NCAA Baseball Regionals preview with Ty Harrington, MLB Insider Gene Watson, and Texas wins WCWS Opener

Craig Way and Cameron Parker get you set for the NCAA Baseball Regionals on Thursday's show! They visit with Ty Harrington and MLB Insider Gene Watson to talk College Baseball and the MLB! Plus, Texas wins the WCWS opener against the Florida Gators.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the program here on thirteen
hundred the Zone. By name is Craig Way. Glad to
have you with us this afternoon on practice and press
conference day here at the ballpark. The Texas Longhorns have
had their practice a little while ago and their press conference,
and we'll look forward to bringing you some of that

(00:20):
audio a little bit later on. Also, the UTSA Roadrunners
have had their practice. Kansas State, I believe, is about
to have its practice, and then Houston Christian will be
after that.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
So we're glad to have you with us.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Also, I'm glad to report the news that Texas softball
has advanced with a win in the Women's College World Series.
Tea get combined with a two hit shutout heard earlier
live here on thirteen hundred of the Zone. As Texas
shut out the Florida Gators three to nothing to Jolie

(00:59):
Mitchell home runs a big part of that, and the
long wards actually a back to back home runs in
the top half of the seven to extend a one
to nothing lead from there and they go on to
the victory. So now Texas will take on the winner
of the matchup that just got started. A little while
ago between Tennessee and Oklahoma. Oklahoma the four time defending
national champion, they're the number two overall seed, Tennessee the

(01:21):
number seven overall seed, and the volunteers have jumped up
on him two to nothing and are still batting in
the top half of the first inning. So we'll see
how that develops as it goes forward. Our producer, as
always in the studio this afternoon, Cameron D.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Parker.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
The D on the birth certificate stands for Dallas, as
in his favorite pro football team that he's not really
following much right now. But the D could stand for defeating,
as in his Oklahoma City Thunder defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves

(02:02):
last night and blew them out by thirty one, thirty
four to ninety four onto the NBA Finals.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
You must be a happy man today.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Good afternoon, Craig, and yes, I am defeated dominated.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Done.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
D stands for done, as in the Timberwolves are done.
You're out of here. Back to back Western Conference finals.
Have fun in Cabo or ken Kuhn because you guys
got outclassed in run off the court last night at
the Paycomm Center. What a what a fun game, Super
nervous going into it. But I think I said on

(02:37):
this program after after Game one, ok seat in five
and even after games three, game three catastrophic loss to Minnesota,
still felt pretty good about the series, and after Game
four felt like, yep, it was over your home in
Oklahoma City. This series is over. And Minnesota scored nine
points in the first quarter, they had more turnovers in

(02:59):
the first half and made field goals. I mean, that's
an absolutely ridiculous stat but just shows you how good
okc's defense is and even when the offense may not
be knocking down shots, the defense is always there. And
that's why the Oklahoma City thunder have punched their ticket
to the NBA Finals the first time since twenty twelve,
when Texas legend Kevin Durant lifted OKC to the finals,

(03:22):
so second appearance in franchise history. I don't count the
SuperSonics stuff, especially after sewn Kemp's the rest yesterday or
whatever you got charged with so excited that okay See
has a week off and now get to sit back
and enjoy Game five of Knicks Pacers today, So you're.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Not counting then, the.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Heritage of the Seattle SuperSonics, who did win an NBA
title in nineteen seventy nine, and they beat the at
the time Washington Bullets now known as the Washington Wizards. Actually, yeah,
they were the Washington Bullets. By then they were the
Baltimore Bullets, and then in the ear early seventies they
changed they were the Capital Bullets because they played at

(04:04):
the Capital Center, land Over, Maryland, but then just became
the Washington Bullets. And they won the NBA Championship in
seventy eight beating Seattle, and then Seattle returned the favor
in seventy as had two appearances in the NBA finals
then and then also won against the Michael Jordan led
Chicago Bulls who beat him in the early nineties when
they had the glove, when they had Gary Payton.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
But you're not counting any of that, huh.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
This is all Oklahoma City, although they got to keep
the records, you know, when Clay Bennett bought the team
and moved them to OKC. It was not like that
Cleveland Browns deal. When the Browns moved to Baltimore and
Paul tagleibuw the commissioner decreed that all of the records
would retain and remain in Cleveland, so that the replacement

(04:47):
franchise could still have those records as the Cleveland Browns
and Baltimore had to start like basically an expansion team.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
So that's what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
You're just only counting Oklahoma City, so you're also not
counting Oklahoma City Hornet stuff since they reverted back.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
To New Orleans.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, and I say that because the way the franchise left.
I mean, obviously the city of Seattle was super heartbroken
over that, and honestly, Craig, the NBA is going to
expand here with the next probably five years, Seattle's getting
another basketball team, So I'm assuming when that happens, they're
going to get back all those records. They're going to
hang the banners. I mean, if you go to the

(05:23):
pay Comp Center, you don't see the banners hanging down
remembering that NBA Finals victory. So you know, it kind
of seems like in its best interest to just go
ahead in separate, you know, two different franchises, two different
cities obviously, and you know, I really think Seattles getting
another team here eventually in the next couple of years
when the NBA does expand and they're going to go

(05:46):
ahead and reclaim the records, and I think that's right.
I think rightfully, so the SuperSonics records should stick to
Seattle and not be a part of Okayc's history because
of the way the franchisees or because of the move
of Clay.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
But it's not Cleave Bennett's fall. Obviously.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
You go back to how the team was sold with
what's his name the CEO of Starbucks and that messy
divorce and selling the team to an owner that obviously
wanted to move the team out of Seattle. So I
would not claim the records. I don't think anybody in
OKAC does. And if you ask any Seattle fans, they
certainly don't want okay See claiming that championship. But I
think it's okay. I think it's okay. I'm okay with that.

(06:22):
I'm not upset with that, and I don't think okay
See fans are. I don't think sam press to your
claim event it is, And honestly, with the SuperSonics, when
they get their their new team back, I think they
should go ahead and claim those because they will be
the SuperSonics when that does happen.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Okay, all right, I give it to it now. I'm
here to tell you. I'm just I'm just here to
tell you. As a Rams fan, I count the championships
and the records from when they were in Saint Louis,
but they were.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Still known as the Rams back then.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
It wasn't a completely different franchise name and stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
So you're willing to go along with that, You're saying.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, I think so, But that's tricky because you know
the Rams have moved and then even then they what
about the Raiders if you're a I mean, I don't
know if Las Vegas has any actually true Raiders fans there,
But if you're an Oakland Raider fan, do you now
you're Las Vegas Raiders? Do you still count the stuff
with the Raiders in Oakland? I mean, I guess you
kind of have to because there's so much history there.
But what if Oakland gets another team? Probably never gonna happen,

(07:19):
because I don't know why any organization in sports world
we want to go back to Oakland since they now
lost an NFL team and a baseball team.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
But now we're getting I'm getting off the rails here.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, I think Oakland has kind of taking on the
look of a post apocalyptic city if you're going there,
so that you know they've lost.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
They've lost their NBA team too. Yeah, you think about it.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
The Warriors, even though they kept the name Golden State Warriors,
they moved back over to San Francisco. And for folks
who need the history lesson on that deal, the Warriors
initially were the Philadelphia Warriors. They were a charter franchise
in the NBA, and I think they won two league titles.
I think they won the first or second year and

(08:02):
then they and then they won again, like in nineteen
fifty six. I think it was the Warriors won, and
they were perhaps best known for the fact that they
got to draft Will Chamberlain out of Kansas and Chamberlain
played with them. But like any other team in the
Eastern Conference back then, you were not going to get
past the Boston Celtics. The Celtics were, you know, getting

(08:24):
the run underway starting in the late fifties of winning
eight consecutive NBA World titles, So the.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Warriors weren't getting there.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
And they also even though this is the franchise cam
the Philadelphia Warriors for whom Will Chamberlain played, when he
had his one hundred point game mark second nineteen sixty two,
and they were playing the New York Knicks, and they
played them in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in the Old Hockey Arena
which is still which is still in use by the

(08:53):
way in American Hockey League games. But they had a
crowd of just over two thousand that night to see
Will Chamberlain scored one hundred points for the Philadelphia Warriors,
who beat the New York Knicks won sixty nine to
one forty seven. And so Will Chamberlain had his one

(09:14):
hundred point game why with the Philadelphia Warriors. The very
next year they they moved to San Francisco and it
became the San Francisco Warriors. The Philadelphia franchise was replaced
in nineteen sixty three sixty four by the old Syracuse
Nationals team that was an NBA team. The Syracuse actually

(09:37):
won an NBA title in the mid fifties. They beat
the Fort Wayne Pistons, who are now of course the
Detroit Pistons.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
But Syracuse moved to Philadelphia and became the.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Seventy six Ers starting in the sixty three sixty four season.
So the San Francisco Warriors were the San Francisco Warriors
through the end of the sixties and then starting I
think nineteen seventy one, they changed their name to the
Golden State eight Warriors because they moved across the Bay
to play in that Oakland Coliseum the the now I

(10:07):
think it's known as Oracle Arena, So they moved over
to play in that building because they were tired of
playing in a ten thousand seat mainly rodeo based arena
known as the Cow Palace.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
That was the name of it.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
The Beatles played there, it was the Cow Palace and
they played they they played NBA Finals in there, and
here's your real, uh weird stat. In nineteen seventy five,
the Golden State Warriors, as name the Golden State Warriors
got into the NBA Finals to play a heavily favored

(10:45):
Washington Bullets team. Due to scheduling conflicts, the Warriors and
Bullets played.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
I think it was a a one one two two
one one.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Set up, but they because of scheduling conflicts, well, they
only wound up playing four games, and the two home
games hosted by the Warriors were actually played in the
old San Francisco Cow Palace, which is still around, by
the way, and that's where they played it. So the
Warriors played at the Cow Palace and won an NBA

(11:20):
World title there, and then of course they moved on
to Golden State. As Golden State, they changed that they
had changed their name to Golden State and won championship
in Oakland and then of course back at the Chase.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Center in San Francisco.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
So, yeah, franchises move around, changed the names to your
question about Oakland and then Los Angeles and then Oakland
and now Las Vegas. The Raiders are the Raiders are
the Raiders, saying that they've had the same uniforms of
things since nineteen sixty three. They were all black, including
a black helmet when they first came into the AFL

(11:55):
as a charter member in nineteen sixty and incidentally, they
were only a replacement fan The were supposed to be
one in Minneapolis, but the guy who was going to
own that team entertained offers from the NFL and said,
if you'll wait one year, we'll give you an expansion
franchise in the NFL. And he said, good, I'm doing that.
I'm out on the AFL. So that's how the Minnesota

(12:15):
Vikings came to be, so in a scramble to get
an eighth franchise, they put the team in Oakland, and
that's where the Raiders started and they've had, like I said,
pretty much the same uniform as a silver helmet, the
black jersey, a little modification or two to the helmet
in the early sixties, but other than that, you know,
once they went to the silver helmets and the black uniforms.

(12:37):
They've had that all the way through through their first
run in Oakland. Then when Al Davis won his lawsuit
and moved the team to the Los Angeles and then
they won a Super Bowl there, and then he moved
him back to Oakland. Then he passed Wayne, his son
has moved him to Las Vegas. The Raiders are the
Raiders are the Raiders. So they're going to keep their net,
all right, So much of the history of moving franchises.
Speaking of moving, I'm looking at it right now, Cam,

(13:00):
I'm looking at what used to be the hitter's backdrop,
the center field wall here at UFCU dish fark Field.
We'll talk about that coming up and what crews are
doing after the storms that blew through the area last night.
We'll hear from the principles getting ready to be involved
in this regional. We'll so we'll do all of that
and more we have inconceivable. Also three o'clock hour, Gene

(13:24):
Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office joins us
to talk Major League Baseball. And in the four o'clock hour,
Ty Harrington will join us with a preview of this
regional and we'll talk college baseball.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
As he gets ready to get underway.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
We're on the verge of its Starting tomorrow afternoon, the
Logorns play at one o'clock against the Huskies of Houston
Christian UT against h CU twelve forty five airtime, one o'clock,
first pitch, and we'll talk some college baseball.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Up next on thirteen under.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
The Zone, it's the Craig Show with the voice of
the Texas Longhorns and Hall of Fame broadcasting Craig Way.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Here at the UFCU, just fog field on press conference
practice day. Kansas State had finished it's workout. They're going
through the press conference run now, Houston Christian getting ready
to take the field here in a few minutes. Okay,
before we get to the Texas press conference, because we
want you to hear from Jim slas Nigel and also
Jalen Flores and Luke Harrison before we get to that,

(14:29):
just to update everybody because I posted on Instagram earlier
when I got here to the ballpark, and I got
here pretty early this morning and start set up the
crews that were working in case you didn't hear, and
there's been all kinds of video posted about it, and
it's been on the local TV outlets and things like that.
The storms that moved through the Greater Austin area last
night in came right smack dab through Central Austin, knocked

(14:54):
down the center field wall, the Batter's eye in dead
center field, that twenty eight foot high, the monster or
the green Batter's eye, it was completely flattened last night.
So it was and you'll hear Jim Slasnik we'll talk
about this. It did not take UT Athletics department folks
and other folks long to jump right into the mix

(15:15):
on this and begin to work on it. And they
worked through the night, first of all clearing away which
took a while to get all the debris, then assessing
how much damage in what has to be replaced. As
I look at it right now it's still I can
look straight through out there and see that, you know,
whatever would be the electrical power box behind it. But

(15:37):
so far everybody says the plan is is that this
wall will be back up or at least twenty feet
of it. It was twenty eight foot high, so it
might be a little bit different than the normal batter's eye,
but it would be at least twenty feet of it
would be up and ready in time for tomorrow afternoons
one o'clock game between Texas and HCU. So that's that's
the update where it stands right now. Anything else develops

(15:59):
will let you know. In the meantime, let's hear from
Logorn's head coach Jim Slastnagle, along with shortstop Jalen Flores
and also pitcher Luke Harrison.

Speaker 5 (16:09):
Today, my head coach Jim scha Slashnagel infield of Jalen
Flores and pitcher Luke Harrison. We'll start with an open
statement by coach and then take questions for the student athletes.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
Coaches. Deworth obis statement.

Speaker 6 (16:24):
Yeah, welcome everybody to Austin. I want to welcome all
the media, members, fans and teams represented from the other
three schools.

Speaker 7 (16:32):
Super excited to get going.

Speaker 6 (16:34):
It's been a while since we've played, and we've had
some really good work in the last week with our team,
some really good rest, and I know these guys are
anxious to get going. So we'll get a new fence
put up in centerfield at some point between now and
tomorrow at one o'clock and be ready to go.

Speaker 7 (16:50):
So excited to be here.

Speaker 8 (16:52):
Thanks coach.

Speaker 5 (16:52):
We'll take questions for the student athletes. If you have
a question, please raise your hand. We'll bring the microphones
around to you. Please share and outlet and we'll start
on the right.

Speaker 7 (17:03):
Bob Belucibus Austin.

Speaker 9 (17:04):
Just for Jalen and Louke both, just what was last
night like seeing the fence, What was kind of your
reaction to it, and how is the team kind of
looked at it?

Speaker 10 (17:14):
I guess yeah, I mean for me personally, my house
got hit pretty hard. So we saw the photos and
the guys that they sent over and we're just in shock.
But I mean there's there's guys working on it right
now and hopefully they can get it up in time
and we can play.

Speaker 11 (17:30):
Yeah, I mean, it came out of nowhere and we've
kind of seen the batters.

Speaker 7 (17:33):
I've folded before, but not all the way like that.

Speaker 11 (17:36):
So yeah, I figured there'd be people out there working
on it pretty quick and they'll find a way to
get it done.

Speaker 12 (17:45):
We'll go over on the left, Roger Wallace, NBC, Austin,
Jalen and Luke. You guys have done that regional thing
on the road. Great memory in Miami, not so great
last year. What's it like to be at home and
start the postseason on your home field.

Speaker 10 (17:59):
I think it's as exciting being on the road is
it's a cool atmosphere, but being at home is it
is just a blessing with our fan base we have,
and everyone's gonna show out and support each team, and
I think the whole weekend is just gonna be It's
gonna be fun and exciting.

Speaker 7 (18:14):
Yeah, I mean we're fired up for it.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
We uh, you know, worked every.

Speaker 11 (18:17):
Day to put ourselves in a position to be able
to host a regional and play in part of our
home fans, and it's gonna be awesome for us and
I can't wait to do it.

Speaker 13 (18:26):
We're throw on the left, hey, Jalen Vinnie from CBS
San Antonio, or you're feeling any support love from the
Brandeis Bronco family or San Antonio.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
What what are you gonna have up here this weekend?

Speaker 14 (18:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (18:38):
I mean my my high school coaches reached out and
was just good luck. He's a he's a longhorn by heart,
So just knowing that he's gonna support me, I'm sure
some of those guys would come up here as well.

Speaker 7 (18:48):
It's just gonna be fun.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Could I follow just right quick?

Speaker 7 (18:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (18:51):
Go ahead?

Speaker 13 (18:52):
Is it interesting at all that that you're your home
for this regional and out of nowhere UTSA has the
season they have and they're in this regional against you guys?

Speaker 10 (19:00):
No, I mean like we put ourselves in a good
position to host, they put themselves in a good position
to be in a regional. So props to that team
and what they got going on. But we're going to
take care of business and do what we can do
to win.

Speaker 15 (19:13):
We'll go third row on the right.

Speaker 16 (19:18):
I'm Danny Davis, Austin America Statesman Luke. What have you
seeing from Dan Walker this past couple of months? And
what did he show you in Hoover with the way
he pitched against Tennessee.

Speaker 11 (19:28):
Yeah, I think we saw the guy that just loves
to play baseball and compete. You know. I think what's
even more impressive is the way that he was handling
himself throughout the course of the season when he wasn't
getting the innings that everybody wants, and you know, he
just showed up to work the same day every day
and it was a great teammate, supported everybody. I think
that that's the stuff that shows up once you get
out there.

Speaker 5 (19:53):
Additional questions for student athletes will go over to the
left to bring the microphone long first row on the.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Left, Craig Wait Longhorn Radio Network, Jalen is given the
fact that a hitter or a fielder or a pitcher
for that matter, has the same discipline and approach that
you go game in game out, does the inside intensity
build up a little bit for regional? I mean, your
track record shows how well you've played in regional, So

(20:26):
is there an inner intensity that builds up for a
regional that might be different from the regular season.

Speaker 10 (20:33):
I mean everyone's amped up, but having that same opening
day mentality each and every day, trust in our preparation.
That's what we're going to lean back on, and we're
going to go out there, have fun. It's kind of
like it's opening day like it is, and just do
our thing, play our ball, and the results will come.

Speaker 5 (20:49):
We'll go in the back on the left side.

Speaker 17 (20:51):
Travis Rachek, Spectrum News Jalen two years ago. Obviously a
heartbreaking loss to injured season last year, not to finish
you guys want to either another chance to make a
run to Omaha. For you specifically, was that a big
reason you came back.

Speaker 10 (21:07):
I mean, I think that's in everyone's art as a
college player. You want to play in Omaha and you
want to be the last team standing. But that wasn't
definition of why I came back. I love Texas. I
know coach Losh's track record and what he does as
a coach is important for a player to develop. And
I know the guys that you brought over, I should

(21:28):
want to learn everything I could from them, and the
team that we have is just exciting and so fun
to play for and with. That's probably the biggest reason
why I came back, because you love your brothers that
you're playing with, and it's just exciting to play with
them each and every day.

Speaker 18 (21:42):
In the back on the right side for Luke to
be a key contributor this year and a lot expected
of you as you head of the postseason. What does
this opportunity in front of you mean to be one
of the guys that everyone's kind of looking to for,
you know, a big outing.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Just what does this opportunity to mean you? I mean,
it's great.

Speaker 11 (22:02):
I feel like, you know, spent a lot of time,
you know, going through struggles learning all that, and you know,
put yourself in a position to you know, have the
opportunity to go compete in front of you know, home
faithful and you know whether or not the result is
what it is. You know, I'm gonna be grateful for
the opportunity and I'm just gonna go play my game.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
Thank you. At this time we'll open it up to
questions for either student athletes or head coach. We'll start
with Danny here on the right side. When we get
the microphone around to.

Speaker 16 (22:38):
Danny, Jim, do you have a Jonah update? And also
have you do you have a pitching starting picture to announce.

Speaker 6 (22:47):
I do not have a starting picture to announce, but
I will by the end of the day. H Jonah
was going and he moved around pretty well yesterday and today.
He was going to do some more agility type running
this afternoon, I think, or maybe after our practice. So
as soon as I get an update from our training staff,
then I'll they'll have a better idea. I mean, he's
going to be available this weekend. We just don't know

(23:08):
what role yet, whether that's playing the field, DH, pinch hit,
that kind of thing. So try to do everything we
can to win the game if it includes him, but
also make sure we don't, you know, get him hurt significantly,
whether it be for more baseball or football team.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
We'll go to Bob on the right.

Speaker 8 (23:31):
Bob Lusibi is awesome job.

Speaker 9 (23:32):
Have you over the years gone team by team with
how you approach a regional with pitching or is it
you have something you like to do on when you're
the top seed hosting a regionals?

Speaker 7 (23:43):
Is there something you like to do well? Ideally, we.

Speaker 6 (23:48):
Have four regular starting pitchers that you have been using
all year and you feel super confident in those. Had
a couple of years where we've had that, and then
you pick what the matchup is. There's other years where
you have issues like we've had with losing Jared Spencer,
and so you have to balance winning a game versus

(24:09):
giving your team the best chance to win a regional.
But it also plays goes into who you're playing, you know,
and so if you get a you know, there's not
all number one seeds are equal, not at all.

Speaker 7 (24:19):
Number four seeds are equal.

Speaker 6 (24:21):
Houston Christians won thirty plus games they've won there, had
a great year, won their conference tournament. That means they're
not just talented, but they're hot. I don't know if
they've announced a pitcher yet, but who I think they're
gonna pitch as a senior who won't be spooked, who's
been around for a while and done a nice job
for their program. So for me, it'll just be what

(24:42):
you know, what are the best matchups and what gives
us the best chance over the course of time.

Speaker 7 (24:47):
So I think every year is going to be different.

Speaker 5 (24:52):
We'll go to the next question on the right side,
Cliff and.

Speaker 8 (24:55):
Cliff Thornton and Fox seven Austin Sports Coach Show.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
What were your where were you and.

Speaker 17 (25:00):
How did you find out about the wall last night?

Speaker 8 (25:02):
And what were your thoughts as you're out there assessing
what had happened last night?

Speaker 15 (25:05):
Afterward?

Speaker 7 (25:07):
Yeah, I was at dinner.

Speaker 6 (25:09):
Over in West of town, just quick, quick dinner, and
somebody sent me a picture. I mean, the storm had
blown through over there, but I don't think it was
nearly as bad on that side of town as it
was over here.

Speaker 7 (25:18):
So I was with a buddy.

Speaker 6 (25:20):
At dinner and said, hey, I probably need to get
to the ballpark. So by the time what was really
cool Jaitleen mentioned this, I think Luke maybe as well
as it was really cool is by the time I
was here, there was like eight nine people out there
already trying to figure out the assess what we were
going to do.

Speaker 7 (25:36):
And talked to them for a while.

Speaker 6 (25:38):
They asked me my opinion on a few things, you know,
what we needed from a bare bones standpoint, and then
we went and took our team picture by the tower,
which was awesome, great experience.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
I love that.

Speaker 6 (25:49):
And then by the time I came back, they had
a lot of it torn down and sawing stuff, and
they didn't need my seven and five aus wrench, So
it's good.

Speaker 7 (26:00):
I'm such a handyman.

Speaker 5 (26:07):
Questions for Texas right here on the left second CJ.

Speaker 19 (26:12):
Vogel on Texas football coach, for you, your team's in
the pass have been notorious for raising pitch counts, you know,
seeing a lot of pitches per bat. Does that change
going into the postseason? Do you like aggressiveness or does
what you've done all year does that just carry on
all the way through?

Speaker 6 (26:27):
Yeah, I mean I think I think obviously what we
were not going to change who we are just because
it's the postseason.

Speaker 7 (26:33):
There are certain pitchers that we faced during the year that.

Speaker 6 (26:37):
Throw a ton of strikes, or throw really hard, or
have a weapon out pitch, where we've made a concerted
effort to tell the guys, you know, be ready to
swing because he throws a ton of strikes and he
throws a lot of fastball. So we actually, if you
were if you knew the inner workings of our system,
we actually don't give that many takes. It's just more
about encouraging a great player like Jalen to get his pitch,

(27:01):
to get your pitch in.

Speaker 7 (27:03):
I said it a million times.

Speaker 6 (27:04):
Ted Williams signs a hitting page one sentence one get
a good pitch to hit, and so that's really all
that it is. And put your best swing on your pitch,
whether it's the first pitch or the seventh pitch. And
a result of that, if you control the strike zone.
A result of that will be higher pitch counts or
walks or that kind of thing. But there's no I

(27:26):
don't ever want a hitter coming to Texas and thinking, Hey,
your plan is to walk, like no good hitter goes
to home plate, hope and he walks. We want him
to hit and if they take their four balls, then
you get to go to first base.

Speaker 7 (27:41):
Over on the right side.

Speaker 15 (27:42):
Second round.

Speaker 20 (27:45):
Coach Jerry Briggs from San Antonio, I want to ask
about Houston Christian's coach clay huge huge win for them
to get that tournament title, and I wanted to ask
just first off, just kind of yours of Houston Christian
and also maybe if you could tell us a little

(28:05):
bit about the time that you broke through with your
first you know, your breakthrough to get to your first
region on what that was like.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (28:15):
So, first of all, Clayton's done an unbelievable job. I
mean super impressed from where they were when he took
over to where they are now. They play very clean baseball,
He handles his teams act the right way.

Speaker 7 (28:31):
He's a superstar, like he's a pure superstar. Coach. HCU
better take good care of him. He could be he's not,
in no.

Speaker 6 (28:38):
Disrespect to there, but that guy's got a bright future
in coaching, whether it be there or anywhere else. So
he's done an amazing job, especially given the resources. But
in terms of breakthrough moments, I mean, the more you're
in regionals, the more you get used to playing in them.
And so my first one as a head coach was
two thousand and three at at UNLV and then we

(29:02):
first got to TCU. TCU had only been to two
regionals in one hundred years, one in the fifties and
one I think ninety four ninety five, and then my
very first one there was we won the Conference USA
tournament and we got rewarded with coming to Dishfalk on
the old turf and didn't get to play Texas, but
got to experience everything that that was. And then two

(29:23):
thousand and nine was the first year we actually won
a regional, walked off Oregon State. That was also the
first year we hosted a regional at TCU and then
had to come to Austin for our best two out
of three and lost that year. And then the following
year was kind of the biggest breakthrough moment for TCU
and winning the Super Regional so takes a while these days,
some people do it quicker than others because the game

(29:45):
of baseball can allow you to do that. Just got
to play well for a couple of days. So it's
never about the best team. It's only about the team
that plays the best. So all four of these teams
can win this regional.

Speaker 5 (29:54):
Additional questions for Texas. Raise your hand, we'll bring the
microphone to you. Let's go on the right side.

Speaker 21 (30:01):
Nicholas Kingdom of The Daily Texan Coach, I remember earlier
in the season you mentioned that some of your premier
closers were you you were expecting them to maybe play,
you know, three games in a row here in the
in the regionals are gonna are we can we expect
to see that this weekend?

Speaker 6 (30:15):
Sure, if it means winning, yeah, I mean, we won't
put a guy in position to be hurt.

Speaker 15 (30:20):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (30:20):
But you build, you build up all year, you save
all year.

Speaker 6 (30:24):
You make decisions, whether it be with Luke or even
a position player where you're like, let's let's wrest them,
let's let's don't risk this. And you get to this
point of the season and within reason, you know you're
gonna You're gonna run guys out there. And so if
Grubs or Valanis or Burns or really anybody has to
has to come back and pitch back to back days
or even three days to win the regional, we'll do that.

Speaker 5 (30:48):
We got time for a couple more, if we have them,
we'll go back over to left side in the front row.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Craig Way, Jim, when you prepare a team for a regional,
and I asked you the other day if you if
you could recall having a regional where there were at
least two other teams you'd already played that year, and
you said you couldn't quite remember if that was the
case or not. But regardless of that, when you prepare
a team for regional, how much do you pull from

(31:23):
a game that was played in March here if you
do wind up facing UTSA, or the game on April
eighth against HDU, how much goes into whatever prep you're
getting your team ready for.

Speaker 6 (31:33):
Yeah, I don't know if anything comes for those particular games,
but you know, because one single game in baseball can
be such an outlier, but we certainly follow those teams,
you know, I watched when we work playing this weekend.
I was watching UTSA I think against Tulane or somebody
down in Florida when they were playing their tournaments. So
I was trying to just watch them, just watch the

(31:54):
game itself. But everything else these days comes off of
you know, true media and synergy, the video partners that
we have. So we'll break all that down, but it is,
you know, having played two of the teams. I don't
want to say it lessens the work because you don't
want to assume anything, but you're certainly more familiar with
it when you go back and look like, oh, yeah,
this is how we played this guy, and has.

Speaker 7 (32:14):
He really changed. I don't know, he has has changed
a little bit.

Speaker 6 (32:17):
We need to adjust how we're going to defend him
or maybe look for some things more trends lately. But yeah,
it's it's it's it's I would say it's lessened to
work just a little bit. But what you present to
the team, I mean, this is way more about how
we play versus what the other team does. So the
beauty of our league is you There's a lot of
different styles of play. So a Kentucky, a Vandy Oklahoma

(32:40):
is going to be super similar to uts A Houston Christian.
They put the ball on the ground a fair amount.
Kansas State's kind of in the middle from what I've seen.
So we're well prepared and these guys are ready to.

Speaker 5 (32:54):
Go over on the left side, second row.

Speaker 22 (32:57):
David Eckert, Austin, American Statesman, Jim just ballpark wise, how
long do you feel comfortable going with Dylan in a
single outing, just based on how you've used him this year?

Speaker 7 (33:10):
Atlantis?

Speaker 6 (33:11):
Oh yeah, I mean depends on the situation. But he's
thrown four plus innings I think for us this year,
whether it being a start, So yeah, he's built up,
and we go as long as he can pitch. And
if we get to that point where we're have our
backs against the wall and if he's the best pitcher
and he's available, then we'll roll with him.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
We'll go center in the back and Parker Coleman cave you.

Speaker 19 (33:36):
You get Max back a couple of weeks before the postseason,
but I just want to ask, what impact does he.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
Make when you are trying to make a postseason run.

Speaker 7 (33:43):
Yeah? Huge, Just his presence in the lineup.

Speaker 6 (33:46):
I think these guys would probably tell you the day
that I think it was a Tuesday that he walked
in and said, I want to hit on the field today.

Speaker 7 (33:52):
I feel good.

Speaker 6 (33:53):
That particular day had a different energy to it. It
just felt, you know. And we have good players all
across the field, but when you have kind of a
bell cow player like that, when you get him back,
it's a you know, and not just the offense. You know,
it's it's it's it's defense. It's a left handed hitter.
It gives length to the lineup. He's a presence in

(34:14):
the lineup, even if he's not swinging it great.

Speaker 7 (34:17):
You have to account for him. He's one of those
guys that.

Speaker 6 (34:21):
You know when he's coming back up and you have
to be that has to be on your mind. So
super fired up. He's back if we can get shoon
or ready to go. I've said all year, I think,
especially from an offensive standpoint, I still believe our best
days are ahead of us. And the hitters have been
challenged this week. We've challenged them a little bit to

(34:42):
be better and they've worked their ear ends off and
now we just have to go play.

Speaker 5 (34:47):
Thank you all for your questions, Thank you coach sir,
the athletes. Best of luck, all right.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
So there it is.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
That's the press conference with long worn shortstop Taylor Flores,
pitcher Luke Harrison, and head coach Jim Slosnagel.

Speaker 23 (35:00):
Good morning from Devon Park in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and
Texas Longhorns. Their World Series journey starts now against the
Florida Gators. To two count on Mitchell so bringing the
high drive left field that goes Otis.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
She looks up and.

Speaker 23 (35:13):
Jolie Mitchell puts the long Horns on the board of
the second. Joli Mitchell home run number fifteen, RBI number
sixty one of this season, and the six year seeingior
starts the scoring on a pitch that leaked right over
the heart of the plate at the belt two one.

(35:34):
She ring the flyball center field that goes Kendrick Boulby
to the warning track. She looks up, leaps and it
is gone. Jolly Mitchell does it again, do nothing, Texas, Hey,
if pitch fly ball right field, that's it.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
Well and that's out of here.

Speaker 23 (35:51):
Back to back for Texas.

Speaker 22 (35:52):
Three nothing.

Speaker 23 (35:54):
Deve On's two zero rounded on the ground to short
up with it. Good plots the second one Bennett.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
The first the double way six four to three.

Speaker 23 (36:04):
The pitcher's best friend helps out Cavan and the erases
the Florida rally here in the sixth inning. In the
bottom of the seventh, three nothing, Texas go two pitch
rounded down.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
To third, one hot.

Speaker 23 (36:18):
Via Scott on the first Texas knocks off Florida.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
In Game one of the World Series.

Speaker 23 (36:30):
Teagan Cavan didn't have the strikeout stuff, but still dominant.
A two hit shutout for the sophomore right hander and
the Longhorns win it three nothing, a one two three
seventh inning for Cavan.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
And with that the Texas Longhorns are on to the
winner's bracket game at the Women's College World Series. We
continue here from UFCU dishfalwk Field on this practice and
press conference day here at the ballpark for the four
teams that will take part in the NCAA Division One
Baseball Regional here at UFCU dishfalk Field. My name is

(37:15):
Craig Way and the producer back in the studio is
Cameron Parker. So the Longhorns softball team gets a two
hit shutout from Teaking Cavan. She was masterful in the
circle today and then log Worns were able to play
long ball three solo homers Jolie Mitchell with a solo

(37:36):
homer in the second inning, and then Mitchell did it
again in the sixth and right behind her, Katie Stewart comered,
so they had back to back home runs in the
sixth inning and that provided the margin of victory for Texas.
Cavan did the rest with her defense. That you heard
that six four to three double play was a part
of it as well. So Texas wins are now fifty

(37:58):
two and eleven and the long Horns move on at
the College World Series. They have a day off tomorrow
and then they will play on Saturday and they will
take on the winner of the game going on right
now in Oklahoma City between the four time defending national
champion and number two seed in the tournament, Oklahoma and

(38:23):
the number seven seed Tennessee. And right now in the
bottom of the fourth inning, Tennessee is up three to
one on ou volunteer score two runs in the first
and had another run in the second. They're up three
to one as Oklahoma bats in the bottom half of
the fourth inning. So a eyebrow raising result, so to speak,

(38:47):
at least right now. We'll see how it ultimately plays out,
but it's three to one Tennessee, and of course that
side of the bracket is a brutal side of the
bracket where all the seeds held to form with the
I guess.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
It would be with the exception.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
Well, no, because Texas was the sixth seed they defeated
the three seed Florida, and right now the two seed
Oklahoma is playing the seven seed Tennessee. It's on the
other side of the bracket world the carnage happened, where
of course Texas A and M, the overall number one seed,
was taken out.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
You have Texas Tech.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Playing an unseeded ole Miss team that knocked out the
number five seed Arkansas to advance to the super Regional,
or Texas Tech knocked out excuse me, Florida State to advance.
It was ole Miss that knocked out Arkansas. Just want
to make sure I get that squared away. Ole Miss

(39:43):
knocked out the number four seed Arkansas. Texas Tech eliminated
the five seed Florida State. So ole Miss in Texas
Tech play this evening on that side of the Women's
College World Series brackets and Oregon advancing. Oregon would have
played Texas A and M had had Texas A and
M won its regional and superregion, but of course they

(40:04):
got knocked out of the region by Liberty in then
Oregon eliminated Liberty in the Super region around so a
good start for Texas.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
And the Loggorns have won, by the.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
Way, seven consecutive Women's College World Series openers. They're seven
and one all time. In their eighth appearance in Oklahoma City,
they're seven and one all time.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
The only time.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
They lost their first game was the first time they
were ever in it in nineteen ninety eight.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
I am old enough to tell you that I called
that game. It was a one nothing lost.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
To Michigan, and Texas had a tremendous pitcher named Krista
Williams who was an Olympian later and Texas lost that
day at what was then Don porter Asa Hall of
Fame Stadium.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
They lost that day.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
So anyway, that's the case with the Women's College World Series.
Jolie Mitchell with those two home runs making some history
by hitting the two home runs, and it was a
tremendous game for her. She became the first Texas longn

(41:15):
Longhorn softball student athlete to record two or more home
runs in a single Women's College World series game. She's
also the first Longhorn to record a multi home run
game after the NCAA Regionals, So good stuff there for her.
So that's the update on softball. We'll keep you updated

(41:35):
on baseball. You know, right now they're working on that
portion of the centerfield fence, the batter's eye that got
blown completely down last night by the storms in the
Greater Austin area and it swept right through central Loston.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
So we'll keep you updated on that.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Houston Christian is on the field right now going through
their practice. Longhorns had their practice this morning. Last hour.
We brought you the news conference with Jim Slasniegel and
Jason Flores excuse me, Jalen Flores, and.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Also Luke Harrison. So we brought that to you.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
Up next, we'll talk to Major League Baseball and we'll
visit with Geene Watson from the Chicago White Sox front
office when we continue on this Thursday afternoon here on
thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
It's a yacht rock Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
So and in fact, we were even tossing out to
Lisa Coffin from the ut Golf Club because it was
her birthday, said give me a tune we'll play it.
And she came with, Brandy, you're a fine girl by
looking glass and we were happy to have that. So
for whatever reason, I mean, Gene Watson and I've been
friends for gosh forty years or so, and he he

(42:44):
was suggesting that we come out of this break with
he goes yacht rock air supply. All right, First of all,
let me let me stop you right there. First of all,
air supply doesn't deserve to be in yacht rock that
you know how I feel about air supply. Came has
suggested air supply a couple of times, and so we can't. No, no,
we're not gonna, but we are glad to have you

(43:05):
with us. And I know you're not a big air
supply fan, are.

Speaker 8 (43:08):
You not the biggest? But I do love yacht rock,
okay rock. We call our pool in the backyard the Oasis,
and every night we'll put the lights on a play
some good yacht rock and it's about as good as
it gets.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Perfect, absolutely perfect, that's it. Okay.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
I got to get your input on this. I'm sitting
here at the ballpark obviously it's press conference and practice
day here at ufcud's Frog Fields, Houston, Christian on the
field going through their workout, and of course they play
Texas tomorrow afternoon at one o'clock and we'll have the
broadcast here on thirteen hundred. The zone you by, now,
even though you're up in the Pacific Northwest.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Right, are you Washington?

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yes, Everett, Washington, way up in the PNW, all right,
So Gino's up there, and.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
I even though you're.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Whatever, fifteen, sixteen, twenty one hundred miles away, whatever it is,
you keep up with what going on with Longhorn baseball.
So you're well aware of what happened to the centerfield
fence the batter's eye last night with the major storms
that blew through the area, went right through central Loston
and a lot of that damaging hail at times was

(44:14):
grapefruit sized, and so what happened was the centerfield wall
blew in.

Speaker 15 (44:21):
Now.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
I had put out on Instagram a little bit of
video of the crew working while the Longhorns were practicing
during going through their NCAA scheduled and assigned ten am
practice time, So they were on the field while the
crews were out there and working on the.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Fence and all that other kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Someone then responded to that, showing the deal against Kansas
here a year ago in saying that they had a
deal similar thing and they got it ready before game one.
All of that is true, but I should point out
that last year that was only a portion, the top
portion of the fence.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
In this case, the entire fence blew down.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
They're working to get that back up, and they think
they'll have it ready in time for the one o'clock
first pitch tomorrow. My question to you, Geno, is in
all your years of being around college baseball, Minor league baseball,
major League baseball, high school baseball, have you ever seen
a deal like that where you've had an outfield fence
just flat out and knocked down, either by collision from

(45:21):
an outfielder or through act of God type stuff weather related.

Speaker 8 (45:26):
Well, the Rodney mccraig flyball in Louisville probably in the
late eighties is one that everybody certainly talks about. I
can tell you the top of that centerfield wall dish
falk took some damage when I pitched there and Scott
Bryant hit one off the top of that wall. That
centerfield wall took a beating. But no, it's I don't
think people realize how hard and how I mean, it's

(45:50):
incredible that the weather brought that centerfield wall down because
they are extremely stable, and so that speaks to the
volume of the storm that at Austin.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Yeah, like I said that, you've seen some weird things,
especially we hear and see things about minor league baseball
when things go a little bit crazy and a little
bit haywire on that. But usually it's not necessarily weather
related itself. But you've probably seen some strange things with
some weather delays and some other things over the years.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
I would imagine.

Speaker 8 (46:23):
We had a storm hit Saint Louis one night. This
speaks to the Saint Louis Cardinal fans, who I personally
believe are the best fans in baseball. Had we had
a tornado hit downtown Saint Louis one night and it
was so bad that the beer carts were flying through
the concourse and striking fans good well. A bridge got

(46:45):
taken out in downtown Saint Louis. It was really, really
a dangerous situation, and it was the last time the
two teams were going to play. It was like a
Thursday in September and they had to wait it out
and they resume play around eleven thirty PM. And when
they resumed play, there wasn't an empty seat in the ballpark.

(47:08):
I think they got the last fan out of Saint
Louis around three am, and the trains were shut down
and it was complete chaos. And there's actually a video
of it on YouTube. But that's probably the scariest thing
I've been in a high school game where we've had
to take shelter because the tornado was on the ground. Yeah,
that was awfully's pretty scary. But no, and especially in

(47:30):
Oklahoma City, you get all kinds of weather. Oh, Oklahoma City,
I've got a thousand stories like that.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yep, yep, absolutely me too.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
The Big twelve Tournament, remember flying in seeing the tornado,
the catastrophic one that hit more Oklahoma. I was flying
in and I could see it off in the distance.
I landed and went straight to the hotel and the
team was down in the basement of the Scurve and
hotel and they said get down.

Speaker 8 (47:51):
That was twenty and thirteen because my son was a
freshman at Kansas.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Yeah, yeah, scary stuff there.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
Yeah, as we visited with Team Watson talk a major
league baseball. Okay, since I mentioned the word catastrophic, let's
talk about uh injuries because you've said it, You've you've
been able to bang the drum on this thing about
about injuries in the in the constant quest for v

(48:18):
Lo and all this kind of stuff. So it looks
like the latest victim is Renel Blanco from the Astros.
He's going to have to have Tommy John surgeon on
the right elbow next week. He's going to be out
for the rest of the twenty twenty five season, three
and four and four to one oe er A at
the time. Here's my question to you, Geno, because like
you said, you're preaching to the choir, and we've talked
about this at length.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
But here's my question.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
What at what level, I guess, whether it's front office
or or the managerial ship, at what level does someone
step in and say the the.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
The losses are too great.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
The Dodgers have fourteen pitchers on the injured list right now,
fourteen guys on the eisle, all of them are pitchers
right now. There's other teams that have a ton of
guys on the injured list right now.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Is anything do you see anything.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
On the horizon where the leadership of Major League Baseball
will step in and say, we've got to do something
about this. We need to examine how we're preparing these
pitchers for what's going on. I don't even know what
the answer is, but can you see any situation where
they would where they would consider something like that.

Speaker 8 (49:34):
I think there's constant dialogue. And aj Smith Schuyer went
down for the Atlanta Braves today arguingly their number one
pitching prospect, and he went down today with a pop
and his elbows. So I think there's constant dialogue. I
think at the professional level, you have more and we've
said it a thousand times, more information, more sports science,

(49:57):
more everything. I think the real disconnect, and I've said
this a thousand times before, is at our youth levels
and the quest for that weekend trophy, that weekend ring,
that week in ranking. I think we're just destroying our
young pitchers at the youth level, and then you get
into high school. You know, eighty percent of the dropout

(50:19):
of the game is between ages and twelve, twelve and fourteen.
Then you get into high school and that's when the
real quest for velocity begins, and I just think that
parents are willing to put it on the line and
take the risk for their player to have a chance
to garner that Division one scholarship or that professional contract,
and they're going to do whatever it takes. And they're
going to listen to what are the so called experts

(50:41):
in chasing velocity when it's so much more than velocity.
It's so much more than pitch shape, pitch design. It's
the ability to control the running game, throw a breaking
ball for a strike, all of those things, competitiveness, all
those things. But we've just created such a blanket of
the chase for velocity that I don't know what's going
to happen to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

(51:04):
There have been pitching initiatives placed by USA Baseball, major
League Baseball, Baseball, and I think we're doing a better job.
But literally, you know, we've had players in the last
week that have taken their outs that we have re
signed back because we've taken injuries over the last week.
And it's not even June first yet. As we get

(51:26):
into June fifteenth, July first, at the major league level,
you're going to see the numbers even go higher. And
then when you take the number of pitching injuries that
take place at the major league level, and then you
supplement that with a limitation of the number of players
you can have in the minor leagues at one sixty five.
And then you throw in the fact that if you

(51:48):
sign a player from independent leagues, you're having to buy
that player out of the independent leagues. It's just a
broken system. It just doesn't work. And the demand is
always going to be so much greater than the supply.
And I would encourage every young picture to just keep competing,
keep it a little better, because the game needs you.

Speaker 15 (52:05):
Right now.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Interesting talking baseball with Geen Watson from the Chicago White
Sox front office here on thirteen hundred to Zono. Let
me shift gears on you here. This is something else,
and I know you'd have a real interesting take on.
I was talking about Texas softball winning today in Oklahoma City.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
They're in the winner's bracket.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
They'll play the winner of the Oklahoma Tennessee game, which
is going to the bottom of the fifth with Tennessee
leading three to.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
One in that one.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
So there's that look across the street at Macombs Field
where the UIL State Softball Tournament's going on. There are
fans wrapped around the stadium, they're waiting to get in
for the next session. There's obviously great interest in that.
And then I saw a story from Jeff pass in
the day that said that Major League Baseball is purchasing
an equity stake in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, the AUSL,

(52:59):
partnering with this league that's preparing for its first four
team season and plans to expand in future years, and
and and as and as UH. Jeff Passing points out,
with women's sports revenues now in excess of one billion
dollars per year, UH, having MLB helps establish the aus

(53:19):
L as a viable long term entity in a sport
that has seen multiple professional leagues full there's been there's
been leagues come and leagues go. So I would imagine,
you know, having UH, the equity state coming from MLB,
it would be really really critical to this latest attempt
at trying to make sure that professional softball, major League Softball,

(53:40):
makes it at the next level.

Speaker 8 (53:42):
Well, I want to say, Kim Ing is also the
commissioner of that league. Yes, And Kim is just she's unbelievable.
She was the first woman general manager in Major League Baseball.
I don't think there's been a day in our game
in my time in the game were a a hire
was celebrated more than when Kim was name general manager.
Is just a wonderful, wonderful human being and an incredible

(54:05):
baseball mind. And you know, Major League Baseball is a
thirteen billion dollar industry, and when you look across the
landscape at what the WNBA has been, it's right on time.
It's perfect, and there's never been more interest in women's
softball than right now. And so it's unfortunate that the
Jenny Finches and the Cat Austermans didn't get the same

(54:27):
opportunities that these young ladies are going to get, but
they paved the way for it, and they're certainly going
to have a big voice in how the league is run,
I'm sure, but it's just time now. Our society is
spread so differently now and women's softball is so popular
and the players are so talented that to have a
thirteen billion dollar industry behind it is certainly very beneficial.

(54:50):
And I think when you look at the success of
the WNBA and it's how it's growing, I think it's
right on time. And yeah, just a great move.

Speaker 15 (54:58):
Ak.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Yeah, the timing, You're right, timing is really good because
the w NBA has never ever been as popular as
it is right now. It's it's it's maybe a big thing,
all right, before we get done. I've read yesterday a
mock draft, and uh and I was chuckling as I
was looking down a mock draft, and I think every
one of the players that I saw listening to the

(55:19):
top ten were players that you had talked about at
some point, whore had seen, including the three young men
from Oklahoma that we pointed out. Uh you know, uh,
you know with the Kyson Witherspoonio plumba pitcher, and then
of course the two outstanding high school players with Ethan
Holiday expected to go number one overall to the Nationals.
And you know, in seeing that, uh, you know, in

(55:41):
in seeing that, as you are now down inside of
thirty days to the draft itself, what's going on from
here until you get to draft day itself?

Speaker 15 (55:52):
You know?

Speaker 2 (55:52):
For the major league clubs.

Speaker 8 (55:54):
Well, you've got conference or you've got the regional starting
this weekend, which every every team is going to have
all their scouts covering that. What makes it so unique
this year is once you get past the top three
picks in the draft, it's really there's not a great
deal of separation. So you know, you've got X amount
of dollars to spend in your pool in the first
ten rounds, and so I think teams are going to

(56:15):
be going okay at number ten. For Instant, we pick
at ten. Okay, at ten, we can take the highest
ceiling player on the board, and this is what it's
going to be for our team moving forward. Or you
can say we can take because there's not that much separation,
we can take player B at a cut and take

(56:36):
that money from the cut, and we pick at forty
four also, and you see what falls back to you
at forty four. So you're taking your first round slot
money and you're getting two for one, and you're getting
better player with your second pick. So I think there's
going to be many discussions in the rooms about that.
For Instant, the Royals pick twenty three and twenty eight,

(56:56):
so you know how they spend their money is going
to be important. But it's a heavy high school class.
It's a heavy class of high school shortstops. I've seen
them all. You could flip a coin on who's going
to be the better player. You know, Eli Willitts is
an outstanding player. Billy Carlson out at Corona High School outstanding. Obviously,
Ethan Holiday is probably, you know, the crown jewel of

(57:18):
that group. But it's just a really unique year in
the draft strategy wise. And do we take the highest
ceiling player on the board and pay full freight or
do we try to spread the money through two or
three picks throughout the draft. And so it's going to
be as we get closer and these these regionals end
and we get closer to the deadline, it's going to
be interesting to see what the strategy of the clubs is.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
He's team wantson from the Chicago White Sox front office.
We talk Major League Baseball with him every week on
the program. Hey Gino, have fun up there in that
Pacific Northwest? Have have you already been back to that
original Starbucks? I know you as much as you love Starbucks.
You said you were going back down the Pike Place.
Have you been down there yet?

Speaker 8 (57:57):
I could sit at Pike Place all day every day.
It's it's a wonderful place. Yes, I have made it
down there.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Okay, Hey Gino, Thanks man, we'll talk next week.

Speaker 8 (58:06):
Okay, take care, you bet.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
That is Geene Watson.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
The Houston Christian Huskies have just completed their practice on
the field, so I believe all four teams have now
finished their workouts on the field.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
I'm not joking.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
I'm looking across the street at Macombs Field and the
line is several people deep wrapped around Macombs Field, around
the block, going down Comal and then up I think
it's twenty first straight up the side street that runs
along the first base line. It is completely loaded up there.

(58:44):
So interesting to note that, all right, when we come back,
we'll have some more baseball oriented things from this regional
to get to when we continue on thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 15 (58:59):
We are back.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
It's the Craigway Show with Hall of Fame broadcaster and
voice of the Texas Longhearts Craig Way.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
We continue here on thirteen hundred of the Zone, and
as we mentioned, the regional practices now coming to their conclusion,
and Houston Christian has finished its practice on the field,

(59:31):
so all of four teams have practice. We brought you
the press conference earlier from the Texas side that was
in the two o'clock hour, and if you didn't hear it,
you can always go back and check it out there
on our podcast page at A thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
You can do that.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
The number two seed in this tournament is UTSA. UTSA
outstanding team and not only a really good team, but UTSA,
of course winners of the regular season of the American
Athletic Conference, and they did not win their conference tournament,

(01:00:19):
which tells you that in a non power conference, if
you don't win your conference tournament and you still land
in a regional and you're as high as a number
two seed, you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Have to be a good ball club. And they are.
They're forty four and thirteen.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
They won the American Conference regular season, got knocked out
lost i think twice to Tulane in that conference tournament.
They got knocked out there, but at forty four and thirteen,
still held on to a number two seed and they're
here and they're going to play the number three seed
Kansas State, which was a middle of the pack finisher
in the Big twelve conference, but.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
They're the three seed.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
UTSA is the number two seed they have the American Conference.
It's a player of the Year Mason Ligel, who led
the league and at bats run, scored hits, and also doubles.
This year, he was named the Player of the Year
in the conference. And this was from the news conference.

(01:01:15):
Somebody asked Mason Litel in the UTSA press conference about
the type of year he had, which is kind of
an All American kind of season, and his thoughts on
bringing those kind of credentials into this NCAA regional environment.

Speaker 24 (01:01:31):
Obviously, I mean, that stuff's cool and all, but it's
just it's a testament to the work we put in
as a team and the batters I have around me
that allow me to have the success that I get
to have, and it's a testament to the coaching staff
and everybody. I mean, this is I'm grateful to have
those honors, but at the end of the day, it's

(01:01:51):
just team baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
So there's you know, the all for one, one for
all team baseball response.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Pat Hollmark is a Conference Coach of the Year. He's
the conference coach of the Union American Conference. He did
a great job at Incarnate Word, which ultimately led to
him getting the UTSA job, and he won a conference
Coach of the Year award when he was in the
Southland Conference with uiw now at UTSA, he's the conference

(01:02:22):
coach of the year, and Hallmark was asked, you know'll
hear him make reference to the comment that Mason Lytel
just made about all being in and being honored and
everything like that. But he was asked about his feeling
about everything that this team has accomplished, becoming the first

(01:02:42):
UTSA team to reach a regional allowed, winning a conference tournament,
winning the regular season title. Here's the head coach of
the Roadrunners, Pat Hallmark.

Speaker 25 (01:02:52):
The first part of your question, My thoughts are similar
to Mason's. Probably, I'm grateful to be part of it.
I'm proud of them. I think it's time to turn
the page. It's a new season, So some of that

(01:03:14):
stuff's kind of realistically going away in a little bit focus,
maybe pissed. I tend to perform better that way. So
these people here with us this weekend, the opponents are
really good. So it's going to take the best of
every one of us to win this thing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
Yeah, So you can tell that kind of edge to
Pat Harmon Hallmark, he was He was a former assistant
coaching colleague of David Pierce when the two were on
Wing Graham's staff. At Rice and then he got the
UIW head coaching job and then moved on from there
obviously to UTSA. So he was all business and it

(01:03:59):
was all about talking, all business and getting ready for
the ball game.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
So he was asked with that in mind.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Of course, they play Kansas State tomorrow night, and he
was asked for his thoughts on the Wildcats team that
he is matching his group up against.

Speaker 15 (01:04:17):
Mentioned it earlier.

Speaker 25 (01:04:18):
The thing that jumps out at you when you first
pull up the stats is the ninety two homers. They
can hit the long ball, and they try to hit
the long ball. They're swinging off their back leg. I
like the way they swing. I won't like the way
they swing Friday, but because they take a dangerous pass,

(01:04:39):
which is what we hope we do and we tend
to do too. So I think they're trained well. And
the long ball is the first thing.

Speaker 15 (01:04:47):
You know.

Speaker 25 (01:04:47):
They have some stuff on the mound. Frost will run
it up to ninety five ninety four regularly. He's a
pro prospect. Then they got four guys in the pen
that are all bunch of ninety five too, So it's
not a surprise of our power four team. It's what
you typically see from the Power four teams. But the
talent's there, well coached. You know, Pete's been around. He

(01:05:12):
absolutely knows what he's doing. So works cut out for us,
but we're also looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Yeah, and that'll be the game tomorrow night, the number
two seed UTSA against the three seed Kansas State, and
that's the six o'clock game. Of course, the Longhorns play
at one o'clock here against Houston Christian. We'll be back
to wrap up hour number two here on thirteen under
the Zone, third and final hour of the program here
on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred of the Zone, as
we continue to come your way from u FCU dishfalk Field,

(01:05:44):
the site of the NCAA Regional, the Austin Regional that
gets underway tomorrow afternoon at one o'clock Texas against Houston Christian.
Craig Waig with you, of course, Cameron park Of the producer,
he is in the studio. All right, let's get jump
to date on a couple of things, and I will
point out also that we'll visit coming up in the

(01:06:05):
next segment with Ty Harrington. We'll talk to long worn
baseball college baseball, the NCAA tournament field overall, that's coming
up in the next segment, but let's get jump to
date on some things.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
First of all, softball.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
That's going on Texas softball in case you didn't hear
the game earlier today, played here on thirteen under the Zone, Texas,
behind Teagan Cavan's two hit, shutout masterpiece, defeated Florida the
number three see Texas the sixth seed Longhorns with the
win three to note thing, they got three solo homers,

(01:06:41):
one from Jolie Mitchell in the second. Then in the
top of the six Mitchell with a homer and Katie
Stewart right behind her made it back to back home runs.
Mitchell became the first player in University of Texas softball
history to hit multiple home runs in a Women's College
World Series game, and also the forest the first to

(01:07:03):
get multiple home runs in any game past the regional round.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
So big doings there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
And then, like I said in the circle, teaking Caban
look splendid the best she has looked, probably conservative estimate,
a month from the start of a game, and because
she had had some difficult outings and we talked about
it with Mike White. The head coach earlier this week,
so that was that, but she really looked herself today

(01:07:35):
limiting the Gators to just two hits. So Texas with
the win, they're now fifty two and eleven and the
Longhorns move on now in the Winter's Bracket where they'll
play Saturday afternoon at two o'clock, and the Saturday afternoon
game will feature Texas against the winner of the game

(01:07:57):
going on right now, And that's the game going on
between the number two seed, the four time defending national
champion Oklahoma Sooners, and the number seven seed Tennessee. Tennessee
scored two runs in the top of the first, Oklahoma
got a homer in the bottom of the first. Volunteers

(01:08:17):
scored a run in the second inning, and that's where
it's been since then. Right now, Tennessee leads ou three
to one. That's in the bottom of the sixth with
one out. Oklahoma the higher seeds, so they're the designated
home team and they're batting right now, and it's three
to one in the bottom half of the sixth inning,
and there are now as a result of a fly

(01:08:40):
ball out, two outs in the inning. So we'll see
if Tennessee holds onto that Tennessee would take on Texas
in the winner's bracket. Before you celebrate too much, if
you're a long worn fan, and I understand if you
would about being able to avoid facing Oklahoma. Remember the
Longhorns did play Tennessee this year at home and drop
two out of three to the Volunteers. Still in all,

(01:09:01):
Oklahoma is Oklahoma, the four time defending national champs, and they,
by the way, swept Texas this year. So yes, probably
the longer you could avoid the Sooners, the better off
you would be. But they're all really kind of almost
you know how in the World Cup when they talk
about the group of death when they have all those
different groups there for the World Cup, Well, in the

(01:09:25):
two groups or brackets that they have, this is kind
of the group of death because you have all four
of the higher seeds advancing as they were expected to.
And by the way, Tennessee is now out of the
bottom of the six still with a three to one lead.
They're going to the seventh inning now with the Volunteers

(01:09:46):
leading three to one. So the two seed Oklahoma the
three seed floor to the sixth seed Tennessee in the
Texas and the seventh seed Tennessee all advancing through the
Regionals and the Super Regionals to the Women's College World Series.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
And if this lead.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Holds for Tennessee, then it's going to be the sixth
seed against the seventh seed in a winners bracket game
Saturday afternoon at two o'clock. And the elimination game that
would be played tomorrow night would be the two seed
and the three seed Oklahoma against Florida. So that's the

(01:10:30):
situation there with the with the Women's College World Series,
and again here's kind of.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
The tentative plan. Tentative.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
First of all, we know for sure tomorrow afternoon's game
here at the Regional between Texas and Houston Christian you
can hear it live right here on AM thirteen under
the Zone twelve forty five. Pre games start time one
o'clock with the first pitch. Roger Wallas will joined me
for the call of the Red throughout the weekend as
Keith Mortland is working.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
The telecast of all of these games here.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
He'll be working with Victor Rojas on the telecast of
the games here in at at.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
The Dish, So.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
That'll be tomorrow afternoon you'll be able to hear it
live here on the zone. If Texas wins the game
over Houston Christian, they would advance to a winner's bracket
contest on Saturday night against the winner of the UTSAK
State game.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
Which will take place at six o'clock here tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
I that game on Saturday night would be heard on
one of three point one FM, as well as on
you can hear it through the iHeartRadio app, the Texas
Longhorns app you know, and online at Texas Sports, Texas
long Worns dot Com, all the places where you've been
able to catch it during the course of the year.

(01:11:56):
It would be available under all of the on all
of those apps and places to catch it those platforms.

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
That's the word I was looking for, as well as
the fact that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
We'll have the game for you on one of three
point one FM out of the winner's bracket on Saturday night.
So assuming that happens, and you never want to assume
anything in the NCAA tournament, but if the Longhorns do
defeat Houston Christian Lamar and advance in the winner's bracket,
the Saturday game would be on one of three point
one FM, and then, of course, as I mentioned, through

(01:12:33):
the iHeartRadio app, the Texas Longhorns app, the LHN app,
and also online at Texaslonghorns dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
So all of that would be available.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
And that would mean that the softball game Saturday afternoon
at two between Texas and the winner of this Tennessee,
Oklahoma game, and again they've gone to the top of
the seventh now with Tennessee up three to one. But
that Saturday afternoon Winter's Bracket game would be a two
o'clock game and you would hear that here on thirteen
under the Zone, a one forty five pregame start time
and a two o'clock first pitch. In the event if

(01:13:10):
Texas should lose Friday night, they would play at two
o'clock in an elimination game here on Saturday, and of
course we'd have that game for you on the Zone.
But hopefully Longhorns are able to handle their business advance
in the winner's bracket and then you can hear the
softball game live here on the Zone, and then Texas
will played in the winner's bracket on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:13:27):
Night, real quick quick. A couple of benefits from Texas
winning the day. Obviously you win, which is one benefit.
The other benefit is that so you advance to the
winner's bracket side if you were to lose that game
instead of today like Florida, now you're facing either Oklahoma
or Tennessee, two of the best teams in the country,

(01:13:50):
in an elimination game. If you lose the game on Saturday,
Texas goes to the other side of the bracket and
plays the winner of the lose US bracket, which ultimately
is going to be a team that on paper is
not as good as though it could be Texas Tech
could be old Miss Oregon UCLA. So now in a
do or die game, instead of facing Oklahoma or Tennessee,

(01:14:13):
two teams that have already beaten you this season, now
you're facing dare i say, an easier opponent, And then
now you're on the other side of the bracket that
does not feature number two Oklahoma or number seven Tennessee,
which would be huged for Texas in their hopes of
returning to the Women's College World Series Final.

Speaker 2 (01:14:32):
It's a great point, great point, Cam, You're right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
You know they did this a few years ago. They
used to not do it this way with the Women's
College World Series. See, they used to do it like
the Men's College World Series where you just had your
two bracket champions and you played out your brackets. Now,
I will tell you this, Historically they used to flip
the bracket like that in Omaha, but things were and

(01:14:55):
that was like seventies into the eighties, I believe, before
they got away from that. But a part of the
reason that they did that, first of all, the tournament
feel was smaller. It was forty eight teams in a region.
It was always called a Central Regional here, central Regional
one or two, so it was a different regional. It

(01:15:16):
wasn't a sixty fourteen bracket, as we know. They didn't
get to the sixty fourteen double elimination style format until
nineteen ninety nine. So as a result of that, they
used to flip the bracket. Just as you pointed out,
the Women's College World Series has done that. Now they
have flipped the bracket. So your point is well made

(01:15:40):
the win on the first day really important, at least
in terms of this year's Women's College World Series, because
first of all, if they win the next round on Saturday,
then they get more time off, and then of course
their one went away from playing for the national championship.
If they were to lose, you pointed out, at least

(01:16:01):
they flip to the other side of the bracket and play,
shall we say it, perhaps a more manageable uplint And
now Mike White and Neanas will say, hey, they're all
in Oklahma City because they're all really, really good. But
I think most folks would point to it and say,
you know, you have an unseated team on the other
side of the bracket. In old myth, you have a

(01:16:22):
twelve seed in Texas Tech Ucla I believe is a
nine seed out of that, and Oregon was a sixteen seed.

Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
So it is.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
Indeed a much more palatable side of the bracket to
have to cruise through to try to work your way
back and get to the National Championship Series. But if
Texas handles its business on Saturday, then they take a
giant step forward to try to return to the National Championship.
They're in the top of the seventh. Tennessee is batting
with a runner on a lead off, a runner aboard,

(01:16:53):
and again Tennessee leads Okloma three one.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
We'll keep everybody updated on that, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:16:58):
Here's the one other thing I wanted to update with
before we get to the break, and I'm going to
post this on Instagram here shortly, uh, in discussion about
the outfield wall here, which got knocked down the batter's eye,
the center field wall got completely flattened last night by
the storms that raged right through central Boston. Fortunately, first

(01:17:21):
of all, neither of the video and scoreboards were damaged
at all. They've been utilizing them all day today and
they're they're running them right now, and in fact they're
even they were even running the softball game, the Texas
softball game on the one of the big on the
big video board earlier, so that's still going on and

(01:17:43):
that those those are fine.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
Those two.

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
The outfield wall, of course got knocked over. Now, somebody
had reminded that I thinking of response to my Instagram
post about the Kansas Series last year, and uh, they
were able to get it up and running. There was
a distinct difference between that Kansas City and what happened
last night when it got knocked down. Before the Kansas Series,
that was only the top half of the wall, the

(01:18:08):
ten foot regular outfield center football that has four hundred
and the Longhorn logo in dead center field.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
All of that was intact last year.

Speaker 1 (01:18:18):
Last night all of it got knocked down, including the
ten football, so that was the difference last year, and
they were able to get it up and running. But
university officials have set from the outset they expect everything
to be.

Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
Back in place by tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:18:30):
Well, first sign of evidence of that the ten football
is back up, all except one panel, and I think
that's only because they're using it as a pass through,
a walk through to go from the back side right now.
So basically the ten foot wall and dead center is
back up in place. Now it's about building the park

(01:18:51):
back up behind it the batter's eye, at least getting
it if they can to say twenty feet it's twenty
eight feet in.

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
Normal time in its height.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
I don't know based on the way it was constructed prior,
if they'd be able to go to the full twenty eight,
but they ought to be able to get it to
at least twenty feet there and they say it's all
going to be ready. So just wanted to update everybody
on that. That's the situation that the center field wall,
the ten football is back up and they're working on

(01:19:22):
the other part.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
Coming up next, we'll talk some College Baseball with Ty
Harrington when we continue on thirteen under.

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
The Zone here on this Thursday afternoon from.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
Ufc U Diish fogg Field Craig Way with you here
this afternoon and update on the Women's College World Series.
Oklahoma was able to get out of a bases loaded
jam in the top of the seventh inning.

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
Tennessee did not score.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
They're going to the bottom of seventh with the Lady
Balls leaning the Sooners three to one, so they're going
to the bottom of the seventh right now. The winner
of that game is going to get Texas the Longhorns
behind Teak and Cavan's two hit shutout and the three
home runs hip all solos, two from Jolie Mitchell and
one from Katie Stewart, a three to now thing Texas victory.

(01:20:08):
So they're in the winner side of that Winter's bracket
and they will play Saturday afternoon at two o'clock against
the winner of this Tennessee Oklahoma game. And again it's
three to one Tennessee leading ou As they go to
the bottom of the seventh. Always on the winner side
of the bracket when he's with us is the coach
of twenty years of Texas State and of course national

(01:20:28):
championship head coach at Northeast Texas Community College up at
Mount Pleasant, our Own analyst Ty Harrington joins us on
the hotline. I was thinking about you the other day
because I was watching while even text you. At one point,
I was watching the National Junior College World Series going on,
and I know you know.

Speaker 2 (01:20:50):
You got a chance to experience that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:52):
I was watching an elimination game between mcclennan and Blynn,
and McLennon looked really, really good in that. But I
was struck by the fact that Walter's State Community College
is the number one seed and ra averaging something like
eleven runs a game coming into the into the ind
of the College World Series in Grand Junction. And yet

(01:21:13):
we know of Walter State and just learned of it
really because of Ethan Walker having pitched there a year ago.
So I know that that's a tournament that also is
near and dear to your heart, not only because of
what you ever accomplished there, but it's a pretty special
event out there in Grand Junction as well, isn't it.

Speaker 14 (01:21:30):
It's it truly, is uh kraigt Look, it was obviously
a special time in my life.

Speaker 15 (01:21:36):
But it was.

Speaker 14 (01:21:38):
Fairly on the heels of me going to Omaha.

Speaker 15 (01:21:42):
As a player and as a coach.

Speaker 14 (01:21:45):
I think I was maybe only three years removed, maybe
four years removed from Ut being a young assistant and player,
and so you know, experiencing Omaha, Nebraska, and then a
couple of years later experience and seeing being in grand
Junction and obviously being able to capitalize on it winning

(01:22:06):
national titles.

Speaker 15 (01:22:07):
It was incredible.

Speaker 14 (01:22:08):
It is an unbelievable event and one that I'll always
remember it. But the town, just like o the Hall
absolutely just embraces that tournament and just it's it's a
community wide event everywhere you go. Our players were treated
like they were, you know, big leaders, and it made

(01:22:31):
the event so special and a lot of them never
you know, experienced anything like it again probably And so
if ever that opportunity comes up and somebody gets to
go and wants to go.

Speaker 15 (01:22:43):
I highly recommend going.

Speaker 14 (01:22:45):
It is truly special and fun and something.

Speaker 15 (01:22:48):
To be a part of it. And I didn't get
to watch the other night.

Speaker 14 (01:22:52):
I was planning on watching mcc and Blend play, both
their head coaches, longtime friends of mine.

Speaker 15 (01:23:00):
A lot of Longhorn fans.

Speaker 14 (01:23:00):
Woul Punty recognized Coler Johnson. That's Skiff Johnson's son, the
head coach at NCC and also coach Kate Bean, And
so there was a lot there's a lot involved in
several players from Blend, you know this year and you
know playing for Dusty Hart who won the national championship
last year. And uh so there's a lot of a

(01:23:21):
lot of people in De Bay One Baseball that you know,
both those programs have has touched and Walter State has
always been good, by the way, and eleven runs scored
if they I haven't seen the scores, but if they're
scoring an averaging eleven runs getting to the tournament, I
can imagine what they're scoring in that tournament.

Speaker 15 (01:23:38):
Because it is an offensive event.

Speaker 1 (01:23:41):
Yeah, yeah, it it certainly is. That they won their first, No,
they lost their first.

Speaker 2 (01:23:49):
Let's see, I want to make sure I got this right.
I thought they won. They did.

Speaker 1 (01:23:52):
They won their first game, uh, eleven to ten, and
and then and then and they've had another game where
they won in eight innings run ruling.

Speaker 2 (01:24:08):
Mc clennan. I believe it was thirteen to five.

Speaker 1 (01:24:10):
And then they are playing tonight against Lakeland Community kind
of think it's from Lakeland, Florida.

Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
They're playing tonight, they're in Grand Junction.

Speaker 1 (01:24:20):
So yeah, they're quite good, no doubt about it. And
hearing you talk about that also reminds me. I was
in Dayton, Ohio to do the NT men's basketball playing
games the first four when Texas is playing up there,
and I've been up there once before working network radio
for Westwood One, and I saw then and I echoed

(01:24:41):
it when Texas went back up there, that that city,
that community, that town, Dayton, Ohio, wraps its arms around
that first four. It's a major event to them. And
it gave me the vibe of Omaha and the way
that that city wraps its arms around the tournament. And
you're saying that it's the same thing in Grand Junction
with the way they handle the Junior College World Series.

Speaker 14 (01:25:03):
Yeah, at a smaller level, but yes, I mean, you're
gonna play in front of ten thousand people every night
and Grant Johnson almost nights. Everywhere you go in town,
everybody recognizes you, and you do a lot of the
community events, stay involved in the community in so any ways,
schools as.

Speaker 15 (01:25:20):
Well, and so yeah, I mean it just it's.

Speaker 14 (01:25:24):
An incredibly run event that brings a lot of you know,
gratification and a lot of revenue and a lot of
everything but fun to that community and they embrace it,
uh and they have made it a really special event
that not just for the players that come and the
families that come, but for their own community.

Speaker 15 (01:25:43):
And now they have several people that go back every year.

Speaker 14 (01:25:45):
And so it reminded me of when, you know, my
first year at Omaha, which was eighty four, my freshman year,
we got beat in the National Championship game by an
all the Garrido call Forgon team, and you know, from
it was had that community feel to it.

Speaker 15 (01:26:04):
Then like Omaha did.

Speaker 14 (01:26:06):
Then. Omaha was big, bigger than what Grand Junction was,
but it's you know a little bit more of a
community feel at that point in time in Omaha as well.

Speaker 1 (01:26:15):
Talking college baseball here with Ty Harrington on thirteen hundred, Okay,
I brought up the fact that I was in Dayton,
Ohio for that deal. The night that I was in Dayton, Ohio, well,
it was there a couple of nights, but one of
the nights that I was there was the night the
Texas played UTSA here that twelve inning game that the
road Runners won over the Longhorns in that contest. I
asked ty Harrington at no, I didn't ask you. I

(01:26:38):
asked Jim Slowsnickel at the news conference today, if you
know how much do you glean from a midweek, you know,
Tuesday night game, not only in the case of UTSA,
but of course against their opponent tomorrow, Houston Christian who
they run ruled back on April eight, and he said,
you know, midweek games, one game, you you know, can

(01:27:01):
can vary quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (01:27:02):
I mean there's certain things that you look for.

Speaker 1 (01:27:05):
I guess Tye is and he kind of made reference
to this, and I want to give you a chance
to expand on it a little bit. The whole thing about, uh,
what you can take from individual players on that team
and their approaches at bad and those who got in
the mound. I mean, there are some things you can

(01:27:25):
glean from a game that took place almost two months ago,
aren't there?

Speaker 2 (01:27:31):
Of course there are.

Speaker 26 (01:27:33):
You're gonna have your own built in data, You're gonna
have your polytics, you're gonna have your video, you're gonna
have what scouting report you had going into that game first.

Speaker 14 (01:27:47):
As you know, back data for you to approach first,
then you get to cross reference it about how.

Speaker 15 (01:27:54):
You thought that affected the game, and they each hitter,
how you play them defensively.

Speaker 14 (01:28:00):
You know, Texas does a tremendous job of understanding the
value of the ship, but you've got to understand it
before you can do it. You can't just decide to
do it one day just because you saw on TV,
and so you got to understand the value of it
and the timing. I think also how you end up.

Speaker 15 (01:28:19):
Pitching each of those guys. Was that successful did there?

Speaker 14 (01:28:22):
You know, did their bat speed or their bat pass
match up for breakers?

Speaker 15 (01:28:27):
You know, did they have slighter bat speed? Did they
have basketball bat speed?

Speaker 14 (01:28:30):
While those things come into play as to how you
decide to approach each hitter. And then obviously he probably
didn't see some of the arms you're going to see tomorrow.
It's gonna have to go back and you know, I
don't know if they're pitching Parker Edwards or who they're
pitching yet out her, but you know you're going to
have to go back and and pull video from different

(01:28:53):
games that they played in and and go get all
the analytics you can off of him as well to
under stand what you know or who that is as
to what they and how they approach, you know, their
opposing hitters and so all that's going.

Speaker 15 (01:29:07):
To come into play. It gives you some familiarity. The
one thing I think, you know, I don't know if Jim.

Speaker 14 (01:29:13):
Said this or not, Church Lost Legal said this or not,
but I think each of these teams, but particularly for
coach Loss's perspective, he has familiarity with the coaches, their programs,
their personalities, Our personalities as coaches come out and in
the in games, and they really come out or become

(01:29:34):
more exposed.

Speaker 15 (01:29:35):
In big games, championship games. Do we change.

Speaker 14 (01:29:39):
Our philosophy and start bunning in the third inning?

Speaker 15 (01:29:43):
Do we start you know, you know, we're playing fourth and.

Speaker 14 (01:29:47):
One games now right I'm at because there is no tomorrow,
so you you turn to different offensive philosophy sooner than later,
and so all those things. So there's some familiarity with
their tendencies and they get expediated because of his championship
postseason play, and because of that, I think for Chris Bashenegle,

(01:30:09):
he's got some built in ideas going into it that
you know, that goes into his you know, bank and
meaning his brain of you know, this is how they
did in his you know, knowledge of playing against these
scenes and the and or these coaches in his past.

Speaker 1 (01:30:27):
Talking to baseball here with Ty Henry, and we've not
heard of the either side with the starting pitchers.

Speaker 2 (01:30:34):
But by the way, Ty, I know this is not
going to shock at all.

Speaker 1 (01:30:38):
Oklahoma's just got a two out, three run homer in
the bottom of the seventh they win over Tennessee. Tennessee
was one out away from winning. Oklahoma wins at four
to three. So Texas will play Oklahoma on Saturday. What
else is new? So they will play Oklahoma on Saturday
afternoon at at two o'clock. Well, it's least the devil,
you know in that case for Mike White, didn't it.

(01:30:59):
I mean, it's it's amazing, al Olahoma could still come
up and and and have an anything like that in
a walk off three run homer.

Speaker 15 (01:31:07):
Well there.

Speaker 14 (01:31:08):
They are a multi national champion program for a reason,
and part of that goes with it.

Speaker 15 (01:31:14):
And you know, look, I'm.

Speaker 14 (01:31:17):
Can catch them second game, you're fresh enough.

Speaker 15 (01:31:19):
I mean, it'll obviously.

Speaker 14 (01:31:21):
Be a highly viewing game by a lot of people
and certainly buy a lot of Longhorn fans on Saturday,
including myself, And so look, you if you're going to
catch them, catch.

Speaker 15 (01:31:32):
Them now, right and and and get moving from there.

Speaker 14 (01:31:35):
But they've got such a championship atmosphere around them, believed
from international you can't high from that. And it came
out of here, you know, you know, kind of describing
what had just happened. Yeah, the same thing, right, And
people have gotten used to that. And maybe this is

(01:31:55):
a Saturday that the game the first time in the
world serison this year that we blame that we get
a chance.

Speaker 15 (01:32:01):
To meet him.

Speaker 1 (01:32:02):
Yeah, Avasella Parker. By the way, you had the three
run humber. Okay, let me go back to a baseball
here on neither side. I've seen an official announcement on
who the starting pitcher. Let let me let me start
with Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:32:16):
Would it be the uh?

Speaker 1 (01:32:18):
And and one thing Jim Schlasnekle said was uh. He said,
I want to get through workout this afternoon, look at
some guys, look at our matchups, and and see where
we are with things. Would it be logical reasonable to
assume that Jim might want to go with some sort

(01:32:42):
of a combo of kay bing Ethan Walker's pitch really
really well and then you know whatever, get it to
Grayson Sonier and other ones, other ones down the stretch
in the game back on April eighth.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
Being started and only work one inning.

Speaker 1 (01:32:59):
Uh, Jason Floors came in and he gave up the
two eight cu runs. It was home run involved in that,
if I remember correctly. And then after that Soignier and
I think Aiden Moffatt closed the door of the rest
of the way and the long rune run rulled them.
They want it in seven innings by a score of
twelve to two. What from the perspective of a head
coach who has lost his number one starting pitcher to

(01:33:23):
a season ending injury in the case of Jared Spencer,
and has tried to, you know, piece it together the
best way that he and Maxween are able to do it.
What's your take on what could be in store for
Texas going to the Mound.

Speaker 14 (01:33:34):
Of arm And I think there's are multiple opportunities. I mean,
I think that you've got a well rested you know,
the two starters that you've been using throughout the year
are arrested, and you know with Riojas and Harrison, so
you have options if that's what you still chose to do.

Speaker 15 (01:33:56):
In game one.

Speaker 14 (01:33:58):
As you just mentioned, you have an option of you know, running,
being out.

Speaker 7 (01:34:02):
There and.

Speaker 14 (01:34:03):
You know, knowing maybe he's got a ceiling as far
as how far it goes.

Speaker 15 (01:34:09):
But a combination is I think another way to look
at that as well.

Speaker 14 (01:34:14):
You have different looks that you could bring to their
uh to the game.

Speaker 15 (01:34:19):
You have power from the right hand.

Speaker 14 (01:34:21):
With with Burns and Sonya if you wanted to change it,
looks if k Bing is who you go with first,
and so yeah, I mean there there are multiple ways
to try to win game one, you know, and then
the old saying that the decision for this is is

(01:34:43):
do you go back to who you know you've been
starting in game one, which was Rio oas and you know,
so they do.

Speaker 15 (01:34:51):
Have multiple ways.

Speaker 14 (01:34:52):
The idea that they're still thinking about it and talking
about it and talking about matchups makes me think that
your initial co was on the combinations. It's probably what
they will go to or it sounds like that maybe
where they're leaning. And so there's a lot of different
ways to do that.

Speaker 15 (01:35:11):
You don't just have to have one guy to get
to a game to win it. You can in your
mind matchups.

Speaker 14 (01:35:17):
You can do that in any game to try to
help you succeed if you've got.

Speaker 15 (01:35:21):
The depth in the bullpen.

Speaker 14 (01:35:23):
And Texas does have depth in the bullpen this year,
and they do have arms that they trust and that
they like that they could go out and on the
first game tomorrow at one o'clock, they have guys that
could go out there if it is a combination and
still succeed and win with it.

Speaker 1 (01:35:39):
I'm going to read off these regionals to you and
tell me what your what your thought is on these
and who you like, UH should probably come out of
those those regions.

Speaker 2 (01:35:49):
Let me start.

Speaker 1 (01:35:50):
Obviously, the number one overall seed is Vanderbilt and they're
at home. They'll play Right State. The two three matchup
is Louisville against East Tennessee State. How do you see
that one.

Speaker 14 (01:36:01):
I don't think Louisville wins the two three game. Obviously
Vanderbilt is going to win, and I think those two
end up. I think Louisville ended up playing a little
bit better in the middle part of the season.

Speaker 15 (01:36:15):
I had a chance to see him coming, so I do.

Speaker 14 (01:36:17):
But I think comes out of that there they maybe.

Speaker 15 (01:36:22):
Would you turn this doctor ill of it?

Speaker 14 (01:36:24):
Would you be hard Preston, bring either one of the
hundred teams in college baseball for the last month and
a half, they throwing the ball incredibly.

Speaker 1 (01:36:34):
Well, yeah, there's no reason to think that Vanderbilt won't
continue to play good baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:36:39):
I agree with you, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:36:40):
The winner of that regional draws the winner of the
regional in Hattiesburg. You know the Southern Myths program very
very well. They're the They're the one they played Columbia.
Alabama is the two in Miami's the three. How do
you see that one?

Speaker 14 (01:36:54):
Oh man?

Speaker 15 (01:36:55):
They how do you some mess?

Speaker 14 (01:36:59):
Is good?

Speaker 2 (01:37:00):
They really are.

Speaker 15 (01:37:02):
They're good enough on the mound.

Speaker 14 (01:37:04):
I think it comes down too, truthfully, it's going to
be and if I'm just guessing, I am, and it
plays out, it's going to come down between Southern Miss
and Alabama in a championship game. I do think Southern
Miss is good enough to be Alabama.

Speaker 15 (01:37:18):
Whether they do or they don't, I don't know that.

Speaker 14 (01:37:21):
But they do have the arms, and they do have
one thing about Southern Miss.

Speaker 15 (01:37:26):
When you play on they throw strikes.

Speaker 14 (01:37:29):
And the other piece of it is that ballpark in Hattiesburg.

Speaker 15 (01:37:34):
It is gonna be a bunch of southern wholetown. It
will be at that Moll Park.

Speaker 2 (01:37:42):
In Tallahassee, Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:37:44):
State of play Bethune Cookman Northeastern is being described as
perhaps the most dangerous number two seed coming out of
the Coast Athletic Association and they're playing Mississippi State. Now,
Mississippi State has been hot of late. But I also
wonder about the mindset that on this since it was
just announced that Brian O'Connor is leaving Virginia to become
the head coach of Mississippi State. How about that dynamic? Yeah,

(01:38:08):
that's a lot. That's a lot.

Speaker 15 (01:38:12):
Bron first of all.

Speaker 14 (01:38:15):
An outstanding coach and an outstanding person, But that is
a lot right in a matter of a couple of
hours and an out at the end of the regional.

Speaker 15 (01:38:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 14 (01:38:28):
Enough about I've read up and paid attention to them
lately because they were, you know, won so many games
and like the led the country and wins and that's
always intriguing and interesting.

Speaker 15 (01:38:39):
Just but just how good are they?

Speaker 2 (01:38:41):
Longest streak?

Speaker 15 (01:38:45):
Yeah, I think the Thermond one that's going to come
out in Game one.

Speaker 14 (01:38:49):
I still give us all a chance to view and
watch and to see what that tunnel though I have
not seen them play and physically to watch how they
are and how they look and how they you know,
what type of game they played.

Speaker 15 (01:39:00):
So that's going to be that's going to be an
exciting one to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:39:04):
And see how okay in Corvallis, Oregon States hosting TCU,
is the two in their USC the three Oregon States
playing Saint Mary.

Speaker 15 (01:39:13):
I tell you what Oregon State is physical.

Speaker 2 (01:39:16):
I had them early in the year.

Speaker 15 (01:39:20):
TCU. I thought we had them. I had them earlier years.
They were young.

Speaker 14 (01:39:24):
They had some young guys that played at a high
level in April and I thought they'd played you know, well,
I think they're a really good baseball team.

Speaker 15 (01:39:32):
It comes down to Oregon State TCU. In my mind,
I think Oregon.

Speaker 14 (01:39:36):
State has more power and I do.

Speaker 15 (01:39:40):
I think Oregon State. I don't want to tec you know,
friends to get upset with me. But on paper, Oregon
State playing at home.

Speaker 14 (01:39:46):
You know that they only played maybe fifteen games at
home this.

Speaker 2 (01:39:50):
Year, yeah, nineteen.

Speaker 15 (01:39:51):
The rest of them they are on the road, nineteen
nineteen games.

Speaker 14 (01:39:55):
So if the emotion comes into play, that's an advantage
for Oregons. See but I would say that DCU Kirk
Charlows has a trend going that's positive. His team seemed
to play better from April on, okay.

Speaker 15 (01:40:13):
And so you know that's gonna be a bum.

Speaker 1 (01:40:16):
And watch, Okay, lightning round here. I'm just going to
call out of each of the four teams at each other.
You just give me the winner. Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
Oh you, Nebraska and the Holy Cross.

Speaker 15 (01:40:27):
I'm going North Carolina.

Speaker 2 (01:40:29):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:40:29):
In Eugene, Oregon, Arizona, cal Poly and Utah Valley, Oregon.

Speaker 14 (01:40:36):
But it's gonna be really tight with Arizona. Arizona's playing
really good right now.

Speaker 2 (01:40:40):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:40:41):
In Conway Coastal Carolina, Florida, East Carolina and Fairfield.

Speaker 14 (01:40:47):
I'm taking the fifth on this one.

Speaker 15 (01:40:51):
Buddy coach is such an unbelievable guy.

Speaker 14 (01:40:53):
Talten a couple of nights ago actually, and he's a
great guy.

Speaker 8 (01:40:57):
I'm you know, I'm excited for them.

Speaker 15 (01:40:59):
Florida. Uh.

Speaker 14 (01:41:00):
I thought when they were here was one of those
physical teams along with Oregon.

Speaker 15 (01:41:04):
State, and they played really good. Houstaw too. Florida played
really good when they were.

Speaker 14 (01:41:09):
In Austate and and they are playing great baseball that
is gonna be a tuggle war. I'm gonna stay in
the middle of that one and say, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:41:18):
Okay, all right, Auburn, n C State Stetson in Yukon.

Speaker 15 (01:41:25):
I'm going with Auburn.

Speaker 2 (01:41:26):
Okay. On the other side of the bracketal skip Texas
for the moment. In l A U C L A.

Speaker 1 (01:41:30):
You see Irvine, Arizona State, Fresno State, Irvine, Okay, Okay
in Oxford, Ole Miss, Georgia Tech, Western Kentucky and Murray State.

Speaker 15 (01:41:46):
Yeah, it's see us.

Speaker 14 (01:41:47):
Granny's last go with this and the head coach and
Georgia Tech, and man, that's just.

Speaker 15 (01:41:53):
That's that's a lot. They can sometimes way players down
then or can energize them.

Speaker 14 (01:41:59):
And but Ole Miss, I think is playing their best
baseball right now as well. At the beginning year, I
thought Old Miss was going to land in the lower part.

Speaker 15 (01:42:08):
Of the sea, middle, lower part of the SEC. If
they're playing baseball at a really high level.

Speaker 14 (01:42:13):
When you know this, you see it, you get momentum.

Speaker 15 (01:42:16):
And boy just keep stating, if you can.

Speaker 14 (01:42:18):
Keep it in your dugout, you can do some special things.

Speaker 15 (01:42:20):
But I do I think o Miss ends up coming
out of there.

Speaker 2 (01:42:22):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:42:23):
In Athens, Georgia, Duke Oklahoma State binghaton.

Speaker 2 (01:42:28):
Duke.

Speaker 15 (01:42:29):
I'm sorry Georgia, oh wow.

Speaker 1 (01:42:31):
Okay, almost had me surprise from him that ruge L
s U LSU Dallas, Okay, Clemson, West Virginia, Kentucky and
USC Upstate.

Speaker 15 (01:42:43):
In Clemson, I think it's close between Clemson and West Virginia.

Speaker 14 (01:42:49):
Clemes In has been up and down, but I do
think Clemson comes out of the winter, Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:42:53):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:42:53):
And then in Knoxville, Tennessee, wait for Cincinnati and Miami
of ohile.

Speaker 15 (01:42:59):
I'm gonna versus and pin this one on you.

Speaker 14 (01:43:02):
What do you think do you think wake Forest if
they get hot, do you think they can win in Knoxville.

Speaker 15 (01:43:09):
That's how Machque actually asking you a question.

Speaker 1 (01:43:11):
Now, I think Tennessee is winning that regional I just
think they've got too much pitching depth and too much
offense as well.

Speaker 2 (01:43:19):
I uh.

Speaker 1 (01:43:20):
And and speaking of teams with pitching depth and offense,
to Fayetteville, Arkansas, Kansas, Creighton and North.

Speaker 15 (01:43:26):
Dakota State, Arkansas wins it. Kansas stations to the to
the to the end of it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:34):
Okay, all right?

Speaker 15 (01:43:35):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
And here in Austin, I know you like the long Ornes.

Speaker 1 (01:43:39):
When who will they play on Sunday night in the
regional championship rounds?

Speaker 2 (01:43:45):
Okay, I do?

Speaker 15 (01:43:46):
I do.

Speaker 14 (01:43:47):
I think one of the interesting things Platformark is a
tremendous coach, gret He. You've been around this game a
long time and you've seen a lot of different personalities
he's got. You know, one thing about pat is that
he does he thinks.

Speaker 15 (01:44:04):
He does not go by the book. Yeah, whatever that
book was, or whoever wrote that book, and I still.

Speaker 14 (01:44:10):
Don't know who it was, but that book that some
people refer to, right, he doesn't go by that.

Speaker 15 (01:44:15):
He goes by what his intuitiveness tells him to do.

Speaker 14 (01:44:20):
How he thinks that he's got a lot of gamesmanship
to him, not in.

Speaker 15 (01:44:25):
A negative way.

Speaker 14 (01:44:26):
And he's got a lot of a lot of competitiveness,
I mean a lot of competitives watching his players play
with a lot of fire on them underneath them and
they I mean, I look when you dig through there.

Speaker 15 (01:44:39):
And there's a lot of ways the score runs. And
you hear me talk about this often enough.

Speaker 14 (01:44:44):
Or you and I discuss I should say that you
and I discussed this often enough. The free base part
of how important that comes into play. And they are
four h six free base versus three seventy nine strikeouts.
That's impressive. You're getting on base at own base somehow
and hit by pitch and walks, and you've got enough

(01:45:04):
omers in your lineup, you know, rut pushing that seventy homers.
But they're gritty and they got a lot of personality,
a lot of competitiveness to them.

Speaker 1 (01:45:14):
Hey, I appreciate you doing this. I'll look forward to
seeing you out here on Saturday.

Speaker 15 (01:45:19):
I will be there. It's gonna be fun. It'll always
be exciting.

Speaker 14 (01:45:22):
And uh, college base you know this this is you know,
for guys like you and I, this is you know,
a fun time of year. This is another season and excitement,
and the greatest thing about this time of year is
you don't know what it's gonna be like, and you don't.

Speaker 15 (01:45:37):
Know what's gonna happen.

Speaker 14 (01:45:38):
You're gonna have guys that are gonna be heroes, and
you know, even oftentimes unexpected heroes, and.

Speaker 15 (01:45:44):
The games can end up being the same way as well.

Speaker 14 (01:45:46):
But it's always gonna be exciting when it's college baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:45:49):
No doubt. Thanks to I appreciate it.