June 1, 2023 • 27 mins
In Episode 81, Cal State Fullerton All American Mike Parisi joins Dave Lamm via Twitter Spaces to discuss the final regular season weekend series vs. Cal Poly and gaining a berth into the NCAA Regionals after a 5 year layoff.
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▶️ Follow Mike Parisi on Twitter: @michael_parisi
▶️ Suggest a guest: CalStateOmaha@Gmail.com
Please subscribe to the show on whatever platform you are listening and share with family and friends. While there, please leave a 5 star rating and review. This helps other fans find the show more easily.
▶️ Visit our website: calstateomaha.com
▶️ Follow us on Twitter: @CalStateOmaha
▶️ Follow us on Facebook: Facebook.com/calstateomaha
▶️ Follow us on Instagram: @calstateomaha
▶️ Follow Mike Parisi on Twitter: @michael_parisi
▶️ Suggest a guest: CalStateOmaha@Gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Churn straight four tennis done it.They've gone from fifteen and sixteen the champions
of college Facebook. Welcome to thefifteen hundred, forty four Miles to Omaha
podcast talking about the past, present, and future of cal State bulletin baseball.
(00:26):
Here's a drive jeep right center backthere in Chamberlain has won it.
A walkoff homer from the freshman Chamberlain. It's first of the year. Bell
dag Border War World period in nineteenone ball and one strike runners leap for
(00:48):
second and third. The one onechopped over the mouth. The second baseman
pork Agno's got it throws the firstto no hitter Port Coltney spent. Here's
your host, Dave Leam. Welcomeinto episode eighty one of the fifteen forty
four Miles to Omaha Podcast. I'mDave Lamb, founder of the cal State
Omaha podcast or I'm sorry, thecal State Omaha website and the fifteen forty
(01:12):
four Miles to Omaha Podcast. Joiningme as he does each week is the
All American pitcher Mike Perezy. So, Mike, let's let's just jump into
it. Titans. They they tooka share of second place in the Big
West, but by virtue of UCSan Diego being an eligible to go to
(01:36):
the postseason because they're currently still intransition from Division two to Division the Titans
ended up getting the automatic qualifier assecond place. They were tied the Northridge
but they had the tiebreaker over calState North Regionals and has broken the five
years of no postseason. So what'syour what's your thoughts? I mean,
(01:57):
I'm a proud Titan. I thinkit's just unbelievable what these players have done.
The coaching staff has done, andit's only their second year in the
program and it's been remarkable, andthey Chase that has done a great job.
Coach each has done a great jobof having these kids, you know,
play like the Titans that played inthe past. You know, you're
(02:19):
unselfish, you do whatever it takes, You're gonna work hard, You're gonna
make all these sacrifices, and itis paid off this year and it's awesome.
Every Titan alumni I've spoken to isreally happy. So this is kind
of like, I mean, Idon't want to make any unfair comparisons.
I mean, so please, thoselong time Titan fans out there, don't
(02:44):
don't don't kill me for this one, but for you. You were a
freshman in nineteen ninety two, theyear prior was Augie Garrido's first year back
after taking the three years at Illinois, So this was kind of like his
year back in the program, andit was his first year of really kind
(03:04):
of having his own players. Becausethe Titans missed the playoffs in ninety one,
ninety two was what started that twentyseven year run of consecutive playoff berths.
Can you make any comparisons to thisyear being the second year in coach
Dietrich's tenure, to your first yearin nineteen ninety two when the Titans went
back to the playoffs for the firsttime after missing the year before, and
(03:29):
it was the second year for Aggie. I mean, I haven't thought about
that, but that looking back onthat ninety two team, me personally,
I was just a young, dumbfreshman trying to get playing time, and
I had no clue, you know, really about the college rules series or
a regional I just as the fallballwent on and as ranking started coming around,
(03:54):
I'm like, just team was prettygood, and hey, who's the
third baseman that's National Player of theYear. And this big west pitcher the
year and James pop Off and itwas a lot of seniors on that team,
and I don't know if I couldcompare them, but you know,
it's, uh, it's pretty specialfor just to be in a regional and
obviously trying to win it. Wewere actually we were actually the third seat
(04:15):
at LSU in nineteen ninety two,so Furton is the third seed. This
year, we were the third seatat LSU and we won that regional.
Yeah, on the road, Sowell, what's what's your thoughts on Stanford
when when a lot of the prognosticatorswe were doing their projections, we were
originally scheduled to go to Baton Rouge, and then the next projection had the
(04:40):
Titans going to Fayetteville, Arkansas,and then another projection had them going to
Stanford, which is actually what cameto fruition. So it's the Stanford Regional
and the four seed is San JoseState, the three seed is Texas A
and M, and we can talkabout them a little bit more in depth.
And then I thought we were Ithought that you're absolutely you're absolutely right.
(05:01):
Two seed is Texas A and M, and three seed is the Titans.
So before we kind of start lookingat the Stanford Regional as it pertains
to the Titans, what's your what'syour opinion? A lot of there was
a lot of chatter online where peoplewere grousing and grew up in about the
fact that UC San Diego as ineligiblefor the postseason. I mean, they
(05:24):
knew going in that it was goingto be a four year transition and they
would be ineligible going into this year. And oh yeah, by the way,
even if they win the conference nextyear, they're going to be ineligible
as well. But there was ayou know, there's a lot of grumping
and grousing about the whole thing.And the comparison is is that, you
know, if you're a basketball guy, which you are, you remember the
(05:47):
name Merrimack who won their conference,but Fairly Dickinson, because Merrimack was still
making the transition from Division one,Fairly Dickinson gets gets the automatic bid,
they're the sixteen, and they endedup beating Purdue, and you know,
that was the whole March Madness deal. So the thing is is that this
isn't just indicative, or this isn'tjust for baseball. It's across all sports.
(06:13):
So any kind of opinion about youknow, everybody complaining about the the
UC San Diego tried and is notbeing ineligible to go to the postseason.
You know what, First of all, congratulations for UCSD and being able to
put two twenty three Big West Conferencechamps. I think it's amazing that coaches
have has done a great job recruitingand the program has come a long way.
(06:33):
Unfortunately, that's the rules. Youcan't be really disappointed. I felt
like four teen should have got inregardless, you know, so, I'm
glad to have the opportunity. Itseems like every year West Coast seems to
get a little cheated, and youknow, you have Stanford hosting. I
(06:53):
thought Oregans should have hosted. Noone in Texas is hosting, and Irvine
was. I didn't realize they wereeight one against the PAC twelve and they
had a forty p RPI. Theydidn't get in, and they were a
great Big West Conference team and USCdefinitely got screwed. So no, there's
not a lot of chatter about UCSC. They knew what happened. They can't
(07:14):
feel bad. They had a greatyear. They should be proud, but
their time will come. Yeah,and I think that UC San Diego is
a great addition to the Big West, especially with unfortunately you still have UC
Riversides and UC Davis and col StateSam Bakersfield. That's that's in the conference.
That kind of drags down that RPI, which obviously those are the three
(07:38):
favorite letters that everybody was speaking aboutyesterday when the when the when the tournament
bracket was announced. But you know, UC San Diego is going to really
help elevate the conference. Unfortunately they'rejust not going to be eligible to go
to the playoffs for this year andnext, but then twenty twenty five day
will But I would agree with youthat you see your vine kind of get
(08:00):
the screw job. And the factthat they had a forty I think it
was forty forty three or forty fiveor something like that, and Troy the
forty seven or a forty eight.I mean, I don't have the numbers
exactly in front of me, butthat they had a worse RPI. But
they were talking about how they didn'thave enough top fifty wins and all this
(08:22):
other kind of stuff, So it'sjust what was RPI? I mean,
I think you got five teams inthe USC didn't get in. Yeah,
I think USC's was like fifty two. I'm not one hundred percent sure on
that number, but I think itwas. I think it was higher than
U see your lines, so youknow. And then in Kansas State has
a real complaint too that unfortunately,they did not take into any any head
(08:48):
to head competition and wins into factor. They just kind of factored in the
RPI and teams like Oklahoma got inover Kansas State. Even I didn't think
you're gonna should have got in,I know, the going in the tournament,
but SE beat him two out ofthree, so I don't know.
Um, I think coach Thanklige hasdone a heck of a job and that
program for doing what they've dealt with. But that's that's not our problem over
(09:11):
at Fullerton. We got in andwe have an opportunity. And I loved
reading coach Dietrich's quotes and how he'sjust so proud of his players and the
way they've competed and bought in soquickly. And you know they're program.
I mean they got rid of halftheir players. I mean they have so
many first year players at boarded thisyear. Don't say they got a lot
of new guys because you know,they had to change some stuff right.
(09:35):
And I'll tell you this. Imean talking about how coach deflected a lot
of the praise. When we wereat Biggs yesterday for the the the announcement
that the selection show. You know, the players started kind of rolling in.
It was a little bit early forthem. You could see a lot
of guys with wet hair straight outof the shower, got out of the
(09:58):
shower and went straight over there forbreakfast. But Coach Tetric got there and
a lot of us were like,hey, coach, you know, way
to go, way way to getus back to where we wanted to be.
And he was like, nah,don't don't think me. Thank them,
And he pointed to the players sayingit was like, it's all them,
man, you can thank those guys. It's it's it's got nothing to
do with you know what. Jasonis so professional and he's been a pitching
(10:20):
a great pitching coach for thirteen yearsunder some amazing head coaches, and Coach
Horn is one of them, andthose always head to give all the praise
of the players like he's just whichis awesome. He's very humble, you
know, I guarantee you maybe ifhe's with his family, he's a little
pumped up and you're taking a littlecredit, but he'll never say it publicly.
It's all about the players, andit's it's well deserved. It's pretty
(10:43):
awesome, and I also think that, uh, it's it's a testament to
these players as well, and thefact that you go down the roster and
unfortunately, just because COVID blew everythingup in that twenty twenty season, and
you know, just based on theage of the players that are here,
(11:03):
Zach Lue is the only player onthat team from twenty nineteen, and that
is the only player to have playedfor a team that finished above five hundred,
and that was just one game abovefive hundred. I believe that that
nineteen season was twenty seven and twentysix didn't go to the playoffs. So
(11:24):
this this entire team, it's thefirst time that they've ever gone to a
postseason and and Zach lew is nowthe only player that's been on two winning
teams. It's unfortunately everybody else didn't. So this is the testament to the
to the grind and to the tothe dedication that the players to be able
to come in and turn this programaround. And I think the total the
(11:45):
total wins was thirty one. Ithink that it's like thirty one and twenty
two was the was the final wasthe final record for regular season. So
you know, testament to those guysfor actually finishing what ten you know,
nine ten games above five hundred.That's pretty awesome. Yeah, absolutely,
absolutely great year. And you justgo back to that first weekend against Stanford
(12:07):
and Fullerton should have beat them twoout of three. Stanford could swing it,
you know, and you know,thank the Fullerton's pictures half game,
but ton of home runs that weekendand that devastating one loss on Sunday.
But it's ironic that we're back inStanford and we're playing an SEC team,
which we've had good luck against SETteams or SEC CE teams in the past.
(12:30):
Um, we're not going to beintimidated by them, We're not gonna
be afraid by them. And it'sI like the regional I also like the
regionals. So what's what's your thoughtson San Jose State taken on Stanford and
then of course a M matched upwith the Titans. So we were talking
(12:50):
a little bit before before we startedsomething is a little bit of a twist
here. So the number one seedor the host, the reginal host,
gets to choose if they want tobe game one or Game two that day.
And the Titans are actually playing theAggies in the seven o'clock ten pm
eastern seven o'clock Pacific game, whichmeans the five o'clock eastern two PM game
(13:16):
on Friday is the Titans and thespark are not the Titans. I'm sorry.
Stanford and State are playing at twoo'clock, you know, local time.
That might be the fact that Stanfordwants to put San Jose State in
that in that one dugout where itjust faces the sun and it's just brutal.
(13:37):
I took a look at it atthe I mean, and that's that's
a true home field advantage when theyput that those visitors in that visitor dug
out on the third base side andthe sun just absolutely comes in and just
roast those guys. I mean,there is no relief whatsoever. However,
taking a look at the weather,it's gonna be low to mid seventies,
(14:01):
so it'll probably be sunny, butit's not going to be like eighty five,
and the sun just beaten down onthat dugout, right right, I
mean, and be honest here,if you're Stanford, you're not throwing your
eighth game one against Sanish State andyou know your eighth is gonna go to
the second game against the winner offull or ten and in Texas and Texas
(14:24):
than them, I don't think throwsare eighth. I mean, do they
have an eighth? I know theirpitch. He's been struggling a lot this
year, so we'll see. Iknow they got to the SEC Championship,
but they had a battle this year. They struggled a lot this year,
so it'll be interesting. So whatwhat's your what's your thoughts on Stanford decided
to go with the game one inthe middle of the day rather than going
at night. Is that the homefield advantage of having the sun and the
(14:48):
visitor's dug out? And then alsoyour game will be done by you know,
of five o'clock, six o'clock orsomething like that before the Titans even
take the field, So that justgives you even more rest, especially if
you're in the winner's bracket. Yeah, I mean, maybe that sun dugout.
Maybe there's obviously a reason of homefield advantage of why they don't want
to play Sandals, they stayed first. I'm sure the second game, the
(15:11):
winner that's gonna be playing the nightgame. I'd imagine game two. I
don't know, or do they keepit first game? Who knows? Um,
Yeah, I don't know. Imean, I I'm pretty confident that,
you know, that's our regional totake and we just gotta play good
baseball. But it's there's three teamsto me can win it. Yeah,
(15:31):
And I'm pretty confident that the winner'sbracket game slated to be the second game
on Saturday, so you know,win or lose. I think Stanford,
you know they're going to be youknow, if they do be Sandos,
they'll be playing in that night gameon Sunday or I'm sorry, on on
(15:52):
Saturday. Just because when we wereup there in twenty and eighteen during that
you know, the shot heard thejumbo Jack, the Jay's Amberland home run.
Yeah, ended up winning that intwenty and eighteen. That was at
the night game and that was theuh, that was the end of the
That was that was the last gameplayed on obviously set the world on fire
(16:14):
and set the Titans up to potentiallywin it the following you know, the
following day. But um so,your approach for if you were, if
you were the coach, obviously we'rethrowing we gotta throw Tyler Stults. I
meant Stults, Pitts a game one. You're going out trying to beat A
and M. And you once youget there and you're get in the winner's
(16:37):
bracket, you know you're gonna dowhat you gotta do. If I'm Stanford
and I'm Texas, A and M, whoever their eighths are, I am
not throwing them. There's no way. And you know, so that's that's
how I look at us. Soyou got Stults going up against Stamford's number
two, which probably maybe I'm gettingwas the Saturday guy you know that faced
them at Fullerton. I don't know. Um So we'd have to a little
(17:02):
research on that. And you know, I'll tell you what. Going back
because going back to Calboy Slow andbecause night coach high school baseball and I
coach against Los Altos. Props tothe walk on recruit Eli Lopez, who
tore it up this weekend at secondbase, filling in for Maddox. A
lot of that was awesome to seeyeah, I don't know if I don't
know if Maddox, if his backissue made a made a return up there
(17:26):
at slow and that's the reason whyEli got got the starts up there.
But he filled in admirably. Youknow, we definitely want to have both
of those guys healthy. You know, you definitely want to have both Maddox
and Eli at second base available.But he did, he did pretty well.
Yeah, he did. He did. So Flordon did what they had
(17:48):
to do. They had a littleslum, they went two out of three.
They get to celebrate. They're gonnabe a confident group going in and
you know, if you're playing forKL State Florton, you're wearing that uniform,
you're not intimidating anybody in the nations. So go out there and you
know they're gonna they're gonna get afterit. So when it comes to the
(18:10):
Saturday game, win or lose,winner's bracket, loser's bracket, you know,
whatever whatever happens on Friday, you'reyou're guaranteed to play on Saturday,
no matter if it's you know,game one or game two of the Saturday
day. Um, would would youmove Evan Yates up to the Saturday,
Or would you keep Peyton Jones becauseprobably pretty confident that that Finchester is not
(18:32):
going to be pitching his arms somehowof those arm I feel bad for him
because he's had a good year.Yeah, so would would you would you
move Evan up to I think that'soften and honestly, it's gonna depend on
who you play and what their strengthsand weaknesses are offensively. I mean,
I don't know Stanford big hitters lefthanders? Are they right handers? I
(18:56):
think they have a combination of both. Um, you know, I don't
know. It depends. What aboutif for some reason they were to lose
and they had to play Santos theystate, maybe you save at Yates?
You think of that, Hey wegot to Pete Sandos they state, And
it's trying to be somebody else.I don't know. It depends on who
they play and what the lineup is. So as a as a pitcher,
let's say you're you're Peyton Jones orEvan Yates, Obviously you've got to throw
(19:18):
a bullpen in there somewhere. Ifyou're going to be expected to start on
you know, whichever day, howdo you prepare if it's one of those,
Well, if we win and weface this team that's got heavy left
handers, it's going to be Jones, And if it's these heavy right handers,
it's gonna be Yates. I mean, how do you as a pitcher
prepare for that? You know,sometimes in those games when you've never experienced
(19:40):
pitching in a regional before, sometimesit's actually better if you don't know.
I mean, I sort of goback to me in ninety two and I
was the midweek starter going into regionals, and so I'm like, I guess,
I don't know if I'm pitching arelief. I had no clue what
my role is. And also they're, hey, you're going to start against
LSU at LSU defending Nashville champions,like out of the Blues. So I
(20:04):
didn't really have a lot of timeto think about it. And it was
I remember, there's a big raindelay, and I threw five, five
or six shutout innings and I gotthe W. So who knows, Maybe
they just wait to tell the guywho knows. Yeah, that way he
doesn't go to bed feeling all nervousand butterflies and all that kind of stuff.
He's like, I mean, inthe regional is a whole different ball
(20:26):
game. I mean, I wasvery fortunate. I played on some great
teams. I'm very proud of thepostseason. But I started five postseason games
in my career, and I wasfour and one with a note and a
notice sation. Actually I came back, I started six and one. You
have to have a lot of talent, Bony, you have to have great
coaching. But it was I mean, those are so much fun to be
a part of it. So Ihope you know, they take full advantage
(20:48):
of it and they trust in theirability. So let's let's talk a little
bit more about cal Poly slow.I mean, we're able to take two
out of three up there and beable to get the automatic qualifier on Saturday
or I'm sorry, on on Fridaybecause they moved it Thursday Friday Saturday,
(21:10):
so it didn't even have to worryabout if the winner the loss or while
kind of stuff. But what aboutwhat about UC Santa Barbara. I mean,
we knew that going into this thispast weekend that we were going to
need some help from UC Santa Barbara, But they got crushed on Thursday by
Hawaii and then by Virtue of winningon Friday. The Titans didn't even need
any help from UC Santa Barbara.And you know they were they got the
(21:33):
automatic qualifier. But man, whatabout UC Santa Barbara just falling apart,
getting swept on the rock by Hawaiiand and just playing themselves out of the
holes? Yeah, I mean Iactually liked watching Hawaii play, and we
had a bunch of close games againstthem, and we were fortunate to win
two out of three gains. Hawaiicoach Hill, I think is doing a
(21:55):
good job over there. I've neverplayed in Hawaii, but I hear it
is a very tough play to play. Um. Yeah, they I took
care of business. And if youlook at the Big West Conference, I
mean, you know there's five orsix teams that actually had really really good
years in that conference. They couldhave gone either way. I mean north
Ridge, you know it was wegot lucky to win two out of three
there. I mean, if wedidn't win two out of three, we
(22:18):
might not be in. So it'sit was a good conference this year.
You're right with with north Ridge.It came down to that series because that
was the tiebreaker because Northridge won outat the end there and tied the Titans
for second place, and had theTitans not had that tiebreaker over north Ridge,
it would be north Ridge going tothe Stanford or they would probably be
(22:41):
shipped off who knows where, butright, it came down to that winning
that winning that second game in thatseries that that ended up being the deciding
factor. Yeah, I mean,baseball gods were on Fullerton side this year,
which is awesome. Take full advantageof it because this game could be
very brutal at times, and youknow, I'm excited to see what happens.
(23:04):
I'm excited to watch them on ESPNthis weekend. Unfortunately, I wish
I was going to be in Stanfordwith you, because I would have gotten
my car and drove one hundred percentwith social my buddy whose kid plays at
Texas A and M. But I'mgonna be in Hawaii on Saturday to Tuesday,
so off to watch it from thereright on. Yeah, well,
we'll be heading up I mean,thankfully the baseball gods or the tailgating gods,
(23:26):
if you will, smiled on us, because we're going to drive up
on early on Friday. That way, we'll be able to get there probably
like one or two o'clock in theafternoon and be able to do a proper
tailgate. Prior to the seven pmgame. We were thinking that if we
had to, if we were goingto get the game one on Friday,
we're gonna have to probably leave onThursday, stay overnight and then be able
(23:47):
to be there for the early game. But now we're able to leave on
Friday and drive up. And soif anybody's listening and anybody's going to be
going to Stanford and they want tojoin the tailgate, obviously no host.
So it's going to be byob bringyour own food. We can put whatever
you bring on the grills. ButDave Rodriguez and Hank Tran and Kirk san
Roman and and you know, awhole bunch of us are are gonna be
(24:10):
up there will will be properly tailgating, and so think of going to the
Elk. It's called the Elk.Camino Grove is the area on campus where
the parking lot is right next tothe the football stadium, right directly across
the street from Palo Alto High School. So that's that's that's what that's the
(24:33):
designated tailgated area that they're gonna putus I mean, I'm sure though the
picky out shardonage drinking Stanford fan andterribly too too happy about the Fullerton fans
coming in and eating it. We'regonna we're gonna try to make that place
look like best comparison I could makeis the pool scene from Caddyshack. We're
(24:55):
gonna try to turn that sunken diamondinto one of those types of type of
as atmospheres, and hopefully it's goingto be one of those types of deals.
So how was big? How wasthe crowd of big and how was
the excitement when Fullerton was announced?It was? It was it was cool.
We got there super early. Wewere I mean, no shock,
(25:17):
we were there. We were thefirst ones through the door. So little
eight a m. Guinness for meto kind of get the vocal cords lubricated
up. But so we got thereearly, grabbed, grabbed the table,
reserved it for a few people thatwere going to be joining us, and
team got there probably around eight thirty. Selection show started at nine, so
the team kind of filtered in aroundeight thirty, but there was there was
(25:38):
a pretty good sized crowd by thetime that the players started coming in,
and all the players sure, theycar pulled over, and so when the
players came in, they kind ofgot a big round of applause and a
lot of cheers from everybody that wasalready there waiting on them to get there.
But place was place was packed,standing room only by the time the
show started at nine o'clock. Andthen I took a video as they were
(26:00):
announcing the Stanford Regional and so thenthey announced Fullerton as the three seed,
and you know, everybody kind ofcheered and all the stuff. You can
go to kel State Omaha Twitter andcheck check out the video that we shot.
But it was kind of one ofthe reactions when they got the reaction
of A and M being paired upwith Fullerton in that regional, and you
(26:23):
know, some of it was surprised. Others were like, oh, hell
yeah, let's go. Yeah,you know, we're playing an SEC team
or something like that. So yeah, take take a look at kel State
Omaha on Twitter and scroll through thetimeline and take a look at the video
from the from the players reacting tothe announcement. So thank you very much,
everybody. Go Titans. They doplay on Game two on Friday up
(26:45):
at Stanford. They're playing the TexasA and m Aggie's, so we'll see
how they do. Wish them thebest of luck. Hopefully they'll be playing
on Saturday night in the winner's bracketand then hopefully they'll be able to take
take another regional out there in Stanfordand go on to the supers as well.
So thank you very much everybody forlistening and hopefully we'll see you next
(27:07):
week with a regional victory in hand. Thanks for listening to everybody, Thanks
for listening to the fifteen hundred fortyfour Miles to Omaha podcast. Feel free
to visit our website, cal StateOmaha dot com. While there you can
order an official cal State Omaha tshirt fund the Merch Store. Want to
(27:32):
help others find this podcast, pleaseadd a five star review wherever you are
listening. It really does help.The fifteen hundred forty four Miles to Omaha
podcast is an on the Lamb Enterprisesproduction and it's not affiliated with Cal State,
Fulletin or Titan Baseball
Churn straight four tennis done it.They've gone from fifteen and sixteen the champions
of college Facebook. Welcome to thefifteen hundred, forty four Miles to Omaha
podcast talking about the past, present, and future of cal State bulletin baseball.
(00:26):
Here's a drive jeep right center backthere in Chamberlain has won it.
A walkoff homer from the freshman Chamberlain. It's first of the year. Bell
dag Border War World period in nineteenone ball and one strike runners leap for
(00:48):
second and third. The one onechopped over the mouth. The second baseman
pork Agno's got it throws the firstto no hitter Port Coltney spent. Here's
your host, Dave Leam. Welcomeinto episode eighty one of the fifteen forty
four Miles to Omaha Podcast. I'mDave Lamb, founder of the cal State
Omaha podcast or I'm sorry, thecal State Omaha website and the fifteen forty
(01:12):
four Miles to Omaha Podcast. Joiningme as he does each week is the
All American pitcher Mike Perezy. So, Mike, let's let's just jump into
it. Titans. They they tooka share of second place in the Big
West, but by virtue of UCSan Diego being an eligible to go to
(01:36):
the postseason because they're currently still intransition from Division two to Division the Titans
ended up getting the automatic qualifier assecond place. They were tied the Northridge
but they had the tiebreaker over calState North Regionals and has broken the five
years of no postseason. So what'syour what's your thoughts? I mean,
(01:57):
I'm a proud Titan. I thinkit's just unbelievable what these players have done.
The coaching staff has done, andit's only their second year in the
program and it's been remarkable, andthey Chase that has done a great job.
Coach each has done a great jobof having these kids, you know,
play like the Titans that played inthe past. You know, you're
(02:19):
unselfish, you do whatever it takes, You're gonna work hard, You're gonna
make all these sacrifices, and itis paid off this year and it's awesome.
Every Titan alumni I've spoken to isreally happy. So this is kind
of like, I mean, Idon't want to make any unfair comparisons.
I mean, so please, thoselong time Titan fans out there, don't
(02:44):
don't don't kill me for this one, but for you. You were a
freshman in nineteen ninety two, theyear prior was Augie Garrido's first year back
after taking the three years at Illinois, So this was kind of like his
year back in the program, andit was his first year of really kind
(03:04):
of having his own players. Becausethe Titans missed the playoffs in ninety one,
ninety two was what started that twentyseven year run of consecutive playoff berths.
Can you make any comparisons to thisyear being the second year in coach
Dietrich's tenure, to your first yearin nineteen ninety two when the Titans went
back to the playoffs for the firsttime after missing the year before, and
(03:29):
it was the second year for Aggie. I mean, I haven't thought about
that, but that looking back onthat ninety two team, me personally,
I was just a young, dumbfreshman trying to get playing time, and
I had no clue, you know, really about the college rules series or
a regional I just as the fallballwent on and as ranking started coming around,
(03:54):
I'm like, just team was prettygood, and hey, who's the
third baseman that's National Player of theYear. And this big west pitcher the
year and James pop Off and itwas a lot of seniors on that team,
and I don't know if I couldcompare them, but you know,
it's, uh, it's pretty specialfor just to be in a regional and
obviously trying to win it. Wewere actually we were actually the third seat
(04:15):
at LSU in nineteen ninety two,so Furton is the third seed. This
year, we were the third seatat LSU and we won that regional.
Yeah, on the road, Sowell, what's what's your thoughts on Stanford
when when a lot of the prognosticatorswe were doing their projections, we were
originally scheduled to go to Baton Rouge, and then the next projection had the
(04:40):
Titans going to Fayetteville, Arkansas,and then another projection had them going to
Stanford, which is actually what cameto fruition. So it's the Stanford Regional
and the four seed is San JoseState, the three seed is Texas A
and M, and we can talkabout them a little bit more in depth.
And then I thought we were Ithought that you're absolutely you're absolutely right.
(05:01):
Two seed is Texas A and M, and three seed is the Titans.
So before we kind of start lookingat the Stanford Regional as it pertains
to the Titans, what's your what'syour opinion? A lot of there was
a lot of chatter online where peoplewere grousing and grew up in about the
fact that UC San Diego as ineligiblefor the postseason. I mean, they
(05:24):
knew going in that it was goingto be a four year transition and they
would be ineligible going into this year. And oh yeah, by the way,
even if they win the conference nextyear, they're going to be ineligible
as well. But there was ayou know, there's a lot of grumping
and grousing about the whole thing.And the comparison is is that, you
know, if you're a basketball guy, which you are, you remember the
(05:47):
name Merrimack who won their conference,but Fairly Dickinson, because Merrimack was still
making the transition from Division one,Fairly Dickinson gets gets the automatic bid,
they're the sixteen, and they endedup beating Purdue, and you know,
that was the whole March Madness deal. So the thing is is that this
isn't just indicative, or this isn'tjust for baseball. It's across all sports.
(06:13):
So any kind of opinion about youknow, everybody complaining about the the
UC San Diego tried and is notbeing ineligible to go to the postseason.
You know what, First of all, congratulations for UCSD and being able to
put two twenty three Big West Conferencechamps. I think it's amazing that coaches
have has done a great job recruitingand the program has come a long way.
(06:33):
Unfortunately, that's the rules. Youcan't be really disappointed. I felt
like four teen should have got inregardless, you know, so, I'm
glad to have the opportunity. Itseems like every year West Coast seems to
get a little cheated, and youknow, you have Stanford hosting. I
(06:53):
thought Oregans should have hosted. Noone in Texas is hosting, and Irvine
was. I didn't realize they wereeight one against the PAC twelve and they
had a forty p RPI. Theydidn't get in, and they were a
great Big West Conference team and USCdefinitely got screwed. So no, there's
not a lot of chatter about UCSC. They knew what happened. They can't
(07:14):
feel bad. They had a greatyear. They should be proud, but
their time will come. Yeah,and I think that UC San Diego is
a great addition to the Big West, especially with unfortunately you still have UC
Riversides and UC Davis and col StateSam Bakersfield. That's that's in the conference.
That kind of drags down that RPI, which obviously those are the three
(07:38):
favorite letters that everybody was speaking aboutyesterday when the when the when the tournament
bracket was announced. But you know, UC San Diego is going to really
help elevate the conference. Unfortunately they'rejust not going to be eligible to go
to the playoffs for this year andnext, but then twenty twenty five day
will But I would agree with youthat you see your vine kind of get
(08:00):
the screw job. And the factthat they had a forty I think it
was forty forty three or forty fiveor something like that, and Troy the
forty seven or a forty eight.I mean, I don't have the numbers
exactly in front of me, butthat they had a worse RPI. But
they were talking about how they didn'thave enough top fifty wins and all this
(08:22):
other kind of stuff, So it'sjust what was RPI? I mean,
I think you got five teams inthe USC didn't get in. Yeah,
I think USC's was like fifty two. I'm not one hundred percent sure on
that number, but I think itwas. I think it was higher than
U see your lines, so youknow. And then in Kansas State has
a real complaint too that unfortunately,they did not take into any any head
(08:48):
to head competition and wins into factor. They just kind of factored in the
RPI and teams like Oklahoma got inover Kansas State. Even I didn't think
you're gonna should have got in,I know, the going in the tournament,
but SE beat him two out ofthree, so I don't know.
Um, I think coach Thanklige hasdone a heck of a job and that
program for doing what they've dealt with. But that's that's not our problem over
(09:11):
at Fullerton. We got in andwe have an opportunity. And I loved
reading coach Dietrich's quotes and how he'sjust so proud of his players and the
way they've competed and bought in soquickly. And you know they're program.
I mean they got rid of halftheir players. I mean they have so
many first year players at boarded thisyear. Don't say they got a lot
of new guys because you know,they had to change some stuff right.
(09:35):
And I'll tell you this. Imean talking about how coach deflected a lot
of the praise. When we wereat Biggs yesterday for the the the announcement
that the selection show. You know, the players started kind of rolling in.
It was a little bit early forthem. You could see a lot
of guys with wet hair straight outof the shower, got out of the
(09:58):
shower and went straight over there forbreakfast. But Coach Tetric got there and
a lot of us were like,hey, coach, you know, way
to go, way way to getus back to where we wanted to be.
And he was like, nah,don't don't think me. Thank them,
And he pointed to the players sayingit was like, it's all them,
man, you can thank those guys. It's it's it's got nothing to
do with you know what. Jasonis so professional and he's been a pitching
(10:20):
a great pitching coach for thirteen yearsunder some amazing head coaches, and Coach
Horn is one of them, andthose always head to give all the praise
of the players like he's just whichis awesome. He's very humble, you
know, I guarantee you maybe ifhe's with his family, he's a little
pumped up and you're taking a littlecredit, but he'll never say it publicly.
It's all about the players, andit's it's well deserved. It's pretty
(10:43):
awesome, and I also think that, uh, it's it's a testament to
these players as well, and thefact that you go down the roster and
unfortunately, just because COVID blew everythingup in that twenty twenty season, and
you know, just based on theage of the players that are here,
(11:03):
Zach Lue is the only player onthat team from twenty nineteen, and that
is the only player to have playedfor a team that finished above five hundred,
and that was just one game abovefive hundred. I believe that that
nineteen season was twenty seven and twentysix didn't go to the playoffs. So
(11:24):
this this entire team, it's thefirst time that they've ever gone to a
postseason and and Zach lew is nowthe only player that's been on two winning
teams. It's unfortunately everybody else didn't. So this is the testament to the
to the grind and to the tothe dedication that the players to be able
to come in and turn this programaround. And I think the total the
(11:45):
total wins was thirty one. Ithink that it's like thirty one and twenty
two was the was the final wasthe final record for regular season. So
you know, testament to those guysfor actually finishing what ten you know,
nine ten games above five hundred.That's pretty awesome. Yeah, absolutely,
absolutely great year. And you justgo back to that first weekend against Stanford
(12:07):
and Fullerton should have beat them twoout of three. Stanford could swing it,
you know, and you know,thank the Fullerton's pictures half game,
but ton of home runs that weekendand that devastating one loss on Sunday.
But it's ironic that we're back inStanford and we're playing an SEC team,
which we've had good luck against SETteams or SEC CE teams in the past.
(12:30):
Um, we're not going to beintimidated by them, We're not gonna
be afraid by them. And it'sI like the regional I also like the
regionals. So what's what's your thoughtson San Jose State taken on Stanford and
then of course a M matched upwith the Titans. So we were talking
(12:50):
a little bit before before we startedsomething is a little bit of a twist
here. So the number one seedor the host, the reginal host,
gets to choose if they want tobe game one or Game two that day.
And the Titans are actually playing theAggies in the seven o'clock ten pm
eastern seven o'clock Pacific game, whichmeans the five o'clock eastern two PM game
(13:16):
on Friday is the Titans and thespark are not the Titans. I'm sorry.
Stanford and State are playing at twoo'clock, you know, local time.
That might be the fact that Stanfordwants to put San Jose State in
that in that one dugout where itjust faces the sun and it's just brutal.
(13:37):
I took a look at it atthe I mean, and that's that's
a true home field advantage when theyput that those visitors in that visitor dug
out on the third base side andthe sun just absolutely comes in and just
roast those guys. I mean,there is no relief whatsoever. However,
taking a look at the weather,it's gonna be low to mid seventies,
(14:01):
so it'll probably be sunny, butit's not going to be like eighty five,
and the sun just beaten down onthat dugout, right right, I
mean, and be honest here,if you're Stanford, you're not throwing your
eighth game one against Sanish State andyou know your eighth is gonna go to
the second game against the winner offull or ten and in Texas and Texas
(14:24):
than them, I don't think throwsare eighth. I mean, do they
have an eighth? I know theirpitch. He's been struggling a lot this
year, so we'll see. Iknow they got to the SEC Championship,
but they had a battle this year. They struggled a lot this year,
so it'll be interesting. So whatwhat's your what's your thoughts on Stanford decided
to go with the game one inthe middle of the day rather than going
at night. Is that the homefield advantage of having the sun and the
(14:48):
visitor's dug out? And then alsoyour game will be done by you know,
of five o'clock, six o'clock orsomething like that before the Titans even
take the field, So that justgives you even more rest, especially if
you're in the winner's bracket. Yeah, I mean, maybe that sun dugout.
Maybe there's obviously a reason of homefield advantage of why they don't want
to play Sandals, they stayed first. I'm sure the second game, the
(15:11):
winner that's gonna be playing the nightgame. I'd imagine game two. I
don't know, or do they keepit first game? Who knows? Um,
Yeah, I don't know. Imean, I I'm pretty confident that,
you know, that's our regional totake and we just gotta play good
baseball. But it's there's three teamsto me can win it. Yeah,
(15:31):
And I'm pretty confident that the winner'sbracket game slated to be the second game
on Saturday, so you know,win or lose. I think Stanford,
you know they're going to be youknow, if they do be Sandos,
they'll be playing in that night gameon Sunday or I'm sorry, on on
(15:52):
Saturday. Just because when we wereup there in twenty and eighteen during that
you know, the shot heard thejumbo Jack, the Jay's Amberland home run.
Yeah, ended up winning that intwenty and eighteen. That was at
the night game and that was theuh, that was the end of the
That was that was the last gameplayed on obviously set the world on fire
(16:14):
and set the Titans up to potentiallywin it the following you know, the
following day. But um so,your approach for if you were, if
you were the coach, obviously we'rethrowing we gotta throw Tyler Stults. I
meant Stults, Pitts a game one. You're going out trying to beat A
and M. And you once youget there and you're get in the winner's
(16:37):
bracket, you know you're gonna dowhat you gotta do. If I'm Stanford
and I'm Texas, A and M, whoever their eighths are, I am
not throwing them. There's no way. And you know, so that's that's
how I look at us. Soyou got Stults going up against Stamford's number
two, which probably maybe I'm gettingwas the Saturday guy you know that faced
them at Fullerton. I don't know. Um So we'd have to a little
(17:02):
research on that. And you know, I'll tell you what. Going back
because going back to Calboy Slow andbecause night coach high school baseball and I
coach against Los Altos. Props tothe walk on recruit Eli Lopez, who
tore it up this weekend at secondbase, filling in for Maddox. A
lot of that was awesome to seeyeah, I don't know if I don't
know if Maddox, if his backissue made a made a return up there
(17:26):
at slow and that's the reason whyEli got got the starts up there.
But he filled in admirably. Youknow, we definitely want to have both
of those guys healthy. You know, you definitely want to have both Maddox
and Eli at second base available.But he did, he did pretty well.
Yeah, he did. He did. So Flordon did what they had
(17:48):
to do. They had a littleslum, they went two out of three.
They get to celebrate. They're gonnabe a confident group going in and
you know, if you're playing forKL State Florton, you're wearing that uniform,
you're not intimidating anybody in the nations. So go out there and you
know they're gonna they're gonna get afterit. So when it comes to the
(18:10):
Saturday game, win or lose,winner's bracket, loser's bracket, you know,
whatever whatever happens on Friday, you'reyou're guaranteed to play on Saturday,
no matter if it's you know,game one or game two of the Saturday
day. Um, would would youmove Evan Yates up to the Saturday,
Or would you keep Peyton Jones becauseprobably pretty confident that that Finchester is not
(18:32):
going to be pitching his arms somehowof those arm I feel bad for him
because he's had a good year.Yeah, so would would you would you
move Evan up to I think that'soften and honestly, it's gonna depend on
who you play and what their strengthsand weaknesses are offensively. I mean,
I don't know Stanford big hitters lefthanders? Are they right handers? I
(18:56):
think they have a combination of both. Um, you know, I don't
know. It depends. What aboutif for some reason they were to lose
and they had to play Santos theystate, maybe you save at Yates?
You think of that, Hey wegot to Pete Sandos they state, And
it's trying to be somebody else.I don't know. It depends on who
they play and what the lineup is. So as a as a pitcher,
let's say you're you're Peyton Jones orEvan Yates, Obviously you've got to throw
(19:18):
a bullpen in there somewhere. Ifyou're going to be expected to start on
you know, whichever day, howdo you prepare if it's one of those,
Well, if we win and weface this team that's got heavy left
handers, it's going to be Jones, And if it's these heavy right handers,
it's gonna be Yates. I mean, how do you as a pitcher
prepare for that? You know,sometimes in those games when you've never experienced
(19:40):
pitching in a regional before, sometimesit's actually better if you don't know.
I mean, I sort of goback to me in ninety two and I
was the midweek starter going into regionals, and so I'm like, I guess,
I don't know if I'm pitching arelief. I had no clue what
my role is. And also they're, hey, you're going to start against
LSU at LSU defending Nashville champions,like out of the Blues. So I
(20:04):
didn't really have a lot of timeto think about it. And it was
I remember, there's a big raindelay, and I threw five, five
or six shutout innings and I gotthe W. So who knows, Maybe
they just wait to tell the guywho knows. Yeah, that way he
doesn't go to bed feeling all nervousand butterflies and all that kind of stuff.
He's like, I mean, inthe regional is a whole different ball
(20:26):
game. I mean, I wasvery fortunate. I played on some great
teams. I'm very proud of thepostseason. But I started five postseason games
in my career, and I wasfour and one with a note and a
notice sation. Actually I came back, I started six and one. You
have to have a lot of talent, Bony, you have to have great
coaching. But it was I mean, those are so much fun to be
a part of it. So Ihope you know, they take full advantage
(20:48):
of it and they trust in theirability. So let's let's talk a little
bit more about cal Poly slow.I mean, we're able to take two
out of three up there and beable to get the automatic qualifier on Saturday
or I'm sorry, on on Fridaybecause they moved it Thursday Friday Saturday,
(21:10):
so it didn't even have to worryabout if the winner the loss or while
kind of stuff. But what aboutwhat about UC Santa Barbara. I mean,
we knew that going into this thispast weekend that we were going to
need some help from UC Santa Barbara, But they got crushed on Thursday by
Hawaii and then by Virtue of winningon Friday. The Titans didn't even need
any help from UC Santa Barbara.And you know they were they got the
(21:33):
automatic qualifier. But man, whatabout UC Santa Barbara just falling apart,
getting swept on the rock by Hawaiiand and just playing themselves out of the
holes? Yeah, I mean Iactually liked watching Hawaii play, and we
had a bunch of close games againstthem, and we were fortunate to win
two out of three gains. Hawaiicoach Hill, I think is doing a
(21:55):
good job over there. I've neverplayed in Hawaii, but I hear it
is a very tough play to play. Um. Yeah, they I took
care of business. And if youlook at the Big West Conference, I
mean, you know there's five orsix teams that actually had really really good
years in that conference. They couldhave gone either way. I mean north
Ridge, you know it was wegot lucky to win two out of three
there. I mean, if wedidn't win two out of three, we
(22:18):
might not be in. So it'sit was a good conference this year.
You're right with with north Ridge.It came down to that series because that
was the tiebreaker because Northridge won outat the end there and tied the Titans
for second place, and had theTitans not had that tiebreaker over north Ridge,
it would be north Ridge going tothe Stanford or they would probably be
(22:41):
shipped off who knows where, butright, it came down to that winning
that winning that second game in thatseries that that ended up being the deciding
factor. Yeah, I mean,baseball gods were on Fullerton side this year,
which is awesome. Take full advantageof it because this game could be
very brutal at times, and youknow, I'm excited to see what happens.
(23:04):
I'm excited to watch them on ESPNthis weekend. Unfortunately, I wish
I was going to be in Stanfordwith you, because I would have gotten
my car and drove one hundred percentwith social my buddy whose kid plays at
Texas A and M. But I'mgonna be in Hawaii on Saturday to Tuesday,
so off to watch it from thereright on. Yeah, well,
we'll be heading up I mean,thankfully the baseball gods or the tailgating gods,
(23:26):
if you will, smiled on us, because we're going to drive up
on early on Friday. That way, we'll be able to get there probably
like one or two o'clock in theafternoon and be able to do a proper
tailgate. Prior to the seven pmgame. We were thinking that if we
had to, if we were goingto get the game one on Friday,
we're gonna have to probably leave onThursday, stay overnight and then be able
(23:47):
to be there for the early game. But now we're able to leave on
Friday and drive up. And soif anybody's listening and anybody's going to be
going to Stanford and they want tojoin the tailgate, obviously no host.
So it's going to be byob bringyour own food. We can put whatever
you bring on the grills. ButDave Rodriguez and Hank Tran and Kirk san
Roman and and you know, awhole bunch of us are are gonna be
(24:10):
up there will will be properly tailgating, and so think of going to the
Elk. It's called the Elk.Camino Grove is the area on campus where
the parking lot is right next tothe the football stadium, right directly across
the street from Palo Alto High School. So that's that's that's what that's the
(24:33):
designated tailgated area that they're gonna putus I mean, I'm sure though the
picky out shardonage drinking Stanford fan andterribly too too happy about the Fullerton fans
coming in and eating it. We'regonna we're gonna try to make that place
look like best comparison I could makeis the pool scene from Caddyshack. We're
(24:55):
gonna try to turn that sunken diamondinto one of those types of type of
as atmospheres, and hopefully it's goingto be one of those types of deals.
So how was big? How wasthe crowd of big and how was
the excitement when Fullerton was announced?It was? It was it was cool.
We got there super early. Wewere I mean, no shock,
(25:17):
we were there. We were thefirst ones through the door. So little
eight a m. Guinness for meto kind of get the vocal cords lubricated
up. But so we got thereearly, grabbed, grabbed the table,
reserved it for a few people thatwere going to be joining us, and
team got there probably around eight thirty. Selection show started at nine, so
the team kind of filtered in aroundeight thirty, but there was there was
(25:38):
a pretty good sized crowd by thetime that the players started coming in,
and all the players sure, theycar pulled over, and so when the
players came in, they kind ofgot a big round of applause and a
lot of cheers from everybody that wasalready there waiting on them to get there.
But place was place was packed,standing room only by the time the
show started at nine o'clock. Andthen I took a video as they were
(26:00):
announcing the Stanford Regional and so thenthey announced Fullerton as the three seed,
and you know, everybody kind ofcheered and all the stuff. You can
go to kel State Omaha Twitter andcheck check out the video that we shot.
But it was kind of one ofthe reactions when they got the reaction
of A and M being paired upwith Fullerton in that regional, and you
(26:23):
know, some of it was surprised. Others were like, oh, hell
yeah, let's go. Yeah,you know, we're playing an SEC team
or something like that. So yeah, take take a look at kel State
Omaha on Twitter and scroll through thetimeline and take a look at the video
from the from the players reacting tothe announcement. So thank you very much,
everybody. Go Titans. They doplay on Game two on Friday up
(26:45):
at Stanford. They're playing the TexasA and m Aggie's, so we'll see
how they do. Wish them thebest of luck. Hopefully they'll be playing
on Saturday night in the winner's bracketand then hopefully they'll be able to take
take another regional out there in Stanfordand go on to the supers as well.
So thank you very much everybody forlistening and hopefully we'll see you next
(27:07):
week with a regional victory in hand. Thanks for listening to everybody, Thanks
for listening to the fifteen hundred fortyfour Miles to Omaha podcast. Feel free
to visit our website, cal StateOmaha dot com. While there you can
order an official cal State Omaha tshirt fund the Merch Store. Want to
(27:32):
help others find this podcast, pleaseadd a five star review wherever you are
listening. It really does help.The fifteen hundred forty four Miles to Omaha
podcast is an on the Lamb Enterprisesproduction and it's not affiliated with Cal State,
Fulletin or Titan Baseball
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