May 29, 2025 • 10 mins
Scott Springer of Cincinnati.com joined us from Knoxville to preview the NCAA Baseball Tournament and the upcoming games for UC and Miami.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Springer covers UC athletics for The Inquirer and Cincinnati
dot Com, and he is in knox Knoxville, Knoxville getting
said for tomorrow night's tomorrow afternoons baseball action.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I can talk, hopefully Scott can. He's with us. Now,
how's it go.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
It's been a little wet down here and they're expecting
rain tomorrow and the coach has just had a meeting.
Everything's on for now. The upside, it's a turf field
here at LENDSI Nelson Stadium, and they've got a lot
of help here. The weird thing is the sucker's under construction.
I mean they're adding on to Lensi Nelson Stadium, which
(00:38):
easily they can because of the fan base. But it's
a little difficult in and out of here. But in
the press comp or the press boxes aren't all that much.
But you know, they don't care about the press. They
care about the players. So it'll it'll be a nice atmosphere.
I mean it'll be packed. It it's seat sixty two
ninety eight. I don't know. They can probably get ten
(00:59):
thousand in here they want to, so it's probably what
they're working on. And I would imagine what the sec
money they could get that done. But uh, pretty cool
place and plus, uh you know apparently the w WE
is in town tonight. So yeah, I'm looking for Roman
Reigns out here or Dustin Rhodes or whoever's on top
(01:19):
of these days. John Cena he's a bad guy, I
think now though.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, he turned he turned heel.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
We just played his music for reasons I'm not entirely
entirely sure, I understand when when I I watched the
n CNAA men's basketball tournament and the women too, it
always feels like the coolest part of the experience is
the day before for the players.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Is that the case in baseball?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well, they came and had to work out, and I
think they brought him by yesterday too. They came down
on the bus. Uh they stopped at Bucky so that
had to have been the highlight on the way down.
But yeah, they they let him look around. Because I
was teasing Jordan Bischel, I said, you know, it's just
like a hankle Fieldhouse effect. You know where you got
to go look at the rim and you know, ten
(02:02):
feet same as ours. But you know they've played in
decent sized stadiums, and there's some really good venues in
the big twelve. Oklahoma State really stands out. So and
this place now is under construction. Like I said, it's nice,
very nice. It'll be even nicer, but I have to
tell you they've probably played and nicer thus far. Now
(02:23):
when it's packed full of volunteer fans and crazy Orange people,
that's a different story. But first things first, since any
has to play wake Forest at one o'clock, they're rated
ahead of them in the RPI at thirty at last check.
Last time I looked, and you see thirty four and
Tennessee's are defending national champions. And you know, Miami's got
(02:43):
nothing to lose. They can come down and they're on
top of the world if they knock off the volunteers tomorrow.
So it's an interesting setup to have both UC and
Miami in the same regional And then the way this works,
if they both were to win, they're the main game
on Saturday. If they both lose, they play Saturday at noon.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well let's talk about tomorrow. So what I know about
wake Forest baseball is the Reds keep drafting their pitchers
in the first round, so they obviously don't have Rht
Louder or Chase Burns. Nonetheless, they're going to be favored
in the game tomorrow. How monumental of a task is
this for Jordan Bischall's club.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I don't think it's monumental. I think if you follow
the D one baseball guys, a lot of people think
it's not out of the realm of possibility that Cincinnati
can win this regional. They have played the decent competition
all year long. They're sixteen and fourteen in the Big twelve. Well,
wake Forest was sixteen and fourteen in the ACC, Tennessee
was sixteen and fourteen in the SEC. Miami actually has
(03:45):
the best conference trucker there in the MAC at twenty
three and seven. TCU RPI wise is maybe six seven
spots below Tennessee. Cincinnati played with them decently in Fort
Worth a year ago swept TCU, So I don't know
if it's apples oranges or what. You know. There's no debate.
(04:07):
The SEC dominates baseball. They won the last five national championships,
seven of the last ten. But this is a chance
for both schools, since Any and Miami to come down
and say, you know, hey, Weedal suck, so why not?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Which is always nice to be able to say about yourself.
I think what's kind of cool and following Cincinnati specifically
is it does feel like, you know, folks who maybe
pay very close attention to football and basketball really started
to focus in on what the baseball program was doing
down the stretch.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, and attendance wise, I mean, they don't put in
the fans like they do here, but their attendance was up.
And what I've tried to tell everyone, you know, when
you get into the Big Twelve, it's a different animal,
and it's a different animal in every sport. And you're
in a lot of towns where the you know, the
colleges are the only thing in town, so baseball is
(05:01):
a thing. Baseball is big in a lot of these places.
And the fact that Jordan Bissell's come in and in
two years has him in the NCAA Tournament and over
thirty wins, Actually baseball has adapted better than football and basketball.
You see thus far.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
I would say there's no question about that. As a
follower of UC athletics, is it a surprise to you
that in year two of the Big Twelve the Bearcats
have had such success and are in the NCAA Tournament.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Baseball one I saw last year, not necessarily, and then
I was able to go to their first pitch dinner
that they had way back in February, and they brought
Brent Souter out to talk to him. And Rent's a
great guy. And you know, there's a guy there that was,
you know what, thirtieth round or wasn't supposed to be
in the major leagues and he's had a decent career.
(05:53):
So and all the guys I talked to that night,
they said, you know, well, we think they didn't think
we're gonna be any good last year, and they think
we're gonna be even worse this year. And you know
they took it to heart. You know, everyone has to
have the chip on their shoulder. That's something guys like
me have to write or guys like you have to say,
because it's just, you know, I don't know why everyone
(06:14):
needs to say it. Everyone's just motivated. If someone doesn't
think you're any good, you're motivated to prove them wrong. Heck,
even at my age, I try to do that and
some people still say I suck mo, but I keep going.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I Uh, I would never say that Uh are you there?
Like obviously you see as your beat, but do you
have the add of responsibilities of covering the RedHawks?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I did, I say for their practice. I talked to
Brian Smiley and uh, you know, they've got a nice team.
They You can't discount the Mac ever in any sport,
and talking about chips on the shoulder, the Mac has
had that forever and all you got to do is
look back to early You know, Marcus Freeman is all
the raven football, but you know, Northern Illinois beat them,
(07:00):
and the Max School's come up and beat somebody in
football and in basketball every year and in baseball, and
they have played the U See twice in baseball this season.
You see one both of them. But here's something for you.
They beat Xavier. Well guess who Xavier v twice? You
see the Bearcats didn't beat Xavier two times. And that's
things for a lot of people. So you know, Miami's decent.
(07:23):
They've won some games. They have a chance to put
themselves on the map if people don't know already. But
you know, you beat Tennessee tomorrow night and everyone again
finds out whe Roshford, Ohio is years ago. Wally Zrbyek
did that for him, and you know, maybe it's a
Miami baseball team.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Now, yeah, no, it would be.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I know what they're going to have in the stands
for that game tomorrow night because of obviously where the
game is the following the tennis Tennessee has so that's
gonna be a big task for the RedHawks. But if
we could somehow get the Bearcats in Miami to play
on Saturday in the winner's bracket, I think that would
be that would be Oh.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
That would be crazy. That would that would really be crazy,
to be quite quite the story. And for those that
are wondering, they do have refreshments here and if you're
wondering what kind, they're large ones.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, you could. You could buy a car, you could go.
You could buy a cold one at the NCAA tournament.
Not not that we know anything about that in recent years,
but but that change has happened.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
You could buy a cold.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
One at the NCAA tournament, which means you could buy
a cold one at the n cuble A Baseball tournament.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I've seen the cases and their fall and they're ready now.
At the SEC Baseball tournament in Hoover, they do not
sell them. I found that I didn't. I didn't go.
It's not the reason I didn't go, but I just
know that's that's a thing there. So But for n
C double A, they do, and uh, you know it
(08:47):
is a thing people like to have a libation or two,
which is hopefully they behave themselves.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yes, no question about that.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Griffin Merritt from LaSalle High School will be out in
the left field boxes somewhere because he played one year
here for the volunteers and four for the Bearcats and
was quite the hitter and actually was a very good
high school quarterback. So I talked to him the other
day and that's on Cincinnati dot com and there's a
shameless plug for you.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Well we'll send folks there. Go read what Griffin Merritt
had to say. Cincinnati dot Com Scott Springer in Knoxville
covering the College Baseball NCAA tournament Cincinnati versus Wig Forest
Miami taking on Tennessee. Perhaps both the Bearcats and RedHawks
will play each other later on in this event, and
then if the winner of this goes onto the super Regional,
(09:36):
and the winner of the Knoxville Regional would play the
winner of the Fayetteville Regional, and then that would happen
at with the highest remaining seed.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Yeah, I mean more than likely. If you look at
a favorites, they're setting up at Tennessee Arkansas rematch because
Arkansas's ranked what third fourth in the country, I think,
so they would be the odds on favorite there. But
Cincinnati or Miami where to pull the upset here? When
the regional next stop probably would be Fayetteville.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Very good, enjoy Knoxville, and I appreciate you doing this, man,
Thanks so.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Much, Thank you for the time, sir Any.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Sign Scott Springer covering the college baseball tournament U See
Wake Forest tomorrow one o'clock, Miami Tennessee defending national champs
at six pm, and based on how those two games.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Unfold, they could see each other later. Stay tuned
Scott Springer covers UC athletics for The Inquirer and Cincinnati
dot Com, and he is in knox Knoxville, Knoxville getting
said for tomorrow night's tomorrow afternoons baseball action.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I can talk, hopefully Scott can. He's with us. Now,
how's it go.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
It's been a little wet down here and they're expecting
rain tomorrow and the coach has just had a meeting.
Everything's on for now. The upside, it's a turf field
here at LENDSI Nelson Stadium, and they've got a lot
of help here. The weird thing is the sucker's under construction.
I mean they're adding on to Lensi Nelson Stadium, which
(00:38):
easily they can because of the fan base. But it's
a little difficult in and out of here. But in
the press comp or the press boxes aren't all that much.
But you know, they don't care about the press. They
care about the players. So it'll it'll be a nice atmosphere.
I mean it'll be packed. It it's seat sixty two
ninety eight. I don't know. They can probably get ten
(00:59):
thousand in here they want to, so it's probably what
they're working on. And I would imagine what the sec
money they could get that done. But uh, pretty cool
place and plus, uh you know apparently the w WE
is in town tonight. So yeah, I'm looking for Roman
Reigns out here or Dustin Rhodes or whoever's on top
(01:19):
of these days. John Cena he's a bad guy, I
think now though.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, he turned he turned heel.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
We just played his music for reasons I'm not entirely
entirely sure, I understand when when I I watched the
n CNAA men's basketball tournament and the women too, it
always feels like the coolest part of the experience is
the day before for the players.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Is that the case in baseball?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well, they came and had to work out, and I
think they brought him by yesterday too. They came down
on the bus. Uh they stopped at Bucky so that
had to have been the highlight on the way down.
But yeah, they they let him look around. Because I
was teasing Jordan Bischel, I said, you know, it's just
like a hankle Fieldhouse effect. You know where you got
to go look at the rim and you know, ten
(02:02):
feet same as ours. But you know they've played in
decent sized stadiums, and there's some really good venues in
the big twelve. Oklahoma State really stands out. So and
this place now is under construction. Like I said, it's nice,
very nice. It'll be even nicer, but I have to
tell you they've probably played and nicer thus far. Now
(02:23):
when it's packed full of volunteer fans and crazy Orange people,
that's a different story. But first things first, since any
has to play wake Forest at one o'clock, they're rated
ahead of them in the RPI at thirty at last check.
Last time I looked, and you see thirty four and
Tennessee's are defending national champions. And you know, Miami's got
(02:43):
nothing to lose. They can come down and they're on
top of the world if they knock off the volunteers tomorrow.
So it's an interesting setup to have both UC and
Miami in the same regional And then the way this works,
if they both were to win, they're the main game
on Saturday. If they both lose, they play Saturday at noon.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well let's talk about tomorrow. So what I know about
wake Forest baseball is the Reds keep drafting their pitchers
in the first round, so they obviously don't have Rht
Louder or Chase Burns. Nonetheless, they're going to be favored
in the game tomorrow. How monumental of a task is
this for Jordan Bischall's club.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I don't think it's monumental. I think if you follow
the D one baseball guys, a lot of people think
it's not out of the realm of possibility that Cincinnati
can win this regional. They have played the decent competition
all year long. They're sixteen and fourteen in the Big twelve. Well,
wake Forest was sixteen and fourteen in the ACC, Tennessee
was sixteen and fourteen in the SEC. Miami actually has
(03:45):
the best conference trucker there in the MAC at twenty
three and seven. TCU RPI wise is maybe six seven
spots below Tennessee. Cincinnati played with them decently in Fort
Worth a year ago swept TCU, So I don't know
if it's apples oranges or what. You know. There's no debate.
(04:07):
The SEC dominates baseball. They won the last five national championships,
seven of the last ten. But this is a chance
for both schools, since Any and Miami to come down
and say, you know, hey, Weedal suck, so why not?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Which is always nice to be able to say about yourself.
I think what's kind of cool and following Cincinnati specifically
is it does feel like, you know, folks who maybe
pay very close attention to football and basketball really started
to focus in on what the baseball program was doing
down the stretch.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, and attendance wise, I mean, they don't put in
the fans like they do here, but their attendance was up.
And what I've tried to tell everyone, you know, when
you get into the Big Twelve, it's a different animal,
and it's a different animal in every sport. And you're
in a lot of towns where the you know, the
colleges are the only thing in town, so baseball is
(05:01):
a thing. Baseball is big in a lot of these places.
And the fact that Jordan Bissell's come in and in
two years has him in the NCAA Tournament and over
thirty wins, Actually baseball has adapted better than football and basketball.
You see thus far.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
I would say there's no question about that. As a
follower of UC athletics, is it a surprise to you
that in year two of the Big Twelve the Bearcats
have had such success and are in the NCAA Tournament.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Baseball one I saw last year, not necessarily, and then
I was able to go to their first pitch dinner
that they had way back in February, and they brought
Brent Souter out to talk to him. And Rent's a
great guy. And you know, there's a guy there that was,
you know what, thirtieth round or wasn't supposed to be
in the major leagues and he's had a decent career.
(05:53):
So and all the guys I talked to that night,
they said, you know, well, we think they didn't think
we're gonna be any good last year, and they think
we're gonna be even worse this year. And you know
they took it to heart. You know, everyone has to
have the chip on their shoulder. That's something guys like
me have to write or guys like you have to say,
because it's just, you know, I don't know why everyone
(06:14):
needs to say it. Everyone's just motivated. If someone doesn't
think you're any good, you're motivated to prove them wrong. Heck,
even at my age, I try to do that and
some people still say I suck mo, but I keep going.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I Uh, I would never say that Uh are you there?
Like obviously you see as your beat, but do you
have the add of responsibilities of covering the RedHawks?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I did, I say for their practice. I talked to
Brian Smiley and uh, you know, they've got a nice team.
They You can't discount the Mac ever in any sport,
and talking about chips on the shoulder, the Mac has
had that forever and all you got to do is
look back to early You know, Marcus Freeman is all
the raven football, but you know, Northern Illinois beat them,
(07:00):
and the Max School's come up and beat somebody in
football and in basketball every year and in baseball, and
they have played the U See twice in baseball this season.
You see one both of them. But here's something for you.
They beat Xavier. Well guess who Xavier v twice? You
see the Bearcats didn't beat Xavier two times. And that's
things for a lot of people. So you know, Miami's decent.
(07:23):
They've won some games. They have a chance to put
themselves on the map if people don't know already. But
you know, you beat Tennessee tomorrow night and everyone again
finds out whe Roshford, Ohio is years ago. Wally Zrbyek
did that for him, and you know, maybe it's a
Miami baseball team.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Now, yeah, no, it would be.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I know what they're going to have in the stands
for that game tomorrow night because of obviously where the
game is the following the tennis Tennessee has so that's
gonna be a big task for the RedHawks. But if
we could somehow get the Bearcats in Miami to play
on Saturday in the winner's bracket, I think that would
be that would be Oh.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
That would be crazy. That would that would really be crazy,
to be quite quite the story. And for those that
are wondering, they do have refreshments here and if you're
wondering what kind, they're large ones.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, you could. You could buy a car, you could go.
You could buy a cold one at the NCAA tournament.
Not not that we know anything about that in recent years,
but but that change has happened.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
You could buy a cold.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
One at the NCAA tournament, which means you could buy
a cold one at the n cuble A Baseball tournament.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I've seen the cases and their fall and they're ready now.
At the SEC Baseball tournament in Hoover, they do not
sell them. I found that I didn't. I didn't go.
It's not the reason I didn't go, but I just
know that's that's a thing there. So But for n
C double A, they do, and uh, you know it
(08:47):
is a thing people like to have a libation or two,
which is hopefully they behave themselves.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yes, no question about that.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Griffin Merritt from LaSalle High School will be out in
the left field boxes somewhere because he played one year
here for the volunteers and four for the Bearcats and
was quite the hitter and actually was a very good
high school quarterback. So I talked to him the other
day and that's on Cincinnati dot com and there's a
shameless plug for you.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Well we'll send folks there. Go read what Griffin Merritt
had to say. Cincinnati dot Com Scott Springer in Knoxville
covering the College Baseball NCAA tournament Cincinnati versus Wig Forest
Miami taking on Tennessee. Perhaps both the Bearcats and RedHawks
will play each other later on in this event, and
then if the winner of this goes onto the super Regional,
(09:36):
and the winner of the Knoxville Regional would play the
winner of the Fayetteville Regional, and then that would happen
at with the highest remaining seed.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Yeah, I mean more than likely. If you look at
a favorites, they're setting up at Tennessee Arkansas rematch because
Arkansas's ranked what third fourth in the country, I think,
so they would be the odds on favorite there. But
Cincinnati or Miami where to pull the upset here? When
the regional next stop probably would be Fayetteville.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Very good, enjoy Knoxville, and I appreciate you doing this, man,
Thanks so.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Much, Thank you for the time, sir Any.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Sign Scott Springer covering the college baseball tournament U See
Wake Forest tomorrow one o'clock, Miami Tennessee defending national champs
at six pm, and based on how those two games.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Unfold, they could see each other later. Stay tuned
Mo Egger News
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