bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 0:15

Welcome to Tracking the Cats. I'm Bob Saban, along with my co-host, Steve White. And Steve, this is a special episode for us. This episode marks two years that Tracking the Cats has been going on, and we've been sponsored the entire time by Stanberry Insurance, with offices in Sylva as the main office, of course, and then you have Waynesville, Clyde, and Highlands. And they serve all insurance needs, commercial, residential, auto, homeowners blah, blah, blah, blah. But Kevin Stanberry's got this thing rolling pretty good, and he's got some good folks working for him. So if you need insurance let the folks at Stanberry Insurance know. Steve, w- it is two years that we've been doing this. This is our 44th episode. It's

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 1:00

hey, yeah. Time flies when you're having fun, especially at

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 1:03

said...

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 1:04

you're, when

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 1:04

Go ahead.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 1:05

time, you don't want time to fly too much. That's right.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 1:09

you don't have too much on me time years-wise. But anyway, we have wrapping up the spring sports season. But the only thing left right now is baseball going into the Southern Conference, but they also have the NCAA tournament, golf tournament going on. And Tyler Jones has been invited due to his superior performance in the conference and on the Western Carolina team. Tell us a little bit about Tyler.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 1:37

NCAA Regional Golf Tournament today. Starts today at Bermuda Run down in Winston-Salem, actually around Clemmons before you get into

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 1:46

Sure.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 1:51

but a beautiful golf course, and it's been there forever. Seemed like the turn of the century when they started playing golf, they built that one. But he is only the third WCU golfer to play in an NCAA tournament the first since J.T. Poston. Everybody knows who J.T. Poston is PGA Tour right now. That's back in 2015 J.T. made first appearance, made his first appearance. And the only other one was Hall of Famer Matt Cook, who went in the Hall of Fame two years ago here at Western Carolina. That was in 2006. And J.T. is the only one to advance from an NCAA regional to an NCAA tournament, the final NCAA tournament, and he did that twice. Tyler Jones is down in Winston-Salem right now or excuse me, Clemmons, playing and doing very well as we speak, Bob.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 2:43

Yeah. I understand he's in fifth place. That, and that could be fluid, it's early on. This is Monday, May 18th and they have a two-day tournament, right? It'll be also tomorrow.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 2:53

the field has already finished for the day though, and he is minus three and sitting in fifth place at this time as we speak. Now, like you say that can change quickly. We know all about that. I know

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 3:04

Yep.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 3:05

I play golf.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 3:06

Yep. Some other highlights for Catamount Sports. The men's track and field team came in second in the championships that were held in Colorow a week ago last Monday and Tuesday. And the women, they took first place in the track and field championships. And it was a tough road because Samford has been strong on both sides, men and women. And there was a lot of good competition in that meet,

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 3:34

Yeah. They

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 3:35

last week.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 3:36

Eight straight years for the championship. We finished second or third. but our, that was our eighth outdoor Southern Conference championship for our women's program, and that was here last Monday and Tuesday here in Cullowhee at the Catamount Sports Complex right down, like I say, I can almost see that out of my kitchen window. And beating, what was really special about it was beating our nemesis there, Samford, which has dominated track and field in the Southern Conference for five, six, seven, eight past years, whereas it used to be Western Carolina dominating Southern Conference track and field, the outdoor and indoor. But our men's team, as you say, finished second to Samford. women had five individual champions. Now, Cynthia Thomas won both the 100 and the 200 meters, which is that's pretty quick. That's fast. That young lady can fly. And our men's team had three individual champions. Bradley White, this was an interesting, this goes back a long time with me. Bradley White, no relation there broke WCU's 54-year-old record in the 1500 meters. that's, I remember now, Bob, you're gonna laugh at this, but I remember watching that 1500 meter championship back in 1972 here at Cullowhee. Ben Bailey, who was our great

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 4:58

Ben Ba- I knew Ben Bailey.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 4:59

distance runner. I can say I saw that and that was quite a thing. But he set the record, and it has been 54 years, and Bradley White breaks that record after all of that time. And you would think runner, that would have fallen in a,'cause we've had some great distance runners over the years. But that's

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 5:17

Right.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 5:18

to Bradley White on it. Also, our coach, Jesse Norman, our men's and women's track and field coach, was named the Southern Conference Women's Coach of the Year. So congratulations to Jesse, and a great job by him. He's getting us back right now to where, we used to be in track and field. And I tell you another little

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 5:38

And, oh,

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 5:39

here

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 5:39

go ahead.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 5:40

Painter Richards-Baker, you remember him from football season, wide receiver, yeah,

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 5:45

Right.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 5:45

scored 18 points in four different events in that tournament.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 5:50

Wow. Wow.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 5:52

'cause we saw on the football field. But the future's great now for Western Carolina track and field, and we had 15 of our track and field athletes to make the Southern Conference All-Freshman team. 15. So that tells you that the future looks very good for track and field at Western.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 6:11

And in track and field, we don't have to worry about transfers and lo-losing people to the transfer window as much,'cause there's not a lot of money out there for for NIL in, in track and field. I'm sure some-- we'll probably have a few folks who decide they wanna go somewhere else. But one of the things that I like, and that Coach Norman talked about in that podcast, was that in order to get a championship team, you've got to be strong across the board. You've gotta have sprinters. You've gotta have distance people. You've gotta have folks in the field who can throw the javelin so you can catch it. And so

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 6:49

is.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 6:49

discus and shot put and long jumpers high jumpers. So yes the number of events that happen in a track meet is pretty amazing.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 6:59

And it was something down there for two days watching that. It was controlled chaos at times here in Cullowhee watching that. And again our crew I think the Southern Conference really likes for us to have the meet here because our people are on top of it. Our facilities people people like the Conlon our groundskeeper Mark Conlon, and Trey Fisher and his facilities crew, they do a great job. And all the coaches, a lot of the other coaches from the other sports pitch in to help out. And it's it's quite an event here when we have the track and field championships in Cullowhee. Yeah.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 7:33

With the number of people that have to come to Cullowhee, and I meant to ask Jesse this when we had him on, was where does everybody stay? They don't say"Okay, you're not welcome in Cherokee." People can't go gamble there because there's gonna be 350 people showing up for a track meet. I'm sure that you have folks staying over in Waynesville and possibly Franklin to be able

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 7:57

Yeah, but

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 7:57

get here.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 7:58

do ch- stay, occasionally somebody does stay in Cherokee. You're right. And then in Sylva, we've got a couple of nice hotels that do cater to athletic

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 8:06

Oh, yeah.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 8:07

In in the Sylva area. None exactly in the Cullowhee

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 8:10

Yeah.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 8:11

in Sylva, which is, what, six, seven miles away. Yeah.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 8:14

No, but Comfort Inn and,

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 8:15

yeah.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 8:16

The Best Western, both nice. Stayed at both of them, and they're both nice facilities. One other thing we wanna talk about before we get to Coach Beck, and that is the Major League Baseball scene with a Western Carolina alum in there, or,

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 8:31

yeah, Zebby Matthews Zebby s- had a pretty good, started out with a pretty good rookie season last year with the Minnesota Twins. Then he hit some had some hard times and, but he did finish the season last year with the Twins. He did not open the season with them this year. After spring training, he ended up at St. Paul at Triple-A, which I think that's about 12 miles from the Triple-A

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 8:55

Yeah.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 8:57

Field, the Twins' Major League ballpark. So it's pretty convenient to go back and forth. But he made his season of debut last week pitching seven innings of shutout ball against the Marlins, against Miami.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 9:12

Wow.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 9:13

n- four hits walked one batter, struck out five, I think threw 52 strikes and 80 pitches. So quite a, quite an opening performance for Zebby Matthews, and he will be pitching again tomorrow, which if you're watching this, would be Tuesday. He'll be watch-- making another start for the Twins, and we hope that he's... And that team has really been a surprise this year in the Central Division of the American League playing very well. They won three straight series and were picked, I think, dead last in the Central Division, but now above.500. Zebby's doing his part and very encouraging. I tell you, he's just such a fine young man. Six five, about 240, and he can throw it. And again his buddy there, Cal Raleigh again right now on the DL with that injury, stomach injury. And I know Zebby would love to be able to pitch. He pitched against Cal last year when the Seattle Mariners came to town. It didn't turn out real well. But he would love to have

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 10:15

Right.

squadcaster-h749_1_05-18-2026_115239 10:16

opportunity to pitch against Cal this season.

bob-sabin_2_05-18-2026_115239 10:18

All right. Well, that sounds pretty good. I'll look forward to seeing him on Tuesday the 19th, and then in future games as well.

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 10:25

And now we move to our guest for today. We've got Coach Alan Beck from the baseball team. Coach you have the honor of being on Tracking the Cats more than any other guest. This is your fourth appearance, and we welcome you to the show. It's a big week for the Catamounts. Steve, you w-- you got something to start things with?

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 10:48

It's just a great season Coach Beck. 35 wins, the most regular season wins since 2014. That's a long time. Yeah. That's what? 12 years? Our most regular season wins. And again UNC series this past weekend Mercer's sweep of East Tennessee to win the regular season champion. The impact maybe that had on this team going into the last weekend and of course, losing that game on Friday and Mercer sweeping East Tennessee State. Does anything mentally there with the team, or does that just fire them up a little bit more?

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 11:24

Yeah. No, you play as good as we did the whole conference season, you-- you have a chance to win it on your home field, it definitely hurt on on Thursday. We were hoping to get a little bit of help out of East Tennessee State, but they gave us none. First time they'd been swept at home, I think, since twenty nineteen, which is also a long time. We had some hope that they would find a way to get one. But, at the beginning of the year, we told them, I didn't even really talk about a championship. Obviously, you wanna win one, but you gotta be in position to win one. And we got ourselves there late, but we wanted the one or the two seed because it provided the best chance for us to compete to go to Omaha. And that's what it's all about, and that's where our focus has moved toward. we got a great bracket, play at twelve thirty after, maybe just one game or maybe two games from another team. Definitely like where we're at, definitely the side of the bracket we're on. It happened for a reason, and our at fourteen wins usually wins the conference. This is the first year in a long time that it did not. Mercer only got beat three times outside of when we played them in conference play, which is pretty incredible. So they definitely earned it and deserve to be champions.

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 12:33

Coach

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 12:33

go

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 12:33

a remarkable

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 12:34

ahead

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 12:39

of the SoCon this year. That's a lot of people just don't look at that. Sixth best among the NCAA Division I baseball teams baseball conferences, and there's 30 Division I conferences, so six out of 30. That's pretty outstanding. You and your staff deserve a tremendous amount of credit for overcoming what limitations we have and assembling a s- just a special group of student-athletes.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 13:05

Yeah. No, it's they-- all the credit in the world goes to them all the assistants and our players. They make... Coach Mo used to tell me,"Good assistants make good head coaches, and good players make great coaches." No, I just thankful for them, what they've done day in, day out the whole year, and excited to get after it this week. We got a great team. We have... In the past, Western's been more about hitting, and we can still hit with them, but think what this team does well is I think we pitch and play defense, and that comes about every single day. Especially that's how you win a tournament,'cause you don't have to out-hit somebody. You just gotta have more timely hits than they have,

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 13:42

the Southern Conference this year has been pretty solid top to bottom. And we were, Steve and I were looking at the stats, the batting average in particular just before you came on, and wow, it looks like all the teams were pretty solid. And so what are you thinking about the race and how this broke down according to the preseason predictions?

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 14:06

Yeah. First of all, I think the coaches and the players in our league are outstanding. That's, with the coaching, and I think everybody does more with less in a way in the Southern Conference. We're still at just 11.7 scholarships. There's other conferences that we beat that have 18, 24 scholarships and money on top of that. Most of the teams in this league I don't think have any money wrapped up into the roster. So it just shows you how good and how well-coached everyone is. But this week with average, you throw all that stuff out the window. It's just about competing and finding a way to win and finding a way to stay in the winners' bracket and the side of it. And, for us, three games, that's all we have to win to, to be champions. Which is just so much easier than last year. Last year we Reavis to get through VMI, used Dave to get through Mercer, and t- and eight other relievers. So by the time we got to ETSU, we had already used 10 pitchers. And now we're in that slot waiting with our best, and we're not gonna save any bullets. We're gonna fire'em.

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 15:10

Coach, now the brackets, like I say, you've talked about that, are set for the tournament. A little bit different. People don't realize the way this thing goes, where there's two brackets. Mercer's number one seed in one bracket. We're the number one seed in bracket two. And so you don't really see everybody there in the tournament unless you maybe get to the the semifinals or championship game, and you might see a different team out of your bracket. Mercer, again, the top seed in one bracket. The Catamounts the top seed in the other. Talk about that path to a possible showdown with Mer- I know you don't wanna look ahead next Saturday. Which team could maybe spoil that scenario? The dark horse team in this tournament that in your estimation the team or the teams that could be peaking at this time and dangerous? Yeah.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 15:58

Yeah. No I think the only team that beat Mercer in their bracket was Citadel one time, I believe, on Sunday. I think they swept VMI and swept Wofford. Right? Is that in...

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 16:12

I think that's Right. yeah. I think I'm trying, I'm...

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 16:15

I don't know outside of that one. I like it though. It's the way the Sun Belt tournament used to be I was doing that and we have to worry about UNCG, ETSU, and Samford until the last game. Used to be you'd be in a eight team, one eight, two- two six, five four, and you'd have to... You could potentially play all the teams. So from a scouting standpoint, we're still pretty familiar even though we played Samford at the beginning of the year been watching them and so we're gonna just worry about those teams on our side. And then if we get the opportunity to play Saturday night, I don't think our guys care who it's against.

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 16:51

Yeah, that's right.

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 16:53

Pitching depth is you mentioned that is, the number of pitchers we've gotta have ready. How do you feel about the staff with what we've got coming up? Are you-- You said we're gonna throw all the bullets at them. What do you think or in the total pitching staff do you see some guys that line up better with some teams? Or how do you see that happening?

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 17:18

Yeah. We're gonna keep it as is at least That's the plan right now, where Carter will throw game one, Fordham will throw game two, and then Myers will throw game three if it lines up like that. But we'll have to figure all that out. We're just really worried about that first game and, and it's big to win that one, so you just play one game on Thursday, and then you're back at 12:30 on Friday. But I think we're as healthy as we've been on the mound. I think we have options. I think our pitching's trending upward. From this weekend, giving up five runs o- over the course of three ball games to a UNCG team that put up in a game against Virginia Tech, and then I think 8 or 10 in the second game. So to limit them to, one two or whatever it was, I think it was 2-1-2 on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I talked with Coach Raleigh, he called the games. He's"I'd much rather my pitch should be trending that way than the hitting." And we play defense. We're gonna play defense e- every game down in the tournament. That's not... Nothing's gonna change there. So I think that's the X factor where you always keeps you in a game. You can always minimize innings, and we've turned a bunch of double plays this year. And we got four shortstops in the infield, that helps. All those guys played shortstop in high school and just it's in a good. spot. BK came out, he threw again on S- on Saturday. It was up to 93, so he's healthy. As good as he's thrown the ball. Davis Wright, it's as good as I've seen him throw the ball. Got all those seniors in, so it's in a good spot.

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 18:45

That's good. And the fielding percentages, I think we're like second in, in the conference as far as our fielding without errors and being able, like you mentioned double plays, those kinds of things.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 18:58

Yeah, it should give the defense and the pitcher confidence that they're always a pitch away, with one out and a double play s- lined up. We've turned some good ones, we've turned some tough ones. But we're just I like the idea of our guys knowing that they're, a pitch away to get off the field.'Cause the other team, they're gonna make a push at some point, whoever you play. They're gonna threaten, they're gonna have traffic, and then it's like take care of the baseball and just get outs when they're, they present themselves, throw to the right base. That's stuff that we've hard on, that we've done a pretty good job on all year.

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 19:32

Coach, you've played in a lot of tournament games in your career as a player and coached in a bunch of them as well. How is tournament play maybe a little bit different from the regular season? Game by game, I know that you look at that. C- can you think ahead? Do you try to change the mental state of the players or anything? I- in other words, what I'm saying is this a different scenario as far as your mental preparation for a tournament as opposed to a regular season series?

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 20:00

Yeah. I definitely think it is when you're a five through eight and you got to play to get in for us, it's def- it's different'cause you're playing different teams. But for us, it's basically the same thing that we've been doing all year. We got to win a series to get to the championship game. You win two games, unless you lose the first one, you'd have to win three. But, you're two games away for a chance to play for it all. So just obviously one pitch at a time, not trying to get too ahead of yourself or behind. Every run's the most valuable. at bat, every inning, you want to win. But, we've been playing that way for about two months now, it feels ever since we went up on Mercer, we've been trying to keep up with them and, So it'd be different if we playing like that or we had a tough weekend or... But we've been winning series here for a long time. So I think just the line between, being focused but staying loose is important. I think you got to enjoy it and it doesn't... sometimes it's not easy to do. But so no not really for me. They just, they got to be ready to play. They got to have their minds in that state of mind. From the first pitch on, there's no, time to ease your way into things, and that's why, in a way, I'm glad we're not playing at 9 a.m.,

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 21:17

Yeah.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 21:18

where we

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 21:18

Me, me too.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 21:19

sleep in and get more. Yeah. I know. Everybody is. So I think I think, just doing a good job at getting the guys ready to play and them understanding. The good thing is that there was a lot of guys on this team that was a part of the run that we had last year. So if we were going into it and had never won a tournament game had never a couple games in a tournament, I'd be maybe a little worried or thinking about something else to do. But man, our guys just did this last year and, we were a play away a hit away from beating ETSU in that 16-13 game on Friday at 9 a.m. last year to where we're... We would've been a game away.

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 21:56

Yeah.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 21:57

who we'd have pitched,'cause we had used everybody, but we'd have figured it out, but no, I think just, I think just go. You got to go

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 22:04

Yeah.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 22:04

it. This is the best time of the year.

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 22:06

Yeah. I think it's very appropriate you talk about not wanting to play that nine o'clock game. The two teams that are playing the first game of the first day at nine o'clock, Citadel and VMI, they're used to being out there standing at attention at six o'clock s-

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 22:20

Sure.

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 22:21

thirty in the morning, saluting the flag and listening to the national anthem. So yeah, they'll be right, very comfortable at nine o'clock in the morning.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 22:29

you, and then they just finished up a series against each other too, so there's

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 22:33

Yeah.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 22:33

playing four games in a row against a team that you're very familiar with.

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 22:37

Yes, and the rivalry too between those two. That's right.

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 22:41

I'm sure that next year is the last thing on your mind right now. But I'm thinking a little bit about what's gonna be coming up with Tennessee Tech joining the league and have-- That'll also affect, one our scheduling because we'll have one more conference series during the season. This year we had a couple of them after the season started. And the other is the way the tournament will look with nine teams in the tournament. That'll go back to a little more difficult scheduling, right?

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 23:11

Yeah, it used to be the nine, eight would play each other to play the one which give-- Or from what I remember. I think some years they didn't take that nine, ten, and eleven when I first got in the league, and only the top eight made it. So yeah, I don't know what they're gonna do. glad, I know Coach Mo was big on having this changed to reward the home... the teams that did well in the regular season. So if they do change it next year, I'm just glad we got to be the one or the two for one of the years,'cause I don't think this is the first time we've ever been the one or the two. Correct? I don't know that we've... And until twenty fourteen

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 23:47

Yeah.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 23:48

when we were the one seed. So Yeah. it'll be interesting, it's you're always looking to next year a little bit, with everything. The scheduling, we got a, a great schedule. We're opening at home with Cincinnati at Florida State. Got Winthrop here in conference play. Citadel, Wofford, Tennessee Tech, VMI all here. Then we're at the Tough Four. just adding that that eighth conference weekend is huge because then have to find Wake Forest to go down to. You got... You're in conference play, and it's easier keeping those guys in that mindset when they're playing for so much down the home stretch to where instead of going out of conference, it's just... it'll be a good thing. I miss the old ten-team, thirty-game league. I thought that was really good. But definitely excited about what these guys can do this weekend this week going into the weekend. I think we can win it. I think we got just as good a shot as anybody. I believe in our guys. The guys love each other. It's a, it's one of the best teams I've been a part of. I've been doing this for twenty-five years as a player or coach and, and there's only a couple teams. It's a top five for sure. We'll see. It could jump up to one if they wanna go crazy down here and win it and put us in a regional. So I just don't want it, don't wanna see it end. Want it for the guys and be a champion,

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 25:09

we do have it easier. We've got the schedule. We don't play till Thursday morning-- Thursday at 12:30, and we're gonna play the winner of East Tennessee and Greensboro. So we could end up playing Greensboro again, right?

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 25:23

But

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 25:24

Or no,

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 25:24

they have to play, and then they play Samford, who's the three

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 25:27

S-Sanford.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 25:28

on

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 25:28

Yeah.

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 25:29

that's right. That's right. Yep. So it could-

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 25:34

important. We lost a game to each one of those teams. We lost to every one of them's ace. Samford came and run ruled us on Friday night with Lee. UNCG, obviously Chapman threw really good. No runs through seven innings. And then ETSU, I'd imagine they'll run Harpster out there, their best. And he beat us on the back end of that double header, which we had a pretty good chance to win that game. But and he was real good that day. One of those things where we lost to those guys, but those guys will have been used prior to them getting to us, and we didn't lose anybody else.

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 26:08

Yeah,

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 26:08

but

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 26:09

yeah.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 26:09

all good. I think Samford's probably trending up more than people think. They had a good last weekend. they didn't start out well. They played us as tough as anybody early in the year. and then UNCG, talk about not helping us. They didn't make an error all weekend, I don't think. Hardly walked anybody.

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 26:26

And they had won

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 26:26

we

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 26:26

what? Six straight coming into it,

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 26:28

yeah. No, and it was, and then they won that first game, two swings of the bat. Carter threw amazing. But definitely like where the pitching's headed. I think Carter, Fordham, and Evan all threw great this weekend. It was good to see Snyder get back out there and get a save on Sa- on Friday. And then just there's no telling. It usually somebody steps up for your team or your program that you're not the person that's the other team circling to not let beat them. It's somebody maybe down in the lineup or somebody that has a weak... I know when I played it was Brian Sigman. I think he hit eight hundred or eight fifty or something. And then Ben Vredic, who got the game-winning hit for us. It wasn't the three, four, five and, or anything like that. It was the guys down that, that kinda helped carry us. And that's what a team, that's what it takes. You gotta

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 27:16

Yep.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 27:17

have different guys stepping up throughout the year. I think that's a strength of ours as far as the length of our lineup. When you got Fees or Cam Murray or somebody like that down in the eight, nine, and they're hitting, close to three hundred with a couple jacks and, twenty, thirty RBIs, you feel pretty good about things.

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 27:32

Yeah. Coach, you look at this technically that bracket, we could be playing a team that's already played two ballgames, if East Tennessee,

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 27:41

ETSU

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 27:41

and then yeah. So they would have already used a good portion of their pitching staff before we get to play them 12:30 on Thursday. And one other thing, Coach, talk about a bracket. I don't know if this, 2007, Western just walked off with the regular season championship Coach Raleigh's team that went to, To Chapel Hill for the regional. just annihilated Wofford in the last series of the season. We go to Charleston for the tournament. they had to do the play-in game. The cit-- Wofford had to do the play-in game. They were dead last. out, won five straight games, won the Southern Conference tournament, went on to a regional. We got in as an at-large team, but that tells you it w- anything can happen in a Southern Conference baseball tournament.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 28:28

Oh, yeah. No I look forward to, I look forward to it. It's it's always a fun week, and we made some good... That was I remember some of the runs we made. Two thousand and ten, we had a really good run to the championship game and ran into Wojohowski, the big leaguer from the Citadel.

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 28:44

Yeah.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 28:44

And then last year was a lot of fun. I'm, that last year I think's gonna really help our guys just knowing what to expect when you get down there, the level of competitiveness that it's gonna be. I know it helped us. My first year we didn't make the tournament'cause we were terrible. Second year we made it, two and out. Third year we won the first one, then lost two, and then the last year four and one to win the tournament. But it just, you know what to expect. And I remember, that year we went to a regional and we'd always talk like, if we'da, if we could've just done that junior year, we could've won a regional. It

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 29:19

Yeah.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 29:19

The competition was that good, it was just, you're just not y- you know, it's the first time. You don't know what's going on. So I think the run that

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 29:27

Yeah.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 29:27

had last year, should help us. But it's gonna be every team in the league's good. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day, and just excited to watch our guys play and, all the fans and the support that we get on the road. I know they'll be down in Greenville pulling us on.

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 29:45

Coach we know we g-- you gotta get out to practice. It starts in just a few minutes, and we appreciate having you back on again for the fourth time, as we mentioned before. And hopefully we'll get you on again in another week or two between this tournament and the next tournament. Would love to

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 30:00

NC-

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 30:01

that opportunity

squadcaster-a0jc_1_05-18-2026_112312 30:02

yes.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 30:03

I'd lo- yeah let's schedule that. Let's let's make sure that happens.

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 30:06

All right.

squadcaster-3c01_1_05-18-2026_112306 30:07

awesome.

bob-sabin_1_05-18-2026_112311 30:08

Thanks again. That about does it for this edition of Tracking the Cats, brought to you as usual by Stanberry Insurance, and we will see you all again in a couple of weeks