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Welcome into the Nickmnjeon Show here on the UK Sports Network. Despite a series

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loss this weekend to South Carolina, Kentucky remains in the top ten and the

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latest D one Baseball Poll coming in at number eight. They are thirty three

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and nine overall, sixteen and five and the SEC still a top the East

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Division by a game and tied with Arkansas for the overall SEC lead. They'll

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host the Razorbacks this weekend. Coach joins us on the other side. This

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is the Nickmnjeon Show on the UK Sports Network. Welcome back into the Nickmnjeon

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Show here on the UK Sports Network as coach slides in alongside us this week

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and coming off a tough road trip to South Carolina, Coach, just your

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overall thoughts coming out of the weekend, now that the dust is settled.

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Well, it's like most SEC weekends, and you know, obviously the results

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are what they are, but you just go back and just Friday night,

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just a back and forth battle. Just we score, they score, we

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score, they score, and just our team to put up a three spot

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in the ninth inning and then you know what, I tip my cap.

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They hit three consecutive home runs like in all my years, I've never seen

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that. Like they got big hits when they needed it, and then for

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our team to just answer right back and score another run in a tent.

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Just loved the fight. And obviously we didn't put them away. We didn't

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put them away. So you sit there and you look up Friday night,

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you're like, man, three run lead in the ninth, that's our game,

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that's our game, and you know what we didn't. And then Saturday,

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just loved the fight of the guys again from the positional side, and

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the job our bullpen did, just being able to, hey, we're up

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one nothing, then we're down six one and we proceed to score how many

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unanswered runs lets? But yeah, loven answered runs and we just kept adding

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to our lead and we actually put them away. And then Sunday just their

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guy. Sometimes in baseball you know this, but you just run into an

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arm and they just executed a super high level and that's what we ran into.

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And tip my cap to him. He did a good job. But you know you're sitting there going, man, we're one swing away from two

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out of three, and our conversation's different, right, But we didn't win

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two out of three so we got to you know, obviously answer back finals

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week. Guys are in the middle of their finals. Got back late last

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night, around three thirty in the morning, So trying to get them locked

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in in school and then for them their best time of year where they're just

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they play baseball every day. So yeah, those are my thoughts. Coach.

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You brought up a good point, and I've thought about in baseball,

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especially these three game series. Typically you can say cliche wonders, the other

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team gets one and then there's a toss up. But to your team's credit,

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to this point in the year, you guys have not only won the toss up games, you've also taken the one the opponent's supposed to win.

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And that's how this team is sitting in first place in the East. Yeah,

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you bring up a good point, and you know what, like there's

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been a lot of series, as you mentioned to, where it's like,

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man, you know, we're making those plays and we're putting that game away and we end up winning. Yeah, and that obviously didn't happen this weekend.

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But we're in a tion we're in because we've been able to execute at

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a really high level and didn't execute as well as we'd like. But you

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know what, here's the deal. We've put ourselves in a good position and back to work this week, and this group is tough and competitive and we'll

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make the necessary adjustments moving forward. Coach, your bullpen stepped up big and

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that win on Saturday. Cooper Robinson delta two scoreless sinnings. Robert Hogan gave

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you some link out of the bullpen. He also had two scoreless frames.

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And you know you just stack guys on top of each other, no v

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Cameron O'Brien and Ryan Hagan now and also a quick shout out to Ben Cleaver's

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birthday today. So but your bull Ben stepped up big on Saturday. Well,

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thanks for wishing Ben a happy birthday and then also let's not forget yours.

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Happy birthday to you and sneak By. And I did not bring it

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up intentionally because I knew you were going to talk about Ben and happy for

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Ben and what he means to our program. What a guy and super talented

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arm and speaking to him, he's coming back, you know, getting healthy.

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He's gonna throw this week to some hitters and he's moving back. So happy birthday to him. Hoping for a good outing for him tomorrow and then

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for you appreciate another birthday, another birthday. I don't know if you have

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gray hair or not, I can't tell, but yeah, is your happy

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birthday happier part of our team, coach, thank you so much. And

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you mentioned Cleaver's coming back. Where is Travis Smith in his progress right now?

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Yeah? And I know we've gotten a bunch of questions even on Twitter,

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you know about him. So he was a little sore after the weekend

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last weekend where he threw two times. So I think you know this.

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The health of our guys is really important to us. So we did the

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right thing by not throwing him this weekend. But so every day it's a

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different day. So hopefully you know by the time we come Friday. I

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know Travis he is chomping at the bit to get back out there. So

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hopefully have a good week of rest and recovery this week and get him back

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out there Friday. Coach. Also, I know some fans have been asking

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Dominic Nyman, Mason Moore run into a bump in the road, but otherwise

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a strong year. How do you get them back to where they were when

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they were at their best? Yeah, well, I think it starts with

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them getting early outs. You know, we've we've struggled sometimes to get that

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first out, and then maybe when we run into some trouble, just like

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putting a stop and putting our foot down and just making the pitch and the

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winning pitch when we need it. And there's been a couple outings where you

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know, we didn't didn't help them defensively some too, you know, so

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we've got to continue to get them when things are going bad. Okay,

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we can pause, take a deep breath, and then get right back to

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making our pitch and not letting anything else affect us, not letting how many

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runs we've given up or whatever's just happened in the past. Let it go,

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it's done, and let's just focus on the next pitch. Sometimes in

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pitching, you know, when things aren't going your way, one bad pitch

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can lead to another another another, and before you know it, it's kind

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of spiraling on you. Sure, so we got to have a short term

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memory. We got to get back to dominating the bottom of the strike zone,

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working quick, good tempo, getting the defense involved early and just moving

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the game along. And obviously those guys are full capable of doing that,

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and they're two of the main reasons why we're in this position. So they're

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allowed to have some rough outings. That's part of it, but also you

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got to make adjustments, and they're fully willing and able, and we'll make

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some adjustments moving forward. As like I mentioned, take a quick time out.

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We'll continue with Coach right after this here on the UK Sports Network back

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in on the Nick Man Jones Show as the Wildcats prepared to host Arkansas this

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weekend, a series presented by Zip's car Wash, Zip In, Zip Out,

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Zip On Reserve seating sold out against the Razorbacks this weekend, but general

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admission still available while they last, So get your tickets now for the Cats

6:36

and the Razorbacks this weekend. And Coach, we talked in the last segment

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about the bullpen really helping this team to win on Saturday at South Carolina and

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with pitching changes. You obviously have the information you guys have the video,

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but what goes into the information on paper versus what you see in feeling games

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in terms of getting guys ready to come out of the bullpen a lot.

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Obviously there's a game plan going in to every single outing coach Rozelles just does

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an amazing job preparing and so before every game, we have in our minds

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who is obviously our starter, and then I always like to work Darren.

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I don't know if you know this, but I love dessert, Okay.

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I love me some ice cream and sweet So a lot of times when I

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think about my dinner, I kind of want to know what I'm gonna do

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for dessert because I'm trying to count some calories. Okay, So if I

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know who what my dessert is, then I can kind of set forth and

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maybe do my entree and my appetizer and all that. So I work backwards.

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So we have our starter, and then we have our closer in our

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minds who we want that to be. Then you've got to have a plan

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for Okay, let's say to start to get in trouble, who's our long

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relief guy. We call it a long relief guy. You got to have a guy for that. Then you got to have your guys that are able

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to get you out of innings. So ultimately we have the ultimate fireman and

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Cam O'Brien, right, he's going to put out a fire. But on

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the score, dow At the inning, you may not want to go to him quite as early or late or whatever. So we have a couple guys

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that we have listed as firemen, and then we have other guys that are

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available to throw that day. And our job as coaches is to put our

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players in a position to be successful. So what does that look like.

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Well, it starts with their health, how much they've thrown, did they throw the day before, are they fresh? And then we look at our

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opponent and we look at their lineup. We have an idea ahead of time

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who we like to match up. Is it a matchup guys that left first?

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Right? Is this guy better? Verse same side guys? Is he better? There's other side guys. Hey, this guy is really good with

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this type of fastball. This guy hits sinkers really good. Or this guy

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hits for steamers really well. This guy really struggles with changeups. This guy

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does a better job staying on curveballs that move up and down, but anything

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going away from him, it's a slider. So we have to have all

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this information. Hey, and also coach Rozelle and Coachamo and the rest of

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the staff do a great job preparing and it's like, Okay, this guy

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his power numbers, Where are they from? Are they against lefties? Are

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they against righty's? Is it I had an account? Is it behind an

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account? Where are the hits? What part of the count do the hit?

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Is it? Oh? Do they swing at the first couple pitches or

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are they more kind of wait you out and try to go for the longer

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grinder wrap ad. So all these things go into making a decision. Then

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as the game's going on, the flow in the field, then Dumpire plays

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factor. Is Umpire like to call the low pitches? He called the outside corner inside the lefties, right, he's glove side. It's there's a lot

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of things that go into it. Right, the score, it out,

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the weather, the win. Darren, Hey, we know if we bring

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this guy in, he's out of our guys. He's a flyball pitcher.

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Well, the bling's blown out, so maybe we don't want to throw him.

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We probably need to go to our sinkerballer guy to try to keep the

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ball on the ground. So there's all these things that go into it.

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And when the game happens, sometimes it happens fast. Sure, it happens

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fast. So I just think of a guy like Cooper Robinson who ran down

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there and got ready as fast as he could to run us out there for

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the second and third inning and calm the game well going. That was our

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long relief guy, so we knew that. Did we think we're going to

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use him in the second inning, No, but to his credit he went

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down there and got it. And then we have other guys, as I

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mentioned, that are our firemen, the guys that get us out of innings.

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Maybe they threw the day before or two days before, and they're good

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for maybe a batter or two. But Darren, when we're at our best,

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we're getting length from our starters, sure, and that allows us to

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use the quality and the depth of all bullpen arms for shorter periods of time,

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which allows them to throw multiple times, maybe even on a weekend.

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So there's a lot. I know that was a I didn't cover everything.

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There is more, believe it or not, But I do want to talk

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about some other things, and I know you did too well, Coach.

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I was just going to follow up with you, and I talk about Coach

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Rosel all the time and the kind of mentor he is and the way he

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helps develop guys. But in terms of endgame what do you see out of

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him as a pitch caller and how he calls games to the strengths of the

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guys on the mound. Yeah, it does start with that. Obviously,

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we're always going to attack with our best stuff, and then we're never going

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to try to ask our guys to do things that maybe they aren't fully capable

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of doing. But he's got a long track record of success. And I

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just even think about some of these guys that have been in our program for

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about seven months, eight months, Guys like Trey Pooser, think about how

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far he's come. Kim O'Brien, what are we getting. Look at Robert

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Hogan, was that another team in our league? And look what he's doing here, you know what I mean. And there's just like some of these

11:30

guys that literally have just now stepped into our program, the amount of length

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and depth we're getting out of them. A lot of it has to do

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with because of obviously the players and their teachable spirit, but their desire to

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get better, and then Coach Rozell as a mentor just to be able to

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develop those guys has been really neat, no doubt about it. Coach Well,

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also this weekend we saw your offense, as the team likes to say,

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you fired a lot of bullets, you were laying down munch, you

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were hitting for power, and also you guys were eleven for twelve on stolen

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bases. It really was overall a good weekend for the Cats to play.

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Yeah, you know, obviously the first two days. You know, obviously

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yesterday not so the case. But for the first two games, man,

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we'll we firing on all cylinders and even still home was that was good.

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Proud of Pete and Grant for executing that play at a super high level.

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Just another thing that our opponents will eventually have to prepare for. But our

12:20

ability just to have really good at bats, I thought, our ability to

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fight with two strikes, just refusing to just strike out, you know,

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and just just be able to grind. And that's one thing I love about

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this team, Darren in general, is their ability to just stay locked in

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their belief. They have a real belief in one another, what they're trying

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to do, the system to plan, and boy, I know I say

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this every week, but they're just a joy to be around. And when

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you watch a group of guys compete that hard, regardless of the score,

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you know, obviously the score is going to be what we want sometimes or

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not. But when you just talk about their just ability to fight and compete.

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Who man, it's a tough, tough group of guys and a joy

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to be around. We'll take our final time out of come Back. We'll

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talk about some of those individuals at the plate on the other side. This is the Nick Minjeone show in the UK Sports Network, Welcome Back. It

13:16

is our final segment on the Nickmnjeon show for this week and Coach, we

13:18

were talking about the offense to end the last segment and there was some individuals

13:22

that stood out this weekend. First of all, Ryan Waltschmidt just continues his

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tear What a run he has been on. What have you seen different from

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him during this stretch where he is just swinging the ball with authority. You

13:35

know, I don't know if it's maybe so much different, but what we

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see right now and I know you can see it. You got an awesome

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view. I mean I would love to see your overhead view right Like I

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love watching hitters by the way, from that angle. Sometimes you'll see some

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videos of like guys swings from on top of the cage there's a famous one

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about Pete Rose. But anyway, just a guy that is just he is.

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He's on everything. He's on I mean, you name it. And

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when guys go on those stretches, i mean they're on the fastball, they're on their breaking ball, they can hit the change up there. They're just

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on. And I've had a great seat too, I mean, like my

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view is pretty awesome to watch him be a part of it. But yeah,

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he's just man, I'm just so happy. I know we say this

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a lot, and we've talked about it, just his adversity. You know,

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we have the privilege of being around college age student athletes that you know,

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this is only a short time. Some of them we only have for ten months, some of them, in Waldy's case, we'll have for two

14:33

years, and some of them for four and five years. But man,

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just for him to know where he was this summer and to see where he's

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at now and doing what he's doing, I mean, this is like this

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goes beyond baseball, Like this is a guy that is no regardless of what

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happens. And I hope and I believe in my heart that he's going to

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play for a long time and he'll be one of those guys where you're traveling around in a summertime and you're going to watch him at a major league ball

15:00

park, right, Like I believe that with all Mahart. But when baseball's

15:03

over, they'll go through some hard times and maybe even in his baseball career

15:07

again. But just for him to know that he can overcome this like he

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can do it, he's gonna be able to do it like and just be able to come back and fight and to be able to perform at this high

15:18

level. So and you know what, I really believe this. I know

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this about Ryan wal Schmidt. He's going to use this experience to help him

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bless somebody else, right, And I think a lot of times that's why we go through some of these experiences. I believe that the Lord has us

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go through this so we can help and bless other people that are maybe going

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through something similar. And Waldy will no doubt do that. But man,

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moving forward in his life, come on acl surgery ten months later, come

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back do this eleven months? What is he twelve months? Not even I

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mean he ain't even a year that was happening this summer. I mean,

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whow man? He gonna be able to take that for a long time, no doubt, No doubt, Coach. We got a couple of minutes left

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in the show. I wanted to ask you about a million Peatrie. We

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had a fun chat with him on the pregame Sunday at South Carolina and he

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talked about the give back part of the game. He studied behind Ryan Ritter

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and now we see him as the older guy. He's got freshman like Kayas

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Gargad and Ethan Hindle, and he talked about being mentors to them. How

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have you seen him step into a leadership role with some of the younger guys.

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Here's the deal. I think he got four ibats, right, And

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when you're a freshman, you show up every day and you know you're probably not gonna play. Practices and games can become monotonous, right, Like I

16:25

mean, you could just be sitting there and it's just like, man,

16:27

this is just like every day, this is so monotonous. But this is

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a guy that just locked in and focused every day and prepared for his moment.

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And you know, his one of his coaches from Canada text me every

16:41

year and just thanks me, just for us giving him the opportunity to come

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here and do this, and how Emilion has inspired so many other Canadians to

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just want to play baseball and even come to Kentucky. Right, But it's

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because this guy is just man. He is a win. He's a winner.

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And he sat there and he coached first base, you know, his

17:03

freshman year, and he's locked in on pitchers and he's getting his mental reps

17:08

of stolen bases. So when his time would come, he would be ready.

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And that's what he's done. He's ready. And you've heard me say

17:15

this. He's as good as player as I've ever coached, Like I think

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that highly of him, and man is he's special. But he did not

17:22

let the monotony of those practices go through and just he he didn't waste them.

17:27

He prepared and now he's ready and he's performing at a high level.

17:30

Coaches, we wrap up the show. Your players are performing the student part

17:34

of their duty this week with finals. So how are you going to use

17:37

what practice time you do have to get ready for the weekend. You know,

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we'll have to do what I think this team has been sensational apt is

17:45

be able to focus on what's important right now, right now, so when

17:49

we do have him for that hour and a half or two hour window,

17:52

this practice is the most important practice of the year because it's the one at

17:56

that moment and when our team's at our best, that's what we're doing.

17:59

This the most important game of the year on the whole schedule because it's the

18:03

one we're playing right now. So for them, you know, I just

18:06

remember being in their situation and doing that. Coming to the ballpark this time

18:11

of year is like, oh, yes, I needed this because they're just

18:15

their faces are buried in books and on tablets and reading and studying and preparing.

18:19

So this should be a place of freedom for them. And also,

18:22

you know, I give our guys a lot of credit guys that they don't

18:26

care about the student part. This week doesn't bother them. It doesn't bother

18:30

them. But our guys do. They care. They care, They really

18:34

care, and they want to be great and everything we everything they do.

18:37

Then that's as you tearrist talk all the time about a student, a person

18:41

and a player, and we need them to be We want them to be sensational on all of those. So this is the final stretch, This is

18:45

their Omaha week for their academics, so they need to finish strong. Coach,

18:48

will see you this weekend against the Razorbacks, thinks. As always,

18:52

come out and see us go Cats. This has been the nickmn Jeones Show

18:55

in the UK Sports Network