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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 259 - Top 50 Fastpitch 50-31 · Whatcom Preps Podcast

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This is Nuksac Valley sophomore Kessen Walker, and you're listening to the Top fifty
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Fasterist Countdown with Tyler and Ryland Rally the Valley Readings. Then welcome into the
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Watch Them Preps podcast. This is episode two fifty nine, the first of
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three podcasts we unveil the Fast Pitch Top fifty Countdown. I'm Rodan Spencer along
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with me as always is Tyler Anderson of WA Come Preps. Tyler, how
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we doing? You doing great? I'm excited about this. We have never
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counted down the fast pitch players. And you know, I bet I saw
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more fast pitch games than I saw baseball games, so uh so this will
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be a lot of fun. We have never done anything other than football until
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we did volleyball right right, and we kind of touched on volleyball a little
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bit. We kind of breezed through. We didn't talk about every single kit.
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So now we're doing the baseball and fast pitch and talk about each kid.
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It's pretty cool. Yeah, And as you said, this is or
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as I said, this is the first of three. Today we will be
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going from fifty down to thirty one, just like we did with baseball.
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I honestly don't know when we're going to post this, but I would assume
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it'll probably be a couple of days after the Baseball one. And Tyler,
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as we record this, the Baseball one's been up for what about ten hours
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right now, so I'm sure people have listened. I haven't looked at the
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numbers or anything. But let's get into it. And before we go too
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far here, we need to give a thank you for the intro to Kestin
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Walkder, sophomore from Nooksack Valley, who, as I said in the Baseball
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one, obviously we're going to talk about her at some point tonight, so
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we will talk about her. We need to give a thank you to kurt
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Mayberry Farm and their website Kurt Mayberry dot com. Kurberberry Farm is a fourth
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generation, family owned and operated berry farm committed to growing the highest quality berries
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strawberries, blueberries, and or raspberries. It's summertime. We talked about it
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yesterday, Tyler, and all you did was made me hungry by talking about
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strawberry shortcake. But yeah, you know, I used to eat like blueberry
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cobblers and oh man when I worked at Anthony's Homeport Tyler, Yeah, it
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was whatever the fresh fruit desserts were. I was eating them all the time.
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I mean, who would think that with my size, But it did
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happen. We also want to give a thank you to Man Insurance and Line
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Drive Northwest. Now, they were sponsors throughout the year Man Insurance with the
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scoreboards, Line Drive Northwest, the Weekly stat Leaders, and they were tremendous
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sponsors. And you know, we want to give a thank you to them,
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even though they're technically not sponsoring this podcast. We want to give a
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shout out to those guys because yeah, they were great. I mean they
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stepped up and made it happen. And I mean, let's face it,
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they got a lot of Instagram content, that's for sure, because I mean
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this between the Scoreboards and the Weekly stat Leaders, there was a lot of
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stuff going on. Yeah, Tyler, if somebody wants to reach out and
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they want to get on the sponsorship side of things, there's a lot of
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stuff coming up we've got. I mean, Tyler, if somebody wanted to
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sponsor just the football Preview podcast where every team is going to get one,
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I mean those those get unbelievable numbers. So if somebody want to step up
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and get something like that. I mean, that's a to me, that's
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a that's a high quality you know, that's that's a good one. That's
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a that's a high quality Barry type. You know what I'm saying, Kurt
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Maybray farmer, But uh yeah, that's that's something that would make a lot
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of sense. I mean, I'm sure the scoreboards for different sports needs need
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sponsors. Uh, the weekly stat leaders, the players of the week,
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and you know, this is something where we've kind of talked about it BEFO
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for if somebody has something that they even want to kind of like create.
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So uh, North County Alliance FC was that who it was. They wanted
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to sponsor all kinds of stuff having to do with soccer. So it's like,
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hey, you know what, let's do a player of the week for
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soccer and North County Alliance FC. Boom, there you go sponsorship, you
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know what I mean. Didn't originally have a player of the week. We
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were like one or two weeks in and they said, hey, can you
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do a player of the week two and absolutely sure? So yeah. So
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I mean, well I'm trying to think here, what do we got,
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like girls tennis? Right, or no boys tennis is that going on in
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the fall. That'll be coming up in the fall. Yeah, so somebody
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wants to go, hey, I want to do the boys tennis Player of
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the Week. There you go. Yeah, like that's something that that can
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happen if if somebody just steps up and pays for it, Hey, we'll
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do it, you know. But it's it's hard for us to put a
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lot of effort into things when there's other things that are being sponsored and you
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know, things that just maybe bring some more views things like that. But
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at the end of the day, we do want to cover as much as
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humanly possible and still allow Tyler to actually get some sleep. Yeah, it
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would be nice, you know, without having to like make you know,
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miss walk come preps sit over there and maybe learn how to watch film and
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take stats, you know what I mean. She would not be happy,
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No, she would not be happy about that at all. She's got some
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strawberry shortcakes to make, right well, yeah, she's she's all over that.
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But yeah, but Tyler, if somebody wanted to reach out, what
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do they gotta do. Yeah, just get a hold of me through social
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media is always the best way. Just search for walking preps on Facebook,
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Instagram or Twitter and send over a message and just get the ball rolling from
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there. So a lot of people did last year at around this time,
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especially once it got into July and August and all of a sudden, all
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four you know, players of the Week for football were all accounted for,
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and and you know, the volleyball stuff was accounted for. And I know
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that North County Alliance is all about they're going to step up for girls soccer
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come up, and Stopper Insurance is going to do cross country coming up.
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I mean, so it's there's you know, stuff is being taken. But
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like like Ryland said, like you could, there's all sorts of options that
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you can create something or whatever. So, uh, the more sponsors that
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come in, the longer I'll be able to do this. And that's that's
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kind of how this whole thing goes back and forth. Just give and take
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and everyone's happy and and uh and just keep the ball rolling. Yeah,
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And Tyler, I think you and I both like we love high school sports
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in general. Football is the passion it always kind of has, you know,
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driven the uh the whole you know train if you will. But sure
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that's where it's like the football stuff. The numbers that come from the football
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stuff are just kind of different, you know what I mean. And there's
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just so much more stuff that is able to be done. And I mean,
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we're Tyler, You and I haven't even talked about it yet. We
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do two podcasts right now. We do a weekly wrap up and a weekly
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preview. Right We're gonna end up having to add a third, aren't we,
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because we're going to need to do a fall sports weekly wrap up that
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doesn't even involve football, right, That's true because we weren't doing that until
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the winter, So this will be a new thing for us in the fall.
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And yeah, I would imagine, I mean, I will come up
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with something creative to make it all work. But it's gonna take some thinking
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and some scheduling, and I know that you're going to be pretty busy with
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stuff, you know, once school starts back up again, and we'll just
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have to be creative and figure it out. Yeah, And you know what's
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going to happen, Tyler, We're not going to talk about it and we're
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just gonna like figure it out as we go, and it's just going to
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work out fine, because that just seems to be the way that things happen
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with us, and then all of a sudden it's like, hey, we
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actually we kind of hit a gold mine there, Like I don't know how
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we pulled that one off, but yeah, again, thank you to Man
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Insurance Line Drive Northwest Tyler. We talked about it just a little bit on
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the Baseball podcast, so I want to bring it up here because there might
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be some people that maybe didn't listen to the Baseball that they're going to listen
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to the fast pitch District Browing. They hosted you over the weekend. They're
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gonna be hosting you again. It's the District Brewing in London. While the
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Linden address, and I guess, you know, maybe if I was smart,
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I would have it up in front of me. Sixty nine to twelve
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Hannigan Road in London. That is the address. It's actually like straight south
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of Linden and like straight east of Meridian almost in a way, right.
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But yeah, they hosted you on Sunday. We get get remind me what
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was the times on that. Yeah, it's noon to two and that's the
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that's the designated time going forward for every Sunday the restaurant opens at noon.
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So as soon as they open, I'm there and yeah, I'll just be
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playing a different you know, old high school football game on the big screen
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TV and and just have fun talking about it and and just you know,
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just have a good time. Some really good food. Was it? Who
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was it? Was it like Mervyn's or something where they had that lady outside
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that was like open, open, open. You remember that the old commercial
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is that you standed a district brewing open, open, open, you show
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up, they let me in. Yeah, they let me in a little
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early so I can get set up and stuff like that. But gotcha.
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But yeah, pretty much that's I'm excited to do it. Yeah, and
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uh, you know they're hopping on board doing some things here. So again
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just another example of stuff that hey, they reach out to you and go,
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hey, what do you think about doing something like this? By bye
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bye and away you all of a sudden, here you are sitting there watching
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Linden Linden Christian from what was it like ninety one or something or ninety two.
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Yeah, last time they played each other in a league game. Yeah,
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and they were both wearing dark color. I mean it was wild.
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But yeah, Tyler, before we go too far, So I'm ready to
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get to number fifty. But yesterday you and I talked about Tony Gwynn,
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right, and as luck would have it, my phone was must have been
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listening or something like. We all know that that happens, right, But
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all of a sudden, I get a I get a Hey, here's a
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crazy Tony Gwinn stat on instan. Okay, here's one for you. Tony
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Gwynn had more career assists at San Diego State five hundred and ninety than strikeouts
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four hundred and thirty four during his twenty year Major League baseball career. He
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was like the he was like then led the nation and assists one year.
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I think that's unbelievable. Not outfield assists. We're talking about him playing on
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the on the basketball team of San Diego State. Yeah, yeah, just
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I mean, it's just crazy. I mean again, five hundred and ninety
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assists during his career at San Diego State, four hundred and thirty four strikeouts
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during his Major League baseball career of twenty years. Yeah, if you figure
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he probably played four years at San Diego State at most. At most,
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I don't even know if he played a full four years of basketball, you
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know, sure, yeah, but he was drafted by the Clippers, was
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he really? Would they have been the San Diego Clippers then? Yeah,
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they were the San Diego Clippers then. And but they back then they had
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like eight or nine I mean they only have two now in the NBA.
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Yeah. Most of the guys that kicked in the second round don't end up
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going anywhere, like right, And so back then it was you just drafted
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a ton of guys and then when you did your summer league, that was
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all the guys that would play. And then you know, every once in
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a while a fourth or fifth rounder would stick around, but it was pretty
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rare. But yeah, he was, he was actually drafted. It's just
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like, didn't the didn't football have like twelve rounds or something? Oh yeah,
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Like I remember that. I remember Carl Lewis getting drafted in nineteen eighty
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four by the Cowboys. You know, you just see that every once in
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all. Dave Winfield got drafted in basketball and football and he was a Hall
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of Fame baseball player. Just crazy, yeah, I mean, and you
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know what and kids nowadays, what do they do with they're specializing in one
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sport? Come on, all right, Tyler, We've got twenty names to
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talk about here. I recognize a couple of them, and I mean,
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which is you know it's I mean, I think on my part, you
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know, maybe a little impressive that I actually do recognize some of these names.
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And now, granted, I guess we did do a weekly podcast where
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you talked about all kinds of stuff, so maybe if I was paying more
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attention, i'd know them all. But let's get into it. Let's talk
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about number fifty, senior third baseman of the Meridian Trojans. It's Kaylin Nevil.
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Yeah, like you said, senior. I don't remember her playing in
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years past, so I'm and I don't know if she transferred in or she
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just turned out for her senior year. But she was only one of two
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seniors on the on the entire team, it's a really really young team.
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And I saw him ridin quite a bit and she was always really really impressive,
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and for not playing for a while, if that's the case, you
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know, she did a really good job. She finished with twenty hits,
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fourteen RBIs batted three forty five and another player that rarely rarely struck out less
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than ten percent of the time, and another player that rarely walked as well.
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So one of those players that here we go sixty two played appearances and
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had three walks and six strikeouts, so nine times did she not put the
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ball in play. So you know, we talked about that a little bit
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on the baseball one and here you go on the fast pitch side. And
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defensively, she held her own at third base, and that was going to
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be a spot where I didn't really know how they were going to be this
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year, and all of a sudden she comes in and just takes over and
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holds it down. So a really really good year for her, and she
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was able to make the top fifty list in at number forty nine on the
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Top fifty count down. A senior first baseman from Blaine. It's taazatic.
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Yeah, you know the blame team last year, you know, get to
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I think they got fifth or sixth in state. They had a big time
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run, a really really great year, got to the semi finals and then
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lost out from there at the state tournament. But and she was she was
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a bench player, you know, and so I didn't really know that much
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about her. More well known for volleyball. She's going to Western Washington University
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on on to play volleyball. You know, six feet tall, big time
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target over there at first base. She ended up catching a little bit too
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every three once in a while when the when they had a big lead lead
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and their their catcher was their other pitchers, so she'd come out to pitch
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and then Tayo would go catch. But but yeah, just really really impressive.
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I didn't know what to expect. I knew she would start at first
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base, but I didn't know she was gonna hit as well. And she
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ended up having a ton of extra base hits. She came through in the
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clutch a lot, a lot of line drives to right center field and uh
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and those were awesome to see. And she would get hot, like she
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would I have like two or three doubles in a game or something like that.
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She would she just have those kind of moments. She ended up with
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with sixteen hits, but they're pretty evenly spread out. Eight singles, six
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doubles, and two triples. So out of her sixteen hits, some of
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them went for extra bases. So that's what I'm talking about with like the
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gap hour stuff like that. Fourteen RBIs so big, big time in the
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clutch, batted two sixty two on the year, got hit by a couple
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of pitches, just and really good defense at first base, Like like I
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said, I mean, you're not going to overthrow her. She's she's six
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feet tall, plus she has hops, so she could kind of track down
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everything over there. And she had a really really good senior year, number
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forty eight in the top fifty Countdown junior infielder from Meridian, Sydney Tenclay.
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Yeah, it was a shame last year or sophomore year. There was a
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couple of games into the season and she was having a huge year. I
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think she had like like out of her first six or seven hits, like
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five of them were for doubles and she was just crushed on the ball.
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And then she had a really bad injury and she was out the rest of
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the year and she missed the rest of the year, and it was just
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like, oh man, because that they really could have used her quite a
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bit. She came back this year healthy the entire year and and did awesome.
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She was probably the number two pitcher, but Meridian was the only team
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all year that just used one pitcher in every single inning, And so I
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would imagine that she'll end up being the pitcher next year because it was one
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of their other seniors that was the pitcher this year, so she can't pitch
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if needed. She played. She started out a lot at second base,
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kind of ended up at first base. They kind of moved around some infielders
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there, so played on the right side of the infield. Both spots.
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Had thirteen RBIs, sixteen hits, batted three, ten, walked ten times,
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got hit by four pitches. The led the team, and that on
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base percentage of four forty four, So a little bit of everything and just
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a junior, so I'm I'm excited to see and a lot of these Meridian
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players are juniors, and so I think they're gonna really come together next year.
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They're gonna miss their seniors obviously, but if she can, if she
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can pitch pretty well in the circle, then gonna that's gonna really help guide
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them next year. But this year it was a really, really great season
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for her. She also scored twenty runs, which was the second highest on
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the team, So just a really good overall year for Sydney. Tankley number
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forty seven in the Top fifty countdown, First sophomore on the list outfielder from
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Seahome, it's JJ Lewis. Yeah. I don't know if anybody I saw
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this year looked like they were enjoying themselves more. She always had a big
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smile on her face. I mean, she'd get serious for a moment when
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she's hitting, but you know, she'd you know, look over at third
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base coach and and smile and laugh about something, even if it was like
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her swinging at a high pitch and missing it like she. I love it
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when when an athlete, especially like a you know, a youth athlete,
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is just enjoying what they're doing, and that you could feel that a genuine
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joy for for what she's doing. You could just feel like it's almost infectious.
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And she's got a cannon for an arm too. She started the year
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at third base and ended up putting her on right field just because of you
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know how talented the arm talent is. She played a little left field too,
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so she kind of played both the corner outfield spots but mostly in right
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field. Hit really well to hit three seventy five and had more walks than
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strikeouts, So definitely knows how to put the ball or to put the pat
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on the ball, slugged five hundred, hit five doubles, a triple eighteen.
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RBIs was second on the team with twelve stolen bases. I mean,
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you start looking at all these things and just go holy cow, like,
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and she's just a sophomore. So you look at all those things combined and
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it looks like a really bright future for her. Definitely the offense, defense,
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running the bases, everything. She put together a really really good year
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and she's going to be counted on to help lead the team the next couple
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of years. N we're forty six in the top fifty countdown junior outfielder from
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Blaine. It's Bree Smith. Yeah, mostly played left field, played a
18:56
little bit of center field, but mostly in left field. Really really fast
19:02
on the bases. Good volleyball player too, as a as a setter,
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but or no, I'm sorry, not at the ceter I think she was
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a like a defense like the libero. But man, I didn't and I
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didn't know that she played fast pitch. I saw her on the volleyball team
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that I saw her out there and then she's starting, and all of a
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sudden, right away, she just she got really hot early and they put
19:26
her up near the top of the lineup, and and she kind of moved
19:30
around the lineup based on different things. But there was a lot of games
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where she would just generate a run on herself by herself, where she'd walk
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steal a base, you know, and she was really aggressive on the bass
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pass taking an extra base whenever she could. Seems like a lot of pictures
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that I had of her were like her sliding into a bass or sliding into
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home and so I just kind of laughed when I saw that she hit two
19:53
ninety nine ten RBIs, seven stolen bases in seventy four played appearances, only
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struck out ten times. That's a that's a pretty good percentage. And uh
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and just a junior too, so Blaine is you know, it's another it'll
20:08
be the second year in a row where they graduate a lot of big time
20:11
seniors, and so it might be a little tough go of it next year.
20:17
But if she keeps improving, then you know, they they should be
20:21
fine. And and you know, she'll probably end up staying in left field
20:26
with they have a pretty young outfield, so I would imagine she'll stay there,
20:29
or she might you know, who knows, she might move in play
20:30
third base or something like that. So so we'll see I'm excited to see
20:34
her progression, and then of course i'll see her in a few months out
20:37
on the volleyball court again. You know, we like to give props to
20:44
good grades and things like that. Tyler. I just wanted to see you.
20:48
Hey, what position does she play? And she is, in fact
20:51
a libero and they have the grades listed here. Oh yeah, and she's
20:56
got one star, which means she's from a three point five to a three
20:59
point and then I know Emerson Baker, Emerson Baker is going to be on
21:07
this list at some point and she's listed as two stars, so she's got
21:11
a four point zero. Yeah, it's pretty impressive. Yeah, I mean
21:14
that is awesome. That is really really cool. But yeah, let me
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now get back to where I was so I can tell you who The next
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one is, number forty five on the top of fifty countdown as a junior
21:26
center fielder from Meridian. Natalie Schultz, another one of those talented juniors from
21:33
Meridian, you know, track down a lot in center field, really really
21:38
impressive to see and knocked in eighteen runs as well. It was she had
21:45
a little bit of surprising power that I was not aware of. This year.
21:48
I had a couple doubles and a triple, really faster on the basis,
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scored seventeen runs. But man, defensively was just she was just you
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know, you kind of can tell. I mean, you know, it's
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just the way it is in fast pitch because it's, uh, it's a
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fast game and and and uh and it's even though it's a smaller outfield,
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there's some line shots and you want to try to get the ball in quickly.
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And you see a lot of really talented athletes out out in center field,
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and she fits that mold. She'll be back out there again. Like
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I said, this Meridian junior class is loaded, and she's a big,
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big part of that number forty four on the top fifty countdown. She's a
22:30
junior third baseman High School, Kennedy Rathton. Yeah, what a what an
22:38
awesome year. Again, defensively, I mean those third those third basemen that
22:42
play in fast pitch, they come up so close and they just have no
22:47
fear and and she's and she's one of those kinds of players and she can
22:51
block anything, she can pitch if needed. I mean she there's a couple
22:55
of teams that she would be their ace as a as a pitcher, and
22:59
she kind of had a kind of a roller coaster season offensively, where early
23:03
on she was she was doing really well, some extra base hits. She
23:06
kind of slumped a little bit near the end of the regular season, and
23:10
then once the playoffs hit, of course, which is perfect, started to
23:14
pick it back up again. Had really had a lot of key hits and
23:17
key moments and just a really tough player too over at third base, and
23:22
she took some line drives off the wrists, off the hand, different things
23:26
like that, but you know, rarely, I don't think ever came out
23:30
of the game. She had ninety eight plate appearances, and she doesn't like
23:33
to walk. She only walked five times ninety eight plate appearance. She's swinging
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the bat. Twenty seven hit I'm sorry, thirty one hits, four doubles,
23:41
twenty six RBIs batted three thirty three. She will be you know,
23:45
I could see her even maybe going into the cleanup spot next year or the
23:49
five hole of the Mount Baker lineup. They've had a big time run of
23:55
really really good teams for the last boy, I don't know around you know,
23:59
eight or nine year yours now, and she'll be a big part of
24:03
that team next year, and she might end up pitching a little bit more
24:06
next year as well. Number forty three on the top fifty count Down sophomore
24:11
first baseman from Lyndon and Christian. It's Taylor Craig. Yeah, awesome,
24:17
especially on defense, you see some really good defensive first baseman. And and
24:22
she is near the top and you're talking about defensive first baseman. I'm you
24:26
know, you don't you know, you see the add the normal play a
24:30
lot, you know, ground out whatever. I've seen her do the splits
24:33
completely fully get the ball and it's like what and you could hear you could
24:37
hear it? Yeah, oh yeah. There's a couple of players that do
24:40
it. Maddie Junk, Twista mount Baker does it as well, and it's
24:44
like full on and you'll hear, like the whole crowd go whoa like you
24:48
just hear that collectively. I challenge it. I challenge a boy to do
24:52
that at third base in baseball. I just I would like to see it
24:55
happen, Tyler. If it happens, let me know please. Yeah,
24:57
And and just a sophomore. Last year, she played quite a bit as
25:03
a freshman and she was you could tell there was some growing pains there and
25:07
she was trying to get used to varsity pitching. This year, she you
25:11
know, she took it over a bat it right in the middle of the
25:14
lineup ended up ended up with twenty four RBIs, which is near the top
25:19
of the team, had two doubles, a triple, batted two sixty four
25:26
and rarely struck out again eight strikeouts and eighty five played appearances. So you
25:32
know, she's a really really strong girl. That really. I mean,
25:34
she hits lasers. I mean I saw a couple of them at when there
25:38
was a home game. I can't remember who was against, but she had
25:41
a couple of them right down the third baseline that was just like, holy
25:45
cow, Like it's such a it's just such a small field, Like you
25:48
know, ball moving that fast. It's like, man, that's you're asking
25:52
for it right there. But again, it's hard to believe when you watch
25:55
her play that she's only a sophomore. So I'm just excited to be able
25:59
to keep watching her play the next couple of years. And this Linden Christian
26:03
team, I mean, they had a lot of youth on it. They
26:06
were, you know, a run or two away from getting to the state
26:10
tournament. So uh and you know, if it was where the old way
26:14
was, where you get two teams to go, then they would have gone
26:17
this year as a really young team. And and uh so the big it's
26:21
a big time future for them and and and you know she's going to be
26:26
right in the middle of it for the next couple of years playing first base
26:27
and batten in that four or five spot. Yeah, that's something where it
26:32
would have been. It would have been nice for them to get over there
26:34
and get a little experience in the in the state tournament, you know.
26:37
And yeah, and they were there last year and she was just a freshman
26:41
playing in it, but she was one of the few players that's on the
26:44
team this year that got to experience that because it was pretty senior heavy last
26:48
year. So well, we've got two more underclassmen still to come from Lynden
26:52
Christian I mean, oh yeah, and and when I say underclass I'm talking
26:55
under under like we get a couple more years out of these two. Number
27:00
forty two on the top of fifty countdown Junior third baseman from Nikzack Valley.
27:04
It's Kenzi likel had. She missed a pretty good chunk of the year.
27:10
It was it was another one of those you know we talked about like River
27:12
Langstrad on the baseball side, and it was where you know, you play
27:17
for a while and then you miss a big chunk and then you fit you're
27:19
able to finish the season out, and she was able to do that and
27:22
by doing so, she was able to make this list. You look at
27:27
the averages, the average, the slugging, the ops, the on base
27:30
percentage, and they stand out to where she should be higher on the list,
27:33
but just didn't have enough playing time. Really batted three eighty two,
27:37
slug five fifty nine you know ops of over one thousand. I mean those
27:42
are huge numbers, but only fifty four or I'm sorry, forty two played
27:48
appearances. So you know, miss missed a good chunk, but she was
27:52
there when it was needed. They had that play in game against Meridian just
27:56
to get to the district tournament. She hit or she hit a home run
27:57
in that game, the first one of her Birsty career, which was which
28:00
was just a sight to seek. She was so excited running around the bases,
28:04
had three doubles as well, nine RBIs like I said, batt at
28:07
three eighty two and played a really good defensive third base. So uh so
28:12
yeah, I mean it's it's that's one of those players where it's really hard
28:17
to place on the list. But I felt because she came on strong at
28:21
the end, especially with that home run in that you know play in game
28:23
where this could be it that vaulted her into the list. Despite having just
28:29
forty two played appearances. She earned the spot here number forty one on the
28:33
top fifty count Down. Sophomore centerfielder from the Blaine Border rights. It's mesa
28:37
Poles, big time athlete, just super athletic and can run down anything out
28:47
there. She's the center fielder, like like you said, just as sophomore
28:49
as well. Played a little bit last year once the team got into this
28:55
state tournament. She ended up playing some left field as a freshman, and
28:59
she might have even been dhed four. I can't, I can't remember,
29:03
but right away this year she ended up leading off playing center field, so
29:08
you know, has that she's definitely a ballplayer, has that in her blood.
29:14
Her brother Axel is one of the best baseball players I've seen in the
29:17
last six seven years in Walking County. Yeah, he played it. Plaine
29:22
switch hit her really really good hit player, and she's she's fantastic let the
29:26
team and run scored or twenty four. Also led and stolen bases with thirteen.
29:32
So those those two stats right there jump off the page as far as
29:34
that's definitely a leadoff hitter. It's what she did, got on base thirty
29:37
nine percent of the time. She did hit a home run as well,
29:41
knocked in eight runs. But her ability to just run the bases be a
29:48
terror on the basis defense. And she has some pop in her bat too,
29:52
and she and like like it says right Ara, I mean she hit
29:55
one out as well, So all those things combined and again just being a
29:59
sophomore man, it's a really talented sophomore class around the county and she's she's
30:03
one of the better ones. We are halfway into it. Tyler number forty,
30:08
senior pitcher catcher from Bellingham aj Accapinti. Yeah, one of the few
30:15
seniors on the team, or at least one. I mean, they rotated
30:18
a lot of players. It was a really tough year for Bellingham, but
30:22
uh, pitcher and catcher. You know, it's it's tricky, Uh,
30:26
just kind of going back and forth like that. Not a ton of plate
30:30
appearances, but there was a lot of games where they only got one or
30:33
two, you know, per player, just because of ten run rules and
30:37
stuff like that. So I didn't want to hold that against aj uh to
30:41
eighty six with a think think about this, a two eighty six average with
30:45
a six forty three slugging percentage. So that tells you right there extra base
30:51
hits. She two singles, three doubles, two triples, and a home
30:56
run, so big, big time power ops of over eleven hundred nine RBIs
31:03
that tied for the team lead. And ten walks so selective as well,
31:10
which puts the on base percentage over fifty percent fifty one point two percent,
31:14
so god on base more than half the time. Uh, A big time
31:18
you know, kind of the big time player on that team. Not going
31:22
to be there next year, but uh it's a it's a young Bellingham team.
31:26
I really like coach Anderson. She's gonna get that thing going, but
31:30
uh it's gonna take a little while. And aj Acapinti is going to be
31:34
a player that is going to be missed down down the road, but a
31:37
really really good season lefty or righty righty like that hitting Yeah yeah, okay,
31:47
Uh, I'm just gonna say, uh, you know, big slugging
31:51
percentage Major League Baseball comparison would be Ralph Kiner. Yeah. I was thinking
31:57
like Arman Killerbrew, Harmon Killbrew that worse too. Yeah. Yeah, Frank
32:02
Robinson, how about Frank Robbins. There you go, Frank Robinson. Yeah,
32:06
some good names that could be we could have here. Yeah. Hall
32:08
of famers, Yes, I mean that's I mean, when when you're talking
32:12
about some of the best plugging percentage of all time, they pretty much have
32:15
to be Hall of famers, right. Uh. Number thirty nine on the
32:19
top fifty countdown Tyler. It's a sophomore utility player school, Zeta Haynes.
32:24
Yeah. Played last year the entire year basically at third base as a freshman
32:30
because of the injury to Kennedy Rathchin, so got a lot of valuable playing
32:35
time there. And then this year and I don't know how many how much
32:37
you know kind of about fast pitch, but you're you're allowed to have a
32:42
player that's like an extra player that hats. Yeah, it's kind of it's
32:45
kind of like Adah. I learned that this year by going to a couple
32:47
of games where it was like, a it's basically just an extra player.
32:52
It's kind of what it is. Yeah, And so that was what she
32:55
was, and whenever they made a change, she would go into the field
32:59
and she could could play She played, she could play third, she played
33:01
second, she played in right field, left field, so there was a
33:05
lot of different spots that she could play. And that's a that's a tough
33:07
thing to do because you got to be on the ready all the time and
33:09
you're really focusing on hitting. And this was a team that probably had more
33:15
doubles than any team in Walking County this year. As a matter of fact,
33:20
I can total it up really quickly. They had forty nine doubles as
33:23
a team. She led the team in doubles, So that's really really impressive
33:30
for just a sophomore on this big time offensive squad with eight. She had
33:34
eight doubles, eleven singles, knocked in twenty four runs, batted two seventy
33:37
nine, and she got hit by a pitch seven times. That that led
33:43
the team as well, and and it was pretty selective to play walked seventeen
33:49
times and struck out just eleven times, So all these numbers are really really
33:52
good. She kept she was able to move herself up the lineup just because
33:57
it was just a hard out all the time. And other gap hitter that
34:00
could, like I said, could hit those doubles and is gonna be you
34:04
know, a four or five hitter in the lineup in the in the future,
34:07
she's got a couple more years. I would imagine that with Kennedy ratch
34:10
and holding down third base, she might end up playing second base. She
34:15
might have playing you know, left field. I mean, who knows.
34:19
And that's the beauty of having a player like that is they can go all
34:22
over the field do a lot of different things. And uh and the one
34:25
thing that you know for sure they will always be there will be that bat
34:29
And and with those eight doubles that led the team, I mean, that's
34:31
that's really really impressive. And twenty four urbis so uh you know, yeah,
34:37
it's gonna be that's a that's a great, great year for her and
34:39
she's got a big future ahead of her. So Tyler, I don't want
34:44
to get too far off topic here, but usually when I say that that
34:46
means we're about to go off topic. So is Albert Bell a guy that
34:53
was like that's being kept out of the Hall of Fame because the steroids or
34:59
something like I, yeah, I think so. And he wasn't really great
35:01
towards the media, and he did some kind of some nasty things, but
35:06
he because I look at good numbers and it's like, oh wait a second,
35:08
numbers are ridiculous. That one year he hit over fifty doubles and home
35:13
runs in the same year, Yeah, he had fifty two doubles and fifty
35:15
home runs and one hundred and twenty six RBIs. His slugging percentage was six
35:21
ninety he led the league, but the year before he slugged seven fourteen and
35:24
didn't even leave the league. I don't know who led the league that year
35:28
that would have been ninety four, but yeah, so Frank Frank Thomas probably,
35:32
Yeah, very possible. So I was just curious, like in the
35:37
slugging percentage list, Yeah, who's the highest non non Hall of Famer,
35:44
right, Barry Bonds? Well Balonds, Yeah, yeah, Bonds. We
35:46
know why he's not in, right, right, Aaron Judge, he's active.
35:51
Mark McGuire, we know that one Manny Ramirez. I assume his is
35:53
probably got something to do with steroids. Also, yeah he got he got
35:58
hit twice. Yeah, caught trout. He's active. And then the next
36:02
one is Albert Bell. And that's where I'm like, wait a minute,
36:05
I don't know about Albert Bell. And then you've got Wan Gonzalez, who
36:08
I don't link to steroids. Yeah, Sho Tani is active. Active.
36:15
But then the next one down the list was a rod steroids, Carlos Delgado.
36:21
I don't remember steroids. Yeah, he would be the he would be
36:23
the kind of the guy I think, Yeah, I think, Yeah,
36:28
I think. And he's a guy that I don't think he's gonna get in.
36:32
He might be the haull of very good. Yeah, but I tell
36:35
you what. You and I have talked about this before, and you've been
36:37
to infinite more Mariner games than I have. But the farthest ball I've ever
36:43
seen hit in a Mariner's game was he hit it over hit it here cafe
36:49
and I was standing in the upper deck. I was standing. I saw
36:53
it was a good view that I had because I was like by the bullpen,
36:58
so I was able to kind of see the whole like the trail of
37:00
the ball, and I was like, holy cow, that just went over
37:04
the hit at Here Cafe, And that was a crazy game. I will
37:07
never forget because I think I had a stomach ache or something and I wanted
37:12
to make sure I could get to my car quickly and had the game on
37:15
the radio. Is driving home and it's not a you know, it's hour
37:20
and a half hour, forty five minute drive to get home. The game
37:22
was still on when I got home. I think like John Holama came in
37:28
relief and was pitching. He pitched like seven innings in relief. It was
37:30
just it was one of those crazy games. I'm like, now, I'm
37:32
really glad I didn't stick around. This game's gone up forever. But yeah,
37:37
yeah, Carlo Stalgato, Yeah he was something so really quickly. Albert
37:40
Bell, Yeah, if I said to you, okay, if I said
37:45
to you, the guy hit three hundred and eighty one home runs, okay,
37:49
Yeah, nowadays there's probably quite a few guys that are going to be
37:52
somewhere around that number. But nowadays, what would that guy be hitting for
37:58
a batting average? Oh yeah, I know, it'd be hitting two fifteen.
38:02
Yeah, you know. I mean, I mean a guy that's hitting
38:07
thirty to forty on average year, probably somewhere between like two fifteen and like
38:12
two forty five. Like it's kind of where it is. The best guys
38:15
are going to be maybe a little bit higher, right, you know what
38:17
his career batting average was, It was probably around two ninety five. Was
38:22
exactly two ninety five? Was it? Really? Yeah, you're an idiot,
38:25
Like, oh, you're an idiot. Like I don't even know what
38:30
else to say, though, that's crazy, I know, And it's you
38:34
know, and I was thinking about this because I mean, the numbers in
38:37
the nineties just offensively just exploded. But my biggest theory with that, other
38:43
than steroids, is that there was there was expansion twice, you know,
38:47
ninety three. Yeah, I didn't think about that. So you had a
38:51
lot of pitchure marlins. Maybe didn't necessarily. Yeah, I mean I remember
38:54
the first few years of the of the Rays because remember the rays had Yeah,
39:00
the Rays had a couple of older guys. For the most part,
39:01
the Rays had a lot of guys that nobody had ever heard of, you
39:06
know, Like I mean Wade Boggs was there, Greg Van McGriff, Yeah,
39:09
Fred McGriff. But pitchers especially, they had a lot of guys that
39:14
were just nobody's you know. Yeah, and so no ray Noso was like
39:19
there's yeah, and like was it Wilson Fernande No, Wilson, Wilson Alvarez,
39:23
Wilson Alvarez. Yeah. And so that's the thing is like they had
39:27
a lot of just really really bad pitchers. And so I mean that doesn't
39:30
make a little bit of sense because essentially you had what four teams come in.
39:34
Yeah, I mean your beloved Marlins and the Rockies came in ninety three,
39:37
and then the Rays and the Diamondback came in in ninety eight. Yeah,
39:40
so when you start thinning out and people talk about that in nineteen sixty
39:45
one, when the Yank when Roger Merris at sixty one home runs, there
39:49
was expansion that year, you know, the Angels were brand new, and
39:52
I think there was I'm sure there was another team. I think the Royals,
39:55
I think. So it's like that's when offensive numbers always sp is when
40:00
there's expansion, and so that kind of has something to do with it.
40:04
But there's so many players, I mean, yeah, I mean, if
40:07
I mean I remember watching one Gonzalez and just going he's like the perfect baseball
40:12
player, Like that guy just crushes the ball. And of course we all
40:15
remember Jose Canseeko and yeah, they hit a lot of home runs, but
40:19
their averages were good, you know. I mean when one Gounzal is one
40:22
that he won that MVP from Ayrod in ninety six. You compare those numbers
40:29
and I think the only thing Gonzalez had on him was the Rangers won the
40:31
division. I think that was the only thing they had. Yeah, it's
40:36
crazy Angels and senators and oh is that what it was? Became the Rangers,
40:43
right right? Yeah, anyway, so we went way off topic.
40:47
That's what we do. It's and you know what, it's what makes what
40:51
we do enjoyable for us and the people that listen to every podcast. I
40:54
tell you what, I hear this more than anything when people come up and
40:59
say, oh, I love the podcast. You know what I love the
41:00
most is when you guys just start talking about random stuff. So I hear
41:06
it all the time. I mean, no one ever says, you know,
41:08
I love it, you know, when you talk about the player of
41:10
the week or I love it. No, no, no, they were
41:13
like I love it when you when you bring up Incavilia or Kevin Mos or
41:17
you know or whatever. You know. I don't know if we've ever brought
41:22
him up, but you know what, you know what I mean, Like
41:23
that's the kind of stuff they love. And it's the classical thing that guys
41:29
can sit around and just name old baseball players and just like stupid stuff like
41:32
that for hours and never get bored of it. And I hate to say
41:37
it, but you know, women they look at us and go, you
41:40
guys are morons, and honestly we are, Like, I mean, that's
41:44
exactly what it is. Yeah, there's no reason I should know that Albert
41:46
Bell's career batting average is two ninety five. Yeah, I mean it's just
41:51
no, you shouldn't like that is really shouldn't so stupid, Like it really
41:54
like that's some stumped to schwab type stuff right there. Yeah, that's pretty
41:59
bad. All right, let's get to number thirty eight on the top fifty
42:04
countdown. As a junior infielder from Meridian. I feel like we're talking about
42:08
like a lot of Meridian here. It's Maddy Ritter and it's another junior.
42:13
Yeah, so you know, again they had that. They had some movement
42:16
in the infield there, so I'm just placing all these girls as infielders,
42:21
you know, the shortstop, second basement, first baseman. They all kind
42:23
of rotated a little bit, and so the Kaylinn Nevel had third base lockdown.
42:30
The other three moved around a little bit, and they were all really
42:31
good players. Maddy Ritter again that junior class batted two to eighty three on
42:38
the year. Had a home run as well, so that was that was
42:42
pretty cool. That might have been her first career home run, a double,
42:45
a triple. I love this stat too, the lowest strikeout percentage on
42:50
the team. Seventy four played appearances, struck out just six times, so
42:55
definitely knows how to get on base thirteen walks like yeah, on base four
43:00
nineteen. So really good player there. Again, I keep I know it
43:05
sounds like a broken record, but all of these juniors, I'm meridian that
43:09
next year gonna you know, take that, take that next step and and
43:13
and be seniors and b B leaders. Uh. It's a it's a team
43:16
that's going in the right direction. And and and a lot of these players,
43:21
I mean, you know, ten Clay and and and Ritter and Schultz.
43:24
They they've been playing a lot of varsity baseball, are fast bitch.
43:30
I mean they've been doing this since they were freshmen and sophomores. I mean
43:32
they played a lot. So you always see those kinds of teams in all
43:36
sports that when they have they had they go through those lumps early, and
43:39
they ended up getting all that exparsity experience, the wins start to trickle in,
43:44
and then it's just it's just second nature after that. So, uh
43:47
so that's gonna be a good thing for Maddie Ritter and the rest of the
43:50
Trojans. Number thirty seven on the Top fifty count Down a sophomore pitcher from
43:54
the Seahome Mariners. It's Sarah Cruising. Yeah, big time player and a
44:00
good offensive player too, not just a pitcher. I would imagine she could
44:05
play some short stop or center field. Really good athlete at the plate.
44:08
Bat at three twenty three, eight walks and just seven strikeouts, hit four
44:15
doubles and a triples, drove in twenty three runs. That was the second
44:19
highest on the team. The twenty one hits tied JJ Lewis for second most
44:22
on the team. And and you know, just a really really good overall
44:29
hitter, and then on the mound, she pitched almost every inning. You
44:35
know, there was one hundred innings for for Seom this year. She pitched
44:39
ninety six innings, so you know, it was involved in almost every single
44:44
decision. It was a it was kind of a rough year for Sea Home.
44:46
But if she could if she could control the pitches just a little bit
44:52
more, she had a she had a handful of walks and I'm not even
44:54
gonna say the total because it'll blow your mind, but she struck out one
44:58
hundred and twenty eight bat in ninety six innings, So it was, uh,
45:04
you know, she gave up a lot of hits, a lot of
45:05
runs, a lot of walks, but she struck out a lot too.
45:07
So these were these were long games that she pitched in. But she she's
45:12
she's bringing it like there's a lot of speed to those pitches. But if
45:15
she can hone and control where they're going a little bit, and that just
45:17
takes repetition, and and she plays on the you know, she plays travel
45:22
ball and stuff like that, so I know that she's going to dial that
45:24
in and uh, if if that gets a little bit more improved, uh,
45:30
it's it's a complete one eighty on any team when you're when when when
45:35
your pitcher on a fast pitch team is dialed in and can throw strikes,
45:38
because it's just it's just completely different, and the whole outlook is different,
45:44
and they have a lot of offense on that team, and uh, but
45:46
if you know she can command the strike zone a little bit better, it's
45:51
gonna be huge. And she's a big part of the offense as well too,
45:53
So that whole, that whole back and forth, uh, doing all
45:57
the things. And there was a lot of time is when like she pitched
46:00
like a twelve inning game the day before and then she's pitching the next day,
46:05
and the coach would be like, are your range She's like yeah,
46:07
And so you could tell that she wants to be out there. She's a
46:09
bulldog, she wants to compete. So that goes a long way too.
46:14
And I was really, uh, you know, I was really wowed by
46:17
that. I went to a handful of Sea home games. I felt like
46:20
I saw maybe eight or nine of them, and uh, and she's out
46:23
there pitching every single time and and and did a really good job of it.
46:27
And again, just a sophomore as well. So, uh, you
46:30
know her and JJ Lewis both sophomores, and they have a good junior class
46:34
too. So the improvement that the seal Manners are gonna show or it's it's
46:38
gonna it's gonna start coming. Jim Emerson has been the coach there for a
46:42
long time and he knows what he's doing and he's gonna You're gonna start seeing
46:45
that change. App Bulldog eorl Hersweizer, yes or Herscheizer Man. I hated
46:51
that guy when he was with the Indians. Uh. Number thirty six on
46:54
the top fifty count down senior center fielder from the Linden Lions, it's Sierra
47:00
Alexander. Yeah. Maybe nobody has more leads, more chance in the dugout,
47:07
which is just awesome. I love that she gets behind every single one
47:09
of her teammates and just a really good athlete. Again, I know I
47:13
keep saying that when we talk about center fielders, but I mean it's right
47:16
there. You know, you got to cover all that ground. And you
47:21
know I've talked about her dad. Dante was an awesome pitcher back in the
47:24
day. I faced him too many times. Never saw the ball, the
47:29
ball went too fast because you know, I don't know what kind of cheating
47:32
scandal they were up to, but those guys, so him and his twin
47:35
brother could throw a way too fast. And of course that's all in jest.
47:38
But and here's kind of a crazy stat. You know, you know
47:42
that thing the the in a way have you heard of that hit away?
47:47
Like yeah, it's like it's like a it's like a pole and it's got
47:51
like it's got like the ball attached to it, and you hit it and
47:53
it winds around and it comes back and you hit it again. I bought
47:58
one of those at a garage sale that I believe belonged to their family,
48:05
So I might have hit on the same thing that she practiced on when she
48:07
was really little. Yeah, so there's a goofy connection there. But but
48:13
yeah, so anyways, just a really really good player came on, came
48:17
on really strong too near near the end of the season, and you know,
48:22
she hit she hit her first home run of the year in the state
48:25
tournament and and just really showed a lot of you know, big time stuff.
48:34
I mean, it was kind of a rough year because there was there
48:37
were moments when it wasn't going well, but she really turned it on at
48:40
the end, especially like I said, in the state tournament, the final
48:44
games of her career and hitting that home run was a huge deal. Also
48:47
had fifteen stolen bases, batted, batted two sixty, slug two eighty six.
48:53
You know, really really strong year for her. Number thirty five on
48:58
the top fifty count down sophomore second basement from Lynden Christian. Another one of
49:02
those underclassmen here, it's Hannah Turfstra. Yeah again, I know when I
49:09
was watched, for some reason, I thought she was older. I thought
49:13
I thought she was like a senior, and you know it was And I
49:17
had to go back to the roster because some of these girls I haven't seen
49:21
from other sports, so sometimes I'm not quite sure what class they're in.
49:23
I had to go back to the roster, and I was surprised to find
49:25
out that she was just a sophomore. Uh played played a lot of different
49:30
positions, but ended up kind of settling at second base for the second half
49:32
of the year and held that down. Batted three ninety six and again more
49:37
walks than strikeouts, which is always huge. Fifteen RBIs had a double and
49:42
a triple another one of those young cogs of that LC team that's gonna be
49:46
big time in the future. And you know, we're not just looking at
49:51
these twenty names here, but there's gonna be more on the next list of
49:54
multiple freshmen coming up for the LC list. So it's it's, uh,
50:00
the cupboard is not bear for the Lynx. That is for sure, really
50:04
really good, really good player, uh quick around the basis, scored twenty
50:07
runs and but like I said, batting three ninety six, that was that
50:12
was a big, big deal for her and she did a really good job.
50:15
Tyler, you're sitting here telling me that the number thirty five player hit
50:21
three ninety six. Yeah, I mean, what the crap is going on
50:25
up in Wakam County. My goodness, I would hate to be a picture
50:29
up there. Yeah, it's it's it was pretty crazy. I mean,
50:31
it's it's a lot of you know, you take, you know, because
50:35
everyone plays everybody in the entirely the Northwest Conference, you know, even you
50:39
know, Blaine will play Oak Harbor and the one A's play the three A's
50:43
like it's all over the place. So everyone kind of gets there even amount
50:45
of shots at everybody else. And there's there's a you know, there's some
50:49
great, great team. I mean Cedro Wooley won the state tournament, you
50:52
know, in the two A. Yeah, and they probably could have won
50:54
in some upper divisions. And Linden was very good and Baker was very good,
51:00
and uh, you know, Burlington was really good, and I mean
51:04
there were some really good teams. And then there's some teams that had that
51:07
struggled quite a bit. And the crazy thing about that is you could be
51:10
going against a picture one day and then the next day going against a picture
51:14
who is still learning how to pitch, that's throwing half the speed and is
51:19
rarely finding the strike zone. And that's tough for any hitter. So there
51:22
was a lot of different types of teams out there, and and uh,
51:27
it was it was I mean I even talked to some umpires about it.
51:29
You know, it was you kind of you know, you kind of you're
51:32
doing a game every night, and it's just it was kind of all over
51:36
the place because there was a vast majority of talent levels up and down and
51:40
and uh but man, they all they all played, but they all played
51:45
great. But it was the hitting was really really impressive, and that was
51:50
that was kind of across the board pretty much on every team. So yeah,
51:53
a lot of big time numbers here. Yeah, and I think that's
51:57
I mean a great point too. And like you know, at Bothel this
52:01
year, we had a girl that's going to play Division one and she's a
52:05
pitcher and she throws absolute gas and at one point she got hurt and when
52:10
she did, the whole season kind of fell apart. But the girl that
52:14
they brought in that ended up pitching the most after that. She's only a
52:17
freshman. And don't get me wrong, she's going to be really, really
52:22
good, but she has no speed behind her fastball right now, you know
52:28
what I mean. It's just not there compared to what the senior had.
52:30
And like I said, don't get me wrong, she's gonna be really good.
52:35
Like I'm fully convinced that she will end up being one of the better
52:38
pitchers, maybe even in the state. But the difference between the two meant
52:44
going from potentially winning state to not even making it to the state tournament.
52:50
You know, it's just crazy. It's unbelievable how important that pitcher position is
52:53
in fast pitch. I mean, it just really is. But yeah,
52:59
by the way, we got a pitch here coming up. Tyler number thirty
53:00
four on the top fifty count down, sophomore second baseman and pitcher from nuk
53:05
Zach Valley. The young lady that gave us the intro. It's Keston Walked.
53:10
Yeah, you know, mostly played second base, came in and pitched
53:15
every once in a while. Her and Peyton Bartell, both sophomores, switched
53:19
on and off at pitcher. One's a lefty, ones a righty. Walker
53:22
is the righty, And you know, they had to do most of the
53:25
pitching, the both of them last year as freshman, and so they kind
53:29
of got thrown into the fire. And this year I think they both got
53:31
a little bit better and and did and felt more, felt more comfortable.
53:37
But I thought that the offensive output that Walker had this year was just vastly
53:44
improved from her freshman year. As the season war on, she just got
53:47
better and better. Ended up with six doubles at a home run twenty two
53:52
RBIs still seven bases batted three point fifty two. Really really aggressive hit her.
53:58
And then you know in circle she threw over forty one innings forty one
54:01
and a third innings, struck out thirty batters, but again it's the same
54:06
type of deal. You know, you got to get the walks down a
54:07
little bit. She did strike out more than she walked, but they're pretty
54:09
close. And she's probably the number two pitcher on the team behind Peyton Bartell.
54:16
And but they're pretty they're pretty even u But yeah, Keston of offensively,
54:22
just as the season were on, like I said, just got better
54:24
and better. Ended up slugging four to seventy nine, got on base forty
54:30
two and a half percent of the time. So the numbers just got better.
54:34
And again another sophomore too. So and you know, a lot of
54:37
these a lot of these players they play on this team called the Walk Them
54:40
Wolverines, and they travel around and play a lot of the best teams in
54:45
the state and other states, and they take home a ton of championships and
54:49
stuff like that. So this is a good group of players that play a
54:52
lot in the summer, and and it really really shows when they're playing for
54:57
their high school team. You could see some of these players that are that
55:00
play it, that put in the effort in the summer as well. Number
55:04
thirty three on the Top fifty Countdown Senior third Basement. I feel like we
55:08
have hardly talked about seniors at all. Tyler one, Yeah, two,
55:12
three, four five total, which I guess this kind of makes sense because
55:15
we're at the bottom of the top fifty. But anyway, senior third basement
55:19
from Lynnon Christian, it's Tarren Boss. Yeah, another big time bat.
55:23
That seems like a lot of these LC hitters can just I just hit line
55:29
shots all the time, and uh maybe they're spending a lot of time at
55:32
line Drive northwest, who knows, but right down the street. Yeah,
55:37
but uh, man it is. It was a joy to watch her hit
55:40
and then pick it over there at third base. Hit four oh six on
55:44
the year and knocked in twenty runs, seven doubles, a triple is slugged
55:50
five thirty six. There's so many good offensive players on this Linden Christian team.
55:54
One of the few sophomore or I'm sorry, seniors. So, uh,
56:00
I don't know who's gonna take over that third base spot next year.
56:02
I don't know. I mean, it could be Terpstove. Maybe she'll move
56:05
from second to third. It's really hard to say, but man, she
56:09
she just locked down that position all year and was just steady eddy all the
56:14
way through. I mean, you know, there was a lot of I
56:16
mean, if you look at the team even like the lineup and where everybody
56:20
was in the order in the field in game one to that final game in
56:23
the district tournament, there's a lot of movement going around a position where they
56:28
batted everything, and she was one of the few players that was kind of
56:31
in that spot, you know, all the way through, and that kind
56:35
of might be expected out of the senior but you know, I think that
56:39
she was maybe a little bit unheralded and unthought of in that lineup because there
56:45
was a lot of this new wave of talent that was coming in and they
56:49
and didn't even you know, oh yeah, we've got to contend with her
56:52
too. And then all of a sudden, she's sitting a line drive down
56:53
the third baseline like the rest of the team does. So really really good
56:58
year for her and and she's gonna be missed. Twenty four runs scored,
57:01
twenty eight hits, I mean, big time numbers for her, and and
57:07
but again the future looks really really good for the Links. But she ended
57:13
up she ended up having a great year, ending on a high note.
57:15
Just like I said, one or two runs away from getting the state tournament.
57:20
So a really really good year and you know, something definitely to be
57:23
proud of. Number thirty two in the top fifty countdown junior infielder from Meridian,
57:30
like the fifth girl from Meridian on this list, Lord Elai Marcuson.
57:37
Yeah, and the fourth junior. Actually it is exactly the fifth too,
57:40
by the way. Yeah, it is the fifth Marion player in the fourth
57:44
and the fourth junior. And she's had a heck of a year offensively,
57:49
three ninety seven hitter again, more walks than runs scored, slugged over five
57:52
hundred, on base over five hundred, hit a home run, two doubles,
57:58
a triple, fifteen runs, back scored, eighteen runs, twenty three
58:00
total hits. There was a moment there where she was one of the toughest
58:07
outs in the in the county. I mean she had a stretch there where
58:09
she might have hit like eight fifty for like a week and a half or
58:14
something like that. It was crazy. Every time I see the box score
58:15
she was like four for four, five for five, I'm like, holy
58:19
cow. So and that's one of those things when you're seeing the ball,
58:22
well, it's it's it's huge. You know. She ended up playing a
58:25
lot of shortstop second base. Those were kind of her two main positions there.
58:30
And again she's gonna be leaned upon on that on that big Trojan team
58:36
for next year that returns, you know, eighty five percent of their players.
58:39
So a really good year for her too. Flirted with that four hundred
58:44
average after having that big, that big time week. I mean, her
58:46
batting average probably jumped up one hundred points during that week and a half there.
58:51
And during that was also when she hit her home run too. So
58:53
a lot of a lot of good things for the Meridian junior and excited to
58:57
see what she does next year. Last on the list for today and at
59:00
number thirty one. Yeah, you're gonna hear this right, freshman pitcher from
59:07
Lennon Christian it's Roxanne Lenning. Yeah, she was the second she was the
59:12
number two pitcher, but when she wasn't pitching, she was the extra player.
59:15
So us So she hit a lot, and as the season wore on,
59:21
her hit her hitting got a lot better and just better and better and
59:23
better, and and she ended up I think there was one game and you're
59:28
gonna hear this right. In one game she hit three triples, what that
59:31
was against Mount Baker in one of those I don't know I who was the
59:36
final game. It might have been the final game of the year. It's
59:39
seems like it's hard to do, like it seems like triples because it's not
59:44
like the fences are deep or you know what I mean. Like, yeah,
59:47
that's the thing is that they ended up moving that tournament out to bender
59:52
fields. Oh that's all right, and so and it's the defenses were like
59:57
fifty feet further back than you said field there are slow pitch fences or something,
1:00:01
right, yeah, And there were a few home runs hit out there.
1:00:05
Whoa really? And oh yeah there was I probably saw five or six
1:00:08
maybe at that tournament. They call it a duke, right, yeah,
1:00:13
so that's a heck of a shot. But she had some line shots that
1:00:15
would have been home runs that ended up being that end up being triples.
1:00:20
And uh yeah, she led the county in triples with six batted three sixty
1:00:24
five, did have a couple home runs twenty one RBIs So you talk about
1:00:30
all that and just being and being a freshman, that's incredible. She also
1:00:34
threw twenty five innings, struck out thirty five batters, and lay three point
1:00:37
nine to two. So I mean, and she's gonna be the number two
1:00:44
next year as well. And by the time her junior year junior year rules
1:00:47
around, she'll be one of the top pitchers in the county. And she's
1:00:52
a heck of a number two because their number one is pretty darn good.
1:00:53
So but yeah, she and you know who knows. I mean, she
1:00:58
might end up playing she might end up taking that third base spot maybe next
1:01:00
year for Terarin Boss or maybe Taylor Craig goes in place third and she'll play
1:01:05
first. It's tough to say, but I know that from what I've seen
1:01:09
in the field as a pitcher, Uh, that is her future. And
1:01:14
so that's what she'll be doing. But man, but at the plate,
1:01:16
uh, it was awesome to see, like I said, those line drives.
1:01:21
I saw those three triples firsthand in that one game. And you know,
1:01:25
I was talking to a parent on the Mount Baker side and and that's
1:01:30
who they were playing against, and they said, they said, you know,
1:01:32
over the years, like they were like the girls were scared of her,
1:01:36
like when she would hit, like she's just you know, and now
1:01:38
she's playing competent. You know, now she's playing with the kids, you
1:01:43
know, two three years older than her, and it's kind of leveling out
1:01:45
the playing field, like because she's pretty intimidating at the plate. I mean,
1:01:50
she's got to be close to six feet tall and just and a big
1:01:53
time bat speed and stuff like that. So I could see where, like
1:01:58
if she was doing that like in seventh eighth grade, that would be kind
1:02:00
of scary. And here's the crazy thing too. She I was talking about
1:02:04
those walk and Wolverines. They have a couple of teams. They have an
1:02:07
eighteen YOU team and a sixteen YOU team, and the eighteen YOU team has
1:02:10
like players that are freshman in college and stuff like that. She plays on
1:02:15
the eighteen team. She's a freshman in high school. So I would imagine
1:02:22
the other one, Yeah, I would imagine she's you know, young,
1:02:24
she's sixteen or younger if she's a freshman. But she's playing on the eighteen
1:02:30
U team, which tells me that, uh, you know, there's a
1:02:34
big time future for her. So uh so, yeah, really really fun
1:02:38
to watch her hit the ball pitch. It's gonna be again, like I
1:02:44
keep saying it, but that Linnen Christian future is going to be scary.
1:02:46
And you know they got so close and so many players are going to be
1:02:51
coming back and and uh but yeah, six triples, three of them in
1:02:54
one game. A lot of fun to see. That's it. That's all
1:02:59
Tyler. Anything else before we get out of here. Yeah, I just
1:03:02
it's just a lot of fun watching these these teams. And I've I've I've
1:03:07
really grown to enjoy watching fast pitch. It's such a it's a it the
1:03:13
game is there's just so much stuff going on. I mean you think about
1:03:16
like, oh, the players, you know, players take an extra base
1:03:20
and they do it when you don't think it should happen. But you don't
1:03:22
realize how close is the how close the bases are to each other, you
1:03:27
know what I mean. Like it's like no, don't oh yeah, yeah
1:03:29
you can go, you can go. And uh, it's it's uh,
1:03:32
it's like watching I don't know, it's like, oh, it's hard to
1:03:37
explain, but it's it is it's like arena football of baseball. Yes,
1:03:42
thank you, that's a perfect way to explain it. There's just it's this
1:03:45
it's tight quarters and it's it's fast. You know, it goes, it
1:03:50
goes really fast, and there's not you know, there's not a lot of
1:03:52
pitching changes. You know, most pitchers will just pitch the whole game and
1:03:55
it's a and it's it's a lot of movement and go, go go,
1:04:00
and those games are really really exciting, especially you know, the dugouts getting
1:04:05
the chance going and everything. There's some that are just hilarious. I tried
1:04:09
to record some with my phone and so we could have them in the background
1:04:14
for different things, but I never got a good sound, or the wind
1:04:16
was too you know much, or whatever. But yeah, it's just been
1:04:20
a lot of fun and I'm so glad that. You know, I've done
1:04:23
a top fifty list for baseball last couple of years, but we've never did
1:04:27
a podcast about it. This is my first year doing it for Fast Pitch,
1:04:30
and I felt it was just because I felt comfortable enough. I know
1:04:33
the game well enough, but I felt comfortable enough that I saw every player
1:04:38
play enough times to give it validity and stand by why I chose who I
1:04:44
did and where they are and all that stuff. So yeah, it was
1:04:46
just really really cool and I'm excited to talk about the next the next chunk
1:04:53
of players. Yeah, and we don't know exactly when we'll put that one
1:04:57
out. I mean, I would think, you know, maybe, well,
1:05:01
I mean, I guess maybe we'll record in the next couple of days
1:05:04
and then try to get it out sometime maybe over the weekend or something,
1:05:08
so or for of next week. I guess is kind of maybe. I
1:05:12
mean, I don't know, I know this much we're going to have what
1:05:15
would it be? It would be thirty down to eleven right, well,
1:05:20
thirty down to eleven coming up here soon, So be you know, be
1:05:26
on the lookout for that one or do what we I guess something that we
1:05:30
need to start saying more often. Subscribe to the podcast so you can get
1:05:32
notifications. Yeah, we're bad at a lot of things, Tyler. You
1:05:36
know that. I know, I know, I mean, not bad at
1:05:41
it. It's just not something that we always have in our head, you
1:05:43
know, we're not think of it. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah,
1:05:45
I mean how many times have we over the you know, the last year,
1:05:49
how many times have we even actually done the whole Hey, if they
1:05:54
want to reach out and and you know, sponsor stuff. Sometimes we'll go
1:05:58
like three four podcast without even mentioning it, you know, but we're we're
1:06:00
still talking about all of our sponsors. But we don't tell people how they
1:06:03
can get in touch. But or we say that the very end, you
1:06:06
know. Yeah, Blake Whitman's gonna hear it. Yeah exactly, you know,
1:06:11
because Marty Hanna is not even listening anymore, you know, so it's
1:06:15
just Blake women and occasionally Jean Sinkowski. Yeah yeah, if he's on like
1:06:18
a long drive and he's got nothing else to do. All right, Tyler,
1:06:24
let's wrap it up right there again. Thank you to Managed Insurance and
1:06:26
Line Drive Northwest for their support all season long as far as Fast Pitch goes.
1:06:30
And also shout out to Kurt Mayberry Farm in their website Kurt with A
1:06:35
C M A B E r r y farm dot com. That's how you
1:06:40
can find them. Strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Tyler, I'm over
1:06:44
here thinking about, you know, maybe some raspberry cookies or something, because
1:06:48
I had some of the other day and they were really really good. Nice.
1:06:51
Yeah. Anyway, He's Tyler Anderson from Walkompreps walkompreps dot com. I'm
1:06:56
Ryland Spencer. You've been listening to episode at two hundred and fifty nine,
1:06:59
the first of three podcasts. As we unveil the fast Pitch top fifty countdown
1:07:03
here on the Welcome Preps podcast. We will talk to you soon. What that