College Baseball Week 7 Midweek Recap & Weekend Preview

0:00All righty, what is up college baseball fans? Welcome to another episode of the 11.7 podcast. Midweek recap, week and number seven preview. The structure of the show is pretty plain and simple today. Right now we just have myself and Dimitri, and then I believe Noah and Jack could be joining us anytime. We just kind of had to start a little early because Dimitri's got a big softball game tonight, and we don't want him to miss that. He's got to keep living the glory days. So in fact, Noah just joined right now. Let me go ahead and add him in. He's been busy with the college basketball season. Oh, I just, there we go. Come on in Noah. There we go. We just started, thanks for joining us. Ready to talk a little baseball, Noah? I know you've been watching the orange ball bounce around for a couple of weeks. Yeah, it's going to be quite the change, but I think it's the change that I is more up to my speed.

1:04I would have preferred like a half more dozen upsets than we had in college basketball. But, you know, we had plenty of foreseed to do some damage in the last year's NCAA baseball tournament. Yeah, that's much more of the preference. And yeah, thanks for holding it down last week, fellas. I missed it, who definitely did. But I know myself, like I hate having one foot in one door and one foot in the other. And I know I'm not spending like 100% in one thing. And I know a March madness that probably deserves the 100% at that time. So happy to back in and talk ball boys. Hey, we're happy to have you back. We missed you for like two or three episodes. Yeah, we actually did. No, I know we bust your balls a lot. We missed you a lot, dude. You're a, you're a staple. I don't know about all that. I don't know about all that. But yeah, I mean, we already discussed

2:05the college basketball tournament last week. I know you guys did. I listened to the beginning of it and then no offense. I fell asleep. Yeah. No, it's all good. We kind of crowned it March mildness now. It's not March madness anymore. It is mildens March. March madness is something I've heard too. But anyways, with the the amount of momentum that college baseball has, I'm happy with that. I don't care about any other sports. Like I hope they all succeed. But yeah, I mean, we're in the thick of things right now for a very entertaining college baseball season that had, let's see, 11, no, 10. Like I wouldn't call them upsets in the midweek, but statement wins from some teams that we're getting a little disrespect and to me, sure, and I were talking pre-show. And it's not like the top teams are getting worse. The floor has just been raised in the game of college baseball, where a lot of these teams were used to seeing in the middle to bottom of their conference standings

3:07in lesser conferences, or so much better that they're able to win games in the midweek over, you know, bigger talent. So that's always exciting to see. We'll cover all those games and then hit on some key notes that's happening around college baseball. And then we'll preview this conference slate and the weekend series pick them at the end. So a pretty short and sweet episode today. Bang bang. Yeah, you guys want to start out with a game that I did not see. I turned the game off when it was seven nothing and wake up this morning to a Demetri video clip tweet of, if you want to relive the Houston Cougars comeback win over the Texas Longhorns last night, here you go. So I completely caught me off guard. Thought I was a fever dream. And sure enough, the Houston Cougars at home pulled off a huge comeback win against the Texas Longhorns and that shaky bullpen. So Demetri, you want to talk to us about that game?

4:11Yeah, hey, I was right there with you. I was covering all the games last night and I did one final run through of the scores. And I was like, yeah, I'm tired. I need to eat dinner and I want to take a shower. I want I'm getting off. I get off. I'm like doing stuff. And I'm like, yes, PN tweeted Texas loss. I'm like, so I go back and like, I'm like, dude, no way, no way. And so the guy, well, I guess I'll just go ahead and do a whole entire comeback video for all the early birds in the morning and sure enough, a lot of people love seeing it. I mean, everyone loved when Texas loses. So that's just a free engagement, whatever you want to call it, thing. I hate it that he is. Do you know why? Do you know why people root against teams like Texas and LSU? This was a big debate on my Twitter timeline this past week between Kendall Rogers and Jake McKeever and a few other people. But there were some disagreements on like, who is the biggest brand in college baseball?

5:12And in my opinion, LSU brand has always been, will always be LSU followed by Texas one, two, one A, one B and the rest are underneath. But like, it is no offense to Arkansas fans or Mississippi state fans, like Mississippi states on the verge of getting in that territory, but like attendance numbers alone doesn't speak for the brand. So I wanted to run that past you guys. My head's different and my brand is different than yours, both of yours. But that Texas brand and that LSU brand in my opinion, they stand out from the rest. Well, think about it this way. You're from Texas. You grew up in that area with those kind of people. I grew up in Georgia, completely different area. No one's from Michigan. So we're probably gonna have different things, but I agree LSU would by far and away be number one brand in college baseball, it's LSU. And then you've got Texas. And I might be a little biased, but 10 years ago,

6:12you probably, Miami was up there. Miami, you brand it pretty big. So that's what I would say. I would say LSU in Texas for sure. Yeah, I like this topic because it came up in the 11.7 group chat today with the North Carolina basketball job opening. So it's very similar to me, I guess. Yeah, you guys labeled me and it's so true. I grew up in the North, it wasn't very locked in on baseball until really Omaha time. And for me, like the big brand has been Texas just because they're always there. LSU, I feel like their strongest best wasn't that 90s run where they had skipped and he was leading them to Omaha left or right and they were one national titles and bunches. Whereas I guess I viewed Texas as like the sustained blue blood, even though they didn't have the most national titles is just constantly we're in Omaha every June.

7:13Yeah, the way I always look at it, and both of you guys brought great points, but going back to our college basketball thing now that, Kansas's job is open, North Carolina's job's open. I look at both of them clearly as blue bloods, but it's like which programs could steal a head coach at another big program? If that makes sense, like in my opinion, there are two jobs that if they come open, it doesn't matter if you're at Arkansas, Mississippi State, Tennessee Vanderbilt, like you would leave most likely your job to go be at Texas or LSU. And then there's a few that are like just underneath that. But I thought to make sure he left Omaha contender national baseball powerhouse to go to a slightly even bigger one. And you know what, since Ben, since we are a little bit older than Noah, South Carolina baseball was a national baseball brand

8:17for about a five to six year window. And if they would have sustained that success a little longer, I think they'd be in this conversation too. I mean, they had the two straight neties, the three straight championship finals series, you know, like they were there for sure. No doubt I just want to say we're not breaking any news yet. Kansas's basketball head coaching job is not yet open, but it will be soon, I don't know about this year, but self is nearing the end. You know what's another thing that, hey, all the credit to Texas, I bet you if you asked the average fan when Texas and last baseball national championship one. And you said, if you've said in the last five years, that in the last 10 years, that in the last fifth year, in the last 20, nobody would answer in the last 21 year. They have zero national championship. 2005 is the last national championship for the Texas Longhorn. And I bet you so many people would have no idea. Yankee, you would think it much more recent.

9:19Very similar to the Yankees. Right, that's a good comparison though. Anyways, we're getting sidetracked here. I just wanted to emphasize. On the game, I pulled up Texas Houston Box War, by the way, boys. First off, Houston had 10 hits. So there was multiple guys with damage, but I wanted to highlight Easton Winfield, had a little revenge game. The former outfielder for Texas went three for four, three runs scored in an RBS. Good day from him there. I'm a big fan, you know what? Speaking of Houston and Texas, I'm a big fan of Trey Bussard. The guy dynamic. He is a dynamic player. And I think he's fun to watch. Yeah, what are his season stats like? Because I do agree with that, Demetri, I just hadn't kept up with him as much as I probably should have. He was one of those guys that I thought was a fringe, you know, day one draft guy coming into the year. And like just completely off my radar right now, to be honest, like I haven't followed in much at all this year.

10:19I think he's hitting like 420 with maybe two homers. There's something one or two homerun. But he's getting on base light. He's hitting 420 like 50 points of batting average. 451 or 51. How many stolen bases does he have? Let's see here. We've got only three. He had 31 last year. So what about what about X-ray hit? I remember he only had the one or two homers, right? Yeah, he's got three homers. He's got nine total extra bases. Probably not beating up it. 450, who three weeks of big 12 plays pretty good? 100%. Actually, he looks like he's missed some time. He's only played 15 games this year. He was hurt a little bit. Okay, probably explains why he's not running as much either. Okay, he did steal bag against the horns though. And that changed the game last night. He's one of those guys that like, he could even though he missed time,

11:21he was pre-conference play. Like he could still win conference play of the year. Like if he finishes hitting 450 in conference with some extra base hits stolen bases, like that's going to win you big 12 player of the year. Yeah, you're right. Oh, except you know what? Forgot about our guy, Clinton Coats Cincinnati. 19 or 25. Hey, Noah, do you know how to pronounce the guy from Arizona State Dean Toygo Tego? Yeah, Dean Toygo, yeah, Toygo. He's got 10 homeruns already too. And he's doing really well for Arizona State, so. But 10 homers is nowhere close to 19. No, of course not. Of course not. So I'm looking this up right now. So Trebuchard obviously they played like 24 games. So he's missed nine games. And there's been two like kind of spurts or losing streaks here for Houston. I want to see when he left the lineup, when he's been reinserted, and how they're doing since. Give me like two seconds.

12:21Houston is one in five in the big 12, which is going to be really tough for them to dig out of. And they've got a tough schedule ahead of them. Big 12 is weird to me, dude. Like I still can't figure it out. What can you not figure out? Like is the bottom is bad, the top is good, or they're all kind of close? Yeah, like part of me thinks that everybody's going to finish from first place to twelfth place is going to be like five games total of separation. But then you also have teams like UCF, West Virginia, Arizona State, who could just pull away and win it by 10 games or 15 games from the bottom. Do you remember when that two years ago, West Virginia with a slam dunk to win the big 12, went down to Austin, got West, and completely lost the big 12 title. And I think they were co-champion. But the big 12 has always notoriously been really close at the top. You do a last one there?

13:22I am doing math. Could you see my leg? Yeah, I know. I mean, Ben, what do you think? Houston's already played Kansas State and Kansas. They're one in five. They've got Baylor and Texas Tech now. Then they've got BYU. You've got to win two of those series, at least. And not guess what? Yeah, you've got to win six games there. Yeah, I think if you can go through that nine game stretch, six and three, you're back in it. It's your seven in six and three or seven in eight. Ben, they've got West Virginia TCU since an anti-era zone of error zone of state. Poof, that ain't easy. That's not easy. And it's not easy because like every team is looking at Houston, like we have to win this series too. Like it's not an optional, like we gotta get one from them. Like they're looking at Houston series, like we gotta win it. Yeah, it's not. And that's only based off of like prior season results for Houston, like, hey, this is one of the series where we have to have boys. Let's go, you know, kind of heightened focus here.

14:23He missed two weekends. He missed a total of nine games. portrayal we're sorry we're talking about here. He missed a final game of the UTRGV series where they lost and then he missed the first-carre weekend where they went one and two. And then they played Arkansas Pine Bluff without them and they were able to sweep it. But these first two big 12 series, he has played, but maybe he's not 100%. So, okay. Well, other than the Houston magical win over Texas, I thought the Coastal Carolina Clemson game was the one that I was locked into the most. And if you didn't watch it, there was a moment in this game that in my opinion probably swung the win probability from, we'll call it like 5% to 100%. And it was a pop-up to the first basement that the first base umpire got in the way of. And if you know anything about baseball, if you've ever followed baseball, which I'm sure most of our audience has and does,

15:24those are the type of moments that instantly swing momentum and you know nothing is going to go right for your team the rest of the way. And that's exactly what happened to Clemson. Coastal Carolina seven run come back win in duckings more at Clemson. And I don't want to point fingers, but I think it was like if they catch that ball, they don't win that game. No way Coastal Carolina wins that game. I went to go pull up the box score and it looks like Clemson has wiped it from their website. When you wiped it, I can pull it up. I get a big error call. Oh, good, good. First of all, first baseman. Um, he. Yeah, it doesn't exist on the way. Interesting, but.

16:26Okay, no, you distract me there. I was like, I'm so sorry. Anyway, I was open to do that at the same time. First baseman with on a on a merry go round. Freaking circus. I've been in that position. Seven, eight, eight, they very difficult ball to catch. You were wearing one way. I used to call you off. You're like, please just say ball, ball, ball. Like I want nothing to do in high school. I was a position player. I played third base. My high school coach told our shortstop any ball over his head. He's blind. He can't see that like I forget what exactly, but he's like, you're calling him off every single time because I looked like Jack Crichton on that play. I hold nothing. Yeah, you, you're, when you're directly under the ball, it is impossible to see the only thing you can fall back on that any right hand about or hitting a ball down the right field line. It's going to come back into play. It's going to spin back into play every time. So the first, the umpire wasn't as way, but I think he was going to miss a regardless.

17:29Yeah, look, I can sympathize with that because. Anyway, that's played this game. Those balls straight up, like straight up to you. Your debt perception is gone. You have no idea where to go. And then all of a sudden your feet start moving. Their chop in your eyeballs are moving. Like you feel like you're on an island. And there's just nothing you can do about it. Yeah. Yeah. And I played in front of a couple thousand people that expect you to catch it too. Right. That's another thing. Hey, what are your thoughts on this South Carolina fan? The love that Clemson coastal game last night. They've said, man, our future hate coach pulling a sixth run come back to beat arrival. Can't wait to have him or dug out. What are your thoughts on that? It's good. I mean, it's, it's coach Schnoll's job until he says no. Like he's the cleared coach slam dunk favorite to be the next head coach at South Carolina. The, the problem or like the roadblocks is like he is a shanty clear for life. He's always been a shanty clear.

18:30He's got pride in his school, his school will bend over backwards for him. And he knows he can build a championship worthy club like playing in simple. There's no pressure. It's his, like he'll be at coastal for the rest of his life, just like Gary Gilmore was. And like it, if he wants to take that risk, like he will do it. But if not, like they're going to have to find somebody else. Yeah. I don't think it's going to come down to money or unless that's going to be the only thing you come down to. Well, if the money is significant enough, yeah, if the money is significant enough, that's the only way he's leaving. Right. So next game. No, like we, we will not have an answer until probably June or July. So we're going to put all that on pause. But yeah, coastal six and no in the Sunbelt got a big weekend series coming up. Their fans are excited and they, they're excited because they're seeing guys

19:32that had no expectations to play much this year, perform with all the injuries that they've had. And when they get that crop of guys back, I can't fluke you through last night in a bullpen, just pregame. When they get that crop of guys back that are injured in late April, they're going to make another run. Like they're that good. Hey, well, you just reminded me. Came fluke you did a in game interview last night. And they were talking about, you know, his little rib injury, how rare it is, how uncommon, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then he asked him like, what are your thoughts on the freshman and young pitcher getting a lot of meaningful ending? And we brought this up a couple of weeks ago that coastal's going to be better for the injuries like in the disguised way. That they're going to be ready for when May comes around. So any talked about he goes, oh, dude, we're so happy. Like we're so excited. These guys are eating a meaningful ending when we all have the whole game back together. It's going to be a lot of fun. And I'm like, dude, yeah, 100 retweet, 100%. The exact mentality you have to have during that too.

20:36Yeah, I had restream or connection issues on my end. But yeah, that was quite the bomb on Sunday with the Minery and South Carolina news. I wasn't surprised by it by any means. Maybe it was a little early and I did listen to like parts of your pod and an out on the airport in between sleep or on the airplane in between sleep. And I thought Ben was right and saying like, that is, I think the biggest sign of the sports growth is the mid season cannings of coaches and whatnot. But like we kind of knew that that was going to come. Poppa, like just totally zoning out in season or in a game or not. You are not allowed to take a lot of you. It's an instant laugh that's why we have to. But like him just instantly zoning out in game on camera, him falling going

21:38back to the dugout a couple of times. Like, it's like this was kind of coming, guys. So I was not too surprised. Let me add to that. No, not only did we not get in season firings, I might have said this on Sunday's pod, but I'm going to reiterate it that we used to not fire college baseball coaches. We used to wait until their contract ran out and then just not renewal up until probably COVID. There was never any firings like they would just eat up until the end of their contract and then they would go explore. I actually have the answer for you, Ben, and why this is a new heightened, you know, I don't know. I don't even know what you want to call it. But we talk about this a ton on the college experience and Colby hammers this point home a lot is like right now with the whole conference realignment and everything shifting every single year, it seems like you cannot be left behind. And that's the way that a lot of these schools, I think, are now viewing that

22:40if you don't have the best football program, you better be dang sure that your basketball or baseball is off to stop. And I think you're seeing everybody trying to have their best foot forward in almost every revenue sport right now. And I like to see it personally on the club on the Coastal Clemson game, just at tip to Darren Horn, just absolutely slamming the door shut at the end of that game. So hey, that's a really good point. You brought up with the conference realignment thing. I didn't even think about that. That's really interesting. And the other thing is I wanted to add this reason why I think we're seeing firing and miss season and stuff now instead of waiting on contract that season because of this NIL, you can buy a roster. You can rebuild and re-tool a roster overnight. When you fire a coach, it doesn't mean, oh my God, we have to restart a whole recruiting cycle. We got to wait two, three years for this coach to implement his strategy,

23:43his program, whatever. No, you can, you can build a roster overnight. And so when you fire a coach, it doesn't mean, oh, this is a three year reset. We got to let the coach have three years to rebuild this thing. It's like, hey, man, we're going to throw the money behind you. Get this thing back on track as quick as you can. And Paul Manieri, just, I don't want to talk about him anymore. But he said, oh, in his press conference, this is a good roster. There's a lot of good pieces. We're going to, we're going to keep going with the same. This is the regional team, whatever. And then when he got fired, he said, you guys were impatient and give me enough time. And that was when I realized coach will use this. I didn't have enough time to skew, but they know in reality they can build a roster overnight. Yeah, I wasn't on the show on Sunday night, but I do agree with you guys. Shnall, I think is your hands down favorite to land this job. If he wants it, it's his. And then I agree with Ben saying, like, that's a tough hurdle to climb because he's a shanta clear for life. We saw this on the, on the basketball side with Ed Cooley and Providence, right?

24:48He leads Providence to their first ever big east regular season title. Or if it wasn't first ever, it was like first and 40 years. And then he jumps to Georgetown, which has historically been the much better brand. And he's hated in his hometown forever now. Is that how you kind of want to be remembered if you're Shnall jump into Columbia from Murdle? I don't know from Conway. I don't know if that's necessarily his, his desire. So, yeah. But anyways, we got some more mid, midweek action to talk about here. I do want to talk about Oregon State thumping USC. It was USC's first taste of like, oh shoot, maybe our non-conference schedule wasn't that great because Oregon State jumped on them early often and just the game was over in the third inning. So what do you guys think? Do you think USC finally just had like one little slip up game or was the like non-conference competition not the greatest?

25:50I think it's kind of hypocritical and funny that everyone is putting so much weight on this Tuesday game for USC. But when their team lose the Tuesday game is just a midweek. Right. I think that's a great way for it. Thank you. I think it's kind of hypocritical in that sender slam in USC because they lost the Tuesday midweek. But when other teams do it, it's just a midweek. I think I don't think there's much to it. I think USC walked a couple guys that gave up a couple big hit and game was over. And I don't really think there's much to think of it. We'll find out how USC does to get some better Maryland team than some of the other teams. But hey, remember Cal Poly reeled off 11 straight win after getting swept for a game by USC. So and Cal Poly to good team. So I think people need to take it easy on USC a little bit. I know the pack 12 lover will gang up on them as much as they can calling them traders or whatever. But USC to good team. Like nobody nobody was happier to see Oregon State dominate USC more than me.

26:54Okay. Because if Oregon State loses that midweek, the Mercer Bears would be in 10 times more trouble this weekend in four ballots. They would be now. I mean, at least Oregon State is feeling good about themselves. They probably haven't even looked at Mercer's roster. Meanwhile, Mercer is spending the night in the Atlanta airport tonight to fly out tomorrow at like 7 a.m. Because of the TSA lines everywhere. So like Mercer is going to have to grid out some wins, but they're starting off with their travel schedule. Sleeping in the Atlanta airport tonight. So they'll miss their flight tomorrow. No way. But they got a hotel room tonight in Atlanta. I don't I think you misheard me. Oh, I'm not in the hotel. No. Or in the airport. Sorry. They're they're sleeping in the airport. So that they don't leave. They're just driving up the bus at what they're leaving at what 2 a.m. From Macon and getting to the airport.

27:55There is no hotel involved in the tree. Okay, so that mean they're not sleeping in the airport. They're just leaving Macon at 2 a.m. Getting there at 3 30 and going from what I've heard. They're sleeping in the airport. Dude, it's the. Oh, they got there right now. The Atlanta airport has been one of the most ridiculed airports right now due to the TSA and everything that's going on. Yeah, I haven't been. I have. I saw a video, but I think Ben is exaggerating here. They're not literally sleeping in the airport from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. I kind of believe him. Like I was. No, they're going to leave Macon at midnight. They're going to leave Macon at midnight. They're going to get there at 2 a.m. And they're going to get in the TSA line at 3 a.m. To make their. I will send a text to confirm. But in my. Confirm it by the end of the episode. Okay, deal. I do not believe it that they're getting. They're going to touch themselves in a bed at 10 p.m. And wake up before a.m. In the Atlanta airport. I don't believe it.

28:57We'll see any one of the game. Rice has a top 70 RPI. Cal Poly. They played four games against top 50 RPI. That was all four on the road, by the way to. Like they've played San Diego in a midweek. They've played Long Beach in a midweek. They've played a fine schedule for a West Coast team. What do you want them to do? Fly cross country for a Tuesday, Wednesday. Set and then get back home. Yeah, like USC strength isn't even midweeks. Is there weekend rotation? Good luck beating that team twice in the postseason with Mason Edwards and Gavall. What's his first name? Diego Gavall. What's his first name? Grant Gavall. Grant Gavall. I mean, they've given up one earn run each this year. And the one other loss they took, which was on the weekend, was in 25 degrees in the Blizzard temperatures. Double header, too. Double header in the Blizzard. Yeah, I will make it clear. I'm not worried about USC Dimitri actually brought up an amazing point of when another team loses a midweek.

29:59Their fan base goes, it's just a midweek. Midweeks don't matter. But then the moment USC loses a midweek to a really good Oregon state team. They're like, oh, frauds. They lost. It's so funny. It's so funny. It was like, what are we doing? And then saw that video that Dimitri posted about Pike, too. That blows. Yeah, not good. Hopefully it's not nothing serious, but it looks so apparently he just came out due to tightness. That was the, that was the early rumor, whatever it should tighten us. But I'm like, dude, this guy only recorded two hours, 20 innings this year, and he's coming out of the game due to tightness. Like something else is going on. Yeah. I will give credit to Florida state fans. This was my next bullet point or topic to talk about. They called it Sunday after floor or in Sully's viral video, I've been looking miserable. Florida state fans all called it on social media. They said, well, shit, we're getting worked on Tuesday.

31:02Like there's not like Florida's going to look like the 99 Yankees against us Tuesday night. And yeah, Florida, Florida took care of business and beat Florida state. 16 punchouts. Yeah, they looked really good. And that's another thing. So Florida state fans or everyone else in college base was like, why don't they throw these guys on the weekend and all the Florida fans? Like, what the hell are you talking about? They did throw on the weekend. They threw like shit on the weekend, the same guy. They want house on Sunday, Saturday, whatever it was and shoves on Tuesday. So it's like in Sully said, a bet, first road trip of the year in the SEC. It's going to be difficult. Like thing snowball quickly when you're on the road, you're a lot of guys getting their feet wet, but it doesn't get easier for those guys. They head to Fayetteville this weekend. Yeah, I talk about this all the time on the college experience show. Like I throw together crazy parlays on the first two weekends, the SEC schedule, because none of these SEC teams challenged themselves on the road and non-conference.

32:07Everybody want to talk about non-conference schedules and whatnot for these guys on the road. Yeah, yeah, that's true. These guys are dipping their toe for the most part, everybody else. I remember first weekend or whatever it was. I don't know, I'm not going to throw any under the bus, but it's like, yeah, they don't challenge themselves in the non-con on the road. Their first taste, their first dip of the toe in the water in a hostile setting is one of the worst environments that these freshmen have ever seen. There's 6,000 plus that are all cheer and a mom. So yeah, I just think it's a no-brainer and I wish like teams more like Florida had these road rivalry series at times. Clemson plays one game at South or South Carolina plays one game at Clemson and whatnot and Georgia Georgia Tech used to have that series. I like that as like a nice warm up for conference play. What if we did, what if we got rid of the tournament? I like the tournament. They create a regional style environment, but put them back on campus.

33:10If we're going to do tournament, put them back on campuses again or do a big 12 SEC ACC big 10 series, whatever weekend. Get these teams playing other big power for schools on the road or at home, whatever. Because I don't want to see Globe Light ballpark at 20% capacity between two big teams when they have rapid fanbase right back at home. Send Florida on the road to go play Texas Tech. Send Florida on the road to go play Kansas, Kansas State. I want to see these teams on the road in on campus stadium. Get rid of the tournaments and the big league ballpark. I can give you the reason why that's not necessarily like what? Yes, you're playing in front of your home fans. That's awesome. But also for RPI reasons, sometimes hosting the quad two rather than getting three quad one neutral games is less desirable in the non-countless. Well, if you're sending SEC team on the road to the big 12, I'm pretty sure those are going to be quad one game.

34:14I just think it's better for the sport like early weekend. I don't want to see them playing. I'm not going to say name because I get it's going to be offensive to this team, but. Send some big big boys to your come bring some big boys home or go on the road and play some big game because that'll get you ready for a regional when you have 5,000 people better not sharing feel. Yeah, make sense. Well, I just lost my train of thought. Oh, I know what I was going to say. Mississippi State. Like absolutely jumped on Southern Miss and. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to throw my little brother under the bus, but he called it. He's Southern Miss alum worked for the baseball program for a couple of years. He texted me and he's like, this is like, he's usually good at like the Southern Miss field. He's like, this is the game we get runrolled like it's coming.

35:14And he was spot on. I think this game meant more for Mississippi State. The even up the season series there also Southern Miss has kind of been in dog fights in the weekend in the sun belt. I think if I had to assume something, they probably were like, Hey, we got to take a step back in some of these mid weeks to get ready for the weekends because was it two weeks ago. They had a big midweek win over Mississippi State. Maybe it was somebody else, but I think it was Mississippi. And then they go to Arkansas state and lose the weekend. Yeah, I think there was some internal dialogue going on like, hey. We can't be going all out on these mid we already have done enough in the nonconference and like we've built a good nonconference resume. Like let's focus on conference play moving forward. Yes, I think you're on the right scent there like with with Southern Miss. It's now to the point where you had such a good noncon you put the target on your back in conference play.

36:16You're the team that everybody wants to circle and be ready for when they come to when you go play at their ballpark. You're getting everybody's best punch right now. And yeah, I think you very much are understanding kind of an SEC team on the road against the, you know, the mid major little brother in state type of mentality right now. Just stay alive. Don't get anybody hurt, you know, and get to the weekend. Let's not excuse Southern Miss here and take good anything away from this. They bow raised them early and often. That wasn't a fifth inning, sixth inning. We're going to try to throw this guy out game gets out of hand. It was out of hand from from the first pitch in the first inning. And two weeks ago, these were all the freshmen. No names that we were praising for going out there and throwing a scoreless frame against miss it. Or the bulldogs to come back and do that. It's indefinitely. And guys, Mississippi states really good.

37:16I know I'm very good. Anything nobody knows, but this is not an Omaha team. This is a championship caliber team. Yeah. They they rake one through nine. Yeah, that was a team that I was pretty wrong on and in the in the in the preseason. I'm willing to come out and say that like every time they've really needed a clutch hit, they've got it on the mound. I'm still a little concerned with the McPherson stuff and everything that kind of would have to jump up a spot if he misses some time. But yeah, they've got everything it takes right now, man. They've got to let the throw the hundred that is literally a project in the midweek. Right. Doesn't he just throws on Tuesdays for an inning? Like, and hey, did the captain of him, he went one or two inning, really clean, filled up a strike zone for the most part. So that's good development. Hey, that's going to be your game four starter in a regional Sunday in June. Good luck.

38:17Could you imagine being like a, I don't know, a three seed that's having a miracle run to the regional finals. And then you get a hundred from the left side. Unbelievable. Is he your game four or is he the, the number two lefty out of the pen when you need to leverage arm? I think it just depends on, I think it depends on his development and like how much. And it is Jack Reachers, his name, right? Jack power. Jack power. I mean, both of both of them are very cartoonish like. Yeah, but Jack power. That's right. Oh, there he is. Jack Reachers kind of a sick name to have. Well, it's from a movie or show, right? I don't know anything about pop culture. It's a time cruise movie. And then the Jack power one is a. Whatever movie. I'm not a movie guy either. But what I was going to say is what do you guys prefer from the 100 mile an hour lefty? Would you rather him go for innings in a game four or your fourth game of a regional?

39:19Or would you rather see him for an inning in a leverage spot from the left hand side? I'm always anti freshman out of the bullpen and regionals. Yeah, I, I'm a big fan of like if you have a freshman that's in between kind of guy, get like put him on the mound to start the game. It gives you nine. It's all hell breaks loose. You still have eight innings, whatever ahead of you. But there's different types of freshmen though. Like I don't know anything about this kid's like personality or like what his mentality is like he could be. Hey, I want to be in relief. Like I want to be a shutdown guy in relief. I don't want to start. But anybody that starts throughout the year and maybe he's a midweek guy or a Sunday starter and he's a freshman. Like keep him in the same routine of like, hey, 45 minutes before the game. Like you're going to start stretching to us and getting that routine. You don't want to speed things up for any freshman out of the bullpen. If he's been starting or has some starts and.

40:20Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Give me your thing. Yeah. A key for several key for southernland is the actor that plays jack power in 24. Nice. Let's move on. Let's do a couple games that like I didn't watch a single pitch up. But I want to give these teams a shout out Memphis takes down Ole Miss at Memphis. I think it was their first ranked win at home in 20 years. Somewhere around there. I saw a tweet floating around. I actually, I think Dimitri clipped it and they said it in the clip. That's that might be where it is. But yeah, Memphis. There. It sucks for Memphis because I feel like they're. Completely overshadowed by like most of the American conference. I don't know if I'd call them the worst team in the American, but it's a it's still a project team that. Here in a few years, they can be really competitive, but. They're the worst team in the American by a lot.

41:22That's that's what I'm saying, but like they would like they would be middle tier in conference USA. Like they're not. They got their doors blown off by Missouri state and their doors blown off by Jacksonville state this year weekend. But they're both they're both in first place of their conference. The American just doesn't have. I think that's pretty bad teams. I think Memphis is pretty bad. I'm going to have to pull up their schedule now. I'm just looking at their schedule. They won two out of three versus Toledo. One run game and a two run game. They won and they lost one little rock. They lost Ohio. They've got blown out. Louisiana Tech. They got beat Ohio State. They got blown out. Little Rock. They blew out. They lost two out of three to two lanes. So I mean, I get what you're saying you're trying to defend the Memphis Tigers, but they're not good.

42:31They've played a tough schedule to lane. Eastern Illinois. Missouri state. Jacksonville state. Little Rock. Louisiana Tech. Like they're all going to win their conferences. I mean, maybe, but when when when right in F.A. You have the second lowest win total to 14 and then there's Memphis at seven. The numbers don't lie. Either way, good wing for Memphis. They're eating me. I rate a four five. Good for 277th in the country. They're home run given up per nine. 1.83 home run per game. You know, that's good for 300 and second in the country. It's pretty bad. All right. Well, they want. You're down. Stay down. Hey, I'm sorry. I mean, if we have any Memphis fan listening, I'm sorry, but the number don't lie. I mean, I think the schedule right now for Memphis is 43 nonconstrength.

43:34The schedule is 33. Like maybe they've got a second window in the second hand. Right. If Memphis would have scheduled Arkansas pine bluff and I don't know, like Bell or me. They did schedule and we got rained out. That's hilarious. You said that team. That's hilarious. Of all the team. You said you said pine block. They gave me a postpone. I was just trying to think of a team like they would. That's close to Memphis. But anyways, but yeah, move on. Move on. Duke walks off East Carolina. Walk off three around Homer. Didn't watch a single pitch of that game. There was other stuff going on. But yeah, good for good for Duke. Kennesaw State upsets Georgia. That's Georgia's fourth. Is that their fourth midweek loss? Three. Then they had a one of these loss to right stake. Don't they? They lost on Sunday to right. Yeah, but they're one in three in home midweek this year.

44:36That's not good. That's not going to get you to a super regional. I mean, I mean, we said that about 20. 24 Florida and they got to the World Series. Like, they were losing all those mid weeks. Only winning Sundays with Cags. That's good. Yeah, that's good. Well, if you look at Georgia's schedule, opening weekend, they lost six to three to write on Sunday. First Samford on Sunday, they won 22-0 and 7-0. And then on Sunday, they were Oakland, which was their fourth game of the weekend. They won four to three and then four game, before if game on Sunday gets queen, they won 14 to three. Be 10 to see on Sunday, eight to seven, lost to A&M, 18 to five on Sunday. So I think it's a little early to call Georgia out on having depth late in the weekend. That's a little early, but mid weeks do show your depth.

45:37These mid weeks are possibly going to hurt Georgia's case for a host. Oh, no doubt. I think they're at CC schedule strong enough where it'll, it'll trump them real quick. I mean, I'll scare a line at home for a long time. To be staying on the road, Florida, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Missouri, LSU, Auburn. If they do well in those games, I don't think it matters what they did in the mid week. Florida showed that. I don't know, they could. Campbell takes down NC State. Another good win for Campbell. Two ACC wins and a coastal in there in the last seven game. I had them as the preseason dark horse pick in our conference picks and to win the CAA. I feel kind of shitty for jumping off Campbell. I'm like, they've been live in some spots. If you go back and look at Campbell's non-conference schedule,

46:39they're serious losses. Kind of. Cal Poly Troy. Cal Poly Troy and then they have a series loss to somebody else too. I'm pulling it up right now. Is it right state? They went opening week in Cal. They went opening week in Campbell. Sorry. Opening week in they lost series to Cal Poly. Then they lost series to Troy two out of three. Then they lost series two out of three to right state. Campbell currently eight and one in the CAA. Forty non-conference strength schedule with a handful of ACC wins and a win over East Carolina in the midweek. Next three weeks are big. Charleston, William and Mary, UNCW. Yeah, that's a run. Campbell feels like one of those teams that could go on like a Murray State type of run. Because remember Murray State. Last year, I think they won every midweek. There was some weird stat about Murray State last year. Not weird stat, but crazy stat about Murray State

47:40where like day, they were really good in the midweeks. And I think Campbell is really good in the midweeks. So we'll see. They've given up eight combined round in those three games. You can do coastal and sea state. Yeah, pretty good. We've got one midweek loss at coastal. My camel eyeballs are on. I am watching Campbell from the camels from now on. We have the flow sports subscription. So might as well use it. Are your camel headphones on? Like because play the damn song, right? Yeah, I know. I love that tweet every time they get a big win. The beach. They get back and it's so good. They deserve it, man. When that when that tweet comes out, it means the camel's are playing well. Like we haven't brought that thing out in probably two years. Yeah. So I know they love it. We love it. Yeah, last, last midweek game. We're going to recap before we hop to the weekend. Missouri State pummel. Oklahoma State just. Hummel them.

48:41Missouri stayed up to number five in the RPI too. They can hit man. Let's get a Springfield regional out there. They, they break man. They rate. And Oklahoma State is not a slouch team by any means. It's so great. It's. It's just struggle them. 16 to 1 16 to 2, whatever. The final one is it like that into that in the ass beating. Yeah. So. There, is a really high in them. Missouri state's problem is they're no longer in the Missouri Valley Conference. MVC, the Super MVC automatic Super Regional qualifier, regional qualifier. I have been looking at potential Missouri Valley teams to to get to a super regional this year. Missouri State has seven guys with a 900 or better OPS in the starting lineup. Sounded like Georgia Tech. And when you have to kind of line up in a mid-major conference, you are going to you are going to destroy team. You want to know who one of so they they have

49:50four guys not batting 300 or better that regularly play. You want to know who one of those names are? Kagan Bogenpool. Sounds like Georgia Kagan Bogen. They're both he gets in here every year. How many walks does he have this year? Bogey has 32 walks. Yeah, they don't pinch all the ready. Yeah, he's got 29 walks and three HPPs. It's double anybody else on the roster. His on base percentage is 487. They've got Dallas Baptist on the road this weekend. Well, that'll be a good one. Siri. You want to know why I hate rankings? I'm on worn Nolan like coaches pull and the National College baseball writers association polls. And Missouri State is not receiving

50:50votes. In which one? Okay, so they're they're 53rd in the National College baseball writers poll and they're not in the top 42 for the coaches poll. Meanwhile, Cal Poly, Texas Tech, Mercer, Cal Baptist, Jacksonville State, Arkansas State, like they're all getting coaches poll votes, but Missouri State's not. Yeah, Missouri State 10th strength of schedule 8th non conference strength of schedule. They have a series win at the TIG. They went to Ole Miss. They have they're at Dallas Baptist this weekend. When this series ends DBU, they should be ranked. They should be ranked to the top 25. The speaking of Memphis. They get they get artists all stayed right after that. Yeah, speaking at home, the springfield. Those Tigers. Hey, they get

51:52the hogs at home. Yeah, hogs that Tuesday midweek. Yep. That's a team of people. Wow, they get Oh, they're at Missouri. Missouri comes to them. Never mind. And then they go to Arkansas. All right. Cool. What else do you have on that list, Ben? That's all I have for the midweek. I'm sure we're missing some some stuff, but I mean, we talked about 11 games. So we can move on to the weekend. I would love to preview the Oregon State Mercer weekend series for the next 30 minutes until you have to go to me. Sure. Can you go with that? Go ahead and start. I'm sure of how you office on point, but go ahead. No, I actually want to ask no of this. We can series pick them style, but Mercer wins one game in Corvallis this weekend. Do the Bears get swept? Or do they win one game? I'm probably thinking too long on this, but I think if they get one, they have to get one

52:58early, right? No, I would. I would take Oregon State's depth on the mound more than Mercer. So I'm thinking the other one on Sunday, you got to win on Sunday. You're not being packed with me. You're not being in climate. Like the Mercer players have never seen that kind of stuff. Yeah. I don't think they've ever seen it. And I know this has nothing to do with this, but as a hitter, a college hitter, there are guys that you face that you're just not ready for. No matter what scouting report you have, no matter what video you have, you step in the box and it sounds different. Like coming out of the hand, it sounds different, and you're blinded. They hide the ball better. There's no amount of work Mercer can do to prepare for Dax Whitney. So I think you put that game. Speaking of Dax Whitney, Noah, what are we setting to strike out Linus over under 16 and a half? Let's just say like 11 and a half.

53:59I'm going to say he strikes out 12 guys. Yeah. It'll be four innings, 12 strikeouts. Oregon State's going to have a 10 nothing lead and they're going to just pull them from the game. No, no, he's got to go five. I will say like Johnny whole staff for Johnny whole staff went over to our friends college baseball inside his website.com. Just played with the matchup. Spit out Mercer plus 174. Like we got a chance, boys. I think Johnny whole staffers, Johnny whole staff, no starting pitcher in the game. I need to explain this for everybody that like all the listeners that probably don't care about Mercer and like maybe don't even know that Demetri and our Mercer baseball grads. But this is Mercer's best start in school history. They're 21 and 4. They're flying to Oregon State for a weekend series, which is something like neither Demetri or myself could fathom because we didn't travel when we were there. And Mercer hasn't lost on a Friday or

54:59Saturday all year. Like Friday Saturdays, they've been dominating teams. I still think Mercer puts all their chips on Sunday. Like don't throw your top four guys like your sat your typical Friday guy, your typical Saturday guy and your top two bullpen arms. You do not pitch them Friday or Saturday. Punt those games. And if you can leave Corvallis Oregon Sunday with a win on Sunday and losing the series two out of three, you are the happiest you could ever be. Call me soft, but I'm going to share this. I'm going to share what I'm looking at right now so you can stop talking about them. Best start in my ass. Do you see that number right here? 264 non-conference strength is scheduled. But look at the RPI, 81 RPI. That is 21 and 4 with an 81 RPI pathetic. What do you want me to do about it? Stop plugging about how Mercer have the chance. I did not say that. I said they have no chance Friday or Saturday.

56:04After a summer in Oregon State, the RPI is only going to go up even if you lose all three. Thank you. The schedule is only going to go up too. And just oh my god. They sweep Mercer host is back off. I would take I would take Oregon State minus 500 to sweep. No. You're probably getting great odds there. It's probably more like minus a thousand to sweep. Minus 500 to sweep. Now I know Ben's game. Ben's just doing this to do it. He's waiting here right now. So he's baiting me to saying ridiculous things so that he can he can have butter on Sunday night and make fun of me. He's baiting me into this. But yeah, I looked at flights the other day. I was just like let me see how much they are. To go to Corvallis on Saturday morning, come back Saturday night, like 500 bucks. I'm like

57:06I'm really close to kind of wanting to do it. But now I'm like nah. What was it to Portland? I just want to see Oregon State. I want to see golf stadium. I love that place. Do you look up to Portland? You would fly to you, fly to Eugene, rent a car and go like 30 minutes, 40 minutes to Corvallis. Wait, are they that close? Yeah. Eugene Corvallis is really close. For some reason, I always thought they were pretty far apart. No, it's like 30 minutes, 40 minutes. It's like Michigan, Michigan State literally like an hour. Nice. Oh, I didn't know that. I thought you flanting was far. No, it's like it's like probably 70 minutes. Look at us doing geography. Hey, before we do before we do our week and three pick them, there are plenty of really good theory that we should at least mention before we get into them that are not on the thing. I have the full list right here in front of me. When we do the week and series pick them, we always try to find teams that like we haven't done

58:08repeatedly throughout the first six or seven weeks. We want new blood in the air. We want our followers to pick new series and that stuff. But you're right, there are a ton of good weekend series that are not on our week and series pick them. Missouri State of Dallas, back to North Carolina State of Georgia Tech and Auburn at Alabama are three series that we did not pick to put on our thing. I think there's a couple more than I'm forgetting, but those are the ones that I wrote down that did not make the final cut. Did you say Auburn at Alabama? Auburn at Alabama. What's the Thursday night? SCC series this year? Yeah, that's Thursday. No, I was going to say that was. Oklahoma Tech is the one that we left out because it's on Thursday. Auburn, Alabama, I didn't put it on there because I thought everyone's going to slam the house

59:08on Auburn. Yeah, but they're on the road. Yes, I know. It was like, I thought Tennessee Vanderbilt was a more even matchup than Auburn, Alabama. Correct me if I'm wrong. I want to make a prediction here. Auburn at Alabama. That's the type of series that can not jumpstart but just electrify a fan base. Alabama is not known for having the biggest or nicest facilities or the biggest crowds at their home weekends. They have a great fan base, respectable. If Alabama goes out there and sweeps Auburn or at least wins Friday, Saturday against Auburn, you're going to see an Alabama baseball fan base just absolutely rejuvenated and they're going to show up the rest of the year. This is their stage to perform in front of a huge crowd at home. I think a lot of fans, like for example, Auburn, they keep up with their baseball team but

1:00:15they're not really passionate enough to show up to all the game. You've got a guy that just threw a no-hitter on Friday and against Florida. You just sweat Florida. You've got a first-round shortstop, pop five, pop ten pick, whatever it is. If you beat your rivals at home, I think there could be a lot of momentum for Rob Vaughn. It's a program changing weekend, potentially. And if they lose, Alabama family, we knew we knew we were going to lose. We're just not good enough yet. Maybe not that far but they will probably not drive hours to come see them play every weekend. Well, yeah. I mean, they're just used to being good but not good enough to be at the top of the FCC or whatever. So, yeah, this is the big weekend. Good point. Yep. Faustin Oklahoma, Texas. It's at Texas, correct? At Texas. Oklahoma just had that huge series win at LSU. I don't care that else who's scuffling going into the box and winning. They're both

1:01:19coming off big road series wins. True. Yeah, there. I don't know what we think. What do we think? Can Texas fix their bullpen issues this weekend? Can Oklahoma? It's the same thing with like my brain will not get off the fact of like, if Oklahoma wants to win the series, they have to win Friday Saturday. You're not winning Sunday against philanthropists. Fill areas that he's a Sunday. And you're like, you're not going to probably win Friday against Rio House. Maybe or Thursday, I guess. But I mean, Mccurious is really good. I think he'll be on Friday since the series starts on Thursday. True. Yeah. Do we have probable starters? I imagine both teams are both fighting on a Thursday. Come out tomorrow, Thursday at four. No, but they played tomorrow. Yeah, I don't know if they're going to be. I mean, we all know of Texas will be Rio House and then Harrison and then Volanty. Oklahoma will probably be depending on if they're going

1:02:26to go one day short, with Mccurious will be Friday. And I'm not sure. I don't remember the other name. Ham Johnson. Is he still pitching on the weekends? He said two rough starts in a row, but I assume he would still go. So Noah, who's on Friday for Oklahoma again? So Texas did not have a game notes out yet? Oklahoma on the other hand. They don't have a game notes, but they have a like a write up. I'm kind of skimming it right now. Let me check that. Let me check. Let me check something. Mccurious kind of struggled a little bit against LSU. He didn't have his best. Was LSU Oklahoma Thursday through Saturday series last week? Yeah, it was. So then I think it's going to be the same weekend rotation. Ham Johnson Thursday, L.J. Mccurious on Friday, and then court regular on Saturday.

1:03:31Yeah, that's got to be it. Yeah, I think I think this is a big pretender. I don't want to say pretender, but national championship SEC regular season title contender for Oklahoma if they win this series. Texas, if you come off this weekend, two out of three, bullpen looks better. You're happy. I think that's kind of the two biggest key points. Texas is lined up doing fine in my opinion. They just need that bullpen to get figured out. That's a national championship contender. All right, you want to do the weekend series picking before you have to get out of here? Yeah, how much time do you have to make sure you're out? I guess 17 minutes. All right. Well, let's begin West Virginia at Arizona State. I've been really high on this West Virginia squad. I haven't really been turned off by anything that's happened with them so far this season. They're 17 and four five and one of the big 12. However, I do think it is tougher to win baseball games on the road, especially in conference.

1:04:36And especially when you're traveling all the way across country, it's the farthest trip. I think in the entire big 12 from Morgantown to Tampa. Give me errors on a state. I just think that the lineup is elite. The pitching is good enough to take two or three at home against the top tier opponent in the league. So I got the sun doubles here. To make sure you go next because I have to look one thing up here real fast. Give me errors on a state at home. I think Cole Carling is off to a great start. Their lineup is lethal. If you noticed any, if you watch any of their series, I can't stay to Manhattan last weekend. You would know this lineup can flip a switch at any moment. Yeah, give me errors on a state at home. All right, yeah, 100%. So I'm tempted to go. Then I'll give you more time. Jack, I have Jack's pick. Okay, cool. Yeah, go ahead. Jack is going with West Virginia here. Road dog. Okay. I can't pull it up in time. It's fine. I'm going to go West Virginia too.

1:05:42For the pure fact of I need to make up ground in the standings. Like I'm right around. What are you going to look up? I was going to look up and see what West Virginia's road record was this year. I mean, I can tell you, I can tell you right here. It's finally loading for me. 10 and 3 on the road. And that's when that's a sweep over Georgia Southern at Liberty, at Kennesaw, and then one, two, and a three at Baylor. It's not the toughest road schedule. And this is going to be such a challenge for him, but yeah, I'm going to stick with West Virginia. Like not as well. All right. All right, Mississippi State Ole Miss played in Swayze, which I believe you guys looked up was the second largest baseball stadium in College Baseball last episode. How about that? Can Ole Miss land on the highest attendance total in a regular season in top 25 list?

1:06:49This series? How funny would that be? Oh, nice enjoy your week of holding the top 25, but we're back in it. Yeah, I think Ole Miss only gave him like, you know, feeder or whatever you want to fuel to that fire. If I was Ole Miss, I would just lie. What's stopping them from lying about their attendance? Oh, good. And just say like 4,706. All of those Mississippi State attendance records are truth, straight, fracked, honesty, you know, they don't bend any of your events rules. Ben, they check every single person. Yes, it's sarcasm. But like, what's stopping Ole Miss from saying like, yeah, we had 14,607. You just have to make it somewhat believable. 13,782 coming at 23 on a 25.

1:07:58But yeah, I think this is a bigger statement series for Ole Miss to be made here. I think that Mississippi State, we've been calling them like good national championship good. I've removed my, I have to see it from the team because they've just been playing really good baseball. I do have some uncertainty around the health of their starting rotation for the bulldogs right now. Give me Ole Miss. They can still really swing it. And the starting rotation, I think, has had some bumps. It hasn't been a smooth road so far. But I think everything may click for one weekend against their biggest rival in the sport. Ole Miss. Yeah, no, I think I've said it over and over. I think Mississippi State is a great team, not just a good team. It wouldn't shock me to see Ole Miss win this series. But I'm going with the bulldogs. And especially since like Mississippi State's already had their big road test of the year.

1:09:01Like they went to Arkansas to open up SEC play. And they lost that series. But as Noah said earlier, it's tough to make your first SEC road trip and come out successful. So I think they're going to come out more prepared. Give me Mississippi State. I think they're swinging hot bats right now. They've put up 10 plus runs. I feel like every game recently. So I'll take Mississippi State. So Jack picked Mississippi State as well. And for as for myself, if I thought Mississippi State was good enough to beat Arkansas on the road, could I pick them to win on the road at Arkansas? There's no reason for me to change that pick here at Ole Miss. So give Mississippi State as it's wavy. All right, we head to San and home, which features I think preseason number one and number two almost unified across the landscape from out anybody that ever does preseason American

1:10:02conference rankings. These two were both preseason top 10 in mid major top 25 or power rankings for us. We had UTSH just one spot above these pirates. Two teams very hard to separate. Both of them not really playing their best ball as of late. East Carolina drop in the Sunday game, losing the midweek on a walkoff. UTSA has been kind of scuffle in big time here. They've lost five of the last nine. Both coaches, you asked them and they're like, yeah, doubt us. We want to be doubted. We don't want any expectations coming into this series. I think the biggest strength between both teams is that road runner offense. And that's what I'm going to go with. And in this series at home, should have a good crowd for it. I think it's their first, let me double check this before these words come out of my mouth. They did play a home series against Arlington, but they've not played many home games in the month. I'm going to go runners. I'm going to go runners with that offense

1:11:08up against East Carolina. But really tough series for me to pick. One of the hardest ones from me on the board. Yeah, this one's truly a coin flip. The thing I don't love about East Carolina on the road is I feel like maybe the numbers are off. But have they even won a road game this year? I know they lost to Campbell on the road. Maybe the first or second midweek. And they tied the road game against North Carolina. Okay, Demetri has it pulled up. How many true road games have they played? One one midweek at UNCW. They lost to a three to coastal on the road. One William and Mary midweek. And then they lost Duke. Yeah, I'm going to take UTSA here at home.

1:12:11East Carolina is not a great not a great road team. They're pitching really well. I mean, they're statistically speaking. They're doing really well. They don't strike out much. They're second in the country and leave them and strike out percentage offensively. That's danger. Yeah, I think I'm going to have to go with, I think I'm going to have to, this is tough. Let me do this. Jack went with UTSA. Damn, three already picked UTSA. If I pick them, we're sweeping the board here. Do it. East Carolina fans will love you for that. Let's pull up UTSA and see what we got on them. Six and five on the road, nine and two at home.

1:13:13Offense, electric pitching is struggling. They're not healthy in the world. This is going to be tough. Yeah, this is a tough little stretch right here. You know what, they're not losing back-to-back series at home. That's not happening. Give me, give me the road runner. Sweep in the bore. Everybody's on the road runners. Yeah, congratulations to East Carolina for your weekend series win. They are winning that series. Don't feel great about that at all. Salute to service series with the Navy on the road against Army. Navy has not been the start of the season that I expected, predicted, kind of counted on with these boys. They've not played superb. They're two and four in Patriot League so far. Army four and two in league play and they scheduled the better in the non-conference for sure to. South Carolina donated the black

1:14:17nights of win as well. So they have shown the ability to play up to competition. I'm a stubborn. I'm a stubborn fellow though. I'm going midshipman boys. All these seniors upper-classmen on this team, they've been taking L's that Army left and right throughout their career. Navy's year. Navy's year. Let's go. Do you mean sure what's rule number 11 of 11 points? Ashtag beat Army. Never fade Army in the Patriot. Yep, and that's my pick. Give me the black nights. Give me Army black night. Jack went with a Navy. We have a two-two tie. I love it. America's series of the weekend. Go Army. Be Navy. The final series of the year is at Navy for those that are wondering. Army at Navy. The first weekend of May. Miami Ohio Kent State, guys. This one was, if I had a survivor pick,

1:15:21I'd pick Kent State. Miami Ohio's got some star powered no doubt. I think the better team is Kent State. Both of these teams have played very well at the gates, but I feel pretty confident in the Golden Flashes at home here against the Red Hawk. Yep, not going to overthink it. I don't even know why this. Why did this series make it over Mercer and Oregon State? Two best teams in the Mac. Yeah, I know. I'm just saying, yeah, Kent State all day at home quietly still just putting together an awesome season. I was doing some simulations. Kent State could. They run through the Mac via two seed in a regional, which I'm sure there's a lot of one seeds that would love that on paper, but yeah, the path is still there. Give me Kent State. Let's see what Kent State is looking like so far. People forget. They've been to Omaha more recently than Georgia and Missouri and Alabama,

1:16:29Rice. There's some good programs. I have non-conferred 77, 161 string to schedule pitching really well, fielding, decent, hitting. Yeah, third dude, 30% strikeout is bad. They punch out a lot on often. Look at that. Siri went on the road. S-Alpes during the week. The Anna series went on the road at Tennessee, Sweat Road Island, two out of three in Bowling Green, Sweat Central Michigan, Sweat U-Math. That is a massive, massive, Siri went in at home. He's a U-Math. And then it got Miami Ohio. Give me Kent State. Give me Kent. You mass in their D-3 coach. You guys want to guess what he went with? Well, I saw his text. He went like five or a dog. He went Miami Ohio.

1:17:32There we go. Low percentage play. That's a good way to come back or build yourself a bigger home. All right, last one. Yeah, last one. Is this on here for the memes with Vandy moving the fences in to more replicate Lindsey Nelson's team? We have the, I don't even remember what the series is called, any Tennessee on the road at the end of the year. Go ahead. Real quick. Do you think Tennessee Vandy is more even or Auburn, Alabama in Tuscaloosa or in Nashville? I think Tennessee Vandy is more even. I think that Auburn on the road at Bama's Turkey. Yeah, I think Tennessee and Vaneroa both just very streaky teams. When things are clicking, they look great. When they're not clicking, they look bad. Yeah. Perfect. I'm going to go Tennessee. I missed last week pretty much like paying attention, nitty-gritty stuff. Did a Vanderbilt start

1:18:39everybody on the mound? Because I know it was nigh and somebody dealing with some injury stuff. And I'm not too keen on going into that well. I'll go Tennessee here. But I hold the right to switch this pick, I think. But Tennessee for now on the show. I'm taking Vanderbilt just for the pure fact of how sad it would be for Vanderbilt to be under 500, seven weeks into the season. They got to figure it out at some point. Vanderbilt wins two out of three. So, correct me if I'm wrong. Last year, Vanderbilt went into Knoxville, took two out of three, and there was a bench clearing brawl after game three last year. Right? Last year or two years ago. I think it was last year. There's just a lot of it.

1:19:41There's just a lot of it. McElvain shot the door and went ballistic at the dugout and there was a bench clearing scuffle. Dang, that was last year. So it was last year, yeah. Yeah. It was by Tello's last home series. Regular season home series. That's what it was. I remember now. But we didn't know that at the time. Yeah, we did not. What? Yeah, I just went and looked it up. Vandy's still dealing with a bunch of pitching chaos on Saturday and Sunday. I'm going Tennessee here. All right. Ben went with Bandy. Noah went with Tennessee. Jack went with obviously he went with Tennessee. Guy, this is the really difficult series for me to pick. Either team, I would not be surprised in the flight of bit. I really, SEC series, I really want to go with the home team here. I'm leaning Tennessee, but I don't want I want to go with the home team here.

1:20:48Give me, give me Bandy at home. Love it. Cool. Cool. All right, dude. I know you need to go run for a first soft ball. I was just watching a funny video of college at Charleston's head coach Chad Holbrook for another program. Got tossed tonight and got his money's worth on the ejection whole area. Did you tweet it? Not into, I mean, we're doing the show. I didn't tweet it. I just saw it. Sent it to you, but yeah, it was pretty funny. We need more of that. Need more coaches, ejections. They're not happening as much anymore. But yeah, we appreciate everybody for listening here. I know, man. Just tune into an angel compost game and you get one every other weekend. He's he's soft, but anyways, we appreciate everybody for listening. We will be back Sunday night to recap the weekend. Release the new Midmajor top 25 preview the midweek there. But yeah, now that all but 16 basketball teams are eliminated and nobody, nobody cares about March MLB. That's crazy.

1:21:53The MLB season started a week too early. The opening day was in February, boys. Yeah, that's true for the World Baseball Classic. But yeah, we appreciate all the support. If you guys ever need anything, slide in our DMs. We are more than happy to help you out. You guys got anything else to close the show? Nope, that fit. I need to go smash some softball dinghries. Love it. All right, dude. See you guys.