Speaker 1: Back here with Jim Penders after Ukont's victory over Army
Speaker 1: West Points. Uh, we'll get to the big picture in
Speaker 1: a moment. But boy, you go into the eighth inning,
Speaker 1: first two guys out, then suddenly six guys of the play.
Speaker 1: You finish seven or fourteen with two out hits today,
Speaker 1: that'll win you a few ball games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it covers up a lot of sins. You
Speaker 2: get the two out RBIs And that eighth was, you know,
Speaker 2: it was really good. After the first two at bats
Speaker 2: were terrible from Root and Padia, and then and then
Speaker 2: Connor Lane hits it, you know, hits a ball on
Speaker 2: the screws and then you couldn't make it out there
Speaker 2: for a little bit, and it was great. I mean,
Speaker 2: Spur was a little dinged up with the wrist. He
Speaker 2: wasn't quite feeling it with his swing. Fortunately the right
Speaker 2: guy hit the the forty foot ground ball because he's
Speaker 2: going to beat that out every time. And but everybody
Speaker 2: else in that inning, I mean, my lord, they hit
Speaker 2: hit the ball hard. It was good to see one
Speaker 2: of their better guys came in with some velocity and
Speaker 2: we got to it. So, I mean Lane and then
Speaker 2: MacArthur Ready to hit a two zero fastball for a
Speaker 2: two out. RBI Biller hits a ball on the screws,
Speaker 2: Robbie Rispoli works a tough walk and spurs and field single.
Speaker 2: Then Daniels just didn't miss it. He got the game
Speaker 2: ball tonight. He was locked in last couple of nights.
Speaker 2: He's been really good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what have you seen in his transformation over the
Speaker 1: last few years?
Speaker 2: You know, I think when he first got here, you know,
Speaker 2: he's still he still gets under a lot. But what
Speaker 2: I've seen from him, I mean, I think he just
Speaker 2: plays with a lot of confidence. That that has That's
Speaker 2: been the case since he arrived. I mean even as
Speaker 2: a freshman, he played with a lot of confidence. He's
Speaker 2: given a tough at that We've had to move him
Speaker 2: around a little bit. Defensively, he's been limited. His mobility
Speaker 2: is not quite as good as it was, you know,
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, and he's still kind of
Speaker 2: I think working back in with the hip, you know,
Speaker 2: being able to move side to side. However, I mean
Speaker 2: his offense, I mean more than makes up for any
Speaker 2: any deficit on defense. I mean he can He's going
Speaker 2: to drive in a lot more than he lets in
Speaker 2: and on defense. You know, he can be a heady
Speaker 2: player too. He had a big time pickoff last night,
Speaker 2: big time timing pickoff with with Ian Cook when Cook
Speaker 2: was struggling there a little bit, and and he picked
Speaker 2: the absolute right time to do it in Mexican and
Speaker 2: then Ian executed it with Ryan. But he's a baseball
Speaker 2: player and I enjoy watching him play. He's he's he
Speaker 2: he's a big personality as well. And you know, obviously
Speaker 2: really comfortable in the batting in the batter's box right now.
Speaker 1: You got some decent pitching today into tonight. That was
Speaker 1: one of your concerns we talked about on Saturday. Hutchinson
Speaker 1: gave you Tune a third good inning. Spurito gave you
Speaker 1: a decent inning. Caruso Abadessa right down the line, did
Speaker 1: some pretty good stuff for you today. Guys that haven't
Speaker 1: pitched a lot late right right.
Speaker 2: You know, we had kind of a little Kumbia meeting
Speaker 2: with some pictures on Monday. Coach Mac got under the
Speaker 2: hood a little bit. It's tough to tough to really
Speaker 2: work with guys when we're playing so many games. But
Speaker 2: with Easter Sunday when it was we had the off
Speaker 2: day a day earlier, and that allowed for some quality
Speaker 2: work in the bullpen. I think coach Mack was out
Speaker 2: there from like eleven until four with different shifts of
Speaker 2: guys coming through. So did some work, you know, on
Speaker 2: the mental side and executing some pitches. He uncovered a
Speaker 2: couple of things for a couple of guys and then
Speaker 2: they executed tonight. I mean, you saw Kyle Peters have
Speaker 2: a really good outing last night. He hadn't pitched in ages.
Speaker 2: Jude Abidest has been working on some things on the side,
Speaker 2: and it worked tonight. I thought he got some good
Speaker 2: swings and misses. His stuff look electric from the from
Speaker 2: the dugout, it was really sinking, and you know, I
Speaker 2: liked what I saw from him and Caruso. You know,
Speaker 2: we charged him with getting lefties out, and he finally
Speaker 2: had some lefties look really uncomfortable against them. Three of
Speaker 2: the four guys he faced were left handed, so that
Speaker 2: bodes well heading down the stretch here, Hutchinson kind of
Speaker 2: settled in and you said it, yeah, Spirito, I thought
Speaker 2: solid outing, you know, solid and uh, you know he'll
Speaker 2: be on the trip this weekend. He earned his way,
Speaker 2: you know, with just giving up one run, you're you're
Speaker 2: your way onto the onto the weekend travel list. But no,
Speaker 2: I think he has a future. I mean it, ball
Speaker 2: was coming out of the hand pretty well, uh tonight
Speaker 2: from him. And and you know, I thought the pictures
Speaker 2: that came out of the pen for the second night
Speaker 2: in a row, everybody came out of the pen. I
Speaker 2: thought that a solid job. Even you know, Hector's getting
Speaker 2: ready there in a pinch. We've got aft them ready to.
Speaker 1: Go and there here trying to get him ready wasn't
Speaker 1: fair to him, but he's not going.
Speaker 2: To turn it down. He's a competitor. He wanted to
Speaker 2: get every he wants to soak up every opportunity he gets.
Speaker 2: And and he did. He did his job tonight too, Jim.
Speaker 1: Now the weekend, Saint John's ahead on the road.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean never never an easy place to play
Speaker 2: in Jamaica. You know they've got it going a little bit.
Speaker 2: They they got right, I think yesterday with a dramatic
Speaker 2: uh walk off against Rutgers, against a solid Rutgers team.
Speaker 2: So uh, they're very tough at home and they you know,
Speaker 2: they have always competed. I mean back to I remember
Speaker 2: watching games, Uh, you know, at Jail Christian Field in
Speaker 2: the in the nineteen eighties, and it's been a long
Speaker 2: time rival. Saint John's been a long time rival of us.
Speaker 2: So it's gonna be a you know, a nice ride
Speaker 2: down hopefully tomorrow we'll get a practice in and leaving
Speaker 2: hopefully after the traffic in the morning and get down
Speaker 2: there and plenty of time to check in and get
Speaker 2: a good workout. So looking forward to it. And you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's got a lot on the line too. We're
Speaker 2: both battling for first place.
Speaker 1: This made sound goofy because you've won ten straight, But
Speaker 1: do you feel like you're playing your best baseball of
Speaker 1: the season as a whole or is there still a
Speaker 1: long way to go?
Speaker 2: No, we have a long long way to go. I
Speaker 2: mean our infield defense tonight, you shot, you saw some
Speaker 2: some flaws. Certainly. You know, we have moved guys around.
Speaker 2: I mean, we've got guys with wrists and thumbs and
Speaker 2: fingers and you know, and we're getting to the point
Speaker 2: now where it's like, all right, well, we've got to
Speaker 2: kind of you know, you got to bite down and
Speaker 2: try to get through it. And I know we have
Speaker 2: the right mentality to do that, and we haven't had
Speaker 2: to do it until now, So I'm gonna see guys
Speaker 2: back in some regular positions. I think this weekend. It
Speaker 2: looks like and you know, like we couldn't catch Garbowski tonight.
Speaker 2: He's nursing a finger, which he needed the day just
Speaker 2: so that if we had to play two on Friday,
Speaker 2: he'll be available to go. And you're trying to manage
Speaker 2: kind of games ahead, Tyler Minnick. You know we were
Speaker 2: able to get him swinging a little bit today. It
Speaker 2: looks like you'll hopefully be able to go on Friday
Speaker 2: as well. Needed a couple of days off, so then
Speaker 2: spur things up his hand today. So we got a
Speaker 2: guy hitting the face and the dugout. Who's fine. I
Speaker 2: don't know if Cold Taylor's parents were listening, but he's fine.
Speaker 1: Well, we didn't know who.
Speaker 2: I figured I didn't know who. It was a scary moment. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he'd never never blinked and never lost consciousness and said
Speaker 2: all the right things past all the tests. That was
Speaker 2: a relief too.
Speaker 1: All right, good to hear that. That's the luck this weekend,
Speaker 1: And thank you as always for your time.
Speaker 2: Thanks Bob.
Speaker 1: All Right, I have a go one