September 20, 2023 • 24 mins
Welcome into Episode 83 of the 1544 Miles to Omaha Podcast. Today's guest is once again, Cal State Fullerton Baseball Head Coach Jason Dietrich.
In today's episode we'll touch on heading into his third season as the head coach of the storied Titan Baseball program, updates from the summer, getting his thoughts on the MLB Draft, incoming transfers and signees along with what to expect with the upcoming fall practices.
Highlights include:
🎙️ Catching up from the summer (2:16)
🎙️ Advantage of maintaining same staff for three years (4:21)
🎙️ Jake Pavletich 3rd paid assistant (5:29)
🎙️ Titans that had a good summer ball (6:47)
🎙️ Thoughts regarding 4 titans leaving via MLB draft (8:52)
🎙️ Recruits that went undrafted in danger of going pro (10:08)
🎙️ Thoughts on the 4 transfer portal additions (11:53)
🎙️ New faces that could contribute in spring (14:13)
🎙️ Players could shift to corner infield positions (16:20)
🎙️ Players competing for outfield spots (17:43)
🎙️ Predicting the weekend starters (19:22)
🎙️ Road Fall Scrimmage opponent & date announced (20:43)
🎙️ Spring Schedule still getting finalized (21:45)
▶️ Visit our website: calstateomaha.com
▶️ Follow us on X/Twitter:@CalStateOmaha
▶️ Follow us on Facebook: Facebook.com/calstateomaha
▶️ Follow us on Instagram: @calstateomaha
▶️ Suggest a guest: CalStateOmaha@Gmail.com
In today's episode we'll touch on heading into his third season as the head coach of the storied Titan Baseball program, updates from the summer, getting his thoughts on the MLB Draft, incoming transfers and signees along with what to expect with the upcoming fall practices.
Highlights include:
🎙️ Catching up from the summer (2:16)
🎙️ Advantage of maintaining same staff for three years (4:21)
🎙️ Jake Pavletich 3rd paid assistant (5:29)
🎙️ Titans that had a good summer ball (6:47)
🎙️ Thoughts regarding 4 titans leaving via MLB draft (8:52)
🎙️ Recruits that went undrafted in danger of going pro (10:08)
🎙️ Thoughts on the 4 transfer portal additions (11:53)
🎙️ New faces that could contribute in spring (14:13)
🎙️ Players could shift to corner infield positions (16:20)
🎙️ Players competing for outfield spots (17:43)
🎙️ Predicting the weekend starters (19:22)
🎙️ Road Fall Scrimmage opponent & date announced (20:43)
🎙️ Spring Schedule still getting finalized (21:45)
▶️ Visit our website: calstateomaha.com
▶️ Follow us on X/Twitter:@CalStateOmaha
▶️ Follow us on Facebook: Facebook.com/calstateomaha
▶️ Follow us on Instagram: @calstateomaha
▶️ Suggest a guest: CalStateOmaha@Gmail.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Cal States 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):
Three two pitch on Davis, somebastball hits a left in deep blazer,
doesn't even go back on it.It's that ball out and gone.
Looks like it went over the storeboard. A home run by j. D.
Davis. Oh two, swinging outof this straight. Three. Cal
(00:46):
State Bulletin is on to the CollegeWorld a series. Here's your host,
Dave Lamb. Welcome into episode eightythree of the fifteen forty four miles to
Omaha Podcast. Today's guest he isonce again kelsty Fortune head baseball coach Jason
(01:07):
Dietrich. In today's episode, we'lltouch on heading into his third season as
the head coach of the Story TitanBaseball program, updates from the summer,
getting his thoughts on the MLB Draft, the incoming transfers and signees, along
with what to expect from the upcomingfall practices. So again, thank you
first time and welcome into the show. Thanks appreciate it always good to catch
(01:27):
up and see how things are going. Thank you for having me absolutely.
So last time we talked it wasprior to the MLB Draft. It's just
a little bit of time after theStanford Regional. Tell us how the summer
has been going for you and thecoaching staff since last time we talked.
After the regional. As you know, it doesn't stop your the recruiting picks
(01:49):
up, so obviously the season ending, it's always a tough thing, but
we're excited and appreciative of the efforts. Our guide's gay. So it was
good, a good sea and forus. But summers, like I said,
it's NonStop. It's recruiting twenty fourseven. The great thing also a
summer is the opportunity to add athird paid assistant with Jake Pabloticch. So
(02:09):
we went through that whole process ofhiring someone and having Jacon staff has been
a great addition and that helps obviouslywith the recruiting piece. He can be
out there and that's kind of whatit is. Before you know it,
like school starts up August twenty first, so it's kind of a short summer
so to speak, for us.But there's all not just recruiting, it's
just getting your guys and make sureand we're still you know, looking for
(02:32):
certain guys if we feel we needto add to our class and getting all
the paperwork and all that stuff doneand housing. So there's always it's repetitive
every year, but it's just thingswe have to make sure we're checkboxing before
school starts to make sure we haveeveryone ready to go. So saying it's
it's a little bit repetitive, Iknow a couple of years ago we talked
and you said, it's kind oflike drinking out of a fire hose because
(02:53):
being a head coach, there's alot of responsibilities that are yours now.
And is it is it's still alittle bit easier or is it still you
know, still a learning process.I think it's just now you're going on
third summer, so it's just amatter of now we have a better idea
and grasp of what we're wanting toget done, what we need to get
done, and kind of just getour system and our cycle going. So
(03:15):
it's it's not drinking from that firehose. It's just an opportunity to reflect
as a staff, move forward andcontinuously, Like I said, get things
going in the right direction. Butyeah, it wasn't as crazy, but
it's always you know, pretty steadyand busy. To be honest with you,
how much of an advantage or helphas it been in the fact that
you've had the consistency of your firsttwo assistants and Josh Polovsky and Neil Walton
(03:42):
still remaining on staff now going intothat third summer, to the point where
you know, it's not a constantsurprise or there's you know, they've been
through the war too. It's great. That's that's where I'm very lucky and
blessed to have a whole staff obviouslythose guys being the paid as system,
but it's a whole staff in generalto continuously grow and get better. But
having those two guys, you want, you know, consistency, you want
(04:05):
to continuity and to have those guysand they do so much for us.
It brings so much value, bothof them, and I don't want to
just you know, talk about thosetwo, but you know it's everyone on
the staff. They do a lotto help us behind closed doors and behind
the scene. So yeah, I'mexcited and thankful that they're back, and
they're excited and they're putting, youknow, the great effort as they always
(04:27):
do it. So it's been good. Well talking about the coaching staff,
and you did mention that Jake Pabloticsis now the third paid assistant. For
those that don't really understand the newrules with the nc double A, when
it comes to a third paid assistant, does that now mean that the volunteer
assistant position has now gone away andhas been elevated to a third paid or
(04:49):
is there still a third paid positionand then you do still have a volunteer
how how does that work with howthe NCUBA has fielded it. Well,
how I viewed is that they eventhe opportunity for schools to have the third
paid assistant. Now, luckily withthe support of Athletic Department Jim Donovan,
the president, we we you know, our program and softball have the opportunity
(05:14):
to have that and so it's greatfor us. Obviously it's beneficial, it's
huge, But I don't know,to be honest, I think other schools
are going to figure out a wayto either. I don't think they can
labeled a volunteer assistant anymore because ofI guess there was some kind of legal
stuff going on. That's why Ithink they made this opportunity. And luckily
we've worked hard and the department andthe schools worked hard to give us this
(05:35):
opportunity to have the third paid assistant. Now there's we don't have a volunteer
on staff now, obviously the thirdis a third paid assistant position. So
other schools, I think it's goingto be interesting how they they put that
in if that's still a possibility,and I'll be interesting to see. But
I know a lot of schools outthere have worked hard to create the third
(05:56):
paid assistant for their programs. Talkto me a little bit more up about
how was the summer for the players. I mean, we saw that there
was a number of guys that hadpretty good summer ball showings. By the
nature for summer ball, unfortunately,getting stats is sometimes a little bit problematic.
But are any returners? Are thekind of players that had a particularly
good summer that you can recall offthe top of your head. I know
(06:17):
Aaron Sina Saros did a good jobin Alaska. I pitched a lot,
didn't pitch at all last year,but it was great for him to get
out there and compete. We hadsome guys in that collegiate league in the
Northwest that got some experience. Ithink all the guys who wanted to get
out there compete. Some guys weasked them to shut it down just because
of just their bodies and give themsome rests and they can just kind of
(06:39):
recharge their battery, so to speak, and hit the weight room. But
there's not really any guys that cometo mind. I just thought of Aaron
because I pitched a lot and itwas good for him to get out there.
But the goal for summers, that'sjust like I said, get anything
to get experience. The numbers arenot something we you can see guys do
really good in summer and really goodand fall and the spring comes it could
(07:00):
be different. It's just to goout there and compete and figure out where
they're at. How they can continusto get the at bats and the ending
so they can grow and develop thebest they can. So they come back
and fall, we can see kindof their progression and where they're at,
and hopefully continuously help them grow andsee what they do and fall and compete
and hopefully put themselves position to wina job or at least be someone that's
knocking on the door to get inningsor at bats or playing time in the
(07:23):
field. So four Titans were drafted, with Nate Nankill, Cole Erman Kayden
Connor all expected to get selected,and I think the kind of the biggest
surprise was Jojo and Grassia getting drafted, not necessarily because of his talents or
his performance, but just based onthe fact that he had some extra eligibility
left, unlike you know, someof the other guys that were expected to
(07:46):
be drafted. What are your thoughtscoming out of the mL A draft losing
those four in particular, Well,obviously we were thinking that we had a
good chance of losing three, youknow, like Joejoe wasn't a surprise.
We knew that teams liked him,but we had good conversations with them,
and he felt the opportunity was thereand presented that he would he would go
for it, and we support him, you know, at the end of
(08:07):
the day, we told him whatwe thought a great young man did so
much for us in that one year. But we were excited for him to
get the opportunity and that was theright fit for him and his family to
get that opportunity to move forward.So we're excited for all four of them.
We were thankful and gracious. Youknow, like I said, it's
awesome when you get your name called, it's it's it's a it's a blessing,
and you gotta be you gotta appreciatethat. And so to have four
(08:28):
guys called now a twenty round draft, we were excited for all four of
them. And then we were luckyalso for some of the incoming guys.
We know there were some talk outthere and some teams are talking to some
of our guys that you know,they felt it was best for them to
come to school and to mature andget better and develop and hopefully put themselves
in a good position you know twoor three years or four years from now.
(08:50):
Well that was actually going to beMy next question was is that the
good news is is that the nationalletter of intent sign these went and undrafted.
So the entire increading recruiting class,uh didn't get drafted and can come
to campus. Which which of theones were most in jeopardy of getting potentially
poached by the Major league draft.Well, we had Ethan Hawkinson, a
big left hander from up North.Chris Hernandez, a right hander out of
(09:15):
Baker's Field. Then you hear somerumblings about some other guys, you know,
Matt barniwell out of RCC, possiblyphysical guy Derek Turner had a little
bit of interest, you know,two way guy out of Newberry Park.
Other than that, I think that'sthat's all we had. The bud is
(09:37):
we still have some good ballplayers thatwe liked that came in and I think
they're going to do a good joband put us a position for the future
and for this year. So yeah, those are the guys that we kind
of were sweating out a little bitto figure out, you know, hey,
what's gonna happen. And then luckily, you know, they came and
gone and they're here now. Well, when we spoke last we talked a
(09:58):
little a bit about Jared Snyder,who's a catcher transferring in from the portal
from Long Beach State. But sincethat conversation, Titan's picked up two other
transfers. And you might have tohelp me with the pronunciation of their last
names or just their names in general. What can you tell us about is
it uh Mike Kea or a Micahcalled Kai he called Kai perfect that that
(10:22):
works for US. So there's Kayis it Negretti or Negret Negretti or a
Negrett sorry, a left handed pitcherfrom University of San Diego and he's also
originally from Surveyed High. And thenthere's a Nico is it Reginio? Yes?
After an outfielder from Charleston Southern,but he's originally from up north in
(10:45):
the Stockton area, out of ElkGrove. And we also had Seth Sumner.
How did you see San Diego?Oh? Okay, I didn't know.
He's a pitcher, right hand apitcher. So there's four guys,
you said, we're excited. We'rein our fifth week of just doing individual
work, so we have a chanceto kind of get a feel for them.
And as you can imagine, it'sfour new guys, so we're just
(11:05):
kind of learning who they are,how they go about doing their business,
and then just building relationships with themon the field, not the field.
So we're excited. Two pitchers,two position players. You know, Kai
comes from USD but also surveys.So having known those coaches that survive,
they speak very highly of them.I see why, because he's shown that
(11:26):
he's a good young man that wantsto compete and do things, and you
know, obviously very coachable and excitedto see what lies for him. Seth
Good young Man, also on aDamien again, coaches spoke well on him,
kind of his makeup and who heis. So they both, I
feel like, have some potential,just as you know, it's just a
matter of diving into that potential,solidifying some consistency in what they do,
(11:48):
so they hopefully put themselves in aposition to get some dings. And then
Regino Charleston Southern. He came fromthe same junior college as Andrew Maronis and
Seth tom Zach that's Delta again,did all our homework on him. It
sound like he's a guy who's gonnafit utility type guy, but can you
(12:09):
swing the bat. Well, we'reexcited to see what he can do.
And then Jared Snyder, you knowCatcher, he's shown well so far as
receiving skills as makeup, He's donea good job and we're excited to see
what he can do also. Soit's just the kind of all unknown,
not just with those four, butjust the whole incoming guys of just spending
(12:31):
time with them for the next upuntil I think the middle of November,
and then just for us as acoaching staff, evaluate where we're at and
how we can continuously help these youngmen grow. Well, since you've come
on board, Titan fans have seenguys that are not part of the letter
of intent, recruiting class or theportal compete in the fall and earn not
(12:52):
only a spring roster spot, butcontribute during the season. One that leaves
to mind is a guy like EliLopez or even Finchester and Tyler Stultz,
you know, and two years ago. Who are some of the guys that
the Titan fans may not recognize theirnames, but now could potentially compete for
being in the mix in the spring. I think there's gonna be a lot
(13:15):
of guys. As you saw,we have a lot of position players that
have moved on, whether it bethe draft or you know, senior from
lou to Carter White. So welost I think six or seven guys that
were in our lineup, obviously BrendanBobo you know, going in the portal.
So we lost a lot of guys, and that for me is just
why we recruit another twenty I thinktwenty or twenty one guys coming in,
(13:37):
and then some are returning guys thatdidn't play that much, but hopefully they're
ready to step up and challenge fora starting spot. I don't think I
can single out guys who, likeI said, it's just a returners and
new guys that we want to justevaluate more. And we're excited to see
who kind of steps up and putthemselves in position to at least say,
hey, I'm ready, I wantto I want to start in this position.
(13:58):
And they're going about the right waythis fall, and then hopefully January
they show the same thing and startFebruary we'll be there and hopefully we we'll
probably be making some changes, butthat's just normal, right so, but
it's just we're excited. But thereality is we're gonna be patient with this
group because it's, like I said, a lot of new guys inexperience,
(14:20):
but yet guys that I feel thatcan step in. It's just a matter
of how fast they can kind ofadapt and grow. Individual baseball, well,
we already touched on Kayden Connor gettingdrafted, Zach lu senior and graduated
held down those corner infield spots forquite a while. Looks like You've got
a lot of guys that have alot of middle infield experience and not a
(14:41):
whole lot of corners. So whodo you think is potentially going to be
pushed to their left or their rightto potentially field those those corners. I
think it's going to play itself out. We have some guys like Luke Mustone
and play a little last year.I think we're gonna see how he does
at first base. Regina is anotherguy that we feel for a transfer that
poss first base. The butt isif someone is hitting well and we want
(15:05):
to put him over there to givehim a chant chance and another spot.
Maybe he didn't do well at wemight experiment them first base. There'll be
a lot of experimenting going on andwith with guys, you know, maybe
put Eli Lopos out ThReD to seewhat he's like. We have some incoming
freshman Marco Rosalas. Do we feellike he could play third? Gosh,
there's like so there's numerous guys.Tyler har Holly is an incoming guy.
(15:28):
Unfortunately he's hurt right now, buthe's coming back from his injury that played
a lot of third base. DerekTurner's a two way guy that we feel
can possibly be still two way guyat Division one. So there's some potential
there. It's just like, asyou know, it's just we're gonna see
what they can do and I justevaluate that's that's a fun part of fall
(15:48):
is exciting to see how they compete, how they go about their business,
and then, like I said,then we have to come with a game
plan come spring. Well, alsokind of the same question is is the
fact that Nan killed gone in thedraft, Carter White via graduation, Moises
Guzman is the only returner essentially outthere on the outfield. Who are some
of the other guys that you couldpoint to that are going to be competing
(16:11):
to fill those spots for the outfield. Well, you have Koby Wallace,
a returner you had some time lastyear, Dreve Nishida, who else?
We got some incoming guys that wefeel can compete in Isaiah Thompson. You
know, you got Cam Burdick,you have who else? Jack Jim Cohn
(16:33):
who fortunately got hurt last year missedout. But we feel like the potentials
in there. But as you cansee the names of Reno for guys that
just haven't played that much and that'snot a bad thing. It's just we're
excited to see how they go aboutit. And there's other guys that I
might be missing, but that's wherewe're at right now, and that's how
we're excited to see what they cando. And like I said, I
think the key is gonna be patients. We got to be patient with these
guys and challenge them to compete againsteach other to win jobs. And then
(16:59):
also on the mound your Forte Finchester, Tyler Stoltz both gone U. Sounds
like potentially if we're trying to lookfor what what a weekend rotation could be
this far out and sitting here inSeptember, Evan Yates, hopefully Christian Rodriguez
is available to come back and andand compete at a high level. Potentially
(17:25):
Peyton Jones who was graduated but hasreturned. Those kind of looked to be
sort of in the in the mix. But you know, are we looking
at a potential of a Thomas Eshelmanjustin Garza where you've got some guys that
can come in as a freshman andbe able to compete for those those weekend
starts. Yeah, but also thenames you throughout our guys that have experience,
and Christian obviously coming back from asurgery, that's going to be the
(17:48):
little question mark. But he's beenthrowing the ball well on the bullpen uh
and feeling good. Evan someone that'syou know, been a Sunday starter for
two years. It's a matter ofwho's going to step up and show that
they want that job. Peyton dida great job for us kind of being
our Swiss army knife from starting themiddle relief to back end an older arm
that has a lot of experience.So is he a guy I think he
(18:10):
should put himself in a position.A couple those portal guys and a lot
of freshman arms that we have,we have faith in them. We have
we see that there's some talent there. Yes, you'd like to have Anshman
Garza and all those guys I thinkwe had from a guy John Gavin Connor,
Seable and you know Phil Bickford,and you know who else is there.
(18:30):
There's more I'm thinking about, youknow, Colton Eastman, all this
freshman that started, and that's kindof the expectation here is that freshman can
pitch. It's just a matter who'sgonna step up and show they can handle
everything and be consistent with everything.So we have faith in the arms that
we've recruited. Now it's just amatter of them taking ownership and getting out
there competing and be consistent. Andthen you know, as of right now,
(18:55):
we're seeing that there's one false scrimmageD one Baseball has has kind of
that false scrimmag schedule put up theirschedule for November fourth, with UNLV coming
into Goodwin Field. Is there asecond scrimmage that you might be able to
let us know about that might beeither on the road or here or it's
still in the flux of today.Yeah, I think we're gonna send that
out today or tomorrow. We're playingat cal Baptists on October twenty eight that
(19:19):
Saturday, and then yeah, youand I'll be in the fourth here,
So yeah, I've got two goodgames. We're excited to kind of see
and compete against an opponent and seewhere we're at. And then in that
same vein with regards to the schedule, the Big West released their conference schedule
really really early, probably the earliestthat I've ever seen them release it.
(19:41):
So we know that Titans by weekis going to be with the fall the
first weekend. I'm sorry, it'sgonna fall on the first weekend in May,
and probably safe to assume that Titansare probably going to open up at
Stanford kind of the home and theway thing going on there. And then
last time we talk, we knewthat the Titans are going to be at
the Keith Flip Clare Classic and firstweekend in March. Do you guys have
(20:06):
any anything for those other weekends,the potential of the buy or those other
weekends that are going to be comingout. Yeah, we have some good
opponents we like that are you know, we have two coming in and then
we have another one we're going onthe road to play them. So we're
excited. I lack our schedule again, I think it's going to be competitive.
(20:29):
We have teams that are have shownthat they've been you know, in
the postseason, and every year we'regoing to compete against Stanford. That's going
to be always, whether it's thefirst week or second week, you know,
we're still always going to have that. And then I'm always working to
figure out if there's tournaments out therewe can go to, and then having
opponents coming here that we respect andknow it's going to challenge us, and
(20:51):
it's always you know, it's collegebaseball, right there's so much parodied right
now that there's a lot of goodprograms out there that maybe you're not getting
talked about. But we do ourbest to challenge ourselves outside of conference so
we can be ready for conference.And that's the same again this year.
Going to North Carolina will be agood test for us to play at ECU
and other two other teams that areinvolved in that to see what it's like
to travel across country and then beable to compete and then come back and
(21:11):
be able to play again on aTuesday. So it's going to challenge our
guys, but I think they needthat. They need to understand how to
go about having that kind of travelbut playing good competition outside of just kind
of the West Coast area and seewhat it's like. So it's gonna be
fun for us. So we're excitedfor our schedule and hope they'll be out
And in your future, I'm stilltrying to finalize another game, so you're
(21:32):
not at liberty to say who's ableto come in and who you're going to
be traveling too. No, I'mstill trying to figure out one other thing
and just cross checking one hundred percenta couple of teams that they said they're
coming, but there's still a coupleof things I'm trying to figure out.
So WHENDO fall back, you saidthat it's a lot of individual work right
now, wait room matting, cagesand all that kind of stuff, but
on their own. When DOO fallpractices officially start with coaches able to be
(21:56):
on the field and give instructions,and then do you guys have a kind
of a you know, inter squadscrimmage that we might be able to come
out and take a look at.Yeah, well we start October ninth.
That's Monday. October ninth is goingto be our first official day of practice,
and then we'll do our best tocoordinate the weekly schedule of our inter
squads. We'll be posting that probablyon Twitter and Instagram, just kind of
(22:19):
letting other days and times, howmany innings. So that's we're excited for
that. And then the back end, I think we're done around in November
twelve. We'll have our Blue Orangeseries that that that weekend and then we
have the two games, but we'llhave a good amount of scrimmages. Last
year, we didn't have as muchbecause we had a different approach with so
many new guys. This year,we're we're starting earlier in regards to having
(22:41):
a lot more inter squads and scrimmages, so just we can evaluate at a
high level and see where we're at. So we're excited for October ninth right
now, And like I said,we're just doing a lot of We're going
at four hours a week with ourguys, so we got to spread that
up. And then we got bullpensgoing on pictures that we're on there.
I think a lot of them areon their fourth bull pen the next couple
of days, and then next weekthey'll be going another pen live to live
(23:04):
hitters. So we're just doing kindof the process that we like of kind
of taking our time and make surebecause when you have a lot of guys,
you don't want to throw a lotat them. You want to kind
of slowly implement your style, yourphilosophies, both offensively, defensively and pitching,
and just kind of let them learnabout you and how the program works
and the returners helping us continuously grow. So yeah, we're excited for not
(23:26):
just October nine, but every dayto get a chance to be out there
with them and see them grow andget better. Thanks for listening to the
fifteen hundred forty four Miles to OmahaPodcast. Feel free to visit our websitecal
State Omaha dot com. While there, you can order an official cal State
(23:48):
Omaha T shirt from the Merged Store. Follow the fifteen hundred forty four Miles
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four Miles to Omaha Podcast is anon theer Lamb Enterprises production and is not
affiliated with cal State Fullerton or TitanBaseball.
Cal States 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):
Three two pitch on Davis, somebastball hits a left in deep blazer,
doesn't even go back on it.It's that ball out and gone.
Looks like it went over the storeboard. A home run by j. D.
Davis. Oh two, swinging outof this straight. Three. Cal
(00:46):
State Bulletin is on to the CollegeWorld a series. Here's your host,
Dave Lamb. Welcome into episode eightythree of the fifteen forty four miles to
Omaha Podcast. Today's guest he isonce again kelsty Fortune head baseball coach Jason
(01:07):
Dietrich. In today's episode, we'lltouch on heading into his third season as
the head coach of the Story TitanBaseball program, updates from the summer,
getting his thoughts on the MLB Draft, the incoming transfers and signees, along
with what to expect from the upcomingfall practices. So again, thank you
first time and welcome into the show. Thanks appreciate it always good to catch
(01:27):
up and see how things are going. Thank you for having me absolutely.
So last time we talked it wasprior to the MLB Draft. It's just
a little bit of time after theStanford Regional. Tell us how the summer
has been going for you and thecoaching staff since last time we talked.
After the regional. As you know, it doesn't stop your the recruiting picks
(01:49):
up, so obviously the season ending, it's always a tough thing, but
we're excited and appreciative of the efforts. Our guide's gay. So it was
good, a good sea and forus. But summers, like I said,
it's NonStop. It's recruiting twenty fourseven. The great thing also a
summer is the opportunity to add athird paid assistant with Jake Pabloticch. So
(02:09):
we went through that whole process ofhiring someone and having Jacon staff has been
a great addition and that helps obviouslywith the recruiting piece. He can be
out there and that's kind of whatit is. Before you know it,
like school starts up August twenty first, so it's kind of a short summer
so to speak, for us.But there's all not just recruiting, it's
just getting your guys and make sureand we're still you know, looking for
(02:32):
certain guys if we feel we needto add to our class and getting all
the paperwork and all that stuff doneand housing. So there's always it's repetitive
every year, but it's just thingswe have to make sure we're checkboxing before
school starts to make sure we haveeveryone ready to go. So saying it's
it's a little bit repetitive, Iknow a couple of years ago we talked
and you said, it's kind oflike drinking out of a fire hose because
(02:53):
being a head coach, there's alot of responsibilities that are yours now.
And is it is it's still alittle bit easier or is it still you
know, still a learning process.I think it's just now you're going on
third summer, so it's just amatter of now we have a better idea
and grasp of what we're wanting toget done, what we need to get
done, and kind of just getour system and our cycle going. So
(03:15):
it's it's not drinking from that firehose. It's just an opportunity to reflect
as a staff, move forward andcontinuously, Like I said, get things
going in the right direction. Butyeah, it wasn't as crazy, but
it's always you know, pretty steadyand busy. To be honest with you,
how much of an advantage or helphas it been in the fact that
you've had the consistency of your firsttwo assistants and Josh Polovsky and Neil Walton
(03:42):
still remaining on staff now going intothat third summer, to the point where
you know, it's not a constantsurprise or there's you know, they've been
through the war too. It's great. That's that's where I'm very lucky and
blessed to have a whole staff obviouslythose guys being the paid as system,
but it's a whole staff in generalto continuously grow and get better. But
having those two guys, you want, you know, consistency, you want
(04:05):
to continuity and to have those guysand they do so much for us.
It brings so much value, bothof them, and I don't want to
just you know, talk about thosetwo, but you know it's everyone on
the staff. They do a lotto help us behind closed doors and behind
the scene. So yeah, I'mexcited and thankful that they're back, and
they're excited and they're putting, youknow, the great effort as they always
(04:27):
do it. So it's been good. Well talking about the coaching staff,
and you did mention that Jake Pabloticsis now the third paid assistant. For
those that don't really understand the newrules with the nc double A, when
it comes to a third paid assistant, does that now mean that the volunteer
assistant position has now gone away andhas been elevated to a third paid or
(04:49):
is there still a third paid positionand then you do still have a volunteer
how how does that work with howthe NCUBA has fielded it. Well,
how I viewed is that they eventhe opportunity for schools to have the third
paid assistant. Now, luckily withthe support of Athletic Department Jim Donovan,
the president, we we you know, our program and softball have the opportunity
(05:14):
to have that and so it's greatfor us. Obviously it's beneficial, it's
huge, But I don't know,to be honest, I think other schools
are going to figure out a wayto either. I don't think they can
labeled a volunteer assistant anymore because ofI guess there was some kind of legal
stuff going on. That's why Ithink they made this opportunity. And luckily
we've worked hard and the department andthe schools worked hard to give us this
(05:35):
opportunity to have the third paid assistant. Now there's we don't have a volunteer
on staff now, obviously the thirdis a third paid assistant position. So
other schools, I think it's goingto be interesting how they they put that
in if that's still a possibility,and I'll be interesting to see. But
I know a lot of schools outthere have worked hard to create the third
(05:56):
paid assistant for their programs. Talkto me a little bit more up about
how was the summer for the players. I mean, we saw that there
was a number of guys that hadpretty good summer ball showings. By the
nature for summer ball, unfortunately,getting stats is sometimes a little bit problematic.
But are any returners? Are thekind of players that had a particularly
good summer that you can recall offthe top of your head. I know
(06:17):
Aaron Sina Saros did a good jobin Alaska. I pitched a lot,
didn't pitch at all last year,but it was great for him to get
out there and compete. We hadsome guys in that collegiate league in the
Northwest that got some experience. Ithink all the guys who wanted to get
out there compete. Some guys weasked them to shut it down just because
of just their bodies and give themsome rests and they can just kind of
(06:39):
recharge their battery, so to speak, and hit the weight room. But
there's not really any guys that cometo mind. I just thought of Aaron
because I pitched a lot and itwas good for him to get out there.
But the goal for summers, that'sjust like I said, get anything
to get experience. The numbers arenot something we you can see guys do
really good in summer and really goodand fall and the spring comes it could
(07:00):
be different. It's just to goout there and compete and figure out where
they're at. How they can continusto get the at bats and the ending
so they can grow and develop thebest they can. So they come back
and fall, we can see kindof their progression and where they're at,
and hopefully continuously help them grow andsee what they do and fall and compete
and hopefully put themselves position to wina job or at least be someone that's
knocking on the door to get inningsor at bats or playing time in the
(07:23):
field. So four Titans were drafted, with Nate Nankill, Cole Erman Kayden
Connor all expected to get selected,and I think the kind of the biggest
surprise was Jojo and Grassia getting drafted, not necessarily because of his talents or
his performance, but just based onthe fact that he had some extra eligibility
left, unlike you know, someof the other guys that were expected to
(07:46):
be drafted. What are your thoughtscoming out of the mL A draft losing
those four in particular, Well,obviously we were thinking that we had a
good chance of losing three, youknow, like Joejoe wasn't a surprise.
We knew that teams liked him,but we had good conversations with them,
and he felt the opportunity was thereand presented that he would he would go
for it, and we support him, you know, at the end of
(08:07):
the day, we told him whatwe thought a great young man did so
much for us in that one year. But we were excited for him to
get the opportunity and that was theright fit for him and his family to
get that opportunity to move forward.So we're excited for all four of them.
We were thankful and gracious. Youknow, like I said, it's
awesome when you get your name called, it's it's it's a it's a blessing,
and you gotta be you gotta appreciatethat. And so to have four
(08:28):
guys called now a twenty round draft, we were excited for all four of
them. And then we were luckyalso for some of the incoming guys.
We know there were some talk outthere and some teams are talking to some
of our guys that you know,they felt it was best for them to
come to school and to mature andget better and develop and hopefully put themselves
in a good position you know twoor three years or four years from now.
(08:50):
Well that was actually going to beMy next question was is that the
good news is is that the nationalletter of intent sign these went and undrafted.
So the entire increading recruiting class,uh didn't get drafted and can come
to campus. Which which of theones were most in jeopardy of getting potentially
poached by the Major league draft.Well, we had Ethan Hawkinson, a
big left hander from up North.Chris Hernandez, a right hander out of
(09:15):
Baker's Field. Then you hear somerumblings about some other guys, you know,
Matt barniwell out of RCC, possiblyphysical guy Derek Turner had a little
bit of interest, you know,two way guy out of Newberry Park.
Other than that, I think that'sthat's all we had. The bud is
(09:37):
we still have some good ballplayers thatwe liked that came in and I think
they're going to do a good joband put us a position for the future
and for this year. So yeah, those are the guys that we kind
of were sweating out a little bitto figure out, you know, hey,
what's gonna happen. And then luckily, you know, they came and
gone and they're here now. Well, when we spoke last we talked a
(09:58):
little a bit about Jared Snyder,who's a catcher transferring in from the portal
from Long Beach State. But sincethat conversation, Titan's picked up two other
transfers. And you might have tohelp me with the pronunciation of their last
names or just their names in general. What can you tell us about is
it uh Mike Kea or a Micahcalled Kai he called Kai perfect that that
(10:22):
works for US. So there's Kayis it Negretti or Negret Negretti or a
Negrett sorry, a left handed pitcherfrom University of San Diego and he's also
originally from Surveyed High. And thenthere's a Nico is it Reginio? Yes?
After an outfielder from Charleston Southern,but he's originally from up north in
(10:45):
the Stockton area, out of ElkGrove. And we also had Seth Sumner.
How did you see San Diego?Oh? Okay, I didn't know.
He's a pitcher, right hand apitcher. So there's four guys,
you said, we're excited. We'rein our fifth week of just doing individual
work, so we have a chanceto kind of get a feel for them.
And as you can imagine, it'sfour new guys, so we're just
(11:05):
kind of learning who they are,how they go about doing their business,
and then just building relationships with themon the field, not the field.
So we're excited. Two pitchers,two position players. You know, Kai
comes from USD but also surveys.So having known those coaches that survive,
they speak very highly of them.I see why, because he's shown that
(11:26):
he's a good young man that wantsto compete and do things, and you
know, obviously very coachable and excitedto see what lies for him. Seth
Good young Man, also on aDamien again, coaches spoke well on him,
kind of his makeup and who heis. So they both, I
feel like, have some potential,just as you know, it's just a
matter of diving into that potential,solidifying some consistency in what they do,
(11:48):
so they hopefully put themselves in aposition to get some dings. And then
Regino Charleston Southern. He came fromthe same junior college as Andrew Maronis and
Seth tom Zach that's Delta again,did all our homework on him. It
sound like he's a guy who's gonnafit utility type guy, but can you
(12:09):
swing the bat. Well, we'reexcited to see what he can do.
And then Jared Snyder, you knowCatcher, he's shown well so far as
receiving skills as makeup, He's donea good job and we're excited to see
what he can do also. Soit's just the kind of all unknown,
not just with those four, butjust the whole incoming guys of just spending
(12:31):
time with them for the next upuntil I think the middle of November,
and then just for us as acoaching staff, evaluate where we're at and
how we can continuously help these youngmen grow. Well, since you've come
on board, Titan fans have seenguys that are not part of the letter
of intent, recruiting class or theportal compete in the fall and earn not
(12:52):
only a spring roster spot, butcontribute during the season. One that leaves
to mind is a guy like EliLopez or even Finchester and Tyler Stultz,
you know, and two years ago. Who are some of the guys that
the Titan fans may not recognize theirnames, but now could potentially compete for
being in the mix in the spring. I think there's gonna be a lot
(13:15):
of guys. As you saw,we have a lot of position players that
have moved on, whether it bethe draft or you know, senior from
lou to Carter White. So welost I think six or seven guys that
were in our lineup, obviously BrendanBobo you know, going in the portal.
So we lost a lot of guys, and that for me is just
why we recruit another twenty I thinktwenty or twenty one guys coming in,
(13:37):
and then some are returning guys thatdidn't play that much, but hopefully they're
ready to step up and challenge fora starting spot. I don't think I
can single out guys who, likeI said, it's just a returners and
new guys that we want to justevaluate more. And we're excited to see
who kind of steps up and putthemselves in position to at least say,
hey, I'm ready, I wantto I want to start in this position.
(13:58):
And they're going about the right waythis fall, and then hopefully January
they show the same thing and startFebruary we'll be there and hopefully we we'll
probably be making some changes, butthat's just normal, right so, but
it's just we're excited. But thereality is we're gonna be patient with this
group because it's, like I said, a lot of new guys inexperience,
(14:20):
but yet guys that I feel thatcan step in. It's just a matter
of how fast they can kind ofadapt and grow. Individual baseball, well,
we already touched on Kayden Connor gettingdrafted, Zach lu senior and graduated
held down those corner infield spots forquite a while. Looks like You've got
a lot of guys that have alot of middle infield experience and not a
(14:41):
whole lot of corners. So whodo you think is potentially going to be
pushed to their left or their rightto potentially field those those corners. I
think it's going to play itself out. We have some guys like Luke Mustone
and play a little last year.I think we're gonna see how he does
at first base. Regina is anotherguy that we feel for a transfer that
poss first base. The butt isif someone is hitting well and we want
(15:05):
to put him over there to givehim a chant chance and another spot.
Maybe he didn't do well at wemight experiment them first base. There'll be
a lot of experimenting going on andwith with guys, you know, maybe
put Eli Lopos out ThReD to seewhat he's like. We have some incoming
freshman Marco Rosalas. Do we feellike he could play third? Gosh,
there's like so there's numerous guys.Tyler har Holly is an incoming guy.
(15:28):
Unfortunately he's hurt right now, buthe's coming back from his injury that played
a lot of third base. DerekTurner's a two way guy that we feel
can possibly be still two way guyat Division one. So there's some potential
there. It's just like, asyou know, it's just we're gonna see
what they can do and I justevaluate that's that's a fun part of fall
(15:48):
is exciting to see how they compete, how they go about their business,
and then, like I said,then we have to come with a game
plan come spring. Well, alsokind of the same question is is the
fact that Nan killed gone in thedraft, Carter White via graduation, Moises
Guzman is the only returner essentially outthere on the outfield. Who are some
of the other guys that you couldpoint to that are going to be competing
(16:11):
to fill those spots for the outfield. Well, you have Koby Wallace,
a returner you had some time lastyear, Dreve Nishida, who else?
We got some incoming guys that wefeel can compete in Isaiah Thompson. You
know, you got Cam Burdick,you have who else? Jack Jim Cohn
(16:33):
who fortunately got hurt last year missedout. But we feel like the potentials
in there. But as you cansee the names of Reno for guys that
just haven't played that much and that'snot a bad thing. It's just we're
excited to see how they go aboutit. And there's other guys that I
might be missing, but that's wherewe're at right now, and that's how
we're excited to see what they cando. And like I said, I
think the key is gonna be patients. We got to be patient with these
guys and challenge them to compete againsteach other to win jobs. And then
(16:59):
also on the mound your Forte Finchester, Tyler Stoltz both gone U. Sounds
like potentially if we're trying to lookfor what what a weekend rotation could be
this far out and sitting here inSeptember, Evan Yates, hopefully Christian Rodriguez
is available to come back and andand compete at a high level. Potentially
(17:25):
Peyton Jones who was graduated but hasreturned. Those kind of looked to be
sort of in the in the mix. But you know, are we looking
at a potential of a Thomas Eshelmanjustin Garza where you've got some guys that
can come in as a freshman andbe able to compete for those those weekend
starts. Yeah, but also thenames you throughout our guys that have experience,
and Christian obviously coming back from asurgery, that's going to be the
(17:48):
little question mark. But he's beenthrowing the ball well on the bullpen uh
and feeling good. Evan someone that'syou know, been a Sunday starter for
two years. It's a matter ofwho's going to step up and show that
they want that job. Peyton dida great job for us kind of being
our Swiss army knife from starting themiddle relief to back end an older arm
that has a lot of experience.So is he a guy I think he
(18:10):
should put himself in a position.A couple those portal guys and a lot
of freshman arms that we have,we have faith in them. We have
we see that there's some talent there. Yes, you'd like to have Anshman
Garza and all those guys I thinkwe had from a guy John Gavin Connor,
Seable and you know Phil Bickford,and you know who else is there.
(18:30):
There's more I'm thinking about, youknow, Colton Eastman, all this
freshman that started, and that's kindof the expectation here is that freshman can
pitch. It's just a matter who'sgonna step up and show they can handle
everything and be consistent with everything.So we have faith in the arms that
we've recruited. Now it's just amatter of them taking ownership and getting out
there competing and be consistent. Andthen you know, as of right now,
(18:55):
we're seeing that there's one false scrimmageD one Baseball has has kind of
that false scrimmag schedule put up theirschedule for November fourth, with UNLV coming
into Goodwin Field. Is there asecond scrimmage that you might be able to
let us know about that might beeither on the road or here or it's
still in the flux of today.Yeah, I think we're gonna send that
out today or tomorrow. We're playingat cal Baptists on October twenty eight that
(19:19):
Saturday, and then yeah, youand I'll be in the fourth here,
So yeah, I've got two goodgames. We're excited to kind of see
and compete against an opponent and seewhere we're at. And then in that
same vein with regards to the schedule, the Big West released their conference schedule
really really early, probably the earliestthat I've ever seen them release it.
(19:41):
So we know that Titans by weekis going to be with the fall the
first weekend. I'm sorry, it'sgonna fall on the first weekend in May,
and probably safe to assume that Titansare probably going to open up at
Stanford kind of the home and theway thing going on there. And then
last time we talk, we knewthat the Titans are going to be at
the Keith Flip Clare Classic and firstweekend in March. Do you guys have
(20:06):
any anything for those other weekends,the potential of the buy or those other
weekends that are going to be comingout. Yeah, we have some good
opponents we like that are you know, we have two coming in and then
we have another one we're going onthe road to play them. So we're
excited. I lack our schedule again, I think it's going to be competitive.
(20:29):
We have teams that are have shownthat they've been you know, in
the postseason, and every year we'regoing to compete against Stanford. That's going
to be always, whether it's thefirst week or second week, you know,
we're still always going to have that. And then I'm always working to
figure out if there's tournaments out therewe can go to, and then having
opponents coming here that we respect andknow it's going to challenge us, and
(20:51):
it's always you know, it's collegebaseball, right there's so much parodied right
now that there's a lot of goodprograms out there that maybe you're not getting
talked about. But we do ourbest to challenge ourselves outside of conference so
we can be ready for conference.And that's the same again this year.
Going to North Carolina will be agood test for us to play at ECU
and other two other teams that areinvolved in that to see what it's like
to travel across country and then beable to compete and then come back and
(21:11):
be able to play again on aTuesday. So it's going to challenge our
guys, but I think they needthat. They need to understand how to
go about having that kind of travelbut playing good competition outside of just kind
of the West Coast area and seewhat it's like. So it's gonna be
fun for us. So we're excitedfor our schedule and hope they'll be out
And in your future, I'm stilltrying to finalize another game, so you're
(21:32):
not at liberty to say who's ableto come in and who you're going to
be traveling too. No, I'mstill trying to figure out one other thing
and just cross checking one hundred percenta couple of teams that they said they're
coming, but there's still a coupleof things I'm trying to figure out.
So WHENDO fall back, you saidthat it's a lot of individual work right
now, wait room matting, cagesand all that kind of stuff, but
on their own. When DOO fallpractices officially start with coaches able to be
(21:56):
on the field and give instructions,and then do you guys have a kind
of a you know, inter squadscrimmage that we might be able to come
out and take a look at.Yeah, well we start October ninth.
That's Monday. October ninth is goingto be our first official day of practice,
and then we'll do our best tocoordinate the weekly schedule of our inter
squads. We'll be posting that probablyon Twitter and Instagram, just kind of
(22:19):
letting other days and times, howmany innings. So that's we're excited for
that. And then the back end, I think we're done around in November
twelve. We'll have our Blue Orangeseries that that that weekend and then we
have the two games, but we'llhave a good amount of scrimmages. Last
year, we didn't have as muchbecause we had a different approach with so
many new guys. This year,we're we're starting earlier in regards to having
(22:41):
a lot more inter squads and scrimmages, so just we can evaluate at a
high level and see where we're at. So we're excited for October ninth right
now, And like I said,we're just doing a lot of We're going
at four hours a week with ourguys, so we got to spread that
up. And then we got bullpensgoing on pictures that we're on there.
I think a lot of them areon their fourth bull pen the next couple
of days, and then next weekthey'll be going another pen live to live
(23:04):
hitters. So we're just doing kindof the process that we like of kind
of taking our time and make surebecause when you have a lot of guys,
you don't want to throw a lotat them. You want to kind
of slowly implement your style, yourphilosophies, both offensively, defensively and pitching,
and just kind of let them learnabout you and how the program works
and the returners helping us continuously grow. So yeah, we're excited for not
(23:26):
just October nine, but every dayto get a chance to be out there
with them and see them grow andget better. Thanks for listening to the
fifteen hundred forty four Miles to OmahaPodcast. Feel free to visit our websitecal
State Omaha dot com. While there, you can order an official cal State
(23:48):
Omaha T shirt from the Merged Store. Follow the fifteen hundred forty four Miles
to Omaha Podcast on Twitter and Instagramat cal State Omaha. Please like us
on Facebook at Facebook dot com slashcal State Omaha. The fifteen hundred forty
four Miles to Omaha Podcast is anon theer Lamb Enterprises production and is not
affiliated with cal State Fullerton or TitanBaseball.
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