Latest / The Layback Podcast / Dayne Pengelly, University of New Mexico RHP (Ep. 57)

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Dayne Pengelly, University of New Mexico RHP (Ep. 57) · The Layback Podcast

0:00
What's up everyone, Welcome back to the Lay Back podcast.
0:03
Joining us today is senior right-handed pitcher at the
0:06
University of New Mexico, Dane Pengelly.
0:09
Dane might be taking this interview in the most unique
0:13
location that we've ever had. We'll let him show that off in
0:16
just a moment. But Dane and I got connected
0:19
much like a lot of the group that you guys have now heard
0:23
from through Tim Compos and the work with Albuquerque Baseball
0:26
Academy. Dane's a flamethrower with a
0:29
unique story behind him, so we were excited to get into that.
0:32
But beyond Dane is the baseball player, he is also a super nerd,
0:36
which I think will be made evident in just a moment by his
0:41
location. So, Dane, where are we right
0:43
now? I'm in my rocket lab at my
0:45
school. So maybe a little bit more
0:49
detailed than just my rocket. Lab.
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So this rocket lab, this is where we make all of our rockets
0:55
and stuff for our rocket engineering class to go out and
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compete at a big international rocket competition in summer.
1:04
And your major is? I'm a mechanical engineer and
1:08
I'm doing like a propulsion aerospace focus.
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There we go. Yeah, I know.
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Mechanical engineer can mean so many different things.
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As soon as you say propulsion in aerospace, that's the ticket.
1:23
Yeah, that's the punchline. Maybe for the listeners out
1:27
there, one of the first times Dana and I Zoom, we went through
1:30
everything about Flex Pro Grip. And then his final question, or
1:33
the final thing he said is wait, wait, I got one more question.
1:37
I see you got Python on your computer.
1:39
What are you coding? So anybody that's talking about
1:43
coding and is really excited about it, you know you're in a
1:47
good place. Yeah, I saw and I was like, what
1:49
do you think? Coding.
1:50
Are you coding? Yeah, see, I'm, I'm a nerd too.
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This is a safe space. All right, Dane, I know.
1:55
I know this didn't all start for you in the Rocket Lab, so let's
1:59
back it up a few places, maybe talk about the initial journey
2:03
in the baseball world, how everything got started, and I'll
2:06
just ask you questions throughout the process.
2:09
Sounds good. Perfect.
2:11
All right man, take it away all. Right.
2:13
So I started baseball when I was like 3 or 4 playing T-ball, as a
2:18
lot of baseball players do AT ball.
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Played in Little League teams, then they travel ball club ball.
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Started pitching about like 10-11 when we start actually
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doing new players pitching themselves, not coach pitch
2:31
anymore. I was catching and throwing a
2:33
lot, so I would catch and then I'd go pitch.
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When I did that, basically until my freshman year of high school,
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I was a pretty big catcher and then I would throw once a week,
2:42
relieve, you know, a couple weeks times a week for like club
2:45
ball and stuff. And then I got to summer ball
2:49
after freshman year and we were doing some inner squads playing
2:53
games to get reps and stuff and I was playing first base for
2:56
once, which I didn't normally do.
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And we had a pitcher pick off to a kid at 1st and I couldn't pick
3:02
the ball. I went to go get the ball
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because the runner was going to 2nd.
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I picked it up and I threw it to 3rd cuz he's rounding to go 3rd
3:09
and I my elbow snapped. So come to find out I had a
3:13
avulsion fraction in my elbow. I've been having elbow pain but
3:16
I kept throwing on it thinking it was just a pinched nerve
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though I just kept throwing on it and just taking ibuprofen and
3:23
it wasn't it was an avulsion fracture.
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So it was the bone was slowly breaking off of itself.
3:28
And then just that one throw, if it just completely snapped, I
3:32
had to go under total reconstruction.
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I got a screw in my elbow that reattached the bone back to my
3:39
elbow, and then it also reattached the Tommy John tendon
3:42
back to its insertion. And then I had some cartilage
3:46
damage and then a random ball of cartilage that they had to
3:49
remove. So I had to have all that fixed
3:51
and repaired. And then they also moved the
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almond nerve too. They moved it quite a lot.
3:58
Surgery for a 1516 year old? So you're after freshman year of
4:03
high school. Did you go back to school with
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the brace on, or were you out of the brace by the time school
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started again? I was in school with the race.
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It was pretty hard as well. It happened pretty close to
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school coming back. So I couldn't really do much
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with my arm. I got really sore like in class,
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like trying to write and stuff. So I'd have to come home.
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And I love my mom. She's amazing because she, you
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know, she would help me take notes at the first like month or
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so of being post surgery just because I couldn't, I didn't
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have the arm strength or anything to, to sit there
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writing note cards and flash cards for an hour or two a day.
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So my mom was amazing. She she'd help me out, but I
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eventually got through it and you know, it was better.
4:42
Maybe writing should be re implemented in the PT process.
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That's not part of it anymore. If you were that fatigued from
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it, maybe, maybe he was actually doing something good for you.
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Yeah, I was, I was. I'd be sitting there writing
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like just with my brace on, just like, when is it going to end?
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I can't, I can't keep typing. It's like I wrote like 30 words.
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It's like, Oh my gosh, my arm's on fire right now.
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I'm assuming typing couldn't have been much better.
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I didn't have to do a whole lot of typing like going like my
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sophomore year, I didn't have a lot of like computer class
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stuff. So I don't have to type a whole
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lot. So I don't really remember how
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it was typing though. But but writing was a is
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definitely a chore. That already got us into the
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fall of your freshman year, fall of your sophomore year, I guess
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were you even able to pick up a baseball that that?
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Spring, if I remember correctly, I was able to, but I only played
5:38
first base and I really wasn't supposed to be throwing the ball
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a whole lot, so I just hit and played first.
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It was like very light throwing. That's why I played versus.
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Not much throwing, having to be done over there.
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So it was only like the last like, I don't know, like maybe
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five games of our like JV season and then it was in the summer.
5:58
What did rehab even look like for you?
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So I knew we kind of joked about it with the writing and all
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that, but were you in with the ABA crew at that time?
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Were you? Doing I was not, I was not.
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And so I did all the normal like PT stuff with a physical
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therapist, like doing all the the getting back, the range of
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motion, strengthening back up, re stabilizing everything.
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And then I started doing some drive stuff with Sean Reed.
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He's at Air Force, not Air Force Academy.
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He's coaching there. But I joined his team, the
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Wolves, the New Mexico Wolves. And that's where I really
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started to do drive line stuff like what most pitchers know
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nowadays. So after basic like physical
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therapy and return to throw protocol, I started doing that
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and that helped me a ton. Did that for, I want to say at
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least a couple months for sure. And then a teammate on that team
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went to ABA for a power arm program session.
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The like the three or months, so months it used to be.
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He went and he saw awesome results and spoke really highly
7:00
of compost. So I talked with my parents.
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We decided it would be a great thing to do.
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I talked to my coach and he said like go do it.
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Like he saw awesome stuff like go do it.
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So that's how I I ended up meeting composes from a friend
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on the same team. Looks so highly of himself.
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Went and wasn't disappointed at all.
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I mean, I've trained with compost ever since then and that
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was all going into my junior year.
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So it's been, it's been over 4 years now that I've trained with
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compost consistently. Wow.
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That's awesome. Yeah.
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I love hearing the connection there.
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But I want to ask a few more pointed questions on your own
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PTI. Know, I'm making you think back
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6-7 years ago or whatever. So it might, might be a little
7:43
bit difficult. Do you recall what your
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structure kind of looked like? Was it really at the time just
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kind of doing like shoulder bands or like were were you
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relatively advanced with the stuff you were doing?
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It wasn't, it wasn't a whole lot.
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It was mainly band stuff. It was, yeah, it was a lot of
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like band stuff. There's a lot of stretching and
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then probably a couple of like, maybe some ISO holds like with
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the bands. Once again though.
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But there wasn't, there wasn't a whole lot other than that that I
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can recall. It was just mainly bands.
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Okay, so then it was kind of on you to a certain extent to pick
8:23
it up in the weight room and reintroduce that stuff.
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Were you a big actor at that time?
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Pre throwing injury, I was just starting to get into working on
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it quite a bit and then after post injury I started to really
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hit it hard even though it's like, oh, you're not really
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supposed to like go crazy because then your arm's going to
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look super small compared to your healthy arm.
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It was like I need to work out. So I worked out as much as I
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could and I started doing much of that like on my own and with
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my school just like normal like weights and and lifting program.
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And that, I think that helped a ton, Was finally hitting a
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weight room for once. Right, right.
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I'm sure. And you're even speaking and
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about it kind of on the surface level to an extent.
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But the research would show reintroduction to the weight
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room is huge in the return process.
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And the sooner that athletes can get back in the gym, the better
9:16
off they're going to be, whether it's regaining the strength that
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they may have lost or just setting themselves up for a
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better future. You also mentioned even tapping
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into some left arm training while your right arm was in a
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sling or whatever. The fear of like 01 arm's going
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to get jacked and the others going to look really small.
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But there's another piece to that called cross education or
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the theory of cross education. Yeah.
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Love that you're nodding furiously.
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Thank you for. It's such a weird concept, but
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it's so important that any time where we train a single limb,
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the nurse fire from the same place that triggered the other
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side, so there's a benefit to be made.
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Are you going to get jacked from it?
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No, not necessarily, but you're not going to.
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Well, yeah, I say not necessarily, no, not at all is
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the real answer there. But you are going to maintain
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that neural pathway and that's huge for coordination and
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regaining, regaining skill within the return.
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Process I noticed that pretty quick when I finally actually
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could start working out my right arm, it's like whoa, yeah, super
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big muscle imbalance like my left arm so much bigger.
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But I got I got pretty close to even is the same size within
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like a month or so, maybe 2. But it was it was a really quick
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like my arm progressed really, really quickly.
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So I definitely think it helped. And then in your process, if
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again, I apologize for making you think back on all of this,
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do you recall what the introduction of throwing looked
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like for you? Was there benchmarks you had to
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meet or was it just like, hey, you've been at this for 20 plus
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weeks, let's try throwing a ball now?
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The only benchmark was pain free if I remember correctly.
11:00
And then there was like, there was a couple of like Velo
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benchmarks where it's like, OK, you can't throw over this
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certain Velo, but that was it. So it's like you should throw
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close to this below for like a couple throws and then this
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below for another couple and then you're done.
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And it was kind of like that for a couple months until I started
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actually throwing off the mound again.
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And then again, it was same thing, like only certain below
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for a certain amount of throws. And then it was like if you had
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any like elbow pain is like, OK, you take a week off or something
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like take a week off and then you go back like a week or so
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and you you build back up from that week before.
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And I'm assuming all of this was pretty much just off of a sheet
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of paper to an extent? Yeah, I believe so.
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It was like a return to throw from from that My Doctor Who did
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the surgery, he had like a return to throw program that I
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followed pretty much. Yeah, you didn't mention MPH or
11:55
Velo. So did you have a radar gun or
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something at your disposal that you could at least use to rely
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upon in the process? Yeah, we use the pocket radar
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quite often for when it was like the the days that we had to
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track Velo cuz then a lot of the other days it was just like you
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don't just don't throw it hard. You know, don't Yeah, yeah,
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don't be crazy. Just don't throw it hard, you're
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not trying to PR or anything. It does sound like your program
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was relatively periodized in the sense that it has higher intent
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days, lower intent days, days that you were just kind of going
12:29
through the motions being lower intent and then a couple days
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where you actually pushed a little bit and gained compared
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to the stress. So although you might not have
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had tons of technology or the exact rehab that we're seeing
12:44
now in 2025, it still seems like there were some newer age
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principles applied to what you were doing.
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I would say so, yeah. Like workload management and
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stuff like that for sure. Awesome.
12:58
So now, now jumping ahead just a little bit.
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You talked about hopping in with compost and the ABA crew back in
13:07
the fall of your junior year. So were you?
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I think that's when you said it was.
13:12
So were you cleared to throw at that point?
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Was that kind of the end of your return to throw?
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What did that like summer going into your junior year look like?
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Obviously recruiting normally starts to pick up then, but you
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said coming off your sophomore year you barely even threw.
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And yeah, I didn't do, I didn't do like any pitching recruiting.
13:34
I did like showcase camps and stuff for like hitting and
13:37
catching, but that was about it. And there wasn't a whole lot
13:40
there. I think at the most it was like
13:43
a couple juice host because I didn't even start pitching until
13:46
actually sorry, hold on. I didn't start pitching until
13:50
winter of my junior year. And sorry, I didn't meet compost
13:53
until the senior year, my senior year, fall.
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That's sorry. So it was, there was another
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year in between compost and stuff.
14:02
So that's what it was. So I started pitching January of
14:05
my junior year. Yeah.
14:07
So then I started pitching. COVID happened.
14:10
So then that's when I started to start doing the driveline stuff.
14:13
And then over the summer, that's when my friend went to compost.
14:18
And then that following fall is when I went and saw compost.
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So it was right before my senior year.
14:24
Yeah. Senior.
14:24
Yeah. Right before my senior season is
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when I started seeing compost. Right.
14:28
I got you. I got you.
14:29
So what? What kind of was the kick in the
14:33
butt to get on the mound after not being much of A pitcher,
14:36
then having elbow surgery and be like, you know what, I'm going
14:40
to, I'm going to go Chuck now. So I mean, I feel like a decent
14:46
amount as a kid, like I threw a pretty good amount and I was a
14:50
pretty good pitcher my freshman year and just coming back like
14:55
afterwards and throwing again. It's like my pitching took off a
14:58
lot, like pretty rapidly and I grew pretty, pretty quick.
15:02
Like like I developed pretty quickly pitching wise.
15:05
Just a lot of people just said that they thought pitching would
15:07
probably be my best bet of playing college baseball, trying
15:10
to GoPro like I probably have the most success pitching wise.
15:14
So I stopped. I stopped catching as much and I
15:16
started focusing a lot more heavily on pitching.
15:20
OK, All right, So was the means to an end to a certain extent,
15:26
like the. Yeah, the thing that could open
15:28
the doors for college or. Yeah.
15:31
I got you and was the Velo there right away.
15:36
What was the initial like real pitching experiment like for you
15:42
my? First, like actual pitching back
15:45
after surgery is out of showcase and I hit 86.
15:51
No, no, it was 8485 at the showcase and it was like, whoa.
15:55
Like at the time it was like 8486 was like kind of hard for a
16:00
high schooler. I mean, I know it doesn't it's
16:02
not hard now like every, every high schooler is doing 90.
16:05
So it's like it's not hard now. But when I was still in high
16:09
school, it was mid 80s was was definitely pretty hard.
16:13
It wasn't bad. And then I kept training it for
16:15
a couple more months and then I jumped up to about 8788 and it
16:20
was like, oh, hey, like I kind of, I can kind of throw it
16:24
pretty hard. Maybe let's let's stick with
16:26
this, you know, a little longer. And that was that was kind of
16:30
your junior year is what it sounds like.
16:33
So what did, what did recruiting look like?
16:35
When did that pick up? That I started talking to some
16:40
schools at that first showcase I had back, but then COVID hit and
16:45
I like everybody. Like I stopped talking to
16:47
anybody. Not my choice.
16:49
The the college coaches stopped teaching out because they were
16:51
in that big dead period forever. And then because of COVID
16:54
everybody got the year back. So it really messed up the
16:57
college portal and like just college rosters and stuff.
17:00
They had a big backlog of guys. So I didn't talk to a whole lot
17:03
of people till summer going into my senior year.
17:07
Then I started talking to two or three Juco's and then I got into
17:13
my fall. I didn't really talk a whole lot
17:16
to a bunch of schools. It's just kind of couple again,
17:19
couple more Juco's and stuff. Let's see, I think there there's
17:24
a showcase at some point over fall where I met my any high
17:32
school I went to. They saw me there and they
17:34
really liked me. So that's How I Met my NAI
17:39
school that I went to. It was in the fall of my senior
17:42
year and then recruiting didn't really pick up much more than
17:46
that. I heard back from a couple more
17:48
Juco's and stuff and then that was really about it.
17:51
I talked to 1D2 school and that was it.
17:54
I didn't talk to like any division ones.
17:56
I just saw Juco's and a couple NA is.
17:58
Really. When did you ultimately make the
18:00
commitment initially, Danbury Riddle?
18:03
I made the commitment is sometime during or towards the
18:07
end of the spring season is when and I made my commitment.
18:10
When you were kind of running short on options to a.
18:13
Certain. Yeah.
18:14
Yeah, somebody. Said Dane.
18:16
You got. You got to figure out what
18:17
you're doing next. Yeah.
18:18
It was like, hey, you got to like, you got to, you know, kind
18:21
of decide what you want to do and where you want to go.
18:23
So it's like, OK, well, you know, we'll make the decision.
18:26
So yeah. And maybe not everybody knows
18:29
this, but Embry Riddle, a massive aeronautics program.
18:35
He's huge in the world of aviation, so I'm sure that had
18:39
some appeal to you to a certain extent.
18:41
Yeah, it definitely had some some big good feelings to me
18:44
because it was like, Oh yeah, this is a massive, you know,
18:47
avionics and engineering school. Like it's one of the best in the
18:50
country. You can't really turn that down
18:52
as a a young kid aspiring to be an engineer.
18:54
It's like you have a chance to go play baseball there at a
18:57
great school. So it was like, you know, why
18:59
not let's, let's do it. So you hopped on over to
19:04
Prescott to start off the college baseball career.
19:08
But yeah, before we do that, how was high school for you when you
19:11
were finally on the mountain? So you so freshman year was when
19:16
you got hurt, right? Or after your freshman year you
19:19
got hurt? So after a year you said you
19:22
played like 5 games at first base on JV.
19:25
June year you had COVID and how was the senior year when you
19:30
finally actually got to play high school baseball?
19:33
It was weird because we were playing with masks on and we had
19:36
all these like rules of to what like we could and couldn't do,
19:39
but it was great to actually like get to play a a season,
19:44
like half normally and play a full season and not be hurt at
19:48
all. It was, it was awesome.
19:51
It was a good time. Yeah, I liked it.
19:53
It was awesome. It was a lot of fun.
19:55
So yeah, it was. It was awesome.
19:58
Good. OK.
19:59
And did you put up OK numbers? Yeah, I had a yeah, I had a
20:02
pretty good senior year. Yeah, I had a pretty good senior
20:04
year. All right, all right.
20:07
So now, now let's get into the career at Prescott or Embry
20:11
Riddle, which I know was your. Your college career has
20:15
definitely gone quite the circuitous route as well.
20:19
So maybe maybe I just pass this over to you again and let you
20:22
map out the whole thing the the first year or so, OK, questions
20:27
in the process? So I spent my freshman year at
20:30
Embry Riddle doing engineering there as well and playing.
20:33
It was their inaugural season, so the first season of the
20:36
program and we went dead 500 on the year.
20:40
It was a bit of a grind. We lost our pitching coach at
20:43
the beginning of fall. So our head coach, their
20:45
pitching coach for almost half the season, when we were finally
20:49
able to get a pitching coach is a bit of a struggle because, you
20:52
know, he's a head coach, was pulled pretty thin.
20:55
Pitchers had to kind of rely on ourselves to do a lot of stuff.
20:58
So it was nice though, once we actually had a pitching coach,
21:01
we could sit down and spend time together.
21:03
And then so my freshman year, I was a reliever kind of guy.
21:07
I ended up throwing a lot in our conference tournament and had a
21:11
forearm strain. So that made me go and see a
21:14
doctor and come to find out, I had been kind of, you know,
21:17
reusing my arm a bit. So I need to sit out this
21:19
summer. So I didn't play any summer ball
21:21
my freshman year. So then I spent the next
21:24
semester rehabbing my arm, like doing return to their protocol
21:28
and everything. And then within that time, like
21:31
being hurt again, I realized like, baseball is only for so
21:35
long. So I decided that school and
21:38
engineering will always be there.
21:39
I can still get an engineering degree almost anywhere.
21:42
So I was like, let's go take baseball as you know, as far as
21:45
possible, like let's really push myself.
21:47
And so then I decided to transfer to a JUCO cuz I wanted
21:51
to, you know, go D1 and prove to myself that I could play really
21:55
good baseball. And so I went to Pima Community
21:59
College my sophomore year in the spring.
22:01
So that's what that was my time at Embry Riddle.
22:04
I definitely enjoy the school and stuff is definitely a lot of
22:07
memorable times for sure. That helped me grow a lot of the
22:09
person and went to Pima, had a had a pretty good year at Pima
22:14
and then that's where I was able to get connected back home here
22:18
at UNM. And ultimately that's where I've
22:20
been the last year and then all of this year, so.
22:23
Perfect. OK, Yeah, that got us up to
22:26
speed a bit. What was your role at Pima?
22:28
Were you still throwing out of the back end of the bullpen?
22:31
Yeah. At Pima I was a big like bullpen
22:35
like set up guy or just, you know, I would finish a game out.
22:39
But it was, it was usually just relief.
22:41
I don't think I started a game at Pima.
22:43
It was all just relief, relief appearances.
22:45
OK. So your first time starting was
22:49
at the D1 level? Yeah, Yep, it was.
22:53
I played some summer bowl after Pima and I had a start or yeah,
22:58
I had two starts, I want to say in summer ball, but they that
23:02
first start back at a Division One was like whoa, like wow,
23:07
this is like this is real. Like holy moly, like you're
23:10
playing Division One baseball, You're starting like it's a
23:13
whole new ball game for sure. Right.
23:16
And even thinking three years prior to that, you were, you
23:20
probably had days where you thought baseball was done.
23:23
Yeah, I, I wouldn't say baseball was done, but I definitely
23:27
wasn't saying they're going, oh, I'd be playing Division One
23:29
baseball someday. It was just like, oh, I'm still
23:31
playing baseball, right? You know, I guess it's more the
23:34
level that you never, never really anticipated.
23:38
Yeah, especially because I didn't talk to like any division
23:40
ones in high school at all. So it's like, Dang, I actually
23:44
cut out to play Division One baseball.
23:45
So it's like I wasn't really thinking about being able to
23:48
make it. And what?
23:50
What was it you think that ultimately gave you the
23:54
confidence to say you could do this?
23:56
Or was it literally just a matter of a coach calling and
23:59
saying, hey, we want you? It was, it was over summer.
24:02
It was like when I had to take time off again from baseball, I
24:06
realized how much I hated not being able to play baseball.
24:09
I talked with compost and I was like, I want to take baseball as
24:12
you know, far as I can. I don't really know like what
24:14
that entails, but I want to take it as far as possible.
24:17
And he's like, you have all this stuff to go Division One.
24:21
You have the work work ethic, you do all the right things.
24:24
You can definitely play baseball.
24:25
It's somewhere pretty good. And so that's kind of what
24:28
pushed me to be like, all right, well, I miss baseball a lot.
24:32
I don't ever want to be able to play it.
24:34
So I was like, let's take a chance and see how far I can
24:37
take baseball and try to go Division One.
24:39
So let's talk about that rehab a little bit then from the flexor
24:43
strain, what did that? What did that look like?
24:45
How was it different from the previous rehab?
24:48
Did things evolve a little bit? I know compost is compost just
24:53
two years removed or three years removed from whenever you had
24:57
the elbow surgery. I'm sure you got introduced to
25:01
acute to chronic workloads and different training mechanisms
25:06
and all those kind of things. Yeah, I saw the same Doctor Who
25:09
did my surgery and he said to take time off and that honestly,
25:13
the forearm strain was anything of concern.
25:15
It was just I was having some elbow pain.
25:16
So to just take some time off, like let my arm relax and be
25:20
able to heal and recover. So I went back to physical
25:24
therapy there we really started doing a lot of stability stuff
25:28
and like isometric holds and everything.
25:30
And we also did range of motion test.
25:32
And then this was the first time that I started doing forearm
25:36
strengthening stuff. We had the like big rubber like
25:41
rods basically that you take and you yeah, be a flex bar and you
25:44
sit there and you flex it and you twisting stuff for your farm
25:47
to strengthen it up. So that's when I really started
25:50
to do anything forearm like specific beside the couple like
25:54
forearm curls with like a, a barbell for weights or
25:57
something. So that was the first time I
25:58
really started to do that. And then the return to throw,
26:01
like the actual throwing part, we started off with like no plow
26:05
throws or anything. I was using a pulse to manage my
26:08
workload and to see how many throws I was making, what the
26:11
workload was, what my IQ and chronic workload were.
26:14
We did a slow return to throw program where it's like, all
26:18
right, couple throws here, 60 feet, keep it under 50 miles an
26:22
hour. Like you're not throwing it
26:23
hard. And then after I think a couple,
26:26
I think it was after about a month or so, I want to say we
26:29
reintroduced plyo balls and stuff and we started to do like
26:33
an on ramping from there is kind of when we took another month to
26:37
get fully built up to start throwing off of a mound.
26:41
And then after we start throwing on the mound, then we have like
26:43
another month or so of like on mount throwing Before I was
26:46
like, OK, I'm clear to start throwing in games again, which
26:50
that ended up taking. They had to take all summer off.
26:53
And then so it took basically all of the fall semester to get
26:58
back to being like 100% good to like compete in games.
27:02
And you were still at Embry Riddle in that semester?
27:06
Right, yeah, I did all my rehab there at Embry Riddle.
27:09
OK. So how how was that conversation
27:12
when you went into the office to talk to those guys?
27:15
About like the injury or? Piercing out.
27:18
You know, they weren't very happy.
27:20
And the most coaches would be. They definitely really wanted me
27:24
to stay, to play for them. That wasn't the most pleasant
27:29
conversation. Yeah, they weren't all that
27:32
happy. They really, they really wanted
27:34
me to stay, you know, at the end of things.
27:36
But I knew that I was, I was really trying to push myself to,
27:39
to go take baseball as far as possible.
27:41
And I wanted to play D1 in and I wanted to, you know, see what
27:46
you know, I could do pro Y see if I could GoPro I you know, I
27:49
threw 94 my freshman year. So it's like have a shot.
27:53
So why not? Why not take it so, or at least
27:57
give it a chance? That's on me for not even
27:59
bringing it up. We didn't talk about the rest of
28:01
the V low progression from when from when you went to that
28:04
showcase and you were thrown in the mid 80s.
28:06
Was it just continued gains from there?
28:09
Because I know now you you can really Chuck it.
28:11
What's the lifetime PR? 98 I hit 98 this weekend.
28:16
The lifetime PR is 98. And are you, are you normally
28:20
pitching in that like 9495 range and just running up there or?
28:24
Yes, yeah, I'll, I'll normally sit 3:00 to 5:00 and then I'll,
28:29
if I'm having a pretty good day, I'll sit about four to sixes and
28:32
then I'll touch 7 and eights. OK, yeah, awesome.
28:37
So yeah, what? Let's walk back this progression
28:40
a little bit. Junior year during COVID or
28:45
right before COVID hit, you were in the mid 80s.
28:49
Then you said you stepped it up to 8788.
28:52
That's when recruiting was picking up a little bit with
28:55
senior year when you hit 90 for the first time.
28:58
I, I hit 89, I want to say towards the end of summer going
29:03
into my senior year and then senior year in the fall when I
29:09
was training with compost, I hit 90 in one of my pens and then I
29:13
hit 90 in like a following pen. That was my first time ever.
29:17
Hitting 90 was senior year in the fall.
29:19
I think a pen or two later or a couple weeks later.
29:22
I ended up hitting 91 that same fall semester of school.
29:26
And then come spring, I, I touched 92 at some point, I
29:32
don't remember when, but in spring of my senior year, I
29:37
would sit about 88 to 90 touching, you know, 91 here and
29:42
there, 92. And then after my senior year,
29:46
going into that summer, I played on the Connie Mac team for ABA
29:52
in that qualifying tournament in Cheyenne, WY, I hit 93 for the
29:56
first time ever. I hit 93 couple more times the
29:59
rest of summer. And then I was about 91 to 2
30:06
with the 3 here and there in fall of my freshman year in
30:09
college. And then my first outing in
30:12
college, I hit 94. That was that was pretty big
30:15
moment. I would sit about 9092, all of
30:19
that freshman year of college. I rounded up to 94 at Pima as
30:22
well. I would sit 9092.
30:26
I was touching a couple more threes here and there, touching
30:28
fours more often. And I took that into UNM in the
30:33
fall. I was sitting two to three,
30:35
touching a couple fours until one outing they call the
30:38
fastball up. And it was like, all right,
30:40
like, let's throw this as hard as I can.
30:42
And I let it RIP. And I hit 95 and I was like,
30:44
whoa, that was actually pretty easy.
30:47
And then the next outing I was like, all right, well, I hit 95.
30:51
That was pretty easy. Like drew it, let's try to throw
30:54
like every ball as hard as I can.
30:55
Like, let's see what I can get it up to.
30:58
Whoa, 97. Like I skipped 96.
31:00
Like I went 9597 because all the guys were like, whoa, did that,
31:06
did that mystery. And then the next pitch was 96
31:08
and they're like, that wasn't a mystery.
31:12
And they told me afterwards and I was like, no way.
31:15
I was, I was like, holy crap. Like I can throw a baseball that
31:18
hard. I was, I just, you know,
31:19
surprised myself and season rolled around for my junior year
31:23
and I was, I would sit about 3:00 to 4:00.
31:26
I would touch sevens quite often in most of my outings,
31:29
especially when I started starting at the end of the
31:31
season. I took that over summer sewing
31:34
9496 and then I got into fall and I hadn't really seen any
31:40
Vevo gains actually. Let me backtrack.
31:42
So in spring in my junior year, I supposedly hit 98.
31:46
That's what I was told. I don't know for certain.
31:48
That was just like a rumors, not too, too sure about that.
31:52
But I was still hitting 97. And then this spring, this, this
31:56
last outing I hit, I hit 98 for sure.
32:01
Yeah, I for sure. It's 798 to 3:00 to 5:00 and
32:06
yeah, so pretty, pretty crazy. It's been a steady progression.
32:10
There definitely was points where I have the little
32:12
plateaus, like from my freshman year all the way to my junior
32:15
year. It's still in the same the same
32:18
velocity, but the arm was feeling good.
32:20
So it's like it's all right. Well, let's talk about even your
32:24
progression a bit as a pitcher and then maybe get into some of
32:28
the struggles that you've experienced early on this year
32:30
and how you've tried to remedy them.
32:32
Obviously, you throw the ball hard, but there's more to
32:35
pitching than just throwing the ball hard.
32:38
What are other ways that you've kind of grown as a pitcher,
32:41
things that you've worked on to up your game?
32:43
Learning mental cues for certain pitches because you're gonna
32:46
have a ball where it's like you throw it and just it like
32:49
nothing about it feels right. And you're like, what was that?
32:52
And so what's your mental cue to get back to what it should feel
32:55
like? So that way you can go out there
32:56
and execute that next pitch. Learning those, really diving
32:59
into understanding those cues. I developed a red light, green
33:03
light, yellow light system. If you're going good, it's green
33:06
light. If say you walk a guy or you
33:08
throw a couple balls in a row without you, yellow light.
33:10
All right, just a quick little reset.
33:12
Let's get back to green light or red lights like, hey, you just
33:15
walk the guy and gave up the hit or you walk two guys in a row.
33:18
You need to step off, take a breath, fully reset, forget it
33:21
and then come back and focus in on that.
33:24
You know that next better. So those are those are some of
33:26
the big notable things. At least mentally was just
33:30
trying to focus on that. Just getting mentally tough or
33:32
not letting like giving up a hit or like an error or walking.
33:36
I just like not letting it affect you as much and stuff's
33:39
going to happen. It's baseball.
33:40
It's hard how bad stuff's going to happen.
33:43
Things aren't going to go your way.
33:44
How are you going to overcome it though?
33:45
Some other stuff like control wise, because I had some issues
33:48
with control, was learning to really control my body and
33:51
really control what I was doing and being really diligent and
33:54
specific about if I want to throw a ball here, what is my
33:57
target in order to throw a ball inside, Let's let's start it
34:00
middle, middle and let it run in or do I want to throw a ball
34:03
away? OK, so I need to think black or
34:05
the white on the batter's blocks.
34:07
It really is mental, mental stuff.
34:09
And then just a few small like mechanical adjustments of just
34:12
cleaning stuff up, making them more consistent.
34:14
Do you think the mental game has always been kind of your
34:20
Achilles heel in a sense, given some of the arm talent that you
34:24
had? In high school, I don't know.
34:28
I couldn't say particularly like what my mental state was in high
34:31
school compared to now. I don't really remember it much.
34:34
I mean, I pitched really good in high school having some viewer
34:37
definitely held, but I definitely like could pitch in
34:41
high school. And then I think I kind of
34:43
forgot some of that. Like going into college, you're
34:46
trying to earn a spot. So it's like you you start
34:48
thinking a little too much of like all these other stuff.
34:50
And then I had to take time away from baseball.
34:53
So it's like I kind of lost that, that mental approach I had
34:58
taking three months off from not playing and then having to take
35:01
another like four months off to rehab, like to rehab it before
35:04
playing in a competition kind of you, you forget what it's like
35:08
to compete And so it really throws you off.
35:10
I think since then, yeah, it it was a weak point and I've been
35:13
working on it pretty heavily since then to try to have a
35:16
strong of a mental game as I can.
35:19
And you talk about your reset. Are there triggers or cues that
35:23
you have besides just you walk a guy or something like that or
35:28
are there little things? Is it breath work?
35:31
Is it a spot on the field that you look at or enable you to
35:34
kind of calm down and? Yeah, so I'll step off the mound
35:37
completely, like off the dirt and everything.
35:39
I'll usually turn to the outfield or just close my eyes
35:43
and I'll take like a big deep breath in and I'll let it out
35:46
slowly. You're not supposed to be that
35:47
out fat. It'll speed your heart rate up.
35:49
So I learned that one. But you breathe out slowly and
35:53
then mentally it's just like, all right, forget it, Elon base
35:56
now, like let's go get an out. Let's go get this next guy out.
35:59
Like let's get a ground ball. Let's get the team back in the
36:01
dugout back to hit him. Just kind of just breathing it
36:04
and just going OK, what did I do wrong here?
36:08
All right, well, I I'm trying to do too much with my fastballs.
36:12
Just need to tack the strike sound.
36:13
OK. And then step back up on the
36:15
mound, get your pitch and. Nice.
36:18
All right, So it's not even like it's super positive self talk.
36:22
It's really just matter of fact. Here's the situation.
36:25
This is where you find yourself. Let's get out of it.
36:29
Yeah, I should probably I I've been trying to be good about
36:31
better about self talk. You're going to get this next
36:33
guy, stuff like that. From what I can remember in high
36:36
school, it was like, Oh yeah, like I'm going to get this guy,
36:38
Like I got this guy or, you know, I'm going to get this guy
36:41
out. So I've been trying to be better
36:42
about that and getting back to it.
36:44
It's hard to, you know, change your your mental mindset and
36:47
stuff and you've been doing it for a couple of years.
36:49
But yeah, I've been trying to have like, I'll try to have good
36:52
self talk. Like it's not always the same
36:54
thing every time. I like red lighted, but it's
36:57
pretty similar, like deep breath.
36:59
What's the thought? Okay, what's the adjustment?
37:01
All right, cool. Now let's go get the next guy.
37:04
And where did the stoplight system come from?
37:06
Did someone teach you that? Did you develop that on your
37:08
own? So this stoplight system came
37:13
from at UNM, from Lopes, because that was one of the things like
37:16
they talked about is like developing a red light, yellow
37:19
light, green light system was the stopping because I didn't
37:22
have that before. Like I had some mental approach
37:25
of like you need to really think, don't let errors or hits
37:28
get you out of your focus. Stay focused.
37:30
I had the breathing techniques and stuff then but I didn't have
37:34
the mental just straight up like reset like red light reset,
37:38
flush it until I got to UNM. So I wanna get back into
37:43
gameplay now. Thanks for talking about the
37:45
mentals for a minute. Yeah, I wanna talk about the
37:47
progression to starting because you hadn't done that yet in
37:51
college. Your first time doing it is at
37:54
the D1 level and you hinted at the start started coming at the
37:58
end of last season. So was it injury, was it
38:01
performance? Was it just you guys needed a
38:03
mix up and we're going to go through a Dane out there?
38:06
No. So I started off the season.
38:07
I had a start at the beginning season in in one of our first
38:11
games and I was not prepared. I was physically ready, but
38:15
mentally I was not. I was so like taken aback, like
38:19
holy crap. Like I made it like I finally
38:21
did it. I'm pitching D1.
38:22
Holy crap. And my outing came and gone
38:25
before I knew it and I was pulled and I was like, what the
38:29
hell happened? I walked six guys or something
38:31
like that. No, I I gave up like six runs in
38:34
in like an inning. I record 1 innings worth of outs
38:38
and started the second inning and just did, never got out of
38:42
it and that kind of lost my starting spot having such a bad
38:45
outing like that and especially when some other guys stepped up.
38:48
From then on I had a couple of relief appearances, kind of like
38:52
long relief. Trying to build back up
38:54
confidence and understand I need to really focus on mental game
38:57
here. I can't let myself get caught up
38:59
in the moment like I did. And then it was about halfway
39:03
through season when we were in conference play.
39:05
We had like an Easter weekend, so we played a game earlier.
39:08
I had thrown in a midweek. I didn't throw that week in
39:12
conference because I threw quite a bit in the midweek.
39:15
And so I was probably the freshest guy that could go the
39:18
longest. And so I ended up throwing the
39:20
Thursday. And then from that point on we
39:23
just, we kept it where I was the first game and then we had
39:27
Saturday and Sunday guys afterwards.
39:29
And so then that's kind of what it it stuck with the rest of the
39:32
season. That that had to feel like a
39:34
pretty good redemption arc to get to get the shot again.
39:37
And yeah, take full advantage of the opportunity.
39:40
Yeah, it was, it was, it was pretty good knowing that, like I
39:43
fucked up, you know, I had a bad first outing, but you know,
39:45
worked on some stuff. I've addressed some issues that
39:47
I had and it's like I was able to redeem myself and come back
39:50
and being a better picture. I know it's not all sunshine and
39:54
rainbows since then, because this year wasn't, it wasn't the
39:57
smoothest start, right? We can talk about it frankly,
40:00
and thankfully you've been able to rebound a bit.
40:03
But what maybe reared its ugly head this year?
40:06
Was it some of the same stuff? Was it just things out of your
40:09
control? Can you show it was it's some of
40:14
the same stuff like with mental game, like the hardest part
40:17
about baseball is the mental game.
40:19
I mean, that's what the game is. It's it's all mental.
40:22
I had some, I wouldn't say like problems, but I had some mental
40:26
stuff that I need to correct or like change.
40:29
So my junior year I was throwing a slider and a change up, but my
40:35
slider was more of just like a gyro spinny like cutter think it
40:38
wasn't really a slider and I just had no feel for a change
40:41
up. Like metrically it was a great
40:43
change up, but that kind of stuff for strikes ever.
40:45
So it didn't matter. So then over fall we were
40:48
working on sliders and I start throwing a splitter again.
40:52
And then right before season started, when we got back from
40:57
winter break, I I just couldn't find my slider for anything.
41:01
I couldn't find it all. So we started messing around
41:04
with a whole bunch of slider grips right before season.
41:07
I was able to throw it fairly decent my first outing.
41:11
And then my second outing I just, I didn't have it at all.
41:14
I just had to like lay fastballs over in the zone and I just got
41:17
absolutely barrelled and I was walking a couple guys because I
41:21
wasn't selecting A targets and having good visuals for where I
41:24
want to throw pitches and stuff. And so I had to come back and
41:27
realize, well, like I go hard. My slider I have now is great.
41:31
Like, it's a great slider. Like I need to trust it.
41:33
I need to just throw it. And then since then, every
41:36
outing's been better and better and the sliders have so much
41:40
trust in it now. Like I actually feel confident
41:42
when I throw it, feel confident when I throw my splitter.
41:44
I'm confident with my fastball. And I've kind of had a a rocky
41:47
start again to the season. It's definitely better than last
41:49
year, but we're just trying to build and build off of every
41:52
outing. And so far that's, you know, I
41:53
think that's what I've been doing.
41:54
You're going to have tough outings here and there.
41:57
And my last one, I walked a couple too many guys, but I had
42:01
a lot more trust in my slider and stuff.
42:03
I competed a lot more. I just, I let guys get away from
42:06
me when I had them, you know, at 2 strikes I just would start
42:08
trying to do too much. So now it's like, OK, I have
42:11
trust with my stuff though. Let's just trust and go after
42:14
guys right away. Let's not try to get too fancy
42:17
with stuff. Let's just let it do its thing.
42:19
And hopefully when I put all of it together, you know, I have a
42:21
lights out outing and it looks like I actually know how to
42:24
pitch. Symmetrically, what do all your
42:26
pitches look like? So I have a sinker.
42:29
It runs on average 14 to 17 inches of horizontal.
42:34
It'll have about 5 inches of vert.
42:36
The slider is pretty good. Last outing that I know, it was
42:40
sitting -6 horizontally and then -2 vertically.
42:46
A pretty good slider. It has some depth and then.
42:49
How hard are you throwing that? Sorry.
42:51
I I don't remember what the V low was on it.
42:54
I would go to guess it was about 8384.
42:58
My splitter horizontally it's about 7:00 or so inches and then
43:01
vertically it'll be anywhere from like negative negative vert
43:06
to about 0 vertical and then that's about 8687.
43:12
OK, nice. So metrically, metrically,
43:15
you're filling out a decent triangle there.
43:17
It's just not landing them where you want to land them.
43:19
Yeah, it's just about throwing strikes and attacking hitters
43:24
getting out, so yeah. So going forward with the rest
43:28
of this season, I know you want to go as far as you can with
43:31
baseball. You also have some rocket
43:33
launches to deal with, but what what in your mind is the goal
43:39
for the rest of your senior year and beyond?
43:42
Gobi. As much of A dog as I can every
43:45
outing be consistent and just come out of every game giving my
43:49
team the best chance to win. If I just go out there and
43:51
compete my ass off for 567 innings, as much as I can give
43:55
them and I give them a chance to either strike back within two
43:59
runs or we have the lead. Just making sure that my team a
44:03
chance to win every time. That's all I can really strive
44:05
for. Just get as many outs as I can
44:07
and every outing all. Right.
44:09
And then team goals, how are how are you guys looking?
44:12
I'm assuming conference play just opened up.
44:15
What's the outlook for the boys possible run at a regional?
44:18
What are you thinking? I think so, yeah, I think so.
44:21
We're looking really good. We're four and two in conference
44:24
right now. So we, we're still leading the
44:27
conference right now. We're looking, if we can keep
44:30
playing how we are, I think we have a good chance, a really,
44:32
really good chance of winning the, you know, regular season.
44:35
And then I think we have a really good chance of winning,
44:38
you know, our conference tournament and then make a
44:40
regional and, you know, enjoy it from there, you know?
44:43
For sure. For sure, yeah.
44:45
And obviously anything pro ball wise is entirely out of your
44:49
control. So I I'm going to avoid any
44:52
major questions on that. I'm sure it is just like the
44:56
fingers crossed whatever happens happens approach.
44:58
Yep, it's like giving my all the season.
45:01
Don't don't leave anything to chance, just go have the best
45:04
season I can and let's hope you can get picked up.
45:07
Exactly. So maybe more in your control is
45:10
what you do in the classroom. So what do you have left with
45:14
all these fancy senior engineering classes so you can
45:18
start building some? Rockets So I have I have this
45:23
semester and then I have one more semester after just because
45:25
of the travel, the transferring and stuff.
45:27
So I had to make up a couple credits, but I have a bunch of
45:30
classmates that didn't transfer in or graduating as a semester
45:34
late too. So it's all good, like I'll be
45:36
good and I got just a couple of engineering elective credits.
45:40
Like I'm getting all my like major like course requirement
45:44
and like core classes done this semester.
45:46
So next semester is just like, oh hey, have fun with
45:49
engineering and just take what you've learned and use it.
45:51
So what? What are your favorite classes
45:54
that you're either in now or what you have left on the table
45:57
that you're looking forward to? My favorite classes so I really
46:02
like this class I'm in right now, rocket engineering.
46:05
That's our senior design class. That's a lot of fun.
46:08
And and then we have a a controls class.
46:11
It's really hard, but I like it a lot.
46:13
It's pretty interesting. It's like talking about like how
46:16
you control a bunch of like systems, like cars, like
46:19
electronic stuff like that. It's really cool.
46:21
It's really hard, but I think it's pretty cool.
46:23
And then heat transfer. Heat transfer is pretty cool.
46:26
I find it really interesting. It's also really hard.
46:28
We really, really struggle with it, but it's a lot of fun
46:31
because it's really cool because it's it's along the realms of
46:34
like propulsion deals a lot with heat transfer.
46:36
So it's kind of like, hey, this is kind of what I'll be doing
46:39
and looking at is this kind of stuff.
46:41
So it's, it's cool to kind of get an insight as to what you
46:44
know, I'll be doing. Well, it sounds like I shouldn't
46:47
be the least bit surprised if I get a call or a video from you
46:52
of a completely torn apart Flex Pro Grip with you looking at the
46:56
circuit board and all the engineering on the inside.
46:59
Yeah, I might be like, hey Compos, can I, can I browse this
47:02
Flex Pro? Yeah, sure comes back.
47:05
It's, I don't know what happened to them, but it's not working.
47:09
I definitely didn't take it apart or anything.
47:11
Definitely not. Yeah, yeah.
47:13
If you can teach us a thing or two about what's going on in the
47:16
inside, maybe maybe I'd like that.
47:19
So we'll we'll graduation game or something like that.
47:23
That would be awesome. Yes.
47:25
All right, dude. Well, that, that kind of does it
47:27
for me. I don't know if there's anything
47:30
else that you feel like you really want to get off your
47:32
chest before I let you go. No, nothing really other than
47:34
just chase your dreams. Trust yourself.
47:37
You know, you put in all the preparation, the work, and you
47:39
work really hard. Trust it.
47:41
Believe in yourself even if nobody else does like you have.
47:44
Believe in yourself and don't ever walk away from something
47:46
going. Dang, I wish I could have given
47:48
it more. I wish I would have given it
47:50
this last 10%. Like always come out of every
47:52
outing. Or, you know, whatever you do,
47:53
just go on. I gave it my all.
47:56
Whatever happened, happened, But at least you knew you gave it
47:59
all your effort. Awesome man, That's all I got.
48:01
I really appreciate that. Thanks a ton for your time
48:04
today. Hopefully people can follow you
48:06
in the Lobo. Yeah, of course.
48:07
As you make a run here, I know you're not the biggest social
48:11
media guy, but I'm I'm always happy when I see the Lobos.
48:15
But put your face like just today I saw you with the with
48:18
the lasso on the Instagram post. So we got we got some good stuff
48:22
coming, but awesome. Yeah.
48:24
Dane, again, thanks a ton. Thank you for having me.
48:28
Of course, man. And to all the listeners, thanks
48:30
for laying back with us. Thank you.