Transcript
With us on coaches corner KWBG, get a chance to talk Boone Baseball. Charlie Easton joining us. Torridor is in action tonight. It's the sub-state semifinals as they will travel over to Slater to take on a familiar opponent with Ballard. And before we talk about the bombers, we look back at the Clear Lake win from Friday night. Coach, I know one of those games when you've seen somebody early in the year that can be a little bit different. Obviously, it's been a while since you saw them. I was trying to figure out if the offense was ever going to cool off. I mean, this was a game, Charlie, that was eight to five after two innings of play. And it actually went just to eight to six for the final. But boy, Charlie, these offenses early were hot. Yeah, they really were. The first two innings were really wild. Not exactly what I expected to open up a postseason game. He had 13 runs there across the first two innings. And I thought, holy smokes, how many runs are going to be scored here? How long is this one going to go? Typically, we're pretty quick clean baseball games during the postseason. And there was a lot of hitting and a lot of runs scored there early on. Well, the positive part was you guys kept the pressure on. And I think that's something that we can talk about. This is what happened. And this happened. And this happened. Well, if I keep the pressure on my opponent, things are usually going to help work out pretty well for me. And Charlie, even though it was a close-ish game, it still felt to me like you guys were in not maybe command, but you were in control of that game. You know, and that's the thing like I think the body language of our guys, right, the energy of our dugout, those were the things that made it feel that way, right? You give up a two-spot in the first, especially when it's a two-run homer, like it feels like it's a momentum thing, right? And I didn't notice our guys really waver at all on that. And they came back to the dugout, confident, ready to answer back. And that's exactly what they did. Came out and swung it. And we go ahead and put a three-spot there in that first inning. And then, again, like give up a lead, but answer right back again there in the bottom of the second. And those are the things that we kind of talked about throughout the season. We get into these conference baseball games against a tough opponent, and we give up a big inning. And then sometimes it feels like the energy's down, and we feel like maybe it looks like we're less confident, slightly mopey, that type of thing. And that was not the case at all on Friday. I mean, it was just out shoulders back, right? Let's go punch them back right now. And that's what impressed me. That's the thing that I've been wanting to see all season. And that's what we did on Friday. Well, and you had a good guy to help with that, too. And I'm going to talk about a couple here. But I want to start with Tice Carlson, because Charlie, get to postseason, you're thinking, OK, I don't need a hero, but I need somebody to be steady and kind of do what they did in their regular season. And maybe add something to it. Tice had such a nice season for you, but then goes three for four, scores a couple of runs, has a couple of RBIs as well. We know how well he plays on defense. That was one of the kids I wanted to start with, because boy, did he have a nice Friday night for you. He had a great Friday night for us, you know? Yeah, three for four at the plate, but that fourth plate appearance was also a barrel as well. And so he just smashed baseballs all night long. And that's kind of Tice, right? Like, that's one of his favorite things to do. You know, if he's got some open time in the day, then, hey, let's go smash baseball somewhere. And he's a good hitter. He's been a good hitter all year. And really, between, you know, one, two, three in our order, it's like a race to see who can get the most hits out of those three guys. And that's a fun thing to have, right? When you get three guys who are all racing for that to see how many hard hit balls they can get, that's a good place to be there at the top of the order. Well, somebody else who picked up three RBI's for his well, Ryan Bowers had the RBI, the two RBI double, had a sack fly as well to bring home a run. I mean, even though it was one for two from the plate, sometimes you don't get a ton of that bats during a game, but Charlie, you have to make them meaningful. And Ryan did that. Yeah, it was a massive one for two at the plate, right? That two-out double that he hit that scored two runs. That was huge for us at that point in the game. And went out there and played really good defense force as well, made a lot of nice plays for us at shortstop. Well, you talk about good defense, Charlie. I got to bring up your I.Gorman then. What a defensive, I don't want to say a gem for him that night because I kind of feel like he's been doing that a lot this year. But you kind of expect it, you know? So obviously he's steady with the routine play, but when it comes to that slow roller or the ball that really hit towards the middle of the infield that he can range on, the kick covers a ton of ground and plays a really tough third base, made a nice backhanded stop and stepped on the bag for the force out there and then that ball gets down the line. Who knows what happens with that inning. And the play that he made coming in on the run, almost like a swinging bunt, that play was incredible. Just played really, really good defense for us. And he's been there for us all year. Well, we take on a familiar opponent now not just during the regular season. I feel like you and Ballard have matched up quite a few times in the post season as well. They got you twice during the regular season, six to four. And then the most recent outing was nine to one. Charlie, when you go into a game like this against Ballard, you know them, they know you. Is there much you talk to the kids about a scouting report or how does something like this work when you have faced them now for the third time this season? So we practiced last night, right? And there's some things that they do really well. They run the bases really well. They will bunt and bunt situations. They'll also base hit bunt when they can't really get anything going. And those are some things that we're able to kind of talk about and also practice a little bit last night. Just things that we want to be aware of and be ready for that way. But yeah, they're a solid baseball team. They got nice players. They're extremely well coached. They're fundamentally sound. But the deal is like when it comes down to play off baseball time, like anything can happen there. And yeah, we're familiar with it. And we're extremely excited for the opportunity to go to Slater and to play Ballard in this postseason game. Charlie, do you like games against teams in the postseason that you haven't seen or would you rather maybe be a little familiar with teams that you go in against? That's a good question. And to be honest, I really don't know how to answer that. It's nice to have an idea what you're getting, you know, to know what you're getting. But I think pretty much every coach that I've talked to in the rack, that the thing that they talk about with postseason seating, like they don't want to be in the postseason with anyone in the rack. And that's pretty steady across the board there. That's pretty much what every coach would tell you that they'd rather just go play someone else at a conference. But you know, either way, you know, when it comes down to postseason baseball, if you're going to make a run, you're going to be a good team at some point in time. And you know, that's what we're going to have to do tonight. See, Charlie, I figured you were just going to say, as long as I'm playing, I don't care who I'm playing. That's true for that as well. There's another way to look at it too. Hey, Charlie, as always, thank you so much for some time. Best of luck over in Slater tonight. All right, thank you, Ryan. You bet. Charlie Eason again, joining us Boone Baseball here in Coaches Corner.
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