Getting the Bats Working

On today's show:

• Chris George, Bridgeport baseball play-by-play and regional analyst (4:36)
• Chris Johnson, FF4A Co-Host & Connect-Bridgeport writer (25:55)
• Greg Smith, Lincoln Cougars baseball coach (47:37)
• Michael Minnich, WVNews.com & ESPN+ (1:07:05)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sports fans, it's time for the Friday Free for All.
Over the next two hours, we'll bring you all the
latest from across the region in high school and college sports.
Now here are your hosts, Chris Johnson and Alex Wheederspield.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning, everybody, and welcome in another edition of the
Friday Free for All. Thanks for being here, folks. Baseball
edition of the show today, and we have got a
good one lined up for you. Thanks again for being here.
Finally got a bunch of baseball in this week. Still
got some games either delayed, suspended, or outright canceled postponed,

(00:44):
I guess I should say, but for the most part,
weather is improving. Going to have some really good weather today,
likely going to have some really good weather on Saturday
as well. So that is exciting. We're going in the
right direction. Spring is sprunging, springing, it's spring. It's happening

(01:05):
all right. On that note, here, we've got a couple
of guests. We've got four guests for you today. We're
gonna talk with Michael Minnick of wvnews dot Com coming
up around the bottom of the eight o'clock hour. He's
also gonna come and chat with us as he does
work with ESPN plus in Morgantown about WVU women's soccer.
So we've got plenty of baseball and softball talk with Mike,

(01:28):
plus some WVU women's soccer talk. Then during the eight
o'clock hour, the head coach from the Lincoln Cougar baseball team,
Greg Smith, former Bridgeport product, is going to join us
on the program today. That conversation from earlier in the week.
Of course, with the most folks, try to catch them

(01:48):
at a time that is convenient for them, because the
first thing in the morning thing doesn't work for everybody.
But a good conversation with coach. He's really excited about
the start that his Lincoln Cougars are off to, and
we're gonna chat all about that. You're gonna hear all
about that. My partner in crime, Chris Johnson coming up
near the bottom of this hour. A little bit after

(02:09):
the bottom of this hour, I would say, but right
around the bottom of this hour, we're gonna take it
through pretty much as much of the region as we
can get to. Plus a couple of non Bridgeport baseball
topics as well. There were a bunch of Bridgeport athletics
stories that were outside of baseball this week as well,
and then Chris George will have plenty on the Bridgeport

(02:30):
baseball scene. Bit of an up and down week for
them coming up on the other side of our first break,
which is coming up in just a moment, we'll talk
Bridgeport baseball, We'll talk OURCB baseball with Chris. We're going
to catch up and pretty much romp around the region
as best we can. And I might save a little
bit of time at the end to talk some Mountaineer
baseball because once again WU pulls another one out last night,

(02:54):
twelve wins in a row. Now for the Mountaineers, they
continue to mount what might be an inst mountable run
into the conference's top seed, top spot and a regular
season title. We will see about that. They're off to
a phenomenal start again, thirty two of thirty six they
have won. It is one of the best runs I

(03:17):
think you're ever gonna see. And they are really rolling
right now. Ranked in six different poles, I think one
as high as eleven. They are considered, though essentially by
the best poll I think it's D one baseball dot Com.
They're at number twenty four right now, we'll talk about
all of that and much more coming up with Chris

(03:39):
George on the other side of this break. This is
the Friday Free for All, brought to you by Dan
Kavitsota b A GMC. Don't look now, we're only three
weeks away from the baseball postseason. In high school it
goes that fast, especially with the weather we've had. They
are playing basically every day at this point. Some pretty

(04:00):
good D two baseball. I actually I got to call,
so I've been calling some Salem softball this year. I
got a chance to also call Salem and Fairmont State's
doubleheader on the baseball diamond last weekend, and what a
blast that was. A ton of formal former players, local players,
I mean, a lot of Bridgeport products over on the
Fairmont side, and then you had some Doddridge County products

(04:23):
on the Salem side, among others as well. Just it
was a lot of fun. Anyway, on that note, let's
go ahead and hit this first break. This is the
Friday Free for All, brought to you by Dan Cavetz
Yota Buick GMC. We'll talk with Chris George coming up
on the other side of this break.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan
Cavatoyota Wick gmc Friday Free for.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
All now joined by Chris George and as always during
baseball season, we start right off with the Bridgeport Indians
at the top of the show. We'll also bounce around
a little bit to a couple of the other schools
as well in the Big Ten and in the region. Chris,
thanks for being here. What's going on, man?

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Well, I'm just glad we're getting some games in now.
We've got a slew of games in last weekend up,
but we're going to tell the Heathen Classic up at
dal miller Field, chilling Field and Wiland Park and also
Kendrick Fammy Ballpark or the w Baseball team plays. So
it's good to get some of those games in and
you know, here we go. So it's uh, you know,

(05:23):
and we got a slew of games in this week.
Monday I had broadcast Monday at Buchanan and then and
then Wednesday into and then last night and then two
during the McDonald's Classic starting today at eleven am with
Winning Park, and then two on Saturday as well. We
can talk about the McDonald's Classic as well. It's gonna

(05:44):
be a lot of area teams and plus teams around
the state as well involved in that. But it's good
to get some baseball, good to get some good weather,
and this Bridgeport team needs to get some games in
and get some back to back games, get some Matt baths,
get their timing down, just kind of get the kinks
out because they're still of kinks were left to be
worked out.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, no kidding. It was kind of an up and
down topsy turvy week obviously. You know, it starts with
last weekend. You know you you previewed it a bit
when we talked last weekend. But they lose to Jefferson, obviously,
and that kind of starts off a bit of a
tough week. Had the one game against East Fairmont that
they fell behind early, game got suspended due to the

(06:23):
bad weather, and then they were able to come out
and get a win against Grafton on Thursday night. That
seemed like a better win for them. Kind Of an
up and down week overall.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Though, Yeah, it was, And you know it started. It
started will Monday with the win at buckhann in fifteen
to five. Now buck Cannon, they're starting pitcher Land and
Markle struggled with his command, so there are a lot
of walks, but Bridgeport got some key hits in that game,
a grand slam from Carson Curry, another two run home
runs from Jacob Stevraccas. They also got some time they

(06:53):
hits mixed in. They jumped out to a big lead
and I went on to win that game fifteen to five.
And then Tuesday, the Wheels fell off up at East
Fairmont in a game that was suspended by rain in
the second inning. Justinavall got to start on three days rest,
and he just I don't think he had his stuff,
didn't have his I'm not sure he was feeling right either,
but he didn't play well, didn't pitch well, and the

(07:15):
team got down early. He walked forward, gave up a hit,
and all of a sudden it seven nothing before he
could blink. So that game will have to be finished
at a later date. And it just didn't seem like
the team really played overall this weren't really ready to
play that day and well then and then they turned
around and defeated a good Presston team two to nothing

(07:35):
on Wednesday, and they beat Grafting last night or yeah,
back on last night in a ten run affair, twelve
to nothing in five innings which they didn't see. You know,
some of the best the craft that hass pitching wise,
but Bridgeport did a much better job hitting the baseball,
put in the play, had better at bats, they were
more patient to play and letting the ball travel against
slurer pitching, doing some things they need to do. And

(07:58):
you're seeing progress. The more games to get under a belt.
And that's why baseball plays every day, right because you
want to you want to get that rhythm, you want
to get that timing down, you want to get that repeat,
rents and all that with your pitching. Get in, get out,
get that rhythm every fourth or fifth day, get going.
And I think you're seeing some of that now. And
there's a lot of parts on this Bridge fourteen. There's

(08:19):
a lot of pieces. There's some talent, they're just not
quite there yet. There's still a lot of kinks to
work out. They got to get healthy. They got a
lot of there. There's no there's no severe injuries, there's
no long term injuries. There's a lot of bumps and
bruises that affect pictures and a few other things here and.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
There that cause these guys to be down a game
or two.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Causes others to be stepped into roles are not ready
for yet, so and that's going to play out at
the end when everybody gets healthy. You're gonna have an
experienced depth team by the end of the year, and
Robert Chiels will have them ready. I'm not too concerned,
and they've played a tough schedule. It's going to continue
this weekend the McDonald's classic.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Concerned at this point, are you about the hitting?

Speaker 3 (09:03):
It's about what I thought it would be. I'm not
concerned yet. We'll see how it goes because I knew
going into the year this is going to be a
team that's gonna have to rely on their pitching and defense,
and they're going to have to rely on some of
their speed and athleticism and a lineup to kind of
manufacture and create runs, which I think are gonna see
more of as the year goes on. There's a couple
of nice sticks in this lineup. Carson Curry, Luke royg

(09:26):
are off to a good start with the batch. You
knew those two could hit. Jacob Stevrakas is a true
power thread in the lineup. He's already shown that this year.
If a home run over and Buck cannon and we
got to get in Case some bonds starting to get
going a little bit here. I think there's a lot
of pressure on Case and to come through. You know,
he's a kid. It's going to Ohio you in two years.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
He's a d one kid.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
It's verbal to the Bobcats, a ton of talent, strong arm,
he's got some speed, can hit. He just hasn't quite
put it together yet. And that's fine because really you
want to see these kids put it together win accounts.
So he's going to come on just a matter of time.
I saw some big improvements with him last night, defensively,
being able to attack baseballs a short charging slow rollers.

(10:08):
His range was there, great arm. His pitching has been okay.
One start was good, the other start he had a
little bit of a command issue. But it's there. So
I think he'll come along. But everybody else is going
to step up to play. I mean, they're gonna have
to hit better, They're gonna have to hit behind runners.
We have to do little things. This isn't a power team.
This isn't a team that's gonna have to go up
there and swing to the fences. They don't have that,

(10:29):
but they have kivs that are capable, and they have
athletes that I think can be better at the plague
than what they've shown, and I hope they are as
the season goes on.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Let's jump around both the big ten in the region
a little bit, and you got to see a couple
of teams this week who were worth talking about. Of course,
probably the best of them. Buck Canning Ups, you're grafting
both kind of right up there, and then Preston as well.
You want to talk a little bit about the three
teams you saw this week?

Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, Buck cann Up, Sure, you know, big win for
Ridge four fifteen to five there, but Buchanan currently is
now six to five. They picked up a twenty to
ten win over Elkins last night, and the final scores
really no indication of how that game was. They were
up twelve to four at one point. It was a
little bit of a sloppy game. And then they picked
up a win over Lewis County a couple a night

(11:16):
prior to that, back on Tuesday, seven to three. So
they won two games after after the bridge Port tobacco
on Monday, and then they're off until Saturday. I see
some things there. Jared Westfall the junior and the six
foot four kid from basketball or a six to five kid,
i should say from basketball.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
Really good.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
He pitched a heck of the game against Lewis County.
They're starting to hit the ball. It's a good hitting team.
Landa Marple the senior shortstop, very good defensive infielder, but
he's a really good hitter. At two home runs in
the win against Elkins last night. He's very capable. So
Preston's a team sticks out to me a little bit
much improved. We saw Preston come on at the end

(11:53):
of last year and they had a young team and
they're still fairly young, but that team is somebody to
keep an eye on. They got a very very good
catcher that we knew about last year as a freshman,
and he just stands out. And it's the younger mcdew kid.
And you know his name, his first name he escapes me.
I'll get that for you in just a second. But

(12:15):
he is one of the top hitters right now in
the Big Ten Conference, already has a couple of home runs.
It's Bryce and mcnewe. Sorry about that. His older brother
was graty. It's played last year Bryson is one of
the best hitters in the Big Ten, leads the conference
to slugging percentage percentage, has always already has a walk
off home run and win against against Crafton this year.
It's a Preston team right now there currently is four
and five, but they're much better. They're going to be

(12:36):
a factor in the rest of the season. This is
the team. I think they can finish around five hundred.
So look out for the Knights and good to see
Lewis County pick up their first win this week against Trinity.
They're still struggling at one in eight East. Fairmont's another team,
it's the Bridgeport played this week. They're currently seven and six,
but they're capable. I mean, that's Bridgeport. Bridgeport's had trouble

(12:59):
with this Easter. My team last couple of years. They've
beaten They've beaten them the last two years and their
own pace to do it again this year. So Fairmont's
senior and Philip Barber, we'll talk about that. They played
last night and that was a heck of a contest.
We can talk about that because that's two teams the
top half of the conference right now.

Speaker 5 (13:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
I worth noting by the way Fairmont Senior and Philip
Barber coming up back to back games will preview. I mean,
certainly we'll be we'll be excited to talk about those
in greater depth because next Friday is the Philip Barber
game and then the following Tuesday. I believe I'm doing
my math right. There is the is the Fairmont Senior game,

(13:36):
the twenty fifth and the twenty ninth. But regardless, Yeah,
let let's talk a little bit about about both those teams.
Philip Barber highly ranked by the way the Metro News
Power rankings. They've just their big issue has just been
get them on the field. You know, they've had so
many cancelations. So they played two games since April second.

(13:57):
One of them was last night. They beat Ritchie back
Wednesday ten to one. They lost to Fairmont Senior home
eight to five last night. But you know, it's a
very good Philip Barbara team. We've talked about them all year.
They have athletes, they can hit the ball, they got
some pitching.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
It just kind of fell behind early to Fairmont Senior
last night. They were down six to nothing before they
had two runs in the third inning and another run
in the fifth and Fairmont got some insurance there in
the six and to win the game. But overall, you know,
you look back on Wednesday the game against Richie, they
won ten to one. Sophomore shortstop by Carpenter, Jonathan Carpenter's

(14:32):
son had a grand slam and to win. It's gonna
be a Philip Barbara team's gonna be heard from. They're
gonna be in the top half of this conference as
the season goes on. And Fairmont Senior they're off to
a great start as well. It's good to see the
Polar Bears playing well. So you're starting to see some
separation I think from the top half of the conference
to the bottom. You know, we've talked about Robert c Berg,

(14:52):
but this Fairmont Senior team actually surprised me a little bit.
Right now currently six and they're right now seven and one,
and they're surprising me. Logan Camfield has has done a
good job leading the staff. We knew he was going
to be a threat, but they've also had some other
kids come up big, including uh Trevor Bigelow, who's already
got three home runs on the year. He had two

(15:13):
home runs in a game against Lincoln earlier this week,
and you know it's a team to look out for.
Braydon Gorby as a guy that came on in relief
and beat East Fairmont earlier and then last night fitioning
relief and shut down. Philip Barber went accounted. So there's
some surprise players stepping up for a team that lost
a lot of seniors a year ago, A team I

(15:33):
didn't think would be where they're at now, but they are,
so keep it out right now. You're looking at the
top of the conference. You got Bridgeport, you got Fairmont Senior,
You've got Philip Barber and Robert C. Bird and North
Marion keeping out on the Huskies. He's got a big
win last night over Robert C. Byrd as well.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
By the way, our coaching guest today is the coach
of a young Lincoln Cougar squad who you're probably pretty
familiar with from his time at Bridgeport in Greg Smith.
Any thoughts on Greg Smith and his time already in
season four at Lincoln. He's pretty excited about the direction
they're headed.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
Well he should be right now. They're eight and six,
they're having one of their best years since he's taken over.
You see progress with their team. They lost some key
players from a year ago as well, and they got
a nice team. I like where they're going. They're competing,
they're playing well. I like their catcher, a young man
that's really really hit the ball well this year, and

(16:29):
Max Abersino, he's really stepped up. And also their shortstop
Colton Edwards, so they have some players. They're pitching is okay.
I mean, I'm sure he'd like to see better from
the pitching staff, but it's capable. Jacob Bart, I think
its stepped out there as a pitcher, and his brother
aj Bart's also helping him there. They're eight and six
and they're tough out and a lot of other losses

(16:51):
have been close. They haven't really been blown out this year,
so I think he has done a great job. And
why not. He learned under Robert Shields. He played under Roberts,
so he's been coached up. He played college baseball as well,
so he understands the game. He's done a good job
at Lincoln. It's not an easy place to win, but
he's doing it and I'm proud of it.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Before I have one kind of bonus topic for us
at the end. Do you want to just quick comment
on any of the the Mountain County teams, Tucker Elkins,
any of those, any comments on that.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, we'll talk a little bit about Elkins right now.
Really struggling. We mentioned their loss to buck Can Upshore
twenty to ten last night. The Tigers currently sitting with
two wins on the year, and it's a young team.
There's a lot of freshmen and sophomores on the Silkins team,
but overall, they just they just lacked the overall depth
and talent that they've had in the previous decade. It's

(17:44):
going to be a while. They're two and eleven, but
it's going to take a long time and they're going
to have to get things fixed at the youth system
level and up and it's going to be a while.
But I like the coach Todd Biller could coach former player, former.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Alumni, you know.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
But it's a young team. I think they have something
thing with their freshmen and sophomore groups of those kids.
They just need a ton more attitude that we're talking
four or five players sprinking around, So you got to
hope some talent infuses from the middle school. Tucker County
is really struggling this year. They're zero to seven, and
the team is really playing well up here in the

(18:19):
valley in the mountains, I guess you could still call
the Mountains Tigart's Valley. I mean, how about the Bulldogs
right now? Seven and five picked up an easy win
over Tucker County last night. Jackson Trinnan, the Potomac State
hat him out to be, has been their aceh pitcher
this year, pitching well, he's also been their top hitter,
hitting over five hundred. Now here's a kid that transferred
from Elkins into his junior season at Tigerts Valley and

(18:40):
he needed a fresh start, he needed a new he
needed a fresh face, and he got in there and
he's done great. And gut you said, Doug Little has
signed him up, probably be a pitcher only there, but
he's doing a good job at the play keep boy
on Tigerts Valley. Josh Watmsa do you remember him from basketball?
The big six four kid inside. He's also one of
their better pitchers and hitters. This is a Tigers Valley

(19:01):
team that is already split with Lincoln. They haven't played
Elkins yet. I don't know if they will, but they've
also competed well. They beat Gilmour County and a big
win for them, and we'll keep it out on this
Bulldog's team. There will be a factor and single as.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
A good win over Gilmour County. They were fourth I
think at last check in on the Metro News power rankings.
All right, So I wanted to take a minute here
to just talk a little WVU baseball. I don't know
how closely you've been following them with everything else you
got going on, but I know that you follow them
at least a little bit, and I just as a
baseball guy, I'm just blown away. I can't it's so

(19:37):
weird to me to see when I look at that record,
thirty two and four as bonkers to me. I've looked
at this repeatedly, and they've won twelve in a row
now and they're up atop the Big twelve Conference, first
year under Steve Sabins, and they're doing it obviously in
a year after JJ Weatherholt is gone, right, so they

(19:57):
lose a little bit of star power there, and yet
it just doesn't right now, it doesn't even me like
there's a weakness on this team. But I'm curious to
get you got some of your thoughts on this on
this group that had started off just a historic great
start to the season for WVU baseball.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
So they've also had some luck, which you need. All
good teams have to have luck in.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
The game of baseball.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
Okay, they've had that. I mean they were literally pulled
one out of out of nowhere last night to win
against it. Held on, I mean held on by their
two d chin chins last night. Steve Sabans will probably
tell you that he made a couple moves in the
seventh and eighth innings that he wished he wouldn't have
made again if he if he went back to do
it over, But they found a way to win. Here's

(20:40):
the difference West Virginia this year compared to the last two.
It's not that it's a more talented team than the
last two years. It's a more healthy team. Other than
Sam White being out for about a month and Logan
Sawve being banged up earlier in the year time or two,
this has been a really healthy baseball team, both at
the mound and at the play. Coach Mazy went through

(21:02):
a slew of injuries the last two years, and some
of the things they did with some of the players
out there. But that's why they're so good now because
a lot of those younger players, the Sam White's, the
Logan Sauves and the Kyle West and some of the
others not named grand Hussey because he's a veteran, but
all those guys got some playing time last year because
Dinx and injuries and stuff like that. Now look at him,

(21:23):
they're healthy. That experience is paying off. They're finding ways
to win more than just the bat, more than just
the pitching. They're finding way they still They stole home
against Marshall, and West Virginia has done that five or
six times this year. They've done it in the past.
It's Randy Mazy ball, right, and it's just carried over
from Steve Sabans, who is his assistant. I think this
West Virginia team has a bright future. I like that,

(21:45):
and I've got to watch him a ton.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
I've kept up with him.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
Jeff carstonis is the key. I think. If he can
give you that Sunday starter like he showed against Houston
last week with seven shout out of innings, that is
the guy that can solidify that rotation. They've been looking
for that Saturday and Sunday starting really much all year long.
They've had the Friday night guy in Griffin Kerrent. Their
bullpen is now settled.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
You know.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
You look at the bullpen Reee Passenger and Chase Myers,
and now Carson Street's filling in there, plus some of
the other young guys pitching well. Bullpen scent, I think
you've got one starter cent, your Friday guy. If Carlstonis
can give you Sunday, this team, it's going to reminds
me of a lot of twenty nineteen team. While there's
no stut pitcher out there like we had then. He

(22:30):
knew what I'm talking about back then. He's now pitching
for the Blue Jays. He's not with us right now,
obviously he's not there. But they have pieces and I
think this offense is good enough. I think they're in
a little bit of a funk right now, which it's baseball, man,
you go through slumps. I don't care how good you are.
I think we're a little bit of a funk right now,
but we'll be fine. They they just got a they

(22:51):
avoided TCU huge They get to play them this year.
Oklahoma and Texas are gone. They're in the SEC so
they got a couple winnable series this year in a
Big ten luck of the draw. But that's fine.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
You gotta have that.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Two big series at the end of the ear is
going to define this team. Actually, three Texas Tech at home,
Kansas State away for three, Kansas at home for three.
Those three series will define how this team does if
they win the Big twelve conference not or be able
to host another regional. Let's hope.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
By the way, Cartzonis might be in the running for
the best facial hair in college baseball. It's unbelievable. He
looks like a reliever from the He looks like a
middle reliever from the eighties. It rocks. Hey, Chris, give
us your Bridgeport schedule for the next week and then
we'll let you get out of here.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
McDonald's classics big this week. So it's all over the
place between Bridgeport Frank Laurier Field, nun Or four Robert C.
Byrn High School and also to Bridge Sports Complex up
on the hill. Bridgeport High School will play all their
games at the high school. Okay, so we'll have the games,
all four games either on the Bridge Sports Sports Radio
app or one of the three point three wkmzy. Okay, well,

(24:02):
they'll all be on the app, but we'll have a
couple on the FM side as well. Friday eleven am
Bridgeport and willing Park, a rematch from a week ago
where Bridgeport one nine to two, the Patriots are eleven
and five. Good team, and then the big rematch it's
scheduled for five forty five on Friday. Probably be a
little bit laer in that because how games get kind

(24:22):
of backed up. I'd say closer to six thirty six
fifteen Bridgeport and Jefferson, the rematch from up at WU
last Saturday. Brid Jefferson kind of put it on there
in the middle innings, ended up getting the wins. It's
sixteen and two Jefferson team number one in Class four
eight e Metro News Power Pol. Then Saturday, the biggest
game of the schedule so far, the biggest game of

(24:45):
the year Frankfort and I say that because that's their
regional two rivalry, Frankfort and Bridgeport Robert C. Byrd Our
three teams knocking at the top of that region for
the postseason. So that's a modern you mental game. Frankfort
is one of the better hitting teams in the state
any class. I've talked to two coaches that's played him
this year. They said, yes, his team hits the Baldus

(25:07):
as well as last year. And it's the best saying team.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
We have seen.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
And that's team. It's one of those coaches I cannot
mention his name is a coach that played Jefferson twice already,
So what's that say? And then they cap it off
with capbl Midland at two point thirty on Saturday or thereabouts.
They beat Capitol Midland in the second game of the
year back on the twenty eighth of March nine and
two dellan Ona.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
So it's the.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Chance Bridge Sports got their pitching saved. They got Jacob
Stevachus Case and Bond, Carson Curry and just to name
a few. And also we'll see plenty of pitching. They
are saved, and we'll see what happens coming up this weekend.
Should be fun, should be good weather and a lot
of good baseball.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
All right, thanks Chris. We are going to go ahead
and take a break. Chris Johnson is coming up next.
This is the Friday Free for All, brought to you
by Dan Cavatiota Buick GMC.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
We're back after this time for more high school sports talk,
gone to Dan cavatoyot w at GMC Friday Free.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
For All, now joined by my usual co host and
partner in crime, Chris Johnson of Connect bridgeporton of course
of this program, The Friday for You for All, Chris,
what's up man?

Speaker 5 (26:14):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (26:14):
Not much? Getting ready for the Easter holiday? You got
any big playings?

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Not really? No, I mean I'm calling some baseball games
or softball games, I should say, so that'll be fun
for Salem. And then other than that. No, it's Saturdays,
the official end of my end of my season. I
don't have any games left after that, So four months,
four month break from calling games, and so I plan
on I plan on going to a Black Bear Burritos

(26:43):
and having a giant burrito and a giant beer.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
Well, well that sounds like you're good playing.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, I'm burritos and beer. You can't go wrong with
that combo.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
Well, stop someplace Monday and gets you some Easter candy
on sale, because I Easter has the best. That's my
favorite holiday candy, like the Reces eggs. I mean that's
just a perfect amount of reseas so good.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
There's so I haven't had them in years. They're so good. Yeah,
it's a good.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
I haven't had any minutes. So how much? How much?

Speaker 2 (27:15):
What type of discount were talking about?

Speaker 3 (27:17):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (27:18):
I don't know. I mean there will always be on
sale on Monday, so you know, probably fifty.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Oh I will I'm gonna stop and I'm gonna We're gonna,
we're gonna find out. We're gonna find out what type
of discounts we're dealing with here. All right, so we
got a veritable Schmorgas board of topics to talk about
some Bridgeport related, some not Bridgeport related. Let's start with
the Bridgeport stuff. Dave Marshall, of course, is coming off
a uh just a fantastic season and he pulls down

(27:45):
yet another accolade to tag onto everything else.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
Yeah, you know, I I I was the one to
got to break the news to them, And you know,
it feels good when there's someone that you admire and
knows so well when you can let them know that
they won a major award. It was announced last Saturday
that he was uh, you know, the state's Van Meter

(28:12):
Award winner, which goes to our high school coach of
the year regardless of sport. And much deserved you for
coach Marshall just a second over coach in Bridge sport
history to get that honor, Wayne Jamison, you know who
the you know football field is named after legendary football
coach won the honor twice. You know, see, coach Marshall

(28:34):
is just the the second and you know, it's just
another feather in the cap, you know, for the season
that you know, the basket boys basketball program had. And
in typical Dave Marshall fashion, you know, he deflects all
the credit to players in the community and his assistant coaches.
But you know, I told him when I was talking

(28:58):
to him about the is like, I don't know if
I've ever seen a team have a dominant of a
defensive season from game one through the end of the year.
And we've talked about that on this show, you know,
throughout the you know, the winner and basketball season. But
it's kind of funny. He he, he kind of agreed,

(29:19):
but he said, you know, he said, Chris, this is
one time I hope you're wrong though, because I hope
we can be even better next year. So, uh, he's
still kind of soaking everything in from winning the state
title and all these honors. But once you get through this,
I mean, it's gonna be back to the drawing board,
and uh, you know, they've got some nice pieces coming back.

(29:40):
They lose six amazing seniors, a couple of first team
All staters, but they've got what I think is one
of the best back courts in the state, you know,
and sophomore guards, you know, Anderson McDougall and Gavin Williams
to kind of build that team around, you know, the
next couple of years. So it's gonna be fun to
see what they can do. I think it might be
a little more guard oriented, uh in the next couple

(30:01):
of seasons, when when you got two players like caliber,
and you know, it makes a lot of sense. And
then and then also just you know, recently, you know,
coach Marshall has been selected as the head coach for
the North and the annual North South All Star Game,
and I would imagine a couple of those senior players
will probably participating in Adam Well, the rosters for the

(30:22):
game haven't been released yet, just the coaching staff joining
your coach Marshall as a coach, you know, someone that
you're going to be getting to know a lot better.
The recent guests. You know, recently hired South Harrison coach
Zach Bart, So it'd.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Be Dave, pretty good coaching staff. That's a pretty good coaching.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
Staff, Dave Marshall and Zach Barr coaching you know the boys.
And on the girls side, Hartswell Keener from Grafton is
gonna be one of the girls coaches for the North.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
So also an excellent, excellent coach. Uh did really great
things with Grafton this year. And of course you know
we we we talk about at it on kind of
a regular basis, but you know, you were alluding to
how important defense was for Bridgeport this year. I mean,
that's the that's the name of the whole game for
Grafton and got them, got them into the state tournament.
And yeah, they had a great, great run this year.

(31:16):
They were undefeated in the regular season against teams from
the Mountain the state. Anyway, No, that's fun, Dave Marshall, Zachbart.
Also it does go to show you, I mean, and
I'm not trying, I'm not trying to you know, grease
the Bridgeport tires anymore than than they need to be greased.
But at the same time, it does show you and
we'll talk about this a little bit later. I mean,
there's just so much Bridgeport influence throughout the county. Football coaches,

(31:41):
basketball coaches who either baseball coaches, guys who played at
Bridgeport now they make maybe they coach at Lincoln, maybe
they coach at South Harrison, maybe they coach at Liverly.
I mean, it's just it is kind of wild how
much how much Bridgeport has impacted this generation in particular
as well of stuff that's happening not just on the

(32:01):
field but off it.

Speaker 4 (32:02):
Yeah, and you know in the Coach of the Air voting,
I mean Tyler Ferris, you know, Bridgeports football coach friends
third in the voting. So you know that's you know,
that's where you get two coaches from the same school
where you finished on top five in the voting.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
So yeah, no kidding, great great year for Bridgeport overall.
They're trying to extend it into baseball. Hit a little
bit of a rough patch. I know that you haven't
seen them as much lately, but you know, they lost
against Jefferson last weekend. They haven't had a great week
this week, had a game against East Fairmont that got
suspended for whether they were already down seven to nothing.

(32:37):
I think in the first inning of that game, it'll
I don't recall seeing a date yet for it resuming.
But Bridgeport all of a sudden looks like RCB is
surging and Bridgeport seems to have hit a little bit
of a rough patch. So that's that's interesting to me
because I again, you know, this is a Bridgeport team
that we know can pitch, So I'm not sure what's
going on.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
Yeah, but you know, you look back the past couple
of years and even going back to that stretch where
they won your seven straight, your Double A titles. They
we hit a stretch you during the season where many
things just weren't going their way. Maybe pitching wasn't quite there,
I do they People shouldn't be alarmed about the pitching.
The pitching is just as good as advertised, just as

(33:19):
good as what we talked about in the preseason. One
thing you got to keep in mind right now, Robert
Shields still has all of his guys on the pitch count.
So you might get a game where you know, Jacob Stavarcus,
you know, could keep pitching you well into a game
when he's throwing well. But right now, every single guy

(33:40):
in that rotation is on a pitch count, so and
that's just going to make a better come the end
of the year. It's like, yeah, I mean, they want
to win every game, but you know, they lost to
three pretty good teams that you know at that tournament
in Morgantown, you know, last weekend, and then uh, you know,
I'm not sure many of the details at East Fairmount game,

(34:01):
but yeah, they'll be Okay. I'm just gonna say, you know,
if people want to hit to hit the panic button
when it comes to this program, I'll just encourage everyone
to hesitate on on hitting that panic button, you know,
because the schedule today play gets them ready for postseason
baseball in May, and they get a loss here or there,

(34:25):
they'll take down as long as they're finding their groove
when it comes, you know, the most important party season
in late May early Jane.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, I think that's I think that's a fair and
measured bit of advice. We're gonna jump over to the
power rankings. Let's go over them real quick, and then
we'll get some takeaways from you, Chris and on some
of these. So we'll start in Class quadruple A Morgantown
at seven Preston County receiving votes down into Class Triple A.
Bridgeport is down to four in the most recent release,

(34:56):
Fairmount Senior at six, Robert C. Bird at eight. Now,
so good for Bird. They've had a great start to
the season. They're playing really well. Just beat South Harrison
the other day in a game where they exploded. They
were up nine to eight and then exploded for nine
runs the back half of that game. Class Double A,
Philip Barber at number three among the locals, South Harrison

(35:18):
at nine, Doddridge County at ten, and then in Class
Single A it's Gilmer County at two, Tigers Valley at five,
and Clay Battel and Notre Dame both receiving votes at
this point. And the number ones right now across the
board Jefferson, who's had a pretty darn good start to
the season. Pike. You in Class Triple A, Wheeling Central

(35:40):
Catholic in Double A, and Man in Single A. Those
your baseball power rankings, Chris, what do you like? What
don't you like?

Speaker 4 (35:48):
You can't really argue with any of the number ones
right now. You know, Bridge Sports schedule to give you
another game against Jefferson as part of the Union McDonald's
Classic this weekend. Four really good games for Indians, you know, Jefferson,
Willing Park, Capbell, Midvelan and the one I'm really excited about,
you know, defending Classic Double A state champion Frankfurt.

Speaker 6 (36:09):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
You know, they were in the same region now in
Triple A, and a lot of people before this even
started kind of pointed at those two schools. So I
don't know if they're gonna either team's going further or best,
you know, in this early season of a meeting, but uh,
I think that's definitely gonna be one to keep an
eye on.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
One.

Speaker 4 (36:29):
And Philip Barber's got a huge game against Williamstown as
part of McDonald's Classic as well.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
You know, birds want to have a couple of tough
games in the mc McDonald's Classic, you know, over the
next couple of days. So this is one of those tournaments.
It's it's such a deep field, you'll get a better idea.
I think about how some of these teams look against
you know, some of the fellow elite teams in the state.

(36:57):
You know, South Harrison's you know, also involved in this tournament.
So you know, I think, you know, that's a really
really good double a team. I see, I think South
Harrison is a game of this university.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
Uh, you know, I believe you are right of Actually,
let me double check that.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
While see, you don't normally get a whole lot of
South Harrison versus university type matchups in but you know,
that's the nice thing that one of these kind of
marquee regular season tournaments allow for. So there'll be some
good baseball in the area next uh, next two days

(37:37):
at various sites throughout Harrison County.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Yeah, it's uh Saturday in the afternoon and again the
weather I think should be okay later in the day.
I'm not one hundred percent sure. I've been going back
and forth on that, but that is the as I
can tell. That's the that's the Saturday game South Harrison
and University. But no, that's that's a that's a great point.

(38:00):
I mean, you know, baseball is one of those sports
where you know, there is there's definitely some real benefits,
some tangible benefit from from challenging up much like in basketball,
there's some real benefit from challenging up the lineup and
up the classification scale a little bit. All right, So
real quick, we're gonna go over the softball power rankings

(38:20):
and the gonna jump over to a couple of other
quick topics before I'll let you go. Chris in softball
University is actually sitting at number three and Morgantown at
six in Class Quadruple A. Meanwhile, in Triple A it
is Lincoln at number eight. They had a pretty big
sixteen nothing win over Liberty earlier this week. Grafton and

(38:42):
Lewis County both receiving votes in Class Double A, Doddridge
County and Richie County at four and eight respectively, Philip
Barber receiving votes, Tyler Consolidated receiving votes as well, Gilmer
County at number four in Class Single A, Trinity at
ten Single A and Tucker County also receiving votes as

(39:03):
part of the coach's poll and the number one's right
now across the board. Hurricane in Class Quadruple A not unanimously,
though Cavill Midland's got two first place votes. There, Winfield
unanimous with ten first place votes. In Class Triple A
at number one, Logan has five first place votes. They

(39:24):
are number one, though it most certainly is not unanimous.
Four teams total receiving first place votes, including Doddridge County,
who was fifteen to one at the time the poll
was published, and then Pendleton County with seven of eleven
first place votes. In Class single A, Wahamahat on their
tail with four first place votes, So those are your
first place A little bit more diverse though in terms

(39:47):
of how the distribution. Class double A has four teams
with first place votes. You go look right now. In baseball,
it's usually a little bit more wheeling. Central Catholic and
Man and UH and Jefferson are all unanimous first place
in terms of votes. The only the only one that
has multiple first place votes right now is Triple A

(40:08):
on the baseball side. So softball definitely a little bit
more splin among what the coaches think.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
Yeah, I think as right now. You know again, you
know the number ones are probably right hurri Can being
number one when it comes to softball. I still one
of the most mind boggling things I've ever seen during
my career is it's been probably five years ago now
maybe six, every player in the Hurricanes starting lineup was

(40:38):
a Division one signing. That's that's pretty good. You know,
it's softball in the southern part of the state. Is
just a little different. They take it a little more
serious down there. You've got a lot more softball players
in that part of the state that focus on that
sport solely year round. Uh, pitching is a little bit

(40:59):
better on South. Are there good teams up this way? Absolutely?
And one thing I've noticed this year it seems like
the offense is definitely way ahead of the pitching when
it comes to softball in this area. I mean, you
take Bridgeport, which is you know, hovering around you know,
you know, five hundred. It seems like every game, at

(41:20):
least one school is scoring fifteen sixteen runs, you know,
and then there's been a couple of games has been like,
you know, twenty two to fifteen. It's like, yes, you know,
offense isn't a problem up here. I just we need
to get our pitching in north central West Virginia a
little more on par with some of the other, you know,
pockets in the state and specifically the southern part of

(41:42):
the state.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Last couple of items of note here a couple of
signees moving on to play college athletics for Bridgeport, including
Baron Metheny, who completed his plans to compete at the
collegiate level. Signed his letter of intent this week to
join West Virginia Wesleyan's track and field team. A story
by Chris Johnson of Connect Bridgeport.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
Yeah, that's right. He was one of two Bridgeport athletes
who signed a letter of the tent yesterday. The other
one baseball player Steven Lee. And that'll be up on
Connect Bridgeport on Friday. Which our policy when it comes
to the signings, you know, you know, school's kind of

(42:28):
sometimes when you know, it's a good problem for them
to have when they have multiple kids signing in the
same day. But when you get multiple kids, you know,
you look at it from a TV perspective. You know,
instead of getting like a three minute bit, they might
each get a minute fifty. So we try to make
sure because this is a special day in any athletes,

(42:49):
you know, your prep career, when when they signed that
letter of intent. So we try to spread them out
a little bit to make sure they each get, you know,
equal amount of attention. So that's why Steves wasn't out
today a lot, you know, along with Bears. But you
know Bear, you know, great football player, unfortunately got hurt

(43:13):
kind of early in the season, missed most of his
senior year in football getting back into swinging things as
a thrower. He throws a shot in the discus on
the track and field team. So just just a great
young man. He's very popular in the school too. It
was like Bear Matheeni is just one of the most
popular kids down there, I think, and just you know,

(43:33):
kudos for him to find a way to become a
collegiate athlete, you know, going was Virginia Wesley and he's
gonna throw the shot in the discuss both there. And
I was asking Athletic Record Tom Sears yesterday because it
feels like I've done a lot of signing as a
Bridgeport this year. I think they're if they're not above twenty,

(43:54):
you know, out of the senior class, I mean they're
pushing twenty. I mean, and that's you know, that's just fantastic.
You know, these are always enjoyed doing doing these stories.
You know, it's always great to see a young man
or woman get the chance to continue their athletic career
for the next level.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Yeah, no, kidding, absolutely true. Hey, speaking of continuing career
at the at the next level, the next, next, next level,
former Bridgeport ballplayer, I wanted to just throw a little
teas out there. Uh, because I know you would. You
had mentioned that you covered him at times. But former
Bridgeport ballplayer now the head coach at Lincoln going to
be our interview subject coming up here on the other
side of this next break, Greg Smith. And Lincoln is young,

(44:35):
but they're off to a pretty good start. And I
got a chance to catch up with him earlier this
week and and he basically said, you know, he's pretty
He used the phrase tickled quite a bit, but he was.
He was pretty happy with the way Lincoln had started,
and he feels like they're really building towards something there.
And just quick thought on Greg Smith.

Speaker 4 (44:51):
Yeah, tremendous player at Bridgeport. You know it's party. You know,
a couple of the state title teams. Also when had
a tremendous Collechia career Virginia Wesleyan. I think this is
maybe year three for him at Lincoln's.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
You're four now year four now four?

Speaker 4 (45:07):
Wow? Okay? Yeah? Uh but no, I what I remember
him as a player just one of those just solid
middle infielders, you know that you know, like like a
perfect guy in like that early part of your lineup,
you know, lay down a bun if you need him
to get a clutch hit if you need him to
and all we always played solid, solid defense, you know,

(45:30):
just just all round terrific baseball player, real knowledgeable about
the game, which you tend to find that with Robert
Shields coach teams. There full of players that really understand
the game. And uh, yeah, it's great to see you, Uh,
you know, Greg getting an opportunity to coach. And you know,
in my opinion, you know, Lincoln's got a great baseball coach.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Very good. Hey, last week I made a mistake, by
the way, and you know we like to we like
to own up to our mistakes. Last week I said
to you we were going to talk about and Or,
because you know, new episodes would have dropped by the
time we had our next conversation. I was off. I
totally missed. I guess apparently I thought last week was
this week.

Speaker 4 (46:09):
Well, but how excited we are. We were just a
week ahead of ourselves exactly. So a few more talks
next week, we'll definitely be able to talk. Yeah, next Friday,
we're talking and Or.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
And that's a good opportunity for me to let folks
know as well that there will be a little bit
of a very little light bit of and Or talk
plus other pop culture talk. Brian Hernandez of the Zero
Dark Nerdy podcast will join the Morning Spiel during the
nine o'clock hours, So so stay tuned for That's a
good way to end the week with something light and nerdy,

(46:41):
as we say. But yeah, so and Or not quite
out yet. That was my bad. I jumped the gun.
But I'm looking forward. Next week we're gonna bring some
and Or talk to the Friday Free for All.

Speaker 4 (46:50):
Yeah, you have to ask your guest, you say, my
co host on the other show feels like that and
Or is the best star wars Disney and in the
Disney era, you know, as far as the new content.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
So that's you know what, I that's a good question.
And I feel like he probably would agree. I mean
a lot of people, I think seemed to seem to
have come to this conclusion that this is this is
the best thing Disney has done.

Speaker 5 (47:15):
So Uh.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Anyway, Chris Man much appreciated, and folks, you can find
his work at Connect Bridgeport and of course right here
on the Friday Free for All, where he's here every
generally speaking, every week. Uh and uh yeah, I'll talk
with you soon.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
Brother. All right, man, it sounds good. I have a
happy holiday weekend and I'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Absolutely. All right, guys, we're gonna take a break back
after this.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Now back to the Dan Cavatoyota Wick GMC Friday free
for all on one O three three w KMC.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Joined now by the head coach of Lincoln High School Baseball.
We have Greg Smith with us, and Greg thanks for
doing the show. Very much appreciative of it and helping
us round out our Harrison County cohort of baseball coaches
this year.

Speaker 5 (48:01):
Hey, thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
You guys are off, got off to a pretty good start.
I know things have turned a little bit less rosy lately,
but you're still seven and six on the season, pretty
good start. Competition is definitely stiffened of late. Do you
want to talk a little bit about your Lincoln Cougars,
where things were going well and kind of what you
think you need to do to get back on the
right track after a couple of rough games again against

(48:26):
admittedly some of the top competitors in the state of
West Virginia.

Speaker 5 (48:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (48:30):
Yeah, we started off four and two, and I was
tickled to death with the start, because we are we
are a very young baseball team. We have one senior,
four juniors, and arrest are freshman and sophomore, so the
future looks bright here. But I was happy with the start,
and we ran into our bridgeport O RCBS. We lost
last night to University, but what I loved in all

(48:51):
three of those games is we competed. We went to
extra innings with RCB and fell on the short stick.
And then even last night against you know, Versus, which
is a quad a school.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
I mean, we were.

Speaker 6 (49:02):
Tied up too with them in the fifth inning and
we ran out of pitching. And I think that's where
you see the difference between a huge, large school. They
have a lot more arms than we do, and we
ran out of pitching and got the short end of it.
But I'm still okay with where we are, especially how
young we are. I mean our year, I thinks next year,
the year after, So this year I scheduled thirty two games.

Speaker 5 (49:24):
I'm just trying to get these guys as.

Speaker 6 (49:27):
Most experienced the best experience I can for them. That
way we can build for the future. And but I'm
happy with even the tougher opponents. We're right there with
them and we're just, you know, one key hit away
from being a different side of the looking at this
whole season a lot differently.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Can you talk a little bit about developing pitching. I
think that's such an interesting thing, and to me, it's
very different from a lot of the other high school sports,
where I imagine it's a much more difficult task than
telling an offensive I'm in, hey, I need you to
study film and get in the weight room, or we're
telling a basketball player, I just need you to practice shooting.
What what is development like for a high school pitcher

(50:08):
over the course of that time between obviously coming up
before high school and then into high school. How do
you get to that point where you feel comfortable where
you've got enough pitching?

Speaker 5 (50:17):
I mean it takes it takes you, you know, building
your arm up.

Speaker 6 (50:20):
So I mean that's what we're trying to get our
kids to do more long tossing than the offseason. And
then there's there's opportunities out there like drive line. We've
We've had a couple of players get into that and
that just helps build their arm up and show them
the correct way of delivering the baseball. But yeah, you
gotta have pitching to win. You could have the best
nine hitters in the state, and if you don't have

(50:41):
any pitching, you're not you're not competing. So that's why
I think we started off so great. As the games
were spread out at the beginning of the season, we
were able to use our top five guys almost in
every game. And now we're playing every single day due
to weather and just scheduling how high school baseball is
these days. Now we're having to get to our sixth, seventh,

(51:02):
and eighth guy and and that's where that's where we
we we drop off, and and I just that's where
we're young. We I mean, we threw a freshmen last
night against Claude a school in relief and he's shown
he's been ready other other opportunities, but last night was
just a little bit too much for him. But uh,
a freshman having to step step up against a good
coached university team at that's a big ask. And we

(51:25):
don't have other many options. And that's that's the challenge
right now.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, no, I imagine it's it's got to be tough.
How do you get guys to commit to pitching like
That's the other thing that's so curious to me is that, uh,
you know, I'm it's it reminds me a little bit
of in in some places, guys really don't want to
play goaltender in hockey when they're coming up through the
when they're coming up through whatever development system they're in.

(51:50):
How do you get guys to commit to pitching? What
kind of what type of mindset you have to have
as a kid to actually commit to doing it.

Speaker 6 (51:58):
You have to have a I mean, it's a killer instinct.
You have to you have to having your attitude. I'm
he has not touching me. If you go up there scared,
they're going to get the best of you nine times
out of ten. And that's just a lot of a
lot of There's certain kids who step up and they're ready.
They want the ball, They want the ball in the
big situations. I mean, we have a senior Gavin Owens.

(52:20):
I mean, he's tickled to death when I bring him
in with bases load. He loves that challenge. And I
think that's him growing throughout his career, his baseball career.
This is his fourth year with me, and I think
he wasn't like that as a freshman. So that's why
I'm I'm hoping these freshmen and sophomores they they continue
to learn from the situations we're putting them in and
they get that killer instinct as they get older and

(52:41):
get more confident when their body grows, and they could
throw harder. That that getting that mindset of I can
compete and I could go after these guys just like
anyone else.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Do you get guys who who discover later on that
they actually want to pitch like guys who've never done
it before. And then, I mean, is that something that
you can pick up when you're you're fourteen and you've
never done it before.

Speaker 6 (53:03):
It's possible. There's a lot of work has to go
into it. It's it's a lot tougher. I mean, we've
we've kind of messed around with getting our shortstop more
Tulton Edwards. He given him more opportunities and bullpens and practice.
It's just hard when you don't have a shortstop and
the you know you your short stops your best feeler
usually ninety percent of the time, so it's hard to

(53:23):
take him off a short But that he's the one
that kind of just threw in travel ball a little bit,
but he was never a pitcher, and he when we
go playing every single day, there's opportunities for him. So
it can happen, but it's it's definitely more of a challenge.
You definitely need the kid to have the right mindset
and you know, just god given ability of being able
to throw the ball hard and and then I absolutely

(53:46):
think you can.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Do You want to talk a little bit about as
a as a coach, do you do you ever have
I guess contact with whether it be Little League or
post baseball or whatever it might be, when kids are
in the process of developing and you know you might
be seeing them in a couple of years. Is that
ever you and the coach, you guys go out and
scout kids who were a little bit younger but you
might be seeing in a few years.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Yeah, we do.

Speaker 5 (54:08):
I mean I always keep my eye on the middle school.

Speaker 6 (54:10):
We now have a middle school team, which that's that's
huge for our our program here. That just giving those
kids more reps and game situations coming up instead of
a lot of them if they didn't play travel ball,
they weren't playing. So I mean I had kids coming
to me that hasn't played baseball in two years. And
baseball is a sport you can't lay down the bat
and glove and pick it up and be what you

(54:31):
were before you got It's a game of repetition. So
but yes, we always keep your eye on the middle
school as well. And now this summer we're gonna try
to get in doing a little little leg baseball camp.
I will have the baseball players there and the coaches
and do a camp and that's just a way to
stay involved in the community and kind of get my
eyes on those young guys and see see what potential

(54:52):
we have coming up.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
It's a great point about repetition because I feel like
baseball would be similar to golf in that in that
matter where it's just it's just not something. I mean,
like you said, you just can't just can't stop and
then come back and think like, well, you know it all.
It's like riding a bike. I imagine there's work that
has to be done to get back to where you were.

Speaker 5 (55:11):
Yeah, it was straight. It's this.

Speaker 6 (55:13):
Baseball is all about timing and the reps of it,
even if it's just reps of filling ground balls.

Speaker 5 (55:18):
The more you get, the better you're going to get.
At it, and that's what.

Speaker 6 (55:21):
We're We're seeing a lot in our freshmen and sophomore
and junior class is there's a lot of reps being
completed in the offseason, so that that's hasn't been that
way in the past. So as a coach, I'm tickled
to death about that, and that's why I think our
future is really bright.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Take us through your backstory. How did you wind up
getting into coaching.

Speaker 5 (55:41):
My dad coached me growing up.

Speaker 6 (55:43):
I grew up here in Bridgeport, West Virginia and played
for Robert Shields, and and I I saw my dad
doing it, and of course, you know you're when you're young,
you look at your dad as your hero and that's
who you want to be. So that kind of that
was the first part of getting into it. And then
when I played for Robert, I watched the way he
managed games, the way he just went about coaching and

(56:07):
that and that got me interested. That's when I first
got into it. I was coaching his junior legion over
the summer and while I was playing in college just
over the summer. So then I mean between my dad,
Robert Shields, and in my college coach Randy Tennyo Wesley,
and those are three great h people. I got to
learn under and and and pick their ear and and

(56:29):
try to, you know, learn as much as I can
about the game. And they've taught me so much. And
this this job came available, and that's the job I've
always had my eyes on. And uh, I was just
tickled to death when I got the phone call that
I got it. And it's crazy to think I'm already
here in year four already.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
What's your favorite thing about? Give me, give me a
favorite thing that happens other than winning, of course, but
a favorite thing that happens on a game day. What's
your what's your favorite from the moment you wake up
to the end of the day, excluding winning, best thing
that that happens.

Speaker 6 (57:00):
Just seeing all you know, we we've we have a
really good we have really good practice. We put the
kids through a lot throughout, you know, getting ready for
our season and just seeing their hard work and their
offseason when we can't be involved with them that much.
And then all the hard work we put into it
to see a kid, you know, want it as much
as some of these most of our kids do, and

(57:20):
and they come up in a big situation and come
up for their team. Just seeing their excitement, they're smiling
their face. It kind of brings me back to when
I got to play and and and that's why I
just love being around the game of baseball. And uh,
that's definitely my favorite part, just seeing the seeing the
kids coming through for their team for one another, and
and how much enjoyment they're getting away from baseball.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
All right, here, I got a couple of a couple
of semi related questions for you. But first one, I'm
always curious about this, so I've been I've been covering
a lot of baseball lately in the broadcast booth. And uh,
I you know, I had forgotten. I had forgotten about
one of my favorite gamesmanship strategies where uh, you know,
coach managers thinking I probably should have had someone warming

(58:02):
up in the bullpen already. Let me come out and
talk to this guy, see if we can buy some time.
What do you say to your picture in that in
that scenario when you're trying to buy time knowing that
you're gonna pull them, what what's the conversation like.

Speaker 6 (58:13):
Yeah, I take walks extra slow out to the mound.
I take my good old time getting out there and
I just tell them this. I'm very honest with their players.
I tell them the situation. Hey, I'm I'm bringing in,
you know, Billy out of the bullpen here, but I'm giving
him some extra reps. So I'm gonna I want to
talk to you here for a couple of seconds. I'm
gonna walk very slowly back and give him as many

(58:35):
reps he can in the bullpen. And most of the
time I stand there until the umpire comes a gets me.
It's just that's allowing our kids to get as many
reps they can, to get their arm ready to and
their mind ready to get out into the game.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
I love it. I had I had a sneaking I
had a sneaking suspicion that there was some there's some
gamesmanship going on there. I know it's it's it's well
known throughout baseball, but even like you know, I was
doing a game. I was doing a Salem I want
to say, with Salem on State game recently, and immediately
after the manager came out the pitcher on the moud
I think he threw one more pitch and then he
threw four pickoff attempts, So two before the pitch, two

(59:10):
after the pitch, I was like, Okay, we know what's
going on here is and the guy who was on
first hadn't stolen a base all year. That was probably
my favorite part about that. Uh yeah, So I mean,
you're you're you're probably you know, you're a relatively young guy.
But I'm also I'm guessing you're probably not right around
my age, maybe a little bit younger, but you know
that that means that you're probably, like me, a little
bit tickled by the the way Mountaineer baseball has sort

(59:34):
of become a really big part of the state's athletic
story because there was a long period of time where
there was there was one conversation to have. It was
WVU football and WVU men's basketball, right, and then on
the periphery you might have your you know, your women's
soccer was always good, your women's basketball was always good,
but they didn't get as much attention, and baseball was
kind of hit or miss, and there were some years

(59:54):
where it was really missed and then some years where
it was you know, pretty good. Listen that they developed
some really good players. To see what it's become. Now,
what does that do for you as as a coach
at the high school level. I imagine that's got to
be a big deal for you guys these days. To
have this aspirational program now that's just dominating.

Speaker 6 (01:00:11):
Yeah, it's it's awesome because you're right, I mean, growing up,
you know, you have Pat White, Steve Slaton and everything
like that, and everything was either football or basketball, and
just seeing baseball now come in that equation. I just
saw when they played Pitt at home a couple of
weeks ago. I mean, that was the largest crowd they've
ever had there. It looked like an unbelievable atmosphere. And
I wish we're right in the middle of our season

(01:00:32):
when they are. I wish I could I could pay
more attention to it, but I have, Like we had
a JV game the other day and I still have
the varsity guys coming and watch. And I looked over
and there three or four of them have the w
game on. They know and they know players by their names,
and it's just awesome seeing like these young guys now
looking up and like that's the goal and right here

(01:00:53):
at home in West Virginia, forty minutes down the road,
that's what That's what we all would love to get to.
So yeah, I'm I'm it does it helps? I think
it just creates a more competitive balance throughout the whole state.

Speaker 5 (01:01:08):
That's everybody's, you know goal.

Speaker 6 (01:01:10):
And they've done an unbelievable job turning that program around
up there.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Yeah, no kidding. And and there are a couple of
kids obviously from I know. Maxwell Moless is from a
little further away in Williamstown, obviously a fantastic baseball and
football player. But he's he's on the team now. He
hasn't played much as a freshman. The pitcher from Gilmour
County from last year, I believe, is on the team.
You know, there are some solid West Virginia prospects there.
So I mean to me, it seems very realistic that

(01:01:35):
you could develop at the high school level right now
in West Virginia and you could find yourself again, Gilmour
County is a single a school. You could find yourself
potentially playing for the Mountaineers.

Speaker 5 (01:01:45):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 6 (01:01:46):
And then and then you even have like big McDougal
from Bridgeport, and then the North Marion boy I'm drawing
a blank on his own.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Oh yeah, yin Hart, yeah, rein Hart.

Speaker 5 (01:01:54):
He I mean to this day.

Speaker 6 (01:01:55):
I got to coached against him my first year, and
that's probably one of the best hitters I've got to
coach against at the high school level. So it doesn't
surprise me he's had a great start to the season
and it has It doesn't surprise me a bit.

Speaker 5 (01:02:06):
He's a great hitter.

Speaker 6 (01:02:07):
But yeah, I mean, these guys are locally going and
playing for their states, So I mean that that gives
kids who want to play at the next level something
to chase for. And then if they have to go
to maybe Potomac State or a small college at first
to then get there, that's still another possibility.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Very good. Hey, so what's the what's the biggest thing?
And this will be our last question. Biggest thing you'd
like to accomplish? Other than I know, perfect world, win
every game, make the playoffs, it's not I get that,
you know, that's the that's the ideal world. What's the
one thing you'd love to accomplish this year?

Speaker 4 (01:02:37):
Though?

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Is the is the coach of Lincoln.

Speaker 5 (01:02:40):
By the time this season's over.

Speaker 6 (01:02:42):
I hope bridge Port, RCB, Frankfurt those that I think
are the top three in our region by the time
this regular season's over, We're about to start postseason. I
just hope my goal is to get our team ready
to where none none of those three teams want to
see us if if you if you mess around, we're
going to get you. And and then that's where and
that's where I think we're heading. We're not there yet,
but I think we're very close to uh to taking

(01:03:05):
that next step. And and it's just building off this
year too. When are when we go into next season,
we have all these sophomores, they are now juniors, and
you know, just taking the step this year to then
get make our goals and our team goals a lot
larger for next year hopefully you know, getting to Charleston
and States and then hopefully win in one. So that

(01:03:28):
that is that's the goal every year, But sometimes you
have to be realistic and take your little wins. But
I just hope come playoff time we're right there with
those teams. We could compete with them, and if you
make a mistake, we're gonna we're gonna hopefully bite you
and and and you know see what we see if
we can pull it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
Out, the Cougars do bite as as I've been as
I think h one other question I've been asking every
coach this is that, what's your what's your pro team?

Speaker 5 (01:03:54):
My pro team?

Speaker 6 (01:03:54):
Yeah, I'm a Baltimore Orioles fan.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
Okay, well, so what's going on with the Reels lately?
I so my my co host Chris Johnson will will
love to hear that there's a fellow fellow crazy Orioles
fan because uh he he I know a few oriol
fans and and I feel like they had a moment
of hope, and I'm not sure what they're feeling right now.

Speaker 5 (01:04:14):
Yeah, I was.

Speaker 6 (01:04:14):
I was really thinking we were going to be the
only team to be able to compete with the Yankees
this year. But we start off we had some injuries early.
There were some injuries, but we started off slow. But hey,
in the past five years at least Baltimore's always started
off hot and then they kind of lost their steam.
So maybe it's going to change this year. They start
off slow this year, maybe they could get it turned around.

Speaker 5 (01:04:33):
The talent.

Speaker 6 (01:04:34):
They have young talent too. There that's a young that's
a young team. So that that's what they have to
do in Baltimore. They have to grow it. You know, internally,
they don't go get the big free agents or anything
like that. So I'm not my I'm not throwing the
hat in the ring yet, but it's still early, but
I'm hoping they can turn.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Around better than being better than being a Pirates fan,
which more than more than a few coaches have told
me they're Pirates fans, and I'm like, I'm really sorry
to hear that.

Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
Guys.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Yeah, uh, can't Camden Yards best stadium in baseball?

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
Your name?

Speaker 5 (01:05:03):
If it's not one, it's two.

Speaker 6 (01:05:05):
I mean, I I don't like the Pirates for P
and C Parks pretty nice as well, but yeah, those
two are up there and.

Speaker 5 (01:05:11):
That you know they have, especially in this area.

Speaker 6 (01:05:13):
You're two to four hours away from both of those stadiums.
I've been to both and they're they're both beautiful places.
I highly recommend both of them if you if you
want to go see an unbelievable stadium.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
Yeah, are you one of those guys who your goal
is get to every stadium if you get the chance.

Speaker 5 (01:05:29):
I wish.

Speaker 6 (01:05:30):
I don't know, I'm so busy. My wife's like, I
don't know about that, but I don't. Yeah, I mean,
I would love, I'd love to get to more. I've
only been to like three or four of them.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
So what's one that you would love to see? What's
one that you would love to see and have it yet?

Speaker 5 (01:05:43):
Ah? Probably probably regularly feel.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
Yeah, it's it's always Wrigly, right, like if you haven't
seen it that you have to see it, right.

Speaker 6 (01:05:51):
Yeah, Yeah, that's one I haven't I haven't been able
to get to, but that was Yeah, that'd be all,
especially if I get to go when Baltimore's there, that'd
be that'd be sweet.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
Yeah, that'd be no kidding. I have never seen Wrigley.
I will say your spot on though Camden Yards and
P and Z are both both gorgeous. I grew up
a Yankee fan and I remember loving old Yankee Stadium
and New Yankee Stadium doesn't really have the h doesn't
really have the charm of the Yankee Stadium. I will
say I was suppressed how much I liked. City Field

(01:06:19):
is surprisingly nice, like like I would have I would
have thought it would have kind of the same charmlessness
of Yankee Stadium. And actually it's I actually quite quite
dig city Field the meth. I mean, Shay is Shay,
but Cityfield pretty cool. So yeah, hey, coach, I really
appreciate your time, man, Good luck the rest of the season.

Speaker 5 (01:06:36):
All right, all right, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
That's Greg Smith, head coach of the Lincoln Cougar baseball
It seemed good to talk with him there off to
when I start considering their youth and pretty much everything
else going on. Good work by the Cougars, and thanks
to Greg Smith for jumping on. Hey, we are going
to go ahead and take a break, come back talk
with Michael Minnick about some more baseball softball action going
around the region. And let me jump into some WVU

(01:07:02):
women's soccer talk as well. This is the Friday Free
for All, brought to you by Dan Cavatao to be
at GMC. Back after this back.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
To the WKMC locker room for more high school sports
on the Dan Cavatoyota w at GMC WEE Friday Free
for All.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
We're now joined by Michael Minnick of wvnews dot com
and also ESPN plus. Mike thought, man, how.

Speaker 7 (01:07:23):
Are you always good to be with you?

Speaker 5 (01:07:25):
Alex?

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
Yeah, I appreciate you bringing your expertise, especially when I
think you know as well as many folks. I'm still
I'm fairly new to this whole high school baseball and
softball game. I'm enjoying it. I've had a chance to
catch up with a bunch of coaches over the first
month of the season, which is also kind of a
crazy sentence to say, because we're like three weeks away

(01:07:46):
from postseason play. This is a very very fast moving sport.
And there's a big event this weekend, which is where
we can start the McDonald's class that coming up this weekend.
Let's get some thoughts on that. Let's start there, Yeah,
by quick.

Speaker 7 (01:08:00):
So I think that magnifies the importance of showcases like this,
where you've got teams coming from, you know, as far
east as Washington, Cable, Midland. I mean, I'm just looking
at Friday's schedule foresights. They're playing at Bridgeport High, frank Werrifield,
and Nutter Fort, Robert C. Bird High in South Harrison,
and you're gonna have Bridgeport, we only Park, Jefferson, Cable, Midland, Morgantown,

(01:08:22):
Herbert Hoover, Frankfurt, East Fairmont, but Cannon Upshire, North Marion University,
all these teams. South Harrison is of course going to
host a site. Frankfurt's coming over. Who was the Doubleah
champs last year. So you're gonna see probably several teams
that are gonna be in Charleston in a month or
so or two months playing for state championship.

Speaker 4 (01:08:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
Pretty wild. And we're fast approaching regional play. As we discussed,
has anyone in your mind separated themselves from the pack
as far as where they're gonna wind up getting seated
in the region. In the regions, I should say that
we're following.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:09:01):
I think this next week or two will be good
because we've had so much rain that a lot of
games have been pushed back, have been compressed, so I
think that's made the picture a little bit murkier. I
do think we're gonna learn more kind of about the
bigger picture this weekend. Bridgeport always plays a tough schedule,
but they're gonna play Jefferson, they' gonna play Frankfort, who
I think is gonna be their biggest competition again out
of the region. Double champs last year, as I said,

(01:09:23):
up to tripley this year. Bridgert moves down to the
level from four A four crosses this year, So that
game Saturday morning at ten a m at Bridgeport could
be a preview of that best of three regional final,
because I think Bridgeport and Frankfort are gonna separate themselves
at the one and two. Bird I think has the
best case out of the rest of that group to
maybe crash that party. They'll play Frankfort Friday night, so

(01:09:43):
again we're gonna warn a lot about that region seeing
Frankfort play probably the two best teams from this side
of things, how those teams match up.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
Yeah, really a strong season for Robert C. Bird got
a chance to catch up with their coach, Derek Bowen
a little bit earlier this season when they were off.
I think they had only lost at that point one
game to start the season, and I think now they
have lost their second officially, but they were red hot
to start the year beat South Harrison. They look dangerous

(01:10:13):
and definitely more dangerous than I think I gave them
credit for when the season began.

Speaker 7 (01:10:17):
Yeah, I think a young group first of all, coming
back from the Bird side, and then you had a
couple of kids from Liberty, including Cooper Floyd that came
over with Derek Bowen from Liberty, and you've got a
really quality lamp and I think a lineup that is
gonna be good for a year or two. Guys that
are sophomores juniors playing well. They just played presson this week.
It was one of those games that was shortened by

(01:10:38):
rain five in again the Xavier Carboli for a one hitter.
So that tells you the quality the pitching they have,
the offense they have top to bottom. I really like
what Bird has. But again they're in the wrong region.
I think in a lot of reagions they'd be a
major favorite. In this region. They're gonna be fighting tooth
and now just to get to that final best of
three series.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Yeah, no, that's a great point. Hey, so I did
the power rankings a little bit earlier with Chris Johnson.
I'm not going to go through all of them again,
but I am curious. I'm gonna give you. I'm going
to give you an up or down. If you think
a team is it should be higher or lower right now.
And I want to start with Class Triple A Bridgeport
sitting at four right now, your thoughts higher or lower?
Are they in the right spot?

Speaker 7 (01:11:18):
I think that's about right. They have beaten some good teams.
They've also lost to a couple teams. One of the
games earlier this week, that was stop by rain. They're
losing seven, nothing to ease Fairmont, so that was kind
of a flag. You'd be like, wait a second, they're
losing seven nothing to use Fairmont. So again, playing four
games this weekend more about them. But that feels about
right based on what they've done in the past and

(01:11:38):
what they've done earlier this year. Pitching staff's very good
for them. Offense is what's not quite come along for them, right.

Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
Philip Barber third in the most recent edition of the
Power Rankings in Class double A. That is a universal
or one of the few unanimous first place of voting classifications.
Wheeling Central Catholic with all ten first place vote in
that one for the Metro News Power Rankings, Philip Barber
sitting at three, and they were undefeated at the time.

(01:12:07):
Higher or lower on Philip Barber.

Speaker 7 (01:12:10):
That feels right right now for me. They have not
been able to play for a couple of days because
of the weather. Big game with Pharamoun Senior this week.
That's the really give me a measuring stick for them,
getting the Polar Bears at home. They win that game
there for real. They lose that game, then yeah, maybe
they are a top five team they need to prove themselves.
Do they win that game? Yeah, there are other team
that could be in the conversation to be at the top.

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
South Harrison has hit a little bit of a rough
patch a little bit over. I mean they're still i
think eight and five on the season, but they're now
behind Williamstown, who they actually upset earlier. Now Williamstown has
come on strong of lates. Maybe you want to make
the argument that Williamstown wasn't quite Williamstown yet when South
Harrison played. But right now South Harrison sitting at number
nine and behind a team they beat with a similar record, higher,

(01:12:53):
lower or about right.

Speaker 7 (01:12:55):
That feels about right, Like you said, some losses, but
they've also I'll give a Frank Tank credit. They scheduled
are really difficult schedule. The LKC alone is a tough schedule,
but they're playing Robert C Byrd. They played Bridgeport and
played them pretty well last week. They are challenging themselves
and I think the biggest question with a smaller school
team is can they pitch? And I think if they

(01:13:16):
get in a best of three, you feel good about
Layton Lockman pitching game one. Then as a matter of
figuring out, well, who can pitch game two and three?
You win one of those two and you're going to Charleston.
So I think they've got to feel good about where
they are. Offensively, I like them another team that's got
a lot of young talent that has produced early in
their careers.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
All right, how about Notre Dame, the Irish on the
Diamond receiving votes in the most recent Class single A poll.
But they are not in the top ten? Is that?
Are you good with that? Or you think they could
afford to be in the top ten right now?

Speaker 7 (01:13:46):
I think they need to get a bigger win or two.
The wins they've gotten have been against smaller public schools.
They've beaten like the Trinities and the Clavitels of the world,
which is fine. Those are the teams you're going to
need to compete against to get out of that action
in region. But I want to see them maybe take
down a bigger fish before I rank them.

Speaker 2 (01:14:06):
We're gonna jump over to the softball side of things
real quick and into Class triple A. Just just right
into the fire here Lincoln coming off a sixteen nothing win.
Now granted that occurred after these power rankings were published,
but a sixteen to nothing win over Liberty Harrison in
the final ever meeting between those two schools. I believe
in any sport. Uh and Lincoln comes in at number
eight in the high School Softball Coaches poll in class

(01:14:30):
triple A. Does that feel right to you? Higher?

Speaker 4 (01:14:32):
Lower?

Speaker 2 (01:14:33):
Where at feels about right? I think this.

Speaker 7 (01:14:36):
As we mentioned before, this has not been a great
couple of years for the Big Ten in terms of pitching.
They get really hit though. Rollie Perlman's hitting about five
point fifty right now. She has five or six some runs.
They've got a couple other girls that can head out
of the yard. We talked about the McDonald's tournament. There's
a softball tournament this weekend as well. Bird's hosting one side,
Lincoln's hosting the other. Lincoln's gonna play Frankfurt, undefeated, number

(01:14:59):
one in the state right now. Now, couple college players
on that team. They've got a D one catcher and
Taylor Awakens that they got from Kaiser. So they will
play Lincoln Saturday morning and that will be a good
measuring stick for Lincoln to say, Okay, this is probably
the team we're going to see if we make it
to the regional. Can we hang with this team, because
that's been the problem. Lincoln has gotten out of that
section pretty consistently. But then they runted to Herbert Hoover

(01:15:21):
in the regional and lose. They're out of Hoover's region.
But now they jump in with Frankfurt Kaiser, some of
those Eastern teams that have quality programs.

Speaker 2 (01:15:29):
All right, And last one of these power rankings that
I wanted to go through because I was really fascinated
by this breakdown. Class double A four teams got at
least two first place votes in the coaches poll. Logan, Wheeling,
Central Catholic, Buffalo, and Doddridge County, who was fifteen and
one at the time the poll was published by the Way.
Richie County for you listeners out there, also made the

(01:15:51):
top ten. That they've only played a handful of games
because of weather related stuff, but Doddridge County after sixteen
games number four even two first place votes. Logan had
the most with five, Wheeling, Central Catholic in Buffalo and
Doddridge County each with two. What do you make of
that little traffic jam in Class double A?

Speaker 7 (01:16:09):
Yeah, I think it's a kind of a concept of
you have teams from different areas of this year, they
aren't playing each other necessarily, they're all having really good teams.
Doddgers County is in a good position because of their
turf field. As you said, they've played sixteen games because
they pretty much unless it's pouring down the rain and
it gets soaked, they can play. And I think the
other way that really helps them is they can practice.

(01:16:31):
They have a nice indoor hitting facility, they can practice
outside on that turf as long as it's not too cold.
That's a nice advantage. But as we've talked about before,
Nasty Region Petersburg just beat Philip Barber this week. Those
are the two teams besides Dodgers. I think they're gonna
be fighting for that regional spot. And again stoptball is
a bit different than baseball, where they do split the region,
so you have to win your section first. So I

(01:16:51):
think Dodderge will have a pretty easy path to win
their section, and then it's a question of can you
beat Philip Barber or Petersburg to get to Charleston in
the state tournament.

Speaker 2 (01:17:01):
Philip Barber, if I recall correctly, only receiving votes right now,
actually just had it up in front of me, I
could probably yeah, receiving votes right now in Class double
A among the coaches, but always dangerous. We know about
that program, all right. I wanted to the other reason
I wanted to have you on. I want to switch
gears over to some WVU related stuff and you're more

(01:17:22):
than welcome to chip in on WVU baseball if you want,
just because it's been what a crazy, unbelievable start to
the season for this team, winning thirty one of thirty
five and with a couple of West Virginia ball players.
I might add on the kids that we've covered we've
seen and hopefully more on the way. But I want
to talk a little. Wv women's soccer schedule gets revealed.

(01:17:45):
This is, of course, a team that every year is
seemingly fighting to get into the tournament. Usually is almost
a lock to get in. Two years ago did not,
but otherwise I don't think they've ever missed under Niki
as O Brown and in program history. And they've got
a couple of new opponents coming for the first time
this season as well, out of the Big twelve, and
they're playing a couple of new opponents as well that

(01:18:05):
they've never played before. I just wanted to get a
couple of quick thoughts on your breakdown or the breakdown
of the schedule for WVU women's soccer, which I know
you follow as closely as just about anybody that I know.

Speaker 7 (01:18:18):
Yeah, I think a couple of things jumped out on me.
One is, as you mentioned, because the Big Twelve is
so large, you're not playing everybody in the conference, so
they've been able to really kind of a would BYU,
who's the other power really in this conference last couple
of years, won't have to won't be so lucky this year.
They're going to Provo, So I think that's going to
be an early test for them. Midweek September twenty fourth,

(01:18:39):
second conference game of the year will be in Provo.
And really that early stretch is big for me. You
mentioned this team has made the tournament more often than not,
they haven't always started well the last couple of years. Well,
now you're going to use CF, you're going to BUYU,
You're going to Utah right off the bat, so your
three first of the conference games are away. So that's

(01:18:59):
a big thing. Circle. You can't dig yourself too much
of a whole, But then the flip side of that
is you start October. You've got Arizona here, Arizona State here,
Houston here. Those are three winnable games that you can
kind of if you can weather that first storm of three,
you can put yourselves in a good position. Then you
go to Kansas in case state, you kind of make
that Sunflower State trip both winnable games. Iowa stayed here,

(01:19:22):
winnable game. Oklahoma State will be a good game here.
At the end of October, Cincinnati here is a winnable game.
So I feel like that early part of the schedule
is the minefield. Once they get through that, I think
they'll be okay. The other thing that stuck out to
me was I had read that they were gonna have
the tournament at the beautiful new stadium in Kansas City
CPKC Stadium for two years. It's not there this year,

(01:19:43):
so something has changed there. It's now going to be
on campus sites at TCU and Bayor. So I don't
think that's a terrible thing because I think it will
be a little bit more of a neutral site than
playing in Kansas City, where WF you famously lost to
Kansas last year. So I think the major contenders will
be on a little bit more of a neutral ground.

(01:20:04):
TCU's got a good program, Bigler's okay, So you're hoping
that maybe you don't get in dcu's bracket, that they
get knocked out early, and you're playing on our neutral
site to win the championship.

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
When all is said and done, and we're way way
way out, way way in advance. But I also think
it's worth contextualizing for listeners as well, because this is
a very easy program to support, especially I mean, you
know this as well as anybody with ESPN plus that
for just a few bucks a month, and I'm not
trying to sell anybody on anything, but for a few

(01:20:35):
bucks a month, you now have the ability to essentially
watch that which was unwatchable from from distance a long
time ago. Now, obviously there was a point where there
was a WU sports dot Com broadcast or an MSN broadcast,
but in general, these are sports that used to be
inaccessible and are now very accessible, which means new fans

(01:20:56):
more fans. So for those out there, the postseason success
of WU has been kind of a mixed bag, but
I think that the real constant has been their ability
to get there. Do you feel like, what do you
feel like they need to do to get a little
bit more consistent in getting beyond that first or second round.
Every now and then they do, but it's not super common.

(01:21:20):
Can what more can nickiezo Brown squeeze out of this
program that she has basically built from scratch.

Speaker 7 (01:21:26):
And it sounds simple, but it's scoring. This is a
team that's been consistently very good defense to be the
last several years, and of course when they were playing
for national championship, they had two Olympians back there. And
if you began at Annouston, Laurns and Robbie Foster is
still playing pro most of the defenders and goalkeeper that
you were still playing professionally. The problem the last couple
of years has been finding that really consistent score something.

(01:21:46):
They can get you eight to ten goals a season.
They can kind of do it by committee and grind
out one nothing games, but to make the run you're
talking about, you need someone who can bag you double
digit goals, score your critical goal in a big match
on the road in the postseason. That's the thing they've missed.
They've been able to stay in games, but they haven't

(01:22:07):
had that game changer to win, you know, second round
Sweet sixteen Elite eight games. Since that group with mikel
Obam he should Beuchan and Usha Lawrence graduated.

Speaker 2 (01:22:18):
It was a hell of a group too. A lot
of those players and you probably have the number on
this how many of those players wound up playing professionally somewhere.

Speaker 7 (01:22:26):
It's a big movie pretty much that starting eleven eight
or nine. I mean, Keisha and Ashley are playing for
Chelsea in England. Riley, I think, is in Australia still.
She had a terrible car accident, nearly died, was nearly paralyzed,
as fought all the way back. It's a great story.
If you haven't read it, you should look it up.
But yeah, she is now playing professionally again, and so

(01:22:48):
that's great to see. ESTERMYA Keith, who was on that
team has been in the mix to be in the
World Cup for Cameroon. She's playing professionally in France. I
think al Medean Pierre Lui is still in France, and
Gordon's popped up in the US and played a little bit.
So most of those players that were key parts of
that team are playing professionally seven eight, nine years later.

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
You know, it's kind of crazy, and listen, I'm going
to enjoy the time off that we've got, you know,
fast approaching. And and when I say time off, what
I what I mean is more like downtime, a lot
fewer games to cover.

Speaker 4 (01:23:21):
But it is.

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
It's a little weird if you think about it. Women's
soccer is not that far away once you start getting
schedule releases. Women's soccer, men's soccer, fall sports are not
that far away. We'll start seeing essentially in four months,
we'll start seeing actual game action and pre preseason or
exhibition action maybe a week or so before that. So
not as far away as you think on the once

(01:23:42):
the schedule drops.

Speaker 7 (01:23:43):
And the other thing is we've seen the conference schedus.
We haven't seen the non conference schedule officially yet. But
the NCAA just passed a resolution last week or two
that they already were starting the season a little bit
earlier for player health and safety because these conferences have
so much travel, they stretched the season a little bit.
They passed it on the back end as well. Where
it used to be the Women's College Cup was a
week for the men's College Cup. Now that the same weekend,

(01:24:05):
so the women's seasons essentially asked at lasting another week
or two in the beginning and a week at the end. So,
like you said, I think that's gonna make for better soccer.
You're not playing twice in three or four days, and
I think you can kind of circle one of the
calendar and want to say, Okay, Saturday night, we're gonna
be at Dick to Lesk. We're playing Penn State, we're
playing Virginia, we're playing BYU. Really get a lot of

(01:24:28):
my menu behind that and come out and see the
one game that weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:24:30):
Very good. Hey, any work you want to want to plug.
I know you've of course got stuff going on with
the Spirit. Anything you want to plug before I let.

Speaker 7 (01:24:36):
You go, Not broadcast wise. I'm doing the stats stuff
and kind of being behind the scenes at this point,
but broadcast. So I was, like you said, it's a
little bit of a lull, but that's not a bad thing.
Recharge a little bit and come back strong in the
ball for soccer, volleyball, whatever they throw out us this year.

Speaker 2 (01:24:50):
Yeah, very good, Mike. Much appreciated.

Speaker 4 (01:24:52):
Man.

Speaker 7 (01:24:53):
Always a pleasure, Alex. Glad to be with you all right.

Speaker 2 (01:24:55):
Much appreciated that it's Michael Minnick of wvnews dot Com
and ESPN plug looking forward to looking forward to seeing
how all of this goes down. W women's soccer hopefully
back right where they belong this season in the NCAA tournament.
All right, we got to go ahead and take awk.
We're going to wrap the show. Coming up here on
the Friday Free for All, brought to you by Dan

(01:25:16):
Cavatoto b A GMC.

Speaker 1 (01:25:19):
Time for more high school sports talk on the Dan
Cavatoyo WAGMC Friday Free for All.

Speaker 2 (01:25:25):
All right, guys, welcome back in. We got to go
ahead and wrap the show here. We're real low on time.
Wanted to say, first and foremost, a special thanks to
all of our guests today, Chris George and Chris Johnson,
my regular co host, who will likely be joining us
mostly on location or remotely for much of the spring

(01:25:45):
and summer season. We're expecting probably to get him back
in the studio and actually going back to a full
two man crew here sometime in the summer after the
baseball seasons officially over. High school baseball season that is
officially over and we can start focusing fully on football again.
So thanks to Chris Johnson though, as always for being

(01:26:07):
flexible and joining me remotely today, Greg Smith, thanks to
him head coach of the Lincoln Cougars. We'll be keeping
an eye on them. They've got some big, big games
coming up on the docket for a young group. And
then of course for Michael Minnick much appreciated him joining
the program as well. From wvnews dot com and ESPN plus.

(01:26:27):
Hard to believe where we are, folks. We are just
three weeks away essentially from the start of the high
school baseball postseason, which will take us into June into
the state title games. Looking forward to that as well.
Want to remind you of a couple of things before
we go to break, so we don't normally have any
time to spare. This is kind of a rarity for us.
But if you are looking for great high school sports coverage,

(01:26:51):
go check out the high school sports section of wvmetronews
dot com. It was alluded to earlier today, but there's
a great profile of Jaron Westfall from Buckhannon Upsher on
the website right now. Joe Bricado and Greg Carey do
fantastic work with the site. It is Honestly, I don't
think you'll find very many high school sports sites better

(01:27:16):
equipped than the high school sports section of wvmetronews dot com.
It really is just a must follow. Absolutely a couple
of other quick points of order. We are, as you
are very likely aware at this point, a show that
is a twenty first century radio show, meaning we're also

(01:27:36):
of course in podcast form, and I hope that you are.
If you're missing, ever missing the regular show, I hope
that you're checking the show out in podcast form. You
can either download the Spreaker app, you could go to
wkmsynews dot com, or you can simply check out your
preferred podcasting platform.

Speaker 4 (01:27:54):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:27:54):
If you're more of a traditionalist, you can also listen
live and online at the WVRC Media app. Should go
and download. You can then listen from anywhere wkmzynews dot
com if you prefer just a browser, or of course
on the radio at one O three three WKMZ. And
then finally, before I let you guys go the Friday
Free for all email address if you ever want to

(01:28:16):
share box scores, pictures, great performances, doesn't matter. Friday freefo
All wv at gmail dot com. Friday Free for all
wv at gmail dot com. All right, we have got
to go. They are playing my exit music. Gonna be
someone yanking me with a cane off the stage here momentarily.

(01:28:39):
For those listening on the radio, the Morning Spiel is
coming up next. I hope you'll stick around for that.
Gonna be a light episode today focused on pop culture,
talking with Brian Hernandez of Zero Dark Nerd. If you're
listening to this in podcast form, of course, I would
recommend you'll listen to the Morningspiel the podcast as well.
Gotta go, folks, we'll talk with you on on well

(01:29:01):
next Friday. Have a fantastic weekend. No bonus content today,
This is the full show, and we'll talk with you
on the Friday Free for All seven o six next
Friday morning.

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
You've been listening to the Dan cavatoyot of you at
GMC Friday Free for All. Be sure to tune in
every Friday as we review and preview local high school sports.
This has been a special presentation of WVRC Media and
one O three three WKMZ