uh for you though what you know 2026 season i know we've already talked about the fact that you looked cool calm and collected in arlington uh what changed for you throughout the 2026 season you know whether it be stuffed were you throwing different pitches comfortability on the mound or just trusting the process like skip says

yeah um I've, I learned so much over, over the season.

I think one of the big things was just, uh, kind of, you know, knowing, learning more about hitters and what they expect when they, when they, uh, pull up my track man numbers and know what I got and look at my percentages and know how I'm going to attack them.

I think I had some really good learning points during the season of teams kind of getting to me a little bit.

If those things didn't happen, I wouldn't be the pitcher I am now.

It's really difficult because you lose a lot and guys tag you and you know, it was all about, for me, it just kind of happened towards the end of the year where I started figuring out where, uh, you know, what kind of stuff I had that day.

Like if I was throwing hard or, or I had, you know, a dead arm and was like, can really reach my, uh, my peak velo and, you know, keeping guys off my heater because yeah, I threw a lot of heaters last year.

This fall, what have you been working or what's been working and what are you working on?

Walk me through how you do that mentally.

Yeah, I mean, like, I think for us, like, in a team, like, there's a lot of – there's multiple things that people are saying that flip the switch.

But, like, I feel like at the very start of the fall, I mean, when we all got there, I mean, we had a feeling like we had a really good, talented team and that we could do – we could win Omaha.

And then Reggie and Skip, they all believed it too early in the year.

And, you know, we went through the season and, I mean, I remember – Coach will it said he thinks Arkansas was the Arkansas Saturday game we played was the time that the we like flip the switch because I mean that game we lost but we still we still battled hard and like everyone just had each other's back kind of thing and.

i mean we still went on to play tennessee and other schools maybe and lost but uh i mean we was the sec tournament and some people are saying that when the lsu pitcher was uh was uh cussing at our dugout and dropping f-bombs at us that that was that moment too and but uh and then we had after that we had the fried chicken and all that but i mean i mean i think it's just it's just everyone had a buy-in kind of like after like we all did which we didn't have the confidence with it and and i think i mean i think when dayton talked at the walk off at georgia tech it was like it was like yeah we can do this like we just beat the number two team in the country we just talk walked it off i mean it was insane and uh and like in my experience game one of uh the championship series Yeah, I mean, I had a rough first inning.

And, you know, I was like, man, I can't – this can't be how it happens.

But also what happened in that moment as far as the pitch calling went?

How much appreciation do you have for having that trust put in you by Skip and your staff?

A lot.

It's really special to me to be a freshman and be able to do that for your team and for them to trust me like that.

It's truly something you don't see a lot anymore and it means a lot to me.

So as you prepare to start your first game here at the Men's College World Series, just what's going through your head? Just stay in the process.

Stay focused.

You know, there's a lot more going on than it has been all season.

So how special has that been to watch?