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From the clutches of victory.. · JustIN Time

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Welcome back to another edition of Just the Time Podcast.
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As you know, I'm your host, Justin.
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I'm doing it. So I'm going solo today.
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So look, we're going to jump right into this.
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I'm going to go into the powerhouse pose for Will, and
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then I'll go into mine powerhouse pole for pitching.
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We'll put Zach Cowan, Santiago Garcia, William Schmidt.
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Cowan had a really good look this week.
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I mean, he didn't finish game one of the Mississippi State
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series like he wanted it to. But I mean, he did his job.
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Defense just didn't show up behind him, you know, happens.
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And then he put for offense Serna Braun and Steven Milam.
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I mean, enough said. You know, they crushed it
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offensively. Then defence, oh, he missed it
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up a little bit. He's got DC Derek Curiel at #1
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for defence, then Milan at 2 and Jack Rucker at three.
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You know, he said Curiel was extremely active defensively,
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had made some great plays, including incredible walls
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smashing fall out in game three versus Bulldogs.
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That wasn't his greatest stretch.
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Milan was still ready, still very steady for the infield,
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including a clutch stop to send game one in the extra innings
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record. Had multiple miscues, but was
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really active in the field. Pitching wise, I went Callen,
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Sharon and Garcia. I mean, like I said, Callen, you
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can't really have enough say enough about that guy.
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He did what he needed to do. So did Sharon and so did the
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Garcia. Put us in a position to win from
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the mound. Just defensively, honestly,
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defensively, I don't know why we hand out these powerhouse pose
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wards anymore. None of them are looking too
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hot. But then I go offense.
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I put Aaron, BD, Sarna, Braun. They had a really good weekend.
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You know, they just look really good offensively.
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Anytime you put up eight runs as a team in three games, you
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expect to win a series in the SEC Defensive wise, we just
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couldn't get it done and had a few miscues pitching wise, you
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know, But you know, defensively I went mile and carry Ellen
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Braun. Just same thing, just different
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order. My tone setting.
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Tiger of the Week is it. Once again, it's going to be the
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team you need to win seven of the next games, next seven of
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the next 10 games to make it to just a regional to be
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considered. I'm not even saying I'm going to
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make it to be considered or no, but you got to win seven of the
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next 10 to even be considered and then you at least have to
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make it to the semifinals of the SEC tournament if you win the
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seven games. If you don't, you need to go
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into the SEC tournament. You need to win the tournament.
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It's just cut and dry like that. I mean, there's no other option
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you don't have and a lot of options you at the point where
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you either win or you go home. That's the deal.
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The last time at LSU team was this bad though was O 7.
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They went 29, six and 18, posted the 12 and 7 record in SEC, 12
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and 17 and one record in the SEC.
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That's just not going to cut it anymore.
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You know, look, I just, I don't know what's wrong with this team
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anymore. Could be the injuries, you know,
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but anytime you score eight runs against the team, you should win
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that game. Even if it's the SEC, you score
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eight runs, you should be able to win that game.
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And we just couldn't get it done this weekend.
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It's like the Tennessee's coach said a couple weeks ago, from
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the clutches of victory, we grabbed defeat.
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And that's exactly what LSU did. They had the game one and then
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they just found a way to give it, give it away.
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You know, we're on a historic, we've been swept 3 times.
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We're on a historic non game SEC skid with at the current moment
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we have we're six and five in conference play.
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We need to win probably you can't lose the midweek game.
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So I would say 8, but you need to win seven of your last nine
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SEC games to even be considered for postseason play at this
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point. And at this point, I just I
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don't know if they can do it. They have a good chance to get
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in the sweep this weekend against South Carolina at the
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box. But who knows?
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Who knows who's going to show up?
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You know, then you got, you go to Athens and you have to take
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one away from Georgia in Athens. You have to take realistically,
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you can't drop another series, so you have to take two away
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from Georgia in Athens. Then you've got Florida come
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into the box and you have to win that series as well.
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It's not leaving you a bunch of options.
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It's not leaving you a bunch of mid, a bunch of leeway.
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You know, your only other option to make postseason play is to
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run the table and win the SEC tournament and get a guaranteed
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regional spot. Yeah.
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It's just, you know, they've, if you look at this and you try to
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figure out what happened, nobody knows what's going on other than
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those players in that locker room.
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Maybe there's locker room dissension.
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Maybe it's just they don't feel like waking up and flying that
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day, you know, or maybe it is the injuries and you've got a
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revolving door around where this one plays, where this one plays.
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You started the season. Stanfield missed like 15 games
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because he was injured, which led to us trying Braun left
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field, Dardar in left field, Sensing in left field.
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I don't think we ever went as far to put Caraway in left
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field. But we went, you know, we threw
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everybody at left field and then we had a revolving door second
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base, and then we started getting good traction with
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second base. Dordar gets hurt.
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We can't play him there no more. It's just injuries have hindered
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us. We get one step forward and then
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take three steps back. Jake Brown being out for the
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season hurts, Cooper Moore being out for the season hurts.
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Case and Evans, who knows if he's actually going to be back
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this weekend or what's going to happen this weekend with him.
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You just there's so many unknowns.
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We just don't know. With Case and Evans, I mean, he
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could be back this weekend. He could be back against
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Georgia. He could be out for the season.
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It's a arm injury to stolen arm. Whatever is best for him to have
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a long career. At this point, it doesn't really
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matter, you know? You know, looking back at it, we
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started off amazing. We went eight.
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No. What made the season go South so
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quickly? Was it the 18 games in the span
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of three weeks? Was it the injury to Stanfield?
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Like I said, we had a lot of different positions changing and
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revolving door there and players couldn't get comfortable in that
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key positions that we needed them to.
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The only I was looking back at, I think the only position we've
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had the same starter for every single game is shortstop and
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center field with the if you take off the Jake Brown doesn't
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get injured, Jake Brown would be there and Stanfield doesn't get
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hurt. Stanfield would be in, the
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outfield would be locked down. But it's not.
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You know, Jake Brown's out for the season, you know, that's a
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big miss. But still without him, they put
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up 12 runs, eight runs, eight runs, eight runs.
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And I think they put up 8 the mid week game last week or
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something like that. You know, it was it's been
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errors in poor, see in poor hitting, timely hitting.
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I should say that has been a headache for LSU all season.
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You know, we've had we've had pre season reports of these
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transfers with huge offensive numbers that with the exception
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of Caraway, they all came from small schools that maybe that
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didn't correlate over to hitting minor league or some a lot of
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schools in the SEC. They have Friday night guys that
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could probably walk out on any Major League mound right now and
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be the top guy. You know, they could be a top
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guy in an MLB rotation or top reliever.
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You know, those are the kind of arms you facing in the SECI.
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Don't know if that correlates over to the smallest schools.
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Maybe their offensive numbers just didn't correlate to hitting
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great pitching, you know, but it doesn't excuse defense.
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I didn't see you going on a strict, a little soft slump,
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little slump here offensively, the defensively, you should not
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be getting one into a slump there.
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It has to be something to do with the team's morale in them
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pulling themselves together. You know, they're just fielding
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964 and over a year ago they were fielding 983.
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It just feels inconsistent at best.
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Sometimes they're on, but they don't have the offense.
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When they have the offense, they show up and play defense for
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half a game and then that back half they come back.
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So like this weekend, we LED big all Sunday, Saturday too.
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We LED big all Saturday and Sunday.
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And then one inning we let Mississippi State score 5 drones
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to tie the game. Then the next inning they scored
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two more and that was nail in the coffin.
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They just can't help themselves. It's like they were actively
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trying to find a way to give the game to Mississippi State this
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weekend, this past weekend. Now they came back.
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They look really good against Southeastern.
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They every time Southeastern scored, LSU had a big answer.
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You know, pitching wise, you know, been inconsistent.
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I looked at the numbers. If you just look at the numbers
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and you see a 532 ER as a team, that's not terrible at this late
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in the season, the very middle of the road, the walks, 200 lbs
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or 49 that they've given up. You look at that and it's more
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like they're not just half of those home ones.
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Can't be just solo home run solo shots.
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It seems to me that after watching this season, what
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happens is you get that in. A lot of the stuff comes with
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two outs. You get 2 outs and then walk,
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walk, walk home on Grand Slam, walk, two run, shot, walk, walk,
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three, run, shot. It's you know, it's like they
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can't put them away with two outs in every single home run
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minus a couple probably have come with right after a walk,
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they put somebody on base. However, this is strikeouts on
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the season as a nation leading. We're not a bad staff.
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We just have control issues and with a lot of our guys that we
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put out there, freshmen and men, a new guy and sophomores,
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they'll get it together. You know, defensive struggles,
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defensive and pitching struggles come into play.
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You know, we have in the offseason offensively.
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But like I said, anytime before, anytime you score eight runs in
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a game, you should win that game.
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You should be able to hold them back.
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But we are hitting 288 after I think we were like 388, no, with
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281 as on the season right now as a team.
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And I think at the beginning of the year, through the first
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eight games, the winning streak, we were 388 or something like
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that. You know, there's a bunch of
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theories out there on what happened with this year's team.
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I've heard everything from locker room issues in IL and
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they just don't want to play. But I hate to say it, but I
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think a lot of it boils down to this.
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There's no active leader in that locker room.
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And I've said it before, they don't hate to lose more than
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they love to win. And there's not a guy that can
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bring them all together. You know, I went to Frisco last
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year and state that was looking up to stay at the team hotel.
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And those guys look like they enjoyed being around each other.
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They look like that now. The hotel setup was totally
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different from this year in Jacksonville and last year and
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Frisco. But they they went, they came
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down, they went a lot more and they hung out as a team.
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And it was evident this time you didn't see as many guys on the
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team hanging out together. We're saying, hey, let's go play
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ping pong and so and so's wrong now let's go do this, let's go
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do that. It was more of they were they
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had their girlfriends today. They were with their
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girlfriends. If they had their family, they
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were with their family. It wasn't togetherness.
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It wasn't a team. Now it's normal to go through a
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down year when you go and win a national championship and you
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have so many players in parts that you need to replace,
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especially come out to transfer portal.
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You never really know what you're going to get.
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You can look at the guy on paper and think, oh, he's the great.
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You look at schemes. Tommy White, Anthony ISON, just
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to name a few. You know, Mac Bingham bought
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into Thatcher Heard, bought into what we were doing at LSU,
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bought into Jay and how he like to do things.
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That plays a lot into it. You have to.
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I'm not saying these guys are like that, but it seems to me
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like a lot of these guys that transferred in from this year's
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transfer class where a lot of not what can I do for LSU to
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make them better? But what can LSU do for me to
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push me over the edge and get me where I need to be, You know,
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not let me go help the team. Let me do this.
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Let me help me. Yeah, that's the case.
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It showed, you know, or was at least a fun team to watch.
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I went to every single game even though felt like they were going
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to lose, but there was always hope that they could get it
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together and win Texas A&M series after they got swept by
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Ole Miss and they I went to that Friday night game.
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I didn't feel the need to go to Saturday.
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Now he did get bumped up a couple hours and it played a lot
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into my decision not to go. I just they're not a fun team to
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go out there and watch. In our section, you can hear a
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bunch of fans talking about how they're not a fun team to watch,
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you know, find something better to do and put them on TV and
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watch them on TV. It's not a fun team.
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At least in 24, they were a fun team to watch because that they
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could be any moment where they could get it together.
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This team, it feels like they lack that I'm going to get it
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together type of deal, you know, But I hate to say it, but let's
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look at the positives with this. And, you know, there's a
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positive small silver lining to these injuries right now.
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You're getting freshmen and sophomores playing time, younger
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guys playing time. So they'll be ready.
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And that experience is going to shine forth.
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You know, this lineup Jays put together has produced eight runs
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in three games. Then another 12-1 Tuesday night.
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They're going to get it together.
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A lot of these guys getting this experience now, this young
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talent who's getting reps in this place of LeBron at first
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think it's Patrick and right field and Harden and Rucker at
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2nd and Harden and left field. Those guys are getting the reps
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come next year that have had it and they'll be ready to run the
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gauntlet. And hopefully LSU can bring, and
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hopefully they can bring LSU and help LSU and help Jay Johnson do
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their third next College World Series title in six years.
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Hopefully we can get there. There's a lot of work to be done
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and there's a lot of pieces that we need to bring in.
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But we can get there. They can get there, they can do
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it. You know, like I said, there's a
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lot of stuff that needs to go on before them.
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We need to get a few missing pieces in.
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But getting these reps in for these younger guys is really
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good. It's really something that's
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going to broad to push them forward and get them where they
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need to be. You know, I think they can get
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it together. I don't think they'll run.
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I'm going to be honest, I don't think they'll run the table this
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year. It's a tall order.
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I think this will be the first time in a very, very long time
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since 2011 at least. I know they didn't make it to
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regional 2011. It'll be the first time in 20
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since 2011. I don't feel they'll make a
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regional. And if they do make a regional,
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it'll be by the skin of their teeth because they came and they
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ran the table in the SEC tournament.
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I don't feel like they'll get, I feel like they'll have win a
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series this weekend, baby sweep South Carolina.
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But when they play Georgia in Athens, GA's putting up football
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numbers on a regular basis at their ballpark.
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And like I said, every time I tell somebody they got a small
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ballpark and then make fun of them, LSU goes in there and they
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don't get a single home run. So I'm not saying anything about
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Georgia's stadium. They hit there and that's fine
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for them. That's why I'm saying I don't
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think we go there. I don't think we get the seven
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SEC wins that we need. Think we maybe get six or five.
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I think we take 2. Best case scenario, we sweep
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South Carolina, worst case scenario we take two or three
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from them. Best case scenario in Athens, I
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think we get one in Florida, best case scenario I think we
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get 2. Maybe one thing is going to come
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down to the SEC tournament. I just have a gut feeling that
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that's how it's going to go. We're going to have to win in
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the SEC tournament to get where we need to be, and that will do
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it for me. You know, do all the things like
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share, subscribe, comment, follow the social medias.
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It'll be in the link, you know, trying to grow this thing.
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You know, we're primarily a sports podcast, but we're not
17:14
going to have that time between. I don't feel like we're going to
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have that time like I had plotted out from end of May to
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football season. So we'll be looking for other
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stuff. We'll be looking for gas and
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other stuff. So like I said, like always have
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a great day, great night whatever you have just make it a
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great one. Please like, like, comment,
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share and subscribe. See y'all next week.