ball5podcast/Aggie-Florida Recap

Tune in as Scott recaps the weekend series win against the Florida Gators in Gainesville. Listen in to a few lessons to be learned by watching Jorian Wilson throw a runner out at home and TK with heads up base-running to steal an Aggie run. Scott briefly touches on the Auburn Tigers coming to Blue Bell this weekend. Enjoy!!

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Hey everybody, thanks for joining the Ball Five Podcast. I'm your host, Scott Livingstone, and let's jump right into this recap of the Aggies and Gators this weekend in Gainesville. Aggies dropped game one, 9-2. Wasn't a whole lot of offense from the Aggies. I mean, you got five hits with uh both runs coming on a Gavin Grahovac third inning, two-run homer, bringing in Bear Harrison, uh, who had singled. Score was closer than most of the game, for most of the game than the final score would show or indicate. I mean, it was five to two through the seventh. Uh Powell was the one that finished it, and I thought he might stay in, but we brought in Luke Billings and Hunter Bond, and I both of them were making their first SEC appearance, and unfortunately, they were not able to hold it down to five to two. And we ended up giving up four runs that finished the uh scoring at 9-2. It was kind of interesting, though, is I thought if we could have kept it close, uh, they would have had to use their closer. And if we, you know, anytime you get somebody to use their closer when they're, you know, trying to win a series or win the first game, and we get some innings out of him. And but unfortunately, we didn't. They got four runs and they were able to use somebody else out of the bullpen. And their starting pitcher, Aiden King. I mean, this guy was good. It was of, you know, I think the strategy was swing early, swing often. You know, and you know, we're a team that takes a lot of pitches and gets hit by pitches and walks, but Aiden King didn't do that. There was a lot of talk before the uh series that, hey, if if the season ended today, he'd be the SEC pitcher of the year. And he showed it. I mean, he he threw really well. But, you know, at the end of the day, we have a really good team, and we can bang. So I think if he if we were to see him again, I think we'd do pretty well. I mean, our guys learn, they figure it out, and uh, I think, you know, plus he was pretty emotional when he left the game. I think maybe our guys might remember that. So, and when I look at Florida, I kind of compare him to LSU, actually. I mean, they supposedly have some really good arms out of the bullpen, which we hadn't seen yet. Um, but at that point we hadn't seen. But, you know, LSU had them too. And so when we were sitting there watching Florida, it's kind of like, what's you know, where's these bullets gonna come from? Because their their batting order was not that strong. I mean, they weren't that good at the bottom. Now they inserted a guy that only had a few at bats and he hit a home or a double, and I think he's gonna start playing a lot more. But you know, I'll take our seven-hole hitter over him any day, Jorian. But I think it's a situation where if we could get a lead on him and we get ahead of him, then our pitching can hold him down because you get out the first three, four batters and keep the other guys off base, then you got a chance to win the game. So um unfortunately, didn't go our way. But uh the hits, we had five. Gavin, Okopian, Dewar, Keel, and Harrison. So uh 0-1 going into game two. Now, supposedly, Liam Peterson, their pitcher, is supposed to be a top 10 draft pick. I ain't seeing it, but I don't know anything about Scouting, I guess. Uh Aggs won eight to four. Uh Aiden Sims for us. Everybody, you know, we feel pretty good when Aiden's on the hill, don't we? But Florida grabbed an early lead with a home run in the bottom of second. Uh the Aggs in the top of the third, Bear Homered, and an Acopian double scored Gavin, who had walked. So we went ahead 2-1. A fourth inning home run by Nico Partida made it 3-1, followed by a fifth inning absolute bomb to center field off the batter's eye. I think it was off the batter's eye. If it wasn't off, it was over it, uh, by Grahovac, which scored Kellner as well, who had singled, and that made it five to one. Florida added another home run to make it five to two. In the top of the six, something happened that I have never seen before. I feel like I've seen everything, but you know, when you you look back and think, have I ever seen that before? I've never seen this before. It was absolutely amazing. It was an exciting play, which I love the triple. I think the triple is the most exciting play. And this kind of happened to be three bases. So Partita uh leads off with a single, keel hits into fielder's choice, so partita's out at second. Keel is on first, takes off for a steal. The shortstop covers, which he's supposed to do, and Wilson hits kind of a I mean, he didn't smoke it, but it was a soft ground ball that got past the shortstop as he tried to come back. I thought shortstop might try and dive for, but maybe he didn't have the opportunity. But through that vacated spot and it went into short left center field. And I mean, kudos to TK because that kid's always looking for that extra base. And I mean, if I could run like that, I would have too. But I think he already had it in his mind that he's gonna try and go all the way because that ball started, as it got out to the outfield grass, it started dying. And that ball is right in front of TK. He can see it. He can also see the speed of the ball. He can tell where the outfielders are because that's all right in front of him. So, all you base runners out there, when you get to start running towards second base, you don't have to pick up the third base coach if the ball is in front of you to where you can see it. If you know you can make it, you go because it's gonna slow you down to pick your head up. And he never slowed down, never looked for Pennington, but I believe he looked for Pennington when he got closer to third base, and Cliff said, Heck yeah, man, let's go. And he motored all the way around. I've never seen a base hit, a guy score from first, even though he was stealing, he still wasn't at second base when Jori hit the ball. So, all the way. Uh, one thing he reminded me of when I played in Detroit, we had a center fielder named Milk Kyler. Kid could fly, just like TK. And I've seen him score on a sacrifice fly from second base. Ball to center field, guy kind of lollygags, goes back. All right, the guy's gonna tag up and go to third. I got no chance to get him, and he just kind of lobs it in. But man, he took off, and it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool to see him score, but it was even cooler to see TK go from first to home. It was awesome. So that made it six to two, and Florida pushed one across. It made it six to three. The seventh was pretty quiet, and in the eighth, Jorian Wilson uh he decided to hit one into a different zip code. Man, he cleared everything, scoring Keel, whom had walked, uh making it eight to three, and it finished up eight to four. I kind of missed a lot of the end of the game because I was prepping for possible tornadoes and hail that were entering the area, but everything was all good. Got to get my pups ready, all you know, suited up in case we got to in case we got to move. Um, Gavin, by the way, dude, four for four. That's impressive in the SEC, man, against that pitching. Two RBIs. Akopian, two for five with an RBI, Partita, two for five with an RBI. TK, one for four. Wilson, three for five with three RBIs. Bear Harrison, one for five with an RBI, and Kellner, two for three. So good job to uh even up the series and then get ready to take game three. So going for the win in game three, we had Weston Moss going against uh Sandifer. I think he started a few games for them. The Aggs won five to one. And I kind of when I was with Detroit, I used to kind of joke with some of the players because our lineup never really changed. You know, if I was like a bench guy or you know, something like that, because I was young, we had guys that started all the time, and I always joke that the lineup cards came pre-printed, like already with the guys' names in it when they were delivered from the manufacturer to you know to Detroit, because I mean we never changed the lineup. So that's a luxury, I think, that the Aggies have right now, uh, outside of a Kopian who banged up his knee. So hopefully he's okay. Um, hopefully he can be in the lineup and the cards will stay the same. But I I just think that's a luxury that a coach can just sit there and fill that lineup card out, know what you're gonna get from these guys. It's gonna be tough every once in a while because it's baseball and that's what happens. Game of failure. We all know that. But I just think it's, you know, it's just a luxury, as I say again, to be able to put those players in day in and day out, and you know, just say, hey, throw your bags and hat out here. Here we go. This is our lineup. Let's go get them. And I mean, we got guys on the bench too that can play that are good. So I think we got a good team. We got a good team. Uh, so there wasn't a lot that happened in the game three until top of third. Gavin got a base hit that scored counter, who had singled and advanced on an error by the third baseman to second base. The third baseman came in, kind of booted it around a little bit, and then tried to make a throw. You could tell he didn't want to throw, and then he felt like he had to throw, and then he threw it down the right field line. So that allowed Boston to get to the next base. So lesson learned. Don't throw that. Uh Gavin would eventually come around to score on a copian sack fly, and that made it two to nothing. And, you know, I watched the games on TV and LSU at LSU. I watched this game on TV. I mean, you got Florida, who is, you know, pretty high in the RPI and had a tough has a tough schedule. LSU's kind of fallen off. But I mean, the crowds, man, there's nobody, it hardly looks like there's anybody in the stands. And there might be, maybe the stadiums are just so big that it doesn't look like anybody's there, but it was just quiet. And I'm just sitting there watching the game going, Callie, it's quiet, and you know, how can you get pumped up? I mean, that says a lot about Bluebell, man. That place goes crazy and it's so great. These other ballparks are dead, man. So there's no place like Bluebell, and that's why people hate coming there. Coaches can talk about it and say your pitchers, uh, they ignore it, but I guarantee you, those coaches, they are concerned that their pitcher's gonna get to ball four, ball five, and start tightening up because they're hearing it. You can tell them all the time, don't listen, tune it out. It's just noise. Yeah, good luck. All right, top of the fourth. Uh Wilson singled to right field on an 0-2 pitch and eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0. Bottom of the fourth, Florida got one, make it 3-1. And then uh top of the sixth, Wilson Homer to center. And, you know, I was kind of thinking at the top of the sixth to start that inning, that Sully, they call him, Sullivan, the Florida coach. I thought he'd take a page out of our book, you know, the old, you know, we're down by three, four, five runs. Let's bring in Cortez or fresh corner somebody to shut that team down and give us time to come back because we definitely have the lineup to do it. And he didn't bring the closer in. We hadn't seen him. This is a third game, and they're in what, the sixth inning? And he hadn't pitched yet. And I'm thinking, oh my God, he's gonna bring him in, try and hold him down, and maybe this, you know, their offense, who's not that strong, could kind of peck away at it. And but he didn't, fortunately for us. And Jorian, he started off with the six with a home run, made it four to one. And Harrison also doubled, and then Soly decided, uh, you know what? Maybe I'm gonna bring in the closer. And the closer did really well. I mean, he threw good. I mean, it was quiet. And Lions and Freshcorn on our side, you know, they did their jobs. The the Florida Gators bats were quiet too. So uh bottom of the eighth, uh, there's some a little bit of action. You know, remember I said bring the closer in because it could still be three to one if he'd have come in and started that and and we didn't get anything. But uh he waited, and so it was four to one to start this inning. They get a base hit and a double, and they eventually, so they're on second and third. They get a fly ball to Jorian. He makes a nice catch, and I like the way he played this one. Sometimes I think he's caught a couple balls going backwards when they had guys on base and he could get his get behind it, get some momentum into his throw, and just hose it because we know he's got a hose, and I think he's relied on his arm a lot. He's never really had to set up and get in position. And I mean, you know, what a great benefit. But for most of us, we got to get circled behind the ball, run through the catch, make the catch, crow hop, and let her rip. And I think that's that's what he did on this. And I think uh I'm not sure who was out there, maybe Chestnut. I'm assuming he was telling him, hey, 4-4-4, runner's going, runner's going. And next thing you know, Jorian gets behind that fly ball, makes a catch, is running through the ball, momentum towards first base. So lesson learned, kiddos, if you're listening. Circle around, run through the ball as you catch it to get that momentum going. And he threw a bullet to uh Harrison at home plate to get the runner out. And remember, if it was 3-1 and he brought in his closer, it would have been could have been 3-2 if that throw wouldn't have worked, but instead it was 4-1, and they would have still had to have some more work to do. But one thing that I really liked was Jorian's long hop. He didn't try and throw it all the way to home, even though he probably could have because he's got a hose. He did a long hop, and that makes it easier on the catcher. You know, it's tough for a catcher with the glove that they have, it's kind of awkward to short hop to catch those little short hops in front of home plate. I mean, you know, they're used to blocking those pitches, not trying to scoop them. So you throw one from the outfield, you know, 95 miles an hour, however hard he throws, that's gonna be tough to scoop. And he left him a long hop off the grass. And I mean, that was that was beautiful. It's a beautiful play. Uh, top of the ninth, Bear Homers, and he made it for the final five to one. So fresh corn came in and shut the door. So, all in all, another series win. And Aggies are hot, man, and and you know, they've been hot. And we need to be because we got number eight Auburn coming to town. So, you know, I'm not big on rankings. Let's take a look at Auburn real quick, but I do look at the RPI. And now AM, after that series in Gainesville, is now number five in the RPI, and Auburn is number six. And if you want to look at rankings, we're number seven, and Auburn's number eight. So I don't think you get any closer than that. So uh we're sitting 14 and 6, second in the SEC, maybe a half game behind Georgia because we've missed a game. And uh they're sitting fifth at 12 and 9, but we got a lot of teams that are kind of right there, one, two games, you know, within reach of everybody. So it's gonna be tight. It's gonna be a tough finish, and everybody's gonna be battling to get up there. Uh, like I said, Armor's 12-9. They've swept Missouri, go figure. Uh they beat Georgia Tech 4-3, who's number three in the country right now. Uh, they lost two of three to Texas. They got swept by Alabama. I'm kind of surprised by that, but they did. Uh, then they lost to Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech came back for a little payback, 13-3. They took two of three from Arkansas, two or three from Kentucky, excuse me, two of three from Florida. And guess the game they lost? Aiden King, who we did. Two or three from OU. And I think they play better at home. I mean, their home record is 20 and 8, but I just kind of have seen them at their ballpark, and it's kind of weird shape, but I think, you know, they they play really well at home, and uh, they do have a pretty good crowd that gets behind them and everything. So they're gonna be tough. It's gonna be a great series. Great series. Uh conference stats. As a team, like I said, this conference, they're hitting 264 with 23 home runs. They're fielding at a 977 clip. So in comparison, we're at a 981. So neck and neck. Uh, we're hitting at a 283 clip to their 264. Uh, their hitters are Eric Guevara, he's hitting 403. Ethan Bingaman is hitting 304. So everybody else is under 300 in conference, and then they have two guys, and most home runs they have is five uh each. For us, we have four guys over 300. And home runs, we're have Grahovac sitting at nine, been on a heater, Sorrell, Partita both at seven, Harrison and Wilson both at six. So Auburn Pitchers, they got this guy named Petrovic. He's got a 3.05 ERA. Opponents are batting 193 against him. And Marciano is uh got a 2.5, and teams are hitting 215 against him. So looks like the third day may be a TBD. You know that guy. That guy throws a lot. Uh so anyway, it's gonna be a tough, tough series. We're I know we're gonna pack Bluebell, everybody's gonna be ready, everybody's gonna be yelling. Better hear some ball five chance and think of us. But uh anyway, yeah, it's gonna be fun. Um looking forward to going and checking it out and pulling for the ag. So that's good. Let's get another series win. All right, gang. That's it. Thanks for listening. Until next time.