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Speaker 1: The world's greatest athletes, the world's biggest stage. Stay with

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Speaker 1: ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 2: Were the latest Olympic updates.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go.

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Speaker 2: It's four minutes after four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen

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Speaker 2: thirty on law Leger At the University of Cincinnati. Baseball

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Speaker 2: season gets underway on Friday. No, they're not going to

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Speaker 2: be playing here in the snow, although it's warm today.

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Speaker 2: The Bearcats opening up the season at or against Jacksonville

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Speaker 2: State in Jacksonville, Alabama. The Bearcats will play their first

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Speaker 2: home game, or at least they're scheduled to, two weeks

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Speaker 2: from today February to twenty fourth, when Cincinnati will host

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Speaker 2: Bowling Green. The head coach of the Bearcats on the

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Speaker 2: eve of the Eve of the eve of the season opener,

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Speaker 2: Jordan Bischel, kind enough to join us this afternoon.

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Speaker 3: Coach.

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Speaker 1: It's good to have you. Good afternoon.

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Speaker 3: How are you doing well. Thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 1: Always enjoy having you.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot to talk about start with this, so

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Speaker 2: we rarely give the NCAA credit for anything good. But

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Speaker 2: but walk me through a change they have made with

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Speaker 2: the preseason calendar and what it has done to prepare

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Speaker 2: yours team better for the opener on Friday.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. For one, as I can remember, we basically couldn't

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Speaker 3: enter a full practice segment until three weeks the opening day.

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Speaker 3: And if you look at you know, major League Baseball

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Speaker 3: on the way pitchers prepare, they're getting the spring training

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Speaker 3: right now for a late March start. So it was

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Speaker 3: just it was really not a safe way to prepare

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Speaker 3: a team. And it changes here where we got basically

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Speaker 3: five weeks the full practice instead of three, and that's

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Speaker 3: made a really big difference in terms of not trying

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Speaker 3: to squeeze everything into a couple of weeks. Obviously, well

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Speaker 3: there's not been great to get outside, but our new

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Speaker 3: indoor performance facility has been amazing and we've been in there.

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Speaker 3: But big help to have a couple more weeks to

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Speaker 3: get ready here.

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Speaker 2: I think the first thing that jumps out to me

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Speaker 2: when I look at the roster is just the amount

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Speaker 2: of youth. And so I'll start with thirteen freshmen. Now,

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Speaker 2: you know, not every freshman is going to get a

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Speaker 2: ton of playing time. But you got a lot of

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Speaker 2: guys who throughout fall ball and now starting this weekend,

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Speaker 2: are going to get their first dose of competitive college baseball.

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Speaker 1: What is it like for those guys.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they're going to have a few nerves.

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Speaker 3: They're physically prepared to have some success for us, but

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Speaker 3: they're going to be faith in competitions that they haven't

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Speaker 3: faith consistently in their lives, So they'll have some ups

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Speaker 3: and downs. But it's a good group. You know, it's

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Speaker 3: our third year. We've really started to establish getting getting

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Speaker 3: the student athletes here, that's what we're trying to do.

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Speaker 3: And so there's four or five names in that group

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Speaker 3: that are going to impact right away. But it is

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Speaker 3: it's young. We've seen what the transfer for the highest

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Speaker 3: level of college athletics have gotten so old and so experienced,

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Speaker 3: and kind of bucking that trend a little bit because

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Speaker 3: we think we have the right young guys that can

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Speaker 3: grow and turn into real difference makers. So it's exciting,

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Speaker 3: but yeah, we're going to have a few bumps in

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Speaker 3: the road early.

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Speaker 2: When you go into the portal and you've got six

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Speaker 2: transfers to our pictures, when you go into the portal.

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Speaker 2: Do you go into it with a checklist, so to

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Speaker 2: speak of like specific whether it's a lefty pitcher, or

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Speaker 2: we need a shortstop, or we need a corner outfielder,

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Speaker 2: or do you just look for guys that look like

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Speaker 2: they could play at this level, look like they'll be

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Speaker 2: a good fit, and you'll find a place for him.

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Speaker 1: How's that work?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's where it's started to morph the last

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Speaker 3: couple of years for us. Early on it was, hey,

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Speaker 3: if they can compete and play, we probably don't have

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Speaker 3: quite enough depth, and we got to take a shot

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Speaker 3: on a lot of different things. Positionally, we got really

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Speaker 3: specific this last year. Needed a middle infielder, got exactly

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Speaker 3: who we wanted in Jackson Smith who can play all

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Speaker 3: three infield positions and plays our style of baseball. Conlin

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Speaker 3: Daniel and centerfield local kid. Those were our only two

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Speaker 3: additions there. On the pitching side. You know, the number

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Speaker 3: one thing we look for is production, and it's there's

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Speaker 3: a lot of velocity out there, there's a lot of

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Speaker 3: projectability out there, there's a lot of size out there

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Speaker 3: where ultimately, if they've played in college and not gotten

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Speaker 3: anybody out, it's quite frankly a little bit of a

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Speaker 3: red flag to us. The best for us, the best

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Speaker 3: predictor of future success is past success.

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Speaker 2: Uh makes sense. Where where do you think at the

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Speaker 2: start of the season the strength of your team is

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Speaker 2: and what would you like for aside from picking up wins,

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Speaker 2: Where do you have to grow in the coming weeks.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, like you mentioned, our youth is is going to

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Speaker 3: be interesting. We've got to kind of see how we

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Speaker 3: handle adversity. I think that'll be one of our early challenges.

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Speaker 3: Our guys are expecting to have success, well with that,

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Speaker 3: there's gonna be some failure that they got to deal with,

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Speaker 3: and some of them haven't been through that, so I

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Speaker 3: think that'll be one big challenge for us. I think

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Speaker 3: our lineup is really deep now. I think it's going

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Speaker 3: to be nine guys that can really impact the game

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Speaker 3: in one way or another. We got down to Georgia

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Speaker 3: for two days last weekend of practice. We haven't been

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Speaker 3: out here and it was just impressive to see the

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Speaker 3: number of guys that came out and really did some

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Speaker 3: impactful things. So I think that that depth is going

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Speaker 3: to show up and really are going to see that.

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Speaker 3: On the pitching side to a little bit, I just

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Speaker 3: I think it's a much more complete roster. And we've

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Speaker 3: done it's no flight against our last two teams. We've

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Speaker 3: done some really good things. But I think it's a

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Speaker 3: more complete roster.

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Speaker 2: What does playing in an NCAA tournament last year do

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Speaker 2: for your program in terms of recruiting both at the

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Speaker 2: high school level and kids who are giving Cincinnati a

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Speaker 2: look in the portal that might not have prior to

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Speaker 2: last year.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's big. We you know, if you're

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Speaker 3: if you're in Cincinnati and in southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, whatever,

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Speaker 3: you know, you know kind of who we are, but

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Speaker 3: you know you're one and two. We talked to some

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Speaker 3: guys nationally that might not even know we're in the

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Speaker 3: Big twelve now and obviously playing some games that are

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Speaker 3: nationally televised and playing some top teams open some eyes,

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Speaker 3: and you know, we're kind of selling a vision and

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Speaker 3: now we're selling a product, and it's easier to sell

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Speaker 3: something tangible, right, So it's definitely helpful. And we've seen that,

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Speaker 3: we've seen more interest, we've seen more excited men. It's

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Speaker 3: both high school guys and portal guys. They some guys

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Speaker 3: bought in it believe we can win, and now they

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Speaker 3: know we can win, and certainly that doesn't hurt.

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Speaker 1: What can you get done working indoors?

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Speaker 3: We get a lot time. I grew up in Green Bay,

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Speaker 3: so that's all we ever did was working. We got

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Speaker 3: outside halfway through the season. But the coach at Central

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Speaker 3: Michigan and Northwood up in Michigan, I was there for

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Speaker 3: nine years. I mean legitimately have had seasons where we didn't.

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Speaker 3: We didn't get on our field to practice until fifteen

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Speaker 3: or twenty games into the season, and so you have

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Speaker 3: to be creative. You can't play games, but I think

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Speaker 3: you can really focus on little things and processes. You know,

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Speaker 3: Pitchers no longer are worried about if they gave up

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Speaker 3: a hit or not. They're worried about if they made

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Speaker 3: a good pitch. Hitters ernt is worried about you know,

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Speaker 3: where did the ball land? But did I get the

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Speaker 3: right pitch when it was I on time? Mechanically we

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Speaker 3: can get sound, so it probably is all a sales

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Speaker 3: pitch from a northern guy. Baseball is meant to be

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Speaker 3: played outside. But there's stuff we can do, and the

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Speaker 3: facility we have this year is certainly really helpful with that.

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Speaker 3: It's it's just an excuse if we're not ready to go.

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Speaker 2: I feel like fallball is fallball has been in place

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Speaker 2: for a while, but it's something you're playing games against

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Speaker 2: high major opposition. What did you learn about this collection

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Speaker 2: of guys in fallball? Would you guys get done during

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Speaker 2: that period?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know that was valuable. We played Purdue and

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Speaker 3: we played Pitt two really better in teams, almost all

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Speaker 3: juniors and seniors, and I think it was a little

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Speaker 3: eye opening for some of our nineteen year olds that

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Speaker 3: it's just more physical, it's faster, there's more polish, and

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Speaker 3: so we quite frankly, we didn't play as well as

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Speaker 3: I would have liked, but it identified, hey, what do

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Speaker 3: we need to do. Some of our young pitchers that

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Speaker 3: maybe against incomplete lineups and scrimmages, had to face a

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Speaker 3: little more depth, maybe got hit around a little bit,

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Speaker 3: helped us make some adjustments. So I think we saw

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Speaker 3: our youth, but that didn't surprise us. And that was October.

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Speaker 3: We've had a few more months to work with them,

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Speaker 3: and we got a bunch of months left yet.

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Speaker 2: Best of luck this weekend home opener two weeks from today,

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Speaker 2: Hopefully the weather cooperates throughout the course of the season.

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Speaker 2: Enjoy the warmer climates, pick up some victories. We'll do

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Speaker 2: it again soon.

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Speaker 1: Coach. Thanks so much.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we want to see everybody out there. February twenty fourth,

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Speaker 3: might be thirty five, might be sixty five, but either

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Speaker 3: way it'll be It'll be fun baseball. Appreciate you having

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Speaker 3: me on as always.

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Speaker 2: Four o'clock in the afternoon, the sun is going to

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Speaker 2: be out. We're crossing our fingers for weather like today. Coach,

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Speaker 2: thanks as always, appreciate it.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Mom.

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Speaker 2: That's Jordan Bishel, the baseball coach at the University of

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Speaker 2: Cincinnati UC, coming off in NCAA tournament season, trying to

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Speaker 2: get back you see, opening up the season at or

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Speaker 2: against Jacksonville State in Jacksonville, Alabama, and then home on

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Speaker 2: the twenty fourth for Bowling Green at the UC Baseball Stadium.

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Speaker 2: It's thirteen after four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Moegar.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening today. Awesome stuff first hour

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Speaker 2: from Paul Danner Junior. If you missed any of it,

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Speaker 2: podcast of this show are a service of Long Neck

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Speaker 2: number eight six six seven oh two three seven seven six.

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Speaker 2: We're gonna go to good year. Coming up at five

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Speaker 2: oh five. Our guy Pat Brennan from The Inquirer in

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Speaker 2: Cincinnati dot com? Are you Haneo Souarez showed up today?

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Speaker 2: Reds are going through physicals. The workout is tomorrow. We'll

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Speaker 2: get Pat to set the scene for us coming up

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Speaker 2: at five oh five. And is a former Red gonna

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Speaker 2: got a federal prison for a very long time? And

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Speaker 2: how about a rare win for both common Sense and

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Speaker 2: the NCAA. Our man our legal analyst, attorney Stewart W.

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Speaker 2: Penrose from the Manila Law Group, is going to join

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Speaker 2: us at four thirty five, we've got to come up

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Speaker 2: with a poll question on Twitter at Moegger. We've got

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Speaker 2: some Bengals stuff to get to. Let's talk about the

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Speaker 2: night that was in college basketball next on ESPN fifteen

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Speaker 2: thirty Cincinnati Sports Station