Jim Penders Postgame - Maine

with Mike Crispino after the Huskies defeat Maine 13-4 Thursday Night in the series opener

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mike Chris Baynell joined by Jim Pender's up here in
our broadcast booth. And this one you took advantage of
nine walks. I mean, when when the other team has
given you free passes, you got to take advantage, and
tonight you did that.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, they I thought our guys were patient at the plate.
We weren't getting a ton of stuff to hit. And yeah,
we only had eight hits, you know, but when they
give you nine, you know, it's like giving you twenty
seven bases. So I'm sorry, math's a little off seventeen bases,
but took it. You know, we were able to score
on what they gave us. I mean, I thought Biller's
at bat in the first was huge. You know, we

(00:31):
have Tyler bounces out uncharacteristically in a big spot early there.
We get three straight walks and he doesn't get his
best swing off, and you know, there's a little bit
of momentum in the other dugout all of a sudden,
It's like, okay, we got through three four without anything
on the board and three walks, and then and then
Biller goes down two and then fights to stay in
the count, lays off some tough pitches and walks, and

(00:54):
that was that kind of broke the ice. And then
Dougherty with a big knock to follow that up, and
then it was off to the rate. After that, I
thought we did a really nice job offensively, and then
it made some nice plays defensively too. Biller had a
nice one the outfield, Daniels had a really nice diving play,
Tyler had a nice uh three six double play. So,

(01:18):
you know, some good things. And Budvar was on a
strict pitch count today. And Shaw picked up his buddy
from Manhattan College and ate a lot of innings. He
didn't have his best stuff, but we just needed all
those innings eating and he did exactly what we needed.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, Shaw was a little up and down. He gave
up four runs, four hits, he walked three. But it
looked like to me, you were gonna leave him in there.
You're gonna make You're gonna work it out because this
is the deal. We lead, keep the lead, let's get
something fixed or whatever. You know, I'm thinking in your
mind what you might be thinking.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, we didn't want to show them anybody else either.
You know, we had a decent lead. If they could
you know, we had Hutchinson ready, but you know, we
just we really wanted to just stay with the one
guy if we could, if we could get away with it,
and then the opportunity presented itself, you know, when we
don't get the mercy role in the bottom of the eighth,
the ten run role and it stays nine runs. You
got two guys that haven't been in a game in

(02:09):
a long time, and I thought, there's stuff looked great.
I thought Evan Hamburger's slider looked good. He was downhill
through an eighty nine mile hour fastball. You know, got
a good result. And I thought cam Cam looked really
good too. Mayor at his stuff working. And you know,
we may need those guys at Prasco and beyond, so
it was good to see them get back on the beam.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
How much confidence does that give you as the as
the head coach when you see a couple of guys
mug even just get an out or two who you
haven't seen in a three or four weeks, can you
can you get a positive feeling from that and then
take that with you next week if you need it.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Sure, Yeah, it's more important that they had the positive feeling, right,
And you know, you want to simulate. You don't want
to simulate a nine run lead. You know, in their minds,
it's got to be a tie score there or we're
down one or up one and do the job and
so that you can be better prepared for the next
time you pay, which probably not gonna be a nine
run lead, and we're gonna need you to do something

(03:03):
a little bit more special. So but I thought they
both looked like they can look, and we haven't seen
those two guys look like they can look in a
long long time. So that was that was important. Josh
came to me in the seventh or eighth and said, hey,
I'm thinking this this and you know what, Yeah, let's
do it. Let's do it. Let's get shot off the
mount in the ninth and if we have that big
a lead, let's you know, we can we can play

(03:23):
a little bit and see if they can get get
a couple of guys out.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
And how much better is the bottom of the third order. Again,
when you got Grant MacArthur hitting seventh, does your DH
he gets a couple of knocks, knocks in a run.
Connor Land got a nice ground ball up the middle.
It has scored a run on the seventh plus that
sack fly and the first hit thing. I mean, it
really lengthens this lineup. But you got six three hundred
hitters there in a row, and then the bottom third
delivering a little bit for you.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, very much so MacArthur. You know, he's got ten homers,
and I mean, for it's a luxury to have a
seven hitter. And I'm looking at our averages on the board,
like you know, those are those are as high as
they've been all year. I mean, it's pretty it's pretty good.
It's it's got some The lineup certainly has some length.
We also have guys in the bench. I mean, I
got bow Root, who's you know, hitting over three hundred
that I can't get in there, you know, but I

(04:08):
love having It's a luxury because he's he's so good
off the bench too, and he can run. And so
we got some good answers. I think offensively gonna you know,
hopefully have a good day tomorrow with throwing strikes. And
they have a very good starting pitching, and I thought
we did a nice job getting to their starter tonight.
But we're gonna have another test tomorrow and hopefully we'll

(04:28):
have a good crowd tomorrow night on a Friday, last
Friday night in stores.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, midweather was great, great baseball weather. One final thing
on biller. At one point I was looking at his numbers.
He was hitting about two oh nine at one point
in the season, he would not hit it. And then
he has been hitting much better over the last twenty
games or so. What are you seeing with him?

Speaker 2 (04:46):
I mean, you got to be confident now in what
he's doing. Yeah, I thought he was kind of cutting
himself off early in the season, but it's kind of
how his swing works anyway. It really wasn't a mechanical,
mechanical thing. I think he was really getting in his
own way. He's such a people pleaser. He's such a
good young person and just a great personality. Really cares
about others. He's a great teammate, and I think he

(05:08):
was just so caught up in what everybody else was thinking,
you know, like he was putting too much weight on
his shoulders and and we moved him down in the order.
Was like, man, this guy should be hitting a lot
better than he is. And finally he just kind of
stuck with He always works, but I think he just
you know, these guys come in. They come here like

(05:28):
I'm gonna get drafted, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna
do If you start thinking about that stuff, it's going
to get in the way. And I think he's just
playing for for himself now. He's not worried about anybody else.
He's he if this is it, if this is his
last time playing baseball, he doesn't want to have any regrets.
And the irony is, you know, he's he's starting to
draw some attention of scouts as a result. So you know,

(05:48):
it's funny when you focus on what you can control,
what you're capable of, and uh, he's showing that he's
capable of an awful lot. He's a lot of fun
to watch. I mean, boy, that that line drive Homer
was special too. I mean that was that was another
moment swing. I thought, you know, they scored whatever it
was three on or Menzila, the RBI and the two
RBIs and Shaw's walking a couple of people, the momentum

(06:08):
shifting to their dugout. They get two quick outs, two
of our best hitters, and and Daniels and Minnick and
then boom, you know, Biller puts up a solo shot
and at least we answer with something in that inning.
So he got the game ball tonight. I just think
it was impressive what he was able to do in
those and just in those two at bats and in
the catch in the outfield. But he's a good baseball player,
really good, and we're really glad he's here.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, it's fun to watch. He really is that California thing.
The basketball team did that pretty well last couple of years,
Joey kal Katera coming in and win a national championship.
And now I got Sam Biller, who knows, who knows what
these Cali guys can do.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, you know, they seem to fit in really well.
You know, it's it's we haven't had a bad one yet.
I mean really, they fit in great. And they're really
good baseball players, you know. They they they are playing
outside since their little kid a year round in many cases,
and they have the actions. They have the mental cuity
for it too. They really have good feel for when

(07:04):
to bunt, when not to bunt. What you know, what
the situation is, they just play. They play a lot
more baseball than we do out here at a younger age.
So they've they've they've really been a you know, I'm
thinking back twenty years now. We've been very successful bringing
in guys from the West coast. Yeah, Graham MacArthur's another one. Right,
all right, coach, you appreciate it. Tomorrow, let's go get them.

(07:24):
You got it, Thanks, Mike.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
That's Jimpenders.