This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
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two, SAG and iHeart Radio Station. Hey, welcome to I on the
Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay. We're
hoping you hear us. Maybe if you don't hear us, I guess you
don't. Still let us know. If you hear us, let us know
that. Yeah. Yeah, but if you don't tell, say where are
you guys? Yeah, because we're here, our board is acting funny today
and so we can't hear We can't we can't tell if we're on the air
or not. Right, We would appreciate a text from somebody to say that
that you hear us. Yeah, okay, okay, we'll go on as
if you do sooner than later, because we're a minute it uh. Today's
Tuesday, right. NBA starts tonight, thankfully, some more to talk about.
Yeah, yeah, a lot of stuff last night. We have some
pretty good guests, are hoping that we get to them. With a CEO
coach winning the title last night for a title beating the sub I guess Scott
still sul up in Phoenix yesterday in Tempe. Uh, so we'll talk to
Jason. Heisi former you of a baseball player and a longtime baseball coach.
Yeah, you know, God, I mean Ja, I mean Jason.
We's a freshman at what years in Arizona. But he was I think he
was on that eighty nine team that long ago. Scott Ericson had not only
been long when not that long he was. He was a freshman that year
with Lexinter and those guys that team. Yeah, yeah, ok, j
snow he was a very good team. I think he was the number three
starter that year. Very good team. Just yeah, a recollection of it.
And Nick says he can hear us. So let's oh okay, cool,
cool, cool? Yeah, is Nick in the in the room?
He can get Nick? Yeah, we get it's weird. Yeah. So
everybody said, okay, I got one of more text messages, so we're
odd. All right, cool, lets go, And then you know you
got a hold of mister Geist. Yes, Jordan Geist. I'm excited to
have him. He's been uh, you know, mister everything with with the
throws and uh and the Arizona track and field. He's I think he won
his fourth shot for years now shot put championship. UM, a potential Olympian
um. Uh you know now you know, looking for national championship. So
uh looking forward to talking to Jordan Geist because he's uh, he's been the
guy if Arizona track for four years ago. He's the point getter because we've
we've talked to him about a year or two ago, right when he won
on one of the titles. Yeah, last year about this time. So
he continues to do really really well. Yeah, so we'll be good for
her to talking to him. But uh, you know, basically some you
know, nothing but champions coming in coming in today with uh with Jason Heisy
again, uh, head coach at cdo Wonder the school's tenth championship, his
second and he had actually been to the finals three other times, so you
know he's a he's been up there. And then uh they just won.
There's last night and then Jordan guys, so looking forward to this cool,
cool NBA today. We still haven't heard well well I know you haven't breaking
news, but uh, the guy who can't recruit recruited somebody again again,
right yeah, and then and was recruiting his suspect and and got a return
guy. Right, Well you saw that, Yeah, but Hella Larson was
never going anywhere. Well nowadays, who knows, Well, yeah, yeah,
you're right. It's good that it's over. But but you know,
of course Tommy wants to know, you know, yeah he's here. Who's
not right, right, because I mean know, I know there's still speculation
about about his zulas. I have a hard time believing he's coming back because
there's a lot of people who are out there thinking he might. I don't,
you know, nobody that nobody that you know, I just fans that
tell me, Okay, oh is he coming back? You know? You
know, I don't. I don't know. I think he's thing. He's
done what he's you know, what he was gonna do here, and yeah,
you know he's gonna take a shot. But we'll see, sure,
sure, so we'll see. Oh okay, is he texted me already?
Uh? Okay? Um? What else? Softball based on everything us kind
of ready to shut down, kind of off them. You know, Baseball
is still you know, they've got a series with USC this weekend. They
gotta they gotta win some games there to just get into the packed twelf tournament.
Only the top nine teams get in. Yeah, and they think they're
sitting in ninth place as we speak. So they they've got to they got
some work to do this weekend just to get into the tournament, to get
the packed twelf tournam to get themselves a shot at at least, you know,
trying to win the tournament and go somewhere make some noise. I don't
know that they can get in, um, but you know, you never
know. Yeah, so we'll see it's gonna come down to the water just
to get into the tournament. It'll be the first time and forever since I
wasn't even not even here in town, but in nineteen eighty five when both
teams didn't get into both teams didn't get in, right right, which is
gonna be a lonely summer. Into baseball is ten and seventeen in the league.
They're tied for ninth with Cal. Uh. They've got a twenty twenty
two records. I do have a winning record, but I don't know that
it's good enough to get them into the tournament without winning. Yeah. No,
the PAC twelfth tournament, right right, there was some speculation that the
football team would get in, and I'm like, oh no, their record
was not good enough and they didn't be teams. Yeah, and although you
said you liked them for that one game, you saw, well again if
he didn't look as bad as that they sounded. Yeah, right, And
maybe it's for that one game, but even even beyond that, just looking
at their lineup, players coming up to bat, you know, can they
hit? Can they not? You know? And and I just felt like
they've got some players they no doubt, they need some pitching. They supposedly
have pitching help on the way. Um, you know, all these players
get a year older. You know, UCLA's two, but UCLAs are like,
they're gonna be in their thirties now, so they've got to leave.
Um, you know, I think they've got some players that they can win
with. It's just a matter of you know, kay, can you know,
can they pick so and now? Can they be kept right here and
you keep them? Can you keep them? That's the biggest thing. After
every season, and we saw two basketball forever where everybody just jumped shipping good
players, good players, guys who had a lot of time at their old
school. You know, you know, you know uh um, you know
the kid from Washington State. Um, um, Roman's kid, Rodman's kid.
You know j C. J. Robins, great player of Washington State.
You know he sat here and almost single handedly beat Arizona. You're the
guy, and you know, boom he goes off to USC So we can
play with Bronie Jane, right. Yeah, And you know what, you
can't really blame them, I mean, camp if they're gonna give you the
opportunity. But again, Jay, this is how I say, I'm not
a big sports fan. And and you know, I you phrase it the
way I am a sports fan, but I'm not a sports fan. There's
no loyalty in the game and at any level, and it isn't that well
right, And that's kind of that's what kind of got me out of it.
Where I couldn't tell you the Cincinnati Red team that I grew up with,
I could tell you the roster. I couldn't tell you today who's on
the team we went to see the Giants and the Diamondbacks last week. I
couldn't tell you a player. Yeah I could, honestly, I don't know.
I probably know four guys in the Dodger lineup right, and you're a
huge dog. You know. I know Mookie Beats, I know Max Munsey,
I know, I know Will Will Smith occasionally, Chris Taylor's in the
lineup, um. JD. Martinez, I know because he's you know,
he's in my fantasy baseball team. They got two new kids in the infield,
Miguel Rojas and Miguel Vargas, and there's still one. Uh we just
so um so maybe that's a talker. We could talk after the after the
Heisi stuff. Are you a fan? How big of a fan are you?
What? Are you a fan? Up? Yeah? Yeah, right?
And are you as much as you used to be? You know,
like like I mean, yeah, you know I love the ares On Wildcats
college football, you know, in football. I'm a college football fan,
right. I'm an NFL fan. I'm not a fan of a team.
Yeah, I'm not even a fan of a player. I'm an NFL fan
because I love the NFL. I love the games. Um, I enjoy
my Sundays during football season. Yeah, you know, I love watching the
NFL. But I'm a fan of the game. I'm not a fan of
a team. I don't have a team. That's that's that's why I watched
a fan of no team, but but one of the game. Well,
come on, if I didn't have any you're a fan of sport, if
I didn't do your league. I don't know how much of a fan I
would be because I watch and I watched games and scores and but you want,
but you watch a game, You're watching the NBA. Yeah, but
I don't watch it like like a fan does I watch it? I don't
like a fan, I think is a broader, a broader definition. Then.
But you're you're, you're, you're, you're, you're boiling it down
too. To be a fan, you've got to be a fan of craziness
something, you know. You got to be a fan of a team or
a fan of a player or something like that. Right, think to me,
I you can be a fan just of sports and just love, you
know, any sports. And I think that's kind of where I fall,
because I mean, you know, I'm I'm not paying attention to the NHL,
but I'm gonna watch some of the Stanley Cup when he gets to the
final because because it's it's a major sports, it's the championship. And I
wouldn't do that because I don't want to cocky. I don't understand hockey,
but you and it beats watching all my children tell you exactly. I mean,
you know, I'm you know, twenty times over on all my daylines.
You know, I mean, I'm not watching him over and over and
over again how to get away with murder? And they I listen to him.
You know, I know that you can't get away with Murder's what I
know. But uh, you know, I think that it's uh a thing
where I think you can be a fan by just being a fan of enjoying
sports. That's a sports fan without being a fan of a specific thing.
I mean, am I a Dodger fan? Yes? But you know,
and do I watch the Dodgers every day that they're on at home? If
I've got you know, you got my TV on and do nothing else.
And I'm not sitting down to you know, my wife's not a bening on
Succession or something like that. The Dodging show, she says it is,
she's she's had it on when I'm in the room. I can't take it
well because it's reminds the wrestler. But yeah, I've heard it's great stuff
and I passed it through and I kind of start watching I do a little
and it reminds me of obviously the obviously have you watched The White White House?
That funny a new episode breaks? Did last night or today? Last
night? Last night? Okay? I yeah, the third one. I
haven't seen that one because I was busy watching the Dodgers go twelve innings last
night, which then kept me up, and then I had to be up
at five thirty this morning for my Tuesday breakfast meetings. So I'm I'm on
fumes right now. I'm doing. Yeah, you're gonna have to you're okus
during the breaks man to carry. But I enjoyed that. You know,
I am a Dodger fan. But even even so, Steve, I'm a
fan of I'm always been a fan of baseball. I mean, I kind
of went away from being a fan of a specific team for a while because
I got tired of all the you know, the crap and the turnover nobody's
staying with. But I kind of came back to being a huge Dodger fan
again. But I've always paid attention to baseball. Do you pay attention to
the NBA to a degree more so now than ever because because of the show,
um, you know, a huge football fan college and felt um,
so you know. But again in the NFL, I'm not a fan of
a team. So but I'm still a fan. I consider myself a fan.
Okay, I don't, well, I consider you. You wouldn't be
see, I don't think you'd be sitting here if you are not. No,
No, this is how I lived my life, and this is kind
of how I pay my bills. So I enjoy it. I pay attention.
I pay attention to it as much as I can. If like hockey,
you could tell me what I know the four teams in I think,
but that's about it. Go only because I saw them. But see,
if you can go you can go sit around a table with a bunch of
guys and not talk hockey and and talk sports. Oh yeah, sure right,
And he's sure pretty much because I mean, you're not gonna you're not
gonna know hockey teams. But if the conversation breaks into hockey, you might
have a couple of things to say. But yeah, but the guys you
hang with generally, are they are right? Right? Right, You're gonna
talk about football, You're gonna talk about basket right, You're gonna talk about
the wildcats. You're gonna talk about yeah, whoever, of course, and
they know that, and they know which which topics to talk to me about
or whatever or not to talk to me, and which those are fans and
one of them. As much as you try to deny it, you are
get me out of this, out of this. Hey, let's um,
let's that's what we got a minute because Isai already text me. He's gonna
say, give us a quick call. He's headed on the road. We'll
ask him where he's going. Um, so that should be fun to take.
He's gonna take the cup around drink cattle difference. And you saw the
you saw the you have to tilt, Yeah, you know it on the
side kind of drink like you're drinking out of a shoe or something. Have
you ever done that? No? God, I'm glad. No, no,
no, even in your darkest the wildest nights though, never anything like
that. I don't even remember those nights. I don't. I don't go
there for a reason. Okay, Hey, let's go, let's go all
right, let's yeah, let's get Jason well, uh, and then we'll
just talk about his second straight state championship in the school's tent, so stick
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I on the Wall with ce Bravera and Jay Gonzalez on Box Sports fourteen fifteen.
They welcome back to one in the ball roof Swarts fourteen fifteen. Ar'm
Steve Rivera, He's Jay Gunzos. Now on the phone. We have Jason
Hesi, coach of the CDEO Baseball team State champion Baseball team, coach,
how are you good? You guys ran into uh to Scott still sorrow and
put them away nicely. How did that game go in terms of how you
thought it would go? Um? Well, I think it went. I
think it went the way it needed to go for us to win the game.
No, no, you have to keep them to a low scoring game.
Did you? Was there a kind of strategy involved pitching ones that?
Well, they have a really good pu, really good arms, and we
did not want to to the cam and any kid late in the game with
us behind. So the goal was to try to get out early and to
and to keep a lead, and we did it. So. Um,
first of all, you had you had your starter and he got he ran
into the pitch count. Um, let me ask you first, when did
the pitch count come into play? That that you guys? How long have
you guys been dealing with that? And then how do you as a coach
to deal with that? One hundred and five pitches doesn't seem like a lot
for a seven inning game. Um, it's been harry since I've been back
at CDEO like last the last five years. But I think it's a good
rule. I mean, one hundred and five pixes, one hundred and ten
picks. It is probably where you need to be as a high school kid
anyway. I mean anything beyond that is probably a little too much. So
what what do you have to do to prepare for something like that? Do
you do? You? Do you monitor it? You are you always just
uh, you know, okay, you always have a guy ready. I
mean, what how does it come into play in terms of your strategy?
Well, I mean we have a guy who has a game changer, and
he's keeping the picks acounts, and whenever we get really close to a piscount
limit, we always double check and cross reference with the other team just to
make sure so we don't run into any um four situation. So you know,
you can finish your hitter once you're into one hundred and fifth pitch.
So, uh, it's happened a couple of times. It happened to Gets
Brag John Mountain with the casey we had to bring we had to bring a
guy in to to finish happened here, happened to get south Point. We'll
be played earlier in the tournament. Same thing. Um, so this is
your second back to back, you know, back to back the title.
How does this feel after the after last year? Well, I mean it
feels good because this was this was kind of a completely different team. I
mean, usually if you went back to back championships is because you got the
same group of kids. UM moved this casey through four innings for us last
year in in a spring tournament. Um, the vast majority of our production
and our and our mound presence was gone this year. So, I mean
it was sttle dicey there early too, so we were feeling the growing things.
Well, I'm gonna I was gonna say, because I can at Morales
story that you did on you guys in all sports. You guys were seven
and seven at one point, so, I mean, you know, we
just everybody trying to figure figure things out? What was going on in those
first fourteen games? Then, how do you think was there any one specific
thing that sort of uh, you know, turned that for you? Well,
I think we ended up happening. We played some really good opponents,
stacked up against each other. We ended up playing UM twosan high who was
ranked second in six A we played kind of in the Foothills, who was
number one in five A. We played due Gallis who was number two,
and five A we ended up playing South Point obviously, who was number one
in five A. Well in four A we played them twice and then we
um we played Sawaro at the end, who was playing as pretty pretty a
tough. So, I mean we had a we had a lot of games
that were against really good opponents at the wrong time, and we ended up
we were very we were competitive in those games. We just we just didn't
have the pitching to get over the hump. Well, you you listed a
bunch of the local teams that must say a lot to the baseball played in
Southern Arizona. Well, yeah, Kylie Flis was playing from state championship tonight.
The Gallas lost in the semi finals and thetaw Point was right there at
the very end in the in the four A. So, um, yeah,
I mean the Southern Arizona has some has some good teams this year.
Well, let me ask you, because you've been coaching baseball for a long
long time, how has it changed? And I'm sure it's gotten a lot
better, But has it to what degree? Well, Um, I mean
it's it's still got the same The good teams are the good teams. They
have been the good teams for decades. And it's pretty much the same thing
up up in Phoenix. And you've probably got a handful of ten or fifteen
teams that are always there at the end and every level of a matter wherever
they play, whether it's four, A five, a Sixay. Okay,
So Jason h. Steph and I were talking. I said, I told
I met you all the way back when you were a freshman at the U
of a M playing for Jerry Kendall in in in you know, one of
the great programs in college baseball. How much of that, how much of
your experienced there, you know, shaped who you are as a coach?
All of it? I mean all of it. I mean we what we
what what we do today, It's Kenadlo Baseball is exactly what we did at
the University of Arizona three decades ago. It's exactly what we do. Soft
onun defense, hard bun defense, first and third offenses and first and third
defenses, cuts and cuts and relays. Um, we hit the same way
that we were taught how to hit back then. We picked the same waybe
were taught how to pick. I mean, there's been changes of over time
in different ways to nuance it to the different population in front of you.
But it's the same game and hasn't changed in two hundred years, let alone
you know, the last thirty years. So I mean we're you know,
we uh, if Jerry kind of were to walk on our baseball field tomorrow,
he could coach our team. That's that's that's how precise the terminology is.
Head hasn't changed in thirty years. So I always asked this of coaches,
and I asked us to Corey Williams last week about secret sauce. So
what's you win? Not by accident because you're very good at what you do.
What's your secret sauce at least? What do you think it is?
Well? I mean, and it just comes down to working hard. I
mean, that's it. I mean when we sat down in the hotel up
and Shoeniques, you know, two months and two months ago, and we
were you know, I think we were ten ten and nine or nine and
eight or some crazy number like that. We just lost six out of eight
and we were sitting sitting in that hotel room talking about ourselves with coaches,
like how do we fix this thing? How do we fix this thing?
And wet nothing for two hours, going around and around and around. At
the end of the day, we came right back to square one, which
is we got to get better and the only way to get better is to
work harder. And when we got back, we got back into Tucson,
we just committed ourselves to We took every two we coached from the second the
kids got out of school and they were able to be on the field until
we could not see a baseball at night. And we did that for two
months straight. Yeah, well there you go, right, Yeah, no,
kiddy, and they and how, you know, how do you get
to buy into that? You know what, there has to be something that
you do or that you say, or that you put out in front of
the you know these guys to commit to that. Well, we're going to
do it. And if you want to come with us, you can,
and if you don't, you don't have to. There are kids that choose
not to play at CDEO Baseball and they don't have rings right now. I
mean, that's just the way it is. And the kids that choose to
put in the time and the effort and the energy, and the kids that
choose to to go through the process get better, and ultimately it's the things
aligned for you, then stuff like this is going to happen. I mean,
we're we're the same guys, we've been ever since we since we showed
up at the CDEO, And your philosophy has stayed the same. You've been
around a high schools up up north, Um, your philosophy hasn't changed.
No, I mean I think I've gotten a little bit. Um, I
think I'm better communicating with players over the years. When I first started coaching,
I was pretty much crazy. I mean I was highly highly competitive,
and I know I was a twenty five year old kid who was two years
removed from playing minor league baseball out there to coaching high school kids. I
mean, there's there's there's reasons I don't have many umpire friends in the city
right. That's because I was basically out of control of a young player and
as a and as a young coaching. Over time, I've tried to tried
to temper that a little bit and really learned that it's not about coaching the
game as much as about coaching the people to play the game, and I
think I'm getting better at that. How do you recognize those things? So
what makes you recognize those things? And as you say, you know,
get get better at that stuff? Is it because you're getting kicked out of
game you have no friends? Well, I mean it's usually come. I
mean it usually comes with failure, right. I mean, you know,
things don't work or things don't happen the way you want them too, and
you ask yourself why, and you know, when you do some self introspection,
m you tryd of realize that sometimes it's not everything around me, sometimes
mostly about me. You trust to try to make small, subtle improvements every
year and that probably made you, well, yeah, a better a coach
and probably said, Okay, this is what I can't do, this is
what I should do. Stuff like that. My time of Pima was really
beneficial. It was a different type of athlete. It was a junior colleague
athlete and it was somebody who you had recruited. And really getting those kids
to play hard was something that was somewhat of an art more than it was
a skill. I mean, it was it was trying to trust the right
buttons and thirty five different guys on an ongoing basis. That's why what Ken
Hakamby has done it Pima is pretty amazing. So you were you know,
you were a college player, said you know, you're a pro player.
Now you're you're a coach. What what is it that keeps you doing this?
What is it? Just? Is it the competition? Working with the
kids, and what is it that makes you stay in this game and do
the things you continue to do well? I think over time it's it's that
I've I realized how important athletics was to me and how it molded me and
how it put me in some of the in front of some of the greatest
men that that I've had the privilege to be around and molded me and helped
shape me into who I am. And and I think over time, I've
really started to see the big picture of that and it's and that's something that
I want to do. I mean this, the days like this are nice,
but there's nothing that replaces when you see a kid go from step A
to step BE, to step SEE to step D and you see his personal
growth, his professional growth. You mean, I get it at the set
the time he's going through it. But he comes back a year or two
or three or four later and he says, hey, man, you know
everything that you did helped me and you just can't replace that. I mean,
at the time I have with coach Kendall the of a Jerry Stid Jim
wing Um. I I mean, it's it's life changing. Yeah. So,
so at this time last year, you were looking at a team that
you were losing a lot of guys. You use that, you come back,
you win a state championship. Now tell us you know what you have
now looking ahead to next year. You've just won a championship. So maybe
this is an unfair question and you just finished your season last night, but
I'm gonna ask anyways, you know, what do you see going forward for
next year? What's on your mind in terms of what you think you guys
are gonna look like next year? Well, I think we'll be better offensively.
I think we returned, we returned the large majority of our offense.
Um. We had some really good junior hitters this year that really came on
at the end. I think we could be as good on the hill from
a depth perspective. Then then when we were this year, we had Lucas
and every time Lucas went out, I mean Lucas was eleven and one and
we were twenty one and ten. So do the math on that we were
five hundred without and then and what ninety five percent with him? So our
second level pitching struggled against the better teams, and I think we'll be deeper
next year. We had two kids that didn't even picture this year before us
who we were who we were counting on, a guy named Jackson Kakowski who
had an arm injury. And then Terrell Read, our shortstop who also pictures,
who was a really good picture and didn't picture one any of this year
because he had some arm trouble, so to keep him on the field as
short he couldn't pitch. And we may have both of those guys next year.
So what do you have leaving? Are they going somewhere? Yeah?
Yeah, Well Lucas is going to Northridge, m Jacob is going to I
think University of Saint Louis and the Midwest UM. Adrian Marquez is going to
go play at Eastern Arizona. He's he's gonna pick. I think Sam Martinez
is probably gonna retire and just go to college. Um, so yeah,
I mean we lose those four guys, well, it's still going to be
stacked. Yeah. Yeah, and then you you kind of part of the
art of being a good coaches you have to temper their enthusiasm for the next
year, saying, now we were two times state champs, but we still
got to be good or better. Well, I don't think anybody in this
team is gonna take it for granted, because I think some of that happened
this year. I think when we I think when we got into it,
we won that tournament at Tucson High and we kind of felt like this was
going to be another easy run and go at it, and then we ended
up taking it on the chin the next two weeks, losing six out of
eight. I think everybody at that point I realized, hey, um,
you can't take this game for granted. It'll it'll punch you right in the
mouth and these kids and it happened to all of us. So I don't
think we'll have that problem next year. Yeah, I can. Coaches say
losing motivates as well as the bench. I don't know if I don't know
if you agree with it, but you know, the bench still kind of
motivates you, and losing really pisses you off. Is no fun. I
mean, it's enough, but it's when you do it's it's but it's when
you make the biggest changes. And kept telling me, guys, you know,
don't believe the wins and losses. Don't believe the feeling you have.
The feeling is it's useless. It's what you're doing that is going to pay
off in the end. It's the work that we're putting in. It's how
are we playing in May that's gonna matter. It doesn't matter who you lost,
when it really doesn't matter who you won, It matters how you're playing
in May. The same message I had to them to our team when we
lost the Foothills and we really should have won the game when we lost to
them in extra ending, is the same feeling when we beat South Point a
couple weeks later. I said, guys, it's it's the same game and
the and it's just the way we played it. So don't believe how good
you feel right now. I don't believe how bad you felt when you lost
the Ironwood Ridge. You know, back back March, it's the same game.
We just played it poorly back then, and we played it better today.
And if you want to do something special, we just gotta piece those
better performances together consistently down the stretch. And we did it right. Everything
matters in May, and you guys did it. Congrats. Congrats again,
Well thank you all right, thanks thanks for having me. Great, great
to have you on the show. Thanks again, appreciate you. Coach be
well, okay, man, thank you Jason he cdo coach baseball two times.
They're my neck of the woods. Obviously, they've historically been a bream
a lot of great players under the major leagues, those kinds of things,
the Duncans and those games. Man, it's always you know, it's always
hard to win a championship. Oh yeah, yeah, because but then he
talks about these teams, the Southern you saw South Points, a cdo came
of the Foothills, Tusun High. They're playing tonight, you know for ja
Yeah, I um, well we'll talk. We gotta go take a break,
so all right, yeah, okay, Well then let's that's going to
do that. We'll take a call, take a call or two or three.
We'll take a break, take a couple of calls, five to zero,
four, one, six, seventy four, forty fine to give us
a buzz. We're also going to be talking to Jordan Geist next hour,
one of the all time great track and field athletes at Arizona SIS. Tick
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It's Steve Romera and Jagen Salvins. This is Hi on the Ball on Fox
Sports fourteen. Different Welcome back to Wying the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen.
Cookie on Steve, He's Jay, I think we got to go.
We had a call callers fight back. We're trying to get you for the
segment to just call us quickly right back to solid. But we're doing some
stuff with the clock and coming back from commercial. Yes we are. Just
give us a quick callback. Well. At Jason's Night in the House today,
he's a Monday, Tnesday, Friday things, so Tuesdays and Thursdays you're
stuck with me, and you know what, it's busy in here during a
break. You know, I know everybody thinks we're out there, you know,
getting some chips and some sodas and we are cool. We are,
we're doing that too, but a lot of stuff going on here trying to
keep up. You know, you sit here and you know we're flipping through
Twitter there's breaking news throughout the show. There's stuff happening right now. Things
are there's stuff coming out of the out of the ACC about their uh you
know, their uh their TV stuff and their revenue sharing and all that.
You know, things are happening as we speak, and we're trying to keep
up with all of that because we want to be sure to talk about it.
Right. We have a color Hi, you're on the air and on
the ball. How's it going. I'm Dick. Hey, Vic's going on
with everything? Guys? Good good? You call the well Buck, didn't
you? Vick? I sure did? And I uh, I'll tell you
I let my kids play for coach Has any day instead of Jay Over.
You're the one they called what you called before before Jay? Right? Yeah,
you said I said, I said he would never not giving out participates
in trophy anytime soon. So you got that. I still think you got
me all wrong, Vic, I really do. I don't know what to
tell you. I'll to argue with you again. Yesterday you you did a
little thing on Arizona softball and I don't know if he was completely but you
were kind of blaming it on youth and and a bunch of freshmen um that
play well. I think that has something to do with it. I mean,
it's me and that's mostly about freshmen coming in and they are honestly gay.
If you're around the softball world, if you're a batbuster, Firecracker,
Corona Angels, you are definitely college ready. So youth has nothing to do
with it. Um. I obviously I know that the Cats have a lot
of hard working girls out there, but we do not have a kid that
compares to Megan Paramou. We do not have a kid that cares compares to
Jordan Ball at Oklahoma or Nicole May. It's not even close. It's it's
light years away. So so so we're going and h that's and that's my
point is that you know, to me, I think if you were listening
to hear me say, UCLA looked like like you know that you see a
bunch of juniors and seniors and and players have been around the block a bunch
of times, and they're playing against the girls who are still might you know,
making their way up. So I think there still is a difference.
And but I think there's those got good players. They I don't know how
good they're ultimately going to be, but it seemed to me like they were
just outmanned by a team that had better, older, more experienced players.
Well, UCLA had their share of freshman girls on the team. Freshman,
uh, freshman at third base, freshman at first base. Um, they
have a lot of youth on that team. Also, it's just a difference,
like I said, is they have Megan faramover Bean, a stud and
she stepped on the campug the freshman. So let me ask you, Vick,
because I know you do follow the USA and others. Where did Arizona
go awry with pitchy Because it was a school of dominance for a long time.
It just hasn't been lately. Where did it go wrong? You know,
it's steven been a tough road. They had a kid u Gosh,
I can't remember how many years ago. Her name was Brihanna from modern day.
She was a batbuster and she ended up tragically committing suicide. She was
coming to you a out of a senior year and after that that was a
big commitment that went bad. Um. We also had a kid gosh and
I can't remember her name, and she just didn't mate with grades and a
few other things. Um, so lost a couple of commitments that way.
But um and then you you you just missed, you just missed. You
know, Natalie Lugo who went to Florida, came to u A and she
told coach Kendrick m No, I'm going to Florida a better deal. And
then some of the pictures they've recruited who you thought we're gonna be, you
know, really really good having materialized and you know, boy that that you
know, I'll tell you I and Tyler McQuillan was great here and all Americans,
but when I saw her in high school, um, oh, my
buddies, Pats are gonna win two patties with her, and it just didn't
materialize. Yeah, yeah, and that's it. He was one of the
best I thought that I had seen in forever. And and like I said,
they have some good, hard working kids. Um My buddies in California
told me that Smerdyke that they have here was was gonna be one of the
biggest they've seen. She thought to be a part and she really didn't even
get that many innings here right right. Well, and then you know,
here comes another one, Ryan Maddox, the you know, the girl out
of Fresno was supposed to be all that, right, I mean, that's
god. She's five and change. Okay, she's like five two. VI
look forward to dinner with you maybe sometime soon. You got it. You
just when you're free, we'll hit it up and you can even bring Gay
along. Okay, okay, I'll bring I'll bring a trophy for him.
Okay, all right, Vick, thank you. So Victor, Victor got
me all wrong. Vic bet me like in October, he says, Steve,
you don't know what you're talking about. Erizone was not gonna finish in
the top three basketball man's massage. Come on, man in the league,
in the league, and I come on, come on, Victor, only
don't got a players. I'll bet you a state dinner, state dinner,
all these guys. I'll come along. I'll pay my own. But I'd
like to see that he was at we were at the Northwest when we did
a remote. Yeah, okay, he visited at a time or two.
He's a Dodger guy too, So it's okay. We're you know, we're
friends of doctor. You know we're do defenses. All nonsense stuff, man,
nonsense man. Okay, you Dodger on Dodger crime. But yeah,
well there shouldn't be. There should not be Dodger on Dodger crime. I
know sometimes there is, but there should not be. But you know,
he makes a good point. Look, here's here was the glaring thing with
me about the difference with ECLA. And those are extremes, Jay, because
there are top two or three programs, but Arizona is you know, one
of those programs too. Or they should it should it should and it was
was that Arizona's best player for the last two years, jenell me on you
right, freshman of the year, you know, led the led the league
in hitting. Yeah, she bets ninth US ninth, Yeah or she I
wonder I wonder how that went for them, because well, Charlie's blast wasn't
even dressed. I think she was injured. So but still even when you
look back, you say, maybe it's not as green on the other side
as you think it's gonna be. You might win, but yeah, I
mean she's still playing center field, center field of batting night. You know,
there were eight better hitters than her in the lineup, right, you
know, and I know sometimes coaches put you know, their nine hitter is
like another lead off here that they're looking at it that way. But still
she was batting lead off at Arizona. She's not bad, you know,
She's not batting lead off at you see. You know, so yeah,
how does that go for somebody? So I don't know. It's just,
uh, they got a lot of work here, you know. And I
wasn't implying that things aren't great over there. They're not because you know,
they're not in the tournament, right, so things are not good over there.
But I don't think it's as hopeless as it's kind of been sounding.
I know, we don't cover the team. I know you went to a
game or two or whatever. Um, I don't know if they'll be changes.
Sometimes they recording change. Well, you never know, you never know,
but you know, um, this is a it is a funny thing.
And I may maybe I shouldn't say this, but I'm going to,
right, he said, But you know, having after having seen Mike Candrea
all these years, you know, with you know, the coaching staffs that
he had, you know, all the players, you know, just all
these veterans of you know long time, you know, top people in softball,
and you know, you see Kaitlin Lowe and Tarn moe At who you
saw as players. You feel like the kids are driving the car now,
No, yeah, without question, we're all we're all right. You feel
like the keys got hand over handed over to the kids and they're still trying
to figure it out right right, and they are and they are, but
you know, and so it's kind of like that was the other like the
I think they'd be okay, you know, growing things. Yeah, as
much as as much as you want to think that by having coached under Candrea
all this time and Tarn Moa has already been there, that you just step
right in and and yeah, you know, and the you know, they
hand you the keys to the Mercedes and you immediately know how to drive it.
It doesn't work that we've got to call real quick because you have four
minutes to take that Hi, you're on the Rnnmall. Hey, Jay,
you were talking about Farren Moat as as a coach, as a pitching coach,
and what's funny is we remember her as a junk pitcher and you don't
see a lot of those type of pitchers having a lot of success nowadays,
right right, you know, So it's so you know, it's as a
fan and I watch I watch a lot of their games on the streaming and
on the fact Fall network, and it's it's hard. It's hard to have
the confidence that she's going to be able to develop power pitchers. Right.
I'm sure she has the knowledge, but we have the memories of how she
pitched right and and that I think we need to find some nil pitching money
and uh and get us some pitching because there was a graphic on the during
the UCLA game that Arizona outscored their opponents this year three hundred and seventy one
to two twenty two. Youth was not their issue, at least not in
the batting order. Yeah, you know it was. It was the pitching
that couldn't hold leads, much like the baseball team. Done but done,
right, is right? Yeah? Yeah, that's done. So you mean
we need to raise money? And what do you mean by we? Wow
the Arizona community, I mean, oh well, a couple of weeks back,
Jay brought it up, what are we going to what should we do
to, you know, to raise this nil money? And I think we
can't have fifty fifty raffles because that would be too much money going out the
door. But we could have like, uh, you know, put in
your twenty bucks when you come into the game and at the football games and
then you know, you put your name in and you maybe win five hundred
bucks. You'd probably probably be able to get some money in a pot.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let me. Or we could sell some red
Julical cardner burritos or something. Oh man, see you said the magic word.
We'll gain some pounds, but they'll be better. There was on a
red please there was yeah, well you'd be you'd be able to tell who
who who donated to the nil burritost end of the season, all over my
face, Thank you, thank you, don yeah, thank our guys.
He makes a good point. I mean, he doesn't make a good point.
And somebody said that was that was one of the things that was said
to me about the type of picture of the Taran moat was. You know,
I'll tell you what, you know, the difference between how hard you
see a lace picture through against Arizona and how hard Devin Nets was throwing.
You know, I've always when I've gone to these games, all of those
pictures looked the same to me, because they all throw a freaking heart.
That was a big difference. But you know this picture that uclat she was
twenty eight two going into the game and she was smoking and they hit her.
They hit her hand, they got they got the hit, so they
couldn't they could hit you know, I think the next year, next year
will be a lot to say about how the coaching moves forward because it's third
year now. The first year was a honeymoon that would turn out to be
nice. Second year not so much. Third year you kind of figure out
what you're where you're at, right and you know, and I think a
lot of what happened this year was masked by what they did last year.
You know, first year that they got to the College World Series. People
had that expectation when you know, they almost didn't even get in the tournament
last year. Then all of a sudden, they make this run. You
get to the College Oral Series and everybody's like, everything's fine, right,
Well it wasn't. They got on a roll this. You know, it
showed that there's still a transition taking place and a lot of work to do,
and that Kaitlin is still trying to put herself. You could use that
you just did and apply it to baseball too, everything because he that first
year was another honeymoon period, did really well, got to the playoffs.
And then this year, right, this is another key year. This is
a year for Tommy Lloyd. Right, you know, third year, No
guy, guy, this is what what his team is gonna look looks like.
This year is what Tommy Lloyd's right. Sure, people can get away,
get away from the oh Sean Millard's guys and stuff like that. You
know, it's like, okay, here you go, it's Tommy Lloyd's guys.
Let's see what they can do. All right, let's take our break.
We're gonna come back top of the hour. We're gonna breaking news,
so stick around.