Tuesday, May 16, Hour 1

Tuesday pod, Hour 1: The guys discuss the definition of a sports fan; Canyon Del Oro Baseball Coach Jason Hisey and his team have won back-to-back state championships; How did the competitive gap get so big between Arizona and UCLA softball?

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
This is I on the Ball withSteve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance ServicesEnsure your most Prized Possessions, KATZ R
two, SAG and iHeart Radio Station. Hey, welcome to I on the

(00:29):
Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay. We're
hoping you hear us. Maybe ifyou don't hear us, I guess you
don't. Still let us know.If you hear us, let us know
that. Yeah. Yeah, butif you don't tell, say where are
you guys? Yeah, because we'rehere, our board is acting funny today
and so we can't hear We can'twe can't tell if we're on the air
or not. Right, We wouldappreciate a text from somebody to say that

(00:53):
that you hear us. Yeah,okay, okay, we'll go on as
if you do sooner than later,because we're a minute it uh. Today's
Tuesday, right. NBA starts tonight, thankfully, some more to talk about.
Yeah, yeah, a lot ofstuff last night. We have some
pretty good guests, are hoping thatwe get to them. With a CEO
coach winning the title last night fora title beating the sub I guess Scott

(01:18):
still sul up in Phoenix yesterday inTempe. Uh, so we'll talk to
Jason. Heisi former you of abaseball player and a longtime baseball coach.
Yeah, you know, God,I mean Ja, I mean Jason.
We's a freshman at what years inArizona. But he was I think he
was on that eighty nine team thatlong ago. Scott Ericson had not only
been long when not that long hewas. He was a freshman that year

(01:41):
with Lexinter and those guys that team. Yeah, yeah, ok, j
snow he was a very good team. I think he was the number three
starter that year. Very good team. Just yeah, a recollection of it.
And Nick says he can hear us. So let's oh okay, cool,
cool, cool? Yeah, isNick in the in the room?
He can get Nick? Yeah,we get it's weird. Yeah. So
everybody said, okay, I gotone of more text messages, so we're

(02:04):
odd. All right, cool,lets go, And then you know you
got a hold of mister Geist.Yes, Jordan Geist. I'm excited to
have him. He's been uh,you know, mister everything with with the
throws and uh and the Arizona trackand field. He's I think he won
his fourth shot for years now shotput championship. UM, a potential Olympian
um. Uh you know now youknow, looking for national championship. So

(02:28):
uh looking forward to talking to JordanGeist because he's uh, he's been the
guy if Arizona track for four yearsago. He's the point getter because we've
we've talked to him about a yearor two ago, right when he won
on one of the titles. Yeah, last year about this time. So
he continues to do really really well. Yeah, so we'll be good for
her to talking to him. Butuh, you know, basically some you

(02:49):
know, nothing but champions coming incoming in today with uh with Jason Heisy
again, uh, head coach atcdo Wonder the school's tenth championship, his
second and he had actually been tothe finals three other times, so you
know he's a he's been up there. And then uh they just won.
There's last night and then Jordan guys, so looking forward to this cool,

(03:13):
cool NBA today. We still haven'theard well well I know you haven't breaking
news, but uh, the guywho can't recruit recruited somebody again again,
right yeah, and then and wasrecruiting his suspect and and got a return
guy. Right, Well you sawthat, Yeah, but Hella Larson was
never going anywhere. Well nowadays,who knows, Well, yeah, yeah,
you're right. It's good that it'sover. But but you know,

(03:36):
of course Tommy wants to know,you know, yeah he's here. Who's
not right, right, because Imean know, I know there's still speculation
about about his zulas. I havea hard time believing he's coming back because
there's a lot of people who areout there thinking he might. I don't,
you know, nobody that nobody thatyou know, I just fans that
tell me, Okay, oh ishe coming back? You know? You

(03:59):
know, I don't. I don'tknow. I think he's thing. He's
done what he's you know, whathe was gonna do here, and yeah,
you know he's gonna take a shot. But we'll see, sure,
sure, so we'll see. Ohokay, is he texted me already?
Uh? Okay? Um? Whatelse? Softball based on everything us kind
of ready to shut down, kindof off them. You know, Baseball

(04:20):
is still you know, they've gota series with USC this weekend. They
gotta they gotta win some games thereto just get into the packed twelf tournament.
Only the top nine teams get in. Yeah, and they think they're
sitting in ninth place as we speak. So they they've got to they got
some work to do this weekend justto get into the tournament, to get
the packed twelf tournam to get themselvesa shot at at least, you know,

(04:44):
trying to win the tournament and gosomewhere make some noise. I don't
know that they can get in,um, but you know, you never
know. Yeah, so we'll seeit's gonna come down to the water just
to get into the tournament. It'llbe the first time and forever since I
wasn't even not even here in town, but in nineteen eighty five when both
teams didn't get into both teams didn'tget in, right right, which is

(05:05):
gonna be a lonely summer. Intobaseball is ten and seventeen in the league.
They're tied for ninth with Cal.Uh. They've got a twenty twenty
two records. I do have awinning record, but I don't know that
it's good enough to get them intothe tournament without winning. Yeah. No,
the PAC twelfth tournament, right right, there was some speculation that the
football team would get in, andI'm like, oh no, their record

(05:27):
was not good enough and they didn'tbe teams. Yeah, and although you
said you liked them for that onegame, you saw, well again if
he didn't look as bad as thatthey sounded. Yeah, right, And
maybe it's for that one game,but even even beyond that, just looking
at their lineup, players coming upto bat, you know, can they
hit? Can they not? Youknow? And and I just felt like

(05:50):
they've got some players they no doubt, they need some pitching. They supposedly
have pitching help on the way.Um, you know, all these players
get a year older. You know, UCLA's two, but UCLAs are like,
they're gonna be in their thirties now, so they've got to leave.
Um, you know, I thinkthey've got some players that they can win

(06:11):
with. It's just a matter ofyou know, kay, can you know,
can they pick so and now?Can they be kept right here and
you keep them? Can you keepthem? That's the biggest thing. After
every season, and we saw twobasketball forever where everybody just jumped shipping good
players, good players, guys whohad a lot of time at their old
school. You know, you know, you know uh um, you know
the kid from Washington State. Um, um, Roman's kid, Rodman's kid.

(06:35):
You know j C. J.Robins, great player of Washington State.
You know he sat here and almostsingle handedly beat Arizona. You're the
guy, and you know, boomhe goes off to USC So we can
play with Bronie Jane, right.Yeah, And you know what, you
can't really blame them, I mean, camp if they're gonna give you the
opportunity. But again, Jay,this is how I say, I'm not

(06:55):
a big sports fan. And andyou know, I you phrase it the
way I am a sports fan,but I'm not a sports fan. There's
no loyalty in the game and atany level, and it isn't that well
right, And that's kind of that'swhat kind of got me out of it.
Where I couldn't tell you the CincinnatiRed team that I grew up with,
I could tell you the roster.I couldn't tell you today who's on
the team we went to see theGiants and the Diamondbacks last week. I

(07:17):
couldn't tell you a player. YeahI could, honestly, I don't know.
I probably know four guys in theDodger lineup right, and you're a
huge dog. You know. Iknow Mookie Beats, I know Max Munsey,
I know, I know Will WillSmith occasionally, Chris Taylor's in the
lineup, um. JD. Martinez, I know because he's you know,

(07:38):
he's in my fantasy baseball team.They got two new kids in the infield,
Miguel Rojas and Miguel Vargas, andthere's still one. Uh we just
so um so maybe that's a talker. We could talk after the after the
Heisi stuff. Are you a fan? How big of a fan are you?
What? Are you a fan?Up? Yeah? Yeah, right?

(07:58):
And are you as much as youused to be? You know,
like like I mean, yeah,you know I love the ares On Wildcats
college football, you know, infootball. I'm a college football fan,
right. I'm an NFL fan.I'm not a fan of a team.
Yeah, I'm not even a fanof a player. I'm an NFL fan
because I love the NFL. Ilove the games. Um, I enjoy

(08:18):
my Sundays during football season. Yeah, you know, I love watching the
NFL. But I'm a fan ofthe game. I'm not a fan of
a team. I don't have ateam. That's that's that's why I watched
a fan of no team, butbut one of the game. Well,
come on, if I didn't haveany you're a fan of sport, if
I didn't do your league. Idon't know how much of a fan I

(08:39):
would be because I watch and Iwatched games and scores and but you want,
but you watch a game, You'rewatching the NBA. Yeah, but
I don't watch it like like afan does I watch it? I don't
like a fan, I think isa broader, a broader definition. Then.
But you're you're, you're, you're, you're, you're boiling it down
too. To be a fan,you've got to be a fan of craziness

(09:01):
something, you know. You gotto be a fan of a team or
a fan of a player or somethinglike that. Right, think to me,
I you can be a fan justof sports and just love, you
know, any sports. And Ithink that's kind of where I fall,
because I mean, you know,I'm I'm not paying attention to the NHL,
but I'm gonna watch some of theStanley Cup when he gets to the

(09:22):
final because because it's it's a majorsports, it's the championship. And I
wouldn't do that because I don't wantto cocky. I don't understand hockey,
but you and it beats watching allmy children tell you exactly. I mean,
you know, I'm you know,twenty times over on all my daylines.
You know, I mean, I'mnot watching him over and over and
over again how to get away withmurder? And they I listen to him.

(09:43):
You know, I know that youcan't get away with Murder's what I
know. But uh, you know, I think that it's uh a thing
where I think you can be afan by just being a fan of enjoying
sports. That's a sports fan withoutbeing a fan of a specific thing.
I mean, am I a Dodgerfan? Yes? But you know,

(10:05):
and do I watch the Dodgers everyday that they're on at home? If
I've got you know, you gotmy TV on and do nothing else.
And I'm not sitting down to youknow, my wife's not a bening on
Succession or something like that. TheDodging show, she says it is,
she's she's had it on when I'min the room. I can't take it

(10:26):
well because it's reminds the wrestler.But yeah, I've heard it's great stuff
and I passed it through and Ikind of start watching I do a little
and it reminds me of obviously theobviously have you watched The White White House?
That funny a new episode breaks?Did last night or today? Last
night? Last night? Okay?I yeah, the third one. I

(10:46):
haven't seen that one because I wasbusy watching the Dodgers go twelve innings last
night, which then kept me up, and then I had to be up
at five thirty this morning for myTuesday breakfast meetings. So I'm I'm on
fumes right now. I'm doing.Yeah, you're gonna have to you're okus
during the breaks man to carry.But I enjoyed that. You know,

(11:07):
I am a Dodger fan. Buteven even so, Steve, I'm a
fan of I'm always been a fanof baseball. I mean, I kind
of went away from being a fanof a specific team for a while because
I got tired of all the youknow, the crap and the turnover nobody's
staying with. But I kind ofcame back to being a huge Dodger fan
again. But I've always paid attentionto baseball. Do you pay attention to

(11:28):
the NBA to a degree more sonow than ever because because of the show,
um, you know, a hugefootball fan college and felt um,
so you know. But again inthe NFL, I'm not a fan of
a team. So but I'm stilla fan. I consider myself a fan.
Okay, I don't, well,I consider you. You wouldn't be

(11:52):
see, I don't think you'd besitting here if you are not. No,
No, this is how I livedmy life, and this is kind
of how I pay my bills.So I enjoy it. I pay attention.
I pay attention to it as muchas I can. If like hockey,
you could tell me what I knowthe four teams in I think,
but that's about it. Go onlybecause I saw them. But see,
if you can go you can gosit around a table with a bunch of
guys and not talk hockey and andtalk sports. Oh yeah, sure right,

(12:15):
And he's sure pretty much because Imean, you're not gonna you're not
gonna know hockey teams. But ifthe conversation breaks into hockey, you might
have a couple of things to say. But yeah, but the guys you
hang with generally, are they areright? Right? Right, You're gonna
talk about football, You're gonna talkabout basket right, You're gonna talk about
the wildcats. You're gonna talk aboutyeah, whoever, of course, and
they know that, and they knowwhich which topics to talk to me about

(12:35):
or whatever or not to talk tome, and which those are fans and
one of them. As much asyou try to deny it, you are
get me out of this, outof this. Hey, let's um,
let's that's what we got a minutebecause Isai already text me. He's gonna
say, give us a quick call. He's headed on the road. We'll
ask him where he's going. Um, so that should be fun to take.

(12:56):
He's gonna take the cup around drinkcattle difference. And you saw the
you saw the you have to tilt, Yeah, you know it on the
side kind of drink like you're drinkingout of a shoe or something. Have
you ever done that? No?God, I'm glad. No, no,
no, even in your darkest thewildest nights though, never anything like

(13:16):
that. I don't even remember thosenights. I don't. I don't go
there for a reason. Okay,Hey, let's go, let's go all
right, let's yeah, let's getJason well, uh, and then we'll
just talk about his second straight statechampionship in the school's tent, so stick
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(17:52):
I on the Wall with ce Braveraand Jay Gonzalez on Box Sports fourteen fifteen.
They welcome back to one in theball roof Swarts fourteen fifteen. Ar'm
Steve Rivera, He's Jay Gunzos.Now on the phone. We have Jason
Hesi, coach of the CDEO Baseballteam State champion Baseball team, coach,
how are you good? You guysran into uh to Scott still sorrow and

(18:15):
put them away nicely. How didthat game go in terms of how you
thought it would go? Um?Well, I think it went. I
think it went the way it neededto go for us to win the game.
No, no, you have tokeep them to a low scoring game.
Did you? Was there a kindof strategy involved pitching ones that?
Well, they have a really goodpu, really good arms, and we

(18:41):
did not want to to the camand any kid late in the game with
us behind. So the goal wasto try to get out early and to
and to keep a lead, andwe did it. So. Um,
first of all, you had youhad your starter and he got he ran
into the pitch count. Um,let me ask you first, when did

(19:02):
the pitch count come into play?That that you guys? How long have
you guys been dealing with that?And then how do you as a coach
to deal with that? One hundredand five pitches doesn't seem like a lot
for a seven inning game. Um, it's been harry since I've been back
at CDEO like last the last fiveyears. But I think it's a good
rule. I mean, one hundredand five pixes, one hundred and ten

(19:25):
picks. It is probably where youneed to be as a high school kid
anyway. I mean anything beyond thatis probably a little too much. So
what what do you have to doto prepare for something like that? Do
you do? You? Do youmonitor it? You are you always just
uh, you know, okay,you always have a guy ready. I
mean, what how does it comeinto play in terms of your strategy?

(19:45):
Well, I mean we have aguy who has a game changer, and
he's keeping the picks acounts, andwhenever we get really close to a piscount
limit, we always double check andcross reference with the other team just to
make sure so we don't run intoany um four situation. So you know,
you can finish your hitter once you'reinto one hundred and fifth pitch.

(20:07):
So, uh, it's happened acouple of times. It happened to Gets
Brag John Mountain with the casey wehad to bring we had to bring a
guy in to to finish happened here, happened to get south Point. We'll
be played earlier in the tournament.Same thing. Um, so this is
your second back to back, youknow, back to back the title.
How does this feel after the afterlast year? Well, I mean it

(20:30):
feels good because this was this waskind of a completely different team. I
mean, usually if you went backto back championships is because you got the
same group of kids. UM movedthis casey through four innings for us last
year in in a spring tournament.Um, the vast majority of our production
and our and our mound presence wasgone this year. So, I mean

(20:52):
it was sttle dicey there early too, so we were feeling the growing things.
Well, I'm gonna I was gonnasay, because I can at Morales
story that you did on you guysin all sports. You guys were seven
and seven at one point, so, I mean, you know, we
just everybody trying to figure figure thingsout? What was going on in those
first fourteen games? Then, howdo you think was there any one specific

(21:15):
thing that sort of uh, youknow, turned that for you? Well,
I think we ended up happening.We played some really good opponents,
stacked up against each other. Weended up playing UM twosan high who was
ranked second in six A we playedkind of in the Foothills, who was
number one in five A. Weplayed due Gallis who was number two,
and five A we ended up playingSouth Point obviously, who was number one

(21:40):
in five A. Well in fourA we played them twice and then we
um we played Sawaro at the end, who was playing as pretty pretty a
tough. So, I mean wehad a we had a lot of games
that were against really good opponents atthe wrong time, and we ended up

(22:00):
we were very we were competitive inthose games. We just we just didn't
have the pitching to get over thehump. Well, you you listed a
bunch of the local teams that mustsay a lot to the baseball played in
Southern Arizona. Well, yeah,Kylie Flis was playing from state championship tonight.
The Gallas lost in the semi finalsand thetaw Point was right there at
the very end in the in thefour A. So, um, yeah,

(22:23):
I mean the Southern Arizona has somehas some good teams this year.
Well, let me ask you,because you've been coaching baseball for a long
long time, how has it changed? And I'm sure it's gotten a lot
better, But has it to whatdegree? Well, Um, I mean
it's it's still got the same Thegood teams are the good teams. They

(22:44):
have been the good teams for decades. And it's pretty much the same thing
up up in Phoenix. And you'veprobably got a handful of ten or fifteen
teams that are always there at theend and every level of a matter wherever
they play, whether it's four,A five, a Sixay. Okay,
So Jason h. Steph and Iwere talking. I said, I told
I met you all the way backwhen you were a freshman at the U

(23:06):
of a M playing for Jerry Kendallin in in you know, one of
the great programs in college baseball.How much of that, how much of
your experienced there, you know,shaped who you are as a coach?
All of it? I mean allof it. I mean we what we
what what we do today, It'sKenadlo Baseball is exactly what we did at

(23:26):
the University of Arizona three decades ago. It's exactly what we do. Soft
onun defense, hard bun defense,first and third offenses and first and third
defenses, cuts and cuts and relays. Um, we hit the same way
that we were taught how to hitback then. We picked the same waybe
were taught how to pick. Imean, there's been changes of over time
in different ways to nuance it tothe different population in front of you.

(23:48):
But it's the same game and hasn'tchanged in two hundred years, let alone
you know, the last thirty years. So I mean we're you know,
we uh, if Jerry kind ofwere to walk on our baseball field tomorrow,
he could coach our team. That'sthat's that's how precise the terminology is.
Head hasn't changed in thirty years.So I always asked this of coaches,

(24:10):
and I asked us to Corey Williamslast week about secret sauce. So
what's you win? Not by accidentbecause you're very good at what you do.
What's your secret sauce at least?What do you think it is?
Well? I mean, and itjust comes down to working hard. I
mean, that's it. I meanwhen we sat down in the hotel up
and Shoeniques, you know, twomonths and two months ago, and we

(24:32):
were you know, I think wewere ten ten and nine or nine and
eight or some crazy number like that. We just lost six out of eight
and we were sitting sitting in thathotel room talking about ourselves with coaches,
like how do we fix this thing? How do we fix this thing?
And wet nothing for two hours,going around and around and around. At
the end of the day, wecame right back to square one, which
is we got to get better andthe only way to get better is to

(24:55):
work harder. And when we gotback, we got back into Tucson,
we just committed ourselves to We tookevery two we coached from the second the
kids got out of school and theywere able to be on the field until
we could not see a baseball atnight. And we did that for two
months straight. Yeah, well thereyou go, right, Yeah, no,
kiddy, and they and how,you know, how do you get

(25:15):
to buy into that? You knowwhat, there has to be something that
you do or that you say,or that you put out in front of
the you know these guys to committo that. Well, we're going to
do it. And if you wantto come with us, you can,
and if you don't, you don'thave to. There are kids that choose
not to play at CDEO Baseball andthey don't have rings right now. I

(25:36):
mean, that's just the way itis. And the kids that choose to
put in the time and the effortand the energy, and the kids that
choose to to go through the processget better, and ultimately it's the things
aligned for you, then stuff likethis is going to happen. I mean,
we're we're the same guys, we'vebeen ever since we since we showed
up at the CDEO, And yourphilosophy has stayed the same. You've been

(25:59):
around a high schools up up north, Um, your philosophy hasn't changed.
No, I mean I think I'vegotten a little bit. Um, I
think I'm better communicating with players overthe years. When I first started coaching,
I was pretty much crazy. Imean I was highly highly competitive,
and I know I was a twentyfive year old kid who was two years
removed from playing minor league baseball outthere to coaching high school kids. I

(26:22):
mean, there's there's there's reasons Idon't have many umpire friends in the city
right. That's because I was basicallyout of control of a young player and
as a and as a young coaching. Over time, I've tried to tried
to temper that a little bit andreally learned that it's not about coaching the
game as much as about coaching thepeople to play the game, and I

(26:45):
think I'm getting better at that.How do you recognize those things? So
what makes you recognize those things?And as you say, you know,
get get better at that stuff?Is it because you're getting kicked out of
game you have no friends? Well, I mean it's usually come. I
mean it usually comes with failure,right. I mean, you know,
things don't work or things don't happenthe way you want them too, and

(27:07):
you ask yourself why, and youknow, when you do some self introspection,
m you tryd of realize that sometimesit's not everything around me, sometimes
mostly about me. You trust totry to make small, subtle improvements every
year and that probably made you,well, yeah, a better a coach
and probably said, Okay, thisis what I can't do, this is
what I should do. Stuff likethat. My time of Pima was really

(27:29):
beneficial. It was a different typeof athlete. It was a junior colleague
athlete and it was somebody who youhad recruited. And really getting those kids
to play hard was something that wassomewhat of an art more than it was
a skill. I mean, itwas it was trying to trust the right
buttons and thirty five different guys onan ongoing basis. That's why what Ken

(27:52):
Hakamby has done it Pima is prettyamazing. So you were you know,
you were a college player, saidyou know, you're a pro player.
Now you're you're a coach. Whatwhat is it that keeps you doing this?
What is it? Just? Isit the competition? Working with the
kids, and what is it thatmakes you stay in this game and do

(28:12):
the things you continue to do well? I think over time it's it's that
I've I realized how important athletics wasto me and how it molded me and
how it put me in some ofthe in front of some of the greatest
men that that I've had the privilegeto be around and molded me and helped
shape me into who I am.And and I think over time, I've

(28:33):
really started to see the big pictureof that and it's and that's something that
I want to do. I meanthis, the days like this are nice,
but there's nothing that replaces when yousee a kid go from step A
to step BE, to step SEEto step D and you see his personal
growth, his professional growth. Youmean, I get it at the set
the time he's going through it.But he comes back a year or two

(28:55):
or three or four later and hesays, hey, man, you know
everything that you did helped me andyou just can't replace that. I mean,
at the time I have with coachKendall the of a Jerry Stid Jim
wing Um. I I mean,it's it's life changing. Yeah. So,
so at this time last year,you were looking at a team that

(29:17):
you were losing a lot of guys. You use that, you come back,
you win a state championship. Nowtell us you know what you have
now looking ahead to next year.You've just won a championship. So maybe
this is an unfair question and youjust finished your season last night, but
I'm gonna ask anyways, you know, what do you see going forward for
next year? What's on your mindin terms of what you think you guys
are gonna look like next year?Well, I think we'll be better offensively.

(29:41):
I think we returned, we returnedthe large majority of our offense.
Um. We had some really goodjunior hitters this year that really came on
at the end. I think wecould be as good on the hill from
a depth perspective. Then then whenwe were this year, we had Lucas
and every time Lucas went out,I mean Lucas was eleven and one and

(30:02):
we were twenty one and ten.So do the math on that we were
five hundred without and then and whatninety five percent with him? So our
second level pitching struggled against the betterteams, and I think we'll be deeper
next year. We had two kidsthat didn't even picture this year before us
who we were who we were countingon, a guy named Jackson Kakowski who
had an arm injury. And thenTerrell Read, our shortstop who also pictures,

(30:27):
who was a really good picture anddidn't picture one any of this year
because he had some arm trouble,so to keep him on the field as
short he couldn't pitch. And wemay have both of those guys next year.
So what do you have leaving?Are they going somewhere? Yeah?
Yeah, Well Lucas is going toNorthridge, m Jacob is going to I

(30:48):
think University of Saint Louis and theMidwest UM. Adrian Marquez is going to
go play at Eastern Arizona. He'she's gonna pick. I think Sam Martinez
is probably gonna retire and just goto college. Um, so yeah,
I mean we lose those four guys, well, it's still going to be

(31:10):
stacked. Yeah. Yeah, andthen you you kind of part of the
art of being a good coaches youhave to temper their enthusiasm for the next
year, saying, now we weretwo times state champs, but we still
got to be good or better.Well, I don't think anybody in this
team is gonna take it for granted, because I think some of that happened
this year. I think when weI think when we got into it,
we won that tournament at Tucson Highand we kind of felt like this was

(31:36):
going to be another easy run andgo at it, and then we ended
up taking it on the chin thenext two weeks, losing six out of
eight. I think everybody at thatpoint I realized, hey, um,
you can't take this game for granted. It'll it'll punch you right in the
mouth and these kids and it happenedto all of us. So I don't
think we'll have that problem next year. Yeah, I can. Coaches say

(31:57):
losing motivates as well as the bench. I don't know if I don't know
if you agree with it, butyou know, the bench still kind of
motivates you, and losing really pissesyou off. Is no fun. I
mean, it's enough, but it'swhen you do it's it's but it's when
you make the biggest changes. Andkept telling me, guys, you know,
don't believe the wins and losses.Don't believe the feeling you have.

(32:21):
The feeling is it's useless. It'swhat you're doing that is going to pay
off in the end. It's thework that we're putting in. It's how
are we playing in May that's gonnamatter. It doesn't matter who you lost,
when it really doesn't matter who youwon, It matters how you're playing
in May. The same message Ihad to them to our team when we
lost the Foothills and we really shouldhave won the game when we lost to

(32:43):
them in extra ending, is thesame feeling when we beat South Point a
couple weeks later. I said,guys, it's it's the same game and
the and it's just the way weplayed it. So don't believe how good
you feel right now. I don'tbelieve how bad you felt when you lost
the Ironwood Ridge. You know,back back March, it's the same game.
We just played it poorly back then, and we played it better today.

(33:05):
And if you want to do somethingspecial, we just gotta piece those
better performances together consistently down the stretch. And we did it right. Everything
matters in May, and you guysdid it. Congrats. Congrats again,
Well thank you all right, thanksthanks for having me. Great, great
to have you on the show.Thanks again, appreciate you. Coach be
well, okay, man, thankyou Jason he cdo coach baseball two times.

(33:30):
They're my neck of the woods.Obviously, they've historically been a bream
a lot of great players under themajor leagues, those kinds of things,
the Duncans and those games. Man, it's always you know, it's always
hard to win a championship. Ohyeah, yeah, because but then he
talks about these teams, the Southernyou saw South Points, a cdo came

(33:50):
of the Foothills, Tusun High.They're playing tonight, you know for ja
Yeah, I um, well we'lltalk. We gotta go take a break,
so all right, yeah, okay, Well then let's that's going to
do that. We'll take a call, take a call or two or three.
We'll take a break, take acouple of calls, five to zero,
four, one, six, seventyfour, forty fine to give us
a buzz. We're also going tobe talking to Jordan Geist next hour,

(34:10):
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(37:34):
It's Steve Romera and Jagen Salvins.This is Hi on the Ball on Fox
Sports fourteen. Different Welcome back toWying the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen.
Cookie on Steve, He's Jay,I think we got to go.
We had a call callers fight back. We're trying to get you for the
segment to just call us quickly rightback to solid. But we're doing some
stuff with the clock and coming backfrom commercial. Yes we are. Just

(37:55):
give us a quick callback. Well. At Jason's Night in the House today,
he's a Monday, Tnesday, Fridaythings, so Tuesdays and Thursdays you're
stuck with me, and you knowwhat, it's busy in here during a
break. You know, I knoweverybody thinks we're out there, you know,
getting some chips and some sodas andwe are cool. We are,
we're doing that too, but alot of stuff going on here trying to
keep up. You know, yousit here and you know we're flipping through

(38:21):
Twitter there's breaking news throughout the show. There's stuff happening right now. Things
are there's stuff coming out of theout of the ACC about their uh you
know, their uh their TV stuffand their revenue sharing and all that.
You know, things are happening aswe speak, and we're trying to keep
up with all of that because wewant to be sure to talk about it.
Right. We have a color Hi, you're on the air and on

(38:44):
the ball. How's it going.I'm Dick. Hey, Vic's going on
with everything? Guys? Good good? You call the well Buck, didn't
you? Vick? I sure did? And I uh, I'll tell you
I let my kids play for coachHas any day instead of Jay Over.
You're the one they called what youcalled before before Jay? Right? Yeah,

(39:06):
you said I said, I saidhe would never not giving out participates
in trophy anytime soon. So yougot that. I still think you got
me all wrong, Vic, Ireally do. I don't know what to
tell you. I'll to argue withyou again. Yesterday you you did a
little thing on Arizona softball and Idon't know if he was completely but you

(39:30):
were kind of blaming it on youthand and a bunch of freshmen um that
play well. I think that hassomething to do with it. I mean,
it's me and that's mostly about freshmencoming in and they are honestly gay.
If you're around the softball world,if you're a batbuster, Firecracker,
Corona Angels, you are definitely collegeready. So youth has nothing to do

(39:53):
with it. Um. I obviouslyI know that the Cats have a lot
of hard working girls out there,but we do not have a kid that
compares to Megan Paramou. We donot have a kid that cares compares to
Jordan Ball at Oklahoma or Nicole May. It's not even close. It's it's

(40:14):
light years away. So so sowe're going and h that's and that's my
point is that you know, tome, I think if you were listening
to hear me say, UCLA lookedlike like you know that you see a
bunch of juniors and seniors and andplayers have been around the block a bunch
of times, and they're playing againstthe girls who are still might you know,
making their way up. So Ithink there still is a difference.

(40:36):
And but I think there's those gotgood players. They I don't know how
good they're ultimately going to be,but it seemed to me like they were
just outmanned by a team that hadbetter, older, more experienced players.
Well, UCLA had their share offreshman girls on the team. Freshman,
uh, freshman at third base,freshman at first base. Um, they
have a lot of youth on thatteam. Also, it's just a difference,

(41:00):
like I said, is they haveMegan faramover Bean, a stud and
she stepped on the campug the freshman. So let me ask you, Vick,
because I know you do follow theUSA and others. Where did Arizona
go awry with pitchy Because it wasa school of dominance for a long time.
It just hasn't been lately. Wheredid it go wrong? You know,

(41:21):
it's steven been a tough road.They had a kid u Gosh,
I can't remember how many years ago. Her name was Brihanna from modern day.
She was a batbuster and she endedup tragically committing suicide. She was
coming to you a out of asenior year and after that that was a

(41:44):
big commitment that went bad. Um. We also had a kid gosh and
I can't remember her name, andshe just didn't mate with grades and a
few other things. Um, solost a couple of commitments that way.
But um and then you you youjust missed, you just missed. You
know, Natalie Lugo who went toFlorida, came to u A and she

(42:07):
told coach Kendrick m No, I'mgoing to Florida a better deal. And
then some of the pictures they've recruitedwho you thought we're gonna be, you
know, really really good having materializedand you know, boy that that you
know, I'll tell you I andTyler McQuillan was great here and all Americans,
but when I saw her in highschool, um, oh, my

(42:29):
buddies, Pats are gonna win twopatties with her, and it just didn't
materialize. Yeah, yeah, andthat's it. He was one of the
best I thought that I had seenin forever. And and like I said,
they have some good, hard workingkids. Um My buddies in California
told me that Smerdyke that they havehere was was gonna be one of the

(42:52):
biggest they've seen. She thought tobe a part and she really didn't even
get that many innings here right right. Well, and then you know,
here comes another one, Ryan Maddox, the you know, the girl out
of Fresno was supposed to be allthat, right, I mean, that's
god. She's five and change.Okay, she's like five two. VI

(43:20):
look forward to dinner with you maybesometime soon. You got it. You
just when you're free, we'll hitit up and you can even bring Gay
along. Okay, okay, I'llbring I'll bring a trophy for him.
Okay, all right, Vick,thank you. So Victor, Victor got
me all wrong. Vic bet melike in October, he says, Steve,

(43:44):
you don't know what you're talking about. Erizone was not gonna finish in
the top three basketball man's massage.Come on, man in the league,
in the league, and I comeon, come on, Victor, only
don't got a players. I'll betyou a state dinner, state dinner,
all these guys. I'll come along. I'll pay my own. But I'd
like to see that he was atwe were at the Northwest when we did

(44:06):
a remote. Yeah, okay,he visited at a time or two.
He's a Dodger guy too, Soit's okay. We're you know, we're
friends of doctor. You know we'redo defenses. All nonsense stuff, man,
nonsense man. Okay, you Dodgeron Dodger crime. But yeah,
well there shouldn't be. There shouldnot be Dodger on Dodger crime. I
know sometimes there is, but thereshould not be. But you know,

(44:29):
he makes a good point. Look, here's here was the glaring thing with
me about the difference with ECLA.And those are extremes, Jay, because
there are top two or three programs, but Arizona is you know, one
of those programs too. Or theyshould it should it should and it was
was that Arizona's best player for thelast two years, jenell me on you
right, freshman of the year,you know, led the led the league

(44:51):
in hitting. Yeah, she betsninth US ninth, Yeah or she I
wonder I wonder how that went forthem, because well, Charlie's blast wasn't
even dressed. I think she wasinjured. So but still even when you
look back, you say, maybeit's not as green on the other side
as you think it's gonna be.You might win, but yeah, I

(45:12):
mean she's still playing center field,center field of batting night. You know,
there were eight better hitters than herin the lineup, right, you
know, and I know sometimes coachesput you know, their nine hitter is
like another lead off here that they'relooking at it that way. But still
she was batting lead off at Arizona. She's not bad, you know,
She's not batting lead off at yousee. You know, so yeah,

(45:34):
how does that go for somebody?So I don't know. It's just,
uh, they got a lot ofwork here, you know. And I
wasn't implying that things aren't great overthere. They're not because you know,
they're not in the tournament, right, so things are not good over there.
But I don't think it's as hopelessas it's kind of been sounding.
I know, we don't cover theteam. I know you went to a

(45:55):
game or two or whatever. Um, I don't know if they'll be changes.
Sometimes they recording change. Well,you never know, you never know,
but you know, um, thisis a it is a funny thing.
And I may maybe I shouldn't saythis, but I'm going to,
right, he said, But youknow, having after having seen Mike Candrea
all these years, you know,with you know, the coaching staffs that

(46:17):
he had, you know, allthe players, you know, just all
these veterans of you know long time, you know, top people in softball,
and you know, you see KaitlinLowe and Tarn moe At who you
saw as players. You feel likethe kids are driving the car now,
No, yeah, without question,we're all we're all right. You feel

(46:38):
like the keys got hand over handedover to the kids and they're still trying
to figure it out right right,and they are and they are, but
you know, and so it's kindof like that was the other like the
I think they'd be okay, youknow, growing things. Yeah, as
much as as much as you wantto think that by having coached under Candrea
all this time and Tarn Moa hasalready been there, that you just step

(47:00):
right in and and yeah, youknow, and the you know, they
hand you the keys to the Mercedesand you immediately know how to drive it.
It doesn't work that we've got tocall real quick because you have four
minutes to take that Hi, you'reon the Rnnmall. Hey, Jay,
you were talking about Farren Moat asas a coach, as a pitching coach,

(47:21):
and what's funny is we remember heras a junk pitcher and you don't
see a lot of those type ofpitchers having a lot of success nowadays,
right right, you know, Soit's so you know, it's as a
fan and I watch I watch alot of their games on the streaming and
on the fact Fall network, andit's it's hard. It's hard to have

(47:46):
the confidence that she's going to beable to develop power pitchers. Right.
I'm sure she has the knowledge,but we have the memories of how she
pitched right and and that I thinkwe need to find some nil pitching money
and uh and get us some pitchingbecause there was a graphic on the during

(48:10):
the UCLA game that Arizona outscored theiropponents this year three hundred and seventy one
to two twenty two. Youth wasnot their issue, at least not in
the batting order. Yeah, youknow it was. It was the pitching
that couldn't hold leads, much likethe baseball team. Done but done,

(48:31):
right, is right? Yeah?Yeah, that's done. So you mean
we need to raise money? Andwhat do you mean by we? Wow
the Arizona community, I mean,oh well, a couple of weeks back,
Jay brought it up, what arewe going to what should we do
to, you know, to raisethis nil money? And I think we

(48:53):
can't have fifty fifty raffles because thatwould be too much money going out the
door. But we could have like, uh, you know, put in
your twenty bucks when you come intothe game and at the football games and
then you know, you put yourname in and you maybe win five hundred
bucks. You'd probably probably be ableto get some money in a pot.

(49:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, letme. Or we could sell some red
Julical cardner burritos or something. Ohman, see you said the magic word.
We'll gain some pounds, but they'llbe better. There was on a
red please there was yeah, wellyou'd be you'd be able to tell who
who who donated to the nil burritostend of the season, all over my

(49:37):
face, Thank you, thank you, don yeah, thank our guys.
He makes a good point. Imean, he doesn't make a good point.
And somebody said that was that wasone of the things that was said
to me about the type of pictureof the Taran moat was. You know,
I'll tell you what, you know, the difference between how hard you
see a lace picture through against Arizonaand how hard Devin Nets was throwing.

(49:59):
You know, I've always when I'vegone to these games, all of those
pictures looked the same to me,because they all throw a freaking heart.
That was a big difference. Butyou know this picture that uclat she was
twenty eight two going into the gameand she was smoking and they hit her.
They hit her hand, they gotthey got the hit, so they
couldn't they could hit you know,I think the next year, next year
will be a lot to say abouthow the coaching moves forward because it's third

(50:22):
year now. The first year wasa honeymoon that would turn out to be
nice. Second year not so much. Third year you kind of figure out
what you're where you're at, rightand you know, and I think a
lot of what happened this year wasmasked by what they did last year.
You know, first year that theygot to the College World Series. People
had that expectation when you know,they almost didn't even get in the tournament

(50:43):
last year. Then all of asudden, they make this run. You
get to the College Oral Series andeverybody's like, everything's fine, right,
Well it wasn't. They got ona roll this. You know, it
showed that there's still a transition takingplace and a lot of work to do,
and that Kaitlin is still trying toput herself. You could use that
you just did and apply it tobaseball too, everything because he that first

(51:05):
year was another honeymoon period, didreally well, got to the playoffs.
And then this year, right,this is another key year. This is
a year for Tommy Lloyd. Right, you know, third year, No
guy, guy, this is whatwhat his team is gonna look looks like.
This year is what Tommy Lloyd's right. Sure, people can get away,
get away from the oh Sean Millard'sguys and stuff like that. You

(51:28):
know, it's like, okay,here you go, it's Tommy Lloyd's guys.
Let's see what they can do.All right, let's take our break.
We're gonna come back top of thehour. We're gonna breaking news,
so stick around.