Navy Sports Central

Ball to Bat & Bat to Ball: A Conversation with Navy Baseball Hitting Coach Jeff Kane

• Episode 62

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Welcome to Navy Sports Central - The Official Podcast of the Navy Sports Nation!

The Army-Navy Star series looks like it could go down to the wire!. Find out how the Women's Tennis team came from behind to post a huge win in our sports update. We'll also get caught up on both track & field and lacrosse teams.

And you're not going to want to miss our Deep Dive Segment. Navy Assistant Coach Jeff Kane joins us to share his insights on everything that goes into developing confident consistent hitters; from physical size to the layout of Bishop Stadium.  You'll also hear some candid discussions about the mental game of baseball, overcoming slumps, and how Coach Kane combines the human element and analytics to build the most productive lineup possible.

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We want your answer to our Question of the Day. Here is the one for this episode:
How many Patriot League Championships has the Navy Baseball team won since joining in 1991?  Is it:

A. 2
B. 3
C. 5
D. 6

You can give us your answer on the Navy Sports Nation Group Facebook page.

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Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:

  • Seven In Music (Intro)
  • Alexiaction (Deep Dive)
  • Loka Music (Question of the Day Lead In)
  • Cinematic Alex (Closeout Music)

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Karl:

Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to welcome and thank all of you for joining us today on Navy Sports Central. I'm your host and this is the official podcast of the Navy Sports Nation, where we take a deeper dive into Navy sports. This is the official podcast of the Navy Sports Nation where we take a deeper dive into Navy sports. It is April in Annapolis, and while there are some questions around where some of the spring sports teams will wind up going into their respective league championships, the one thing we know for sure is that the Army-Navy Star Series will definitely be decided this month. We'll get a little bit more into that in our sports update and in our deep dive segment. We'll be featuring the Navy baseball team and we'll even have a terrific guest joining us to give his perspective on how the team has been doing so far this season. All that, plus our question of the day and mid-watch segments are coming up, so don't go anywhere. All right, so glad to have you with us today, whether you are new to the podcast or you have been with us for a while. Thanks for taking the time. So we've got roughly six weeks left in the spring sports season and besides the seven Patriot League championships that need to be decided, there's also the matter of the Army-Navy Star Series. Now we could wind up knowing that result as early as April 13th or as late as April the 28th, but there's one thing for sure the women's tennis team came through in a big way last weekend to give the Mids an overall lead of 10-9, with one tie, and that means it will just take three more wins out of the remaining six contests to win the competition. So I did want to do a quick recap of that match just to let you guys know how things went. In the tennis matches, the doubles point is decided first. They play three matches and whoever takes two out of three gets the point. Now Navy unfortunately lost the doubles point because they were only able to take one out of the three matches. But they quickly regained the momentum in the singles matches by taking the first set in each contest. Emily Tannenbaum actually controlled the number one singles match the entire way and she won 6-3, 6-4. Then, playing number two singles, navy's Samantha Johns closed out her opponent in three sets to give the Mids a 2-1 lead. After that, Katy Lee and Parvathi Shankar picked up wins at the number four number six singles to clinch what turned out to be a 4-2 victory and, by the way, it was the Mids' third straight win over the Black Knights in the Star Series. And, looking forward, we got six sports left that will decide everything. Those would be men's and women's outdoor track, men's and women's lacrosse, men's tennis and also baseball.

Karl:

Both track teams competed in a series of invitationals in order to prepare for the upcoming meet against Army that takes place this weekend, and, in taking a look at some of the results from the Navy invitational that they just finished, it looks like they're ready to go. Some of the winners on the men's side included Brahmir Vick. In the 110 meter hurdles, he finished in 13.73 seconds, which was the best time ever posted at Ingram Field. Sam Keeny won the 1500 with a time of 350.72, and in the field events, Josh Boamah took the discus, shot, put and hammer throw, while Walker Rudisaille posted another win in the pole vault. Taking a look at the women's invitational, junior Kylie Bedard won the 400 meters with a time of 57.06, and, in the field events, Bedard's classmate Jordynn Hutchinson won the shot, discus and hammer throw, just like Boamah did. As you all probably know, both teams have quite a bit of depth. So this was an opportunity to get several of the underclassmen, some quality reps. Many of the usual suspects I often mention, like Nathan Kent, Gia Anderson and Ellie Abraham, took a break from their events to rest up for Army.

Karl:

Moving on to lacrosse, both the men's and women's teams are 3-1 in the Patriot League. The men knocked off Colgate on their senior day and they did it the hard way too. They dug themselves a 4-0 hole before putting together a strong second half to win 10-9. Henry Tolker led the team with three goals and Dane Swanson had two. And, by the way, the Raiders were undefeated in league play and ranked 18th going into that game. The women looked really good in their 20-9 win over Boston University back on March 23rd, but then they gave up a 12-7 lead in the second half against St Joseph's and lost 14-13. That was really uncharacteristic. I actually watched most of that second half and, man, they just couldn't get anything going there. The one good thing was that it was a non-conference game so it had no impact on the standings. The mids are currently tied for third with Army, and Loyola and Holy Cross are first and second. No doubt the mids were pretty ticked off after that St Joseph's game, and I'm not sure what Coach Timshall told him following the loss, but it definitely had an impact. The team wound up taking out all their frustrations on their next opponent, who happened to be Bucknell, and it got ugly early. Led by Emily Messonese and Tori DiCarlo, the team sprinted out to a 14-3 halftime lead and coasted to a 21-6 win.

Karl:

Okay, that takes care of our sports update. I know that was kind of brief, but I definitely wanted to get into this deep dive segment, so please stay close. And just to give you some background, I did put out a poll on the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page about a month ago and I was asking for some feedback on which spring sport you'd want to see featured on an upcoming podcast, and it turns out baseball got the most votes. So, with marching orders in hand, I reached out to Navy Sports Information and it did take some time to get things set up because, of course, they're right in the middle of their season, but things finally came together. So please stick with us for that conversation.

Karl:

We are back for our deep dive segment to talk a little Navy baseball, so let's go ahead and get to it and introduce our guest. He joined the Navy coaching staff in 2014 and is now in his 10th season as both the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator. Over his first nine seasons in Annapolis, he has been instrumental in Navy, having six recruiting classes ranked in Perfect Games Top 100, including four straight from 2016 to 2019. He's also developed 36 All-Patriot League hitters as well as three Patriot League Players of the Year during his tenure. So I am very happy to welcome Navy Assistant Baseball Coach, Jeff Kane, to the podcast. Okay, Coach Kane, it is great to have you with us today on Navy Sports Central. Thanks for taking the time.

Karl:

I appreciate you having me, yeah, so I want to just go ahead and jump right into things here. This is your 10th year on the Navy coaching staff as the hitting coach. When did this coaching position first hit your radar and what were some of the key drivers in your decision to come to Annapolis?

Coach Kane:

Yeah, you know, I'd been coaching previously at Holy Cross for five years. We had had some pretty solid success there, you know, at a program that you know has some challenges, different challenges than here. But so, you know, I was in the same conference, obviously come down to Annapolis every year to play. I had some, you know, some, relationships with the assistant coaches that were here at the time and when this position opened they had reached out to me, got a chance to come down, visit, you know, spend some time with Coach Costi, got to spend some time around the program.

Coach Kane:

Really not a tough decision to come to a place like this. I mean, it's a unique opportunity, it's one that I'm still thankful for. It's one that I don't take really lightly and, you know, ultimately it was a chance to be at one of the greatest institutions in the world and you know, at the time my kids were three and two. It means a little something to me that my son and daughter grow up looking up to our guys and the things that they do and the challenges that they take on. I think that was a huge factor in getting an opportunity to be at a place like this. That was something that came across the table. You know, obviously I went through the proper channels to vet it and to learn more about it. But it's a special thing to be able to put on a Navy uniform, for sure.

Karl:

Right, right, all right. Well, thank you for that. So I actually grew up playing baseball. I played from one time I was, like you know, seven all the way up to I was a senior in high school, and so I'm really happy to be able to kind of discuss baseball with you, and hitting in particular. So what I was kind of curious about is, when you go back to your days at Clemson when you were a player, how has your hitting philosophy developed over the years? And I'm wondering is there any particular core principle that you carried forward from your coaches, and what other concepts do you like to emphasize with your players when they step into the box?

Coach Kane:

Yeah, I think there's a lot. I mean, first and foremost, I had the opportunity and I always say this my performance as a player in college was not the greatest. You know I failed. I had to learn how to deal with that. But I also played for some of the best coaches in the history of college baseball. You know, I played for Jack Leggett. I played for Tim Corbin. He was our hitting guy during my entire time there.

Coach Kane:

If you look at a way to maybe be groomed to be a coach, those are two guys that you can't be around better people in terms of coaching at the collegiate level, doing things the right way, consistency in preparation.

Coach Kane:

There's tons of stuff that I've brought forward from them and a lot of that stuff was probably more on, I wouldn't say more on the mechanical side, but I think there's some things where we're not reinventing the wheel from a hitting standpoint and some of the stuff that we emphasize there, even as basic as being aware of your trajectory or like the hand path or things like that, are not things that that I've deviated from wildly In terms of maybe bringing forward things.

Coach Kane:

There's a lot of it that I've brought forward, even in like delivery, maybe practice habits, drill creation Although I don't try to inundate guys with drills because you know, ball to bat, bat to ball is really like at its core is a pretty basic skill that you have to develop and you have to develop it over time and with a lot of repetition, that you have to deliver, that you have to develop and you have to develop it over time and with a lot of repetition. So, yeah, I think the beginning phases of me becoming a coach and a hitting coach certainly started there. Okay, you know, with with those guys and and being part of that program, it's a tremendous place to to be a baseball player and you know, at that time and and even now, you know, just being in that environment certainly is something I've carried forward.

Karl:

Okay, so, um, let's kind of stay with that that hitting philosophy theme there a little bit. Uh, would you say. Now you said, obviously there's some things you've carried forward that you don't really deviate from. Certainly, and I'll be honest with you, I have not followed baseball as closely as I did, maybe about 15, 20 years ago. But you know, when I'm watching TV and catching the highlights and so forth, I'm picking up on new-ish trends like launch angle and exit velocity and stuff like that. How have those trends influenced the way you coach your hitters?

Coach Kane:

Yeah.

Coach Kane:

So I think those things and when you get into maybe the way hitting has changed and kind of how it's coached or what is valued, you know, certainly when you talk about launch angle, when you talk about exit velocities, back speed metrics, kinetic movement in terms of your body and the kinetic chain and how that's measured, there's value in that stuff for sure. And I think, as you go up the food chain in baseball, certainly to the professional levels and at the highest levels of professional baseball, you're talking about access to maybe more data or access to more ability to track those things. I think there's value in that stuff. I also think that for me, when it comes down to like core principles, those have to mesh with a lot of things. They have to mess with the skill set of our players. They have to mesh with, quite frankly, our ballpark and how our ballpark plays. What plays at the college level versus what may play at the big league level might be a little bit different. So a lot of the concepts that I'm going to bring forward.

Coach Kane:

You're talking about controllables. As a hitter, baseball is the only sport where the team with the ball isn't on offense. So it's, how are we controlling the controllables, certainly mindset, pitch selection, preparation and that's more like on the mechanical side of things. You know, when you talk about those from an umbrella concept of like we're putting ourselves in the best mindset to hit. It's preparation, it's trust and it's pitch selection and visuals Got it One of my buddies in Pro Bowl and there was a sign in their, you know their hitting facility in spring training and it's you know, it's something I still kind of go back to.

Coach Kane:

It's build your swing in here, trust your swing out there. I think that's a big one in terms of like creating confident hitters and creating a culture of confidence as a hitter, because that's a big one. I know the mechanical stuff. We still talk about staying above the baseball. We still talk about seeing above it, creating pressure. You know those things haven't changed and those were like core things when I was a player at Clemson and you still hear big leaguers talk about it. You still hear Mike Trout talk about being above the ball and that's still something that you know. I'm not, I'm not here teaching our guys to hit 250 foot fly balls because those aren't going to be productive outs and certainly not, not at bishop stadium, right, okay, you know that's kind of where I where I stand on that one all right.

Karl:

So let's uh, let's kind of stick with that a little bit. In terms of just looking at the first half of the season, you guys, it's just a little bit more than halfway through. What have your hitters been doing particularly well this year so far? And if there's an area of focus that you'd like to kind of zero in on for the second half, that would make them tougher outs what would that be?

Coach Kane:

You mentioned tougher outs. I think one of the things I was excited about it, you know, and certainly working with coach Rustano and we've been kind of doing this together now a lot of, a lot of his core tenants and thoughts on offense are very much, you know, I think we think a lot alike in that. In that regard, and a lot of the stuff that we do kind of focus on pitch selection, zone command, what we're hunting, zone awareness being consistent with that. I think the biggest thing we've done better our quality at-bats have increased and we measure that. I think every, probably every program measures that and they may have different parameters that they do so, but I think those have kind of been um, really strong, even from guys that you know. You, if you look at the box scores and you look at the stat sheet, ah, this guy's only hitting 260, but but his at-bats are quality. You know, almost every time up, uh, productive outs, moves runners. So I think in that respect, like our quality at-bats have been good, uh, our two strike hitting is something that's you know, our strikeout numbers from some key guys, from a percentage standpoint is have been, have been lower than I've seen in the past and even in the fall, which means we, you know we might be doing a better, better job with two strikes, um, putting more balls in play, limiting the amounts of zero pressure outs that we're putting out there. When I talk about, you know, like a zero pressure out that we're putting out there, and when I talk about, you know, like a zero pressure out, that's a ball not in play, that's a weak pop-up, weak contact. We talk about, you know, measuring our contacts and are we getting our best swings off and creating pressure contact. You know, and in terms of going forward, I think one of the areas is that we always want to continue to work on. We want to continue to work on being better with two strikes. You know, I think we've made improvements. I think we can get better, um, tougher to track. I'd love to see us kind of limit some misses, you know when.

Coach Kane:

One concept I use is what you know what I call like the pendulum pitch, and I feel like that's a pitch that you know. To me, that's the pitch that swings the app out one direction or the other. Do we miss it? Do we hit it? Do it Winning that pendulum pitch that swings things in our favor and then being able to get our best swing off on the best pitch in the count to hit. And that's really, at the end of the day, the better the arm is, the fewer opportunities you're going to get to damage that guy. We've got to be able to damage him when we get the pitch to do it, and that's something we look at a lot in film and we try to track that and see how guys are doing when they get that pitch that they can do damage. We want to be able to hammer it Right, right.

Karl:

Okay, cool. So, uh, one of the things I always like to do when I have an opportunity to chat with coaches is to um talk about a couple of the players that um, uh, have really been excelling so far this season. And you know, obviously, I mean I could spend probably two episodes talking about all these different players, but I'm just going to pick one, and then I would like you to pick another to kind of share their year so far and how they've been doing. The first one is Brock Murtha, and he's currently leading the team in hitting. I think he's got an average of 379. But what I caught was his OPS is over one, which, um, is pretty impressive. So what are some of the things that he's executing on right now that have yielded these results?

Coach Kane:

I think Brock's a talented kid. Brock's a really athletic kid. Honestly, I feel like a lot, a lot of this is is going to be predicated in two, two areas. One I think he's starting to mature as a hitter. I think he's starting to kind of reap the benefits of having played an entire season last year, coming off of sparing reps at Notre Dame for his first two years. I think he's starting to grow up a little bit as a hitter. There are still some things that I think he can continue to improve on and those are things we still work on. But maturity level as a hitter has gotten way better.

Coach Kane:

He misses. He doesn't miss as many pitches as he maybe has had in the past. So we talk about kind of that concept we just spoke about. He creates good contact in a much more regular clip. You see, his stolen base numbers are much higher. He can create pressure with his legs.

Coach Kane:

He's probably our most impactful offensive player as it pertains to being on base and be able to create. He can stretch singles into doubles. He can challenge outfielders. He's kind of put a bunch of stuff together as an offensive player that we kind of knew was in there and strictly from a mechanical standpoint, I think he's starting to be more self-aware, as it pertains to. You know, when he starts to feel something in his swing that we know isn't productive, that creates weak contact or that gets him off time or that may create a little bit of barrel plane under the ball. So I think he's just become more self-aware. I think he knows how to self-correct better, and he is obviously a guy that I think can. He can continue to be better, he can continue to improve, because he certainly has the skillset to do it.

Karl:

All right, all right. And who would you say? Is somebody out there that has either met or exceeded your expectations so far this year?

Coach Kane:

Um, I mean, I can give you a handful of guys. I'm not going to go in depth. I mean I think, and and again, it's a work in progress and guys are always hitting. As I mean, as you, as you know, hitting is, um, it can be a rocky road, it can be up and down. Uh, it's great to see, it's great to see Zane Raba kind of getting back, uh, to being kind of an impactful guy at the top of the lineup, can really create pressure with his legs.

Coach Kane:

Hudson Lehnertz has done a really good job this year in terms of in not as much action as we probably would have liked because he had some, some nicks and and was dinged up a little bit, but he's been outstanding in the time that we've had him back and hopefully we have him back. And you know two guys that have really I mean Eddie Diaz and Logan Keller have been. I can't, I can't remember the last time those guys weren't in the lineup. You know eddie's numbers might not jump out at you but you know he strings together some quality at bats, he does what we need him to do in some big spots and Logan's just found a little bit more consistency. Both of those guys' quality at-bat numbers have been great and their strikeout percentages are down, so they're putting more balls in play and they're creating more positive outcomes both of those guys and I don't think they were down per se in years past.

Coach Kane:

I just kind of think that they're figuring some stuff out in terms of consistency, and that was kind of one of the things I didn't get to as much with the philosophy piece. But like, how are we, how are we just consistently growing as hitters? I feel like their at-bats are are consistently on an upward trend or or plateauing. We're not seeing as many two, three, four at-bat stretches where it's like a giveaway at-bat, a weak contact, early bounce. You know, when they hear from me, the most feedback they get from me when it comes pertains to maybe like constructive criticism is is poor contact within the first three pitches Right, you know, if you're going to get your swing off in the first three pitches and that's weak contact or a cap or a jam, that's not, that's not creating any pressure for the opposition and that's not. You know we're doing the pitcher a favor and I think they've limited that. They've limited that to a much higher degree this year than maybe they have in the past.

Karl:

Right, right and you know it's funny about um. I guess it's about four years ago I started. I started a blog, that I started this podcast a year after I started the blog and one of the first articles I wrote about four years ago was talking about the Navy baseball team and unfortunately, I wrote the article the day that spring sports were canceled during COVID.

Coach Kane:

Right, and we were 14-1 when that came out.

Karl:

Exactly. I mean, that's what I was highlighting and I was talking about. Okay, what's going on here? They got off to a fantastic start and one thing I noticed when I started kind of breaking things down this kind of goes back to the quality at bats thing. Right, the number of runs that the team was scoring in, you know, the last two or three innings of the game was significant. And, you know, I think that goes back to what you were saying in terms of just being able to string together a bunch of quality at-bats, even if one at-bat is an out right. If you do that enough times, things are going to happen, and that appeared to be what was going on, you know, four years ago. So that's when you kept emphasizing quality at-bats. That's the kind of thing I flashed on when I was writing about the team four years ago.

Coach Kane:

Yeah, I think Coach Ristano too has been awesome in the sense that one of his messages to the hitters you know he talks about that six, seven, eight, nine pitch at bat in the third or the second inning may not manifest itself until inning seven, right In terms of just taxing the pitcher, making those be stressful pitches, stressful innings. I think we saw a little bit of that in um, in the holy cross game, in game four you know logan keller had maybe like a 10 pitch at bat, his his second time through that.

Coach Kane:

You know we didn't you would notice it in the box score, but we ended up getting to that guy into the set in the seventh inning. We got to him, you know, and Andrew Manning had a huge knock and Victor Isquierdo had another big one, but we got to him and that guy was probably at. You know he was up there eight, 90, a hundred pitches and he probably could have been at at 70 if we hadn't kind of grinded them out a little bit earlier in the game.

Karl:

So that's certainly something that that has a lot of value for us the game, so that's certainly something that has a lot of value for us All. Right, good stuff, coach. Tell you what. We're going to go ahead and step aside here for a minute, but before we do that, I did want to give you all a couple of ways to stay up to date on Navy sports. The first is to join the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page. I've got a link to that in the show notes. Just click on it, answer a couple of questions and you'll be good to go. The second way takes even less time. Just hit the follow button on whichever platform you're listening to this podcast right now. It can be Apple Podcasts, spotify, iheartradio, it doesn't matter. Once you do that, every episode will be downloaded to your directory when it's released and you can listen to it whenever you're ready. So please consider becoming a member of our group and you can actually tap that follow button right now to show your support for the podcast. I'm looking forward to having you join us. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Navy Sports Central, Karl Darden here with you, and today we are joined by Jeff Kane, who is the hitting coach for the Navy baseball team Coach.

Karl:

I just wanted to touch on a couple more things before we wrap things up here. One of my favorite movies as it relates to baseball is Moneyball, and there was a scene in there, as you probably are aware, that when Billy Bean was sitting down with his team and he had brought in his new assistant, pete Brand, for the first time, and they're trying to figure out a way how to replace Jason Giambi, who had just gone to, I believe, the New York Yankees had signed him. So they're trying to figure out, okay, what are we going to do? And that's when his team was kind of talking about the standard metrics that they use to measure a hitter and uh, then they were introducing this whole concept of on base percentage, right, and I'm sure there's more, but on base percentage was one they were focusing on. They said, well, why do we want this guy? Because he gets on base.

Karl:

So when? When he gets on base, yeah, so when you're talking, when you're looking at uh and putting together a lineup, are there any particular? And obviously there's the eyeball test, right. I mean, what you see every day in practice and in games obviously factors into it. But what are? What? Are some metrics that? Or maybe one? Just let's just pick one, one key metric that that's important to you when you're building that lineup, to make sure you put in the most productive one on the field.

Coach Kane:

Yeah, so I mean that scene is a good one in that movie. I know exactly what you're talking about. You know all the old school scouts are getting bent out of shape because they keep bringing up Scott Hattieburg, I don't know who else. I love Moneyball. I think the access that big league clubs have to data and the brainpower that they have access to to analyze and crunch that data and ultimately provide the coaches with the information to make decisions, to provide managers with that kind of data, is phenomenal. I think you see it probably to a lesser degree at the collegiate level in a couple areas. One is there's not even a speck of the amount of data at the collegiate level. When you talk about big leaguers with seasons of 600, 650 at-bats, leaguers with seasons of 600 650 at bats, you know the repeatability of maybe amateur players compare comparatively to pro guys, certainly at our level and at our school. You know when you talk about consistency, well, there aren't guys in pro baseball that are in 21 credit hours and taking thermodynamics class all day and scrambling to get out there. So I think that data is important. We do use it, we do look at it, we look at matchups, we look at splits, certainly for our older guys who have a bigger pool of data to go off of in terms of where they're successful, where they're not. Lefty-righty matchups, things like that, lineup-wise and as it pertains to the metrics. On that end I think there's probably.

Coach Kane:

You know, we want guys that can create offense at the top of our lineup. We want guys, maybe that can create offense, to turn the lineup over, maybe near the bottom that might not be as impactful Guys. You know that's something that we talk about from a lineup construction standpoint. Can this guy turn it over and get it back to the top where we have some guys that can bang and create? So do we look at that absolutely on base percentage matters, slugging percentage matters and again going back to what we talked about before, we also look at the quality of their at-bats and right and try to put guys in positions where you, you know we want Logan Keller hitting with guys on base, we want Brock Murtha hitting with guys on base who can get out there in front of them and create.

Coach Kane:

That's going to be an OBP situation. That's going to be a little bit of a speed and a pressure variable there, and we kind of want to be able to put guys ahead of them that can do that and truthfully, yeah, there's a human element. I mean, we have a pretty good feel for which of our guys can compete at the highest level, of which of our guys can create and, honestly, which guys do it at the most consistent level. I don't think there would be something we could plug into a computer and say this is going to be your most productive lineup. We know we're going to hit Logan Keller. Third, we know Brock's going to hit in the middle, and maybe that's something that changes over time with a little bit more depth and as the roster expands to 40 and you can bring in more guys and there may be a little bit more inter-team competition and there may be some more interchangeable parts, but a lot of it's based on who we think can get it done.

Karl:

Okay, all right, I'm going to combine these last two questions because they're very similar and it goes back to what you mentioned earlier about hitting sometimes being a little bit of a rocky road. I experienced my share of batting slumps when I was playing, which explains why I didn't play past the high school level. But what are some of the things that have worked for you in terms of trying to get hitters out of those slumps? I'm wondering if it's more of a mechanics issue that perhaps grew into something bigger and got into their heads mentally, and what was your approach in taking care of that? And then, to kind of finish up the conversation, can you think about a particular situation where you'd been working with a hitter and man. He came out of it at just the right time, you know, delivered in the clutch in a big game that basically put the team over the top?

Coach Kane:

Yeah. So I think I think from like the quote unquote, slump standpoint, you know, as a as a player, like you know, that's real you know how you feel when you're in the box. You know when you're not feeling good as a coach, I, you know, I think I read somewhere I can't remember if it was like something Tony Gwynn said or it was something to the effect of, like you know, slumps are created, or or within your own head, and I guess you know the coach in me says that you know every pitch and every at bat is a separate event and you try to convey that to players. You know, I think the best thing that you can do in that regard is to build those guys back up and to build their confidence back up. I talk about confidence and belief in what they're doing. That's going to come through preparation. I think the mental element of the slump. You know you can mitigate that a little bit by creating, you know, a mentality of like pitch to pitch and getting guys in the right mindset to hit. I do think the mechanical thing can be a little bit of a way to divert their attention from like, oh man, I'm 0 for my last 15. You know, hey, try to feel this a little bit. Take a round where you're just kind of focusing on one thing, but ultimately I'm just kind of diverting their attention away from the fact that they haven't really put a quality contact on a ball in a while. I think it's kind of a two-way street. You create some mechanical maybe adjustments to kind of get their attention somewhere else and all it takes is one barrel and they're starting to feel good again and that confidence is building up. But ultimately you want to build teams and hit that, that that confidence is building up. But ultimately you want to build teams and and hitters that can play the game in an at-bat to at-bat basis and one at-bat doesn't, doesn't? You know? One bad at-bat doesn't become two and three and five, right?

Coach Kane:

I think some of the guys have done a really good job like getting away from that. We talked about that a little bit earlier, but I'm certainly of the uh again as a guy that's failed plenty and really the mental game was probably one of the areas where I felt like I was the most efficient at 17, 18, 19, 20. I'll spend a lot of time on that. And when guys start to get into like crutch mode hey, what am I doing wrong? Fix me. That's when I get a little bit, you know, I'll get a little bit concerned about that because now it's looking we're not being accountable at that point, right, I usually tell them hey, if I think that, if I think there's something wrong in your swing, I'm going to tell you about it. That's my job to tell you about it. If that's not the case, then you're just, you're just handling your app bat and you're just going out back to app bat and doing what you need to do and finding some mental cues that create success and VP and and in your, in your preparation work.

Coach Kane:

So in terms of, like guys popping out, man, I'm, I, I thought about that a bit, you know I I, more so maybe thought about it, not maybe necessarily in terms of individual, like slump breaking out. But you know days where we were really having a hard time offensively and guys just found. But you know days where we were really having a hard time offensively and guys just found a way. You know, I think about Steve Bourne's walk-off home run against Holy Cross in the Patriot League Final Game 1. Could not find a barrel for the life of us. That day Just gets his best swing off in the biggest moment possible.

Coach Kane:

You know we had a comeback win at Army. It would have been 19 or 20. And I think Mike Koretz and Zach Biggers went back to back with just tremendous at-bats. We were down one, I think we rifled the ball down the right field line for a double. Biggers followed that up with a triple Just huge at-bats in huge spots where nobody had been hitting.

Coach Kane:

So I think you know, in terms of like breaking out of slumps, I'd like to think, and I hope, that over the 10 years we really haven't seen too too many of them that got to the point where we were talking about sitting guys down certainly not with our core guys, you know. And then probably some of the biggest swings I've seen in my time here I mean Christian Hodge against Army, hitting two home runs over the monster at Fenway. Oh man, I mean, that's a moment I'll never forget. I grew up in the greater Boston area. My son was like nine at the time. That was like an unbelievable thing, unforgettable for him. There have been a lot of awesome moments. There have been a lot of great kids come through this program. You know wildly thankful to to be able to coach those guys over the time that I have.

Karl:

So Right, Right, Well, listen, that looks like a great place to stop there, coach, and I appreciate you sharing those experiences with us. It's been a pleasure, man. I mean I I love talking baseball and it's been great chatting with you about hitting. I'm actually going to be out in Annapolis in a couple of weeks and I was like looking at the schedule, but you guys are going to be up at Holy Cross that week. That's April 13th and 14th. I'm going to be there, but anyway, listen, it's been great talking with you. I really appreciate the time, and good luck the rest of the season moving forward. Yeah, Thanks again for having me. This was a blast. Happy to come back anytime. All right, Take care, Bye-bye.

Karl:

Okay, We've got our question of the day and mid-watch segments coming up next, so please stay with us. It is time for our question of the day, so let's go ahead and check out the responses to the one from our previous episode. You'll recall that it referenced the 2004 men's lacrosse team, and this was the question. As of today, there are nine Navy men's lacrosse players who have over 150 points in their careers. How many of them played on the 2004 team that made it to the NCAA championship game. Was it A 1, B 2, C 3, or D 4? Now, most of you went with B. There were 64% who chose that one, and there were 14% that picked both C and D, which were three and four players respectively, and finally, 8% of you selected A, which was one player. So the correct answer is, in fact, B, two players. So great job to those of you who got it right. Both Ian Dingman and John Bershner finished with over 150 points for their careers. Dingman being on that list probably wasn't a big surprise. He wound up with 188 points on 125 goals and 63 assists. Bershner came up with 154 points. He did most of his damage getting the ball to his teammates, bringing up 105 assists to go along with 49 goals. So thanks to all of you who took the time to answer that question. Now here's the one for today's episode, and, as you might guess, this one is baseball related. How many times has the Navy baseball team won the Patriot League tournament since joining in 1991? Is it A 2, B 3, C 5, or D 6? You can take some time to think about that one, and when you come up with an answer, you can let me know what it is by going to the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page and looking for the poll question. I should have it up by the end of the day. All right, now it's time for our mid-watch segment.

Karl:

The two athletes we're following this spring are Emilyonese from the women's lacrosse team and Brock Murtha from the baseball team. Let's go ahead and start with Messonese. She continues to lead the team in scoring, with 56 points on 44 goals and 12 assists. The Mids are 9-3 overall and 3-1 in the Patriot League. In their last three games, Messonese has put up a total of 13 goals and 4 assists. Seven of those 17 points came on senior day against Bucknell, where the Mids just rolled over the Bison by a score of 21-6. Messonese had four goals and three assists in that contest to send the seniors out in style.

Karl:

The next challenge on the horizon is the Army game on April 13th. As I mentioned before, I'm going to be there for that one, and there is a chance that it could be the game that decides the Star Series, depending on how things go. If both track teams can beat Army up at West Point this Saturday, which is April 6th, the Mids would need only one more win to take the overall competition. Men's lacrosse plays at one o'clock on the road the following weekend, while the women's game starts at four o'clock. Those promise to be two very tightly contested games, but if Messonese can continue her excellent play, I like the Mids' chances.

Karl:

Now let's go ahead and check in with Brock Murtha. Coach Kane shared some great perspective on him earlier in our conversation, and Murtha continues to perform at a high level. He leads the team in hitting with a .381 average and he's getting on base just over 50% of the time. The Mids are currently on a five-game winning streak and tied for first in the Patriot League. During that stretch, Murtha went 8-for-18, which comes out to a 444 average, and he also had five runs batted in to go along with five runs scored. Right now, Murtha is the mids most dynamic player and if he and the other teammates that Coach Kane mentioned in our Deep Dive segment continue to produce, they could go pretty far in the Patriot League tournament and may even come away with another title. That's going to do it for this edition of Navy Sports

Karl:

Central. Thank you all so much for joining us Now. If you like what you've heard, please be sure to hit that follow button wherever you get your podcasts and remember to get the word to all the other Navy fans out there. Once again, I'd like to thank Navy Assistant Coach Jeff Kane from the Navy Baseball Team for joining us today. It was great to get his perspective on hitting, as well as learning some of the techniques he uses to keep the mid sharp at the

Karl:

plate. Our question of the day continues to be a show favorite. You can get in on that by joining the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page and giving your answer to this week's question. I will pin it to the top so you don't miss it. And just a quick reminder the views expressed on Navy Sports Central are my own and do not reflect those of the US Naval Academy or Navy Athletics. By the way, the music used in Navy Sports Central comes to you courtesy of Audio Jungle. This is a great site for purchasing the rights to use the music from thousands of artists around the world, and those featured in the podcast will be credited in our show notes. Talk to you soon, everybody. Until next time. This is Karl Darden. Go Navy, beat Army.

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