UCONN HEAD BASEBALL COACH JIM PENDERS

The guys chat with the coach ahead of their opening round matchup vs Duke in the College Baseball World Series Tournament!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Ben asked coach Penders if he feltlucky. Do you feel lucky? Is
that what it is? Are youfeeling like a lucky guy today getting into
this tournament or it knew it allalong? Yeah, I mean, honestly,
I am, and I'm not sayingthis. I mean I sat through
that yesterday with a lot of optimism. I feel like we've earned our way

(00:21):
in. I'm in with the scheduleand what we did, but you know,
we feel fortunate. I felt unluckyon three other days where we watched
that in two thousand and six totwenty fifteen, and twenty seventeen we were
the first four out, so Ifelt I actually felt really good after Saturday's
games mostly went our way. Youknow, the favorites won their conference tournaments

(00:45):
and there were very few big Steelers. The last time we went through it
in seventeen, we needed like wewere watching nine games in the last two
days and two of them turned outthe good way and seven went bad.
And this year was kind of thereverse. So it's kind of payback.
And I was thinking about those guysfrom six, fifteen and seventeen yesterday.

(01:07):
You know, it was kind ofnice to be able to you know,
redeem ourselves and get back. Andyou know, I feel like we feel
like we're fortunate and that the programis built. It's in a different place
now like with our stature nationally,and that may have benefited us. But
I don't want to take anything awayfrom this team either, because I thought

(01:29):
they truly earn their way in wasreally good baseball in April and May talking
to coach Jim Pender's yukon baseball goingto the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight
time and ten of the last fourteenyears. Like you were talking about how'd
you draw? I mean, youknow some of these teams or Roberts,

(01:49):
Oklahoma, Duke, what do youknow about them? And you played Duke
on Friday. Yeah, we're learninga lot about them now. I mean
I rooted for Duke for the firsttime in my lifetime on Saturday. They
had to beat Miami for US,and they did that. Now, sure
enough we've got to face them,you know, less than less than a

(02:10):
week later. But they're very wellcoached and they are a juggernaut of an
offense. I mean, they canreally really hit. They hit the long
ball, big swings, they gofor it. Very aggressive, so I
you know, we're gonna have ourhands full there. Certainly kind of glad
to see the wind should be blowing. In baseball, coaches become amateur meteorologists

(02:34):
when it comes to the wind,and I think that may benefit us a
little bit. But they're they're avery good offense and they've got some good
arms too, but you know,kind of a juggernaut offensively. And Oklahoma
is very different in that they're superaggressive on the base paths. They are
they want to go first to third. They've got a lot of teams speed,
they know how to use it.Two big time starters and a solid

(02:59):
bult too, So we'll have youknow, those two guys are really really
tough. And all Roberts, Imean they're hot. They just come off
a conference championship and they went toOmaha last year. I mean that's eleven
and a half months ago they werein Omaha, so you know it's and
they're also extremely well coached. Theydo a great job over there. So

(03:21):
it's a tough draw. But Imean, I think every draw in the
tournament is a tough draw. Iwas looking at Duke today doing my own
personal skying report. You are right. So they have seven players that have
over forty games. Some of sixplayers have over fifty games that are hitting
above three hundred in their lineup.Their lead off guys Zach Morris, by
the way, save by the bell, Zach Morris. Guys, you'll love
that name. But the other oneI saw, coach was Ryan Higgins,

(03:44):
because I was trying to figure outyour Friday starter who you might be going
up against on the mound for theDuke Blue Devils, and I saw this
Higgins guy, and I noticed fromNew Canaan, Connecticut, like, Wow,
what are the odds that Yukon mightbe matched up with a kid that
pitched here in this day eight inhis high school career? Is that the
case? Are you expecting to seeHiggins? And do you know about this

(04:04):
kid before you play him? Wedon't know who we're going to face yet.
They haven't announced that. You know, I wouldn't be shocked if we
saw him. You know, we'restill learning a lot about him, uh,
you know, to be honest withyou, they we did recruit.
Chad Knight was on their rosters,a Little League World Series hero from Westport,

(04:28):
and he he was on our campus. I think is an eighth grader
as a matter of fact, soI know a little bit more you know
about him, and I know,you know, Higgins transferred in, you
know, to to duke. Wedon't know quite as much about about him.
But we're learning stuff, you know, by the minute, getting a
lot of phone calls from people aroundthe country that want to help us,
and you know, making some ofthose phone calls to getting scouting reports.

(04:53):
But you know, oftentimes, Imean, our guys are going to have
a lot more information after the firsttime around the order than we could get
any scouting report. But you know, we'll learn. We'll learn an awful
lot in the next few days anddo our homework. Right now, we're
just trying to get all the logisticsironed out. We're going to logan for
a five thirty am flight tomorrow inorder to keep us all together and say

(05:14):
they had us on like three orfour different flights and didn't like that idea
because if we didn't want to getstranded and tull Tuls are somewhere else.
So we're all going together tonight andgoing to stay stay at the airport hotel
and just walk down to the gatesin the early morning hours. Wanted to
talk to you about your pitching staff. I mean, does get knocked out
early from the Big East tournament helpyou at all? And how you lined

(05:36):
up for the tournament. I don'tknow if it helps our hurts, you
know, you know, Rob,you just want to keep playing and stay
in that rhythm. But I dofeel like, you know, we're lined
up just fine. I mean,we've got three, we really have four
quality starters and gave Van m andnumbers haven't been there, but he's he's
been in a good place lately.And we have four starters who have all

(06:00):
started NCAA tournament games. You know, Gabe did it on the Division III
level, but did it in theCollege World Series and Division three last year.
So you know, I think that'suh. I think that's really great.
And I don't know how many peoplecould say, you know, how
many coaches in this tournament could saythey have four starters that have NTAA baseball
you know experience. So you know, I'm excited about very excited about about

(06:25):
our chances there. Yeah. Ialso I misspoke on Haigen. I don't
know, I was thinking about theother kids. Another kids he's he started
at Duke he didn't transferring, So, like I said, it's we're working
progress right now, trying to gatherinformation. We did incident. We did
not to look too far ahead,but we we actually got a lot more
information on Oklahoma prior to Duke.So Josh McDonald's working on Duke right now

(06:48):
and trying to trying to gather I'mgetting my wires cross, trying to figure
out, you know, trying tokeep them all straight, all three potential
opponents straight. I was a hugefan of Brian getting that big hit to
keep the game alive and really putyou guys on top, and the unfortunate
ending against Georgetown and the loser's backat the big He's just a big fan

(07:08):
of him, and I thought thatwas a big moment where you had one
of your senior leaders really step upfor the team. We've been screaming the
praises at Garrett Coe on the mound, a guy that's really stepped up as
a senior leader on your team.Do you find that more here at the
end of the season, the guysthat are playing maybe their last games of
organized baseball really come through in theclutch for you when it comes to tournament

(07:30):
time. Yeah, you know,TC Simmons is a guy, he's been
around on the block a bunch andJake Studley was under the weather last weekend,
so TC went in there, dida solid job. And GERRICKO,
Yeah, he's our leader. He'sjust our emotional leader. Or you know,
just if there's a brawl that breaksout, you know he's the enforcer.

(07:51):
He's enormous, and he's just he'sa great kid. And I think
you know, of all the teams, you know, all sixty four teams,
you're going to find if you wereI mean I haven't done this,
but if you were going to doa median age of those teams, I
bet you it's going to tend tobe closer to twenty three, twenty two

(08:11):
up in that range. For theguys that are actually contributing late in the
season. You know, it's withthe transfer portal and with an I lu
with the grad years, with theCOVID year, all those things that's conspired
to get a lot of older guysmen, you know, not boys anymore,
but men on the field, likea Luke Broadhurst, who's you know,

(08:33):
twenty five years old. You knowhe has he has Little League teammates
that are you know, the JoshSimpsons and he's made the big leagues.
You know, Jimmy Titus was alittle league teammate of his, and Jimmy's
retired from professional baseball and Luke's stillplaying college ball. It's pretty remarkable.
So, but you're going to findthe teams I think that have the most

(08:54):
success or the are the older teams. You know, they just have more
experience, and we're certainly going tolean on that experience. You know,
this coming weekend talking to Jim Pender'shead coach ucon Baseball. One of the
things I love about your coaches,do you like the old school style hitting
and the stealing bases, the hitand run stuff like that. You guys
are way ahead of like the majorleaguers right now as far as traditional baseball.

(09:16):
But you know that that's been oneof your biggest things is how you
run the bases, how your guysare are so fundamentally sound. Can you
talk to like our listeners and someof the coaches out there at the high
school level and maybe below on thisis the kind of guys you're trying to
recruit for your program? Sure,yeah, I mean we will find a

(09:37):
lot there's a lot of freshmen thathave no idea how to bunt. You
know, they're all the guys whoare All League, All Conference, All
Galaxy in their own minds, andthey haven't had the bunt in years.
And they get here and they realizethey're not going to get on the field
unless they know out a bunch.Everybody in the lineup has to be able
to sacrifice bunt, get a suicidesqueeze down that type of thing. Are

(09:58):
guys that have speed, we reallywork on playing for hits and the major
league level. I don't blame thembecause the stats, the analytics back them
up and say, you don't wantto give up one of your twenty seven
outs and let's play for the freerent homer. It doesn't necessarily correlate to
college baseball. You know, thebunted ball is not necessarily an easy play

(10:18):
to make at our level, andyou know, so it's it's not an
automatic out. So I think itexcuse to be, you know, certainly
more useful at our level. Sowe do tend to play a little bit
of small ball. We are sometimesaggressive to a fault on the basis i'd
rather you know, I'd always ratherhave to tone a guy down than tune
him up. And you know,I'd rather say, you know, pull

(10:39):
back the reins then have to encouragethem to come on, let's get going,
let's go, let's go first thethird. But you know, we
do it. We have a tendencythat sometimes get get thrown out on the
basis but I'd rather, I'd ratherhave to tone them down, you know,
I just that's the style of playthat we want to force the action.
You know, we had a coupleopportunities to execute this past weekend and

(11:03):
a couple of times you got itdone. A couple of times we didn't,
you know, it popped up abunt. We did have a successful
hit run and those those things haveto be there, you know that You've
got to have them in your toolbelt, and the guy's got to be
able to produce, you know,when it's when that when that's called for,
when the play is called for,they've got to be able to execute
it. Yukhan taking on Duke.It's a twelve forty five pre game,
one of the first games to getstarted in the road to Omaha. Coach,

(11:26):
I'm a huge fan of this bracket, this tournament. The road to
Omaha as it is. I knowDibbs and kurd are as well, and
I just wish the rest of thecountry would get around to it like they
do March Madness when the basketball tournamentcomes. Because this thing, like you
said, chalk full major leaguers,chalk four great programs. But for U
Khan individually and for you personally,what does it mean for a trip to

(11:46):
omahall for this program and for youwith this group of guys, Oh,
you know, it would be adream come true. I mean not just
for me, but for everybody inour dugout and everybody associated with our program,
from you know, the Elliotts throughthe guy I mean, there's guys
from the nineteen fifties that I heardfrom via text message or email. They're
still following us. You know,in the nineteen sixties, my father was

(12:09):
at the selection show. He wason the sixty five College World Series team,
and you know he's going to behe's closing it on eighty two years
old. I got to get theold man back to Nebraska. So we
we got to get that done.And and you know, I feel like,
hey, we're we should be playingvery loose and liquid nobody expected us

(12:31):
to be here but us. Ourhead's been in the guillotine since February and
early March. Everybody, now,this is Yukon stinks this year. They're
not going to get it done.And and the guys refused to quit.
And so you know, I lovethat that spirit that we have in our
dugout or around our program. Andyou know, we proceeded to win every
single Big East weekend. The firsttime we lost back to back Big East

(12:52):
games was in the Big East Tournament, unfortunately. But I believe in these
guys and anything is possible. We'vegot a really tough road, like you
said, but I would never betagainst my guys and looking forward to seeing
what they can do on a bigstage. Well, Jimmy, you know,
we're huge supporters and backers of theprogram. So man, God blessed
safe travels and uh, you know, get to Omaha. You got it.

(13:15):
Thanks so much, guys, andyou guys are great to us,
and we really appreciate the support supportand hopefully people listen in and follow the
Huskies and one of the best thingsthat we can do when we're playing in
the postseason is just extend our awesomeYukon Nation brand chronologically, you know,
a little bit deeper into the calendarand keep keep people talking about the Huskies.
And we take that responsibility, youknow, as a real honor.

(13:39):
And hopefully we can we can beextending the brand almost to July. That'll
mean a successful one in Omar.Excellent job thus far, sir, go
get them on Friday, guys.Thank you, jam, Thank you very much.