Randy Mazey Charlotte Preview
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00:00 Yeah, that saves everybody from asking this question. The obvious question of JJ. How's JJ?
00:05 Too early to tell.
00:10 Had some tests done yesterday and just waiting on results of that so
00:16 Don't really have much for you on that note.
00:19 Gonna take it day by day.
00:23 It's the best way to live anyhow, so why wouldn't we do it that way?
00:28 I can't tell if anyone's using the hand emoji. Oh, there we go. Griffin, would you like to ask a question?
00:41 Yeah, building off of that, Coach Mace, are you able to comment on whether or not it's the same hamstring that he dealt with an injury to over the summer?
00:49 You know, I don't know if I'm allowed to comment on that or not, so in the interest of safety,
00:58 I better not.
01:00 Building off of that, is there any sort of discrepancy between
01:07 USA baseball, stuff like the Cape Cod Summer League where collegiate coaches don't have
01:13 direct control over injury and rehab? How does that,
01:17 how do you balance the communication between your players when they're playing for other teams over the summer?
01:26 I mean, you
01:28 you can't avoid things that happen to him.
01:32 He pulls a hamstring playing in the Cape this summer, he could have just as easily pulled his hamstring
01:39 falling out of a bass boat on a Sunday morning. So some injuries you just can't avoid.
01:45 You know, you try and be careful with
01:48 pitchers when you send them off in the summertime and monitoring pitch counts and stuff like that, but
01:55 injuries are part of our game and they always will be and some of them there's no way to avoid them, but
02:01 yeah, it's just nobody's fault. It's just one of those things.
02:07 Justin, go ahead. Hey coach, good morning.
02:13 In terms of the next step, I'm assuming I know Brody kind of stepped in there at shortstop.
02:20 Is that still kind of the the plan or do you kind of have to
02:25 tinker here a little bit?
02:27 No, that'll probably be the plan.
02:29 Ironically, the first pitch after JJ got hurt was a ground ball to the shortstop and
02:34 he made a nice play, made several nice plays on the weekend.
02:38 So, very comfortable with him there.
02:41 And then obviously
02:45 through the Stetson series,
02:47 you know, the infield kind of got shifted around this year. JJ going to short, Ellis going to second and
02:55 some new guys and new places really outside of Grant, I guess. No errors,
02:59 except one from the pitcher, I guess.
03:02 But
03:04 the way the infield has kind of shifted around this year, your thoughts on how they performed over the first four games?
03:11 Yeah, that's
03:13 my rule of never be afraid to overstate the obvious.
03:17 You know, we went down there and
03:19 after saying what you said,
03:22 losing JJ in the middle of the game to go down there and not make any errors is
03:27 probably the best defensive opening weekend we've ever had because
03:31 you know, we went down there the first time our guys walked off the bus and they were giddy that they could smell grass and
03:39 feel dirt. You know, these kids are baseball players, so
03:42 for the first,
03:44 to play error-free like that for the first four games is one thing, but to do it on grass and dirt
03:51 on a field that we haven't been on in such a long time was pretty impressive.
03:54 No one has their hand raised, but if anyone wants to jump in with a question, I'm sure we have more. Kevin, go ahead.
04:07 Hey, Coach, good morning.
04:15 A bit of relief pitching. Always, you know, I think one of the biggest searches, you know, once you get past the starters,
04:21 you had kind of some up-and-down results. Is
04:23 this weekend
04:25 step two in the process and different guys get some looks or is it
04:29 more dependent on the team that you're facing and what they have?
04:32 Yeah, I don't know. It's that's a moving target, too. We still have about
04:38 three guys out with injury that we're expecting to get back at some point on the mound and
04:45 it's going to be a game of shuffling the cards here for
04:48 every weekend probably until we settle on a rotation and
04:53 relievers and that type thing.
04:55 Yeah, it's going to be a lot of smoke and mirrors and that type thing until
05:00 we get everybody back and healthy and see where we're at when that occurs.
05:04 And
05:08 then the injuries. I know the couple guys you have out for the year,
05:12 Porco one of those, who are the other guys you're kind of waiting on?
05:15 Derek Clark, probably going to be one of our weekend starters. Got hurt in an inter-squad game the weekend before we started.
05:24 That made a significant impact on our pitching this past weekend.
05:30 We were counting on him, getting about six innings out of him if we could.
05:34 And he won't be available probably this weekend or next weekend.
05:40 He's a major component as is Porco, so
05:45 we'll see what happens
05:47 when and if those guys get back.
05:49 But those guys are not out for the year?
05:53 As I sit here right now.
05:56 Correct.
05:59 Anybody else have questions while I'm jumping?
06:08 Michael, go ahead.
06:10 Hey, Randy, how's it going?
06:15 Great, thank you. I have a question.
06:17 You mentioned how at the start of the season, the first however many games are kind of experimentation.
06:23 Is that okay with players? Because it's a sport, they're competitive, especially the start of the year.
06:28 They want to be good right away and make good on all their practice and preparation.
06:32 And I know it just sounds like inherently it could be difficult to be consistent at the start.
06:38 How do they handle that? How do you handle that?
06:41 Well, some guys get excited about it because if we didn't do it that way, they wouldn't get to play at all.
06:49 And other guys, you know, wish they were in there every day.
06:53 They're all competitive kids and they all want to play all the time.
06:57 But they know going into it, they've heard me say it before, and we've talked about it,
07:01 that these first 20 games, we're trying to establish some roles on this team.
07:07 And we did that.
07:09 We had some guys just came in and played defense at the end of some games.
07:13 We had some guys that just came in and pinch ran in some of the games.
07:18 We had some guys that came off the bench and pinch hit.
07:21 We had some spot starters at DH.
07:27 So everybody knows that most guys are going to get their chance the first 20 games.
07:33 And that keeps them engaged at practice and makes everything a little more competitive when they're trying to,
07:40 you know, they're trying as hard as they can to get in there.
07:44 So that seemed to work for us.
07:46 You know, the best thing about this weekend was, you know, everybody freaks out when you don't win all your games.
07:53 But that's a typical weekend for us.
07:57 We went down there and what we needed to have happen was,
08:02 we needed to get in some dogfights to see how guys are going to respond to the dogfights that occur later in the year.
08:11 And to say those were four dogfights is an understatement.
08:14 I think all four of the games came down to the last at bat of the day.
08:20 So that's what we needed to have happen.
08:23 See who's going to step up in those situations and who isn't.
08:27 And we're pleasantly surprised by how some guys reacted in those moments.
08:34 Justin, go ahead.
08:39 Sorry about that.
08:44 Yeah, I encourage you to just kind of answer my question.
08:45 Like you said, all four games, one game goes to 11 innings.
08:51 You know, moving forward, Charlotte is a team that made it to the NCAAs last year.
08:57 What do you kind of want to see moving forward?
09:02 You know, Stetson, you guys showed a little bit of pop, got some power from some guys.
09:08 What, you know, to continue to see that fight, what jumped out to you and what do you want to see this weekend?
09:20 Well, same thing, you know, just a continuation of this past weekend and create more moments
09:27 where guys need to perform with a game on the line.
09:31 Because it's, playing the Big 12, almost every game comes down to the last inning.
09:36 So it's really nice to see who can hit better when there's guys on base versus, you know,
09:43 when the score is out of hand and there's nobody on base.
09:45 And who really enjoys being in those moments.
09:50 And we had a lot of them this past weekend.
09:52 So, yeah, just another continuation of that.
09:56 It's nice to win along the way, but I think at this juncture of the season,
10:02 it's more important to learn things about your team than it is to win all the games.
10:08 You know, we started out 0-2 last season.
10:12 And by the time April rolled around, nobody cared about starting the season 0-2.
10:19 But same thing happened, you know, we went down to Georgia Southern last year
10:23 and played some close games and learned a lot about kids.
10:27 And that's very useful information once we get into the middle of the season.
10:38 Does anyone else have any other questions?
10:40 You can jump in.
10:42 If not, okay, Michael, you can go ahead.
10:51 - Just kind of picking up on that, you had some players that are new to the team
10:54 from the portal or new to Division I, even new starters, just, I don't know,
10:58 highlights or people or things that got your attention that was new that are no longer new.
11:05 - Ben Lumsden had a really good weekend, got some results, but better than the results.
11:15 He was just calm and collected and never got rattled, never got sped up,
11:22 which was really encouraging to see.
11:25 He's got great feel for the game.
11:29 Played infield last year in his previous school, and we've been playing him in the outfield
11:33 and played really good in the outfield and hit a couple of big homers for us.
11:38 So he was definitely a bright spot.
11:44 Brody Kresser had a pretty good weekend.
11:47 He's been jumping back and forth from infield to outfield,
11:51 and he actually hit in the leadoff spot on Monday ahead of JJ.
11:58 So that's something we had been looking at.
12:03 So, yeah, those two guys were really encouraging.
12:09 And some guys on the mound did their thing.
12:12 Aiden Major pitched really well on Friday.
12:16 Tyler Swiatulski pitched pretty well on Saturday.
12:22 So a lot of encouraging things came out of it.
12:26 You know, we never start swinging the bats as good as we can
12:34 until we get to the halfway point.
12:37 So in the meantime, you just try and find ways to win games and survive.
12:44 If people think we're going to go just outslug somebody opening weekend
12:50 after not playing near as many inter-squads as we could have,
12:56 then that never happens.
12:58 I don't ever remember a time where we just opened the season
13:02 smashing the baseball.
13:04 So until that time comes, you just got to try and find ways to win.
13:09 And we did that.
13:10 We had to be a little bit creative on offense
13:13 and do some crazy things to score some runs.
13:16 And fortunately, those things worked out.
13:20 - Kevin, go ahead.
13:24 - And following up on that, you all mentioned it kind of been
13:29 a continuing theme in the preseason that weren't going to be as fast,
13:33 might not be able to be as aggressive on the bases.
13:36 But you get to that point that, assuming you're referring to,
13:41 three consecutive bunts, going back to something that's obviously
13:46 been successful for you, was that just a result of,
13:49 hey, we got to try something we're familiar with,
13:52 or you had the right guys in that situation to try that
13:56 and when that point in the game came up?
14:01 - Yeah, sure makes it look like I was full of crap
14:03 on all my preseason interviews.
14:06 But no, that's--
14:08 I don't know another team in the country with the game on the line
14:11 that could have their four-hole guy, five-hole guy, and six-hole guy,
14:16 they'll bunt, bunt, bunt to win a game.
14:19 That's just a testament to the kids in the program
14:23 and how we teach it and what we're capable of doing.
14:26 So, and that'll help us move moving forward because now,
14:30 everybody on our schedule knows that those three guys
14:33 are capable of doing that.
14:35 So that opens things up for them to get more hits
14:38 when they're not bunting too.
14:39 So, yeah, that was pretty impressive.
14:42 Like I said, I don't know of another team out there
14:45 that could say that they could do that in that situation
14:49 with those type of players.
14:50 So kudos to Lumsden, Sam, and Egar for scoring two runs
14:58 and the balls that they made contact with
15:01 went a total of about 60 feet combined.
15:05 Joe, go ahead.
15:06 Randy, obviously, you have to travel by necessity
15:09 the first couple weekends of the season,
15:11 but how much value is there in kind of building team chemistry
15:14 and camaraderie when you go on these four or five-day trips
15:17 in the early portion of the schedule?
15:20 That's actually my funnest part of college baseball
15:23 is traveling with the team and being in the hotel lobby
15:26 with them and in the airports.
15:29 It's a lot of fun.
15:30 It's a lot of fun.
15:31 Being in the hotel lobby with them and in the airports
15:34 and on buses.
15:35 And as you know, I'm a relationship guy,
15:39 and when you're at practice, it's hard to get to know them
15:45 as much when you're at practice because you're always
15:47 trying to teach them how to hit the darn ball
15:49 and catch the ball.
15:50 But when you have a chance to be with them
15:53 in those non-practice moments, that's
15:55 when you build chemistry and relationships and bonding.
15:59 And Braden Berry came down to see us.
16:02 He's in spring training down there, so it was good to see
16:05 him, and a couple other former players came to see us play.
16:08 It was good to see them.
16:09 So getting on the road with these guys is really helpful.
16:14 And ever since the portal came along,
16:18 team chemistry and camaraderie has been our number one goal.
16:21 And so that was a great weekend.
16:24 We had an entire day off down there on Sunday,
16:28 I believe it was, because of the rain.
16:32 And the new guys in the program kind of know what it's like now.
16:36 These freshmen come in here, and they
16:39 have no idea what they're stepping into, but now they do.
16:42 So next time they get in there, or if it's
16:45 the first time they get in there,
16:47 they'll know a little bit more of what to expect.
16:49 So as far as that goes, it was a really good opening weekend.
16:54 All right.
17:00 Last chance for questions.
17:02 Go once, go twice.
17:06 OK, thanks, everybody, for joining us today.
17:09 [AUDIO OUT]
17:12, everybody.