May 29, 2025 • 25 mins
Lifetime Longhorn Ty Harrington joins the broadcast to preview the NCAA Baseball Regionals, beginning with the Austin Regional and the Texas Longhorns. Ty and Craig break down the rest of the NCAA Tournament and give out their predictions.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our own analyst, Ty Harrington joins us on the hotline.
I was thinking about you the other day because I
was watching while I even text you. At one point,
I was watching the National Junior College World Series going on,
and uh, I know you. You know you got a
chance to experience that. I was watching an elimination game
between mcclennan and Blynn, and McLennon looked really, really good
(00:22):
in that. But I was struck by the fact that
Walter's State Community College is the number one seed and
they're averaging something like eleven runs a game coming into
the into the uh ind of the College World Series
in Grand Junction. And yet we know of Walter State
and just learned of it really because of Ethan Walker
(00:44):
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 2 (00:56):
It's it truly, is Krag look at was obviously a
special time in my life, but it was fairly on
the heels of me going to Omaha as a player.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And as a coach.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
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 experiencing being in grand Junction and
obviously being able to capitalize on it winning national titles.
(01:34):
It was incredible. It is unbelievable event and one that
I'll always remember it. But the town, just like Omaha,
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
(01:58):
the event so special and a lot of them never
you know, experienced anything like it again probably And uh So,
if ever that opportunity comes up and somebody gets to
go and wants to go, I highly recommend going. It
is truly special and fun and something to be a
part of it. And uh, I didn't get to watch
(02:18):
the other night. I was planning on watching mcc and
Blend play both uh their head coaches longtime friends of mine.
A lot of Longhorn fans would probably recognize Coler Johnson.
That's Skiff Johnson's son, the head coach at mcc and
also coach Kate Bean, and so there was a lot.
There's a lot involved in several players from Blend you
(02:39):
know this year and you know playing for Dusty Hart
who won the national championship last year.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And uh so.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
There's a lot of a 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 all
eleven runs getting to the tournament, I can imagine what
they're scoring in that tournament because it is an offensive event.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, yeah, it certainly is. That they won their first, No,
they lost their first Let's see, I want to make
sure I got this right. I thought they won. They did.
They won their first game eleven to ten, and then
and then they've had another game where they won in
(03:31):
eight innings run ruling. Mc clennan, I believe it was
thirteen to five. And then they are playing tonight against
Lakeland Community kind of think it's from Lakeland, Florida. They're
playing tonight. They're in Grand Junction. So yeah, they're they're
quite good. No doubt about it. And hearing you talk
(03:51):
about that also reminds me. I was in Dayton, Ohio
to do the NC 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 it when Texas
went back up there, that that city, that community, that town, Dayton, Ohio,
(04:13):
wraps its arms around that first flour 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 2 (04:29):
Yeah, at a smaller level, but yes, I mean, you know,
you're going to play in front of ten thousand people
every night in Grand Johnson.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Almost nights.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Everywhere you go in town, everybody recognizes you, and you
do a lot of the community events, stay involved in
the communians anyways, schools.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
As well, and so yeah, I mean it just it's.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
An incredibly run event that brings a lot of you know,
gratification and a lot of revenue and a lot of everything.
But fond to that community and they embrace it 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. And now they have several
(05:10):
people that go back every year. And so it reminded
me of when, you know, my first year at Omaha,
which was eighty four, my freshman year when we got
beat in the National championship game by an Alni Garrido
pal Fordton team, and you know, from it was had
that community feel to it.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Then like Omaha did.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
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 (05:41):
Talking college baseball here with Ty Harrington on thirteen hunderds, 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
(06:05):
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 games, you you know, can
(06:27):
can vary quite a bit. I mean, there's certain things
that you look for. 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 what you can take from individual
players on that team and their approaches at bad and
(06:48):
those who got in the mound. I mean, there are
some things you can glean from a game that took
place almost two months ago, aren't there? Of course there are.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
You're gonna have your own built in data. Uh, You've
gotta have your polytics, You're gonna have your video, You're
gonna have what scouting report you had going into that
game first, as you know, back data for you to
approach first. Then you get to cross reference it about
(07:20):
how you thought that affected the game and they each hitter, how.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You played them defensively.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
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
pitching each of those guys.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Was that successful?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Did there? You know, did their bat speed or their
bat paths matchup for breakers? You know, did they have
slighter bat speed, did they have pastball bat speed? While
those things come into play as 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
(08:09):
gonna have to go back and you know, I don't
know if they're pitching Parker Edwards or who they're pitching
yet heard, but you know you're going to have to
go back and and pull video from different games that
they played in and and go get all the analytics
you can off of him as well to understand what
you know or who that is as to what they
(08:29):
and how they approach. You know, their opposing hitters, and
so all that's going to come into play. It gives
you some familiarity. The one thing I think, you know,
I don't know if Jim said this or not, or
Chris Slashingo said this or not, but I think he
each of these teams, but particularly for coach Lois's perspective,
he has familiarity with the coaches, their programs, their personalities,
(08:53):
Our personalities as coaches come out and in the in games,
and they really come out or become more exposed in
big games, championship games. Do we change our philosophy and
start bunning in the third inning? Do we start you know,
you know, we're playing fourth and one games now right,
(09:14):
I'm at because there is no tomorrow, so you you
turn to different offensive philosophy sooner than later. And so
although so there's some familiarity with their.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Tendencies and they get expediated because of his championship postseason
play and because of that, I think for for Chris Losenego,
he's got some built dead ideas going into it that
you know that goes into his you know bank, meaning
his brain of you know, this is how they did
(09:46):
in his you know, knowledge of.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Playing against these teams and the and or these coaches
in his past.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Uh talking to baseball here with Ty Herrnet, we've not
heard of the either side with the starting pitch. But
by the way, Ty, I know this is not going
to shock at all. 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 it four to three. So Texas will play
(10:14):
Oklahoma on Saturday. What else is new? So they will
play Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon at two o'clock. Well, it's
least the devil you know in that case from Mike White,
didn't it. I mean, it's amazing. Now Oklahoma could still
come up and have an ending like that in a
walk off three run homer.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Well, they are a multi national champion program for a reason,
and part of that goes with it.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
And you know, look, I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
You can catch them second game. You're freshing up. I mean,
it'll obviously 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
gonna catch them, catch them now, right.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
And and and get moving from there.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
But they've got such a championship atmosphere around them. Leave
from international, can't high from that.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
And and and.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
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 a Saturday that the game the first time in
the world serison this year that we play them, that
we get a chance to meet him.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, Amazella Parker. By the way, you had the three
run humber. Okay, let me go back to uh uh
baseball here on neither side, I've seen an official announcement
on who the starting pitcher. Let let me let me
start with Texas. Would it be the uh? And and
one thing Jim Slasnekle said was uh. He said, I
(11:48):
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 of a
combo of Kay bing ethan Walker's pitch really really well,
(12:13):
and then you know whatever, get it to Grayson Sognier
and other ones down the stretch. In the game back
on April eighth, being started and only worked one inning,
Jason Flores came in and he gave up the two
eight cu runs. It was a home run involved in that,
if I remember correctly. And then after that Soignier and
(12:33):
I think Aiden Moffatt closed the door of the rest
of the way and the long runs run ruled them.
They want it in seven innings by a score of
twelve to two. From the perspective of a head coach
who has lost his number one starting pitcher to a
season enning injury in the case of Jared Spencer, and
has tried to, you know, piece it together the best
(12:54):
way that he and Maxween are able to do it.
What's your take on what could be in store for
as going to the mound of arm.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I think there's a 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 arrested and
you know with Riojas and Harrison, so you have options
if that's what you still chose to do in game one,
(13:24):
as you just mentioned, you have an option of you know,
running being out there and you know, knowing maybe he's
got a ceiling as far as how far it goes.
But a combination is I think another way to look
at that is as well, you have different looks that
you could bring to their uh to the game.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You have power from the right hand.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
With with Burns and Sony if you wanted to change
your 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
(14:10):
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 have multiple ways. The idea that they're
still thinking about it and talking about it and talking
about matchups makes me think that your initial commerce golf
was on the combinations. It's probably what they will go
to or it sounds like that maybe where they're leaning.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And so there's a lot of different ways to do that.
You don't just have to have one.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Guy to get through a game to win it. You
can in your mind matchups. You can do that in
any game to try to help you succeed. If you've
got the depth in the bullpen, and Texas does have
depth in the bullpen this year, and they do have
arms that they trust and that they liked that they
could go out and on the first game tomorrow at
one o'clock. They have guys that could go out there
(15:00):
if it is a combination uh and still succeed and
win with it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I'm gonna read off these regionals to you and tell me,
tell me what your what your thought is on these
and and who you like UH should probably come out
of those those regions. Let me start. 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? I
(15:27):
think Louisville wins the two three game.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
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.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Of the season.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
I had a chance to see him coming, so I do.
But I think comes out of that there they may
be would you turn this doctor of it?
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Would you be hard?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Preston ring E. They're one of the higher teams in
college baseball for the last month and a half, and
the ball front of me as well.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, there's no reason to think that Vanderbilt won't continue
to play good baseball. I agree with you, all right.
The winner of that regional draws the winner of the
regional in Hattiesburg. You know the Southern Miss program very
very well. They're the one they play. Columbia. Alabama is
the two in Miami's the three. How do you see
that one?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Oh man?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
They how do you?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Southern Mess is good, they really are.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
They're good enough on the mound.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
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 and the championship game. I do think Southern
Miss is good enough to be Alabama. Whether they do
or they don't, I don't know that. But they do
have the arms, and they do have one thing about
(16:51):
Southern Miss. When you play them, they throw strikes. And
the other piece of it is that.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Ballpark in Hattiesburg. It is going to be a bunch
of Southern whole town. It will be at that moll
part in Tallahassee, Florida State of played with Thune Cookman.
Northeastern is being described as perhaps the most dangerous number
two seed coming out of the Coast to Athletic Association.
(17:20):
And they're playing Mississippi State. Now, Mississippi State has been
hot of late. But I also wonder about the mindset
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, that's a lot. That's a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
First of all, Connors an outstanding coach and an outstanding person.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
But.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
That is a lot right in a matter of a
couple of hours and out in an into the regional
Nortatian I don't know enough about. I've read up and
paid attention to them lately because they were, you know,
of one so many games.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
And like the country.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
And wins and that's always intriguing and interesting. Just but
just how good are.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
They longest streak right now?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, the Thermondville and that's going to come out in
game one. I still give us all a chance to
view and watch and to see what that penel level.
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 play. So that's
going to be that's going to be an exciting one
to watch and see.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
How okay in Corvallis, Oregon States hosting TCU is the
two in their USC the three Oregon States playing Saint Mary.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I tell you what Oregon State is physical.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I had them early in the year.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
TCU. I thought we had them. I had them early years.
They were young, 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 really good baseball team.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
It comes down to Oregon a TCU. In my mind,
I think Oregon.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
State has more power and I do. 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.
You know that they only played maybe fifteen games at
home this.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Year, yeah, nineteenth.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
The rest of the air on the road nineteen Yeah,
nineteen games. So if the emotion comes into play, that's
an advantage for Oregon State. 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, and
(19:40):
so you know that's gonna be a bum to watch.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
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. I'm going North Carolina. Okay.
In Eugene, Oregon, Arizona, cal Poly and Utah Valley, Oregon.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
But it's gonna be really tight with Arizona. Arizona's playing
really good right now.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Okay. In Conway, Coastal Carolina, Florida, East Carolina and Fairfield.
I'm taking the fifth on this one.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Buddy Coach is such an unbelievable guy. Talked ten a
couple of nights ago, actually, and he's a great guy.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I'm you know, I'm excited for them.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Florida. I thought when they were here was one of
those physical teams along with Oregon State, and they played
really good. Eastawn too. Florida played really good when they
were in All State, and they are playing great baseball.
That is gonna be a tuggohore I'm gonna stay in
the middle of that one and say I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Okay, all right, Auburn, n C State Stetson in Yukon.
I'm going with Auburn, Okay. On the other side of
the Bracketal skip Texas for the moment. In l A
U s La. You see your vine, Arizona State, Fresno State, Urban, Okay,
Okay in Oxford, Ole, Miss, Georgia Tech, Western Kentucky and
(21:09):
Murray State. Yeah, it's see.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Granny's last go with this and the Head Coast and
Georgia Tech. And man, that's just that's that's a lot
that it can come sometimes wait players down and or
it can energize them. And but oh 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 of the sea, middle, lower
(21:36):
part of the SEC. They're playing baseball at a really
high level. When you know this, you see it, you
get momentum by.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Just keep stating.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
If you can keep it in your dugouts, you can
do some special things. But I do I think o
Miss ends up coming out of there.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Okay. In Athens, Georgia Duke, Oklahoma State, Binghamton Duke. I mean,
I'm sorry Georgia. Oh wow, Okay, almost had me surprise
from him. Baton Ruge l s U, LSU Dallas, Okay, Clemson,
West Virginia, Kentucky and USC Upstate. In Clemson, I.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Think it's close between Clemson and West Virginia. Cson has
been up and down, but I do think Clemson comes
out of the winner, Okay. Uh.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
And then in Knoxville, Tennessee, Wake for Cincinnati and Miami
of Ohio. I'm gonna reverse this and pin this one
on you.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
What do you think do you think Wake Forest if
they get hot, do you think they can win in Knoxville?
That's how my g x X and you of question.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Now I think Tennessee is winning that regional do I
just think they've got too much pitching depth and too
much offense as well. Uh? And speaking of teams with
pitching depth and offense, to Fayetteville, Arkansas, Kansas, Creighton and
North Dakota State.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Arkansas wins it. Kansas State's to the to the.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
To the end of it. Okay, all right? Uh? And
here in Austin, I know you like the long Orangemen.
Who will they play on Sunday night in the regional
championship rounds. Okay, I do, I do.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I think one of the interesting things Pat Hallmark is
a tremendous coach. 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. He does not go by the book. Yeah,
whatever that book was, or whoever wrote that book, and
(23:35):
I still don't know who it was, but that book
that some people refer to, right, He doesn't go by that.
He goes by what his intuitiveness tells him to do.
How he thinks that he's got a lot of gamesmanshipped
to him, not in a negative way. And he's got
a lot of a lot of competitiveness, I mean a
(23:56):
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, and there's a
lot of ways the school runs. And you hear me
talk about this often enough, or you and I discus
I should say that you and I discussed this often enough.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
The free base.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
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. You're getting on base
somehow and hit by pitch and walks, and you've got
enough homers in your lineup, you know, ret pushing on
that seventy homers. But they're gritty and they got a
(24:37):
lot of personality, a lot of competitiveness.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
To me, Hey, I appreciate you doing this. I'll look
forward to seeing you out here on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I will be there. It's gonna be fun. It'll always
be exciting and College Bay 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 years. You don't know what it's going to be like,
and you don't know what's gonna happen. You're gonna have
guys that are gonna be heroes, and you know, even
(25:08):
oftentimes unexpected heroes, and the games can end up being
the same way as well. But it's always going to
be exciting when it's college baseball.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
No doubt. Thanks Toy, I appreciate it.
Our own analyst, Ty Harrington joins us on the hotline.
I was thinking about you the other day because I
was watching while I even text you. At one point,
I was watching the National Junior College World Series going on,
and uh, I know you. You know you got a
chance to experience that. I was watching an elimination game
between mcclennan and Blynn, and McLennon looked really, really good
(00:22):
in that. But I was struck by the fact that
Walter's State Community College is the number one seed and
they're averaging something like eleven runs a game coming into
the into the uh ind of the College World Series
in Grand Junction. And yet we know of Walter State
and just learned of it really because of Ethan Walker
(00:44):
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 2 (00:56):
It's it truly, is Krag look at was obviously a
special time in my life, but it was fairly on
the heels of me going to Omaha as a player.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And as a coach.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
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 experiencing being in grand Junction and
obviously being able to capitalize on it winning national titles.
(01:34):
It was incredible. It is unbelievable event and one that
I'll always remember it. But the town, just like Omaha,
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
(01:58):
the event so special and a lot of them never
you know, experienced anything like it again probably And uh So,
if ever that opportunity comes up and somebody gets to
go and wants to go, I highly recommend going. It
is truly special and fun and something to be a
part of it. And uh, I didn't get to watch
(02:18):
the other night. I was planning on watching mcc and
Blend play both uh their head coaches longtime friends of mine.
A lot of Longhorn fans would probably recognize Coler Johnson.
That's Skiff Johnson's son, the head coach at mcc and
also coach Kate Bean, and so there was a lot.
There's a lot involved in several players from Blend you
(02:39):
know this year and you know playing for Dusty Hart
who won the national championship last year.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And uh so.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
There's a lot of a 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 all
eleven runs getting to the tournament, I can imagine what
they're scoring in that tournament because it is an offensive event.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, yeah, it certainly is. That they won their first, No,
they lost their first Let's see, I want to make
sure I got this right. I thought they won. They did.
They won their first game eleven to ten, and then
and then they've had another game where they won in
(03:31):
eight innings run ruling. Mc clennan, I believe it was
thirteen to five. And then they are playing tonight against
Lakeland Community kind of think it's from Lakeland, Florida. They're
playing tonight. They're in Grand Junction. So yeah, they're they're
quite good. No doubt about it. And hearing you talk
(03:51):
about that also reminds me. I was in Dayton, Ohio
to do the NC 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 it when Texas
went back up there, that that city, that community, that town, Dayton, Ohio,
(04:13):
wraps its arms around that first flour 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 2 (04:29):
Yeah, at a smaller level, but yes, I mean, you know,
you're going to play in front of ten thousand people
every night in Grand Johnson.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Almost nights.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Everywhere you go in town, everybody recognizes you, and you
do a lot of the community events, stay involved in
the communians anyways, schools.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
As well, and so yeah, I mean it just it's.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
An incredibly run event that brings a lot of you know,
gratification and a lot of revenue and a lot of everything.
But fond to that community and they embrace it 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. And now they have several
(05:10):
people that go back every year. And so it reminded
me of when, you know, my first year at Omaha,
which was eighty four, my freshman year when we got
beat in the National championship game by an Alni Garrido
pal Fordton team, and you know, from it was had
that community feel to it.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Then like Omaha did.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
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 (05:41):
Talking college baseball here with Ty Harrington on thirteen hunderds, 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
(06:05):
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 games, you you know, can
(06:27):
can vary quite a bit. I mean, there's certain things
that you look for. 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 what you can take from individual
players on that team and their approaches at bad and
(06:48):
those who got in the mound. I mean, there are
some things you can glean from a game that took
place almost two months ago, aren't there? Of course there are.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
You're gonna have your own built in data. Uh, You've
gotta have your polytics, You're gonna have your video, You're
gonna have what scouting report you had going into that
game first, as you know, back data for you to
approach first. Then you get to cross reference it about
(07:20):
how you thought that affected the game and they each hitter, how.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You played them defensively.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
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
pitching each of those guys.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Was that successful?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Did there? You know, did their bat speed or their
bat paths matchup for breakers? You know, did they have
slighter bat speed, did they have pastball bat speed? While
those things come into play as 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
(08:09):
gonna have to go back and you know, I don't
know if they're pitching Parker Edwards or who they're pitching
yet heard, but you know you're going to have to
go back and and pull video from different games that
they played in and and go get all the analytics
you can off of him as well to understand what
you know or who that is as to what they
(08:29):
and how they approach. You know, their opposing hitters, and
so all that's going to come into play. It gives
you some familiarity. The one thing I think, you know,
I don't know if Jim said this or not, or
Chris Slashingo said this or not, but I think he
each of these teams, but particularly for coach Lois's perspective,
he has familiarity with the coaches, their programs, their personalities,
(08:53):
Our personalities as coaches come out and in the in games,
and they really come out or become more exposed in
big games, championship games. Do we change our philosophy and
start bunning in the third inning? Do we start you know,
you know, we're playing fourth and one games now right,
(09:14):
I'm at because there is no tomorrow, so you you
turn to different offensive philosophy sooner than later. And so
although so there's some familiarity with their.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Tendencies and they get expediated because of his championship postseason
play and because of that, I think for for Chris Losenego,
he's got some built dead ideas going into it that
you know that goes into his you know bank, meaning
his brain of you know, this is how they did
(09:46):
in his you know, knowledge of.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Playing against these teams and the and or these coaches
in his past.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Uh talking to baseball here with Ty Herrnet, we've not
heard of the either side with the starting pitch. But
by the way, Ty, I know this is not going
to shock at all. 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 it four to three. So Texas will play
(10:14):
Oklahoma on Saturday. What else is new? So they will
play Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon at two o'clock. Well, it's
least the devil you know in that case from Mike White,
didn't it. I mean, it's amazing. Now Oklahoma could still
come up and have an ending like that in a
walk off three run homer.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Well, they are a multi national champion program for a reason,
and part of that goes with it.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
And you know, look, I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
You can catch them second game. You're freshing up. I mean,
it'll obviously 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
gonna catch them, catch them now, right.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
And and and get moving from there.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
But they've got such a championship atmosphere around them. Leave
from international, can't high from that.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
And and and.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
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 a Saturday that the game the first time in
the world serison this year that we play them, that
we get a chance to meet him.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, Amazella Parker. By the way, you had the three
run humber. Okay, let me go back to uh uh
baseball here on neither side, I've seen an official announcement
on who the starting pitcher. Let let me let me
start with Texas. Would it be the uh? And and
one thing Jim Slasnekle said was uh. He said, I
(11:48):
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 of a
combo of Kay bing ethan Walker's pitch really really well,
(12:13):
and then you know whatever, get it to Grayson Sognier
and other ones down the stretch. In the game back
on April eighth, being started and only worked one inning,
Jason Flores came in and he gave up the two
eight cu runs. It was a home run involved in that,
if I remember correctly. And then after that Soignier and
(12:33):
I think Aiden Moffatt closed the door of the rest
of the way and the long runs run ruled them.
They want it in seven innings by a score of
twelve to two. From the perspective of a head coach
who has lost his number one starting pitcher to a
season enning injury in the case of Jared Spencer, and
has tried to, you know, piece it together the best
(12:54):
way that he and Maxween are able to do it.
What's your take on what could be in store for
as going to the mound of arm.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I think there's a 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 arrested and
you know with Riojas and Harrison, so you have options
if that's what you still chose to do in game one,
(13:24):
as you just mentioned, you have an option of you know,
running being out there and you know, knowing maybe he's
got a ceiling as far as how far it goes.
But a combination is I think another way to look
at that is as well, you have different looks that
you could bring to their uh to the game.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You have power from the right hand.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
With with Burns and Sony if you wanted to change
your 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
(14:10):
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 have multiple ways. The idea that they're
still thinking about it and talking about it and talking
about matchups makes me think that your initial commerce golf
was on the combinations. It's probably what they will go
to or it sounds like that maybe where they're leaning.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And so there's a lot of different ways to do that.
You don't just have to have one.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Guy to get through a game to win it. You
can in your mind matchups. You can do that in
any game to try to help you succeed. If you've
got the depth in the bullpen, and Texas does have
depth in the bullpen this year, and they do have
arms that they trust and that they liked that they
could go out and on the first game tomorrow at
one o'clock. They have guys that could go out there
(15:00):
if it is a combination uh and still succeed and
win with it.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I'm gonna read off these regionals to you and tell me,
tell me what your what your thought is on these
and and who you like UH should probably come out
of those those regions. Let me start. 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? I
(15:27):
think Louisville wins the two three game.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
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.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Of the season.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
I had a chance to see him coming, so I do.
But I think comes out of that there they may
be would you turn this doctor of it?
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Would you be hard?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Preston ring E. They're one of the higher teams in
college baseball for the last month and a half, and
the ball front of me as well.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, there's no reason to think that Vanderbilt won't continue
to play good baseball. I agree with you, all right.
The winner of that regional draws the winner of the
regional in Hattiesburg. You know the Southern Miss program very
very well. They're the one they play. Columbia. Alabama is
the two in Miami's the three. How do you see
that one?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Oh man?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
They how do you?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Southern Mess is good, they really are.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
They're good enough on the mound.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
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 and the championship game. I do think Southern
Miss is good enough to be Alabama. Whether they do
or they don't, I don't know that. But they do
have the arms, and they do have one thing about
(16:51):
Southern Miss. When you play them, they throw strikes. And
the other piece of it is that.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Ballpark in Hattiesburg. It is going to be a bunch
of Southern whole town. It will be at that moll
part in Tallahassee, Florida State of played with Thune Cookman.
Northeastern is being described as perhaps the most dangerous number
two seed coming out of the Coast to Athletic Association.
(17:20):
And they're playing Mississippi State. Now, Mississippi State has been
hot of late. But I also wonder about the mindset
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, that's a lot. That's a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
First of all, Connors an outstanding coach and an outstanding person.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
But.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
That is a lot right in a matter of a
couple of hours and out in an into the regional
Nortatian I don't know enough about. I've read up and
paid attention to them lately because they were, you know,
of one so many games.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
And like the country.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
And wins and that's always intriguing and interesting. Just but
just how good are.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
They longest streak right now?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, the Thermondville and that's going to come out in
game one. I still give us all a chance to
view and watch and to see what that penel level.
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 play. So that's
going to be that's going to be an exciting one
to watch and see.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
How okay in Corvallis, Oregon States hosting TCU is the
two in their USC the three Oregon States playing Saint Mary.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I tell you what Oregon State is physical.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I had them early in the year.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
TCU. I thought we had them. I had them early years.
They were young, 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 really good baseball team.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
It comes down to Oregon a TCU. In my mind,
I think Oregon.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
State has more power and I do. 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.
You know that they only played maybe fifteen games at
home this.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Year, yeah, nineteenth.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
The rest of the air on the road nineteen Yeah,
nineteen games. So if the emotion comes into play, that's
an advantage for Oregon State. 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, and
(19:40):
so you know that's gonna be a bum to watch.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
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. I'm going North Carolina. Okay.
In Eugene, Oregon, Arizona, cal Poly and Utah Valley, Oregon.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
But it's gonna be really tight with Arizona. Arizona's playing
really good right now.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Okay. In Conway, Coastal Carolina, Florida, East Carolina and Fairfield.
I'm taking the fifth on this one.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Buddy Coach is such an unbelievable guy. Talked ten a
couple of nights ago, actually, and he's a great guy.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I'm you know, I'm excited for them.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Florida. I thought when they were here was one of
those physical teams along with Oregon State, and they played
really good. Eastawn too. Florida played really good when they
were in All State, and they are playing great baseball.
That is gonna be a tuggohore I'm gonna stay in
the middle of that one and say I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Okay, all right, Auburn, n C State Stetson in Yukon.
I'm going with Auburn, Okay. On the other side of
the Bracketal skip Texas for the moment. In l A
U s La. You see your vine, Arizona State, Fresno State, Urban, Okay,
Okay in Oxford, Ole, Miss, Georgia Tech, Western Kentucky and
(21:09):
Murray State. Yeah, it's see.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Granny's last go with this and the Head Coast and
Georgia Tech. And man, that's just that's that's a lot
that it can come sometimes wait players down and or
it can energize them. And but oh 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 of the sea, middle, lower
(21:36):
part of the SEC. They're playing baseball at a really
high level. When you know this, you see it, you
get momentum by.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Just keep stating.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
If you can keep it in your dugouts, you can
do some special things. But I do I think o
Miss ends up coming out of there.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Okay. In Athens, Georgia Duke, Oklahoma State, Binghamton Duke. I mean,
I'm sorry Georgia. Oh wow, Okay, almost had me surprise
from him. Baton Ruge l s U, LSU Dallas, Okay, Clemson,
West Virginia, Kentucky and USC Upstate. In Clemson, I.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Think it's close between Clemson and West Virginia. Cson has
been up and down, but I do think Clemson comes
out of the winner, Okay. Uh.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
And then in Knoxville, Tennessee, Wake for Cincinnati and Miami
of Ohio. I'm gonna reverse this and pin this one
on you.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
What do you think do you think Wake Forest if
they get hot, do you think they can win in Knoxville?
That's how my g x X and you of question.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Now I think Tennessee is winning that regional do I
just think they've got too much pitching depth and too
much offense as well. Uh? And speaking of teams with
pitching depth and offense, to Fayetteville, Arkansas, Kansas, Creighton and
North Dakota State.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Arkansas wins it. Kansas State's to the to the.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
To the end of it. Okay, all right? Uh? And
here in Austin, I know you like the long Orangemen.
Who will they play on Sunday night in the regional
championship rounds. Okay, I do, I do.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I think one of the interesting things Pat Hallmark is
a tremendous coach. 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. He does not go by the book. Yeah,
whatever that book was, or whoever wrote that book, and
(23:35):
I still don't know who it was, but that book
that some people refer to, right, He doesn't go by that.
He goes by what his intuitiveness tells him to do.
How he thinks that he's got a lot of gamesmanshipped
to him, not in a negative way. And he's got
a lot of a lot of competitiveness, I mean a
(23:56):
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, and there's a
lot of ways the school runs. And you hear me
talk about this often enough, or you and I discus
I should say that you and I discussed this often enough.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
The free base.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
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. You're getting on base
somehow and hit by pitch and walks, and you've got
enough homers in your lineup, you know, ret pushing on
that seventy homers. But they're gritty and they got a
(24:37):
lot of personality, a lot of competitiveness.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
To me, Hey, I appreciate you doing this. I'll look
forward to seeing you out here on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I will be there. It's gonna be fun. It'll always
be exciting and College Bay 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 years. You don't know what it's going to be like,
and you don't know what's gonna happen. You're gonna have
guys that are gonna be heroes, and you know, even
(25:08):
oftentimes unexpected heroes, and the games can end up being
the same way as well. But it's always going to
be exciting when it's college baseball.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
No doubt. Thanks Toy, I appreciate it.
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.