On Location at the GLIAC Tournament: "Tournament baseball is just controlled panic!"

The Walk-Ons hit the road for an on-location episode from day three of the GLIAC Tournament, breaking down all the chaos, confusion, walk-offs, momentum swings, and survival-mode baseball that makes conference tournament weekend one of the best times of the year.

The guys talk Grand Valley, Davenport, Wayne State, Parkside, the insanity of the tournament format, and how one swing can completely change an entire season. Along the way, they’re joined by special guest and GLIAC commissioner Chris Dunbar to talk about the growth of the conference, student-athlete experience, and what it takes to pull off a tournament weekend like this.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Well, hello everyone. Welcome in live here from the Gleag Tournament. Day three, Saturday. We've already had a couple teams go home. So, real quick, set up how we're gonna do all this. By the time you're listening to this, you know everything that happened. You know the end of the story. This day is gonna be more about the journey of how they got uh how everyone got around, you know, the emotions, the ups and the downs. We got three games today. So, real quick a recap of what's already happened here. Hold on, hold on.

SPEAKER_05 0:30

Before you're re- I I'm struggling. I got it like what you usually I'm sitting across from that beautiful sweeper of a staff. So it's rolling. So maybe I'll give it like a little rotate. See how that works. All right, we're good.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

All right, we got 30 seconds in before Mike started squirming. So um, yeah, anyway, so real quick recap of what happened. Uh, right now we're here on Saturday. Um we're the first game, uh they're getting ready behind us. Uh, Grand Valley Davenport winning.

SPEAKER_05 0:56

Roll tidy.

SPEAKER_04 0:59

Winner goes on to the finals tomorrow, loser will play the final game today. Uh the second game, a rematch of actually the first game of the tournament, Wayne State and Parkside. Uh, that is a loser's bracket game. Loser goes home, winner gets to play the loser of this game in the final day.

SPEAKER_05 1:14

You finally kind of figured this out. Like it took it took a few days because, like you said, if Saginaw would have won yesterday, it's a good one. It's just been a disaster.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

Because Saginaw went, SVSU goes 0-2, they lose in a walk-off to Davenport, and then they lose to Grand Valley because in this tournament format, if you lose in the the middle seed, the 3-4, if you lose the first game, you have to go play the winner uh of a game.

SPEAKER_05 1:38

So I I imagine if I'm looking at the screen right now with the tournament, I imagine anybody that just heard you fucking say this stuff is so confused. Yes, no, it's like it sounds clean, but I have no idea. It does not sound clean. I mean, you're my point is you're doing a good job, but it's a complete disaster.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

But because now it's gotten to the simple part, right? There's four teams left, two are in the losers bracket, two are in the winners bracket. That's the simple, long and short of it. Uh I guess let's start with the game going on behind us. Uh, you know, Davenport, we're right next to their dugout. Walk off Sam Clay, walk-off bomb. Uh back-to-back games a year apart in the Kleak tournament to walk off for the game.

SPEAKER_05 2:18

I have a story. I have the inside story about the Sam Clay home run. Well then tell it. That that's what we're talking about. So I went over. Well, I hope I say this right, and Coach Tidy's like right behind us, but and I don't want to bother pre-game. So I walked over to say hi to them yesterday before their game, and he's like, Did you see you yesterday? I'm like, Yeah, you hit fucking bombs. Like it Paul Winsky hit one 700 feet, and I saw Clay hit one. He's like, No, dude, like Clay is injured. Yeah. Like he before the game, he was saying, like, I can't play, I can't run, blah, blah, blah. And it was a Kurt Gibson moment. Yes. And the night, it was the ninth inning, Clay comes up to him and goes, I can swing, but I can't fucking run. And he goes, You ain't here to fucking run. He goes, hit it over the fucking fence. And Coach Tidy gave me like a Kurt Gibson moment, and it was really cool to hear. Like, I didn't know, like, you watch it on video, you watch the highlights, you have no idea what's going on in the background, but it was legit a Kurt Gibson.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

If he got to if he hit it in the gap, he was probably staying at first.

SPEAKER_05 3:26

100%. Yeah, really, really cool. So there's a little bit of stuff we get from you and I've been hanging out here all week, weekend. Yeah. You've been here, I didn't know it. No, you're you're big, big league and me in the press box. Oh, okay. Well, I'm scouting people down here all dirty.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

I'm the one big league. Well, you got to be in the press box.

SPEAKER_05 4:17

Anyway, I interrupted you, but I thought it was really cool to hear that.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

I mean, that's kind of a big story, right? Like, how different is this tournament if he doesn't hit that home run and Saginaw Valley wins that first game? What does Davenport do against G V yesterday if they play? Like that that's a pivotal moment in this tournament. Meanwhile, Grand Valley, they've just kind of been doing what they do. So consistent. First game over Purdue Northwest, uh, they I mean they killed Purdue Northwest 16-1. They had 22 hits. Everyone had two or three hits. Like it's one of those when we talk about series, like, we're not gonna go over the the minutiae of a 16 to 1 game.

SPEAKER_05 4:56

No, but it's still it's still hard to just it's a cheesy term, but it's still hard to just do your job, right?

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Like when the Wayne State game, well what yeah, we'll we'll get to that because they have not done their job this weekend.

SPEAKER_05 5:10

Grand Valley has been so consistent all year. You watch them play like defensively, like even the way their coach handles himself, his demeanor. I went over and talked to Coach Kerr 20 minutes ago, and what a pro. Like these guys, they're ready. They don't need they don't even need to win this tournament. You know, that's it.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

No, they're they're gonna be hosting a regional. Who needed it was Saginaw.

SPEAKER_05 5:32

Saginaw really needed it.

SPEAKER_04 5:33

Yeah, and and and I think Davenport's probably done enough to get them in. I think there were five in the last region ranking, so they're probably good. However, another win today would certainly help that. Um, but no, Grand Valley does what they do. Uh they also brought in a bunch of awards. Evan Morrison was Gliak Player of the Year. Uh Colin Bradley won uh pitcher of the year. That one was no surprise.

SPEAKER_05 5:55

And I'll tell you, Evan Morrison's gonna get drafted. Which will be real out of the gliak, right? That'll be really I mean, it happens. Oh, yeah, but more pitchers than anything else. Shortstop, uh lefty bat, I think. Speed. Speed church. Jovan Gill can rake. He's a big lefty donkey at first base or DH for Grand Valley, and my boy pitched yesterday, Owen Avery.

SPEAKER_04 6:19

Well, you didn't even mention Estrada, who you could you could argue we've been calling him Ponch all year because Eric Estrada, but but no, I mean Grand Valley, and then yesterday against Saginaw Valley, uh, you know, SVSU didn't go down without a fight. I mean, they it they were down early, they gave up two in the first, and then that first inning hurt, dude.

SPEAKER_05 6:39

That first inning hurt.

SPEAKER_04 6:40

Well, what really hurts them is you know, you wait till the seventh to finally put up some offense, but when you go down four for five to one, down four runs, you you're probably not coming back in that one.

SPEAKER_05 6:50

I'm gonna I'm gonna put you on the spot here. I don't know if you saw it or not, but what did you think of when you saw Lucas Mead walk to the plate for a sagada? Did you notice him, their center fielder? No, well he's a giant. Oh yeah. He's built like a Greek god, and he runs like a 6'760. I was sitting with a couple scouts yesterday, and I'm like, look at this kid just walk up to the plate. You know how kids just look different. Oh, there's some kids that have a presence, absolutely. He had a home run that got out of here in about a split second, but anyway.

SPEAKER_04 7:22

But yeah, so Grand Valley, they've kind of walked their way here, and this is a big one, right? Because you win this one, you've only played, what, three games and you're in the finals. You lose this one, you're gonna have to play potentially four games in the span of like 30 hours.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

It's interesting what a complete disaster this tournament is. And we might be interviewing the uh, is it the commissioner? The commissioner of the Glik so we can't really make fun of the tournament. Don't do it. You probably wouldn't.

SPEAKER_04 7:49

Well I ask what what the thought pro like the the how how this format was birthed.

SPEAKER_05 7:55

But what I would what's interesting is if Grand Valley wins today, I kind of whispered it because we're right by the dugout of Davenport, but Mike.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

How many people have gotten mad at me? You can say it with your you can say a hypothetical with your chest.

SPEAKER_05 8:07

What I'm saying is the tournament will actually work out properly if Grand Valley wins this game. Like, what a complete disaster looking at the tournament, how it lays out. But they get three wins, they're in the finals. Like for the number one seed, it would have worked out. That would probably be the argument.

SPEAKER_04 8:23

But uh, yeah, so um that that's the first game. The second one, Wayne State, Parkside. Uh let's let's talk about Wayne State because we don't really care about Parkside. But let's talk about Wayne State for a bit because um, you know, you know, I I I love my Warriors, but they uh despite their best efforts, they're still in this tournament. They they've played maybe their two worst games of baseball. I've seen them play all year on Thursday and Friday.

SPEAKER_05 8:49

But Parkside had something to do with it. Parkside did. No, I'll give you a lot of people. It reminded me of like high school games when I'd play against St. Mary's or Catholic Central, and I would throw off. They're Parkside's starting pitcher was right-handed, and he was throwing 83. Yeah. You get these kids that are amped up used to hitting 90s, it actually worked.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

Well, it's not necessarily the the bats that I've been worried about. It's been the pitching has just not been there on both days for Wayne's Day. They I mean, against Parkside, anytime they started to sniff back and try to battle their way back, it seemed like next inning, pew, pew, two home runs, and it would go. Defense wasn't clean. No, no, and that's it's been very unlike them all year long. And then yesterday, I'll be honest, they were lucky to win that game. If a play in the in the what the the fifth inning or the fourth inning, whenever it was, they put up a seventh spot all unnearned, uh, bases loaded, ground ball to second, and Kid just threw it 10 feet wide. Score it clears the bases, leads to it, and then a home run happens uh, you know, a couple in a couple batters later, and it's a seven-run uh inning that probably should have never happened. Deflating, though, like for Purdue Northwest, because they were kind of doing the same thing, you know, in the first inning uh against Parkside, they had three runs come across to score. Uh the night and then against uh Purdue Northwest, two runs scored in the first inning. And they just not a lot of clean, quick innings for Wayne State, and they're deep into their bullpen already. They've probably used six or seven pitchers through two games, and while they have a deep staff, they're going to need a long outing against Parkside. Should they win? I mean, really, you can't even if you're in the losers bracket, you can't prepare for a game you can't prepare for a game you're not guaranteed to have. What do you what do you think Shitty Doug would have done yesterday when Drew Hill went yick twice? Drew Hill has been a bright spot for them. I mean, again, the bats have been good. The bats have been solid. Uh, you know, uh Owen Tuccianardi just for them just tied the uh the single season home run record yesterday. I mean, but yeah, Drew Hill, he's actually not that far behind. I think Tucinardi hit his 14th, and Drew Hill's at 11 for the year. So, I mean, again, the bats have been good there. It's finding the pitching. And against if they're gonna play one of these two teams behind us, whoever it is uh at the end of the day, it's going to have to be better than that. So, right now, again, people listening at home, they know what happens. They know how this story unfolds, but right now in the middle of it, it it really comes down to uh does Wayne State have a dude? And we talked about it on the last show. Who who's number three, who's number four pitcher steps up and becomes a guy, right? Like for Grand Valley, hey, the the they've already played, um they they've already thrown some of their guys, Colin Bradley through. You're probably not seeing him again. Maybe for an inning non-stop.

SPEAKER_05 11:49

That Hodling guy is a is a is a like middle reliever expert guy that might be able to come up big.

SPEAKER_04 11:56

But my point being is you know, you you you know what they've got. You know everyone's thrown their number one.

SPEAKER_05 12:02

So it really this is Coach Tidy, is Coach Tidy in the uh camera shot? Hey, is Coach Tidy in the camera shot?

SPEAKER_04 12:08

You're roll tidy, baby, roll tidy. He's trying to ignore you. He is. But anyway, yeah, it's gonna come down to um you know those third and fourth pitchers. And throughout the day, you know, we're gonna grab guys from the winning side who who are getting ready uh for games. You know, the the the loser of this game's gonna have to turn around and get ready for you know a game later tonight. The winner gets to kind of sit back and watch and see what happens. Uh it's gonna be a lot of fun. It's tournaments of any kind are fun to just go through the story of a day, right? Like it's it's a it's a blank book that gets written every weekend. And this one, well, I think the story right now is can anyone knock off Grand Valley?

SPEAKER_05 12:48

Yeah, this is this game's gonna be awesome. This game's gonna be really good, and the field looks beautiful. There's no excuses when you have turf. Like, again, I'm always the I've been the old man with you here these past eight weeks, but like it's fucking turf. Pick up the ball, play defense, and all you gotta do is hit. Yeah. Right? You throw strikes and turf. There's no big lips on the the grass that's gonna, you know, force the ball to hit you in the face. And you know, later we're gonna have Jason Hill on, who's the father of Drew. He's also the father of Tyler Hill, who is at Madonna, and he's also the father of Brennan Hill, who plays at Michigan, and also just an overall baseball nerd. Yeah, so I went off on my random ADD, whatever you'd call it, but it's gonna be cool to have him to hear his perspective. Funny quick story. I showed up yesterday to the Wayne State game, and the whole Hill family's there, and they see me walking up, and they'd all go, Rice, get out, leave, get out, because I have still not seen Drew Hill get a hit this season. Really? Did you know that? No, I didn't. Everything, every time I'm there, he gets out. I don't know what it is. So, like, Mrs. Hill, Jay's mom, uh, Jay's wife were like, Rice, get the fuck out of here. Leave. And I still didn't see anything from I was there after. I showed up after after that seven run inning, oh, that's it.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

So you didn't get to see anything, uh, anything like that.

SPEAKER_05 14:18

So we'll be doing the game today, and and Hill will be with us. Hopefully, he lets me stay on the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

Well, uh, anyway, real quick, uh, as we kind of wrap up the start of the day stuff, um Adrian's inevitable, aren't they? I mean, it's not necessarily a limb to go out on to say the three-time defending champs are gonna win again.

SPEAKER_05 14:40

No, but but they're similar company, but they're getting close to being similar to the Gliak because what do we say at the beginning of this year, right? There's four teams every year in the Gliak. It's getting to be Elma, Kalamazoo, and Adrian every year now, and they're battling. They're battling the recruiting trail, they're battling in games. So I guess it is inevitable that Adrian won because we love them and we're Rainy boys. But Elma and Kalamazoo had great seasons, and Elma pushed them to the brink. I I I'm shocked. I don't want to say this without pissing off Crane. I can't believe Kalamazoo didn't make it to that final game after the year that they had.

SPEAKER_04 15:23

It j I mean it it sometimes it's baseball, right? And not being in there, not being in the locker room, not being in the dugout, you don't know if there's anything else. But sometimes it's just you have a bad day to have, or you go into a slump at the worst time, right? Yeah. I mean, good even the best teams over a major league season, you know, if you if you win a hundred games, you're probably gonna have a four-game losing streak in there sometime.

SPEAKER_05 15:45

Hopefully, hopefully they're not like Charles Barkley or Dan Marino or those guys that like our Hall of Famers, but don't win it ever. So hopefully that's not the case. By the way, how's the mic sound? Because my I'm moving away and yeah, you're good. You're good.

SPEAKER_04 16:02

I just um I don't know why when I went to go to the MIA website to uh just make sure just to see when um you know the scores of everything. It started me off on January 4th, 1929.

unknown 16:15

What?

SPEAKER_04 16:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's weird. It's had every event ever, and I I don't know what's going on with it. But anyway, um yeah, I just wanted to double check everything, but uh yeah, Adrian wins that tournament, they'll be going to the regional. Uh you saw Madonna got their draw. Actually, nothing. It was the draw he wanted, right? Wasn't that what you guys were talking about? Not that not necessarily uh the toughest draw out there. He got a three-seed with four teams, right?

SPEAKER_05 16:40

And not five.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

He's in a four-team region. Well, I think the biggest thing with that was he didn't want to be the four or five seed. Right. So he gets a three-seed, you know, he he has the opportunity to uh, you know, do some damage. You know, just look, and I'm gonna be honest, I don't follow a lot of NAIA baseball outside of the state, so I don't know a lot about uh their draw, but looking at people that do, it wasn't like a lot of three seeds that uh um were given like oh 5% chance to move on, 10%. Madonna was in the 20s. So it would be it would be nice for them to make a run. A puncher's chance.

SPEAKER_05 17:13

Yeah. And and you know what I heard about Drew Hewart this week, and I didn't know that. Like, he's like the nicest guy ever. Like, he's a charismatic person, great recruiter. I heard he's really tough. Yeah, like I like in-game, different demeanor, tough, expects like just expects excellence when he's coaching. And I never I know Drew, as you know, outside of you know, being on field, and it was kind of neat to hear that it's a completely different scenario.

SPEAKER_04 17:43

He's tough on his players. Well, you know, guys, that when the lights turn on, when the game gets going, it's it's a switch, right? Yeah, and it's a different animal. It's like my wife.

SPEAKER_05 17:52

Like everyone thinks she's very sweet in front of everybody, and then right when I uh right when everyone walks away, she's like, You're shitty, Mike. Mike, you are shit. Anyway, sorry. Sorry, Sherry. I love you. Alright, so we got a game in about 30 minutes. Yeah. We're gonna probably set up a couple interviews. You want to do a couple interviews beforehand?

SPEAKER_04 18:15

I'm gonna we'll probably, I mean, again, everyone out there will probably end up grabbing whoever wins, uh a player or a coach or something after the game and talk to them as we get ready for the second game.

SPEAKER_05 18:24

So yeah, I'd like to uh I'd like to if bring Owen Avery over here even before the game. Well, because he did remember that uh I went over and talked to Coach Kerr. It's funny, a lot of these coaches we talk, we text for years, and we don't meet anybody in person. And I swear, nine times out of ten, Coach Kerr didn't say this, but another coach said it. Oh, you're Mike Rice? Yeah. You're you're like not big. Like they all expect me to feet three or something, but because I got a loud, annoying voice. But I'd say we let's close this out for a second and let's try to go, let's try to go grab Owen and get him over here.

SPEAKER_04 19:04

Well, yeah, we'll we'll figure everything out again, a lot of moving parts. So, I mean, again, as our friends from Hunch Free, we'll uh chop this all up and make it sound good. So we'll we'll get ready. Again, games about to start here in the next 30 minutes or so, and we'll just kind of check in as the day goes along. This the this Davenport GV game in the winner's bracket final is gonna be a uh gonna be an exciting one.

SPEAKER_05 19:27

Big one, big time.

SPEAKER_04 19:29

All right. Well, Mike was able to track down Grand Valley's Owen Avery. A few different reasons why we want to talk to Owen. Let's start with uh yesterday. Pitched yesterday in in the win over uh Saginaw Valley, you know, go six and two-thirds. Pretty solid outing, Mike. One walk.

SPEAKER_05 19:43

You you got you like pay attention to the walks all day, and I love it.

SPEAKER_04 19:47

So, Owen, first of all, thanks for uh joining us, especially letting Mike come and grab, you know, 20 minutes before, you know, you got a pretty big game here. Obviously, not pitching today, but thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Yeah, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_05 19:58

To be clear, I went over and grabbed Owen like about an hour ago, and I was a little nervous that he was gonna beat me up. Like he's got that demeanor, he's a really good kid, but all I can think of is when I'm gonna go straight to it.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Go ahead, because this is the bitch.

SPEAKER_05 20:15

We were talking about it uh what year was that your junior year?

SPEAKER_02 20:19

That was uh that was 22, that was my senior year.

SPEAKER_05 20:22

That was your his senior year, and every time I see Owen Avery, I get a little nervous. Even your demeanor on the mountain is similar. Like, look at he's smiling, he's a nice kid, but we were talking about it.

SPEAKER_04 20:32

So tell the story for those that didn't listen to, because this is back when you were coaching at Cardinal Mooney and set the stage.

SPEAKER_05 20:37

Alright, so I think it was the finals at Comerica Park. Owen Avery's pitching, batting third or fourth. I don't know, what'd you bet? Third or fourth.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

I think fourth behind Zhang.

SPEAKER_05 20:47

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Mike move a little closer to the mic. All right, so find the middle ground.

SPEAKER_05 20:51

So Owen's pissing on baseballs, hitting balls like off the wall, almost through it, and I don't know, I don't remember the scenario. I think we I think there was a man on someone must have hit a double, and I'm like, fuck it. I'm like, send the kid to first base. So this big mother scratcher throws his bat, like, you know how they just kind of whip it over to the dugout, and he's staring staring me down like you know what he's thinking. And I'm like, get your ass down there, and I'm like, and then I'm like, Mike's acting tough, all five foot six of them. Yeah, it's five. I'm like five'eight.

SPEAKER_04 21:24

Okay, sorry. Anyway, all five eighty.

SPEAKER_05 21:26

So I kind of creep back down, and I think we got out of that. I think we might have got it gotten out of it. And it was just cool to see that it actually worked, but my point is the demeanor of this kid on the mound is what you have to be like to be successful.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

So, what was from your perspective? You obviously remember that. Tell us the Owen's perspective of Mike walking you.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Yeah, uh, you know, a little amped up, your first game at America Park when you're seventeen, eighteen years old. You know, I wanted to go yard.

SPEAKER_05 21:55

I wanted to probably would have it that the way how on fire you were. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Well, so Trent was in center field. I remember that. And I hit the heart.

SPEAKER_05 22:06

Or my son was catching my neck in center.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

And I remember he got on first and he took a bag and he was faster than hell. I could not anyway, uh I hit the ball the hardest I've ever hit one and I thought he was gonna track it down. And I think I'd be left center. Yeah, I think I like one hop the wall, so I was like, next one I'm gonna try to put out the left.

SPEAKER_05 22:25

I could see his timing. I keep interrupting you, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

No, you're good. I uh but if you threw some off speed, I would have swung so hard I would have fallen over. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

So alright, so now you're here. What's it like going through a Gliak tournament? Because it's really you can't prepare too much, right? Like you know you have the first game ahead of you. You knew you had PNW and then the rest is a mystery. What's what's your process preparing for a tournament like this, especially from a starting pitcher knowing that, all right, I'm probably gonna have one day of work and I'm gonna have to pitch against whoever it might be.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Yeah, uh, you know, as a staff, you know, I love being around these guys, and every day, you know, me, Bradley, Keyes, I feel like each one gives you a chance to win. Uh, and it's fun to watch, you know, especially yesterday I was pitching, uh having a defense like that behind you. You can stay in any game. You know, Morrison made a couple plays, Skags, Thalen. Um, so it's just honestly being a starting pitcher on this team is fun because you pitch one day a week and then you get to watch that. Right. So uh, but you know, every day we show up to the field, you know, we think we're gonna we're gonna leave there victorious. So um just really fun to watch and be a part of.

SPEAKER_05 23:32

It worked out nice for the for Grand Valley too. What do you guys ranked uh in the country?

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Like I think seven, maybe.

SPEAKER_05 23:38

I was gonna say six. There's eighteen a hundred polls. Yeah, I know you want to win. I know you want to win everything. I know Jordan wants to win everything. My opinion, you set your staff, like you knew you were pitching that game, right? So you set your staff, you get your work in, and you win. Right. Like it works out nice as a starting pitcher for this for the game. Yeah, that he knows that you're going Friday night. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:02

So, okay, um can you explain the Gliak Tournament format to me?

SPEAKER_02 24:07

Yeah, uh I've actually heard a lot of backlash on Twitter about it.

SPEAKER_04 24:11

Um because it had to be weird, you win and you're playing a team that lost.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Yeah, yeah, it is. Uh usually, you know, you get the loser bracket because someone's gonna get eliminated anyway if you lose. Um but like us playing Saginaw, you know, I felt like they were a very good team who just got a very tough draw. Um I mean they were what, an out or two away from winning that game. Correct, yeah. And they played us tough, you know, earlier in the year. So like usually you try to get there's teams that get eliminated early, and then you got teams that kind of hang on, but we've been in that. I've been in the four seed, the two seed since I've been here, and you know, if you lose one game early as a lower seed, it's it's tough to get out of.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

So had you lost to Saginaw, when would where would you have gone in the bracket? Because you certainly wouldn't have been eliminated.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

I'm not sure, honestly, because he pitches, man. He goes out, he I'm just I just like to watch, but yeah, this year I feel like it's it's very, you know, it th it threw everything off a little bit with you know Wayne dropping one the first day. Right, yeah, and uh so everything kind of gets shaken up because you know now you got Parkside who's who was too it was one and oh going into yesterday and uh played a tough game against Davenport, but it is basically you know, the Gleak tournament when everyone comes around, everyone's fighting for a season, you know, anyone can win on any given day.

SPEAKER_05 25:26

So uh we always say it's those four teams. Yeah. No offense to the other the other teams.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

I mean Parkside did beat Wayne State, but yeah, it's been mostly the Michigan teams that I we were saying that Parkside is a very talented team. Their pitchers and their their fielding is very impressive. Uh even their lineup, they have some bats who can hurt you.

SPEAKER_04 25:44

So I mean they're solid, but just solid in the Gleeak doesn't get you very far. Like it it's it's it's like this in every sport, though. If you're good enough to win the Gleak, you're good enough to win a national title. Yeah. Really in any sport, and baseball is not an exception.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Yeah, and it's you know, Midwest baseball, you're not gonna get a lot of you know, diamonds, but there are Midwest baseball is tough. Um we play a lot of teams that can beat us on any given day, and they play us very tough. Yeah. All right, well, Mike, you got anything else?

SPEAKER_05 26:10

We're gonna be rooting for these guys, and I don't want to get in trouble by Jordan.

SPEAKER_04 26:14

Oh, okay. So let's let's keep it. I'll just let you know you can take a shot because he's been saying roll tidy for Davenport this whole weekend. So give me one. Yeah, you yeah, you want to give a roll tidy right now? No, roll turkey.

SPEAKER_05 26:25

What do you guys say?

SPEAKER_04 26:26

Roll just a roll. We don't say anything. Don't you like anchor up, anchor up or something?

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Anchor up, ready for more.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

All right, all right, there we go. Do I gotta say it? I mean, you've been saying roll tidy the whole time. Anchor up, ready for more. He doesn't stand on his ground. You would have respected it more because what if he just stood his ground and just said, no, he's gonna stick with his pick. I already almost got my ass beat.

SPEAKER_05 26:47

I already almost got my ass beat by this kid. We're not gonna do it. Hey, good luck. We're rooting for you. Go kick some ass. I appreciate it all.

SPEAKER_04 26:54

All right, so now we check back in after game one of the day. Grand Valley um, what was it, what, 18 to 6 beats uh. Dude, you're gonna totally ignore the elephant in the room. Oh, yeah. Well, Jay Hill has joined us. We're so excited now.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

Yes, gentlemen, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

Father of a handful of very good baseball players and an overall baseball nerd, like we said earlier.

SPEAKER_05 27:15

So Jay Hill's gonna bring so much more to the table than you expect over the years.

SPEAKER_04 27:22

We have upgraded in the Jay department. Sorry, Voltrauer. Anyway, so yes, we'll talk. I love the look. Sorry, Jay. We'll talk to Jay in a second. But first, uh Wayne or uh Grand Valley uh takes care of business. You know, Davenport scores in the top of the first in that one, and then uh Grand Valley does Grand Valley things. The best way I can describe Grand Valley is they're annoyingly good at everything.

SPEAKER_05 27:48

You loud noises. Right? Like the bats were really funny.

SPEAKER_04 27:52

I mean, it was funny in the first inning, you know, uh, our producers behind Tommy and company were like, uh, oh, are these these are names we've heard before? And there were two on, and it was Gil and Estrada, and I just looked and I said, You're probably gonna get a three-run home run here between the next two batters, and then bang, bang. I mean, Caleb Estrada hit a ball over the left field wall that I've never seen a ball go that far in this ballpark.

SPEAKER_05 28:13

It was it was loud. What's been your experience with Grand Valley and Davenport this year, and I guess even the last couple years?

SPEAKER_03 28:21

Well, two splits. Uh, the best way I can describe Grand Valley is they never stop coming. Like they just their lineup is so solid from top to bottom. Yeah, I knew you were gonna do that. That's a bad choice of words. Um, but both solid ball clubs. I mean, in my opinion, obviously Grand Valley is gonna be the number one in the Midwest, but Davenport is a worthy regional uh seed as well. They're gonna be going somewhere. Um but Grand Valley is just, I mean, they seem to have I mentioned it to Brady earlier. They do not have a weakness, in my opinion. No. They, I mean, every facet of the game, they are really, really solid.

SPEAKER_04 29:00

I mean, they've got even pitching. Well, they've got play Avery, then Jackson Keyes just pitched, and you saw he's a freshman, and it's you know, that was kind of the underrated part is you know, through the first few innings, they hadn't given up hardly any runs, but they had scored eight in the first, and you're just like, all right, well, you're they're dead. Like and Davenport didn't go away. Like they kept battling, but you just knew dead. That that's what Grand Valley does, and it's annoying, and you know, it that's what they've done all year. That's why they're a top 10 team, that's why they're a legit threat to win a national title, and that's why they're gonna be uh in the finals of the Gleak tournament. Someone's gonna have to beat them twice in a row.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

Uh, you know, my thing with both teams, um, when you get them in a four-team double elimination format in the regional, both teams, you get deep in the tournament, they're gonna hit. Like Davenport is really sound offensively as well. They they stay in the zone with their swings. And, you know, I mean, obviously, we we watched nine innings of Grand Valley just now. And I mean, I like I said, I mean, defensively, really, really good. Uh one through nine solid. And I I I just you're gonna have to play a really, really, really good two or three games to beat them and stay darn near perfect, in my opinion. And Davenport can beat you, you know, offensively in a in a multiple ways. Uh you know, they can run a little bit, and Grand Valley, same way. I mean, they they didn't even really have to uh uh exhibit their base dealing prowess today because they were already up, but they can run their athletic at all nine positions. Um two good two really, really good baseball teams.

SPEAKER_05 30:40

Grand Valley beat them up so bad. I don't even know, I couldn't even tell you what kind of team Davenport is. You know what I mean? Like it was a punch in the mouth.

SPEAKER_04 30:50

It was a it was a first-round Tyson knockout. Like that's what that game was, and that's what you have to be careful of.

SPEAKER_05 30:55

I can tell you this. I get you and I, Jay, we've both known Tidy for a long time personally, where he's always awesome and always like cracking jokes. He did not look friendly right now on the bench.

SPEAKER_04 31:08

Because he's gonna have to turn around and get ready for a game at seven tonight as as we're going through this, and he's gonna have to figure out what to do with his pitching staff. He had to throw a lot of pitchers in that one. I mean, now you're getting, and this is when we talked about depth, right? So they played Thursday, they win. They played yesterday, they win. Now they're gonna have to play a fourth game in three days. You're going to your seventh pitcher, your eighth pitcher in that one.

SPEAKER_05 31:29

Jay, you're kind of the expert. I know you're a nerd about like the brackets and shit. Like, did did Davenport need do they need to win this tournament to make it?

SPEAKER_03 31:40

No, I I don't think so. Not the way that I've seen the rankings shake out the last week. Um, they made a really, really big jump, and I think one thing is like their overall strength of schedule and they're not in confidence. You know, they went out and played Tampa. Uh they went down to Missouri and played a couple teams. They beat Tampa the last game out of three. Um, I I I think that you know, I don't want to miss misspeak, but I think they are safe right now. Especially with the first two wins of the turn. Yeah, exactly, Brady.

SPEAKER_04 32:09

So if they went oh and two, maybe, but hey, they there's still a lot in front of them. And then listen, this is a Davenport team that's pretty clutch, but right now, Grand Valley looks like a steamboat.

SPEAKER_05 32:19

Are you guys good with hanging out while I go try to grab somebody? You go grab them. We'll we'll let our friends edit here. I'm gonna go try to grab the.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

So you go grab some Grand Valley.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

Kerr or Cure. It's Kerr. Kerr. So I'm gonna go try to.

SPEAKER_04 32:31

So grab Kerr and company, and then we'll let Tommy uh edit this part, and then we'll just cut back to when you're return.

SPEAKER_05 32:36

Or you guys can talk.

SPEAKER_04 32:37

Just go, Mike. All right. Well, while Mike was trying to you know grab some Grand Valley guests, we actually got a very special guest, the commissioner of the Glea, Chris Dunbar. Chris, thank you so much for taking time to talk to three knuckleheads like us.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Anytime. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

So let's let's start with this tournament. You know, first year here at Utica with at UWM field with the brand new channel. Yeah, right. I've only been staring at the giant scoreboard all day. Um, but you know, come in here, what was that like to you know come over here after being, you know, in a in Lansing? Come here. What was that process like and what what attracted you to come into Utica for this tournament?

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Oh Lansing's been a good home for us, you know, centrally located. We do have quite a few schools now over in the Chicago area. So um when we just couldn't finalize a contract with them, we started looking at some other places last summer, made a trip here, the hospitality, uh you know, Dana Schmidt and uh Mike Zelinski really were wonderful to talk to and work with. I think the big thing is that they wanted us to come here. And then the Detroit Sports Commission came on board. They've been helpful. It was you know, if we do stay here, um, you know, they want to have a bigger part in helping us this year. You know, they they helped us out with some of the you know little things here financially, but uh yeah, uh the the just so welcoming, so excited to have us in this area.

SPEAKER_05 33:52

The turf's nice, I imagine, right? With the rain, you don't have to necessarily worry about rain too much.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

It drains well, and that's the case, especially with uh the clouds. Uh right, so there's a little system coming here in another hour, so we'll check it out.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

Some mean looking clouds on the horizon, but uh, you know, you know, having the conference tournament is kind of like the showcase, right, uh of any sport. You know, you get everyone in one place. Baseball, just like any other sport, has elite level teams. I mean, what does it mean to bring them all here and you know, get get Grand Valley, get Parkside to come over from Kenosha, and get just all the talent of the Gliak in one spot and showcased over a four-day period?

SPEAKER_00 34:27

It's it's so much fun. I mean, you know, I call them kids, but these kids are really talented, they're really good. And when you run these tournaments for so many years, you you get to know them. We have six teams that make it, we have seven baseball teams, so you really get to see a lot of the same kids, the same coaches. Our coaches are phenomenal. They're great on and off the field. I love working with this coaching group. And you know, from a conference office standpoint, we just want to put on the best experience, have our student athletes just walk away from here saying that was a great, a great location. They felt like it was a big time environment and uh they had a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_05 35:02

We're we are like baseball nerds and we're probably a little biased towards the GLIAC, but I personally think it's such a professional organization. Division two, I think it's top-notch. I don't know how they rank them or anything like that, but GLIAC to me is I'm proud to be a part of this here talking to you, and it's a testament to you and how we feel about the GLIAC, right? We are all dorks about this stuff, and it's pretty cool to be involved just to having this conversation. Um how long have you been in your role and what is your role specifically? Is it are you the are you the commissioner? What do they call that these days? So how long have you been doing it?

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Nine years.

SPEAKER_05 35:42

Nine years.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Yes. I was uh an athletic director within the league at Lake Superior State University for 12 prior to that, a head coach for women's basketball at Lake State for eight years, and like I said before, a student athlete in the league, um, a women's basketball player.

SPEAKER_05 35:57

So Brian Ralston, was that his name that played at Lake State? He was on the Devils, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:02

So yeah, he was a little bit younger than me, but we were in school at the same time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:06

Welcome to my ADD. I know, so that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04 36:12

It just comes out. You're like, oh, that's how I know that. So being in around the GLIAC for so long, I mean, uh this league, like we said, in every sport is tough. What makes the Gliak at such a high level that it feels like I I say it for every sport, if you're good enough to win the GLIAC, you're competing for a national title.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 36:32

There's no gimme conference titles in any sport we do. Why is the level of play so strong around the entire you know sports spectrum?

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Well, we start with really strong schools that invest in their athletic programs, and then when you join the league, you elevate yourself because you know you you wanna you wanna be here, you wanna be at these championships, you want to have those experiences for your student athletes. So, you know, I d we we start with a foundation of really strong programs, strong schools, strong leadership, our athletic directors, our presidents, our chancellors, you know, they want to compete in this league because they know it's not a cupcake league. It's very difficult to get through. Um but yeah, you know, we have a really great uh uh uh media rights deal with Flow Sports, and it's great to be in Division II where you can actually give your membership some subsidy back from that. And so yeah, we've we've kind of grown quite a bit. You know, we're talking earlier, it's a smaller operation. Some people might think that our conference office is huge, but it's not I assumed it.

SPEAKER_04 37:31

I assumed it.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

We're a staff of four.

SPEAKER_04 37:33

Especially when softball is going on at the same time in a different staff of four. Yeah, yeah, and half of them are in what is it, Chicagoland area for softball.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

They're at Crown Point right now. So two are over there, two are here. We brought in some retirees that have been in the conference office office previously, and they came back because once you you work in the GLIAC, you know, it's just it's a special place, and you just love being a part of it. So it's not much for us to say, hey, you know what, come here, come, you know, come to a field and help us with a conference tournament, and you know, absolutely the and the facilities are wonderful, right?

SPEAKER_05 38:07

Like I think I told you when my daughter went on a she went on a soccer visit when she was in high school, and she stepped into Saginaw Valley's like indoor facility, and she's like, I'm going here. And I'm like, you don't have an offer yet? Like the the facilities, the Grand Valley's facilities, they're all Division I style facilities from an athletic perspective.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

And they just keep getting elevated. Yeah, they just keep making improvements on it. So it's it's exciting to see what our schools are doing.

SPEAKER_04 38:35

Yeah, and when you know, you talked about wanting to compete. Well, when one person gets a new facility, it's keeping up with the Joneses, right? That it's kind of like, well, they have this, so we need to keep up with them. And it feels like in all sports as well. Because sometimes baseball, like you go to some other facilities around the state and around in other leagues, not like the GLIAC has some pretty nice baseball fields too. And you can tell, like, especially with you mentioned the coaches, they take a lot of pride. And again, kind of like an arms race there. So how nice when you travel around, is it nice knowing that you're gonna have some nice facilities to go to no matter what program it is?

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Oh, for sure. It's fun. It's because you can see the pride on your student athletes' faces. You know, your coaches want to show you around, your administrators are proud of what they've done and what and everybody has a plan of what they're doing next. It no one's satisfied with, well, we're here right now. It's always, well, we just did this, but now we're planning on doing this, this, and this. It's yeah, it's putting on something really nice for our student athletes and the fans and the parents, and you know, everybody's recruiting kids that there's opportunities that they could get elsewhere. And you know, a lot of our schools are competing against Division I for those same recruits, and a lot of times beating up. We win the race sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 39:42

That's why I think Roosevelt was a good get. Like, don't take the, I don't know how you guys get people to come into your league or whatever, but the Chicago area, getting Roosevelt in here. And I told you a couple weeks ago, watch what happens with Roosevelt being in the GLIAC, being around Chicago in the next couple of years. I think, Jay, did you have something I kind of keep interrupting everybody?

SPEAKER_03 40:01

No, no. Uh I I just kind of wanted to go in a different direction. Um, I with uh the son who obviously plays at Wayne State and is a student athlete in the league. Um, it seems to me that the league uh at each institution has made a huge, huge commitment to life after sports in this league. Um can you just kind of give me a little bit of a perspective on how your administration with the GLIAC handles that and how each in each institution has kind of you know piggybacked on your, you know, because there's a small percentage of these athletes that are gonna go on and play pro professional sports. How do you guys kind of uh you know, how do you go about that?

SPEAKER_00 40:39

So we work uh the conference office does work pretty closely with our student athletes. We have a uh student athlete advisory committee and we take two, we have two usually two student athletes from each institution. We have monthly meetings through Zoom. Zoom's amazing now. You can get together with a student athlete. It helps. So one thing that we do on all of our Zoom calls at the beginning of each call, we have a former student athlete from one of our institutions come back and talk to that. We call the SAC group, and they talk about what they're doing, what their life is like after sport, how they adjusted, you know, what you know, what avenues they took, and they give our student athletes who are on that call advice on that next step. So that's one thing that we do on a monthly basis, and then we also have a sack retreat. So every summer, this summer it'll be at Roosevelt using their dorms right downtown Chicago. It's really cool. Um so we're gonna bring student athletes to that, and then we'll have uh guest speakers there that talk about life after sport because it is really important. And you know, we try to do some webinars and different, we had someone on, we had over five, well over 500 student athletes come on. We had someone uh come in and talk about uh resume building and how to use uh in the different platforms to get your name out there, and uh we had it was actually someone specifically from LinkedIn all the different ways you can use LinkedIn to help you get a job afterwards, and any student athlete that wanted to listen to that webinar and join in could. So, yeah, we're we definitely are trying to put things out there on how to be successful after you graduate. Because it's really hard to be a student athlete and then not be a student athlete anymore. So a lot of these kids want to get into coaching or you know, some I'm always anybody because I miss that part of being on a campus. I don't have that contact with the student athlete. So anytime one of our student athletes call me and say, hey, do you have any advice? Yes, yes, here's my cell phone number, here's this, call me anytime. So I I really love when the student athletes reach out directly to the conference office in hopes that we can help them get to their next.

SPEAKER_04 42:43

Oh, open invitation, get a hold of Chris if you need if if you're a senior or junior getting ready.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

Anywhere, wherever you are in your career, yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 42:51

I got a couple comments. Okay. This is Jay's first podcast. Yeah. I think it's BS that he had the best question. Oh, yeah. Like you're some veteran, you're asking the best question.

SPEAKER_04 43:01

He ripped a double, an opposite field double in the gap.

SPEAKER_05 43:03

But for the other one, it was very selfish. Like, how are you gonna get Drew Hill a job? Like, I've spent money on my kids going to college. So, Chris, how are you gonna get Drew Hill a job afterwards?

SPEAKER_03 43:14

He's pretty helpless, so he needs a little help.

SPEAKER_04 43:16

He can hit though, the great question. Anyway, so one thing you know we've talked about a lot. Um, the format for this tournament's a bit unique, right? No, don't do this. I just no, I want to know how to. I've probably lit up on Twitter already on this one. But no, because you're on, thank you for coming on, but what I want to hear your side, because it's easy for us to sit back and go, why is it like this? I don't get this. What how did this come about and what was the you know process to getting to this format?

SPEAKER_00 43:42

This was a process before I became the commissioner. It was in place well before I was here. Okay. So we we have postseason calls with the coaches, we have pre-season calls with the post the coaches. The coaches are the ones that drive the the codes, the operations. If they want to do something different, Absolutely. We've already talked to them. You know, we're going to have a call after the season's done. Once everyone's done with their national tournaments and things like that, we'll get the coaches on, read, you know, hash out what they like, what they don't like, how we want to change something. This is not the Chris Dunbar format. It could be another one.

SPEAKER_05 44:17

No, that's fine. It works as long as it's in one spot, right? If it's in the same place, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_04 44:23

And when it was put in place was at a time where there was more than seven teams in the GLIAC. So the league has evolved and come, became something different where, you know, maybe it was a little more viable back then because, you know, things changed, right? Roosevelt and Parkside weren't a part of the equation back then. I mean, were was Purdue Northwest in the league when you took over, or were they were they brand new? Yeah, so you know, it's it's an ever-changing college landscape, and I guess that leads into the next question of how do you handle it from a conference commissioner uh perspective where I don't think anyone knows what college athletics are gonna look like in six months, six years from now. It's it's the wild west right now. How do you handle that from a conference perspective?

SPEAKER_00 45:03

Uh just opening dialogue, communication, making sure that our coaches are where they want to be, what where our league is, we making sure that our coaches are being heard at the c at the athletic director level. Um, but just communication. We meet with our coaches every year, we meet with our athletic directors four times a year, meet with the presidents three times a year, presidents and chancellors three times a year. So, you know, we are listening to what our membership wants. Um again, it's you know the conference office is there to move the membership forward and help them and help our coaches. We're we do a lot of enforcing the rules, but we don't really make the rules that comes from the membership. It's a lot like the NCAA. You know, the NCAA gets a bad rap sometimes because you know, all the rules, well, the membership makes the rules. We vote on the rules, we put those rules in place, the NCAA upholds those rules and makes sure those standards that we all voted for in Division II are being met.

SPEAKER_05 45:58

It's like it's like the transfer portal. Like all the parents complain about I'm not gonna go into that. Like they go there. But all the parents complain about the transfer portal, me included, but we asked for it. Right? Hey, coaches can leave whenever you want. And all of us parents, our generation, Jay, like we were like, well, why if they can leave, why can't we? Now you hey okay, NCAA says go ahead. Right? So it's a scenario where people are the people are kind of making making the decisions. So but no, that's ADD again.

SPEAKER_04 46:30

Like it sounded like similar to where. But no, it's just right now, it's just a crazy world right now in college athletics, and you know, you can't really figure out what you want to uh like how to navigate it because you don't you don't know what's gonna happen, what court ruling's gonna take effect, because you might have a well-laid plan, and then some judge in a different state goes, nope, this is how I rule, and you just have to tear it up and start again.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

You're exactly right on that. Yes. What's interesting, it so the membership, any any conference, that you have to have two conferences that sponsor a proposal, they can move that forward. So in division two, we have a meeting every January, and that's where we we vote on all the proposals that the membership, both with uh uh conference offices and individual institutions, can bring forward these proposals, and then every single one in division two has a vote. So each each institution has one vote, and that's how proposals it's different in division one, they have committees and things like that, they move things faster. Although an executive committee in Division II just ruled um uh a couple weeks ago they changed the chan the transfer portal and football to mirror division one.

SPEAKER_04 47:40

Just the one window.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

And it's just football, but that's gonna open up the door. Everybody's gonna want that now.

SPEAKER_04 47:46

So so as we wrap this up, Chris, thank you so much for coming on in between games to talk. I just open-ended, what do you see the future of the GLIAC? What are you hoping, you know, what to this league to look like five years down the road, ten years down the road, and anything else you want people to know?

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Well, I again, like, you know, I love this it's to me the tradition in this league is second to none. Yeah, the the stability. We when you think of the GLIAC, you know, our our monikers where champions compete, uh that's not changing. You know, our our conference just keeps getting bigger, it's stronger. Yeah, it it we would like to expand, you know. We have we want more school or we want more teams in baseball, right? Soccer, you we need to uh football, we definitely need more teams in football. So we're out there trying to find the right fit for us and um you know making sure it's it's positive for that new new institution and for all of our memberships. It's uh it's an interesting process with a revolving door right now.

SPEAKER_05 48:44

Here's what's cool, and I know we're closing it out, but like the GLIAC has is gonna have a champion eventually. I think three teams are still gonna make it to regionals out of the GLIAC. Out of a seven-team league. Right, yeah, and we're you know, we follow the horizon league, we follow the bid. I'm rooting for Michigan to like have that RPI so they can get an auto bid, but it's pretty cool that the GLIAC could have three teams make it to regionals, generally speaking, up here in this area, you've got to win your conference to make it to whatever national tournament is.

SPEAKER_04 49:14

So that's no at large and no, again, like like you said, Chris, this is true where champions compete goes back. If you can win the GLIAC, you can win a national title.

SPEAKER_00 49:22

And what helps us now being in a strong conference is that the NPI is what's gonna be determining who gets into uh the that's the D2 RPI bike.

SPEAKER_04 49:32

I'm learning, I'm learning that, I'm learning that, huh?

SPEAKER_00 49:34

That's huge for us because strength of schedule is going to be a a huge factor. It's what and then what each sport does is they create their own dials, but strength of schedule keeps ringing through strong.

SPEAKER_05 49:47

So yeah, we're talking about Davenport beat Tampa this year, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 49:51

Well, that's a testament to the coaches in this league, and it's not just in in baseball, it's in every sport. I mean, obviously, we've seen the success with Ferris State in football. Like everybody goes out and plays teams in the non-conference, and you know, that obviously helps the entire, in my opinion, the overall look of the league. Um they're not afraid to compete with anyone in the country. It's a great country at the D2 level.

SPEAKER_05 50:12

We're such baseball dorks, we didn't even bring up Ferris, like holy count.

SPEAKER_04 50:16

And then every other sport Grand Valley seemingly is good at. They're just annoyingly good at everything if you're not at Grand Valley. So, but anyway, Chris, thank you so much for your time. Uh, you know, really appreciate it. And hopefully this tournament runs smoothly. We'll push those clouds away and crown a champion sometime tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

Thanks so much for having me. This was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 50:35

Of course, appreciate it. Thanks. Well, thank you to everyone who uh came on with us. It was awesome. Thank you to Detroit Thread Company for helping us get out here and doing this. Absolutely. Thank you, Hunch, our guys at Hunch Free, who were awesome for doing this. And again, this is a kind of a unique thing.

SPEAKER_05 50:50

Thank you for editing too, like because Jay Hill will probably have 27 beers by the end we are really closing it out. But right now we're we're only at like one or two. Yeah you don't know that for sure.

SPEAKER_04 51:04

Also, thank you to uh to Tommy and company for editing because for those that another peek behind the curtain, so he'll send us like the the the raw footage, and Mike will sit back, take out this, I look stupid here, and then Tommy goes, No, you're keeping this in.

SPEAKER_05 51:19

Well, it's usually I said something stupid or Voltrouer said something stupid. And and going forward, we're probably and hopefully gonna have more episodes, and Jason Hill's gonna be on, and oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to really do a good job at sending clips to Tommy to edit because he says dumb things.

SPEAKER_03 51:39

I don't know. Uh it's been uh pleasure. Uh, thanks you guys for having me. Um, I look forward, hopefully, uh working with you guys in the future. Um, I'm uh I'm excited. No, that'll be cool.

SPEAKER_05 51:49

All kidding aside, we will make fun of each other, but Jay Hill is loves stats, he loves baseball, so he'll help us a lot from a credibility standpoint versus me just going, that guy stinks.

SPEAKER_04 52:01

Yeah, thanks again to the US PBL for having us out here in UWM Field, the staff there. Uh thanks to the Gleak for letting us do this. And uh again, yeah, Detroit Thread Company, Hunchfree Studios, and all the players and coaches that Mike bothers all of the.

SPEAKER_05 52:15

Oh, yeah, they the coaches have been awesome. And you know what? People need to go buy some uniforms from Detroit Thread Company so we can keep going. So go buy some shit from DTC.

SPEAKER_04 52:26

Oh, that's lovely. Yeah, so the second game to really pull back. We're in between the first and second game, and there's a little cell coming in, and there's just a big ass bolt of lightning.

SPEAKER_05 52:35

Yeah, we gotta hurry up so our equipment doesn't get stuck.

SPEAKER_04 52:37

All right, so again, thank you. Follow us on show socials, you know, follow us or subscribe to us on whatever platform you're on, give us five stars, leave a review, all that fun stuff that no host ever likes to talk about. But we have to, so do that. And uh, all right, we'll talk to you next week. Yeah.