Latest / Coaches Corner / BSB Coach Jim Penders June 5

Transcript

BSB Coach Jim Penders June 5 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  That fourteen hour bus ride home galvanize this team even more getting ready for the
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  NCAAG. I think it certainly didn't hurt, you know, we that was
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  a decision made kind of quickly after the last out in Mason, Ohio,
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  and we thought we just wanted to get We didn't want to wait. You
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  know, we were flying commercial obviously, we always have to fly commercial,
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  and we were going to have to wait until Sunday night to get our flights,
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  and this was Friday afternoon or Friday evening, and kind of quickly made
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  a decision like if we want to continue, you know, to progress here
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  and develop, we got to get home. So it was going to be,
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  you know, either wait two and a half days to come home or
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  get in a bus and do it in fourteen hours. And I'm glad we
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  did it in fourteen hours. I mean, it was arduous, but it
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  was also a lot of fun. You know, we were able to kind
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  of wash the you know, oftentimes when you leave tournaments like that, you
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  kind of have to wallow in private and and your grief kind of be by
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  yourself. We were kind of all together, so it was like it was
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  like a nice it was it was like a nice wake, you know,
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  kind of just put that part of the of the season together or put that
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  part of the season behind us and and moved on and got to do it
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  collectively, which there must be a reasonable They do wakes, you know,
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  you do wakes by yourself. So it was it was important and the guys
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  got to you know, we bought four or five hours in. We're somewhere
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  in Pennsylvania and you know, coach Mack turned around. We're watching the other
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  games and the regional you know, are the conference tournaments that we're going to
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  have an effect on whether or not we were on the bubble or off the
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  bubble, and the coaches were getting to that. But we turned around and
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  Tommy Turner was mid bust, our freshman right handed pitcher, doesn't hasn't had
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  a chance to pitch all that much. But it was in the bullpen and
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  we finally figured out, like, hey, why did you say Jake Hyde
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  missed second base on the home run? And it was, oh, he
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  missed it, no doubt. It's like I've been getting texts from every one
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  of my family members telling me what a moron am because I was. I
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  was having them replay that because the kid's foot came down right in the middle
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  of second base. You know what second base is, right, Tommy,
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  And so we got a good laugh out of that, and then I kind
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  of broke up the bus and made it okay. You know, it's just
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  like the big leaguers have the Mississippi River rule. Once she crossed the Mississippi,
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  the last night's game goes away. The tournament was then in our rearview
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  mirror, and we were looking forward to getting home and working. Me.
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  Notice the other night, No, that was Luke Brodhers. He was on
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  top of it. The umpire was on top of Luke knew right. He
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  was looking at it the whole way. We tell our guys to do that.
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  It's one thing to tell him, it's another thing for them to execute
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  on it. And I know that they were ticked off because that kid was
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  a freshman too, that missed third base, and that sometimes happens with freshmen.
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  Jim defense was So they just kind of built its way with the two
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  plays that Paul made on Friday and just kind of snowball in a good way
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  all weekend long. What can you say about what the job of your guys
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  did well? They were fantastic. I heard from so many folks that I
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  really trust in baseball and this it was like a symphony watching your defense work.
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  I mean, they were all working together, and they were all playing
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  fast. You know, I don't know if symphonies have to play fast or
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  not, but they were all in unison. They were in tune, and
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  they were moving to the baseball just with incredible quickness and urgency. I think
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  John Wooden said be quick, but don't hurry, and that's what they looked
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  like. They were quick, but they didn't hurry. They had great clocks,
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  they knew how much time they had to make the throws, and they
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  were quick without hurrying. And that's why the Wizard of Westwood it makes a
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  lot of sense. And you know, it was just fun to watch.
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  I mean, we coach it up, but to see them execute on a
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  huge stage and really hostile territory. You know, defense doesn't ever have to
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  go in. Defense shouldn't go in a slump, and it certainly was on
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  full display. And I know we had a lot of former players that were
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  just ecstatic to see, you know, the kind of plays. And Nick
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  Ahmed was thrilled with the defense. He made sure that, he texted coach
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  Dez. And you know, when you're getting the attention of a guy with
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  like Nick Ahmed, who's just an elite defensive player at the highest level there
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  is in the game that tells you something. So I was really proud of
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  the way that they played, not just defensively, but on the mound and
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  with the bats too. You've been able to plug different guys then, and
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  they've made contributions. Why do you think they've been able to deliver? And
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  when you calm up the bench, well, most of those guys have experience
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  too. Like TC Simmons, you know, he caught the last out in
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  the Maryland Regional. I had no hesitation. He's got such a calming influence.
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  I thought Jake looked a little tense in the batter's box. And Jake's
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  a great player and he's going to be back this weekend, I'm sure.
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  But it was just time to make a switch there. And the other one
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  was you know, wasn't by choice, but Matt Garbowski was still under the
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  weather. We probably rushed him back a game too early, and Ryan Hide
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  was ready to pick up where he left off as the pitcher. Whisperer,
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  an umpire whisperer that he is, and he did a fantastic job. They
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  have slow heart beats. I wasn't concerned about plugging them in there. And
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  you know, I mean in a tournament like that, you're fortunate if you
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  don't have to use some of your freshmen, some of your guys that haven't
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  gotten in. We didn't really have to do that. You know, we
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  were able to do it in four games as opposed to five. You saw
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  the results of Oklahoma having to go to some guys on the mound that they're
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  not used to going to, and it was a war of attrition at some
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  point. But I think the key to them being prepared is just, you
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  know, their own mindsets, knowing that their number can be called at any
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  time. Gave Van Emmon hadn't started a game in a long time. I
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  think the last one he had was abysmal at Northeastern, and he was able
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  to flush that and he didn't get out of the first at Northeastern. It
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  was like a fireworks show, and he put that behind him and only had
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  positive thoughts. And after he saw something positive happen in the first inning,
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  he was sensational we had that double play and then brought Hurst with a really
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  nice play to end the first and no runs across, and I think that
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  gave him the momentum that he needed. And how did you find Paul?
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  What did you identify him when we look around it? So that's a coach
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  McDonald fine. I can't take any credit for that one. He's a great
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  relationship with Keith Landers, who's the head coach at Oswego. And Keith is
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  a really demanding coach. He coaches in the Cape Cod League. We've known
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  him for a long time and his kids play hard, they're disciplined, there's
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  no nonsense. He's a boisterous coach. We knew that if he could handle
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  Coach Landers, he could handle Coach Dez getting up his rear end if he
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  made a mistake. And Paul doesn't make many mistakes, you know, but
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  when he does, he takes coaching really well. And you know what what
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  jumped out at him was his defense. You know, Keith told us He's
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  like, listen, you're he can defend anywhere in the country. This kid
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  is an elite defensive player. And if he gets on the slump, just
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  tell him the bunt because he loves the bunt. He's really good at it.
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  And that's been an totally accurate, scattering report. You know. I
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  know it doesn't apply now that you have this field here, but for a
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  kid like him playing on probably rocky hard Division three in field, yeah,
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  I probably field. I'm sure he's played on some frost field in fields,
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  you know, in upstate New York and with all the lake effects, know
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  they get up there and all that stuff, he had to, you know,
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  deal with some really adverse conditions. We told him to say, hey,
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  you're coming south to go play college baseball now in Stores, Connecticut,
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  and you know, he's just he's a really steady guy. He's a very
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  quiet guy. But one of the things that I'm really proud of is that
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  he was he was vocal when he had to be with Gabe the other night
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  with Tommy Ellison. He I didn't know this at the time, but I
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  was told after the fact by his teammates that he was telling them, Hey,
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  I need you to come set, I need you to slow down,
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  I need you to breathe. And those guys really need to hear that.
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  So he was also a coach on the field the other night. He used
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  his voice for once, and you know he's he's gonna have to wear his
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  SPF in Tallahassee because he's not gifted with a lot of pigment. So but
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  he's he'll be ready to go. I have no doubt, and I know
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  the field conditions are going to be a lot better in Tallahassee than they would
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  be in upstate New York. Do you believe in momentum? Sure do.
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  Yeah. Momentum is you know, it's especially in college baseball, Joe,
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  I mean, you have you have momentum, you have the battle half one
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  and right now we've got a lot of momentum, but so did the seminoles.
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  So we're going to see how that works out. But I'm you know,
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  the guys are believing in each other, believing in themselves first, believing
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  in each other and playing for one another, and it's just fun to be
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  a part of seen. Coach Bailec used to say moments like a flywheel.
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  Once you get it going, it's hard to stop, and and I think
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  that's true. As your next tape starter, we get some good starters,
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  So that's good. A lot of your teams, even like the underdog role
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  played from that under dog role in the feet off the environment. You guys
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  were talking about, you know, the underdogs and and hearing it from the
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  crowd, Is this a team different in that way, in any way,
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  shape or form, and you know teams in the past, Yeah, I
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  think they are more of an underdog than the last couple of teams that we've
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  had. And I know how to I'd be honest with you. I struggle
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  when we're you know, the boss of the Big Easter in first place.
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  It's I don't always hit the right notes. You know, I have a
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  hard time with it. We we kind of brought this program up as underdogs
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  and it's more comfortable for me. I know how to coach that, and
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  you know, I kind of thrive in that environment. And so yeah,
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  I mean some reason, you know, for some reason, we played the
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  last game. You know, I know coach really does this kind of stuff,
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  but it's true. I mean, we played the last regional game.
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  We're gonna play the first super regional game at twelve noon on a Friday and
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  ninety eight degrees. But that's what the NCAA, you know, calls for.
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  That's what we got to do. So nobody's gonna feel sorry for us,
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  but got a hell of a test. That's an underdog. That's you
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  know, where the underdogs again, and that's that's a comfortable place for us
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  to be. And I know you've heard from Jim how you hurt, from
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  Gino. You hear from a lot a lot of coaches here. What are
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  some of the texts that you've gotten from your coaches more than you? And
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  oh boy, I mean it's tough when you're getting text from Geno Orema and
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  Jim Calhoun. I mean that's so humbling. You know, Dan Hurley said
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  some really nice words, I guess last night, and they're just you know,
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  they're my inspiration. I mean, those guys one more than I'll ever
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  think about winning. And and you know, to be recognized by your peers
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  is something that's really special to me. You know. It's one thing to
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  get accolades from from you know, I don't know, media, from wherever.
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  It's another thing. Nothing against you, guys, but when your peers
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  have nice things to say about you, especially peers like that, peers that
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  have won national championships, it's pretty darn powerful, you know. But also
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  you know, guys like Ray Reed, Paul Mnieri, who I've always looked
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  up to as a mentor. Tim Corbyn, Gary Gilmour, a guy who
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  brought an underdog Coastal Carolina program from nowhere commuter school Division three or Naia at
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  one point to the to Omaha and wins it. I mean, those are
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  pretty awesome to get, you know, Jack Leggett, legendary New Englander who
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  excelled at Clemson University. And it's John Savage at u c l A.
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  You know, guys in the in the game that recognized something in our team.
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  It's those are really really special. And again those Manolis, now,
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  he promised me kenoli's. It looks like you can afford a few. Now
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  it's a new deal. So now, I said, I think I texted
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  him, you know, he was wishing us good luck, and I said,
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  aren't you glad you don't live in Oklahoma? And he said, holy
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  cow, is it is had in the in the spring of early summer as
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  it is in the winter. I said, it's pretty bad, but we're
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  happy to be here. I said, I can't find a good canoli,
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  though, And he goes, what's next. I said, tallahassee if we
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  win it. He goes, that's even worse though, Canoli's there either,
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  he goes I'll bring him though, So I guess it's Canoly. He would
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  he would get on me because the plural and Italian is Canoli, not Canoles's
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  you about Corey real quick? You know, he's been such a good,
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  you know guy for you for four years and just talk about the year and
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  he's had what he's meant to you with the programing and what are you expecting
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  him going into this situation? Yeah, Corey is a self made guy,
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  you know. And people laugh when I say that because his father was a
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  major leaguer, But Kevin's a self made guy too. You know, he
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  had to work his butt off to get that that year in the major leagues,
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  and you know, as long before Corey was born. But Corey's self
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  made. I mean, there's no other way to say it. He's a
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  guy who just today I know, I'm I'm in here this morning and we've
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  got recruits. We have three recruits. We have three recruits in today in
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  the portal that never stops. Recruitings. Like shaving, you got to do
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  it every day. You look like a bum. So that's Bobo Brayton from
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  Washington State. But you know, it doesn't stop. So Corey, you
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  know, coming in early, and he's the ping of the bat is him.
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  It's always him. You know, he's in there working on his craft
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  all of the time, and so he's made himself into the player that he
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  is. I'm just so proud of his defense to you know, a year
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  ago and he makes that catch in the eighth inning the other night, and
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  it's like a year ago, he doesn't make that catch because he's close to
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  the wall and he was sheepish about the wall a year ago. He's gotten
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  over that. You know, he can hit a breaking ball, he can
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  hit the ball on the right side. He couldn't do that two years ago.
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  He can bunt at any time, but he can drive up all over
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  a fence at any time. He couldn't do that three years ago. So
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  it's it's been extremely satisfying. You know. It's really great as a coach
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  when you have a guy that you can just point to and say, just
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  do what he does. If you do it he does, we're going to
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  have success. And he's a great example of hard work and dedication to one's
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  craft. And he's gonna be a he's gonna be a professional and he's earned
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  every second of that opportunity. He've done all of this a long, long
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  enough time and just the waves of emotion you talk about feel like a week
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  after the Big East Tournament, to the highs of this, how do you
• 13:03
  manage that? How do you translate that to the kids to kind of I
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  mean, this is baseball, I guess right, Yeah, you know,
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  a great advice from And he's going to be in attendance this weekend. He's
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  driving up from his home in Bradenton. Dave Turgen is a turgent name in
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  Connecticut's anonymous with baseball and a bunch of brothers. Three brothers played professionally from
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  Grotten and he's been a longtime coach manager in the minor leagues. And I
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  was fortunate enough to have him as my right hand my first two years here
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  as the head coach, and he remembered, I remember this like it was
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  yesterday. We were in a jail Christian Field, and my emotions got the
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  best of me at some point and he said, hey, look at thirty
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  three. Who happened to be Josh McDonald, probably a sophomore or junior pitcher
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  on that team. He said, he's hearing and feeling everything that you are
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  projecting. So if you go here, he's going to be here. If
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  you go there, he's going to be there. You need to be Joe
• 13:52
  Torri. You need to be seventy two and sunny all the time. Or
• 13:56
  you can look half that that's fine too, but don't show emotion. And
• 14:01
  it's very difficult. You know, people say, oh, you look calm
• 14:03
  in the dug up, But I have to be. I'm the barometer.
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  I have to if they have to get here, I got to stay.
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  Even if I'm not even we're going to get too far north or too far
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  south, and you got to stay right in the middle. So I've tried
• 14:15
  to be that example. And I think you know, Josh McDonald is a
• 14:20
  guy who can go up and down. Coach Pedeeswa is a guy that can
• 14:22
  go up and down. Jeff and I try to stay in the middle,
• 14:24
  and I think it works for us. It's a good balance. Thoughts on
• 14:26
  Florida State, they're really really good, you know. Looking at their numbers
• 14:31
  is frightening, to be honest. I mean they've got over I think it's
• 14:35
  over one hundred and twenty homers or somewhere around that. They hit the long
• 14:39
  ball, the starter, you know, their number one starter is sensational.
• 14:45
  I don't think we've seen a guy with that kind of stuff all year.
• 14:46
  It's going to be a heck of a challenge. But you know, link
• 14:50
  Jarreeded teams are really really tough, especially offensively. They play really good defense
• 14:54
  too. I think their fielding nine eighty as a team. So it's a
• 14:58
  complete Florida state based team and they have a legendary program. But fortunately we
• 15:01
  don't have to play, you know, all those legends. We just have
• 15:05
  to be better than them. Two out of three. You have your rotations.
• 15:09
  Yeah, that's let me keep close to the cup. No, we
• 15:11
  know Ian Cook is going on game one. As far as Game two goes,
• 15:16
  you know, I don't want to say it definitely depends on the outcome.
• 15:18
  It really depends on Steven quickly and his recoverability is his health. You
• 15:24
  know, we asked an awful lot of Steven this weekend, but he was
• 15:26
  he wanted to be up on Sunday to give you an idea about his mentality
• 15:31
  as a competitor. And he told us, hey, listen, I just
• 15:33
  pr and I had a personal record on my arm care score. It's it's
• 15:37
  a device that we have that kind of measures internal external rotation and overall arm
• 15:41
  health and recoverability. And he was excited to tell us that I just got
• 15:45
  a personal record. You're gonna put me up on the board and said,
• 15:46
  no, we're not, but maybe tomorrow. And we did it on Monday
• 15:50
  instead of Sunday. So it depends on his health. And but we do
• 15:54
  feel like we've got four or five quality options that we can start, and
• 15:58
  all those guys have gotten previous NC double A you know, postseason starts in
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  the past. He's got that bulldog to him like that. You know,
• 16:07
  he just says he doesn't like to think out there, and I just talk
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  about you know what, you know, what you're expecting from him and what
• 16:11
  he's he's done for you, and how you feel confident of growing him up
• 16:15
  there. Yeah, I really feel like he's hit his stride. You know,
• 16:18
  he's worked on his mental health and his and his not to say that
• 16:21
  we all need to work on our mental health, but he's been really diligent
• 16:25
  and really public about it, and really proud of him for kind of talking
• 16:27
  about that and and saying, yeah, you know I got people that helped
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  me with that and being able to flush and reset in between pitches, and
• 16:34
  and I think that's awesome. It's brave of him too. I'm sure there's
• 16:38
  a lot of baseball players that can be a lot of people that can benefit
• 16:41
  from that, but uh, you know, I think that's been kind of
• 16:44
  the The next frontier for him is kind of going there and exploring that and
• 16:49
  and finding different ways to cope with the stress and anxiety of having to compete
• 16:52
  at this level. And because if he can do that, he is as
• 16:56
  special as of a pitcher in terms of his stuff that we've ever had here.
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  So I think that's the final chapter for him. If you can put
• 17:03
  the mental together with the physical, he can be unstoppable thanks to their team
• 17:07
  known as Zoomers. But it feels like you've built all three in different ways,
• 17:11
  right. Pitching has been the constant, I'd say, But yes,
• 17:15
  I mean we've built them with different personnel from different walks of life, different
• 17:19
  areas of the country, different schools, Division three, Division two, Division
• 17:22
  one, junior college commispers, high school kids, Connecticut kids. But yeah,
• 17:30
  build their rosters differently. But I'd say pitching it starts and ends with
• 17:34
  pitching. If you don't If you can't pitch, you can't compete. And
• 17:37
  you know obviously we've pitched it. I think, really really well, especially
• 17:41
  the second half of the season, how you evaluate kids coming from those lower
• 17:45
  levels like D three or JUCO and be able to say, Okay, they
• 17:48
  were good here, but this is what what we know they can do if
• 17:52
  they come to Ukon. Yeah, you look at the metrics, certainly,
• 17:55
  but I'm more interested in just how long has that young man played the position
• 17:59
  and be counted on by his teammates, so especially on the mound, if
• 18:02
  they've been an ace on their staff, even if it's like jvs. ACE
• 18:08
  Varsity Baseballs, that puts for a lot baseball as your high school team in
• 18:15
  Connecticut. Probably the amount of refuge if you're years, especially because that's saying
• 18:22
  that you've got the trust of your teammates, your coaches to go out there
• 18:25
  and beat somebody once every five six days. So that's really powerful. But
• 18:30
  that you know the metrics are what they are. We look at their foot
• 18:32
  speed, look at their arm strength, look at their bathketball skills. On
• 18:36
  the position players side, but I'm not a big into exit v lows,
• 18:40
  I'm not kind of. There's a mix of analytics, but a lot of
• 18:44
  old school stats too. If you don't hit four hundred in high school baseball,
• 18:48
  you're probably not going to hit three hundred at UK. So we still
• 18:51
  look at batting average. We still look at it. I look at one
• 18:53
  loss record, you know, I see less and less guys telling me what
• 18:56
  their one loss record is on the mound, and more we're telling them about
• 19:00
  telling me about exit there, pitching velocity, or their vertical break on their
• 19:07
  break in ball, their horizontal break, or their spin rate. And I
• 19:10
  don't really know what to make of that stuff. If you can't get guys
• 19:12
  out and win games for your team, all those other mentors stone them out
• 19:15
  to hilopines. So we look at them one last first