NCAA Regional Preview with Lefty Evan Byers!

Left-hander Evan Byers joins the podcast to preview this weekend's Lexington Regional as Kentucky embarks on their journey into the NCAA Baseball Tournament.

Hosted by Andrew Kappes. 

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Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Postseason baseball is back in Lexington andwe are here to preview it on the
latest episode of the UK Sports NetworkToday Podcast presented by the Big Blue Brew.
Thank you so much for joining us, everybody. Andrew Cappus here with
you and a special guest. Thisweek, it's left handed Evan Buyers out
of the Kentucky bullpen to talk abouthis season and talk about the feeling of

(00:31):
the team going into their big weekendcoming up. It all starts on Friday
at noon against Western Michigan. Kentuckythe number two overall seed, a regional
host, and if they can winthat regional a super regional host. As
a baseball postseason kicks into high gearover the next couple of days. Before

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we get to Evan want to remindyou that the UK Sports Network Today podcast
is presented by the Big Blue Brew. It's the official newsletter of UK Athletics.
It's completely free and it hits inboxes every weekday morning. That's UK
athletics dot Com slash Big Blue Brew. Kentucky's set to be joined in their
regional by Indiana State, a bitof a surprising omission. Many thought that

(01:14):
they might host their own regional,but one of the best two seeds joining
the Cats in the Lexington Regional.Then it's three seeded Illinois and the four
seed Western Michigan who made a bitof a Cinderella run through the MAC Baseball
Tournament to unseat Bowling Green State andadvance to the NCAA Tournament. So the
Cats the number two overall seed aftera historic season in which they won the

(01:37):
most games in the Southeastern Conference ina regular campaign. And here to talk
about it and preview that regional isleft hander Evan Buyers. Just days away
from the Lexington Regional. If you'relistening to us in the middle of the
week, Kentucky getting ready to hostfor a second straight year, and we're
joined by Kentucky lefty Evan Buyers.Evan, thank you so much for your

(01:59):
time. I know it's been kindof a crazy few days getting back from
Hoover, but must be nice tohave some solidity, if you will,
with the opponents set up. Nodoubt, it was definitely a fun,
fun week down there on Hoover andit was good to get back and the
selection show was very exciting on Monday, and we were really eager to see
where we're gonna be placed and whowe're going to be playing. But we're

(02:20):
really happy where we're at right now, and we're just right now getting in
practice, getting ready to go forthe weekend. We're just super excited before
we get into the nitty gerty ofit that you guys were the number two
overall seeds. So it was alot different than last year. As I
recalled last year, there was somequestion as to whether Kentucky was gonna host
this year. It seemed to bepretty short up multiple weeks ago. So

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was it a little bit more relaxingto watch the show knowing that you guys
weren't going to have to go veryfar. Yes, there's definitely more relaxing.
I think it was kind of justat the point where who we're gonna
play, who we're gonna be pairedup for the super host, and I
kind of like, we like ourdraw. You know, we're playing three
really good teams. Western Michigan,I mean pretty sure they won their conference
tournament. We played them three yearsago, I mean two years ago.

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It was a good ball club.Definitely have been gotten better since then.
Indiana States and there they were,you know, a regional host candidate.
They were kind of left out ofthat regional host, which they're a good
ball club. We played them lastyear, three really close games. And
then Illinois of course, which theyhave a very good good ballplayers too.
They pretty sure they won their conferencethis year. So just three really good

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teams. It's going to be alot of good competition at KPP this weekend.
But we've been preparing all season forthis. How about this reserve seating
sold out in twenty eight minutes,didn't even last a half hour when it
went on sale to the general public, So that's got to be pretty cool.
You guys have had some phenomenal atmospheres, have broken attendance records this year.
Last year's regional was phenomenal, andthat was without the extra seeding that's

(03:51):
now out there in left field,So it's probably going to be a pretty
wild environment. You guys got tobe looking forward to that. Yes,
we're super excited. I mean,throughout the season, the BBN is just
continuing to show their support to us, and we've had a good season and
it means the world to us.We're super grateful for it because we know
what it's like, you know,to not have some many people there.
I mean, we've had some roughseasons in the past and it gets cold

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in March, and so whenever thefans show up like we're super grateful,
it really helps us and it's reallya momentum paper for us. I mean
when we played last year down inthe box, when they had their fans
screaming and yelling at us like itkind of you know, puts the pressure
on us. So when the BBNcomes out and does it to the other
teams, it's a huge huge factorfor us. That Lexington Regional last year.
Looking back on it, I knowit came down to, like the

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last day, it was just sucha great atmosphere day in and day out.
And what does that experience going throughit, not just you personally as
a player, but just as ateam. How does that prepare you for
this year? It's not really soforeign now, Yeah, I mean we
have a lot of returners. Ifyou think about it, we have,
you know, all of our outfielderjust returning players, our whole infield.

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Besides you know Mitch Dali and Ronat the corner and you got Devin Burks
behind the play. We've all experiencedit and we know what it's going to
take to win a regional like this, But we also know that what it's
going to be like, it's nothingto foreign just we've seen it before.
But I think, you know whatwe can't do is let that big crowd
make us feel pressured. You knowa lot of people see that big crowd

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and they might feel a little bitmore pressure. But we talk about seeing
that big crowd and they want usto do good, so to kind of
play with freedom and play just forthe fans. They are an awesome factor
in the whole game also. Imean, I remember last year when the
championship game happened, they stuck aroundfor like thirty minutes after we were running
around the field and stuff. Itwas super cool. But it's definitely going

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to play a huge factor this weekend, and we're just super super grateful for
the fans that are always going tocome out. Before we shift our focus
back to the regional, which againstarts on Friday, Kentucky will have the
opening game, the noon game againstWestern Michigan before Indiana State and Illinois tangle
later in the day. This isyour third season of playing in the program,
A bit of a role transition foryou this year. Last year you

(06:02):
were kind of a lefty specialist,so you really weren't being asked to get
too many outs when you when youcame into the game. Your season high
this year those three innings. Sothat has changed for you that role a
little bit there out in the bullpen. Yes, it's definitely a little bit
of a change. Went to summerof all this past summer and before I
left, coach's own coach man justsaid, hey, let's try to extend

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you some, you know, comingback with the experience. You'd like to
have you more out of, youknow, more than multiple innings out of
the bullpen. So I kind ofreally went up there try to extend myself,
and you know, worked on alot throughout the fall, and so
I'm kind of like in the positionwhere I can extend if needed, or
if you need a lefty, Ican come in and get a lefty because
I'm experiencing that role. So I'mkind of just there to do whatever they

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need you to do. I'm excitedto be, you know, part of
this program. It's been such ablessing to have coach men and coach Rizelle
just give me all the trust overthe past few years. But I've kind
of accepted whatever role that I neededin and especially in post season play.
Any role could be any call illput on any time, so you just
got to be ready for any situation. I'm glad you brought up summer ball

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because that's one of the really uniqueaspects of college baseball is that you guys
almost have a professional flavor away fromyour regular season. With your regular year,
I guess you can say with collegesthat you go into these summer programs
and it's almost like you're playing myI mean, you really are playing minor
league baseball, almost like a previewif you were to get drafted or go

(07:26):
pro in the affiliated ranks. Youwere in the ANYCBL if I am correct,
last year, what was that experiencelike and how did that prepare you
for a bigger role this year?The experiences are always super fun. I
mean you see guys from all overthe country come onto one team and kind
of bring different ideas and perspectives topitching and stuff like that. But what
I like about it is, firstof all, I like making all those

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friends. You know, I've madea ton of teammates from across my summer
summer ball career. But you goin there there have give you a lot
of freedom and you get to basicallytry what that you're not so good at,
you know. And this summer thatI tried some you know, pitching
that maybe I didn't feel comfortable throwinglast year, like working on my left

(08:09):
on left change up, Like Iwould never throw that in the game last
year, because you never know what'sgoing to happen. But working on the
stuff that you will need to workon, because in the grand scheme of
things, like your stats don't meanas much, like not every game is
you know, online, you wantto win, you want to compete,
but it's really to go up thereand practice what you really need your best
work on. And there's plenty ofguys out there that can help you.

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Just you know, along the wayduring my summer at the Triple A level,
you got guys that will like kindof meet in the outfield during warm
ups because they have either been onthe same organization via trade now they're in
a different one or free agency gettingreleased, whatever that is. Have you
been able to run into some ofthose closer friends from from your summer ball
days during SEC play, I actuallyhave not run into any of the SEC

(08:56):
players because I didn't really play withany of them, but when I was
in summer ball, I would noticesome guys that play I used to play
with in the past, so Iup with them and the outfield kind of
talk it over. But actually,one of my summer ball teammates this past
summer is playing at SENCI and he'sseth Log that was here last year is
transferred to SENCI, so we actuallystill keep in touch and we actually got

(09:18):
to hang out in the fall andstuff. So it's really cool to have
those connections like that. Yeah,it's kind of funny how small the world
that that baseball becomes, and itonly seems to get smaller the further you
go into baseball, which is kindof interesting. But you brought up earlier
head coach Nick Minjeon. We've we'vetalked with Ryan Hagenow last week about the
transformation this program has seen the lastcouple of years under head coach Nick Minjeon.

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And it's funny that you ask differentguys, whether they be position players,
pitchers, managers, you know,media folks, the connection that they
have with mine and just how greatof a guy he isn't a great leader.
What's your relationship like with head coachNick Minjeon. I can't say enough
about Coachminch. He's just a selflessleader and he does everything that he can

(10:03):
to love on us and give uswhatever we need to be successful. And
he's given me plenty of opportunities toyou know, better my career and help
me as a person. One.I think there's one story that kind of
sums up what coach Minch is allabout that nobody probably knows about or anything.
Last year during the regular season,we went down to LSU and we

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flew charter down there and there wastwenty I think there was twenty eight seats
on the plane, so a fewguys had to ride the dead head bus
down there. And it's like afourteen hour bus, right It's a brutal
bus ride compared to an hour anda half private charter plane. So,
you know, we fly down thereand he flies down there with us,
and on the way back, ourmidweek starter at the time was Travis Smith

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and he had rowed he I thinkhe flew down there commercially, but there
was he was going to ride thebus back because there's not enough seats on
the plane. And coach min saidno, Travis like, hop on that
plane and he rode that dead headbus fourteen hours back. Wow. Yeah,
So he gave Travis Smith ar maybewe started at his thought on the
plane and rode that bus fourteen hoursand the way back. That's just the

(11:09):
person he is. He's a selflessguy. He loves us. He would
do literally anything for us, andit's honestly a pleasure to play under him.
That says it all. I meanto be honest, With a fourteen
hour bus ride, that's a reallyhard sacrifice to make, especially when the
alternative is a commercial flight. Soone of the greatest things he's done is
foster this environment. And you talkabout people that or I've talked to people

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that are kind of in and outof the program, you know they're not
there every day, about how muchof a joy it is being around you
guys, because you guys genuinely likeeach other. So that environment that he's
fostered is terrific. What is yourfavorite Dugout? I'll open it up here.
Ryan Hagenow is the dugout captain.He and I talked about some of

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the interview stuff that my favorite wasthe doug Demodome, you know, the
thirty something hats or whatever it was. Do you have a favorite moment,
whether it be a an interview inthe dugout or just some type of other
dugout shenanigans this year, I don'tknow about a specific moment. I mean,
I think Ryan's interviewed the other dayat Hoover was pretty awesome. He's
actually my roommate, so like,we're super close. I've been his roommates

(12:13):
since freshman year. But he comesup with some great ideas that we can
do in the dugout and keeps usall locked in. But I really like
the every time we get a guyon second base to begin the game with
like it's the first time we geta guy on second base, we always
imitate coach Minch. So he doesthis little like his shoulder things right there,
and so we're in the dugout imitatinghim, and so that happens every

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time we get a guy in secondat the beginning of the game, and
then it stops. But I thinkit's hilarious and I've had many people come
up to me and be like,listen, whatever y'all do is really funny.
And we also like mimick him ashe walks out to left field before
the games, like all on aline. So I don't know. It's
funny because he gets into it andwe all get into it. He loves
it, Coach Minch does, soit's always a fun time to get into

(12:54):
that. I'm glad he brought upthe uh Ryan's interviewed in the dugout because
that was really really funny. Thecrew that was supplying him with the smoothie.
It was a hot day in Hoover, so hydration super important. I
think it was a great PSA kindof subtle PSA there by you guys.
So I can't wait to see theideas that you guys come up with for
this regional which will obviously be nationallybroadcasted as well. But turning your our

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attention back to yourself, you're aKentucky native. He went to Lexington,
Christian. Was there ever a doubtin your mind when she started getting recruited
that you were going to be aKentucky wildcat. I mean at the beginning,
it was kind of like other schoolsbeen talking to me, and you
know, Kentucky was never really inthe picture of that time, and whenever
coach Bellinger at the time, whichwas our old pitching coach. She came

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and he actually came and watched anotherpicture of play against me. So we
were playing Tates Creek. He camein to watch another picture, kind of
saw me and I had through areally good games. Started talking and then
ended up on a visit here,and once I met with coach mnche and
kind of what his strategy was withjust the whole team and his idea of
you know, what his culture isbuilt around, I was like, I

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want to play for this guy.I want to play for this program.
So I think it was my sophomoreyear I decided I was going to commit
here and then ever since then it'sjust been a blessing. I think I
know the answer to this. Butwhen you were just a little kid,
you weren't even thinking about college.Did you bleed blue? Oh? Yeah?
I was always pleaded in blue.I mean growing up my parents had

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season tickets at the football games,like we were always at the football games.
Just always a big, a bigUK fan. And that has to
be such a joy to see,not just to wear the uniform, the
Kentucky Wildcat uniform, but to beon one of if not the most,
well, really it is statistically themost successful Kentucky team been to a Super
regional last year. Now the highestseed coming out, a really good chance

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to get the first ever trip toOmaha. As somebody that grew up bleeding
blue, this has to be justa tremendous experience for you on a great
ride. No, it is.And in twenty seventeen when they hosted that
regional here, me and my dadactually went to that game and we were
able to see that atmosphere there andkind of having that same experience last year,
having like that full circle moment ofme remembering what it was like in

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twenty seventeen and then me being partof it in twenty three was awesome,
and then be able to do itagain this year. It's just it's a
blessing and I never would have thoughtor seen that happening in my life,
but I'm super blessed to be ableto do that and hopefully to make history
again this year because we just wantto keep on doing things that have never
been done before, and we're reallyexcited about doing that. Last question for

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you, Evan, I know you'rea busy guy this week. What is
the build up like for the regionalbecause now that everything the dust has settled,
you do have like four to fivedays really before you have to get
going again. So how do youguys stay ready to get going on Friday
where it really counts. Yeah,I mean I think a lot of teams
will go into this week and kindof like, you know, pump the

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brakes a little bit and make itnice and easy, maybe not go as
hard on their bodies and stuff.But I think we're the opposite. We
want to go in like we've beenworking super hard in practice. Coach menj
just made it a point to findlike ways to make us compete at the
very end of practice for the lastlike twenty or thirty minutes. And you
know, when we get out thereand compete and we're in compete mode and

(16:14):
we're in two different teams, it'sa lot of fun. So we can
just practice on you know, puttingourselves in that situation because we know it's
going to be a lot of competitionthis weekend. So you know, we
have another practice today where we'll dosome picture cutcher hitters and we'll all get
behind each other and you know,chirp each other and then tomorrow we have
that seventy five minute practice where everybodygets in a lot mount of time,

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so it'll probably be a little lesspractice, but we just want to compete
as much as we can because it'sa lot of fun and we know we're
going to experience a lot of that. Kentucky Proud Park is going to be
jumping this weekend and hopefully we'll havea lot more to talk about next week
and a build up for a superregional. Evan, thank you so much
for your time, best of luckthis weekend. We can't wait to watch

(16:56):
these games. I appreciate it.Thank you big thanks to Evan for his
time. And what is a busyweek for the Batcats as they get ready
for the Lexington Regional. Let's meetthose teams that will join them, beginning
with the two seed, Indiana State, who will enter with the record of
forty two and thirteen. They're oneof the top number two seeds. A
lot of people thought they would behosting a regional of their own, a

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top fifteen RPI pretty much the wholeyear, but surprisingly did not get one
of those sixteen hosting sites like theydid last year, so they are one
of the top two seeds. Lookingat why they lost to Evansville in the
Missouri Valley Conference tournament, really morethan likely, once should say, if
they beat Evansville, probably are hostingand we're not having this conversation, but

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nonetheless a very good opponent in thattwo seeded spot. They beat Louisville eight
to seven in their season opener.They were run rolled by Vandybeck on February
twenty seventh in a one off gameagainst the Commodores. That final score was
twenty to four. They're very familiarwith one of these teams in the regional
that's Illinois, and in fact theybeat Illinois back on March the twelfth.

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It was a seven to six finalscore in Tara Hate. And they had
a very strong Missouri Valley campaign behindtheir best hitter, Luis Hernandez, who
hit three sixty nine, twenty twohome runs and seventy five runs driven in
pretty absurd numbers for the regular season, and their top pitcher in the rotation,
it's Luke Hayden. Seven wins inthe regular campaign, an overall record

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of seven to two, and athree point six seven earned run average.
Illinois thirty four and nineteen in theregular campaign the number three seed in the
Lexington Regional. Looking at some commonopponents, they were swept by Tennessee back
in March. Two of those gamessomewhat close, six to three in the
opener, eight to three in thefinale of a Boy. The Balls won

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big on the Saturday contest against theFighting ALLIONI twenty four to one. In
that three game sweep for Tennessee wasnot a blank space though for Illinois.
Against SEC competition, they beat Miszooeleven to three. On March twenty sixth,
they went one to two in theBig Ten Tournament. They beat Iowa,

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but they did lose to Penn Stateand Michigan, getting knocked out of
the Big Ten Tournament. Cam deJanek their leading hitter at three sixty eight.
Ryan Mormon has cracked eighteen home runsthis year and Cooper Omans their top
pitcher four and one a three pointseven three earned run average. For the
thirty four and nineteen Illinois Fighting ALLIONIWestern Michigan thirty two and twenty one overall

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champions of the MAC Tournament, theymade a bit of a Cinderella run.
They beat Ball State twice, whowas the three seed in the MAC tournament,
and then they beat top seeded BowlingGreen to secure that crown and an
NCAA Tournament berth automatic bid. Theylost to Illinois back on March the second,
although they did force them to goten innings eight to six the final
score. There not a lot ofcommon opponents for Kentucky and Western Michigan.

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Who is the first team that theCats will see as Western Michigan did not
play an sect during their regular campaignthree headed monster offensively though for Western Michigan
Katee Sullivan, CJ. Richmond,and Dylan NEvAr thirty eight home runs and
thirty seven doubles combined for those threemen and Nolan Vichick their top pitcher five

(20:15):
and three a record of four pointone five is era for thirty two and
twenty one Western Michigan, So lookingat some of those matchups. To kick
things off, it will be Kentuckyand Western Michigan in the Lidlifter on Friday.
That game will be on the SECNetwork, but feel free to turn
that volume down turn my man DarrenHedrick up as our UK Sports Network coverage

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will begin at eleven forty five amfirst pitch right at noon at Kentucky Proud
Park and the nightcap at seven o'clock. It'll be Indiana State and Illinois the
two and three seeds, of course, respectively, in the opener of the
Lexington Regional on Friday, and thenthings shift around a little bit on Saturday.

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The opening game on Saturday will bethe losers of both game one and
game two. Remember double elimination,so if you find yourself in the losing
end in your opener, you willplay at noon and in game three.
However, if you win, youwin you go straight to Game four,
which will be a six pm starton Saturday, and then from there it
gets a little chaotic based on whathappens there. The best case scenario,

(21:25):
obviously is to win your game Fridayand Saturday. Then you're sitting pretty going
into that Sunday night game at sixpm because your opponent will have to play
earlier that day just to get tothat game, and then you'll have two
chances to advance to the super Regionals. So once again, Kentucky's journey starting
on Friday at noon. Pregame coveragewith Darren Hedrick across the UK Sports Network

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beginning at eleven forty five am,and then the nightcap not on SEC Network,
It's on ESPN Plus. It'll bea seven pm start game number two
Illinois and Indiana State less than ahalf hour. Reserve tickets sold out,
so you know Big Blue Nation isgoing to be out in force for the
Lexington Regional. Big thanks to EvanByers for taking time out of his day

(22:10):
and his week of getting ready forthe regional to chat with us and preview
this one. Big thanks as alwaysto Darren Hedrick, the voice of the
Batcats, and a huge thanks asalways to Curtis and Michelle at the network.
So for everyone at the UK SportsNetwork and UK Sports Network Today podcast,
I'm edor Kapus saying thanks for listeningand Go Cats.