ball5podcast/t.u. Recap/LSU Preview

Listen in as Scott recaps the Aggie/t.u. series this past weekend at Blue Bell Park as well as a quick preview of the upcoming series in Baton Rouge against LSU. Scott also tells of his own fan experiences at the ballpark this weekend. Enjoy!

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Thanks for joining the Ball Five Podcast. I'm your host, Scott Livingstone. So let's jump right into this recap of uh this past weekend against Texas for the Aggs. So, what was supposed to be a three-game series turned out to be a two-game series with all the rain that seemed to be around all weekend. And after a Tuesday loss at Texas State, I mean that the Aggs, they didn't show any sign of uh, you know, letting down against their rival. So, as stated multiple times throughout the last couple days, is even though we only have seven players remaining from the team in 2024, you know, and the coach Exodus back then, you know, and their new players, transfer portal guys, freshmen, people that weren't there to experience that. It does mean a whole lot to a whole lot of other people that follow Aggie Athletics. So it was going to be an exciting weekend no matter what. It was gonna be electric at the stadium and just all over the place. And everybody was looking forward to it. So it was uh turned out to be quite a nice event. So game one, the counted attendance was 7,664. I'm gonna argue that there may have been closer to 10,000 if you count Aggie Alley and outside and everybody else standing around the concourse, everybody that got in later in the game and wasn't counted at the beginning, but it was packed. So the Aggies were victorious, 9-8 over the then number two Longhorns, according to D1. The game was scoreless until the third, where uh Longhorns finally got a sacrifice fly and made the game one to nothing. And the bottom of the third, a counter-triple, Grhovac double, and an RBI ground out by Sorrell made it two to one. And I guarantee you the Longhorns would want Sorrell to ground out instead of hit a three-run homer. Stay tuned. In the fourth, an RBI double by Texas tied at two to two. But then Nico Partida, with his tenth home run of his young career, made it three to two. But then the Longhorns, something about their two-run home runs, uh, they did that in the they hit another one in the fifth and made it four to three. Grahovac then smokes the most exciting play in baseball, a triple. And another RBI ground out by Sorrell tied at four to four. Another two-run home run by the Horns in the sixth made it six to four. And then, you know, I talked a lot about their pitching staff uh last week when I did a little preview, and I said, you know, the the horns go as their pitching staff goes. Well, their pitching staff suffered a little bit here late in these games. I mean, the start of Friday, he was pretty good, but uh we still hit him around. All right, we got a weak and slug, man. We can slug. But uh they let in three more runs, their pitching staff, their bullpen with bases loaded walks, and uh sack fly by Grahovac to bring in Jorian Wilson, made it seven to six. And a sack fly later by Wilson and an error allowing Sorell to score, put the Aggies up nine to six. And then uh the Longhorns hit back-to-back home runs in the ninth to make it nine to eight as the final score. Aggies win. Grahovac, awesome day. Two for four, two RBIs. He had a double and triple. Partita, two for two with an RBI and a home run. Sadeo got the start. And I mean, he he went four innings and five hits, four runs, three walks, six K. So it was a gutty performance. Was it bounce back? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not, but I tell you what, it was gutsy because a kid pitches, you know, he's got a big heart when he's out there and he grinds through it. Freshcorn came up with a save, uh, three innings pitched, three hits, two runs, and four K's. So starting it off one and oh. Then we move on to game two on Saturday, announced attendance, 7,812, which there were more. Aggies got the win 11-4, securing the series, which now I understand is called the Cotton Holdings Lone Star. I call it shutdown because that's what we did. But it's really called the showdown. So Aggs win 11-4. Texas scored the first uh for a 1-0 lead, and then the bottom of the first came along. Back-to-back singles by Grahovac and Sorel. A Dewar walk led to two runs on a Nico Partita double. And then after a 90-minute rain delay, the inning commenced with a keel walk, a Harrison double scoring Dewer and Partita, who were well rested after the rain delay, and another walk this time to Kelner was followed by a bases-loaded triple, most exciting play in baseball by Grahovac. A Sorrell double play to Grahovac, and that made it eight to one. So Aiden Sims was a starter. He went into the dugout for the bottom of the first, behind one to nothing, came out for the second, ahead eight to one. How great is that? Um, a home run by Texas in the third made it eight to two, and the Aggs added one in the bottom of the third to make it nine to two. Home run by Texas made it nine to three. Notice those are solos. And in the fifth, a two-run home run by Sorrell makes it 11-3. Texas home run, 11-4 to finish out the scoring. Grahovac, there's that guy again. Two for five, three RBIs with triple. Sorell, three for five, three RBIs, a double and a home run. Partita, a nice double, a Copian a double, and Bear Harrison with a double himself. As I'd mentioned, Aiden Sims, he started that game. He uh was moved to Saturday this weekend. And he went four and two thirds, four hits, three runs, two walks, and three K's. Gavin Lyons, I tell you what, man, he came in and threw four and a third, three hits, one run, no walks, and five Ks is a super, super effort. And I like I said, I said it before, the series, Texas goes as their pitching goes. And I mean, they had a decent performance Friday, but our hitter was hitters were just better. I mean, we just out slugged them. I mean, their pitching's good, but our hitters are better. So, I mean, they also walked more hitters than than they usually do. But, you know, you gotta give credit where credit is due for our hitters, you know, taking the balls and swinging at the strikes. So before I uh get into the upcoming weekend, uh I want to talk a little bit about my experience at the ballpark. I mean, I played on that field for four years and actually never really knew what was going on in the stands, except maybe up in section 203, because you could hear them. But I gotta tell you, sitting in the stands with the 12th man, the atmosphere at the ballpark was amazing. It was electric. Might have had a little something to do with who was in town, maybe, uh, just a little bit. But yeah, it was it was so much fun. And to get to experience that as a fan, of course, I've been a fan for a while, but to sit in that type of atmosphere, and it's it's always kind of been that atmosphere. But there's a little bit more this weekend, and it was really cool. And you know, we had fans that were camping out in front of Bluebell Park and the gate and the lines to get in before the games, crazy long. The place was jammed. And when they talk about having 7,800 people or you know, in attendance, I'm telling you, it had to be 10,000. So it was a super, super atmosphere to be there, see all the people. I mean, I even saw this guy right here. And for those on audio, I'm uh bouncing around Coach Johnson's bobblehead. It's on my desk on the table here. So, but uh I saw him and his wife, Linda, and that was awesome. Coach Johnson actually, Coach Tom Chandler was the coach that recruited me, and Coach Johnson, it was kind of a handoff between those two guys because Chandler was leaving and Coach Johnson was coming in. So they both kind of recruited me, but I played the four years at the AM uh under Coach Johnson and Superman and amazing wife, Linda. They're awesome. I love seeing them at the ballpark. I saw a trainer, yes, you, Mike Ricky, Mike Radar Ricky, which many of the players will remember. And gosh, it's been 40 years since I saw him and hadn't changed a bit. But you wouldn't know it the way we kind of conversed and talked about everything and brought up old stories and stuff like that. So it was really cool to see radar and uh, you know, just really neat to meet some of his family too. So that was really cool. And fans of the podcast. I mean, a lot of times I wear my ball five podcast shirt at the in the stadium, and you know, I get a lot of people that say, hey, enjoy the podcast, and I really appreciate that. And so if you see me in the stands, which I go to most of the home games, if you see me in the stands, just holler at me or something, and and uh we can visit, man. I like talking baseball, talking about the Aggies, anything. So it's a lot of fun. And even got to take a picture after one of the games with some of the some of the fans of the podcast, some Aggie people. So that was really cool. Uh there were former players there that I was able to talk to and catch up with. So it was just a great, great atmosphere. And, you know, I took it looking at it from a fan's perspective about how how to, you know, what what is it like in the stands? And it's actually kind of fun because, you know, I always make the joke to my family. I say, you know, you sit up top, they yell at the players, you sit down at the bottom, they're yelling at the umpires, and they know their first names. So it's kind of funny actually to you know to sit there and hear everybody talk and and go on and on about how bad the umpires are, the strike zones and stuff like that. So, but I do have to say though, my most favorite thing to do at the ballpark is sausage pretzel, man. That thing at the concession stand. If you have not had one, you need to go get one. But not too many of you don't go, not too many of you go, because when we went to get ours, they only had three left, and I don't think the game had started yet. And so that's how popular they are. So love the atmosphere, loved being there, loved sitting in the stands with everybody and just having a good old time. So, all in all, a good weekend, and uh, you know, we call that a sweep. They took two, played two, won two, so that's a sweep in my book. But unfortunately, it doesn't get any easier. So now let's talk a little bit about LSU coming up this weekend. So playing at the box, that they call it, that place can get rowdy, man. You you know those Cajuns. So roughly they usually have 12 to 15,000 in attendance. And I heard Coach Early talking about, you know, we've been to Oklahoma, we've been to uh Missouri, and you know, nothing against their fan bases, but it just ain't that rowdy, right? So now you're going to LSU with the Raging Cajuns. So uh LSU, I think they were ranked second to start the season, if not first, maybe UCLA was, but they are now out of it. They've had out of the rankings, they've had a little bit of a tough time this year. They're 22-15 and 6-9 in conference. They've lost four in a row. They lost two of three from Bandy, uh, lost two of three to OU, and that was at home. And they won two of three from Kentucky, that was at home. Uh, and they won two of three at Tennessee. So that's kind of good because Tennessee seems like they're getting a little bit hot right now, kind of figuring it out. But they were swept by Ole Miss at Oxford and run ruled in game two. So a little surprising based on you know how good LSU is supposed to be, but you know, it's just kind of one of those years. I mean, we can we can speak to that for sure. So I'm looking at their overall stats. I mean, I didn't couldn't find their just conference-only ones, so these stats could be a little tainted based on the competition. Hitting as a team, they're hitting 284. They have 61 home runs, and they've stolen 31 bases out of 39 attempts. They have three guys over 300 for the season. Uh Derek Curial is hitting 359. Jake Brown is hitting 324, and they have a young man named Arambide. I think he hit four home runs last weekend or two weekends ago. Uh, he's got nine home runs hitting 314, and Brown, who I mentioned earlier, has 15 home runs. So with the 31 stolen bases, uh Curial has 10, and Brown has eight. So most guys have more than half, so only two guys. They're fielding at a 963 clip, which is, you know, it's pretty good. Their pitchers, which was supposed to be their bread and butter. They went out and got some guys in the transfer portal and stuff like that. So, you know, they're supposed to be pretty strong there, but apparently they've been struggling a little bit. So let's hope they keep that up. They got a 4.95 ERA. Uh game one, Kasen Evans is probably who we'll see. He went six innings against Ole Miss through a decent game. Uh Wilson Smith, game two, he got run ruled. Uh game three, they started a guy named Fontenneau, and he only went a third of an inning. And then they brought in uh Gidry for three innings pitched. And I it almost kind of feels like it's a little bit like Vandy when we played them. They kind of ran out of their pitch in and they started a bullpen guy, tried to get him an inning or two, and then bring in a guy that starts every once in a while. So it's kind of like Johnny Holstaff that I've said before. I mean, depth, depth, depth. I mean, you know, Sedeo and Moss hadn't had the type of years that they're gonna they want to have, but they can always be picked up. They're still they're really, really good. And then having Sims on that third day, and now he's been moved around, but we've got depth. I mean, we got three starters, which you can see as we play these teams, they don't have that third starter. It's not that luxury that they have. Um, you got another guy named Cooper Moore that has started six games, but uh he didn't start against Ole Miss. And then you got Zach Cowan is their bullpen guy, and he's their go-to guy in the bullpen, and and they really like him. And remember, I had mentioned stay tuned for uh Sorrell for a three-run home run. He went apo taco against Zach Cowan last year, so that was pretty cool. So, you know, it's gonna be a tough series. Um playing LSU is tough, whether playing at Bluebell or we're playing at the box, and it's gonna be a rowdy crowd. I think our guys are ready for it. You know, we coach Early always taught, you know, people ask him about the rain delay. What'd you talk to him about? What'd you tell him about being? He's like, man, I just leave him alone because he goes, I trust those guys, and there's leaders in the clubhouse. You've got Gavin Grahovac, Sorrell, Ekopian, Dewar, and the list goes on. I mean, there's enough, enough veteran leadership in there that you know he doesn't need to say much, and they can take over. So I think that's a great uh luxury for him to have, and these guys will be ready and they'll be able to handle that environment. Unlike people are able to handle Bluebell Park and the 12th man. So that's it for this episode. I appreciate uh everybody listening, and uh be sure to check out the Ball Five Clubhouse, our YouTube channel, and that'll do it. Appreciate it.