Roadrunners move up the rankings with NMSU series win

0:00All right, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Around the Bird Bath. I'm your host Dan Nerdall joined with my co-host Rylan and fresh off a successful week. You know, three in one week and UTSA baseball stays in the national rankings with D1 gets ranked by baseball America. We're gonna kind of talk about all that, but first we'll talk about the series win. The third series win for UTSA to start the season against New Mexico State. Rylan, you went out there. We're gonna talk about that, but what just from what you saw in person, obviously there wasn't a stream, you know, kind of listen on the radio, but what were just some some key things you took away from the two games that you watched? Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, me, me, coach talked about a

1:03little bit and I gave, I gave him the dog award. The first weekly dog award goes to Connor Miles. He was out there shoving me. He looks like a completely different person this year, and I think that's my biggest takeaway. You know, if I had been in there in person to see Connor Kelly pitch, I'm not giving it to him too. That's the first two games just had some outstanding pitching performances, which made Sunday just all of the more weirder if that makes sense. But no, on Friday and Saturday, it was, it was what you wanted to see from those two guys. Connor coming into the season was a little bit of a question mark. Kelly as well, just how, how would he do, you know, across multiple innings? He was kind of a shorter ending guy last year. But everything else kind of looked the same. I feel like the defense was a little bit cleaner this year. Obviously, I think our cat still had a couple of mistakes. JB, you know, same thing. For the most part, it was encouraging outside of Sunday. And we'll talk a little bit about that later. But some interesting stuff going on on Sunday. But

2:06overall, two and one to get the series win. You go up in the in D1 baseball rankings. That's all that matters. Yeah. And that's the thing. And I, you know, I tweeted this out. I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. I mean, the biggest thing to remember with like because you play so many games in a single week, I mean, you could play four or even even five, like UTSA is going to play five this week. That that leaves a little more of a margin for error in terms of like you can drop a game. Maybe you can even drop two games. And I kind of laid out those circumstances and super awesome. That more people are like involved and paying attention to those things and taking a personal win. They don't get ranked. I mean, I said back at the start of the season because the job is always people going after Kendall and UTSA and everything. And that's fine. I get the bit. But I told people I said, listen, the schedule is set up on a way to where if they take care of business, then it's going to take care of itself. And now they went to D.B.U. and they won a couple more. I knew they'd win one game, but they won all three. They wouldn't say classic, you know, I

3:09knew they'd win one game. They won all three. And it took care of itself. And, you know, it is what it is. And Coach Hallmark, you know, he hasn't said it as much this year, but it's kind of been a battle cry of his teams. It's control what you can control. And you can't control what a few people in a room or on a Zoom call are going to decide for the rankings and what they look at for what's important. And I think that's what makes it hard to with College Baseball. There's a lot of rankings out there. And each one kind of looks at some things differently and measures some metrics differently. And that's out of your control. All you can do is go out on the field and do what they did this weekend and see how CL works out. And they might have, I mean, they're 23, 24. They might have a week where they drop two, three games. And they have bad week and they drop out. I mean, it's above where I get it. But big picture, we talked about that a lot on the last pod. That's what they're what you're focusing on. And I think with with the dog award, I don't have, I mean, I don't have any issues

4:11with it going to miles. You know, you talked about him being a different person. It's probably the haircut. Maybe you can ask him about that. Like, hey, you cut your hair. Is that having like a reverse power effects? You know, like, it's kind of working in the opposite way. Like you cut the hair and you are throwing better. Super impressed with with Connor miles. And just outing he had, especially with how he's been working back and, you know, gets that opportunity and it's getting stretched out more. When I really liked about Connor Kelly was his outing wasn't like, it was scoreless, but he had some bumps in the road. The first two innings. And for him to throw that many pitches through the first two innings, and then still goes six innings, scoreless, super impressive. And, you know, Kendall Rogers even mentioned like through two games to hold that team to his few runs as they did is impressive. And I think really set the tone for the weekend, and just really allowed the offense to get to work and play their game, knowing

5:15that they weren't having to crawl back from three, four, five runs down early. They could get out ahead and we see with UTSA so often when they're ahead, their style of play they can just focus on that at the plates. Yeah. And, hey, you know what, it's a good issue that we're having. Who deserves a dog award? Both the way they could have gone to either one of them. But, you know, I agree with what you're saying though. Kelly's performance really did set the tone to see him battle through adversity was very impressive. I think the reason I just gave it to Connor is just like, I really had to emphasize how much of a different player he looks like as compared to last year. And I told Coach Hummer, I was like, it looks like he's pitching with a new form of like a new sense of ferocity and he'd love that where he was like, I'm gonna steal that. I'm gonna start using that word. And I'm like, okay, Coach, do whatever you need to do. But that's really what it looks like. I mean, I think I mentioned it either to him or to or on the pause last week. But, you know, when he was getting yelled at against D.B.U. for, you know, kind of pitching a little scared. And, you know, that person is gone.

6:18Like, Connor Miles is coming up on the mound after a great inning. He's not smiling. He's locked in. I think just seeing the personality, I don't want to say switched, but just kind of like the mentality really to be able to hone in and control his emotions on the mound and deliver, you know, two outstanding starts, you know, in his first two starts of the season after, you know, a late start to the training program this off season. But it won't be over. You know, I'm a journalist. I love the storylines. And I think that storyline got me. But no, it's a great it's a great issue to have, you know, two players to have the performances they did over the weekend. Yeah. And I think, I mean, you know, the next time, like the coach hallmark, he said this to me before he's, he's kind of brought it up before impressors. So I don't mind bringing it up. But next time that happens, just say, well, coach, I think the word you're looking for is veracity. Because he loves to do that. He loves to say, you know, the word you're looking for and stuff when he's answering a question. And that usually means that you're, you're getting him to go deeper into the weeds on some

7:22baseball analytics and stuff. So that's always fun too. But yeah, I mean, the other thing I wanted to touch on just from a team vantage point of how the team looked, you know, because I was actually reading right before we hopped on. I was looking at your, your new mailbag piece that you're going to be put out weekly and kind of letting the fans ask some questions. And there were a few questions, you know, specifically to some of the base running and the pinch hit late with with Christian being pinch hit for, or sorry, silver being pinch hit for Christian hallmark. And I thought you answered it really well in that, you know, that's kind of both of those are, we can work on the look at the pinch hitting first. But with coach hallmark, he'll do that, especially, you know, you have two forms of it. You have the, hey, we're setting up our lineup, lefty, righty, righty, lefty. And once that lefty or once that righty gets out of the game, we're going to start making some switches or you're in a situation and I want this guy up and set. And across the weekend, it largely worked out, you know, Kain Miller, pinch hit twice. And one time he came up right away,

8:27double brings in some RBI's. Next time, base it, Diego Diaz, pinch hit, base it, JB, pinch hit, RBI. So really, the silver move was the only one that didn't work out. And if you look at the situation and what they need to do, do there, you know, and if you're the bottom of the knife, if UTSA is the home team, hallmark may play that differently because he only needs one run. But they needed to because it was the top of the ninth and he wants to win it without going extra us. So silvered, what we've seen earlier in the season already with the small sample size, silver has come through in those moments. Yeah, 100% came through big in that Saturday again, the game against DBU. So it's not like he's going to a guy that has not shown that is able to come through in big moments. And that's not to say that Christian Hallmark can't come through in big moments either. I think it was just like I said, that was his decision in the moment in the game,

9:27we're going to roll with this guy who we feel like gives us a better shot right now. And that's not anything against Christian Hallmark is just how Pat Hallmark decided to do it in his head. And I put it in there, you know, maybe it is easier to explain it to your son than it is to explain it to some other people on the team, you know what I mean, like, you know what, we're taking you out and what are you going to do a complaint about it like you're my kid and like it is what it is. But you know, I'm sure that's not exactly how I went down, but you know, he tried it and you know, it wasn't a bad move, it just didn't work out. And that on Sunday, that top of the ninth ending was not what he was upset about at all, you know what I mean, you're going to lose games like that. They got three guys on the bags and just ground it out. Hallworth was outstanding the entire weekend. So it's like, you got your guy on the spot, you wanted and just didn't work out. Sometimes you lose baseball games that happens. I think what he was the most upset about was kind of a weaker outing from Kindle Dove. And then just, you know, from what I saw an unexplainable performance from James Hubbard. James Hubbard just, I don't, I asked him, I was like, what do you

10:28think it was? He said that he was pitching life. He usually throws 94. He was throwing 91. And it wasn't enough for the reason that they brought him in the game. They needed him throwing the, you know, the velocity that he usually throws and he wasn't. I was like, is that a mental thing? Like, is it a physical thing? You know, what do you think it was? And he says, I got no clue. He got, he has no idea what happened to Hubbard on Sunday. But I think he was really fixated on that just that, you know, Kindle didn't have his breaker when he needed to have his breaker against some varieties. And Hubbard was throwing lines. So at the end of the end of the game, with what happened with Hallworth, you can live with every single day, which you can't live with, is some, some unexplainable, you know, drops in velocities or, or loss of command or anything like that. That's just something that's concerning. Yeah. And I think, you know, and this is not me at all. I'm trying to make excuses because the one thing that Coach Hallmark and I think Coach Hallmark's guys won't do is make excuses when it comes to trying to figure that out. I do wonder

11:29though, because elevation increase, it can affect people differently. And you might think, that's a lame one. They scored 23 runs and only gave up two through the first two games. But you maybe it hit James Hubbard a little different. You know, you'd been up there a couple days. You know, who knows? It's sometimes you just have that. Sometimes you just have where your vehicle is down. I think we just, in some ways, we expect these guys to come out and give the exact same performance every single game, the game of baseball is not like that. It's a long season, you might not even have that in the same weekend. I mean, you saw, you see me forward, where guy goes over four and then the next two nights, he just lights it on fire. I did think, you know, one thing I noticed looking at, some of the more deeper stats, the biggest difference between Sunday and Friday Saturday was, you know, what you talked about with Dove and Hubbard. And on Friday and Saturday, UTSA struck out more guys than they walked.

12:29And then at the plate, they walked more than they struck out. On Sunday, they can't, that kind of flipped. They struck out at the plate more than they walked. And UTSA is a big team on getting some walks and getting guys on base and putting that pressure on. And then on the mound, and this was largely from Dove and Hubbard. Those two guys allowed four walks through four and two thirds and one hit better. So that's not a very good walk ratio. That's especially with what UTSA prize themselves for how many they won in the game. But on the mound on Sunday, they did walk more than they struck out. And that's just going to get you that, that situation. I mean, the game was still in reach, but especially when you have a game where the offense is a little stagnant, they're just having a hard time putting some runs across. Those moments are going to be a more impactful or like Sam Simms, they're going to be more impactful. Came Miller's base running air. It's going to be more impactful. You know, and there's a lot of times it works out.

13:30And I talk about it all the time you live and die by it. You mentioned that too in your recap or in your mailbag episode. And it's easy to criticize the moments when it doesn't work out, but you got to remind yourself all the times that it does. Yeah. And I just feel like Sunday, Sunday was just a weird day. You know, and I forget like most people listening and even you didn't get to see these plays happen live. But like Sam Simms error, he played it perfectly in the field. It was just, it was just a bang, bang play. It went over a little too high for Kayton Miller and then you had the catcher, you know, run straight into him. So then, you know, the catcher was down on the field for a couple of minutes. Hubbard just seemed, Hubbard seemed off from the jump and then he started walking some guys and got hallmarked, gillin at him. The crowds getting into it. And then he walks another guy and you're just like, man, like you just feel for the guy in that spot. And, you know, I'm not going to say I can relate, but I definitely have been in a couple of situations, you know, playing, you know, ball in high school where I'm on the mound. And I'm just like, man, like once, once you start getting yelled at by the coach on the mound and then, you know, it just starts kind

14:31of like snowball and she's like, you're done, like you're cooked. And what was crazy is that, you know, qualia comes in right after Hubbard and really steadies the game out. Like qualia pitched good and then you call in for Simms. Once the couple hits on qualia would come in and it just seemed like okay, you just say it's about to do it. They're about to pull it out. Like it looked like it was all lining up for you to say to win despite everything and just escape the weekend three and oh, but it just didn't shake out that way. You know, can't really, really blame anyone. I don't think there's like something else like, okay, this is going to be concerning going forward. Super confident and dove. Kindle is a dog. Like everybody knows Kindle can shove and he's he's done great in his starts prior to this last Sunday. And then same thing with Hubbard. I'm sure he's he's going to want to get that whatever was bothering him that day fix. I don't think that's going to be a persisting issue. So it's just one of those games you lose and then, you know, all the New Mexico state fans, they celebrate at top 25 win, even though they got, you know, two runs in the first two

15:33games. So congratulations to them. But, you know, as far as the UTSA, you know, they got a big, got a big midweek series coming up against tech that I'm sure they're worried about and they'll they'll turn their focus to that. Yeah, and we'll definitely get to that in shortly. A couple more things I wanted to kind of touch on and also have you weigh in on, of course, is another thing I noticed was the left on base. You know, if you look at Friday and Saturday, I think Friday they left nine on Saturday. They left seven, but it's like, well, they scored 10 runs on Friday and 13 runs on Saturday. So I'm, I'm good. We've been, you know, a little more than a handful on the base pads when you're scoring double digits, where it was, you know, where it's frustrating, but again, it just happens sometimes, especially on Sunday. We talk about all time. It's really hard to win three, three games in a row against the team. They left eight on the base pads on Sunday, obviously three in the, in the top of the ninth and only scored four runs. So, you know, you bring some more of those guys in, probably different

16:34outcome. And again, I'm not, I don't want to lose. I don't want to lose, I don't want them to lose any games, but I'd rather have those situations when you have a three in one week or have those moments when it's like, all right, we still managed to win the game, but we have to figure this out. And I think that's something that, you know, Coach Hallmark's real good about is not just looking at it as well. We won. We don't have to address this. I mean, there's plenty of times where he'll talk about a win. He's like, well, this, we have to figure this out. We've got to figure that out. We didn't hit well. We're not hitting well. And they're just constantly going back to the drawing board and getting back in the lab, per se, and fine tuning those details. Yeah. And I think as far as like the runners left on base, I mean, you should say this team that's going to get a lot of hits, like even like you said, when they're scoring, you know, double digit runs, they're still leaving, you know, seven, eight runners on base. And I think just in those losses, it becomes very apparent, you know, you know, you're, you're getting so many hits that eventually you're going to have to get a third out, you know what I mean. So then you end up

17:35naturally straining a bunch of runners. It just comes, it just seems more apparent whenever they aren't able to capitalize on that. And then, you know, then you start to questioning, you know, like, why are we leaving so many people on? I think again, I hate to use Hallmark's words word, but like you've heard random, just the sporadic nature of hitting, you know what I mean? Sometimes you're going to get it. Sometimes you don't. And you're right. You know, it's better to have that type of learning moment and have these frustrating moments when you've already secured the series. And you've already, you get your first shut out this season the night before. So one thing I really do think plays a large role in probably their performance on Sunday. Regardless of what Hallmark says, regardless of what anybody says, I think being on the road, driving that much does affect you mentally. You play two fantastic games. You know, you kind of maybe as a player think that the sweep might just come naturally and then you end up letting a slip away from you. And it happens, but, you know, time on the road, having time away from home definitely affects you.

18:36No, absolutely. I honestly did on your own bed. You're in your bed, time on a bus. And I think, I mean, yeah, like, and I think it's safe to say that what we had heard about throughout the fall and maybe some of the question marks, you know, once practice picked up again, especially unfortunately, with Rob going down, I think in some ways, things are getting off a little better than we expected. I mean, 13 and two, like naturally ranked. Like, there's a lot of noise on on on Twitter. Let's just, let's just be honest about it. I get where it's coming from. Recognize that 100%. But like teams 13 and two, they're putting themselves on national notice. You got outlets across college baseball talking about them. Like, let's focus on the positive and more of those positives. This is the last thing we'll mention being that we'll take a break and get into the Texas Tech review where the team is spending more time in the road. Depth of the plate. I mean, just so many options. And I know that like, like, you want to see the line, the same line up in there every single day. But it's like, some of it's like giving these guys that bats what you can,

19:37you let them stay fresh, let them see that if it be a bees, let them take grounders at short at second. I think, I think that extra man air going back to the Tuesday game was a little bit just not as much time short live against another team. But a lot of good depth of the plate. We talked about the pinch hits, you know, Garrett Gruehl, Nathan Johnson. We haven't even talked about it yet. First home run, first collision home run, first home run, as a real runner, you know, you know, kudos to him, props to him. So a lot of good pieces at the plate and a lot of options. And it's, it's, it's cool where you can be like, man, you pinch hit for, you know, home mark, why didn't you let him swing here? Oh, you, you pinch hit. Silva said, Brock Palmer, like, why'd you do that? Like, there's so many options off the bench. Yeah, his team is deep. I feel like every year that the hitting options are always deep. And you could really go even guys like like Brandon Bishop, you know, he didn't do too great when he came in against Baylor in Houston. But still a very talented player that you're leaving on the bench. And I even mentioned that, you know, in my article today, it's like, who's my biggest

20:40surprise? It's Christian Hallmark, you know what I mean? Because, you know, I think the plan really was to have Brandon Bishop, Lane Hall, Hayworth, and Deadliftson be the outfield trio. And then Hallmark just came in and started performing like, like he did. But Brock Palmer, like he said, Jacob Silva, Garrett Gruehl, all of these guys can hit. And especially like Gruehl, who delivered some, some clutch hits, obviously had a big hit against Ohio State. And there's definitely more that I'm blanking on in the moment. But Silva against DPU. So a lot of options. It's a good problem to have. Are we pinching this guy for this guy? Well, you know, they're all great. So it's like, it is what it is, man. But yeah, definitely wouldn't be able to tell we're 13 and two though with how it's been lately. It's like, it's definitely interesting. But it is what it was. And that's, and that's the one thing I wish we could have seen Friday. And I know you weren't up there yet. But I really, I didn't realize till later in the evening, maybe even after the game that Brandon Bishop started the game at second base.

21:40I did not even know that. Yeah. Yeah. Like he, like, and I mean, I'm like, no way. Like, that's, that's a, that's an, like, that's an error. Like he, and then I saw a play and we, him taking around balls like, oh, I guess Bishop played second base. You know, Hallmark probably just wanted to sort of match up or wanted a righty in there at the play and Bishop, you know, I guess he's a little bit of utility, guys. So maybe we'll see him again, play the middle one field, who knows. But we'll take a quick hoopier break. And then when we get back, we will preview the Texas Tech midweek and what all that's going to entail. All right, everyone. Welcome back from the kumbia break. And as you heard right before the break, we are going to be previewing the midweek double header. You know, UTSA doesn't do it a lot, but occasionally usually once a season, they'll kind of have two midweek games. They're traveling

22:44to Lubbock. Kind of some crazy travel things going on with, you know, Rylin, you got touched on that a little bit just with, you know, how they're getting to Lubbock and everything. But I'll say this, the main thing I like when UTSA does this is it's a really good test early in the season of how they look when you have some games stacked up. You know, it's a lot to play four games in five days. It's even more to play five games in six days. And especially when you have a team like UTSA where we've kind of seen them struggling some of the midweeks, there's been some question marks with some of the back end of the bullpen a little bit. And those are going to be tested. And we're going to talk about the type of team the Texas Tech is, especially at the plate. But that's the thing I like when I'm thinking big picture what I like about these double header midweek games. Yeah. And, you know, I don't know, I mean, I just have a weird, like, bad feeling about, you know, this midweek series. I don't want to, you know,

23:46put anything on there. I'm just like, I don't know. They have struggled in midweeks and now you mix that with the, you know, a pretty formidable power for opponents. So it'll be interesting to see, like you said, I think, you know, the real test will be as far for UTSA is on the mountain. Like, how do you respond after what happened on Sunday? Even if it's not the same guys, you know, you had to use Sam Simmons and Sam Simmons, you know, he did good. He did his job, but didn't up in the win with a win. So how does, how does Hubbard bounce back if we, do we see him again? So there's a lot to be determined, but, you know, they've shown us some good stuff so far, right? We said after being in the year, you know, this, this early part of the season is finding out who UTSA baseball is, finding out how UTSA baseball is. Well, they've responded pretty well. And now, I think, in my opinion, this is an interesting matchup on Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm excited to see what happens. Yeah, and I couldn't, I mean, when I was kind of looking into the Texas tech a little bit, I don't really know what to make of them more so at the play. Like pitching wise, I feel good

24:50about my takeaway on how they're pitching is, but at the play, you know, offensively, they are like top 15 just about every category. I mean, so they are crushing it at the play. When you dive a little deeper and you look at their schedule, it's like, okay, so they're strength of schedule is like 297. Their RPI is not great, and they're like 10 and 4. I mean, and again, on both sides, RPI can be a little of an outlier this early in the season, but they haven't, they haven't beat anybody that they shouldn't. And I think you can make the case that UTSA, especially the way they've done it, they beat some teams that they shouldn't. You know, what they did to Coastal, you know, Coastal's a little beat up, what they did to Baylor, a good big 12 team. Sweeping DVU, instead of just taking the series or winning a game, whereas Texas tech, therefore losses were all to four teams that you kind of expected them to lose to. And then

25:55offensively, it's like, yeah, your printups have been numbers. I mean, you put up like, like this weekend, they played Penn State, and you put up like 50 runs in three games, but it's Penn State, it's not Penn State football, it's Penn State baseball. So really, don't know what to make of them offensively. Yeah, 100%. I don't argue that they're most impressive game. Wasn't even a game that they won, you know, looking at their game against Arkansas, where they only lost by one run. I'd say that's probably their, like, just viewing, like from from a score standpoint, not watching the game, obviously, that's looks like they're most impressive outing. Yeah, it's not, you know, Penn State football, it's Penn State baseball. So similar to like how, you know, it would have been cool to be Ohio State and football, but we beat them in baseball and we'll take what we can get, but it isn't the same. So yeah, an interesting team to try and figure out. I still think it'll be a bit of a challenge. I don't think either of us has UTSA baseball sweeping this midweek series, but when I talk to Coach Almark about it, you know, even though the the Texas Tech RPI isn't, you know, too high right now, he's still muted as a,

26:59as an RPI opportunity to be able to establish yourselves as, you know, we're better than some of these power four teams without have a lot of money. So I think regardless of where the RPI is or whatever the records are, or whatever, I think it's still a good opportunity for UTSA to potentially pick up some wins against a notable team. No, absolutely. And yeah, I mean, it's a it's a story program. I mean, they they went to Omaha in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, and UTSA is two and 12 all time against them. The last time they played them was 2018, you know, a team that went to Omaha and, you know, they've been down as of late. You know, maybe they're funneling some resources, other spots, or you just have some slumps sometimes as a team. But again, um, yeah, I mean, it's going to be it's going to be a good test. And we've seen UTSA respond so far after both of the losses with wins and kind of figuring it out.

28:03I think where there's going to be good opportunity for UTSA offensively is going to be drawn their walks. They do walk about two more runners in nine innings than UTSA does. So, you know, we've seen UTSA be really good at the plate with that kind of walk to strike out ratio or walks for nine. And then again, another staff that I noticed more into the deeper analytics is home run to a fly ball ratio. And basically what that one is is for fly balls that you give up, how many of those are home runs. And Texas Tech has had a lot of dudes pitching wise that had really high a home run to fly ball ratios like 25, 30 percent important perspective. The we average are like what's considered like a good home run to fly ball ratio is like 10 percent. Face 10 batter is given up. And if you face 25 batters and if 10 of them hit a fly ball, one of them hits a home run. That's like a good home run to fly ball ratio.

29:0825 percent. You know, you face 10 batters or 25 batters, 10 of them are fly balls. And what is it? Like two and a half, two and a half, three of them hit home runs. It's like now, you're talking about a lot more. So hopefully UTSA can get the ball up a little bit and get in the air and hit some home runs. And then if you can kind of make them pay for the walks, kind of have their pitching staff create some errors with some small ball and put some pressure on them, then you can maybe open it up and really put the pressure on face tech. Yeah, so I think definitely you have had more of a chance to look at the stats, you know, honestly, haven't been able to do my homework on Texas Tech, you know, between traveling and and doing all the homework, sorry, and doing, you know, some working at HB basically. So what are the stats telling you, man? Like, I mean, how do you feel if you've had a better inside look at it? What do you think is going to happen tomorrow and on Wednesday? I just, I don't know, I see Texas Tech and I think money, I'm like, there's no way. But I like I said, I haven't done any, any homework.

30:09So what are the stats telling you? Yeah, I mean, UTSA's pitching up to this point is definitely better. And I'm like, what I said, like, I'm, I'm taking some of the offensive numbers with a grain of salt because just the teams that they've played. Yeah, it's like, yeah, I mean, UTSA was scored and double digit runs against probably better teams. I feel like what I worry about is like, offensively, even though like Texas Tech's pitching is in great and like, so here's, here's a stat we could look at. They have, and it's really hard to pick mid weeks, like who the pitchers are going to be. Yeah. Talk about that a lot. Like, I looked at a handful of guys that they've only made appearances out of the bullpen. So they haven't started any games. I was like, okay, so there's going to be good guys, good chances, especially in a double header to where you might see some of these guys. So they had four guys with only appearances, but double digit innings. So some of their guys all depend with more reliability or that they lean on more.

31:11None of them had the ERA under 4.3. Now again, I know people say, oh, ERA is old. You know, ERA is outdated. There's a lot more to look at. I agree. I do think though when you look at that home run of fly ball ratio, when you look at their whip, which is like in six, you know, walks plus hits. Prince pitched. When you look at that, those walks for nine. I think the way UTSA plays and they get a lot of people off their game because they can play so many different ways. They can hit the long ball. They can play the small ball. So I think it's really going to come down to what the what the hitting does because as much as I look at their offense with a grain of salt, they definitely have the dude so I can do that. I mean, they have seven guys hitting over 350 and they're lined up. They have seven guys and then it's not like, oh, five of those guys only played three games. Like those guys all played a majority of the games. And then you look at the next kind of advanced stat on base percentage and they have seven guys with an on base percentage of

32:16over 435. So it's like not only can they hit, but they can draw their washes well too. And we've seen UTSA pitching, especially in the midweeks a little bit struggle with some walks. And you've seen a couple guys like Hubbard or, you know, Oak or home or even some of the other more staple guys, if you will, it kind of struggle a little bit. And if you give up a couple walks and kind of get frustrated with yourself and you're trying to work your command back in, they could punish you, you know, and that home run could turn from a one run home run into a three run home run. And when you only have one game to work with work two in this case, it can be much more impactful. The other stat that I was looking at that kind of stood out was isolated power. And so for those that aren't too familiar, what isolated power is, is it basically just tries to look at a team or a hitter taking singles out of the mix and only looking at extra base hits. So like how many doubles, how many triples, how many home runs. And you basically get rewarded more for

33:18triples and home runs with the way the formulas set up. But it really tells you the raw power that a team has and how how well a team can do. And Texas Tech has, they just have more of an isolated power. They have a better isolated power. They're kind of a doubles machine. And I had to count this number a few times to make sure it was right. But they've already hit 52 doubles this season. Now again, going back to going back to like who they played, you know, maybe some of those games that just really gets away and it will be interesting to see what their ballpark looks like. And if it's kind of a hitter's park and some deeper alleys. But that's going to be one thing too is like, you give a couple walks up and then UTSA, they like to throw strikes and they pride themselves on throw on strikes. Well, you take a good hitting team and you throw a lot of strikes, you know, the opportunities there for them to really do some damage. So I think, you know, I think best case

34:21scenario, just because of like what you mentioned, the travel and the long week and it's a back-to-back game. There's still some questions on the back end of the bullpen. There's been some guys that have been pushed a little bit at times. Like I think they probably come out of it one in one. I hope like, I mean, well, I mean, obviously I hope they won't, I hope they win too. But I think I just I just feel like best case scenario with everything going on. It's just kind of a one in one week. I agree. And I think one of the things I'm actually looking at, well, I won't be looking at it. I guess this is me announcing that I won't be going to the games or I won't even be watching because I'll have to, this is my time to work as spring break. But one of the things that I'll look at when I'm reviewing, you know, what happened once I get off is who got the start on Tuesday, who gets the start on Tuesday and Wednesday, right? A no-gunner brown of this weekend. So I think he's probably in line to start one of the games. Ryan's self has gotten some starts on Tuesday games too. I know he pitched on Saturday, but he didn't go long. You know, Miles went five scoreless and then

35:25self kind of closed it out. So he's he's definitely in concentration to start. And Oak her home, we saw him on Fridays, well, similar thing to self. So I think it's going to be, you know, two, two out, you know, a pair out of those three guys, I think brown for sure, you know. So and I think getting out to a good start, not getting, you know, giving up those early hits or getting off to a bad start with the wall is going to be super important. If they're going to want to, you know, ideally take both games. So I think that's what I'm going to be watching is like who got out to the best start. And then I think if they, you know, two of those guys are one of those guys does get out to a good start. I think that would probably be the game that you to say it takes. If it's, if it doesn't happen in both or maybe there's two bad starts, who knows. But hopefully, you know, we get a good showing out of Gunner Brown. I think they saved him. They didn't use him out all this weekend before this series. In my opinion, and now that I say that, watch him not start it all. But we'll see. Basically what I'm saying. Overall is that how we start on the mound is going to matter a lot to determine the outcome of the game. Yeah. And that's, and that's just

36:27baseball in general, right? I mean, like when you, when you have a lead to work with and you don't have to worry about, oh, if I leave this middle middle is someone going to take me deep and now it's a tight game, you can kind of just trust yourself a little more. You can relax a little more. And it's just funny how that works when guys can really just be comfortable. I think that's what's helped UTSA so many times this season is they've had that lead. I mean, you've seen sometimes where the picture before you even comes out to the mound for the first time has has a lead to work with. And that just makes such a big difference. And you know, I do think that this is going to be a good test for guys that are wanting to take the next step and they've kind of struggled a little bit. They've had some bumps in the road. Gunner is someone like we've seen Gunner as best as best. And we've seen Gunner when he just doesn't have his stuff. And in a week like this week where, because you know, and I'm not trying to get too far ahead because we'll cover this later in a week. But UTR means in especially on Friday night, like they're Friday night guys no joke.

37:31I mean, it's not a pushover series. It's not like a easy, I mean, that's going to be a tough one. They're going to be at the bird bath and everything. But yeah, it's not like they can just put everything into Texas Tech and steal some wins there. They also got to think about the weekend and what to do there as well. So it's going to be interesting how Coach Hallmark and his staff approach it. And I'm sure it's going to be a hey, this is the way we prefer to go. But if things get dicey, then you know, we have to pivot a little bit. We've seen Coach Hallmark do that where there's been some guys, some games where it gets away from them a little bit. And who kind of who comes in next? It's like, okay, we're not necessarily throwing the towel. We're not going to use our next high moment arm in that spot. But I think it's going to be two really good games because the other thing that I noticed looking at Texas Tech, they they run actually a little more than when a team kind of steals more than between one and one and a half, which I mean the half stats are always funny. So we'll just say between one and two. When a team steals between one

38:34and two bags in a game, that's considered like a team that runs a lot. And Texas Tech up to the season, they have run about 1.4 base runners a game. Whereas UTSA is about 1.35. So I mean, right there. And then Texas Tech though, they have a little bit better of a stolen base percentage. They've they've stolen 16 of 19 stolen bases successfully. So they've got an 84% success rate. And then UTSA, you know, that aggressive base running kind of burned them a little bit. And you know, we've seen that they're 17 for 21 still really good at 80%. But you know, Texas Tech's just a little better there. And they've got a guy Kyler Thompson, who's hitting well, but also he's nine for nine on stolen bases. So they're going to challenge, you know, I don't know if you'll see Stukey both days or if you'll see Stukey one day or still the other day. But I feel like they're going to challenge him early and kind of force Stukey and or Silva to make some plays. And it might

39:37be it might be little things like that on what makes a difference in this one. Like it might be a high scoring game. But what puts one either of the teams over the edge is like that extra stolen base or that extra aggressive base running. And then I think it'll be a fun one to watch. Yeah, I think you pose a good point that, you know, UT Arnton is not going to be a pushover series, right? Everybody knows that they be UTSA to open up to season last year. And then in 2024, right? I think they split the opening series if I'm from remembering correctly when it was super cold. So definitely a team that's given UT I say some fits in the past couple of years. So that really does make the approach to Tuesday and Wednesday. Interesting. Another guy that I was looking at right now that could also make an appearance either tomorrow or Wednesday might be pitched against Corpus Christi didn't do anything over the weekend. So he's also a guy that we could see. So maybe it's Gunnar Brown on Tuesday, Mike Dion Wednesday, something like that. But oh yeah, I just, it really, that's what really makes it unfortunate that there was no

40:39Hallmark presser today. Because there's so much in play this weekend, you know, do you, you know, picking between how you manage your arms, you know, you have an RPI opportunity, you know, even though Texas Tech, like we said earlier, is not designed to hear its RPI right now. Getting, getting a win or two wins against Texas Tech, Texas Tech to fans or whoever might seem like a little bit more invaluable than, you know, beating UT R&T. I feel like most fans just are kind of assuming that we're going to sweep UT R&T or take the series at least. But it's definitely for the coaching staff a little bit more of a toss up. Like how do you prepare for this week? Really would have loved to have that presser today. But, you know, it is what it is. But I guess we'll just have to see how it all plays out. Super, super excited. Yeah, and that's the other thing with RPI, you know, there's probably a part of that with, with the coach Hallmark, where he's thinking the big 12 schedule and, you know, so much of an RPI, it's like the teams you're playing, obviously. And so, you know, when you're playing those big 12 teams, that's going to help you out. And if you figure it out, and obviously Texas Tech, you know,

41:40we talked about that a lot already, their offense. But the other thing with RPI is like your quadrant wins, like a Q1 win, a Q2 win that a lot of times get looked at. And if you're playing on the road, it drastically changes like what's a Q1 win? Like so they played DBU. They took three games against DBU. Well, those games were at home. So in order for that to be considered a Q1 win, DBU would need to get their RPI into the 30s, like, or into the 20s, like 30 and below. Had they beat them up in Dallas, their RPI could have been like 70, and it would have been a Q1 win. So that that is one thing about Texas Tech. It's since they're their road games. If you TSA can take one, even two, then Texas Tech gets that RPI up. It's going to be a better quadrant win a lot sooner than if they had played them as a birdbath. So just play everyone on the road because it helps your RPI. I'm just a kid. Just just always stay on the road. Be like the big 10

42:40teams. Always stay on the road. Never never play at home. Make everything a road game. We'll play to play them somewhere else. So it's neutral or something. I don't think I don't think we'd see Coach Hallmork smile ever again if they had to play ever game on the road. Yeah, we're good. Listen, junkyard dogs, right? Yeah, but we'll see, you know, catch the games on ESPN Plus. We'll see what happens. Big picture. Obviously, that's why what I always talk about, big picture and in the season and working towards that. And again, that's, you know, you mentioned some guys that we didn't see this weekend. That's huge. When you have two of your starting pictures, go six eighties. And then you have a guy who comes in and grinds self and goes one and two thirds. You know, quality comes in and you know, other guys across the weekend. It's always crucial, especially when you have a week like this week. So hopefully that helps you TSA and hopefully they can just jump on them. I think that's probably the last thing I'll say to wrap up my thoughts on it. I really want to see the offense come out and attack Texas Tech from the beginning. Get

43:42them in that bullpen. Get them deep in that bullpen. I don't know when the big 12 starts their conference play, but I got to think it's coming up. And so like, you know, that's something that would maybe be on the back mind if it's this weekend. Maybe not maybe it's a mood point, but get to their bullpen and put pressure on them and just have your pictures feel comfortable. 100% and one other thing no good to hear is this past weekend. So who knows what the plan for him is this upcoming week. He's like kind of like a wild card, you know, a situational guy, but maybe he takes on a bigger role for the first time this week with some some opponents like Texas Tech and you two aren't in who knows, but it'll be interesting to see and it's a great week for baseball as always. No, for sure. The last thing Paul is the listeners, uh, world runners in the news. I do want to touch on that. Connor Kelly, Connor Miles, we talked over them a lot. They were both top performers by D1 Baseball. D1 Baseball puts out like a top 30 list every three day across the weekend. Top 30 pictures, top 30 hitters. So you can imagine how difficult

44:46is to make those lists with just how many games there are. And then Lane Hayworth, USA, UTSA, Athletics star of the week. And then talk to all the rankings already. So Ryland, anything else from from you? That's about it. You know, I'm just super excited for this week. You know, a lot of opportunities and, uh, you know, I'm ready to go. Yeah. Well, before we sign off, we did definitely want to say thanks to our Patreon especially from those who are our board of trustees and our big money donors did have Jennifer Hayworth joined at the insider tier with an annual subscription. So just a reminder, you know, if you do want to sign up and you do the annual, you do save 10% off your subscription. So that, that helps you know, a little bit in the pockets, but our board of trustees did you teach John Outwell, Gary and Rubin, representing the UTSA Burger game tailgate, Ray Redding, Andy Elizalde and proficient benefit solutions, Ian McClendon and Seeker LLC, Javon Townsend,

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