Postgame Reactions: Diamond Dawgs roll past Lipscomb as Duke Stone dominates in regional opener

Well, the difference today is we cracked through in the fourth.

Last time that we, we played them, it took us to the sixth to crack through to have the opening.

But I'll tell you, this was almost-

[laughs]

... not what we wanted, and that came in the top of the sixth inning.

You look down to the bullpen, and I saw Ben Davis pick up a baseball.

Yeah.

And he started tossing said baseball.

[laughs]

And then as you watch and you watch, and you go throughout that inning, he starts backing up, and he goes from warming up to throwing.

And then we get out of the inning, but thank goodness, when Jacob Parker hits the home run in the sixth, the entire construction of what you were doing to the bullpen changed.

Well, and that's what I was gonna get to, and we'll get to the offense in just a little bit.

And I was gonna ask you about when did the game change to you? To me, it changed at that moment when Jacob Parker hits the home run because of what it did, is you got you a completely different pitcher up in the bullpen.

Yeah, and that changed, changed everything because instead of burning valuable bullets for tomorrow, you were able to pitch it a little bit different on the back end.

All right, Duke Stone.

Uh, so much was talked about and what you do in a regional about who you start in the opening game.

We decided to go with Duke Stone, and, hey, let me tell you this, tip of the hat to Duke.

He performed exactly how you wanted him to.

You talked about it last night in the preview show about throwing fastballs, and then you could live with the fastballs against Lipscomb.

And man, did he ever live with fastballs.

Yeah, so the analytics coming into this game said one thing.

That Duke Stone is very good at throwing fastballs at 93 miles an hour.

It said one more thing.

Lipscomb is not very good-

[laughs]