell them, Like, you know, we've
• 59:10
  Speaker 9: seen it for a little bit.
• 59:11
  Speaker 10: So excited to see.
• 59:12
  Speaker 9: And we're in a good spot too, because we're in
• 59:14
  Speaker 9: the spot that UCLA would have been as the number
• 59:16
  Speaker 9: one overall seed. And so we get Troy A team
• 59:19
  Speaker 9: you know, it's obviously very good hitting the ball well,
• 59:21
  Speaker 9: had a really good regional, but uh, you know it's
• 59:24
  Speaker 9: their first time in Omaha too, so like we've probably
• 59:27
  Speaker 9: been in bigger arenas, stadiums, environments, right settings and that,
• 59:34
  Speaker 9: and that definitely helps us in the regional against Kentucky
• 59:36
  Speaker 9: and the super regionals, because that's what Coach Safe is
• 59:38
  Speaker 9: always going back to, is like, guys, we've been here before,
• 59:40
  Speaker 9: and so the new guys that hadn't been here can
• 59:42
  Speaker 9: look at like the Gavins and all those other guys
• 59:44
  Speaker 9: who'd pitched in the situations being like, oh, these guys
• 59:46
  Speaker 9: are cool, calm and collected, like, okay, that's fine. Just
• 59:49
  Speaker 9: look at them and go from there.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: So all right, we got to we literally have to
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: run time wise. We appreciated you. Would you come on
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: again in the future.
• 59:56
  Speaker 10: Oh, sure, if you want me, it's fine. I know
• 59:58
  Speaker 10: there's a big delegation though.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: To make sure you go tell President Benson that you
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: made your parents. See the President was concerned with Andrew
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: not being.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: On got it handles.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks us, Thank you man. We appreciate it. All right, broadcast.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: That'll do it for us.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: Hold on, I got to spreads on stats real quick.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: We gotta do stats real quick.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 10: Hur him.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: Spreads on Stats is brought to us by the conleygue
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: CPA group. They provide value beyond numbers.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: Take it away, all right, let's rip through this. Let's
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: talk about Troy for just a second. Hop they're hot
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: as well. You don't get them all without being hot.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: Sixteen out of their last twenty one games mentioned earlier,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: don't strike out a lot fourteen percent k rate, third nationally.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: So they're going to put the ball in play. That
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: good West Virginia defense is going to be on display.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: You talked about Jabe Ruth, Jay Bornoff, bore Off. It's interesting.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: He's He's paralleled Ben Lumpston. These numbers and splits are unbelievable.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 4: He started slow and then got hot.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 3: Sub two hundred during the season batting average. He hit
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: five hundred and six home runs in the regional alone.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: Can I tell you a story. Sure, he wasn't hitting,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: wasn't hitting. He went to the managers and said, give
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: me a new bat. And they gave him a new
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: bat and he started hitting. He said, what's the bat?
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: He said, it's the same bat. We just painted it.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: Whatever you think is working is working, doesn't matter if
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: it actually changes it. Whatever you think. Regular season he
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: had seven hits. He had ten in the regional alone.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: It's a remarkable. It's literally just like he Lumpston.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: A couple overall West Virginia stats, and I'm not going
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 3: to go deep in the weeds here on in the
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: advanced stats. These are just some basic numbers, but things
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: to keep in mind. West Virginia enters this tournament the
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: third best fielding percentage in the College World Series field
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: at nine to seventy nine. Texas and Georgia are the
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: two above West Virginia, but just at nine eighty and
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: nine eighty two. So this is a really good fielding team,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 3: as we know from West Virginia, very nearly one of
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 3: the best in this field. Fourth best on base percentage
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 3: in the field at four to ten, behind just Georgia,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 3: Texas and unc all close again, team ERA for West
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 3: Virginia seventh best nationally on the season and the best
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: in this World Series field at three point seven to
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: nine runs per game. So to Andrew's point, as we've
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 3: been saying, this isn't a little engine that could Hey,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: you're happy to be in Omaha. This is the team
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: that has the tools to go win this thing.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: And I think that double check me on these numbers.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: I think the e ER for Troy is like five
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: something because they get they will give up some runs,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: and they're giving up an average of like nine hits
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: a game. So you know, West Virginia is swinging the bat. Well,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: I you know what happens when you're at a bowl
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: game and you start talking yourself.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 4: Into a win. But I think this weighs out well
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 4: for West Virginia.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: We'll find out. Game tomorrow goes two o'clock Eastern time.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: We will do a post game recap episode of Three
• 1:02:38
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• 1:02:40
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• 1:02:44
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• 1:02:46
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• 1:02:51
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• 1:02:55
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• 1:02:59
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• 1:03:02
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• 1:03:06
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• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: or so to watch the World Champion Mountaineers, please come
• 1:03:12
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• 1:03:14
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• 1:03:17
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• 1:03:37
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• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: Omaha lives here.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: That's unconfirmed, but we're looking at that.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: Start your day the homemade way with a tutor's biscuit.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: By Jan Dill's attorneys at Law they won't take no
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  Speaker 1: for an answer, and by the condly CPA group providing
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: value beyond numbers, Episode seven twenty one. We're out. Thanks
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: for being with us here. Three guys before the game
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: seal